Death and life in Mecca

 
I'll never forget the sound.

You might've read on my twitter feed (@MuhammadLila) a few days ago that the journalists' bus from Arafat to Muzdalifah had to make an emergency stop after our driver hit an elderly man.

This morning, we learned the man died.

Taking the fast train to Mecca

Mecca’s never been a fast city.

Even during the non-Hajj season, things move slowly. They kind of always have. People, cars, buses, camels, horses, you name it. Just today, the group I was with spent over an hour crammed into a GMC Yukon negotiating through a small roadway just 2km long. At least we were in an SUV. I feel sorry for the people in buses.

It’s been like this, literally, for decades. Need to get around? Just hop on someone’s bus. No room? No problem, hop on the luggage rack on the roof. And boy, if you found a bus where the A/C was actually working, you knew you’d hit a goldmine.