Travel

Winter 2011 - Florence, Italy

2011-12-27T14:48:00.001-08:00

Salam

19th December 2011

Departed from Pisa Centrale to Firenze Santa Maria Novella Stazione (Florence).
Since it's a short distance journey (regional train - 1hour) so we didn't book our seats.

Florence is a small, beautiful city where you can take a tour by foot only

What's the meaning of Italy without leather.

Over here, hundreds of leather stalls and shops are waiting for you, with superb quality and affordable price!

Venetian Masks

Vendetta!

Arno River

Tips

Buy your Italian souvenirs here, it's the cheapest! (for more choices of Venetian masks, Venice has a good offer)

For leather goods, as usual, haggling is recommended to get a good price.

We toured the city in four and a half hours only, if you have more time, spend a night over here. It's lovely :)

wassalam~

Winter 2011 - Pisa, Italy

2011-12-25T13:32:00.000-08:00

Salam

18th December 2011

Departed from Milano Centrale to Pisa Centrale (approximately 4 hours of journey)
From Milano Centrale, we took the RED-LAM (LAM ROSSA) city bus to Leaning Tower of Pisa which costs EUR 1, bought from tobacco/newspaper store.

Since we are budget travellers, we didn't enter the tower which costs EUR 15.

And we had an Italian dinner too!

Spaghetti - EUR 7

12-inch Margherita Pizza with Mushroom EUR 5.50

Tips

Buy the bus ticket before you ride the bus (buy at tobacco stores) as buying the tickets from the driver will costs extra cents.

When buying souvenirs, make sure you walk along the stalls and survey the prices first, the cheapest they can give you for key-chains are 5 for EUR 5, and magnets roughly around EUR 1.50 - 2.50. Usually Bangladeshi sellers will give you cheaper prices. No harm on haggling :)

The best and most original pizza are from Naples and they are called Napoli Pizza. Unfortunately the restaurant that sells that pizza in Pisa is already closed :(

Pisa is nice and is a must in Italy!

wassalam~

Winter 2011 - Milan, Italy

2011-12-24T15:10:00.001-08:00

Salam

17th December 2011

Departed from London Stansted to Milano Bergamo via Ryanair

Swiss-Italy Alps. Breathtaking view. Subhanallah :)

As usual, once we arrived in a new city, search for tourist information counter and ask for the city's map. They usually give it for free. Ask them on public transports, places of interests and other information.

Tour in Milan city via Metro.

Day-pass ticket costs € 4.50, however we managed to get for only € 3.50 due to holiday (christmas) offer.

One of the metro lines

Piazza Del Duomo

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II

Louis Vuitton, when can you be mine?

And you too Lamborghini, when can I have you?

Beautiful Ferrari

They have Ferrari stores almost in all main cities in Italy

€ 5000 for a dummy Ferrari

Milan Cathedral at night

Galleria at night

Tips

In Milan, the souvenirs are quite expensive compared to other cities. Same goes for accommodation & food. Save your money and buy souvenirs from other cities

Beware of the people (read : immigrants) wandering around giving bird food to feed the pigeons in front of the Cathedral. Sometimes they will go over the limit and being too pushy, hold your hands and insist you to take the food, and even force including using religious reasons which is totally out of topic and ridiculous. Example : "Sisters, we are Muslims. You don't help me, you are bad sister" (and the same time before that he hold my friend's hand and yet he called us bad sisters? urghh) Be patient and just ignore them. Kick them if you want.

Gotcha! We should just slap him right?

Also, bring extra money/debit/credit card for emergencies. We picked up our interrail tickets (3 days pass in a month in Italy - € 75) at Trenitalia counter in Milano Centrale, and out of 5 tickets, one of them is not valid because of database problem which is NON of our fault, and we had to wait for 2 hours to claim the ticket, in the end we bought a new ticket and filled in the refund form to refund the money which will only be given in 1 month time. Unsatisfied with the service indeed, compared to the hospitality in United Kingdom.

All in all, Milan is not really a favourite to us. But if you are fashionistas, do drop by here. You will recognise italians that come from Milan from their style ;)

wassalam~

My children's trip to UK & Europe ...Part 3- Manchester

2011-01-14T02:22:00.000-08:00

Trip to Manchester was by train.We were lucky that the train was on schedule but prior to this there were delays and cancellation.

London Euston Train Station

In the waiting room


Snow..at one of the station on the way from London to Manchester

All along ...snow...

At car rental office

Settled..Ford Mondeo..Diesel..

The children were so eager ...could not wait for tomorrow..the temperature was -8C

My children's trip to UK & Europe ...Part 2- London

2011-01-14T01:07:00.000-08:00

London..here we come!..

Our initial plan to visit Stonehenge and Portsmouth were shelved as we saw the news that the snow was heavy in the Southern part and from the BBC news ..advised not to travel unless necessary .Thus decided that from Cardiff, we drove into Central London .
Wow! driving into London city centre in snowing condition.Yes! we drove into Central London ..Upper Berkeley Street, Marylebone. Along the journey the scenery was white..as snow..true snow..Hyde Park was white...Not difficult or complicated at all..We reached our destination safe and sound..time to return the car at Marriot Edgware Road as planned.
Time to explore London at night..not really at night as it was only about 5pm it was already dark..
We walked to Oxford Street..it is not that far from Marble Arch Inn where we stayed.

Heading into Central London

Our photographer in action

Waiting for our photographer...

There's trishaw in Oxford Street

Oxford Street - nice shot by our photographer

Marble Arch

My children's trip to UK & Europe ...Part 1- Bath ,Bristol,Cardiff

2011-01-12T23:57:00.000-08:00

Oh! what a fortunate children to be able to travel to UK and Europe at young age. Syukur Alhamdulillah that we managed to give them the chance to give them exposure to travel overseas.They were given an allocated budget based on their proposed budget trip that enable a group of 4 person to travel in UK and Europe for 20 days trip.I just sent them to check in at KL Central and let them travel on their own...

Excited ...sms to friends

Heading to the departure lounge


The long hours flight from KL to London..occupied their time with in flight entertainment		.

Happy..LONDON here we come....arrival at Heathrow Airport

Reached Avis Car rental Centre Heathrow

Getting ready..Peugeot 308

Welcomed by snow upon reaching Bath

Upon reaching Cardiff...heavy thick snow..with no GPS

Hazwan - A real life experience driving in snow in Cardiff

Senghenydd Hall entrance - covered with snow

The car covered with snow..had a hard time to drive the car..what an experience..just could not believe that Hazwan managed to drive safely in the thick snow

Subway - Halal

Safely parked at the apartment car park..not to worry to get stuck in the snow again

Alhamdulillah ..safely reached the apartment

Ready to explore Cardiff - walking through the snow...

Mama & daughter..in the snow

I miss u....

Sunny day ...after heavy snow


Main Cardiff University entrance

Cardiff University - students union bulding

The purple building - Landmark Apartment near to Capitol shopping Centre Cardiff

How about cycling?...


In Landmark Apartment - Cardiff City Centre

Turkey

2010-04-28T07:24:00.000-07:00

My trip to Istanbul was way back in the early 2000 and at that time I did not really bother much to take photograph and moreover at that time we didn't use digital camera..still using the conventional camera with film negative and I can't remember whether I printed the photograph.

However with the development in technology and with facebook we are able to share photographs with our friends now ..to recall back our previous journey and travel to countries that we have visited ..

Our friends just came back from vacation in Turkey..for those who are yet to visit Turkey there are nice places to visit in Turkey..

Istanbul -very nice and interesting places to visit..where the East meet the West..the mosques, palaces..

Other places :...Canakale, Pamukale, Cappadocia, Konya,Ankara,Bolu..

Our friends album in the facebook..Zuridah's album

budget travel - singapore

2010-03-05T00:46:00.001-08:00

Salam

Singapore's trip was oh-so-fun, plus it was so within our budget, even lower then we expect.
for a full one day trip from kuala lumpur to johor bharu to singapore and back to johor bharu to kuala lumpur within 24 hours, less than RM150. 1 Singaporean dollar costs around RM2.40+ (oh my it cost a lot nowadays! T_T)

Things to do before the trip :
- convert money to Singaporean dollars.
- get enough rest
- prepare overnight bag, just in case.
- passport please. no passport, no way.

but the best thing is we didn't do much research on the places that we wanted to travel, and no maps. only the google map gps in my handphone and it doesn't really give the right directions. T__T.

So we departed from sri rampai via MH757 really early in the morning with wea as the pilot and me as the co-pilot, ana as the stewardess and siddiq as the steward. HAHA. fine, it's only wea's car and not mas airline.

Things you need to consider when travelling long distance when it is still dark :

- make sure the car is ok with full fuel tank (checked)
- the driver must get enough rest before driving (not so checked but considered checked)
- a co-driver is a must to make sure the driver won't feel bored and fall asleep. (obviously checked! see the leg maa who's the loyal co-driver ^_^. HAHA.)
- be alert, don't speed up too much over the speed limit.
- MOST IMPORTANT : start your journey with bismillah, end your journey with alhamdulillah.

Total cost for journey kl-jb :
-fuel - RM55.00
-tolls- RM39.30

We arrived johor bharu and went directly to larkin to get our bus, since we decided not to drive. It's a budget trip anyway. Just pay RM2.50 via bus to travel to singapore from larkin.

get this ticket for RM2.50 from Singapore-Johore Express ticketing counter

And we were so grateful to be malaysians because our immigration system is so convenient, efficient and fast, compared to other places. i love malaysian's passport.

So in singapore the bus stopped at Queen Street bus terminal, or ban san bus terminal. Since we didn't have any tourist guide or even a map or books in our hands, we went to a nearby hotel to get some information and also the map of singapore. So you don't have to buy any map, just go to a hotel and usually they have an information counter on info travelling in the country.

our target : Landmark Village Hotel

There you go. Brochures and maps of Singapore and even a traveller's guide book - with FREE OF CHARGE. ^_^

Now we got our maps, and we started planning our day.

First,we went to the nearest tourist attraction around that area , Masjid Sultan.

Then we walked around Kampung Glam area. You can get souvenirs from this area,and have your malay food.

Next, we went to the nearest MRT station, Bugis station to continue our journey. MRT is the train system in Singapore, similar to LRT in Malaysia.

Along the way, we stopped by at certain spots and had photoshopping sessions.

Raffles Hospital

fly swan! fly!

statues : we got dante,dale,chopin and newton

and we chose newton

at last, MRT station.

we got our train tickets, and our next stop - city hall station since it's just walking distance to Merlion park. the price is $2 per ticket, but we can refund $1 back if we return back the pass ticket. so basically it's only $1 for this route.

Bugis station

this is how the stations look like. this one is orchard station

similar with the new lrt train with 4 gerabak in malaysia

those lights indicated the next stations.

We arrived at city hall station a few minutes later, so we walked to merlion park ;

hello steel man.

Signs

wait till the pedestrian light turns green

gotcha! speakcryptic

Merlion Park!

Arrived there, we snapped some pictures, and we decided to take a ride on the river cruise. For a 30 minutes ride back and forth, it costs only $15 per pax.

gaah.

siddiq and ana

ana and wea

not to forget the celebrity of the day. HAHA.

esplanade

this unique still in construction building is going to be a casino. (which reminded us the 2012 movie) =___="

Singapore flyer. Next time maybe

so many tourists

it's getting hot.

another hot picture. err. not siddiq. i mean the weather. HAHA

even it's hot, we could still gave our best poses.

got this gorgeous shot from the cruise. if you're not in it, then it's a no-no. you will never get this shot.

finished cruising, we had our break for a while and studied the map again ;

three musketeers

musketeer one

musketeer two

musketeer three

musketeer four? took the pictures.

next stop, esplanade.it's a performing arts cenrtre, and there's also a mall there.since it's just walking distance,so might as well we stop by for a while;

i just love the design. from the exterior (building, landscapes) until the interior. love.love.love.

and in there there's a wall with a cute painted background. so we managed to get an indivual photo potrait ;

ana azman
status : not available and not for sale :P

farah hassan
status : not available but still for sale. HAHA. ;P

siddiq sallehuddin
status : not available and restricted not for sale. :P

wan harfiz wan ariff
status : available, not for sell because it's free of charge. HAHA. ;P

enough with all the photoshopping, next we went to orchard road via MRT for a ticket priced $1

it's really a long road, shopping heaven! but we aimed that we won't do any shopping, but i'm craving right now and regretted because i didn't buy those cheap miniature perfumes. NAAKKKKKKK. T____T

so we just had our rest and drinks at wisma atria ;

all the food stalls are chinese. now we really miss malay,halal food. T__T

drinks : around $1-$5, depends.

then we head back to bugis station($1.20), and prayed at Masjid Sultan.

after that we had our late lunch at a nearby malay restaurant. they tried me rebus and i ordered putu piring. it was the greatest and yummiest putu piring that i've ever eat in my whole life. now i'm craving for them. nak putu piring best. T___________T . for your info actually i'm a putu piring freak. HAHA.

lunch : $4-$7 , depends.

then we bought some souvenirs around the area, there were keychains, t-shirts, dirt cheap pashminas (3 for $10) , bags and etc.

price : depends, i bought keychains and souvenirs total of $13.

late lunch at 5pm

children little museum

one of the souvenir shops

it's getting dark so we made our way back to johor bharu. it costs $2.50/pax.

the roads were congested so we arrived late, and it took an hour of journey.

arrived larkin, we went to singgah selalu near danga bay and had our dinner with orang besar jb mao & smap.

around 10.30pm, MH757 began its way back to kuala lumpur. with the same driver and co-driver. indeed we made a new record wea, 700km within 24 hours without sleeping on the road. don't try this people. at least wea had his 30 minutes nap after prayer(at Masjid Sultan) and i had 15 minutes nap in the bus to jb.

alhamdulillah, everything went smooth and reached rampai around 2.30pm. it's a very long 24 hours for us. but indeed awesome! :)

next time we're planning to go to sentosa island, after universal studio opens its gate.

24 hours of travel, 700km on the road, more than 4km on foot, spent below $50 in singapore.

dare to travel? try like we did. ;)

fullstop.
wassalam~

Turkmenistan - 16th Jan - 24th Jan 2010

2010-01-17T03:17:00.000-08:00

This is the first oversea trip in 2010 and travel in a group. The travel arrangements was done by the Turkmenistan office.Tickets are not confirmed until Saturday.Since the travel is in a group that may be a bit difficult to make arrangements..either via Bangkok or Dubai or Abu Dhabi.At last the travel arrangement is finalised..via Emirates..to Dubai..then Abu Dhabi..then Asghabat.

The travel..from home about 10.30pm..chauffered driven to KLIA.The flight - 2.30am.

Could not sleep much in the plane..Reached Dubai ..abt 6.30am..then took limo to Abu Dhabi.

Waited more than 3 hrs for flight to Asghabat..

Landed at Asghabat..about 8.55pm..temp 5 deg C - it's still winter..Check in hotel

Flight to Turkmenbashy- 7 am about 1 hr flight then travel by car to Kiyanly about 1hr drive.

Ah..at last Alhamdulillah reached Kiyanly.Luckily the phone communication is OK with my Malaysian no- international roaming.Accomodation at the campsite - just like the offshore accomodation..

Next..work..work...

Norway - National Day Celebration

2009-06-06T00:49:00.001-07:00

Took some photos using my handphone ...view my album in my facebook..via this link

Norway National Day Celebration

KL - Amsterdam - Stavenger

2009-06-06T00:46:00.000-07:00

The flight from KL- Amsterdam...tiring and more over I seldom took KLM flight ...Hah at last I reached Amsterdam.It's my nature that I will always keep in touched with my loved one- I sms her at about 1.00 pm Malaysian time...I have to wait for about 2 hrs for my flight to Stavenger.

Hah! Flight from Amsterdam to Stavenger via SAS

Reached Stavenger and checked in at Hotel..Surprised that this hotel was not as expected...

Called home..about 6.30pm Malaysian time...

Lunch...meeting...

During the meeting I received a surprise call from home....oh no..looks like urgent call.Yeah! my wife called ,she asked me whether I called my dad before I left..Oh my ..I did not..she reminded me to call home but somehow she told me that my dad has not been well for the past 3 days however my brother took him to the clinic and suspected that he has...need to confirm ..

Since it was late at night in Malaysia, I'll call home tomorrow...

Trip to Stavenger Norway 13th May -23rd May 2009

2009-06-06T00:44:00.000-07:00

Came home from work early today - half day ..to prepare for my trip tonight .Today I'm travelling to Stavanger Norway. This time my flight will be on KLM via Amsterdam.I will only be back home next Saturday..oh..oh I'll miss the home meals..

As usual I was chauffer driven sitting at the back seat as a BOSS to KL Central .Rushed to purchase ERL ticket.My little girl with her Lomo Camera snapped a few posts to test her camera..hope it will turn-out nice..

In the ERL.. to my surprise I have taken the non-direct ERL to KLIA..so it stopped at various stations..Reached KLIA and checked in .... this time I did not managed to get the business class aisle seat..since I was a little bit late..

Umrah - Mekah ,Madinah

2008-11-23T22:31:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we visited our friends attending their Doa Selamat leaving for Haj.That reminded us on our trip for Umrah and Haj experience....

For Umrah I brought along the whole family,my wife , our 4 children and my father. We went under the Tabung Haji Package.Everyone was excited and looking forward for the holy trip from the day we registered the package.We attended the courses to refresh what we have learned on Umrah and Haj.Each of us was given a booklet guide Buku Panduan Umrah dan Ziarah.We bought a few books to read on Mekah and Madinah i.e Rahsia Mekah,Rahsia Madinah,Tiga Tanah Suci,Tiga Rumah Suci......All of us especially the chidren eagerly read those books and really look forward to see in person the places stated in the books.

We have to purchase additional kain ihram even though my sister gave her husband's and son's kain ihram since there were 4 men and 1 boy for this trip.We went to Wisma Yakin as there were a lot of shops offering jubah,ihram...for Umrah and Haj

The boys practised on how to wear the ihram.My youngest son was only 9 years old then. My wife had to prepare special ihram for my youngest son as most of the readily available ihram is the standard man size.

My sister-in -law's family,my mother in law sent us off at the airport.We daparted for Jeddah /Madinah late night.The flight took about 8hours. This was the first time that my children took long hours flight.Besides reading AlQuran, the children enjoyed the inflight video and games since it was the public flight.

Syukur Alhamdulillah we arrived in Jeddah safely. After the immigration checkpoint, we were welcomed by the agent rep.We were then on our way to Madinah on the bus...
We reached Madinah and everyone was happy to lead our way to our rooms to have a nice bath after the long journey.

Then we get ourselves prepared to go to Mesjid Nabawi. It was sad that my daughter was not able to go to the mosque. We had to leave her at the hotel alone , worried, but we prayed and tawakkal that she'll be safe alone.We were briefed on the doors to follow for men and ladies .

At the ladies entrance, the ladies guard was strict not to allow cameras.The slippers were placed at the shelf outside but it was advisable to be in the pouch that is easily recognisable.

The interior was wonderful, cooling and after Asar the centre ceiling glided open to let the fresh air inside. What a wonderful feeling and emotions that cannot be described.

The most looked forward place is Raudah.We prayed and we managed to be in Raudah and prayed making our wishes as this is the noble place to pray and hoping our wishes will be granted by Allah. We visited Makam Rasulullah. Most of us could not control our emotions and feeling that was difficult to spelt out. We were really grateful that Allah has selected us to be here...

Back to the hotel we quickly went to check our daughter. We were suspensed when it took her quite sometime to open up the door.Actually she was too tired and she was asleep.Alhamdulillah everything was fine.

The next plan was to visit the nearby shopping bazaar.The first aim was to get ourselves sunglasses because we could not open our eyes when the sun shine was reflected by the white polished marble around the Mosque . Each of the children selected their pair of googles....

The meals were provided and my son love the ABC soy sauce and till now he will always remember ABC soya sauce in Madinah.

Azan was as early as 3.30 am and actually it was about an hour from the actual Solat time for Subuh .All of us were were able to wake up excited to perform prayer. This time my daughter was able to perform solat together and we also went to Raudah and performed solat and also to Makam Rasulullah.

After breakfast we were brought around Madinah visiting Masjid Quba', Masjid Qiblatain, Masjid Tujuh, Jabal Uhud and Dates Market.At masjid Quba' after performing solat, while waiting for the whole group to gather, the children saw the ice cream van and we were all end-up enjoying the delicious creamy ice-cream

The next day after performing Ziarah Wida' we travelled to Mekah to perform Umrah.

After reaching Mekah and brought to the hotel, we were guided to perform the Umrah .The most wonderful moment was when we first saw Kaabah in real. It was difficult to describe our feelings.We managed to perform tawaf , sa'e ...After completing our first Umrah, we went down to Bir Zam-zam...then we walked out of Masjidil Haram my youngest son with full excitement saw Kentucky Fried chicken. So we had to buy for take away and they really enjoyed eating their favourite food.They also enjoyed the baked whole chicken (Ayam Golek Arab)with bread...

Then we went round the shopping bazaar and the shop assistants called the ladies 'Siti Rahmah' and they loved to talk to my youngest son asking what he wanted to be in the future and they themselves recommended him to be pilot...It was their doa and hopefully this will be realised in the future.

The next day were brought around the Mekah city visiting Jabal Nur, Jabal Thur, Arafah, Mudzalifah , Mina, Jabal Rahmah .At Jamal Rahmah we walked up until the pillar and Hazwan was excited to see that his name was scribbled on the pillar. The children took a ride on the decorated camel..The visit ended at Tanaem where we "niat Umrah" to perform another Umrah.

The next day we went to camel farm.It was the first time that we tasted the camel's milk. The milk is good for people who are suffering asthma.We also went to the Muzium Mekah and Kelambu Kaabah and AlQuran factory. Then we went to Hudaibiyah for us to perform 'niat umrah'.

What a wonderful feeling, moments when we were in Mekah and we felt that that trip was too short but we always perform solat and Doa that we will come back again to perform Haj..

It was really sad to perform Tawaf Wida before we left the beloved holy city...

Italy

2008-11-22T06:17:00.001-08:00

The trip to Italy was a few years back...Rome, Milan,Florence,Venice....Could not trace the photos..however the write-up succeeded by Aizat in his blog http://blog.shamsulaizat.com/ ..well done son..let's share it...

United Kingdom

2008-11-22T04:20:00.001-08:00

...together with my beloved wife in the First Class waiting lounge .

When we were young we visited the interesting places on our own but this time we took the double decker tour bus to go round London.Refreshing our memories on the interesting places that we have visited before i. e, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square , london Bridge, Wesminster Abbey, The Big Ben,London Eye.

Trip to China - 13th Jan to 20th Jan 2008

2008-01-21T06:13:00.000-08:00

This time I have to travel to places in China. What a good time to travel- it's a peak winter in China.The temp can be as low as -27C. My suitcase was filled-up with winter clothings.Flight from KL to Beijing departed 0030 from KLIA..Arrived in Beijing 0630.Felt dizzy ,missed my deep sleep...woken up by the lovely stewardess for supper..breakfast. Then to loo....hi..hi...hi...

Touching down in -3 deg C temperature..so cold... was quite boring for me. However being accompanied by my colleagues , 5 of us from Malaysia ..not so lonely. There were so many forms( Arrival form, Health Declaration Form and Baggage Declaration Form) to fill-in for arrival. Anyway its their regulation and we have to respect the law as what we want others to respect our law. At immigration counterI was greeted by a friendly officer who made my day better.

After retrieving the baggage, not that far from the counter then we went to the transfer counter to check in for flight to ..otherwise we have the big baggage to be dragged.Then we went around the airport terminal most of the shops are still closed except the eateries.Called my loved ones in Malaysia.Spent most of the time in the lounge, ..the broadband facilities is ok checking e-mails .The food served look nice buat alas non halal..so have to settlled with coffee only.We enjoyed the hot coffee in the cold whether while browsing the internet. Time flies very fast..time to depart 1100 to Lanzhou.

2hrs flight - Arrived in Lanzhou ...checked in Hotel Legend (4 star hotel) - about half an hours drive from airport. Stayed for 2 nights. The temp -6 to -9C

Harbin - Wonderful Ice Sculpture