Our food was provided by Tabung haji at our hotel restaurant. Food was generous and good. You can view the Kaabah from the restaurant. However, I do venture out for food sometimes. I normally go to the next tower which is the Safwa Tower to buy lamb biryani at the food court. That is why I am not surprised why I gain weight here.

Now you tell me how I will not gain weight with these?

This was taken at the hotel's restaurant. You can see the massive construction work yet to come.

To perform solat inside the Masjid, you have to come early to get a spot inside, even in the alley or hallways. Lookout for guards that will direct you to the available space. You can either solat at the second floor, first floor or in the basement. We usually went inside for Zuhur and Asar since it is hot outside at noon.

Zam Zam Tower, where our hotel was located.

At first, we do not want to follow the visit to historical places but we follow it anyway because they will have a stop at miqat for those who wants to take niat for their umrahs. We visited the usual Jabal Rahmah, Arafah, Qiblatain Mosque.

Jabal Rahmah. Didn't climb it this time.

Mina

The Arafah sign.

I did not buy any jubbah this time. I have too many jubbah from previous umrah in my closet. This time, I bought perfumes at the perfume shop at Al Safwa. At first I was to buy for a friend but later I buy myself one because it smells good. The scent I chose was Maqam Ibrahim. Pak Arab tu siap cakap perfume ni selalu orang arab pakai untuk majlis perkahwinan diorang. Hahaha. The perfume last all day, nope, actually it still smells good after 3 days.

In Masjidil Haram, I did not try to kiss the Hajarul Aswad. It is too crowded. But Alhamdulillah I manage to go inside Hijr Ismail few times to perform doa and solat. Terlalu ramai di Hajarul Aswad, takut dari perkara Sunnah terus jadi haram sebab tolak menolak berlaku. Dapat juga masuk Hijr Ismail. Rempuh tu memang, Cuma kena sabar jelah doa.

One of the thing you must not miss is try to drink as much as Zam Zam water as possible. The zam zam is redundant here that you can even collect in plastic bottles. In Makkah, Allah will always find ways to test patience. Be it you did not get inside to perform solat or people push you out of the way or like me, a person spilled hot coffee on me while I was reciting the Quran before Subuh prayer. I just have to be patience and hope that Allah reward me for that.

For us, the best timing to do tawaf and other activities is during the morning. There not much crowd after Subuh prayers. You can even sit aligned to the multazam for hours.

Masa dulu, bolehla tawaf sunat tengah malam tapi sekarang tengah malam atau awal pagi tulah yang paling ramai manusia. Kami selalu pergi waktu pagi lepas sarapan. Masa tu orang pun kurang jadi dapat duduk depan mulatazam tu lama2. Masa ini lah nak bacakan doa dan buat solat sunat banyak2.