Teaser | Eid Fitr, Santorini Park, Swiss Sheep Farm and more

Salam Eid Fitr

Maaf Zahir & Batin

Muslim in Malaysia celebrated Eid Fitr last week and as usual, food was at abundance at our home with all the rendang, lemang, ketupat and raya cookies. The diet exercised during fasting month was gone (for some; it was gone the minute we had our first iftar, hahahhahah...). All gained back within the 1st 3 days of raya (and some said during the 1st day itself).

For me, we celebrated in a small scale especially after my late dad passed away, after solat raya and relaxing for an hour or so at home, we all headed to Mummy & Tina's (aunt & cousin) house as usual. And yeay! Mummy & Tina have moved to their new-old-house. Cantek, SUKA!!!

Abby and Tina, 2 of my closest cousins. Actually semua close... heehheheh... But ini yang sangat pandai masak and bake.

Raya-ed at Kak Za's house in Kajang last weekend. As usual, few troops attacked her house (pre-informed of cause, we all tak ler sekejam tuh, Hahhahha....). She served non-raya food ie white rice, dendeng and... the rest am not so bothered (janji ada dendeng!).



Kids these days are so into SoMe. Nih exchanging SoMe account or game ler nih.

On 3rd raya, sis & I went Santorini Park (yeah! I tweeted & blogged on this earlier), reason being my sis have been working non-stop and she needed a break out of country (memang banyak songeh, maka travel ler dua beradik nih).

We also visited Swiss Sheep Farm... the weather is super HOT till I got bad sunburn, it was summer all year round *wink*.

Wow! I went to Greece & Switzerland. NOT!

This places are in Thailand. YUP! Kid you not!

I will share more details in next few entry (after I finishes my Sri Lanka and whatever that is pending. Hehhehehe.....)

We also visited The Maruekatayawan Palace located nearby the 2 parks (above), quaint beautiful palace.... I wish it was mine! Well, I need a Thai prince first....sigh... nampaknye idak ler kan.

Not to forget, also visited the most 'olskool' train station in Thailand. Love this place like crazy!



Eid Fitr in Malaysia

Title gempak giler.... macam ler selama ni I dok Raya di perantauan. Hahhahahaaa....

A small caption from Wikipedia on 'what is Eid Fitr :

Eid ul-Fitr, Eid al-Fitr, Id-ul-Fitr, or Id al-Fitr (Arabic: ‎عيد الفطر ‘Īdu l-Fiṭr), often abbreviated to Eid, is a Muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting (sawm). Eid is an Arabic word meaning "festivity," while Fiṭr means "breaking the fast". The holiday celebrates the conclusion of the 29 or 30 days of dawn-to-sunset fasting during the entire month of Ramadan. The first day of Eid, therefore, falls on the first day of the month Shawwal.

For me; it is very simple, we go visiting to relatives' houses etc and do what we do best - EAT EAT EAT. Soooo..... all the 1 whole month of Ramadhan fasting gone to waste in just 3 Eid days. Hahhah.... It's ok, you know what they say > Raya skali setahun jek (Eid/Raya on celebrated once in a year - so indulge!).

On Eid day; first house visit is and always be Mummy's house (my aunt, my mother's elder sister), we visited her again on 2nd & 3rd (and every other day) reason being MALAS MASAK (LAZY TO COOK!), Well.... mummy have a maid and surely they have food daily ler kan... *cheeky grin*.

My sis and meself with new Baju Kurung Raya (Malaysian Malay traditional attire), cloth bought from Japan. Nak sangat original Japanese cotton kekonon.

Did you notice the print on my sis Baju Kurung? Cute right - the cat print. HEHEHHEEE...

Raya at Kak Za's house, this is the pond where Misha (the one on the left) fell of a chair. Her late dad jumped down to her rescue, and guess what; the pond is ankle high ONLY. HAHHAHAHHAHAA.....

Maira wanted durian, and then only I just learnt that durian IS her favourite fruit. I personally don't like durian.

For those that might not know of durian, below excerpt from Wikipedia.

The durian is the fruit of several tree species belonging to the genus Durio and the Malvaceae family (although some taxonomists place Durio in a distinct family, Durionaceae). Widely known and revered in southeast Asia as the "king of fruits", the durian is distinctive for its large size, unique odour, and formidable thorn-covered husk.

The edible flesh emits a distinctive odour, strong and penetrating even when the husk is intact. Some people regard the durian as fragrant; others find the aroma overpowering and offensive. The smell evokes reactions from deep appreciation to intense disgust, and has been described variously as almonds, rotten onions, turpentine and gym socks. The odour has led to the fruit's banishment from certain hotels and public transportation in southeast Asia.

The durian, native to Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia, has been known to the Western world for about 600 years. The 19th-century British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace famously described its flesh as "a rich custard highly flavoured with almonds". The flesh can be consumed at various stages of ripeness, and it is used to flavour a wide variety of savoury and sweet edibles in Southeast Asian cuisines. The seeds can also be eaten when cooked.

What best to do and kill time during Open House - main batu serembat (5 stones). Sapa terror main nih, I tried; gosh..... mana lambung, mana tangkap, mana kaut... ish. DULU cam terror giler babs!

Daniel taking pics with Abul Aa'sz, the currently favourite toddler. Comei gilerrr...

I insisted that Mummy (my aunt) to take a pic with her nieces. Why? The solid coloured Baju Kurung (Malaysian Malay traditional attire).

Mamak Is guiding Abul Aa'sz on glma fashion, he claimed he is the best person to teach this. Siapa berani sangkal, meh sini!

My cousin bought some flowers for her open house the next day.

Hyperlink credit : Wikipedia

Jacaranda Bloom

Day14 (9 Oct’09). Purple!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tough! Tough! Tough! Hemmmm…….

What to do today???

1) Been to other part of OZ before thus not covering wildlife nor zoo in this trip
2) City is city, it will be almost the same with other city in other countries
3) One full day to spare before flying of tonight, hence can’t go outskirt
4) Not much money left from this trip (heheheee….)

Since checkout time is at 10pm, hence we need to do a filler till we fly off, we decided to take a stroll in the city, go to the park take the bridge to the other side. Sounds like a good plan.

Bet most people wanna know where I stayed and how does it look like, well…. I stayed in Brisbane City Backpacker on Upper Roma Street (next to YHA & Chill Backpacker), 7 mins walk to the Brisbane Transit Centre, facing Coles Supermarket, 10 mins walk to the Brisbane Street, 10 mins walk to Roma Park. PERFECT HUH!

If you walk towards the city centre, you will pass by the Police Headquarter, Brisbane Transit Centre and a lot of tour agencies for those that love adventures and excursions. Oh! By the way, I saw Mazda2, FABULOUSITY!!!!!!!!!!!After much contemplating, we decided to take the newly built bridge called Kurilpa Bridge that look like chopsticks in arrays. Heheheee…. Do you know there is a speed limit on this bridge ie walking or cycling speed (required 10km per hour). WOW! That’s a tough one. One thing I like about this bridge is that there is an emergency phones located along the bridge, benches for you to enjoy the scenery, drinking water fountain and café stall. AWESOME!!!!!

We then took a stroll on the boardwalk overlooking Brisbane city and got a better view of Kurilpa Bridge. There were beautiful graffitis (not sure whether it’s legal to do this or not) just before the Performing Art Centre.

Ahh….. The best part, we saw this gigantic ferris wheel near the Performing Art Centre. ONE JUMPING pic here. Oh! And I saw this couple enjoying the sun & Brisbane city that I just have to take a pic of them…. CUWEET!!!!

I have been wanting to take a pic of this ever since we first landed, the purple tree in Brisbane, I have to ask around what is the name - Jacaranda. They even have a man-made beach & pool right smack in the city! They thought of everything!

We thought we saw the end of it but NO!!!!!!!!!!!!! We saw even more at Queensland University of Technology. So, I decide to call this PURPLE SHOTS!

SHUCKS! We still have plenty of time to spare, we jalan jalan and I of course took some building pics.

As we don’t know where else or what else to do we decide to go to Roma Street Parkland. Took few of flower pics but I enjoyed the walk more despite I was a bit tiring since I think we covered at least 10km today.

Again more Jacaranda…..

Alas, we wasted time at a bench 1 min walk from our backpacker…. LOVE the feel.

Trip ends. Balik Malaysia.

Credits : Wikipedia, Public Works, Queensland University of Technology, Roma Street Parkland

Drama Queen in Movie World

Day13 (8 Oct’09). And that’s MOI!


This is how it works. Andrea absolutely LOVE Il Divo, and persuaded me to watch the concert with her in Chrischurch, the tix cost is so much lesser then the one held Malaysia. And I was thinking… hemmm… since I don’t think there would be much for me to do OR cover in Brisbane (not my first time in the land Down Under); I thought… heehehhehee… BARTER TRADE! I'll go to Il Divo concert, Andrea must go Gold Coast theme park! She replied within MICRO NANO SECOND!!!! YES!!!!! Suka nye saya….

I was hyper - charged all my camera batteries, dressed in my grey mini dress (I think I looked good in it PLUS the fact that I didn’t take that many pics in it - VAIN!), did my hair, I even wore contacts instead of glasses (punya lar vain nye!). READY TO GO!

Reached there at about 10am, queued for 15 mins or so… then in we go. First stop (and a MUST STOP) is cartoon characters. Hehhe….. Twitty Bird was our victim.

Since I work in HP, I have to take pic at SHREK again lar (did this in Universal Studio LA). HP & Dreamworks have a collaboration in making some of the box office hit animation - SHREK being the most famous one.

One thing I realised is that Andrea kinda like was the stunt show, I have to admit, it’s kinda terrer the merrer and especially the part the car was cut into TWO. A lot of drifting, makes me wanna watch Tokyo Drift all over again :p

Then I thought “hemm…, since I felt that I looked “GOOD”, Bruce Wayne aka Batman should be taking pic with me as well right” hehehee…. I bet he felt fortunate. Muahhahaha.... PERASAN MAX!

Walked over to the WILD WILD WEST park and was greeted by vultures…. They sure know how to make one feel unwelcome :D

There’s 2 things that I find it cute, the wash room (as I suspected how it would be) and the shirt of which I bought (Mr. Bunny).

Before I go rattle on Ms. WB, I thought I should just show the amazing Batman rides that I did not partake sebab malas.

Now…. Ms. WB, obviously Andrea Gail is not her real name lar.. She goes by the initial WB - Wau Bulan??!?! Hehehee…. Since we are in Warner Brothers (WB). I told her, hey why not we take the WB insignia and use it as you IM/MSN/FB profile pic…ehhehe… thus we went on WB pic taking spree. NO! We are not weird, we do have an objective in mind even though a weird one (but still objective maa… hehehhe). Mostly with her changgih manggih camera.

We waited for half a hour or more for the parade showcase… Me? I just wanted to see SCOOBY DOOBY DOOOOOOOO….

Not to forget pic of the rides and etc… knowing there bound to be friends asking for the type of rides available.

Well, after that we just go around and do a little snapping to past time before the shuttle picks us up again.

That’s all folks!

Tomorrow? Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeel.

Credits : Wikipedia, Dreamworks, Movie World Myfun, Warner Bros, Il Divo

To The Land Down Under

Day12 (7 Oct’09). Bye Bye Wellington, Hello Brisbane.

The shuttle came at 4am in the morning and of cause this time around we are SMARTER! We asked for the contact number as well just incase they forgot about us, can’t miss out flight. But the services was excellent not only that he was superbly friendly but perky as well (at the wee hour! Wow!). Off we go leaving Rosemere Backpacker behind.

Our day in OZ wasn’t as eventful as our days in NZ, which is kinda good as needed the break from THE BREAK. Hahhahaa…. Reached Brisbane in the morning, decided to walk to the city and probably do a little shopping and buy our OZ souvenirs for friends and relatives. And also stop over at Hard Rock Café - we’re collector. Hint hint! :p

I’ll probably write a short entry for all blog during this stay. Hahhaha…

We stop over at Brisbane Market at Brisbane Square. Lotsa of local food product being sold, bought ourselves lunches ie bread. Kinda of nice, reminds me of my sis pizza baking skill. YUMMY!

We took a train to Nehrang, and the supposedly a bus to Surfers Paradise - our HRC quest! We met with this nice friendly lady with the most cutest daughters and adorable son. We chatted to past time.

Waited at Nehrang for half an hour (bored to death), finally the bus arrives, got in, another 1 hour drive to HRC…sigh… the train was 2 hours ride (we stopped for half an hour due to some issues involving police at 2 station after Sunnybank), the bus 1 hour ride… talk about passing the time. We must have prayed hard enough that god answered our prayers. He even gave us a few sprinklers of rain. :

Reached Hard Rock Café Surfers Paradise, snap a few pics as proof of execution (KIASU!) and ran in to shop! BUT, tak banyak design yang I like in L size…. Shucks! Got a black one instead (since it comes in L as well), even though I preferred the one I bought for Anna (purple - cantek, tapi tak ada size). Sigh…. Tak ada lar, her rezeki.

After done with the goods aside from the fact our substantial wallet damage, we took a walk on pedestrian mall. 3 things that caught our attention.

(1) Blonde & Sexy Baskin Robbins walking advertisement (the guys would wished they’re here huh!)

(2) Aquaduck Amphibian ride (Malaysia should have this, make banjir a tourist attraction, ahhahahhaa)

(3) Condom Kingdom (err…..)

Hehhee… interesting neh….. Strolled we did till we reached the beach area. Hemm…. How should I describe thing?.. I guess after being to Hawaii, this is nothing great or perhaps I did catch anyone surfing, maybe…

There! We covered the famous Surfers Paradise. Time to balik…. Penat!

Tomorrow - Movie World, Gold Coast!

Credits : Wikipedia, Movie World Myfun, Rosmere Backpacker