And so it begins....

Ken met me in Istanbul and we began our great adventure!  Istanbul is just wonderful.  The people could not be more warm and charming.  They seem to be always smiling and are great salesmen.  They gently lure you into interesting conversation and then try to lead you to their or their relatives shop to sell you something.  No matter what you want, they have a cousin who has a shop.  After they have talked to you about their cousin in Florida or how they think that Texas is so big, that it must be its own country, they subtly guide you to the topic of shopping.  Even when you say no, you are just going out to eat, they have a relative who has a restaurant.  Still, if you resist, they say OK, tomorrow, you come see me, with a smile.  And they remember you the next day.  The owner at the Hookah bar remembered from two days before that Ken likes Mojitos.  They are masterful.  And the food is just amazing!  It turns out that Turkey is on two continents-Europe and Asia.  From Istanbul, you can take a ferry ride to the Asian side.  There are interesting ancient buildings to see and some cisterns that I think were in one of the James Bond movies, possibly The Spy who Loved me.  It is a huge city-20 million people!  Most of the women in Istanbul did not wear abayas or veils.  They either wore regular Western clothes or a headscarf and modest clothing (like a light coat over their clothes and long skirts).  I heard my first call to prayer from competing minarets.  No one stopped their activities in the least.  It was interesting!

We had to leave for the Istanbul airport at 12:30 in the morning for a 3:30 am flight.  When we were checking in at the ticket counter, the family included a mother who was FULLY veiled in black, the preferred color in Saudi Arabia.  She had the scarf covering the lower part of her face, but her head veil was placed so low that it covered her eyes.  She had on long black gloves and her abaya flowed around her on the floor so that there was no chance that you could even see a hint of ankle.  She didn't interact with anyone even though her children were running around her.  She held herself very well and seemed to just glide when she walked down toward the gate.  Lots of people turned to glance at her.  I wondered how she felt about it.  With the other veiled ladies, you can at least see their eyes and get a good idea of their reactions to things. 
Anyway, we were called up to the counter right next to them.  I had my completely filled and fat backpack on my back.  When I moved to get my passport, my backpack brushed their skycart and all of these metal rods came tumbling off the cart.  Clang, clang, clang!!!!  I looked at the husband and his eyes became wide.  I was already at a high level of tension because I did not know when I was supposed to put on the abaya, how I would be treated, etc.  So when this happened, I thought that I might have a heart attack.  I expected that he might start screaming at me.  I quickly said I was sorry and he just nodded his acceptance.  But I would have loved to see the veiled lady's reaction.  Anyway, we finally get to our gate and all the ladies there already have their abayas on.  Of course, at that point, they were all Saudis.  Ken suggested that maybe that would be the time to put it on.  He said that he wanted to take a picture.  I told him to be ready when I came out because I was not going to model it in front of all these very serious looking people.  Of course, when I come out in my abaya, he  is not ready and wants me to back up so that he could get a good picture.  Now, I have everyone's attention.  I thought that if we looked that were making fun of having to wear the abaya with the pictures and laughing, that they might not be too happy.  So, the pictures are not very good. 

The part that I most dreaded was going through passport control.  I kept thinking of the part in the movie Argo when they were trying to leave Iran, it was such an arduous process.  I expected to have a very mean officer.  He was a young man who did not speak English, so when he wanted to get my fingerprints, it was a bit of a comedy.  The screen had a physical division going right down the center.  He wanted my four fingers at one time.  My sense of order said that my four fingers should be on one side of the division or the other.  So, each time that I did a combination of fingers and he shook his head, I was getting a little nervous because I just wanted this part over.  Finally, he started smiling and showed me two and two.  It was done!  And our Irish compound manager was there to meet us and bring us to the compound.  The part of the trip that I dreaded was over!

While driving through the town of Yanbu, the buildings have the aura of being unfinished.  I could not tell if they were still in the process of being built or if they had been abandoned. And of course,it is all desert. When we got to the entrance of the compound, there were a series of intimidating security measures to go through:  policmen with guns, a guy checking with mirrors for bombs under the car, weaving barriers and a machine gun in a tower mounted on a tripod.  And the compound is surrounded by a tall wall with concertina wire on the top.

Once inside, it was like DisneyLand without the rides.  :)  Everything is so clean and pristine.  At the little grocery store, elevator music is playing, there are many trees and colorful flowering bushes, landscaped park, tennis courts, soccer fields, rec center, hair salon, etc.  There weren't many people out at that time.  Patrick, the manager, told me that the temperature was around 110 degrees F that day.  People come out in the late afternoon.  We came home crashed for a few hours and then had our first dinner invitation!  They had wanted to go into town, but after having been up for about 30 hours, I suggested we eat at the restaurant on the compound.  It was a lovely dinner.  Good ending to a stressful day.  All I needed was a big glass of Cabernet, which wasn't happening.  :)