4 countries, 3 continents in 1 day

This does not happen often. Quite unbelievable, but not entirely fun.

Fri, 15/8/14

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Asia
KUL-LHR : 0020 - 0640

After being told of the KUL-CDG flight delay due to the plane's technical problems, and making last minute changes, we managed to secure our tickets. Our luggage were deposited directly to KLIA's security screening since it was already boarding time. We were escorted by KLIA's security personnel to the immigration check until our boarding gate. We were the last to board, and I guess everybody were quite upset with us for holding the flight. But this was no fault of ours. The journey was smooth but I couldn't sleep well, contrary to Partner in Crime who can sleep literally anywhere.

London Heathrow Airport: 0640, UK, Europe

We arrived London Heathrow airport at 6.40am at Terminal 4. We transferred to Terminal 5 for our connecting flight to Paris CDG via British Airways. Since MAS and BA are under the One World alliance, our BA tickets were issued in KL and we did not have to collect our luggage at Heathrow and check in again for the flight to Paris.

We found a multi faith prayer room complete with the ablution place and sajadah (prayer mat) at Terminal 5 so we performed our prayers there. Luckily we brought some snacks with us as we didn't bring any GBP cash and we didn't want to change money for just some snacks and drinks. Of course we could always use the credit card in case if we wanted to buy anything.

prayer room

LHR-CDG: 0905-1115

Our flight to Paris CDG was on time. Since we got our tickets at the last minute, we didn't get to seat together. I was seated behind Partner In Crime's row. It was a 1 hour 15 min flight. We opted for the vegetarian meal. We were given a pack containing mini danish, orange juice and bircher muesli. It was OK tu sustain us for a few hours. There was no in flight entertainment.

vege meal

London - Paris

Paris Charles De Gaule airport: 1115, France, Europe

We had to wait until almost 12 noon to get our luggage then quickly flagged a taxi from the designated area (we didn't want to take the taxis from touts who were preying on travellers arriving at the arrival hall). We wanted to catch the 1510 Royal Air Maroc flight to Marrakech from Paris Orly airport, which would take about 45 minutes by taxi. We originally wanted to take the bus which would be cheaper (EUR 20/person) but it would take slightly longer than 1 hour, and we had to wait for the 1230 bus so we didn't want to take the risk. The taxi used the meter (the driver I suspect is Vietnamese)  and was charged EUR 80 (double the cost of taking the bus).

Paris Orly airport: 1245, France, Europe

As mentioned in the previous post, MAS did not make the changes to our Royal Air Maroc ticket and we had to buy a new ticket. We still had time to check in although we had just purchased our tickets and we were seated together. Our flight was on time and took 3 hours 10 minutes. Our in flight meal looked something like vermicelli with chicken and it tasted nice to my hungry tummy. There was also no in-flight entertainment.

Royal Air Maroc meal

shared screen display

Marrakech Menara airport: 1715, Morocco, Africa

After all the drama, 13100km and 24 hours later (and technically still on the same day) from our departing point in KUL,we finally arrived at Marrakech. We had to walk on the tarmac to the terminal building and boy was it hot! Very much hotter than in KL. We quickly walked to the terminal where there was already a long queue at the immigration counter. After a very long journey, a hot shower was very much needed! Ah, hopefully our Riad (traditional Moroccan house converted into accommodation place) wouldn't disappoint.

Marrakech Menara airport

13100 km total journey

The Unbelievable Journey to Morocco

Preparations to Morocco

It would be our first time to Morocco and I was looking forward to it although I didn't have much time to do thorough research due to the wedding preparations. Everything was booked online - flight and hotels. We would be crossing over to Tarifa, Spain via the ferry, but we would only buy the tickets from the jetty in Tangier. Being Malaysian, we had to apply for visa, but it was a breeze. We only had to fill in a form which you could download it online (in my case, the form was readily available at my office), prepare our travel itinerary, flight ticket, 2 pieces of passport sized photographs, letter of invitation (we did this through our office HR) and a valid passport of course. Although we didn't have our ticket out of Morocco (since we were planning to take the ferry), the travel itinerary and our return flight ticket was sufficient.

We walked to the Moroccan embassy in KL at Wisma Selangor Dredging Berhad, just across KLCC, next to Maya Hotel. The visa cost us RM88 per person. We collected our passports 12 days later with a 10 day visa pass (the visa days given follow strictly your travel itinerary - hence there is no chance for you to change your exit out of Morocco to a later date) . The delay in visa collection was due to the Hari Raya (Eid) public holidays and a public holiday of Morocco on 30 July (Eid Al-Ârch) or Enthronement Day.

Since there is no direct flight from Malaysia, we opted to fly in Morocco from Paris. We took Malaysia Airlines to Paris CDG, then changed airport to Paris Orly and took the Royal Air Maroc flight to Marrakech. There was no flight connection to Marrakech from Paris CDG (only to Casablanca), except for Easy Jet (budget airline). However, since the transit time would be too long (MAS flight arrives CDG at 6.30am, while Easy Jet leaves for Marrakech at 3.50pm), we opted for the earlier Royal Air Maroc at 1.15pm, but had to change airport to Paris Orly. We planned to take the bus from CDG to Orly (cost EUR20/person) which would take about 1 hour . We thought that 7 hours was ample time to connect from CDG to Orly in case of flight delay from KL.


Thurs, 14/8/14

The Unbelievable Journey

But this was not to be the case! Our flight to Paris CDG was delayed to THE NEXT DAY and we HAD NO IDEA ABOUT IT UNTIL WE ARRIVED AT KLIA to deposit our luggage. We had already done online check in the day before and there was NO NOTIFICATION whatsoever via SMS, email or call although MAS have all our contact details.

Here's what happened:

Date & Time	Event
14/08/14 at 2200 hrs	Arrive at KLIA
14/08/14 at 2205 hrs	Arrive at MAS bag drop counter. Already done web check in 1 day before. Upon reaching the counter, was told by MAS officer Ms Aina (as per shown on her name badge) informed us of flight MH20 delay from 14/08/14 at 2340 to 15/08/14 at 0825 hrs We informed Ms Aina that we have a connecting flight to Marrakech AT749 on 15/08/14 from Paris Orly via Royal Air Maroc at 1315 hrs We were given the option to wait until the next morning for MH20 or re-route us to London and then Paris via MH 02 and BA306 respectively We opted for the re-route to London and then Paris as we were only staying in Marrakech for 2 nights, hence option of waiting for MH20 on 15/08/14 will cause us to cut short our stay in Marrakech, therefore, was not a viable option. After 2 days in Marrakech we will be moving to another city - Imlil. We also asked Ms Aina if she could change our Royal Air Maroc from ORY – RAK on 15/08/14 originally to depart at 1315 hrs to 15/08/14 at 1510 hrs as the BA306 flight from LHR-CDG will only arrive at CDG at 1115 hrs. This is not enough time to catch our connecting flight from Paris Orly (different airport) at 1315 hrs. Considering fastest transfer from Paris CDG to Paris ORY by taxi would take approximately 45 minutes and waiting time for luggage, we estimated to arrive at Paris Orly at around 1230 hrs. This is not enough time for 2 hours arrival at airport for international departure
14/08/14 at 2315 hrs	We received our boarding pass for MH02 KUL-LHR and BA306 LHR-CDG However, Ms Aina informed us that she was not able to issue the new e-ticket for Royal Air Maroc 15/08/14 to depart at 1510 hrs. She mentioned that she had done the necessary changes and our new flight will be AT641
14/08/14 at 2330 hrs	We safely boarded  the MH02 flight to LHR. Prior to boarding, another MAS officer asked for our original Royal Air Maroc e-ticket no. to make the necessary changes.
15/08/14 at 0640 hrs	Safely arrived LHR. Waited to board BA306 to Paris
15/08/14 at 1115 hrs	Safely arrived CDG. Transferred to Paris Orly by taxi after receiving luggage
15/08/14 at 1245 hrs	Arrived at Paris Orly airport. Went straight to Royal Air Maroc check in counter to check in with original e-ticket no. believing that MAS has already done the changes Was told by the Royal Air Maroc officer at counter that our ticket was not valid as the flight has already departed (AT749 at 1315 hrs) We mentioned to the Royal Air Maroc officer that MAS has already done the changes We were told to go the ticketing counter to double check
15/08/14 at 1313 hrs	We showed the ticketing officer our original Royal Air Maroc e-ticket and told him that MAS has done the changes to depart via AT641 at 1510 hrs The ticketing officer checked in his system, but told us there was no change. He printed out the ticket and verified there was no change To get to Marrakech, we had to purchase a new ticket We had no other option, hence purchased 2 new tickets from ORY – RAK via AT641 at 1510 The new tickets fare were EUR 175 X 2 tickets = EUR 350
15/08/14 at 1715 hrs	We safely arrived Marrakech

To be fair to MAS, we were upgraded to Business Class on the KUL-LHR sector and their officers in KLIA did their best to accommodate us. But unfortunately, the necessary changes to the Royal Air Maroc ticket never materialized and we had to fork out additional money to buy new flight tickets. We are currently pursuing our refund claim for the missed flight to Marrakech. Hope to receive good news soon.

Lesson learnt for us:
1. Never make a connecting flight on the same day (for a holiday trip), if possible
2. Always keep on checking on your flight status starting from 2 days prior to departure in case of delays / cancelled flights. Knowing flight delays beforehand allows you to make necessary changes to your connecting flight (if applicable).

PEERS Merdeka Raya Dive, Pulau Tioman

PEERS Merdeka Raya Dive, 30/08 - 1/9/13

The second trip I joined with PEERS which is also only my second dive trip. There is supposed to be a clean up dive and also beach clean up on the last day of the trip, but Tioman is so clean (at least at the place we stayed / dived) we could find any trash. Which is a good sign. Keep it up Tioman folks / visitors to Tioman!

We stayed at the Genting Bayu chalet at Kampung Genting, the first stop from Tanjong Gemok jetty near Endau. Tioman Island is under the jurisdiction of the state of Pahang. We arrived at the jetty early in the morning at 5am after departing from KLCC around 11.30pm via trunk road. Our bus exited from the Plus highway near Senawang, took the Lekas highway and entered the trunk road from Seremban. We cut through parts of Negeri Sembilan via Kuala Kawang and Bandar Baru Serting before making our way to Pahang via Bandar Tun Abdul Razak (passing through Felda Keratong, which I've heard some eerie stories, luckily the bus driver is tough), then to Muadzam Shah before finally reaching the jetty at Endau which is at the border between Pahang and Johor. We ate some buns for breakfast, courtesy of PEERS before boarding the ferry at 7.30am

We arrived at Kg Genting, Tioman Island at about 9.30am and had some drinks at the stalls before walking to our chalet for about 10 mins. Our chalet has basic facilities- bedroom with attached bathroom, towels, soap, air cond and hot water - although there's no pump, so we ended up bathing with cold water as we couldn;t afford to wait for the hot water - too slow. Anyway, we are going for dive trips, so the room would just be a resting point, so it is all fine. Food is tasty too, with fresh seafood caught from the sea. However, the service is quite slow - the hungry divers are kept waiting most of the time. This can be improved hopefully, especially during peak season as there are many visitors.

For us leisure divers, we started our first dive in the afternoon. Here are the details of our dive locations:
1. Soyak (15.7m) - turtle, stingray, angel fish
2. Kerdau ( 9.4m) -  banana nudibranch, stingray, razor fish, puffer fish
3. Bahara (14.9 m) - near to lighthouse, and a cool island with swallows
4. Renggis (14.9m) - Barracuda, artificial reef made from children's playground climbing pole
5. Bayu house reef (13.7 m) - Shore, clean up dive. Flag and PEERS banner picture taking and Telekung project artificial reef

It rained on the last day, but we carried on with the dive.

We wrapped things up by 2.00pm for the ferry back to Tanjung Gemokbefore making our way back to KLCC, not before stopping for tiger prawn dinner (delicious, no allergy) at next to Gerai Syuhada stall at an R&R near Kampung Leban Condong, Kuala Rompin. We arrived KLCC at midnight, and braved our way back home (luckily I parked my car at Sarah's)

Enjoy the pix courtesy of Harni's excellent underwater geared camera! And Elsie's too (although the camera bade farewell by the end of the trip)

stingray

turtle

healthy corals

artificial reef

PEERS!

jellyfish

puffer

squid

Redang scuba diving

Malaysia Day Redang scuba diving
15 - 16/9/12

I've been wanting to scuba dive for quite some time but was put off until recently when PEERS organized a Malaysia Day dive at Redang in collaboration with Seamonkey Dive Centre and Majlis Daerah Sepang (don't ask me why Sepang) to be registered in the Malaysia Book of Records as the biggest underwater Malaysia flag bearing. Well actually MDS was the main organizer, while PEERS just chipped in.

To participate, I'd need to be certified as an Open Water diver, and there was limited time so all had to be done in express. Theory classes were completed in 2 consecutive day, 4 hours each after office. I was starving by the end of class.  Next I completed 3 pool sessions on the only remaining weekend (Saturday) before the event and had to continue the remaining 2 sessions plus the theory exam on Tuesday after work travelling to Taman Jaya as I wasn't free that Sunday. Whoa that was really tiring, but it had to be done, else I would put getting certificied on hold again.

So on Friday night 14 Sept the group comprising of 17 of us departed from office via a chartered bus to Merang. We arrived quite early at about 5.30am at Merang jetty. We had breakfast and chilled a bit while waiting for the boat to Redang at 9am. A bit of drama ensued when the boat we were in stalled just 10 mins after departing. So we had to wait for another boat to pass by. Half of the group boarded the first boat to pass by, the remaining half waited for the next boat. However, all of our luggages were loaded onto the first boat.

First boat (which I was in)  then stopped at the marine park after about an hour ride which was not our stop (ours was the Amangappa Resort) but 2 of our group members disembarked here without realizing. Luckily I asked the boatmaster and was told it was not our stop. Since our group members didn't know each other yet, I only saw 1 member of our group (a mat salleh - that's why I recognize him) got off here. Another member (local guy - I completely missed him) was totally oblivious and had already made his way to the marine park. Another confusion here was that we were not sure to whom the luggages belonged to as not all the group members were on this boat.

We finally reached our destination at the Mutiara Redang / Amangappa Resort jetty at almost 11am. The drama was not over yet. Our group was supposed to stay at Amangappa, but due to some misunderstanding of the resort, the girls were told to stay at Mutiara Redang instead for 1 night and could shift to Amangappa the second night. It would have been better if the guys were put up at the other resort instead of the girls as a safety measure. But nonetheless, the girls made their points known and the organizers acknowledged their mistake and refunded us for the first night as Mutiara Redang has a cheaper rate. So all was well...

Oh yes, the guy who alighted at the marine park was sent to Amangapa jetty by sampan. Poor him :-p

Our first dive for the trip was at 2.30pm after lunch. The open water students (3 of us) still had to complete 4 open sea sessions before we could make our leisure dives. For the 4 open sea dives, we had to follow our instructor - Arnold and repeat the skills that we learned in the pool. 2 dives were completed on the first day, and another 2 on the second day.

It was quite an experience doing the sea dive for the first time - nervous and excited at the same time. Swallowed some sea water (bleurgh) on my first attempt. By the end of the 4th session, we were certified open water divers hurray! I still had to practise on my bouyancy as I kept floating up to the surface unintentionally. But at least this was better than sinking unintentionally! Also I need to always de-fog my goggles before jumping in the water as it tended to get foggy easily. Foggy view is not enjoyable! Ah another thing during the pre-certification dives, I was maybe too focused on the equipments on me that I missed the huge stingray! How could anybody miss this!  I guess I was a bit too stiff and needed to relax more lol! Luckily I didn't miss the clown fish (nemo) and saw some rainbow and blue coloured fishes. My dive buddy Dan mentioned seeing puffer (box like) fishes, but somehow I failed to recognize which one lol! I guess I need to bring the fish ID card with me - Arnold had one but he didn't bring it down at the time.

Here's a summary of our 5 diving spots at Redang:
1. Redang Kalong house reef (9.4m)
2. Stingray reef (12m)
3. Seamonkey House Reef (6.6m) - here was the flag bearing spot
4. Terumbu (coral) Che Isa (18m)
5. Terumbu Kili (17.6 m) - this was my 1st leisure dive after being certified hurray! We did a Project Aware Clean Up dive here. Me and buddy Dan collected only 1 bottle. The spot was clean actually. So it was more a leisure than clean up dive ;)

Overall I really enjoyed my first Scuba diving trip and made new friends / diving kakis for future excursions, including a sporting GM (En Zul) and an avid underwater photographer with high tech gadgetry (Amar). Respect! And the 3 ladies (Adibah, Hazel & Dan) Of course there are skills that I still need to improve. Where to next trip? ;)

Enjoy the pix, courtesy of pro diver/photographer Amar

corals

malaysia flag bearing with PEERS

ikan

more ikan

fishy

nemo

peers!

  

Mr Stingray (Cue: Are U Jimmy Ray? haha)

 

Us

Discover Scuba!

Sat 30/6/12 : PJ Palms Sports Centre (near Amcorp Mall / A&W / Taman Jaya LRT)

Thanks to PEERS again, I got the opportunity to join another great activity - trying my hand at diving!
PEERS would again participate in a CSR, i.e. Project Aware in Combating Marine Debris - doing ocean clean up, data collection and litter prevention, tentatively slated for end Sept 2012, so I'm aiming to join - but I'll need to get my diving license first. It'd be a cool way to contribute back to society - while enjoying the scenery of aquatic life.

So this Discovery Scuba experience today would be a great introduction to test the water (literally) before jumping (or rather diving) into the real open water dive certification.

It was supposed to be 10 of us, but only 6 showed up and I was the only girl. Didn't matter, the boys treated me like just another dive member :) Our trainer today was Nick and Faris.

We started with a video introduction on the Do's and Don'ts of diving and on the procedures for a safe and enjoyable dive. Then we were briefed again by Nick, signed the indemnity form and then it was straight to the pool. We were first asked to put on our mask / goggle and use the regulator. Then it was the cleaning the mask underwater exercise, followed by releasing the regulator and putting it back (I had to this 3 times as I was bubbling out air way too much - I was out of air too soon and had to ascend to surface). Lastly it was diving to the deep part of the pool with our fins on - of course I excelled on that heheh. But going to the deeper end - you have to remember to equalize the pressure - as you go deeper, the water will compress the air pocket inside your body which are at your ears, sinuses (nose and throat) and lungs and also on the mask you're wearing. You equalize by just simple pinching your nose and blow the air from your nose. It's similar like when you're ascending in a plane then you feel some ringing in your ears. For me, I just swallowed my saliva to equalize. Simple :)

The scuba experience lasted for about 3 hours. Then of course I had a go at swimming at the Olympic sized pool. Can't help it, I can't resist to swim.

OK, enjoy this video of PEERS' collaboration with Project Aware in July 2011 in cleaning up at Bidong Jetty and a fun leisure dive at Pulau Karah.

ATV @ Kemensah

Sat, 27/11/10

Ah...another excellent adventure organised by PEERS! :-)

ATV (all terrain vehicle) at Kemensah (further down Zoo Negara). What's an ATV anyway? Here's a short description of it: It is a vehicle that travels on low pressure tyres, with a seat that is straddled by the operator, along with handlebars for steering control. The rider sits on and operates these vehicles like a motorcycle but the extra wheels give more stability at slower speeds.

Find more here

The ATVs that we used are automatic transmission vehicles - no clutches, hurrah! (I have not driven a manual car since taking my driving license!). There is only front, neutral and reverse gears. The gas (accelerator) is on the right handlebar, the brake at the right handlebar is for the rear wheels, the left one is for the front wheels.


ATVs

This time around we were missing 2 head honchos of PEERS recreation committee Zu & Shawn due to domestic causes. Wish you were here!

We were supposed to gather at Kemensah at 4.30pm. I fetched Liza & Aida (well, another Aida, of course I didn't pick up myself :-p) from LRT Gombak and we reached the ATV right on time, together with Razeif. But we were told that we would only start at 5.30pm There was another group before us which hadn't finished yet, so we would have to wait for them to return with the ATVs

To pass the time, me and Diba (Limau's wife) made a splash at the swimming pool (yes, there is one here!) The water is from the river here.

The pool

We started our briefing at around 5.30pm when it started to rain heavily. It was intermittent really, the rain- it rained cats and dogs at one time, then receded, but it rained heavily again. There were 16 of us (4 didn't show up), so we were divided into 3 groups. Being with Liza, she wanted to be in the second group so she could see how the others were doing it first.

Briefing

I picked up the bimbo-est helmet (a pinkish flowery one!) We were told there would be two 45 degree hills; we should just press on the gas and not lose momentum during the climbing. We were told not to try to balance the ATV like a motorcycle as it is designed to traverse rough terrain (hence the name ATV). We were given the chance to practice first and made a few rounds. I was quite lousy during the practice session (still nervous).

Then we were ready to go! I was the first to go in our group. I was so nervous that the guide decided to climb on my ATV and drove me down instead! (We started by going downhill). It was a slow start for me, still trying to familiarise with the machine and getting the hang of it. Both times during the 45 degree climb, I asked for assistance. At one point, I stuck out my foot to balance the ATV like a bicycle / motorcycle. Hah! The guide was right after all – he already told us not to, the ATV would balance itself. Still not confident enough.


Ready to roll!

However, after the 2^nd climb, I finally got the rhythm and felt confident I would not fall off / drive the ATV off course. I manouvred the first downhill part without assistance and made it through until finish without assistance hurrah! It suddenly felt exciting, and I could go faster (but Aida#2 was faster – she was merempit-ing in the jungle – had to catch up with her!)


The team

Our halfway point was the Air Terjun Sofea Jane – according to Limau, this was where she acted a scene from the film Perempuan, Isteri & … Because it was already 7pm by then, it was dark and cold, so we didn't spend too much time there. Limau mentioned it'd be awesome if we could have a picnic of piping hot maggi by the waterfall. Ah suddenly I felt hungry at the mention of food!

Hurrah! We made it!

We reached back base at 7.30pm, washed up, solat and ready to roll for dinner! But by the time, most of the participants had already left, so there was just 7 of us remaining. We headed to Istana Bambu by the MRR2 for dinner - it was an excellent choice! Great ambience, good food and good company ;-) Loved it! We ordered quite a lot – butter prawn, fried calamari (nama glamer sotong goreng tepung), tom yam, dried chilli chicken and fried tofu. I especially love the tofu (I love tofu!). All cost about RM160 (about RM23/person). Not bad at all! Feeling full, we then head back to our nests and called it a day.

The remaining gang


Nice food & ambience

Note: All pix courtesy of Razeif. Thanks Razeif!

A shooting train

The LRT overshot the Kelana Jaya terminal just now. Panic, I pressed the red emergency button. (This is the emergency communication panel). Not a stop/emergency brake button :-p

We end up on top of a lake (I suspect nearby the now defunct Kelana Seafood), it was too dark to see.

The operator then made an announcement that we would be turning back to KJ. Drama sekejap :-p

Dazed and Confused

It has been a heck of a very confusing week indeed for the 5 of us.

Tue, 26/10/10: The start of the confusion

My brother texted me that there were signs of an impending eruption of Merapi. I texted Razeif asking him to check for details as I was away attending a course at the time and he replied it was true.

Back to office, I searched for more info, and even asked a colleague from Indonesia, Pak Pancha whether it was safe for us to travel. At that stage, he and his mate assured us it was safe, in fact he mentioned that it would be an awesome experience if we could experience the volcanic eruption live! That made us all geared up again :D

Then that night Merapi first erupted. Just before it erupted, there was an earthquake off Padang, which triggered a tsunami at Mentawai island.

We then followed the progress religiously everyday, suddenly taking an interest in volcanic activity, and it coincided with the G&G course I was attending!

Sunday 31/10/10 : Credit Shell Notification

Zal texted me that AA posted a notification on their FB page that those who booked flights to Yogyakarta between 31/10/10 – 6/11/10 have the option to apply for credit shell and make new bookings via their website. Thanks Zal! I kept silent first as I did not want to worry my other travel mates (yet).

Monday, 1/11/10 : Another situation

M hadn’t made his passport yet, and being from a state in Malaysia which has special immigration arrangements (go figure!) he was told it would take him a week to get his passport! This is because his application in KL would be faxed back to his state of origin and the office there would review his application, then decide to approve or not (check for records). If approved, the paperwork will be faxed back to KL. Oh, and he needs to have his surat beranak as well for the application. No kidding.

And I thought everything could be done online now?

Later, I called AA’s customer service line, and was directed to a so-called premium service line (costs RM1.95 per minute – bergurau apa?) which I was put on hold forever – had to listen to all the promos first – before I was passed to a human agent. And he sounded like a native Indian (he didn’t sound like Malaysian Indian). I suspected I was being directed to a call centre in India (many companies do this to save cost). I was told by the agent that, no, there’s no credit shell, only airport tax is covered, and we have to pay additional costs for the rest. I told him about the situation in Yogyakarta, which he was unaware of.

AA’s customer service is definitely lacking big time (I’m restraining myself here from using stronger words)

Was this a sign that we should forego the trip?

Still, we kept on holding to the belief that we would be able to go.

Tuesday, 2/11/10 : A glimmer of hope

M successfully collected his passport within a day. But with constant follow up with the immigration.

I called Wisma Putra to ask whether there was any travel advisory against going to Yogya. The officer answered that there was none, the government is not restricting any travels to Yogya. However, we should notify the M’sian embassy in Jakarta on our travelling dates, where we were staying and contact no, in case they need to contact us.

But then later in the afternoon, there were new updates that flights to and from Yogya were cancelled.

A notification of cancellation was posted on AA’s website, but without mentioning until when. It only mentioned until further notice.
We finally relented it was not meant to be.
Plan B was needed.

Wednesday, 3/11/10 : Plan B

Checked for other destinations on the same date, not so positive. As it was only 2 days left, the other destinations were already too expensive.
We also thought of changing dates instead, and go on a roadtrip instead this weekend.

I checked AA’s website again. Lo and behold, the cancellation notice was no longer there. Back to confused mode. And there was no SMS notification from AA neither.

Drastic measures had to be taken. We went to AA’s counter at KL Sentral to get it settled. We were told that flights are now cleared to land at Yogya. So we cannot apply for the credit shell. (It was first notified on the FB page the credit shell option is valid for flights until 6/11/10) Ours was scheduled for 5/11

If we want to change date / destination, we had to pay the normal penalty fees.

Behind us, Diana (also travelling to Yogya this weekend) overheard us. She mentioned that her group was adamant to change the date without paying the penalty as it was a safety concern. Diana asked us to change our date too, and fight for the credit shell. She said it was too dangerous to proceed. She said that she would pray that we would not be able to go.

But us being stubborn (despite family and friends persuading us not to go), decided we would go (and secretly being excited about it).

We exchanged numbers and promised to inform each other of our progress.
That night Mas watched the movie 2012 and suddenly felt worried so she texted us all her concerns.

I searched for info, and found a guideline:

1) If you have sensitivity of breathing (asthma), strongly suggest you skip or bring meds. Otherwise, carry extra face masks. The ash is very fine like smoke and can irritate your skin.

2) If you have important work schedules after the holiday, and cannot tolerate returning late, better skip.

If you do not experience any of the constraints above, then visiting yogya & capturing on photo a live active volcano will be one of life experiences you'll never forget. From borodubur you can capture images of Merapi in all its splendour..

Liza and Razeif were very very excited about the trip. Myself and Mas kept changing minds all the time. M, if he had his own way, would avoid any natural disaster prone areas altogether!

Thursday, 4/11/10 : A day before

We carried on as usual with our work today. Checked for updates, no flight cancellation notice.

Later in the afternoon, we went to change our money.

Mas picked Liza and me up tonight. We were supposed to sleep at her house and take a taxi to LCCT at 4am. We planned to arrive at 5am as our flight is scheduled at 7am. Razeif and M would be going from Razeif’s house and take the bus from KL Sentral to LCCT.

Friday, 5/11/10 : The day. Will we make it?

It was Deepavali eve. It was hard to sleep as the fireworks were too noisy.

Mas was still packing her bags when at 2am we received a text from Razeif:
Flight to Yogya on 5/11/10 is now cancelled due to volcanic eruption. Pls call (certain number with certain password) for further enquiries.

We didn’t know how to react.

In the end, we laughed it loud thinking about all the mess we got ourselves into. We thought again: the signs were all over the place telling us not to go. Even families and friends preferred us not to go (but they did not stop us).

Degil sungguh.

Mas tossed her unfinished packing aside, and went to sleep instead.
Razeif, being pro-active, called up the number instantly and was told that we would be receiving the credit shell within 48 hours and we can make a new booking, but the travelling date must be within 3 months. No full refund although cancellation is by AA.
All this happened while M was still sleeping :-p

Around 7am we received a text from Pak Pancha when only we realized the degree of severity of the situation in Yogya. There was a new eruption at midnight, which was the biggest so far, (since it first erupted on 26/10) and it had claimed another 30 lives. The radius of danger zone is now expanded to within 20 km radius of Merapi.

We were thankful that we didn’t make the trip. It was indeed the best for us.

We pray that Merapi would calm down soon and the people of Yogya could return back to their normal lives soon. Condolences to the families who lost their loved ones.

Yogyes adventures is now postponed indefinitely.

Iftar @ Nida's

A big thank you to Nida for inviting us to her spanking new house (photo evidence will follow) in Bangi for iftar. It was a spur of the moment suggestion by Nida when we were visiting her house on the way back from Syafiq’s wedding pre-Ramadhan.

Just a small group of us – myself, Mas, Liza, and the guys – Manto & Isal. The girls cooked up a storm – of ayam masak cili padi, sayur kacang, sambal sotong, ikangoreng, pegedil and mee hong kong. Yours truly cooked up the last menu (ma’s recipe, thank you ma!) with assistance by Liza, thanks Liza! Phew….glad that the boys and girls liked the mee hurrah! Nida was the chief chef – she cooked the main dishes. Liza cooked the vege. As usual, it wouldn’t be complete without Mas’ teh tarik aka minuman tenaga, and as usual it was superb! Thanks to the boys also for bringing some kuih and drinks.

Our simple dish



Berbuka :)

We went for terawih after the simple but hearty meal, and then off to Alamanda for bowling. Heheh…Nida wanted to do some exercise after all the eating! But Isal couldn’t be persuaded to join though.. he was already feeling tired (but not tired of us kan Isal? Hehe…) So sweet of him to lend his camera for the escapade. Well, I actually brought my camera – becos I just have to record the very exclusive and modern interior design of Nida’s house. Absolutely love it! But being the absent minded me, I forgot to bring the memory card haih..tsk tsk..

Dining hall. Love the wall paper


Mounted widescreen


Sleek kitchen

Inviting downlight- master bedroom

Mounted wardrobe

Before we went for bowling, we checked out the midnight movie to see if there was anything interesting to see. But there wasn’t, so we decided to just bowl. But then we saw the poster of this Thai movie Slice that we thought was a horror movie, so we decided to buy the tix.

Gaya juara

Gadis bowling

Final score. Man=81, N=79, L=63

After one game of bowling (which “Man” won, but just by a slight win :-p) and a very slow queue to buy drinks, we plonked ourselves in the theatre only to be met by an 18SX –sexual exploitation – type of movie. It was too explicit and graphical we felt it was very very disturbing that it passed the censorship board’s scissors. Yes there were many uncut n*dity scenes and I couldn’t believe the child actors had to go through all that. It was a very disturbing subject matter, it had a tragic end, but it probably happened in real, everyday life. The director was probably traumatized when he was younger.

It’s best that we forget the gross part of the movie – but it served some lessons to us – this type of atrocity does happen in reality, and to a lesser extent – we better google the synopsis of a movie before we decide to watch it!