After our Umrah, we took the bullet train to Medina, shelling out a little extra for the class of seats that would get us food and tea and Arabic coffee.

Everyone fell asleep along the way, while I stared out the window and admired the desert views, our speed, and my niece as she cuddled in my lap.

It was a very convenient way to travel but such a contrast to what must have been a really intense trek from Mecca to Medina, and it truly put the magnitude of the Hijra—the migration the fledgling Muslim community undertook due to the persecution they were facing in Mecca at the time—into context.

It was also, weirdly, freezing. The AC was cranked up so high. What a problem to be having...