abtravels

Mehran Restaurant

That night I decided to visit Mehran restaurant which is about a 20-30 minute walk away from Zaha hotel in the opposite direction to Masjid an-Nabawi. I wanted to try some proper authentic food whilst I was in the KSA and from the reviews on Google, this seemed appropriate. 

However, one thing to always be mindful of is that Google Maps in Saudi Arabia can give you paths which are not for pedestrians. So for the last part of my journey I did find myself walking on the side of the road to get to where I was going. There were other pedestrians, namely 3 guys a bit ahead of me so I kept going as it wasn’t just me that was on the road so I felt a little assured in a way.

Mehran restaurant is a proper restaurant with a dining area and is within a bigger building which includes a supermarket. As I entered it was very Asian decorated and the gentleman that greeted me spoke English and I’m assuming was Pakistani. He was very courteous and smiled as he greeted me. I did ask for a recommendation and he recommended a small chicken platter I think.

As I took my seat at a four seat table, I looked around. The restaurant was  busy and it had customers. My overall review is that the food was very nice and fresh, not takeaway food! They also gave me two fresh roti’s which I was nervous of given my sugar levels but after trying a small piece it tasted delicious and very fresh as it was made to order, so I indulged in this, why not. I ordered a diet Pepsi again which was so refreshing.

I finished and left at the point when I had a high sugar alarm beeping off on my glucose sensor. That told me I’d had enough. I began to walk back through the residential areas on Madinah and I witnessed how normal this actually is with the roads and shops. It kind of felt very common like in the UK in East London for example. Maybe not East London as it was definitely a lot calmer!

That night before I went to sleep in my hotel I exercised for an hour in my room and read prayers as well as listened to a few podcasts. This was a peaceful night for me, just to get away from all the travelling events. Not that I wasn’t enjoying it, but sometimes it’s good just to have a bit of time for yourself rather than focusing on what you’re doing or where you need to be.

Uhud Mountain

The next morning when I woke up, I remember the first thing I did was check my sugar levels. To my shock my sugar levels were still very high and they had abnormally peaked very high during the night. Like dangerously high. I immediately injected a larger dose of insulin than I normally would at breakfast time. Despite this my sugar levels did not come down enough for me to enjoy a decent breakfast. 

I think whenever I go travelling I do have periods of severe insulin resistance. Not sure if this is due to not drinking enough, being too active or maybe climate or perhaps a combination. But it’s been something I have always needed to worry about whenever I travel.

After a coffee and hard boiled egg for breakfast I wanted to visit Uhud Mountain in Madinah. I’m not entirely familiar with the story behind this but it’s a big dark granite mountain with creeks and caves where Prophet Muhammed (PBUH) led a battle against the Quraish of Makkah. 

The Uhud Battlefield is a historic battle where lessons on obedience, trust, martyrdom as well as forgiveness were taught. Many people hike the mountain to reach the top which takes about 40 minutes. Unfortunately as it’s very rocky and not smooth as well as not being entirely safe, I didn’t hike the mountain. I am partially sighted and would need to be extra careful where I step which would have made things dangerous not only for myself but other hikers.

The base of the mountain is actually where the interesting parts are. There’s not only more of the historic parts but you’ll find the shops, souks and cafes. I stayed at the base of Mount Uhud which was a beautiful place to be honest. It was early morning so there was hardly anyone around at the time. 

Now this is probably a lot of my fault as I didn’t do enough research to know which part of the 7KM mountain to stop off at. So when I arranged an uber to take me, the driver asked where on Mount Uhud I wanted to go. 

I said the base but obviously there are many parts and different sections. More for his convenience I think, he dropped me off at a local mosque away from the Mount and just advised me to make prayer here as there was no vantage point. He used a translator on his phone to communicate this.

The mosque was small and it was quite far away from the mountain, so I decided to walk in that direction from the mosque. There was one straight uphill road leading to the mountain which I just trekked. 

The area was pretty deserted. As I carried on going I eventually came to what looked like a car turnstile and car park. Further up, there was what seemed like a small souk or market with shops on both sides. Only two were operational at that point which included a type of restaurant and a small cafe with a straw ceiling. 

There was only space for 2 tables inside. One on the left and one on the right. Beyond this the area was full of some derelict oldish shops which I don’t think were even open and a short walk up ahead got you to the rock. I’m not sure if this was a hiking point from then on, and I certainly didn’t see anyone.

Uhud Cafe

At this point I just decided to go into the small cafe and order – you guessed it – a karak chai! It was a lovely little shop to sit inside and it was so peaceful. The chai was delicious too. The two gentlemen who were running the cafe were both Bengali and I tried to make small conversation. They did actually give me a date wrapped up in a plastic bag which was really lovely. 

Looking outside the cafe I did see some people walk up towards the mountain. This included some camels with children on them! I’m not sure where the camels were coming from but it was a sight to see! 

There wasn’t anywhere where I could really do any shopping. I’ll be really truthful, I messed up big time with the Uhud Mountain. I don’t think I went to the right place and had I been more specific to the Uber driver, I would’ve had a better experience. 

I went back towards the car turnstiles where I booked an uber to take me back to my hotel. This arrived relatively quickly and as the car was taking me down, there were a lot of green spaces and parks on the side of the road. I was so disappointed with myself – how could I have missed this and not gone further down. I would have loved to have taken a walk there. 

I do enjoy grounding – walking barefoot – in a park. I find it really enjoyable and this would have been somewhere to do this on my trip.

Kind hearted staff – Masjid an-Nabawi

I returned to the hotel and I don’t recall doing much else aside from making a trip back to Masjid an-Nabawi to try and pick up 2 more dua books for my nephews. But after scouring the prayer halls I did find books but they were in every other language aside from English. 

I asked a housekeeper that was in the area if there were any in English and after he himself checked the shelves I think we both concluded that they had all been taken. However, very kindly he invited me to the back where the housekeepers are for some tea. 

I accepted and I found this really lovely. At the back besides some stairs leading to the second floor I sat with 3 other housekeepers who were all Bengali. I tried to make some small conversation and whilst some parts were understood like where I’m from etc, I think in hindsight it would have been great had I spoken Dhakai.

I was informed that the mosque is split – one part is a mosque but there is also a museum that is enclosed within the mosque. This was made and sponsored by the current Prince of Saudi Arabia. I never realised this, I had thought it was just a mosque, but there is a museum that visitors can visit too. 

Unfortunately I didn’t enter the museum part after my tea as it started to get to evening prayers and as my last night in Madinah, I just wanted a bit of a rest more than anything.

I didn’t have dinner that night in light of my sugar levels and not feeling too hungry anyway. However I did buy some sweet and sour pringles from the mini supermarket beside the hotel which was decent enough and kept me fed.

Keep reading my next post which will be the penultimate post in my Saudi Arabia journey where I read Friday prayers for the last time at the prophets mosque. I had a wave of emotions and it felt emotional surprisingly which I don’t really experience during Friday prayers. If you love this blog I will be so grateful if you could share to your loved ones and make a really small contribution to keep this site going. Thank you so much!