While in Holland...

Actually, this was a business trip in April this year. I had the project review workshop in Rijswijk, a town in the Western Netherlands and a suburb of the Hague. It's quite a small and quiet town. It was a week trip and on the last day, we went to Amsterdam and spent a night before flew back to KL.

In Rijswijk, I stayed at Grand Winston hotel. Nothing special about the hotel but I kinda like the breakfast provided here which they had variety choices of food and beverages. Personally, I love their pancake, freshly blended juices and fresh fruits :)

Picture of hotel: google

The Rijswijk town in the morning, pix taken in front of the hotel.

We took this tram to The Hague (Den Haag)

It was very convenient and the trip to The Hague only took 10 mins.

The Hague town

'jalan-jalan cari makan' in Den Haag.

We had dinner at this muslim restaurant in Den Haag

Halal Restaurant in Rijswijk

Dinner @ Istanbul Restaurant

My schedule was really pack, so I didn't have a chance to go to Kuekenhof, the famous tulip field in Holland. Btw, I passed by the field of tulips on the way to Amsterdam and the pix above was taken from moving vehicle on the highway. That's why it 's blurry;p. So I paste the clearer version from google :)

Tulip field: google picture

pix from Keukenhof's website

*Info on Keukenhof (based on keukenhof's website):

Opening times:

22 March to 20 May 2012

Open from 8.00 am to 19.30 pm daily including Sundays & public hols

Ticket office closes at 6pm.

Entrance Fees 2012:

Adults and 65+	€ 14,50 per person
Children (4-11 years)	€ 7,00 per person
Parking (vehicles)	€ 6,00 per vehicle
Parking (busses)	free

Nice view otw to Amsterdam

We arrived Amsterdam around 8pm and it was not dark yet.

Stayed at a cozy & reasonably priced hotel near the Dam Square, Rho Hotel.

The tram line near the Dam Square

My colleagues and I had dinner at the Malaysian Restaurant, Wau Restaurant that night. It had a variety of Malaysian food such as satay, chicken curry, etc. That night, I had rice with 'asam pedas' prawn and 'teh tarik' and I can say the taste was authentic.

Back from dinner, we passed by the Red Light District.

Infamous place among the tourists and locals, especially guys.

Dam Square area at night

The next morning, we went to the flower market and passed by this beautiful channel.

Flower market.

flower market.

This tulips pix was taken at the Schiphol airport.

Hajj 2010 - the most wonderful journey in my life

Baitullah dari pandangan atas

Pandangan depan masjidilharam

I feel like jotting down my experience and memories on the most wonderful journey to the Holy land, Mecca and Medina a year ago. When I'm writing this, there are more than 2 Mils of muslim are performing their pilgrimage, the 5th pillar of Islam, including both of my brother in law and his wife. I pray that they'll be granted 'Haji Mabrur', insyallah.

Our flight from KL was on October 24th 2010, where we left Kelana Jaya to Jeddah. We arrived Jeddah in the early morning (ard 2am) and took a bus to Medina. It was around 7-8 hours ride. However, I didn't really feel as it was a long ride since I fell asleep throughout the journey, alhamdulillah.

Thank to Allah, it was a wonderful experience and tranquil feeling, praying in our beloved prophet's mosque, 'Masjid Nabawi'. It was really an un-forgetable experience when entering Raudhah area despite of the crowds. We spent 8 days in Medina before left for Mecca. Alhamdulillah, I got nice & tolerable room-mates both in Medina & Mecca. I was close with one of them of about my age. We normally went together to the mosque for every prayer times & enter Raudhah for few times :)

On 2nd Nov (the same date as my birthday), we travelled to Mecca and stopped at the Miqat (forgot the name of the miqat) for 'niat' and changed into ihram. It was already dark when we arrived the holy land. The next day, we followed 'ustaz' from Tabung Haji to masjidilharam. I can't really describe my feeling when I first saw the kaabah, staring in disbelief that I was actually in front of it. We joined the crowd and performed our tawaf around kaabah, sunnah prayers and follow suit with saee along safa and marwah. Alhamdulillah, despite some coughing, my hubby & I were given the strength and good health along the way. We were lucky, our accommodation was not that far away from the mosque. Sometimes, we just stayed back at the mosque and read the Quran while waiting for the next prayer and grabbed our meal at the nearby shops.

On 14th Nov (our 12th anniversary), we travelled to Mina, Arafah for wukuf (9th Dhulhijjah), mabit (spent a night) in Muzdalifah (10th Dhulhijjah) and did stoning at the jamrats in Mina. I was grateful to Allah that everything ran smoothly throughout our hajj. Sometimes things happened to test our patience, especially when we were in the big crowds of different people and culture from all over the world. However, we had to suit the surroundings, tried to manage and expect the unexpected. My hubby & I kept on reminding ourselves of our intention for coming all the way to the holyland and not everyone has the same opportunity as us, so we had to be grateful.

Back from Mina, we stayed in Mecca for few weeks as our flight back to KL was scheduled on 11th Dec. The saddest day was when we had to bid farewell and performed our tawaf al wida. I prayed to Allah that we'll be given the opportunity to come back and perform our umrah / hajj, insyallah.

49days of journey and it was priceless:)

Pix of no particular order...

'Floor plan' masjidilharam.

Peta ni kena study jugak, senang nak tuju & target tempat solat.

Lebih afdal jika boleh nampak kaabah.

Insyallah, dengan memandang kaabah, kita mendapat rahmatNYA.

Pix taken on the way to Arafah.

Surah Alhajj Ayat 27: "Dan serukanlah umat manusia untuk mengerjakan ibadat haji, nescaya mereka akan datang ke (rumah Tuhan) Mu dengan berjalan kaki, dan menunggang berjenis-jenis unta yang kurus, yang datangnya dari berbagai jalan (ceruk rantau) yang jauh"

Melontar di Jamrah di Mina

Selepas ufuk di Arafah.

Pemandangan di Mina

Mabit di Muzdalifah

Wukuf di Arafah

Masjid Nabawi di Madinah

Masjid Quba' - masjid pertama & tertua di dunia.

Dibina oleh Rasulullah & sahabat, berdasarkankan taqwa & iman.

Sabda Rasulullah SAW: "seseiapa yg berwuduk di rumahnya kemudian pergi ke Masjid Quba' untuk solat, akan diberi ganjaran pahala seperti pahala mengerjakan umrah" (HR ibnu Majah)

Ziarah Bukit Uhud & makam para syahid semasa perang Uhud.

Tak jauh dari bandar Madinah.

Ziarah Jabal Rahmah.

Tempat pertemuan Nabi Adam & Hawa selepas diturunkan ke bumi.