My experience in Mekkah and Madinah ( in July 2010)

Assalamualaikum wr.wb,

first of all, I'm so happy that I can write in this blog (again). Well, honestly, I'm not very good at writing or you can say, I am lazy to do it. alhamdulillah, Allah give me motivation to write at this time.

The story here is the real story of my life (with little bit complicated word of mine). We ( me and my family) went to Mekkah and madinah to do umrah with travel agent. It was wonderful experience I had.

In madinah, we rest in Movenpick hotel. and as I look in it, I think most of people in that hotel is indonesian people. hahaha, so glad see familiar face :). and the food also indonesian food so I don't have to worry about the food in there. I suggest for anyone who wants to rest in madinah, can try this hotel. (although you must ready with the price because it is five star hotel).

our activities in here is going to Nabawi Mosque, seeing Rasulullah SAW grave and 2 of his best friend grave (Abu Bakar r.a and Umar bin Khatab), pray in Raudlah, going to Baqi graveyard to saw syuhada from Uhud War and Usman bin Affan grave. I love to be in Madinah which also home of Muhammad SAW. but, you know, the air was really hot. you can't imagine it unless you go there. the air is burning. ( I'm not exageratted). But, ustadz said the air , if you breath it deeply and take it happily, can cure you. Yes, it is Correct, I feel my acne is slowly "pop" and I'm not having my allergic in there. Mesjid Nabawi is also fantastic! Subhanallah. I can't roll over my eyes if I looked mesjid Nabawi. Totally, Mesjid Nabawi (inside+outside) is sure big! many huge umbrella machine on the floor outside Nabawi Mosque that protect people from sun's heat. Imagine, The air is hot, how's the heat?? huuwoooww...we're like steam lobster. Inside the mosque, the exact opposite. it's very cold. full of air conditioner. each pillar has one air conditioner. it sure nice place to pray, relax, share some knowledge, discussion. Nabawi Mosque is really a mosque that has real function of mosque. You know, nowadays, mosque is just use for pray. but in Nabawi Mosque, many activities are happen in there except trade, buy and sell ( of course because transaction in mosque is haram). Oh ya, one of the activities are buka puasa together. It was happened before pray magrib in there. before adzan, the mosque's worker set some of the area inside the mosque for preparing buka puasa..Alhamdulillah, I've been invited to eat together(although I didn't fasting). it was such wonderful moment.

After 3 days in madinah, we went to Makkah. another holy place for Moslem and inside there, there was a building that become center of moslem's pray, Ka'bah in Masjidil Haram. The air in there was very different than Madinah. It wasn't hot as madinah and the climate that I felt was almost same with Indonesia. soon as we arrived in Makkah, we rested at hotel makkah hilton. Subhanallah, it was very near with masjidil Haram and we can see Masjidil Haram from our room (actually my parent's room --> my parent's room and me are separated). Masjidil Haram is sure very big. bigger than masjid Nabawi. number of moslem can reach approximately 2 million-3 million ( I'm not remembered the exactly number is). We did Thawaf , Sa'i and Tahallul in there. When I was doing my ritual, I feel goosebump ( merinding). and I thought because I can see Ka'bah with my own eyes. and my heart felt happy with full of pride because I felt that I am closer to Allah S.W.T. Subhanallah...I can't find the exact word for describe what I feeling that time.

I have another experience when I was in Mekkah. my family, other family and the travel agent went into supermarket for bought something. After all of us have done business in here, the travel agent wanted to go other places but my family and 1 of other family wanted to go back to hotel. So, my family and the other family mencarter(ini bahasa indonesia, ga tau bahasa inggrisnya apa) mobil yang sedang lewat. Di arab, mencarter tidak harus dengan angkutan umum layaknya di Indonesia (bahkan disana kayaknya ga ada angkutan umum) namun dengan mobil pribadi milik orang pun bisa. Continue the story, I've got a car with the black scary face people as the driver. I'm with my brother inside there. my parent got another car. Because we don't know the direction to reach hotel hilton, we ask the driver to follow the another car where my parent was inside it. AND, WE LOST THAT CAR! well, I thought it was fine as long we have money to pay the driver. BUT the fact was worse, WE (me, my brothers) DIDN'T BROUGHT ANY MONEY. oh my god oh my god, I was panicked. truly anxious. damn. what will happen to us? my mind was thinking uncontrollably. The solution was must find that another car because my parent brought money. I really ask help to Allah S.W.T. GW PASRAH. gw benar-benar pasrah...gw yakin Allah pasti akan menolong hambanya. I believed that. Alhamdulillah, My pray was granted by Allah S.W.T. Alhamdulillah, I said it.

well, that's all I think that I can share with all of you. That's all folks! :D