Going to Mecca

It was Wednesday. We were scheduled to gather at  13:30. When we got down the bus was ready and were the passengers. At about 14:00 we left the hotel for the Masjidil Haram. We stopped by the Bir Ali Masjid to declare our intention to undergo umra. It is named 'taking miqot'. We about 30 minutes in the masjid just to get ablution and do a voluntary umra salah. The declaration was done in the bus when we were about to leave.

The trip was flowing. The road to Mecca was quite good. About 2 hours on the way we stopped by the Turkish Can Baba Resto. We did our ashr prayer. About 30 minutes later we continued our trip to Mecca. The traffic was little bit congested when we were about approaching Mecca. At 21:00 we arrived at the hotel, the Dar Aleiman Grand. The guide gave me time to 22:30 to check in and prepare our selves for tawaf and sa'i. The hotel was about 700m from the masjid. We got the room 219.

At 22:30 we in a group walked to the masjid. The street was crowded of pilgrims walking to the masjid. The masjid partially was under extension construction. We went down to reach the Kabah Piazza where we would to undergo tawaf. Tawaf is walking around the Kabah 7 times. It starts at the Kabah corner about the Hajar al Aswad location. A pilgrim is to maintain the Kabah always on the left. Several benedictions are recommended to recite.

After a briefing we started tawaf. The guide was in front followed by the jamaah. He recited the benediction and we repeated. We were equipped with earphones to get clear speeches from the guide. Fortunately, the earphones system was out order just after we started. The reason I guessed because the guide received many collisions from other jamaah. Later our group could not maintain the unity because also many collisions. So, I and Nuri were separated from the others. We could not know the other members' position.

We completed the tawaf at about the middle of night. I and Nuri was little bit tired but we had to continue. We did not meet the other group member. So, after took a rest for a while we continued to perform sai.

Sai is just walking 🚶 from Safa hill to Marwa hill going and back seven continous trips. A trip is from Safa to Marwa or the other way, from Marwa to safa. We have to do it in order, start at Safa and end at Marwa hill. In the middle of a trip we have to run slightly between two green lamp portals. After completing 7 trips we have to have tahalul. It is cutting several of our hairs. The sai is to resemble the effort of Hagar in looking for water 💧 to feed Ismael. We concluded sai at about 01:00 in the morning.

At about 01:30 we went back to the hotel. On the way I entered a barber shop to cut off my hairs until bald. At about 2:00 we arrived at hotel.