I really wasn’t moved to use my camera on the trip but pushed myself sufficiently during the last few days. Here is a photo from the rooftop, just past the crane is the ‘little’ mosque where we prayed from time to time, where three Bosnian pilgrims admired my burka.
The second photo is of the exterior of our hotel, the closest to Jamarat. This was the day of our departure for Makkah, when the neighbouring hotels showed dismantled beds and mattresses outside their foyers. We were blessed with being provided with many dishes meals in the facilities next door, and water, tea, coffee, and soda pop were abundant.
This was our base of movement for the first two weeks of our trip – we travelled to the Haram, we walked to Mina, we returned from Mina on Eid ul Adha, we scaled and dismounted the stairs to one of the many mosques, and the escalators to the fourth floor of the jamarat, we watched in awe as the street was closed off to vehicular trafffic, and human traffic walked constantly up and down in front of our hotel, we looked on as the streets and stairs were covered with shaven locks, we trekked with handwashed laundry to the rooftop for solar drying, we watched the green laser light emanate from the ZamZam towers, we discovered the stickers in each room indicating qibla, we experienced the combination toilet & bath, we topped up our mobiles, we got ‘buffed’ for daring to bring anything other than a knapsack for our sojourn to Mina, we recognised that hotel rating is comparative, we had meetings with respect to Hajj and its rituals.
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