Important Dates 2019

Destination: Danau Toba (22 - 24 November 2019)

This trip to Danau Toba or Lake Toba was really unplanned. I opened the AirAsia app and I just playing around, choosing destinations that were about 1 - 3 hours flight from Kuala Lumpur, randomly picked dates and one of them was Silangit. The return tickets was only RM120. So, I asked my parents whether they want to join this trip (I was original planning on going solo), and they said YES! So, I immediately booked the tickets. Later, that evening, my mom asked my aunt and she joined in. So, another ticket was bought. Once done with the flight, I booked the accommodations and later searched for tour guide. Actually, I didn't booked a TOUR, just car with driver. I booked it here, Rental Mobil di Bandara Silangit.

Flight Details

Accommodations

At first, I booked the same hotel for our two nights there. But after consulting our driver (later I found out that he was the boss), he advised me to book a different hotel on our second night. So, the first night we spend the night at Samosir Island and our second night was at Parapat. I was glad, we took our driver's advice for the first hotel we stayed was very terrible. The hotel is big but the management is very bad! The second worst hotel I've been, the first one is Hong Kong (I still owe the entry on that trip, hehe..). And for the first time ever, there was no iron/ironing room provided leading me wearing a crumpled tudung! Luckily, it was still wearable and you couldn't see the lines in pictures.

Just don't believe the hotel reviews, huhu..

This hotel is so much better than the first and I booked this via AirAsiaGo.

Itinerary

22 November 2019 (Friday)

1. Tele Watch Tower

2. Bukit Holbung

3. Efrata Waterfall

So, on our first day, we were picked up at the airport by our driver, Anto. He is a quiet person, not talking much but is a great driver. But lucky enough, my dad was able to coax him to talk. We stopped along the above mentioned places on our way to Samosir Island. The journey was a little bit tough since it is a hilly road. But the view is really amazing and spectacular!

Holbung Hill

Tele Watch Tower (you have to pay IDR7000 to climb the tower)

Efrata Waterfall (another IDR7000 entrance fee)

My parents and I inflight picture

23 November 2019 (Saturday)

1. Tomok Village

2. Batu Hoda Beach

3. Bukit Indah Simarjarunjung

4. Sipiso Piso Waterfall

On our second day, we went to Tomok Village where we learned about the Batak culture and history. We also learned the traditional dance, Tor Tor. We also bought our souvenirs here. Done with shopping we then went to Batu Hoda Beach. My aunt and I took a lot of pictures here since there are many Instagram worthy spots. After that, we took a boat to Parapat and continue our journey to Bukit Indah Simarjarunjung Another location specially custom made for photography purpose. Next, we went to Sipiso Piso Waterfall. We were actually meant to visit Berastagi but since we spent so much time taking pictures, our trip to Berastagi was not meant to be, maybe next time, insyaAllah..

Bukit Indah Simarjarunjung PT I

Batu Hoda Beach

Bukit Indah Simarjarunjung PT II

Our RedDoorz Hotel @DanauToba and boat ride

Sipiso Piso Waterfall

Tomok Village

24 November 2019 (Sunday)

Our second hotel and flight back to Malaysia

1. Airport Transfer

Naomi Scott - Speechless (Aladdin OST)

Self Reminder for Today

May Allah (swt) guide us all on the straight path and prevent us from departing it. ~ Ameen

Melaka: Unplanned Trip

Unplanned trip to historical city, melaka last saturday with mom, aunt and cousin. And this is the list of things we did:

1. Breakfast at Roti Canai Kayu Arang (the place was crowded. The food was good and the price were reasonable. My cousin and i had 'Roti Dol', roti kosong 'flooded' with dal gravy and two sunny side up eggs on top as shown in picture)

2. Took the Taming Sari Melaka ride, Melaka river cruise and also the trishaw (beca). Price tickets are different between locals and foreigners. Need to provide MyKad as proof. I requested 'keroncong' or 'dondang sayang' songs when asked by the trishaw 'driver'. According to him, i was only the second person to request those genre during his time as a trishaw 'driver.' 😂

3. Visited a couple of museums; Muzium Samudera, Muzium Sejarah dan Ethnografi and Muzium Istana Kesultanan Melaka. By visiting these museums, i wonder why don't i like the history subject in school when it is really interesting. Maybe the method it was taught. 😅 We also visited the stadthuys, st paul church ruin and a famosa fort (known as fort santiago these days).

4. Window shopping at Mahkota Parade, dinner near Pantai Klebang (bought the famous coconut milk shake) and finally Maghrib and Isya' prayer at Masjid Selat.

Well, since it was an unplanned trip, we still manage do many fun and interesting activities. We plan on coming back again next time and spend a couple of days. Overall, it was a satisfying trip. Spending quality time with our loved ones is simply the best! ❤️❤️❤️

roti dol

taming sari

river cruise

my beloved mom and i

with my cousin

trishaw ride

masjid selat

busy weekend..

last week, i went to another ballet repertoire with miss a. our first ballet repertoire was six years ago, coppelia. this time it was swan lake. it is a good performance i personally like the coppelia better. maybe because during that time, we had a better seating and view. this time, we watched from quite a distance (expected from the cheapest price, haha.. even the cheapest ticket cost RM100). we even talked about whether or not, one day we would afford the better seating, hehe.. oh, i fall asleep for a couple of minutes i think.. maybe because i took my med before the performance..

the next day, i attend a mercy program at rawang. we basically had a program wit he children of the residents. while the adults attend to the first aids program, mercy volunteer help attend to their children so that the adults could focus on the program without disturbance from their young children. we taught the children origami (frog), sing a song on brushing teeth, taught them the proper way to wash hands and play a game called 'step-on'. i basically just help and didn't conduct any of the activities. at this sort of program, i'll make a few new friends.before this, i joined another mercy program at pasir gudang. that program was basic psychological first aid for teacher affected during the sg kim kim pollution.

the next day, miss a and i joined malayan tiger fun run at ioi city mall. it was my first fun run of this year, i think.. since moving back to segamat, i rarely joined runs since there are not so many runs held here. this run was for raising the awareness on saving our malayan tiger. and coincidentally, there was quite a news that week on awang besul. it's actually a sad event. this fun was really fun since we had to go through a few obstacles!

after the run, we went to japan malaysia expo held at pavillion kl. we went there using public transportation. it was my first time riding a MRT. and i must say that the public transportation services in kl are very good and efficient. there were a lot of live performances by japan groups that i didn't know about but they are all great! there was a cosplay parades as well. we bought a few japanese desserts like mochi. i love mochi! there used to be store called 'mochi sweets' at pavillion but it was closed a couple of years ago. overall, it was FUN!

my finger journey to recovery

on one fine day, i can't remember the exact date, i hurt my finger while trying to open a can of mushroom. it won't stop bleeding and i panic. i'm a little bit of hemophobic. i couldn't stand the sight of blood even if it's my own, huhu.. this one time, i wanted to donate blood, i blackout even before the donating began. it's just because i saw the bags of blood. so, the next time i donated blood, i kept my sight clear out off the blood bags. i avoided looking at them. so, with the help of my mom and aunt, we managed to stop the bleeding. i went to clinic the next day and received four stitches. i received stitches once before, when i was around four years old. i fall from a swing. the only thing i remembered at that time was me calling the little chicks to play with me and then woke up at my grandma's house later that night...

Aidilfitri 2019/1440H

this year raya is so much better than my previous year raya. during last year raya, i was taken ill and had to be hospitalized in kajang for a few days. i'm not sure whether i've mentioned it in this blog or not. but one of my friend had a stroke attack on the first day of raya. i had a chance to visit him and he was unconscious for a few days. even when he regained back his consciousness, his memory was not fully intact. alhamdulillah at this moment he was already taken home and was taken care by his family. please pray for his recovery. he was my friend at stj and also during my german years. well, here are some photos for this year raya. sorry for the very late updates, huhu.. it's already time for aildiladha as well.. we will be celebrating this aidiladha at putrajaya since kak sya is performing haj with his husband and my parents are looking after their children.

abg ain's family

kak sya's family

kak ala's family

my family, hehe..

  

ramadan 2019/1440H

i'm so sorry for the late wish. it's already the 28 days of ramadan. only a couple of days before eid. this year, for the first time ever, i managed to finish the whole quran during ramadan. i hope i can maintain this for years to come. i tried my best to perform terawih prayers as well. up until today, i only missed three (not counting the ties of my period). one time i missed because of journeying from putrajaya to segamat, the second time was totally not a good reason (i was hooked on watching netflix, huhu..) and the third time was due to stomachache.

since i am already at kampung, i didn't take extra leave to celebrate eidulfitri @ raya puasa. my sisters' family are already here. my first brother will be back tomorrow night and my second brother will be back on the first day of raya, insyaAllah this coming wednesday. as for my study, i made the decision to defer again this semester and start back in september semester. i really hope by that time, i already made up my mind on my master project. not only made up my mind, i hope by that time i already came up with project proposal. i still need submit the proposal to my chosen supervisor first. ok, that's all for now. until later, maybe i'll upload a few raya photos.

office activities

these last couple of weeks, there have been a lot of activities done by the office. the first activity is birthday celebration for january-april babies. nothing much, we just sang a birthday song and cut cakes. ooh, we had nasi ayam penyet as well.. we did some cleaning at the office as well. honestly, i didn't clean as much, just pretending to look busy, huhu.. the guys did all the hard jobs a.k.a cleaning up the outer compound. here are some photos from that day.

haha, i just cut the cake into four parts and leave the rest of the cutting to others..

syauqi receiving his wedding presents and you could see me at the back, looking more excited than him..

all the hardworking men!

the next day, we had fire drill. we invited fire and rescue team to the office. and, we didn't actually did any fire drill, the firemen just gave a few tips of safety and demonstrated to us on using the fire extinguisher. i only remember PASS (Pull Aim Squeeze and not so sure about the last S, Sway is it? let me google it.. ooh, it's actually Sweep 😅). after all that, we took a photo by the fire engine. eventhough we're adults, seeing a fire engine up closed still make us excited just like school children. we even requested to hear the siren.

explanation on the right way to use fire extinguisher

hurry, lets put out the fire!!!

happy faces ^_^

and today we had bowling tournament organized by segamat police department in conjunction with 212th national police day. the tournament was between all segamat government department. each department send two teams; men and women. since, there are limited choices among the women in my office (they are only seven of us, we need four persons), i was one of the chosen. and luckily enough, my score average is 90 per games. me getting an average of 90 is considered good. otherwise, i usually got only 70 on average. another thing is, two of my colleagues were transferred to another districts; one to muar and one to batu pahat. today was the last day for one of them. the other one request for two weeks postponement. it was hard to say goodbye..😭

our bowling teams

with ramlah (she's going to muar

*ps: btw, my parents and my sister bought me a new car, perodua bezza 1.0.. i'm sooo grateful for it. myprevious car, perodua viva was officially became my father's. and i'm still thinking what to do for my final research project. i need to send the proposal summary two weeks before 31st may. i'm planning to work on it after my final exam this 20th april. currently, my chosen topic is, 'identifying the primary love language of children at _____ kindergarten.' i got the ideas from the book by ross gary & campbell chapman, the five love languages of children.