JQ Travels the World...sort of

Images now on Photobox

jenquest — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 14:22:00 +0000

If you would like to buy some of the Saudi Arabia images, please head on over to Photobox where you can do just that.

There are only a few images on there at the moment but over time there will be more images appearing. As always of course, if there’s an image that you are after and cannot find it at Photobox, simply e-mail me and I will be more than happy to help.

You Tube…

jenquest — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:50:12 +0000

Visit my You Tube page to see a selection of the photographs as a slide show.
YouTube Link

Photographs online

jenquest — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 20:13:06 +0000

Visit http://www.jenquest.co.uk for the photographs of my Saudi Trip.

[tags saudi arabia, umrah, pilgrim, photography, photo, al-haram, ka'aba, mecca, medina, people, mosque, religion, islam]

Day 24: Living on a prayer

jenquest — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 04:03:57 +0000

Got up bleary eyed at 02:45 and brushed my teeth, hopefully with my own toothbrush. We made our way, luggage in tow to the pick up point we agreed with the cabbie the night before. It was 03:30, dark and warm as we bade farewell to al-Haram.

We didn’t stop on the road as planned and made it to the airport by 04:45. We prayed fajr with the Imam at the airport mosque and then had tea. After checking in I bought a couple more overpriced presents.

Time is now 07:00 and I’m listening to my ‘Istanbul’ play list on the mp3 player. Man I love this music. Haven’t heard any songs during the whole trip. I thought it would be inappropriate and it would have been.

We board around 08:00.

Glory Days

[tags saudi arabia, umrah, pilgrim, photography, photo, al-haram, ka'aba, mecca, medina, people, mosque, religion, islam, shopping, airport, glory days, living on a prayer, duty free]

And so Esha prayers concludes

jenquest — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 19:28:54 +0000

And with it my Umrah trip 2009. It went calmly with not too many (all relative of course) people attending. It was rather cool as well.

I’ll miss it.

Dinner was KFC. The last time I eat it in a while.

Now I just have to make sure we get up on time early tomorrow morning.

[tags saudi arabia, umrah, pilgrim, photography, photo, al-haram, ka'aba, mecca, medina, people, mosque, religion, islam, shopping]

Where did the time go?

jenquest — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 13:59:29 +0000

It was on the 25th of June that we set out on our pilgrimage, all those days ago. It has been 23 days, it’s not as though we’ve been doing loads of things yet time has flown by.

There are now two sets of prayers left before we leave. We should be checking out at 03:30 in the morning, doing fajr prayers and having breakfast on the road. We’re scheduled to land at Heathrow around lunchtime. So inshallah, we should be at home on Saturday afternoon.

Went to Mecca Tower yesterday, it is massive. No I mean it, it’s massive and it sparkles. They sure as heck spent money on it. They have some familiar brands in there such as Starbucks, mothercare, Next, debenhams, KFC, BK and Pizza Hut. While impressive, it’s not my sort of thing.

Time has flown and our trip is near its end. When next will I have the opportunity to come here again?

[tags saudi arabia, umrah, pilgrim, photography, photo, al-haram, ka'aba, mecca, medina, people, mosque, religion, islam, nomaz, maghrib, esha, starbucks, pizza hut, BK, mothercare, debenhams, kfc, next, mecca tower]

Day 23: Last Christmas I gave you my heart

jenquest — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 11:02:33 +0000

So far today has been a bit of an emotional day what with it being my last proper day in Saudi Arabia. I have no particular love for the country or it’s people. It’s more that this is the home of Islam. This is where Islam was born all of those years ago.

Jummah prayers was hectic as you would imagine it to be. I sat very uncomfortably for the most part but the prayers went very comfortably. I wasn’t hindered as I thought I might be because of the sheer number of people.

More and more people seem to be arriving as the days go by. We picked the perfect times to come to Saudi and return to the UK. Although I hear the swine flu is raging over there. Perhaps we should stay in Saudi a little longer.

Fajr prayers was quite busy. It has been for the last few days, though I’m still able to find a good place to sit. We performed the prayers to Wham’s Christmas classic Last Christmas which somebody had rather unwisely chose as their ring tone. Still no harm done.

You’ll be happy to hear I didn’t forget to have lunch this time!

Asr, Maghrib and Esha left and then that’s it.

[tags saudi arabia, umrah, pilgrim, photography, photo, al-haram, ka'aba, mecca, medina, people, mosque, religion, islam, shopping, cockroach, stubble, beard, shave, wham, george michael, last christmas, jummah, crowd, pray, prayers]

Completed

jenquest — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:33:47 +0000

Completed my farewell Twaf so now I’m all set to return to the UK.

Just one day to go.

[tags saudi arabia, umrah, pilgrim, photography, photo, al-haram, ka'aba, mecca, medina, people, mosque, religion, islam]

Day 22: Forgot to have lunch again

jenquest — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 11:06:10 +0000

One and a half days left before the journey back home. The weather seems to have cooled a little, taking it to 37 degrees C.

I’ve done all my shopping, pretty much packed my suitcase and performing prayers at the mosque as best I can, doing some extra stuff as I won’t be here for much longer.

No amusing anecdotes to tell, nothing out of the ordinary to point out except that is for the man selling tea downstairs pointed a gun at me when I asked for three cups of tea. The gun was a toy one so the situation wasn’t as grave as it could otherwise have been.

Finally shaved so I don’t look 10 years older anymore. I have a picture somewhere though I won’t be sharing it with anyone.

Not even you? Certainly not you. No, no, no, no, no.

I really do have nothing to say now except the cockroaches are getting bigger and braver. There’s one staring at me now from the bedside table.

Eeek!

[tags saudi arabia, umrah, pilgrim, photography, photo, al-haram, ka'aba, mecca, medina, people, mosque, religion, islam, shopping, cockroach, stubble, beard, shave]

And that’s why I should keep a camera with me at all times.

jenquest — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:51:30 +0000

Rather idiotically I chose to leave the camera behind when I left the hotel for Asr prayers. I missed what would have been the best photo of my whole trip. Seriously annoyed with myself.

I was sitting at one end of a dining hall, immediately in front of me, slightly to the right sat a man with his back to me eating his food. Across to the other end of the floor, sitting by the window (al-Haram in the background) with her side facing me sat a woman with full covering, face, hands and feet. She was messing about on her mobile while her husband went to get their food. All of that in the frame with her in focus and him out of focus. Man that would have been a great shot.

Ok it may sound naff to you, maybe I’m not describing it well enough but if only I had my camera, you could have decided for yourself.

[tags saudi arabia, umrah, pilgrim, photography, photo, al-haram, ka'aba, mecca, medina, people, mosque, religion, islam, ring, introvert, shopping, malaysia, indonesia, bengali, pakistani, lift, polite, culture]