umra - umroh 2

our muthowif (umra tour guide) was cak nur. his assignment was to explain what umra means, what to do, what not to do, where to go, why we had to do things. he is very knowledgeable and informative.

anyways, continuing my story from jeddah to medina... the scenery is very much similar to the one from l.a. to las vegas. nothing to see, only rocky hills and mountains. the weather was super duper hot, about 40 to 45 degree celcius (104 - 115F). like in las vegas. we passed through some ruins - some unused gas stations and buildings, looks like a death valley.

at last at about noon we arrived in medina. we stayed at dallah taibah hotel just across the street from gate 25 (ladies entrance) of nabawi mosque (mosque of prophet). as always, I could not hold my tears whenever I come to nabawi mosque in medina and masjidil haram in mekkah. (this was my 3rd trip to those 2 beautiful and peaceful places). this nabawi mosque is so beautiful and always gives peace to my heart and soul. the moslems believes whenever we pray in nabawi mosque, we will receive 1000 rewards from God. and whenever we pray in masjidil haram we will receive 100,000 rewards from God.

since I went there for a serious-focus-undistracted pray, I always go to the mosque by myself not with other indonesian ladies. otherwise ladies would just chit chat while waiting for pray time. so funny sometimes old ladies (mostly from turky) came to me just to kiss me and smile and then go away. I don't know why... but it happened everytime, not only during this trip. do I look like a turkish girl? rhahaha my nose is not as long as turkish girls, and turkish girls are so pretty actually. may be... those old ladies... 'kelilipan sendal jepit'?

to enter nabawi mosque, we must pass the so called 'mosque security guards'. these ladies guards are so strict. if I may compare with masjidil haram ladies guards... nabawi guards are more strict. no cellphone with camera allowed (although many people still pass), no red lipstics (luckily I never put on my make up during the trip).

beside prayers, we went for a city tour around medina. we went to quba mosque (see picture) and continuing our trip to dates plantation (see top picture). although I'd been to those places before, I would always love to go back there. especially to the dates plantation. in the store, all customers may try all the chocolates, dates, peanuts, macadamia... yup!whatever being displayed... for free! drink tea... as much as you like for free!

one thing I didn't want to miss in this trip was pray in 'ar-rawdah place' - a part of nabawi mosque. it is a very special but small area which extends from the tomb of the prophet to his pulpit. there is a believe that supplications and prayers uttered here are never rejected. to be able to pray in 'ar-rawdah place' was an interesting experience this time. there's a new rule that ladies who want to pray in this place must wait in groups according to 'languages'. so, like us, the indonesians must go to the bahasa melayu group. the indians must go to their hindi group. it took 1 hour to get to pray in 'ar-rawdah place'. ladies only got the chance to pray there during morning time or between 1 to 2 pm.

how about experience in mekkah?

-t o b e c o n t i n u e d-