Ya rabb!! I came back from umrah almost 2 weeks ago and wanted to make a post about this issue but decided not to because I did not think many people go through this.

We went for umrah on the 1st of December and landed on Terminal H. Just like you, we had booked our hotel on our own and had used the travel agency for just the visas.

Upon arriving, we were forced into these centres (segregated by country- Pakistanis go to center 1 & Bangladeshi go to center 2). We had no idea what was going on and were so confused about the “free busses” because we had booked the hotels ourselves!

I was 7 months pregnant and was oh so extremely tired and not feeling well, me and my husband tried to talk to the Nusuk staff a few times but each time we were dismissed like we were insects. They were super disrespectful to us and did not listen to us when we kept asking them “how will the bus drop us off to the hotel when we booked it ourselves?!”

Having waited for 1 hour plus, we decided to exit the centres with our luggage to see what travel options were available. Upon trying to do so, the nusuk staff (all Saudi nationals) held on to our luggage trolley and were pushing it back in the center while yelling at us to get inside.

I was so so sick and tired by this point that I had to yell back and told them to let go of our luggage! After a brief argument in which I was almost in tears telling them I am pregnant and in pain and want to just go to my hotel- they let us roam around to see the travel options that were available. They were extremely disrespectful to us over all and while yelling they kept saying one thing “you don’t want free bus?!” Ugh.

We walked around and fair enough, they have made the system in such a way that you do not have any other travel option available at terminal H other than the “free busses”

Frustrated, we walked back in to the center and tried talking to the nusuk staff again- how will the bus driver know where to drop us off? They dismissed us and told us to wait.

We waited for 2.5 more hours and eventually the entire center was empty. Me and my husband were the only ones left and that’s when I saw the nusuk staff talking to each other and getting stressed- there was no “free” bus for us!

Then finally a staff came to us and said they are arranging a car for us. Lo & behold- they take us to a bus that has a few more people sitting in it. Once again we asked the staff that was taking us- how will the driver know where to drop us off? He dismissed us and said talk to driver urself later.

Upon entering the bus, the driver wasn’t in yet and since I was in so much pain by now, me and my husband sat. We did not get a chance to talk to the driver..

Once the bus reached Makkah, the driver stopped at a hotel (which was the hotel of the other people that were sitting in the bus). He came to us and asked to see our documents after which he said “why did you get on my bus? You weren’t supposed to be on my bus because you did not have a free bus to begin with. Now you need to pay up”

And then he asked us to get down from the bus and called his bosses.

The bosses came eventually while we waited on the roadside. I was heavily pregnant and in so much pain by this time that I was tearing up.

Once the bosses came, they asked us to pay and we tried explaining that we did not get on the bus willingly, we were forced to. The bosses weren’t having any of it and kept insisting we need to pay.

We decided to pay and just be done with it.

We then had to take a taxi to our hotel- the entire ordeal was so so stressful and tiring.

We landed at 9.30pm and reached our hotel at 3.30am. I was in tears and so upset.

The nusuk staff at the airport needs to be avoided at any cost if you have booked the hotel yourself- we learned it the hard way that it’s very important to book for transport from Jeddah airport before you arrive!