My Experience during Hajj Pilgrimage 2008 (10)

Bir Ali Mosque

After spending 8 days in Madinah, we went to Bir Ali mosque and then we continued our journey to Makkah. It’s time to perform Umrah. From Madinah we went by bus to Bir Ali mosque.




Bir Ali is the place for Miqat (starting to perform Umrah). We were amazed by the beauty architecture of the mosque.

My Experience during Hajj Pilgrimage 2008 (9)

Indonesian Food in Madinah

Every time I visit a place, no matter where, the first thing I want to try is its special food. In Madinah I‘d tried eating Briyani Rice, and Kebab for the first three days. But still, I missed Indonesian food.

Walking along the street near Masjid Nabawi, I was excited when I found a man, an Indonesian man, were standing in front of a building offering people to come to Indonesian Restaurant.

I and my husband came to the restaurant. We found bakso (meat ball), rendang (spicy meat, traditional food of Padang, West Sumatra), rempeyek kacang, and tempe (Indonesian traditional food made of soybean), and many more. That’s good enough to cure our longing of Indonesian food!

Kitchen Appliances for my New House

On June 2009, I and my family will move to Bogor. We've found a beautiful house there in Bogor and we couldn't wait to make it our own. We will buy the house at the end of this month.

I'm so excited, because decorating a new house is always challenging. I feel that decorating home is my authority. So I can't wait to buy proper furniture and appliances for living room, bed rooms, dining room, kitchen, etc.

The most important part for my activity as a house wife is kitchen. Since I really like cooking, kitchen appliances are something urgent for me. Appliances such as range, refrigerator, oven, juicer, blender, mixer, fryer, food processor, and grill should be there on my kitchen.

Browsing internet, I found it was well-pleasing to find a site that had Kitchen Appliances Buying Guide. It was helpful for me to decide the best appliances to buy.I could find not only a wide range of kitchen appliances but also the related products such as dinnerware, cooking tools, and even cookbooks!

Wow, I can imagine how exciting it will be when I and my friends have a barbeque party on my backyard equipped with a grill as seen on the site.Awesome!

My Experience during Hajj Pilgrimage 2008 (8)

Mantakotul Baido ( Jabal Magnet )

The most interesting place that has an amazing natural phenomenon located outside the Holy City of Madinah is Mantakotul Baido, or Jabal Al Baido or Jabal Magnet. People said that any car or even bus can run fast there although the engine is off because of its magnetism.

We were very curious to see the phenomenon by our own eyes so that our chef de mission, H Yunani took us there.

On the road in Jabal Magnet, the driver stopped the car, turned off the engine, and rested the gear and hand brake. We wait for seconds, and… the car started to move gradually, faster and faster. Wow, it was such amazing experience, being inside the car that ran by magnetic attraction!

Jabal magnet was so beautiful. It was the place were people in Madinah and around went for refreshing and picnic. We enjoyed the beautiful views and hoped that someday we would visit this place again.

My Experience during Hajj Pilgrimage 2008 (7)

A Cozy Park in Madinah

Acctually, I didn’t know the name of this place. I found this place when I was walking for sightseeing around the stores and hotels near Nabawi mosque. It’s a small park, with palm trees, decorated plants, and gazebos for sitting down. The roof of those gazebos were unique, they seemed like white tents. Many people spent time there, eating, chatting and jesting with their family and friends.

After praying subuh, I and my husband went there. We bought Briyani rice, roasted chicken and kebab, and we enjoyed our breakfast there. Nice place!

My Experience during Hajj Pilgrimage 2008 (6)

Madinah Date Market

After visiting the mosques and historical places, we went to the central date market. For date lovers, this was indeed a favorite place to buy many kinds of dates locally grown in Madinah area.



There are 170 varieties of dates. The two well known varieties are the black rounded Ajwah; believed to the Prophet’s favorite and the other, the long brownish ambar.

I could also get fresh dates here and these desert fruits were sold along with their ripened golden stalks.

Fresh Dates

The good thing was, in this market customers were allowed to eat as many samples as their liked. Mmm… yummy !

My Experience during Hajj Pilgrimage 2008 (5)

Ijabah Mosque

Our chef de mission of Nurindayu hajj leadership, H. Yunani, told us that there was a mosque called Ijabah or Al- Ijabah that was worth visiting. He said when a worshipper prayed there on the mosque, It was a big chance that Allah SWT would grant his prayer.

So, I and my husband took the opportunity to visit the Ijabah mosque. After doing shalat Subuh in Nabawi mosque, we went in hurry to Ijabah mosque on foot. The location of the mosque was not far from Nabawi mosque. It was on the eastern of King Faisal road (route 60). I enjoyed walking down along the road, hand in hand with my husband, reminded me to the time when we fell in love.

Well, let's get back to the mosque. Ijabah or Al-Ijabah mosque is also known as the mosque of Banu Mu’awiyah, due to its location in the district of Banu Mua’awiyah from the Ansar.

As for the reason for its being named Al-Ijabah, It was because the Prophet Muhammad SAW supplicated Allah SWT three times and Allah SWT answered two of his supplications and forbade him the third. It was reported by Muslim that Amir bin Sa’d narrated from his father:

One day, the Prophet Muhammad SAW came from Al Aliyah. He passed by the mosque of Banu Mu’awiyah, went in and offered two rak’ahs there. He made a long supplication to his Lord. He then came to us and said: “ I asked my Lord three things and He has granted me two but has withheld one. I begged my Lord that my Ummah ( follower) should not be destroyed because of famine and He granted me this. And I begged my Lord that my Ummah should not be destroyed by drowning ( by deluge) and He granted me this. And I begged my Lord that there should be no bloodshed among the people of my Ummah, but He did not granted it. “

( Reference : History of Al-Madinah Al Munawarah, By Safiur-Rahman Mubarakpuri, Nasiruddin Al-Khattab. Translated by Nasiruddin Al-Khattab. Published by Darussalam, 2002 )

The mosque consists of a roofed building, whose area in 1,000 sq, height is 13.7 meters and it has a minaret whose height is 33.75 meters, in addition to the adjoining buildings.

My husband and I spent time to pray there. Hopefully Allah will grant our supplications.

My Experience during Hajj Pilgrimage 2008 (4)

Jabal Uhud

The most emotional part of our itinerary was to visit the Uhud battleground with its graveyard located about 5 kilometers north of Madinah. This is the mountain where the battle Uhud happened.

Mount Uhud extends from east to west with a slight slope towards the north. Most of its stones are red granite, and some parts of it are almost dark green and black.

Jabal uhud has an attractive look. The Prophet Muhammad SAW felt relieved on seeing it, and the people of Madinah also loved it very much.

My Experience during Hajj Pilgrimage 2008 (3)

Al-Qiblatain Mosque

After doing prayer in Quba mosque, we continued our tour to Al-Qiblatain Mosque. Masjid Al-Qiblatain or mosque with two Qiblas is situated a few kilometers from Masjid Nabawi. It is one of the oldest mosques in the world and uniquely contains of two mihrabs; one in the direction of Bait Al- Maqdis (Jerusalem) and the other toward Mekkah.

This mosque was originally built by Bani Salamah, who were of the Al-Khazraj tribe on a small hill near Wadi Al-Aqeeq. Over time, the design and structure of the mosque changed greatly.

Qiblatain mosque can accommodate up to 2000 worshippers. The main prayer hall adopts geometry and symmetry which is accentuated by the use of twin minarets and twin domes.

When I took ablution before doing shalat, I found an identity card on the floor of the ablution room. It was belong to someone from Thailand. So, when I saw a woman with dark blue veil, with the word " Thailand" written on her veil, I gave the identity card to her. I tried to explain how I found the card, but she did not understand English. She smiled when I used sign language, and she took the card, nodded at me and then she went away.

Well, It seemed that my English was not very useful, because many people here couldn't speak English. But I knew there was an universal language which could be understand by anyone. It was smile!

My Experience during Hajj Pilgrimage 2008 (2)

Al-Baqi

On the second day we stayed in Madinah, we joined a tour to the historical and interesting places in Madinah. The first place we visited was Al-Baqi.

Al-Baqi or Jannat Al-Baqi is a cemetery, located across from Masjid Nabawi. This cemetery contains many of Prophet Muhammad SAW’s relatives and companions.

Jannat Al-Baqi means The Garden of Heaven. These graves continue to be visited by numerous pilgrims and burials continue at the cemetery up until this day.

The visiting of graveyard is recommended to remind one of the hereafter.

Quba Mosque

We continued our tour to visit the Quba mosque. Quba mosque is the first mosque built in history of Islam. Its foundation stone was laid by the Prophet Muhammad SAW himself when he reached Madinah.

After the building was finished, on the following Friday, he led his Muslim’s congregation in prayer. This premier mosque continued to hold a special meaning for Prophet Muhammad SAW who made it a practice to visit it every Saturday.

My Experience during Hajj Pilgrimage 2008 (1)

Doing hajj pilgrimage was one thing I’d been dreaming of since I was single. It is one of Muslim’s duties as described in five pillars of Islam. This is a pilgrimage to Mekkah (Mecca) in Saudi Arabia which should be done at least once during a Muslim’s lifetime.

I was so grateful, finally my dream came true. I, my husband and the other 261 pilgrims from Palembang, leave to King Abdul Azis airport in Jeddah on 7 November 2008 at 15.00 WIB. The trip took 9 hours. We arrived on 12.00 WIB or 8 pm Saudi Arabia time.

Our next destination was Mekkah (Mecca). We went there by bus. Actually, going to Mekkah was not a part of Hajj ceremonies. The pilgrims went there to visit Nabawi Mosque and doing shalat Arbain (40 times shalat) and also to get more knowledge about the history of Prophet Muhammad.

Staying 8 Days at Madinah

We arrived at Madinah at 3 am SAT. The weather was so cold. We stayed at Haramain Hotel, about 400 m away from Nabawi Mosque.

I stood in front of Haramain Hotel

Madinah or Al Madinah- Al Munawwarah is a city in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia and serves as the capital of the Al Madinah province. It is the second holiest city in Islam and the burial place of Prophet Muhammad SAW.

We stayed 8 days in Madinah in order to do Arbain or 40 times shalat fardhu by jama’ah in Nabawi mosque. In the leisure time we visited many historical places in Madinah such as Nabawi mosque, Baqi, Quba mosque, Qiblatain mosque, Jabal Uhud and other interesting places such as Dates market, Jabal Magnet, Ijabah mosque, etc.

Nabawi Mosque

After getting some sleep, I and my friends, Yati, Latifah and Widya went to Nabawi Mosque, the second holiest mosque in Islam, enthusiastically. We walked to the mosque together with many pilgrims from all over the world.

The view when we got there was so amazing. The Mosque was so big, beautiful and artistic looked from inside and outside. I spent time to admire every detail of the beautiful mosque.

Nabawi Mosque is also called the mosque of Prophet Muhammad SAW. It is the final resting place of Muhammad SAW.
The original mosque was built by Muhammad SAW. Subsequent Islamic rulers greatly expanded and decorated it. The latest renovations took place under King Fahd and have greatly increased the size of the mosque, allowing to hold a large number of worshippers and pilgrims and adding modern comfort like air conditioning. He also installed 27 moving domes at its roof and decorated the mosque with the best quality marble.

The mosque enclosure is 100 times bigger than the first mosque built by the Prophet and can accommodate more than half million worshippers. The shiny new Prophet’s mosque contains the older mosque within it. The older section has many colorful decorations and numerous small pillars while the new section is in gleaming white and grey marble and is completely air conditioned.

Here are some photos taken by my husband to describe the beauty of Nabawi Mosque.

Coming Back after Two Months off

Hello everybody!!
I’m happy to be back again after 2 months off from blogging. For about 40 days I and my husband spent time at Madinah and Mekkah, Saudi Arabia for hajj pilgrim. We went back to Palembang on 16 December 2008.

Then my mother told me that my father was hospitalized because of heart attack since 15 December. He was on ICU (Intensive Care Unit) and his condition was bad. I took care of him, together with my sisters and relatives. Thank God, finally he could survive. He was getting well and now he has already been at his home.

On 27 December- 31 December, I and my family visited Bogor again. On my post before (Visiting Bogor), we decided to buy a house on Harmony-2 cluster. But since the global crisis came, there were many companies got the bad effects, especially the companies in the field of property. We got a lot of input from our friends. They informed us that it is safer to buy a house that has already built. So, finally we decided to find the other house. We start from the beginning again.
Some other time I will write about finding house at Bogor.

I really wanted to write again, but there was one thing. My Internet connection was broken. I didn’t know why it took so long to fix it.

But now, here I am. I went back here to see you, all my blogger friends.
Happy New Year 2009 to all of you!

Going to Madinah and Mekkah for Hajj Pilgrimage

Today, my husband and I will stay in Hajj dormitory ( Asrama Haji )for a while, waiting for the time to leave Palembang to King Abdul Azis airport at Jeddah on 7 November 2008. We will go to Madinah from Jeddah by bus.

This is the first step for us to do Hajj pilgrimage, something I’ve been waiting for years ago. I can’t exactly express my feeling but I feel excited, anxious, touched, nervous, a little bit sad, and happy.

I’m sad because I have to leave my kids for about 40 days. I know I shouldn’t worry because my parents and my parents in law will take care of them. The nanny and my maid will also look after my kids.

To all the bloggers and friends, we would like to apologize for all the mistakes we’ve ever done before. Hopefully, everything will run smoothly and we will be hajj mabrur.

Visiting Bogor (3)

Ice Cream at d’fla Cake Shop

On the way we went back to the hotel, Dea started to whimper. She wanted ice cream, and she wanted it so bad. Unfortunately we couldn’t find any ice cream counter along the way. When we arrived at the hotel, my husband asked me to take the kids to the coffee shop near by. He thought there would be any ice cream there. But when I got there, there’s no one there. The coffee shop was closed. Dea cried.

Suddenly, I remember there’s a cake shop at the hotel. I took the kids went back to the hotel.

The cake shop was quiet, but it was open. A girl smiled at me when I opened the door. I said “Do you have any ice cream? “. She was not sure.” Would you please waiting? I’ll check it. Please have a sit.”

I sat on the sofa. Then a woman came out from the kitchen. She was the owner of d'fla. She smiled friendly. “Hi. We have ice cream. It’s made of pure milk and I’m sure your kids will like it. I made it by myself.”

Dea and Anin looked happy; they ordered chocolate ice cream, while Rafif ordered strawberry and chocolate ice cream. I saw satisfaction on their faces when having those ice cream.

Btw, the taste of the ice cream was really good. That's way my kids ate all of them and they said later on they wanted it more.

Oh kids…. A cup of ice cream was enough to make them happy.

Start Up Loans

Richard needs extra cash to expand his business. Sarah thinks this is the right time to start a new business, but she doesn’t have enough money. Danny get headache because of the high-interest business debt eats away at his profits. And Jennifer is almost frustrated since she doesn’t know what to do to get an emergency fund for her family.

Life is full of surprises, and those people are facing financial problems with the only one answer: Start Up Loans. EZUnsecured.com specializes in Unsecured Business Financing offer solution for people like Richard, Sarah, Danny and Jennifer. The process to obtain Star-Up Loans is so simple. No collateral, no tax return, no UCC filing and no document to $ 200,000!

It is easy for the applicants to get approval because StartUp Loans from EZUnsecured.com are willing to finance any particular type of business. So, apply right now!

Visiting Bogor (2)

9 October 2008

Beautiful morning in Bogor, I looked trough the window. The morning sun conveyed its light from the East. My husband and my kids were still sleeping, while I couldn’t wait any longer to start the day in this lovely city.

Bogor City is a gate of West Java province, 60 Km from Jakarta, the capital of Republic of Indonesia. Bogor is on the main road from Jakarta to Bandung, over the Puncak pass.

Having 120 km away from Bandung, the capital of West Java province, it’s well known as a “rain city” because of its ± 3000 to 4000 mm rain fall quantity per year. It is very wet and nearly always rains even during dry season.

When the first time I arrived at this city, my eyes caught two interesting things. The first was factory outlets and shopping centre. I was afraid I couldn’t hold my shopping desire since I’m an impulsive buyer. And the second was the food. There were so many café, restaurant, and even rounds man offering various and delicious food. I thought this could be a potential danger which threatens my diet program!

One more thing, the roads in Bogor looked so crowd with its public vans ( angkot /angkutan kota). So, this was why people called this city as “ the city of million public vans” ( Kota sejuta angkot). Ha..ha..

I asked my husband and kids to wake up and took a bath. Then we went around the city to find chicken porridge for our breakfast. Mmmm, yummy…. Each of us ate two bowls of chicken porridge!

Bogor Nirwana Residence



Finding a house to live in was our main agenda, so we went straight to the marketing office of Bogor Nirwana Residence. Entering the gate, I could see beautiful houses along the road. The marketing office, PT. Graha Andrasentra Propertindo, looked modern and stylist. My kids were playing around the fish pond while I and my husband talked to the marketing officers.



We planned to buy a land on Tirta Nirwana cluster which is sold by someone, and then build a house on it. My husband fell in love with the location, because it has a small artificial river. We imagined sitting on the gazebo near the river and relaxing, what a wonderful life!



But then we should burry the dream, because the owner said on the phone that he did not want to sell the land, although a few days before he decided to sell it to us! Oh God.

We returned to the marketing office and the officers offered us another options. It was on the Harmony-2 cluster. The cluster located 1.3 km away from Tirta Nirwana cluster. Finally, we could find a land which was wider than the land before. On the 343 m² area we planned to build a 120 m² wide house.

The house will be build right after the down payment and the transfer of property to the owner ( us ) will be held next year, or one year after the down payment. It means that the house will be finished on November 2009. Since we planned to move on July 2009, we still need to rent a house until our house is ready to live in.

My husband had signed the agreement and I was grateful the process was simple and easy. Next year, my family will be the denizen of Bogor!

Visiting Bogor (1)

On October 8-11, 2008 my husband and I took our children to Bogor. Searching for a house to live in was the main reason we went there. We had already searched in Bintaro, Serpong, and Bumi Serpong Damai, but we hadn’t made a decision.

I felt this time would be different. It felt like we would finally find the house and its environment fixed with our expectation.

We went to Bogor by car. My children were so happy. Although the trip took 14 hours from Palembang to Bogor, but Anin, Dea and Rafif enjoyed it.

We arrived at the hotel on 9:30 PM. Mr. Micky Mozes, my husband’s friend, had booked the hotel for us.

Terra Nostra Boutique Hotel

We stay at Terra Nostra Boutique Hotel. Offering modern facilities and services, Terra Nostra hotel is a cozy place for those who seeking for a quiet and peaceful location close to the city.

Situated right in the centre of Bogor, this hotel is located on Jl. Salak no. 8. It is a walk able distances from the shops, cafes, and entertainments and just a few steps away from The Bogor Botanical Garden and Bogor Palace.

I like its cozy room. The style of its room is modern minimalist. The room equipped with Air conditioning, bathtub and shower with hot and cold water, internet connection, telephone, refrigerator, television with in house and satellite channels, and minibar and coffee maker.

I think I will stay here if someday we visit Bogor again.

Beautiful Dresses for Tisa

My friend Eva sent me sms “Thank God, finally we can give Adam a sibling, a baby girl!” I was surprised and happy for her. When I called her, I could feel how happy she was; finally she could deliver a cute and healthy baby girl. Adam, her first boy told me that he chose a name for his sister. He named her Latisa Verina or Tisa.

I thought I should give Tisa something special. When I browsed the internet, I found ShopWiki. It is a site where the shopper can find anything for sale on the web.

I could find all baby and toddler stuff on this site, such as bags, car seats, strollers, clothes, activity sets, nursery furniture, books, toys and many other. The choices were complete.

Something special from this site was the products buying guides which help the shoppers to find the suitable baby and toddler stuff for them. And one more thing, the shoppers can narrow the results from the search engine by price!

I was interested on the toddler dresses. I thought Tisa would seem so beautiful wearing those dresses. I bought some for her. Shopping at ShopWiki was really fun!

Terafica Uno-Plus: Friendship Forever

In the year of 1989-1990 and 1990-1991 I was a senior high school student of SMA 3 Palembang, in the second and third grade. My class was Fisika I ( major in Physics I ).
Being together with my classmates I found my life was so excited. We studied, laughed, had fun, and sometimes had been punished by teacher because of our manner. Something precious to remember was our togetherness, we built our friendship.

My classmates were unique persons. They had their own characteristic completed with their peculiarities. At that time I believed that my friends would be successful persons, and they have proof it, now.

We named our class as “Terafica Uno”. It means “Terminal Anak Fisika Satu” or Terminal of Physics Students-One. Every year since 1991, after our graduation, we always have reunion. Maybe “reunion” is not the right word to express our yearly-meeting, but no matter what it is we are proud to keep our tradition to see each other every year after Eidul Fitri . I enjoyed every time I spent together with my Terafica Uno as a special time to share and maintain our friendship.

I am so proud of Terafica Uno, because we can maintain our friendship for years (17 years since 1991). Even now, when we live separately in the cities like Jakarta, Palembang, Bandung, Jayapura., Padang, Soroako, Semarang, etc, we still keep our friendship through milist. And one more thing, the member of Terafica milist has been added. Some of my friends from SMA 3 have joined us. We share our life, experiences, happiness, sadness, and anything for goodness. What a wonderful friendship we have!

Our last meeting was held on 3 October, 2008 at Vera Sari’s house in Palembang. Here is the photo.

Hopefully, our true friendship will last forever. Long life Terafica Uno-Plus!

Family Reunion on Eidul Fitri

Eidul Fitri is always a very special day for Muslim not only because of its meaning, but also it is the day when the whole family can be together, forgiving each other and sharing the happiness.

I enjoyed the moment when I could see the happy faces of my family, relatives and friends when we see each other. I visited my parent in law after shalat Eid, and then I went to my parent’s house at Jakabaring.

In this special day, I could meet all of my sisters, including Linda Oktarina, my fourth sister who lives in Jakarta. She came to Palembang to celebrate Eidul Fitri with the whole family.

Here are some photos I took on last Eidul Fitri. Hopefully I could share the happiness to all of the readers.

My father and I

My Relatives

The Five Siblings

My Mother and My Cousin