Last night my husband and I decided to take a drive into Damman. It's a trip we have made a thousand of times in a cab so we thought we would have no trouble finding our location on our own. Apparently, we made a turn to quickly and found ourselves surrounded by desert and construction. It didn't alarm us because we saw the corporation signs so we knew that we were in a safe area. I did mention to my husband that there was alot of signs that stated no photography. As we drove on for a little while we decided to turn around and go back. As we made the turn we saw a security office in the distance but we thought nothing of it, anyway my husband is employed with this company.

We stop a guy and asked him the quickest way to get to Damman and he stated “Follow me". We thought finally we are on our way. Suddenly we see three police cars blocking the roads, stopping each car. When they got to us, they told us to pull over and stay there. We stayed put for about twenty minutes. My husband and I both watch the National Geographic show “Locked up Abroad". and thought this is about to be our National Geographic story. The officer approaches our vehicle and wanted to have a little chat with us, but he didn’t speak any English. In fact all three officers did not speak any English. They kept speaking to me asking me if I spoke Arabic. I was able to decipher that they became suspicious when we turned around. They thought we may have been avoiding security. After they realized that we were not a threat they became very nice and I even believe that they thought it was funny. They let us go. At the next security checkpoint my husband pulled over and stated he was going to ask the checkpoint guys a question. I told him do not get out of the car, because they have machine guns!! He laughed and we pulled up and asked the question and off we went. Those who know me, know only I could find that kind of action here in Saudi.

I would like to applaud their diligence in protecting the area; because of their cautiousness we continue to be safe.