“Bapak perlu tukar kamar” an Indon man told me at the door. I was confused and tried to make sense how this Indon can instruct me like that. I wanted to say “No” because of the hassle of packing and moving. Never in my life being asked to change room by the hotel, let alone by someone unrelated to the hotel. It turned out he interpreted for that guy from the hotel office who couldn’t speak English and this Indon seemed to be fluent in both Arabic and Malay. I reserved my anger and tried to be reasonable. So we packed up and moved out.
Alhamdulillah the new room was better than the last one. My patient was complimented dearly. I was happy for that even though the bitterness (for conserving the anger) crunched my stomach quite severely. I slept better that night.
By 3 am we were already up and half an hour later I was on the way to the masjid. A bit early today and as we arrived there was plenty of space to choose. Back home I was never up at 3 am and went to the mosque soon after. The most reasonable thing I would do is to pray a few rakaat and stayed quietly on the sejadah until Fajr; otherwise back to my sleep and continue for another good two hours. But here strangely I had the energy to do the impossible.
The street was still buzzing and moving. Some leftover hawkers from last night still sitting and soliciting. I moved fast just to be in the flow. These energetic people are usually the new ones; just arrived from Jeddah and eager to start their umrah. I smiled and hope to be as energetic as they were everyday of my life.
After Fajr, I went to see the same old merchandise that has been laid down and folded up many times before. Picked up a few kupiah and serban. The lifts were packed as people came to get their breakfast.
“Thought they left already last night”, I said surprisingly. Guess not. So I took the stairs 11 flights up. Good to test my knees and legs once in a while. Catching my breath ferociously, I reached the 11 th floor. A bit hard but still can manage the leg work.
Breakfast was bread,cream cheese, honey, yogurt and some dates. Managed a bowl of nescafe latte. The one-rial bread was not bad at all. Let see how long I can survive on such foreign diets. Maggi is always on standby—- only if necessary because I’ve got a few packets left.
