Back for good

Salam and good day,

I'm back for good.

It's been almost two days at home, to be exact.

I'm having a jet lag for the first time in my life.Yes, I'm already at home for two days yet still experienced the jet lag.Maybe it's due to sleep routine I had for the past 11 days on the road, wich is very different from the time at home. You see, I spent almost everyday slept after Maghrib and Isya jama' qasar prayer(about at 9.00 pm) after a long tiring day and woke up for Subuh (at 3.00 am) with occasional awakening in between. Talks about summer time..:)

Dubai Airport (4 hours transit)

This is only introduction part, so I'm not intend to talk in details about my long vacation. I even planned to write based on topics, not in exact sequence. This journey is so far the longest I ever had for long distance vacation, and I actually learned a lot. Yes, A LOT. Of unique and differences of cultures, beliefs, sceneries and people in other part of the world, of the invaluable experience that coudn't be bought with money, of the wonderful persons I met throughout the journey, of the initial plan to create stronger bond within the family and of course, of the ultimate power of our Ultimate Creator of the beautiful world and its masterpieces, that would undoubtedly strengthen the Iman of the believers. If I'm not gaining each and every objectives that I've set earlier, I hope I got a bit of this and that so that the whole journey would worth every single cents and every seconds of time spent.

Gorgeous Ferrari at the Airport

Just a brief introduction and some travelling tips... (manalah tau ada orang nak travel tak lama lagi..hehe)

If you ever had plans to travel in four season countries in the future, it is very much recommended to travel in summer time, like NOW. The only reason is you will have longer daylight, which reduce the time crisis to perform your daily prayers. For example, in my case, I performed jama' qasar everyday for 10 days, sinch I hopped to different places everyday which entitled me to have the musafir privilege. The whole hopping distance is more than 1000km, minus the distance to reach there by airplane. So you can travel all day and can perform jama' takhir and qasar before 8.45pm (approximate time for azan Maghrib)!Especially if you travel in tours, which means you've constraint to be on time and following the schedules. But the major drawback is summer time is always the high season time, where there is a long summer holiday and a lot of tourists travel at this time.

Breathtaking scenery

Also, this is the first time my family and I joined a tour through respective travel agency, so this is a totally new experience for us. We used to have `free and easy' holiday, which means we arranged everything by ourselves, from transportation, hotel, food-everything. But this time there was someone arranging everything for us, and we just have to follow the schedule.

Initially I would prefer the free and easy type of vacation since we can arrange everything and have our own sweet time, but of course we will land on the major cities only and have limited place to visit, since of course, we are not familiar with the places. Unless you've your own local guide or you have personal experience being there in the past-then it's not a problem. If you're engaged in a tour, of course there are other people travel with you, referred as the tour members (so less privacy there) and certainly you have a tour guide. Normally tour guide, or in tourism term is called `tour leader' is a Malaysian who is very expert on the place that you are about to visit. Which means, you will be visiting even some infamous towns and small villages (at least, infamous to you) which has their own attractions. You won't have the same experience if you arrange everything yourself, since this is the matter of lack of knowledge and experience and often transportation difficulties.

Subhanallah, beautiful Alps!

Other than that, a typical Malay travellers should equipped themselves with necessities- travelling adaptor, kettle, rice cooker, iron ( if you thing those are necessities for you. They were certainly for me!). If you can stand weird or unfamiliar food from time to time, that is your major advantage then. Or else, packed some rice, sambal ikan bilis, serunding or even instant noodles to avoid starvation. Ok I'm exaggerating, you wont' starve by the way. Besides difficulties to find halal food, it is typical for a Malay to rindu nasi and makanan pedas, right? So kudos to students who study abroad, for like, 5 years? I personally doubt if I ever can survive (hehe). One good tip, if you guys rindu nasik dan taknak bawak beras from home, just find the nearest Chinese restaurant and certainly they have steamed rice over there. Mind you, Chinese restaurant is all over the places in the world and you won't have trouble to find one.

OK enough about tips, now I sound like a tour guide myself..huhu

From a hilltop

Allright then, will talk more about this later. Have other important mission to be accomplished, thus I'll be quite busy for some time.

To IPT students, enjoy your holiday=)

To people yang nak exam, selamat exam!!;P (this one especially for you, hazel)

To persons yang baru bergelar graduan, happy graduating! Semoga cepat dapat kerja, Ameen..