Malaysia: Festivities

It is the time of the year again when Malaysians celebrate Hari Raya Aidil Fitri. A celebration to commemorate the successful completion of one month fasting for the Muslims. Muslims made up of 60% of Malaysian population.

 

During the Hari Raya, most people will go back to their home town. There will be the usual balik kampung exodus and jam along the North South Highway. The villages which on normal days are quiet will come alive with the sound of fire crackers. The village roads which are normally smooth sailing will experience jam. The Kuala Lumpur city roads on the other hand will be empty!

 

Will this scenario change in the future when most Malays migrated to the city? Maybe not. Somehow celebrating Hari Raya in the city is not as much fun as celebrating it at your kampung (home town)! So I'm sure the Malays will find excuses to go back even after their family have migrated to the city ;)

 

 

I went to a shopping mall near my house yesterday to snap some of the festive decorations. Will try to snap more in the coming weeks.

 

I have added a few pictures to the album. You may access them at my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/mkhasha.n.travels/. Go to the photo albums.

 

Njoy!!

Russia: Spring - June 2013

I've been dreaming of going to Russia for quite a long time but don't know why I've always ended up in other countries instead. Recently I managed to set foot there. Hurray! I just wished that the timing was better though.

My plan was to go there early May but couldn't find a suitable tour to join. So we ended up going there early June, late spring that feels like summer cause the daylight was 18-19 hours!

You would have thought that it is a good thing to have a long daylight hour for tourists since we have ample time to take pictures with natural light. I thought so too until I experienced it myself.

Don't know why but somehow the sun was not really "cooperative" during our visit, we always ended up at the wrong side of the sun. The pictures also turned out to be so unnaturally dark or bright depending on the sun position. I guess my digital camera simply can't handle the sun well :(

The surreal thing about 19 daylight hours for Muslim is we need to do our morning prayer at 4 am, evening prayer at 11 pm and late evening prayer at 1 am. Imagine if Ramadhan falls during summer like this year, Muslims in Russia need to fast from 4 am to 11 pm!

Now I count my blessings everyday that I'm living in a balanced "daylight-night time" country. It doesn't matter that we don't enjoy four seasons. "Rain or shine" season is good enough for me. At least I have a good excuse to visit other countries - to experience winter, autumn and spring :)

During our visit, the Red Square was transformed into a sports arena to celebrate Children's Day so we didn't get to enjoy the majestic size of it when it is empty. It was very festive though seeing Moscovites enjoying the sun.

The iconic Saint Basil's Cathedral seemed to look better in pictures and magazines than in real life. I was quite surprised that the outer layer of the building was just a normal paint. I initially thought that it must be mosaic at least.

Kremlin was huge and quite impressive. Fortunately it was not as scary as it was portrayed in American movies ;p Probably because the sun was shining so everything looked nice. We had a good exercise walking from one end to the other and a surprise short downpour while we were there. The only time it rained while we were in Russia.


Arbat Street was a disappointment to me. There are nothing much there except souvenirs. Not many street performance either but if you like Hard Rock Café stuff, the shop is located here. We met a Malaysian family while walking around the area. The husband is working for the Malaysian Embassy.

The Russian Circus was amazing. I love all the acrobatic stuff. I think it is one of the best shows that I've seen overseas. The Folklore Dance was a good show too but I personally think that it was a tad bit too long. If they cut it a bit by 20 minutes it will be just right. The good news is they have free Wi-Fi at the concert hall, so if you are bored you can surf the net with your smartphone!

The palaces in Saint Petersburg are simply awesome. There are around 300 palaces in this city which are mostly now converted to commercial use. We visited the main ones; Peterhof Grand Palace, Catherine Palace and The State Hermitage Museum which was formerly the Winter Palace of the Tsars.

When you walked through the halls of the palaces you can imagine their grand lifestyle and glorious parties. Gold inspired decorations seemed to be the trend back then. The State Hermitage Museum housed so many national treasures that it was claimed that you need 5 years to view all of them!

The Amber Room at Catherine Palace is pretty impressive. We are not allowed to take picture in this room but I was being a bit naughty, I managed to snap two pictures with my phone. Sorry, I can't help myself!

The room's walls were fully covered with US$13 (or was it 11?) million worth of ambers. Totally magnificent!

The Christian Orthodox churches here are richly decorated too. During Soviet time they fell to disarray but after the fall of Soviet Union, they were restored to its former glory.

When you look at the churches and the palaces, the only word that came to mind was "opulence". It is totally understandable when the people then revolt if they have to suffer to support the palaces and the churches opulent lifestyle. Our guide told us that it was reported that the girl who made the intricate beading and embroidery work for the high priest gown commissioned by the tsarina turned blind since she worked under the candlelight for years.

The Russian currency is ruble or rouble (RUB). US$1 equals to roughly RUB30. At some hotels, you can find currency exchange ATM. Just put in the USD in the machine and it will give you RUB. Please note though that the machine will just round up the RUB so if you need to change a lot, it is better for you to go to a proper currency exchange counter.

 

Throughout the tour we stayed at two hotels. I like the hotel in Moscow better. Love the modern decorations and their breakfast selection. Hotel in Saint Petersburg was good too but it was plainly decorated and there are so many tourists around. The good thing was there is a supermarket nearby if you want to buy their local fruits, chocolates, biscuits etc.

This tour (31 May - 7 June 2013) was organised by Parlo Tours and the tour price was RM8.7k per person on twin sharing basis. We spent 3 nights in Moscow and 3 nights in Saint Petersburg.

I personally think that Saint Petersburg is a better looking city than Moscow. It somehow feels like Paris :) I also like the fact that the city management ensures the beauty of the city by insisting that the building under construction is totally covered by canvas with picture of the finished building itself!

During this tour we took a short ride in Moscow Metro trains. We stopped at a few underground stations to admire its beautiful decorations. We also took a fast train from Moscow to Saint Petersburg. Four hours of a pleasant journey. Unfortunately it was not really a scenic one.

 

I have uploaded 684 photos for your viewing pleasure. Do take your time to go through one by one. You can access them at my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/mkhasha.n.travels/. Go to the photo albums.

Njoy!

Note: I just realised that today (15 June) marked my three years early retirement anniversary! How time flies when you are having fun :)

Uzbekistan: Spring - March 2013

 

Honestly Uzbekistan was never in my list of countries to visit. It was just by chance that an old acquaintance contacted me to say that he is organising a tour to Uzbekistan and ask whether I want to join the group. Since my aim is to go to as many countries as I can before I turn 50 so I figure why not?

 

Being a newbie (the country just became independent on 31 August 1991), in my humble opinion they still have a lot to improve in their handling of leisure world travellers. These group of people need a little bit of pampering and being stuck in slow moving Customs line upon landing is definitely not it.

Neither do the luggage scanning every few metres. Most especially when there is nobody to help the women to put their huge luggage in the scanning machines. Porters are also scarce at the hotels and not all hotels have ramp or elevators. So my advice is if you don't have personal bag carriers a.k.a husbands... travel light ;p

 

I also noticed that when it comes to food, the servings were very sparse. The first hint was in Uzbekistan Airways. For an 8 hour flight they served food and drinks only once. So you better make sure that you are awake during that one "drinks round" cause after that the stewardesses are no where in sight!

 

Throughout the trip, lunch and dinner comprised of one or two main dishes only. No desserts either. I'm not sure whether this is normal in their tourism industry or was it merely our local tour operator skimping. Breakfast was no better. The servings were so small and the selection so limited that it was a bit of a cultural shock ;p The good thing is there is no risk of me putting on weight during this holiday :)

As a country, Uzbekistan has a lot of potential. They have beautiful landscapes, ancient history and monuments, fertile lands and productive people. Even though their infrastructure and facilities are dated but you know that their people make it their responsibily to keep it clean. You can see a lot of people sweeping the road and their places of business any time during the day.
 

 

Their spices, dried fruits and nuts are more value for money than even Turkey and Morocco. Their lamb pilaf rice was really good. The kebabs are not too bad either.

 

Their currency is called Uzbekistani Som (UZS). The currency symbol is лв. For US$50 you can get UZS100,000 (picture). That is 100 of лв1,000 notes. лв1,000 is the largest denomination so all the tour members got 1,000 notes in bundles. For awhile we felt like rich people with bundles of cash that can't fit into our normal handbags ;p

The currency is not acceptable outside of the country so do not change too much. US$100 is sufficient. If it is not enough, you can always use US$. In fact most traders outside of Chorsu Bazaar prefer to quote US$ when asked about the price and you'll get a better bargain.

 

Their TV channels are a bit bizzare. They have more than 100 channels and yet in Tashkent and Samarkand I cannot find even one English channel. In Bukhara I can find only one and it was Republic of China's CCTV! Funny huh? Their airline also did not offer any English movies. They offer local movies dubbed in English. I wish that they use subtitle instead of dubbing everything.

 

Another thing that is unique in this country is the requirement to return the local SIM card. Few of the tour members bought it cause the roaming charges here are exorbitant. It costs US$5 for the card alone and then you need to top up to use it. They were not told by the local tour operator that they need to return it by the end of the journey so all were caught by surprise. Most did not even finish their credit.

 

My recommendation is maybe just the tour leader buy and everybody else just pay лв1,000 per SMS to send message home. After all most of the hotels offer free Wifi. If you have smartphone you can Whatsapp away with people at home ;p

 

One thing I find interesting is their teenagers. Some of them purposely approached us so that they can practise their English and Japanese language (one of our tour members is a Japanese teacher).

They love to take pictures with or of us. Everywhere we go we are like minor celebrities. Probably because there are not many tourists yet visiting their country ;p

The kids are friendly but since most of them cannot speak English, our "conversations" are limited to hand signals and lots of giggles ;)

This tour was organised by Ramza Travels. Tour price was RM4,720 per person on twin sharing basis. Frankly speaking for that same price you can get longer stay, better hotels, very much better food and more interesting places to visit if you were to go to Turkey.

 

Nonetheless, I had a great time thanks to the tour members. They are seasoned travellers and really know how to have fun in any circumstances. We laughed and were merry thoughout the journey. The weather was not too bad and the snow fights were priceless!

 

 

In another 10-15 years, I think Uzbekistan will be a great country to visit. You can see that they are slowly building their country. Everywhere you can see them reparing and building stuff. They probably need to build some theme parks at the Chimgan area, organise cruise or water sports at Charvak Lake and set up premium outlets to bring the tourists and their shopping money in droves. Their roads, hotels, toilets and airports need an upgrade too.

 

In the meantime, do check out the pictures. I have uploaded 568 photos for your viewing pleasure.

 

You can access the pictures at my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/mkhasha.n.travels/. Go to the photo albums.

 

Njoy!!

Malaysia: Festivities

As Malaysians we have a lot to celebrate. We have beautiful country with great weather all year round. We are fortunately located on the northen part of Sunda plate thus not subjected to natural catastrophe. The eastern, southern, and western boundaries of the Sunda Plate are tectonically complex and seismically active. Only the northern boundary is relatively quiescent.

We enjoy peace, harmony and prosperity despite the country being populated by multi-racial and multi-religion people. McDonalds even offer a wholly Malaysian creation of "Prosperity Burgers" ;p Since its introduction in 1994, it has been so successful that countries like Singapore and Hong Kong have followed suit!

The upside of having multi-racial and multi-religion people are multi-selection of food. From the authentic to the hybrid. Nobody will die of starvation in Malaysia. Even if you cannot cook to save your life, no worries. If you are hungry at 3am.. there are bound to be some eateries within or near your neighbourhood that open 24/7. That is why it is not surprising that some of Malaysians "live to eat" instead of "eat to live". Tales of people driving hundreds of kilometres away just to eat a plate of some delicious food are not uncommon ;p

Besides that, we also enjoy many public holidays due to our multi-cultural and religion celebrations. Today is Chinese Lunar New Year. May this Year of Snake brings us much joy and happiness. May Malaysia continues to prosper and blessed with peace and harmony. Something that we should never ever take for granted in our quest for personal glory or agenda.

 

Chinese New Year is the second biggest festival in Malaysia. The biggest festival is Hari Raya Aidil Fitri. It was celebrated after the Malay-Muslims (comprise of more than 60% of the population) have successfully completed 30 days of fasting. Hari Gawai, Hari Raya Haji, Deepavali, Christmas and Thaipusam are among other major celebrations in this country.

 

To commemorate the festivities, the shopping malls will try to out do each other with creative decorations. What I observed is the grandeur of the decorations does not reflect the "importance" (for lack of better word) of the festival. For one thing, Christmas decorations are the most grand despite it being celebrated by less than 10% of the population. I suppose it was the most commercial compared to others. Who can resist the lure of Christmas trees and presents huh?

 

Over the years, I've taken some pictures of the malls' decorations using my phone-cameras (so do excuse the quality.. hehe). The pictures are still all over the place. I'm still searching for them in my other computers. I will update the album whenever I found them ;)

 

You may access them at my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/mkhasha.n.travels/. Go to the photo albums.

 

Njoy!!

Morocco: Autumn - November 2012



After a hiatus of holidays due to a major house renovation work, I broke it by going to Morocco. Initially I thought of going to South Africa as I was inspired by a friend who went there in October. Unfortunately it was too expensive, close to RM15k per person! I need to financially "recover" first from the effect of the renovation before I can even think of going there.

Since I cannot afford to go south, I decided to go north instead. Morocco did not disappoint. It is a country with beautiful landscapes, interesting history and unique culture. During my visit, the weather was marvellous too. Even though it was close to winter, the temperature was between 5-25C, depending on which city you were at.

 

A few things caught me by surprise in this trip. First was the travel time from Kuala Lumpur to Casablanca. Since Morocco time zone is the same as London, I thought that the flight time will be around 12 hours. It turned out to be 16 hours! And that is not inclusive of the 3 hours transit time at Abu Dhabi.

 

Secondly, which turned out to be the most memorable was that on the 27 November 2012. On our way from Fes to Erfoud we got to experience three seasons in a day! Autumn splendour at the "Alpine" town of Irfane. It was snowing while we were crossing the Middle Atlas and a few hours later a bright hot sun at the desert. Surreal!

 

Thirdly, this is with regard to their main dish. When I expected it to be savoury, it turned out to be sweet! So if you are a "cili padi" lover, better stick to their shish kebab - be it chicken, mutton, beef or fish. I think the Moroccans have perfected the dish. Soft, tasty and juicy! Delicious :)

 

This trip also marked a few firsts:

• First time I flew via Etihad. The in-flight meals were not as good as Qatar Airways. Their Abu Dhabi International Airport however is better than Doha's. I like the colour of their plane interior. The colour of their blankets are attractive too and what surprise me most is they allowed their customers to take them home! Not all airlines are that generous. Etihad also offers plug point at all seats. Something that should be emulate by the rest of the airlines don't you think?
• First time I went for a holiday without a companion. I did not actually travel solo in a real sense cause I joined a travel group. Hehe .. baby steps ;p The tour members were great so I did not feel as though I was alone :)
• First time I took a trip after I started this blog which resulted in me being a little bit over-board with photo-takings. Wanting to record every thing and their gorgeous landscapes did not help either ;p

The tour was organised by Parlo Tours. It run from 23 November to 2 December 2012. The price was RM6.3k per person (twin-share). RM7.2k if you opt for a single room.

 

I've uploaded 642 photos for your viewing pleasure. I've broken my blog record (again!) I really need to control myself in my next trip :( Frankly, en route to Marrakech I am totally in awe with our Creator effortless creations. I hope you will find the time to go through the pictures and appreciate them too. Stop for a while from your busy schedule and smell the roses ;) 

 

You can access the photos at my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/mkhasha.n.travels/. Go to the photo albums.

 

Njoy!!

Spain: Spring - April 2011

 

We went to Spain during second half of April. It was in a middle of spring and definitely one of the good times to visit temperate countries. The whether was not so hot and neither was it so cold. Decent daylight hours as well.. very important for photographers without state-of-the-art cameras ;p

 

The trip was very satisfactory. The places we visited were beautiful, the Spaniards are mostly good-looking, the food were tasty, the hotels were comfortable and the weather was great. I love every minute of it!

 

The dish that I like most during the trip was Seafood Paella. I like it so much that when I came back home I tried to imitate the dish but with a dash of local flavours. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery after all. The result was Seafood Biryani. It got rave reviews from families and friends who were fortunate enough to sample the dish since I don't really like cooking and even if I do I rarely make complicated dish like biryani ;p

 

The picture above was taken from one of the Harem's windows of the Al-Hambra. Going through the building you can imagine the intrigue of ancient times. Similar feelings of going back to the period long forgotten can be experienced in all the ancient cities of Toledo, Cordoba and Seville. The feelings were however dispelled by the sight of Starbucks and McDonalds.. hehe

 

The trip from 16-27 April 2011 was organised by Parlo Tours. It covers two countries Spain and Portugal but mainly covers the cities of Spain. Only two days were allocated for Lisbon, Portugal. Tour price was RM8.3k per person. The most expensive tour that I've joined to-date but worth every penny :)

 

Since the country is so wonderful, it was not suprising that I went a bit overzealous with the photo-taking. I've uploaded 595 photos! I thought Istanbul was bad.. I broke my blog record (again!) with Spain ;p

 

You can access the pictures at my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/mkhasha.n.travels/. Go to the photo albums.

 

Njoy!! 

Portugal: Spring - April 2011

Lisbon, the capital city of Portugal is the westernmost large city located in Europe, as well as its westernmost capital city and the only one along the Atlantic coast. It is a hilly city but luckily we do not have to do a lot of walking or else you will see a lot of panting tourists around ;p

Our visit to Lisbon (or Lisboa in Portuguese language) was part and parcel of a greater Spain tour. We were there from 19-21 April 2011. It was during the time when Portugal was experiencing The Financial Crisis. The local tour guide was very polite and thank us for visiting their country and helped contribute to its recovering economy. Frankly that was the first time that I encountered a local tour guide with such humility. Most of the tour guides that I met over the years were mostly charming but proud. In rare instances there were some who were downright arrogant!

Our local tour guide highlighted the fact that there were historical links between Malays and Portuguese which resulted among others some borrowed words between the races. Words like "jendela" (window), "almari" (cupboard), "garpu" (fork), "bendera" (flag), "keju" (cheese) are some of Malay words borrowed from Portuguese language.They borrowed "nanas" (pineapple) from us. I'm sure there are many more but I can only remember that one ;p

We went to Cabo da Roca (Cape Roca) which forms the westernmost extent of mainland Portugal and continental Europe. On a clear day you can see the United States of America from there.. I'm kidding!! The cape was beautiful in spring with wild flowers everywhere. A must visit if you go to Lisbon :)

I've uploaded 194 photos for your viewing pleasure. You can access them at my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/mkhasha.n.travels/. Go to the photo albums.

Njoy!!