If something scary is gonna happen, it's bound to happen on Halloween, eh? What happened this evening had nothing to do with ghosts, goblins, or vampires, and I didn't dress up. It's rare that I have truly scary moments whilst travelling; being robbed at gunpoint in Guatemala in '12 is at the top of that list. More than two weeks in Saudi Arabia left me with a positive impression of a place that I'd heard largely negative stories about. For the past few days I was in Al Khobar and Dammam but my flight to Oman is from Kuwait tomorrow. Ideally I would have liked to have skipped the Kuwait to Oman leg and just travelled by land to Oman and got on my flight to Bangkok from there. I enjoyed Kuwait whilst I was there but I didn't want to backtrack and since my flight was at 6 PM I theoretically could have got up extra early and hitchhiked to Kuwait in time for my flight but that would be leaving it awfully close for time.
Hitchhiking from Dammam to the Saudi Arabia-Kuwait border was little drama, but when I got there I was told I couldn't walk across. Like when I went to Ukraine a few months ago I had to be in a vehicle. When I put my thumb out a young man with a Kuwait licence plate stopped. After crossing the no-man's land I was told by the Kuwaiti officials that I had to go inside and get a new visa (which is free). The driver was demanding money and then tried to hold on to my rucksack when I went to get it out of the back seat with him saying "give me money" even though he only gave me a lift about 500 metres. Before arriving in Kuwait last month I applied for the visa online because I thought that I'd be charged 3 KD if I applied on arrival and that online it was free. I was unaware that it only allows a single entry. I had to go into another room to have my fingerprints and photo taken, and whilst I was in there I used that time to swap SIM cards. When I came back out, my rucksack was gone! "Damn it, where's my bag!" I yelled out. The Kuwaiti officials told me not to worry since there are cameras all around. Freaking out, the young man called me back to his car. He came inside and put my rucksack back in his car, so I opened the door, grabbed it, and told him he was making me uncomfortable. He kept hanging around and I stayed inside the immigration office and yelled for him to leave. I ended up walking past the customs officials and I started walking toward a petrol station that was about 500 metres away, and the young man pulled up in his car again. By then I was feeling scared, not knowing if he has a gun, a knife, or any other type of weapon. He then pulled up to the side of the road and by then I'm thinking about how I just want someone to stop for me, I'll jump in their vehicle and just get the hell out of there. When someone stopped, the young man was yelling out to him and then they drove off without me. A few minutes later, someone else stopped and by then the police were talking to the young man. The police came over and they were at the driver's side and the told me to get out. By this point I really just wanted to get away from the border as fast as possible. This young man tried to extort money from me, tried to steal my bag, and then tried to extort money again. On top of that, I was having difficulty finding a CouchSurfing host for my only night in Kuwait. I was put in touch with a guy named Hussain, and he speaks English fluently. Eventually the police would tell both of us to come back to the office and write a statement. At that point, the young man just got back in his vehicle and drove off. In many places, vehicles operate as unofficial taxis, and I understand that. If I'm hitchhiking, I have to make it clear beforehand that I'm hitchhiking. In some circumstances an official taxi will stop and won't charge me for a lift; that happened when I was hitchhiking to the airport in Oslo a few years ago.
In the end I couldn't find a CouchSurfing host and I ended up staying at a relatively inexpensive hotel. Hotels are boring! Places like the Hilton, Radisson, and Ritz-Carlton are soulless in my opinion. Even if I'm travelling on business where all of my expenses are covered, I vastly prefer staying with friends or locals; it's a lot more fun and interesting. I would wake up refreshed and, after searching around for a cup of tea, I'd have a delicious lunch with Hussain and his friend before they drove me to the airport. It gave me an opportunity to thank Hussain for helping me out last night and acting as a translator. My flight from Kuwait to Bangkok is via Oman with SalamAir, and I didn't book a checked bag. Cleverly, I asked Hussain's friend to hold on to my smaller bag, with my laptop and all that other stuff, so that it appeared that I had less luggage. Booking a checked bag would have cost nearly US$100 extra!
Many travellers before me have described Kuwait as boring. Whilst I was scared a bit, I had a lot more fun moments and was never bored. Next up is a short sojourn in Oman before going to Thailand.
