Movement Control Order (18 Mac 2020 - 14 April 2020)

Source: KKM Twitter

Well, the world is currently facing a pandemic, COVID-19. It affects the whole world (here's the link for the live update). The government had issued MCO to all Malaysians to break the COVID-19 chain. In my opinion, the situation here in Malaysia is still under control. Big kudos to all the frontliners and government for taking a swift action. What I've been doing during this MCO? Mostly, I've binge watching and reading my TBR piles. I just finished books that I bought in 2011 and 2014:

1. Kiss Me at Midnight (Eloisa James)
2. When Beauty Tamed The Beast (Eloisa James)
3. The Duke is Mine (Eloisa James)
4. The Lady Most Likely... (Julia Quinn, Eloisa James, Connie Brockway)
5. The Lady Most Willing... (Julia Quinn, Eloissa James, Connie Brockway)

I also read two Malays books I bought recently, Haura by Ramlee Awang Murshid and Cinta Yang Tertangguh by Zaza Qry. Funny thing is the main plot of the two books is the same. It is about couples that forgot their marriage due to amnesia (accident). Now, here a list of what I've been watching. To be fair, I've started watching some of the series before MCO:

1. Restaurant on The Edge (Netflix)
2. Love Is Blind (Netflix)
3. Detective Conan Movie 20: The Darkest Nightmare
4. Detective Conan Movie 21: Deep Red Love Letter
5. Detective Conan Movie 22: Zero's Executioner
6. Detective Conan Movie 23: The Fist of Blue Sapphire

Ooo, I've been reading manga online as well;

1. Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo R (Seimaru Amagi, Fumiya Satou)
2. Kindaichi 37-sai No Jikenbo (Seimaru Amagi)
3. Detective Conan/Case Closed (Gosho Aoyama)
4. Boruto: Naruto Next Generations (Masashi Kishimoto)
5. My Amazing Wechat (iCiyuan)

Other than that, i finally finished making the Taj Mahal nanoblocks (birthday gift from Kak Sya), did some colouring, online shopping (I've been buying telekung lately, I bought three new sets, huhu..) and the most two important activities are eating and sleeping. Beside #StayAtHome, I'm more to #StayInBed really during this MCO. And I find that making my bed every morning is a waste of time since I'm going to get into bed again soon. Still, I made my bed, huhu...

Ooo, I've tried a few new recipes as well; steamed chocolate moist cake and indulgence batik cake which I ate all by myself since my parents don't really dig cakes. I gave some to my aunties but they didn't quite like them because the smell/taste of the eggs (hanyir telur). It seems that as we get older, our sense of smell heightened and we couldn't accept smelly food. So, I'm scared to step on the weight scale after consuming all those cakes and my mom's cooking as well, haha.. I went to work once during this MCO, to prepare the passport statistics. I think that's all for now. Maybe, there will be quite a lot of new entries because of the MCO, maybe... Hopefully...

ps: I had to cancel our trip to Jeju. Already received the tour refund and still waiting for refund from AirAsia

Hafiz & Adira ~ Takdir Tercipta

Destination: Bangkok (17 - 21 December 2019)

this trip to bangkok is fully sponsored by by brother, abg ijan! he booked us (my parents amd i) the flight tickets and accommodations. so, we flew with thai airways! actually my sister in law, kak intan was invited to be a lecturer at NIDA college for a couple of months. furthermore, my nephew, izz (abg ijan's son) had a rugby tournament there. initially, only my parents would go but then the invitation was extended to me (i'm one lucky girl, right?! hehe..)

17 December 2019 (Tuesday)

our flight was around 8am from KLIA, we arrived at bangkok maybe around 10am. abg ijan picked us up with a car he rented for the day. ooo, before the trip, abg ijan told me to buy thai travel simcards and it really is convenient. the simcard only costs RM12, valid for 8 days with 19GB 4G data. bought them at lazada. so, on our first day, kak intan took us on boat taxi (public transportation) in bang ka pi area for NIDA college is situated there. later that evening, we went to the hotel abg ijan booked near bangkok. kak intan called grab. for me, the most convenient way to travel if you are in group is by grab. unfortunately, i forgot to activate my debit card (couldn't get the verification code because it was send to my malaysia's phone number) before going there, so i couldn't use grab.

18 December 2019 (Wednesday)

today, i joined a tour booked fat klook to ayutthaya. ayutthaya was capital of the Kingdom of Siam, and a prosperous international trading port, from 1350 until razed by the Burmese in 1767. it is located about 80km from bangkok. early that morning, i walked to the nearest bts station (about 20 min from the hotel). itinerary is as follow. i joined this tour alone since the others had other plan, beside my mother couldn't walk much since her feet are swollen. the real reason i chose this tour in the first place is because thai historical drama series, love destiny! i binge-watched the series at netflix and i kept rewatching my favourite scenes. there are maybe about 20 people in the tour, a mixed bunch, came from different part of the world. since, i'm travelling alone, i had to ask strangers to take my pictures. so, there are not a lot of picture of me. overall, the tour is great and i highly recommend it to all of you!

main casts of love destiny

Bang Pa-In Royal Palace

Wat Lokayasutharam

Wat Phra Si Sanphet

Ayutthaya Floating Market

Wat Mahathat

Sunset boat ride (Wat Chaiwatthanaram)

19 December 2019 (Thursday)

we took a tourist hop on/off boat along chao phraya river. we started at sathorn central pier and stopped at grand palace. here, i went to rent thai traditional cloth from sense of thai. another influence from love destiny. while i changed into the costume, my other family members already entered the grand palace. my mom had to use the wheelchair for her feet were getting worse. we met inside the grand palace. once we explored the grand palace, we went to see thai masked dance performance at Sala Chalermkrung Royal Theatre, it was included in the grand palace entrance ticket. the play was interesting and we got the chance to take picture with a couple of the performers

 after that, we split into two goups; my parents with abg ijan and kak intan, me with the boys, izz and areef. the nephews and i went to wat pho while the others went to mbk centre. the boys act as my photographer of the day, haha and they took beautiful pictures. thanks to them i got a lot of pictures wearing thai traditional cloth worth my rental money! then, we took grab to mbk centre where we had dinner. done with dinner, we went to asiatique with the car rented by abg ijan for the next day we planned to go to Damnoen Saduak Floating Market and Maeklong Railway Market.

tourist boat route

The Grand Palace

Sala Chalermkrung Royal Theatre

Wat Pho

souvenir shopping at Asiatique

20 December 2019 (Friday)

on this day, we went to Damnoen Saduak Floating Market which was about 2 hours drive from bangkok. we took the boat ride but we didn't buy anything much. still the boat ride was fun! we then had lunch at armeen halal restaurant.the restaurant owner didn't speak malay but she told us she received a lot of customers from malaysia. there was another malaysian family eating lunch there as well. if not mistaken, they are from bangi. once lunch is done, we stopped for a while, just to take pictures at maeklong railway market. since it was already late in the evening, not many stalls were opened. most of them were closed already.

Damnoen Saduak Floating Market

Maeklong Railway Market

21 December 2019 (Saturday)

abg ijan called a grab for us to the airport early this morning. it was time to say goodbye to bangkok. maybe, inshaAllah i want to come here again to visit the temples or museums that i didn't get to see.. thank you abg ijan and kak intan for this wonderful trip! may Allah bless all of you, amin~