21.08.07 - and the rainy day continues...

The first place we visited today is Pura Taman Ayun. On the way there, we passed this paddy field where I saw many scarecrows. I don't think I had ever seen scarecrows before and certainly not scarecrows that fill up every corner of the small patch of paddy field. The ones that I knew, there were only one or two, right? But this one, memang banyak giler. Jangan kata burung la, aku pun takut!

Anyway, Pura Taman Ayun is basically a temple in a park. There was nothing much there, so we just stopped for a while to snap some pictures and then just walked around the temple.

For lunch, we went up to Bedugul, another highland place. Brrr... it's cold! And it was raining some more. Forgot the name of place we ate but it was here that I first tried Fish Satay and it was quite nice. There were fish satay also yesterday at the restaurant in Kintamani but I did not dare try it. After lunch, we went for prayers. There are Muslims here so there's a mosque but we had to take quite a number of steps to reach there. It was raining and the steps were steep and I lost my footing. Sakit wo! Nasib baik sikit jer kena... On the way down, Kak Nina said she wanted to buy strawberries so the bus driver brought us to this one place near a lake, where we found a souvenir shop and was stuck there for at least 30 minutes. Bought strawberries and surprisingly, I really like it. I never ate strawberries before by the way.

Then, off we went to Alas Kedaton, the place where there are many monkeys. Just imagine Trafalgar Square, but for monkeys instead. It was here that Umar was 'attacked' by one of the monkeys because it knows that Umar had bought some nuts. Kelakar but scary la jugak. Bengang je Umar cos he was wearing white pants that time and the monkey dirtied his pants. Heheheh... Love seeing the baby monkeys cuddling with their mother. Cute!

Our next destination was Tanah Lot, supposedly to watch the sun sets, but since it had been raining all day, we lost that chance. What is there in Tanah Lot? Lots of shops, but the main attraction is the temple (Pura Luhur) on an island surrounded by water. Not really interested to see the temple but I really like this one place we went to take pictures. Really nice. On the way back, stopped by at some of the shops but I did not buy anything cos nothing caught my fancy. Oh yeah, another thing that I really couldn't forget is when we saw a bat out of one of the shops but Umar was oblivious to it, so he was like standing very near to it. And then, he suddenly reached for something on the rack behind the branch the bat was hanging from and he did not even realize that the bat was there. Memang giler ok, cos a little bit more, who knows what would happen?

Our dinner for the night was at Made's Warung in Kuta,the posher part of the island, where we sat in front of the display of cakes. Everything looks mouth-watering, and upon seeing them, Syara insisted on having a slice, so Kak Ya had to order the Black Forest one for her. It was like 'Indah Khabar dari Rupa'! Tak sedap langsung k. Thankfully we didn't order for ourselves. The dinner itself was not so very good due to the fact that we cannot eat chicken and were therefore left with nothing much except the fried rice (which we later realized had some chicken in there), the veggie (which we thought was kangkung at first but it was something else altogether) and the fish soup which thankfully was nice.

Went back to the hotel to pack for tomorrow's journey to Jogjakarta. And then, decided to lepak near the beach cos we didn't get a chance to enjoy the beach at all. Kak Syida ajak-ed Eddy along so there we were, talking and getting to know each other and it was only after 12.30 that we went back to our rooms.

Anyway, here's another tidbit about Bali:
- You know how Muslims have to bersunat and everything? Bali peeps did not have that kind of thing but instead they have to potong their gigi taring (as in, ratakan). If the person is old and still has the taring, they believe that bad things are still there in the body of that person. Girls have to do it when they reach puberty while the boys have to do it by the age of 19 kot. I'm not so sure...

to be continued...

20.08.07 - First Day in Bali...

Upon waking up at 6 and opening the sliding door, I was surprised to see that it was already cerah out there. Apparently, eventhough there is no time difference between Malaysia and Bali, Bali gets the sun earlier and the day is shorter so that by 6pm, it was already dark.


The first agenda of the day was to go to Batu Bulan to watch the Barong Dance performance. According to Pak Madi, when you come to Bali, it is a must for you to watch the dance performance or else your visit to the island is not complete. But, hmm... how should I say this? The performance was kinda freaky and creepy. It's all about cerita dewa dewi zaman purbakala, with some animals thrown in for good measure. I, frankly, did not like this kind of stories so that was why I found myself falling asleep faster than ever. Furthermore, the actors were all speaking in fast Indonesian speech (or is it another language altogether?) and it all sounded like gibberish to me. The only thing that I understood was the time when one of the character killed a character and he said, "He's dead!" Hahahaha...



After the performance, we went over to Pasar Tradisional Sukawati to start spending our money. At first, I thought of not buying anything but once I started buying, the money keeps on flowing out. Mostly I bought souvenirs for my officemates and these really comfy sleeveless tees yang lembut giler, which I'll wear to sleep. All the stuff are damn cheap! And here, I also see something that I had never seen anywhere else before. Whenever we give the money to the shopkeeper, he or she would... do like a renjis motion (for lack of the appropriate term) with money on whatever the shop is selling. There is also this one shopkeeper I saw that put money in between the t-shirts she sells. When asked why they did that, they said, "Pelaris."

For lunch, we went up to Kintamani to see Gunung Batur and Danau Batur. It was very cold! Ate at Restoran Grand Puncak Sari, which was not very nice, considering that we have to choose our food carefully and there just aren't many choices for Muslims. Spent some time taking pictures, pictures and more pictures... We were lucky that we came early because by 3.30pm, the whole place is foggy so we couldn't see anything. Anyway, Gunung Batur is the second tallest mountain in Bali. There was an explosion (hmmm... do we call it explosion?) of the volcano in 1927 and the last time was in 1994.

On the way down, we stopped over at this place where there is padi bertingkat, so basically it's photo snapping galore. The view was very nice and the padi bertingkat was very unique.

Then, it's off to Pasar Tradisional Ubud, where we stopped only for a short while since it's already late and the place is about to be closed for the day. I did not like this place at all because it's kinda smelly and dogs are everywhere. I did not buy anything here.

We boarded the bus again and off we went to Restoran Tepi Sawah, which of course is di tepi sawah. Prayed and had dinner there. They had actually prepared fried bebek (duck) for us but obviously we couldn't eat it because it's meat and it might not be halal. So we ordered something else and let Pak Han, Eddy and Pak Madi eat the bebek goreng. At first I thought of ordering Sweet Sour Shrimp but decided to change it to Chilli Prawn but when the dish came, it tasted more like Sweet & Sour. Hmmm... whatever. It's good anyway.

After dinner, it was back to the hotel, where I spent it melayan kerenah Syara in Kak Nina's room while Umar and Kak Syida went out to explore the place around the hotel. Around 10.30pm, I went back to the room that I shared with Kak Syida and promptly fell asleep. I must have been more tired than I thought I was that when Kak Syida came back around midnight and knocked on the door, I did not even hear that. She had to go to the front desk and ask for another card to access the room but unfortunately I bolted it shut so she wasn't able to come in anyway. Siap panggil security tu! Lawak, lawak... I myself did not know how I come to realize that there's someone knocking on the door... Sian my sister. Thankfully, Umar was with her. Kalau tak, mesti dia lagi gelabah baek punyer...

Some information about Bali...
- According to Pak Madi, the way to know the status of the women in Bali is by seeing how they tie their hair. Ikat 1, the woman is already married. Ikat 1 on the left, the woman already has someone but not married yet. Ikat 1 on the right, the woman is looking for a partner. Ikat 2, the woman is divorced and ikat 3, that person is half-woman, half-man.

- Pak Madi also told us that there is only one place in Bali that is as tall as 11 floors (they call it lantai, instead of tingkat). Over here, they are not allowed to build buildings or houses that is over three floors. If not, they believe that the house or building will be damaged or ruined quickly. Another reasoning is that they did not want the island to turn into something like Singapore with high-rise buildings everywhere.

p.s: I just love taking pictures that depicts something from other people's POV. Loved how my sister's pic turned out and also the one with my brother. My brother's pic was so hard to take because he was much taller than me...

to be continued...

19.08.07 (Malaysia to Denpasar) ... and the journey starts

Fetch Abang Azzam and his family, then off we went to Farhana's house for her brother's wedding. (Farhana is Umar's 'friend') At first we thought of not going, but it was a last minute change of plan. So there we were, in our pants and all. Like Kak Nina said la, usually we would all be in baju kurung at least so it felt weird attending a wedding wearing pants.

After the wedding, we quickly went to KL Sentral to catch a bus to LCCT. The journey to LCCT took around 1 hour. We reached the terminal around 1.45pm, so there were still a long way to go until we board the plane. We did our business in the toilet and then prayed as the guys did all the check-in stuff. Got some McD as well because everyone was getting hungry which was quite surprising since we had just eaten at the wedding.

Anyway, we boarded the plane at 4.20pm. Managed to get on the plane earlier than the other passengers because Abah paid for Xpress Boarding. We get to choose the best seats rather than berebut with others. The flight from KL to Bali took about three hours and it was pretty much uneventful. Nothing much to do but thankfully I have my trusted MP4 player and also the novel that I had been reading, 'Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood'. Other than that, what else to do besides napping? Heheh... There was this one time when I woke up from the nap, it was nearly 7pm and the sun was setting. The view outside the window was beautiful!

We touched down at Bandar Udara Ngurah Rai at 7.30pm. (We were later told that Ngurah Rai is a name of a Balinese warrior) When we walked into the terminal, we were immediately met by by the smell of limau nipis or something. It was kinda overwhelming, but kinda nice as well because it shows that we had touched a new ground and I couldn't help feeling more excited about it. Took our luggages, paid a visit to the airport's kamar kecil (toilets, actually!) and walked out of the terminal, where we were met by some Indonesian friends (from Pandrol, an Indonesian company) of my parents whom they knew from their last visit. Finally get to meet Pak Wiwik, Pak Agus and Eddy, whom my parents had been telling us about. We also met Jesse, (or is it spelled Jessy? I'm not so sure...) who is Pak Agus' son. We also met Pak Han, the rep from Anta Tour & Travel who is in charge of us for the week. We were given kalung bunga kemboja as a welcome gift. You know how in Malaysia bunga kemboja is usually associated with death? But in here, apparently they symbolizes friendship and is used to welcome guests into their state.

We boarded the bus and met our tour guide, Made, but we suka-suka hati pronounce it as Madi. We were then brought to Ganesha Pudak Cafe in Jimbaran. Nice place by the beach, nice atmosphere. Our tables were set on the sand by the beach. Really loved it and it was really romantic as well. I wonder if there is such places like that in Malaysia. Anyway, we were served with seafood platter. There's a fish that I did not eat much because it's the kind that has many bones and I was afraid of accidentally 'choking' on them because it was quite dark (we were only using candles!), crab that I also did not manage to eat much because I never got around to learn how to eat crabs, prawns that I like very much and some other things like... is it oysters? Or lala? Don't know la, but I didn't eat those. Kak Syida also didn't eat it because she said it reminded her of what Mr. Bean was forced to eat in his movie. Hehehe...

After dinner, we were brought to our hotel, Grand Mirage Resorts, in Nusa Dua, where we retired for the night. The VIP Lounge, where we had our welcome drinks, was very nice. And our hotel rooms are even nicer! It was kinda like that hotel room they used in Cinta Silver, an Indonesian movie which were shot in Bali. Not as grand, but very nice la...

To be continued...

Indonesia, Here I Come!

We'll be going for a family trip to Indonesia this coming Sunday. Basically, all of us can't wait to go because it had been a while since the last time the whole family were on a trip together. But unfortunately, my eldest brother and his family couldn't come along. If not, it would have been better. And anyway, speaking of not going, I nearly didn't get to go. You see, the situation is like this. We got to know that Abah had planned for this trip earlier this year. So, ok la. Then, after I finished my studies, I applied for a job in UNI*SEL, got accepted and was ordered to start working late June/early August. So I was like, what? What about my plan to go to Indonesia? Will I have to let go of the chance. Time tu, memang dah rasa tak best sangat2 cos everyone else gets to go and I will be left behind. Bincang2 with my parents, they told me to take a chance and go for the job (of course!) and try my luck in asking Mdm E to let me go on this trip.

It took me about a week after I started working to finally go and see Mdm E about this problem of mine. I was totally freaking out because I was scared that she would scold me or something. But you know what? I caught her just at the right moment. She had just finished praying, so somehow she was a bit mellow. I expected to be told off or something, but I guess lady luck was by my side all those while that it was so totally easy to get her approval.

Okay, dah selesai satu hal, now it's time to get the Vice Chancellor's approval pulak because apparently we have to get his permission if we wanna go overseas. Wrote (eh, more like type actually) the letter, get Mdm E's endorsement and send it in to HR. Then I found out from Abah that I need to confirm quickly because there are some things that need confirmation. So, begins the days when I would call up HR just to bug them to pass the letter to VC so that he can give me the permission. I think I annoyed En. S too much until he gave me the number to VC's PA and asked me to call up her up and confirm it myself. Hahaha... last Wednesday received a message from saying that Dato' VC approved of my application. Alhamdulillah. I senyum sampai telinga k!

So, watch out Indonesia! The Roslan Clan is coming!!!

I Have This Dream...

...of travelling. I want to go around the world if possible. The place that I most wanted to go to is United Kingdom. For a long, long time, I have always wanted to go there, just to see what the hype is all about. I still have no idea yet whether this will happen or not but I am thinking positively and hoping that one day this will happen. I am really hoping for it. I wanna go and see other places rather than just be in Malaysia. And hopefully it will be easier now that I'm working and have my own money. I'll open a fund for traveling and those money will never be touched unless if I want to go somewhere.

Here are some of the places that I have always wanted to go to:

1. Makkah - this is a MUST!
   
2. United Kingdom - Harry Potter tour is a must for a HP freak like myself. Wanna go to Scotland, Surrey, King's Cross, etc, etc
   
3. Any other European countries like Switzerland, Germany, Austria, France, etc, etc
   
4. Australia - especially Sydney, Melbourne & Perth - don't know why
   
5. New Zealand
   

My first trip to go out of Malaysia is happening in just a few days. I can't wait!!!