Makkah, first impression

We finally arrived at our hotel, Marwa Suite, after a number of attempts by the bus driver to get into the Haram area. This was near the peak of the season, with less than a week to the Tarwiyah Days, and the area was crowded especially around the salah times. Roads surrounding the Haram area were closed to vehicles, allowing pedestrians to fully utilize them going to and leaving the masjid.


Makkah street


After the Asr prayer, here's maybe ~1km from the Masjidil Haram

I was shocked to see the sea of people, the continuos honks of vehicles, and the sheer crowd of the hilly city itself - full of shops and sellers by the street. I kept thinking "what a crowd.. what a crowd!".


A little farther from Haram

Then I got a glimpse of what seemed to be a side of the Great Mosque - beautiful grey wall. So there it was! I believed I'd never seen any picture of the Masjidilharam from the side. So far I had only seen the bird's-eye view from above.

We had left Jeddah right before Zuhr and the trip to Makkah took a few hours. Because the bus had problems accessing our hotel, it made a few rounds through the tunnels, circling the Haram areas and back to the streets. Maghrib was getting near, and we had not done our Zuhr and Asr. So some people started to do their salah sitting in the bus. But I had no wuduk. We were not allowed to get out of the bus. I prayed desparately to be able to reach the hotel in time for my salah. Alhamdulillah, finally we got into our room just in time, but not before I had the shock of seeing the not-so-pretty alley going to the hotel and seeing the six beds crowding the room leaving little space to walk around them. I had not expected that, especially since we took a private Hajj package a few thousands RM more than the Muassasah price.

I eventually learned that our advantages were that we are a lot nearer to the masjid, and we got buffet meals 4x daily (instead of packed meals 2x a day). I think that's OK because we would be in the room mostly for bath and sleep only anyway. I saw one of Tabung Haji hotels, Habibah Hotel if I'm not mistaken, and it looked like 4-starred compared to ours which I think was 2-1/2. And they have 6 people to a room too. But it was located a little farther to the Masjid. Still their advantages were having the TH clinic and counter just at the lobby. Anyway, that's just one aspect of the trip. I reminded myself that what's important was to perform the Hajj the best we could.

So that night, a few hours after Isya', Pak Dan took us around the masjid, showing us the gates, the place for Sai'e, etc. The masjid was huge..... I saw Kaabah for the first time, but I was not as excited as I had expected. "What's wrong with my heart?"

More later, Godwilling..

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