My new Baby!!!!

Dah lama x menulis.. sekali menulis, terus 2-3 entry.. wakakkakaa...

Main Reason: to update on my new baby.. I got a new babyyy.. his name is Black (of course la kan)..

So let me introduce you to him:

This was when we first met... 

And his life key ..

and recently I took him for a ride..

Brand: Yamaha XJ6 ... fall in love with this baby ...

Kedai Bunian.. hehehehehe...

Eating time: Lunch 11.30am - 3.00pm ( i think.. hehheee)

Price: RM14 per pax (baru naik jek harga nih, dulu RM12.. caittt)

Location: Kpg Sg Merab (near to Putrajaya)

Menu: Change everyday.. so you need to call them to ask..

They cook, and you eat... no questions will be entertain.. 

My score: 4 out of 5

Reason:
I love the place because it's in a village.. rural area.. it's like going home for lunch.. and you mother cook what she wants, and you just eat.. just like that .. even the drinks was not up to my expectation (not at all, sirap x manis, air laici macam minum air kosong ada laici jek), but I never complain to my mom, right?? hahahaahahaa.. so just to set your expectation when you decided to have lunch there.. 

Ketam masak lomak.. huishhhh so yummy!!!!

Ikan masak kicapp... wooohoooo...

Want to have lunch here? SMS to this number for booking:

warung bunian

kak lang 0173812246

Durban, South Africa

Date: 12 - 19 July 2013

Reason: ICANN Meeting

Went to Africa for 2nd time in my life.. this time, Durban .. it's a beautiful place with sea view.. the hotel that I stayed faced the ocean, it was such a lovely view with a very very strong wind..

I didn't went anywhere except looking for food because the meeting was very long and tiring .. but that was the main reason I'm here, so no complaining.. 

My experience:

1. Durban is a small, but beautiful town.. clean in most of the area .. it has few interesting places not far from the city.. very nice place to do your morning or evening run / jog / walk..

strong wind...

 

Unique dumpster..

2. It's a muslim city.. majority of the restaurants are halal.. Alhamdulillah.. soo I'm so LOVE THIS PART!!!!

but they still have few beggars around, so it was quite sad to see people begging for your food while you were enjoying it.. no wonder people don't sit by the window in every restaurant.. :'(

it always make me feel so thankful for everything I have..

I forgot the name of this restaurant, but it's just next to my hotel .. and it's so yummy!

Halal KFC.. wuhuuuu love it!!! Chakalakalalalaaa chicken.. :D

Always look for this sign..

Restaurants by the beach..

3. Durban also known as Bollywood city as it has lots of Indian stayed and became permanent resident / south african nationality in this city...

4. I also like to see surfers in the morning while viewing the sunrise at 6.30am..

Beautiful Sunrise..

My favorite moment!!

5. I managed to skip lunch (because it was Ramadhan - fasting month) and take a short ride to the top of Durban's stadium.

Inside the small train...

View or Durban..

ok, it's not really a train.. just a small box with wheel.. hehehe ..

6. Few more last photos.. 

Overall ... it's a nice place to have a meeting and to come for work... and surfing.. if you surf .. ;)

New dream - AMERICA

It's been years I didn't go to America, or the states..

So this year, I decided to set my goal to go this the States again ..

Everything start with a dream.. this year..  to see New York or LA..

I like to go with MAS airlines (because of the Enrich Points) to LAX but New York seems a little more tempting at this moment.. MAS Airlines does not have direct flights to New York..

SO: I'm gathering information about this year trip.. NEW YORK!!!! (or at least as of now.. hahaha )

Plan to travel by 20th December till 10th January.. so I can use up both my 2013 and 2014 annual leave..

The PLAN:

1.  Will go to KWSP to take out my monthly payment for my house .. at least I don't have to pay the house monthly payment for 10 months and save the money for my trip.. (but first need to get my Identity Card replaced - i misplaced it and it's gone missing.. arghhhhhh)..

2.  Raya bonus money will go to the trip saving as well...

Traveling Partner: NONE
 - Decided to go alone this time.. was in Houston before and US seems ok and safe to travel alone.. my long lost friend might come for a day or two to travel together..

Another SO: Part 1 in traveling is - DREAM. That's done.

Next : Info gathering and planning..

Wish me luck!!!

Beautiful Bali

I've been invited to speak at a conference on a small project I did last year.. so I went there 2 days earlier just to explore Bali my way..

Never get bored of this view.. I always knew that blue is my fav color

Reached Ngurah Rai airport around afternoon, and took a taxi for 70,000 rupiah, around RM21 (http://www.xe.com) to the hotel that I booked using www.booking.com. I choose a hotel near to the hotel of my conference which will be my next place to stay..

I chose Kuta Lagoon Resort and Pool Villa at Legian Street.. at first, I was given a room at 2nd level and quite far with no window.. I can't stand being in a place without a window.. so I asked for a change .. at least at level 1 and near the pool.. the pool was superb.. I don't mind paying extra to get a room that attached to a pool.. but they told me that the room were full.. but the managed to give me a room at 1st floor nearer to the exit.. that's fine with me..

My review about the hotel:
1. Nice hotel for its price.. friendly staff.. decent breakfast.. as a muslim, you will have eggs, fruits, bread .. that's enough for me :)
2. Location: 10 mins to the Kuta Beach (walking) .. lots of shops around for your shopping.. but quite far from the main shopping area (i think) .. if you want to go to HRC, it will take about 30 mins walking, or you can take a taxi that may cost less than 30,000 IDR - but defnitely 50,000 IDR at night.
3. if you have extra money, book for the one attached with the pool.. you won't regret ..

the walkway

The pool

Pool area

Walkway to my room

I didn't took a photo in my room.. sorry about that..

In the evening, i walked along the famous kuta beach where it famous as a surfing area..

Enjoying diet coke at Kuta Beach

It's reallly longgg.. and you can see the airplanes landing and take off

Day 6: Uludag, Bursa

A week almost over now.. on our 6th day, we are in Bursa.. and the only thing I really look forward to, is Uludag!! I want to touch the snow, I want to feel it under my skin, I want to swim in it if I can.. hahahahaa .. people mentioned about Bursa as a place to shop.. but who cares about shopping... I didn't come to Turkey to shop.. didn't put any budget for it anyway.. so Uludag is definitely my main thing in Bursa..

Uludag is just 30 mins away from Bursa .. after breakfast at the hotel in Bursa, we followed our GPS to Uludag.. opss btw, the hotel is not really cheap as Bergama, but we don't really have a choice.. it cost me around 70-80lira, I think.. it's a big town, so I think it was just appropriate cost.. and we were tired, so we just stayed at the first hotel we find..

Back to Uludag story.. btw, there was no snow at all in Bursa .. after 15 mins climbing (by car of course, hahahaha Oh my English!!!) the road to the place, we started to doubt our GPS, as we had bad history with it.. but just few minutes later, we saw a car with snow all over it's roof .. OMG!!! my heart pumps with excitement.. superb!!! and after a few more minutes of driving.. you will start seeing snow, and more snow .. and whole land and trees covered with white.. my heart was crying with gratefulness to my Creator for giving me the opportunity to see this beautiful place..

for those who lived in 4 seasons country, you might feel like normal to see snow, but for me, it was priceless ..

I start singing my fav song:

"Perjalanan ini terasa sangat menyedihkan

Sayang engkau tak duduk, disampingku kawan

Banyak cerita.. yang mestinya kau saksikan

Di tanah kering berbatuan" ...

I know .. I know.. the lyrics doesn't make sense with what I saw at that time.. but it was a great song, and I was so amazed by the view.. and this song always remind me to be thankful to Allah.. and at that time, that was exactly how I feel..

Here are some superb photos for uols. :)

Beautiful Uludag

Syoknya main salji..

Tried skiing, but failed tremendously.. so I gave up..

Superb view!!!

Another superb view..

"kawan cuba dengar apa jawapnya
ketika ia ku tanya mengapa
bapak ibunya telah lama mati
ditelan bencana tanah ini..

sesampainya di laut.. ku khabarkan semuanya
kepada awan, kepada ombak, kepada matahari
tetapi semua diam.. tetapi semua bisu
tinggal aku sendiri.. terpaku menatap langit..

barangkali di sana ada jawabnya..
mengapa ditanahku terjadi bencana
mungkin Tuhan mulai bosan melihat tingkah kita
yang selalu salah dan bangga dengan dosa-dosa
atau alam mulai enggan
bersahabat dengan kita
cuba kita bertanya pada.. rumput yang bergoyang"

Day 6: Great late lunch at Canakkale

It was hard to say good bye to Adryn from Athena Pension in Bergama .. He was such a nice person and although we pay to stay there, but he made us feel like home.. if I ever come back to Turkey, I would love to try and find time to visit this city again..

We set our GPS to Canakkale just after noon.. another town next to Bergama.. it will take another 3 hours if I'm not mistaken.. we can start see Istanbul signage on our way, reminding us that our journey will be over soon.. :(

On our road to Canakkale

We reached Canakkale around 4pm.. it was also a small city and has a few historical monument too.. like the famous Troy.. I'm sure you heard about Troy.. the big wooden horse used by Troy during the Trojan War long long time ago.. I would love to see this place, but we were a bit late and hungry.. so we decided not to stay in Canakkale, but just stop for late lunch..

We had not taken our lunch in Bergama and the last time we ate was in the morning with some bread and soup.. so by 4pm, we were starving.. hahahaha.. one we reached Canakkale, we entered the first restaurant that we find.. and almost everyone in the restaurant were happy to see tourists walked in.. and we ordered until our table was full.. hahahahaa

It's like a culture in Turkey, where they order only 1 plate of dish + rice or bread .. this was our late lunch, definitely not a Turkish culture..

we finished all this in less than 10 minutes.. hahahaa

People in the restaurant were so fascinated to see us.. and this one particular man sat with us just to know our story .. he even had his niece to sit with us (as she can speak English) .. she became the translator between us..

The man in the suit was the one who were so excited to see us, his brother (the owner of the shop) and his niece..

Group photo

We spent another half an hour to chat with the family and they gave us 2 desserts for free.. and when we want to leave, they gave us water bottle (for free too).. they were so nice and lovely!!!!!

I will never forget their kindness..

Day 5: Sweet town Bergama

Bergama was known as Pergamon, a small city at Izmir Province at western Turkey. We reached this small town at night and I had my perfect sleep on a bed with a warmer attached to it.. So comfy and .. warm.. hahahaha ..

We woke up and ready to explore the town by 8am. I did bumped to Adryn and say hi to him before we left.. Had breakfast in one of the restaurant and had my fav lethil soup in one of the small restaurant..

Small and peaceful Bergama Town

Breakfast - Lovely lethil soup

Then, using our GPS, we walked to Pergamon also known as Bergama Akropolis ..

The Traianeum (Temple of Trajan) on the Acropolis of Pergamum.

The Traianeum (Temple of Trajan) on the Acropolis of Pergamum.

Acropolis of Pergamum

Pergamum's dramatic theater.

At west side of the area, carved into the steep hillside, is the dramatic Hellenistic theater. Like most Hellenic and Hellenistic theaters, it offered a scenic panorama just in case the play was boring. :)

Note 1:
I know this will happen.. I started to loose the passion in writing about my journey, and I will end up just uploading photos instead of blog .. hahahahahahaa..

Note 2:
I like this town because of Athena Pension and it's simplicity ..

Note 3: I like the sceneryf from the cable car too..

Cost 10lira for the cable car .. and another 20 lira for the entrance to the Akropolis City.

Note 4: Buy souvenirs at the entrance of Akropolis... It's really really cheap!!!! you can never get cheaper than this.. bargain as low as you can.. especially if you're a girl / woman.. hehehehe.. they love the ladies..

I got a very good price for the shawls here.. and you see the Turkish bookmark on the lower right corner.. it cost 7 for 5 lira.. other places 1 for 1 lira.. so just grab it here!! 

I don't really asked for the price of this rug, but in Istanbul, it cost almost 700lira..  so if you want this, please ask in Bergama.. you might get cheapest price.. :)

Note 5: sleepy now.. want to go to sleep.. esok kerja .. huhuuhuuuhuuu

Day 4: Lunch @IKEA, Izmir and the mysterious Athena Pension

Visit to Ephesus, Seven Sleepers Cave and Virgin Mary ended by around noon (I don't remember exactly what time ) ..

Then we decided to continue our journey to Izmir and will try to find something to eat once we reached the town.. it took about 1 and a half hour to get there.. Izmir is a huge modern town and it's also the 3rd largest town in Turkey.. after Pamukkale, a small town or can also be considered as a village, it's totally a different view once we reached Izmir.. then we saw IKEA.. hahahahaa .. (macam laa xde IKEA kat Malaysia) .. meatballs!!!!!! definitely a must try .. hahahaa ..

Ikea, Izmir

Comments on IKEA: the internal decoration and settings, exactly like Malaysia .. you will know where to find the food easily.. you don't have to read any manual.. maybe that's their signature.. the food, it taste just like Malaysia's IKEA.. hehehe .. so basically, it's the same.. FYI, there are lots of IKEA in Turkey..

Besides IKEA, there's a factory outlet .. so we can't resist the temptation to walk around and maybe grab something if the price and our pockets allow... but it was a frustration seeing the price of everything.. it was the same price as Malaysia ... for example, Levi's jeans cost 100lira.. same like Malaysia, cost us 100ringgit.. but.. of course, Turkish lira and Malaysian Ringgit is 1.7 different,  so end up 1.7 more expensive than Malaysia's price... not worth buying.. so we decided to leave the place by 5.30pm and continue our journey to Bergama for another 2 hours.. (it was already dark by 5pm in Turkey at this month)..

so far we have traveled 2,236km in 4 days

Reached Bergama around 8pm (but it really felt like it already midnight because we were exhausted due to the long journey and the excitement being in Ephesus).. Bergama is really a small town, a place you want to spend your old ages... really quite and peaceful.. I really love this town..

We set our GPS to Athena Pension, a pension (not really a hotel) we saw on the internet with a good price and review.. Park our car and walk to a small road with the signboard showed the way to the place.. we saw 2 pensions, Pergamom Pension (opened) and Athena Pension (closed).. but there was a car waiting outside Athena and they helped us to call the owner of the hotel.. I was a little tired and in my mind was thinking, maybe we should change to Pergamom instead. But my friends insist we wait as they were the one who looked for the place and the review given about it.. and I really felt fortunate and lucky (same meaning kan?? hahahahaa) that I followed their advice.. there were no single regret staying in Athena..

Athena Pension

Once the owner, Aydin open the door into the pension, first word came out from my mouth was "Wowwwww" ... superb and a really cozy place.. then Aydin showed us the room, again, I was .. woowwwwwwwwwww... hahahahahaa.. then he showed me the bed warmer .. i was so excited and more wowwwwwwwwww from me..

Bed with warmer, perfect for a cold night..

The internal decoration was cute and the toilets are definitely very clean

Aydin was really a great guy.. he loves having guest and feel bad if he need to reject any walk-in guest.. he told us that he love non-peak season because he can receive everyone because less people.. but during peak season, he has no choice but to say no.. and he doesn't like that feeling.. he really is a sweet guy.. we all wished we can stay longer if we have the time.. I even feel like I want to come back to this place one day.. it really feel like home..

Resting area for the guests

Behind the pension, you will find resting area for guests to hang out.. the room is warm, with internet and Adryn will boil water for you to make hot tea or coffee...you can listen to music and rest.. Adryn will come once a while to have a chat and share his passion with the place.. you know what, Adryn make the resting area by himself.. niceeeee!!! if you're an architect, you will have lots of things to chat with Adryn.. :)

I had a lovely experience in Athena Pension.. I hope I can return to the place one day and spend more nights there.. insya Allah..

with Adryn

Adryn.. thank you so much for your kindness.. it really make us felt like home..