How quickly my driving habits have changed since I started driving in Saudi Arabia only 3 weeks ago.
Al Khobar is a sprawling city full of nondescript buildings which look the same, punctuated by the occasional modern and incredibly grandiose shopping mall. There are a few modern skyscrapers which can be seen from almost anywhere and serve as useful waypoints when travelling around Al Khobar. This is very useful when you get lost, which is all the time because the Saudis don’t seem to be bothered about naming roads or streets, let alone put up a street/road name sign.
As I’ve mentioned before, they drive like absolute lunatics here. I can’t really emphasise this enough. Don’t think you wouldn’t be horrified by it because you would.
Drivers simply create their own lanes and are quite happy turning left from the far right lane and vice versa.
My personal favourite though is their liberal use of the car horn. You'll be sat in a huge traffic jam about 40 cars back from the lights but as soon as the light goes green someone next to you will beep their horn. I find it hugely entertaining and delight in joining in (well, “when in Rome……”)
On average I see at least 1 or 2 accident today. Just yesterday on the way back to the Bahrain I witnessed a local veer wildly at 120 km/h from the far left hand lane (on a 4 lane highway) to the far right-hand lanes in a forlorn attempt to take a highway exit.
He was driving a “Yank Tank” and the suspension just couldn’t take it. Needless to say the car left the highway altogether in a cloud of dust before it collided with an advertising board demolishing it in the process. As I passed the scene of carnage, I witnessed the driver get out of his car and start to angrily kick at what was left of the demolished advertising board… which seemed a little churlish as it seemed to me to be entirely the innocent yet injured party!
This is a failry typical, everyday occurance. More frightening is when you see a 4x4 tumbling end over end towards you as it crosses the central reservation. (now that’s a brown underwear day!!)
So after 3 weeks how has my driving changed?
1) If im 15 rows back at he traffic lights and they go green, I immediately start beeping my horn impatiently.
Al Khobar is a sprawling city full of nondescript buildings which look the same, punctuated by the occasional modern and incredibly grandiose shopping mall. There are a few modern skyscrapers which can be seen from almost anywhere and serve as useful waypoints when travelling around Al Khobar. This is very useful when you get lost, which is all the time because the Saudis don’t seem to be bothered about naming roads or streets, let alone put up a street/road name sign.
As I’ve mentioned before, they drive like absolute lunatics here. I can’t really emphasise this enough. Don’t think you wouldn’t be horrified by it because you would.
Drivers simply create their own lanes and are quite happy turning left from the far right lane and vice versa.
My personal favourite though is their liberal use of the car horn. You'll be sat in a huge traffic jam about 40 cars back from the lights but as soon as the light goes green someone next to you will beep their horn. I find it hugely entertaining and delight in joining in (well, “when in Rome……”)
On average I see at least 1 or 2 accident today. Just yesterday on the way back to the Bahrain I witnessed a local veer wildly at 120 km/h from the far left hand lane (on a 4 lane highway) to the far right-hand lanes in a forlorn attempt to take a highway exit.
He was driving a “Yank Tank” and the suspension just couldn’t take it. Needless to say the car left the highway altogether in a cloud of dust before it collided with an advertising board demolishing it in the process. As I passed the scene of carnage, I witnessed the driver get out of his car and start to angrily kick at what was left of the demolished advertising board… which seemed a little churlish as it seemed to me to be entirely the innocent yet injured party!
This is a failry typical, everyday occurance. More frightening is when you see a 4x4 tumbling end over end towards you as it crosses the central reservation. (now that’s a brown underwear day!!)
So after 3 weeks how has my driving changed?
1) If im 15 rows back at he traffic lights and they go green, I immediately start beeping my horn impatiently.
2) I assume the minimum speed limit everywhere is 100 km/h (120km/h if you are a local!)
3) At traffic lights, 6 inches is the maximum gap allowed between my car and the one in front
4) If I suddenly realise I need to turn left, I turn left from the far outer right hand lane whilst beeping my horn and flashing my hazard warning lights (“Outta my way fools, I’m important!!! Flashing hazard warning lights guys??”) .
5) The slow lane is the middle lane.
6) The overtaking lane is the left hand lane .
7) The alternative overtaking lane is the right hand (supposedly slow) lane.
8) The “I’m in a hurry today!” overtaking lane is the hard shoulder.
Hmmm….. I wonder if this will be reflected in my driving when I get back to the UK??
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