Hatem’s Diaries

It become annoying that until today I still don’t have a driving license, and don’t know driving at all ! I didn’t even tried to drive, so around one month before hajj I went to a driving school very close to Arafat and registered to get my driving license. They give me a date after two weeks or something to start courses, but there should be always a time to start. Driving schools here are very different from the ones I knew in Tunisia. In Makkah there are only two schools in total, one close to Arafat and the other one in Chmeissi, direction Jeddah.

Those who know already driving can take the 5 days package, people who don’t know anything at all - like myself - have a 20 days package. In these 20 days I took only 17, and every week there are two days for road signs. More annoying in these courses that you feel yourself in the primary school, more than two absences are not allowed, courses start from 4h30 until 20h30 including two pauses of half an hour or something for Maghreb and Isha prayer.

Only Nissan cars there (Sunny and Altima), and the exam is always on the Altima only. We drive in a closed place only inside the school, and it’s there also where the exam take place. So you won’t have to exceed 30km/h in any case. I got the chance to drive the Altima few time before the exam, and the last day they took us to Arafat in a larger place, where we can change speed more freely and can reach 70km/h.

The exam itself didn’t took more than 5min, the officer took my file then asked me to drive. Then okay, go to the computers room for road signs exam, the most easy exam ever. I finish it in two minutes then went to work. Tomorrow morning my driving license will be ready. I’m just happy ! Now moving to next step and finding a suitable car :-/

Tags: altima, arafat, driving school, driving schools, hajj, makkah, nissan, nissan cars, road signs, suitable car