The Amaranthine: April 2009

cambodia relief mission

4/27/2009 09:41:00 PM

By: Muaz Nabil

5 orang kata

Pondok Rehat

4/22/2009 07:54:00 PM

By: Muaz Nabil

4 orang kata

Peperiksaan untuk intermediate cycle 1 (semester 4) kurang dari sebulan.
Aku tinggalkan sementara dunia blog.
Doakan kami semua lulus cemerlang dan dapat beraya dia tanah air. Mudah-mudahan.

Bagi yang baru melayari blog ini, silalah lawat entry sebelum-sebelum ini ya. Semoga ada sedikit pengajaran yang mampu dikutip.
Semoga ditemukan lagi.

Wassalam

Warkah Buat Teman

4/19/2009 09:45:00 AM

By: Muaz Nabil

2 orang kata

Credit to Faiz

Hari ini hari Ahad.

Alhamdulillah, pagi ni aku selesaikan beberapa perkara.

1. tiket kapal terbang dua hala dari KL ke Kedah. Oh! Sudah tak lama rupanya nak balik Malaysia.
2. F1 China Grand Prix. (Red Bull 1-2, Brown GP 3-4, McLarren Mercedes 5-6! What a finish. )
3. Latihan kedua sebelum akhir kelab badminton untuk semester ini.
4. Kemas bilik sikit. (sambungan semalam punya acara)
5. Sebungkus biskut maryland choc chip cookies sebagai sarapan dengan Mi Wadi sebagai jus :D

Petang semalam aku cuba masak tom yam. ^^. Mudah saja sebenarnya tapi masih gagal. Lupa pulak nak beli serai. Dah la dengan babycorn yang dah habis dekat Dunnes. Tak ceria sungguh rupa tomyam aku semalam. Sesungguhnya masih, aku tak dapat nak gunakan kaki ayam 70sen tu (kaki ditambah peha) untuk masak makanan berkuah. Seriously tak dapat nak makan! Aku gunakan dada ayam dan bebola ikan walaupun agak mahal. (if you read this, hopefully u know why i did not eat makanan berkuah yang ayamnya tak digoreng/dipanggang separuh masak dahulu. Forgive me my friend). Bukan memilih, anggaplah saja aku macam orang lain yang setengahnya tak lalu (selera/selesa) dengan makanan laut ataupun durian. :D

Warkah di bawah ini aku tujukan khas untuk kawan2 aku di luar sana.

Wahai teman,

Apa khabar dikau di sana? aku harapkan engkau sihat2 sejahtera hendaknya. Bagaimana dengan peperiksaanmu? Aku doakan semoga engkau mendapat yang terbaik.

Tujuan warkah ini aku tulis untuk menyatakan rasa kesalku dengan sikap aku barangkali. Maafkan aku atas segala kesilapan wahai teman. Aku bukanlah seorang insan yang sempurna. Aku sedar, masih banyak benda yang perlu aku belajar terutamanya dalam berhubung dan menjadi seorang kawan. Kadangkala aku melampaui batasan mungkin. sakitkah hati engkau? Maafkan aku. Semoga kemaafan engaku membawa ketenangan dalam hati ini.

Dalam pada engkau kesakitan, aku sedar aku tak mampu berbuat apa2. Malah kadangkala aku masih leka dengan urusanku. Apatah lagi melawatmu yang beribu batu jauhnya. Sedangkan yang kurang sebatu pun aku jarang2 ziarah, apatah lagi engkau. Jarak memisahkan kita hanyalah alasan. Aku tak mampu menunaikan tanggungjawab sebagai seorang kenalan dengan sempurna. Aku sedar. Hanya doa yang mampu aku utuskan semoga engkau sentiasa sihat2 di luar sana.

Kiranya sudah terlalu lama aku tidak menjenguk/bertegur sapa, (walaupun di YM), bukanlah bermaksud aku lupa akan dirimu wahai teman. InsyaAllah, masih ada kenangan silam kita bersama yang tersangkut di ingatanku. Aku pentingkan diri barangkali. Aku rasakan semua yang berkaitan dengan diri aku patut didahulukan, terutamanya pelajaran (walaupun x study 24/7). Aku akui yang aku tak mampu berada bersama walau kau yang sedang dalam keperitan. Barangkali aku hanya seorang kenalan masa senang. Entahlah. Sukar aku tafsirkan diri sendiri.

Aku mungkin tak faham situasi yang sedang kau lalui. tapi percayalah, jika sekarang masanya kau rasakan kau perlukan seserang buat teman berbicara tapi tak siapa di sisi, apatah lagi jika sekarang masanya kau rasa kau perlukan seorang teman hidup tapi tak siapa yang sudi, aku faham akan siuasimu. Keduanya telah aku lalui. Perit. Aku faham dan aku harapkan kau sabar dan kuatkan diri. Semoga Allah sentiasa bersamamu. Sesungguhnya aku tak mampu berada setiap hari bersama. Bukan tak berkeinginan, tak mampu mungkin. Semua kita mempunyai tanggungjawab. Aku. Engkau. Kita semua ada. Mungkin engkau lebih banyak bertanggungjawab, itu sahaja beza kita wahai teman.

Maafkan aku sekali lagi kiranya terkasar bahasa dan apa2 saja. Semoga perkenalan kita diberkati dan diredhai Allah. Sesungguhnya tiadalah yang lebih baik melainkan redhaNYA dalam setiap amalan yang kita lakukan. Semoga berjumpa lagi di lain masa.
Wassalam.

Ikhlas,
Muaz Adam Mohd Nabil.

Pesanan penaja:
1. ni bukan entry jiwang, tapi sekadar luahan rasa buat teman2 lama yang dah lama tak bertemu. Juga buat teman2 baru yang belum pernah bertemu.

2. Kepada kawan kat UPM yang masih exam, All the best aku ucapkan especially buat Pakcik segan_orantua. I think i know who u are. XD

3. Buat yang sudah selesai exam, selamat bercuti. Doakan kami aku dan kawan2 lain yang bakal exam tak lama lagi.

The remaining days

4/14/2009 10:10:00 AM

By: Muaz Nabil

5 orang kata

2nd day

The next day, we went out at 9 something after some breakfast. The first pit stop for today was Eiffel tower. I was shocked to see that so many people are queuing when we arrived at around 10am. We even had some difficulty to find the ending of the line in the first place. In the end we did found it with some complement i should say. we were at the back of two gorgeous blond and blue-eyes Finnish girls...Pinea and Kaisla (both were named from some sort of plant) ^O^ 1.5 hours of queuing for the tickets seems so short today. lol. Unfortunately, our target to reach the top was somehow blocked by the fact that they closed the top of the tower. It was later when we were enjoying the city from the 2nd floor that they open it again. Here, we were no longer together with those two sisters, they went up first i think. After some half an hour ques, we finally manage to get the ticket and went to the top. To our surprised, They were there waiting for us, just to say goodbye as they said it. after some email exchange that KA did, we finally took different path. As for us we continued enjoying the moment and only about 2pm, that we decided to move to the next destination. Sacre Cour.

At the top

We went to get some food first before went to sacre cour. There, we met 2 guys from Malaysia who is on their one week trip to Europe. The shop that we had our lunch was somewhere near Anvers Metro station, very close to sacre Cour. We stopped by at the souvenir shop first before continue to walk to the top. So many people were there that day because it is a good Friday. most went there to pray i think whilst many also just to enjoy the attraction. On the way to the top, we were stopped by some people that tried to sold their very own thread-like souvenir. i immediately noticed their intention and refused straight away. KA and Faiz however stopped to entertain them and unfortunately it almost cost Faiz 5 euro but he only gave them a fifth of it. lol. KA on the other hand acted bravely by refused to give anything at all. So, to anyone who want to visit anywhere, please be careful of these dirty tactics. its better not to stop at all no matter whoever ask you anything.

Sacre Cour

Next, we went to perform the prayer at the mosque again. Faris and Adli's first visit was not so lucky as the garden was closed for tourist. i think it was because of Friday. Then, we went to Musee de Lurve while KA earlier went a different way just to meet his friend somewhere. We decided to meet at Musee de Lurve and as we were again queuing to enter the museum, KA was already inside. It turns out that it is not free at all. It is only free for student from EU. though we had to pay 6 euro to enter, it was not disappointing at all. Since out target was Mona Lisa portrait, we managed to witness it and lots of other pictures and sculptures too. Many were based on the Christian religion, it is no doubt that they are still beautifully painted and carved. as a consequence, 3 hours there was so short. personally, i think you need the whole day to enjoy the whole museum. if you go there for the sake of being there and not enjoying whatever inside, i would say it is a waste of time. even we who had spent 3 hours there had only manage to finish almost one section only. what we did was sort of scanning the whole stuff there except mona lisa. So, imagine the time that you need just to finish everything displayed there. :D

Later that night, we decided to walk to the arch de triomph, but since it was too far, we decided to go on the last day instead. We then changed our direction to get some food from. It was somewhere near KFC that we went on the first day too but instead of eating KFC, we went to the kebab house nearby. Then after that, we went back to hostel straight away as it is almost 12 midnight. everyone had a very good sleep that night including Faris who still sleep on the floor i think.

3rd day

Disneyland

Today we only has one place to go which is Disneyland. I went there expecting to enjoy the rides over there like roller coaster and such while others maybe has their own stuff in mind. it took about 1.5 hours to get there from where we stayed and to my surprised, it cost each of us 25 euro just to get there. we only knew this later when we arrived at the Disneyland train station that we could not pass the security. when asked, we were forced to buy this ticket that enable us to go up to zone no 5 in their rail system. on top of that, when asked about the ticket, there were no special price on the weekend thus we had to pay 62 euro more for both park. We only spent about 2 hours in the studio as most of it was meant for children (only little rides) and decided to move to another park. However to our surprised, the same thing goes on at the other park and worst, we had to wait just to get the fast pass as so many people are there. So, i decided that we should stay up till it close so that we can ride all the rides available there and fortunately, that was what we did. Luckily i did enjoy a few rides like the rockstar roller coaster in the studio park and a few other coaster at the Disneyland park like the space something and also the pirate something roller coaster.

Enjoying the moment

As a conclusion, i think what Disneyland is all about are brands, kids and family theme park and for those who want to reminisce their good old days with mickey mouse, donald duck etc. For those who expect to get a thrill rides like Faris said, better find other theme park. In fact, the Moviepark in Germany that i went last summer was much better as they has everything that Disneyland has (except that big castle) plus many other that Disneyland do not have like the solero shot and better roller coasters. Their 3D cinema also much better than the Kodak theater that is available in Disneyland Paris. The best is the price which is much much cheaper! *just my 2 cents, sorry to those who went there and enjoy your moment at Disneyland* That day, we arrived very late at night and have a good journey to fantasialand. lol. What a small world.

At night

Last day in Paris

We started our journey today to a few places that i had planned last night. 4 of them supposedly. Alhamdulillah, the 3 of us (minus Faris and Adli whom train departed earlier) manage to cover all the places as planned. We bought the daily metro ticket again which was fortunately cheap on the weekend (3.20 euro) and start our journey. First stop was the Arch de triomphe. after snapping some beautiful pics :P Adli waved goodbye to us as he wanted to find his Hard Rock Cafe before going back to Gelsenkirchen. KA told him some direction based on his french friend guidance. the four of us then continue to Notre-dame.

Adli before bid us goodbye

Before that, we stopped somewhere near the Eiffel tower to get the shot from different side of the tower. There, we bough lots of key chains from this one uncle who spoke quite a good Malay. He stayed in KL previously. Worked there. He is from India if i did not get him wrong. With all the bags that we carried together, we had to be careful. Same thing applied to all travelers. Its better to keep it in the locker at the train station. but since the french is VERY friendly, they only had a few train station that has this service. Thus we decided to bring our backpack together.

At the other side of Eiffel Tower

Later, we went to famous Notre-Dame. We went out at Cite's metro station and found the palace of justice first. Then we went to our destination. At first, i wanted to que just so that i can get into the cathedral, but then decided not to as we do not have much time. Faris also not really interested to get in. He had enough of church in Europe he said ^^. Whatever la Pech...as for me, i don't really mind as long as i had my good time there with my friends. ^O~ After a few pics (a lot actually!) we took our bags and move on, marching to the next stop. our last stop at Paris.

After asking for some direction to metro station, we headed to our last stop. La-defence. The famous big building is here. Grand Arche. Faris however had to withdraw himself on our way to the last stop as he afraid he might miss his train to Amsterdam. So, inside the train, we departed. He stopped somewhere and took the train back to the station near Notre-Dame which is not far from the Gare de Nord. Have a safe journey mate. Till we meet again this summer. InsyaAllah. So, the 3 of us continue to our final stop. We had a great time there but it would be better if it is cheap to get to the top of Grand Arche. 8 euro! what a waste. hm..instead, we decided to find some lunch and we found this one noodle shop and had our Singapore noodle. Not that tasty as it had so many turmeric inside. lol. anyhow, about 3pm, we then headed straight to the station where we had to take our bus back to the Airport. It was a little too early i think but since everyone seems so tired (including me), we had a great sleep in the bus. I hope that i didn't snored in the bus. lol.

The humongous Grand Arche

After some fastidious security check at the airport which include twice passport checked by two different officers, stripped down (exaggerated) and unfriendly french officer, we board the flight at 7.20pm and arrived in Dublin somewhere around 7.40pm...

That's all. thanks for bear with my long essay. Pardon for any grammatical problem that had confused you. I'm still learning to write correctly. ^^

Wassalam.

P/s: now time to study as the exam is just in a month. :D
Please make doa for us. May you get the benefit from reading this long tiring essay ^o^.

Au revoir Paris, kunnes tapaamme jälleen

4/13/2009 01:21:00 PM

By: Muaz Nabil

3 orang kata

Hi lads,

i just came back from Paris yesterday together with Faiz, KA. We safely arrived around 9.30 pm at the doorstep of our beloved house, 26 KPA. really missed the bed and the environment of actual house. :P

In short, i can say that my visit to Paris has been a great experience. Meeting Faris and Adli (Pech's friend) was even better. Those two surely know how to make people laughing out loud (lol) no matter where we are. Safe journey to both of them whom take a different route after Paris. Faris went to Amsterdam for another 4 days of traveling and going to meet his other friends from Germany over there whereas Adli straight went back to Gelsenkirchen after 4 tiring day of journey.

In this entry i just want to share my experience of this trip and also my about this city which is well known as one of the must visit city in Europe.

1st day

We arrived early around 8.40am local time which is about 9.40am in Dublin. Since Ryanair use the Paris Bouevais airport to land, there are buses available to bring passengers to the middle of Paris. The journey alone take about 1.5 hours. As we got off the bus, first thing that we did was finding the metro to get to the hostel. We did found the station but somehow didn't know which ticket to buy as the counter was still closed. Some stranded Englishman and his family keep mumbling and complaining about the service here. how come when it was almost 11am, no one was at the counter? Weird isn't it? finally, i decided to buy from the machine as i remember Abdul Malik and some friend told me to buy the multiple ticket at once. it cost me 11.40 euro for 10 tickets. I then shared it with Faiz and KA. Though we are not sure how to the ticket works, we just gamble by using it to get to the Marie de clichy metro station. Thanks god, i was so relief that as we got out of the metro station there, i saw a halal kebab hut. ^O^. FOOD!!! we had not eaten anything (almost literally) since last night. so i bought the kebab and went to the tourist information center which was still closed!

Nob French! it was 12 something midday for god sake! open please! luckily there were this one man came and gave us the maps. one was Paris map and the other was Clichy map. we went straight to hostel after that man gave us the instruction to walk straight down that lane. we arrived there with a great hope that we can rest for a while before going out to enjoy the city. unfortunately, we were told that there was a curfew hours from 11am until 3pm. they said it was necessary for cleaning purposes but in the website, they mention nothing about this. what a lame excuse, do mention it in your website if you wanna get a good review. i wonder why people who went there gave them a good review? is it because of the good breakfast or the once-in-a-while hot chick at the counter? lol

Then after we kept our stuff inside the luggage room and fill in our stomach with the freshly made kebab, we headed straight to the city. As promised, i tried to avoid those must visit places first because Faris and Adli is only going to arrive at night. after taking some time to decide, we headed to Jardin de Luxembourg. we took some time to find it and it was not a regret at all. The garden was so awesome! Beautifully awesome. we did not cover the whole lot of it. In the garden itself, they have like 10 tennis court, some area for small zoo i think and lots of other stuff. It was huge. we just went straight to the main attraction there, the beautiful area in front of Luxembourg Palace. The weather was beautiful, you can see people all over the garden enjoying the sun. KA mention that it was about 20 degree something that day. no wonder i sweat like it was summer! It was even warmer that the trip that i took last summer. So after taking some picture, we dicided to go to Pantheon which is just nearby.

Garden Of Luxembourg

The flower

We are very lucky that we got to enter the place free of charge. it suppose to be 6 euro. Not just that, we also manage to follow the guided trip to its top and having the first sight of the city from above. It is simply amazing. The view was breataking. Next, we went to Jardin des Plantes. we wnet there simply to enjoy the muzeum really but unfortunately, many were closed or under renovation. it also suppose to be filled with thounsands type of beautiful flower because this garden is going to be the host for some world flower festival or something, but we are a bit too early. The best part was that being there somehow brought us very close to the Grand Mosque of Paris without even realising it in the first place.

Parthenon

Garden of Plants

It was when i tried to find the next pit stop, i ended up realizing the mosque was at one of the corner of the garden. so without wasting another moment after hours walking, we went to the mosque. somehow, we ended up in the Turk's Hamam and from there we had to find the actual entry which a bit hidden i should say. You have to wonder around before you can find it (or just us maybe). most of the tourist (non-muslim) i think just knew the place because of that restaurant that we ended up in the first place. The mosque is quite big. however the musolla (praying area) was simply small. at least not for the whole time. i think when they have the friday prayer, they gonna use the whole mosque area because it is very small. we performed the asr and midday (zohor) prayer there. i also met Tepet (malaysian student from belfast) and some indonesian people. We wondered around the mosque compound and took pictures. the mosque is beautiful but maybe not taken care very well. some area already closed and the garden inside also in the same condition. apart from that, we really enjoy it.

Grand mosque of Paris

^-^

From there we walked to the riverbank and continue walking along the riverbank where we witnessed lots of love in the air as KA said. :P. We ended up somewhere near the famous Notre-Dame. i decided not to enter it yet so that we could go there again with Faris and Adli. So, later that evening, we continue walking in search of KFC. Faiz was so persistent that he wanted KFC for the meal. Then i text Hilmi and ask him for a direction. Thanks to him finally we arrived there in one piece though it took about more than an hour to get there. Unfortunately, the taste of KFC that Faiz is looking for was not available. In fact, our very own Dublin Chicken Hut is much better! However, we did enjoy the whole chicken bucket because we were too hunghy! Its finger licking plainly eadible. lol. Since it was too far to walk back, we decided to use the remaining metro ticket to get to Eiffel Tower.

Faiz and K A

Sunset at Eiffel Tower

The time we arrived was about sunset (around 8.30pm). it's my first time there but honestly, i don't feel that excitement. not sure why. The feeling of watching other people's photos there seems better but when i myself is there, i don't get that feeling of excitement. Maybe because i was too tired after long hours of walking. The tower itself was not that high but still it is amazing. the effect of sunset made it more beautiful. Later, they turned on the lamp that gloriously lighting the tower. They even turned on the lampu kelip-kelip. this one was simply amazing. Its not the tower but the effect that it had on that steel frames. Almost everyone shouted happily or really enjoy the moment. it made the tower look better than just a simple steel frame that is sky high. i took a video of that moment, maybe i'll upload it later.

Then we went straight back to hostel. it was almost 11pm when we arrived there. Faris and his friend were still nowhere to be found. so i waited for their arrival while enjoying some EUFA Cup match between Paris St. German and Dynamo Kiev. Faris and Adli arrived at about 12 something and after they sorted some misbooked date (Faris was too sleepy when he booked the date maybe. lol), we went to the room. Faris decided not to sleep in his room instead he joined the 4 of us. He ended up on the floor only with some thick wool layers of blanket as mattress. Luckily it was warm that night that no one use the blanket and we even had to open the window! What a day.

Phew...long essay eh? lol. The first day ma...detail a bit ye, sorry coz its very long. huhu. so, with that, i stop here first, more excitement of the 2nd day will come next. i try to make it shot okay. There are stories and more things to learn about this city of love. Till we meet again... Bye...

Easter Break

4/08/2009 08:00:00 PM

By: Muaz Nabil

5 orang kata

Alhamdulillah, cuti Easter Break bermula esok sampai Khamis depan. Seminggu penuh termasuk hujung minggu. Padat. Sepatutnya aku habiskan masa menelaah nota-nota yang melambai-lambai dan mengejar aku setiap masa itu. Tapi kali ini aku memilih untuk membawa diri, (cewah!) menenangkan fikiran. Untuk tujuan itu, persekitaran baru diperlukan. Aku memilih Paris setelah penat mengajak Faiz!

Malam nanti kalau tiada halangan, aku, Faiz, KA akan memulakan pengembaraan 4 hari kami di "kota cinta", Paris. Kapal terbang dari Dublin bertolak jam 6.30 pagi, jadi kami terpaksa tidur di lapangan terbang. Ikutkan hati, mahu saja aku tidur di rumah dan naik teksi keesokan paginya. Namun setelah meneliti semula, aku fikir tiada guna menghabiskan duit menempah teksi pagi-pagi buta ini kerana aku masih tidak akan berkesempatan untuk subuh di rumah. Jam 4.30pagi kami sudah perlu berada di lapangan terbang. Mahu tidak mahu, subuhnya masih di sana, jadi aku memilih untuk ke lapangan terbang malam ini juga.

Di sana nanti insyaAllah kami akan disertai Faris dan seorang rakannya (kedua-dua mereka dari German). Besar kemungkinan, Hilmi, rakan lama aku dari Beseri yang sekarang sedang menyambung pelajaran di Rennes, Perancis juga akan turut serta. "Aku harap sangat hang dapat join Mi, maklumlah lepas ni macam dah tak boleh nak jalan-jalan dengan hang dah kan..?" ^O^. Aku doa semuanya positif ya.

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Doakan kami semua selamat pergi dan balik serta dimudahkan segala urusan di sana nanti.

Wassalam.