if it's not for you here, there are better ones elsewhere

3:00pm
waiting for asr at dataran Ka'abah. behind Hijr Ismail. one African (Kaduna State) old man on my right sitting under the hot sun seems lifeless. perhaps exhausted. i don't bring with me a small bottle of zamzam in my sling bag to offer him. soon, his friends (Africans *and some other nationals too* wear the same clothes - some sort of a uniform - to easily identify themselves) came over and brought him away for aid (i hope so).
one bapak from Aceh on my left. according to him, out of 18 kloter (group, perhaps) from Aceh, only 8 are going for pilgrimage this year. he lives in an area not affected by the tsunami that hit Aceh on 26/12/04. he said, estimates call for another 3 mths the area will still be scattered with decomposing human corps. Inna lillah.
moved to Multazam / Maqm Ibrahim. one guy passing me by interested with palm Quran i'm using on my PDA. asked me whether i bought the pda in tunisia. funnily, 2 persons so far thot that i bought the visor neo from Tunisia. do i look like a Tunis? or is Tunisia a place where tech gadgets are popular? the other one guy very interested with my pda was the Haraam guard. anyway they are really fascinated by it.
and so, for asr, i solat in dataran Ka'abah, in the area behind Maqm Ibrahim. alhamdulillah.

4:00pm
intended to wait for maghreeb at Maqm Ibrahim. too packed. perhaps i'm becoming an obstacle to those doing tawaf.
moved away 1hr before time, following the flow of people doing their tawaf. ½hr before azan, guards cleared the dataran, saf extended further to the front - and i'm at Rukn Yamani. alhamdulillah, Allah directed me to move from a congested place to a clearer area. saw a jenazah brought in from the gate facing Rukn Yamani.
waited a little more. pretty soon there's a clear area at Rukn Aswad. subhanallah!
made friends with Aiman, an int'l news journalist from Egypt.
Aiman asked about Tun Mahathir - how to properly pronounce his name, tourism in M'sia, and he said that Egyptians love Malaysia. i know for sure that he is really delighted to have a conversation with a Malaysian.

6:30pm
after maghreeb, have to move to some place else. very, very crowded for people are flocking in for tawaf. out of Haram, ccw to gate 61. climbed upstairs to rooftop. met with one lt. col. of Pakistani army.
the Haraam guard would do a search on people carrying bags, every time entering Masjidil Haraam. cameras & camera phones are not allowed. i readily open my small sling bag for him (another guard at another distant gate) to check, and upon seeing the PDA, he gave me some sort of a 'thumbs up' gesture. perhaps word got around about the electronic Quran.