It's no secret one of my greatest passion is traveling. I find there's no better education than going places and learning culture and life of others. It makes you appreciate many things, like your own country and what it feels like to be minority.
Some may say "duit banyak, pegi sana sini, tapi tak nak pegi umrah". Well, it has always been a dream of mine to go. And I want to be really ready when I finally go. However, I told myself, one can't be ready, sometimes we just need to do it and then we will force ourselves to be ready. That's exactly what we did.
It started with making this nazar. I promised I will take my family for umrah should Mira gets straight A for her PMR. Deep down, I know she will get that results. And Alhamdulilah, she did. Since we have rezeki lebih, we decided to bring our parents as well. So, that will make 10 of us to be on this journey. I jokingly told many people this is the real Rombongan Che Kiah, simply because my mom in law's name is Rukiah :).
There are so many things to share about this trip. Yes, so many things, I don't know how to begin and I don't know how to end. So, I will choose top 5 most useful info(at least in my definition). For the top 5 most memorable memories from this trip, I will share that in another entry which I hope will be published soon, subject to my tahap kerajinan :)
Top 5 most useful info
- Choose the travel agency for this trip wisely. We some what made that mistake. Apart from the price, we chose the travel agent mainly because their office is near to our house, we assume that will make things easier. Many things which were promised not delivered though some may say, "Nak beribadah, tak payah nak berkira sangat". I have different views. I don't think any travel agents should take advantage of people who want to go to perform ibadah. They should make it easy on them so the jemaah can really focus with the ibadah. So, ya, this is very crucial
- Know the current weather both in Mekah and Madinah. When we arrived at Mekah, the weather was quite ok. It can get cold later in the evening. Other than that, it was not too bad. However, I can't say the same about Madinah. It was really cold and Alhamdulilah, we came prepared. I can see some of the jemaah was not and they ended up not having jackets to protect them from the cold. Something I feel the agents should be advising their clients. (Yes, back to point number 1)
- Bring sufficient clothes cause laundry in Mekah and Madinah is super expensive. I would recommend to buy jubah there, it's cheaper than laundry. I only brought 2 jubah and the rest I bought it there. Between Mekah and Madinah, shopping in Madinah is cheaper and the jubahs are much nicer.
- Another expensive item in Mekah and Madinah is medicine so bring your own Panadol, cough mixture or what ever basic medication needed. Unfortunately, Isyraf was down with fever in Madinah mainly due to the cold weather and he was teething. We forgot to bring his fever medication and ended up paying about 36 Riyal (which is close to RM40). In Malaysia, the same medicine would cost us about RM15 the most
- If you get lost, don't panic! Masjidil Haram and Masjid Nabawi are huge and full of thousands of people. If you are going in groups, it is advisable to make ground rule. In our case, we made it a point should anyone of us get lost, to wait at Door 88 in Mekah or gate 17 in Madinah. If we have waited for more than 15 minutes and still no one showed up, go straight to the hotel and wait at the lobby. The reason why we chose this 2 doors mainly because our hotel is about 100 meters from the door.
Yes, there are many other tips, like bring the small water spray in case your wudhu' batal since the nearest ablution place is very far but I feel the above is the most important ones.
I still dream of going to Mekah and Madinah again soon Insyallah. May Allah choose us to be His guests soon....
Next stop, top 5 memories for the umrah trip....
Some may say "duit banyak, pegi sana sini, tapi tak nak pegi umrah". Well, it has always been a dream of mine to go. And I want to be really ready when I finally go. However, I told myself, one can't be ready, sometimes we just need to do it and then we will force ourselves to be ready. That's exactly what we did.
It started with making this nazar. I promised I will take my family for umrah should Mira gets straight A for her PMR. Deep down, I know she will get that results. And Alhamdulilah, she did. Since we have rezeki lebih, we decided to bring our parents as well. So, that will make 10 of us to be on this journey. I jokingly told many people this is the real Rombongan Che Kiah, simply because my mom in law's name is Rukiah :).
There are so many things to share about this trip. Yes, so many things, I don't know how to begin and I don't know how to end. So, I will choose top 5 most useful info(at least in my definition). For the top 5 most memorable memories from this trip, I will share that in another entry which I hope will be published soon, subject to my tahap kerajinan :)
Top 5 most useful info
- Choose the travel agency for this trip wisely. We some what made that mistake. Apart from the price, we chose the travel agent mainly because their office is near to our house, we assume that will make things easier. Many things which were promised not delivered though some may say, "Nak beribadah, tak payah nak berkira sangat". I have different views. I don't think any travel agents should take advantage of people who want to go to perform ibadah. They should make it easy on them so the jemaah can really focus with the ibadah. So, ya, this is very crucial
- Know the current weather both in Mekah and Madinah. When we arrived at Mekah, the weather was quite ok. It can get cold later in the evening. Other than that, it was not too bad. However, I can't say the same about Madinah. It was really cold and Alhamdulilah, we came prepared. I can see some of the jemaah was not and they ended up not having jackets to protect them from the cold. Something I feel the agents should be advising their clients. (Yes, back to point number 1)
- Bring sufficient clothes cause laundry in Mekah and Madinah is super expensive. I would recommend to buy jubah there, it's cheaper than laundry. I only brought 2 jubah and the rest I bought it there. Between Mekah and Madinah, shopping in Madinah is cheaper and the jubahs are much nicer.
- Another expensive item in Mekah and Madinah is medicine so bring your own Panadol, cough mixture or what ever basic medication needed. Unfortunately, Isyraf was down with fever in Madinah mainly due to the cold weather and he was teething. We forgot to bring his fever medication and ended up paying about 36 Riyal (which is close to RM40). In Malaysia, the same medicine would cost us about RM15 the most
- If you get lost, don't panic! Masjidil Haram and Masjid Nabawi are huge and full of thousands of people. If you are going in groups, it is advisable to make ground rule. In our case, we made it a point should anyone of us get lost, to wait at Door 88 in Mekah or gate 17 in Madinah. If we have waited for more than 15 minutes and still no one showed up, go straight to the hotel and wait at the lobby. The reason why we chose this 2 doors mainly because our hotel is about 100 meters from the door.
Yes, there are many other tips, like bring the small water spray in case your wudhu' batal since the nearest ablution place is very far but I feel the above is the most important ones.
I still dream of going to Mekah and Madinah again soon Insyallah. May Allah choose us to be His guests soon....
Next stop, top 5 memories for the umrah trip....
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