\n<\/p>\n
His wife, Ms Noraida Ramli, 53, prepared by watching videos of previous pilgrims on YouTube.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTo prepare myself for the Haj spiritually and with the knowledge of what to expect, I looked at YouTube to learn from the experience of people who have been there before,\u201d said the visa officer at an embassy here.<\/p>\n
Ms Eliya said the scale and grandeur of Saudi Arabia’s religious sites left her speechless. It has made her journey worth it, despite the fatigue of arriving after a red-eye flight from Singapore on the first day, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor some, it is an emotional journey after waiting so long,\u201d she said, adding that she feels \u201cat peace\u201d.<\/p>\n
Ms Eliya said she feels fortunate to be making the Haj at a relatively young age, and that having both parents with her has eased her anxiety. Currently, about 65,000 applicants are still on the waiting list, according to MUIS.<\/p>\n
The pilgrims have also been struck by the international character of the journey.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can really feel the sense of unity, with pilgrims from all over the world gathering for the same purpose,\u201d Mr Fawzi said.<\/p>\n
Ms Eliya said she has made friends from Iran and the United Kingdom, amid the “rush and chaos” of the crowds.<\/p>\n
As a younger pilgrim, Ms Eliya has been capturing the experience on video and in photographs \u2013 though she has held off posting them on social media for now.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would love to share the photos and videos after the Haj rituals have been performed. But for now, I would like to keep it private and practise being present,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
His wife, Ms Noraida Ramli, 53, prepared by watching videos of previous pilgrims on YouTube.\u00a0 \u201cTo prepare myself for the Haj spiritually and with the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55611,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dam.mediacorp.sg\/image\/upload\/s--48WDpddN--\/c_fill,g_auto,h_676,w_1200\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1\/mediacorp\/cna\/image\/2026\/05\/26\/img_5057.jpg?itok=8Pd7OFdh","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2530,8427,6608,6427,8426,14474,6428,23536,209,10771],"class_list":["post-55610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-news-sg-global","tag-calm","tag-conflict","tag-east","tag-haj","tag-middle","tag-mood","tag-pilgrims","tag-prevails","tag-singapores","tag-spiritual","wpcat-2-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/55611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}