Amalia's Blog

Last semester break, i went umrah with my family for nine days. That was my first experience went abroad.

We went to Soekarno Hatta Airport on Saturday at 18.00 and arrived at 21.00. We met other pilgrims, who had the same travel agent as us, in the airport. The departure time was at 23.30, so we should wait for about two hours in the airport lounge. At 23.30, i heard the announcement from the speaker that we should prepare to leave the airport lounge and head to our plane. The flight took about five hours to reach Dubai which is our transit airport. In Dubai we changed our clothes with Ihram, and then continue our trip to King Abdul Aziz Airport.

Arrived in King Abdul Aziz Airport, we had been waited with our travel agent tour guide. The tour guide guided us to Mecca and booked a hotel for our group. After we got some rest at the hotel, we headed to Masjidil Haram to do umrah. Masjidil Haram is the largest mosque in the world and it surrounds Islam’s holiest place, Kaaba. Even though the temperature was really high outside, people kept coming to Masjidil Haram to pray and umrah.

Many people from other countries came to Masjidil Haram to do umrah. After the umrah was finish, we headed back to the hotel and took a shower then took a rest while waiting for maghrib prayer. When the maghrib prayer time was come, we went to Masjidil Haram again to do maghrib and isya prayer. So many people wanted to do maghrib and isya prayer in Masjidil Haram. We had to come early so we could pray inside the Masjidil Haram. The store owner closed their shop and went to the Masjidil Haram to pray when they heard azan. We headed back to hotel to take a rest and had our dinner after isya prayer.

At 02.00, we rushed to Masjidil Haram to pray and waited for subuh prayer. Even it was 02.00, there were so many people inside Masjidil Haram that still did umrah. At that time i realized that we could do umrah anytime. After we did subuh prayer, we headed back to the hotel and took our breakfast. In Masjidil Haram, We did sunnah pray as many as possible. We stayed in Mecca for about four days. In Mecca we had travelled to many places when we didn’t do umrah, such as Jabal Nur, Hira Cave, Arafah, Jabal Rahmah, Muzdalifah, and Mina.

We went to Madinah on fifth day. It took about seven hours to reach Madinah from Mecca. In Madinah we went to Nabawi Mosque, it is a mosque that established and built by islamic prophet Muhammad. My mother and my aunty went to Raudhah which is placed inside the Nabawi Mosque. In Raudhah we could see the tomb of our prophet Muhammad and two of his companions, Abu Bakr and Umar Ibn Khattab. In Madinah we always tried to do every pray in Nabawi Mosque. There were no differences what we did in Mecca and Madinah, the only thing that different was umrah. We didnt do umrah in Madinah. In madinah we had visited so many historical place, such as Quba Mosque, Qiblatain Mosque, Jabal Uhud and date farm. We stayed in Madinah for three days.

On the eighth day, we went to Jeddah to prepare for the departure to Jakarta. We stayed one night in Jeddah. The thing that we did after we prayed in Mecca, Madinah and Jeddah was we bought so many gifts to be brought to Jakarta. We remembered many of our friends and family in Indonesia, we thought that they would be happy if we gave some gifts from Mecca, Madinah or Jeddah.

On the last day, i felt so sad to leave this holy place. But i prayed that i would come here again someday. Amin.