25.05.09 SV 833 KUL - MED

That morning I woke up feeling free. My deadlines completed and it felt so relieved not having anything above my shoulders. Even though I had slept rather late, the burning of midnight oil was all worth it. All emails replied and the electronic handover was completed. I had gone the day before to the office to clear my stuffs. HR informed me that when I come back, I would start at the new office. I just didn’t want to dwell with this so much yet, for it would be another new chapter all together.

The last check on our luggage was done much earlier. Abe had helped us to ensure most items on my checklist went into our bags. Once my toiletry case went it, I’d just had to put the locks on the bags. We were given bags by R*yh**, the travel agency and I've decided to just use them. If during my other trips I'd insist on using our hard boxed Lojel suitcase, for this umrah trip, the purple canvas would do. Horror stories of baggage handling by airport workers in the land of the Arabs have never ceased to fade.

I took my time getting ready. Got out my best companion doa book and flicked to the page where it showed steps on doing solat musafir. It felt very calm when I did the two rakaats of the solat. It wasn't till I recited the doa in BM, that tears started rolling. MashaAllah, I was actually going. God has stood all the way behind me and helped me, for there I was standing before him asking for more help, more guidance to complete this journey. Subahanallah...

Farah at the umrah taklimat - 1 week prior to departure

With close friends, I have shared the ups and downs in the path taken in embarking on this trip. There were times when I just felt like giving up. Work was crazy, and working with folks who refused to respect the work processes was the ultimate test of my patience and credibility. It wasn't said in so many words, but put it this way, I've sensed it all along. Me being the "operational" me, was only interested in getting the work done. I don't play politics and my work speaks for itself. Apparently, that's not how some people work, thriving on relationships rather than professionalism. Well, if that's how the game was played, so be it then. I wasn’t going to be in any part of it.

So this journey has been tough all along. But words of my late father, have been a pushing factor. I am also very grateful to Abe for guiding Farah with her mengaji and solats. Ensuring that her sebutan was correct and at times giving short tazkirah about the Prophet s.a.w and the Holy Land.

Saying good bye to Nissa wasn't easy. She was not well earlier in the week. And again because of work commitments, the time I got to spend with her was so limited. It was only during the weekend before that we managed to spend quality time together. I pampered her loads that day. Got her new clothes, stuffs she needed and even got her a new watch. The only thought playing on my mind was, if anything happened to me, I’d want her to have that weekend fresh on her mind forever.

That morning, she had gone to her mengaji class. I knew she just wanted to see as little as she could of me making my preparations. When she came home, she told me that she's going to be bored, all by herself at home during the upcoming school holidays. It broke my heart listening to her pleas, but this journey was something I had to do, more so as I was doing it with her sister. To cheer her up, I said, one fine day, she and I would embark on the same journey too, InshaAllah.

Abe drove us to the airport, another change of plan from the initial arrangement where Faris was to be behind the wheels. Abe earlier on had a meeting, but he somehow managed to reschedule. He said he’d dropped us off at the gate as he was to still rush off to his meeting. Fine by me, coz I'm one of those non supporters to having the entire clan seeing one off at airports. I know about the "berkat" thing, but I’d rather say my good byes in private. So the drop off at gate 5 KLIA was a brief one. We salam-salam and exchanged pecks on the cheeks. Both Farah and I got our trolleys and headed towards the check in counter.

I called my sister who had come to send Mom. The original plan was to have Mom come over to my house the day before. Anyway, a few things came up, and she decided to go direct from Seremban. In a way I was glad with the change of plan. Reason being I was still so kelam kabot with my things. I had only completed my packing around midnight. Something that would definitely cause displease in Mom.

The baggage check in process went smooth despite the big group that we were traveling with. I was told that there were 80 jemaahs all together from R*yh**. Apparently, the flight was full and 80% are jemaahs performing umrah. All bags were tagged and off they went. We managed to grab some quick bites at McDonald’s. Had my usual fillet and by the time we finished our food it was almost zohor. I told Farah and Mom to go perform their solats first and I'd wait at the counter for our passports and boarding passes. The other thing that I had to look into was our mahram. Well, you see since there were just us girls traveling, it was necessary for us to “latch” on to a mahram - mahram tompang they called it. It was a requirement by the Saudi government. No arguements about that. Alhamdullillah, R*yh** had managed to find us one and the person had kindly agreed. Again I am so grateful to God Almighty. I finally met the kind person, just the two of them - him and his wife. They were both from Seremban.

Bye bye KL

Immigrations clearance was smooth and we headed to gate C1 for boarding. Our flight took off on time. I sent out text messages to my siblings and Abe informing our present status, only my sister TM responded. I knew Abe was in his meeting, so I didn't expect any replies from him.

It was a long seven hours flight to Madinah. I managed to do some reading about Madinah and cara-cara ziarah. Other than that, it was zikir and salawat to the Prophet s.a.w. as we reduced the distance between us and the holy land.