For me, Tabung Haji offers a great service to the participants. The welfare of every person is taken care of very well. For my Topaz package, there are only 2 bus and each bus are provided one mutawwif. For those who are with TH Travel, they organize some kuliyyah at dinner every 2 days.

For me, the TH Travel staff are very accommodating and efficient. If you are sick or not feeling well, they will make sure you receive proper treatment until basically you get well again.

The hotel in Makkah are truly 5 star. We got what we want. For my family, being close to the Masjid is important. My parents and aunt do not have to walk far to go to the masjid. In Madinah, everyone stay at the same hotel. The food in Madinah is so good because it is Malaysian food. The management of our group is first class. We do not even have to lift a finger. They continue to assist us in any way.

My verdict? We will continue to use TH Travel as our Umrah agent in our next Umrah trip Insyallah. The service is so good that I recommend all of you go for it.

We feel happy when we went to Makkah. I find that I get to go to umrah after I experienced heartache or broken heart or frustration. Which is good. This is the time I need to be close to Allah the most. Well, we covered all parts in Makkah I guess. The last day in Makkah, we perform our tawaf wida in the morning around 10 a.m. We have lunch and perform solat on the way.

This view will be missed.

These were taken a day before we leave the Holy City.

The rules of tawaf wida is that when you finish, you have to go out from the Masjidil Haram and don’t look back. No photograph, no solat, no doa. Straight out. This is heart wrenching. We always prayed that Allah bring all of us here in the future. With a heavy heart, we leave this Holy Mosque. Every step away from the Masjid generate tears and sadness in our hearts.

I truly love this place. It is irony- why? Masjidil Haram is full of people thousands at once and it seems like it is the most busy place on Earth, but, it is the only place that I feel peace. Because this land is Holy and Allah is closer to us here than what we might think.

Kami hanya mampu bersyukur kerana diberi peluand dan rezeki. Kami juga bersyukur Allah mudahkan kami sebagaimana Dia kehendaki dan beri kesihatan. Doa Nadia adalah nadia dapat ke sini lagi dengan keluarga dan mungkin ketika itu dah bertukar status isteri. Itu semua doa dan harapan. Siapa yang tak mahu 100 000 kali ganda pahala dia Tanah Suci Mekah. Semoga dapat jejak kaki ke sini lagi insyallah.

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.

We leave for the Airport with all our family members. Pak Usu, Acik, Mak Ngah all send us off. After hearing briefing at TH Travel counter at level 5, we were given our bus number and identity tag. We then have our lunch at KFC before go for prayers. Hati dah melonjak kegembiraan. Bak kata orang, badan di Malaysia tapi hati dah di Tanah Suci. Betul, itu rasa dia. For my dad, he wore a half and half ihram – The bottom piece with a jubbah. So that when we arrive in miqat, he just have to take of his jubbah and wear the top piece. No need to wear the full ihram inside the plane’s toilet. For women, our ihram are much easier.

Thank you y'all.

Tag by TH Travel. They gave us 1 30kg bag, 1 hand luggage and 1 sling bag.  We choose to use our own luggage instead.

We said our goodbyes, and went through immigration and finally board our 8 hours flight headed to Jeddah. During ascend, somehow our plane was caught in a thunderstorm. We can see the lighning and thunder right beside at the windows. The climb was not smooth at all. Takut jugak sebab bergoyang sangat kuat masa naik tu. Ibu dah berzikir baca doa semua. Airline food was okay since this is a long haul.

There were a lot of turbulence when we fly above the Hindi Ocean, maybe due to cold winds. It was uncomfortable of course and my mum keeps on praying that we reached there safe. I watched some movies then sleep and watch movies again. All about movie-eat-sleep cycle Things are smooth once we fly over land mass.

We arrived Jeddah at 9 p.m and we were directed to the Haj Terminal. It was huge though. We perform solat and board the bus to Makkah at midnight. I was too sleepy to eat dinner they gave us in the bus. Too tired. From kilometres away, I can see this city of light – Makkah. Did you know that astronauts can spot Makkah and Madinah because they are shining bright at night? Amazing right.

On the first sight of Masjidil Haram, I felt grateful that I finally reached here. My heart was pounding and I was excited. Makkah and Madinah is a city that never sleep. Sorry NYC! The crowd are still here at 4 a.m! We arrived our hotel and checked in. I was tired beyond imagination. However, we have to finish our umrah that wee in the morning because we fear we might break the confinement.

We went on ourselves to Masjidil Haram. First step of the shopping mall is the white tiles I have been dreaming about. In my heart “I am here. I am really here”. Proceeding to Gate 1 (Masjidil Haram was still under construction, Gate 2 was not accessible) and pass security. Our feet and our heart gravitates towards the Kaaba. We stopped at the stairs, recite doa and all of us cries. We cry because we are grateful and happy to see it again.

Ibu and Ayah

Crowd is still huge despite of 3 a.m and we got separated as usual. Since we are used to the Masjid, we finally met at Saie. I saw my mum and aunt and join them. It was tiring, my jetlag has not even weared off and we with our strong hearts, finish the first umrah for our trip. We finish off by performing tahallul where we cut strands of our hair to mark we are free from confinement. We went back to the hotel to wash up and ready for Subuh prayers.

Nowadays, they made restrictions even outside the Masjid. They put green barrier to separate ladies and men solat areas. People are crowded and your patience will be tested at the highest level possible. We only manage to squeeze at the Masjidil Haram square since the Masjid is already full. At the first rakaat, I cried again. I have been longing to perform prayers hear, listening to the imam. There is no place that you feel close to Allah other than this place.

Rasa rindu pada rumah Allah sentiasa ada. Even masa tengah tulis entry ni di office, rasa rindu membuak buak. Tiba tiba bergenang air mata sebab terlalu rindu. Boleh rasa balik macam mana perasaan bila imam baca Alfatihah. Masa tu air mata dah tak tahan keluar. Macam mimpi rasanya, tak percaya dah sampai sini.

Assalamualaikum w.b.t

Perjalan umrah untuk tahun 2015.

Date: 29^th January to 8^th February 2015

Duration: 11D10N

Type: Group Tour – Enter Makkah First

Airlines: Malaysia Airlines

Alhamdulillah, we have been granted another opportunity to visit the Holy City of Makkah and Madinah. This will be our fourth time being here. For those who has been here before, you will always want to re-visit and you are never bored. Kuasa Allah kan?

This time we are going with TH Travel. We always used Triways as our tour leader for Umrah. My parents went for Hajj with TH Travel before and they are very happy with them. We made the decision to go at end of December. Our planned date? End of January. Less than a month. Since we are used to getting there, all the clothes and everything is ready and we don’t need to buy anything new – eh yeke?

Soalan: Kenapa pilih masuk Makkah dahulu?

Seingat Nadia, 4 kali kami pergi, sekali sahaja kami masuk Madinah dahulu. Yang lain semua masuk Makkah dahulu. Ia bergantung pada pendapat peribadi masing2 tapi bagi Nadia and family, kami rasa lebih elok kita dahulukan ibadat kita iaitu tunaikan umrah. Tunaikan umrah dah selesai baru ke Madinah untuk berehat. Lagi satu, advantage selesaikan unrah awal ni adalah pada ketika kita bertolak, badan kita masih sihat, tenaga masih banyak jadi insyallah dapat tunaikan umrah dengan bertenaga dan efisyen. Berbanding kalau tiba di Madinah dahulu, dah 3-4 hari baru kita akan naik bas ke Makkah yang mengambil masa 6 jam. 6 jam tahan pantang larang ihram.

There are 4 of us – my mum, dad, aunt and myself. We book a 2 person per room package that costs around RM9+++. The hotel is Marwa Ar Rayhaan, 50 m from Masjidil Haram. It is located inside the Zam Zam Clock Tower. In Madinah we stayed in Anwar Movenpick.

We are so worried about the Umrah visa since the requirements are very tight these few years. Alhamdulillah a week before we depart, we managed to get the visa.

There is not much shopping going on. We bought a mini telekung from Siti Khadijah, additional socks, and a jubbah from AlMunawarah.

Review untuk telekung Siti Khadijah: ada 2 versi telekung, mini dan telekung penuh. Dua2 Nadia pakai. Dua2 super comfortable, kain dia cotton yang sangat berkualiti dan sejuk. Harga agak pricey tapi Nadia rasa berbaloi sebab sangat selesa. nadia anggap ni sebagai investment lah, harap2 tahan lama telekung ni.

For those who wants to venture on this journey, we have to prepare ourselves not only physically but mentally and spiritually as well. For tawaf and saie, we need to practice walking at long distance. Spiritually, we made a lot of solat (taubat and hajat) and pray that Allah received us in this Holy Land and made ease of our journeys. There will be a lot of trials before and during we are there, learn to be patient. The most important, set your intentions right – you are going to please Him, not for anything else.

It was winter in Saudi, so we bring along our sweaters and jackets along.

Berniat betul itu penting. Banyak pengalaman kami yang dijadikan tauladan. Semua kami dah rasa. Dari sakit sampailah berbagai dugaan. Banyakkan solat Taubat, hajat dan baca AlQuran. Kita nak pergi ke Tanah Suci, maka kenalah sucikan hati kita sekali. Tepuk dada, Tanya iman. Paling kurang, sungguhkan sikit usaha beribadat sebelum pergi. Bukan mudah nak cari keredhaan Allah di sana. Banyakkan doa untuk Allah mudahkan kita, jaga keselamatan dan kesihatan dan terima segala amal ibadat kita nanti. Kalau boleh, sebulan dah nak pergi, tulis doa yang macam diajar ustaz2 di mana doa itu sangat spesifik, untuk diri sendiri, segala hajat dan permintaan kita semasa perjalanan kita nanti.