Ramadan in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia [Part XII] - Price List

Talking about price list for one Umra trip, it's a bit more expensive when Ramadan because more reward as well than the other months. I'll write down several goods with its price even tough honestly I didn't buy all of them. I know it by asking when you know, window shopping :D

price list of  umra in Ramadan

Ramadan in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia [Part XI] - Summarize + Tips

Madinah

You may enjoy the mosque, Masjid An Nabawi since it is quite cool inside. If you are women, you're not supposed to bring digital camera inside. While waiting for next prayer, read Al Quran or take a rest inside bcos I believe it's better than the heat outside. At sunset or sunrise time, get into the yard to see those giant umbrellas are opened or folded incredibly. In Ramadhan, you may be the guest of anyone. The local people would kindly ask you to come with them and serve you some meal, highly recommended to accept their invitation. I don't recommend you to shop too much in Madinah, same item as in Makkah but priced way more expensive. But if you are rich, that's totally up to you.

And the best you shouldn't miss, Raudah. Raudah is open for women two times, after Dhuha and after Dhuhr. But in Ramadan plus after Tarawih. Men got the rest of the time since Raudah is part of men's praying area.

Makkah

The weather in Makkah is better than Madinah but somehow you might get quite far hotel, might be uphill too. So you may also spend most of your time inside the mosque of Masjid Al Haram. Several places are open, such Ka'bah area, so it might hot at noon. There are several cool places too *but i hadn't explored all yet* *hope i could visit there again sometime*. Do Tawaf once a day at least, or how many times up to you. There are several places to do Tawaf, not only in first floor close to Ka'bah. You may access first, second, or third floor. But you do need to touch and see it closely. It's magical feeling, indescribable. Drink as much Zamzam water :D it's free and unlimited.

Ramadan in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia [Part X] - All the Food (Madinah-Makkah)

Most of the foods we got are Indonesian. Maybe you'll be disappointed but trust me, adapting new food is hard. Moreover, you do need eat to keep your energy while fasting. So, whatever tour agency you join, ask them to provide your daily local food at least, you can find yourself local arab food easily there.

IMO, it was so hard for me to accept local arab food since their spices smell so strong so does the taste.

Ramadan in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia [Part IX] - Vacation in Makkah

The vacation in Makkah was the shortest one. Since mostly we visit Makkah is for praying, so vacation/tour was not the priority. But we got several tour to know the city and visited main places for Hajj.

First we visited Hira Cave. It's located on top of the Al Nour Mountain. To get into the cave we need to climb up 2 hours while our leader only gave us 20 minutes so we only see the cave from the ground. *tbh i can barely saw any sign of a cave

Rock stone around Jabal al-Nour

Still in Jabal al Nour 

The next spot was Jabal Rahmah, or Rahmah Mountain. There was a statue, as the spot where Adam and Eve first met.

Ramadan in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia [Part VIII] - The Unfortunate & Solution Seeker

It was unfortunate moment. Why? I got period/menstruation in Makkah. When all we know that the main purpose visiting Makkah is for Umra or Hajj. While if you're on period, you're not allowed to do this prayer. You must be suci. But thank God Alhamdulillah I had done my 1st Umra.

And the primacy of Umra in Ramadan is that the reward is equal with doing Hajj with Rasulullah. So we might have as many reward as we want just depend on our intention.

One thing more, i didn't bring any pads nor tampon. So i need to find the closest pharmacy or supermarket. Another thing, i didn't bring enough cash. So how was i supposed to pay?

Ramadan in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia [Part VII] - Moving to Makkah and Got Lost

Third day in Saudi Arabia, after we spent first two days of Ramadan in Madinah, we moved to Makkah. We were about to do Umra, so we stopped at one mosque in Bir Ali to take Miqat (first step of Umra, which is the intention & wearing special ihram clothes). This mosque located only 15 minutes from Madinah city. Then we continued to Makkah for 5 hrs via bus.

I used to live in tropical, means that forest and plants are so common, but not in here. Here there're mostly desert, rocks, stone mountain.

the view of our road trip

We arrived at Makkah at 3pm, still about to do Asr prayer. The tour leader asked us to continue Umra after breakfasting. So most of us still wore ihram clothes (special-all white clothes for Umra) till night. After we finished breakfasting with big meal at the hotel and did Maghrib prayer then we went to Al Masjid Al Haram (greatest mosque on earth with Ka'bah inside, center of all prayers around the world). There was one leader that led us to Masjid Al Haram since it was quite far from our hotel, we didn't know the direction, nor the place to do next step of Umra.

Ramadan in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia [Part VI] - Vacation in Madinah City

Not gonna tell too much in this post, but some spots of tourism *I guess* since we only had like 20 minutes for each spot.

My Mother and I, at Jabal Uhud

The first place we visited was Mosque Quba. This is the first ever mosque, located in Madinah *ever since the first instruction to pray Sholat was commanded here*. Once you visit this place, do 2 raka'ats prayer, because the reward of shalat in this mosque is equal with one time Umra.

Ramadan in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia [Part V] - Most Valuable Prayer in Madinah

Al Masjid An-Nabawi is the most well-known mosque in Madinah. There is a Green dome as the sign of grave (cemetery) of Prophet Muhammad PBUH (it's inside the mosque) that used to be His house. There are two other grave beside Prophet Muhammad PBUH's, which are Abu Bakar Ash-Shiddiq and Umar bin Khathab 

Source

The most valuable prayer would be in Rawdah. It is the space between Prophet's Minbar (a pulpit in the mosque where the imam (prayer leader) stands to deliver sermons <taken from wiki>)  to His house (now His grave). This place is still located inside Masjid An Nabawi, marked with green carpet, while the rest of the mosque has red carpet.

Ramadan in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia [Part IV] - Getting to Deeper Prayer at Night

Masjid An-Nabawi at night

Right after we finished our iftar meal and pray maghrib, we still had time to get back to the hotel to eat big meal and clean up before we continued to Isha prayer. Time between Maghrib and Isha is the shortest among the other prayers, that's why, even we had the schedule for Isha prayer at 8.45pm, but the muadzin (a man who summon for prayer) started it at 9.15, so people could have enough time to eat and everything.

Ramadan in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia [Part III] - Start Enjoying Madinah with its Food, People and Heat.

To be honest, Madinah was so so hot, even at dawn. And what I really feel was the heat from air conditioner, not 100% from the sun. Walking through 3 blocks with all building seems like hotel, of course there are so many air con. Because basically, Madinah in summer is very very hot. It was 43^o celcius. Some staff said it was and might be strike to 50^o. Damn.

That's why fasting in summer in such desert was so challenging. Imagine, walking 500 meters to and from the mosque under 43^o celcius while fasting (no drink no eat). Somehow I believe there'll be more reward too hehe.

Ramadan in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia [Part II] - Touching Madinah

And YAASSS finally arrived to our hotel in Madinah. We stayed at Al Eiman Royal Hotel, Madinah. The hotel is 3 blocks away to Masjid an-Nabawi. It was 2am and we were so tired with 2 days trip but we were asked to have our sahur (meal at dawn before fasting). Not so in a good mood to eat since all we needed that time was a proper and nice sleep.

The view from our hotel room, 14th floor

Ok, well we need to be ready and finished our meal because 4am local time subuh/dawn prayer is already started and we had to be ready at the greatest mosque of Madinah, Al Masjid An-Nabawi, at at least 3.30am. Why? We didn't want to missed the prayer and we needed to get a comfortable place to pray so we should come earlier. If you're late, no place to pray or you might pray on the yard or even the asphalt road! Here they always have thousand and even hundred thousand pilgrims everyday.

Ramadan in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia [Part I] - Starting the Trip

This first section i'm gonna tell about the trip from Indonesia to Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. So, joined a tour agency An-Nahl that has several branches in Indonesia. We started our journey from Yogyakarta, Indonesia to Jakarta, to gather with the whole group. From Yogyakarta we're only 13 people, including me, my mother, my aunt, my uncle and my cousin. We also had a 75years old grandma that was traveling alone, with no family member to accompany her.

(left to right) My aunt, my mom, me, and my uncle.