11 Mar 2015.
it’s been kinda roller coaster days, menuju ke tgl ini. Semua serba campur aduk. Antara excited, ga sabar, dan galau2 sedih ingat akan ninggalin anak2 di rumah cuma sama nyokap aja. Lillahi ta’ala….Bismillahirrahmannirrahim…
Went to the airport earlier, to avoid heavy traffic singulair asthma. Tak disangka, traffic was so smooth, ga ada macet2an sedikitpun. Home-airport only took 1 hour.
Sampai di bandara — Old Town Coffee –, ternyata sudah ada anggota jamaah yg tiba. Officer dari Alia pun sudah ada. Ustadnya aja yg belum ada. Tried to cheer myself up, tapi masih tetap galau karena ingat anak2 di rmh. Sampai akhirnya waktu keberangkatan tiba, ustad Dadan lead a pray, a very touching pray…cant help myself crying.
Immigration, Waiting, Boarding…took off to Singapor, 1st transit.
Singapore —
Always got fascinated with Changi Airport. With all the facilities, the shops, the luxuries. 3 hours of transit. Started to miss kiddos. By 1 am, we took of to Dubai, 2nd transit.
Dubai —
The famous mega-airport. Too bad our terminal wasn’t as I expected. It was not so big, a bit gloomy (maybe because of the lights), and it was all like that — nothing special. 2 hours of transit.
UAE —
Then we finally landed in Saudi Arabia. Jeddah is A small airport, with the famous long queue in immigration. Tapi alhamdulillah, kemarin imigrasinya ga lama. Hanya sempat dioper satu kali aja, then it was done. Tapi emang sih beda sama petugas imigrasi di Jakarta or -apalagi- di Singapore. Mereka santai banget. Sambil ngobrol, sambil mainan HP, malah katanya ada yang sampai 3 jam utk kelar imigrasi aja. Pfheeww…
Sampai di Jeddah, lanjut dengan perjalanan darat ke Madinah, will take around 5 hours ride. Bus was so-so. Then I understand that i should not expect too much from this trip. After all, it was an Ibadah that matters, not the facilities. Our ust Dadan was accompanied by ust Sauqi, apparently he was a Mukimin in Mekkah. A small man, with dark skin, but he’s very friendly, helpful, funny, and knew a lot about Islam History.
1st stop: Masjid Terapung – Laut Merah.
Nothing much was seen here, Masjid was closed.
2nd stop: Rest Area
Nothing much could be seen along highway from Jeddah to Madinah. Sejauh mata memandang hanya ada bukit batu dan gurun pasir. Rest area di Saudi ini, seperti rest area di Indonesia, tersedia rumah makan, Masjid, dan toilet. Hanya saja toilet umum di Saudi cukup tidak terawat. Apa adanya. One unique thing that I learned here, tempat wudhunya pakai semacam tembok kecil utk tempat duduk. Nice, but for the first timer, malah jadi canggung. Repot antara wudhu sambil berdiri tapi kehalangan bangku semen itu, atau duduk tapi sambil ga terbiasa. oh well…
Final stop/1st Bound of Umraa:
Madinah.