I am Moslem by Dina Zaman

I had my share of headache the other day, being “’kidnapped” by one of my friend on Saturday night, okay I was a willing participant at first but after midnight, I’m doomed.

The result: being left alone at home while my family enjoy their Sunday in Bandung (a nearby city), but that gave me ample of time to catch on my reading.

I can’t put down this book. Despite of the title “I am Moslem”, this is not one of those preaching religious kinda book.
It’s light and heavy at the same time, I was intrigue at first but then totally captivated.
Written by Dina Zaman (a Malaysian writer recommended by Malaysian friend of mine) this book wittingly observes malaysian life style coincide with their religious belief, which I can relate easily especially the writer curiosity, uneasiness and the quest!
I was laugh at loud at one time then raised my eyebrow afterward, definitely food for your thought.

Highly recommended one!

Malaysia

We got a lead the other day from one of my friend who’s worked in AirAsia – Malaysian budget airline- regarding their free promo. Veny -being efficient as ever- managed to book 10 of us a free flight to Malaysia.

So; last weekend 8 of us (the other 2 cancelled theirs) enjoyed our long weekend on Kuala Lumpur and its nearby area.
5 (Me, Veny, Dita, Ryan & Adit) flew directly from Jakarta, the others 2 (Jerry & Ochie) already there 1 day earlier, and 1 (Rika) comes from Singapore.
In Capitol Hotel we met!

Day 1
Arrived in KL around 1pm, catch the bus to go down town accompany by Monorail to reach our Hotel, priceless to see Adit dragging his luggage all along not too mention his precious camera –after all his our photographer- and I beat all the guys on reading map!.

Got to admit kinda envy with Malaysia transportation system, I mean KL basically same as Jakarta, it has traffic jam, have all kinda mixture of everything but what make it different is their public transport, Its magnificent aside taxi!
I preferred jakarta’s taxi rather than KL one…they rarely go with meter and they are so ignorant –they made us wait for 30 minutes in Eye of Malaysia while it was drizzling all over-

Go to Eyes of Malaysia and KLCC, Adit proved his photographic skill –man …never had a doubt on you though-, search all the way for the best nasi lemak, even though we didn’t get it but Jerry has done his best.
Call up Roudy and Rafiq for chill out, the last time I met them was in Jakarta on late 2005, such a long way back then. Go for teh tarik in down town plus they kept supply me with bunch of roti, we had roti canai, roti tissue, and capati. And I also got another surprise that night
Roudy will get married in 2 weeks time, congratulation Roudy!

Back to the Hotel at 2am and couldn’t sleep, no matter how hard I try.

Day 2 (Genting Day)
We decided to dedicate one whole day to reminisce our youthful.
So it’s time to play (be it outdoor & Indoor play in the theme park or all the roulette games at the casino hehehhe)

Testing my guts all over coz some of the game definitely not for the faint heart.

Day 3
Unfortunaely due to one and others things our big group decided to go separate ways on Day 3.

I stick on my schedule (Melacca) along with Veny (sorry honey to drag you into this), coz I’ve already missed it the last time, and it’s MUST on my list now.
I actually planned to go there by public transport but when I informed Rafiq about it, he just went worried all over.
He kept text-ing and calling us to abort the plan, or wait for him to accompany us there.
We reached an agreement at 1 am, which is he will drop us in IKEA let us shop then pick us up again after his futsal game to go to melacca.
I then realize that without me knowing it … I do have a brother in KL.
Thanks bro’


Like my entire trip to IKEA, this one also went GREAT! Hehehe
I know…I know, I’m cheap when talk about IKEA, whenever I felt upset back in HK, I just need to go to IKEA spent hours exploring it and the cafeteria…then went home smiling, so heavenly!.

We came out with 4 big bags full of stuff…mostly its veny though heheh

And Melacca here we came.
I had a lots of expectation toward melacca, like it should be bigger than Macau (I dig Macau, so you should get my enthusiasm), full of street food accommodating all the tourist (like HK), and its history (the baba nonya history –peranakan-)
Well, it smaller than Macau but yes full of street food especially since we came on the right time coz the night market only available during weekend, I’ve tasted the best laksa ever, it’s spicy but sour at the same time, if I’m not mistaken its called “pedas masam seafood penang laksa” –should try that one-
Since we have a local with us, we got the best deal on rickshaw touring, capture non touristy area of melacca…bottom line even though not 100% as I expected but I’m glad I decided to go there not like Adit whose definitely missed lots of photo spot hehe.

Day 4
Shopping time, at least for me coz I Think I’m the only one that’s not filling up the luggage with this particular shoes brand aka Vincci while my other friend had more than 10 pairs of new shoes ready to bring home wow!
I only got 2 extra new shoes that day.

The highlight of day 4 was our journey to the airport, learning from our arrival experience plus the size of our current luggage we decided to rent 1 van.
It was FUN. All the way to the airport we’ve been busy pointing our curiosity on Veny’s new close friend. Even Ryan can’t stop making remark of him.
But that actually when you know you have friends who really care about you, even the slightest clue of unusualness could trigger a defense mechanism.
And that is us.

I had a great long weekend, well spent with my closest friend.

Definitely will doing it again in the future, next destination probably Bangkok or Hongkong, and this time Ganda and Fika have to tag along

...??....

Back to work after long weekend.
Spent it in Malaysia with my bunch of friends, will put special post regarding to it.

I had telecommunication problem when I was there, I can’t get any signal what so ever, my provider definitely let me down, tried to call their 24 hour hotline service but still didn’t get good result…so I have to settle 4 days without communication device. Which resulted on yesterday…I had lots of phone calls and text asking my where about.

Now I’m catching up news and updates especially work related, coz apparently things that I thought will be settle during the long weekend (man…I already gave detail instruction), turn out to be no progress at all.

Plus try to accommodating one hell of an opportunity, will elaborate about it later when the crunchy detail has been reveal.
But to be honest I’m in confusion right now (I know my mom gonna kill me if she ever found out about this, but it's too good to pass hiks..hiks)

My version of Romanticism

For those of you who thought long distance relationship is not gonna work, well brace yourself coz I’m going to prove you otherwise.
This is what I’ve got by spent the whole Saturday jump from one wedding to another hehe.

Ika met Michael around 2001, I guess that was during Aiesec IC aka International congress -see aiesec DO facilitate- in Switzerland, and they’ve been couple ever since, with Ika in Indonesia and Michael in Switzerland –what a long distance relationship huh-

Ika got her 1st traineeship in the Philippine sometime in 2002 - 2003, Michael still in Switzerland. And Long distance relationship becomes a bit ironic when ika had her 2nd traineeship in Switzerland on the same time when Michael had his in Indonesia.

But hey everything work out alright, they conducted their civil ceremony on 2005 in Switzerland , and they pledged their holy matrimony last Saturday in Jakarta, Indonesia.
(and you’ll be amazed if you knew the inside story …coz I was!!)

See, Long distance do work …but yes, the case is vary between one people to another.
I guess on a relationship, at the end what matter is not your physical closeness but what you feel inside.

Come to think of it, I don’t know how much they’ve spent on international calling card haha
(Not a suggested relationship form for those who had financial instability)

Cheers,

Ceha