Umrah 2008 ( Part 1 )

Brunei Airport depature hall.

(location : Jeddah and Makkah.)
My wife (Pg Hjh Hadijah) and I,wlth my son (Hardy Sufardi), daughter (Diana) and daughter-in-law ( Busera) went for umrah from 7th august 2008 till 19th august 2008, we had plan this trip sometimes in February this year, really we wanted to go in march, unfortunately we could not make it due to unavoidable circumstances and, finally we made it this August 2008, and I thank Allah SWT that had fulfill our prayer to reached Makkah al Mukkaramah and Madinah Al Munawarrah, Allhamdullilah. Our package umarh was with Darussalam Holding Sdn Berhad and the accompanying officer from Darussalam Holding was a cute young guy named Ikram. I didn't get his full name.He is helpful, cheearful guy, he said this is the first package he handled by himself and he managed to get it through.Congratulation Ikram!. As I was informed that there were about 30 peoples in this Umrah Package (I didn't count the peoples).

We arrived Jeddah airport at about 3.30 pm local time (Saudi) and after immigration check up we managed to clear everything with the immigration officer, and we had no problem at all, but one of the immigration officer question about my passport that had been added extra pages and he laughed at the passport and mumble in Arabic , may be this is the first time he had seen such passport. and I told him that is OK in my country to add extra pages before the passport date expired.

We boarded a forty-five sitter bus and arrived at about 6.45 pm in Makkah ( earlier, we had miqat in the plane at Karanul Manazil and wear ihram and put on niyat Umrah) and went straight to the hotel ( Dallah Ajyad) at ajyad street as we were told it take 10 to 15 minutes walk to masjadil haram and we don't bother much about it because the hotel management had provide us a coach to haram during prayer times except Fajar (Suboh Prayer) we had to walk. As we had arrive at the hotel we were given room's key, this was arranged earlier by Darussalam Holding and what we do was just go straight the room and all luggages were handle by the hotel staffs.

Earlier, We were told by the mutawif that, tawaf ifadah and saie will be done after Maghreb prayers and they told us to take rest and evening dinner earlier and at about 8.00 pm we went to masjadil haram by bus followed by the mutawif not all jama'ah umarh followed the mutawif some of them went earlier to do they tawaf and saie by their own as mostly of the jama'ah had been to makkah several times and as for me this was the sixteeth times I had been to makkah allhamdulilah , Allah had given me and my family rezeki to perform haj and umrah ritual.

Taken after tawaf Ifadah.

New Commercial Building near Masjadilharam.

Alhamdulilah, everything went well, we entered masjadil haram from King Fahad gate, as Babus salam gate is closed (which is located between Safa and Marwah hills) for renovation during this time. As we saw the Kaabah the mutawif read doa and followed by all jamaah , as for me, i just followed the mutawif although i have done this before.As we finished doing tawaf at the baitullah al Kaabah, me, my family and others jamaah do their solat sunat tawaf behind the makam Ibrahim( you can do this solat at any places near Kaabah as long it is not crowded or you don't block other people doing Tawaf) and then went to Jabal Safa to do saie well, its really crowded this month because of saudi schools were on holiday and this is the month of shybaan and coming Ramadhan, so peoples came for umrah to get this opportunity and some of the Jamaah will stayed in Makkah until haj session.

Makan martaba sama kambing outside Darusalam Hotel.