Santai, Shopping, Solace - Quarter 4 2007

 

I started my one-year career break (2007/2008) with a short "santai" holiday in Port Dickson. A town of one hour drive from Kuala Lumpur. For those who are not familiar with the Malay language, "santai" means relaxing.

 

Nothing exciting happened though. Even the sea looked a bit sombre in late October. The raining season had just started..

Next I went to Bandung, Indonesia with my mom for a shopping excursion in November. We managed to grab Air Asia "free" tickets. It actually cost us RM350 and we need to book 7 months in advance!

 

Bandung is well known for their factory outlets, fake branded handbags and Muslimah fashion apparel. We didn't buy any fake stuff. No point toting "branded" fakes.. I would rather buy cheap originals anytime :)

 

We bought a lot of spicy snacks. It was really cheap compared to Malaysia. The only complain was.. we should have bought more ;p I bought a lot of tops too from their factory outlets and my mom bought a lot of fancy head scarfs and "jubah" at their market.

 

All in all it was an enjoyable mother-daughter shopping trip. The weather was also quite pleasant. The hotel we stayed was pretty good too. Within walking distance to the market. Very convenient cause we can then unload all the stuff that we bought at the hotel before we continue our shopping. What is with women and their shopping huh?

 

Year 2007 was wrapped up with a spiritual journey to Mecca and Medina, Saudi Arabia in December. I just realised something.. I did my own version of "Eat, Pray, Love" in 2007 prior to the debut of the film in 2010 ;p

 

This was actually my second time to these Muslim holy cities. The first was back in year 2002. We went for a small pilgrimage then called "umrah". The visit was coupled with a visit to Iran. In Iran we explored Tehran, Mashhad and Qom. We visted Iman Reza's, one of 12 imams of Shia, shrine at Marshhad and his sister's shrine Fatimah at Qom.

 

What I remembered most about Iran was apricots and cherries. They were in abundance and really cheap! I taught the apricots were small peaches back then! They were really sweet. The cherries were superb too. Iranians love to eat fresh salads. The meals served during the tour were normally consist of rice, grilled chicken/mutton/beef and salads. No special gravy.. just olive oil and mint.

 

Their heritage buildings and shrines were covered by small mirrors. Very beautiful engineering. Their women at small town were required to cover themselves with a piece of big cloth called "chador". It doesn't have to be black though, it can have prints and be colourful ;p Women at big cities like Tehran were more modernly attired. The cars were mostly old Datsuns. Consumer goods choices were quite limited but those available were pretty cheap. People there who can speak English can speak very well. Enough of Iran. I have more to tell but I digress ;)

 

Back to my spiritual journey.. I spent a total 44 days. 34 in Mecca and 10 in Medina. This pilgrimage cost around RM10k per person. The weather was pleasant and I can sum up my experience with one word: INSPIRING. It inspires me to think about my beliefs. I'm still thinking and reassessing them as we speak :)

 

Point to note: All the pictures were taken before the facebook and smart phone era where every single thing must be picture-recorded for posterity ;p So please forgive the small number of photos. Most especially in Saudi Arabia. I don't bring camera to business trips. More so during my journey to find solace. So all the pictures were taken using my pathetic camera phone.

 

Back then in 2007 we were not allowed to take pictures in the holy mosques so no cameras were allowed. If you bring any, it will be confiscated. It is much different now with the advent of smart phones with excellent camera. They finally realised that it is futile to prevent people from taking pictures in the mosques ;p

 

You can find the 20 pictures of Port Dickson, 34 of Bandung and 18 of Mecca at my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/mkhasha.n.travels/. Go to the photo albums.

Njoy!