My umrah story with a toddler and a baby - Part 6: Ziarah Makkah

Read my Part 1 story here, Part 2 story here, Part 3 story here, Part 4 story here and Part 5 story here.

Day 6

In Makkah, we went to two mountains (jabals); Jabal Thur and Jabal Nur.

In Jabal Thur resides the Cave of Thur in which Rasulullah and Saidina Abu Bakar hid from the Quraish during hijrah to Madinah.

In Jabal Nur resides the Cave of Hira' where Rasulullah received his first wahyu there. It took approximately one hour to climb the mountain to get to Gua Hira'.

Lil K was forever obsessed with the sand in every jabal so yeah.. whatever it was, play time was her priority. Not a second to waste for a proper pic, so I gave up.

Then, we went to Mount Arafat, a place that is believed to be where Nabi Adam a.s and Hawa met once again when they were sent down to reside on earth.

We also passed by Muzdalifah and Mina for the haaj. The stay at Muzdalifah is preceded by a day at Arafat, consisting of glorifying Allah, repeating the Supplication, and repentance to Allah and asking Him for forgiveness. Whereas, in the valley of Mina is the Jamarat Bridge, the location of the ritual of the Stoning of the Devil, performed between sunrise and sunset on the last day of the Hajj. Mina is the place where pilgrims throw stones, commemorating the occasion that the Prophet Ibrâhîm (Abraham) stoned the Devil that came between him and the command Allah had set him.

Before we arrived to the hotel, we dropped by to Jaaranah, a miqat place for those who stayed in Makkah.

Other days

Other than Bir Ali and Jaaranah, with Rayhar, they provided you with four times umrah; two more are at Taneem and Hudaibiyah.

Also once, they provided a visit to Museum. Overall, the journey to these places took around 15 minutes to 1 hour max, so you could just travel lightly with the kids.

The museum

Until my part 7 :)

My umrah story with a toddler and a baby - Part 5: The kids in Makkah

Read my Part 1 story here, Part 2 story here, Part 3 story here, and Part 4 story here.

Day 5

Day 5 was one relaxing day for us. We stayed in Al-Maqam, 120m away from Masjidil Haraam. Basically, you got out of the lobby, and you could see the grand mosque already. During Friday prayer, there were lots of jemaah that they prayed from the mosque up until the outside of our hotel.

Hotel room in Makkah was a lot smaller than in Madinah. Aisha would get cranky if she stayed too long in the hotel. I would suggest to find out the size of the hotel as well, other than the distance if you bring your kids with you. My friend whom stayed in Hilton said, her room was so big that the kids could even run round. For a week stay, I would say it is worth spending on a better hotel with the kids around for their comfort.

Makkah was a bit hotter than Madinah, it was around 19 degrees when we arrived. Next to our hotel resides an ice cream shop, and everybody was crazy about it. They said the ice cream here is a must. Plus it costs only 1 riyal. So, every other day, the girls were treated an ice cream.

Just outside of our hotel was an area where pigeons and doves hang around almost everytime. You could purchase the bird foods and let your kids feed them. This became their everyday routine in Makkah.

In Makkah, the gates to the mosque close an hour before azan. And during winter, the gap between Zuhur to Asar, then Asar to Maghrib was so short. If not because of the kids, I would prefer to stay from Zohor until Isyak there. Because there are soooo many things you could do and explore in Masjidil Haraam, just don't want to get out.

Contrary from Masjidil Nabawi, I was not so comfortable bringing in the girls during prayer time. First, because it would be too long and secondly because there was not as many kids as in Masjidil Nabawi. The toilet was quite a distant as well, so.. most of the time we took turns.

During my stay, I did not see any strollers inside Masjidil Haraam. Though, I have been told that sometimes they allow, but most of the parents obliged with the rules to leave theirs outside. I, myself honestly did not have the heart to bring the stroller in as I am scared that the wheel of the stroller would stained the holy mosque.

Normally, people would rent the wheelchair and put their kids on it while they do tawaf and saie. For us, we figured they would have more fun walking on their own. Hopefully, by the end of it, they would get tired and we would have a better sleep ourselves.

Every other day, we would bring the kids to shopping malls as not to bore them and to make sure they associate Makkah with fun. And at night, we would buy some snacks and enjoy our picnic Arab style outside the beautiful grand mosque with the breezy beautiful weather. Mashaa Allah, I miss!

Until my Part 6 everyoneee!! :)

My umrah story with a toddler and a baby - Part 4: The journey to Makkah

Read my Part 1 story here, Part 2 story here, and Part 3 story here.

Pardon me for the delay in sharing my Umrah stories. Have I been busy? Yes. But mostly I have been contemplating. Because it aches so much everytime I start to write. The memories, the pictures just break my heart. Rindunya mashaa Allah never have I experienced this kind of feeling before. I could still smell the air of that holy land. Simple solution is to just stop writing this altogether so the pain become somehow unbearable, but I just need to share this in case it is beneficial to some.

Here is my Day 4 story

Day 4

Imagine waking up in your dream land, knowing you have to leave everything in a jiffy and not knowing whether you will come back again.

That morning was one sad day. Woke up early to do my ziarah wada'. Saying goodbye to Rasulullah, not that I want to. I'm gonna miss the green qubah for everyday for the rest of my life now.

Meanwhile, Love captured this picture of me outside Raudhah.. later we realized the reflection was breathtaking, couldn't find out how it got there.

A about 11am, we left Madinah with non-stop tears in my eyes. I must have cried until I became dizzy and finally developed a fever there.

It took us 9 hours bus drive to Makkah due to heavy traffic that weekend. Even more challenging with the kids around. So, make sure you bring lots of snacks and lots of toys to entertain them. With only 2 pit stops, I would strongly suggest to wear diapers even for toddlers. I did that with 4 yo Khaira.

Our first pit stop was at Bir Ali mosque, miqat place for those who want to enter Makkah from Madinah. Bir Ali is a very simple mosque, so we performed our jamak Zuhur and Asar here and niat umrah, and so the ihram begun.

Second pit stop was for late lunch. Food was not provided, so you have to buy food of your own. Delicious Nasi Arab everywhere. Toilet was okay for me, clean enough to freshen up yourself and the kids.

Arrived the hotel at 8pm, was already super exhausted to even had my dinner. An hour freshen up anddddd.. the first umrah.

We decided to take turns, leaving the kids behind because it has been a long day for them. We let them rest.

Until my part 5 journey, in Makkah with the girls :)

My umrah story with a toddler and a baby - Part 3: Ziarah Madinah

Read part 1 of my story here and part 2 of my story here.

Day 3

After breakfast, we begun our 15 minutes journey by bus to Masjid Quba'. Masjid Quba' is Islam's oldest masjid in the world.

It is stated in a hadith: "Whoever makes ablutions at home and then goes and prays in the Mosque of Quba, he will have a reward like that of an 'Umrah."

So we took ablutions at home and perform our solat tahiyatul masjid, solat taubat and solat hajat there. We still have time for sujud syukur and Quran recitation.

Then, we headed to "a mountain which loves us and which we love", Bukit Uhud, the largest mountain in Madinah where the Battle of Uhud once took place.

I think it is so worth it to tell the story about Perang Uhud to your kids prior to your visit to Bukit Uhud so they appreciate the visit. I did some reading about Rasulullah before my Umrah, so every now and then I shared my story with 4yo Khaira. I must have forgotten to tell her that Rasulullah has passed away. She only knew that in Raudhah, and guess what.. she cried so bad sampai mimpi2 as she was soooo excited to meet Rasulullah.

So much love for this messenger of Allah. Rindunyaa..

Afterwards, to Ladang kurma Saidina Uthman, in which his waqaf is still on going up until today. Must be one genius skilful businessman!

We had to rush back because it was about time for Friday prayer. On the way back, we passed by Majlis Qiblatain; or the Mosque of the Two Qiblas. It is the mosque where, after Rasulullah received the command to change the direction of prayer from Jerusalem to Makkah, the entire congregation led by a companion changed direction in prayer.

In Masjid Nabawi, it is common for women to follow for Friday prayer, but not in Masjidil Haraam. So mom joined in while I stayed in hotel with the girls. I figured it would be too long for them to be in the mosque, I could not afford having cranky babies while everyone wanted to focus on their solat.

That night was one sad day for me, I did not want to leave Medina.. It felt so heavy to leave Rasulullah, I cried the whole journey from Medina to Makkah, so unlike me. I miss Rasulullah too much already, it breaks my heart to type this.

Pray for the strength for me to write my Part 4. The journey to Makkah.

The "Methodology" stage

Hello everyoneeeee!! Been super hectic this couple of weeks. just arrived from Kucing, shall blogged about it soon. Of course, after I'm done with my umrah post in Makkah, catching uppp catching upp.. haha.

Right now, I'm preparing for my talk on "How I finish my PhD in 3 years part time"; another invitation to fulfilled. So, I thought of sharing what I did during my Methodology stage :)

1. Focus

First key point of the day is.. focus. How easy does it sound, right? But really, you need to train yourself to focus during this stage. Because we tend to do our experiment in a lab. And my lab, is filled with fun girls and we always have something to talk about.. or something fun to do. What fun things to do in the lab, you asked?

I am very easy to please. Give me an Instagram and credit card and the girls to motivate me to buy, walla! There goes a day worth of research. And I'm so into blogging by the way.. and facebook.. gosh so many distractions ok!

So, what I do.. I imagine myself in a big bubble. The moment I start with my experiments, I shut the whole world away. Slowly but surely, the method works, so my friends began to ignore me the moment they saw me with my PhD toys.

2. Determination

How cliche, right? The above statement. But you know it's really true. Once, I'm stuck for months figuring something up. I did not know if I ever would get out of it. I even drafted a letter to quit my PhD. Aaanddd that's when I cashed in my "in case briefcase and somehow I keep going. Looking back.. really, I would forever regret if I did send out that letter.

3. Publish papers

Excerpt from my thesis

Publish as many papers as you can. That literature review, preliminary results, don't let it go to waste. You need those papers not only to impress your examiners, but also for you to gain more confidence.

Sometimes, we think the preliminary results are not worthy, but it's ok. Just try to get it published anyway. I started my PhD in 2010, and I sent out my preliminary result to an IEEE conference, and I got awarded with best paper award. Imagine if I have not sent it out because I thought it is just "preliminary results", I would have let my work goes to waste.

By the end of my 3 years of PhD; I have published 7 journals and 9 conference papers. Mostly from my preliminary results; so start writing and be confident in your results.


4. Exhibition

Try to participate in any exhibition. I led 2 projects for ITEX using my PhD, one in 2012 and the other in 2013, where I was awarded a gold and a silver respectively.

This is important for you to again, impress the examiner. Secondly to build your name.

When I went for ITEX, I would normally go around, mingle with those in the same field as mine, and distribute my name cards to almost everybody I met. The thing is you want to make people familiar with your name, in case they are one of your future examiners, they will be like, "Yeah.. I've heard her name before" kinda thing. To generate  good first impression to them.

5. Stop

Why is it even a key point? It is because, many times we are not confident enough to stop with our methodology and move on because we think that it is simply not good enough. Not worthy to get a PhD. My advice is, if your examiner said it is PhD material already, supported by a second opinion, in my case; my co-supervisor, stop and start thinking of your thesis.

My umrah story with a toddler and a baby - Part 2: Handling the girls in Masjid Nabawi, Madinah

Read my part 1 story here.

As soon as we arrived in the hotel, we were too tired to do anything and immediately fell asleep.

We stayed in Dallah Taibah hotel, just opposite of the Masjid Nabawi. With 4 bed for all 6 of us including my parents. Very very comfortable, I must say. Location, food, hospitality as well as the services, I would highly recommend.

View from hotel window, you can even see Masjid Nabawi

Day 2

Since the time difference between Madinah and Malaysia is 5 hours, in shaa Allah it is easier for us to wake up for tahajjud. 3am in Madinah means 8am in Malaysia, so we were wide awake by then. Don't miss the opportunity for tahajjud k, friends.

We were excited to perform Subuh in Masjid Nabawi. We arrived half an hour before azan because we were scared that the gate would be closed. But later, we found out that they do not close the gate at all. You can even enter as masbuk.

In Masjid Nabawi, your bags will be checked first as they do not allow bringing in cameras. And they have special praying areas for mommies with kids. But not for daddies with kids though, you can pray in the normal praying area.

With my 4 y.o; the lion is her harness

Since we have 2 girls, Love decided to take care of our 15 months old Aisha and I decided to take care of 4 years old Khaira because they behave better with us.

I must say that it is easier with Aisha as she was still small and clingy. Love carried her during jemaah and the rest of the time, she just sat still in her carrier or at the prayer mat eating her biscuit happily.

With Khaira, she had the tendency to run around the praying area, make new friends and hence make noises. What I did was I talk to her about the ethics in mosque before each prayer. And put her next to me on a prayer mat with her toys and books. Most of the time it worked and she would have her new friends play, colour and read with her. Other times, she would just run around, but never that far.

Btw, you can bring in any toys in the mosque except dolls and guns.

Husband with my 15m.o

These kids tend to get hungry during prayer time. Because in between azan and iqamat would took approximately 15 minutes. I normally arrived around 15 minutes before azan. Let them settle down, had my Solat tahiyatul masjid, solat taubat, solat hajat, sujud syukur and then normally I still have some time to qada' solat before solat fardhu jemaah begun. After jemaah, I would recite some Quran before I left. So altogether, perhaps around half an hour with the kids in the mosque.

I brought lots and variety of snacks I bought from Malaysia. In the mosque, the Arabs love kids and my girls always got some Arabic or Turks snacks to bring home. And they always gave their snacks to the kids in the mosque as well.

Zam zam water is available everywhere in the mosque, so don't worry much about bringing water bottle for your kids. I do bring an empty one for me to fill in with zam zam water at the mosque to drink in the hotel later.

Zam zam water is provided together with the cup, my girls enjoyed the free flow so much

To help handle the girls, we found our Pognae carrier is really useful for our baby and our harness really useful for the toddler.

After Subuh prayer, we were shocked that all the way from Masjid Nabawi to our hotel has turned into Pasar. Jubah was so so cheap as cheap as 10 riyal (about RM11). It opens after Subuh and Asar, we bought 80% of our souvenirs here.

We promised to meet each other in front of gate 25. But we couldn't find each other due to the chaosness of the pasar. My suggestion, just meet your better half at the hotel to avoid confusion.

Then, we had our yummy breakfast and got ready for our visit to Masjid Nabawi with the tour.

With Rayhar, we visited Raudhah and the Baqi' Cemetery.

We were given the opportunity to pray inside Raudhah; me with Khaira, Love with Aisha, Alhamdulillah. Allah swt eases everything as the Arabs love kids a lot so they just let us in. Raudhah used to be the house of Rasulullah saw and later his tomb. So much love for this messenger of Allah swt, I cried so badly everytime I had to leave Raudhah.

The Baqi' Cemetery contains many of Rasulullah's relatives and companions. It's just a walking distance away from Masjid Nabawi.

My visit in Raudhah brought so much tears and sadness. Within that couple of hours, I fell in love with Madinah so much.. I just want to stay there, so close to the man I love with all my heart and yet I've never met before.

Just by remembering it brings so much sadness already. Guess I'll see you in my next post, in shaa Allah.

My umrah story with a toddler and a baby - Part 1: the travelling experience.

As salam everyone!! Sorry for the overdue post, been trying to settle down with the girls' jetlag and my everyday routine. And now I'm back.

So, we (my parents, hubs, both my girls and I) left Malaysia on 13th January, our travel agent is Rayhar and using Saudia Airlines. Departed from KLIA where we needed to be there 3 hours before and a short briefing by our agent before we went into the departure hall.

Flight duration was 9 hours, we left Malaysia at 2pm and arrived at 11 pm Malaysia time (7 pm Madinah's time). Transit for less than an hour in Riyadh.

I prepared everything I could because by far this is the longest flight for the girls (Khaira had 8 hours flight from Japan to Malaysia 2 years back, the longest flight Aisha had was only 3 hours).

What I brought in the flight:
1) Colouring books for each girls with colour pencils
2) Lots of videos in my phone
3) Legos
4) Play Doh
5) Jigsaw puzzles
6) Lots and variety of snacks

What I actually used in the flight:
Just snacks.

Haha! It's ok to be over prepared right!

Turned out the kids were already happy with the movies and games provided by Saudia, they couldn't care less about other things. They were too hungry in between meal time (meal was served twice), so the snacks came in handy. The rest of the time, they just slept all the wayyyy and everyone in the flight was complimenting them, Alhamdulillah, I always said to my husband, they were born traveler like us. We have at least two holidays a year, so I guess they are used to it.

Also, I must highly recommend Saudia, the kids were pampered with other toys and gifts in the flight, they were so happy.

Arrived at Madinah with the airport so packed of people checking out. Alhamdulillah, it took us about one hour and a half to clear, very efficient service I must say. We had it longer in Goldcoast Airport last time, with less people. Their immigration took all 10 fingerprints of ours, I have no fingerprints due to eczema, so I came in prepared with letters from JPN and from my specialists. My first miracle in my Umrah journey came in when for the first time in my life, the device managed to scan my fingerprints in only one attempt (Some of my family members had theirs up to three times although they have no fingerprints problem).

Arrived in Madinah with temperature outside around 17 degrees. Took a bus around half an hour to our hotel.

Happy baby in holiday mode!

Will continue my Madinah story in Part 2.

Read my Part 2 here.