Haj: Day 1 (and 2)...the journey to Makkah

we were told that the whole journey to Makkah from Doha would take approximately 30 hours... few days before the travelling day aku sibuk fikir... what would i do to spend the 30 hours... Ipod tak de... membaca aku akan sakit kepala... tido? takkan sampai 30 jam, aku pun tak beli neck pillow... bersembang?tak elok plak, sbb nak g haji... berzikir and bertahmid? hmm... for 30 hours, kalau aku mampu buat bagus sgt lah tu... (aku hunt for neck pillow kat doha ni, paling murah aku jumpa QR120!!! giler... so aku end up bawak bantal airline je.. :-) )

so... since jadual yg dipercepatkan (6pm 16 Nov) kitaorg diarahkan berada di lokasi bas bertolak, masjid dekat the mall waktu maghrib (4.50pm) sbb seelok2 nya jam 5 dah bersiap dan bas selalunya bertolak on time... but we've (we being me and kimie) decided utk solat kat umah che le je, since ramai plak org nak menghantar (alhamdulillah), so lama lah nak bersiap. so kitaorg sampai lewat skit dlm 5.15pm dan yes, i was nervous giler masa tu... sampai tak reti nak bersembang ngan org2 yg dtg...

16 November 09:
1800 - semua org dah berkumpul... tapi bas tak muncul... ada upacara pemberian beg hamlah (agen haji) dan packed food. majlis sembang2 bermula sambil tunggu bas...
2015 - baru lah bas muncul... thanks kengkawan sbb tunggu sama2...
2030 - bas mula bergerak... doa dibaca... nervous dah hilang :-)
2130 - sampai di border Qatar - Saudi (Qatar side). apparently we have to wait for other busses from the same hamlah, ada 7 semuanya termasuk bas kitaorg. reason, imigresen nak proses semua serentak..
2300 - br gerak ke border...

17 November 09
0000 - sampai border saudi... multiple benda kena siapkan... kena register where we have to taruh cap jari dan kena ambik gambar... then cop passport... and lastly kena cek beg, where anjing digunakan naik atas bas dan cek our bags... hmm...
0430 - we consider it was very fast and smooth, kitaorg dpt bergerak meninggalkan imigresen cepat berbanding bas2 lain...
0500 - berhenti for subuh... approximately 1km from the border... and we were ready to go after the 30 minutes break. semua dah naik bas... aku pun dah ngantuk2 n tido2... tp aku perasan bas tak pun bertolak lagi... found out that the bus driver mengantuk and decided utk tido kat tepi tayar bas... sian dia... :-) so we waited for him patiently sampai dia segar...
0700 - baru mula menuju destinasi... and most of us tido je...
0900 - setelah 2 jam on the road... tetiba bas berhenti... rosak plak... kena repair belt dan ada hose bocor plak... nasib baik driver tu blh baiki plus ada org local yg membantu...
1100 - off we go... another approximately 1100km to go..
1300 - break for lunch and solat zuhur n asar. a very quick one. makan nasi ngan ayam. toilet was good
1400 - kembali on the road...
1730 - smooth on the road... and again stop for toilet break... dinner... maghrib n isya... toilet ok food pun ok.. but masih control makan, sbb tak nak sakit perut :-)
1830 - back on the road... tido... tido... tido...
2045 - bas berhenti semula... driver request utk berehat and tido... dia dah bawak bas pun dah tak betul (according to sapa yg jaga lah)... takpe lah dia tido, better than accident... and we enjoyed our tea break...
2320 - back on the road approximately a couple of hundred km before taif

18 November 09
0200 - stop kat Qanr Manazil for Miqat... mandi sunat and berihram...
0315 - all back on the bus, and start bertalbiah... for approximately 30 minutes, bas still tak jalan2 gak... rupanya we have to wait for this one guy yg bawak kereta pick up yg nak g our apartment kat Mekah but do not know the way to get there... yg kelakar nya the pick up guy tetiba hilang n tak nampak mana... until dah masuk subuh, so we've decided to solat subuh terus...
0600 - back on the move to Makkah...
0815 - reached our apartment kat Ghassala area, Makkah...
0900 - out from apartment for Umrah... and complete all before zuhur...so there you go.. in total.. approximately 36 hours!!! of travelling (kalau ikut date, 3 hari tu!!!) a lot of waiting time... a lot of time spent kat border... but what most important, we arrived safe and sound... alhamdulillah... and semua org bersabar je the whole journey... tak de sapa merungut... (the whole detail above adalah sekadar berkongsi pengalaman... no complaints or whatsoever)

so what i did the whole time kat atas bas tu? tido... aku rasa ada cuma sejam or max 2 jam aku berjaga dalam bas tu... the rest, gerak je bas... aku tido... tak sangka aku blh tido that long :-) btw, no pic taken during the journey sbb camera digital yg aku bawak tu dah abis bateri, tak check before travelling... hehehe...