Pilgrimage Journal 2013: MAKKAH (Part 1)

Assalamu'alaikum. Good day olls.

Alhamdulillah it's already the 4th day of Ramadhan and gosh, it's such a beautiful rainy Saturday here again in KL.. me voilà! I know that I had promised in one of my earlier posts titled, June 12 to update an entry on my recent Umrah trip in May. Well I guess you could tell from my title above how excited I am to share that wonderful 12days-journey-of-a-lifetime experience with all of you now. Hope you'll enjoy reading this post as much as I enjoyed writing and looking forward to reread it in the future! Heheh...

[Note: I prefer to spell Makkah instead of Mecca and Madinah instead of Medina]

Day 1 (May 19, 2013): Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) - King Abdulaziz International Airport, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Our flight to Jeddah was scheduled at 3PM and we were asked by our agent to be at the airport by 12noon. Anyway, we headed off to KLIA as early as 8:30AM as we were vewy punctual plus over excited! :p

My mmuaah mmuaah baby sister, Princess Nia
Hello? She wasn't crying 'coz I was leaving, ok! She was actually sleepy -,-

Breakfast with our loved ones

Since we entered Makkah first instead of Madinah, hence, the guys would need to get ready with their ihram garments (two-piece garment of white cotton cloths). They could wear them either at the airport or in flight. As for my hubby, he wore his ihram garment at the airport since it is more convenient to do so. We came in a large group this time and the group was later being divided into 3 subgroups. There were about 40 people in each group. And my family (me, hubby, his mom & his sister) was put under group #2 with the young and talented Ustaz Muhibbudin as our mutawwif (tour guide). *Wink*

My tag

I had actually performed my first Umrah back in 1996 but that was when I was still in primary school! Hence, the feeling was completely different compared to this time.. I mean visiting there as an adult. Honestly I was very nervous and so excited that I wasn't able to sleep all the way! Huhuhu.

Reading the step-by-step Umrah guide again and again...
Unlike my usual trip, I couldn't believe that I didn't sleep at all!

An in-flight announcement was made about 30 minutes BEFORE we passed the miqat makani point (a stated place for assuming ihram). Our miqat point was Qarn-ul-Manazil since we entered from Malaysia.

Finally arrived in Jeddah at about 6PM (local time)

It was such a very long queue when we arrived at the airport. We only managed to settle everything at about 7:30PM and we were later taken to the Holy City of Makkah by bus. Well the journey from Jeddah to Makkah took us nearly about 1.5 hours (if I'm not mistaken). Our hotel called the "Hera Hotel" was located about 600 meters from Masjidil Haram (believe me that it wasn't actually that far! :p). Once we arrived at the hotel, hubby and mom followed the rest to Masjidil Haram to complete their Umrah and only came back after performing their Subuh (dawn) prayers there... hmm whereas my sister-in-law and I had to stay at the hotel (in ihram!) due to the women so-called monthly cycle thingy excuse! T_T

Day 2 (May 20, 2013): Leisure activities

So everyone was FLAT! Therefore, we were advised to have enough rest before the next Umrah. Alhamdulillah, I managed to complete my Umrah on the second day (accompanied by my beloved hubby). So the two of us went to Masjidil Haram at night (well Mr. Hubby acting as my mutawwif! HEHE). Anyway, I was speechless upon seeing Ka'abah for REAL.. in front of my eyes again after 17 years!! ALLAH KABEER!

The Grand Mosque. Captured this view after performing our Subuh prayers. SubhanAllah!

After the 1st Umrah. Just love being there!
Celebrating the fact that a woman's life is indeed easier without make-up,
fancy dress or even parfum. And the best part is having realized that
neither you nor anyone actually cares about it! Hehehee...

Aite fellas, until now. In Shaa Allah will continue with the rest of the journey in my upcoming posts. And that will be very soon. So do come back for more interesting stories and adventures, ok! Happy weekend. Ma'assalamah.


Nikita xo