Winter, Feb 2015 – Travelling to north of Vietnam, our exploring intuitions brought my friends & I to the beautiful mountain city of Sapa. Sapa is located some 300 km north of Hanoi, near the Vietnam-Yunnan (China) border. The city is well known for its cool climate, beautiful sceneries and unique local ethnics. Traveling in February, we already expected the very cold winter, mountain climate that awaited us.

From Hanoi capital, travellers normally get to Sapa via train or by bus. We instead rented a car with a driver from Hanoi to be more flexible. It took 6 hours from Hanoi to Sapa, via the new Noi Bai – Loi Cai highway, including a rest break. The scenery along the way is beautiful, with rice fields, rivers, mountains and scenes of farmers plowing with buffalos & planting rice. On the way back, it took us 4 hrs 45 mins, non stop from Sapa town to Noi Bai airport.

Continue reading Sapa: Sing With All The Voices of The Mountain

Dec 2013 – Back when I was little, my father would always bring me to Tanjung Emas at the river mouth of Sungai Muar. Muarians simply call the place Tanjung. Traditionally, the area is a recreational park, with restaurants, rest houses, playgrounds. The beautiful Muar mosque is also located here.

Today, as Tanjung Emas continues to be the getaway location of the people of Muar, it also has transformed itself with more decorations, landmarks, proper side walks, developed boat tour services, and the most notably Tanjung Emas Square.

Our family also used to eat at the food court at Tanjung Emas. We found the food court to still exist, but with upgraded facilities & a nicer building. The shops, the stalls, the name of the stalls, are almost the same; at least in my memory.

Continue reading Tanjung Emas Muar

I stand by a statue of St Louis IX at Sacré-Cœur basilica in Paris. He was the King that led the 7th crusade against the Muslims, mainly in Egypt.

During the end of the campaign, Egypt Sultan Salih Ayub died, and his widow Shajar AdDur took lead of the nation, streghtened the army under Mamluk command with heroes like Qutuz & Baibars (the ones who will be the first to defeat the mighty Mongol army at Spring of Goliath). This Muslim army defeated the crusaders at the final battle at Fariskur, captured King Louis, and ended the the 7th crusade campaign. King Louis was ransomed at a high price equivalent to a year of France’s annual revenue. It was reported that it took 2 days to count the gold.

Mar 2011 – We took a short relaxing holiday to Cameron Highlands, Pahang. Taking the typical highway exit off Tapah, we also took the chance to stop by Lata Iskandar to enjoy the atmosphere by the waterfall.

We stayed at Equatorial Cameron Highland, in a 2 room apartment, although our family is relatively small. The place is suitable for a quiet family vacation. There are also some family games, such as pool, down in the lobby.

While our trip was more to just relax and escape the bustling city, there were plenty of activities up in Cameron Highlands to explore. We went to one of Strawberry farms for strawberry picking, Butterfly Farm, and Bee farm. We also stopped at a nursery to purchase some flowers for our home in Bangi. We also stopped by Bharat tea plantation to enjoy the beautiful tea tree scenery & buy some tea.

As adventurous as our family is, a cool, simple family getaway would still give us an experience to remember.

Continue reading Cameron Highlands