Annoying!

Of Anak Derhaka

noreply@blogger.com (Mireya) — Fri, 23 May 2025 23:49:00 +0000

So on week two of May, I went back to my parents’ house after not going back there for some time. At the time, my daughter was pooping and I was busy cleaning her up and making sure that she stays put (oh that baby is feisty! She almost never stop moving, even when she was sleeping!)

While I was busy (and struggling) to put on diapers on my daughter, my mom randomly asked me,

“Kakak, kakak rasa betul ke artis XXX tu banyak hutang? Macam tak percaya je kan, dia nampak macam mewah je? Takkan banyak hutang kot?”

Without missing a beat, I answered,

“Entah lah ibu, akak tak sempat sembang dengan artis tu lagi”

My mom was silent.

I looked at her and I saw she was looking straight at me with her lips mouthing:

“WAJJAQ”

Happy (belated) mother’s day, ibu!

Test: One, Two, Three…

noreply@blogger.com (Mireya) — Thu, 25 Apr 2024 07:15:00 +0000

Pheww….

It has been ages since last I wrote here. If it were a house, dah bukan bersawang dah ni, dah jadi haunted house dah lol.

Well, the reason I wasn’t blogging as much (not that anyone asked) is because I forgot my password, and then life got in a way that I couldn’t care less to write about it. Thing happened that what once was my therapy (writing) has became something I would like to avoid as much as I could.

But then after some time (almost a decade later), I kinda miss writing here. I did try writing a journal, but the feeling wasn’t the same. I think I like writing with audience (though I doubt anyone ever visit, or read blogs anymore) but I like how my writing is accessible to people (for now).

So here I am, writing again (hopefully).

I’ll try to commit, just I don’t know what I’m going to write since I am now officially an adult lol. Yeah, I’m in my thirties now guys, I’m a legit adult. Maybe I’ll do a lot of self reflection, or just write about things that happened around my life.

We’ll see when we get there.

By the way, here’s some updates. In the span of seven years of me not writing here…a lot of things has happened. For example, I am now a wife. Yes, people! I finally got married after a lot of sappy posts about getting my heart broken and my mom nagging about me not having boyfriend and all…I am now someone’s wife and a mother of two now.

Yes, I am a now mother!

(Maybe I could write about parenting too though my way of parenting is doubtful lol.)

I have also been doing a lot of adulting stuff like I bought a small apartment only to realize that I could get a landed house with the same price at the same location and now I’m persuading myself that it’s cheaper and safer to live in the apartment than the landed house what’s with the maintenance cost and all. I am also getting better at cooking too. My mother in law loves my rendang so yeah it’s legit good, I guess? Lol

There were things I like to share and I hope I’ll have the time to write about it. This may be my diary again, I don’t know, we’ll see.

Till next time!

Namashkar India (Part 10: Delhi, You Crazy!)

noreply@blogger.com (Mireya) — Sun, 21 May 2017 10:39:00 +0000

So now, we have come to the end of our journey in India.

It's Delhi time!

It took almost 13 hours to travel from Jodhpur to Delhi. And we arrived in Delhi around 11 am that day.

Delhi Train Station in the Old Delhi

Once we reached the train station, the first thing to do is to find place/locker to keep our bags. Unfortunately, we can't keep our bags in the locker at the train station like we usually do because we don't have any upcoming tickets anymore.

So, we have to find locker service in Delhi for that purpose. Then we both started searching for the locker in the internet and thank God we found a place near the city to keep our bags.

And luckily we found out that there is luggage room run by Ajay's Place in Paharganj so from the train station, we took auto and headed there to keep our bags there while we explore Delhi that day.

FYI, we have flight on that day at 12 am so we really don't have much time left in Delhi.

Along the way from the train station to the luggage room, we observed there were so many stalls opening by the side of the roads and there were so many people cooking like they were preparing for some festivities. We would like to ask the auto drivers but then we just keep the questions to ourselves.

I thought it was normal in Delhi at first.

So when we arrived in the luggage room, we placed our bags there and pay for the fees. If I'm not mistaken, the fees are Rs 20 per bag per day. So for us, it's only Rs 40 since we only have 2 bags with us and you have to pay a deposit of Rs 20 or so...I can't remember.

After making sure that our bags are safely kept in the room, we then headed for our next adventure. Actually, prior to our journey to Delhi, Farah has contacted Kak Siti, who is a Malaysian traveler that has spend most of her time in India and Pakistan. And if I'm not mistaken, during our trip to India, she has been in Delhi for almost a month, or more! She has agreed to meet us in Delhi for lunch so from Paharganj, we then headed to Connaught Place to meet her.

Since the traffic was quite heavy, and we don't have much time to get ourselves stuck in a traffic jam, we then decided that it's better for us to just take the metro anyways. From Paharganj, the nearest metro station was 10 minutes away by walking and with the guidance from the from Ajay's Place, we walked to the metro station.

Oh, fun fact! You know, after finishing this trip, I have fallen madly in love with India that I started reading books about the country and I found this one book in BBW describing the red light district in Delhi and you know where it's located? Exactly the other side of the Paharganj area! I know I shouldn't be excited but I am! It was the oldest red light district area in Delhi and it was dying anyways. However, I didn't caught any side of the women who worked there, or maybe if I did, I wouldn't know anyways. Maybe if you ever come to visit Delhi, you may take a walk there.

Okay, back to our journey. So after some time, we arrived in Connaught Place. If I'm not mistaken, we only need to stop two stations away from Paharganj metro station, then change line to another station before arriving in Connaught Place.

In Connaught Place, we met Kak Siti at a coffee shop as promised. Yey! (Sorry, I couldn't find any pictures of Kak Siti)

So for you who didn't know (I don't!), this Kak Siti is so soft spoken and very demure. Guess looks can be really deceiving! Who would have thought such a demure lady like her have been going around the globe travelling by herself!

At first, we decided to eat at Nando's since it's near and we were starving anyways. But then, Kak Siti suggested we tried this new restaurant in Delhi that is famous for its delicious dishes as it was told that the recipes were all originally coming from the head chef who has served Shah Jahan during his era.

We're thrilled! The name of the restaurant is Karim's. You may found the restaurant near Jama Masjid area.

I think this is the Jama Masjid...or not?

So, we then decided to take a rickshaw to the Jama Masjid area for the food hunt.

The traffic here in Delhi was crazy during this time especially with all those stalls (as mentioned earlier) was starting to operate.

We have to walk for about 10 minutes or so before reaching the restaurant. And there were hundreds of people there since we have to go across bazaar selling preloved items and clothes. I was afraid that I would lost track of Kak Siti and Farah since I was at the back but thank God, we managed.

Haha drama kan.

By the way, the food in Karim's still can't beat Sha Chicken Hut of Varanasi. Best food ever! But you may want to try eating here cause, why not?

So, after eating, we went for saree hunting! Yasss, people say sarees in Delhi is prettier and of different style from Varanasi. So we ride on another rickshaw and went to the famous Chandni Chowk to buy some more sarees.

Bhai sab tempting us with beautiful sarees

Okay, the price here is definitely a lot more expensive compared to Varanasi, but they have more designs and patterns. In Varanasi, the sarees are not as shiny but more subtle and the designs were of floral and not accessorized as much as the ones in Delhi.

But, expensive or not, we did swiped our cards here! Haha

It was almost 6 pm after we finished buying sarees and all, and we decided to go hunting for souvenirs to give to people back home but unfortunately, most shops that we went to are closed or too expensive for us.

Then we decided that we should just go back to Paharganj since Kak Siti said that there were a lot of souvenirs shops in Paharganj too.

And tell you what, when asked around for autos to take us to Paharganj, most of them refused to take us there. Masalahnya, bukan satu dua je tau yang taknak bawak kitorang, ada lah dalam 3-4 auto drivers yang geleng kepala when we said "Paharganj?"

After some time, baru kitorang jumpa yang sudi bawak. Itu pun dia bawak half way. We have to walk about 10 minutes to go to Paharganj.

You know why? Remember the stalls and everything? Rupanya memang ada festivals! It was some kind of Sikhs festival celebrating their gurus so most of the roads were closed no wonder lah those drivers refused to take us there.

Tapi I don't know lah kan, from my observation, these Indians kan they were so cool when they got stuck in the traffic jams. Probably because they have already anticipated that they were going to be stuck in jam (sebab tak keluar earlier) but they just tutup engine and keluar kereta bersembang dengan orang sebelah, some just tidur dalam kereta.

Crazy traffics!

So along the way, we got to see perarakan with decorated cars, ada pertunjukan lawan pedang, and they gave us free food too!

Decorated car with Sikhs gurus inside (I think)

Pertunjukan main pedang

Perarakan naik kuda pun ada!

But, despite all these people flooding the road in Paharganj, we still managed to do our mission to shop for souvenirs!

Okay, I don't have pictures for this, but you know what, we went to this one shop selling jewelries macam Lovisa tu but it was so freaking big! Faham tak every level is for different accessories? They have this one whole level selling only earrings and the next level for bangles, the next are for necklaces. It was crazy and I really couldn't help myself but to shop for a lot of things there! Dah lah murah!

Lepas tu kalau you guys nak cari capal kulit ke, kasut ke, boleh lah beli kat area sini. Banyak kedai jual. Also kat sini jugak we bought keychains murah like 10 pieces for Rs 100 (RM7) so apa lagi kan, borong lah! Hahaha.

Stall giving out foods (manisan) and drinks to visitors

Paharganj at night

So around 9 plus, we went to pick up our bags and then head to the airport and we did say thank you and big goodbye to Kak Siti sebab sudi luangkan masa siap ikut kitorang shopping sarees and souvenirs padahal original plan is for her to have lunch with us je! So baik.

Waktu nak pergi airport ni, we decided to take metro je sebab kalau naik uber or taxi confirm tak sampai sebab jam gilo lepas tu time beli token for metro tu, I yang kena pergi beli tau. Okay, I ni manusia paling lembab bab setelkan hal train, LRT, MRT, Metro and all so I tersalah beli token tau. Sepatutnya boleh je beli token straight ke airport tapi sebab I stupid kan, I beli untuk pergi satu station je.

LOL.

So, kat station baru tu, kena lah beli baru and kena keluar masuk balik dah lah lupa which token is for which. Sabor je lah Farah dengan I time tu. Hahaha.

Lepas tu, from the metro station tu, we have to go to Terminal 3 if I'm not mistaken and bila sampai sana, we were greeted by some kind of valet yang akan uruskan our bags meaning we don't have to usung beg berat all the way from the metro sampai lah depat departure hall untuk check in tu. And the service is cheap kalau tak silap I only Rs 400 kot so apa lagi kan badan dah sakit, orang offer nak bawakkan barang kitorang pun ambik je lah service ni. Seriously very convenient so if korang gi sana and jumpa service ni, ambik je okay. Senang.

Also, worth to note that dekat Delhi airport ni, hanya orang with tickets je boleh masuk dalam Departure area as in kat tempat you guys nak check in tu. Bukan masuk dalam hall tu. So kalau you takde boarding pass, you duduk lah kat luar tu nanti guard tak bagi masuk dalam so awas ye sila make sure you have boarding pass or tickets siap siap.

And since we were super hungry and kat dalam airport tu takde makanan halal, so kitorang pun pergi lah makan McD since McD kat sana ada untuk vegetarian kan. Farah went for fish fillet while I makan Spicy McDeluxe versi cheese. Hahaha sedap lah jugak even rasa aneh sikit sebab dah biasa makan ayam kan.

So, after settle everything, kitorang pun berangkat dengan hati yang berat dan kembali ke Kuala Lumpur.

Overall, India trip ni memang best gila. I did not regret a single thing pun going to this trip. Faham tak tempat ni best yang teramat? It was like a soul searching experience for me. Also, sebab I dapat partner travel yang best and cool so that's why lah kot trip ni jadi makin best. So, nasihat I, kalau you nak pergi India ni, make sure you mentally prepared and make sure your travel partner pun jenis yang sekepala jugak. Kalau tak, nasib lah nak.

So, I guess, this is goodbye. Lama I contemplate to finish writing about my India experience sebab I taknak say goodbye but I guess this is a closure. I still go through the pictures and keep posting it in my Instagram sebab memang banyak gila gambar cantik. India is really a very beautiful country. Kalau ada rezeki, pergi lah. Serius tak menyesal.

Okay, till next time. Have fun in whatever you do peeps!

And byeeeeee INDIA! YOU'VE BEEN SUPER GREAT TO ME!

Namashkar India (Part 1: Preparation)
Namashkar India (Part 2: Kolkata Here We Come!)
Namashkar India (Part 3: Mystical Varanasi)
Namashkar India (Part 4: Magical Varanasi)
Namashkar India (Part 5: Agra, The City of Love)
Namashkar India (Part 6: A Night Under The Sky, Jaisalmer)
Namashkar India (Part 7: A Night Under The Stars, Jaisalmer)
Namashkar India (Part 8: Starry Starry Night)
Namashkar India (Part 9: Majestic Fort)
Namashkar India (Part 10: Delhi, You Crazy!)

Namashkar India (Part 9: Majestic Fort)

noreply@blogger.com (Mireya) — Wed, 10 May 2017 15:55:00 +0000

Like I've told you in the previous post, we were going to Jodhpur by bus. So lepas makan sedap sedap, one of the staffs from Abu Safari then took us to the bus station and he even made sure that we get to our seat safely.

And the price he charged for sending to the bus station in town? NONE. FREE OF CHARGE!

One thing about the bus, in my case, tiket kitorang tu takde tulis pun seat kitorang nombor berapa. So, bila kitorang naik bus tu, the driver looked at us, and asked us where we want to sit? And since we're both girls, he advised us to sit in front, like the first seat just behind his. For protection. And I'm like, awhhh thank you!

I told you, I was really grateful for the trip. Banyak jumpa orang baik baik okay.

Oh just FYI, bus yang kitorang naik ni offered beds too. So, kalau perjalanan jauh and taknak duduk lama lama takut sakit belakang, you can buy bus tickets for beds, different price lah of course. I think the price is twice the price of our seats. I can't really remember.

After dah settle with everything, bus pun memulakan perjalanan at around 3.30 pm or so. Destinasi, Jodhpur. The journey supposedly took around 5 hours plus. Well, ideal case lah.

Eh, sebelum apa apa, let me make it clear, bus yang kitorang naik ni memang lah murah, sebab dia TAKDE AIRCOND! So, kena lah bukak tingkap kalau nak angin, or kalau tak nak angin pun boleh, tutup je lah tingkap tu kan. Also, bus ni bukan macam tipikal bus express yang you naik dekat TBS tu okeh? Bus ni macam bus lompat lompat, maksudnya dia akan berhenti sepanjang jalan and there always be people yang turun naik bus tu ALL THE TIME. Jadi, mohon bertabah lah ye.

Tapi seriously, kalau korang jenis semput or tak tahan habuk, better jangan naik bus. Pergi lah naik flight ke, or naik train ke sebab serious habuk dia teruk gilaaaaa and banyak gilaa kena tutup muka dengan tudung okay or better, pakai mask lah kalau dah desperate tu.

Sepanjang perjalanan, kitorang disajikan dengan pemandangan padang pasir, pekan pekan kecil, dan juga tanah lapang. Interesting thing is, we actually saw a few kereta kebal on the road. A FEW okay, so maknanya bukan satu je. Tetibe rasa macam dalam war zone which is quite thrilling tapi macam takut pun ada jugak lah.

Well, like I said before, this is because, Jaisalmer is very near to the border between India and Pakistan, that's why lah it looks like military zone.

Since perjalanan masih jauh, we both sempat lah tertidur kan. After some time, bus berhenti kat satu station minyak ni and it was almost 9 pm waktu tu. Then (thank God) Farah asked around about where was our location and then we were told that we have already arrived in Jodhpur!

Yeay!

But, tahu tak kalau kitorang tak terjaga, and Farah tak tanya orang kan, kitorang maybe akan terlajak sampai ke Jaipur! Tahu tak sebab apa? Kitorang ingat kan final destination for the bus was Jodhpur, but we were not told that actually the bus was going to Jaipur too! Nasib baik laah kalau kitorang buta buta je percaya yang final destination kat Jodhpur tapi lepas tu bus berhenti kat Jaipur tak ke naya namanya?

But Alhamdulillah, all is well.

So, we unload our bags from the bus and guess what? Bag kitorang BERHABUK GILAA! My bag yang warna merah tu dah jadi warna kelabu dah punya lah banyak debu yang dia kumpul!

Puas gak lah ketuk ketuk bag tu nak bagi hilang habuk.

After that, kitorang pun pergi cari autorickshaw untuk pergi ke our homestay which is the KK Family Homestay.

The thing is, Farah called the homestay owner and asked about the usual price from Jodhpur town to the homestay and it was around Rs 80, but when we asked all the autos, they cited price at Rs 200! Mahal gila okay, sama mahal dengan harga tiket bus kitorang!

So we agree to refused the autos and started looking for another autos. We tried for Uber too, but to no avail. But there's this one rickshaw driver who insisted that the cheapest he can gave us is Rs 150 and still we don't agree.

It was almost 9.30 pm, and we still haven't found our auto and there were a bunch of guys started cat calling us. Time tu I dah cuak dah terus teringat semua rape cases and all okay sorry jahat tapi serius I dah takut time tu.

The auto driver keep coming back to us and he finally agree for the fees to the homestay to be Rs 120. Itu pun lepas we made him talk to the homestay owner! Hahaha faham tak kitorang pun time tu sebenarnya dah takde duit sangat, that's why lah kena berkeras.

So, we took the auto and went to the homestay. Sampai je at the homestay, our host, Kuku has waited for us outside the house.

He then did talked to the driver, and told us, that Rs 120 was too cheap because our location was actually very far from the homestay but we really don't care sebab tengah cheapskate and just paid the auto driver Rs 120, as promised! LOL

So sampai je kat bilik, Kuku showed us our room and asked us to settle the payment tomorrow as it was very late at night and we should get our rest first.

But before that, kitorang sempat lah demand macam macam because we're basically starving! Also, Farah tak berapa sihat sangat sebab exposed to too much habuk atas bas tadi. So we asked for hot water and salt for the sore throat.

And thank God lah Farah ada extra bubur, so we both makan bubur je and I makan nestum jugak because too hungry and after that we just rest and can't wait for our next exploration!

So, the next morning, we woke up and we ate our breakfast at the rooftop of KK Homestay. For your information, dekat Jodhpur ni, most of the homestays memang ada rooftop restaurant, because Jodhpur is known as the blue city and the view from the top is seriously very beautiful and you can see the whole Jodhpur city too. Tapi, in KK Homestay ni, we could see the beautiful Mehrangarh Fort tersergam indah depan mata.

The majestic Mehrangarh Fort

By the way, we actually have packed everything and check out from the homestay before we went to have our own adventure and as usual, KK Homestay offered locker for us to keep our bags so yeay!

Lepas breakfast, we went to Sardhar market which located only 5 minutes from the homestay. Sardhar market ni famous dengan spices, clothes, and accessories. Also, dekat sini lah for the first time ever, I baru tau macam mana rupa saffron tu.

Macam ni lah ghopenye saffron tu

Nampak saffron tu kecik je kan? Tahu tak harga dia mahal gila? I rasa ni dalam Rs 1000 kot. Dalam, RM70 gak lah. So I senyum je tengok. Baru ingat nak beli, tapi I dah sengkek time tu.

Kalau tak silap I, this thing is gula. Tapi I tak ingat apa nama dia

Gula/manisan, same like above

Bahan bahan untuk masak lemak!

SPICES!

Okay, I have one funny story. Waktu dekat Sardhar market ni, kitorang jumpa this one guy yang approached us and introduced us to the spices here. Cara dia approach tu sangat lah common, like he asked us if we are Muslims and then he said he's a Muslim too, and Muslims should take care of each other so he'll take care of us. Katanya. After a while, Farah went to another shop, and I stuck with this guy. So, he took me to his shop, which is sebelah je dengan kedai yang Farah masuk and showed me all the spices, and tea.

Lepas tu kan, he said something bad about the shop owner (the one that Farah went to). He said that the owner is a mafia and he likes to forced people to buy from him. Also, yang paling kelakar, he said that if you went to his shop, he'll offer you chai, and he advised me not to drink the chai sebab katanya tuan kedai tu dah ludah dalam chai tu.

And then he proceeded to sell me his chai and spices.

I politely backed off and said I better go to 'save' Farah.

Then, when I arrived to the shop, I saw Farah was happily drinking some flower tea and I joined her too because, hey bila lagi nak minum flower tea for free?

LOL. The survival in places like this. Terpaksa burukkan competitors kan.

Also, dekat Sardhar Market ni ada banyak leather products. Sama macam dekat Jaisalmer.

One of the shop selling pretty leather bags and capal

Sardhar market ada jual accessories too, and I can't help but buy myself bindis! Haha saje lah nak feeling like a local.

Pretty churiyas!

Gelang kat sini pun banyak yang lawa and very bright colors too.

Also, based on our observation kan, people in Jodhpur likes to accessorized themselves, especially the women. Women here wears big nose rings, bangles, pretty bindis, big necklaces, and their saree pun very heavy with ornament but still very pretty!

So after puas jalan jalan kat Sardhar Market, we went to our most desired location, which is the Mehrangarh Fort!

Farah menyusuri the Blue city

Untuk pergi Mehrangarh Fort ni actually you can go two ways, but we went using the easiest way sebab tak tahu jalan lagi satu tu kat celah mana and this easiest way is usually used by the local and people yang jalan kaki to the Fort.

By the way, nak pergi Fort ni basically you kena 'hike' for about 5-8 minutes and for someone like me yang sangatlah tak pernah exercise agak menderita jugak lah untuk I panjat ye.

So, sampai je kat atas, kitorang pun pergi lah beli tiket and also audio tour guide to help us understand the fort.

Total untuk tiket and all, is around Rs 600 so let's take a tour!

Oh lagi satu, untuk masuk Mehrangarh Fort ni kan, you kena bayar extra for camera okay nanti dia bagi pass for you to wear.

The gate inside the fort

One of the palaces inside the fort

Basically, you boleh baca sendiri lah the history of Mehrangarh fort ni, or kalau you malas nak google, let me tell you a bit about the fort.

The fort is among the largest fort in India and was built in 1460 by Rao Jodha. Dalam fort ni ada a few palaces but now the fort is converted as museum and ada banyak palaces, and palanquins museum, and also period rooms dalam ni for you to see.

Audio guide yang kitorang pakai tu kan, the voice is actually the Maharaja of Jodhpur himself.And for your info, Maharaja of Jodhpur own the LARGEST private residence in the WORLD! and if I'm not mistaken, it can be seen from the top of the fort too.

You can see the intricate details of the palace

The guard inside the palace

Fun fact, semua guard dekat dalam fort ni ada misai lentik!

Pakcik Misai!

So dalam ni like I said, ada banyak museum and period rooms, so here are some of them:

Sheesh Mahal of Palace of Mirror

This is my favorite. Bila tengok ni, terus I teringat scene dalam cerita Bajirao Mastani. Lawa gila okay.

Oh, also, dalam ni ada Opium museum. You know, India is actually very famous with opium and it was one of the entertainment in the palace too. So dekat sini, ada tunjuk the bongs they used for smoking opium. They even have the opium master here!

The opium master/expert

One of the palanquins in the museum

The ceiling in the peeping hall (Jhanki Mahal)

The royal ladies watched the official proceedings, going on in the courtyard, from the Jhanki Mahal. It houses a rich collection of the royal cradles, decorated with gilt mirrors and figures of fairies, elephant and birds. (Taken from website)

Moti Mahal

Moti Mahal is the largest period room of the Mehrangarh Museum. It was built by Raja Sur Singh. Moti Mahal was where the king used to sit on his throne and meet all his subjects. The palace has the Sringar Chowki, The Royal Throne of Jodhpur. The Moti Mahal has five alcoves leading to hidden balconies. It is believed that the balconies were built for the five queens of the Maharaja to enable them to listen in on court proceeding.
(Taken from the website)

Palaces only for women

Okay, kan I cerita I beli Bindi kan? So, sempat lah I feeling feeling macam Aishwarya Rai dalam Devdas kat sini. Gigih okay pakai nose ring and bindi kat sini.

Takde kening

One thing about bindi kan, rupanya bindi ni only dipakai oleh wanita yang dah berkahwin so sepanjang I kat sini, bila I pakai bindi ni, a few people asked me, are you married? So when I said no, the proceed to explain it to me.

Feeling feeling lagi

Farah enjoying the music

Bye you majestic thing!

Nasihat I, kalau you into architecture, history, and art, you datang lah sini. Setiap kali I enter the palaces and the museum kan, mesti I jaw dropped sebab in awe with the beauty of fort itself. Memang lawa gila!

So lepas habis jalan jalan around 4 plus macam tu, we all pun decided to balik and go for makan sebab last makan tadi time breakfast pukul 9 tadi kot. Hungry!

We went for lunch at a rooftop restaurant that was located betul betul bawah Mehrangarh Fort tu which is the first rooftop restaurant you'll see when you turun kat jalan tu. And the view is...SPECTACULAR!

Feeling uols

Blue city view for you

Kitorang stay dekat rooftop restaurant ni sampai Maghrib. And for your info, Jodhpur ni located inside Rajasthan and in Jodhpur also is mostly populated by Muslims, so bila masuk waktu je kan, you boleh dengar azan bersahut sahut and bergema di bumi Jodhpur ni.

So after sun sets, we went back to KK Homestay to collect our bags and head back to train station for our final stop, Delhi.

But before that, kitorang have a ligh dinner first and then tapau some food for breakfast in train for tomorrow.

Mehrangarh fort at night

Namashkar India (Part 8: Starry Starry Night)

noreply@blogger.com (Mireya) — Mon, 01 May 2017 15:34:00 +0000

Perjalanan menaiki unta menuju ke tapak perkhemahan (takde khemah pun) kami mengambil masa lebih kurang satu jam.

Sepanjang satu jam menaiki unta tu, anda akan disajikan dengan pemandangan of the vast desert. Boleh lah feeling ala khaleesi waktu dia merentasi padang pasir nak pergi ke Vaes Dothrak tu (wait, ada padang pasir ke? I lupa dah)

The khaleesis

There are four of us, the tourists, and the team that brought us there was three men. Two of them is around 40s while the other one is still very young. In his teens, I guess.

So, sepanjang perjalanan tu I did talk with my guide. He asked me if I was a Sunni or a Shiite. Time dia tanya soalan ni kan, I macam tergamam sekejap, like how do I answer this guy? How? How? Terus dalam kepala I keluar semua stereotype about these Shiite guys who don't like the Sunni and all.

Because, pardon my shallowness, I don't know that India has all three; Sunni, Shiite, and Sufism. I remembered back in Varanasi, the Muslims are Shiite, but takpe lah, I jawab je lah because despite my nervousness, I believe it's a harmless question, so I answered,

"I'm a Sunni"

"Oh same, me too!" he replied.

Phew. Lega jap.

So, he went on telling me that the Muslims in Jaisalmer are Sunni. And he did asked me if I knew how to recite the Koran, and when I answered yes, he said,

"Lucky you, I don't"

"You still could learn, it's not too late" I told him.

"I could? You believe I'm not too old to learn? My parents were poor, they didn't have money to send me to school to learn the Koran. I hope my kids get to learn to recite the Koran"

Waktu dia bagitahu ni kan, I felt so sebak and terus I questioned my privileges. Not everybody is as lucky as us. We were the lucky ones. I harap the man and his family somehow managed to learn to recite the Koran someday.

Then he told me about his work. He said that he's actually a farmer, that he grew wheat here but because it's winter and it hasn't rain for a while, so he couldn't harvest them. He said he took the job as the guide because it gave him fixed money every month despite having customers or not, which is good for the family, he could buy foods and provide for the family. Life is really hard here in the desert, I believe.

Then after a while, we arrived to our campsite and we basically didn't do anything. They arranged and managed everything. We just got off our camels and went exploring the desert like an excited little girls we are!

Oh by the way, here in the desert, in the campsite, there are no toilets (durh) so, if you have the need to pee or poop, you can just do it anywhere in the desert. LOL

Also, here they don't have sand flies, but they have dung beetle! Banyaaakkkkkk

The dung beetle

So, Farah and I, we went to take pictures in the middle of the desert because it was approaching sunset and the view is so spectacular you wouldn't believe it!

Cantik kan?

I've seen the best sunrise and sunset view in my life in India. It was so majestic, cantik sangat!

Also, of course lah we sempat buat photoshoot syok sendiri kan.

Kan I cakap, for this post akan ada banyak gambar cantik.

Also, lepas penat posing, we lie down a bit and pose like a Vogue model that we are.

After sunset, when we went back to our campsite, we found our bed has already made. Thanks to our guide. And they were too, at that moment, busy preparing our dinner.

Yeay food!

We ate chicken curry that night, with some round rotis and potatoes (if I'm not mistaken). It was delicious! We were also given garam chai for our drinks.

Sorry, takde gambar makanan because semua lapar, we only care about our tummy.

Basically kan, kitorang kan kat tengah padang pasir kan, we don't have any lights pun. So, time makan tu, we used lights from our phone and api from the unggun api yang the guide tu buat masak je. So, kalau you guys nak datang sini, bawak lah headlamp siap siap kalau tak nak makan dalam gelap.

After dinner, basically there are no other activities to do except bersembang and tengok the stars. As early as 8 pm, the sky is already full with stars. Like, a lot of them! I admit, I bukan outdoor person, so I'm not exposed to sleeping outside my bedroom (except camping waktu sekolah dulu) so when I witnessed the beauty that is the stars in the sky, I couldn't help but feel so..so..appreciative? Grateful? It was so amazing!!

Nampak tak stars tu? This is no filter okayh

our view for the night

Also, since it was winter, the temperature was around 14 degree Celcius! So sejuk I had to sleep under the blanket. Like, my face couldn't stand the cold at all.

Ahhh rindunyaaaaa nak gi Jaisalmer tidur sana.

Pagi tu, we woke up early. As early as 5 am because we wanted to see the sunrise, also boleh main dengan unta!

Tabah je unta unta tu semua layan kitorang. Ye lah kan, bila lagi nak jumpa unta? Kat Malaysia hado? Nan hado okehhh.

Actually lepas main unta ni kitorang pergi main bergolek kat tengah tengah padang pasir tu sampai pening palo berguling ala hindustan entah macam mana Shah Rukh Khan dengan Kajol boleh bergolek turun bukit banyak kali, I buat tak sampai dua kali pun dah rasa mabuk teruk LOL.

Lepas sibuk main unta, bergolek and what nots, kitorang back to the campsite untuk breakfast! Hungreyhhhh! We were given bread, jams, and eggs for our breakfast, and around 8 am, we were ready to go back.

Roti dah selamat masuk perut

Ni lah tempat tidur kitorang!

Belanja sikit gambar lompat depan sunset the day before

So, lepas settle semua kemas and all, kami pun terpaksa mengucapkan selamat tinggal to the vast desert sebab kena balik dah. Sedih sebab seronok gila sebenarnya lepak sini walaupun takde benda nak buat but it's like it's just you, and nature. Rindunya!

Okay then kitorang naik unta lagi sekali for another hour before reaching to the place where a jeep is waiting for us. Kali ni, adventure sikit sebab kitorang duduk at the back of a jeep, no roof. (Actually I tak sure pun it's a jeep or not, but I guess so)

We were taken to a local village, to see the people who lives in the desert. Even one of our guide lives here too, and kitorang pun dapat tengok his house and his family.

Some of the kids from the village

My favorite picture

People in the Thar Desert do actually live in a hut like this

Farah mengganggu kehidupan seekor kambing

More huts

You know, shallow as I am, I don't know that I'd be able to see these kind of villages alive. I always thought that these places only exist in documentaries, but when I was there, I felt so small and so privileged that it's kinda sad to think in this era, there are still people who don't get access to normal house and electricity, and clean water.

I was actually in a kind of emotional turbulence when I went to India, so when I was there, and looking at all these, I felt my problems are very small compared to what they had.

Well, there's this one interesting stories told by one of the girls who joined the trip, a German, (when we were there in the village, the villagers would come to you and ask for things but the guide already remind us to NOT give them any things AT ALL because once you did, more of them would come to you) so there was this girl approached her and asked for one of her bangles. So this gal (the Germany gal) said to her (the kid),

"You've already had a lot of bangles on your hand. Why did you asked for mine? I only have one"

As if she understood what the tourist had said, the kid tried to give her one of her bangle. Of course the lady was surprise for the kindness, and of course she refused but it was overwhelming to think that the lesser of us has more to give and do not hesitate to do so some more.

So again, nikmat Tuhan kamu yang mana yang kamu dustakan?

Deep jap.

After the village, we went to this one abandoned city. I can't remember the name, but it has one interesting history.

The abandoned fort

The structure of the fort, upclose

The abandoned city (or a village), as seen from the fort

Well, here's the story of the abandoned city. You know how India has the caste class thingy? Well, back to hundreds of years ago, the village was a home to people who came from the Brahmin class. The Brahmins are believed to be the holy and untouchables clan compared to all other classes,

However, during that time, Jaisalmer was ruled by the king of a Rajput caste. These Rajputs are believed to be warriors so mostly, they are savages. They liked to kill, and war, and they eat everything, meats, vegs, EVERYTHING.

So one day, the king and his envoys and his troops, came to the village. When he was there, he has fallen in love to a beautiful lady from the village which happened to be a Brahmin. So being a king, he asked for her hand in marriage but the villagers were against the idea of a Brahmin marrying a Rajput because...well, caste.

The king, upon hearing the news, was so mad and told the villagers that they basically have two choices, first, to let him marry the lady, or, fled the village before the sunrise tomorrow or they will all be dead.

Guess what? The Brahmin opted for the second option and all of them fled the village leaving all their properties and home behind them. All because they don't want people of different caste to marry and sneak their ways in their caste.

So, itu lah cerita yang our guide told us. Tapi isu kasta ni memang masih lagi issue besar kat sana, it's still sensitive issue but what to do, benda ni dah dalam budaya dorang for ages so susah sikit lah nak kikis the stereotype kan.

By the way, sepanjang kitorang berjalan jalan kat these abandoned castles and villages, kitorang tak berapa nak senang duduk sebenarnya because KITORANG BELUM BELI TIKET BALIK DELHI LAGI! LOL

So, sambil tengok scenery, sambil sambil tu usha tiket. Nasib baik lah ada member baik hati bagi kitorang pinjam credit card nak beli train ticket. Lepas dapat beli Tatkal tiket tu terus masing masing macam...phew LEGA!

So around 1 pm, kitorang sampai to Abu Safari headquarters to bersiap and all before heading to our next destination.

Farah, being a kindhearted (but headstrong in the same time) lady that she is, she gave our guide a headlamp sebab dia kesian tengok diorang macam susah je nak masak dalam gelap. So baik lei.

Then sampai je headquarters, one of the staffs took us to the bus station to buy tickets to Jodhpur which only cost us Rs 200 per person. Which is what, RM14 for 5 hours journey? Macam Shah Alam ke Butterworth, tapi cheaper.

So lepas beli tiket bus tu, we head back to the quarters untuk bersiap, pack our bags, makan, print boarding pass balik KL because since Abu Safari let us pakai their computers and prints stuffs for free, why not lah kan? hehe

Then after settle everything, tiket bus dah beli, tiket train balik Delhi from Jodhpur pun dah beli, boarding pass balik KL pun dah print, we decided to have our lunch in Abu Safari rooftop restaurant to fuel up so that we are very much ready to head for our next adventure...JODHPUR HERE WE COME!

Namashkar India (Part 7 - A Night Under the Stars, Jaisalmer)

noreply@blogger.com (Mireya) — Fri, 10 Mar 2017 16:37:00 +0000

Okay, lepas kitorang turun dari train, and naik je tuktuk menuju ke Abu Safari (sambil di pandu arah oleh driver from Abu Safari yang kitorang tak percaya mula mula tu LOL)

Mai I nak cerita sedikit sebanyak tentang Abu Safari and Jaisalmer. Well, Jaisalmer is located in Rajasthan, India and it is famous for its Thar Desert. Apa beza Thar desert dengan desert kat Mesir tu? Ha, I pun tak tahu actually sebab tak pernah pergi sana tapi yang I tau Thar desert is known as The Great Indian Desert and it is a border separating India and Pakistan. Ha begitu lah serba sedikit tentang Jaisalmer and Thar Desert.

Pasal Abu Safari pulak, it's actually a hotel which also offers a package of sleeping under the stars in the wide open Thar Desert. Imagine! Bukan selalu pun kita dapat tidur kat padang pasir tu kan? Nak jumpa padang pasir apa entah lagi kat Malaysia ni, that's why we're all excited! YASS! Tapi kat Jaisalmer ni banyak je hotels yang offers this kind of package. Why we choose Abu Safari? Tanya Farah. LOL. Tapi sebenarnya, among all the packages and hotels, we liked Abu Safari the most because it has good reviews, also it's cheap and the package looks really nice.

Tapi sebelum we all get excited nak tidur under the stars, let us sleep first. The journey is super tiring okayyy! Imagine almost 24 jam dalam train?! We need a proper sleep first and also, nak mandi.

By the way, here's a secret, the last time we both took a shower was when we were in Varanasi, which was TWO days ago. LOL. But, jangan judge dulu! Kat sana kan winter, we even barely sweat kot. So takde istilah berlengas ke ketibas ke none. And semua orang pun wangi je, termasuklah kami.

Serius.

Okay, sampai je kat Abu Safari, kitorang check in kat kaunter just to inform about our booking earlier. Well, u boleh booking online by going to their website (click!) and email them. Nanti diorang bagi nombor telefon to contact them once you've reached Jaisalmer (that's why Farah boleh call driver dia the moment we step foot there). Kalau malas nak email ke apa ke, boleh je book them from Booking.com or Trip Advisor.

Lepas check in, they took us to a dorm upstairs for us to freshen up and sleep. Lucky for us, waktu kitorang sampai tu, memang takde orang pun dalam dorm tu so we can sleep wherever we want! And we both ambik kesempatan untuk tidur tepi tingkap. Feeling feeling princess uols sambil merenung Jaisalmer fort kat luar tu.

How cozyyyyy

Hotel Abu Safari ni bertingkat tingkat, I pun tak ingat berapa tingkat, tapi this dorm is only at level 1. Phew lega boleh? Tak larat lah nak panjat tangga. Penat ni, faham tak penat?

Around 8 plus, kitorang pun bangun and seterusnya mandi selepas dua hari tak mandi dan bersiap siap lah untuk the next adventure! Ha kau semangat gitu.

Bila kitorang turun bawah, jumpa dengan orang Abu Safari tu, they said we would only be going to the desert at 2 pm so we've got ample time untuk jalan jalan and pusing Jaisalmer town if we want.

By the way, the price for our package is Rs 2000 per person, which basically only RM 140. Tapi, kitorang kena tambah another Rs 500 sebab we demand to eat meat. LOL memang kan, pergi tempat majority vegetarian tapi tak reti nak makan makanan vegetarian. Tetap lah nak makan daging! Well, priorities guys, priorities.

Oh, lupa nak bagitau, harga package tu is inclusive of dinner (while in the desert) and also penginapan sementara kitorang di dorm tadi and also the auto from train station to the hotel. So, murah lah kan?

So lepas settle semua benda bayar and all, we decided untuk jalan jalan pusing Jaisalmer. Okay, one thing pasal Jaisalmer ni kan, dia macam town yang out of this world. I felt like I was in a different era. Macam zaman dahulu kala, dalam buku cerita kanak kanak yang cerita pasal orang Arab tu. Ha macam tu. Geddit tak feeling dia macam mana?

Also, of all places that we've been so far, Jaisalmer ni lah yang paling banyak muslim. Even owner and workers in Abu Safari ni pun muslim jugak. Tapi, despite it's high muslim population, kat Jaisalmer ni jugak lah first time kitorang jumpa babi berlenggang korek sampah tengah jalan. Babi tu dah macam anjing dah. Hahaha excited gak lah sebab babi babi ni walaupun tak comel, diorang tak kacau orang. So kalau tengah jalan tu, takpayah risau lah ada babi datang menyondol ke menyendeng ke.

So, me and Farah pun decided to start exploring the town. And we decided to go to Jaisalmer fort since the fort tu memang boleh nampak from our hotel.

The Jaisalmer Fort

Cantik kan? Jaisalmer Fort ni sebenarnya dah diwartakan as one of World Heritage in UNESCO. Also, fun fact about Jaisalmer Fort is that it's a fully preserved fortified city and it hosts a quarter of Jaisalmer population in it. In addition, Jaisalmer Fort is also one of the largest fort in the world, IN THE WORLD, okay. It's also called as Sonar Quilla which means, Golden Fort sebab warna dia nampak macam kuning keemasan.

Perjalanan dari Abu Safari ke Jaisalmer Fort ni only around 5 minutes plus by walking. Okay lah tu. Tapi fort ni besar gila I taktahu if we have covered all ke tak.

Unlike fort lain kat India that we've visited, nak masuk dalam fort ni you tak payah bayar apa apa pun. It's free entrance. Unless, you nak masuk dalam Laxminath Temple, Jain Temple, or the Royal Palace (Raj Mahal). Kalau setakat nak jalan jalan dalam tu macam kitorang, free of charge okay.

Kan I cakap bila kat Jaisalmer, I felt like I was in a different era kan, tu I belum masuk the shoplots dalam tu lagi, lagi lah rasa macam wow, it feels like I'm in a really, really, really old town. Everything is vintage kat sini.

One of thr structure inside the Fort

I tak sure lah this one is a palace ke, or a temple.

Yours truly,, in the middle of the street

Farah jadi model Kamdar jap

Kat sini, kedai kedai dia rileks je berjual tepi jalan. Macam kat Varanasi, they don't shout to attract you to go shopping there. So rasa tenang je jalan jalan sambil tengok kedai.

Fun tips, kalau you nak cari saree cantik and murah, like I said, you boleh beli dekat Varanasi. Saree and kurtis yang di jual dekat Jaisalmer ni tak sama langsung pattern dia macam kat Varanasi or Kolkata. Kat sini warna dia more to very earthy and a bit dull if I may say. Warna dia tak silau and honestly, kat sini banyak gila jual kurta and kurtis. I even bought one for myself and 2 for my dad and my brother. Kat sini jugak banyak gila jual cadar with funny quotes. So cheeky.

Basically, kat Jaisalmer fort ni, Farah and I shopping kurtas and kurtis je. And we also bought postcards for ourselves. Tapi at the same time, we berjimat cermat lah jugak sebab duit dah kena catu. Dah lah kitorang belum beli tiket balik Delhi lagi haa tak pasal karang tak balik Malaysia. LOL

Belanja gambar Jaisalmer Fort from up close

Cantik kan?

Sebenarnya bila kat India I suka nak feeling feeling macam photographer, LOL padahal kalau you nak tahu, you klik je kamera tu kat sini, mesti you dapat gambar cantik punya. Like, out of 10 clicks, 4 tu confirm cantik lah. Sebab apa? Sebab India ni memang cantik lah!

So around noon, we go back to the hotel and pack our bags for our night in the desert. And also, ushar tiket untuk pergi Delhi

Oh ye, Abu Safari ni treat guests dia macam family sendiri. You rasa macam you yang own the hotel. Boleh lepak merata rata and they even treat you like you're part of them. You can even lepak kat registration counter tu if you want!

Farah kerja part time jadi receptionist Abu Safari

Since our plan is now messed up sebab we were supposed to visit Jodhpur kan, so we decided whatever happens, kitorang tetap nak pergi Jodhpur jugak. So, bila kitorang sembang dengan one of the staff, they told us that there are buses going to Jodhpur everyday and it only costs Rs 200. Ha, apa lagi we then decided yes, we'll be going to Jodhpur by bus!

Maka, kami pun merancang perjalanan kami sementara tunggu driver nak sampai. We decided that we'll be going to Jodhpur the next day, and stay there for a night. After that, we'll buy train tickets to Delhi from Jodhpur and explore Delhi and take the flight back home petang tu.

Nasib baik lah flight ticket balik KL tu malam so we'll have ample time to explore Delhi.

Plus, kitorang tak eager sangat nak explore Delhi because most locals that we met told us that,

"Delhi people are CRAZY!"

LOL. We decided we do not want to find the truth behind the statement.

Tapi, satu masalah lagi! Kitorang tak boleh beli tiket untuk ke Delhi, YET. Why? Sebab untuk beli tiket train, bukan macam beli tiket bas. And memandangkan kitorang ni foreigner, kitorang kena lah beli tiket Tatkal. Which somehow means, tiket immediate (takdelah immediate sangat pun). You boleh refer my first post to understand more about this Tatkal tickets. And since tatkal tickets ni only available after 10 am before our day of departure, kitorang decide, okay rileks lah beli later. Plus, so far kitorang tengok banyak lagi kuota time tu.

The perks of travelling during odd times of the year.

Since dekat Abu Safari ni they were letting us their computers for free, kitorang pun ambil kesempatan untuk check in flight siap siap and print the boarding pass terus. FREE OF CHARGE. YASSS!

Also, kitorang dah siap siap book our stay dekat Jodhpur by using Booking.com.

Lepas dah settle everything, we then took our bags downstairs. Since malam tu we would be sleeping in the desert, kitorang takde lah bawak all of our belongings there. Kitorang tinggalkan je our bags kat hotel tu. Jangan risau, they have a special room for you to leave your belongings. Kitorang bawak all the important stuffs and only left the clothes je kat situ. Lock your bags okay, jangan lupa.

Then around 3 pm, our journey to the desert began. Kitorang naik jeep untuk ke Thar desert. There were two German ladies joining us in this trip.

On the way ke desert tu, which takes roughly around 30 to 45 minutes, the driver stopped at a Gypsy village. Tapi, kalau nak masuk and ambik gambar dalam tu, you kena bayar. So we decided, nope we're not gonna pay, so kitorang pun naik balik jeep and teruskan perjalanan menuju ke desert tu.

This was my first time going to a desert, and the view....OMG faham tak cantik?

Kincir angin! (?)

Honestly, I excited gila when I saw this kincir angin sebab dulu waktu belajar kat Uni dulu, I can't imagine how big the structure would be and how noisy it is now bila tengok depan mata, macam WOW OH MACAM NI KE KINCIR ANGIN LOOKS LIKE? Ha sorry excited jap.

Untuk yang tak tahu, kincir angin ni fungsi dia nak generate electric untuk kawasan setempat.

The driver then dropped us off in a middle of nowhere (ye lah nowhere sebab I memang taktahu pun celah mana and apa nama tempat tu haha) where a group of people (and kids) await us with four camels!

YEAY!

The kids and the camels

So, from there, our journey will continue for another hour. Sebab rupanya we haven't arrived to our destination yet! We'll be travelling to the middle of the desert by camels!

EXCITED NYAAAAA!

The khaleesi is now ready to travel

Namashkar India (Part 6 - A Night Under the Sky, Jaisalmer)

noreply@blogger.com (Mireya) — Tue, 07 Mar 2017 14:54:00 +0000

Okay, macam I cerita in previous post, we were stranded for almost 10 hours in Agra, semua sebab train delayed.

So sekarang ni, our plan ada kacau sikit lah. But, ingat tak I ada bagitau in first post, that you have to have buffer days? Ha, for things like this lah.

Now, sambung cerita. Dalam train tu, Farah and I were separated by few blocks lah jugak, but still in the same coach, thankfully. I got upper bed with another two uncles. By the way, faham tak Indians ni semua peramah that I thought that they were actually good friends? But apparently they do not stopped at the same station so I assumed they just met. Tapi diorang sembang tu, rancak gilaaa boleh.

Waktu duduk kat situ, I memang macam awkward sikit lah sebab I ni bukan nya pandai sembang dengan orang pun kan, so I lepas bangun tidur pagi around 9 am macam tu I basically sengih sengih je kat the uncles. Then, one of the uncles bought garam chai (hot tea) for his morning drinks. Then he saw me and terus belikan satu untuk I.

Baiknyaaaaa faham tak rasa nak nangis sebab baik sangat. Okay over. But you know, this kind of hospitality buat I terharu okay.

And the tea, OMG sedap boleh? It's garam masala chai. Ada masala okay! Tapi basically rasa macam teh halia a bit lah but still sedap. Lepas minum tu perut rasa warm je. Dah lah pagi tu sejuk, minum teh tu pulak, oh indahnya dunia.

Waktu tu, we calculated then we're gonna have like 7-8 hours to go before we reached Jodhpur and we don't know the train tu akan stop kat mana next, and for how long. And, kitorang sangat lah risau that we're gonna be hungry for lunch. Okay, actually I je yang paling risau. LOL. Nak masak maggi, we don't have water heater with us.

And time tengah risau tu, tetiba ada God sent human being datang dekat my bed asking if any of us nak book food for lunch.

Alhamdulillah.

So, I pun order lah makanan. I ordered vegetarian set lah just to be safe kan. Honestly lepas try vegetarian food kat Varanasi haritu, I macam traumatized sikit nak makan vegetarian food sebab takut tak kenyang. LOL.

I booked lunch at around 9 am macam tu, lepas tu dia kata nanti time tengahari dia hantar. And I'm like, okay no problem. Tapi dia tak mintak duit pun faham tak. So I macam, ehh free ke?

NOT.

Haha. Satu set lunch tu that comprises of cumin seed rice, kari dhal, fried potato with cumin seeds, potato curry, and papadom cost us around Rps 140. Okay lah RM 10 kan.

Portion makanan dia banyak gila okay. Papadom dia besar tapak tangan boleh. Besar gilaa. Lepas tu papadom dia ni tak masuk angin langsung okay. I tinggalkan macam tu je around 1 hour pun dia tetap keras dan rangup! Faham tak I excited makan papadom rangup! Lepas tu nasi jintan tu pun sedap. I still teringat sampai harini. Mengidam, tapi bila tengok resepi dia terus macam, okay no thanks. Susah and complex gilaa. Tapi ngidam, alaa sedih.

Makanan lunch sampai around 12 pm and I dengan Farah only start makan around 1 pm plus kot sebab I was moving from my bed to hers sebab Farah got the lower bed and in her block tu it was only her and another auntie. The food was provided by IRCTC. So in case lepas ni you naik train lepas tu lapar kan, order lah vegetarian set dorang ni. Sedap dan murah.

Ok rindu boleh.

So dalam train tu basically kitorang sembang dua orang and sometimes try gak lah sembang dengan auntie tu sebab dia asyik tengok je kitorang gelak gelak. Macam kesian pulak, mesti auntie tu nak join kan tapi tak paham apa yang kitorang sembang.

After beberapa jam dalam train tu, we finally arrived in Jodhpur...yeay!

Supposedly we have one whole day in Jodhpur before gerak ke Jaisalmer. We were ought to arrive in Jodhpur by approximately 10 am from Agra. Tapi dah nama pun train tu delay 10 jam kan, so kitorang sampai Jodhpur around 6 pm.

And our next train to Jaisalmer is at 12 am.

Time sampai tu, jejak je kaki kat train station tu dalam kepala kitorang time tu dah tak fikir apa dah. Kitorang fikir lapar je. Turun je dari train tu, kitorang terus meluru (gituh dramatik) ke cloak room untuk simpan our bags before bergegas mencari auto untuk cari kedai makan.

By the way, Jodhpur's train station ni antara train station yang paling bersih sekali sepanjang kitorang kat India ni. Cantik okay, sampah pun takde bersepah. Tapi public toilet dia kalau nak masuk, kena bayar. Tak ingat pulak berapa rupees. But don't worry, kalau you macam kitorang, amek second class upper, you boleh guna waiting room and waiting room ada toilet. Free of charge okay.

Dekat Station Jodhpur ni, dia ada jual rantai besi untuk you lock your bag. Well, basically kat almost semua station kat India ni pun ada jual rantai besi dengan padlock sekali. So, jangan risau pasal bag anda okay.

Lagi satu, nak masuk station Jodhpur ni, you kena screen dulu. Macam kat airport tu. Tapi takde body screening lah. Only your bags je. So kalau nak keluar masuk station tu agak renyah jugak lah sebab kena lalu screening tu kan. Tapi tak kisah lah, rasa selamat sikit. Gituh.

Sebab kan kami dah lapar sangat, so kami pun bergegas untuk pergi makan. Google lah dulu kedai halal kat Jodhpur ni yang berdekatan dengan train station. Plus, kat sini around 8pm macam tu kedai dah banyak tutup so sebab tu kitorang kena cepat.

By the way, ada je IRCTC cafe kat situ, tapi kitorang nak AYAM, nak makan daging ayam so kitorang gigih cari gak kedai makan halal even jauh sampai kena naik auto. LOL

And kitorang jumpa kedai nama The Chicks and Kabs. Banyak review dia dalam TripAdvisor.

Our auto man, dia tak boleh baca, tapi sebab dia baik, kitorang amek jugak dia. Dia tak paksa pun kitorang untuk naik auto dia. Dia duduk je tengok kitorang gelabah dan lapar. LOL.

So lepas kitorang tunjuk je alamat The Chicks and Kabs tu dekat uncle ni, dia terus bawak phone I tu ke another uncle mintak uncle tu bacakan and bagitau alamat kedai tu. Lepas uncle tu tunjuk, dia pun bawak.

TAPI SESAT!

Sebab salah kedai. Haha. Last, kitorang pakai Waze je lepas tu bagi arahan guna tangan sebab dia tak faham left and right tu apa dia.

And finally jumpaaaaaa...YEAY!

Orang cantik kalau lapar, macam ni lah muka dia. EXCITED! LOL

Kedai ni jenis rileks je macam mamak kat Malaysia pun ada gak. Tapi orang kat situ banyak gak lah usha pelik kitorang sebab macam apahal lah minah dua orang ni lepak kat luar malam malam tak takut ke? Ha cemtuh. Ye ;ah kat sana kan memang tak ramai perempuan keluar malam. Sebab tu pelik. Lagipun banyak kedai dah tutup time tu sebenarnya. Kat India ni kedai memang tutup awal.

Risau jugak lah mula mula tu tapi kelaparan mengatasi segalanya! So kitorang pun order lah tandoori dengan roti and we take away kebab for our breakfast later.

So lepas makan, we tahan another auto kat tepi jalan and go back to train station.

Lagi satu, kat Jodhpur ni train station dia ada farmasi. So, you boleh lah beli apa apa ubat ke, sanitary pad, kalau you nak.

Tak lama lepak dalam waiting room tu, our train pun dah sampai and we are ready to board the train. But, ada interesting story in our train journey this time.

Jeng jeng jeng...

Okay, macam ni, waktu kitorang nak naik train tu (this time kitorg dapat AC 3 tier) I saw this one guy yang keep looking at us. Mula mula I buat don't know je lah, sebab biasa lah orang tengok because we memang look like foreigners with the tudung and all kan. But dia bukan tengok biasa biasa tau, dia tenung je. But at the time, I macam...takpe lah hopefully bukan in the same coach.

NOT!

Kitorang boarded je the train tu, we saw him! Dia duduk the same train like us, and dia duduk kat almost opposite our beds. Nasib baik bukan opposite betul betul.

So the guy yang keep looking at us to, datang kat kitorang time kitorang tengah set up our bed and susun barang and all. Dia datang nak sembang, so dia tanya lah, are we travelling only with two people? Where are we going after this? Berapa lama kat India (eh cakap Melayu pulak kahkah) and all those soalan tipikal lah kan.

I biar je Farah yang jawab sebab Farah pandai sikit nak pusing jawapan. Plus, I takut kantoi salah bagi info ke apa so biar Farah as a leader of the trip yang jawab semua.

While I biar Farah jawab semua soalan, I buat rilek je lah kemas kemas katil and all kan. Bila dia tanya kitorang travel berdua tu, Farah terus tunjuk yang kitorang travel with another friends. Nasib baik Farah sempat gi pakat dengan a couple of European travelers yang setuju nak conspired with us saying that we all travel together.

Phew.

Lepas tu dia buat muka pelik. Then dia tanya, are we both bachelor? Time tu kitorang dah start pelik. So, kitorang continue je dengan penipuan yang kitorang buat time kat Agra haritu, which we said that we're both in a relationship; I am married with a kid, and Farah is engaged and is about to get married soon.

Terus muka mamat tu berubah! Muka dia tak puas hati betul. Dia tanya, so where's your husband? Where's your kid?

Gituh. Terus rasa kena judge. Either dia percaya bulat bulat apa yang kitorang cerita and assumed that we're both perempuan tak senonoh yang berani tak tentu hala, or dia tau kitorang tipu and emo sebab dia kena tipu.

Either way, agak scary lah tengok dia tetibe macam marah.

And after that, the train started to gerak and people pun dah tak bersembang sebab masing masing dah nak tidur kan. So the guy pun left us. Thank God.

Tapi malam tu time nak tidur rasa seram sikit, sebab the coach is full with guys and kalau ada perempuan pun, they were all travelling with another male. Dah lah coach 3 tier ni takde langsir! Faham tak rasa naked gila tidur takde langsir but dalam rasa insecure tu I tetap lelap tak hingat apa jugak.

Heh.

One thing about people in Jaisalmer ni kan, most of them ni travel sambil bawak peti besi macam casket tu. Ingatkan bawak senapang sebab ingatkan dorang askar, tapi rupanya peti besi tu memang beg.

Mamat scary tu pun bawak beg besi tu jugak. Dah lah badan dia besar sado and muka bengis. Muka dia macam pelakon filem Tamil nama Vikram, if you guys knew him lah. Kalau tak kenal, gi google. Quite good looking lah (for me) tapi sebab dia creepy, terus jadi takut.

Kesian, padahal I rasa dia just nak sembang je. LOL.

So perjalanan diteruskan and since Jodhpur and Jaisalmer ni tak jauh mana, around 5 am, we have arrived in Jaisalmer.

FINALLY! YEAY!

Before kitorang turun tu, kitorang sempat sembang dengan this one guy yang duduk depan our katil. This guy, muka dia bengis gila. Muka garang. Kitorang pun ingatkan dia askar jugak tapi rupanya dia student. MBA student kalau tak silap.

Kitorang berani sembang dengan dia sebab despite nampak garang, dia ni baik je. Dia tolong angkatkan beg and was quite friendly lah jugak. So bila kitorang turun dari train tu, apparently, kitorang turun bersama dia and sama sama tunggu auto depan station Jaisalmer tu.

Tapi, dia jadi suspicious sebab nampak kitorang berdua je despite saying yang kitorang actually travel in group. So dia tanya kitorang yang kitorang travel berdua ke? Since dia nampak baik kan, I mengaku je lah.

Lepas tu muka dia macam nak marah plus risau boleh. Scary gak lah. Dia macam risau sampai dia tanya dah tahu ke nak duduk mana, dah janji dengan driver ke, kenapa berdua je and all sampai kitorang naik rimas. Dah lah tengah kelam kabut nak contact Abu Safari (our stay in Jaisalmer) lepas tu nak layan soalan mamat ni pulak.

Adoi.

Then somehow mamat tu dah nak blah dah. Then dia cakap kalau ada apa apa contact je dia. He'll help. Tapi tak bagi nombor telefon pun! Last last I angguk je and say thanks.

Mamat creepy tadi, bila turun train, tak pandang pun kitorang. Dia buat tak peduli je. Lol nasib baik. Kalau tak...

By the way, Jaisalmer ni sangat dekat dengan sempadan Pakistan tau, around 40 km je. So you'll see a lot of soldiers kat situ. Time kitorang sampai tu, ramai gila askar jalan nak masuk dalam station tu. Maybe tukar shift(?) ke apa ke I pun tak tahu lah. Rasa macam dalam war zone pun ada jugak.

One thing, Jaisalmer train station dengan Jodhpur train station ni macam nak dekat sama je building dia.

Lebih kurang kan? Boleh lah

So lepas kena haggle with a few auto driver, we finally berjaya contact Abu Safari. Faham tak sebab rimas sangat kena haggle, sampai bila Abu Safari driver tu sampai, kitorang tak percaya. Kitorang ingat dia tipu. LOL. Sampai dia kena missed call nombor Farah dulu baru kitorang percaya yang he's the driver that we're looking for.

Yang kelakarnya, auto drivers yang haggle kitorang tadi pun ikut tolong convince kan kitorang yang dia tu our driver, bukan auto driver. LOL.

Maka, bergerak lah kami menuju ke Abu Safari hotel ni. Bukan terus ke padang pasir ye, lepak hotel dulu boh.

Okay next post I sambung cerita pasal Jaisalmer Fort and the our night under the stars.

See ya!

Namashkar India (Part 1: Preparation)
Namashkar India (Part 2: Kolkata Here We Come!)
Namashkar India (Part 3: Mystical Varanasi)
Namashkar India (Part 4: Magical Varanasi)
Namashkar India (Part 5: Agra, The City of Love)
Namashkar India (Part 6: A Night Under The Sky, Jaisalmer)
Namashkar India (Part 7: A Night Under The Stars, Jaisalmer)
Namashkar India (Part 8: Starry Starry Night)
Namashkar India (Part 9: Majestic Fort)
Namashkar India (Part 10: Delhi, You Crazy!)

Namashkar India (Part 5 - Agra, The City of Love)

noreply@blogger.com (Mireya) — Wed, 18 Jan 2017 16:10:00 +0000

Now we move to Agra, the city of love. The place where the world famous Taj Mahal is located. Perjalanan dari Varanasi ke Agra should take around 12 hours, more or less.

Kami bergerak dari Varanasi ke Agra menaiki keretapi, dan bertolak pada pukul 6 petang. Sepatutnya kami sampai Agra pukul 6 pagi, tetapi sebab the train was delayed on the way, we arrived Agra somewhere around 11 am.

Which is dah lambat.

So, nasib baik kami tapau food from Sha Chicken Hut and makan dalam train siap siap, so kami takpayah susah susah cari kedai untuk breakfast di Agra. Sampai je di Agra, kami terus cari cloak room and letak barang kat sana. Time tu agak kelam kabut lah, dah lah barang banyak (semua sebab beli banyak saree cantik kat Varanasi) and masa pulak dah terhad kan, so memang akan terkejar kejar.

Di Agra, kami tak plan nak pergi banyak tempat pun, sebab since kitorang dah overspent di Varanasi, so kitorang kena berjimat di Agra. Dalam kepala masing masing time tu, cuma perlu sampai Taj Mahal je. Kalau sempat pergi tempat lain, it would be a bonus.

Tapi dalam hati I, I teringin nak pergi Fatehpur Sikri. Kalau you guys duduk Agra dua hari maybe sempat lah kot. Sebab Fatehpur Sikri tu despite it's only 40km away (in maps) from Agra city center, tapi it takes almost 3 hours to reach there by car. So, memang kitorang takkan sempat lah ke sana sebab plan kitorang, Agra only day trip sahaja. Pagi sampai, malam tu terus naik train pergi tempat lain.

So lepas kami letak bag, kami pun keluar dan terserempak dengan pemandu teksi dekat luar cloak room tu. Nama dia Sameer. He pretended to help, tapi sebenarnya dia dah nampak lah kami ni memang potential customer and dia pon sweet talk lah. Memandangkan kami ni pulak desperate, sebab takut tak sempat nak menghayati kecantikan Taj Mahal, maka kami pun setuju nak naik dengan Sameer ni.

Sameer offered 3 or 4 places to go with the price of Rs 800 (you guys can bargain cheaper if you want) which is around RM56. Kitorang terus ambik lah sebab senang dah ada orang tunggu, plus naik kereta so cepat sikit sampai tempat yang kitorang nak.

Sameer dropped us dekat depan Western Gate of Taj, and from there we decided to walk all the way to the counter. Kalau nak naik rickshaw pun ada kat sana, and it will cost you around Rs. 100 to Rs 200. And like I said before, we have to be cautious with our money, so we opt to walk.

Kalau jalan pun actually takde lah jauh sangat, dalam 5 minit je dah sampai.

Anyway, most people nak sangat tengok sunrise kat Taj Mahal ni (which is actually our original plan if our train tak delay) but the perks of going to Taj Mahal in the afternoon is that orang tak ramai. Kitorang tak payah beratur panjang pun boleh terus dapat tiket sebab kaunter yang opened for foreign tourist takde orang beratur langsung!

So, yeay!

Tix nak masuk Taj Mahal cost us Rs 1000, sebab harga pelancong kan so it's okay. Then, lepas we purchased the tickets, we proceed to the locker room untuk letak barang sebab apparently dalam Taj Mahal tak boleh bawak bags, foods, and tripod. But, selfie stick is allowed. And waktu you beli tickets tu, you will be provided with water bottle. Yes, air je yang boleh bawak masuk ke dalam tu.

In case you wanted a tourist guide, ada banyak tourist guide kat situ yang work on tips basis. Diorang kata service diorang free, tapi kena bagi tips je. And again, sebab kitorang kan cheap skate, we don't bother to take tour guide at all. Better google je lah kalau nak tahu apa apa facts.

So, nak masuk Taj Mahal tu, you kena jalan another 3 minutes to the gate from the ticket counter. Nanti you akan kena screen by the guards there. And no worries, the lines are separated according to your gender and female officers yang akan check you, if you are a female lah.

If they found food in your bags (beg kecik boleh bawak masuk), it would be instantly thrown out, so jangan lah bazir duit beli makanan and see it goes to waste okay. Kalau tengok tong sampah kat situ memang penuh dengan food semata mata.

Bila dah lepas je security check tu, maka bermula lah perjalanan anda untuk menghayati keindahan Taj Mahal, lambang cinta Shah Jahan terhadap isteri ketiganya, iaitu Mumtaz Mahal.

The first gate you'll find upon entering the compound

Gambar tu no filter okay.

Sebenarnya ada lagi dua gate untuk masuk ke Taj Mahal ni. Western gate ni selalunya digunakan oleh foreign tourist. From my reading, most people said it's usually crowded with people but maybe sebab kitorang sampai pun dah tengahari kan, so memang takde problem lah.

Thing about Taj Mahal is, it is so majestic tau. Majestic gilaaa yang you masuk compound dia je, you dah rasa meremang macam..biar betul kau ada kat sini. Ha macam tu.

I rasa, kalau you ada interest in architecture, or you memang take architectural course, you'd appreciate Taj Mahal more. Sebab semua benda kat sini symmetry. Honestly, I baru tahu Taj Mahal ni famous sebab dia sangat symmetry! And every inch of the structure tu memang dibina dengan sangat intricate and details okay.

Sebagai contoh, tengok half dome dalam gambar Western Gate tu, the inside so cantik it creates optical illusion when you see it

The inside of the half dome

Cantik kan? Majestic okay. So intricate.

Then, when you walk past the gate, this is what you will find:

Tugu Cinta, Taj Mahal

Too bad, tiang satu lagi tengah under maintenance pulak. Tapi Taj Mahal tetap maintain gah dah cantik.

Bila I tengok Taj Mahal ni kan, honestly rasa macam sebak and terus rasa romantis. Gituh. I can only imagined lah how much Shah Jahan loved his wife sampai sanggup bina structure macam ni demi nak mengabadikan rasa cinta dia terhadap Mumtaz.

By the way, kat sini memang ramai gila orang ye. So, agak susah lah nak ambik gambar solo kat sini. Mesti ada orang punya kat background. Kalau nak cantik, kena cropped lah bagi cantik.

So, lepas dah puas ambik gambar kat luar ni, kitornag pun berjalan masuk ke dalam Taj Mahal itself.

Untuk masuk ke dalam, you ada dua options:

Tanggal kasut and kaki ayam
Pakai shoes cover that is provided to you the moment you bought your tickets

So, kitorang of course lah opt to wear the shoes cover tu kan. So nanti, waktu jalan masuk tu you takde lah mengotorkan Taj Mahal tu nanti.

Kat dalam Taj Mahal tu, we are not allowed to take any pictures because kat dalam tu is the makam where the bodies of Mumtaz and Shah Jahan disemadikan bersama bersebelahan.

Sebenarnya, original plan untuk Taj Mahal ni, sepatutnya body Mumtaz je disemadikan di makam ni, tetapi lepas kemangkatan Shah Jahan, anakanda beliau decided nak kebumikan mereka bersama sebab dia tahu betapa bapa dia ni sayang sangat kat Mumtaz ni, so biarlah mereka dikebumikan bersama. Anyways, perbuatan anak dia ni (memakamkan mereka bersebelahan) telah mencacatkan sedikit simetri plan for Taj Mahal ni. (boleh further read kat google kalau interested)

Dalam Taj Mahal ni sangat gelap ye, so memang kalau nak ambik gambar pun tak nampak apa apa. So, we decided to spend time outside and just to devour and indulge the beauty of Taj Mahal while we are there.

One of windows in Taj Mahal that's decorated with Quran verses

Windows in Taj Mahal ni semuanya dihiasi dengan ayat Quran. Cantik sangat. Fun fact, the verses were written with optical illusion too, so it would appear the same size when you look at it at any angles. Cool kan?!

Basically we spend almost half an hour just sitting kat koridor Taj Mahal tu just to view the beauty that is Taj Mahal. Memang cantik. You really have to really really love that person to be willing to spend that much money (most of the national treasure) to build something beautiful like this. Seriously.

We've spend more or less 3 hours in Taj Mahal. So, around 2 pm, we called Sameer so that he could pick us up and take us for lunch. We went to Rangrezz restaurant. Originally, we planned nak makan di Jahanpanah sebab baca good review and the price is cheaper, tapi tutup pulak. So, we opt for Rangrezz sebab alang alang Rangrezz ni sebelah je dengan Jahanpanah.

Anyways, from Taj Mahal to these restaurants tak jauh mana pun. Around 10 minutes je. Itu pun it actually could be shorter but Sameer tu bawak slow macam makan angin, boleh?

Oh, the traffic in Agra sangat laah chill okay. Tak busy langsung. Nothing like Calcutta. It's so relaxing, kereta tak banyak, takde bunyi honk, sebab tu lah our tour guide pun bawak relax je. Sampai kitorang yang bising suruh dia drive laju sikit sebab kitorang dah tak banyak masa okay.

So, after makan tu, we decided to go to Baby Taj because masa dah tak cukup and we can only choose one place to go je. We decided not to go to the Red Fort because we'll be going to at least another two forts in India, so we opt for Baby Taj instead.

For your info, all the attraction places in Agra is closed by 4.30 pm so, nanti plan wisely okay kalau nak cover every places.

Why Baby Taj? The name is cute kan? Well, Baby Taj's original name is Tomb of I'timad-'Ud-Daulah which is the mausoleum for Mumtaz's grandfather, Mirza Ghiyas Beg. It was said that Baby Taj is the draft and inspiration for Taj Mahal and it's also known as The Jewel Box.

Baby Taj

This is the Baby Taj. It's actually a lot smaller than Taj Mahal but the plan is almost the same. It has three gates (if I'm not mistaken) and it has the gardens, same like Taj Mahal.

I noticed colors of Baby Taj ni berubah according to the lightings. In this picture, it looks white as pearl but as the sun sets, the color changes to golden.

Another angle of Baby Taj

See, the color changes.

I did not go inside the Baby Taj sebab tak cukup masa time tu. Anyhow, to go in, you'll have to wear the shoe covers, same like the one in Taj Mahal.

Anyways, the ticket to Baby Taj is a lot cheaper. It only cost us Rs. 200 per person. So, definitely a must go to place!

Also, kalau you perasan, the gate kat dalam gambar di atas, pattern dia sama je macam the ones in Taj Mahal. And, Baby Taj is actually was built Mumtaz's aunt, daughter of Mirza, Nur Jahan.

After finished jalan jalan kat Baby Taj, Sameer took us to a shop for us to buy some souvenirs. The shop was quite old, but the stuffs inside were good.

So Farah and I bought Taj Mahal miniatures (kononnya it was made by the same marble as the one they used for Taj Mahal), and chai. Darjeeling tea originally from India. A small miniature of Taj Mahal only costs us Rs. 150 per piece, which is RM10 je. So not bad lah kan.

After done shopping, we decided to go back to the train station sebab our next train is scheduled at 8 pm so we have to get back fast! And by the way, sebab kitorang cheapskate, kitorang tak bagi tips pun kat Sameer, only bayar the fees je. LOL.

We arrived at the train station by 7 pm.

Dekat train, we went straight to the waiting room because apparently our train was delayed to 10 pm. So kitorang lepak lepak je lah. The facilities here pun okay je. Toilet bersih, takde lah kotor mana pun. By the way, kitorang bertolak from Agra Fort Train Station, not Agra Cantt. Ada dua train station kat sana, so decide lah which one yang you nak.

So, pukul 10 pm, kitorang pun get ready lah nak pergi naik train, sekali delayed again to 11.45 pm.

Around 11.45, we heard an announcement saying the train is again delayed to 3 am.

By that time, those yang waiting with us semua sambung tidur. Ada yang siap bukak sleeping bag and tidur like there's nothing to worry about. Some siap bentang kain and tidur macam tidur kat rumah okay.

Ada this one time, there were three ladies sleeping side by side. I assumed they were families. And it was around 1 am I think, and creatures of the night started creeping out. Well, there were rats coming from the toilet and going straight to the bin. I dengan Farah tengok je lah because the rats were across the room.

Then, suddenly, the rats boleh pulak jalan atas muka the ladies! Imagine the horror on our face! HAHAHA! But the ladies just tepis gitu gitu je. Well, tengah tidur kan, mana nak tau tikus ke lipas yang jalan atas muka, ye dok?

After some time, one of the ladies bangun and offered us her place for us to sleep. But, traumatized, we have to decline the offer lah.

Anyways, orang kat sini baik dan peramah okay. Also, very romantic. Kat sini lah I witnessed a husband suap pizza to the wife sebab the wife was busy nursing their 3 months old kid. So sweet kan.

So by 3 am, kelibat train masih tak nampak. And it stated there the train will be arriving at 5.45 am. Time ni kitorang dah mati kutu dah. Nak jalan jalan kat luar, the temperature was 14 degree Celcius. Sejuk gilaa okay, so we just stay inside and main phone je lah, tengok gambar and videos that we took in Taj Mahal and other places.

So, while waiting for the train, we did some math. Our next station should be Jodhpur. And we are supposed to do a daytrip in Jodhpur before hopping on the next train to Jaisalmer. Agra to Jodhpur would take more or less 12 hours. And by the time we arrived in Jodhpur, it would be night and we have to burn Jodhpur.

Anyways, we do not let that bother us for long, so we decided just go with the flow.

By 6 am, after almost waiting for 12 hours, we finally boarded the train to Jodhpur.

So, until next time, more interesting stories await and more wonders to unveil in next destination!

See you!

Hello, 2017!

noreply@blogger.com (Mireya) — Mon, 02 Jan 2017 08:58:00 +0000

Okay, berhenti sekejap tulis pasal India. I nak cerita pasal tahun baru. I nak summarize my 2016.

Honestly, 2016 is not my favorite year at all. In fact, I kinda hate 2016. But, 2016 also has somehow broaden my network. I've made a lot of new friends this year. I have reconnect with a few long lost friends and I've had one of the best trip in my life so far, this year.

So, overall, my 2016 wasn't really that bad lah actually.

I've started my 2016 with a roadtrip with a few of my close friends to Kuching. It was kinda an awesome trip but a bit tiring (thank God I wasn't driving!). The journey took 28 hours on the road (from Miri to Kuching return journey) but we managed to go to a few places yang I don't think I'd ever go if it's not because of the roadtrip. So it was awesome.

Then in February, there was a celebration. My girlfriend got married! It was a happy day as we managed to meet again (all six of us) and celebrated her big day. I was one of the bridesmaid. Nothing much happened in March, except that I've made a pack with 3 of my friends that 2017 would be our year (faham tak baru awal tahun masing masing dah miserable and give up with our 2016). We promised that all of us will get married in 2017. So far, semua berjaya tunaikan janji because they finally found love in 2016 except me, as always lah but it's okay.

In April, my career took a big turn. I was transferred to another department doing something that is totally out of my expertise (macam lah I was an expert in something all this while! LOL). But I kinda like my new job sebab it was fun playing with numbers but what a big responsibility! Cuak gak lah but so far, so good. But, because I was transferred to a new department, I managed to meet with a lot of new people which is kinda cool. Seronok sebab these people sekepala and they made me looking forward to go to office everyday, yeay!

Then in May I went to Mabul and reconnect with my long lost friend, Farah (the one that I went to India together). It was awesome despite I didn't have a diving license, I basically lepak and snorkel je kat sana which is very cool. I'd definitely do it again if I could. Tapi I have to cancel my trip to Philippines during this month, sebab tuntutan kerja. Sedih okay. I really wanna go there, tapi tu lah, belum ada rezeki kot.

My misery started in June when I got involved in an affair (if I could call it an affair lah). It was something that I wish I didn't do. It was very stupid of me but things have happened kan. I don't want to elaborate much on this matter, but cukup lah I cakap it was one of the biggest mistake that I have ever made in my life. Also, during this month, rumah sewa I kena pecah masuk dengan perompak while I was in the house. Thank God I sempat call polis and my friends and the perompak tak sempat buat apa apa but I was shaken and traumatized to this day. Sampai sekarang kalau I dengar bunyi pelik kat dapur, I terus tak boleh tidur. Takut okay.

In July, I moved out from my previous house sebab I dah rasa tak selamat kat sana. Rumah sewa I yang baru ni sangat awesome because it's an apartment! The rental is quite pricey tapi the security, insyAllah guaranteed. So I okay sikit lah. Nothing much happened in August, except I somehow macam dapat hidayah or some sort to finally stop the affair. I think God loves me, and He wants to protect me from getting hurt any further.

So in September, I've burned bridges. I quit the affair. I blocked him from my life. It was hard. I was miserable and I couldn't stop crying for days. But Tuhan dah susun semua kan, I've made friends with some of the most amazing people in my life yang have been here with me throughout the detox process. Like I said, it was hard at first, but I've managed. Also, in September, we managed to secure tickets to India!

October is all about my India planning. I was excited!

Then November came. India trip is finally happening! It was the best moment of my life so far. Bila pergi India, I bersyukur sangat I quit the affair. When I was in India, I could truly feel how much God loves me. He has saved me from a monster in disguise. Alhamdulillah. It was truly an eye opening experience for me, spiritually, and emotionally. I've learned about forgiveness. To you, if you are reading this, I would like to say, I have forgive you despite the fact that you never did a proper apology to me. I know you don't know what you did wrong. I know you think you were not wrong. But I was hurt. You have hurt me, but I have moved on. Those three months were the worst months in my life, ever. I wish you all the happiness in the world, because I am truly much happier now. Alhamdulillah. And I believe, you are too.

I could say that India has saved my 2016.

Back from India in December, I could say that I've changed. I'm still the old Mira, or Belle, some might call, but something inside me has changed. I don't know what, but I'm about to discover it this year.

Overall, lessons learnt from 2016:

Friends can hurt you too
It's never too late to walk away from something that hurt you
Just burn all the bridges that took you nowhere, or worse, that took you to your misery
Learn to forgive. Forgive whoever did you wrong and most importantly, learn how to forgive yourself
God is great. Just believe in Him. He knows. Have faith in His plan
Learn how to be alone. Learn to enjoy having only yourself as a company. It's not that bad
Keep exploring things around you
Appreciate everybody who walk into your life. If you truly want them to stay, cherish them. Not manipulate them. Show that you care, show that you love them
Sometimes you have to be selfish for your own good

I have my wishes for 2017 too, which are:

I want to work on my relationship with God. 2016 was not a good year for me spiritually, so I want to be a much better muslim this year. I want to run, to sprint towards Him
I want to spend more time with my family. If ada rezeki lebih, I want to take them to a vacation, all expenses paid...by me, InsyaAllah.
I want to live a healthier life. Well, I managed to shed a few kilos in 2016, and I want to keep it that way too, only I want to be healthier and fit
I want to be financially stable. 2016 has subtly taught me about money management
I want to work hard and smart. I know my workload is gonna me superbly a lot this year, so I hope I'll manage and make no mistake ever
I want to broaden my network, and keep my circle closer. My circle has grown smaller, but it's okay, I need to screen the people that I want to keep. Alhamdulillah I found a few quality friendship in 2016, and I hope that would stay. InsyaAllah.
I hope I found the love of my life this year. Amin.

All in all, I wish you and me, may we all found what we lost, and may 2017 would be a GREAT year for us.

Amin!

Namashkar India (Part 4 - Magical Varanasi)

noreply@blogger.com (Mireya) — Tue, 27 Dec 2016 13:16:00 +0000

Okay, now sambung balik cerita Varanasi.

Haih...Varanasi ni kalau nak ikutkan, 2 post pun tak cukup. Tapi I cuba lah nak cukupkan. I suka sangat Varanasi ni. Bila I ada dekat Varanasi ni, and I tengok the people buat their rituals, mandi, sembahyang and all, dia buat I rasa tenang. Rasa macam calm and content. Tak tahu nak explain macam mana without you guys thinking yang my aqidah tengah goyah. Gituh statement nak kontroversi je kan.

But serius, Varanasi memang best.

So, petang tu jalan-jalan tengok orang lepak kat tangga tepi sungai and you boleh tengok lah actually orang yang tinggal kat Varanasi ni jenis yang relax je. Jenis yang lepak lepak. Takde lah kalut macam kat Kolkata tu kan.

Also, kat sini banyak pengantin! Mungkin sebab time tu hari Ahad kot (tiboh kaitan) so ramai gila orang kahwin. Petang tu je, within duration of almost 2 hours kitorang melepak kat sungai tu, kitorang jumpa empat pasang pengantin! I am a fan of Indian culture so memang excited gila sebab dapat tengok pengantin dekat dekat, rasa macam dalam filem Hindustan pulak.

Tengok muka pengantin tu, happy je kan. Seronok lettew dapat kahwin.

By the way, when I talked to Vicky, our boatman, dia cerita yang kos kahwin dekat sini mahal. Boleh mencecah sehingga 10,000 USD. Which is around RM 50K. Well, bila dia cakap macam tu baru sedar, bab kahwin ni, kahwin kat mana mana pun mahal. Orang Melayu ke, India ke, Chinese ke, memang kena kumpul duit kalau nak kahwin.

So, petang tu after jalan jalan, kitorang pun balik ke Monu untuk rest sebelum we go on our night boatride with Vicky. We booked the boat at 6pm if I’m not mistaken. Lupa dah pukul berapa kitorang naik boat tu. From Monu’s, Vicky took us back to the Ganges river.

Vicky ni cool okay. Baru 24 tahun, he studied Finance/Accounting and just graduated from local university. He speaks English fluently, sampai aku yang gagap bila sembang dengan dia. Lepas tu dia ni jugak dah pernah naik ke Annapurna Base Camp! Like whaaat cool gila. Dia pun traveled a lot and he shared his story going to Darjeeling and other places in India. Terus rasa macam dengki boleh. Nak jugak travel. Haha takpe, motivation. Kalau korang datang Varanasi ni, and duduk dengan Monu, please lah request for Vicky (if he’s still around kat Varanasi lah) because he’s so good, banyak cerita dia share and he’ll take you around Varanasi and show you good stuffs there.

Lagi satu, sepanjang kitorang kat India ni, our hosts memang treat us very well, because as told by Vicky,

“You are our guest, and in India, guests are like God. We must treat you very nicely”

So, no wonder lah semua orang kat sana layan kitorang baik gila. They hold on to the motto firmly.

Malam tu, during our boatride, Vicky took us to Manikarnika Ghat. This Ghat is actually the biggest burning Ghat in Varanasi. And for your info, ghats means stairs that leads to the holy river, in this case, the Ganges River.

When we were in Manikarnika, Vicky asked us to count the fire. There were eleven of them. After that, Vicky told us that means there were actually eleven bodies burning in the ghat at the moment. Waktu dia bagitahu tu, rasa macam goosebumps boleh? Because I can’t believe that I am actually witnessing the burning of human bodies. BODIES! Bukan satu je, but ELEVEN of them!

Vicky then took us to go nearer to the ghat, and while we were there, we were informed that tourists can witness the burning, but we can’t record or take picture. Kalau jauh from ghat, baru boleh. Well, to give respect to the dead kan.

Vicky then further explained about the burning of the bodies. People actually wants to die in Varanasi, or at least, they want their ashes to be toss in the Ganges river. So, those people who lived far away from Varanasi, some of them are willing to actually spend more money to send the body here to be burned. They believe that if the die here, in Varanasi, their soul will be send straight to Nirvana, or Heaven, and they will forever be liberated from rebirth.

The cost for burning a body in Manikarnika would be only around Rs. 10,000 or RM 700. Which is a lot. The bodies would be sent to ghat and will be burn straight away, because they don’t have storage for the bodies here. That’s what Vicky told us.

Also, not all bodies are allowed to be burn here. There are seven types of body that are not allowed to be burn in any of the burning ghats, they are:

Body of a child, below 16 years old. Because their soul is believed to be very pure, like a flower
Body of a pregnant women, because they are carrying the flower inside of them
Body of holy men
Body of those who died due to cobra bite, because cobra is the necklace of Shiva. It’s a holy animal. Also, they believe if they burn the body of people who died due to the venomous bite, the venom could spread when they were being burn
Body of those who died due to small pox, same reason as no 4, the disease could spread through air
Body of leprosy patient, same reason as no 5
If I’m not mistaken, the body of those who died due to suicide, because their sin can’t be purified by the fire

So what did they do with these bodies? They will tie the body with stones, and after performing rites, the body will then be sink into the middle of the river. The fish will eat the flesh, and is believed to send the soul to their final resting place in Nirvana.

Waktu Vicky tengah cerita tu, we saw a new body just arrived. On top of the body, there were a lot of kain (macam kain saree) berwarna-warni. So when we asked, Vicky said that the clothes were final gifts from the family members. The new body then been taken down to the river for their final bath, and then will be placed on top of the stairs to let it dry before they are burn.

Despite having all those colorful clothes on top of them (the bodies), when the time comes for them to be burn, the clothes are all removed and what’s left is only a white piece of cloth. They will be burned with that white piece of cloth on top of them. Prior to burning, the body will be covered with ghee to ease the burning, and sandalwood powder to remove the smell.

When we witnessed the bodies burning, there were no horrible smell at all, because of the sandalwood powder.

Usually, the burning of a body would take around 3 hours, and for your info, two parts of our body; chest (for men) and hips (for women) are really hard to burn. Most of the time, it would remain as it was. These parts, will then be tossed into the river by the Untouchables (those who run the burning ghats). We were lucky that we managed to see one of the Untouchable toss one of the part into the river.

The ashes of the burned bodies will be collected in the morning, and then be tossed into the river by the Untouchables. These usually will be done as early as 4 am in the morning.

Another info, these bodies were not burn using new fire. Meaning, the fire are not lighted by matches of using gasoline, the fire is taken from inside the shrine in Manikarnika which is believed has been burning since some three thousand years ago! The fire is kept alive by the Untouchables and we could see the fire from where our boat was parked at the moment.

There is another burning ghat, a small ones, at the end of the river. In the ghat, the body could be cremated using electric. It was for the poor who could not afford a burning pyre for the rites and also for those who died, and have no family with them. People in Varanasi will collect money and donation for those unclaimed bodies to be cremated using the electric pyre. The electric pyre would only cost around Rs 500, or RM 35, which is very cheap for those who could not afford the traditional ones. The fire used for this one is taken from Manikarnika Ghat so they would be burn using the same holy fire.

The burning rites are performed by the men from the family. Women are not allowed as women tend to get emotional and that would cause the spirit of the death to be sad. Sama macam kita yang muslim lah. tak boleh menangis beria kan, nanti si mati jadi sedih.

So after we have watched the burning of the bodies, Vicky then took us to watch a ritual from the boat at the square in of the ghat in Ganges. The ritual involved seven men (all Brahmins) and they were performing some sort of choreograph using the fire and chanting of a mantra. That’s pretty much it.

We also bought some magnolia and float it onto the river! Hindus believed that these magnolias, when lighted and float on the river, it would help make their wishes come true and so we did it too, just for fun. We bought five magnolias for fifty rupees, but when we asked Vicky, he said usually they would buy it 11, 21, 51, 101 of the magnolias for making wishes.

After watching all the rituals and whatnots, we were feeling very hungry and craving for some meat…chicken meat! So we asked Vicky where to find any halal food around here. Vicky said he knew a place, and would be glad to ‘tapau’ for us because it was already quite late, 8.30 pm and Monu has a curfew which we must go back before 11 pm. Also, it's really not advisable for girls to stay out late here.

But somehow, Monu said it's okay for us to follow Vicky to the restaurant and just eat there. So we went. Vicky took us to the Muslim community near a mosque there. After almost 10 minutes of walking we finally arrived to THE BEST RESTAURANT we ever been to in India.

The Sha Chicken Hut.

Malas la nak rotate, but this the menu. LOL

The restaurant was full with people and most of them were looking at us weirdly. Maybe sebab our dressing kot, or the fact that we are both ladies yang berani keluar malam? Probably.

Anyways, Vicky told us that in Varanasi, the tension between Hindu and Muslim are still very tense. And during Friday prayer, there will be soldier and police guarding the mosque. In fact, waktu kitorang jalan jalan kat Varanasi tu pun ada banyak je police and askar berjaga kat situ. Also while we were waiting for our table sebab restaurant tu memang penuh gila, we saw Vicky were hiding his necklace (Hindu). I don't know why, and tak terfikir nak tanya pun sebab kitorang lapar sangat otak fikir nak makan je.

So, we order roti, Chicken Chenghazi, and Chicken Tandoori. It was VERY DELICIOUS! Faham tak sedap sangat sampai masing masing rasa tak nak berak sebab nak simpan the food dalam perut. Dah lah sedap, murah pulak tu. We ordered 1kg ayam, and including air and roti, total only RM18 je! The cheapest food we ate so far. And sangat berbaloi.

The next day, we ate lunch at the same place. This time we tried the fish. Okay, I'm not a fan of fish, tapi ikan dia sedap gila okay. Sangat fresh! Btw, ikan yang kitorang makan tu ikan air masin, kalau korang nak try ikan yang dorang tangkap from Ganges pun boleh jugak, boleh beli from the kids yang fishing kat situ. Itu pun kalau korang nak lah.

Pagi tu kitorang took a boatride to watch sunrise. During this time you guys boleh nampak lah the people performing yoga, some take bath in the river, people praying and yang paling best, sunrise dekat sini cantik sangat. Kalau pergi time winter like we do, you guys boleh nampak banyak migrated birds from Siberia kat sini.

Lepas tu dekat sini ada banyak istana lama yang cantik. Istana ni actually dulu tempat untuk raja raja yang datang ke Varanasi to die. So, they built these palaces and tinggal dalam ni while waiting for death to take them. Now, some of the palaces are transformed to be luxury hotels. Boleh lah kalau you guys nak duduk situ. There are palaces from kings from Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kolkata, and a lot more.

If you guys love bangles like I do, or any jewelry at all, beli lah kat Varanasi. It's cheap and it's so pretty. Same goes to saree! Of all saree yang I bought and saw in India, Varanasi's saree are the best. Kain dia okay, and the design sangat cantik, and MURAH! For 6 meter kain, you boleh dapat for only RM 40 - 50 after conversion. So yeah, memang berbaloi.

Oh lagi satu, peniaga saree dekat Varanasi ni, especially kat kedai in the alley near Ganges, dorang tak aggressive. Tak macam kat Kolkata. In Kolkata, kalau you taknak beli, you jangan letak harga. You blah je terus dari kedai tu. Or else, dorang akan paksa you beli. Hati kena kental lah kiranya. Jangan takut sangat (macam I). Selamba je say no okay kalau you tak nak beli. And lari cepat cepat bila diorang tanya.

Macam kitorang time kat Kolkata rasa macam kena attack sebab peniaga tu paksa kitorang beli lahenga dia padahal kitorang taknak sebab tak cantik. So Farah stepped up and bagi speech sikit then baru diorang okay. Ada lah diorang bising sikit but buat selamba and blah laju laju je okay.

So, that's about it lah for Varanasi. Lepas ni, we'll travel to Agra pulak. Tengok tugu cinta paling famous dalam dunia, Taj Mahal.

See you!

Namashkar India (Part 1: Preparation)
Namashkar India (Part 2: Kolkata Here We Come!)
Namashkar India (Part 3: Mystical Varanasi)
Namashkar India (Part 4: Magical Varanasi)
Namashkar India (Part 5: Agra, The City of Love)
Namashkar India (Part 6: A Night Under The Sky, Jaisalmer)
Namashkar India (Part 7: A Night Under The Stars, Jaisalmer)
Namashkar India (Part 8: Starry Starry Night)
Namashkar India (Part 9: Majestic Fort)
Namashkar India (Part 10: Delhi, You Crazy!)

Namashkar India (Part 3 - Mystical Varanasi)

noreply@blogger.com (Mireya) — Thu, 15 Dec 2016 13:35:00 +0000

Okay now sambung our journey from Kolkata to Varanasi.

We took our bags from the cloak room and waited for the train. One tips, kalau you takut beg you kena curi ke (which is quite unlikely) or takut rats (ada sign beware of rats) sebab you ada simpan food dalam beg kan, I’d suggest you beli beg guni besar yang banyak jual kat kedai kedai lama tu, yang RM10 tu and put your backpack inside. That’s what we did lah. Turned out, the guni bag has more benefits than just keeping our bags safe.

Since kitorang beli train tix which were AC 2 Tier, we get to wait in the waiting room. Kalau you beli sleepers class, memang tak dapat lah. It's for second class and above je. Ours was for ladies only. Which is cool sebab ada toilet dalam tu. And…the toilet takde lah teruk sangat pun. Okay je. Takde pun taik bersepah ke, ada pool of urine ke, takde pon. Okay je.

Kat Howrah tu ada shower room and toilet. So kalau rasa nak mandi, boleh lah. But kitorang tak mandi pon sebab kosser lah. Renyah okay. Some more, it’s FREAKING WINTER! So sejuk and we don’t sweat at all so why laa nak mandi , kalau nak mandi sangat mandi kat Gangga la bila sampai Varanasi nanti. LOL.

We took Vibhuti Express from Kolkata to Varanasi. But, if you try to search the name in the display board, the train is spelled as Bibhuti Express. Kat sana, huruf V and B tu lebih kurang je. Some called Varanasi as Baranasi. So that’s a fun fact for you.

Our train took 13 hours to reach Varanasi. In the train, Farah and I got separated at first. Like I said, my status was RAC, meaning I have to share with another person. Turns out, I have to share with a 70 years old grandma.

My status was RAC/1 and my seat waktu tu 17, meaning I dapat lower berth. And the berth was folded so it formed like two seats with a table in the middle.

The seat looked something like this. Except this is for sleeper's (Pic from Google)

Then there are this auntie asking me about my seat sebab dia tengok I macam lost and stupid kan. Lol. Lepas tu she confirmed that I got the lower berth and family grandma tu pulak macam resah sebab kesian dekat nenek tu kot takkan dia nak tidur sambil duduk, or worse takkan nak panjat berth atas kan. After some time, Farah came to my coach to try ajak I pindah to her berth sebab dia pun dapat lower berth so she thought both of us could share.

But then, the grandma’s family was asking

“Why are you moving? You got the lower berth”

After some explanation, we both agreed that nenek tu akan take tempat Farah which is in another coach, and Farah would take the nenek’s place, which is the upper berth. Yeay! Tak payah dah risau yang kitorang akan terpisah. SO DRAMA!

So, Farah climbed up to her berth and I’m left with mine. We were given bedsheet and a blanket. Problem is, I haven’t pull down the seat so it became a berth, so for almost 4 hours, I was sleeping like I was sitting. Sakit badan dan kaki okay, dah lah gemuk some more. Until, an angel came to visit me. Gituuuhhh.

Ada this one lady, (the first lady yang confirmed my berth earlier) she came to me. Terkejut okay tetibe ada orang selak langsir. Rasa macam diceroboh. Gituh. Then she was babbling to me in Hindi. Terpinga-pinga sekejap sebab tak faham sepatah haram pun. When I told her that I don’t understand Hindi, she made a face, and then move around and help me set up my berth. After that, she even tucked me in bed! Sweet takkk? Rasa macam ada emak following me while travelling pulak. Terus manly tears that night while sleeping. OVERZ.

The berth after it was set up looked something like this (Pic from Google)

We both had a good rest, and we were expected to arrive Varanasi around 9.30 am. By 5 am je, both of us dah segar bugar and Farah turun to lepak at my berth. Seronok je tengok pemandangan dekat luar. The mist was freaking thick! At some point, tak nampak apa apa pun and a lot of people wearing winter cloth with scarves and thick sweater, the temperature at the time was around 15 degree Celcius. Imagine? Aircond kat rumah pun I pasang around 26 degree Celc je okay.

One of the local as seen outside our train. It's so cold out there

Bila sampai je Varanasi, both of us were looking for our auto driver. Farah has made earlier arrangement with Monu Guesthouse, which situated near the Ganges River. The auto driver was sent by Monu to us so takde lah kena tipu ke apa ke. The cost for the auto was Rs. 200, which is around RM12.

Traffic in Varanasi is almost like Kolkata. Full of cars. Banyak gila kereta, auto, and motorcycles. But, peringatan awal awal, sesiapa yang travel to Varanasi, please pakai face mask especially kalau you jenis tak tahan habuk because the habuks are CRAAAZZZZYYYYYY. Banyak gila debu berterbangan okay. Jalan dia memang berhabuk teruk, even kitorang pun tutup muka dengan tudung masing masing.

Sampai je kat pekan Varanasi tu, we have to walk to get to Monu Guesthouse because it was situated in the alleys yang auto and rickshaw tak muat nak masuk. And the alleys were infested (LOL) with a lot of cows. So memang at a point tu, maximum empat orang je boleh lalu the alleys at one time.

One of the alleys here.

There are a lot of alleys in Varanasi. At first, you could get lost while walking through the alleys to go to Ganges River but it was nice. You'll find a lot of houses, people, and shrine along the way.

After we have arrived in Monu and checked in, we booked with Monu for our night boat ride alongside the Ganges River. We first get our self freshen, have some rest and whatnots, kitorang pun decide to go embark our journey in Varanasi.

But first, MAKAN DULU.

Since Varanasi is called as Shiva City, so most of the community along the river is Hindu and vegetarians. Kitorang ni dah lah kuat melantak ayam, so sebab tak jumpa any non Veg halal food kat area sungai ni, we decided to eat some veg dish at Ganga Fuji Restaurant. We had some pakora (it's a lot like kuih Vadeh), roti, and omelette. I tried some chocolate lassi too which taste macam Dutch Lady Chocolate yang basi. Tak manis macam yang kat mamak in Malaysia langsung, and you kena minum laju laju like you must devour the lassi kalau tak nanti rasa macam urghhh cannot go.

So, after makan we took a stroll along the river, watching people taking bath, praying, doing meditation, sleep, performing some ritual, and kids playing kites. Banyak budak budak main layang-layang sampai I rasa macam dalam scene cerita The Kite Runner. Because why, there were a lot of kids yang berlari kejar layang-layang yang jatuh tu macam what Hassan did to Amir in the movie. So cute.

Personally, when I jalan-jalan dekat Ganges tu, I rasa sangat calm and relax despite all the hassle around. There were a lot of people will be offering you their boatride for a very cheap price but since we already booked with Monu, we have to decline. But they were not forcing at all. Just decline with a smile on your face and they'll leave you alone.

The magical Ganges and the ghats taken during our morning boatride

Bila I jalan along the river, I can see that the river gave life to the people, and vice versa. It's like the river won't be as magical as it is now if it's not for the people, and looking at them praying and showering at the river, it shows how much hope and faith and believe that they have in the river. It shows, how great we are as human, we all need something to believe in. Some faith to hold on to.

I taktahu macam mana nak relate, you have to be here to understand.

Waktu petang tu, there was this square that they were cleaning for the night's ritual. so time tu you kena jalan dengan hati hati lah kalau tak nanti kena simbah air pulak because we did saw a group of people kena simbah air because these people tengah cuci lantai. Also, banyak gilaaa lembu dekat dataran tu and banyak jugak orang jual toys. Holy men were everywhere. But, to take their pictures, you kena pay them some money or else they won't allow you to do so.

Some facts about the holy men, they were actually people who left everything duniawi (family, job, assets) to be a holy men. They are free from any worldly matters and are looked up by the people for their blessings, but are feared for their curses. So, don't make them mad okay.

One of the holy men resting along the river

Holy men are not monks. They are different. They are just people yang not attached to worldly matters je. They just live on their own without any attachment. They basically just live there in the river, and sometimes they will walk around in the valley and people will go meet them for and stop them to seek for their blessings.

Okay, I guess that's all for now. The post has been too long. Nanti I sambung lagi pasal Varanasi in the next post. Tak cukup satu post kalau nak cerita pasal Varanasi ni. Sebab best sangat.

Till then. See ya!

Namashkar India (Part 2 - Kolkata, Here We Come!)

noreply@blogger.com (Mireya) — Sun, 11 Dec 2016 11:58:00 +0000

Now, the journey started.

First, you have to know yang kitorang cuma ada 10 hari je okay untuk cover our India trip. Low self esteem gila bila kitorang mingle and sembang dengan other tourists/travelers especially those from Europe, their trip was for at least one month, and they would frown and be surprised gilaa bila kitorang bagitahu we only have 10 days.

Sorry, we are working ladies okay. Company release cuti kitorang 10 hari ni pon dah bersyukur. LOL

Okay, for our trip we will cover these places:

Kolkata, West Bengal
Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh (my fav!)
Agra, Uttar Pradesh
Jaisalmer, Rajasthan
Jodhpur, Rajasthan
New Delhi, Delhi

Tapi honestly, as for Kolkata and Delhi, those are our tempat persinggahan je. And, kitorang takde lah aim nak cover those places in depth sebab kitorang tahu yang we don't have much time, so we only go the places yang PALING menarik hati kitorang je.

So kalau ikut map, we are covering the four states in the North of India, from East to West.

Perjalanan kami bermula pada Jumaat, 25 November 2016. Bertolak menaiki Air Asia ke Kolkata. Flight kitorang amek pukul 10.35pm and arriving Kolkata at 12.30am waktu India.

Time zone India is two hours and thirty minutes later than us in Malaysia so kalau ikutkan kitorang sampai takde lah lambat sangat.

Well, actually kalau compare dengan orang lain, our timing ni memang berani mati lah kiranya. Sebab masing masing dah lah first timer, lepas tu berani ambil flight malam yang sampai midnight pulak tu kan, macam...wow kau apahal daring sangat? LOL

Tapi, alhamdulillah urusan kitorang dekat sini pun dipermudahkan. Honestly, I was told by my own colleague, Manoj, an expat from India yang kalau turun kat airport Kolkata tu, we have to be extra careful because there would be a lot of scammers and taxi drivers who would take your bags and force you to take their taxi..

BUT, WE DID NOT ENCOUNTER ANY OF THAT...at all.

Maybe because we arrived Kolkata pun already midnight and demand for taxis and auto pun tak banyak waktu tu. So, bila settle je urusan kat imigresen and tukar duit, so we took prepaid taxi to our airbnb which located at Spacetown housing complex, situated only 3km away from airport.

I would suggest you to take prepaid taxi whenever you see any counter that offer the service. Why? Because prepaid taxi is a lot cheaper and the price is fixed. So you boleh lah rasa safe sikit from kena tipu ke apa kan and the taxi is cool! Feeling old school gitu.

Our airbnb is soooo cozy and a little bit oldschool. Imagine the elevator is the one like we used to watch in old English movies which uses the grill and you can see outside the elevators move up? Ha, macam tu lah our elevator dekat airbnb tu.

Picture taken from google, for your reference

Everything about Kolkata excites us. The fog. Oh, the fog! At first we thought that it was because the air was polluted. Imagine, all the way from airport to our airbnb, the visibility is so low that all we see were all mist and fog! Turns out it was normal during winter, and the temperature at the time was around 16 degree Celcius.

So, our airbnb is only a room with attached bathroom and it was comfy enough for the both of us. Too comfy that we don't mind waking up late in the morning despite masing masing semangat terlajak nak explore Kolkata kononnya! Hahaha

The next morning, we woke up around 8 am and we are ready to prepare our own breakfast, since Farah (Lupa nak kenalkan, I went to India with this wonderful girl named Farah) brought some porridge with her and I brought mushroom soup and the airbnb comes with water heater, so why not lah kan? We must take the most important meal of the day because we have long awaited adventure ahead of us!

So, using the water heater, we took some tap water and heat the water. But, the result was disappointing. The water appeared cloudy. We thought it was the water heater, so we tried again for the second time. The result came out the same. Cloudy water. After three trials, we decided to contact the owner to ask for some hot water for our breakfast.

Jayant, our host, was such a kind lady so she gave us two mug of water, and some breads and jam for our breakfast. When we look at the mug, both of just couldn't help but laugh and brave our heart to just drink the water.

Why?

Even the water in the mug was CLOUDY! So, yeah, remember the vaccine I asked to take? This is the time it might get very useful.

But, alhamdulillah despite we were drinking cloudy water for our breakfast (nasib baik bubur nasi Farah and my mushroom soup did not turn out to be cloudy too LOL) we haven't experience any tummy ache or even diarrhea. Maybe our tummies are just made for India!

We checked out from the airbnb at around 9.30 and using OlaCabs apps, we managed to get transportation to go to our first destination, Howrah Railway Station.

A bit about OlaCabs, if you want to use the apps, you first need to have Indian number. A series of number will be send to your India phone number, then you can use the apps. That's why it's very important to have Indian number.

Also, if you don't want to use OlaCabs, you can use Uber too. Personally, Ola is a lot cheaper than Uber. Why don't I suggest you to use auto or cab? Because in the place where we were residing, cabs are hard to find, and also it's a little bit expensive. Autos were nowhere to be seen in here, in Kolkata.

So, we were waiting outside the Spacetown Complex for our Ola. Dalam apps tu mentioned that he's only 5 minutes away, but we were waiting for almost 15 minutes tapi tak sampai sampai jugak. Until somehow we saw in the maps that the car is exiting our complex.

Apa lagi, berlari lah kitorang mengejar kereta tu. I called the driver and when he picked up, I'm like

"STOP, STOP!"

He kept moving. Me and Farah were already out of breath, and remembering that we are now in Kolkata, where Hindi is the mother tongue for the Northern part, I screamed,

"Ruko! Ruko!"

*Ruko means stop in Hindi

And then, the car stopped and reverse after he noticed us chasing him. It was hilarious knowing that the first word we used in India is Ruko (stop) instead of Namaste. Lol

Turns out the driver did not know English at all. He did try to converse with us using Hindi and we can see from his look that he was frustrated that he can't converse with us. He was trying to explain about Kolkata to us knowing that we are tourist. It was amazing to see his effort but somehow midway he stopped explaining stuffs to us because he can see our confused face yang tak faham satu benda pun. Kesian dia.

Actually, he was the second driver that we called. The first driver has arrived but he got lost finding our location. He too, did not know how to speak English and we did asked for assistance from the local who lived there to try giving directions to our Ola driver but the driver was too confused that we have to cancel the ride.

It was quite surprising that not all local knows how to speak English despite Kolkata is considered as a big city.

Our excited face to start our first journey!

So, the driver took us to Howrah Railway Station (HWH). The biggest and oldest railway station in all of India. It was so big that it has 23 platforms operating and even cars can go inside the platforms to send passengers. To go to HWH, we have to pass through Howrah Bridge, one of India architecture pride that was built in 1935 and opened to public in 1943. The bridge still look new despite its old age.

Howrah Bridge at dusk as seen from HWH

Sorry, gambar tak cantik. We were not allowed to take pictures or even take a camera with us when we were on the bridge. And to find a good angle to take a picture of the majestic bridge was almost impossible unless you took a boat cruising the river beneath.

The majestic Howrah Railway Station (HWH)

In HWH, we looked for the cloak room to put our heavy bags. Good things about all the railway stations in India, they have cloak room where you can put your bags up to 7 days for a very cheap price. It's usually Rs 15 per bag per day. So, for us, it was Rs 30 which means only RM 1.80 per day. Anyway, for you to use the cloak room, you must have a train ticket. If you fail to establish your train tickets, your bags are disqualified to be stored in the cloak room.

Farah as seen queuing for our bags to be stored in the cloak room

We arrived HWH at around 11 am. And for your info, all the way from our airbnb to HWH is around 10-15 minutes, and what we noticed was, here in India, life started late. Meaning to say, it was almost 11 am, but there were a lot of shops that are still closed. And there are a lot of people who are still getting ready to work, and still taking shower in the roadside. Yes, kat sini orang mandi kat tepi jalan je. Masing masing beratur with their clothes, takin turn to wash their clothes and showering.

But the traffic, oh the traffic in Kolkata is the worst! (in a good way) I thought Delhi would be worse, but no, nothing beats Kolkata. There were a lot of cars, motors, cabs and people crossing the roads. The noise...please la sesiapa yang tak tahan bising, and jenis senang sakit telinga, get ready lah okay. People honk a lot here. It was a courtesy to honk in here.

Also in Kolkata, like I said before, there were no autos but there a lot of yellow cabs here. Feels like New York!

Yellow cabs everywhere!

In Kolkata, we basically take our time to walk through the city. We managed to go to Malik Ghat flower market, New Market Kolkata, and take a relaxing stroll on the Howrah Bridge.

When we walk along the street of Kolkata, what we managed to see is the survival of people here. One of the thing that I saw that really touched my heart and made me grateful with the life I had was when I saw a family of five, four of them children aged from 3-6 years old with their grandmother (I assumed due to her old age). They were sitting at the road side with a packet of biscuits and the grandmother is segregating the biscuits to the kids. Each kids get almost the same amount. And the biscuits were not in its original forms anymore, there were broken to pieces to give it an illusion that they have a lot of biscuits.

Maka, nikmat Tuhan yang mana yang kamu dustakan?

Also, there were people living in a tent by the road side. They put up a tent using a piece of clothes and pipe/wooden stick. In the morning you can see some women cooking using pot and stones. Like what we used for camping. Life is hard in a big city like Kolkata, but people here are surviving with what they have. We do not encounter any beggar coming to our cabs while we were here...at all.

In Kolkata, we ate our lunch in this wonderful restaurant named New Aliah Hotel. It was a muslim restaurant serving beriyani and we ate our first biryani here. The restaurant is situated near Lal Bazar. We took prepaid taxi from HWH to the restaurant.

Along the way, in the taxi you can see that the buildings in Kolkata are all designed with the influence of British. It has this sense of style and elegance. One of the building that I noticed was the old Hong Kong House that house HSBC bank. The building was originally for the bankers from China called Shangkers and Honkers (Shanghai and Hong Kong Banks). The banks has resided there during its first opening in 1867. More than 100 years old and still standing strong. Amazing!

The Hong Kong House as previously mentioned.

So after lunch, we went to New Market for some shopping. I did shop for few bangles here. But not the famous Indian bangles. I shopped for bangles like the one in Bajirao Mastani. Hahah. It's so cheap here and you can find a lot of kurtis for prices that are as cheap as Rs 200 or RM 14!

Kolkata New Market

We went inside one of the complex in the New Market in search for ready to wear lahengas because we want to blend in like local lah kononnya. But to our high taste and insufficient money in hand, we only managed to look around je lah. LOL

But before that, we tapau food first for our next journey to Varanasi. The train is going to take a 13 hours long journey and we need food for our dinner and we want meat! So we take away kebabs from one of the muslim restaurant inside the complex. Don't worry, there are a lot of muslim in Kolkata and it's not hard at all to find any delicious and decent muslim restaurant in here.

Our train to Varanasi is scheduled at 2000hrs so we managed to get back to the station at around 6 pm and after identifying which platform the train is going to arrive, we decided to hang out in the waiting room.

Funny thing about HWH is, our ticket status was both confirmed, but Farah's was CNF and mine was RAC. Meaning, I have to share with another person. So, we would like to ask the counter if we could share together, and if we are going to be in the same coach. We went to the Enquiry counter and there's this lady attending us. But, the lady was sooooo lazy that when we showed her our ticket, instead of taking our ticket, she used a stick (bukan stick pun, more to ranting kayu) and showed us the number that she has written earlier and explain to us in Hindi, and was not bothered with the fact that we are not an Indian.

Haha we are supposed to be mad at the situation but I think it was funny and we were still to ecstatic with the fact that we are in India that we decided that would be a good story to tell later, which it was!

So, I guess that's that for Kolkata. In the next post, I'll tell you about a mystical land, the Shiva city, called Varanasi, where magic happened.

See you!

Namashkar India (Part 1 - Preparation)

noreply@blogger.com (Mireya) — Fri, 09 Dec 2016 14:51:00 +0000

Okay, so now I would like to share with everyone my latest travel experience. Well, honestly, I rarely write (almost never) about my travel journey because...MALAS.

But, this one, it's an exception. I feel like, I really need to share my experience because it was truly an eye opening journey that I think everyone should experience at least once in their lifetime.

As the title suggest, yes, I have traveled to a land far, far, away. To one of the most underrated but beautiful country called...INDIA. The land of colors, that are so very RICH with culture and amazing people.

Before I start writing about my journey, here's what you need to know about what to prepare for India:

1. Visa

Yes, you have to first apply for visa. Honestly, visa for India is so easy to apply, not much hassle at all (kahkah sembang macam pernah buat visa nak pergi negara lain). You will have two options if you want to apply for visa:

E-TV (E-Tourist Visa)
Manual Visa Application

My friend and I, we opt for ETV because we both are so busy with work *cough*sembang*cough* and we both don't have much leave to sacrifice anyways, so ETV is the easiest one.

How to apply for ETV? You can go to this link (click!) and follow the instructions. Anyways, ETV only applies to certain airport and only offers limited time of travelling. Please check carefully which airport you are going to land and make sure that it was listed in the ETV website, or else you will have to do it manually.

Also, if you are planning to travel India for more than 30 days, then ETV does not apply to you. ETV is valid only for 30 days the moment you step foot in Indian airport. It's also cannot be extended, so you will have to re-apply if you want to extend your stay there. So if you are planning to travel for more than 30 days, I'd suggest for you to go for the manual one, which means you will have to go to the assigned office. You can check that in the Indian Embassy website for Malaysian. But some of the offices are in JB, KL, KK, and Kuching. Go to the website to get their full addresses.

Regarding ETV, I would suggest you to only apply after you have bought your flight tickets, and don't apply too early. Tak payah la semangat sangat okay nak apply setahun awal ke, tiga bulan awal pun jangan. Kalau tak nanti you all menangis. Haha. Why? Because ETV only valid for one month before your journey. Faham tak? Okay I bagi contoh:

My flight is on 25th November 2016. I applied for the visa on 3rd November and got it approved by 4th November (you will receive an email). In the email, it was mentioned, for that particular visa, you can enter India (travel date) starting from 4th November to 4th December. Meaning, your flight to India should be around that time, and your visa would only valid for a month after you have arrived India.

So it means, I arrived India on 25th Nov (still within the travel date given) and my visa would only be valid up to 25th December. Understood? Kalau tak faham, tinggal komen or drop me an email okay.

Extra info on how to fill in the form, as for Malaysian, especially Muslim kan, you only need to write your name in the column Given Name. So, if your name is Ali Ahmad bin Abu Bakar, put everything into that column and left family name blank. Also, you will need an address and reference number (phone) of anyone who lives in India for the visa application. Like us, we only put one of the hotel's number and address in the application. So that's that.

The price for ETV is USD 49 (after service charge) and when converted to MYR, it was around (RM202), you can pay using your credit card so no worry, chicken curry.

After your ETV has been granted, you need to go to the aforementioned website and print your approved visa. Then upon your arrival to the airport, you will have to present it to the immigration officer and answer few questions regarding your identity and places you want to visit.

If you do the visa manually, the biometric system will be done in the office (Malaysia) but for ETV users, the biometric will be done in the airport and it does not take long anyways, around 5 minutes dah settle. So no worries okay.

Done for visa part. I think I've settled for it. Kalau ada problem, leave it in the comment or email me okay?

2. Plan Your Journey

So, now you plan your journey carefully. How many days you have, where to go, where to stay. Also, I would like to give an advice, please include around 2 days for buffer days, especially if you are taking trains because train could delay up to 10-12 hours so you may have to sacrifice a day or two,or worse, God forbids, miss your flight. So, buffer days is important. Example for buffer days, like us, we planned for 10 days journey, the first 7 days were a bit tight with us travelling to each places as planned, but the last 3 days we plan for relaxing activities and turned out it was one of the best decision ever because....I'll save it for later. Heheh.

Senang cakap, jangan pack sangat schedule korang tu. Tak payah tamak okay, enjoy je India nanti. Absorb everything that you can. Enjoy the moment. Go to the places that you really wanna go, others considered as bonus je and don't be too uptight. India is too beautiful for you to be too uptight. Don't be boring okay, India is FUN!

Also, I'd advise for you to travel with smallest group as you can. Travel in pair like we did would be highly recommended because it would be easier for you to take auto, trains, and other forms of transportation. But that's purely from my experience lah.

3. Train Tickets!

Okay, unless you are planning to only spend your days in a city, you don't have to bother about train tickets. Unlike us, we have planned for six places to visit, so we need to be careful with our planning and we need to opt for the cheapest and most reliable choice of transportation, and the most famous in India, which is...the TRAINS!

As for train tickets, I would suggest you to actually buy this early. Earlier than your visa applications. But not too early because trains are prone to cancellation too. Like us, we bought the tickets one month earlier so it gave us ample time to wait if our names got into the waiting list.

How to buy train tickets?

First, you have to register yourself in the IRCTC website given. Okay, I can't give you much details regarding this because my friend did it and I basically bayar je. Haha okay, anyhow here's what I know about the train tickets, once you register to IRCTC, you will need to email them because you can't receive the number given to your mobile because not valid (the phone numbers are only for Indian number) and they will reply to you at least one week after your email. So, be patient while waiting, or just spam them until you managed to register yourself in the IRCTC website.

As for IRCTC register, do this early. if you want to travel in March, by December make sure you already have the IRCTC account. Just to be safe okay.

After you already have the account, now you can log in and check the train schedule for your convenience.

I would suggest for you to travel using Second Class (Upper) AC 2 Tier. Especially if you want comfort and privacy. Some of the people I know prefer Sleeper class which is waayyyy cheaper than our choice. Anyhow, Sleeper class is the seating arrangement, meaning you have to share with others and most people (especially local) prefer to travel in the Sleeper class. Sleeper class also are the ones that you mainly saw in movies.

As for AC two tier, compared to 3 tier, two tier comes with more privacy as in they have curtains. I'm not sure if it was only our train, but we once took the 3 tier when travelling from Jodhpur to Jaisalmer and the coach did not come with curtains, so it was quite scary when you were the only girls and you're surrounded by men in the coach. I'll elaborate this in the next post.

The toilet in the train (for our coach) I can confirm was not as bad as what was told but other travelers that I've met. It was okay, if not the cleanest that I've seen in my life. You can poop and pee comfortably. (Or maybe, it's just me that I have high tolerance...I don't know). Also, in 2 tier coach, you have electric socket so you can charge your electrical devices, so yeay!

The 2 tier coach comes with bedsheet, blanket, and pillow. So, you can sleep comfortably. The bed is not bed either because it was leather and it was not as hard but don't expect it to be so fluffy like your mattress back at home lah. That would be too much okay.

As for the price, for 6 trains, we have spend around RM 450 per person (this does not include emergency tickets that we bought later during our trip) so the train price is around RM 70 per trip. It was really worth it considering the train journey took time around 9 to 12 hours per trip.

But you can opt for buses too, if you like. Their buses offered sleeper seat (you will have your own bed) and it is waaayyyy cheaper. For 5 hours journey, you only need to pay Rs. 200 or RM 14.

As for emergency tickets, say you missed your train, or you suddenly have change of plans, you can buy Tatkal tickets. Tatkal is more expensive and only available after 10 am, a day before your travel date. And tatkal quota is very limited. So you have to be very fast when buying the tickets.

Another tips, if you wanted to buy the tickets for the train, I'd very much suggest for you to buy for the side berths especially if you are travelling in a small group or a pair like my friend and I. High chances that you both will get to be on the same side berths so nanti takpayah lah gelut kalau terpisah ke apa ke kan.

As for food, you don't have to worry, because there are a lot of chaiwalla selling chais (it was hot chai and delicious), mineral water (Bisleri mostly - one of the best and most recommended mineral water in India aside from Aquafina but Rail Neer pun okay. Basically we bantai je minum all claimed mineral water kat India tu sebab confident lol taktau lah confident ke, berani ke, bodoh hahaha), and food (buy vegetarian food if you are muslim and worry about the halal status. The food is delicious and the papadom tak masuk angin pun okay!) so you won't be hungry in the train.

So, that's that I think for the train parts.

4. Get Vaccinated

Go get your shots. Please don't think that you are invisible. Get your shots at any clinic. Just tell at the counter that you want to get vaccinated for India.

Why you need to get vaccinated is because India is still struggling with clean water, so if you are travelling to the rural area where clean water is scarce, you really need to get shots. The vaccines for India are typhoid and Hep A (if I'm not mistaken), both are waterborne disease.

But I only get my typhoid that cost RM100 in a private clinic.

5. Hygiene - Bring A LOT of Tissues (Dry and Wet)

As for tissues, I won't recommend bringing tissue rolls with you. I'd suggest for you to bring travel tissue.

Sample of Travel Tissue that I brought with me during my travel

This would be helpful for you to use in the toilet (along with your wet tissues) and when eating in the restaurant. Not all restaurant provide tissues and you'll need it to wipe your water bottle especially if you ordered soda in their restaurants.

Don't forget about hand sanitizer! Always bring it with you, anywhere and everywhere you go. Also, bawak lah segala ubat yang you rasa necessary. I did bring with me all the charcoals, panadols, ubat sakit perut, chi kit teck aun, but alhamdulillah, I don't need any of those pon while I was in India. But, bawak je lah as precautions kan.

6. SIM Card

Okay, once you arrived to Indian airport, the first thing you have to do is to buy a SIM card for your phone. I'd suggest you to use Airtel. India internet plan is so freaking cheap and despite it only offers maximum 695MB of data for 9 days, tapi percaya lah, tak habis guna pon okay. Malu je Malaysia because our internet plan sucks big time lol.

Why I suggest you to buy the SIM kad dekat airport is because, kalau you beli dekat kedai tepi jalan, most of them taknak jual. I pon tak tahu kenapa susah sangat these people nak jual SIM kad to tourist, or better kalau you ada expat from India working in your office, pinjam lah their SIM like I did. Thanks Manoj!

7. Money Exchange

My trip to India can be considered as bad timing lah kot because India was doing major demonetization during our trip. So, cash is very hard to get. The new Rs 2000 notes pulak tak disukai oleh local because too big. So, what you can do is, you boleh tukar duit dekat Malaysia (which only KLIA and KLIA2 je yang ada as for the time this blog is written lah) or, you boleh je tukar dekat Indian airport but the rate is so expensive even USD pon takboleh dapat banyak after exchange.

So, plan your money wisely okay. Asingkan duit shopping and duit accommodations siap siap especially for girls. Nanti nampak saree murah terus rambang mata macam I! LOL

Okay, I guess these are what you need for India as for preparations. I'll update the post if I missed anything. See you in the next post! The journey started!

Namashkar India (Part 2: Kolkata Here We Come!)
Namashkar India (Part 3: Mystical Varanasi)
Namashkar India (Part 4: Magical Varanasi)
Namashkar India (Part 5: Agra, The City of Love)
Namashkar India (Part 6: A Night Under The Sky, Jaisalmer)
Namashkar India (Part 7: A Night Under The Stars, Jaisalmer)
Namashkar India (Part 8: Starry Starry Night)
Namashkar India (Part 9: Majestic Fort)
Namashkar India (Part 10: Delhi, You Crazy!)

Goodbye, My Almost Lover

noreply@blogger.com (Mireya) — Thu, 01 Sep 2016 04:57:00 +0000

Your fingertips across my skin
The palm trees swaying in the wind
Images

You sang me Spanish lullabies
The sweetest sadness in your eyes
Clever trick

I never want to see you unhappy
I thought you'd want the same for me

Goodbye, my almost lover
Goodbye, my hopeless dream
I'm trying not to think about you
Can't you just let me be?
So long, my luckless romance
My back is turned on you
I should've known you'd bring me heartache
Almost lovers always do

We walked along a crowded street
You took my hand and danced with me
Images

And when you left you kissed my lips
You told me you'd never ever forget these images, no

I never want to see you unhappy
I thought you'd want the same for me

Goodbye, my almost lover
Goodbye, my hopeless dream
I'm trying not to think about you
Can't you just let me be?
So long, my luckless romance
My back is turned on you
I should've known you'd bring me heartache
Almost lovers always do

I cannot go to the ocean
I cannot drive the streets at night
I cannot wake up in the morning
Without you on my mind
So now you're gone and I'm haunted
And I bet you are just fine
Did I make it that easy
To walk right in and out of my life?

Goodbye, my almost lover
Goodbye, my hopeless dream
I'm trying not to think about you
Can't you just let me be?
So long, my luckless romance
My back is turned on you
I should've known you'd bring me heartache
Almost lovers always do

I may regret doing what I am doing right now. But I think this is the best and only way for me to cop with these heartbreak. I am done being an option. I want to be someone's priority. I want to be with someone who value my worth and not only see me as an alternative when they're lonely. I don't want to be used anymore. I am not a toy. I have feelings and I have to start to take care of my heart. I want someone who love me with all their heart and would fight to be with me. Because I'd do all that.

I'm sorry. I don't know if things are gonna be like they used to. I hope you understand. Please gimme some time to mend my heartbreak. Just a simple message from you could do me so much harm, and I need to overcome that.

I am not that strong. I am weak. You are one of my greatest weakness and you are toxic to me.

When I'm done healing, maybe we can be like the good old times. I don't know. We'll see.

Quarter Life Crisis

noreply@blogger.com (Mireya) — Mon, 29 Aug 2016 14:55:00 +0000

Recently I've heard about the quarter life crisis, which is a term I've never heard, or even know existed before but since someone has use it so it's legit, I guess?

Well, back to the problem. My quarter life crisis is none other than...MARRIAGE. At this age, people would want to know about when will I get married? Have I met the one? Who I'm dating right now? That sort of questions.

Even my mom. Everytime she calls me, she would end her conversation with,

"So macam mana? Dah ada boyfriend belum?...oh belum ke? Takpe lah, sabar je, yang terbaik akan datang"

At first I don't feel a thing. I'm not mad if people ask me about marriage because for me it's just a question, people are just being curious. But when your mom started asking you THE question, it's kinda get to you, you know.

Honestly, I feel bad for my mom. I know she really wants to see me get married. She just couldn't wait to celebrate my wedding, to finally give me to someone she believes could take care of me when she and my dad couldn't anymore. I feel bad that I can't give that to her yet. I love her, with all my heart, but this is something that I couldn't give to her. Not yet. If I could, I surely would. But it's not something within my control.

Also, somehow I think I'm quite traumatized when it comes to marriage. It sounds scary since there are a few crumbled marriages happened to the people I know, to the people who are very dear to me, to those who I happened to know personally. It somehow scarred me.

I knew someone who caught his husband cheating on another woman while she was pregnant and later learned the fact that her husband has been cheating all the way throughout their 6 years of marriage with different women. I know a friend who got divorced after two months of marriage. Another dear friend of mine who cancelled her wedding two months before the event because she finally realized that she's gonna marry a jerk. A closed family friend who realized she was married to a meth addict after 8 years and two kids together. Also, a friend, a closed friend, someone who I love so dearly, heartbreakingly cheated on his fianceé despite the fact that they are getting married in two months time from now, and his fianceé knew nothing about it.

These, the stories of failed relationships and marriage. It scares me. It made me think if I were to get married, but it didn't add on to my happiness, only to my sorrow...then what's the point of it then?

I dont want to get married just because my friends are getting married. I don't want to be married just because I've been in the relationship for too long. I'm afraid that I would fall in love with the wrong people because somehow I feel like I'm prone to do so.

I'm not saying the failed relationships and marriages are anyone's fault. No one wants to be in that kind of situations, but I'm just afraid.

I'd rather wait for the right person at the right time than meeting the right person at the wrong time, or meeting the wrong person at the right time, or worst, wrong person, wrong timing.

I hope, I wish, and I pray that I'll meet the right person soon, and may luck to be on my side, that the right timing would be soon too, I pray.

As for now, I think I'm doing okay. I think I'll do just fine. Single life ain't that bad. It gets lonely at times, but most of the time, I'm doing okay.

Jomblo happy!

Gegurls Krabi Trip 2015 (part 1)

noreply@blogger.com (Mireya) — Sat, 18 Jun 2016 16:07:00 +0000

Okay, I know this is waaayyyy too late to tell about my first ever backpacking trip but what the hell, right?

(By the way, I know some of you are rolling your eyes like...durh typical gila first backpacking trip pergi Krabi - hey, keep your negativity to yourself okay?)

So, how it started?

Actually, I have never traveled to a strange land before. The farthest I've been to is Singapore, tu pun pergi dengan family and for few days je. And I have never had the itch to travel like some people because I HAVE NO MONEY! LOL

Until one day, I'm so gatal tangan and I opened flight apps and comparing between Malindo and Air Asia prices to Krabi.

Why Krabi?

Well, because it's the closest and the most convenient place to travel ever. Plus people kept saying Krabi is so beautiful so I wanna see it for myself.

So I checked the price, RM129 for return tix! OMGGGGG!

But, problem - I don't have friends to go with me to this trip! So I started asking around. I was in a one year training program that my company sent me, so I basically opt for travel with friends from the same training sebab senang nak mintak cuti but unfortunately, I didn't manage to sell the idea of travelling to Krabi to them in time.

Oh, by the way, original plan was to celebrate new year 2015 in Krabi because we are all hedonist liddat.

Because by the time they agreed, the price has hiked so much that it made no sense to spend so much money for a few days in a strange land.

So I CRIED. Kidding.

By the way, just to inform you, we still managed to plan our New Year trip but that's another story to tell. Hihi.

During CNY, I noticed that I have one week of holidays that would not be utilized if I don't go anywhere! Don't get me wrong, working somewhere 2000 miles away from family is hard, but I prefer to do something instead of melepak kat rumah macam whale yang terdampar kat pantai.

Then I got an idea, KRABI! Haha tak habis habis dengan Krabi kan.

So I popped the question to my high school girlfriends since they have been complaining since forever that we haven't got the chance to meet and travel together padahal asyik plan macam macam dari dulu lagi.

So, one month before we went to Krabi, we made plans. We checked flight tix, the price has hiked and we dont have money to spend.

2nd choice, let's travel by train!

SOLD OUT.

Last choice, we opt to go by bus. After we managed to get an unanimous agreement, tix bought and yeah we are ready to travel!

The price for return tix from KL to Hatyai by bus is only RM84. YEAY!

Ada Apa Dengan Closure

noreply@blogger.com (Mireya) — Sat, 11 Jun 2016 14:06:00 +0000

I watched Ada Apa Dengan Cinta 2 (AADC2).

Honestly, I just finished watching Ada Apa Dengan Cinta (AADC) two weeks before the second movie was released.

Well, AADC2 is said to be about closure. We want to know what happened to the love story between Rangga and Cinta. Are they together? Are they married? Have little kids together? Or reality hits them hard that their love story is not rainbows and ponies as we've hoped for?

And yes, AADC2 is about closure. Closure for the fans, for those 12 year old kids who watched it when it was first aired in the cinema, to those 16 year old high school sweethearts back in 2002 who thought they could conquer the world together.

AADC2 sure brought back so many memories, puppy loves, first love, flings, and crushes.

Well, as for me, I'm not into closure. I don't see why people need closure. I am comfortable leaving and people walked away from me without closure. I don't need to know why, I just need to know if you're leaving for good, or if I am leaving for good.

We could be friends for 10 years and I'd be okay with the fact that you suddenly go silent for 2 years without explanation and resurfaced just to tell me that you got married in 5 stars hotel without inviting me and currently living in a 3-story bungalows with 3 beautiful kids.

Or we could be in a relationship for 3 years when you suddenly decided that we should stop seeing each other and left me heartbroken and never returned. Just tell me that you're leaving, and I'd be okay.

Or if you suddenly decided to tell me that you love me and you want me after we have been in a platonic friendship for 5 years, and I'd be okay if the next day you decided that you no longer have feelings for me. And if we meet in the elevator the following day, I could still smile to you the way I'd smile to a stranger, only sweeter. Or we may still talk like nothing have happened.

Or I could be friends with you, taking you to a walk every evening because I know that's what you need when you are feeling heartbroken and I'd be okay to leave you when I knew you have recovered.

I could be your friend when you are in dire need, and I am okay if you leave me when you no longer need me.

I am a doormat. I let myself be a doormat. Leave me, and I'd be okay. I don't need reasons. I just need your assurance. Are you leaving for good? Or will you come back?

You could get married and not invite me even we've been friends since we were 10 years old but if you decide to come back as a friend, I just need to know are you going to stay or you only need me when you need my council?

You could leave me heartbroken after three years of wonderful relationship without saying why, without telling me if it's because you have another woman waiting for you, or you finally found out that I am too boring for you, or you think I'm no longer pretty. I just need to know are you leaving for good? Is our relationship has finally come to an end? Can I move on now, can I be with someone else, am I no longer under your shadows and can I safely remove you from my heart?

You could tell me that you no longer have feelings for me even after you just told me that you are in love with me the night before, that you've been developing feelings for me in the 5 years we've been friends and decided that the feelings have faded overnight. And I'm okay if you still want to remain friends. I just need to know is the feelings truly dead? Are we just friends now? Can we go back to being platonic? Can I be with someone else without you sabotaging my future relationship with your sudden confession?

I could walk away from your life the moment I think I'm no longer relevant without asking for your permission, without discussing the matter with you. Without asking if it's okay if I leave when I see you recovering.

I don't want to know why you're leaving. I don't have to listen to you telling me that all you know is you woke up in the morning and decided that I am no longer special you.

I don't need your explanation because all I know is YOU ARE LEAVING. YOU LEFT.

But I need to know if you're leaving for good. Or if you come back, I need to know if you're staying. Even if you're unsure, just tell me so I know you could be gone anytime soon, so I know that I'm dealing with a ticking time bomb.

I need assurance. Explanation only leads to attachment. I don't want to get attached. That's why I'm okay with people leaving, because I'm not attached to them.

Even if we've been in relationship, it doesn't really mean that I'm attached to you. We could be super platonic friends, but doesn't me that I'm hooked.

But there are few people in my life that got in the exclusive list. People that I knew I could depend on them. I want to be attached to them. My support system.

Because these people, I knew they would stay. And if they suddenly decide to leave, they would let me know why, they'd provide closure.

And for that, I thanked them.

But to you, to the others, I need you to know that I'm okay. Don't spare my feelings. Don't look at me with pity.

Just give me my goodbyes. They are my closure.
I need them so I can move on with my life.

Well, it seems contradicting now. I need my closure.

But not the elaborated one. Yes.

*I'm sorry the post seem pointless, but I need to rant. Recently I was feeling emotional out of the blue and I need to vent and this is my ranting.

"If you love someone, you should let them know..."

noreply@blogger.com (Mireya) — Sat, 11 Jun 2016 13:07:00 +0000

Everglow by Coldplay.

Currently on repeat.

Lagu patah hati. Koyak.

Confession of A Bimbo : Extra Money

noreply@blogger.com (Mireya) — Wed, 30 Mar 2016 13:10:00 +0000

One day, I was at the airport waiting for my flight to Kuala Terengganu. I was feeling very, very, very sad. I felt like crying and I was literally on the verge of tears.

Don't ask me why because I honestly don't know. It was 'that' time of the month, again.

But, I do remember one of the reasons of me feeling sad. It was because of this guy that I knew during my training period in Kuala Terengganu. This guy that has taught me that nice guys still exist and they are just as good looking and as charming as the bad boys, a guy that has showed me that there are still Malay (sorry, racist) guys who aren't a jerk.

I was head over heels with him. But I knew we couldn't get anywhere because he was like a prince who has lived in a castle all his life and I'm like the pauper who could only dream of how a castle look like.

And that made me sad.

So, sebagai perempuan normal yang hanya boleh menghilangkan rasa sedih di hatinya dengan bershopping, I did the same thing.

I went to the ATM and checked the balance in my account. I was surprised with the amount of money I had left in my account! I've got extra money!

Yeay!

So, feeling contented, I went to the cosmetic counter and bought myself a new lipstick and an eyeliner which cost me almost a couple hundreds.

But, I don't mind it at all, I was happy and smiling...until my flight departed to its destination.

That was the time when I just realized why there were so much money left in the bank. It was because...

I HAVEN'T PAID MY CAR LOAN FOR THE MONTH, YET!

So that month, despite being broke, I managed to look dashing thanks to the new lipstick and eyeliner.

Thank God for makeups!

2015 - A Summary, 2016 - A beginning.

noreply@blogger.com (Mireya) — Sun, 17 Jan 2016 15:55:00 +0000

My 2015 was colorful.

I started my year with a roadtrip from KL to Johor with my friends. We watched the magical show of fireworks in the USS and go around Singapore by foot the next day.

In February, I went to Krabi with my girlfriends from high school. We opt to travel by land, instead of by air. We were on the bus for eight hours from Pudu to Hatyaai. In Hatyaai, we were enjoying the street food so much we're practically munching every hours. Another 8 hours in a van, and we arrived in Krabi. We had fun playing under the sun. Snorkelling, playing at the beach, shopping at the night market, eating our pancakes and padthai. It was good times.

In March, I traveled again, this time to Indochina. I went with the same people that I have my roadtrip with to Singapore. We covered Bangkok, we went to the Red Light district area just for the heck of it, we got on the thrill of riding the tuktuk with the five of us. We laughed when one of us have to buy ticket for next day's flight because his passport expired.

We then traveled to Siem Reap. 8 hours in a van has not affected us. Except that we were very hungry and we've got no money left. We laughed and shared whatever we had, and bought some snacks just enough until we get to Cambodia. In Siem Reap, our hunger vanished when we finally get our hands and mouths on Lembu Naik Bukit. The most delicious beef dish I've ever tasted. The next day we got to watch the majestic sunrise in Angkor Wat, so majestic that it felt surreal.

Then we were on the bus for 14 hours to Ho Chi Minh. We were shocked and amazed with how people crossed the road there. We shopped, we bought bags, clothes, and loving the food. Pho. The delicious pho. And we got to appreciate the history in Chu Chi Tunnels. Got to know on how Vietnamese won the war.

In April, we were back to Johor again, to appreciate the engineering marvel. Looking at how platforms were made. It's a road trip with the rest of the classmates.

In May, my best friend got married. To the love of her life. That was the first time I got to be a bridesmaid with the rest of my girls.

Another fun trip with my friends. This time, we went to Pulau Kapas. It was good times. I love it there, and we truly enjoyed our time. It felt like we were in a private island. You should try if you haven't, the food was delicious and affordable, the snorkeling trip was cheap, and the fish, the corals, are a feast to your eyes.

Anyhow, in May too, I learned how to deal with other people's loss. A classmate, who was very dear to me, lose his mother to cancer. It was a hard time, and we were all there to support him.

In June, I had another trip. This time, my friends and I, we went to Perhentian Islands. It was so majestic, so much like paradise, Krabi had nothing compared to Perhentian. You should try, if you haven't. I enjoyed my time just sitting at the beach, reading, and looking at the vast beautiful ocean in front of me. What a time well spent with friends.

(No filter okay)

In July, I went to Kudat. To the tip of Borneo, watching the sun set. That was the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen. All of us sat on the rocks, looking at the sun set while enjoying our break fast. Just a simple mineral water, bananas, and cookies. It was a bliss.

In August, I started my gym training. I wanted to lose weight and at the same time training for my first ever mountain hiking. I really don't understand why do I ever registered myself for the hike since I'm not a very adventurous person, but why not, right?

In September, I successfully hiked the second highest mountain in Malaysia, the majestic Mount Trusmadi on my birthday. I can't tell you how proud I was with myself for having successfully hike the mountain. It was a good experience. I never know hiking could be so much fun. You should try it, if you haven't, cause I'm now missing the thrill of a hiking.

Also, one of my good friend, Elie, was getting married in this month! And I got to be a bridesmaid once again. Always, the bridesmaid, never the bride, eh?

Now October is the month where I fell in love. I was in love when I first stepped my foot in Bali. Bali is love. Bali is everything. I am missing Bali as I'm typing this post. Bali made me want to live there. Bali made me forget all the worries I had. Bali made me felt like I'm loved. You should go there. If there's any place that I could go, I would always choose Bali. The beach, the volcanos, the people, the food...oh, how I miss Bali.

November is the month for the brides. I've attended yet another bachelorette party for my friend, who is going to get married in a week from now, and another wedding in KK. Well, while in KK, one do not spend time just sitting around, right? My friends and I, we went islands hopping. We covered Pulau Manukan and Mamutik. It was good times, but I do not spend time in water since I don't want to get tanned. I have to be pretty for my friend's wedding! Hah.

December is pretty much the month for family. I spent one week holiday just entertaining the relatives who came all the way from Kedah, and the rest of the days with my little family.

I am eager and at the same time anxious to know what 2016 has to offer. I do not expect much, but I hope everything would be smooth sailing though I expect there's gonna be turbulence on the way.

Just pray hard, shall we?

Anyhow, for 2016 I have few resolutions, which are:

Be a better muslimah. Always, always strive to be a good muslim.
Maintain the friendship I have now, and to expand my networking. This is important.
To lose 10 kg. I've lose 5 kg in 2015, why not another 10 kg right? And, to be as healthy and as fit as a fiddle. Not just lose weight, but to earn stamina
To work hard and smart. Times are tough now.
To fall in love, and to be loved back. One can always hope and pray to have love in their life, right?
Probably to tie some knots by the end of this year...who knows?

Well, after all, one can plan and He'd decide the outcomes.

I hope it's not too late to wish everybody a great year ahead, and may our 2016 would be as good, if not better!

.

Two Months

noreply@blogger.com (Mireya) — Fri, 23 Oct 2015 15:59:00 +0000

We're now approaching the end of 2015 and I am happy to announce that I have accomplished all of my resolutions for this year!

Yeayyyy! *claps claps*

Okay, too early to celebrate but I have doubt on the last resolution.

Which is to fall in love.

I have fall in love. With a place. A place where my heart long for. I finally found what I what and where I wanna be.

So, can I say that I truly have accomplished my resolutions? Or, should I fall in love with a person first?

Liking, or falling in love to a person at this age is so tiring. Especially when it only ends up being just another crush who'd crushed my heart into pieces. Sobs.

But, that's just another story to tell.

I still have time for the last resolution, or I don't? Do I?

Hm.

Tenggelamnya Kapal Van der Wijck : A Biased Review

noreply@blogger.com (Mireya) — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 16:13:00 +0000

Warning: LONG POST!

Remarks: The post is biased because I am partially (?) feminist

Today I'm gonna talk about this book. A close friend suggested to me to watch the movie, but since it's really hard for me to get a quality version of the movie anywhere around the internet, so I resort to the nearest bookshop and luckily, found the book instead. After reading the book and have quite a heated discussion with the aforementioned friend, I honestly believe that Hamka wrote this book specifically to male reader and somehow the book reminds me of the movie 500 Days of Summer too. Heh.

Why? Because, in my humble opinion as we can see, or in this case, as we can read, the main character is a guy named Zainuddin and the story mainly evolves around him and a little bit around the love of his life, Hayati. We'll discuss about this later.

Well, let me brief you the synopsis of the story in case you haven't watch, or read the book yet. The story is about an orphan who has lost both of his parents and is travelling to a strange land to get close to his roots and to learn some knowledge there. His dad was from there, and is an exile due to some history of the past (I can't remember but it is closely related to some adat/culture problem). And there, he met Hayati. The one girl who managed to steal his heart and has vowed to stay loyal and promised to wait for him all her life.

Unfortunately, Hayati can't keep her promise because she was 'forced' by her family to marry a son of a lord from another land. Zainuddin fell sick upon hearing the news and couldn't believe that Hayati could do this to him after all the promises she told him. From the start, Hayati and Zainuddin's relationship did not get permission and blessings from Hayati's family due to Zainuddin's status as traveler or 'anak dagang', and Hayati came from a wealthy and respected family therefore Zainuddin is seen as not in the same league as them. And they were religiously following the adat that do not allow the girl to marry just anyone like Zainuddin.

Brokenhearted, Zainuddin and his friend, Muluk traveled further to another land and has become successful from his writings that was inspired from his own tragic love story. Meanwhile, eventhough Hayati was married to a rich man, her happiness was not meant to last forever as the guy was a womanizer and a gambler. They had lost all their assets, and had to stay in Zainuddin's house (they met as the husband got transferred) thanks to Zainuddin's generosity. After a while, the husband committed suicide since he can't bare the shame and he wants to give Hayati back to Zainuddin as he felt guilty 'stealing' her from him.

Hayati was told by Muluk that Zainuddin has never stopped loving her and had confessed that she felt the same too. She asked Zainuddin to forgive her and would do anything for him. Instead of taking her back, Zainuddin asked her to go back to her family and would take care of all her expenses. Hayati boarded the ship Van der Wijck only not to be seen again as the ship wrecked in the middle of the ocean. Zainuddin managed to meet Hayati while she was on the deathbed, but after all it's all has been too late.

The end.

Well, that was the story. And here, I would like to write my review and some piece of my mind regarding this book and why I said this book is written mostly for men, not for women Most of the guys (even the one friend who suggested the movie to me) agreed that Hayati is to be blamed (except my friend is blaming the culture too). Well for me, if you really read the book, or watched the movie closely, both are not to be blame but Zainuddin. Here's why:

Zainuddin is a whiner. Always complaint and blamed other people for everything bad that happened to him. Like, come on, he wanted to marry Hayati, someone who is obliviously comes from higher class than him but what did he do? NOTHING. He only complaints and whines. He went there, to Minangkabau land to learn, but instead he's courting with Hayati. He went to Makasar to learn, but he keeps thinking about Hayati and forget about his learning. He did nothing to improve himself, or to prove that he is worth it. Even when Hayati came to visit Makasar he did not put any effort to look good at all and only uses his excuse as 'anak dagang', like come on, can you stop it with the excuses, please?! I believe Hamka wants men to be stronger than Zainuddin. Yes, you are allowed to be sad but do not whine and make it a great deal that you forget how to live and how to improve your life.

Aside from being a whiner, Zainuddin also have a lot of excuses (yeah I just mentioned in point no 1). He kept saying he is an orphan, but hey don't forget that Hayati is also an orphan. She grew up with her aunts and uncles. Only that she's luckier because her family is rich but Hayati still came out strong and rational. She's not spoiled at all, unlike Zainuddin! Always crying and meratap. Bosan! I don't care if you are an orphan, you are a man, you have to man up and take control of your life! What's the use of complaining and blaming fate? You are still strong and young, so make a use of it, will you?! I believe here Hamka wants men to learn to man up and learn to accept fate (pretty much the same as point number 1) and never make excuses despite any obstacles and challenges you are facing.

Zainuddin is not the bigger person. He is not generous and he is definitely not a victim here. So, stop looking at him as if he needs any sympathy from any of you. Zainuddin does not have the heart to forgive Hayati. While Hayati still forgives him despite being rejected on her face. Zainuddin was so furious to Hayati he refused to forgive her. Yes, he gave her home and accommodations when her husband is away, but he still can't forget the past. He is willing to send the love of his life back to Minangkabau land just to punish her. So, served him right in the first place. Here, I believe that Hamka wants men to put aside their ego and learn to forgive. If you truly love your woman, you wouldn't hold any grudge and you should willingly forgive her if she has proven her worth and sincerely apologized to you. You should allow yourself to be happy by forgiving others mistakes and moving on with your life. Ego made Zainuddin lost the love of his life, so you don't want this to happen to you, do you?

Zainuddin is said to be someone who is religious as he learned from the knowledgeable guys in those area but somehow that did not portray in his attitude. He kept dreaming of Hayati and got lazy. Yes, he did went to classes and all but he did not try to improve himself (see point no 1). He kept counting his money and wishing that Hayati would be happy to settle for less with him. No, if you love your woman, you would want to give the world to her, not hoping that she'd settle for less with you. I believe Hamka wants men to be realistic. Money matters. Your names and your position matters. Therefore, work hard to prove your worth. You can absolutely escalate your worth if you know how and money definitely can buy anything. If it can't buy the heart of the woman you love, it definitely can buy her family's. So think about it.

That's all I could think of. Really, men. If you watched or read the book, try not to blame Hayati so much. If you see it somehow, if only Zainuddin forgive Hayati, they would totally live happily everafter by then. So remember, you decide your own happiness. Be and opportunist and grab your second chance!

Also, somehow in this novel, Buya Hamka was sending a message that says;

"Kalau dah jodoh, takkan ke mana"

Well, I guess Hayati was never meant to be with Zainuddin after all.

Shit My Friends Say (4) #Amin #Khalis

noreply@blogger.com (Mireya) — Sun, 09 Aug 2015 00:58:00 +0000

This story is the one I've heard from them. Too bad I wasn't there to witness this hilarity of the situation.

So there's these two boys, Amin and Khalis. They were close friends during our training days. One day, we have arranged one trip, two cars and eight of us at the time. We went to Rantau Panjang just because it was weekend and none of us felt like going back to our hometown.

In Rantau Panjang, I was in the same car with Khalis and Amin and Che Jue. So most of the time we shop and walk together while the other car are Muse, Shafiq, Shafiq (yes, there are two Shafiqs!), and Adam.

The story began when both of Amin and Khalis bought Ray Ban shades at the street stalls in Rantau Panjang. The shades are in a very good condition (AAA Grade) and it is so cheap you could buy hundreds of them and still not cost you the same price as the originals.

Amin bought aviators and Khalis bought one of those hipster shades like Andy Warhol's.

After the trip, they were still wearing the shades and one day, Amin commented on the shades.

"This feels like originals you know"

"Really, why'd you said so?" Khalis asked.

"I've tried burning it few times. It didn't melt"

"Seriously? Lemme try!"

"Okay" Then Amin gave him lighter and his shades

Khalis took it and burn the shades.

"It burnt! It melted! Meh"

And Khalis returned the shades back to Amin.

"Hoi, nak tau ori ke tak orang bakar lens lah bukan bakar bingkai tepi tuuu!" Amin said to Khalis and shook his head.

"Oh yeke" Khalis smiled sheepishly.

Shit My Friends Say (3) #Muse

noreply@blogger.com (Mireya) — Sun, 05 Jul 2015 02:03:00 +0000

One day, my friends and I, including Muse were talking about wedding. It's because we just realized that there are a few of us are getting married in less than a year from now.

So as usual, the most important thing that came to mind when we talked about wedding is of course, the cost. Most of us are shocked to know that wedding can go up to fifty thousands ringgit for 1500 guests. It is really a burden for us, especially when we're just started working.

One of our friend, who is getting married just around the corner shared about his budget. The wedding didn't cost a fortune, but still there is still quite a lot of money invested.

When we asked him about what actually cost the most, my friend told us that it's actually the catering that consumed most of the cost.

Upon hearing all these talks about money, suddenly Muse said,

"I think I know, when I get married, I'd held my wedding ceremony in a restaurant."

"I've heard people do that before," I said.

"Well yeah. People have done it. But I would do it differently."

"How different?" Asked another of our friend.

"You know, when people attended weddings, they'll shake hands and give money to the bride/groom's mother or father?" Muse asked.

"Yes, go on." I said.

"So, instead of that handshakes, I'd just asked them to go to the counter and ask them to pay for their own meals. The money would be used for the same purpose anyways. So there you go, problem solved!"

We know he's joking, but if that ever to happen, that wedding would go viral due to angry hungry guests.

Hah.

Shit My Friends Say (2) #Damak

noreply@blogger.com (Mireya) — Thu, 25 Jun 2015 23:49:00 +0000

Now I'm gonna talk about my friend, Damak. Damak and I, we go way back. Not really that far, anyways. Hah. We've been friends since our university years and now we're working together in the same office.

Actually, there are a lot of shits Damak says but somehow, I can't find a way to publish our jokes because it was so inappropriate and not for public view. But there's one that I remember:

It was a lonely day at my house since there were only me, and my other housemate, Kohi in the house. We were bored and we were hungry. So I asked Damak and our friend, Hanif to join us for dinner.

Kohi rarely spend time with us. In fact, that was the first time Kohi has joined the three of us for dinner. So, since we've got new people in our crowd, Kohi has become the center of attention. Knowing Damak, I'd know some inappropriate jokes are coming.

But surprisingly, Damak has been very polite, properly funny, and has made Kohi laughed (as usual). And Kohi now thought of him as a truly genuine person.

On the way back, we have to send the boys back home first. So in the car, Damak asked Kohi a few words in Malay and Kohi has to translate it to Tamil.

"Kohi what is thani?"

" Thani means water"

"What if, thani gar-der-gar?"

"That means let's go get drunk" Kohi chuckled.

Damak suddenly smile sheepishly and asked,

"What is pandi?"

This word is actually another inside joke between us that Kohi knew about.

Kohi looked at Damak and answered,

"It means angel"

Damak thought for a while and said,

"That can't be! I knew you're lying"

"If you knew, why you asked?"

Kohi rolled her eyes and we knew by then that Damak can't stay being polite and proper for long.

*pandi in Tamil means pig/swine