There were hundreds of them, migrant workers, from South and East Asia, coming to Saudi Arabia to work for meagre, but tax-free, wages.
And their arrival in Riyadh coincided with my flight, making for a teeming but fairly orderly passport hall.
The queues were not moving much, however, and so one tall, thin Indian man decided to sit on the floor.
Not for long though.
Out of nowhere, one of the guards shoved his way into the line - spraying people left and right - and hauled the man back on to his feet.
Moments later, the same guard kicked the arm of another migrant worker who could not figure out how to operate the biometric scanning machine.
All this had taken place within 20 minutes of me setting foot on Saudi soil.
It was my first impression of the country - and to the extent that the incidents highlight the authoritarian, uncompromising nature of Saudi society, not to mention the appalling manner in which some low-skilled migrant workers are treated, then it has proven fairly accurate.
I have travelled the breadth - if not the length - of this desert kingdom over the past week or so, and the lesson I have learned again and again is that there is a Saudi way of doing things which is quite unique.
'Un-Islamic'
A tribal, hierarchical society defined almost exclusively by its religion tends not to tolerate much dissent - and looks suspiciously at any new behaviours and ideas.
A suggestion last week, for instance, from the education minister that it was maybe time to consider sending boys and girls to mixed-sex primary schools led to one opponent claiming the idea would turn boys into transvestites.
Any notion that Saudis had that the uprising in other Middle Eastern countries might take root here was brushed aside a few weeks ago by an edict from the country's religious leaders that dissent and protest were un-Islamic, and that Saudis should obey their rulers.
We do not challenge our parents in the house, one man told me, and so what makes you think we are going to challenge our government in the streets?
Beside a big stick, a rather large carrot has also been dangled in front of Saudis. » | Michael Buchanan, BBC News, Riyadh | Saturday, May 21, 2011
