Thursday, 9 April 2015

SLEEPLESS IN VIENTIANE

I had to attend a meeting in Vientiane, Lao PDR last month. This is my 4th time in Lao and I can see how it has developed and how the development has changed the life of the local people.

My first time in Vientiane I think about 6 or 7 years ago. At that time, Vientiane was very quite. The people have a  very relax life. Petang petang dalam pukul 4, dah ramai bentang tikar, picnic tepi Sungai Mekong. The women will wear a skirt made of their traditional cloth. You don't really see the local young girls mix around with mat saleh. They were very much close knitted community with strong cultural background.

Now, more hotels, modern buildings around. Most of the hotels are small boutique hotels. Tourists ramai mostly from western countries. And you can see already a lot of massage parlour, bars and western restaurants to cater the tourists. And dah nampak local girls hanging around with the mat saleh.

By the way, to go to Lao from here, AirAsia has a direct flight on alternate days rasanya. I took MH to Bangkok and took Thai Airways to Vientiane for this trip.

Apa ada kat Lao? Tak de apa. They said the famous place is Luang Prabang which you can either take a local flight to go there  or several hours journey by land. If in Vientiane itself, I must say, nothing much except for the night market near the Mekong River which sell a lot of local crafts and baju baju moden ni. Tapi.... size baju nya.. alahai... kecik kecik semuanya. Dulu tepi Mekong River tu was just a strip of padang tapi now dia dah buat macam dataran and I think they reclaim the land lah sebab rasa macam sungai tu dah jadi kecik pulak.

Halal food kat Vientiane ni dari dulu sampai sekarang sama je. Yang famous is Nazim Restaurant.

 
 
Dulu Nazim Restaurant ni depan Sungai Mekong tapi sekarang dah berpindah ke dalam sikit. Tempat baru ni lebih besar dari dulu. Menu mostly Indian food tapi ada menu Malaysia jugak macam nasi goreng dan mee goreng.

 
Nasi Goreng Ayam

 
Dosai

 
Chicken Masala dan Dry Chicken Masala with Pepper
 
Depan Mekong River tu ada pasar malam. Start dalam pukul 6.30pm. 


 
The dataran infront of Mekong River. The local offering manicure and pedicure service at the dataran.

 
Tengok sunset sambil urut dan manicure. You can see the river dah nun jauh ke tengah.

 
Tuk tuk in Vientaine.
 
For me, nothing much nak cerita pasal Vientiane. May be becasue I was there for work so tak jalan jalan.
 
As usual, when I travel alone, I cannot sleep well. Hence the reason for the title hehehehe
 
 
 
 

 

Thursday, 26 February 2015

TO WORK OR NOT TO WORK

Of late, I have this urge nak berhenti kerja. Rasa macam dah penat lah nak kerja. Tapi kalau tak kerja nak buat apa yer?

Here is my angan angan apa nak buat kalau tak kerja:

1. I will do locum. A few hours a day perhaps. Enough money to pay my white horse.
2. I will bake and bake and bake. Siapa nak makan tak tau la.
3. Nak belajar jahit langsir. Tangan keras tak leh belajar jahit baju. Tak berseni
4. I want to travel around the world. May be visit my aunt who lives in the US. Visit my friend in London. Stay in Jakarta for a week... wah.... dah tak kerja mana nak ada duit nak jalan jalan????????

Taking the bold step to move outside our comfort zone is always frightening. The thought of "boleh ke survive?" "cukup ke duit?" will always in our mind.

Tapi tak cuba tak tau kan? Dan rezeki itu insyaAllah akan ada jika kita berusaha.

 

Wednesday, 18 February 2015

LIFE LESSON

Saya ada seorang kawan yang dah lama tak jumpa. The last time jumpa in 1983 semasa saya di sekolah rendah. Dia ambik tempahan menjahit baju di rumah. So, last week saya pergi rumah dia nak tempah baju.

Dia tinggal di rumah PPR. Bila masuk ke dalam rumah tu, the house is bare. Ada sebuah meja makan dan satu TV. Itu saja. Di satu sudut, ada mesin jahit dan mesin jahit tepi. Dia sambut saya dengan penuh mesra walaupun pertama kali berjumpa semenjak 32 tahun lepas.

She has 6 children. Suami bekerja di kilang berhampiran.
Dari luaran, she may not have much. Tapi she has what most of us always wanted.

Hati yang tenang dan kebahagiaan.
Suami yang baik.
Anak anak dia sungguh tinggi budi pekerti.
Anak lelaki dia yang berumur 14 tahun, terus masak air dan buat air tanpa disuruh.
Tutur kata sungguh sopan
Keikhlasan terserlah
Muka nampak telus dan tenang

Dia mula bercerita....
Dulu adik beradik ramai. Selepas SPM, dia tak boleh sambung belajar sebab kena tanggung adik adik. Lepas kahwin, baru suami tanggung untuk dia belajar menjahit yang memang dia amat minati.
Kami berbual panjang. Dari cara membesarkan anak anak sehingga hobi memasak.

In life, you can learn a lot not only from people who is the so called "success" in life but from all walks of life. From people like her.
Money is not everything tapi keberkatan itu lah yang paling penting.

I came home with a smile. Terima kasih Allah kerana mempertemukan saya dengan dia.


 

Wednesday, 14 January 2015

12/365 of 2015

Today, hari pertama Ms M ke sekolah menengah. Dah besar anak mummy....!!!!!!!

We sent her to school. All of us, Papa, Mummy and Kakak.

I have mixed feeling. Excited, proud, anxious....



 
 

 
 
Ms M sekolah sesi petang. Lepas hantar dia, terus ke AG hantar Ms A balik asrama.

Sunyi balik dah rumah....

Oh I miss school holidays.

 

Friday, 2 January 2015

2/365 of 2015

1st day of work in 2015.

Tengok kalender.

Mmhhhhh no travelling plan in January. Apart from the monthly visit to Singapore.

Bagus....

February - Hong Kong

March - Bangkok

and the schedule is filling up.

Apa nak buat.... nama pun bekerja. Kena lah ikut arahan.

No holiday plan yet.

Mungkin year end nanti lah kot.

But overall, I have planned better in terms of work for 2015. Projects and targets all mapped out.

Semoga dipermudahkan semua urusan di tahun 2015 ini.



 

Wednesday, 31 December 2014

BYE BYE 2014, HELLO 2015

Hari terakhir di tahun 2014.

2014 yang penuh dengan pelbagai peristiwa.

Yang gembira, yang suka, yang duka, yang hiba.

It has been a challenging but interesting year.

2015

Tahun baru, harapan baru.

Azam baru? Tak ada. Azam lama pun tak buat.

But my theme for 2015

LESS IS MORE

I want to:

Eat less, exercise more

Travel less, read more

Spend less, save more

LOOKING FORWARD TO 2015

 

Tuesday, 23 December 2014

SEMANGAT HARIMAU MALAYA

Sabtu lepas, atas permintaan my girls, gigih mummy dan papanya pergi Stadium Bukit Jalli tengak final Piala AFF Suzuki.

Our first time tengok bola kat stadium.

Sampai stadium, orang dah penuh. En ID turunkan kami dan pergi cari parking. Pukul 7.45 malam baru kami masuk stadium. Masa tu dah penuh dah stadium. Dah tak ada tempat duduk dah.

The girls dapat good spot untuk berdiri kat railing. Saya pergi nak cari tempat duduk untuk diorang tapi diorang dah tak nak beralih dah. Good view kat situ katanya. Kebetulan ada orang kasi satu kerusi belakang tempat diorang berdiri tu, maknya di duduk je lah kat situ. Bukan minat nak tengok sangat pun. Nak kasi experience kat budak budak tu saja.

Tapi, suasana stadium tu memanglah meriah. Suasana tu saja boleh menaikkan semangat mak cik yang tak minat bola ni untuk sama sama berdiri dan bersorak bila Malaysia score gol. You can see how sports unite Malaysian. Melayu, Cina, India semua sama sama bersemangat menyokong Harimau Malaya.Bila Malaysia score gol, bergegar stadium tu. Dengan pukulan gendang and sorakan dari Ultras Malaya, we feel so proud to be Malaysian.

Seronok dengar ramai coach coach tambahan yang duduk kat keliling tu menjerit mengarahkan player pergi sana, lari sini, kejar bola. Terjerit jerit diorang macam la player tu boleh dengar. Tapi diorang memang fanatik lah. Memang bersemangat. Sungguh bersemangat sesetengah orang sampai ada yang bawak baby yang saya rasa dalam umur 4 ke 5 bulan pergi stadium tu. Elok pulak baby tu tidur dalam gegak gema orang bersorak.

We lost but overall it was a great game.

To Harimau Malaya... you are still the CHAMPION!!!!

It was a nice experience for us yang tak pernah tengok bola sebelum ni. Mungkin boleh pergi lagi lepas ni lah.