Ok, I know this is ridiculous timing, to write now about a trip I took over two months ago. I actually wrote it back then, I just got too busy to remember that I had it done and post it. Makes perfect sense, right? So here is a chronicle of my all-too-short one-week trip home in October, while I sit in Bahrain about to head home for Christmas! (OK, it is now post-Christmas, and I've discovered that this post never posted, but got stuck in draft mode, so here it is! This is part 1, part 2 will come later today!)
After six months in Saudi Arabia I had an opportunity too good to pass up. A week-long religious holiday in October would be a great time to go home! I wouldn't be working, and although it was a long trip each way, it would be worth it to see home and family.
As luck would have it I also had the chance to shoot a wedding! I got home on Friday night after a 36 hour day from when I got up on Thursday morning until I arrived at XNA Friday night.
The trip started with a taxi ride from Dhahran camp to Bahrain. The ride was fairly quick and uneventful which was nice. It only took an hour and a half to cross the causeway between the two countries. I shared the taxi with a lady leaving about the same time, and we left at 3 pm. She went to one hotel for a nap, and I went to another, the Movenpick, for a massage!
I've had a real problem while in KSA. I'm a bog, strong guy, and all my stress and tension ends up in my neck and shoulders. Couple that with some damage to my neck decades ago while flying, and I end up with pinches and pains in my neck that I just can't get rid of through exercise or stretching, and I refuse to habitually take pain meds for a sore neck.
I've had some wonderful chiropractors over the years who've greatly improved the condition of my neck, and one of them last year recommended regular massage would be more helpful to me than coming to see her. I do love good honest medical professionals who care more about my well-being than anything else! (Dr. Alexis Rachotes, sports chiropractic, Fayetteville ar).
Massage can be a wonderful thing for many different reasons. If you need to soothe away tension and relax, there is a technique for that. If you are an athlete and need to work out aches and pains, there are techniques for that, too. If you have a chronic muscle knot deep in your neck and shoulder, that you usually get is some combination of those two techniques, but they really don't get the job done because they never really get to the root of the problem, which takes patience, sensitive hands, and great technique to work out the knots.
I went to the movenpick to get a massage and foot reflexology treatment, an hour of each. The nice phillipino lady who worked on my was nice, and had great strong hands, but really gave me a combo relaxation and sports massage, never really doing anything greatly helpful for my neck. Or maybe sitting on an airplane for the next 20 hours had something to do with it, but by the time I got to northwest Arkansas my neck was in knots again.
I am lucky to have found a therapist who has the right stuff to fix me up! Sadly, she's in Fayetteville, and I can't get treatment over Skype! But one of my stops while I was home was a massage with her. She has an amazing skill to feel the knots in my back and work them out using Hans, elbows, forearms, fist, whatever it takes to put the right pressure on the right spot and keep it there long enough to ease the tension out. It's painful at times, but its also a wonderful feeling to feel the knot "give" and the pain disappear from that spot!
Regardless, it was nice to have any kind of massage after 6 months without. In general, men don't get massage in KSA. I don't really understand that, as they love personal services, and men friends greet each other warmy with hugs, kisses on the cheek, and hand holding. Oh well, maybe I'll go to the movenpick for an hour next time I'm in Bahrain.
I had about 10 hours to kill before my flight, so after 2 hours of massage I went to the hotel restaurant for dinner, a steak night buffet. How that worked was for me to choose the cuts of meat I wanted grilled (steak, chicken, turkey, or lamb or chicken kabobs), along with veggies to grill. I had a nice salad and appatizers, and then had a great mixed grill with red wine. The dessert portion of the buffet was my downfall, and I had to sample several different options, all small and tasty!
The lobby gave me a lovely, private place to stretch out and nap until time to go to the airport, but for some reason I couldn't figure out they wanted me to wake up and move at midnight, so I went out and layed down on a chaise by the pool. When I looked up I saw the first constellation I'd seen since leaving home - Orion. And it was huge! Much larger than at home, which I cannot explain. But it was nice to see - too much light pollution and dust in the air at Dhahran to see much of the night sky at all, which I hate.
When it came time to go I just waked to the airport, a trek of 5 minutes or so. I had a 35 minute flight to Doha, Qatar, which is a work in progress. The airport is leftover from another era, with a single narrow runway and narrow taxiways, which are a poor match to modern large jet aircraft. They are building a new airport nearby which should be an amazing facility. You can see it in the distance but its not ready for use yet.
After a 4-hour layover spent trying to rest in airport chairs designed to prevent travelers from successfully resting, it was time for the long leg 14.5 hours to Chicago. Boarding took most of an hour as we queued up, checked in, waited for a bus to take us to the airplane, then waited longer for a second bus to take another batch of us to the plane, about a 20-minute ride. Once onboard and strapped in and ready to go we proceeded to wait in that spot for an hour before starting engines. I don't know why - it was a beautiful clear morning at 8 am, with little traffic coming or going, but oh we'll. we finally got on out way and were winging our way to the west.
It's interesting to fly west for a long time at jet speeds - the day seems to stand still as you counter the earth's rotational speed with about 600 mph of you own. So the "day" lasted about 20 hours from sunrise to sunset. Pretty cool, even for an old pilot. Right now I'm headed west, so the opposite will happen as we race toward sunrise. I'm seated near the rear of the wing and can see Montreal off to our left - hi Shannon and David!
Oh my, it gets tough to sit upright in a small seat more than half a day when you can't do more than doze for a few minutes at a time. Even leaning the seat back, I just can't get settled I. Enough to really sleep. So I dozed for while, then watched a movie. Then had the snack they provided. Then dozed for a bit, then watched another movie. This pattern went on until I'd seen After Earth, The Heat, Star Trek Into Darkness, and The Artist. Along the way I had a very nice breakfast and lunch, and saw two episodes of The Big Bang Theory.
Finally - Chicago and a chance to walk and stretch my legs! And my phone worked! I could make a call without Skype for the first time in 6 months! And I had 3 hours to kill, so I went through immigration and customs and security (again!!), found my next gate, and as I was so tired I could hardly see or keep my head up, I did the logical thing and walked up and down the terminal a few times! I found a great chocolate shop with terribly unique wares (caramel, chocolate, and bacon bits! Surprisingly tasty!), and a delightful caramel apple with nuts that was so big I couldn't eat it, so I shared it with a young airman on his way home after basic training!
