Cairo: In 1964, the Indonesian Mariam Mohammad Munir, aged six at the time, set foot for the first time in Saudi Arabia accompanying her family to perform Hajj or the annual Islamic Hajj pilgrimage.
She has since made 22 trips to undertake Umrah or minor pilgrimage, and Hajj — an obligatory Islamic duty.
Prior to her departure again this year to Saudi Arabia for a new Hajj trip, she remembered how things have differed over the years.
“Sixty years ago, was my first journey with the family aboard primitive ships that used to take five to eight months, setting off from the Jakarta port heading to (the Saudi port of ) Jeddah,” she said at Indonesia’s Surabaya airport.
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The journey then was risky and highly expensive; but longing to visit the Grand Mosque, Islam’s holiest site in the Saudi city of Mecca, acted as a motive, according to her.
“In the past, the Hajj journey had its traditions including coming together in Jakarta before sailing, bidding farewell to relatives who would welcome the pilgrims upon return, hosting them and getting souvenir gifts from the returnees,” Mariam told the Saudi news agency SPA.
However, as years went on, she noted, Hajj journeys aboard modern ships and aircraft have become more comfortable and shorter.
Mariam was among the Indonesian pilgrims, who benefited this year from a Saudi scheme offering facilities to Muslims from seven countries heading to the kingdom for Hajj.
Besides Jakarta, the scheme, officially known as the “Mecca Road” Initiative, has been introduced to the Indonesian cities of Surabaya and Solo.
This year, the facilities are offered at 11 airports in Morocco, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Turkey and Cote d’Ivoire.
In 2018, the Saudi Interior Ministry relaunched the “Mecca Road” that kicked off on a trial basis in 2017.
The initiative aims at offering high-quality transport services to pilgrims of those countries en their route to Saudi Arabia. The facilities include issuance of electronic visas at home, finalising passport procedures as well as tagging and sorting out luggage at the departure airports.
On arrival in Saudi Arabia, those pilgrims head directly to their residences in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina while their luggage are delivered right to their residences.
