norsk

I thought I'd be a good forum member and write up a small report of my road trip from Bahrain to Dubai (and back again) this weekend.

First of all you will obviously need to have a Saudi visa (or residency) as otherwise you will not be let into the kingdom.

We started at the ungodly hour of 3.30am. There are two good reasons for this very early start; 1 the last few weeks before Ramadan are mental on the causeway and I had no intention of spending 2-3 hours crossing into Saudi, and 2 the total distance is approximately 1000 kilometers and we wanted to get to Dubai at a reasonable hour.

Getting across to Saudi is always interesting at this time of night as you will be sharing the road with a lot of people going home after a night out in Manama. You'll see plenty of crazy driving (10kph on the hard shoulder is not unusual), and you'll have the pleasure of watching people finishing their last drink whilst driving up to the first booth (and then obviously leaving their bottles on the road). My friend was nervous about the Saudi customs as my car was full of stuff I was taking to Dubai (clothes mostly, but also some baby stuff and scuba gear). No need to be concerned though as the customs guy didn't even get off his chair before stamping my paperwork and off we went. I thought to myself that we may have been a bit lucky there, but then I travel past these guys every day so I know that the odds for getting checked are small. Not that I had any stuff to worry about in my cargo, but it would have delayed us by about an hour probably if they had decided to check us out.

The route is actually remarkable straightforward except for the never-ending roadworks by Hofuf where they are trying to change the traffic to go round rather than through the city. Putting up road signs about detours in Saudi is apparently optional so we spent about 45 minutes going in circles whilst the GPS was telling us that we were off-road. It was great, and just to add to my pleasure we were about to run out of petrol. Running out of petrol is not recommended in the middle of the desert (of course). Eventually the GPS came back to life and we decided to capitulate and drive through the city instead. It was very early on a weekend so there wasn't much traffic, but it is still a bit interesting as the road doesn't go straight through and there is a distinct lack of English roadsigns so if you don't have GPS you're a tiny bit screwed. We managed to get petrol and then the GPS ensured we were on the right track once again.

The road between Hofuf and Salwa (the border to Qatar) is pretty good, but keep an eye out for sand dunes on the road and stray camels. I hear that hitting either at 180kph is not recommended. Eventually you'll get to a roundabout with two exits; one for Qatar and one for UAE. No problems so far. There are plenty of truck stops along the route to pick up water, snacks and petrol but for gods sake don't plan on visiting any of the public toilets unless you absolutely must. They are just awful! Think 10 times worse than anything you have ever seen before.

After more good roads you'll reach Al-Batha / Al-Ghuwaifat which is where the border is located. Strangely enough you are now more or less half way to Dubai. Remember to fill up petrol before entering the border crossing as the price of a litre is 3 times as much in UAE as in Saudi. There are quite a few stations as you come close to the border and the last one is basically at the entrance, but in the opposite direction so you need to do a u-turn and fill up to the hilt.

Again the border crossing is fairly straightforward although you have to go inside to get your passport stamped (only GCC citizens get stamps in the booth). Not too big a hassle. Having heard many stories about UAE customs we were prepared to get stopped and have the car searched thoroughly, but this was completely unnecessary. Basically you drive slowly through a huge x-ray machine and then stop about 50 meters further ahead. The customs guy was nice enough and I opened the boot. He took one look at all my stuff and asked whether we were going to Abu Dhabi or Dubai. I answered Dubai, to which he smiled and said "Have a nice time!" before stamping the customs paper. No worries and we were ecstatic at this point. Passing through borders where the customs are renowned for being shitty without incident is just too good to be true!

Next stop insurance. There are three little shops selling insurance from different companies. As I have no idea if there was a difference between the three on what they offer or the price I just picked the middle one. Simple! Minimum insured period 10 days for the princely sum of AED100. And they take Bahraini Dinars so no need to have any dirhams at this point (which is good since the cashpoint at the passport office didn't work).

Once you are through the road to Dubai is straight ahead for about 500 kilometres so you can't get lost, but the pain is the bloody speed cameras. Some people (mainly emiratis and others who clearly had been down this road a million times) were speeding between cameras and then slowing down to below 140 whenever one appears (it is confusing though as the speed limit varies between 100 and 120 seemingly at random, but I was assured that the cameras only trigger at 140 - I wasn't stopped on the way back at customs to pay a large number of fines so this is probably correct however I am not 100% certain).

There are two different kinds of cameras to be on the lookout for; one is about a meter high and a yellowish beige colour and the other is a grey smaller box on top of tall pole. Didn't see any of them flash, but then again they may not do that during the day. No idea! Also I was warned by someone who's done the trip a few times that the police sometimes set up mobile cameras (like the ones the have in Bahrain which look like a set of over-sized binoculars on a tripod). However the giveaway is that there will always be a car nearby parked on the side of the road and apparently it will be a black land cruiser. I didn't see it though so can't verify this information.

In the end I just enabled cruise control and did most of the journey at 130kph. You will get the standard lunatics coming up behind you flashing their lights though and since there is only two lanes for most of the way and the slow lane is a seemingly endless convoy of lorries you have no choice but to go in the fast lane and get flashed. It's okay but be prepared to move over once in a while. Extra stress of course, but not too bad.

The total trip took us 10 hours including a few stops to get water and the border crossings which is pretty good all things considered I think. And I wasn't really hammering it on the Saudi side either. I was absolutely cream crackered when we arrived though after having slept only 2 hours the night before and then driving for 10 hours straight. Oh well…

The only other thing to mention is Salik. You can buy the tag in any EPPCO petrol station for AED100 which includes AED50 credit, and then you need to call them up within 10 days to register for a username and password. I bought my tag the day after arriving so went past the tolls a few times and will register it tomorrow, but apparently this isn't a problem as they will put your previous passings on your tag rather than fine you. However we will see..I'm exporting my car from Saudi to UAE in about two weeks so if I'm max unlucky I could start with a few Salik fines and speeding tickets. That would definitely not make me happy, but I'm crossing my fingers my good karma (see border crossings above) continues..

The trip back was equally unexciting and simple with one small difference. You need to pay AED35 for some sort of exit fee. I have no idea what this is about and when I asked the answer was a concise "pay!". The other thing of interest is that I arrived at the UAE / Saudi border with next to no petrol planning to fill up on one of the stations immediately on the other side, but the first three stations were empty! We continued driving. My drive computer said 30 kilometres of petrol left in tank. It was 46 degrees outside and we were in the middle of nowhere. I was actually getting a bit stressed about this and wished I had not been so tight and filled up at least half a tank at the ADNOC on the UAE side of the border. Fortunately the third station we got to had petrol, at this point my drive computer said 10 kilometres and I had already joked to my passenger that if we ran out he would be pushing considering I had done all the driving…

On the way back we left Dubai at 7am by the way. This of course is a lot more sociable and we still managed to park up outside my villa at 4pm. We did speed a lot in Saudi though (averaged 160kph from getting petrol to hitting the causeway) and we were also relatively lucky in that it only took 50 minutes to cross despite there being a huge number of thirsty saudis coming across to Bahrain for one last blow-out before Ramadan.

Would I do it again? No, probably not as it is incredibly boring with nothing to see (and in about two weeks I will no longer have access to Saudi), but it can easily be done and it was worth the time spent as an adventure.

Bob

And no photo's?

Millhouse

Nice story, but why?

norsk

I only took a few photos actually, but will check if they are any good and post. They will mostly illustrate how barren the landscape is..

All my stuff (furniture etc) is being shipped to Dubai, but since I won't have a house to put it in for a while it is going into storage for a couple of months (or less if I find somewhere nice to live earlier).

So all the stuff we may want while everything is in storage would have to come on the flight as luggage, but since my family is already in the UK and I'm going for about 3 weeks after moving out of our villa in Bahrain and before starting my new job I thought I would drive down and leave it with some friends. And also it was a bit of an adventure...

Millhouse

Have you made up your mind about areas yet?

If you want to take a nosy around my house you are more than welcome. They are all broadly the same in Ghetto El Ranches.

Blue Cat

you are welcome to have a nosy at our place as well, Al Barsha, small compound, fabulous pool and club house 175k per annum two cheques

norsk

ranches is on the list, so i definitely appreciate the offer. i'll get in touch when i'm on the ground. i was actually up your way on thursday, dropping off my stuff in Palmera. nice house, but i think they are more expensive (and mostly due to the fact that they are closer to the city from what i can gather)...

Blue Cat

if you are used to space mine will suit you better

norsk

thanks BC, i'll be in touch when i'm there

Blue Cat

Bahtatboy

Good post

norsk

my villa in bahrain would cost a fortune in dubai i think, and to be honest i don't need all the space. i have rooms that i have been inside maybe twice in the last six months..

we've decided to be realistic when looking, and there are other things that are more important than having a mansion. like having access to outside space suitable for kids to run around without being run over and other kids around. we are even challenging the notion that we have to have a villa, but we'll see what happens when we get down there...

Blue Cat

mine isn't a mansion but it's a good size, private, very safe, we are loving it here, the kids all play in the play area every night, seems a good community feel etc, two mins from Mall, anyway get in touch when you get here

Tockalosh

So you wont be needing that patio lounge set you have then ??????

Good write up on the road trip by the way

Millhouse

What goes on in the club house? Is it like a Benidorm all inclusive holiday?