I just came back after a week off of hectic working life. Seminggu cuti, dah apply sejak 3 bulan lalu tau. Suddenly when the time comes, it coincided with a lot of things but yes, something needs to be chosen right. However I still managed to keep track on the fate of Mavi Marmara and Rachel Corrie, and just in time to get the gist of Muktamar PAS and issues in between. Seems like I didn't actually lost contact of the general news, eventhough my non 3G Blackberry avoids communication for approximately 4 days.
Let me share some facts and do try your luck by guessing the destination right.
1.This is the country with 35,000 Muslims out of 12 million people in the capital city, hence is considered minority. Halal food is so hard to find, let alone Malay food. Most of the people are not aware of Muslims and our obligations.They tried asking questions about Muslims to their pop stars and they don't have a clue about us. Surau is also hard to find, hence once we prayed on a small bench in a park, another time was in an empty theatrette.
2.Similar to my experience in Venice, I went to a small island featured in a popular soap opera where the scenery portrayed in the drama was very spectacular. But when I reached there, it seems very normal.. hmm don't get me wrong, it was quite nice. Maybe I had too high expectation, or maybe we went at the wrong season. We had fun taking pictures, though.
3.Funny to note that in all three hotels that we stayed in ( yes, we moved into different hotels everyday), none of it has proper vanity kit that we used to find in hotel room at home. Luckily I brought my shower gel, toothpaste, shampoo and etc. One of it did not even provide bath towels!! One funnier fact, ALL bathrooms DO NOT have lock at the doors! In contrast to the above, the hotel in Vietnam (where we transit for a night) provides jacuzzi in all their rooms. Heaven.
4.The country has a newly built bridge with length of 21.3 km; that is almost twice the length of Penang bridge. Guess how they officiate it? They had a two-ways-marathon across the bridge. Cool!
5.When we landed at the airport, the familiar ambience of KLIA instantly appeared. Suddenly I remembered reading somewhere that KLIA did have `sisters' – airports with similar state-of-the-art facilities e.g. conveyer belts, walkways, immigration counters..even same fonts at their signboards!
7.Their currency is triple more than ours… so shopping spree is not really the thing to look for here. Let alone kami yang berbudget RM400 seorang sahaja huhu.OK kami kedekut. Eh bukan kedekut cuma takmau membazir..:p
8.I found myself in an intellect (?) argument of the correct ways in menentukan kiblat. Before this, I never bother to learn the right way since I consider my Dad as an expert navigator.Plus mu hubby got a cool watch with compass. But only then I realized not everyone (we travel in a group,alright)have the same understanding of reading the compass and determining the right arah kiblat. Weird right? So people, please learn hard and practice applying it since it is so important.
Still, overall I found this try is just ordinary. No, the destination is not to be blamed. Just that my husband was not well on the first day and also myself for the rest of the days.. I can't even eat proper meals! No, no little extension just yet.. :P It was bad until I skipped shopping sprees (now I convinced you that my health was bad, didn't I?) and found myself slept on my hubby's lap, on a bench when we were at an amusement park, dreaded for the time to move faster so we could proceed to the next destination. Still, I slept most of the time along the way, as I found that was the easiest (temporary) solution to my health problem. So imagine how bad it was. And due to our work commitments, perhaps we won't be able to have similar trips again in the near future…
Nevertheless, it was still a good moment as long as it was away from office. I found the office work is too dry and bored these days.. help! I want to change my work immediately. This is usually happen to people who hate routine and get bored easily like me. I know I need to do something new, daring and challenging to spice up the life. Any suggestion, anyone?