when you take an extremely talkative 10-yr old girl, a yellow belly 8-yr old son, a cranky 2-yr old baby, an even-crankier pregnant wife, and a cheap bastard (who won't pay for air tickets) and throw them all in a car for an 8-hour trip to Mecca?
Baddest. Road-trip. Ever.
And I don't mean 'baddest' as in Michael Jackson "I'm Bad". I mean bad as in it was so rough that I had to resort to a grammatically incorrect term to fully express my misery.
Half way to Mecca (around 11pm at night), I blew out a rear tire. The force of the tire tread ripped out the plastic molding of our Toyota Prado as well as part of the rear bumper.
So there we were, middle of nowhere, pitch-black desert, on a weeknight (being the Mr. Smartypants I am, I figured traveling on a weekday would result in less traffic, which it did - so there went my chances of getting any roadside help), without a flashlight, having to change a flat on my Prado that I had never done before.
Sweet.
Now, I've changed many flat tires in my life, but never from an SUV which has the spare tire mounted underneath the rear of the vehicle. The procedure to simply REMOVE THE SPARE took over 30 freakin' minutes!!! I had my son holding up my cellphone to provide some semblance of light, with headlights of the occasional passing car or truck helping out.
Once I got the spare down, I had to jack up the truck and switch tires. This proved to be an even bigger ordeal, for our fearless son, whose sole task was to hold the cellphone, got startled by a tiny desert mouse running around our truck. He started hopping around, letting out screeches and screams that would've put any woman to shame.
So much for naming my son after the Prophet's uncle, Humza, also known as Asad-Allah (the Lion of Allah).
Sigh.
After he bravely situated himself back inside the truck, my wife took over cellphone duties and I got the tires swapped.
It took me one hour exactly for the whole operation.
And wouldn't you know it, right when I was pulling out, emergency roadside service pulls up behind me. I kid you not. He was probably hiding behind some desert hill, just waiting for me to finish.
Lazy scoundrel.
But I was impressed by one taxi of three youth who pulled over about 15 minutes before I was done. They kindly offered assistance, which I politely declined since I was basically finishing up.
It took me another hour or so, stopping at 4 or 5 different gas stations, looking for a tire shop where I could buy a tire to replace my blown one. And also I stopped several times to take power naps. And also I drove extra slow, mainly because my wife kept nagging me every time too fast for her nerves.
So our trip that normally has taken us 8 or 9 hours ended up taking 13 grueling hours.
Which was nice for my wife, because it gave her even more time to make sure I understood that she's NEVER driving to Mecca again.
Worsest. Road-trip. Ever.
But in the end, as you all probably guessed, it was totally worth it - with images such as this one to really sweeten our experience:
That's a clip of Humza and Aya relaxing on the second floor near mount Safa inside the Haram.
One last note. We got rooms at the Zamzam tower hotel, one of the hotels at the megacomplex right outside the Haram, better known as Burj al-Bait.
While it was annoying at having to pass MotherCare and Promod and Starbucks on the way to the Haram, we thoroughly enjoyed our stay at Zamzam. The rooms had a beautiful view of the Haram, as well as the audio from the Haram connected directly into each room (with volume controls!). The executive suites were reasonably priced (500sar/night) for 2 rooms plus a sitting room, although the valet parking was a bit pricey (150/night).
Oh and when I returned to work, I found out that one of the towers under construction had a full blown fire that took out 6 floors.
Weird how we totally missed that.
16 comments:
Mashallah (esp. at "Ayah!Get over here!" and Ayah herself, grown so big - did you not post her newborn photo on the blog some time ago?).
Umrah mubarak.
Sorry, but I had to laugh. NOT at your situation, but the way you told it. Plus your kids are very very cute and the thought of Humza squealing like, well, I might have done in that situation was too funny. :-)
I enjoyed seeing your children. What precious little things.
I just asked my Arab friend about the Haram since I always associated "haram" as something bad or illegal for Muslims. Now I understand they are two different words. I guess in English they just have the same spelling.
Enjoyed the story! Buy plane tickets next time! ;-)
How were you able to record with your phone so openly...when I went to Umrah just over 2 years ago...they were searching people for phones with cams everytime we went in or out...and anytime someone managed to get one inside...if security seen them it was taken or they were ordered to put it away. Just curious
Was the video taken inside the Haaram?
I must say, I agree with the people who oppose to take picture or video during the Hajj or Umrah. It is not a place for tourism.
First of all, I can't believe Burj al-bait was only 500 a night for an executive suite in this super-crowded season! Did you get some kind of special deal?
On that note, do you work as an engineer or something in the haram? What do you mean, when you got back to work?
Are you saying there was a fire next to the kaabah?
AA-
@Mummyjaan, yeah I put up her newborn photo around year and half ago.
@Susanne, laugh away to your heart's desire. It's only my feelings. :-P
Buy tickets?! NEVER! That's too bourgeois for me. ;-)
@CoolRed, things have really changed in Mecca (Madina is still pretty strict). People are taking pictures with no regard for the mutawwa. I took my video on the second floor where there was barely anyone. And it wasn't even my phone, it was my dig-camera! :-)
@Gess, I see your point, and I prefer not to take pics during my Umrah (like the two guys who were taking pics of each other during the actual tawaaf!). Since we were in a lull and resting, I decided to take some pics.
While I agree that going for Umrah/Hajj is an act of worship not to be sullied with distractions and the sort, its perfectly acceptable to take some pics and even do business!
@UmmSara, the price I got was 1600 for three nights. The weekday rate was 480 and weekend was 560. I got those rates through an agent - maybe they have some special group rates...not sure.
Not an engineer. A co-worker mentioned to me about the fire. Check out the link to the article with a picture of the fire in one of the Burj Bait towers.
Salam
Umrah Mubarik!!
Mashallah your kids are very cute - I specially liked how big brother was feed little sis :)
Car trips are fun,I bet the kids will remember all the fights and the fun they had during the drive.
We do car trips all the time - too expensive to buy tickets for a family of five speically on weekend and long weekend . Its always fun and lot of fighting( e.g. he is looking at me ... :)
I remember when we did our haj in 2005 they were checking bags for even camera phones. I remember somebody taking a pic of their spouse while throwing stones at jamarah :)
Wasalam
UmmOsman
HAHAH.
BrNaeem this is amazing, your blog is amazing and you are amazing. lol. (Aren't I good at flattering people?)
Wow! So the married-family life isn't even all that great. Haha, so thats three kids and one more coming, man it must be hard to just live like that.
Oh and the video was SUPER COOL. So your son knows English; that's a plus, but how? You guys permanently reside in Saudi Arabia?
Lol, and the Haram, it looked REALLY COOL. But, I always envisioned it roofless.
Hope you had fun though.
-The Muslim Kid-
and i thought my faily was bad! I always say we could be the Stars of The Muslim Family Vacation!Your story is exactly why mu husband stopped being a 'cheap bastard' and flew us to Makkah. Last time we drove there the car broke down so he flew us home and then when the car was fixed he went back by himself to get it. He called me panicking on the top of a mountain in taif saying that he was about tio be kiled by some majnoon drivers and that the car broke down again and was on fire! He eventually got safely down from the steep winding road, after a one legged tow truck driver came to his rescue. He said that the man had skills like no other and doubts any two legged person could have done a better job.
Seems like we were in Makkah around the same time and I just left Riyadh last week. I have a talkative 9 year old daught who would love to meet and out talk your daughter!
Kids in the Haram...love it. It is such a blessing to be here. Masha'Allah!
AA-
@UmmOsman, "Car trips are fun"
I agree...we've driven to Khobar, Mecca, Madina, and even UAE (Abu Dhabi and Dubai). Always a fun, interesting time. Except for the bathroom stops. :-(
@MK, "Oh and the video was SUPER COOL. So your son knows English; that's a plus, but how? You guys permanently reside in Saudi Arabia?"
They speak English in the house, go to an English-medium school, and play with English-speaking friends. What other language would they speak? :-)
"But, I always envisioned it roofless."
Not sure what you're envisioning, cause there are videos of the Haram all over, showing in great detail what the place looks like.
Why not make plans to come here bro...sooner than later?
@UmmAdam, Lol @ your husband's Taif story. I actually rode down that same extremely dangerous road from Taif to Mecca in a taxi cab. I'm convinced that his brakes didn't work!
"I have a talkative 9 year old daught who would love to meet and out talk your daughter!"
No prob, just as long as I'm not in the room. :-D
What other language would they speak?
I have to say that you should take advantage of being in KSA and teach your kids arabic. It is good that they have english but a strong Arabic foundation is even more important to understand the Quran and the knowledge of their religion in its original form.
AA- Umm Sara,
Good point, but easier said than done. We tried to send our daughter to an all-Arabic school, but after one year, it just wasn't working.
So for now, we're focusing on teaching them the foundations of the deen, imparting strong morals and principles, and basic Quranic teachings.
I figure billions of Muslims are able to thrive in their deen without mastering Arabic (although I fully understand the obvious benefit), as did I for many years of my life, so my kids will survive as well.
And later in life, when they're able to, they can study it at their own pace.
"Why not make plans to come here bro...sooner than later?"
Haha, Ya when my kids are 9 years old, ill come visit and you can come too, we could arrange a play date for the kids. Oh and we could have a little discussion on Islam over some..Falafels?.
Haha, oh wait your kids will be like.. 16+. Wow, if you think about it, I'm like the generation between you and your kids. Haha.
I gotta check out the video's then, what exactly is the "Haram" does it consitute the whole whole thing? Does it include the starbucks and the KFC? Ya, I gotta visit with my family(wife+kids) one day. lol.
-The Muslim Kid-
Mash'allah such a cute video! Your son is so kind towards his sister! And your daughter is chubbylicious! May Allah accept all your du'as at his Holy House Insha'allah. Speaking of which...my family really need to take another trip down to Makkah soon (we live in Jeddah so you know we should take advantage of being so close to the Holy city as much as possible!)
Can't say I wish I could have been there with you - well, except for the going to the Haram part. Then I wish I could have been there with you. But you video and picture make me home sick!
Salaams,
AA- Marc,
Well at least if you were there, you could've held up the cell phone without getting scared of the mouse.
I think. ;-)
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