Chapter 2 - A Opossum Goes to Medina!

We arrived at the Jeddah International Airport 8pm-ish. We left the airport 10pm-ish. That's right. 2 bloody hours of waiting in line for immigration checks. And it wasn't even the busy season. Gah!!

The Jeddah International Airport .. eh. For a country which receives several millions of visitors each year, they could do with resurfacing the asphalt, painting the walls, expanding a wing or two .. heck, scrap that! They should raze that place to the ground and start over! Seriously, it's not like they lack the funds to do it!

Alright, it's not too bad, actually. The air conditioning is fantastic! Most important, that. Hehe. Otherwise, think along the lines of Terminal 3, Subang Airport. Not even as big as that. At least T3 had a second floor. The JIA has just some 8 arrival gates and 10? 12? departure gates. Of course, the gates I saw were numbered in the 50s and 60s, so they may have more gates that I didn't see. Or maybe they just numbered them that way to create the illusion of a larger airport. Hehe. Mentang-mentanglah dia ada the ultra-modern KLIA, pandai pulak komen pasal airport orang. ;o)

Anyway, what followed was a bumpy, 5-hour bus ride to Medina. If you could call it a bus, that is. It was a cross between a van and a mini-bus. I think it seated 20 max. Seeing as how we were a party of only 13 though, it was comfortably spacious. The bus driver however, *shudder*. He must have driven straight out of hell, gotten lost and decided to stay here on Earth to terrorise us hapless, helpless pilgrims. I believe it was God's ploy to make us appreciate the small things we take for granted - the tame Malaysian drivers, road courtesy, traffic lights, oh! not forgetting to mention our lives.

Fortunately, the medication I took to supress my air-sickness hadn't yet worn off. My GP assured me it was not a sleeping pill, although it does have that effect on me. Therefore, I slept for the bulk of the journey. In my in-between moments of wakefulness, however, I discovered something I didn't remember from my first trip there - local radio stations air mengaji tracks in lieu of Justin Timberlake and co. But what amused me the most was that our driver was singing along to it! lolz. Beribadat sebelum mati ke? What with the way he was driving and all. Needless to say, there weren't many moments of wakefulness. Whenever I saw him swerve into the next lane, missing the other car by inches, I'd quickly shut my eyes and go back to sleep. I figured that if I had to go, I'd like to go as painlessly as possible. Amazingly, though, we arrived in Medina in one piece. Whadda ya know? Miracles DO happen in the Holy Lands!

It was close to 3am by the time we settled into out 4-star accomodation. Do not let this misguide you into believing we were given plush quarters. You know how the 'star'-rating is NOT the same worldwide? How almost each country has it's own definition of each 'star'? Yes, apparently, in Mekah and Medina, it goes like this: one star each for: beds and attached bathroom, air-cond, proximity to the mosques (if it's right across the street, that's TWO stars!!), dining facilities, ELEVATOR, etc. Yes, ladies and gents. Nevermind that the furniture looks like it could have been used by Khalifah Ali himself, and that you had to wait 2 minutes for the elevator DOOR to CLOSE, we stayed in a 4-star hotel! *G*

Also somewhat unfortunate was the fact that we arrived at 3am when Subuh prayers was at 4am. Groan. No time to sleep. ALSO, we only had 2 days in Medina, which also translated into no time to sleep if we wanted to take in the sights and go ziarah-ing. I barely got any sleep since I arrived in Dubai, but I figured that I could catch up on it once we finally get to Mekah. Our travelling had been (and would still be!) at a hectic pace until then.

Our hotel was just a short walk down the street from the women's entrance. Just for that, I didn't care what my room looked like. The convenience beat it all to inconsequence. Right after we dumped the bags in the room, we immediately left for the masjid.

I walked with eager steps. After four long years, I could hardly believe I was finally here again! Scepticism always meets this thought, that once you've been to the Holy Lands, you'll always want to return. Sceptics can believe what they like. It's true. It seems like I had only been there a few weeks ago, yet it had been too long. And now that I was finally back in this city I love so much, sleep can wait! I want to see my Medina!

~ to be continued ~

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p.s: Wonderful plans for today and tomorrow have gone belly-up. I feel like a yo-yo. Why do I let things get to me?