In the morning I had a light breakfast as my sugar levels were still quite high, frustratingly. So I didn’t have much of a breakfast but I did grab a Karak Chai at Costa I think at the train station which was decent.
The train station itself was quite empty in the morning. It kind of reminds me of that scene with Michael Palin in North Korea when he was at the airport. It was virtually empty but to be fair I did leave really early – about 2 hours or so until departure. On checking out I handed my cards over to a young woman at the reception who was wearing a headscarf and no veil. It was lovely to see a smile for the first time on my trip. The uber took about 20-30 minutes to the station if I recall.
The train station itself was big – probably not as big as St Pancras in London but still sizable. There were in my opinion a limited range of shops and eateries. The ones which were open at the time included Costa, Starbucks and I also remember a small travel store which sold really minimal items for less than SAR 5. There was an upper and lower floor but the lower floor did not even seem operational at the time, there was nothing open.
All the staff that were managing the queue and checking in the passengers by scanning tickets were all veiled uniformed women. There were a couple of guys but I think they were probably more security staff.
There were limited signs again around the station and I asked a member of staff – a guy, where I had to go to board the train. He pointed to an area where there was already a queue of people I assume were about to board a train. This was the only queue and there were no multiple ticket barriers like you’d have in the UK.
Once I went to the location and confirmed with one of the women that I was at the right place, I had to just wait for about 10 minutes before all passengers for my train were called up. During this time I had two fellow passengers approach me to ask if this was the train to Madinah to which I calmly said that yes I assume so but there’s no signs anywhere, but I think this is it.
Once I boarded the train, I have to say, economy class in Saudi Arabia in my opinion is so much better and more comfortable than first class trains/carriages in the UK. I had a table that you could fold up to give you more space and there was a lot of leg room, more than what you’d get in a plane. The journey was scheduled to take 2 hours although we arrived much earlier than this.
My seat that I had booked was a window seat which I preferred so I could look at the scenery on the journey. But to be honest, it was mostly just desert so there wasn’t much to look at if I’m being honest. As I was sitting on the left hand side of the train on a 4 person table area, this European/Arabic family joined me soon after. It was a man, his father and mother.
The conversation with the man was very pleasant and he was very friendly. This was his second time doing umrah and this was the first with his parents. They had actually arrived and stayed in Madinah first before travelling to Makkah for Umrah and then returning to Madinah before flying out.
He was very clear that he thought Madinah was much more peaceful than Makkah which I would 100% come to agree with and that I had been told by everyone who had been to the KSA. His family was very kind and his father actually bought me a saudi coffee as the cart was going through the carriage. The coffee was delicious by the way despite the small pouches being provided so you had to mix the instant coffee yourself, but I really enjoyed it.
It was at this point that I found out that I overpaid for the prayer mats for my nephews as the brother himself had bought prayer mats for effectively a third of the price I had paid. I wasn’t too bothered by that to be honest. It can happen on holidays in my experience, it’s not ideal but it happens so it’s not something I really dwell on or look regretful over. If I can support the local community or people who live there, I don’t really mind my spending even though it might be a bit pricier. That’s the way I look at it.
I did manage to sleep a bit on the train journey which gave the family an opportunity to speak amongst themselves in their native language which I think was Arabic but I could be mistaken. As the train was very comfortable and quiet, if I’m honest it was quite easy to fall asleep – although I am a bit deaf to be fair (Has its benefits!).
Leave a Reply