Umrah pilgrimage: An exciting and special experience

Text and photos by Mulkan Salmona

JAKARTA (JP): Spending a holiday traveling to Saudi Arabia on umrah pilgrimage and touring Middle East countries afterwards has been an exciting, special experience.

Last November, under the arrangement of a Jakarta-based travel agent, I spent a week in Saudi Arabia, where I performed the umrah pilgrimage in Mecca and made a devotional sacred visit to Prophet Muhammad's grave and mosque in Medina before touring Turkey, Jordan and Egypt over the following days.

In Turkey, I visited Istanbul, which is famous for its buildings and mosques with their modern Islamic architecture. I was amazed to see the magnificent Blue Mosque, with its beautiful calligraphic ornaments, the Ayasofya building, a church which has been transformed into a mosque, and Topkapi Palace. The city also has many other historical buildings that were built during the early period of the expansion of Islam.

In Jordan, the agent brought me, together with the others in my group, to the graveyard of Prophet Syu'aib, the cave of sleepers and the Dead Sea.

My colleagues urged me to swim in the Dead Sea, even though they knew I could not swim. They assured me that I would never drown in this sea, which has very salty water.

They were right. When I jumped into the Dead Sea, my body surfaced right away. It was fantastic. But because the water was bitterly salty -- while I've never liked seawater at all -- I soon climbed back onshore.

After spending a day in Jordan, I proceeded to Israel by crossing the border with a regular bus. Upon entering Israel, we had to go through a grim immigration checkup that tensed me up. I was fortunate because I traveled light, bringing only two sets of clothing and a camera. I had no problem putting my belongings back into my bag after immigration officials rumbled through it. Other tourists had a hard time because they had considerably more luggage and they did not look at all pleased when all their possessions were taken out and had to be repacked again. After the immigration checking process, we were herded to a waiting minivan.

I visited the highest pinnacle in Jerusalem, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, from which Prophet Muhammad was ascended 14 centuries ago to receive the revelation on the obligation of Moslems to pray five times a day. I took the opportunity to pray to God at Al- Aqsa, the third holiest mosque for Moslems after the Grand Mosque (Masjid Al-Haram) in Mecca and Prophet Muhammad's mosque in Medina.

I also had a chance to visit and pray at the Al-Khalil Mosque in Hebron, beside which Prophet Abraham's body is buried.

Not many tourists had the courage to go to Hebron, because the city was quite unsafe then. Skirmishes between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian fighters often broke out. The next morning, I went to the holy place of Christians, Bethlehem, and visited the graveyard of Prophet Moses.

After spending two days on a frightening but satisfying tour of parts of Israel, the travel agent brought me to Egypt, where I spent three days.

In Cairo, I observed part of Egypt's past glories: the pyramids and the Sphinx. In the heart of the city, I also saw the mummy of King Ramses V.

I also visited Imam Syafii's graveyard, with a great mosque adjacent to it. However, I felt very uneasy there when a lot of beggars swarmed around me and other visitors.

I also visited the internationally well-known Al-Azhar Islamic University in downtown Cairo and the Muhammad Ali Mosque.

One evening, I took a cruise along the Nile River on a cabin cruiser, on which I dined and watched a belly dance performance.

During my three-day stay in Egypt, I felt inconvenienced by the heavy traffic, aggressive beggars and rude behavior of people claiming to serve tourists. I nearly got involved in a fight with some locals. I was fortunate, however, because -- realizing that I had just completed my umrah pilgrimage -- I felt obliged to be patient. I therefore avoided quarreling.

On my way back to Jakarta, I had an opportunity to spend another day in Jordan on a transit stop because I flew with Royal Jordanian Airlines. Because the travel agent did not provide any facilities for local trips that day, I had to spend an extra US$100 for a trip to Petra to view the remains of buildings carved from rocky mountains during the reign of the Roman empire.