Day 4 (Friday Prayer)

Alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah, the first Friday prayer in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with 2 others.

After a bath and light breakfast, we headed to the mosque about 500metres from our apartment at about 10:15am. We left early as friends were saying that it will be full by the time the call for prayer starts, so we walked slowly and arrived after 10 minutes. True enough, there was only about 30 or so brothers but the crowd came from about 11am onwards. On the way to the Mosque, there were people selling vegetables and fruits just outside the Mosque. Varieties of tomatoes, vegetables and fruits. Did not ask about the price though because we were afraid they did not speak english.

After Friday prayers, we headed fo lunch and we walked down the street. It was quite a walk until we found the restaurant. It was at Al Jalal Street and they served rice just like at AL Manakh but 2 tyoes of chicken, berbecued or roasted. We ordered 1 roasted chicken, of course with rice but it was not as spicy as the one we ate at Al Manakh. But Nizam ate the most as it was not spciy and he was not groggy anymore. (Well, according to him.)

After lunch, we then walked to Panda to buy somemore groceries as I will cook Spagetti tonight. We arrived at the ‘apartment’ at about 2pm and with a little rest, I got up to cook and dinner was ready at 6pm. After dinner, we decided to go to the cyber cafe nearest to our apartment but as we were late, it was fully occupied. The tip is to go in between Maghrib and Isha, then it will be fairly empty and also less smoke. For those who need to communicate with their loved ones must plan the specfic time for communicating. Unless you have network card where you can use the local phone line to surf, I think it is possible. Another colleague is doing it but I have to find out more as I am still going to the cybers’ to surf. Only when I move to either Al Hason or Al Mishal will I have internet access and updating will be much easier. Insyaallah.

We ended up about 1 kilometers from our apartment but they did not have a webcam and worse still, mine did not have Skype installed. So i had to install Skype and it took at least 10minutes but it was all worth it. I managed to communicate with my loved one. After the limited 1 hour, we then walked back to our apartment for a good nights rest to prepare for our medical examination the next day.

Off to bed then, assalamualaikum.

Info: The apartment and transport is provided fo 1 month free of charge but the pick up is only at the give apartment. If you move to another apartment, you will not be able to use the transport. If you rent at Al Hason or Al Mishal, the transport fees is about SAR170 per month. (Special arrangements) I am moving out because it is easier to communicate online and grocery shopping will be more convenient.