Persiapan umrah ketika musim sejuk.

I will not go into details like telekung, sejadah, normal attire and so on because apparently it doesn't really matter because you will insya Allah only focus on 'ibadah. Seriously. (I will insya Allah share on the preparation specifically for attire). Before I came I was so worried about how many clothes should I bring, socks bla bla bla but turned out that was the least thing to bother about!

Normally for Umrah we will go to Madinah first, but it's totally depend on your travel agency. But if you start from Makkah, you're gonna have to wear Ihram from Malaysia, that's the only difference.

Let me start with the preparation at اَلْمَدِينَة اَلْمَنَوَّرَة (Madinah).

Normal temperature is around 16 degree Celsius, which is a quite bearable temperature because that's the normal temperature when you put on the air-con. Unexpectedly, you must remember you're gonna leave your hotel at around 3 in the morning to perform tahajjud until fajr prayer!

I was quite confident that I can handle it with just a jeans jacket which I usually wear during Fall, but I didn't consider the time I'll be walking outside, which was quite cold to me. It's not as cold as when it's snowing, but maybe because you'll be walking outside right after you wake up, makes you a little unbearable towards the whether (?). Because normally during winter who'd leave home as early as 3 in the morning? We only go outside to chase the sunshine.



Most of the local people cover their face when the temperature falls. Since I've always wanted to wear niqab, I wore it as well! Alhamdulillah it really helped! And fun too!! Hehehe.. Usually if we leave before Fajr, I wear an abaya on top of long sleeve shirt and long pants. I wore a black tudung labuh (they call it mini telekung?) which covers below my chin and it's not as long as the telekung. I find it really convenient to walk and most of all, I can just pray with it.

There are even people who wear muffler, or Idk what kind of attire is that but all I see is he's holding a blanket (?) and walked around.. Don't hesitate to wear winter attire. It is okay. Everybody wears it. Just take it off if you feel warm, rather then having to bear the cold! Unless you don't mind like I was. I love feeling cold and shiver. I will just hug my brothers. Hahaha

What I can say is, don't underestimate the temperature in Madinah. The cold you feel is unlike the cold in an air-conditioned room with the same temperature. The wind will strike your skin, and most of all, you'll leave your hotel before fajr. Even in Malaysia it's quite cold before fajr.. What's more during 16 degrees C?

However, once the sun has rose, around zuhr, the temperature will be just nice~ It's more like "chill". You can just walk around wearing your abaya, and insya Allah you won't feel too cold.

(This is my experience of performing Umrah during winter from 25th December 2013 - 5th January 2014. You can find other posts by going to the posts labelled MakkahMadinah which can be found at the left side of my blog. Thank you.)