UMRAH TRIP 2014

Assalamualaikum to my Muslim brothers and sisters and  hello alls!

Imma blog about my umrah trip on 02022014. Alhamdulillah, dengan izin Allah swt, my parents and I were selected to be one of "tetamu Allah" this year, dapat pergi melawat Nabi Muhammad saw, mengerjakan umrah dan beribadah di Tanah Suci. Syukur...

Previously, each time somebody tells me that they went to perform their umrah, my first question will be, "Seronok tak?" and to my surprise, their response would be, "Seronok sangat-sangat. Kalau boleh taknak balik". To be frank, I never did understood what's so fun about these two historical cities, except for the fact that I've always been mesmerised with the holy Kaabah @ Makkah and knowing the fact that our last prophet's 'makam' is in good care but other than that, I don't get kenapa orang sampai tak nak balik Malaysia. Again, that was what that had been lingering around my head before I went there myself.

Oh, I lost my phone as soon as I reached Madina. Accidentally left it on the bus from Jeddah heading to Madina. Had this strong feeling that this is going to happened thou. Ibu and Ayah said it's a sign that He wants me to focus on my ibadah, no doubt. I felt the same way too.
But being the spoiled brat I am, I ALWAYS get what I want. Did the same trick like when I lost my MacBook and iPad
->sit and stare on the bed without blinking not knowing what to do in life lead me to an iPhone5S, replacing my iPhone5. Alhamdulillah. Thank you, Ayah :* 

A few of my friends were performing their umrahs as while I was there, but we didn't crosspass each other since we all left on different dates. Anyhoo, as for us, we went to Madina first instead of Makkah. As soon as we arrived Jeddah, we took the bus to Madina and reached there around 3 or 4am. Perfect timing for us since Subuh was around 4:45am. Checked-in and went straight to Masjid Nabawi (which was so beautiful btw! Everything about it was perfection including the big electronic shelters!

Masjid Al-Nabawi, Madina

Subuh. The shelters were closed before solat.

and it bloomed right after!

Alhamdulillah,  after one of our solat Subuh there, we had the chance to visit and solat sunat at Raudhah. Raudhah is a place in between mimbar and makam Rasulullah saw, and its the place where Rasulullah had performed his solat till his last breath. 

There were A LOT of people waiting for the gate to open. Like seriously, ramai sangat-sangat you can even have this mental image of you might get the chance of kena pijak if semua sekali masuk Raudhah (sizing at 22 x 15m).

I had goosebumps all the way while I was there. There's something about the place where you feel somehow rather "weird" in a good sad way thou. People were running and crushing one another towards the tiangs for solat sunat. And yes, kepala kena pijak and sepak, no one cares. Kagum, sedih, terharu semua ada bila tengok.

entering Raudhah 

Raudhah

Men's side of Raudhah

pakcik sugi since forever ada dekat pagar masjid jual sugi tak bergerak-gerak.

if you're a Starbucks-holic like me, you can still get your cuppa coffee in Madina, it's at the mall next to H&M
(from Masjid Nabawi, exit gate 1)

I enjoyed the burgers at Hardee's oh so much cuz twas the almost the size of my face when my face wasn't as huge as a watermelon, mind you. Hardee's is the brotherline of Carl's Jr except for the fact it's awesomer. 

Iced Caramel Macchiato. Not so sure whether it's just me or what, but the expresso shots are so gooooooooood there... 

...and I had two CMs inna day!

random person helping out the olderly.

Ziarah

This is a gugusan of buah kurma freshly picked and freezed. Serious sedap sangat no words can describe! Must try! tak ada dekat Makkah.

an evening at Masjid Nabawi. Click to enlarge.

Makam para sahabat Rasulullah.

After four amazing days at Madina, it was time to say goodbye and Assalamualaikum to Rasulullah and proceed with our main intention, umrah. I felt sad, not wanting to leave this amazing city just yet, but whatodo... Hopefully rezeki lebih tahun depan boleh visit and do umrah lagi. InsyaAllah. Aamiin.

Makam Rasulullah.

This is where we did our Miqat. It's at Masjid Dzulhulaifah Abyar 'Ali. 

Arrived Makkah around 1:30am, went straight for our first umrah. First impression when I saw Kaabah? No words can describe how fascinated I was. Cantik, besar. Kagum when tengok semua orang keliling dia, sujud, solat. Lagi terharu when selama ni kita solat kesatu arah, which is arah Kaabah, but sekarang it's in front of me. Macam tak percaya. Tears couldn't stop streaming.

gambar tangkap curi-curi after tawaf and solat sunat. hehe. 

the 3rd floor for the handicaps to tawaf. 

prolly my fave Kaabah-and-I shot hihi

Again, if you're a Starbucks-holic, you can find Starbucks at the ZamZam Mall.
This is a shot of my iced CM in front of Masjidilharam =)

Masjidilharam at night. Dunno why the photo wasn't centered. haiya!

At Jabal Rahmah. The place where Nabi Adam and Siti Hawa met lepas diturunkan from Syurga.

Ladang unta.

In between solat. Since there were A LOT of people (cuti sekolah Saudi Arabia) there, we decided not to go back to the hotel from Zohor till Isya'.

Recited alQuran, Surah al-Baqarah. It has been awhile since the last time I read the holy Quran. Syukur Alhamdulillah I had the chance to do a recitation at Masjidilharam.
(I started alQuran when I was 12 years old and khatamed before I turned 13)

If you're  into calligraphies, do get a customized phone covers at the malls there. Pricing at 15-25riyals a piece! I did three! TAMAK!

Last night at Makkah, my mom decided to stayback at Masjidilharam for a bit to perform solat hajat, solat tahajjud, solat sunat etc and to stare at the holy Kaabah. Me being the fatard I am, bawak bekal kebab and sandwiches and asked my mom if we could "camp" in front of Masjidilharam just like everyone else. She agreed and paw-ed my bekal. pfffft! :P

My parents and I.

selfie!

I personally didn't wanna go back home just yet. I had so much fun there, 12 days wasn't enough. My dad asked me, "seronok tak?", I shook my head and said, "the best ever!". He kinda promised to bring me again for the next umrah and I so hope they do! I don't travel much but I've been to places, tagging my parents going here and there on earth and trust me, Madina and Makkah are two magical cities that you'll be fascinated by. Before planning a trip across Europe or to the land down under or to anywhere around the globe, do come here visit Rasulullah, visit the historical places that our prophets and Rasul had went and perform your umrah first. 

On that note, I just wanna say thank you, ibu and ayah for bringing me here to perform my umrah and terima kasih, ya Allah kerana telah membuka ruang untukku menjadi salah seorang tetamu di Tanah Suci-Mu. Alhamdulillah.

5 days of MC.

I gotta sore eye. wadahel? and i got 5 days of MC. ohmaigod!

Anyone reflashbacked any epic videos from 2012?

I'm sorry, I'm sorry for mindfckin you people like this. 

But... I really did get a sore eye and 5 days of MC.  

Tiram Travel Sdn Bhd

Assalamualaikum to my Muslim brothers and sisters!

I'm back and bouncing here in Malaysia and mentioned that wanna share my first experience of me performing my umrah on early February this year cuz I was oh-so-very mesmerized with EVERYsingleTHING there! Howsoever... Before I start, 

on a serious note:

Please consider this as a piece of advice to make sure that you will be able to travel in peace without having any dissatisfaction like how I (and my parents AND the rest of the group of 300 people!) had been through, nothing more or else.

_________________________________________________

We went there under this traveling agency, Tiram Travel Sdn Bhd and took the package that costed us RM6,000++/head (family per room stay at the hotels). My dad made a full payment on October 2013 and Tiram Travel called him and said it was confirmed that the three of us will be going on 11/01/2014 and didn't get back to us in seven, four, three, two days before the date. In fact, my dad was the one who had to continuously called them up, confirming our departure and all. Oh, a day before we were supposed to leave to Tanah Suci, MY DAD CALLED THEM again to confirm, and apparently our names were crossed from the list. *one thumb up and one mid finger up*

So, why did we chose Tiram Travel Sdn Bhd instead of other realistic-well mannered-proper-full of awesomeness traveling agencies? Basically the package offered two major deals that made my dad who has been a loyal Andalusia "customer" agreed on changing agencies, which are :

1. A return flight with Nas Airlines, from KUL-JED/directly to MED (JED cuz we've been told that we'll be going to Makkah first, then the traveling agency had some changed of plans and said we'll be going to Madina first).

2. Four days, three nights stay at Zamzam Tower/Hotel while we were at Makkah cuz it's so near to the Masjidilharam mosque.

Yea, we didn't get neither either nor or both of above stated. We went to Jeddah with another airline, and our placement of seating was scattered. My dad was a few seats away from me, my mom was at the tail of the airplane and I was in front. But we managed to get a one row seat -_-

We landed Jeddah at 5:15pm (local), took the bus to Jeddah (six hours ride+waited for one group that went missing at the airport for almost three hours) and reached Madina approximately 4:00am (local). But, it didn't end there! Our group was placed at Al-Ansar Hotel and the mutawwifs there told my dad that everyone will be located in different rooms, despite the package that you took. My dad was in a room of four, my mom and I were separated as well. Seriously, Tiram Travel? THAT easy, ay? My dad just couldn't hold his anger ever since they had already screwed a lot of things so far and kinda yelled at them. They kept on saying that there's no other room available yada yada yada, but in 15minutes, we got ourselves one room with four beds. M-A-G-I-C! On the third day, we had to drag our luggages and bags to stay at the Al-Fayroz Hotel, a night before heading to Makkah, located approximately 300meters away from Al-Ansar. Reason of shifting? NO REASON.

It wasn't that far, really but that is if and ONLY IF they had a logic reason on why. Just say something like... "cost exceed" or "the building's haunted". Well... That's the least you can go figure out something. Oh, and tell EVERYONE THAT WE NEED TO SHIFT! Ini cakap dekat few people yang ada dekat dining hall masa tu je. I think I took this situation the hardest thou considering that I had to stay at the lobby for four hours just to wait for our keycard while staring at our luggages yang bersepah banyak-banyak tu incase orang curi. I didn't get the chance to solat at Masjid Nabawi :( I asked the mutawwif, "is this normal?" he replied, "No. This never did happened before". -> please refer to my few next paragraphs.

Cutting this superlong story short.

At Makkah, we obviously didn't get to stay at the hotel as promised and stayed at a hotel located one kilometer away from Masjidilharam. The road was getting higher, so we had to kindalike "climb" our way through as we go head towards the hotel from Masjidilharam. Tiram Travel Sdn Bhd had tons of bus delays for several of hours (two to three hours delay!) during our ziarahs at Madina and Makkah, which kinda sucked cuz twas very time consuming. Had to skipped historical places like Gua Hira (that I was so looking forward to go to btw!), Masjid Terapung and the Red Sea and etc. Since our bus from Madina to Makkah was delayed by four hours, we arrived Makkah at 1:00am (local), checked in our bags at the hotel, walked to Masjidilharam and performed our first umrah.

***If this is your first time performing your umrah just like me and had registered your name under Tiram Travel, please be sure that you have someone who had done his/her/their umrah before cuz firstly, face it. The crowd is so packed that you will not be able to see your mutawwif's head as soon as your tawaf started. However, if you have multiple brain sections like me, you'll wonder why other groups of people from agencies all over Earth are able to zikir along with their mutawwif ramai-ramai, unlike you who went with Tiram Travel.

So, back to the point where I hi-lighted the text in black with gold colored font above, I was walking around Makkah all alone one night and stopped at this kebab shop. There was these two Malay guys there and we started chatting. One of them asked me, which agency was I with and I said "Tiram Travel". He burst laughing out loud and asked me, "berapa kali tukar hotel kat Madina?" and I was like, "ehhh, you pun tau eh?". He replied me with giggles, "I agent under Tiram Travel dekat sini... Mesti lah I tau. Berapa tahun pulak I dok jaga Tiram".

Okay, bro. Chill. 

But 5 stars given to Tiram Travel on the food served. Kudos!

Nevertheless, rezeki memang dekat situ. Harap ada baik yang datang daripada Tiram Travel ni and the reason why I'm sharing this bukan nak tutup periuk nasi dorang or nak burukkan dorang sangat. I just want you guys not to I was grateful for the fact that I was able to see the holy Kaabah in front of me and performed my umrah three times while I was there. Alhamdulillah. 

Umrah 2014

I'm so gonna blog about my Umrah Trip 2014 right after i land Malaysia next week. So excited and fun! Trust me, if you have the opportunity, go for it. Save up if you have to. So worthy.  

Photos taken at Madinah, currently I'm in Makkah 😏