MY: Last Day Iftar - Kelantan Style :-)

On the way back from the airport, I stopped by at "Pak Wi Satay" to pick up satay that my mom booked for tomorrow's Eid.

Satay is synonym with a place called Baung in Pengkalan Chepa. The airport is situated in Pengkalan Chepa area and along the way to the airport, one will find lots of satay stalls by the roadside.

Pak Wi Satay is situated few hundreds meters from the main. The access to Pak Wi's pace is via a narrow road next to Shell petrol station (the first petrol station if you are coming from the airport to the town centre). Most of the satay bought in Baung have similar tastes. The only different is the price and the kind of beef used. Pak Wi uses local beef while most other stalls use imported beef. The price for Pak Wi satay is RM40 for 100 sticks while other stalls charge around RM45 - RM47 per 100 sticks.

Later in the evening, after paying my zakat at the nearby mosque, I went to the Pasar Ramadan at Kedai Mulong. Lots of mouth-watering Kelantan desserts like jala emas, tahi itik, etok (I think it is officially spelled as "etak") etc... Yummy..yummy.... I don't really eat "etok" anymore... justwant to take phot and put it in my blog.. muahhahahaa...

~ MT @ Malaysia

~~ Kota Bharu, Kelantan

~ To Travel Is To Discover Oneself ~

MY: Iftar @ Pavilion

Had iftar with RES and Aidid at Madam Kwan's Pavilion, KL. Zal was there as well. Supposedly, another ex-MIME, Rafi to join us, but decided not to. This is my first time meeting Aidid. All these while I get to know him via his blog and my friends in the U A E.

Surprisingly, Madan Kwan's at Pavilion was not full house. When I walked in around 6:55pm, less than 10 minutes before iftar time, there were still seats available. Probably Pavilion is still new and not fully operational.

I had char kuey teow, Zal indulged in Nasi Ayam, RES enjoyed Nasi Bojari while Aidid looked satisfied with Nasi Lemak.

After iftar, we walked around the mall. Nothing great, and in my opinion, Pavilion is not really "posh" as what I expect it to be. Went into AIX (yes, I found the shirt that Kak Diva/Abe Zu & Sha/Nije bought for me and now I KNOW how much it cost... thank you sooo much :-)), then Thomas Pink (I like the shirts collection there but just too expensive... anybody in London can buy this for me? :-)), Aldo (apparently I found few Aldo outlets when visiting few malls for the last few days), Tiffany & Co. (want to know what I bought here, see the next entry) and lastly Parkson.

Zal and myself left for KLCC to meet another friend, and later on to Kota Damansara Uptown (actually I don't know there is another Uptown after the one I know in Damansara) to meet Nije & Sha...

It was a very tiring day rushing from one place to another with bad traffic - but it was fun!

~ MT @ Malaysia

~~ Sunway Damansara, Selangor

~ To Travel Is To Discover Oneself ~

MY: Iftar @ Putrajaya

Went to have iftar with my brother at Putrajaya today. Since we didn't do any prior reservation, the best bet is to go to the shopping mall. And the nearest mall is Alamanda. So, around 6pm, we drove to Alamanda.

Within minutes, we reached Alamanda, however, all the restaurants and food court seats were fully booked. So we decided to do some groceries at Carrefour first and bought drinks for our iftar. Later, after Maghreb prayer, we had dinner at Johnny Steamboat. I am not a fan of the steamboat, but my brother is. This was his choice, so I just followed.

Alamanda,in my opinion, is a community mall, rather than an upclass shopping mall. I would say majority of shoppers are from Putrajaya itself and its neighbour, Cyberjaya. You can sense most of the crowds are either students or the government servants. How? hmm... hard to explain.. or is it "sterotyping" since the area is a government administrative capital?

~ MT @ Malaysia
~~ Putrajaya, Wilayah Persekutuan

~ To Travel Is to Discover Oneself ~

MY: Beginning of Weekend

Since I arrived back in KUL on the October 1, I have not been having a proper iftar as per like "sit down and facing the food" during the iftar time. It was either a sip of water inside the car or at home then, went out for dinner or a delayed iftar - which is not really encouraged in Islam.

In the evening I managed to go to the Bazar Ramadhan at TTDI. Joining me were Zal and his housemate, RY. Zal just arrived back from DOH in the afternoon. It felt like you want to buy every single thing there when you were buying food on empty stomach!

We ended up with mutton and chicken beriyani , and few local kuih -> popiah basah, popiah goreng, tepung pelita, putu piring, cucur udang, and tofu fah. Drinks to quench our thirst were air buah mata kucing and air soya.. hmmmm ....... yummy...

Unfortunately, I left my camera in the car. Hence, no photo of the bazar ramadhan itself... but I do have these photos for The Yummylicious Family and other friends in Doha... :-))

p/s: Thank you for the polo tee. I like it.. :-)

~ MT @ Malaysia

~~ Kota Damansara, Selangor

~ To Travel Is To Discover Oneself ~

QA: A Gift from a Colleague

Had iftar with Bahgat, his wife Mervat and our colleague, Ahmed at Al-Bandar Restaurant. Al-Bandar Restaurant used to be by the gulf along the Corniche. However it was demolished as part of Doha beautification project. Now, it has reopened at Souq Waqif along side other restaurants. I heard that the one and only Malaysian restaurant, "Seri Kebaya" to open there as well. "Seri Kebaya" is part of the Malaysian Kitchen programme franchise and plan to open on after Eid.

Thank you Bahgat, Mervat and Ahmed for the iftar and the gift. It is beautiful... something to remind me about Qatar :-))











~ MT @ Qatar
~~ Souq Waqif, D0ha

~ To Travel Is To Discover Oneself ~

QA: Final Weekend

Weekend in Qatar starts on Thursday night.. and the best way to start your weekend is to have a good iftar at Shahrin's place. His wife, Nadia cooked sup tulang, daging bakar and ayam bakar. It was really really good.










Later into the night, what else... shopping... bought a pair of Hugo Boss shoes and a same brand belt for BH.

Then, hang out at usual place, Coffee Beanery which was packed like a can of sardine. Later, we moved to Taly near the airport for sahoor...

Friday- packing time! And I think Saturday would be the same too :-))

Boxes are ready to be packed for air shipment and luggage for checked-in... I requested for additional luggage allowance from Qatar Airways and being Qatar Airways, you never ever put high expectation.. so, I have to squeeze everything for 30kg allowance only.. hopefully I can put as much as my stuff for the air shipment.

~ MT @ Qatar
~~ Bin Mahmoud, D0ha

~ To Travel Is To Discover Oneself ~

QA: A Week Into Ramadan

Alhamdulillah, just like the last two years, the Ramadan here, so far went smoothly for me. The weather, yes, it is hot, but you stay in door and only go out when needed only. Moreover, the working hours are shorten - not my company though. I still have to clock 8 hours a day but it is up to me to decide the time. This is something I like about working with people who understand to balance between work, personal and I would say, religion.

When I was working back in Malaysia, Ramadan is just another month. Some people I used to worked with ignoring the beauty of Ramadan. If you are non-Muslim I may be tolerate a bit, but being Muslim themselves, I feel it ia bit too much. What's wrong of giving your Muslim staff to go back earlier if they don't take their lunch hour? I am more into work philosophy of if you can deliver the work/task assigned to you in a good quality and within the time frame, I have no issue if you have to leave office early. Discuss with the immediate superior and if your superior is a "human being", I think he/she will understand. If not... errr..it is time to leave the project or company... :-)

That brings me to my plan of going back to Malaysia, or rather Singapore at this point of time. Having worked with people around the world, my inner voice keeps on saying avoid workign with "this kind" of people. But then, it is difficult not to work with "this kind" of people if you are back in Malaysia or Singapore... hmm... well.. that is a different story..

Anyway, for the last one week, I have chances to break my fast with few friends.

Iftaar at Diba the Diva










Iftaar at Aizal/Yeen










Iftaar at Al-Hamra with TAA











Iftaar at Layali with a group of Muslims expat












~ MT @ Qatar
~~ Bin Mahmoud, D0ha

~ To Travel Is To Discover Oneself ~

MY: Traffic..Iftar... Rain...

I had my iftar at JW Marri0tt Kuala Lumpur with BH and my two brothers. This is the cheapest buffet I ever encountered in Kuala Lumpur - only RM48++ per person. Good and variaties of food.. from appetizers to dessert. Most importantly, I have been craving for kampung style cooking since the beginning of Ramadan. Although I didn't manage to sample them all, I did have a taste of Nasi Ayam, Sup Ekor, Rojak Buah, sambal belacan, cencalok, budu :-) to name a few. Too much of food.... I have to take care of my diet :-)

It took me more than one hour from Ampang to Bkt Bintang. Crazy huh? Traffic was really bad.. I guessed it will take longer time had I not used the elevated highway. Why did all people have to leave office/home at the same time, especially those that were not fasting??!

30 minutes into the dusk, downpour greeted us. We were unfortunate since our table exactly next to the pool in an open space! Those waiters must be the "bidan terjun" waiters - they not even know what to do. Yeah.. dumb waiter! Don't think they are Malaysians. They kept saying there were no empty spaces and offered us to transfer to Level 4, Starhill Conference Hall - another area for iftar at Marri0tt. At first, we refused - who wants to move two level down in the middle of dinner.. nanti kahwin terlebih kan :-)) and hold and behold, we DID find an empty table fit for four! And it exactly in front of those waiters' station!














More photos can be viewed at my fotopages.

~MT @ Malaysia
~~ Ampang, Selangor

~To Travel Is To Discover Oneself~