As a muslim, one of our religious obligation is to perform pilgrimage rituals (hajj) when we have the resources (healthy, financially capable, spiritually ready, etc). Mecca, is one of the city to visit. Due to its holiness, only muslim are allowed to enter the city. It’s very funny actually in the highway before the city; there’s a big board showing that if you’re not a muslim; you have to take another way – which goes AROUND the city and not into it. So it’s a very rare view to take on Mecca
Safety? I’m happy to say that middle east is NOT all about bombs, guns, shoot out, etc. It’s actually not more dangerous than in any place I think. And I’ve been around the world (a bit) so I do have comparisons. AND, pls don’t think that muslims are terrorist and just eager to hurt people with different faith and background. So maybe there’s a minority who thinks that way but it’s NOT an endorse behavior and even AGAINST our faithful that teach us on peace and not hurting innocent people.
In the pilgrimage season which stands about 1 month, about xx million people come into one places. So it’s very crowded. The hotel prices raises up to 3-4 times during this season; and almost no way you can find a place without preplanning. In Indonesia, because our country is about 85% muslim; the waiting list can be super long. Personally I have to register one year in advance – after being rejected in the previous year due to no capacity available.
So what’s Mecca is like? There are not many of tall building; unless hotels. The people are covering their body – as part of our religious compliance. Saudi Arabia is actually a very rich country – so even though you’re in a desert; it’s not that hot. They have air con all over the place.
However, there’s one building that’s very monumental and is part of our rituals venue. Masjidil Haram. Basically it’s the ultimate mosque for muslim whole world; they have the holy Kaaba in it; as the prayer direction. The building itself is extremely gorgeous an well designed – very contrast with the modest building surrounding it. Unfortunately no camera is allowed to enter the building (they actually raid you before entering – just to make sure you don’t bring risky things).
The three storage grand mosque has the best marble floor & gold chandeliers; and can contain about 763.000 people – or even 1 million if you really squeeze it in. Because the mosque is so huge (656.000 m2), it has 49 different entrance; where you literally have to memorize the door number not to get lost. Getting out from the wrong entrance means you’ll go out in a totally different direction of the city.
Personally for me, going there is very emotionally moving… There I met with muslim from all over the world. Even from parts of the world that I didn’t know they knew Islam at all. I saw muslims from China, Phillipines, Thailand, US, etc. Very moving to know that despite of the different backgrounds, we are worshiping in the same faith.
The city of Mecca itself is very touched by the outside world actually. They have Baskin & Robbins ice cream, fancy international brand like Gucci, Polo, etc are there as well. Over the top cars like Ferrari or Jaguar is not a strange thing to found. Again, as a wealthy country, their people are actually very much capable of buying expensive things.
The shops itself usually selling things that you might need there as part of rituals (i.e. prayer mat, compass, tasbih, etc). But since it’s a place where people around the world gather, it’s also not strange to find local things from Russia for example (i.e. binoculars) sold there. One of the shop that I visited was a carpet shop; that is willing to ship the carpet to your original market :D
The funny thing that I experienced, is that most of the seller in Mecca knows a bit how to speak Indonesian. At least for offering and bargaining things to the visitor. It turns out it’s like that because MOST INDONESIAN LOVES TO SHOP; more than
visitor from other country ha ha ha….
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