Umrah 2012, Day Five: Small Worlds

If I know someone is going on umrah at the same time as I am, or I make friends with someone on the plane to Saudi, I always bid them farewell with a "see you in the Haram". This is usually received as rhetoric; you know, seeing as how unlikely it would be to randomly bump into someone you know under those kind of busy conditions.

And yet each time I say it, I really do mean it. Maybe it's a miracle, or perhaps it's statistical science, but I always bump into people I know while on a pilgrimage. For instance in this trip I've already come across a family I first talked to on the plane (we were doing tawaf on the first floor) and just today in Madinah I met the guy I shared a taxi with from Jeddah airport. And soon after I said goodbye to him, I bumped into an uncle who comes to my mosque back in London. It always happens.

Otherwise today was pretty uneventful. More praying (including Jummah), more crowds, more kissing of doors (of the new extension rather than any older, not that that would make it any better) by random women.