My quip collection

We had our hotel assigned for our Mekkah stay.  But as always, one should never be too sure when dealing with these people.  Either they are a confused lot or never get to understand the word 'reserved' and 'paid for'.  Just because a new somebody offered to pay at a much higher rate, come the day the unlucky ones would have no place to lodge.  That was what happened to our jemaah during our recent umrah trip.  Good for us that our travel agent is experienced and has been through such treatment before.  So there goes our abode that was meant to be close to the Al-Haram.  Our mutawif is never without humour.  Though to take it as a test (dugaan) we were warned not to blanket our condemnation but be specific.  So no such saying as, "tak guna punya Pak Arab", we are to limit it to, "tak guna punya orang Saudi!".  The caution is that the Holy Prophet was also an Arab and he remained an Al-Amin to the core. 

For the Mekkah stay, distance matters a lot as we would prefer to be at the Al-Haram Mosque possibly for all the five prayers.  While on the bus towards Mekkah, we were told that the new abode would be a 5-Star establishment but slightly further away compared to what was previously reserved for us.  The mutawif again humorously warned us, 'It's not that far from Al-Haram but it'll be near to the eyes but a slight distance to the feet (dekat di mata, tapi jauh di kaki!)'.  Indeed it was a 15-minutes walk one way in the dusty heat amidst the umrah crowd.

As always one of the trips that we took while in Mekkah was the one to Arafah.  There was much improvement in physical facilities compared to on my last visit about 10 years back.  While my son and daughter took to conquering Jabal Rahmah, we walked around at the foot of the hill.  Our mutawif again came up with tales how jemaah were immediately rewarded for their prayers.  In the heat, one is bound to ask for rain and rained it did.  Upon scrutiny the rain was from the time relay sprinklers rather than from the sky.  What matters was that it was a prayer answered, a respite from the blistering heat!

We have nine year-old Ikmal in our group.  He did OK in performing two umrahs but was pestering to be assisted in the third do, especially in performing the saei', the seven round Mount Safar-Marwah walk.  The mother was full of encouragement and narrating the difficult time that Siti Hajar was having and for him to have the willpower to do likewise.  His response, "I have the willpower but I need the wheelchair more!".  It took our mutawif to pacify him and walked he did.  Great boy Ikmal, just that no way was he going to shave bald his head for the tahalul.  "My head is already small, I don't want to look funny".  Vanity won the day.