Loving sitting at my desk in my Ghayathi apartment tonight. I arrived around 5:30 PM after leaving Marions place in Tubiggen yesterday morning at 5:30. The trip was uneventful. I knew I was in for the extended hours when I realized I would not have the energy to drive the last leg at around midnight last night. I booked a luxurious hotel room for just twice the price of a hostel using hotels. I am the spoiled one Im telling you. Well the trip was uneventful until the very last leg of the journey. I took the bus from Abu Dhabi to Ruwais and caught it minutes before it left at noon. The driver was most courteous and seemed to have a thing going for a female passenger sitting in the front on the other side of the aisle from me. You know we sit in the Ladies Only section of the bus. They were both from the Phillipines sharing banter back and forth in their home language. We took the traditional desert stop to refreshen ourselves in Tarrif. The driver counted all of us to make sure he was good before he left the station. As we rolled along the young woman took out a large candy bar and gave it to the man. I was so impressed. It made me think about what a nice gesture this was and that I may even leave a small tip for this driver when departing from the ADNOC depot in Ruwais. The driver was not around for me to tip him when we reached our final destination. In fact he and the young woman departed the bus at the Ruwais Bus Station while all the passengers sat in wait for his return. I kid you not. We pulled up to this station. There were all men outside and inside the station. The driver got out and spoke to the men and one man was one of the pretend taxi drivers who has given me rides in Ruwais. Our driver returned to our bus and the pretend taxi driver got on giving me a nod. It gets blury after this. The pretend taxi driver gets off the bus. The bus driver approaches the young woman sitting across the aisle from me. The driver picks up her luggage and she, he, and her luggage leave on the bus that was being driven by the pretend taxi driver. What? Thats right. The driver left with the woman on another bus. OK so I am giving the driver the benefit of the doubt. I am thinking he is helping her get to her worker camp for all of us who ride the buses stay in some version of worker camps rather they be campers or upscale apartments. I am thinking he will return to drive us. After 25 minutes I turn around and the one other woman on the bus puts her hands up in the air and then points to the drivers seat. I look at the men and they are fussing now too. I access the situation and see I probably have higher worker status so I should be the one to approach the folks in the terminal. I indicate to everyone I am going to do this and they shake their heads in the affirmative for me to go in and take on the challenge of getting us a driver to make it to the last stop. The challenge was accepted. I went to the security person behind the desk. I indicated we were a lone bus out there and no driver was to be found. Thank goodness he understood English because the miming in Istanbul was not where I wanted to go again. Ten minutes later we had not one but two drivers on the bus. They even got into a squable about who should drive the bus. All I could do was shake my head. We were all relieved to have someone get us to the last bus stop. Only in the desert I tell you, only in the desert.
Posted on: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 17:16:37 +0000
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