Travel Journal

Greetings Jessetters,

About 4 years ago before this whole recent Dubai craze, I ventured off to Bahrain and Dubai. I have to admit, I would be remiss if I didn’t say I was a bit uneasy with the thought of going to the Middle East. I mean come on, after everything we see and hear about what’s going on out there, how could I not be scared? So to put myself at ease, I did some research on crime out in Bahrain and Dubai and turns out the crime rate was pretty low. So that was it, I put my big girl panties on which by the way are pretty big, sorry I digress. After realizing that there wasn’t a big possibility of me getting kidnapped, I decided to journey on out there.

When I arrived in Bahrain, I headed to the money exchange. While waiting in line I noticed a man staring me down. Imagine being in line at an amusement park and you are facing the front of the line along with everyone else only to notice someone in a completely different line with their whole body faced towards you. Yeah, well thats what was happening. He was in the customs line, while I was in the money exchange line. I was thinking “WTF is he looking at?” So I look to my right, my left and behind me like there must be someone around me that you’re looking at because you can’t possibly be looking at me. Well Jessetter’s, he clearly was. Sooo, before I go on, lemme tell you something about myself. At times I have the notion to think I am “bout that life.” So you know what I did, I decided to play his little game and stare him down as well. I wasn’t going out like that. I was gonna be the winner of this stare down contest, Bahrain edition. I’ll have you know, Angry Man was totally with this stare down contest because he did not budge. He was staring me down so hard that the guy behind him had to motion for him to move up because the line was moving. At that moment, I remembered I wasn’t in Kansas anymore. I decided I wasn’t “bout THAT life”, I wasn’t “bout HIS life”, the only life I was about was KEEPING MY LIFE, so I stopped staring. I Jessica surrendered, I waved the white flag, and I begged for mercy of the court. Do you know Angry Man was still looking at me? I know this because I watched him through the corner of my eye. I thought to myself “I knew me coming out here was a bad idea, I haven’t even left the airport yet and I’m about to be attacked.” Finally, he gets past customs and disappears. I’m like Jesus, he about to wait for me outside the airport “meos me”

Anywho, while my life is flashing before my eyes, it is now my turn at the money exchange. I decided to exchange $500 for the mean time, so I hand the lady the money and she hands me back about 20 rupees (ok, I know its not called rupees, that’s just me being silly) but for real she hands me back about 180 dinars. I looked at my friend like “is she tryna get over on us?” So I asked the clerk “was this the correct exchange rate because surely something is wrong?” She just nodded her head to let me know this was not a mistake. Again, I was ready to just turn back around and hop on the plane and keep my money and go back to whence I cameth from. In my mind I’m thinking “what in tarnation am I going to do with this little bit of money, you just took away about 300 of my dollars?” So I’m slowly walking away confused, then it hit me, Angry Man about to be waiting for me outside. I aint got no money and Angry Man is waiting for me on the corner. That is when I was saved by the bell. One of the officials at the airport needed to see my passport, so along with some other folks, they take our passports to the back office. I’m starting to think there is some sort of conspiracy going. Whatever it was, it took an extra 45 minutes and I knew by that time Angry Man would be gone. After everything checks through, we get through customs and guess what? Angry man was nowhere to be found. I had arrived and was ready to take on what the Middle East had to offer.

Have you experienced any crazy encounters where you thought something crazy was going to happen while traveling abroad?

Happiness Is a Journey, Come Wander With Me!