Umrah Trip

It has been slightly more than a week since we made our umrah trip and we were back in Malaysia on early Sunday morning, 12 March. Since then, we rested quite a lot with most of us down with bad cough, flu and sometimes fever, probably out of fatigue.

Let me back track to the weeks before umrah. As I have said in a previous post, both my other half and I have been preparing for the trip by ensuring that we are physically fit to carry out the religious rituals which involves a lot of walking. Thus, we thought to ourselves that we are quite prepared for them (and later saw how wrong we are). Other preparations are some memorization of what to recite and things that we need for the roughly 12-day trip. Our package was arranged by Tiram Travel and we had a lady mutawwif Hajjah Haidilah who essentially guided us throughout the trip. Even weeks before the trip, she has set up for us a WhatsApp group to help us get prepared (though things can get pretty mixed up and confusing when we have so many messages). Among things mentioned to us are that we have to ensure that our intentions are not mixed up with worldly matters and that we will be tested according to our means. Must say that for the latter, the tests began even before our trip (will mention one that involves me alone later. My two sons Ihsan and Izhar was working until the week of umrah trip with Izhar himself working until the day of flight. The company he worked with, was kind enough to let him off one hour earlier (though we were hoping he could get a half-day off, so that he did not have to rush). The other thing that our mutawwif warned us is that apparently the number of umrah pilgrims has risen considerably in this period and it will not be easy sailing. We monitored the crowd days before the trip at https://makkahlive.net/makkahlive.aspx and live broadcasts in TV hijrah. More about this later.

Tiram Travel gave us each two bags, one large and one medium-sized and another small bag that we need to bring wherever we go. For hand luggage, we are advised to have a back-pack for us to fill with the umrah garments and a piece of towel for use at the miqat. Since there are four of us (which amounts to eight bags), we need at least two cars for us to go to the airport. Luckily, my sister in law from Segamat with his hubby volunteered to send us off. Here they are having dinner with us.

Another sister in law from Bandar Tun Hussein Onn also came in the afternoon of the day of flight. As mentioned earlier, Izhar was working on the day of flight itself. Despite being let off an hour earlier, he arrived quite late due to traffic congestion. We were worried then since we were told to be at the airport early by 10pm for briefing and group check-in. Luckily he arrived minutes after Maghrib and the in-laws helped pack things up for him. By 8pm-ish we were now ready to go to the airport.

My eldest son with our in-laws (another car) drove us to the airport and we arrived there before 10pm. There, we waited for instructions from our mutawwif - we were given scarf-like materials and name tags for easy identification, noting that there are other umrah groups on the flight. Our bags are collected for luggage check-in as we waited for the call for boarding. As there were many bags from our group, my sons lend a helping hand during the check-in.

The flight is at 4am (the next day) and we were on Air Asia X. We had dinner there and as time went by, we had to part (and was sad that my other two sons did not join).

Here we are as we wait for our plane to arrive.

The flight to Jeddah was nine hours long and two meals are served (which I did not quite eat as they are based on chicken). We safely arrived in Jeddah airport at around 9am (local time).

From Jeddah, we went to Taif for lunch and a short visit. Our first visit was a perfume factory called Rose Garden.

A particular historic place that we went to in Taif, is the mosque of Abdullah Ibn Abbas and its library.

After Taif, we went to Miqat Qarnul Manazil to don our umrah robes before entering Makkah. Not used to wearing the robes, I had difficulty putting them on but one of the workers at the showering place helped me wear them. We prayed at the mosque there. As I have said, not donning the umrah robes properly, may cause parts of the upper garment slipping while I was praying. We were the last ones getting on to the bus (not intentionally) heading off to Makkah (the main delay is due to showering queue). We checked into Anjum Hotel (Tower 1) where we will be staying for the next few days. We were pleased that the whole family gets to stay in one room (Rm 1066); initially we were told that my other half have to be in a different room while we share with one other male person. Our mutawwif then told is to get ready to perform umrah wajib at midnight. 

By the time we are about to perform the umrah, we kept our intentions pure and not take pictures of ourselves. But there is a video made by our mutawwif as we go down the escalator of the hotel to walk to Masjidil Haram.

I must say that having seen Kaaba right in front of my eyes was surreal and I had tears rolling down my cheeks. My second son, Ihsan accompanied me to do the tawaf ritual (circumabulation), while my third son, Izhar accompanied my other half. We circumambulate only at the outer rings as there were many people there. As we finished doing the tawaf, we went for saee between Safa and Marwah and this was where the real challenge is. The corridorway between Safa and Marwah were jam packed with people. With such density, we did only the minimal obligations, leaving some recitations. By the end of the saee, I was totally exhausted and we still need to walk back to the hotel. I was literally dragging my feet, going back to the hotel with Ihsan. We did our tahallul (shaving the head) at first floor of Tower 2 of the hotel. Finally, we met back at the hotel room and rested for the day.

One beneficial thing concerning our umrah package is that we get to spend two Fridays during our stay, one in Makkah and the other in Madinah. We went for Friday prayers quite early as we were told that the inner part of the masjid will easily get filled up many hours earlier before the adzan.

Thereafter, we had our first lunch at Anjum Hotel. Due to my restricted diet, I tend to have only vegetables for most of my meals.

Later that night, the mutawwif organised trips around Makkah. Only Ihsan went for this, while the rest of us took our much needed rest. 

Some interesting historical pics caught by my son is shown below. The house where Prophet Muhammad pbuh was born is now a library.

The house where Prophet Muhammad pbuh stayed with his wife Siti Khadijah r.a.

We waited sometime before fajr for more prayers at Masjidil Haram.

One of the things I've learned there is to make sure that we properly follow our plans if we want to stay as a group modulo changes made by the mosque authorities. Otherwise, we move independently provided that we know our way back. After fajr, we were told by our mutawwif to group ourselves at 7.15am near the lobby for a group excursion (we did not know this earlier). At the time, we were trying to find each other and that caused delay and we essentially missed the trip. Here are some pics, if we had joined the excursion: Jabbal Thur and Jabbal Nur

We were supposed to perform our second umrah (optional) but since we missed our own group's bus, we went with another Tiram group's excursion and don our ihram robes at another miqat. This time round, we perform our umrah using scooters.

The experience using scooters is less demanding physically and it seems to end quickly.

The next day, again we woke ourselves up before fajr to do more prayers at Masjidil-Haram.

This is followed by sightseeing around the shopping areas near Masjidil Haram.

The next morning (Monday) we did the same. Ihsan asked me to pray near the roof level and I did. It is here that I had an accident (my own personal test). As I went to search for Ihsan, I stepped on some bird droppings (note the roof level is uncovered). Thus, I went to wash my feet near the pipes installed at the back. With my feet wet and the floor being slippery, I fell and hit my left foot against the drain cover. Had blood gushing out from my left toe. I messaged Ihsan for help and I was sitting on the floor for a few minutes before Ihsan get some cleaner to clean the floor (from blood stains) and tend to my wound. 

Thereafter, I had to cover my toe with tissue so that my blood will not stain the floor where I prayed Fajr. During that time, my other half and Izhar were at the ground floor, trying to do tawaf sunat.

They got pretty close to Kaaba and later I was told that Izhar was able to get into Hijr Ismail, but my other half came quite close but was not successful. It was later, after they got back, that my other half tended to my wounded toe.

My other half recommended to pull out the nail to avoid infection but I decided not to.

In the evening, we decided to go back to the roof level to pray Maghrib (in a way avoiding any superstitious feeling due to my accident). It would be our last night in Makkah. Here are some photos.

On Tuesday, I took a snap of the view outside our room since we will be performing our Tawaf Wida' at about 10am and leave Makkah after Dzuhr.

We did our Tawaf Wida' on scooter due to limited time and we would not want to tire ourselves too much.

We arrived in Madinah sometime in the evening. We checked into Royal Madinah Hotel and we had Room 522 (not sure of the specific name).

The next morning, there was another group excursion, for which again I excused myself in order for me to have sufficient rest. Ihsan posted this pics.

The place where the first Caliph Abu Bakar r.a. was appointed.

The location of Jewish market during Prophet's time

Masjid Ali and Masjid Abu Bakar

Under the green dome, is the house of Prophet Muhammad pbuh with Aishah r.a.

After getting enough rest, we perform our noon prayers at Masjid Nabawi.

In the evening, Izhar and I went to the roof level of Masjid Nabawi.

While Ihsan managed to visit the tomb of the Prophet pbuh

We had the scheduled time of entering ar-Raudhah at 4.30am Thursday morning. So, Ihsan and I were up by 3am in the morning and queued to get in. To get this scheduled time, we had to download Nusuk app and register ourselves the allocated time. My other half could not get in (despite being registered) due to the app had problems (later found out that one need to reinstall it). We were grouped according to the scheduled time (my guess) outside and waited to be called in (see video below where one can hear the first fajr azan - an hour before the real fajr azan)

Minutes after, we were then called in to enter Raudhah. We made our two rakaat prayers and make doa then. We passed by the tomb of our Prophet pbuh and of Caliphs Abu Bakr and Umar r.a. Gave our salam but it was too brief as the guards rushed us to move out for others to come in.

We stayed at Masjid Nabawi for Fajr. After that, I got separated from Ihsan and I got lost as I exited at a gate far away from the normal gate (Gate 326). 

After some attempts to find the usual gate, I resorted to use Google Map to get back to the hotel, which is a mistake. The precise name of the hotel was not known, and Google Map had me running in circles. Finally I messaged to my family that they should go to the group excursion without me and leave the room key at the hotel counter. They decided not to go and find me instead, since I could not find my way to the hotel. Feeling really frustrated then but I kept quiet, not to utter anything. We went shopping instead to get souvenirs back home for that day.

The next day was Friday, and we went for Friday prayers. My family advised me to pray just nearby the normal gate 326. However, the mosque was full to the brim. We prayed at the roof level instead.

As we exit heading to the stairs or escalators (whichever we could get to first), there were too many people and at times pushing. I had to shout "Don't push" twice with the second time being a little panicky as it was near the escalator. Alhamdulillah, we got out safely.

We were told to do our ziarah wida' after 'Asr and pray Maghrib and Isya' in our rooms as we will leave the hotel in the evening. We did our ziarah but rather it was on the outside area. We took photos on the way back to the hotel.

We were actually being rushed to check out from the hotel since another group wanted to check in. I had to wait sitting cross-legged on the lobby floor as we wait for further instructions (all seats were occupied; I let my other half take the one seat that was available near the exit door since she was not feeling since Friday prayers).

The original schedule would have the bus come at 11pm but instead we had our bus come slightly after 8pm and we left Madinah for Jeddah minutes after the bus' arrival. 

We arrived at Jeddah airport sometime after midnight and we went for coffee at a shop there.

Our flight to Kuala Lumpur was at 10.30am and thus we had quite a bit of wait there at the airport.

Before the luggage check-in, we were told to unpack our purchased zam-zam water from the bags we bought and had to write our names on the box themselves (which would be harder to identify later). Finally the time of flight arrived. Three of us were seated together but Izhar was seated slightly away from us.

We arrived at KLIA2 slightly after midnight. There was a slight delay because there was a sick person on board and the air crew wanted us to wait until a doctor comes to see this person. During the flight before landing, my other half had to identify herself as a doctor to the air crew and attended to the sick person and stabilised him a little during the flight. Despite getting out of the plane around 1 am, there was a lot of confusion when collecting our luggage. We only got everything after about an hour. We were picked by our eldest son and sister-in-law from Bandar Tun Hussein Onn. Finally we reached around 4am. Home sweet home.