This is the town of Medina where the Prophet migrated to after persecution at the hands of the Mekkans. Even now, the town seems softer and gentler than Makkah perhaps because there is less of the hustle and bustle associated with Hajj. The center of town is the mosque of the prophet called Masjid Nabvi. It is ringed by hotels.

Our first hotel was only for 7 hours because we could not check into the Movenpick when our flight landed. We quickly changed and made it to the Fajr (dawn) prayers. Since we were so rushed, we forgot Mummy's chair and she had improvise. THe hotel room had four beds, and all the men took one room and the women the other. Nadeem as usual was dressed impeccably with starched clothes.

Medina has some high hills that rise out of the rugged desert.

Pedestrian traffic. Here the women are dressed according to Saudi custom and only expose their faces, hands and feet.

We have gone native by now. Mummy at left in her white hijab, Nadia hard to recognize. The Rajput brothers still looking cool in their sunglasses, and Arshad in his Pakistani Shalwar Kameez and jacket. On the right is the local guide that met us, but we were unsure where he was at any given time since he had the disappearing trick well practiced!

The three cool Hajis in front of our interim hotel. Arshad kept a mask on most of the time, and first I pooh pooed it, but after hearing the symphony of coughs, I rapidly took up his offer of masks.

The Rajput men with hair......that would change in a week. Everyone bought some Thobs, the local gown you see them wearing. They cost about 10-15 rials or $4-5. Comfortable but very restrictive in movement. For example we found it is hard to leap obstacles and run in those things which made us hypothesize that the clothing design is integrally linked to the slower pace of Arab life.

Every time we would move, the luggage would be dumped in a pile, and every time you had a few panic stricken minutes before you found your stuff but we never lost anything even though it was out there on the sidewalk.

The cothing from all over the world was fascinating. I asked the young fellow if I could take his picture.

Me and Mummy. This hijab was given to her by a friend. It took a while to put on and Ambreen quickly convinced her to go with her style which was much quicker to put on.