Better late than never

This should be my very long overdue entry on this blog; the reason is I am getting lazy to update anything on social media platform lately. Have been quiet on FB as well, because I think life is much peaceful and less drama nowadays without updating much of your life online. Yeah because sometime it could be your ex-husband’s new wife is trying to stalk you here and there for whatever god knows reason, perhaps feeling insecure or just realized the husband still not moving on after many years of separation with the ex-wife? 

Anyway I celebrated my birthday and new year in Jakarta this year, it was very exciting and enjoyable one. But before that we spent few days in Jogyakarta, to fulfill one of items in my bucket list to have group picture on a four-wheel drive vehicle with Mount Merapi as background. Part of it we had to wake up at 3 am in the morning in order to climb Punthuk Setumbu for sunrise watching and later my Indonesian friend made me walking in the jungle because of her AADC2 obsession, yeah visiting Gereja Ayam where one of the scenes was taken at that place*rolling eyes*

a major breathtaking view from the top of the hill

the much awaited  Merapi tour 

Trip to Jogya required a lot of walking and also climbing as most of the places we visited are quiet a hilly area. But I did enjoy it so much and lucky I am still fit to do all these activities thanks to my body combat class! Trip to Jogya would not be complete without visiting Borobudur temple, yes the entry fees was quite expensive which we paid about RM100 as foreigners and the fees is quarter of it for Indonesian hahah. But it was all worth it as standing there looking at the structure made you wonder how the people in the past can built something like that without a modern technology. Another place that we went was Hutan Pinus where the area was full with pines trees and the view was just so breathtaking.

one of UNESCO world heritage 

with my indonesian friend 

Then we off Jakarta for more shopping session and celebrating new year before heading back to KL. We stayed at 39^th floor apartment which we found thru airbnb and indeed it was the best decision ever as we had the whole view of Jakarta city for new year celebration. We have been reminded by our Indonesian friend to stay put in the apartment as traffic was crazy everywhere prior to new year eve that night. We put on mask sheet on our face that night lying on bed while waiting for midnight. Later we were woken up by the blasting sound of fireworks and watching it from the balcony, and at the same time sending out happy new year and birthday wishes to my favourite person.

Jakarta city view from our apartment

new year in Jakarta

Overall it was an amazing trip with full of laugh and I learnt few funny Indonesian wording from Woro like ‘baper’ which abbreviation for bawa perasan and the another interesting one ‘pelakor' for a short form of perampas laki orang which I cannot move on till now on those. 

Keeping me sane

I have not visit gym for months! You don't ask me why, but I guess I lost the momentum since raya month since then I could not drag my feet anymore to the gym hahah. Nowadays my weekend is full with makan-makan and catching up session with my friends. 

Had a scrumptious korean lunch in Ampang last week with my best friend and yesterday dim sum lunch in Bangi with my ex colleagues from the previous company.One of them is coming back for short holiday from the UK, and insya Allah will be back for good next year. How time flies! These are my 'Kumpel' where I can vent out my frustration at work, complaining about my boyfriend and gossiping (I just realized that we hardly talk about people nowadays which is good hahaha).

Few of my close friends said that I look good and much happier nowadays comparing to few years back ^_^, yeah I have to agree that I have changed much for a betterment alhamdulillah. 

used to work together in Pekan last time

yummy dim sum with a very reasonable price

with my long time best friends since uni days

korean lunch treat by my bestie

HCM

After so many months without any trip, ah finally there was one last week. This time I went to Ho Chi Minh together with my super crazy sister in law. Yes, just two of us since my brother did not bother to layan his wife for shopping trip, and he delegated the task to me instead.

i love you but i hate you kind of relationship with this one LOL

At first when we realized that we are going to spend 5 days in HCM, we are suddenly freaking out. We thought it was rather too long, what should we do there, knowing my SIL is the type who easily get bored on the same routine definitely I was a bit nervous prior to the trip. It turned out it was a great place for a shopaholic like her LOL, well most of the sellers we met at Bến Thành market speaks Malay, yes you heard me right Vietnamese in HCM speaks Malay. Only then we realized how Malaysians people love to shop there until the locals can speak our native language just by learning throughout their daily interaction with Malaysians whom visiting the market pfttttt.

it was not easy to cross the road with hundreds of bikes like this

It was indeed a good trip which I ended up coming back with sore feet and backache due to so much walking around. I told my SIL that I would not EVER join her for any shopping trip in the future as I could not cope up with her endurance to do shopping. This woman must be operated by batteries I guess.

We were a bit jakun to see the motorbike sharing operated in the city such as Grab and Uber, and you cannot imagine there is a lot which I mean really a lot of motorbikes on the road in HCM until they called HCM as “Kingdom of motorbikes”. You had to be hati kering whenever you wanted to cross road as some of them would not stop to give you a way even though the traffic light showing red lights on. Of course my super crazy sister in law did a crazy thing by trying out the Grab motorbike service to go for some shops which are out from the area that we stay. Another reason was because I refused to accompany her at that point of time as I gave up on her look and see habits hahahaha.

grab motorbike spotted

glutinous rice, tapioca and some other unknown food

very colonial view 

spicy vietnam pho and vietnamese coffee ice

On top of shopping, we also managed to slot in a day trip to Delta Mekong which we had heard a lot during geography class when I was 15. And another trip to Chu Chi tunnel on the next day, which made me having a goose bump thinking on how difficult it was during war time for people to survive and to fight for the freedom of their country. It was an eye opener for us even only with a shovel and rattan basket they were able to build up a 250km long tunnel down under until the border of Cambodia and in total the tunnels took about 25 years to be completed.

It has been a while

I am currently feel a bit under the weather with bad cough and flu, was having a meeting in Kuantan yesterday. Left home quite late and as the result I had to push the pedal up to 200km/h to make sure I can arrive on time, yeah could not take the picture at that speed because I am chicken like that LOL. Oh mannn age is catching up I guess, last time I have made day trip without any fuss, but yesterday I was totally flat and not even want to talk to people when I arrived home in the evening.

Still feeling tired until today, yeah this morning I had to put on my good daughter's hat and brought my mom to see the doctor since her knee pain was getting worse since last thursday. Such a drama when doctor wanted to take out the fluid that caused inflammation at her knee. She was so traumatize hearing needle word and if she can run at that point of time I think she would hahaha. Alhamdulillah everything went well the needle went in and out safely and she was less in pain now.

Friendship #101

Got to know her during my study years in Germany via online forum. Never thought that the friendship remains until now. She lives in Melaka, and as yearly event she will invite me to her house during hari raya or whenever I went down to Melaka. She loves to cook and her cooking is the best besides my mother hehe.

From her I learnt a lot, she loves to post positive things on facebook. Some people might misjudged her intention, but for me I would rather reading positive things compared to a depressed or negative type of status that some of my online friends would put up on their wall.

She taught me about the power of sadaqah and other good things that always left an impact in my heart whenever I heard her stories. May Allah bless her and grant her the highest Jannah in hereafter for all the good deeds that she has done. Thank you for being such an inspirational person whom I have always look up when I am feeling down. If you are looking for a friend to stick on, choose the one who will bring you closer to Allah and the one who always make you feel that you wanted to be a better person. And she is the one that has that value!