Driving in Makkah

Alhamdulillah I am back from umrah. Alhamdulillah Allah has made it easy for us. We went on our own and relative to the last trip, my lover was more relax. This time, since we are our own master, we stopped whenever we are sleepy and took our time to rest and drove at our own speed. And since no one was with us, no one will know our argument on routes to choose during the trip.

If on our last trip we depended on someone to take us to the hotel, this time we booked our accommodation and basically had ourselves, with the help of Allah, to get us around. GPS somewhat help. We booked the hotel nearest to the Haram which turned out quite horrendous to reach by car.

First of all we use the coordinate given by the GPS for the hotel. The thing is we reached Makkah nearing to solat time, where most of the important roads are closed and the GPS kept having to recalculate. And makkah is a city of underground tunnels. The GPS would lose its signal and by the time it receives the signal back, we have lost perhaps a few good junctions. And it is just not possible to stop. Everything is going too fast.

So we drove to what the GPS suggested but funnily it seems we are getting further away from the big landmark which is the clock itself. After a whole lot of recalculating, turn right bear left and make sharp turn, we found our suggested destination to be an old hotel bearing the same name. I am not sure whether I should laugh or keep quiet because lover was really not amused by it. HAHAHAHAHAH.

Anyway, now that we will drive without knowing where to go, I scrambled through the GPS list of hotels and picked what I think is the nearest one. I forced lover to stop and asked the police who were aplenty guarding the closed roads. perhaps it was my little arabic and the boys in their ihram, we found the police very helpful. Or maybe because I thought they would bark at us in the first place.

Finally we found the hotel entrance which was located underground. Subhanallah. To top it, they wanted to charge an exorbitant price for the parking there. So we checked in. Settled the kids. reminded them that they are in ihram. Ordered room service and went out to look for possible parking place in the city of Makkah.

We saw many cars parking under bridges, on the kerb and selit sana sini. But we did not want troubles such as being towed or fined. Finally we found an open space where seemingly safe and many cars are there too. Tawakal alallah.



We found the car safe after four days parked there. Alhamdulillah.

When we went back to get our car, we had a better idea of the road orientation in Makkah. At least the roads that we had to take. I have keyed in more parking spots for future rendezvous.

I suppose I do not mind much getting lot on the road. We usually learn teh road better after, Insya Allah.

Alhamdulillah that despite all the havoc, everything else went smoothly. Even smoother than the bald headed boys'head in my house.