MY: Birthday Karaoke

Zal organised a karaoke session at Redbox Ria Sogo to celebrate Sha and Abe Zu birthdays.

~ MT @ Malaysia

~~ Ampang, Selangor

~ To Travel Is To Discover Oneself ~

MY: KUA-KUL via LPT

Woke up around 8:30am. The weather was gloomy. Syok tido... :-) Had breakfast at Garden Terrace and then walked along the beach. Checked out at noon and drove to Teluk Chempedak.

The beach at Teluk Chempedak is better compare to Pantai Balok. The sand is whiter and the area is livelier. Spend few minutes snapping some photos... well, BH did.. me, just sat there enjoying McD fries.. :-))

It was nearly 1pm already and we planned to stop at Restoran Zaman to buy Nasi Lemak for lunch. This restaurant is a well known restaurant for Nasi Lemak. It is situated near the airport. It is along the road at the end of runaway.

We entered LPT at Gambang interchange around 1:40pm and exit at Karak an hour later. Then, we entered Karak-Kuala Lumpur highway few minutes after that. It was raining quite heavily and we reached TTDI around 4pm.

It was a fun drive and quite tiring. Not a lot of cars on the road, probably due to most of the city dwellers have returned to the city earlier.

~ MT @ Malaysia

~~ Ampang, Selangor

~ To Travel Is To Discover Oneself ~

MY: KBR-KUA via Coastal Road

My friend, BH came to KBR for Eid and we decided to return to KUL via TGG. Our plan was to use Coastal Road or Jalan Pantai from Jertih to Kuala Terengganu. We were to meet Abe Zu and his family at Cherating and spent a night at Kuantan. This time, our choice of hotel is the newly renovated Swiss Garden Resort & Spa at Pantai Balok. Originally, we wanted to stay at Hyatt Teluk Chempedak, however, BH got a better corporate rate at Swiss Garden.

We left my parent's place around 10.30am and drove to KB Mall to meet BH friend. Then, around 12pm, we left KB Mall and drove towards Pasir Puteh, then continue to Jertih. At Jertih, we turned into an alternative road to Kuala Terengganu, Jalan Pantai. The drive along the Coastal Road brought us along Penarik, Merang, Batu Rakit and we reached the town centre around 2:30pm. A bit longer than usual, however since we were not in rush, we decided to enjoy the scenic view along the way.

At Kuala Terengganu, I bought a batik for Sha's birthday celebration and another sampin songket for myself. We were a bit disappointed because we could not find a decent restaurant opened for lunch. At the end, we ended up having K-F-C at Pantai Batu Burok for lunch. :-))

We continued our journey towards Kuantan soon after our late lunch and met up with Abe Zu and his family at Chukai (Kemaman). Abe Zu was staying at Impiana, Cherating, 10 mins away from Chukai. BH suggested a Chinese restaurant for soft shell crab, however, Abe Zu and family was a bit was-was since the restaurant is a Chinese restaurant without halal certificate :-) We ended up having dinner at Selera Timur restaurant.

We reached Pantai Balok at 10:30pm and checked in immediately. This is my first time at Swiss Garden Kuantan.

The weather was not really nice with rains intermittently. Looking forward for the next day trip from KUA to KUL.

~ MT @ Malaysia
~ Pantai Balok, Kuantan

~ To Travel Is To Discover Oneself ~

MY: Birthday Wishes

Happy Birthday to Abe Zu (16-Oct) & Sha (18-Oct)!!!















~ MT @ Malaysia
~~ Kota Bharu, Kelantan

~ To Travel Is To Discover Oneself ~

MY: Selamat Hari Raya

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri…. Maaf Zahir dan Batin…

First day raya. Prayed Solat Sunat Aidilfitri at the nearby madrasah. A lot of changes to the madrasah… two noticeable changes are the replacement of wood with bricks and the madrasah is now conquered by the current party ruling the state of Kelantan.. Yup.. the political division of villagers here is obvious if you mix around them.. very unhealthy, but that is what they chose to be.

Before the prayer, I had a light breakfast of laksam kelantan …have not eaten laksam for quite some time.

What in store for our guests, Satay/ Roti Jala with Kuzi Ayam / Laksa and Laksam (a bit of Laksa Penang too, courtsey of my neighbour) / Nasi Himpit and Kuah Kacang.

Tanah Perkuburan - stopped by en route to my aunties' houses to offer a prayer for the deceased family members.

Food for guests at one of my aunties' house.

At my cousin's place, Nasi Tomato.

~ MT @ Malaysia

~~ Kota Bharu, Kelantan

~ To Travel Is To Discover Oneself ~

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: KUL-KBR with AK

I flew back to my hometown today with AK. As much as I wanted to avoid flying AK (especially when the only fare available is the top end range), I have no choice this time.

BH picked me form my house in Ampang around 8am and he supposed to drive me to KL Sentral only. However, since I was a bit grumpy that morning (hehhehe.. don't ask why), he decided to drop me at LCCT directly... Thank you very much BH...

Reached the terminal around 9am plus, and the check in counters for KBR were not yet open. All AK check in counters are based on destination and they are open 2 hours before the departure and closes 1hr 15 mins later. I was a bit lost since this was a second time using the terminal (the first time was when I went to DPS with BH).

Check in as a breeze since I was second in line. Total checked-in luggage was 14kg and my hand luggage was only 6kg. Just nice for the low cost carrier requirements.

Boarding was called 30mins before the ETD. As ususal, the moment AK staff greeted "Ladies and gentlemen..", everybody started to rush in front of the gate/door. Typical. It was a bit of walk to the A320 (apparently, AK is now using Airbus for all its destinations) but now, they have built a covered walk way. Cool....

I boarded via the aft door and took my seat at the last row. Seat 31A. The flight was nearly full. I only noticed one seat vacant. Through out the flight, I kept myself busy with the in flight magazine, Travel 360degree (if I am not mistaken).

The flight was uneventful and the weather is clear. Upon flying over Kelantan air space, I noticed how dirty the Kelantan river is.. it is really really dirty.... too much logging I believe. The state government and the federal government should have done something.

We landed 5 mins earlier than ETA. Picked up my luggage and my brother already waiting for me outside the arrival hall...

Welcome home MT! It has been nearly a year since I last stepped my feet in my kampung :-)

~ MT @ Malaysia
~~ Kota Bharu, Kelantan

~ To Travel Is To Discover Oneself ~

MY: Adding to Collection...

Tiffany n Co. .. I never stepped in to the outlet. The only reason is in my mind, the cheapest would be at least RM1000. However, last night, it was different. With fashionable Aidid and RES around, I went to Tiffany n Co. for the first time.

The first visit to Tiffany n Co. cost me nearly RM700. So, what did I buy? :-)


What do you think?

~MT @ Malaysia
~~ Pavilion, Kuala Lumpur

~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: Jalan-jalan

Today, I went jalan-jalan to The Gardens and Mid Valley at the Mid Valley City and later in the day, on the way to TTDI, I stopped by at Bangsar Village II.

The Gardens - one of the latest up-class shopping malls. Anchor tenants are Isetan and Robinsons. Walked into Robinsons.... not to my liking. Prefer Isetans and local Metrojaya.

Bangsar Village - Never been here since it opened its door. I just want to see Ted Baker.. nice clothing but too expensive for me. Waiting for Thomas Pink to open at The Gardens.....

Mid Valley - everybody knows the place. Nestled within the Mid Valley City, it shares the same parking area with The Gardens. So pay close attention where you park your car and where do you want to go. Else, you will end up walking quite a distance.

Sunday - probably Pavilion KL :-)

~ MT @ Malaysia
~~ Sunway Damansara, Selangor


~ To Travel Is To Discover Oneself ~

MY: More Presents

Thank you very much to Ruby & Family as well as Titien & Family. Zal brought back their tokens of appreciation for me with him yesterday...



thanks a lot...

~ MT @ Malaysia
~~ Kota Damansara, Selangor

~ 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 ~

MY: The Boxes are here

Tracked the shipment via FedEx website this morning... and the status of the shipment is "On FedEx vehicle for delivery".. yey.. my fourboxes are on the way... luckily no issue with Customs.. well, it should not be anyway.. all are used items... :-)

Out of four boxes, one was delivered Thursday at noon while the remaining three were delivered 6 hours later. The one that was delivered at noon came from Shah Alam facility while the remaining three came from Kota Damansara facility. I dont know why they splitted. Anyway, all the content were not touch although one of the boxes was badly ruined (the one from Shah Alam facility).

~ MT @ Malaysia

~~ Ampang, Selangor

~ To Travel Is To Discover Oneself ~

MY: My First Kad Raya

Today, I received my first "kad raya". It is from Shah.

Thanks Shah.... Selamat Hari Raya and Maaf Zahir & Batin to you too...

~ MT @ Malaysia
~~ Ampang, Selangor

~ To Travel Is To Discover Oneself ~

MY: Tahniah

Congratulations to Aizal & Yeen on the new arrival of their first baby, a healthy baby girl today at 7:30am.... Myra binti Aizal... that is nice and simple :-)

To see the photos, please click here.


~ MT @ Malaysia
~~ Ampang, Selangor

~ To Travel Is To Discover Oneself ~

MY: DOH - KUL...

Sept 30, QR624... A7-ACI (in Asian Games 2006 blue colour) flew me home from Doha.

I checked in around 9pm and returned to the airport an hour before departure. The lounge was full and the flight has already started boarding. Nothing interesting to buy at the duty free, so I proceeded to board the aircraft.

Met Mel, an old friend on board the aircraft. She is a CS in charge of the Economy Class. My previous flight from KUL to DOH last July was also served by Mel.

The turbulence en route to KUL was quite bad. If I am not mistaken, we were hit by turbulence occassionally starting from the Oman air space and it lasted until we flew over Andaman Sea.

I had a chicken rendang for my late supper, which was served an hour after take-off. Two hours after my supper, CSD Alain came and told me the imsak will be slightly after 3 am (Doha time). At that time we were flying over Indian airspace. I agreed to have an early breakfast and chose continental breakfast for my sahoor. At this time, Mel came over and we chat for about 15 minutes. Poor her.. she was not allowed to sit on the empty seat next to me (seat 1F), so, she sort of has to squat on the floor... :-(

Half an hour before 3 am, I had an early breakfast. A full set of continental breakfast. Then, I had a good 3 hours sleep until 30mins before landing at KUL. Landed on time at KUL and by 1pm, I was on ERL to XKL.

Well, this probably the last flight for me with Qatar Airways... Although they claimed they are the 5 Star airlines awarded by Skytrax, I think I pass... (no hard feelings to my QR crew friends ok..:-))



~ MT @ Malaysia
~~ KL Sentral, Kuala Lumpur

~ To Travel Is To Discover Oneself ~

QA: The Last Day

Sunday is my last day in Qatar. This is also my last day of working in the project, hence few things needed to be settled. In the morning, I was assigned to assist two of my colleagues to test the new relaease we just received from the vendor.

Afternoon, I went to return my car to the car rental company and by 4pm, I am good to leave my project for good. It was a very hard to say good bye to all my colleagues. I have been there for three years and in fact, I am the longest serving staff in the project (not including the boss since he is in charge to look over the country business).

I left around 4pm with Tauseef and Hussain. Reached home, more to pack. A final one :-) it took me as near as iftar time to complete packing and made a call to FedEx to arrange for a pick up. Dr Azhar came over to give me an envelope to be given to his brother in KL. For the iftar, I have promised to have an iftar with him at Shebestan Persian Restaurant.

Everything settled, time to say good bye to my apartment. It is very hard.. feel like crying... :-( in fact, every time I think about my life there, I smile to myself... for all good things and sometimes bad things during my stay there)..

Around 8:45pm, Zal drove me to the airport. Checked in was fast and by 9:15pm, I was at KM's place where all of my friends have gathered.

This is the first time I watched a video speficially done for me.. I was soo touched!!! It was a long video, around 28mins and each one of my friends had a say about me. They spent lots of times recording this video and our Production Managers, Aizal/Yeen who spent most of their off days producing this video.

Thank You very much.... I never expect to have this grand farewell from my friends... And I didnt realise that I have that many close and true friends in Qatar...

Goodbye Qatar..

~ MT @ Qatar

~~ Hilal, D0ha

~ To Travel Is To Discover Oneself ~

QA: Packing

Saturday is devoted to packing. As Alistair Appleton always say in the "Cash In The Attic", lets start cracking with the packing!

Earlier on Thursday, I went to FedEx to pick up the 25kg boxes. Luckily Ram's wife, Sree works there, so the services is faster. I am entitled to air ship 300lbs (~ 130kg) of my stuff. Since I don't have much things to ship, two of the boxes are filled with Diva's and Zal's stuff. :-)

I have a very hard time to decide which one should go in checked in luggage and what are to go in a courier. The courier will take around 3-4 days depending on the custom clearance.

I planned for the pick-up to come tomorrow, just in case I have more things to tuck inside the boxes.. :-))


~ MT @ Qatar
~~ Bin Mahmoud, D0ha

~ To Travel Is To Discover Oneself ~

QA: The Farewell Dinner

Friday night, my friends in Doha threw a farewell party for me. It is so nice of them. Zal organised all these and Ritz Carlton Ramadhan Tent is the choice. I have told Zal I wanted to go there before I left, so he organized for a farewell dinner there.

Actually, I felt guilty about it since it is among the most expensive Ramadhan Tent in Doha.. QR185 ++ per pax. And 15 of my friends agreed to come and willing to pay that much.. I am touched! So, I secretly made a deal with the waiter to ensure I get the bill first before others. The waiter understood it and I paid half of the bill. Even more, the next day (Saturday) was a working day for some of us. And those people willing to stay back until 3am... what a sacrifice...

Another surprised I received that night were presents from some of them. Apparently when Diva and Sha flew to IAD (both of them just landed at 7pm), the team (my other friends) has already planned for them to buy present for me. They decided to buy shirts and thats explained why during the packing I realised my Hard Rock Bahrain polo was missing. Zal secretly took it from my wardrobe and gave them to Diva as a sample for size.

To Diva and Sha, I know your one day lay-over at IAD was spent to just look for the shirts. Well, there will be another IAD in your roster in months to come.. I really appreciate it.. thanks a million...

Some photos during the dinner..

To all my friends in Doha, thank you soooo much for the memorable night! And thank you very much for the presents.. :-)

~ MT @ Qatar
~~ Ritz Carlton, D0ha

~ To Travel Is To Discover Oneself ~