Throwback: Mini holiday in Muscat

I guess 2014 can be aptly called the year of traveling for our little family. Fahim has broken Zara's record, in which he started to travel since he was 3 months old, compared to Zara who started at 6 months old. Fahim's first destination was London, definitely unbeatable for Zara whose first trip was to Miri.

I know this post is a little late, but I just like to share our recent trip to Muscat, Oman celebrating Eidul Adha.

The trip was for 4 days 3 nights. I have never been to Oman before. So I did some homework by of course googling and asking a friend of mine Wan Harizah who is currently residing in Muscat. We didn't know what to expect beyond the info that we got, but overall it was a good trip. Not the best though since the best human planner (read: my husband) wasn't the one who led the way (haha!) but yeah, it was enjoyable. Check out our journey.

 The journey to Muscat took us 12 long hours! About 4 hours of the time were spent at the immigration offices, and about 2 hours of lunching + praying + nature's call. Alhamdulillah the kids were alright (read: tak meragam!) and mama tak show tantrums. Lol :D

 Kudos to Mr. Hubs for the high stamina throughout the day. He couldn't really last the journey from Bangi to Muar (his grandma's house)  so 12 hours for him was a great achievement. Well, my record of longest driving was only 6 hours straight.

 

 Okay. So we were too tired to take a few shots on the night of our arrival in Muscat. Here's a glimpse of Muscat scenery from our room. The big building is the Opera House. Very beautiful indeed. But because the weather was still scorching hot at that time, we didn't stop to take photos around the area. But Muscat was beautiful and clean. No skyscraper to boast the uniqueness of the city. I love it. Not being a contributor to the signs of the End of Days is actually very cool. And the people were friendly.

 

Did I say we celebrated Eid here? Haha, so here we were, donning our 'ulang tayang' Eid attire. Picture taken at the lobby of Intercontinental Muscat. Very pricey during peak season. We paid AED1k per night hokeh!

 

The kids and I. The girl in black is my neighbor's daughter. Her name is Alya. Her family was on the trip as well.

 

 Went for a visit to a Malaysian friend who resides in Muscat. Seen in this picture are my travel companions and the 'tuan rumah', Kak Suria

We were on a long journey to see the Bimmah Sinkhole  (I forgot the name of the area) Just look at the view. Excited to see the clouds because clouds are like impossible to see in Dubai. Sigh. I was so dumbfounded by the view of the rocky mountains. It was just spectacular.

 This was the Bimmah Sinkhole. It was really really deep. Not just the water but the staircase leading to it also caused shivers to my spine. I am no fan of swimming though, but this creation by Mother Nature was definitely mind blowing. All praises to Allah.

Fahim and I. Although it was like unbearably hot, but Fahim was a champ. Bila tengok views like this, selalu terfikir how was it back then during Rasulullah SAW's time.. Must have been totally difficult for our Prophet to travel to convey his message.. just how big his Iman was.. incomparable at all.. SubhanAllah..

 

Zara enjoying herself in the hotel compounds.. As usual she always enjoyed her outings at hotels..

 Fahim got introduced to playing with sand.. haha. Bangun pagi terus kena angkut to the beach. Sand castle time! The beach behind Intercontinental Muscat is clean, not as many people as the other end of Qurm beach. Most importantly, it was kinda shaded, thanks to the trees. Haha.  Sorry la mama memang puteri lilin. Papa pun sama jer putera lilin. Lol.

Wefie sket berdua. Macam gambar masa honeymoon kat Bali pulak, lol

Ok, we stopped here at Sultan Al Qaboos Mosque on our final day in Muscat before we head home. The architecture was superb, but the same thing with giant mosques, it was not women and children friendly. Ablution room is located far from the praying hall, in which if we farted then you know what I mean.. either terkentut-jelah-malas-nak-repeat-wuduk-solat-ajelah (sila gauge tahap keimanan sendiri la kan..) or guna-air-mineral-amik-je-wuduk-sambil-siram-air-kat-pokok-tepi-tu (dapat jugak pahala siram pokok kan..) Furthermore, there was no shaded area to connect the ablution area and the praying hall. In short, memang tak human-friendly la.. kalau hujan.. confirm basah.

Kekadang pelik dengan the way buildings are designed.. design la ikut cara manusia function.. bukan nak cantik aje.. duhh

And the worst part is, kids of Zara's age were not allowed to enter. Confirm la mama Zara taknak masuk kalau Zara tak boleh masuk kan.. The condition was Zara had to wear a scarf to enter. I was like nak terkeluar ayat 'wtf!!???' dah tapi memandangkan ni masjid and demi menjaga nama baik Malaysia di mata dunia, ai batalkan sahaja niat itewww. So, sudahnya..

 Sudahnya mama solat je in front of the door of the praying hall! Ada aku kesahh?? Haha. Sayang kan masjid patutnya terbuka jer untuk muslimin muslimat tapi dek kerana restriction yang tak masuk akal terpaksa la mama meng-kempunan-kan diri bersolat dalam dewan masjid yang gah ini demi keselamatan anak-anak.. cewah. Bukannya Zara dah hit puberty and tak reti nak tutup aurat ke apa kan.. Look at the door. Sikit punya lawa but hmmhh.. tiada erti..

Haha.. banyak pulak membebel pasal masjid ni.

Ok so after that, we headed back to home aka Dubai..

The journey back home was made beautiful by the momentary drizzles.. lama sangat tak merasa hujan di bumi Middle East ni.. kekadang terfikir bila kurang hujan adakah berkurangan rahmat dan rezeki daripada Allah.. I'll keep this question in my head..

Ada a few more places that we went to but the pics are in my hub's phone and the camera. Interesting places like The Palace, Zubayr Museum and sightseeing around Muscat. 

In short, Muscat is an interesting place to visit. We would go here again I think so.. but definitely not by car, haha. The looonnngg and weary hours of waiting at the borders is an experience not to be repeated. Naik flight lagi senang. Fly sejam je sampai la Muscat.

Where to eat in Japan?

Actually, the thinking to blog about this post has been quite a while in my head. Tapi kerana masa yang mencemburui (cewah), maka hasrat itu sering terbantut.

Anyway, I dedicate this post to my colleague Alina who is going on her 3-weeks trip to Japan with her Mom and 2 kids. 

I shared the same anxiety like she does when I was about to leave for Japan. No idea about Japan apart from the ideas embedded in my head by my mom about her experience in Japan. Apprehensive about Papa taking care of Zara alone, apprehensive of what to eat there, concerned about the cold weather, etc. But when I was there for a couple of months, seriously I can't find anything to dislike about Japan (have I said it before? Haha!). In fact, Zara didn't have any coughing/ cold/ fever whatsoever when she was there. Perfectly healthy. Balik Malaysia je start.. batuk la, selsema la.. sampai mama pun berjangkit! Boleh rasa the difference in air quality. Cian anak mama.. Malaysia memang makin tak best kan..? (ok la habis la kena kutuk tak patriotik)

Ok. So, what to eat in Japan?

Seriously speaking, I have never suffered the scenario of "tak cukup makan" in Japan. Asyik nak makan ada la kot, haha! If we Malaysians think there is a huge abundance of food in Malaysia, in Japan it seems as twice as much. There are plenty of bakeries, a variety of Asian and European cuisine, lots of cafes to chill in, apart from their homegrown restaurant brands.

The easiest place to buy food (I think!) would be the convenience store. They are easily available wherever we go in Japan. And I always go for these 2 things:

 Egg sandwich. The best ever. Priced around 190-240 Yen. Takkan dapat la kat Malaysia egg sandwich of this quality. Eggs sold in the markets pun sangat bersih. No traces of najis ayam whatsoever. Japan is amazingly conscious about cleanliness. Another fact that made me feel Malaysia tak best.

Onigiri. This is tuna onigiri. It's actually a handful of sticky rice shaped into a triangle, stuffed with tuna. Of course there are other varieties but since we can't eat meat there, tuna is the easiest option. Very cheap.Zara loved this very much.

Other restaurants that we dined in:

 

 Shagorika, an Indian restaurant in Asakusa, Tokyo. 

The curry was heavenly. A must visit if you're nearby the temple area

Hubby, the co-star of my blog in front of the restaurant. Shagorika Asakusa.

Saizeriya chain restaurant. This one was in Asakusa. Very affordable western cuisine (compared to other restaurants offering about the same menu). Only that the portion of the meal is not that big. But we can always order more because it's very affordable.

 

At the cashier of my fave pizza place: Garlic Jo's Queens Shopping Mall, Yokohama

 And not only their pizza tasted great, this fried rice with prawn was a masterpiece too! Memang benchmark nasi goreng dah totally increased ni.

 A halal Nepali restaurant at Queens Shopping Mall too. Khazana. Loved the food and the staff cuz they are very friendly!

This is Delhi Dining, located at Nihon Odori/ Motomachi Chukagai area in Yokohama, which also offers halal food. I think the briyani here was the best among all mamak/ indian cuisine restaurant that I've been to. A bit pricey than Khazana, but it was worth it!

Dining at 105 yen sushi shop. Sounds cheap eh? But the taste wasn't. The salmon sushi with wasabi and avocado just melted in our mouth like mmmmm... heaven!

And, when we were totally clueless on what to eat, McDonald's Ebi (Prawn) Burger can do no wrong. 

Other places to try:

Ginza Tenkuni (Japanese food)
Vie de France (Bakery)
Pompadour (Bakery)
Stone Cold Creamery (Ice cream parlor)
Tully's Coffee (alike to Starbucks)

There are many more that I would like to list. But I guess when you're there, you can explore for yourself where to eat, maybe even better than we did. Anyway, we Muslims shouldn't worry much about food when traveling to Japan. Maybe we'll miss our nasi lemak and roti canai, but we definitely won't starve.

I miss Yokohama.. very much!

Tales in Yangon

(I post this especially for you, Iman!)

Well, it has been a week since I got back from Yangon, visiting Carigali for the Risk Assessment. Here we go, some pics that I have taken and some stories to tell while I was there. More pics in Facebook, definitely.

This is how Yangon city looks like from my room. Simple township I would say. No skyscraper.



I stayed in Traders, which was really near to the market where I did most of my shopping. You can get halal food here, and there are Malaysian chefs working here. Even nasi lemak is served! So I didn't really feel that longing for Malaysian food, hehe. The staff were really accomodating. But if you happen to have a trip to Myanmar and sleep in hotels, be ready with huge notes of USD since they only accept that currency for payment.


I just took this photo to appreciate the Burmese efforts to advertise their products on billboards, haha. You will see most of the billboards in Yangon to be advertising local-produced food. Apart from being a nation of closed-door policy, which does not really welcome imported goods, I sincerely think this is a good effort to cultivate the entrepreneurship within the local community.



Two significant things you can see in this picture. Firstly, the pagoda. Though there are so many pagodas around Yangon, but I think each pagoda has its uniqueness, which I can't tell cuz I don't really know what it is. Secondly, the cars. No new BMWs nor Mercs, very few cars of the 90s even. Why? Because those cars are too damn expensive in Myanmar! You will mainly see cars of the early 80s like Toyota Corolla or Datsun Sunny crowding the streets of Yangon. Even though they are old cars, but each can cost you up to USD$15k ok! Seriously car prices here are bloodsucking. House prices too, are the same. An old apartment (as in the upper levels of shophouses) can easily cost you USD$100k. Info obtained from local Carigali driver.

Well well well. This is a view of a cloth outlet inside the Pojok Market. Some call it the Scot Market. I'm not so sure how to spell it correctly. Here you can buy lotsa things. Precious stones like jade and ruby, various types of Vietnamese-like cloths, t-shirts, ornaments, kain pelikat (or longyi - as in 'long-ji'- as they call it here) and other souvenirs locally made. But one thing for sure, you can't show that you have lotsa money to shop here, or else the beggars will be crowding you. And they even accept RM notes for that matter.

This amoi was so happy that I bought a few pieces of cloth from her shop. Believe me, after I bought one cloth, she still held my hand tightly asking me to buy some more. I was sweating, thinking of how to let loose from her, haha, as I didn't want to spend my money entirely on buying cloth only. So, I came with the idea to take a pic as to end the bargain, and I moved on to other shops.


A photo with the helpful Carigali receptionist. I must say the staffs here, including the Malaysians, were very hospitable. It felt like home going to the office, and the receptionist was really helpful in helping us to change our currency notes from USD to kyats. USD$1 = 1250 kyats, if you're fortunate to get that rate.


Here I was, standing in front of Carigali bungalow. It looked a little bit aged, but the interior is superb, especially the wooden carvings along the staircase. Oh, yeah, the toilets are clean too. In fact, too clean that even KLCC and Dayabumi is not a comparison. How cool is that!


The only place besides the Pojok Market that we visited: the Yangon Zoo. Here I was pictured with Tin Zaw Myint, Carigali offshore technician who was so kind to bring Alina and I around the town. Notice him wearing the longyi to the zoo. In fact, this kind of attire is called the executive/ formal attire in Myanmar. And some of the longyi sold here are made of silk, to add to the aesthetics. The awesome thing about Burmese guys wearing longyi is that, no matter how they run or walk or sit, the longyi seem to be firmly tied without the men having to tie over and over again. Unlike Malaysian guys who wear kalin pelikat eh, haha.


Last night in Yangon, Carigali Myanmar was really kind to organize a farewell dinner at MiCasa Hotel. There were like 5 teams from Carigali KL, PMO, SBO, SKO and GTS KL visiting Yangon that week, and it was really good to have them around.

After the dinner. Alina was trying to take my photo when these kids suddenly came out of nowhere to take a pic with me. Pity them, they were still begging at this time of night (about 9.30 pm local time, 11.00 pm Malaysia time) Since kyats is so much smaller compared to USD, giving donation here is not an issue for us (berlagak orang kaya la kunun..)


I was about to leave the airport. This is the newly-built Yangon International Airport. From what I was informed, it was built by the Singapore contractors, in which you can tell the taste by looking at the design. It is a pretty airport, but not as big as KLIA. Things here are only sold in USD. I didn't manage to finish my kyat notes. Perhaps I will be back in Yangon to finish all those notes, haha. Guess who did I meet at the airport? The Malaysian football team who lost to Myanmar 4-1 the previous night. Seeing me a Malaysian, they said hello. Thank God I didn't slip my tongue and claim "Eh, you guys lost the game kan?" haha. Tak2, I'm not that bad.

How macho are you?

I thought that I could break the record of posting more than 4 posts per month in October.. gawd I was wrong!

I was away for the whole last week. The only fact that I hate when traveling is that it is hard for me to get connected to the Internet. I paid nearly RM 60 just to get myself connected for less than 30 minutes. That was at Hyatt Kuantan. So expensive.

After this, you guys should really understand why I call myself macho, hehe. Well, this is what I did today:

Visiting Energy Commission building site in Putrajaya

.. alongside my GTS senior engineer and her former boss. Sorry the pics are not that pretty since my phone cam is only VGA.

The view of Palace of Justice from the site rooftop

The fragile staircase that brought us to the roof. It was shaking when we were climbing upstairs. Never imagined I could get myself stepping on it. One thing I know for sure, heights don't shiver me anymore (habis la lepas ni abah suruh panjat tangga bersihkan drainage kat atap)

Hey look! I'm stepping on structural steel! (yang mana dahulunya saya sangat scared kerana risau kaki berdarah terpijak besi, he he he..) The white tubes are cooling tubes, to chill the soon-to-be-built concrete slabs for the ceilings and floors ( first time la nak pakai kasut flat macam ni. Kalau tak pergi site visit, jangan mimpi la nak beli..)

This is a close-up view on how the cooling tubes are mounted on the structural steel. Cooling tubes are an alternative to using air conditioners as coolers for this particular building.

This lady is one of a kind! Aneeta, or Kak Ita as I call her, a mother of four, and yet she still can brave all the heights inside the plants and this building site, just to increase her understanding. She took me to 4 GDC plants in two days, and she made me climbed one of the cooling towers inside GDC plant in Putrajaya. She's truly my GTS Idol! Seriously, it feels great to know a macho engineer-cum-mother.

Hm, I do have a topic to talk about. I am waiting for THE enlightenment to come.. soon!

Of plants and pets

My fave spot in my house and its compound would be the lawn.

Though the bougainvillea plants are not really budding that many flowers, I never give up hope to see them popping new petals.. and I always wait for the next weekend to come, to see if there is any good progress.

Yerp.. the greeneries around the house helps me to calm down somehow.. there is pleasure being surrounded by green growing trees and plants. Furthermore, the longan tree is starting to bear fruits. We also have a few tapioca plants, and they are growing fast. Siapa nak free sayur pucuk ubi, bolehlah mintak ye.. no charge at all :)

Ooops.. hehe.. that is Ozal in the top-left pic. I am not sure what was he checking on.

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When I came downstairs this morning, Mom told me that our 2-week adopted little mynah which we called Chipchip has died. It didn't really eat since yesterday morning. I thought Chipchip was getting bored of the bird palette that we have been feeding it. Chipchip's death added our bad record in raising pets.. sigh.

We had a few pets before: 2 kittens, a cat which we called Minah, 3 Oscars, a mynah (which we didn't give a name) and Chipchip.

We had the Oscars as Ozal's birthday present. I think that was back in 2002. They were really aggressive, and they fed on small fishes and tiny shrimps. They died at the same time my grandmother was stricken by dengue in 2003. We didn't know if the Oscars were infected also, but yeah.. it was sad that we had an empty aquarium after the incident. Mom didn't wanna have fishes as pets anymore.

THE OSCARS

Minah was a special stray cat for us. The fact that she always dropped by in the morning and at night ignited our affection for her. A few days after giving birth to her two lovely kittens in our kitchen, she behaved really differently. She vomited and excreted everywhere in the lawn, and the last time we saw her was when she was lying under the pudding plant at the corner of the lawn. We were very sad and buried her. We gave away her kittens to my aunt, who is a better caretaker of cats compared to us.

Chipchip came after about two years after we didn't really have any pet. She was an orphan nestling, left abandoned on my room ceiling. My dad took it off the ceiling and brought it down, since she was making noises up there. For the first two weeks, she was okay. I didn't really know what went wrong.. but I suppose she must have been needing something that we can't give her: a mother bird's treat. Today, she left us.. I felt really bad..

That mynah.. oh she was an even more fragile story.. I can't really recall though..

But all I know, I wouldn't wanna be so auspicious of taking care of animals again.. Though the intention is good, but I would prefer if their life span can be prolonged if they stay in their own comfortable zone.. that even cushions and expensive palettes can't compare.

I wonder if I can keep these words..