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Over the past few weeks, BMB has posted some of Amer Habda’s experiences in the Middle East as he traveled to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, for the Hajj (pilgrimage): “Dubai”, “Flying Out of This World”, and “Five Stars and Counting…Down”.

We now have some fabulous pictures to go with the stories - (click on thumbnails to see larger images):

	View of the Haram from Makkah Hotel: Mosque in Mekka. Millions of pilgrims pray at the mosque 5 times a day during Hajj (pilgrimage).
	Masjid El Nabawi by day: The mosque of the Prophet Mohamad in Medina (second holiest city in Islam). Note the various nationalities and colors used to easily locate your own group.
	Ghar E Hiraa : This is the cave where Prophet Mohamad was visited by the angel Gabriel. Prophet Mohamad was illiterate, yet the Qoran (Islamic Holy Book) delivered through him is a masterpiece in Arabic.
	Meeting place of Adam and Eve: It is said that this is the place where Adam and Eve met after they were cast from Heaven.
	Jamurrat being demolished: This is the place where the stampede occurred this year. 345 people perished while trying to visit the location, which symbolizes where Abraham stoned the devil who tried to make him doubt God’s commands.

Information and photos courtesy of Amer Habda.

When Amer Habda went to Saudi Arabia to complete his pilgrimage, he had many a new experiences and…a few new definitions:

After taking the chartered Saudi Airline flight to Madina, we arrived at our hotel, The New Ansar Palace. We quickly realized that a 5 star classification in Saudi Arabia is different from a five star in the U.S. It is hard to believe that anyone would categorize a room with 3 twin beds squeezed into a space the size of a large walk-in closet, as 5 stars. Worse, the bathrooms were filthy. No clean towels or clean sheets were provided. Traveler, beware.

Luckily the city itself was thriving. I was quite taken by the sight of the grand mosque, Masjid Alnabawi. The last of the prophets (Mohamad PBUH) was buried there. The masjid structure is indescribable. The marble courtyard and the Islamic architecture add to the grandeur of the place.

Shopping in Madina was easy and the merchants were friendly. I was lucky enough to be able to tour many other nice places in Madina, because I had a relative who was familiar with the city.

On the not-so nice side, the outlaying areas of the city were rundown apartment buildings, which housed the thousands of foreign workers there to maintain the city. This area was just one taste of a country with a confusing array of wealth and beauty on the one-hand and poverty and lack of amenities on the other.

My expectation was that Saudi Arabia, a country very rich in oil, would compete with most European countries in amenities and infrastructure, because they have money to spend on improvements. But despite the millions that visit Saudi Arabia each year for pilgrimage, despite the millions that live and work there, Saudi Arabia has few public amenities in most places I traveled. The infrastructure and organization was quite lacking. This fact was amply demonstrated by the fact that on one occasion, the buses we had chartered were already full and not only did we end up walking a great distance, we also had to camp overnight on the side of an extremely busy road, much like homeless wanderers.

I won’t go into great detail on the various religious stops of the pilgrimage, but rather focus on just a few economic notes. Here are some interesting factoids that I learned from my visit:

• The police that are hired for the event are all from other cities in Saudi Arabia. They cannot provide directions because they don’t know where anything is located. They cannot read the maps and in fact, may never have seen the maps you are trying to use.
• The bus drivers hired for the event are all from outside Saudi Arabia. They have never driven the routes, thus we were often lost and left walking to our destination on more than one occasion. Keep in mind also that it is extremely difficult to find transportation in and out of certain places especially around prayer times when the streets are closed. Speaking Arabic doesn’t help if no one is driving. Luckily when taxis were available, because I spoke Arabic, I could bargain with the taxi drivers.
• In Mena there was a large amount of people who could not afford housing or camps. They simply erected tents near the entrance and exit to Jamarat (Devil stone). This practice is allowed—and it proved fatal on the 3rd day when crowds stampeded.
• Despite the huge crowds, little is done to control the trash, human waste, or provide control over vendors. Finding food and/or water after being dropped off a lost bus was rarely convenient or easy.
• Even though the pilgrimage is a holy event, don’t think that stopped cell phone users. I was amazed by the sheer number of cell phones used by the squatters. Walking at night, you hear nothing but cell phones ringing and people speaking loudly on cell phones in various languages.

I rarely saw or spoke to any Saudi people. It seems that almost all labor is hired from the outside and not just during the time of pilgrimage. Saudi Arabia could quite easily attract tourists at other times of the year—if they wanted to and if they spent time and money on hotels and infrastructure. As it is, the country has a captive audience because even without the amenities, I would go back for spiritual reasons.

The country left an impression of not moving forward, of not taking advantage of the wealth it has to offer—not necessarily in the form of money or oil, but in the shape of who they are as a people, of what they stand for and what they could create through research and innovation. I kept looking for a country that had an interest towards shaping its people’s future. Alas, on this trip, I did not find it.

Contributed by Amer Habda

In keeping with the various travel articles we’ve posted, we now bring you the adventure of flying into Saudi Arabia. I’d like to say that by reading this, you could take Amer Habda’s advice and experience trouble-free travel, but despite the money that flows into Saudi Arabia from oil sales, despite the fact that millions of pilgrims visit Saudi Arabia every year, this is not a country eager for tourists or visitors of any kind.

If you are put out by the delays in US airports, reading about flying into Saudi Arabia may help you put it all into perspective.

VISA

After completing the visa application and insuring my passport was valid for at least six months, I submitted the application and fees to USA Haj Mission in New York. Note that a Hajj (pilgrimage) visas must be processed through a certified tour agency and cannot be processed on an individual basis.

A week prior to departure, I still did not have my VISA.

A day prior to my scheduled departure from Houston (Friday December the 24th), I still did not have my visa. With my bags packed and stowed in the car, I called. I waited. I called. At six in the afternoon on Friday, I received the news that my visa was issued, so I took the next plane out of Houston to meet the USA Haj Mission representative in New York JFK. Unlike travel services that offer last-minute discounts for those flying on a whim, you just have to be glad that your last-minute visa arrived at all.

In the Airport

After meeting the USA Haj Mission group in Dubai, we took an Emirates flight to Jeddah Airport. I had heard about infamous delays in Jeddah, but was not prepared for the primitive facilities. Yes, the Saudis must process millions of visitors during the short pilgrimage period. It is a task many European countries may have problems executing. Nevertheless, after hundreds of years of hosting hajjis, the facilities in Jeddah were reminiscent of a Texas Livestock Roundup where cattle are herded into one area with double gates. Once the herd is locked in one area, a series of gates steer the cattle in specific directions. Needless to say, when you try this procedure with humans, it doesn’t work well–the whole group was locked in a room with no adequate restroom facility or a clean place to pray. We were at the mercy of a few immigration officers who were more interested in finishing their tea than in processing the crowd. In the middle of the crowd, young Saudi men checked passports and visas several times for the same person without actually processing or moving anyone forward. This cycle continued until we reached immigration.

Once my passport was finally processed, four hours later, I gathered my luggage from stacked piles. There were no luggage carts. With your luggage on your shoulders back, you proceed to a tent and surrender the cashier check purchased in the states to cover luggage “handling.” The luggage is then taken to an area on the airport ground near the restroom. Even though you paid for handling, you are asked to keep an eye on the luggage.

We then found a few tables in the eating area to rest. Unfortunately, the immigration processing had taken so long, we missed our flight to Madina (our final destination in Saudi Arabia). We were forced to organize a charter flight for the group. The approximate departure time was 10:00 PM. Oh good. Only 12 hours to wait at the rest area on the airport ground where the temperature was close to 90 degrees. Luckily the area was somewhat shaded by tents. Ah well. At least we had the five star-hotel in Madina to look forward to…right?

Contributed by Amer Habda

In a global economy, it helps to have glimpses of other parts of the world—whether for investment opportunities or to help us realize the potential in ourselves and other countries. That is one of the reasons that BMB recommends Jim Rogers’ Adventure Capitalist—it offers glimpses into other countries and people, not to mention serves as a reminder of the many opportunities and wealth that Americans enjoy. BMB has also done a few posts on China and Hong Kong.

BMB is now privileged to present a glimpse into Dubai (part of the United Arab Emirates) from a good friend who traveled there. From the travelogues of Amer Habda, he shares Dubai:

I was in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE in 1992, and was very impressed by the modern state of the Emirate. It is much like Europe with a Middle Eastern flavor. Dubai was no different. Dubai is a thriving metropolitan with beautiful high-rises, clean streets and green plantations in the middle of the desert. The city is an oasis with special water conservation programs that allow native plants to grow in abundance making it hard to believe that you are actually in a desert.

The most shocking aspect of Dubai was the openness of the society despite being so close to Saudi Arabia. I learned of this openness quite by accident: After checking in the hotel on New Year’s Eve, I asked the bellboy about getting a taxi to the airport at 4:00a.m. the next morning. The bellboy, from south Asia (perhaps Pakistan or Bangladesh) could barely communicate in Arabic or English. He nodded continuously and wrote down a number that I thought was for a Taxi Company. I thanked him and asked if calling at 4:00 a.m. for the taxi would be acceptable.

He nodded again and said, “Yes, yes, Turkish, Iranian, and Arab anytime.”

Puzzled, I asked again, “For the taxi service?”

He replied, “No sir. Women they can come now!”

I laughed and showed him to the door. I could not believe that the guy was offering women services in Dubai, an Arabic and Islamic country a few hundred miles from Mecca.

I should have learned from this experience, but I was unaware of the number of immigrants in the workforce until this visit. It was brought home to me when I proudly filled out my breakfast menu in Arabic. Being in Dubai, I was eager and happy to use my Arabic. When the food did not appear the next morning, I assumed the failure was due to the very early hour. However, when I called room service and asked about the delay I was told, “Sir, we are trying to find someone who can read Arabic so we can complete the order.”

Ah well.

Luckily Dubai has not left its roots completely. The past is still the present when it comes to prayer time. Near prayer time I was unsure of the direction of Mecca, but just outside the hotel window, I noticed a mosque. I decided to pray at the mosque until I figured out the proper direction. As I joined the people praying at the mosque, it dawned on me that in Islam, you can walk to any mosque at any location around the world and pray the same prayer with people you have never met. In addition, although I hadn’t realized it at the time, all hotel rooms have a sign on the ceiling pointing the direction for Mecca.

The stop in Dubai on the way to Saudi Arabia proved to be just a taste of new experiences mixing with old. The hotel in Dubai was comparable to a 3 star hotel in the U.S. The lodging cost was about 300 Dirham (which is equivalent to $90.00.) It was clean, modern and affordable. I only wish I could say that Saudi Arabia welcomes tourists and pilgrims with such modern amenities.

Contributed by Amer Habda