Spread the Beauty~

Friend: Hey! How was your Maal Hijrah?
Gg: Good :)
Friend: O.. What's Maal Hijrah anyway? I don't know...
Gg: Hijra is actually the migration of our prophet from Mekah to Madinah to spread Islam. So that marks the starting of the Islamic calendar. So Maal Hijra is actually like a New Year to the Muslims
Friend: So what do you do during Maal Hijra?
Gg: We recite prayers in the evening. Some make resolutions..
Friend: So what's your resolution?
Gg: Wo! haha You wanna know?? Hurm.. to be a better person than I was last year, I guess :P

This brief conversation is the one that compelled me to write this post tonight. The conversation lasted for about a minute and then she was off to settle something elsewhere. Not so much info for her there. But that was the most concise definition of Hijra that I can give her in that short dialogue.

I was aware that dakwah is a resposibility of every Muslim since childhood but I was always having this mindset that I'm in no position to do so. Maybe it was due to my brash demeanour. Others seem to advocate my thinking as well. I was always nagged by the Naqibahs for things I didn't do. My tazkirahs were lame and I know nobody was listening. I was the only one in the prefect board who didn't have any position in BADAR, this Islamic society for students. And I remember very well how my ustaz have to stand beside me before class when the whole class recite the verses that we have to memorize for SPM. That time I refused to recite the verses infront of him. Even as he stood beside me, I stood there with my lips pursed together.




As I grow I learn that there are many ways to contribute in the path of dakwah; and it's not necessarily about being able to convert someone from a non-Muslim to a Muslim. Amr makruf nahi munkar is the most common in my life. But of course I was almost always at the recieving end lah! But what I want to write today is about spreading the beauty of Islam itself..

Recently I was disturbed by news that I know will somehow invoke hatred among religions. I was thinking, what if all of this are not true? then it'll be on us for spreading Fitnah.. but then only Allah knows for He is the All-knowing.

But from my personal experience whereby I have a lot of non-Muslim friends and some are even my best friends, I was never preached. Dialogues between us were always about understanding each others' beliefs just like the one above. I remember one night when I was in form 2, when the lights were already switched off in our dormitory, me and my friend exchanged holy books and we read them as we lie on her bed; me reading the bible and her browsing through a tafseer of mine. So in 2007, there was an interfaith talk in UIA, actually that wasn't my first time browsing through the bible.


Throughout my life, I travelled a lot. I met a lot of people and since I can converse in English quite fluently, so I have no problems communicating with foreigners. I love it actually because that's how I can pratice using proper English without adding any lah and avoid using broken English. They always ask about my faith since it is clear that I'm a Muslim from the scarf that I wear on my head. The most common questions..

Why do you pray 5 times a day?
Why do you have to cover your head?
Why does Muslim accept polygamy?
How you find time to pray 5 times a day?
Why do you fast?


See the pattern of their questions? They are trying to seek the justification of Islamic practice. They know that Muslims practice this and that but they don't know why. And when they understand, they accept it and show their respect. And to some who don't seek to understand, these are the people who ridicule, belittle and say all those bad things about Islam in the internet.. Which finally induce hatred.

Okay.. What I'm trying to say here is..

Firstly, if you hear or read anything that you think provocative and can induce hatred towards another religion, find your facts!!!!!!!!!!!! Don't take it as it is. If it happen to be true, act accordingly. Don't be engulfed by rage because excessive anger will always , ALWAYS bring about regret


Secondly, SMILE~ :D who knows if that beautiful smile of yours can make someone greet you and start a conversation and even ask you about your faith. *That actually happen to us in Bali. We smiled and the American girl asked "Where are you from? Are you Muslim faith?" she didn't ask anything about Islam lah. We were on this very small boat*


Thirdly, Islamophobia has been around for too long already. Those fallacious bad image of Islam is too well broadcasted that the only way that we can prove that we are not as such is by treating each and every human in this world with equal kindness and compassion.


Finally, Islam is beautiful but sayang the beauty revolves only in our Islamic world and doesn't go out beyond that. Now lets spread the beauty, let it radiate all over the Universe (^^) Let all the inhabitants of planet earth know that Islam is beautiful (^^)/ Chaiyok!!!!!!!!!


Okay ini post sempena maal hijra :)

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Stanley and Sam.. :)

Lately, I didn't have time to finish any fiction. But I've been reading these thin books; <300 pages. Lessons from Stanley the Cat and Letters to Sam.

I bought Lessons from Stanley the Cat first and finished it in mere minutes. It's very simple yet the messages are clear and concise. It tells you of what life lessons you can learn from a pet and I deemed all in it are undeniably correct but are the things that I've failed to notice all these years of having cats in my house.

The author have been observant alright. I love the way how she connects the behaviour of a cat to our daily living. Like this part that I love..

Pursue your goals like prey. Take time to make a good plan and have patience to follow through a number of times. Failure is simply another opportunity to create a different strategy. Do not take mistakes personally

And with these words there is an illustration of a cat in a pouncing position. This is very true, you see. My cats never give up when it comes to getting something that they want. Like if they're hungry, they'll be pestering you by rubbing their body against your feet endlessly. Or they'll just annoy you with their high pitch mewing or just bite your toe and that's when I finally give up and give them what they want.

Letters to Sam~ Hurm.. I've been flipping through the pages of this book in different bookstores for so many times already. Too expensive for its small number of pages. But I finally dicided to buy this book because I needed a book that contains a collection of short stories during my travel. So, this book suits my preference since the letters are divided into several parts.

Daniel Gottlieb, the author, is a Jewish psychologist who'd been a quadriplegic for so many years due to an accident. Sam is actually his grandson who is autistic so he wrote these letters to convey his message about love and life.

In this book, we can see the world from the eyes of the disabled; how he had to deal with sudden changes, heartbreaks, acceptance and finally starting anew. My favourite part in this book would be the part when his wheelchair tires got stuck in a gopher hole. No one was home to assist him so he got stuck there for hours and got frustrated. He yelled and yelled to his frustration. When he got tired, he stopped, and start to notice the singing birds and suddenly he found peace. The birds have been singing all along but he didn't notice it because he was too busy fighting to be 'released' from the gopher hole and was too frustrated when he failed.

The moral from that part of this book is that life can get hard sometimes and we'll cry and rage over it that we can be blinded of the things that give us peace although the things have always been there all along...

So that's it for Books~ Highly recommended for those seeking motivation and inspiration :)

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Bajet Trip Bali~ Bajet Bule~

This is gonna be a long post because I'm just SUPER EXCITED!\(^^)/

Okay first of all, let me start on how this whole thing came about.. Initially, the trip in Singapore was suppose to be a reunion; a huge one. I messaged all singles left in our class in fb about the trip. Quite a number responded in excitement, giving me high hopes that it'll be a huge one. But then when the date finally arrived, only 4 of us could make it. Mida and I manage to get our leave but Shifaa & Ray's leave were not approved, so the two of them could only join us in Singapore..

So, Mida and I got stuck.. Dialog semase itu..

Mida: Ape kite nak wat wei lepas dari Singapore..??
Gg: Aku tengok kau.. Kau tengok aku..
Mida: Gi Korea jom!!!!!!!!!
Gg: Ko gile ke!!!???
Mida: Abis tu kite nak watpe??
Gg: Kalo la kat Malaysia ni ade tempat macam Bali...
Mida: Bali jom!!!!!!
Gg: Ko serius???
Mida: Aku okay je :)

In less than 30 minutes we purchased two-way tickets to Bali (^^)v




So this is Bali map. I took this from Yasa Bali Tour website. I was the one who did the studying and plotted the whole journey because Mida was busied with the accreditation thingy. It took me 3 weeks to plan the whole thing. I say, planning a trip is HARD and you'll have to expect the unexpected. I think I did my study rather meticulously for this trip, but still there were quite a lot of changes made. Many of my friends went there before so I got a lot of help and recommendations from them.

But the tragic part should be the earthquake that happened 11 days before our trip. It freaked the hell out of me!!! When I heard the news that Thursday afternoon, I was so disturbed that I can't proceed with my work hahaha Alhamdulillah, everything was fine after the 2nd earthquake and the trip need not be cancelled :)

The first route that I plotted was

Kuta-> Uluwatu-> Kintamani-> Amed->Lovina->Bedugul-> Tanah Lot->Ubud

For this route I'd considered the distance between places and the roads that connect them. I was hoping to cover most of Bali's major attractions. However, when we arrive in Bali, we were surprised to find that Bali is actually a very HUGE island and transport is quite costly; especially when there were only the two of us to split the cost. (-_-") One more thing, no driver wanted to take us to Amed because it is quite remote. So we'd changed our route to...

Kuta-> Uluwatu -> Kintamani -> Lovina-> Bedugul ->Tanah Lot-> Ubud

When deciding for this route, we have to choose between the corals and shipwrecks in Amed and the mountains in Kintamani.. As you can guess, the two of us can never ever ever resist mountains. Afterall, we can still snorkel in Lovina :)

KUTA

So our first destination was Kuta. We booked a hotel in central Kuta so it was very convenient to go to Legian. Actually Legian was only in walking distance from our hotel but we didn't know until our last day in Bali!!!!!!!!!

To me, there was nothing much in Kuta and Legian. Heavy traffic, too many tourists, humid and the beaches were typical.. But since Mida don't get to see beautiful beaches in Pahang as much as I do in Sabah, so kasi can la Mida excited sorang2 :p Even the outlets there are the ones that you can find in Malaysia.

ULUWATU

I've never seen anything like Uluwatu before; one of the most scenic place I've ever been to. Me standing on a cliff that rises from the ocean, watching the slow motion waves beneath me, the gentle breeze.. Pergh! Feel habes~


Actually, the main attraction in Uluwatu is Uluwatu temple which is one of the main temple in Bali. The pictures of Uluwatu that you see in my facebook are actually taken within the compound of the temple. According to the local's belief, Uluwatu temple is the home of the guardian of the south gate which evades any evil forces that tries to intrude from the South. There are nine key directional temples in Bali that protect Bali from every corner of the island.

I hate the monkeys, though. There were sooooooo many of them here and they like to grab things. We have to remove our sunglasses, leaving us no shades against the deadly Bali sun and we had to squint our eyes. I also have to hide the beads of my shawl while strolling there. I was so afraid of the monkeys that I said to Mida, "Mida, aku cakap awal2 ni. Kalo monyet tu kaco ko, aku takkan tolong ko.." hahaha




KINTAMANI

It was almost 4 to 5 hours drive from Uluwatu to Kintamani. Along the way you get to see other major attractions of Bali but we didn't stop since it was getting dark. We reached Kintamani at around 8pm and we haven't book any hotel yet there. The one where we stayed for the night was a 3 star hotel which cost us around RM220 per night but it was worth it since our room balcony is so strategic; alluring us to climb Mount Batur that is..

Climbing Mount Batur was not in our plan at all. At first we only wanted to enjoy the view. But since our room is overlooking the remarkable landscape of Mount Batur and the lake, we just can't resist the temptation. What more if our hotel offered affordable packages!!! Mida was scrutinizing the piece of paper where they printed the packages while I was at the counter settling some bills. We went off to our room with the paper in Mida's hand after that. About 30 minutes later Mida blurt out "Jom hiking esok.." and I said, "Oh, aku sbenarnye menunggu ko cakap macam ni.." hahaha




So the next morning, we woke up at 3 am, had our breakfast at the restaurant and head off to the starting point with a van. The route of Mt Batur is quite deceiving you know. Very flat ground in the beginning and slowly it becomes steeper and steeper with lots of loose rocks. The rocks here reminds me of Mt Merapi in Padang :)

Mida and I were gasping for air as we climb. After more than a year of no hiking, we've lost most of our stamina (we haven't lost it all, though :P) So when we reached the top after 3 hours of hiking, there was this very cozy hut (the one behind me in the pic) which is actually where you can have coffee and have some egg and cheese sandwich and also roasted banana. They also have this tiny room where you can warm yourself with fire. O ya, we were the only Asian tourist up there heeee




I think I've climbed around 10 mountains in my 25 years of life and I say Mt Batur has the most beautiful scenery of all!!!! Firstly, when the sun rises everything just shine like gold. I've never seen anything like that. Mida manage to capture a picture of that. Then when the clouds cleared off, the scenery was just so amazing. The lake was shimmering in its full glory. Mount Abang and and Mount Agung stood in front of us in conspicuous majesty. And as you walk around you'll see different sceneries..

Like this black soil wasteland which is actually an aftermath of an eruption. According to our guide, Mt Batur is one of the most active volcano in Indonesia. Usually a volcano stays dormant for decades or maybe even centuries. But Mt. Batur erupted for a few times in the last century and the last one dated in the 1990's. To be honest, I wasn't listening that much when he told us about the mountain. Hehe too busy with my camera :P

So this is the picture of us sliding down the volcano. I've never experience anything like this in other mountains before. It was volcanic sands all around and you just slide down as you descend. This goes for a few hundred meters. Don't forget to bring your sunglasses to protect your eyes. I didn't bring mind so I'd to cover my face with my shawl all the way down. Ahax! saye rase gambar ini sangat co0l sbenarnye hehe

LOVINA

After the mountain, we head for the beach in Lovina. We departed at 1pm fom Kintamani and reached Lovina at around 4.30pm. Lovina is not as congested as the beaches in the south. You can just peacefully stroll around the shops and enjoy your drinks at any cafe by the beach. Most of the restaurants here have live band at night so you can enjoy the music as you pass by.

It was quite hard to find halal food in this area though. It seems like almost all of the restaurants have Babi Guling in their menu. We manage to find one seafood restaurant that doesnt serve that.

Lovina is famous for its Dolphins so that was actually what I was aiming to see here. I actually thought the dolphin-watching spot is near to shore but actually it was waaaaaaay in the middle of the sea. The boat we were in was very small and no life-jacket was provided. Luckily the weather was good that day so the boat ride was not bumpy or else I would be thrown off the boat :P

We did see their fins as they swim on the water surface but only from afar. We should've waited for them to jump but the Americans who were on our boat just can't wait to snorkel. And then came the funny moment where Mida had seasickness while snorkeling!!!!!!! hahaha ok jahat :P

Git Git Waterfall

So after Lovina, we spent a night in Ubud and on the way there we manage to stop at some tourist spots too like this very tall waterfall. Well, don't trust the travel guide that much because from what I read, this waterfall should be far and hard to reach. I told Mida about it but then when we negotiated with the car rental owner, he just agree to take us there and later we found out that this waterfall is very near to the road. There was a very convenient parking space nearby and it was less than 15 minutes walk to the waterfall

Since it is very tall and with boulders below it, this waterfall give out a very immense cloud of mist. As you can see in this pic, I'm all wet! I was actually standing around 10-15m from the waterfall. I also had to constantly wipe the lens of my camera to take pictures.





Bedugul

Then we stopped at Bedugul and visited Ulun Danu temple which is set at the lakeside of Lake Beratan; another main temple in Bali. This temple is the one printed on one of the Indonesian note. The compound is so well taken care of and the climate here is quite cold.

When we were there, there was this ceremony known as Ngaben. This is actually a ceremony for the dead whereby the family members of the dead will pay respects in all main temples in Bali before the creamation of the corpse. It's very unique. All of the Hindus were wearing white and they release ducks into the the lake at the end of the ceremony. We were lucky to have the chance to witness the ritual :)

Tanah Lot

And our last stop before spending the night in Ubud was Tanah Lot. I say, this should be the must-go tourism spot of Bali. If you google about Bali, the image of Tanah Lot should be among the first to appear on your screen. We reach here just before sunset. It was the low tide that time so we could walk towards this unique temple set on a rock. It wont be accessible during the high tide. We didn't dare to enter the temple because the monks seem to be giving blessings to those who enter.

And we were also rushing to catch the Kecak Dance which was held at the other end of Tanah Lot. We went there running you see because it was soooo far from the temple. Kecak Dance is a trance-like dance where the music was from the humming voices of men that form a circle and the dancers or should I say the actors performed their acts inside the circle. The dance tells the story of Ramayana and Sitadewi and Laksamana. Very interesting indeed especially the harmony they produce from the humming.

UBUD

It was already dark when we reach Ubud so we only had little time to spend here since we have to catch our flight. The airport is about 1 1/2 hour drive from Ubud so we have to leave early. O we were also running out of cash when we were in Ubud. Super broke man! Sampai kena hire Ojek instead of a taxi hahaha

Ubud is another peaceful place which is rich with culture. This is where the cultural centre is located and according to a friend we could actually watch many types of dance here. Mida and I were too busy searching for a spa so we didn't get to enjoy the culture that much huhu. With our scarce cash, we shopped for souvenirs at the market.

Ubud is definitely a place I want to visit again because I think I missed to many exciting things here.

And finally this is our picture in Kuta in front of the Hard Rock Cafe. See the guitar at the back.

We did another crazy thing before leaving. We stopped by at one of Bali's famous spa and treat ourselves with a 1.5 hours massage. The massage started at 6.30pm and our flight was 9.20pm. Do your own math. Kira berapa jak masa kami ada untuk rush pi airport hahaha GILA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And the queue for check in was damn long. I thought we were going to miss our flight. Luckily we didn't!!!

I would love to go to Bali again. It's a beautiful island with a lot of beautiful things to see and enjoyable activities to do.

O another thing that I would like to mention here is I'm so impressed by the Hindus' devotion towards their religion. They sure spend a lot of time and a lot of money on their rituals and ceremonies. They perform prayers for almost every single object in their life. And they truly believe in life after death that they are so afraid to do bad things because they believe when they are reincarnated later, they'll be punished for all their wrong-doings.

In Ubud, I dropped a 100 000Rp note and only realize it after a few minutes that the note is no longer in my grip. I later found the note at a nearby street that I just passed. There were quite a number of people passing by there but none of them took the note!!!

Okay that's all about my Bali trip. Currently I'm planning for our next next trip hehe get what I mean? :P

O ya.. Kenapa bajet bule..?? Bule is Mat salleh.. Kami bajet bule sebab every single place and every single activity pon kami jak asian and the rest are bule haha except for in Tanah Lot and Uluwatu la :P

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