Bangkok 2.0 -part 1

Assalamualaikum...

Sawadikap...^^ Just a quick info, after coming back from Bangkok last year, my cousins were excited when they heard about the journey i had. So, we bought an AirAsia flight ticket during zero fair promotion three months later, and it was for only RM113.20. As I predicted Zue could have a baby after a year, it would be the best time to visit. Hehe...

A day before

I was still at work. In Penang. And my flight would depart tomorrow afternoon from KLIA, Kuala Lumpur. Yeah, kinda hectic as I planned this trip a year before, I didn't even have any job at that time. I've packed all my things last night. Hopefully I got everything with me. During lunch hour, Raiy would send me to bus station. Mind you, I didn't even buy bus ticket yet. But it was not a school holiday season, so I wasn't worried so much.

7 pm, I arrived at KL. Having dinner with my lovely family and watching TV until midnight with Emak. Before I went to bed, I checked my things for the last time, and prepared for tomorrow’s outfit.

Excited. ^^

Well, here we go. Allahumma yassir wala tu’assir.

Day 1 (21 Mac 2012)

This morning, Ayah sent me to Mak Lang’s house to gather with my cousins. Well this time, it would be a four person trip. My cousins; Idahnor, Nina & Aiman, and there was me of course. It was supposed to be 6 persons trip, but the other two cousins, they, suddenly got married...hahaha. As I said, it was a one year in advance planning. Who knows what could happen tomorrow, aite? :P

Few weeks earlier, I started to contact and email Zue, to get itinerary of attractive places in Bangkok. Nina, our ‘trip researcher’ already did the blog-hopping to get interesting tips and review from other travelers/backpacker round the world. I assured, it was gonna be an exciting trip!!

Our flight would depart at 3.35 pm. So, at 12 pm, we made our move to Stesen Sentral, KL Sentral. This is the hub of transportation in Kuala Lumpur and we decided to take shuttle bus to LCCT. But before that, we went to two different currency exchangers. One was located at Level 2, inside Nile Books, and another one was at level 1, near to ERL arrival. We didn’t actually bring all cash money as you can withdraw directly from CIMB Thai provided you have a CIMB account. However, the exchange rate would be different from regular Money Changer.

Afterwards, we went down to LG floor to get our shuttle bus. You can find stairs/escalator to LG nearby the KLIA Transit entrance. Ticket for shuttle bus is between RM8-RM10, depends on service provider. It took about 1 hour 15 minutes to get to LCCT.

Idahnor already checked us in by online last night. So when we arrived, we just dropped our baggage and went to eat. Hehe. After we had a quick meal at Marrybrown, we went through Customs and directly to Musolla to perform jama’ Zuhur & Asar and also solat sunat musafir. Around 3 pm, we moved to waiting lounge after our flight, FD 3524 was announced.

We arrived around 5.30 pm Bangkok time at Suvarnabhumi Airport (read: Suvarnabhum). After finished all check out procedure, we bought sim-card to ease our communication there. Zue had told me beforehand to buy True, but since all my cousins were going for DTAC (Happy), well, I rest my case hehhe. The difference? Actually it is more suitable to choose True for those whose come to Thailand frequently because it is cheaper and has 1 year expiration date without topping up the credit. You can use the same simcard next time you go to Thailand. However, my friend said that the coverage is better within the cities, not at the outskirts.

Buying DTAC sim at the airport

Done with the simcard, we took Airport Rail Link which is SA City Line (Suvarnabhumi Airport City Line) to Ramkhamhaeng Station. The ticket price was 30Baht or RM3. Zue had given a great helped by booking hotel for us in advance. It was the same hotel as my trip last year, Regent Ramkhamhaeng Hotel.

Ouh, speaking of Zue, I have not told you guys yet. Well, it was as I predicted, Zue had given birth to a sweet, healthy baby girl. Cheers!!! Alhamdulillah :D. However, she was not in Bangkok, not even in Thailand during my trip there. She was….well, of course at her home sweet home, Kepong, Malaysia.
Hahahaha. Palm face. But it’s okay. I would just visit Sarah, her baby girl when I got back to KL ;)

So, Zue’s husband, Mohamad picked us up at Ramkhamhaeng station. As expected from a big city, he arrived a little bit late because of the traffic jam, plus, he was working on this day. But we didn’t mind waiting for him…it was not far from Ramkhamhaeng station to our hotel. But the traffic really caught us.

A quick review on our hotel, it is situated at Ramkhamhaeng Soi (street) 22, Bangkapi. We took 2 rooms, Standard Room (800Baht/RM80 per night) for Aiman, and double bed room (1100Baht/RM110 per night) for us girls. This is a Muslim hotel, where all the foods are halal. It is near to mall, convenience store, CIMB Thai atm machine and SA City Line-Ramkhamhaeng Station. You can change to BTS SkyTrain (Sukhumvit Line) by taking this line to Phaya Thai.

After thanking and saying goodbye to Mohamad, we went out for dinner. It wasn’t far, just across our hotel! It was a small halal stall selling all kind of rice/noodles. FYI, you know it is a halal restaurant/stall when they display moon and star sign Z with Quranic verse or ‘Bismillah’ or simply “Halal” sign. However, because most of Thais cannot speak English nor Malay, communication might the only problem in here. Macam ayam bercakap dengan itik! Same goes to this stall. All menus were in Thai languages and we tried our best to order the right food hehe. Luckily there are many Thailand restaurant in Malaysia, so we able to order some of delicate food :D

Idahnor, Nina & Aiman

After two rounds of eating (yes, we were that hungry!) we took a walk along Ramkhamhaeng road. They have street market or uptown every night in here, but unfortunately, they close early around 11pm. Unlike Malaysia where we have uptown up until 3-4 am in the morning! hehehe.. J

 

 

We reached our room around 12am. Cleaned up ourselves and had a good rest. Couldn't wait for more exciting tour tomorrow!!

To be continued...;)

Habuk & Sawang

Tujuh bulan lalu, aku menjanjikan para pembaca budiman (ceh, macam ramai je kan) post menarik tentang Bangkok 2.0. Akan tetapi oleh kerana kemalasan yang menjangkit kebelakangan ini, Kasut Biru ditinggalkan berhabuk dan bersawang. Maaf semua. Sedar tak sedar, aku dah pun pergi ke satu lagi negara jiran, Indonesia bulan lepas.

Dan melihatkan betapa sepupu aku Nina begitu giat mengupdate blog beliau dan meletakkan link blog aku untuk setiap gambar...ok, aku kene update jugak blog ni. Aku pulak yang rasa kecewa bila click link dekat blog orang lain, tapi keluar page yang dah berbulan sepi. hurmm...

Maka, pembaca budiman sekalian, insyaAllah aku akan berusaha melawan kemalasan dan mula menulis cerita-cerita menarik serta kisah disebalik tabir. Sampai berjumpa lagi!

sneak preview Bangkok 2.0 ;D

sneak preview Javanese Island ;)

stay tuned...

Stay tuned












for
.
..
...
....
.....
......






B.A.N.G.K.O.K. 2.0!!

:D

Berikan Aku Satu Nasihat

Assalamualaikum.

Lama gila tak menulis. Entah kerana sibuk. Entah kerana malas.

Untuk yang mungkin tak tahu, alhamdulillah aku dah pun masuk alam kerjaya. Tak jauh mana, kat Bukit Mertajam je...Tempat kerja okay, kawan-kawan baru okay, boss pun okay...even rumah pun company provide, so far syukur sangat la.

Cuma haritu tiba-tiba rasa stress. Tak tahu kenapa...Banyak sangat dapat undangan kawen kot? Stress diri sendiri still single hehe...So, aku update status facebook,

"berikan aku satu nasihat."

Mulanya tak banyak nasihat yang membina. So aku pm/inbox sorang sahabat yang aku tau kerap post nasihat dalam facebook nya...

"xxxx, berikan aku satu nasihat."

Lalu dijawabnya sejam kemudian,

"bacalah bismillah, minta Allah ajarkanmu satu ayat Quran satu hari, bukalah quran dengan gerak hatimu, tidak kira mana ia terbuka atau ayat mana ia terpapar, bacalah ia, selami terjemahnya, dan fahami tafsirnya. Cubalah...kerna aku dah cuba, its not by chance somehwoh you open that page or read that verse...its Allah that wants goodness for you...memang bergetar dan takut aku bila mencubanya."

Sejujurnya? Aku langsung tak terus ikut nasihat dia. Ntah pape, mintak nasihat tapi biar macam tu je bila dah dapat. Sampai lah semalam masa tengah usha-usha facebook Brotherhood Arts, aku jumpa Quotes of the Day yang menarik ni:

Bukannya tak tahu, bukannya tak pernah ada orang beritahu. Tapi aku yang lemah ni terkadang lalai dan leka. Terus teringat nasihat yang aku sendiri minta. Aku yang stress, aku yang down, bila ditunjukkan jalan keluar, menyombong diri pula?

Dan selepas maghrib, aku mula membaca. Ayat-ayat suci al-Quran dengan maknanya. Surah yang aku baca, Al-Muzzammil. Tarjimnya seperti ini;

Dengan nama Allah Yang Maha Pemurah lagi Maha Pengasih.
(1) Wahai orang yang berselimut.
(2) Bangunlah di malam hari, kecuali sedikit.
(3) Seperduanya atau kurangilah daripadanya sedikit.
(4) Atau tambah daripadanya, dan bacalah al-Quran dengan perlahan-lahan.
(5) Sesungguhnya Kami hendak menurunkan kepada engkau perkataan yang berat.
(6) Sesungguhnya bangun malam itu adalah lebih mantap dan bacaan lebih berkesan.
(7) Sesungguhnya bagi engkau pada siang hari adalah urusan-urusan yang panjang.
(8) Dan sebutlah nama Tuhan engkau dan tunduklah kepadanya sebenar-benar tunduk.
(9) Tuhan dari masyrik dan maghrib, tiada Tuhan melainkan Dia; maka ambillah Dia jadi pelindung.
(10) Dan bersabarlah engkau atas apa yang mereka katakan itu dan hijrahlah dari mereka dengan hijrah yang indah.
(11) Dan biarkanlah Aku bertindak terhadap orang-orang yang mendustakan itu, yang mempunyai kemewahan, dan berilah mereka tangguh sejenak.
(12) Sesungguhnya di sisi Kami ada belenggu-belenggu yang berat dan neraka yang bernyala-nyala.
(13) Dan makanan yang mempunyai sekangan dan azab yang pedih.
(14) Pada hari, yang akan bergoncang bumi dan gunung-gunung dan jadilah gunung-gunung itu tumpukan pasir yang berterbangan.
(15) Sesungguhnya telah Kami utus kepada kamu seorang Rasul; yang akan jadi saksi terhadap kamu, sebagaimana telah Kami utus kepada Fir’aun seorang Rasul.
(16) Maka mendurhakalah Fir’aun terhadap Rasul itu; maka Kami siksalah dia dengan siksaan yang ngeri.
(17) Maka betapakah kamu akan dapat memelihara diri jika kamu kafir, pada hari yang menyebabkan anak-anak pun akan tumbuh uban.
(18) Langit pun jadi pecah belah di hari itu; adalah janji Allah pasti berlaku.
(19) Ini adalah suatu peringatan; maka barangsiapa yang mau, niscaya ditempuhnyalah jalan kepada Tuhannya.
(20) Sesungguhnya Tuhan engkau mengetahui bahwasanya engkau berdiri hampir dari dua pertiga malam dan seperdua malam dan sepertiganya dan satu segolongan dari orang-orang yang bersama engkau. Dan Allah menentukan ukuran malam dan siang; Tuhan telah tahu bahwa kamu sekali-kali tidak akan dapat memperhitungkannya. Maka diberiNya taubatlah atas kamu. Sebab itu bacalah mana yang mudah dari al-Quran. Tuhan telah tahu bahwa akan ada di antara kamu yang sakit. Dan yang lain-lain mengembara di muka bumi karena mengharapkan kurnia dari Allah, dan yang lain-lain berperang pada jalan Allah; maka bacalah mana yang mudah daripadanya dan dirikanlah sembahyang dan berikanlah zakat dan beri pinjamlah Allah, pinjaman yang baik. Dan apa jua pun yang kamu dahulukan untuk dirimu dari kebajikan, akan kamu perdapat dia di sisi Allah, dia adalah baik dan sebesar-besar ganjara. Dan mohonlah ampun kepada Allah; sesungguhnya Allah adalah Maha Pengampun, Maha Penyayang.

Untuk penjelasan lebih tafsir surah ini, boleh juga rujuk di sini. 

Apa yang aku sedar, memang dah lama aku tak paksa diri untuk bangun malam. Sudah lama tidak mengadu bersungguh-sungguh padaNya. Sudah lama tidak mengisi jiwa yang lelah dan kontang. Rasa malu sendiri bila meminta-minta nasihat, bila diberi tak diendahkan pula kata-kata hikmat. 

Quran itu sememangnya panduan untuk kita hingga akhir zaman. Aku rasa stress dan lemah, ubatnya ada ditulis dalam al-Furqan. Bukankah solat malam itu satu latihan untuk kerohanian?

Jantung hati yang kosong dan lemah, bangun malam itulah pengubat. Mengapa perlu susah hati, bila Allah itu sangat dekat. Berbicaralah denganNya di dalam setiap rakaat solat. Dan akan Dia berbicara denganmu dalam setiap helaian al-Kitab.

Sahabat, jangan berhenti daripada menasihat!