The weekends that have passed...

Ok, the last time I actually wrote something here was about 3 weeks ago.

I had been rather occupied. End of last month, a good friend of mine when I was in Bristol, Adam Bowler, came over to visit me, before he finally starts working. It was almost four years ago when we last met.

First, we went to Redang Island. Honestly, the outbound ferry was really bad. The rolling made me sick, but it was still OK, and I could still read newspaper etc. It was when one of the girls started puking, that the chain of events followed. Many more threw up, and the smell really made everyone sick. I did not puke, but really had to manage myself to avoid doing so.

Anyway, we got there, and that afternoon, we went to our first open sea snorkeling trip. It was lovely, I am short of words to describe it. So yeah, go and experience it yourselves.

Thursday was spent on the island, with two more snorkeling trips, and managed to spot a turtle. Wow. We also took time in the early morning doing our own snorkeling around the beach area, before that place got congested, and you'd see more bums in bikini rather than fish. That afternoon, we got so exhausted that we had to cancel our scuba diving trip.

Friday, we took the first boat out, and the speed boat cut down the sea travel hours significantly. We took the wooden bus from KT Shahbandar Jetty to Taman Tamadun Islam. We spent significant hours over there. The park is located in Pulau Wan Man (One man Island), and friday prayer was not performed at masjid kristal over there. I managed to get a lift from a man on motorcycle to get to Masjid makmur, located several kilometers away.

Anyway, after that, we were joined by Faiz, a good friend of mine, currently working in Petronas Refinery in Kemaman. We went to Masjid Kristal for asr, and there was an akad nikah ceremony. We sat there to watch, while I explained to Adam what was going on etc. Then, we took the boat ride around Pulau Duyung.

Then, we went eating keropok lekor, and headed south to Kemaman. Along the way, we stopped at masjid terapung, and finally arrived in Kemaman and had dinner. Later that night, we took the bus to seremban.

Saturday, we went to Istana Lama Sri Menanti, where one can learn about the history of minangkabau people in malaysia. Then we went to Ulu Bendul waterfall, where the water was really cold, and later had lemang for lunch. After lunch, we drove to Port Dickson, and visited the Army Museum. I forgot to show Adam my workplace. That night, we went to see the match between Selangor and Negeri Sembilan, which selangor won 1-0, but N9 went through on away goal.

Sunday, we went to Malacca, and I dropped Adam there so that he had his free time.

On Thursday, we travelled to a boiler manufacturer in Klang, and later to a hot spring in Sungkai. We spent the night at Ipoh train station hotel. The hotel was quite creepy, and gloomy. The lift was old, but surprisingly is still working.

Friday was spent in Kuala Kangsar. Visited the main attractions, parang making industry, tekat, and pottery workshop.

Saturday, we went water rafting for half day, and jungle trekking in the afternoon. Managed to see the Raflesia flower. Yay. The return journey from the mountain was a bit slow. One guy in our travel party could not come down, and it took hours for us to get him down.

That night, Kedah played N9 in the final, which Kedah should have won. We lost on penalties.

I left Adam in Penang on Sunday, and returned to PD. On tuesday, I bade him farewell at the airport, and on the way back to PD, stopped by Azad's place and had a long chat with him.

Yesterday, I arrived in penang again, and this time my wife and I went to Penang hospital for another baby scan. The baby looked healthy, and later we went shopping for the baby stuffs.

Exhausted.. and I hope you also are from reading this lengthy post.

I came across this post by Presiden ISMA, Ust Abdullah Zaik. Previously, I had admiration for ISMA, for their efforts, their AMAN Palestin movement, and I was quite saddened by the ISMA-JIM-IKRAM crisis. Maybe now, I understand better why some of Ikhwan leaders say that ISMA is only membawa keburukan pada jemaah ikhwan, and why some JIM-IKRAM leaders said that ISMA leadership has hubbul riasah (gila pangkat).

I do not want to comment much. Today is the nomination day fro Hulu Selangor by election. Maybe Ust Abdullah Zaid should have nominated himself as an UMNO candidate, said one of the comments.