So, after being here for over a month, I still do not miss driving. The biggest reason for this would have to be from watching people here drive. As I have said before, there are not "rules" per say, more like suggestions that everyone ignores. The only law everyone follows are the stop lights, and, even then, yellow means, "Floor it!" So, frankly, taking taxi's everywhere is the only way to travel unless you know a man with a car (Chris you need to hurry up and get here!).
As for the price of a taxi, well it varies based on distance and type of cab. With gas prices soaring here at $0.46 per gallon it can get kind of pricey here to travel as I am sure you can imagine. ;-)
Now, here is where the gamble comes in to play. There are two types of taxis in Jeddah. You have compound taxis and city taxis. Compound taxis are, obviously, run through the compound. They are open 24 hours and will take you anywhere you want to go outside the compound as well. They wear a uniform, have a visible taxi certification, speak ok English, and all drive a 2009 white Toyota Camry. This is the way to travel is you are alone and need to get somewhere. However, you have two downfalls. First of all, they cost more, usually between $3-$8 depending on distance. Also, they claim to know where everything is, but, sometimes, they will take you on a crazy 2 hour drive around the ghettos of Jeddah trying to find a translation office and, when you get there and discover it is closed, they take you to an even more ghetto part of town, drop you off at a hole in the wall "office" and leave you to wonder the streets for an hour. This will also occur during prayer time when everything shuts down so there is nowhere to go inside at 12 in the afternoon in 102 degree heat wearing all black. So, all of this to say, there is defiantly a risk involved.
The other option is to walk out of the compound and take a city taxi. This, I learned, is something you never do alone. The upside to this is that it is defiantly cheaper, they know the city very well, and they can get you where you want to go faster. The risk involved with city taxis is as follows. They...
1. Don’t always speak English
2. Love to stare
3. Don’t always have certification visible
4. Don’t always have personal hygiene
5. Don’t understand staring is rude
6. Think they are NASCAR drivers
7. Don’t have a running meter so you have to specify a price before driving
8. Have to wear appropriate attire
9. Love to stare
10. Have some very beat up cars which makes you wonder...
However, these are some of the best adventures of Saudi especially when you do it with friends.
It is fantastic how certain people are placed in your life at certain times. You don't understand why or how, but something greater than us seems to control the movement of pieces in our lives with direct precision. I am seeing this more and more everyday with my across the hall neighbors.
We went to TGI Friday's on Wednesday night to celebrate TGI Wednesday. We have passed it every day to and from school and, after a long week, I wanted something that reminded me of home. In the case of TGI Fridays, I wanted potato skins. We took a compound taxi, (remember what I said about them) and thought it would only take 5-10 mins. 25 minutes later we end up passing TGI Fridays and in front of Hardees trying to explain to our limited English taxi driver to go back. We finally get out and walk to the family section of the restaurant. Segregation in restaurants is a huge thing here. Heaven forbid a woman was to walk into the singles section which, by the way, is where the comfy chairs are. We must go to the wooden chair section AKA family section. I have really come to appreciate how most Americans can at least keep their children at the table during dinner, even if they are not exactly being good. The children here, who are all in the family section, run around like crazy people hitting the glass windows, playing tag through the restaurant while the parents pretend they are not there or the nanny is trying round them up. It makes for a very loud dining experience. I guess since there is no music in any stores or restaurants, the screaming children is about all the background noise they will allow.
It was disheartening when we got our food, which took forever and arrived out of order, and my potato skins where tiny and bland. Oh bacon, how I miss thee. However, we laughed our way through dinner as we talk about what got us here and wonder what our cab ride home would be like.
We ended up taking a city cab that, as usual, tried to rip us off. Thankfully we are learning to barter and have no problem waiting for a new taxi which, thankfully, usually drops the price by half. For the most part, this was one of the few uneventful city taxis. The last one we were in had really bad BO, looked in his rear view mirror at us the whole way, and, when one of the girls in the front seat tried to get out, realized the door handle was broken. Meanwhile, the rest of us got out of the car breathing the fresh humid air of Saudi.
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