Leaving for Madina
This was a trip to the Muslim holy land initiated by my youngest sister as an opportunity to perform our minor pilgrimage, meet up with relatives and to bond as a family on a trip overseas - something we haven't done since we siblings got married and had our own families.
On the trip were my parents who'd been on this trip 3 times earlier, my eldest sister who'd done her Hajj once and my 3 other sisters and I, first timers doing the Umrah. In my case I'd been to Jeddah many times before as a flight stewardess, but not as a pilgrim. It felt great to travel with my parents and sisters again - as if we were still teenagers having parents guiding us instead of us bossing our own teenaged children! My poor dad though was outnumbered by women - travelling with a wife and 5 daughters was no easy matter for anyone!
As the norm before doing a pilgrimage, we had a small prayer ceremony at home attended by a few close relatives before the long trip to KLIA. It was a teary farewell, eventhough we would be away for just 14 days, but I've always been sentimental and soppy and it was sad leaving my husband and 4 kids!
We left KLIA at 2300 hours for our flight to Madina on Saudia Airlines and arrived in the wee hours of the morning. I have always loved the feeling of stepping into a new country and this was no different..it was great to feel the warm Arab air greet us! We were put up at the Madina Hilton, which was just about 500 metres from the beautiful Masjid Nabawi (Prophet's mosque) and couldn't wait to perform our subuh (dawn) prayers. Madina was beautiful and peaceful - i found it really calm in the city area and met fellow pilgrims from
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