Snorkeling in Perhentian

Assalamualaikum everyone!

I had a wonderful raya weekend though I didn't go back to KL to continue the celebration with my family. 

Since a really really good friend is leaving for KL for a transfer, they've decided to have a get-away trip to Perhentian. The last time I went there was in July 2011 with a Korean lady I met on the bus on my way back home from the airport. (Before Perhentian + In Perhentian post)

Paid RM250 for return transportation Kerteh-Besut with my car, boat Perhentian-Jeti Besut (around RM70), one night stay in Ombak (room of 4, or 2), breakfast at Ombak, Snorkeling trip by Ombak (RM35 like that), and underwater camera rent (RM100 per group if I'm not mistaken). All in all, it was worth it!

This time, since we're already in Terengganu, we had to drive from Kerteh the night before at around 9:30pm and stayed overnight in Kuala Terengganu at another friend's family place. While another group departs from Kerteh at 3:00am the next morning to catch the boat from Jeti Besut at 9:00am.

On Friday, we woke up at 5:00am and went to pray Subuh at the nearby Masjid on the way to Besut. I was shocked to see that the huge Masjid's parking spot was nearly full!

There were about 90 ladies there with 6 saf, what more the men?

Since we have to catch the boat, we used the highway to the Jeti Pulau Perhentian in Besut. Drove so fast, thank goodness it was really in the morning and there were no cars on the road. Just probably few along the way.

Had nasi lemak (a must!) before departing, and make sure to get a big bottle or two of mineral water at the Jeti Besut. Since we went to the small island, there's not many shops there and a bottle could cost you triple the price.

We were told that the boat should only fit 13 passengers, and their names should be listed properly and signed by the officer at the exit. 


I guess not.


The driver 'singgah' somewhere and picked another 4-5 locals, and went to the other end of the jeti to pick up 3 more of our friends who did not make it in the "13 list". 

The boat was definitely too fast as if it was about to fly off, and the non-13 list passengers did not have their life vest on. So much for HSE (Health, Safety and Environment).



Oh well, we survived the 30+ mins boat ride to the island and went to Ombak Chalet. 

Since check-in is at 3pm, we changed, and went straight for snorkeling.

It was a tremendously amazing!! Enjoyed it so much!!

It took me 2 years to go do it again, and now I just can't wait another 2 months to go to Redang in October!  

The last time I went, I can only float, and I panicked because a lot of sea water got into my googles and I couldn't see much.

This time around, thanks to that weekly swimming session in KGRP (Kelab Golf Rantau Petronas) in front of my office, I could actually swim and dive into the sea without any equipments (though I hold on to my life-vest just incase the tide gets stronger which it did and I had to hold on to my friends who was wearing them). Plus, the googles Ombak provided us was simply tip-top quality.

Went straight down to the turtle (penyu) on the sea-bed and almost die of pressure and loss of breath. Haha. 

Too bad the photographer pressed "OFF" instead of the shooting button, and I was too tired to go back into the sea-bed for another photo. (It will be my own story of failure and I will remember you Mr. Turtle. When I come back again, I promise I'd hold my breath for at least 1 minute. I'll practice okay? ;) At least I managed to get a photo when Mr. Turtle went up for air. Good enough I guess. 



Lot's of success story this time around.


I was super close to a huge leopard-skin eel, and the sharks! 

I only swam around the tower last time. Though I had a great time playing around feeding the fishes, I thought I must give it a go. A jump.

This time around. I must.

I am scared of heights, my heart was going to explode and even though they've counted until 3 and I was ready to jump, I just went back in and sat on the cliff. 


"Impossible. This is too scary"


"But wait. Going down by the stairs is much more 'memalukan', I rather jump"


I cursed. I did.


So, I finally jumped. 

"Hey, that was FUN!!"

I went back for another jump. Hahaha. Oh Nadiah... ^^"


So that was rather a short story from my snorkeling experience and I'm glad I overcome all my fears this time. 

Not in my life I've jump from that height, swim that deep below, and kept my breath that long.


I guess every trip will change you somehow. 


To be honest, I was not close with this group of people that I went with. Some I never talked to, never knew their names, and those that I was really scared of because they had a creepy look in their eyes like they're going to eat me alive. (The girl that were supposed to go for us to celebrate had to cancel last minute). I thought that I'd be going for my worst get-away ever.

Now I see them in the office, I'd be like, "Hey dude!! Hey womaaaannn!!" making daily-life at the office means so much more knowing how crazy we've become with each other.

Ah.. I'm blessed.

*Oh, the last time I said that aboutmy new founded awesome-office-mate-friend, we had a 3rd World War for nearly 4 months. har-har. 

More photos of the trip can be seen here (Facebook Album).

Signing out with love for everyone. 

Selamat Hari Raya. 

Assalamualaikum. <3 font="">

*Oh hey. I haven't told you how my Raya went. XD 

We'll see la when I'm rajin kayh. We literally had a *blast*.

Seoul, Korea

Assalamualaikum, *^_^*

teaser la dulu konon-konon.
I don't even know how to rotate the pictures, let alone edit them. >_<"

What I capture, is what you get.

The Journey

Begini ceritanya...

I left home at 9 something. After about 10 minutes of walking and waiting for the bus, I've decided to take the cab instead...and paid RM5 for a 5minutes journey.

After waiting nearly 15-20minutes at the KTM Segambut (and paid RM1), they announced that the next train is NOT gonna arrive in at least 40minutes. x-x" I can't wait that long.

In the hot nearly-midday, I walked across the highway  tryna catch a cab from the other side (don't ever do this! VERY DANGEROUS!). I saw a U7 bus coming . I have no idea what U7 meant, and where is it heading to, but seriously, it doesn't matter. =P Naik saja!

Went all the way to Sentul, Chow Kit, Sogo, Dataran Merdeka, and finally, Bangkok Bank (which what I now know, route U7 ). From there, walked a bit to LRT Masjid Jamek.

Wait, did I tell you where I'm going?
Ehehe..

I know the place that I want to go to is in Jalan Ampang, so I took the one heading for Ampang.

 The problem is;
How many lines are they and where are they heading to and what stations are there?!!

Why?
Because there's not a single map of the lines on the platform!

So, considering someone in a rush like me..

PLEASE PUT A MAP OF  THE LINES' STATION ON THE PLATFORM.
(Kelana Jaya's line seems to have this)

PLEASE SHOW OTHER LINE'S ROUTE AS WELL INSIDE THE TRAIN.

To those who thinks it's a common sense that someone should know all about these lines by now, well it's not. Don't assume that everyone is a frequent user of the trains here.

Since I am supposed to head to Ampang, I took the Ampang line because I couldn't find a BIG, PROPER ROUTE MAP even around the ticketing area. T-T" (Ada tu ada, tapi keciknya, kesian mokcik-mokcik nak carik stesen)

Sangat tak user friendly. (cries) hangpa yang buat sistem naik dak tren?

Anyway, going from Masjid Jamek, I realized that I am going far far away from KLCC(heading to Pudu dah!) and decided to go back to Masjid Jamek and figure out what OTHER LRT LINES there are - and where do they go to sebab its not written anywhere in the platform. Since the other side is going to Sultan Ismail.. I decided to get down from there (paid about RM2.50), walked about looonggg minutes of forever - and finally ended the crazy trip by taking a cab; to Wisma MCA Jalan Ampang (RM 6).

Dari kedekut nak naik cab dari rumah.. Inilah padahnya. [sebenarnya, saya sangat2 tak gemor naik cab NIH. Takut! cume memikirkan apa salahnya bagi pokcik2 teksi duit makan lebih]

11:30am. I am finally here. at the US Visa Collection Center, and I'm done  in less than 10. =$

12:00pm Off to Shah Alam by KTM.

Kerana bonda tak beli lagi baju raya dan kuih-muih raya, gagahkan jugaklah pergi sampai Shah Alam. N memang rasa nak  deman. My nose is running like a broken pipe; sakit kepala, and only had 15 minutes of sleep last night; gara2 nak mencari Lailatul Qadr, tapi sempat lagi pegi mamak kejap, tengok movie kat YouTube kejap.. X)

(complaints and ways to improve KTM will come in a different post. LoLs yeah, I do complaint a lot; since I won't settle down in a terrible fact of life)

A lady in KTM once told me,
"Things are terrible, but face the fact, you're not in Japan!"

and I replied, "Why must I face the terrible fact? I rather change it".

Ok-ok. Officially going to a fever state. Dah batuk-batuk and muntah-muntah. Hope it's not for long.  

Weekend in The Land of Smiles II

Let me tell you why do they call it 'The Land of Smiles'.

at a sandal shop in Chatucak Weekend Market,

at a lamp decoration shop, also in Chatucak Weekend Market

I wasn't kidding when I tell you that people here smile A LOT. MasyaAllah, no wonder smile is sadaqah. We were walking through the market and no one call us to buy this and that. No one. You can try things on and just leave without buying, and they'll give you a BIG smile and say, ขอบคุณค่ะ kop khun kha ( thank you- for women).

When we were bargaining (which most of the time we failed to do so since its a fixed price), the guy (who was selling CDs just SMILE and said, "ten", and we said, "eight". He smiled again, and said, "ten", and we said "eight". Yes, we left, thinking that other stalls might sell it for "eight" to us. But no, all of the other stalls said, "ten", and smiled. So, we went back to the first guy, SMILE, give him 10(100Bh), he smiled, give us the CD, we smiled again and left. No frustration whatsoever.

Shopping never felt so relaxing. When you go to Pavillion or One Utama in KL, if you just leave, not buying anything, the shopkeeper would give you a "if you can't afford it, why bother coming in"- face.




I saw a pair of cute flip-flops, and I didn't know who to ask - for the price. There were so many people there, it was noisy, and I was mumbling...

"How much eh.."
and the young lady besides me said, "Which one do you like?".
In my head, "oh, the shopkeeper is too pretty and very nice-modestly dressed to be a shopkeeper", and I said "This pink one".
She called the other guy, asked him (in Thai language) how much is the pink one, and she asked me my size.
I said, "38-39?"
Later she said, "Do you want to try it on?", which I did, and she said, "The pink looks good".

It was a 150Bh slippers, and I realized that she was trying a pair as well.

We asked her mother (which we then realized that she was also a customer), how to get to MBK Mall, and they were very lovely indeed. Smileeeee all the way.

MasyaAllah.

Chatucak Weekend Market is a MUST GO in Bangkok.

We found this "Forget Me Not" Muslim cafe, and ordered 'Thai Ice Coffee' (left) and 'Thai Coffee plus Thai Tea' (the one on the right) and it tasted better than Coffee Beans or Starbucks.

 Seriously.

 It was THAT good.  The mix of Coffee and Tea in one drink somehow confuses me, but MasyaAllah.. it makes me think of how good things can be in the real paradise. 

Stalls like these goes along the street from BTS National Stadium station (in front of MBK Mall) till Siam Station.

We couldn't find any money changer that operates at 10pm, so shopping has to stop there. Didn't buy much, but spend exactly RM1000 for the weekend (including hotel, which was a great bargain as well ^-^).

We wanted to get on a Tuk Tuk like this dude. (Now we know why isit called a Tuk-Tuk. It horns, tuuukk-tuuukk!!)... But look at the traffic.. =(

I didn't feel like feeding myself with more carbon-monoxide if I were to take a Tuk Tuk back to the hotel. It's only one station away, 15Bh - where a Tuk Tuk costs 100Bh. yikes!

 Maybe, its because I haven't had any Malaysian fruits, all the fruits I had in this miracle city taste simple delicious. 

Managed to have Thai's dessert, 'Mango Sticky Rice' for 160Bh at the airport, 15minutes passed boarding time. x) 

(It was just nasi pulut and small sized mango yang sedap for 16 ringgit. Sedap punya pasal. Sedap. haha)

Alhamdulillah, this journey ends here in the 2nd album.

For now.

It's time for Ramadhan. 

But maybe, I'll be traveling as well.

We'll see.

Ramadhan Mubaarak everyone <3

Weekend in The Land of Smiles - Oh, Bangkok!

. . . 

I was amazed even before the airplane reaches the airport. Suvarnabhumi airport was beautiful. This is one country that beats my expectation to death.

. . .

Took the Express Sky Train to the city to Phaya Thai (150Bh for return tix -which I didn't even use because I took the taxi instead back to the airport) and change for BTS Train to Chitlom station for Bliston Suwan Park View Residence Bangkok.

One thing I am super amazed of this city is how much greenery I see around. Trees are everywhere! MasyaAllah.. Even in housing areas, they have as much trees as they can around every house, even Banana trees!

Parks like these can be seen almost everywhere. &&amazingly, in the city of Bangkok (as far as I'm concerned), I can barely see any rubbish around. What a clean city.

A view from our balcony. Huge trees..

(I wonder if it's because of their teachings that makes them protect these trees. If islam is being carried out the way it was supposed to, meaning that we can't even hurt animals and other living things such as trees, imagine what a wonderful world we'd live in; such greenery and calm)

Bangkok somehow reminds me of Japan (terubat sikit rindu). Feels traditional and laid back, yet quite modern for new technology, services and products.

 Their SevenEleven looks exactly like the ones in Japan, where they have bentos, pastries, lots(and lots) of Japanese brand products (plus they are cheap!) and you can pay all sorts of bills at the counter. & they even have slurpy, which Japan doesn't. A mix of my two favourite countries.

Lotte's Koara-no-Machi, Meiji's cultured drinks (caution!! SUPER DUPER SWEET - I think half of the drink was just SUGAR!), Calbee's Ebi-sen, and yes... bentosss!

Me and Mardhiah went for an aromatherapy Thai massage for 90 minutes, which cost us 850Bh.

 I picked lemongrass (mint for mekdi) for the massaging oil and it was just perfect. =)

- The infamous Pad Thai -

Since we only went there for about two days, there weren't much time for us to explore other parts of the city (and food as well). Mardhiah had Pad Thai twice, and I went with 'I-don't-know-what-do-they-call-it"(above) and Tom Yam Goong (below).

 with steamed Jasmine rice.

 and another Thai signature-dish, Som Tam. 

 That was just it, Alhamdulillah. The food was kinda expensive (at a 'proper' restaurant- 200Bh per dish) since we didn't have the guts to eat at the hawkers.

For the rest of the first album, click here.

I still got lots of things to share &brag &blab about. x)  

will continue soon!

Ramadhan Mubaarak everyone!

<3