Syukur Alhamdulillah, kami sekeluarga telah selamat kembali dari mengerjakan ibadah Umrah. Truly an indescribable experience to say the least.
The road journey from Doha-Madinah-Mekkah began on Thursday 2nd April 2009 after Asr prayers. Convoy 10 biji kereta jemaah dari Qatar berkumpul di depan Hyatt Plaza and began to hit the road on a 20-odd hour journey. The journey between our start point till border point took less than an hour but the clearance at the Qatar-Saudi border took longer than expected, hence we decided to stop for prayers and dinner immediately after the border as the night crawls in on us. Dinner was potluck picnic style by the roadside, lit by our camping torches. The journey continued from border to Hofuf and straight on passing Riyadh heading on to Madinah amidst the drizzling rain and cool morning chill. Hubby was struggling to stay awake throughout the long drive and managed to pull through with only petrol stops and an hour nap after Subuh prayers. It was Friday afternoon by the time we reached Madinah. After grabbing our late lunch and a short rest, we headed to Masjid Nabawi.
Our ground package in Madinah and Mekkah was arranged by a Malaysian travel agent. This included hotels, meals and ziarah. Therefore, both hotels in Madinah and Mekkah served Malaysian food for our rombongan. Breakfast ranged from nasi lemak, meehoon goreng, mee goreng and so on. Lunch and dinner were made up of 2 dishes per meal ranging from tomyam, sup tulang, masak lemak, ikan sambal, kurma kambing, kari ayam and so on. Free flow of cold and hot drinks too. Both hotels though small in size, were reasonably clean and most importantly, strategically located across the street from Masjid Nabawi in Madinah and Masjidil Haram in Mekkah respectively.
We spent two nites in Madinah and managed to slot in visits to the Masjid Quba, Jabal Uhud, perkampungan Yahudi, Bukit Terbakar, Bukit Magnet and Quran printing factory. Bukit Magnet was rather interesting as our bus glided on the road at top speed on free gear, energized by the magnetic pull. On Sunday afternoon, our group made our way from Madinah to Mekkah, with a stop bermiqat di Bir Ali. There are several miqat points surrounding Mekkah – these are the points where one starts to berihram and berniat umrah prior to entering the Tanah Haram.
As we entered into Tanah Haram, a calm yet nervous feeling began to surround me. The traffic in Mekkah was chaotic, we had to drive really fast while cars from left, right and back tried to ‘cucuk’ their way thru. As we reached our hotel, we had to quickly unload our baggages while the car had to be parked by Hubby almost a kilometre away. It was about 11pm when we reached the hotel but we decided to immediately join another Malaysian group from the same travel agent that was about to leave for Umrah, led by one of the Ustaz. The kids were all geared up after their nap in the car so off we went at about midnite, to perform our first Umrah. An overwhelming feeling enveloped us as we took in our first view of the Kaabah. Alhamdulillah, we managed to complete everything in less than 3 hours.
During the next few days, we managed to perform Umrah a couple more times. The Ziarah provided by the travel agent was quite comprehensive. We managed to visit Jabal Thur, Jabal Nur, Jabal Rahmah, Padang Arafat, Mina, Muzdalifah, Muzium Kaabah, Muzium Purba, Ladang Tenusu Unta, and few other interesting places. Also a tour of Jeddah city including Makam Siti Hawa and Masjid Al Rahmah also known as Masjid Terapung which had a fantastic view of Laut Merah. As we went by each place, our tour guide ustaz briefed us the history and story behind each place. Very enriching and heart-touching indeed.
On Friday afternoon, after spending 5 nites in Mekkah, we left back for Doha after performing tawaf wida after solat Jumaat. The journey to Riyadh took a whole nite through. As we reached Riyadh during Subuh time, we decided to stop over in Riyadh city for breakfast. Thic city is unexpectedly jam packed with cars at the wee hours of the morning. We made a breakfast stop at Ikea – reminds me of the unplanned stop at Ikea Abu Dhabi over a year ago – similar in a sense that we had spent the whole night in our car and arrived Ikea in an ‘unshowered state’…
Ikhwan finally got his hair cut in Mekkah, well, not entirely bald, but a very close #3 on the shaving machine. Hubby and his friends also shaved their hair off. It is an amazing experience to meet people from all walks of life from all over the globe brought together by a common purpose. We are thankful and blessed for the opportunity to perform our Umrah. I pray that our ibadah diterima Allah swt and hope to step foot in Tanah Suci again someday..
