Horse riding with Indiana Rose

La la la la la....
Kudaku lari gagah berani... jeng jengjeng jeng...



My black Indiana Rose was a bit moody :-(
Hamim's Bonny seems having a good time :-)

We took half an hour riding lesson for MYR80.
In the ring, the Caucasian trainer trained us riding the horse around, left , right, center, stop the horse and then took a riding outside the stable.
Awesome first time riding experience :-)

Read more »

こんにちは (Konichiwa)

Japanese Tea House, Bukit Tinggi Resort, Bentong, Pahang.

Read more »

"Kanak-kanak riang" in Krabi, Thailand

Six "kanak-kanak riang" had thrilling fun in Krabi, Thailand last week.

Syifak, Yunk, Erin, Hana, A'a & Me!
Awesome!!

Food & Shopping

After checked-in at Sunda Resort, we headed to Ao-nang,a small town in Krabi, for lunch. We're damn hungary after the 1-hour-plus flight. Luckily, there are many Muslims around as they claimed that 99% of the people over there are Muslims. Indeed, we saw quite a number of mosques on our way from airport to the hotel. So, food is not a problem at all. We had various kind of food ranging from

a nice Thai food restaurant


to a makeshift stall by the road side


to a motorbike-cum-stall along the pavement


and to a thatched roof stall in the village nearby

Believe it or not, we had 3 nasi kerabu, 2 roti kosong, 3 roti telur dan 6 glass of air teh-O for only 150 baht, that's 25 baht per person (around MYR 2.50)!

Well, our budget for food depleting over days :P
Of all the foods, we craved for Banana pancake every night!


Then, what else??? Shopppppiiiinggg!!
We spent thousand of baht in just the first night!
Come on... thousand of baht is just a hundred ringgit, okay :P

4-Island Longtail boat trip

It's just like island hopping. We first hopped on Poda Island, then Chicken Island, then Tup Island and finally Phra nang beach and cave.

The unique thing about Tup Island is that during low tide, you can walk along the white, sandy beach joining the neighboring islands.



See the small waves clashing each other from opposite site, subsided gradually giving a way to make a causeway joining the Tup Island with Chicken Island. SubhanAllah...

Riang ria in swimming pool

This is what happen when "Kanak-kanak riang" found a swimming pool:


From top left, that's what we called "Single Cannon Ball Jump". That was the first time I did it. Actually, my swimming coach (cum co-worker) had challenged me to do that during our company trip in Tioman last month. But, I didn't dare to do it because there were so many people in the pool including kids. I don't want to fail in front of those kids. Come on. I grabbed the chance in Krabi because we conquered the pool for ourselves :D I'll show the picture as the proof to her. I'm very grateful to have such a great swimming coach. Because of her, I can now do floating and back stroke, in addition to breast stroke and free style which I learned from my swimming lessons in Singapore. Thank you very much, Sharone! Muahh..

Next is "Double Cannon Ball Jump". That makes me feel like we're the athletes for the Olympics in high dive double. kuikuikui...

9KM white water rafting (Level II-IV) at Bhor Thor

This is the best part of all! I like it ahaks..ahaks..


It took us one and half hour drive from Ao-nang to Bhor thor. Funny thing was, we dropped by at the Monkey Temple Cave. I ended up paying a visit to the monkeys in swimming suit! :D ooppsss...wrong dress code, babe!

It was my first time rafting. I've always wanted to try it. And finally I made it. Oh yeah!

We took up the 9KM Real Rafting package from The Traveller. They are awesome, friendly and fun! Great teamwork from all the staff. The staff not only be your rafting guide, but they also will personally served you a delicious lunch! If you go to Krabi, you MUST try rafting with them. Note, there are many companies offering rafting package. But, we heard great feedback about them from the agents and the westerners like to go with them too. True enough, they are awesome. The way they treat you will definitely make your experience a memorable one. Believe me!



Waterfall

We ended our day by taking a dip in a cool refreshing waterfall not far from the rafting camp.

Read more »

My very own travel & adventure map

• View my profile


• Create your own travel map or travel blog


• Find vacation rentals at TripAdvisor

Read more »

18 Jun 2011 - Paris, France (1 day 1 night)

1 day 1 night in Paris,
believe it or not?












P/S: It was a rush trip. Business trip cum super speed sightseeing. No time for reading/get-to-know the places before flying. You know what, I simply stopped by and enjoy, sometimes (or most of the time) without knowing what-the-hell I'm staring at / visiting to! So, this post is a way for me put pieces together.

Friday, 17 Jun 2011, 6PM. Rushed out from Quintiq office, took taxi to train station and boarded train to Amstel to catch 10PM Eurolines bus to Paris!

Gallienie, Paris

Saturday, 18 Jun 2011, 6AM. Reached the bus stop at Gallienie. From there, we took metro to Trocadero, then walk to Eiffel Tower. Thanks for the tips I found on the net. The scenic walk was wonderful.



Tips: Take line 3 to République (6 stops away) and then line 9 in the direction of Pont de Sèvres as far as Trocadéro. The total trip time on the métro is 35 minutes.
At République, look for the sign that says "correspondance" and follow signs pointing you to métro 9 and make sure you take it in the right direction.

We met a Taiwanese guy, James, who traveled alone from Denmark on business trip just like us. He joined us visiting a few places there before we parted for hotel check-in.

P/S: The bus was really mediocre. The seat is small, not as nice and big as the bus I used to take back and forth KL-Spore. Can't really sleep well.

Eiffel Tower (aka Iron Lady)

"A puddle iron lattice tower, built between 1887 and 1889 as the entrance arch for the Exposition Universelle, a World's Fair marking the centennial celebration of the French Revolution."

That morning, we were the first group to arrived Eiffel Tower. Can't miss the golden chance. Waited for 2 hours, cold cold cold. The wind seemed to blow stronger under the tower! Gosh... Finally, we made it through as the first batch to the second level by lift for the day! Hurray!!!

Once I stepped my foot on the second level of the tower and looked around the marvelous view, then only I understand why it's called "City of Light". I'm sure the view would be fantastic at night! We planned to come here again to watch sunset :-)



Flea market in Paris

Walking away from the tower, we stopped by at an open air flea market. I guess it's this one: Saxe-Breteuil Market. Bought french-middle-east kebab for lunch. And enjoying nice sweet fresh cherries :-)



Arc de triomphe de L’Etoile

"The Arc de Triomphe (in English: "Triumphal Arch") honours those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars, with the names of all French victories and generals inscribed on its inner and outer surfaces. Beneath its vault lies the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I."



Walked. Stopped at Arc de Triomphe. Raining. Heavy rain. Gloomy day. I looked up on the sky and mesmerized with the clouds moving so fast blown by the wind. It reminded me of what Yosia, my colleague, told me the other day, the clouds in Paris is very light! Hahahhaa....true indeed. Smiled. Then, started walking to Avenue des Champs Elysees once the rain stopped.

Avenue des Champs Elysees



This street definitely for the famous and glams. Not me. Branded handbags, shoes, apparels and you-name-it. Shop till you drop. I bought n o t h i n g.

Place du Pantheon (Paris Law Faculty)

"One of the four faculties of the old University of Paris."

I managed to grab Paris t-shirts from nearby souvenir store for my family members :-)

Cathedrale Notre Dame (aka Lady of Paris)

"Notre Dame de Paris is a Gothic, Catholic cathedral of the Catholic Archdiocese of Paris. It is widely considered one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture in France and in Europe, and the naturalism of its sculptures and stained glass are in contrast with earlier Romanesque architecture."

Quick stop here.

Musee du Louvre (Louvre Museum)

"One of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. Nearly 35,000 objects from prehistory to the 19th century are exhibited over an area of 60,600 square metres (652,300 square feet). The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace (Palais du Louvre) which began as a fortress built in the late 12th century under Philip II. Remnants of the fortress are visible in the basement of the museum. The building was extended many times to form the present Louvre Palace. Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is in there!"

One of my favorite stop. Love the water pool surrounding the glass pyramid. Simply awesome. Didn't manage to enter the museum, closed, late afternoon. But, managed to enter the glass pyramid and wandering around at the lounge.



Place de la Concorde



"Place de la Concorde, is one of the major public squares in Paris, France. In fact, in terms of area, its 8.64 hectares (21.35 acres) make it the largest square in the French capital. It is located in the city's eighth arrondissement, at the eastern end of the Champs-Élysées."

Luxor Obelisk

"Luxor Obelisk is a 23 metres (75 ft) high Egyptian obelisk standing at the center of the Place de la Concorde in Paris, France. It was originally located at the entrance to the Luxor Temple, in Egypt."

Luxembourg Garden

"Luxembourg Gardens, is the second largest public park in Paris (224,500 m² (22.5 hectares) located in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, France. The park is the garden of the French Senate, which is itself housed in the Luxembourg Palace."

On the way walking back to Eiffel Tower for sunset, we stopped by at a huge, super nice garden, the Luxembourg Garden. I simply enjoyed sitting by the water pool watching ducks paddling around. And of course, a break for my painful foot!

Read more »

4 - 12 Jun 2011: Helsinki, Finland

4 Jun 2011, Saturday
Touched down at Schiphol airport, Amsterdam from KLIA after my very first loooooong flight (12 hours). Transit flight to Helsinki, Finland for another 3hr 25min. Only now I understand why people hate long flight. I did walked to the back of the plane to just stand on my two feet, can't take the seating anymore!


Checked-in the hotel. Going up to the room is a discovery itself. They have a "weird" lift ('hissi' in Finnish), see picture. It has frozen-fridge-like door which you need to open before entering! With big luggage, max only 2 persons can fit it at one go. kuikuikui... With the heavy trolley bag, I squeezed myself into my very-small single room. Imagine, half of the room is a single bed and another half is a narrow space as small as the width of the single bed. Too bad I didn't take picture of it.

And, You know what??
After the very first hour of the first day in hotel, just before I went out from the room to go to the city, I dropped my camera on the floor! Oh crap.. It's gone! I can hear crackling sound when I shake it. There goes my old camera (Ricoh) which I purchased in Singapore. What to do? In the city, I ended up buying a new camera (Canon IXUS 220) at EUR219!!

That day we discovered almost all sightseeing spots in the city.

Esplanadi Park (Etelaesplanadi)



Market Square
At the end of Esplanadi facing the sea, this open-air market sells fresh fish, vegetables, berries and other produce and souvenirs too. I was busy choosing the magnet and keychain when the seller greet me with salam. I was surprised and happy at the same time to meet the Muslims in the foreign place. The father and daughter, they originally from Middle East have been living in Helsinki for 20 years.

Watch out for the seagulls! They can scoop your ice-cream or snatch your berries out of your hands in no time.


Senate Square
Senate Square houses the palace of the Senate, as well as the main building of the University of Helsinki, both of which were designed by famed architect Carl L. Engel. The center of the square has a statue of the Emperor Alexander II. The square's neo-classical design makes it one of the most attractive squares in the European continent.



From left:
- Ateneum Art Museum and National Museum - Under renovation
- Lutheran Cathedral
- Uspenski Cathedral (Uspenskin katedraali)
- Aleksanterinkatu (Aleksi) - Rows of shops and department stores.

6 - 10 Jun 2011, Monday-Friday
Working...

On Wednesday, we had a Finnish-Scandinavian tradition fine dining with the customer at Restaurant Hvitträsk (Ravintola Hvitträsk) which is surrounded by a breathtaking and mesmerizing view of the countryside.



11 Jun 2011, Saturday
During the final weekend before leaving for Den Bosch, we took a ferry trip to Soumenlina Island, the amazing sea fortress. It's like a township of military occupants. I explored through its deep, dark and cold tunnels. I wasn't prepared for it. Exploring through the darkness without torch light, I bang my head against one of the arch. Ouch...



Check out more pictures in my facebook

To be continued with the adventure in Den Bosch in the next post!

Read more »

Europe trip

Just got back from Europe last Wednesday.
I never thought that I'll be stepping my foot in Europe this soon!
Alhamdulilah...rezeki from Him :-)

If you see from my travel plan here, Europe is #4 in the list. Somehow, it shot up by mere luck :D

Well, to start with, I did told you last time that I was working hard on customer project, a postal company in Helsinki, Finland. Finally, modeling phase completed and it was time for 70% demo at customer site. So, my team and I went to Helsinki, Finland for a week for the demo and ID kickoff and then we flew to Den Bosch, Netherland, our company headquarter before heading back home.

Oooppsss...wait... just before we heading back home, we took 2-day off plus the weekends and did a sprint tour to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam! Gosh!! Yeah... I know it may sound crazy. But, we did it!

Considering all QSs (the programmers) went there together, we cant afford to have plenty day-off. So we just have to make do with 4-day Europe sprint tour.

Here's just the glimpse of my Europe trip. I'll posting day-to-day experience soon. Stay tune.

Read more »

A Passage to India

One of my resolutions for Year 2011 is traveling.

For almost 2 years (since my return from Singapore), I have been tightening my belt and save every nickel and penny for my house renovation. That's not counting the many years ever since I was a little girl with a big dream, started saving money to buy my dream house. It's now under renovation. InsyAllah, we will move in this April.

With that, I could unfreeze my traveling plan!

A passage to India would be a great treat for me after years of hard work, sacrifices and patience.

Actually, I've been saying to myself and friends to visit China. However, a friend of mine mentioned that he planned to travel to India. Since India is also in my list, I don't mind to put it first over China, which I can plan after India trip.

Well, my short list so far looks like this:
1) India
2) China
3) Middle East
4) Europe

A Passage to India

We are planning for a 10 or more backpacking trip to India next year. So, this year is the year of planning :-) Yes... it's still a long way to go. But, at least we can start with something and hopefully we can materialize the plan, insyAllah :-)

I have quite a number of Indian friends because I worked in an Indian company for 5 years! Friends from Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad (my ex-company headquarter), Bangalore, Gujarat, Mumbai, Kolkata and many more. I hope I can meet up with some of them over there although most of them are working abroad, away from India. We'll see who's lucky!

Frankly, I know nothing about the geography of India, what's in the north and what's in the south. I never really study India map for real. Only last week, I browsed India map and getting to know the places. All this time, I just hearing the name of places and never really know which part of India they belong to.

Getting to know the places is the first step in the planning so that we know where to go and what to see or do.

India is a huge colorful country and full of diversity in terms of climates, geography, language, culture, religion etc.



One can find white carpeted mountains of snow and lush forest of pines and maple in the beautiful Kashmir on further North or Mount Himalaya in North East.

Amazingly, one can also find blazing, arid and vast sand dunes on the desert landscape of Rajasthan, North West of India.



In general comparison, North India has seasonal climate (winter, summer or pre-monsoon season, Moonsoon or rainy season and Post-monsoon season), mostly speak Hindi, people have fair skin color and atta (whole wheat flour) is their staple food.
Whereas in South India, it has tropical climate with little difference between the summer and winter temperature. During summer season, temperature of some places may reach as high as 42 degrees centigrade. Many people speak Tamil or Telegu and have darker skin color. They take rice as their staple food. South India is pretty much similar to Malaysia or perhaps hotter.

Taj Mahal, one of the 7 Wonders of the World is in Agra, Uttar Pradesh of North India. India is full of monuments, palaces, forts, temples, mosques and museums.



However, Mumbai (aka Bombay) alone I find interesting on its own. 3 places in Mumbai which stand out to be unique and different to me are Dhobi Ghat, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus and Chor Bazaar.

Dhobi Ghat is termed as the world's largest outdoor laundry. The washers locally known as Dhobis work in open to wash the clothes from Mumbai's hotels and hospitals. There are row upon row of open-air concrete wash pens, each fitted with its own flogging stone.



Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (aka Victoria Terminus) is one of the busiest railway stations in India, and serves Central Railway trains terminating in Mumbai as well as the Mumbai Suburban Railway. At noon, you can watch its famed dabbawallas deliver more than 200,000 hot lunches prepared by housewives for their husbands working in the office. I once watched this on National Geographic. Particularly impressive is their efficient system – Forbes magazine has calculated its accuracy to one error per six million transactions.

Chor Bazaar: "Chor" is in Hindi which means thieves. "Bazaar" is Persian word, also known in Malay, Hindi, Turkish and Greek which means market. Together they make out "thieves market". Originally, it was called Shor Bazaar meaning "noisy market" but "shor" became "chor" because of how the British mispronounced the word. Eventually stolen goods started finding their way into the market, resulting in it living up to its new name! These days it's famous for antique and vintage items.

Some options we can consider are:

Delhi -> Agra – > Jaipur
- The famous Golden Triangle Delhi - Agra - Jaipur.

Delhi -> Agra -> Jaipur -> Jodhpur -> Jaisalmer
- I would love to go to Jaisalmer for the desert dunes and domes.

Mumbai -> Gujarat -> Jaipur -> Agra -> Delhi
- Start from the busy city of Mumbai, move up to Gujarat, Jaipur, Agra and finally end at Delhi

Well, there's still a lot of time to browse and plan :-)
Gosh... I'm very excited!

Read more »

Jungle trekking @ FRIM

It's been years since KLGamblerz get together for adventure trip. On Sunday 16 Jan 2011, half of the geng went to FRIM, Kepong. I never been there before even though I stay not far from it.

Founder and pioneer members of KLGamblerz gang are Erik (aka Oggy), Paklah, Kak Rasha (aka cheesechoc), Baie (aka cataly5t), Kapes and me (aka speed). Now, the gang has grown with new members with Rania and Rafiq (Kak Rasha & Baie's kids), Intan (Paklah's wife) and Mardhiah with 2 kids (Kapes's family).



First pic: from left, Erik, Wanie, Paklah & Intan.

I was not feeling quite well actually (sore throat) and went to clinic the day before. But, I stubbornly insisted of joining the trip. Perhaps, due to the medicine I took after Subuh prayer, I was asleep and didn't notice my alarm ringing. I woke up by the call from Paklah and it was already 8.20AM and we are supposed to meet up at FRIM at 8.30AM! Well done. I quickly took shower, got ready, grab some bread with planta for breakfast on the way, dash off and drove like mad. I reached FRIM around 8.45AM, emmm..not bad.



We first headed to information center to get some brochures to find out what activities we can do here. Unfortunately, the information is limited and we only got a so-not-helping map. We started with trekking on Salleh trail followed by Rover trail. Salleh trail is interesting because we have to walk through the forest along narrow rooted path. Roger trail is wider and developed which can be used by vehicle and bicycle.

We finally stopped at the Malay Tea House, where I had Misai kucing herbal tea well-known for detox, slimming and traditionally used for kidney bladder stones, liver, gallbladder, diabetic problems, urinary tract infections, to reduce cholesterol and high blood pressure. It is also taken for rheumatism and gout, although its effectiveness for these problems has not been scientifically verified. Researchers have found it to be mildly antiseptic as well.

Misai means whiskers, kucing means cat, so together it makes out as cat's whiskers. The reason behind the name is because the medicinal plant has a unique flower, white and bluish in color with far-exerted filaments that looks like cat's whiskers.

Common names for this pant are Misai Kuching (Malaysia), Kumis Kucing and Remujung (Indonesia), Java Tea and Kidney Tea (European), Yaa Nuat Maeo (Thailand).

Scientific Names are Orthosiphon Stamineus Benth, Ocimum Aristatum BI., Orthosiphon Aristatus (Blume).

Plant family: Lamiaceae, Labiatae

It is a medicinal plant, native in South East Asia (Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand) and some part of Tropical Australia. It is a herbaceous shrub which grows to a height of 1.5 meter. In the wild, the plant can be seen growing along the forest edges, roadsides and wasteland.



The funny thing is that we end up playing "tutup botol" (direct translation is bottle cap - the game I used to play when I was kid. I was "jaguh kampung" in this game!) and "congkak" - traditional Malay game at the Malay Tea House. We make ourselves home!

There are many other activities available in FRIM like bird watching, jogging, mountain bike, picnic, camping, botanical garden and the best of all, canopy walk but it was closed for maintenance until March.

We are determined to come again for weekend treat to explore more!

P/S: It served me right, due to my stubbornness joining the trip despite not feeling well, I suffered fever and on MC for 2 days! kuikuikui...

Read more »