RIYADH, 13 March 2004 — Travelers who intend to perform Umrah from different parts of the Kingdom are faced with a series trying conditions during their bus journey to the cities of Makkah and Madinah.
With the Haj season over, a large number of Muslim expatriates have begun to make use of the attractive packages offered by the Umrah travel operators, which only cost SR100 for the Madina, Makkah and Riyadh trip, including hotel accommodation for the three-day journey in a luxury coach.
The services offered by the travel agents and the facilities at the Meeqat points where the pilgrims get into Ihram dress are good. However, there are problems faced by the Umrah pilgrims every time these coaches stop for breaks. Since all the coaches depart from Riyadh on the same schedule, they tend to stop at various points for meals and prayers at the same time. An average of 30 buses carrying a load of 50 passengers each stop over at these points to enable the passengers to refresh themselves after a tiresome journey.
The plight of the large number of passengers who descend from these buses rushing to the six bathrooms available at one of these transit points is dire. Long queues form for the bathroom and men and women desperately try to buy their meal coupons from the cashier at the one and only hotel. Other pilgrims wait for their place inside the small mosque to perform prayers.
“It is a mad rush for everything. I cannot understand why these coach drivers concentrate on one stopover point despite the limited facilities,” said Waseem, a computer engineer who had joined the pilgrims with his wife. Since the wayside restaurant enjoys a virtual monopoly in the area, a glass of tea is sold at SR2, while a quarter portion of Kabsa rice is available for SR7.
Another pilgrim, Mashoora, a woman in her early sixties told Arab News that as a diabetic patient, she could not wait for a long time in the queue to relieve herself. “It was a terrible time,” she said.
