Nine M’sians travel 15,000km to Mecca by land

Nine M’sians travel 15,000km to Mecca by land

Posted on 29 August 2017 - 10:23am
Last updated on 29 August 2017 - 12:49pm

The Malaysian pilgrims on the last leg of their journey. — Photo from Gulf News
PETALING JAYA: A group of nine Malaysians have travelled 15,000km by land from Kuala Lumpur to perform the Haj in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

The seven men and two women passed Dubai yesterday on their way to the Holy land, enduring harsh weather, possible terrorist attacks, police arrests and visa problems.

For their Haj Inspiration Expedition, the Malaysians left Kuala Lumpur on July 17 in two 4X4 special utility vehicles. After passing by Thailand, Laos, China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Iran, they crossed into the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

From Iran to the UAE, they took a ferry and arrived at Sharjah sea port on Aug 22. They then travelled to Dubai, the Khaleej Times of Saudi Arabia news portal reported today.

The Malaysians had a special permit to drive a right-hand vehicle in the UAE. They waited for five days in Dubai for their Haj visa and, to avoid the rush, travelled to Saudi Arabia by plane on Sunday. They arrived in Jeddah early Monday morning and travelled by bus to Mecca, the report added.

Planned by Pertubuhan Kembara Amal (PeKA), they were to drive across 10 countries, crossing mainland Asia then to Iran, to the UAE, and to Saudi Arabia — a full 16,000km journey.

Due to challenges along the way, including visa problems, the trip was cut to 15,000km and they had to fly to Saudi from the UAE on Sunday instead of driving another 1,000km.

"We want to feel the true journey of completing the fifth pillar of Islam because the philosophy of Haj is about sacrifice. So instead of going to Haj by aeroplane, we decided to go over land for the adventure and the hardest way to go is better," PeKa chairmtan Khir Ariffin said on Sunday afternoon before their flight to Jeddah.

"The first challenge was border crossing because of the documentation and waiting time. Then for example at the China border, because of the terrorist issue in Xinjiang, security was very strict. In Uzbekistan, they [authorities] stopped us because one of our members had a drone.

"We also faced a lot of issues with the vehicle including overheating, brake problems, and many others."

Malaysian Consul-General Datuk Yubazlan Yusof, who sent off the team from Dubai to Saudi on Sunday, said the team was unstoppable.

"They never say 'no'. I admire this kind of spirit because the most difficult part was to get the visa for Haj. I thought they wouldn't get it because of the time constraints and the quota. But they still insisted that they're going to try. They were detained by police and went through so many things but they still pursued it until the end," Yubazlan was quoted by the news portal as saying.

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