Mecca, Saudi Arabia

So we finally arrived at Mecca round 10.30pm. The bus stopped us below Zam Zam Tower where construction was still going on. The bell boy threw one of my bags to the ground and got it all muddy. Sabar sabar.

We checked in into room 430. It's quite far from the main lift. Something about Zam Zam Tower is it's includes a shopping complex below thus we have to take 2 lifts. One from the hotel to the lobby and another lift to the ground floor of the shopping complex. The lifts are limited and almost full all the time.

Based on my experience from Medina, I don't think I can complete this umrah if my mom is walking. I asked for a wheelchair but none was available. Then Ustaz asked me to take a wheelchair that was parked outside a room. Ok fine. Till today I don't know who's wheelchair it was.

Pushed my mom to Kaabah tawaf area. Made 7 round with the wheelchair. However didn't read any doa because I was to worried about knocking into ppl. I did that few times as well. So I didn't have much focus on tawaf but to concentrate on the wheelchair movement. I will have to do another umrah soon.

The group with the Mutawif split. I couldn't find them. I expected this thus followed the book and did my Tawaf. I caught the group back again during solat sunat tawaf. Got the position behind Makam Nabi Ibrahim.

Then we proceed to do the Saie. They have special lane in the middle for wheelchair. Kindda like the express lane. During the Saie while I was pushing, suddenly a lady placed a baby on my mother's lap. I was preplexed thinking maybe she is just being nice. Then she decided to push the wheelchair, now it's getting funny especially when she did a very quick U-turn instead of waiting to wave at Kaabah. I took over and completed the last round and she took her baby back and said "Halal Halal". Like what? Then I saw her placing the baby onto another's person's lap. This is funny, looks like syndicate to extort money via baby. Poor child, even at this Holy place you are not spared.

After Saie, proceed to cut our hair (Tahalul) and got back to the hotel room. Although I wanted to go bald, couldn't find the barber. It was certainly exhausting and my mind went like, how did Siti Hajar did this? All praises to her.

Today morning my friend and I decided to do tawaf sunat around 8 in the morning. Waited for him but no sign. Thought he was in the mosque already. So made my way there until got a SMS from him. He accidentally slept. No worries.

So we made our tawaf. Although the weather was hot but the cool wind helped during the tawaf. My cracked heel was still aching a bit but it was not bad during the process. After completing the tawaf we snaked our way to Hijir Ismail to try to get a place. By Allah's grace I couldn't believe I got a place right within the Hijir ismail and on the first saf. Right infront of me was the Kaabah. In my mind, I always thought this would be an impossible task with the amount of people around. Speechless. I prayed my sunat hajat and I was so overjoyed with it. Thank you Allah for helping me thru my friend. You answered my prayers.

After that I decided to go back to my room. Since there is a power cut soon, I took my sister for a shopping trip. We started at Zam Zam Tower complex below made my way to Hilton. In the end, we end up buying it in Zam Zam. Generally because he was a nice salesman. Arabs here do not comprehend the term customer service. No wonder we always find Arabs are generally rude when the come to Malaysia. They are just like that. The way they talk on the phone is like they are about to kill someone.

Anyway that was before Zuhur. Since Zuhur is close, got back to the room but mother didn't like the Jubah. So after Zuhur, we made a trip down and changed the Jubah.

After Asar, I made a solo trip to Jalan India. I am not sure if this is the right term. Just few lanes of shops which is generally ran by Indians, Pakistan n Myanmar. I bought kebab, samosa n murtabak. Food here is tasteless.

I trying to make a point to pray on the ground floor during maghrib.The experience of getting the full view of Kaabah during prayers is amazing. This time I got to see the grand imam and manages to touch/lift the jenazah. People are just rushing to carry the jenazah. Pahala banyak kan? Many thanks to my friend as well to guide me.

Did a sunat tawaf after maghrib and the crowd is quite big. I feel its like haj. Did my round and got back in time for isyak. Prayed and now back to the room.

It's absolutely perplexing that a person that you just met few days are willing to go the absolute extend of out of their way to help you achieve something that you thought impossible. Some says they are Angels, I says, the are humans send by Allah, in a way they are Angels to you.

There was suppose to be a trip to Muzium Haramain and Ladang Unta. I decided to skip as the access to Muzium is not given and I am not to fond of meeting camels.

Mother wanted to visit Hijir Ismail after learning that I was there. In my heart I was thinking the night before how on earth am I going to to do this? Mother walks extermely slow and the crowd to Hijir Ismail is really rough and tough. There is so much shoving and pushing. I was just praying to Allah from the previous night that the journey would be smooth.

I turned to my friend and yet again he gave me tips and how to achieve this.

I guided mother from the back as my friend suggested and slowly we inch our way to Hijir Ismail. By Allah's grace, amazingly enough on the second row there was 3 space available. Just nice for me, mother and sis. God is Great.

I can see mother is satisfied being able to go into Hijir Ismail and we slowly made our way out and back to the hotel.

My first obligation is done. Now to the complete my friend's request of praying for him in Hijir Ismail after Zuhur. Now this is a major task as the sun is right on top during Zuhur. Generally the tawaf crowd is lesser during this time due to the heat. Dugaan...

Mentally prepared and praying a lot in my heart, I inched my way into the crowd towards Hijir Ismail. Yet again, Allah has not failed me. I got into Hijir Ismail and on the first saf. I managed to read all my doas. Not to mention people walking over me, kicking my head and pushing me but it's worth it. SMS him to say I have completed his task.

My third obligation is to do Umrah Badal for my father. We usually do our umrah at night. This time we started around 11 pm. We got to Masjid Ta'naim and back to Haram around 12.15 am. The taxi driver was from Turkistan and has a Indonesian wife. He called his wife and pass the phone to the wife of Ltd Kol. I guess she missed talking in Malay. We paid about 60 riyal this time. The first time we paid 150 riyal if taken from the hotel. Beware.

Completed the Tawaf and Saie to close to 2.30 am and back to to the room nearly 3 am. We saw Mr. Os during Saie. Unfortunately this time around, our slippers gone missing. Just went I thought of bring back those slippers that I bought over there. Ohh well, we "menapak" back to our room. My legs were in horrible pain and I really wonder how did Siti Hajar managed to do this. Mind you it was desert and hot during her time. Today, the floors are tiled, and air-conditioned with fan and the hills are smaller.

I was dead tired, my heel are aching and calf was burning. ZZZ...

It's the last day here and we need to do Tawaf Wida to say good bye to Kaabah. I pushed mother on the wheelchair on the 1st level and that took about almost an hour to complete.

We rushed back to the hotel and I took a quick shower before heading down. There is so much construction going on that the bus couldn't go in and we had to a walk a bit from the hotel to the bus. The bus then took thru some under construction tunnel near Zam Zam Tower to head out to Jeddah. So I had the privilege to use the tunnel before anyone else :)

We stopped by a shopping complex in Jeddah and did some last minute shopping. Then we stopped by Masjid Terapung to see the Red Sea where Nabi Musa cut the sea into half. But the sea was blue, not sure why it's called the Red Sea.

Our flight is at 9.20pm and we were in the airport by 12 pm. Lots of time to kill. Checked in our luggage and hanged around the airport till the time to get on the flight. Good thing we checked in early. Our other group gone in the same time but checked in later, only cleared customs around 7pm. We were in the Haj terminal which looked worst than our LCCT terminal.

Sad to leave this place and hoping to come again soon. Never knew how much I missed this place until I got back. Next year, if rezeki ada insyallah.