bucit / stray sufi

Adventure in Buying Auction Property - Epilogue

2012-02-02T12:43:00.000+08:00

draft:

I wrote about my experience in buying a flat at auction at links below:

http://bucit.blogspot.com/2011/08/adventure-in-buying-auction-property.html
http://bucit.blogspot.com/2011/08/adventure-in-buying-auction-property_12.html
http://bucit.blogspot.com/2011/08/adventure-in-buying-auction-property_14.html

And since then:
1. I've paid for the maintenance fee and claimed some of it from the bank.
2. Lawyer completed the 'Deed of Assignment'.
3. Check the MPSJ Cukai Pintu on 1/02/12 and turns out to be RM1,188.00. I'm broke now so not sure when I'll go pay them.
4. Check around and most say that MPSJ won't claim the money from previous owner. I guess I will have to pay eventually since PoS already states only maintenance fee up to 10% of reserve price will paid by bank. All others are on me.
5. The expenses so far I put on Google Docs; click there to see it. I'm not doing it to brag, after all, the amount is not much anyway. But as a guide to others.

Anyway, all in all ... good experience for me and not sure if I can afford anymore property investment in future.

Allah knows and to Him we return. Sometimes Shaykh Nazim in his suhba/advise makes fun of people who loves dunya too much, always counting their zeros in bank accounts and forgets their permanent abode the akhirah. I pray we are always with the good folks and on the straight path.

Mawlana Shaykh Nazim al Haqqani

Chinese New Year in Satun, Thailand

2012-01-29T12:08:00.001+08:00

Normally every Chinese New Year we would go for a beach holiday somewhere but maybe coz we just went for one in Ko Lanta in Nov 2011, we didn't plan for anything this time around.

But since we were in Penang, we thought of a day trip to Satun. After all, we always go thru the town on our way to Pak Bara. And it will be a good opportunity to check out Tammalang pier, which I heard has boats to Ko Lipe & Langkawi.

We already know how to cross the Wang Kelian border via these posts:

http://bucit.blogspot.com/2010/12/exploring-satun-140910.html
http://bucit.blogspot.com/2011/03/crossing-wang-kelian-border-2nd.html

Our plan was to go to Tesco with another travel buddy Che Rose & Family but that didn't turn out as planned. Oh well, it would have been more fun with Che Rose around.

I had wanted to have lunch from reading a post here http://dahasry.blogspot.com/2011/10/lunch-and-shopping-in-satun-thailand.html but we were a bit early so continued to pier.

Cikli at Tammalang Pier, Satun

Sorry we didn't take the front of pier pic. Building & facilities wise, this place is much better than Pak Bara. There's a food court, clean toilets & surau here with the usual travel agents. But I think there's more tourists at Pak Bara compare to here; don't know why.

I was quoted RM65 for one way trip to Ko Lipe, which I think roughly the same price at Pak Bara. And to Langkawi was RM30. I think.

On our way back, we stop at Satun market at these co-ordinates http://maps.google.com/maps?q=6.613131,100.060772 . Lucky I asked around at the border crossing for this place. We kind of like going to markets whenever we travel. It sort of gives you the feeling of being local and show you their actual culture or characters. As opposed to the polished shopping mall (or Tesco .. hehehe) which is almost the same everywhere.

Since it was a day trip and border closes at 7 pm Malaysia time, we didn't explore much but here are some pics.

Buying fruits at the market. Cheaper than at border naturally.

Happy campers :)

The market is by the river

Being a Muslim

2012-01-15T23:00:00.000+08:00

Shaykh Hisham & Shaykh Nazim

I haven’t written much nowadays. Perhaps with Facebook, I waste quite a time there compare to blogging. But recently I was watching this interview of Shaykh Nazim by a Greek journalist. And I was fascinated by his answer to the question, What happens to good people of Christians or other religions after death?

The link is here http://www.saltanat.org/Blog/tabid/271/PostID/264/It-Was-a-Dream-I-Was-Waiting-For-en.aspx

Shaykh Nazim, may the good Lord prolong his life, replied that on judgment day, the ultimate Judge is Him. He is the Creator and we are all creations. Not even prophets can judge other people.

At the end of the interview, the journalist kissed Mawlana’s hand and Mawlana said O my grandson and kissed his head. I almost cried watching that scene. Shaykh Nazim may not be much to some people, even to me, I have never met him.

But I’ve been to some majlis of Shaykh Nazim’s murids, namely Shaykh Hisham & Shaykh Adnan when they came to Malaysia. I didn’t join them 100% but some functions I was lucky to attend.

Looking at their faces, they have certain attraction to them. Watching their kindness and humility up close makes you feel proud to be a Muslim. Their perseverance in spreading advise and love for our prophet is to me, legendary.

Back to Mawlana Shaykh Nazim, such kindness and moderation when dealing with people amazes me. Even when the journalist asked about Ben Laden, he did not speak directly about Ben Laden but said he was against killing of innocent human beings.

This kind of gentleness, reminded of another story told by Shaykh Hamza Hanson of the US. I can’t remember which youtube file it was but he was telling a story how a convert asked Shaykh Yaqoubi how to deal with a gay relative. And Shaykh Yaqoubi replied being a kuffar is worse. To my understading, a kuffar here means somebody who not only opposes truth when it comes to them, but also against it and covers it with falsehood.

Hopefully we can follow their footsteps eh J.

Adventure in Buying Auction Property - Part 3/3 (The Financing)

2011-08-14T11:12:00.002+08:00

After getting the stamped Proclamation of Sale (not sure if this is the right term), I have 3 months to get the loan and pay the bank. I thought it will be easy enough to get financing and so I started work on the flat first.

The 3 days Haris said will finish the work turn into a few more and wiring also took a while coz Raja was doing it part time. But it's alright since it also took me a while to settle Syabas & TNB. Went to Syabas early but they said there's no meter available to install. TNB was easy. All in all, took me a month to settle the renovation and now it's time to look into financing.

Halim the auction guy gave me his contact for law firm and they quoted around RM1,800 for the whole thing. I asked a guy at the bank's law firm if they can take my case but he said it's not possible to represent the bank and me at the same time. So I asked him to suggest his friend which he did and the guy quoted me RM1,500; which is cheaper so I go with this firm.

Next will be to look for financing.

Silly me. I thought it was easy to get one. After all, I cleared up my credit card debts long time ago and don't owe anybody anything anymore. I used to have a bad debt with Celcom way back from 1998 (remember Motorola 8870? hehehe) but I settled that when I moved to Kulim in 2006 coz Digi didn't have good reception there.

Since the auction was by Maybank, it was my first choice and walk in there confidently. But lo and behold, was told that they don't give housing loan for under RM50k. My heart stopped for a minute there and after a hard front for nice composure, my smile muscles must have ached a lot then, I walked off heavy.

Since I was told that is the general thing among banks, my next choice was personal loan. So off to Bank Rakyat I went. Again, no luck. My current employer is not in the panel list :). Final choice is the normal banks personal financing which has around 8% interest rate.

Suddenly buying this flat is not attractive anymore. Called around and the lowest I think was Bank Islam at 6%.

So went home, talked to the wife, look at our savings. Called my mom. Rejected. Plus, they don't have that much anyway. Check our savings again.

Turn out we need only RM10k from outsider. Obvious choice was my sister in law. She's a nice person but strict. Lucky she has some savings then.

So we settled the bank financing at the expense of our own savings.

With a total cost around RM40k (I forgot the lawyer fee in previous post), I think it will take us around 9 years to get that money back (simple math, no inflation and stuff). By that time I will be around 50 years old and not knowing how my income will be after 55, at least the rental will be some cushion.

Retirement planning. The reason I'm doing this and knowing my own character that, liquid cash is not that safe with me. Though I hope that, whatever we do, we don't forget the King of Kings, Sustainer of the worlds, whatever He wills will come .... and for us, for His mercy to be greater than His judgement. Forgive me and Bless them O Lord.

Pic from Google

Adventure in Buying Auction Property - Part 2 (The Reno)

2011-08-12T20:12:00.000+08:00

And so, on Monday 30th of May, 2011, I met Halim, paid his dues (total RM1,850 including RM50 for stamping fee), and got the stamped Proclamation of Sale. Quite excited actually. Can't wait to go see the apartment. And anxious too. Since I only paid RM2,900 for the 10% deposit, I still have balance of RM25,600 to pay the bank. But I put the anxiety aside and wanted to work on the place soonest possible.

And one good thing about being a resident in a small taman and lived there from the earlier phase, I got to know some people who do small renovation works. So the next day, I brought this Indonesian fella to the place. Before he came, there's a iron welding shop underneath and I talk to the guy about door grilles. I forgot how much he quoted but he said about RM12k to do up the whole house. Asked him how he knows and he said, he has seen many abandoned units and that's how much it costs to fix them up.

So brought this Haris guy to see the place, talk to him about things need to be done:
1. Paint the whole apartment.
2. New doors for entrance & toilet.
3. Windows for living room and main bedroom.
4. Table top for the kitchen (I know I don't have budget for the cabinet proper).
5. And cleaned up the house.

After nego and stuff, I got RM2,500 for the above jobs. He wanted to do wiring too but then, I thought he probably is not an expert in such thing. Plus, I know this guy from surau that work for a living in wiring stuff and since I talked to him a few times before buying the unit, asking advice about the place etc, I thought it's just good ethics to talk to him.

Brought Raja (raja of the Malay heritage, not Rajagopal or such) to the house and he said he's doing the same thing at another block and he charged that guy RM1,600.00. Told him I honestly don't know how much is the fair price but since I already know him, asked him to take a look, do the wiring, and tell me the price later.

He showed me around the apartment and it turns out that almost 100% of the wires already been taken out. Some people eh. And since it's like that, it just makes better since to re-wire 100% again.

The kind of person that I am, is that sometimes I just go with the flow and don't look into much details. Like with Raja, I took that he's an honest person and just go with him on the wiring cost. Of course, I'm not like a sufi shaykh who can look into a person's soul and knows what's going on inside. If you find a real sufi gem, there's a vast difference between them and normal ulamaks. I think the arabic word for them is murshid, and a murshid is who guides people. In the arabic sense, you can't guide people if you don't know what is wrong with their ego/nafs and how to subdue those egos.

When he was here in June 2011, Shaykh Hisham said there are 800 bad characters in a person. But if we diagonose ourselves, we think that we may have only a handful :). So a real gem doesn't only tell us how to be good but also guide us and plod us to the right path. They are as a craftmen who twist and turn the clay to make good vase :).

Shaykh Hisham in Jogja, 2010

So in the end, I spent RM2,200 for wiring the whole apartment, lights in all rooms, fan in living room and wall fans in the bedrooms.

Renovation didn't include piping works since we weren't sure how healthy the piping system was. In the end, some connections to the water tank were loose and we re-routed the shower pipe so that it's more location friendly. The sink outlet was also clogged so we re-piped that too. And I asked the fella to drill the concrete wall and add a faucet for washing machine outside the kitchen area. This all came to RM660.

Once everything fine and dandy, I look at the place and thought, might be nice to paint the floor. At least anybody who lives there doesn't feel the cold blooded cement. So called an architect friend and he suggested epoxy paint. Those kind that you will find on factory floor or Ikea parking lot. So bought a 5 liter can for RM140 and paid RM200 to Haris to paint it.

Now for the utilities, apprently you have to pay any arrears to Syabas and since the water account was cut off for more than 6 months, you have to engage their contractor to put the meter there. I didn't think then about asking discount for the arrears so I just paid them RM162.20 and another RM350 for the contractor.

TNB was easier since the meter was already there, I just showed them the Proclamation of Sale and they just changed the name. And paid RM220 for the deposit.

And I forgot about the grille. By now I just don't want to shop around so I went to one place I know just before Petronas on LDP and after some discussion, he quoted me RM1,450. Not for the whole house but for the essentials.

I also bought some curtain railings from hardware store and an aluminium ladder, just in case anything happens and I would have one handy to put at the place. These amount to RM206.

I'm not gonna do the math here but all in all, I spent RM9,980.20 to make the place liveable. Plus the auction price of RM28,500, total amount spent was RM38,480.20.

I think the original price was around RM42k. So the money we spent was quite worth it since it not only cover the whole house but also some fittings also. My apology to the original owner. I hope he's doing alright.

Adventure in Buying Auction Property - Part 1 (The Buy)

2011-08-12T16:13:00.002+08:00

It all started in early May, 2011.

After a few years without bonuses, I finally got a little bit since moving to this new co in Nov, 2010. The money is not that much, about 5k, but I knew that if I didn't do something solid with it, it will go down the Samsung Galaxy Tab pretty quickly :).

And I also knew ASB wouldn't be that save with the kind of man that I am. I will come up with far too many creative excuses to withdraw it later. And I had been thinking of buying property at an auction for some time now. That little financial push gave me more courage to search the web for options.

And I knew being the lazy guy that I am, the property has to be in my own taman. I knew if it's outside, I wouldn't be able to give the tender loving care that it needs. So I search a few websites:
http://www.auctionproperty.com.my/
http://auctions.com.my/
http://www.ehsanauctioneers.com/home/index.asp

and found some options near my house. The first one was a RM45k fourth storey flat. Took me lots of huffing and puffing to get there. And I thought I'll get lazy to walk up that far and won't visit it often if there are any issues with it.

Second option actually were two shop lot apartments at commercial area in my Saujana Puchong taman. I went to check out both places. One was occupied by what it seems like an Indian family and the other one never been occupied. Both were around RM28k.

After narrowing it down to the above two units, I contacted an agent from auctionproperty.com and also one guy who left his phone numbers by leaving all these small fliers at mailboxes. Since both only charge RM1k for their service and since the guy came to my taman to collect the bank draft, so I went with guy Halim. I didn't go to the auction myself since it was on a working day and to be honest, never been to one and I thought RM1k is alright of a fee for such thing.

The Indian unit was auctioned first and I didn't win according to Halim. He asked me before if there are other bidders, how much I want to up the price; told him to go up by a few thousands only. And since the unit was already occupied, and I don't want the hassle of chasing them away, I thought it's alright to loose.

For the 2nd unit, about an hour before the auction, Halim called and asked if there are other bidder, do I want to pay them? I was like, shit man, there's no way I could verify that and since I'm also at work doing other things, he caught me in a good situation. Not wanting to loose this unit, I told him I'm willing to pay only RM800.

And so, I lost another RM800 and got a 2nd floor 692 square feet apartment for RM28,500.00. These are some pics of the apt.

Main Hall. Main door needs changing, so is the toilet door.

Main bedroom. Only the window frame left, the window itself gone.

Main hall. And the window panes are missing.

ah lucky the meter is here

From outside

Ko Bulon, CNY Holidays 2011 (3~5/02/11)

2011-03-19T17:53:00.005+08:00

Food:
To continue from last post, one thing I realized about Ko Bulon is the price of food. Though we stay only for a few days and didn't have chance to explore all places, I realized that food here is a bit more expensive for our standard.

But then, this is an island without electricity (only generators) and a bit far from mainland. Plus, the clientèle is mostly Europeans so by their standard, it's probably cheap :).

No worries though, the price lowers considerably once you moved away from the beach. I mean it's understandable that you can't pay the same price sipping that tea at Bulone Resort right on the beach compare to say in a wood at Bulon Hill; though by distance they are probably not more than 250 meters apart.

For comparison, if I remember correctly, I had a pot of tea and sandwich at Bulone for 160Baht on the first day and breakfast at Bulon Hill the next day for maybe less than 100Baht.

Right after Viewpoint, there's a stall that sells Thai pancake (macam roti canai ler :) ) and I think the price was good.

Sandwich at Marina; nice ambiance

Waiting for dinner at Chao Le

Don't forget to bring mosquito repellents; lots of it. We were their dinner while waiting for ours.

Breakfast at Bulon Hill

This book, Veneration of Prophet in Islamic Piety by Annemarie Schimmel was a good read. It's nice to read he is loved by different Islamic cultures. Some modern people discouraged showing affection to him lest we treat him a god like status. While on the other hand, the classical Muslims showed their love for Muhammad pbuh in so many ways and embrace people of all faith. This popular words from Master Rumi comes to mind now:

Come, come, whoever you are,
  Wanderer, idolater, worshipper of fire
  Come, even though you have broken your vows a thousand times,
  Come, and come yet again,
  Ours is not a caravan of despair

Muslims & Halal food:
Oh forgot to mention, while generally Thais from Satun area do not know how to speak Malay, those that are natives (Chao Ley or orang laut) to Ko Bulon could speak a dialect of Bahasa and we could understand each other alright. It is said that the original settlers were from Acheh and that's how they can speak Malay.

Here's a mosque near Chao Le guesthouse and since it was near, I went to pray Maghrib there. And being Thursday night, joined them in reading Ya Sin. I made up the fifth member :). The imam is from somewhere in Satun and hence, can't speak Malay. But two older gentlemen were natives and could speak to them.

As in normal in our villages of old, there's food after the Quranic recitation and I was invited too. It is one of the teaching of our Master that I religiously follow. Eh maybe the only teaching of Shaykh Nazim that I follow. That is, when people invite you to eat, you don't say no :). So, balun lah 2 pinggan ... hehehe.

But you know, here's a story. It is said that in our life, there will be a few times that our soul is touched by heavenly callings. I've felt that a few times, despite my egoistic weakness, the yearn for heavenly goodness. And also, I've felt a few times in life the solace & peace of the heart. That sweetness inside. Despite their small means, I did feel that solace among those people in that mosque. I could go to Ko Bulon again just to be inside that mosque.

Regarding food, Chao Le is muslim owned so no problems there. And get this, Viewpoint is managed by a Alor Star chap named Shukri so he was helpful too. We were told that Bulone Resort is also muslim owned; perhaps that's why we didn't see any pork in the menu. We didn't eat at Pansand but were told it's not owned by Muslim while we saw pork is served on the menu at Marina.

Hope this have helped those planning a trip there.

Ko Bulon, CNY Holidays 2011 (3~5/02/11)

2011-03-18T23:44:00.006+08:00

We got to Pak Bara around 10 am local time and had about an hour to spend. There were quite a few Muslim restaurants nearby so we chose one and had simple lunch. I hope the following would help if you are going there:

Googling for info:
We explained why we chose Ko Bulon for this trip here http://bucit.blogspot.com/2010/12/to-satun-la-ngu-15910.html. And we used a few websites to search for info but the main site that makes us want to go there is this blog by Tezza http://tezzasthaiinfo.blogspot.com/2007/07/ko-bulon-lae.html. Please read there if you want detailed info.

I also read up a bit on tripadvisor and lonelyplanet but not much. While not an expert, I guess once we have been to a few places, we sort of know that the info we get is only for guidelines. No amount of reading would tell you that the roads in southern Thailand, though look small on Google Map, is actually better than some main roads in KL with its potholes etc.

It seems that the info provided by Thai websites could be more up to date so you may also want to read these sites:
http://www.bulone-resort.net/en/koh-bulon
http://www.pansand-resort.com/index.php
http://www.andaman-island-hopping.com/islands/bulon.htm

Briefly, Ko Bulon is about 23km from mainland and the main pier is at Pak Bara in Satun. Pak Bara itself is about 70 km from Wang Kelian border and it's a nice drive up there. Right after border, you won't find villages for the first few kilometres but after that it's alright. There's even a Tesco mid way which we sometimes stop for a break. As we know, KFC there is halal :).

The ferry is about 400 Baht one way ; takes about 45 minutes. The island is perhaps 1 km by 2 km. The net says there are about 100 Chao Ley families there. There's paved path that connects the main area. There's a mosque in the northern area near Chao Le Guesthouse.

Accomodations:

As Tezza list in his blog, there are about 11 places for accomodations here. The best location would be Bulone & Pansand or Pansand & Bulone depending on your preference J.

Pansand, School, Bulone, Bulone Hill, Marina are relatively close to each other near the beach area while the rest are considered on the other side (north) of the island. There a paved walkway from Marina to Viewpoint and others but it goes uphill for about 500m and it was a good exercise for us. Too good may be J, to be honest it is a little steep for unhealthy Malaysians like us but hey, it's good to have a little adventure in your travel eh.

Our first night was in a tent at Chao Le and I forgot to ask their normal rate. On 2^nd night we paid 1,000 Baht for a chalet/bungalow at Bulone Resort.

As I mentioned before, this place is fully booked when we got there. We also overheard another traveller saying, in all his 6 months travelling, he has not seen a place fully booked like Ko Bulon. Perhaps its reputation for a small nice beach is getting around.

As a small island, you won't find rows of shops selling the same souvenirs or all night bars (except at Viewpoint I think) but I think this suits me well. The crowd also was a good mix of young travellers and families. A sort of place you want to hang out on the beach with a good book.

some photos:

Beach area near Bulone Resort from Panoramio's aymanee

Bulone's Bungalow 20; we stayed the 2nd night

Entrance to Bulone Resort; Bulon Hill on left

Viewpoint Guesthouse

Chao Le

Mosque near Chao Le

Crossing Wang Kelian Border - 2nd Experience, 03/02/11

2011-03-13T23:33:00.002+08:00

I guess one of the good things about Malaysia's multi-culture is that all of us got to enjoy the Chinese New Year holidays. Malaysia being what it is, some companies would take the opportunity to close for about a week.

When we first married innnn ... 1997 I think ... no lah, it was on 17/05/1997, we normally travel domestic. But before then I was always yearning to go to Ko Samui due to that Peter Stuyvesant's commercial on tv. But being new in the working world and not having much cash, that thought was always in the back burner. That is until my first trip to Krabi in 2006. With information being much easier to find on the internet now, preparing for a budget trip seems much easier.

So it has been like tradition since 2006 that we would normally drive up to Southern Thailand for CNY holidays.

For this Wang Kelian crossing, we knew that we gonna take the Changlun-Kuala Perlis Highway and from our previous outings to Hatyai, we knew that there's this one Chinese coffee shop that we could get good rate for Baht. Our Olympus camera didn't work just before this trip so I don't have a photo for it. But from google map, I think the co-ordinates are here 6.42531,100.428557. I had a quick video shot here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qhtnjs2f_x0 taken in 2009 but wasn't thoughtful enough then to take a wide shot.

The place also have Thai insurance but I didn't buy coz I thought I wanted to buy at Wang Kelian. Which was big mistake coz we got there before 9 a.m. and the place isn't open yet. So now you have two tips - where to change for Baht and get Thai insurance :)

MRSM Beseri on our way to Wang Kelian. Great time here in 1987/88 :)

And here's another tip when travelling ... don't be too cocky and assuming.

Since we went to Thai a few times before, I thought this trip we would just go there without prior room reservation whatsoever.

We got to Pak Bara, and the place being a focal point to the popular Ko Lipe, travel agents are aplenty and they spotted our Malaysian registered car pretty quick. Malay-speaking agent approached us and we negotiated with him for ferry to Ko Bulon. I read that the fare is 400B one way and we got it for 350B. And they only have two trips per day (I think) so you want to read up a bit.

We didn't reserve a room with that agent coz we thought better go there and try to find the best spot. He he he.

We got to Ko Bulon and for the 200 plus rooms on that 3,4 km island ... it's ALL fully booked. So these were our first night accommodation:

But we had great view at night and even better breakfast. Truly unforgettable.

Overview of Pak Bara Pier

2011-01-02T11:43:00.001+08:00

Here's a short video clip of Pak Bara area, but in google map they call it Pak Nam now .. used to be Pak Bara, I don't know :) but enjoy the video anyway.

I do think majority of people here are Muslims but not many really speak Malay. Plus we stay there only a few days, so wasn't much chance to talk to them.

But the two restaurants where we had breakfast had at least one person who speak Bahasa. And in one of the bigger grocery store there, the owner's son, a teenager about 15 or 16 years old, could speak Bahasa. And he once studied at a Madrasah near Bukit Mertajam, Penang.

Probably we will be back here someday.

To Satun & La-Ngu, 15/9/10

2010-12-29T21:09:00.001+08:00

We left Penang in the afternoon and got to Kangar around 3 pm. In hindsight, we should have left earlier coz after border crossing and all, we got to Pak Bara pier in La-Ngu around 7 pm and that's a bit late for a first timer to an unknown town to drive around and looking for a good value guest house. But we thrive in such conditions :) Aided to much extent by the generally friendly & helpful Thais.

I think only one travel agent was still open when we got there and she can't speak much English. Though she was really helpful and at least we got to know that the guest house rate is around RM100 for a/c room. You have to note that Pak Bara, though a jump off to Ko Lipe, is not as touristy as Phuket or Ko Samui. So there aren't that many people who can speak English. So we drove around again and went to this place called Best Guesthouse. We got a room for RM80 but that's the last room they got. So we had to part ways with our travel geng Che Rose & family; whom went to get a better room at Bara Resort for RM120.

Our room at Best Guesthouse

Cikli in front of Bara Resort

The town is by the sea and the main road is about 1 km long and you would see shops & restaurants lining the main road.

We were tired and only thought of dinner and found one with that famous Islamic crescent & star symbol.

So for breakfast the next day, we drove around once again (now like experts) though we were the only two cars with Malaysian registration plate there. By chance we stop at this restaurant. Lucky for us, the owner can speak Bahasa; so we had good breakfast here.

Good roti canai, Thai style

After breakfast ... what now? We knew there aren't many things to do here and our initial target was Ko Lipe. So we ask around and got to know that the ferry ticket to Ko Lipe is around RM120 (return) per person and knowing that we won't spend so many days there, it seems like an overkill on our budget. So cross Ko Lipe for now.

Lucky that we are not tight lipped travelers. Before leaving for breakfast, I chatted with the reception at Best guesthouse and she gave us a map of Satun province and its attractions. From that map, we saw two attractions considered close to Pak Bara and may not be our usual stuff found in Malaysia. One was a kayaking place that goes under a cave where you supposedly see a big jade ... I think. Heck, what do I know. Cubic zirconia or diamond look the same to me. This place is called Jed Kod Cave. Another attaraction is called Phu Pha Pet Cave. I'll let the photos tell this story.

You can't see the entrance :) but I actually got in

Here's the entrance

Inside

They say the cave is 335 steps up

at the base

It probably took us around an hour to get up there to the cave. I think they had 3 stops along the way which helped me a lot :).

We initially drove from town base on the given map and later on Nokia Maps in my wife's E71. After about half an hour or so, the road was not on Nokia Maps anymore and we had to rely on Thai road sign. And the road was like this:

It was like really deep inside south Thailand and to first timer and no local guide with us then, I felt even the Japanese during WW2 would not have gone here.

Once we felt lost and had to stop and ask the locals ... I only showed my hands and said 'Phu Pha Pet Cave' to the best of Thai tongue that I could. By now you would have realized that no matter how much Tom Yam you had in life ... it's not gonna help your Thai phonetics at all. But the place must be famous coz they all gave us correct directions.

I had to google for the entrance photo with a monk earlier and I got it from here http://blog.malaysia-asia.my/2010/08/phu-pha-phet-cave-in-satun-thailand.html. There's also a nice write up about this place. Apparently it's the third largest in the world; so says the link.

Wow ... what a nice find from an unplanned trip eh :)

Crossing Wang Kelian Border, 14/09/10

2010-12-21T23:28:00.006+08:00

Seems I'm having a writer's block and not knowing where to start this one. I guess I'll have multiple introductions then :)

Christopher Nolan's Inception

It was in 2008 that while having breakfast in Hatyai (en route to KL from Krabi), we met a nice couple returning from Bangkok on their BMW super bike.

There are a few groups of people that even if you don't know them, they are guaranteed to be nice folks and could start a conversation any time. In my book, they are bikers and fishing maniacs.

So we told them about Krabi and they about Bangkok. And the guy suggested that next time, we should cross the border from Wang Kelian. So that was my inception moment :)

Ko Lipe

We always spend the first few days of Eid alternately between Kelantan & Penang. And this year it was Kelantan's turn first. We would always have things to do in Kelantan but in Penang, it was less people to visit and less things. So few months before, I fancied about another beach holiday and narrowed it down to Ko Lipe. It was for no particular reason other than that we have done Krabi, Phi Phi, & Lanta so that we might as well going southward.

So we read that to go there, you need to take a ferry at Pak Bara pier; which seems closest if we go from Wang Kelian instead of Hat Yai.

Border Crossing

We never went to Wang Kelian before and it seems that not much info is available on the internet. Unlike Bukit Kayu Hitam where you would have Sadao town right across the border and Hat Yai about an hour drive away, there's not much after the crossing here except for some makeshift stalls like these. These kind of economic activities would not warrant so much info on the net eh :) ... unlike those say ... anyway I digress :)

My concerns were two things: where to change for Thai currency and where to buy the insurance to drive into Thailand.

I asked around my MRSM Beseri yahoo group and some people say you could buy Thai Bahts in Kaki Bukit town. That alleviate some concerns but on google map, Kaki Bukit doesn't look so much like a town; it's more like a deserted housing area!

But thanks to GPS, we are not afraid to drive around this area and by luck stop at a shop lots that we think could give us some directions. So I went into this grocery shop and pretending to buy some soft drinks and asked the owner where to change for Thai Bahts. Lo and behold, she does that and she even said she gives better rate than in Wang Klian. I was skeptical but know that poor traveler like us would not change much and the difference in rate would not make us an overnight George Soros!

I could not remember the exact location of this shop but it's right in front of Klinik Kesihatan Kaki Bukit. And oh, she did give better rate than those traders in Wang Kelian.

So with one problem solved we merrily drove to Wang Kelian. Boy, the road was really up hill and the curves were really sharp. But road surface was nice and so was the view. Coz of the view, I would rather have this drive compare to the old Tapah to Cameron road. And this Wang Kelian road is just a few kilometers; so it was alright.

After a while, we got to the Malaysian side of the border crossing and received my second adrenalin shot that I invariably got during my travels. My best rush was during my first ever trip to Krabi here.

Wang Kelian is famous for its Sunday market where Thais & Malaysians could travel freely without passports to the make shift stalls on both side of the border. So we stop at the Malaysian side and asked a few people where to buy insurance. None of them knew and some don't even understand Bahasa ... or English. This is where I got my rush. We were close the the check point and I don't have insurance yet. So we slowly drove to the Malaysian Immigration above and as a last resort, asked the last shop there where to buy insurance. And she said you can get it at a restaurant after Malaysian immigration ... it was like Mozart to my ears even though she spoke in broken Malay dialect!

There's a block of commercial area right after Malaysian Immigration and you could buy Thai insurance at the last shop there.

After getting the insurance and filling up the entry card (embarkation card?), we drove to the next step which was Thai Immigration (for passport) & Customs for importing the car into Thailand (that's what they call it).

Some photos click here.

p/s

I just remember one of my other concern was what is the best way to get to Kangar from Penang. And after having gone there via the old Alor Star-Kangar route and return back via the Changlun-Kuala Perlis Highway (see google maps), I must say that I would have preferred the Changlun highway coz it will be less traffic that way I think. There are so many towns/villages in the old road and hence so many local traffic ... you don't want to be stuck there I think. So that's my two cents on getting to Kangar.

Discovering Cherating, 13 June 2010, Day 3 & Epilogue

2010-10-12T21:00:00.001+08:00

We didn't do much on Day 3 since it's time to check out. I think we hit the beach again and was surprised that even though it's school holidays, there are not that much crowd. Granted that Cherating beach is pretty long but I had thought it would be more crowded since on the first night, we checked out other lodgings and most of them were fully booked.

I must single out this one website for giving us much info on Cherating and Pahang in general. The info has helped us to plan a good and productive mini holidays. The site is:

http://www.pahang-delights.com/

So to En Yamin Nuruddin of Pahang Delights, thanks a lot sir.

If it weren't for the site, we would not have explored other smaller beaches within our driving routes such as Pantai Chendor or Pantai Batu Hitam.

Here's Fateh at Pantai Batu Hitam where we stop and had lunch here. There's quite a few warungs by the beach.

I thought I would give my few cents or suggestions about Cherating, starting with lodging.

Rooms
I guess depending on your travelling style, by that I mean proper hotel type or guest house type, then I would suggest the following. If you like to spend the night in a good hotel room with cool & quiet air condition and wake up to fluffy white towels, then go for Holiday Villa or the like there. Not that I've been to Holiday Villa but from goggling a bit, they are certainly a few levels above Ranting Beach where we stayed.

Ranting Beach is not that bad for its price. Sorry but for the life of me, I can't remember how much we paid for it. But we got a family room with queen & single beds, not overly spacious but good enough. Air cond and water pressure not like Hilton but you get what you paid for. And on the plus side, our room is right by the beach.

There are many establishments around the beach area so much that I think, you could just drive there and take your pick. Of course, doing that during school holidays is a bit like gambling but we survived alright :) And if you want a bit more assurance in life, you could reserve one night at a particular place and explore your options once you get there. There's a bit of story for us on how we adopt this tip/trick.

We learned this tip while travelling to Padang/Bukit Tinggi in Sumatera Barat in August 2006. Airasia made travel affordable for me and somehow, I never tried and doesn't have the interest to join group travel. I think reading this book by physicist Richard Fenyman in college somehow made a mark on me. I like to do things my way. So we got cheap tickets to Padang and met this lovely couple (Pak Aziz & wife) at the airport and end up sharing the same MPV to Bukit Tinggi and decided to rent the van together for the next few days.

The difference was that I had read up on the internet a bit about Bukit Tinggi and look in forums & websites for a cheap guesthouse type to stay and got to this old single storey bungalow converted into guesthouses. Being our 2nd travel oversea (first was Balikpapan!), we book the whole place via internet for the whole week there. Little did we know that Bukit Tinggi is cold and their water heater didn't work! Ouch .... tak fikir nak mandi wajib beb!

So nowadays, when we travel, we go with the flow :)

Here's some contacts we managed to jot down:
Ranting Beach Resort: 013 931 2371, 09 581 9068
Cherating Bay: 013 909 7542, 09 581 9988/9749 www.cheratingbay.com
Tanjung Inn: 09 581 9081
Cherating Tone Resort: 019 957 2709, 09 581 9378

Marketing

Granted I didn't spend much time on the net searching for info on Cherating, I do think that the tourism stakeholders in Malaysia have much to learn from our Thai neighbors. You could use Google Earth and go over Krabi and see how many guest houses/hotels are placemark there and compare it to our Cherating. And I also think that our neighbors do have better internet presence to promote their places and its attractions. The few guest houses that I went, I didn't see that much brochures on things to do in Cherating. Would leave you in the dark if you don't know how to explore.

Customer Service

At the place I stayed, I witness how the reception treat potential customers with little enthusiasm. The guy wasn't rude or anything but I do think he should have been more helpful and informative.

I guess this is our problem in general. I read somewhere before that even though we try to promote tourism as income earner, we don't have much in terms of training our workers in this industry. I'm no expert in this area and I'm not bitching, far too old for that, just sharing my thoughts.

That's all ... god blessed and if you are looking for a quick getaway, Cherating is not bad :).

Discovering Cherating, 11~12 June 2010, Day 1 & 2

2010-08-30T19:16:00.006+08:00

Wow ... I've not written here in a long time eh! Just goes to show how much strayed I've been :)

This reminded me of a friend from childhood who recently said, and you should take this in proper context, he said that sometimes our teacher allow us to make mistake so that we could realize it, learn from it, and come back to the path. Much like flying a kite, sometimes you let it fly away a bit before you reel it back.

But I digress :)

Anyway, so the recent school holidays we got to talking. Not much money to go to Krabi or Ko Lipe, so we thought Cherating would be alright. Not better than Tioman but certainly closer. So googled and facebook a bit and some friends suggested Ranting Beach Resort coz it's close to the beach. Well, putting the word 'resort' to its name is stretching too much for me but its location by the beach is great.

We planned to go on Saturday and called the place, he said Saturday might be full so we went there Friday instead. Took us an hour to get to Gombak from Puchong and another 3 hours to get there.

We got there around 4 pm and after checking in & relaxing a bit, we decided to check out Kemaman town. This is a good thing about GPS, with it you feel like locals driving in nooks & crannies of the town; and we end up at a place called Benteng Kastam Lama (I think that's what the guy told me) which has a bit of benches by the river, people fishing, and a few warungs.

So it was good to have your hot soup and see the
sunset over the muara.

We went back to the chalet and ask the guy where to have a good seafood. He suggested a few and one is this place called Awang Ikan Bakar.

I thought it was good value; the bill came close to RM60 for 3 of us but we had few crabs, sotong, shrimps & fish.

We hit the beach early in the morning the next day and one thing good about this Ranting is that its right by the beach and our family room face the sea.

You could read a book on the porch while enjoying the ocean view and breezy wind on your face … and while smoking weed or gudang garam for some people, not that I’m into any of those.

Beach wise, Cherating is not Redang but she made up for lack of crystal clear water & powdery sands with great location, places to discover in Kemaman and all those satar & keropok lekor warungs.

For lunch, we went to Kemaman town and thanks to Garmin in my wife’s E71, we tried that famous Hai Peng kopitiam. But we were late there and they don’t have anything much; after all, it’s school holidays.

On the way back, we stop by the Turtle Sanctuary to see turtles and ask around where we could see one laying eggs at night. There’s a travel shop near our guesthouse that quotes RM25 per head with our own transport; that’s way too expensive for the 3 of us. The reception said we could try to be there around 9 or 10 pm and if there’s a turtle nearby, they would inform us. What’s nicer is that entry is by donation only. We couldn’t take pictures of the turtle coz … it’s not nice isn’t it. But here some photos at the sanctuary. There's a signboard for you to exit into this place and it's nearby Club Med.

After getting back to our room, we hit the beach again and later went out for dinner; can’t remember the place but somewhere on the road to Chukai/Kemaman. We didn't choose Awang Ikan Bakar coz we wanted to try different places but in hindsight, I thought Awang was a good place.

Ahh ... it has been good, productive, and enjoyable two days so far.

Jakarta 2007 - 3rd & 4th Day

2008-11-01T10:52:00.012+08:00

Since we were in Jakarta, we thought that might as well go to Bandung coz with our budget, who knows when we will be back here.

Coz we knew we gonna spend only a night there, we limited our itinerary to just a bit of shopping and a visit to Kawah Putih. That's our travelling style ... not only a bit of shopping but we try to add other things like culture or nature. When we went to Bukit Tinggi, we walk around not only Pasar Atas (which is like the place to shop there) but also Pasar Bawah (which is like a grocery market for locals). We went deep into the Pasar Bawah so much so that all the people there only speak Minang and not the normal Bahasa Indonesia. To feel the sight and sound of such a place is priceless indeed!

We went to Bandung by train which I recommend highly for the scenery. And since our base was in Jakarta Pusat, Stasiun Gambir is really close by. I think they have the executive train to Bandung at 11 am and 3 pm.

Cikli & Fateh at Stasiun Gambir

View to Bandung

A trip to Bandung wasn't really plan so when we get there, we didn't know where to stay. We asked the taxi driver to take us to a few hotels and choose one for our budget. Hotel Progo turned our to be okay. I think it was around Rp200k as opposed to close to Rp400k for simple hotel in Jakarta like Ibis.

Cikli in front of the hotel.

Fateh enjoying his breakfast; but then, Fateh always enjoy his meals.

For shopping we went to shops around the Rumah Mode area only. Since we don't have much time, we could not explore other shopping areas. Only this I will say ... if a husband want to score some mileage with his other, then bring her to Bandung.

Look at the picture closely and you will find that one person is smiling and the other is not so happy. Girls ... this clearly shows that even from youngling, men doesn't like shopping much. So, please don't torture us.

So on 2nd day in Bandung (our 4th travel day), we rented a car with supir and drove to Kawah Putih, which is about 50km south of Bandung. I can't remember the journey well except that it's a nice view there. Since Bandung is also tea producing area, the place is a bit hilly and acres of tea plantations.

Kawah Putih is a volcanic crater, which we don't have in Malaysia (do we?), hence my interest to go there. Some photos ...

People take wedding photos here
Look at Fateh, buat apa la budak tu ...

After the Kawah Putih, our driver took us around a few supposedly tourist places in Bandung (tea plantation with a lake there, and don't remember where else). But I think we could miss those places and instead spend more time in town. We return to Jakarta around 6 pm with minivan (just to experience different travelling mode) and stayed around Jakarta Utara since it's closer to the airport and there's also Mangga Dua shopping nearby.

Till we meet again.

Jakarta 2007 - 2nd Day

2008-04-19T09:21:00.006+08:00

There's this character of me which I realized since very young, that I like to hold off doing things until last minute. And those things will snowball into many things not done and will disturb a normal life pattern that I have.

One case in point is a write up on my Jakarta trip in May 2007. I like to write about it as a goodwill to those who have helped me directly and others who have written their travel experience which I have benefited from. One thing is that due to these online information, I do not yet need to buy a Lonely Plant guide.

About this trip, I wrote about the planning, 1st day, & some photos already.

So the 2nd day started quite alright. We had breakfast at a warung nearby our Le Margot hotel. I had planned so that it would be a cultural day for us by going to Museum Gajah, Istiqlal & Monas with a bit of shopping in the afternoon at Tanah Abang.

But I called Riza and found out he's already at Monas. So I thought why not join him first and go to other places later. Boy oh boy, that was not good at all.

Monument Nasional or Monas is a huge area by my walking standard. That's Fateh in front of Monas & Cikli at the base. Monas is like a really tall concrete structure with a base that people could relax and at the basement, a 3D model of Indonesia's history (a 'diorama' they call it).

You also could go up to the tower viewing area; which we paid for and did not go. All because the walking we had to do earlier zaps our energy to enjoy the scenery. Plus, the que was really long. You could see from the photo I was really tired; but the locals are just enjoying their time there.

After Monas, we just returned to our room. So, if there's one lesson here, it's that Monas is such a huge place and not much to see there except for the diorama. It's like a park with a structure in the middle. In fact, we saw some local organization/companies hold events there in the morning.

If you don't have much time, I suggest skip Monas from your itinerary.

Clip at Monas' base.

Clip at Monas' basement.

Ko Muk (1)

2007-12-17T16:53:00.001+08:00

Something to balance the 'loneliness' posts and laugh a bit. But in actual fact, this was the source of my sulking. I brought the family for a bit of travelling during August school holiday and since it was short ... in time and in cash ... we thought of some islands close in south Thailand. See, poor people make brave choices amidst the thing there; though the western side is a bit quiet than the Patani/Narathiwat side.

So we chose Ko Muk for not much reasons at all. Never been there and it reads on the net that it's cheaper than some islands nearby.

August being a low season, we had the whole beach to ourselves.

And it was low season for a reason ... it rains there in August. And on the way back, we almost got stuck! Hope you had a bit of a laugh ...

Loneliness (2)

2007-12-17T16:22:00.000+08:00

To continue from last post, though I'm feeling okay now, I thought I should share some notes on this thing called 'loneliness'.

Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet came to mind at the moment; for his style of writing and things he said, but I don't have the book with me and not even sure if he wrote anything on this.

In these 36 years of living, I felt acute loneliness on two distinct occasions.

The first was around year 2000, I was working for a small EON Service workshop in Puchong at the time and the boss wanted to go into NGV cars. So I search a bit and told him that there will be international NGV Conference in Yokohama in a few months. And he said go. Fulamak I thought, never been out of the country since I came back from studies in 1994 and was feeling a bit happy.

So the day came, and as I was walking alone towards Japanese immigration, I thought alamakkk (trying to clear from swear words now :) ), I'm alone here on my own and was envious of other Malaysians in the queue with their group, happy talking together like they are already high on local sake.

Searched a bit on how to use Japanese train and managed to get to Yokohama station. Truly our mind is limited in its perception; we usually thought what we will experience according to our previous occurrences. I guess that’s why in some Sufi stories, the morale is to change our method of thinking from linear consequential to non-linear. And hence I thought Yokohama station can't be that much bigger than KL's. Boy oh boy, was I wrong. I think they have more than 20 platforms compare to KL’s 5.

And finally managed to walk to the hotel and went to the conference and all. And that night, alone in the hotel room and with no English-channel TV to watch, and no company nor cash to walk around; I felt I miss my family so much.

This went around for a few days until I dare myself to buy a scratch card to watch TV in the hotel room. I thought that card would give you more TV channels like Cinemax or something.

But guess what, it’s a card for Jap porno channel. He he he.

O well, lust … just like love, does not need a spoken language to communicate. Can’t remember now whether I asked the hotel for more soap bars that day!

Lonely (1)

2007-09-02T16:00:00.000+08:00

It has been about 2 months since I moved to Kulim. Before going there, I thought I could catch up on my reading. I still have a few books bought in 2005 to finish. And there's a biography on St. Thomas Aquinas that I had since college days. But things did not go as we planned. I've been to few workplaces since my first pay check and work stuff does not bother me too much. I think I could survive in any work environment. But life issues. Now that's another story.

There's a saying I think that goes, 'to be in this world but not part of it'. I roughly understood as for us to be here on earth but don't forget our hereafter. As Mawlana sometimes say, roughly, we are like big rats in a sewer. Running after this dunya. And I am weak. And I am forgetting my purpose.

And there's another saying, ‘one can be lonely in a crowd’, or something like that. The first two weeks in Kulim were lonely evenings on 11th floor of Sunway Hotel in Seberang Prai. That saying hits right on.

As I looked down from my room, I see people. In mamak shops. ATM ques. Going to Billion supermarket next door.

But I am alone. No connection at all with any of them. And I sleep alone. Bertemankan tv yang ntah apa-apa cerita. Now I know how my mom missed me in when I was in boarding school. Somehow life comes full circle here.

That's the thing about our mind. We think we are always cool and know stuff. Back 20 years ago, I couldn't wait to leave home. Being at home is stuffing. I can't imagine what a mother's love then. Back then, love is stifling; love constricts; love doesn't let you go to experience life.

My oh my. Now alone in this creamish hotel room; I long for my son's voice. I long to know how is my wife doing.

And I sort of know what a mother's love is. So friends, carpe diem, seize the day. I may sound cliché but make your present matters to your loved ones. You’ll never know until the opportunity is not there anymore.

Interlude

2007-08-05T23:51:00.001+08:00

Being a weekend husband has taken a bit on me ... so here's some interlude

Nasruddin was arrested and taken to court on the charge that he was stuffing horsemeat into the chicken cutlets he served at his restaurant. Before passing sentence, the judge wanted to know in what proportion he was mixing the horsemeat with chicken flesh. Nasruddin said, on oath, "It was fifty-fifty, Your Honor."

After the trial a friend asked what exactly "fifty-fifty"meant.

Said Nasruddin, "One horse to one chicken."

Trip to Jakarta Photos

2007-07-12T16:24:00.000+08:00

I just uploaded some photos for Jakarta trip in May, 2007 to flickr. You could view these at http://www.flickr.com/photos/kissmanbucit/.

Dinner at Debu

2007-07-02T14:01:00.000+08:00

Once uploaded to google video, turn out to be not that high quality. But the experience itself was nice. These Debu folks are really 'folks on the path' ... or Sufis ... or Sufi aspirants ... I'm not sure of the proper term but they are good people. Their dinner portion is just nice and not too much like what we usually have at home.

And the music was nice too! Mustafa said he learned the instrument from a Malaysian while the instrument (is it what we called 'gabus'?) itself is from Egypt.

Cerita Anak

2007-05-23T07:40:00.000+08:00

Fateh is having his mid-year exam at Sekolah Kebangsaan Batu 14, Puchong since last week. And yesterday he came home telling us that he's fairly confident in getting 'A' for his Jawi paper.

He said, "mula2 tak faham tapi lepas pakai otak, Teh boleh buat semua. Tapi satu je tak boleh buat ... satu muka surat!" Haaa, he he he ... anak ... anak. Apa nak buat, mak bapak dia dua-dua kerja, balik malam dah letih nak tengok kerja sekolah dia. Nasib baik baru darjah 2, hopefully later on we will be more involved in your academic son.

Da Bomb!

2007-05-21T08:30:00.000+08:00

So, it was officially announced last Thursday that our whole department will be moved from KL to Kulim effective 1st June, 2007. We have heard about it a few months ago so it wasn't such a surprise. I could rant and bitch about it but in the end, we are still employees. Plus, organization-wise, the plan has its merits.

So, in times like this, meditation on things like below will be good for the soul ...

Jakarta 2007 - 1st Day

2007-05-14T00:59:00.000+08:00

I was picked up from Jakarta airport by Octavius Sutar, or Ote for short. But what a name, Octavius. Despite Malaysian kids nowdays having a name like Danial or stuff, you would not find here a Roman name like that. I read a bit and apprently, Octavii is a family of high standing in those Roman times. And may Ote also started the same this side of the Roman empire. Ote, quickly e-mail me your photo so I could put it here!

This is how I know him. While on a bus from Penang to KL, two guys behind me were talking in a diffrent accent and so I turn around and started talking. Apparently, they are two Indonesians who just finished playing a hockey tournament in USM (with their own money! they are hockey fanatics) and now, on therr way back to KL. So, we got to talking and they are going to their Malaysian friend's house but that friend won't be be home until like 8 or 9 p.m. We got to KL around 4 p.m. and I invited them to my house. What was I thinking, inviting total strangers to my house. And feed them mamak food some more! They could be 'pencopek' for god's sake! He he he.

But that's the thing with us nowdays. We run after dunia (or dunya as Shaykh Nazim says) so much that our heart becomes hardened. Oftentimes, when I pass by people walking to my housing area, it's difficult for me to stop and offer them a ride. If our heart is not soft & beutiful, I don't think it's easy for us to do charity. Amazing isn't it.

So, Ote picked us up and drove us to our guesthouse in Jalan Jaksa, Jakarta Pusat. Jaksa is like Bangkok's Khao San road on a smaller scale. Before that, we had a Sundanese lunch at a place called BenHill. That's one thing good if you know the locals, they take to good makan places. Sunda food is a bit sweet and has lots of ulam.

After checking in, we had a short rest and again, picked up by another friend, Dinna, to visit Debu.

Dinna is a founding member for yahoo group's fansya_debu, and from there, we got to e-mail each other a bit. It was really nice of her and her husband, Dhani, to drive us and give us tips about places to eat & shop in Jakarta. I think from Jakarta Pusat to Debu's house in Cilandak, Jakarta Selatan is about 40 km. But with traffic jam, took us about 1 1/2 hours to get there. Patient people they are. May the Lord reward them handsomely.

A bit about Debu. I think it was around early 2003 that I first heard Debu on Ikim's radio. They probably appeared on Astro first but since we don't have Astro I wouldn't know. They are mostly American Muslims whom moved to Indonesia some years ago and started to play music during their spare time in between giving English classes. They have spiritual guide in Shaykh Fataah (Mustafa's father) who has permission or 'ijazah' from several Sufi masters. And this is my guess: the 60's hippies movement is not a total waste. Apart from those music festivals, we have people whom travel to the East in search for spiritual wisdom. And some of them found answers from masters like Pir Vilayat Khan, Shaykh Ahmad Al Alawi, Shaykh Nazim, and from many more others.

I had been up that day since 5 a.m. and when we got to Debu, I was really tired and wasn't talking much. But I brought a Mawlid Day'bai book as a gift to them.

That's me after the giving the book to Mustafa. Mannn, I'm fat. Even Ibrahim, to my immediate left, who's from Texas is slim (Mustafa is next to Ibrahim).
We also had dinner at Debu's. What is nice is that while we all were having dinner, Mustafa and one other person were plying some instruments; sort of background music for us. Well, they do this everytime, not because we were there :)

And that's Dhani, son Ahmad Rayyan, and Dinna enjoying their dinner.

Fateh, Dinna, and other kids were playing before dinner. It's weird to hear those blonde kids speaking in perfect Indonesian accent. They need to learn Enlish! :)

All in all, it was a 'capet' and good day.

Jakarta 2007 - The Planning

2007-05-11T23:06:00.002+08:00

Taking advantage of the long Labor Day holiday recently, and with a bit of foresight and generous credit from Hong Leong visa card, we were off to Jakarta last April 28, 2007 and came back 5 days later.

My wife has this habit of taking pictures of airport/general scenery as we land and so, here's one of Jakarta's airport. Or 'bandara' they call it, which is short form of 'bandar udara'. You will find they use lots of acronyms overthere. As opposed to my Padang trip in 2006, I did not do much planning/reading for this trip (read: I'm a good boy at the office and don't utilize company resources for personal use. And Borat will loudly say, "NOTTTTT").

I usually use http://www.virtualtourist.com/ to get to know the places I'll be visiting and so far, they are quite alright. Plus, the tips there are written by real travelers or local residents so they are not like those tourism brochures (there are however, some people who copied tips from tour sites/brochures but they are negligible).

And since the hotels in Jakarta are more expensive and we being more of 'backpacker' tourist than a Hilton/Hyatt type, I use http://www.jalanjaksa.com/ for lodging info. Google Earth also helps in giving the bearings of places in Jakarta.

So, before going there, I made a list of places to visit:
Day 1 - Saturday, 28/4/07
Shopping - Sarinah, Blok M Shopping
Shopping - Jl Surabaya, Senen

Day 2 - Sunday, 29/4/07
Istiqlal Mosque, Museum Gajah, Monas
Shopping - Tanah Abang
Go to Debu's house

Day 3 - Monday, 30/4/07 (move to Bandung for one night)
Kawah Putih Ciwidey
Shopping - Bandung

Day 4 - Tuesday, 1/5/07
Kota / Sunda Kelapa
Shopping - Mangga Dua

Day 5 - Wednesday, 2/5/07
Return KL

Many people suggested to include Anchol Dreamland (like Genting or Sunway in Malaysia but much bigger) and Taman Mini but due to limited time & budget, I did not include these two.

But alas, 'Mat Jenin' can dream but Jakarta is sooo biigggg that all my plan goes haywire. Look at the photos below and imagine about 12 million people live there.

Unlike KL, where most people lives in the surrounding areas and not in the city itself, Jakarta with length from North to South of about 70 km (estimate by a friend), people do work and live there. So the place is really congested. And I don't know any roads in KL that is 5 lanes on each side!

So, my plan all goes to haywire and only managed to do this:

Day 1 - Saturday, 28/4/07
No shopping at Sarinah, Blok M, Jalan Surabaya for antiques, or Senen for used books. But had good Sundanese lunch at BenHil (like our Star Hill, actual name is Bendungan Hilir) after airport pick up by Pak Ote. Ote, by the way, I met recently in a Nice bus from Penang to KL while coming back from Krabi trip in December 2006. Who knew short conversations in a bus could turn into friendship.

After checking into hotel, had a short rest and was picked up by Dinna, another friend whom I got to know from Yahoo group fansnya_Debu and off we went to Debu's house/zawiya in South Jakarta. It was fun to finally met some Debu members face to face and had dinner there. And it was priceless to have two Debu members playing 'gambus' (I think) as background music while having dinner (more on this later).

Day 2 - Sunday, 29/4/07
No visit to Istiqlal Mosque, Museum Gajah, or shopping at Tanah Abang as planned but we managed to go to Monument National or Monas for short. This is funny. A day before leaving for Jakarta, I sms a good and hopefully lifelong buddy Riza telling him that I'm going to Jakarta and asking if he wants anything from there. And he replied he's actually going there that afternoon itself. Wow, without previous plan, now I've got buddies to hang around with in Jakarta. So, this good Sunday morning, since Riza and his entourage was already at Monas, we went there first to join them. Waduuuhhh, besar banget tempatnya. Taxi driver drop us at a bad entrance and I had to walk about 2 kilometers to go to the actual Monas monument. And about a kilometer of those walking scented by human urine. No kidding. After that, capet sekali and terus pulang ke kamar and rehat2 aja.

Day 3 - Monday, 30/4/07
Woke up still feeling tired and drag ourselves to Stasiun Gambir (which is like only 10 minutes from Jakarta Pusat where we stayed) for train to Bandung. Highly recommended the Executive train to Bandung instead of using taxi or minivan coz with train, the scenery is truly beautiful.

Day 4 - Tuesday, 1/5/07
Went to Kawah Putih in Bandung and return to Jakarta via minivan.

Day 5 - Wednesday, 2/5/07
Again, nothing happen as planned to visit Kota / Sunda Kelapa area. But team up with Riza and visit some naqshbandi members in Jakarta. Though I'm not that good of a Muslim, it's nice to meet some people who is.

Day 6 - Thursday, 3/5/07
Yes Dorothy, there's no place like home.

A good start to Maulid 2007 session

2007-03-30T16:55:00.000+08:00

After a long hiatus, which is occuring more frequently now :), went for zikir last night and now being Rabiul-Awal, the praising of our Prophet is a bit longer than usual. The video grab from my Lumix camera is not that good (plus I'm not sure if it's a good idea to post video here) but like most things now, you can google for mawlid videos at youtube or google video.

That's Fateh in the foreground and a familiar face at the background in blue shirt with back at the wall.

And the 'kambing' afterward is, as always, simply divine.

A day at National Zoo

2007-03-26T12:19:00.000+08:00

These are the photos that made me wanted to buy a digital camera. Sometime ago we decided to bring Fateh to the zoo since we ourselves never been there. Judging from above, we made good timing too! By the way, that is not his 'fifth' leg.

We had a good day there. Though not knowing the schedule, we left our house early enough and made it to the few animal shows and enjoyed ourselves. The giraffes safari was nice. Seladangs too.

A good way to spend a day and it beats the mall anytime.

Bekam

2007-03-16T18:00:00.000+08:00

It was the book 'Muhammad' by Martin Lings that made me wanted to do this. There's a reference there that during Isra & Mikraj that the angels were telling our prophet for his nation to do the bekam. So a few years later and some weeks ago I did it.

It was one of those days that I felt lazy to go to work and found an excuse for mc or whatever. By chance I went to Puchong Perdana mosque and saw this guy phone number on a poster for 'bekam'. Because he was trained by some MLM company, that apart from doing bekam they also sell herbal medicine, the equipment used seemed quite alrite; with proper sterilization on the syringe and all.

Contrary to my perception, it wasn't hurtful at all. However, to show you the 'front' photo would constitute pornography on my part.

How to have great beach holiday on the cheap?

2007-03-15T11:55:00.002+08:00

Take a deep breath and think about your life nowadays. Now, wouldn't it be nice for a little get away on the cheap, a sort of life-recharging holiday but doesn't cost you more than a few steaks at Victoria Station. Well, you have got a friend here to tell you how. So thank the good Lord for that. He he he. And pray that he becomes a good boy.

Assuming that you live in KL like me, and no matter how much you spend time in the office, things are not gonna be that superb. So, what a bloke to do? My suggestion - go Krabi my friend, go Krabi. Now, where the heck is that? Well, I know your geography is not good. So, look at the map below.

It’s not that far from Phuket, about two hours by boat. While there are still tons of tourists in Krabi (in case you wanna people watching *wink*), it’s not over-commercialized as Phuket, hence, won’t cost you a bundle. And it’s not that far from Bukit Kayu Hitam either.

So how to go there? And how to go there on the cheap and easy.

First, to Bukit Kayu Hitam. Here I think the easiest would be to drive yourself up all the way to the Duty Free building and park your car there. I’ve parked my car here for a few days and done this for a couple of times over the years and so far, no trouble for me. And right at that parking lot, you will see a few vans and taxis to Hat Yai. Price changes but roughly a van cost you about RM15 per person and RM50 per taxi. I’m not a regular to Hat Yai (see, I’m still a good boy and with your prayers, I’ll be better) so I don’t know the details.

Twice, without a map and just by reading the sparse signboards with English characters and squiggly fonts, we managed to drive up to Hat Yai. You need your car registration to do this and you have to buy Thai insurance before leaving the Malaysian border. At the border, please make sure that you do your passports and also permit for the car coz during our first time, nobody told us and we went up to Sadao for another check and have to return back.

In Hat Yai, you could go to any travel agent and ask for a minivan to Krabi. And if you walk around the central shopping area, you wouldn’t walk more than 100m without seeing one tour agent with photos of nice girls on the wall. If I remember correctly, van to Krabi leaves at 9 am, 11 am, 1 pm, & 3 pm. Don’t take my words for these but it should be your guide for your traveling plan. If I’ve time, I would not mind staying a night in Hat Yai and leaves for Krabi the next day. I went to Krabi in early 2007 and the van cost me only RM25.

It was not a planned trip and I’ve not even read up on the place. The opportunity arose when I had to go to Penang for work trip and I thought what the heck, might as well take a few days off. So, armed with only one phone number for tour agent in Krabi (got it from ilovekrabi.com), I got on that minivan and spend four hours on the road. With fear and excitement, I thought what the hell am I doing in this van. As customary in Thailand, guys would sit at the back of the van leaving the front for ladies. This van is like a Toyota Hiace with 3 rows of seat at the back. I’m alone at the back row and another guy in front of me. Conversation was out of the picture since he was not the talking type. One German couple at the front and they don’t seem friendly too. So I was like, o mannn, don’t let my asthma got to me or else I could die here alone!

And I already intent to jama’ zuhr during asr and the van is moving patiently in the winding road with no towns in sight. What if the good Lord said, well young man, your time on earth is up and your hour of Truth has come. The feeling of excitement and anxiety when you are traveling somewhere without having a clue of the journey itself is really something. The adrenaline is different from Bungee Jumping or those ride at the theme parks. You know theme park operators will do their best to ensure safety but traveling without a Lonely Planet guide will make your heart thumps wildly. Writing this, makes me realize how I can be complacent with the journey to hereafter but will not travel anywhere on earth without a guide book.

Enough of that. After two hours leaving Hat Yai, we had a R&R stop and not having small change with me, I did not leave the van. On the return trip, I realized how foolish it was. For the place had a halal food stall and also a Surau!

I arrived in Krabi about 6 pm and have the driver talked to the agent for my drop off. Patty, the tour agent, was nice and helpful and got me a fairly new place with a/c and bathroom for the night at RM35. For halal dinner, she suggested the night market which is near the Krabi pier, about 100m from her office. I went there and start looking for the ‘Bismillah’ or any Arabic signs. But unlike Hat Yai, I could not find any. I haven’t had lunch and now another surprise! I guess unlike Hat Yai, Malaysians don’t go to Krabi much so there’s no need for the signs. After walking a while, I saw a couple (must be local) and the girl wears a tudung. So that’s the spot for me. Asked the stall what they have for dinner but it wasn’t going anywhere since I don’t speak Thai; so the easiest would be ‘chicken fried rice’ and ‘iced tea’. Cost me RM4 for those.

Apparently, Krabi is about 40% Muslims and a few traders at the night market are Muslims. There are also a few Muslim restaurants but being a small town, much smaller than Hat Yai, the restaurants open at 8 am and close 5 pm.

Things to do here are the same as those in Phuket. After all, you would take the island trips to Phi Phi and a few others like Maya Beach where they filmed Leo’s the Beach movie. The diffence is that it’s cheaper if your base is in Krabi. Krabi also has a few beaches like Ao Nang (20 minutes by car) or Rai Lay (by boat only), but accommodation could double up in those areas.

So, for less than RM50 for transportation from border and RM30 for room, you could be in another environment sipping ice cold pineapple juice and reading a book while being caressed by soft winds. And not to mention those farangs with well endowed assets.

Blog Updating

2007-02-22T09:15:00.000+08:00

To my friend Elin & Lollies, sorry that I've not updated this for a bit. I'm feeling quite down at work at the moment and lost the appetite to write. Plus, I'm not that good of a writer or have much free time to produce good writing. But I think these people are:
http://www.bahrusshofa.blogspot.com/
http://superdervish.blogspot.com/

Incidentally, I started blogging just because I wanted to comment on Riza's blog. Never I dream that I could bring world peace or change the world by writing this.

But by golly, there was one time, not too many years ago that I dreamt of changing our Malay society. Though I don't know much, names like Che Guavara, Malcom X, Burhanuddin Helmi were always on my lips. I asked a few friends one time what they think of our society, and one replied, "What? Che Sayuti?". I knew it was hard work then and changed my hobby to playing Nintendo. And I was good at Mario Brothers too!

But dream and understanding is an elusive thing. If I may, remember those Calculus problems in Form 5? They were difficult to solve and understand at first, but after a few trials, voila, we feel a bit more confident to solve them. But trying to understand and solve the maladies of our society wasn't that simple. And at times it could be burdensome; until one time I was reading one talk/sohbet by Shaykh Nazim about the tribulations of our time and felt that I don't have to carry the burden anymore. Truly, 'understanding' is not something we could get by striving alone, it also has to be bestowed on us.

I wasn't planning to write about that but I digress. I actually wanted to congratulate our friend Phirdouse for getting married. Again. But never mind. Mabruk, mabruk.

Phi Phi Island

2006-12-15T19:44:00.000+08:00

Went to Phi Phi island tour today. Cost me RM140.00 for the full day tour. It was worth it I think. Much better than the TAR marine park islands in Kota Kinabalu. For this tour, we went to two snorkeling places and 3 beautiful beaches including that of Maya beach; made famous from Leo DiCaprio's the beach movie. But sadly, I don't have my camera with me. The wife took it first. And this trip was not even planned. More later, now off to Thai Kickboxing match.

Krabi

2006-12-14T21:01:00.000+08:00

Here I am in a small internet care in Krabi, South Thai. A bit more south than Phuket about 4 hours drive from Hat Yai. How did I end up here alone, out of place among the farangs (westerners) is quite simple actually. Got a few days leave to blow off and since I was in Penang for work trip, and the wife is in Hong Kong for two weeks with her mother visiting relatives there. I thought a beach excursion might be good. And been wanting to come here for sometime already. So now the chance.

After a 5 hours minivan drive from Penang to Hat Yai (RM25) and another 4 hours to here (RM25 also), I end up at the physical office of Ms. Patty from www.krabitours.com. She was helpful; got me a room with fan for RM30 per night. And tomorrow to Phi Phi island tour and dead tired now. So, sweet dreams.

A lesson in life ...

2006-11-28T14:37:00.000+08:00

I don't know who said it first or where I got it from, but here goes ...

"Borrow money from pessimists - They don't expect it back."

An easy thing to do ...

2006-11-24T16:12:00.000+08:00

A while back, I received e-mail mocking the Indonesian group Dewa and how its lead, Ahmad Dhani is of jewish heritage and all those stuff (as if being a Jew is bad, we forget how many great prophets are Jewish, being zionist is a different matter altogether). That kind of e-mail I only scan thorough and don't remember much details since I feel that there's malicious intent on the author instead of trying to do good.

And today I came across this article about Ahmad Dhani. Well, well, seems our friend is going places. Good for you brother and may you always be under our Master's guidance and our Lord's blessings. Free ticket ada ka?

Back to the e-mail, I can't just imagine the faces below as bad people, if anything, we want to be like moth to a flame and perish within their light ...

Nice to see such a face again

2006-11-20T16:20:00.000+08:00

It is sooooo nice to see Shaykh Adnan's face once again. I heard he came to KL sometime during Ramadan and left yesterday.

I think I've mentioned before that I'm not a good Muslim at all. Just in case you might think otherwise (by seeing such a photo here), I do break a few ten commandments on a daily basis and not a regular on some Rukun Islam.

That apart, some aspect of my life was at the lowest low few weeks ealier and I was so much in despair that I'm ready to throw some of it away. Orang kata, kalau ikut rasa ... binasa. Had I followed my emotion, years from now friends would bump into me and take a pity that I've become a zombie and clueless in life.

And thank God for people like Shaykh Adnan! Somebody hosted him for a dinner in Tropicana last Saturday and I went there. He arrived around 9:00 pm, we prayed Isha' behind him, short zikir & sohbet afterward. And dinner with lamb, chicken, & beef. A good dinner it was; buat muka tebal and tambah dua kali.

The difference between people like Shaykh Adnan and others is that, by just being in their presence, we feel a certain aura and charisma about them. And dare I say, a certain peace comes to our troubled heart. I don't know how to put it in words but it was as if all those rough & troubled emotions in the heart are slowly being made beautiful once again.

And life has become its usual self. Thank you Sir.

Further Thoughts on the way to Work

2006-11-17T16:12:00.000+08:00

Still on the subject of guidance, teaching, I remember our Malay peribahasa:

Kalau melentur buluh,
biarlah dari rebungnya.

And also the African proverb:

It takes the whole village to educate a child.

But how do we teach a virtue to somebody. I remember vaguely reading one of Idries Shah about a Sufi Master taking his murids on a journey and show them various examples of people persevering in their pursuits. The idea is for the murids to learn what perseverance means and keep the discipline in their own struggles. Listening about perseverance and seeing it in action is certaily two diffrent things.

We can’t just tell people to behave and everything will be fine and dandy after that. I believe this is so because within our own self, within this person that we call, for example sake, Fateh, there are various faculties at work. There are the egos, desires that try to go one way and the soul, the heart that wanna go the other way. Throughout human history, we could see this in the Yin/Yang, various facets of the Hindu gods, and even in the id, ego, super-ego of Freud. There’s a good introduction about this in a book called, appropriately, Book of Sufi Healing by Hakim Chisti.

In my own case, despite her temper, my grandma is one generous person. Whenever we go to visit some relatives, close or near, she will always bring a simple gift. Befitted orang kampung like her, the gift could be a few cans of condesed milk or a few kilos of sugar; and if she’s financially constrained, biscuits will do. And I hope to emulate her in that sense. If anything, charity is a good deed and could take away difficulties from us. May we do this more and more everyday. Aminnnn.

The Indian Bird

2006-10-02T11:14:00.000+08:00

One thing I'm grateful in life that, though from a simple family, I grew up to like reading. The passion did not fully blossomed till I was in college but the seed was planted much earlier. Perhaps being big (a more humane way of saying that I'm fat), I did not have much choice. Football certainly out of the window. And reading engineering stuff in college was not that much fun. And I'm much more grateful that I like reading Idries Shah and his Sufi books. Somehow, may be because I grew up poor, I am not the type to quicky judge a person or a situation. This came in handy since reading Idries Shah, some of the things said are certainly way over my head. But in time, I come to understand a bit.

So, the story today is from Idries Shah's The Way of the Sufi. It is one of the few stories that for unknown reason, I really like. Hopefully you will enjoy it too. In the book, Shah wrote that the story is from Maulana Rumi.

The Indian Bird

A merchant had a bird in a cage. He was going to India, the land from which the bird came, and asked him whether he could bring anything back for him. The bird asked for his freedom, but was refused. So he asked the merchant to visit a jungle in India and announce his captivity to the free birds who were there.

The merchant did so, and no sooner had he spoken than a wild bird, just like his own, fell senseless out of a tree on to the ground. The merchant thought that this must be a relative of his own bird, and felt sad that he should have caused this death.

When he got home, the bird asked him whether he had brought good news from India. ‘No,’ said the merchant, ‘I fear that my news is bad. One of your relations collapsed and fell at my feet as soon as I mentioned your captivity.'

As soon as these words were spoken, the merchant's bird collapsed and fell to the bottom of the cage.

‘The news of his kinsman's death has killed him too,' thought the merchant. Sorrowfully he picked up the bird and put it on the window-sill. At once the bird revived and flew, to a near by tree. ‘Now you know,’ he said, ‘that what you thought was disaster was in fact good news for me. And how, the message, the suggestion how to behave in order to free myself, was transmitted to me through you, my captor.'

And he flew away, free at last.

Nasrudin's Frog Experiment

2006-07-31T12:14:00.000+08:00

From Nasrudin@yahoo.group.com. I'll try to copy some of my favorite stories from Idries Shah books once I've time. Meanwhile:

Nasrudin trained a frog to hop everytime he said "Jump!".Then, for reasons known only to himself, he surgically removed the frog's lefthind leg."Jump!" he cried. The frog jumped. Veered badly to the left, but it jumped.
Nasrudin wrote in his journal: "Left hind leg removed; frog still jumps."And then he removed the frog's left fore leg."Jump!" he cried. The frog jumped. Almost rolled over on it's back, but itjumped.
He wrote in his journal: "Both left legs removed; frog still jumps."And then he removed the frog's right fore leg."Jump!" he cried. The frog jumped. Actually it was more of a 'scoot', but itjumped.
He wrote in his journal: "All but right hind leg removed; frog still jumps."And the he removed the frog's right hind leg."Jump!" he cried. Nothing."Jump!" he cried. The frog twitched a little, but just sat there."Jump!" he cried. The frog just looked at him pitifully.
Nasrudin wrote in his journal: "All legs removed; frog has gone deaf."

Greek Proverb

2006-07-14T10:20:00.000+08:00

Was browsing www.deenport.com and intrigue by this Greek proverb:

“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade, they know they shall never sit in”.

May we have lots of those men and women.

Black Magic in Malay Society

2006-04-28T08:44:00.000+08:00

Just a rambling off my head and not meant to be an academic study. What prompted me was something that happenned to my mom few weeks ago. After a few visit to the doctor and not seeing an improvement, coupled with strange finding of several nails tucked neatly into a papaya tree in front of our house, grandma old school intuition wanted to try different avenues. After a few visits to several experts in the area, one of which head of top 'pondok'/madrasah in Kelantan, grandma's intuition seems correct.

We hope we could be among those who would be happy with our Lord in any situation. Shaykh Nazim taught to say 'syukurillah' (sp?) when something good happens and to say 'alhamdulillah' when in difficulty. Which to be honest, when I first heard it, it sounded strange to my Malay psyche upbringing; until I heard on IKIM radio something that suggests a similar manner.

But what I want to write is more about the usage of black magic or 'sihir' in our society. What happenned was, when we visited a particular healer/'bomoh' back home, it struck me that in the short span I was there, about 5 other people was seeking her service. And most of the cars are registered outside Kelantan! Now, forget about ntv7, this is a real 'fear factor'.

And from talking to several friends about this, it seems that sihir is quite prevalent. One friend who works in banking industry, is frequenting the famous Darul Shifa now for what thought to be a 'santau'. Another, a business owner in construction industry, told several scary stories about his friends who'd been had.

I thought 'wow', the only thing we can do is to turn to Him; Helper for those who are helpless, Pillar for those who has no pillars, and Guide for those who has no guidance.

And on this blessed Friday and 2nd last day of Rabiul Awal this year, may our Lord increase our love for His most beloved servant, place us among the Righteous here and hereafter, and place us in safety. Salawat & Fatihah. Amin.

Note to Myself 1

2006-04-19T16:00:00.000+08:00

Dear Self,

If you happen to go to any celebration for Mawlid, Bercukur Rambut, etc. please don't place the 'bunga rampai' (spelling?) together with your asthma inhaler. If you do, everytime you use the inhaler after that, you will also inhale the bunga rampai smell. It just does not feel right.

Note:
Photo of Mawlid in Janda Baik, Pahang last Tuesday.

Once upon a time in Middle Earth

2006-04-13T17:04:00.000+08:00

Thought it was really funny and put it here. Got it from http://alaydhien.blogspot.com

Imagine if you will ...

2006-04-10T09:21:00.000+08:00

Imagine if you will, a 30-something Malay male sitting in front of an elder in a living room somewhere in KL. The young man could sport a nice hair cut, slightly on the big size (either life has been good to him or he’s not watching his diet), casually dressed and not too sharp; and a small goatee on the chin.

Clearly the young man is spiritually inclined; though he does not seem too religious. The elder can be any venerable elder who has gone thru the good and the bad in life; somebody who's not only knowledgeable but also wise (there's distinction between the two you know).

So the young man asked, “when I look at my life, it seems that whenever I have good intention to do something, somehow I can't do it. It seems that there's bad energy or jinn or shaitan trying to pull me away. What can I do sir? May be certain Quranic practice I should do. Your guidance is much welcomed”.

After a deep breath, the elder said, “well son, there's no jinn trying to divert you, you are just one lazy son of a bitch”.

And with that, they both took a sip of the still hot Ahmad Tea (London) brought earlier.

2006-03-28T15:15:00.000+08:00

An interesting read. http://www.daruliftaa.com/Docs/Blessed_Lands_of_Yemon.htm

Wish that I would have some means in the future to travel the world and partake its blessings.

You may check this site http://www.aljenderami.com.my/home/index.php to see if the Habibs is visiting Malaysia.

A good 'adab'

2006-02-23T11:14:00.000+08:00

I happen to be in Balikpapan, Kalimantan Timur last Chinese New Year and saw a good adab in a mosque there.

A few days I was there, I went to this mosque in front of the hotel only once for Fajr and after the prayer, zikir and all, everybody stand up for 'salam'.

In most mosques in Malaysia, the act of salam, while prominence is given to the imam, is still done in a random manner. Such as, if one is a bit far from the imam, one would 'bersalam' with those nearer first before going to the imam.

However there, at least in that mosque, everybody would que to salam with the imam first and those who did their salam, would stay put next to the imam and thus create a circle so that in the end, everybody would salam with everybody else. And while doing that, salawat would be recited out loud.

It was such a lovely setting that I would not doubt creates a much more brotherhood atmoshpere.

While I do not know the Malaysian scene in general, I know that the same adab is practiced by some here.

Bangkok II

2006-02-13T12:48:00.000+08:00

One thing I guess that the Thais are different from other ASEAN nations is that they do and show their respect for their king. It was the king’s birthday when I was there last year and everywhere you could see the king’s pictures. A few cab drivers I talked to invariably loved their king whereas not all like the prime minister.

In front of the hotel entrance, they placed a big size photo of the king, perhaps A2 size, and they decorate around the area. Next to the entrance, there’s one convenience shop and once, I saw a man getting there and before he went to the shop, he placed his hands together and showed his respect to the king in front of his photo.

And this is our lives. Not all men are created equal. That’s one thing I find it difficult to reconcile with ‘democracy’. Democracy gives all eligible men and women equal amount of power, i.e vote. Be honest here, not everybody is bright and cheerful. Some are not too clever and can be manipulated easily. The liberals would say, if we don’t give equal rights to everyone, then who’s to decide what is right or wrong. It can’t be placed in a few hands. And as I said before, even if the right is placed in everybody’s hand, it won’t be fine and dandy.

Though I’m not inclining towards return to Kingship, I just hope that the world would be a better place. And I guess I have to start with me. Allah Hu, Allah Haq.

A tale of two Doa

2006-02-03T18:07:00.000+08:00

I'm a bad, bad man. Last Eid-ul Adha, while the imam was saying the doa after the khutbah, I was thinking about another doa that I just heard on a mawlid vcd.

You see, the Eid doa was in my kampung in Kelantan and the other doa, I supposed was in Yemen since Habib Umar was in the mawlid.

If I remember correctly, the Eid doa was like this, among others:

"... Ya Allah, destroy our enemies and failed their plans against us ..."

While Habib Umar's was:

"... Ya Allah, bring those who are astray back to the right path ..."

Of course, this is not a judgement on one person against the other. By any accounts, I'm nothing at all compared to the Eid Imam.

The thing is, given two choices, with whose company do we rather be. And whose guidance would have more lasting impact on our soul. I believe the answer is as clear as daylight.

Though it might be difficult to find such a person among us, I'm sure our good Lord grant to those who asked. Knocked, and the door shall be open.

And here's one advice by Habib Umar:
http://www.guidancemedia.co.uk/mustaffa/articles/seminaladvice.pdf

Bangkok

2005-12-28T11:07:00.000+08:00

Not much I can tell about Bangkok except that the place is huge. I felt like a 'katak gemuk di bawah tempurung'. You know how some places they put sign 'take only pictures and leaves only footprints'. Well, I followed that to the 't' and left my new Lumix camera there as well. He he he. So much for a picture worth a thousand words.

With a few days there and one of it for diarrhea, I did not have much chance to absorb the place. Only visits to a few touristy places. So here are my takes:

1. Shopping
I would recommend to go to MBK first just to touch base with the prices that Bangkok has to offer. I think the place is much like our Sg. Wang. The famous Chatucak Weekend market is also a good place to visit; even if just for the experience of it. I definitely wouldn't want to go to the Night Bazaar if I had a chance to go there again. The place is much too expensive compare to MBK and the stuff are about the same.

2. Food
Amazing as it was, there was this road called Soi Nana off Sukhumvit that is catered to Arabs. You can see Arabs there in their traditional wear (for lack of better word) and smoking that what the name 'water pipe'. So, halal food is plenty here. And as we moved around the city, we showed the van driver a list of halal restaurants and he would take us there. Plus, we stayed at a hotel with kitchen area so cooking was not a problem.

3. Floating Market
I think this one is a total rip off. It was about 2 hours drive from Bangkok and once there, we had to pay about RM40 per person to be driven in 'sampan' around the klong and not far from the jetty there is this area where traders set up stall on the klong bank and try to sell you the same stuff that you can buy at much cheaper price at MBK or Chatucak. And this place is mostly for tourists and I felt like it was a pure trap.

Overall, I think it was a good trip and would not mind going there again. From the plane, we could feel how small KL really is and once in the city, how blessed we are in terms of traffic.

Bangkok, hopefully

2005-12-02T09:33:00.000+08:00

Hopefully, when you see this, I'm somewhere in a boat on Chao Phraya partaking of its fragrance or haggling with some vendors on a 48" Levi's knock off. Patpong, here we come (strictly educational of course!).

Interesting read ...

2005-11-18T09:33:00.000+08:00

Last Day of Ramadan 2005 with Shaykh Adnan

2005-11-15T18:36:00.000+08:00

It was the last tarawih for this 2005 Ramadan and deep down I know I have not been doing much. Shaykh Adnan Kabbani, a big figure among the earliest murids of Shaykh Nazim and Grandshaykh Abdullah Ad-Dagestani, had been in Malaysia for sometime now. And not once I went to his tarawih in Damansara.

Nietsche, I think a German philosopher, said many things, but one I remember most is his saying, “reason is a whore”.

I don’t know what he meant by it but I take it as to give reasons for something is basically useless (not that I think the whoring profession is useless, but that for later). And there are many reasons I could give for missing the golden time to be in the same company as Shaykh Adnan; and they will just remain as baseless excuses.

But last night, much thankful to our Lord Almighty, I joined the folks for tarawih with Shaykh Adnan in Penang (it’s the wife turn for Eid this year). After tarawih and short zikir, Shaykh Adnan gave a memorable ‘sohbet’. From my damaged recollections:

He said 500 years after the trumpet blown, all children of Adam will congregate on the Judgment day and will feel the burden of their sins and the incoming waves of Jahanam. Not able to stand the situation anymore, 124,000 prophets go to Sayyidina Adam to ask our Lord Almighty to open the court. To cut the story short, Sayyidina Adam a.s is afraid to do it and so are the other Prophets (Nuh, Ibrahim, Musa, & Isa a.s) except for our beloved Messenger pbuh. It is one of the honors of our Prophet to ask our Lord to open the court.

Continuing what I’ve written earlier (about two weeks ago), I can’t seem to recall much. I think it’s more about what are we doing to prepare for that day.

Now I’m reminded about something that Gurdjieff wrote about two monks – one young and the other old. While the young monk could always give a fiery speech, it is what the old monk said always sink to people’s heart.

Though I can’t fully remember what Shaykh Adnan said, the thought and feeling of what he described is still inside and sometimes, it pushes us to the good side; for now at least.

It is precious indeed to be among their company; regardless whether the sweet scent comes from Central Asia, North Africa or Yemen.

Not a complaint

2005-10-29T07:48:00.000+08:00

To get to Glenmarie from my house in Saujana Puchong, I usually take the Sunway LDP route rather than USJ. And now at LDP Sunway toll, they have the banner above. Emm, I thought it's a little weird to have the phrase 'minumlah air' and 'selamat menyambut Ramadhan al-Mubarak' in the same banner. But we all have our own things, let's leave it at that instead of complaining about things.

One time in life, mid 20's I supposed, I learned the word 'utopia' and being rash and foolish like any youth, I'm fixated about it. I like that word 'rash'. Dostoyevsky use it as ... where others flinch, rash and foolish youth will dare. Together with 'carpe diem', those were my favorites catch phrase at one time. Until I thought, well, this business of trying to find utopia is not that easy. The fact was, I have not tried or expand my resources on anything but just thinking about it was like hard labor to me. And so, I bought a first-generation Nintendo and choose to expand my energy and together with it, my waist line, in playing Mario Brothers.

Hence, it came to mind at the time that, why is that my religion which I was born into, instead of searching and paying for it, can't create this utopia on earth during my lifetime. It was not a good thought process to be in at the time. Especially since I was also reading a bit into other religions and in Christianity, you will find this huge concept about 'Love'. More so about unconditional love such as Jesus so loved the world that he redeemed it with his life.

Plus, we can't deny that our Islam is manifested by many kinds of groups. One group will emphasis a certain aspect much more than others. At the time, the kind of Islamic literature that I read does not have much of these 'love' and other soft concepts. And I felt, in a way, a wee bit down.

This is not about Christianity vs. Islam thing. If anything, our Christian brothers are very close to us; more so since we both believe that Sayyidina Isa a.s. will come back towards the end of time and through him, all the righteous will unite.

And now, reading some of Shaykh Nazim sohbets and other venerable wise guide, I'm happy to note that I'm much more reconciled now. Instead of the word love, we have other words like 'mercy'. And it is such a huge thing that even our beloved Rasul is called as 'mercy to the worlds'. And I'm such a jahil to talk more about this.

In Christianity there’s this thing Jesus as the logos made flesh. And I’ve find in life that, it is much beneficial to us if we could find somebody that actually manifest in everyday life the beauty of Islam.

Truth is, though there are many kind of jewels out there, some are really precious. And if we seek, so shall we find. Knock, and the door will be open. Happy Eid.

Mengidam

2005-10-14T09:45:00.000+08:00

Somehow la, satu dua hari ni, saya dok mengidam dengar lagu lagu rock zaman 70's or 80's gitu. I find listening to these songs is like having a good jeruk manga, you know, those yang tak masam sangat, tak masin, and the manga is not tua, or too young, just crispy gitu.

So these songs are playing frequently on my laptop at work:
Queen : Bohemian Rhapsody
Pink Floyd : Learning to Fly
Skid Row : 18 and Life, Wasted Time
Warrant : Heaven
Santana : Black Magic Woman
Moody Blues : Dust in the Wind, Night in White Satin
Harry Chapin : Cats in the Cradle (if u never listen to this, go find it)

After this phase, I think it will be lagu raya, though I don't think I like those as much. Coz I feel that I don't deserve to raya since I don't take advantage of those blessings that came down during Ramadan so much.

Shaykh Hisham once said (roughly la kan), if we are involved in business, we will do more if the market is on the upward swing. It will be crazy for traders not to sell or invest more during good times. The same with Allah, the months of Rajab, Sha'ban, & Ramadan are like the best months to do business with Him.

Emmm, kena pi terawih la kot malam ni. Semalam dah miss.

A Dress

2005-10-09T09:21:00.000+08:00

I was listening to Syakh Hamza's 'Marriage & Responsibilities' the other day and was struck by his explanation on one Hadith about women who are dressed but naked.

He said that, and I'm writing this from memory so hopefully the gist of it is correct, the Tradition was not clear to some scholars of old and they interpreted it metaphysically as women who dressed in this world and naked in the next world.

It's not my intention to take a jab at our esteemed scholars or women but more about the miracle of our Prophet (saw) that his saying became clear after hundreds of years later. I mean up until our modern times, people can't imagine how a person can be naked while dressed.

Wow, and to think of it, Hijaz was like a backward place at the time. The centers of civilization were Persia or Byzantine but here comes a man from out of nowhere and telling people of things to come.

And we are grateful that even though we are thousands of miles from that blessed valley, we are counted as his ummah (hopefully).

Note 1:
I later found a reference to that Hadith in a book 'The signs before the day of Judgement' by Ibn Kathir, published by Dar Al Taqwa, London. The Hadith:

Abu Hurayrah said, "The Prophet (saw) said, 'There are two types among the people of Hell whom I have not yet seen. The first are people who have whips like the tails of oxen, with which the beat people, and the second are women who are naked in spite of being dressed; they will be led astray and will lead others astray, and their heads will look like camels' humps. These women will not enter Paradise; they will not even experience the faintest scent of it, even though the fragrance of Paradise can be perceived from such a great distance.' " (Muslim).

Note 2:
Sadly, I'm not that good yet. I still support Women’s Movement; especially from behind. And more so if the way they dress, one could guess the size of their well endowed upper parts. And my gosh, when I was still going to school, those parts are not developed until they have a few kids. But now ... emmm ... puasa puasa!

Hai Kersani Mengalirlah Dikau II ...

2005-10-09T08:39:00.000+08:00

To update, I went to Kulim again last week and asked the guy who bought some RM100.00 stuff from Pak Kob if it works and he said, "tak banyak peluang la, asyik lampu merahhh je". Emmm, if only it's like tap water where you can turn it off at will :)

Anyway, to answer Nazrah's, it's nothing lika a spa. Because, with respect to people there, the place is near a place where Tunku met Chin Peng. And as far as Chin Peng is concerned, the area can't be like those Hindustani movies. It is deep inside the kampung where instead of fresh earth smell, it's more like cow manure. The urut itself is done on a used up foam mattress with regular plywoods as walls. But we don't complain.

As far as the urut goes, I think it needs to be done on regular basis to show some results. We went there once just for the experience of it.

Hai Kersani Mengalirlah Dikau ...

2005-09-22T13:21:00.000+08:00

Around once a month or so, I would drive up to Kulim for work related trip. I usually would spend one or two nights over there. Call me coward if you want, but I never like spending my night in a hotel room alone. I never got a good sleep that way. And since I'm not the type who would call up suppliers to be entertained, my companion would be whatever is on the tv.

But last week was different. During lunch, a few of us got to talking about finding a good, old style 'tukang urut' for traditional massage. Our local friend said we have two options – normal body massage or special massage. We opted for the first. But, … our story takes a turn here.

Our first masseur was not available so we drove up to the 2nd masseur and were greeted by two angry ‘angsa’. Now, if you lived in a kampung before, you know how boisterous and terrifying an angsa could be. The four of us waited for about five minutes in the car not daring to get out of it.

Once out and after a short chit chat with our masseur Pak Kob, I was the first to go. I changed into an old ‘kain pelikat’ that double its original thickness due to oil residues from previous massages. Heck, Pak Kob could probably wash it every few years.

He started from around the knee area and right there I got a strange feeling since normally people will start from the feet. As he pushed his fingers deep into the vein, which is quite painful even though he’s close to 64 years of age, he hand would accidentally touch my ‘konek’. Aha, so this is the special part. I said to him, “dah malam ni kot, buat urut badan cukup la”. He replied, “eh tak pa ehhh, dah mai jauh2 tu”. I knew then that with two angry ‘angsa’ outside, I could not run away. Sounds of Hotel California keep playing in my head as Pak Kob made his moves.

I thought to myself, lucky I’m not gay. If not, I would have been excited by another man touching me ‘there’.

The session itself was quite short since there were 3 of us and we got to his around close to 10:00 p.m. already. As usual, afterwards Pak Kob tried to sell us a few of his traditional medicine. I did not buy anything but one of us spend around RM100.00 for the 3 kinds of ‘jamu’.

I’ll ask him next month if it works.

Nama Manja

2005-08-30T17:37:00.000+08:00

Masa sekolah dulu2 kat MRSM Beseri kita ada geng jugak la. Kira macam nak buat apa2 pun satu geng join jugak la. And dalam geng ni, masing2 ada nama sendiri la. Contohnya:

Zakir
Kita panggil dia 'Guna' sebab dia hitam skit. So masa tu Punch Gunalan kot famous player or coach badminton, dah lupa dah, so dapat la nama dia 'Guna'.

Azreen (nama cam pompuan tapi laki)
Dia ni cam cina sikit. Masa tu Tan Koon Swan punya cerita pasal songlap duit ke apa tengah famous. So nama dia jadi 'Swan' tapi pronounce 'Swon' sebab kita banyak budak Klate, jadi nama dia pun di Klate kan. Kelakarnya budak2 pompuan pangil dia dengan manjanya jadi 'Suwaannn'.

Riza
Sebab dia ni maqam tinggi sangat, orang dok story pasal Wings & Search dia dok cite pasal 'metaphysics' ngan Aristotle, so panggil la dia Riza Proffessor.

Me
Sebab itu perut ada besar sikit, kita kawan2 pangil 'bucit'. Kira singkatan pada buncit la tapi buncit tu tak best sound dia. So jadi la bucit.

Dan yang lain2 tu dah lupa lak.

Marhaban Acoustica

2005-08-25T09:09:00.000+08:00

What a refresh it was, to a tired body & weak spirit, to hear people praising our Lord and His best of creations. When the physical is tired, and sound waves coming into the ears like a live jamming session, it was like those people in the Shell commercial.

Well, somebody was blessed with a child and a 'cukur rambut' was held last Thursday in Damansara and like any 'cukur rambut' thing, in villages or cities, 'Marhaban' & other qasidah was sung.

Perhaps some other time, I could put the sound files here. On the other hand, if anybody wants copy of Mawlid Di'bae cd, let me know.

Service

2005-08-18T10:35:00.000+08:00

I wrote tiny bit saying of Shaykh Ubdaydullah (q) in April and last weekend, while having breakfast in Penang, one saying of his struck me. The saying was (from www.naqshbandi.org):

"Everyone enters through a different door; I entered this Spiritual Order through the door of service."

Another luminaries, Shah Naqshband (q) used to say,

"We love to serve, not to be served. When we serve, Allah is happy with us, and this brings more attraction to the Divine Presence and Allah opens that state more for us. However, to be served, brings pride and weakness to the heart and causes us to recede from the Divine Presence."

It is not an easy thing to be of service in the name of our Lord. Not easy if our heart is hard that is. Often times, when I see something that I can help, while driving for example, my mind can’t decide whether to help or not. And while that is going on, I would have passed the opportunity to help. I guess that shows the state of my heart or conscience. And the thing about our heart is that, it gives us sign. When we are terribly angry for example, we would act like an insane and would feel the heat inside us. May our dear Lord save us from that.

But last weekend, the opportunity for service was granted and I felt some softness inside. Hopefully we could have more of it, for He is the Most Generous & Most Merciful, and we all can be a bit like Shaykh Ubaydullah (q) above.

Nasruddin : Applied Non-duality

2005-08-15T13:21:00.000+08:00

Whatever the title means, I got it from our beloved Mullah yahoo group. With tons of things to do, his story is like torrential rain on a Malaysian-style hazy day.

Nasrudin participated in a wrestling contest. Due to his agility and
speed, he succeeded in getting to the finals. In the final bout he was matched against a huge and powerful pro.

The guy got him caught and held in an impossibly contorted position,and the situation of Nasrudin seemed hopeless. Then, all of a sudden, to everybody's surprise, in an unbelievable bust of energy Nasrudin released himself from the hold, and vanquished his opponent.

He was declared a winner.

Later that evening a close friend asked him how he did it. "Well," said Nasrudin, "I gave up all hope... then I saw in front of me pair of hairy balls. Forgetting all about fair play, I bit in with all my strength.

You have no idea how much energy a man gets when he bites his own balls."

Richard Fenyman

2005-08-04T08:55:00.000+08:00

Somehow, books that I read tend to be non-fiction. And a few of those stick to my mind even though the books may not be with me anymore. One example of such books are those by Richard Fenyman. To me, he's one of the great physicists of our century; at least to me since the way he presented science it seems like an easy subject.

In one of the books, which as always, I can't remember now which one, he talked about the education system in Brazil. How it teaches children to memorize things instead of understand and think about things. I feel that when I was growing up, our education system is also the same. Those students who can regurgite the formula back seem to be on the top percentile of the class. Just the other day, I was reading a book by Bill Moyers 'A world of Ideas' and one of the interviews he had was with this top Chinese scientist in the US and that scientist was also complaining about the same thing. The scientist felt that his graduate students from China is good at memorizing but not at coming up with boudary-breaking ideas; whereas his US students are otherwise.

I feel that reading Fenyman changed some of my thought processes and maybe characters too. Sadly, I don't know where I put his books, either in Puchong or in Kelantan. I shall find out. Meanwhile, if you want to know more, visit these sites:
1. http://www.geocities.com/feynmang/
2. http://www.feynman.com/

Or just goggle it out.

Physical Man

2005-08-03T10:48:00.000+08:00

There was this saying I read in a book which I can't remember now, it's either one of those by Idries Shah or Tadhkirat al-Auliya (get it free here ). The saying is about this gentleman becoming spiritually strong due to physical condition and later on, he found his source for spirituality from hunger and much later, being full or hungry does not affect his spirituality.

These last few weeks have been really low in my life. It seems that my physical affects my spritual much more than previously. I once asked a friend how does he keeps doing his daily practices everyday. Discipline he said; we must work for it.

I must baby steps back.

O Tuhan
Empunya semesta alam
We declare our sins to you, O Lord
Though we keep running away from you
Please keep us under your blessings
Keep us among those who are righteous
Among our Masters
You are truly the Sustainer of our worlds
Look at us with Grace
For the sake of your most beloved servant
The best of creations
Accept us O Lord

On Books

2005-07-18T17:17:00.000+08:00

I think it was during Standard Three that my school threw away some books that I managed to get my hands on some. The best among those was a book on world history that got me reading into the lives of Madam Curie, Buddha, Thomas Edison, Sumerians, etc.

That was how my interest in reading started and it was fueled further by my friendship with Riza et al in MRSM Beseri. And I’ve blessed further with friendship with people like Abang Fendy and others in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Thank you Kerajaan Malaysia for that.

And since Nora asked what books to read, I guess I could tell my favorites and those I’ve in my collection. Though my list is not limited to certain genre, I’m more inclined towards those in religious, classical, non fiction books.

My introduction to Sufism started with books by Idries Shah and slowly progressed to others such as Martin Lings and a few others whom I can’t remember. As with anything in this world, there are so many facets to one issue that to limit reading to one author is almost a suicide. But of late, I’m very happy reading books by Shaykh Nazim or Shaykh Hisham. I believed that they both have presented Islam in a very beautiful way and so refreshing so much that we could be proud of being Muslims … if not Mukmin.

Of hand, these are my favorite books/authors:
1. Muhammad pbuh by Martin Lings
2. Shaykh Ahmad Al Alawi … by Martin Lings
3. Muslim Saints & Mystics … by AJ Arberry. I think his translation is much better than that by Pustaka Aman Press.
4. Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky. Possibly among the best novel there is.
5. Legends of the Sufis by James Redhouse. At first I did not know what this book is all about. I Bought this book in Section 2, Shah Alam and asked the cashier for discount since the book looks like it has been on the shelf for far too long. I was ecstatic later on when I found out the book is about the life of our Master Jalalludin Rumi.
6. Khalil Gibran. I have The Prophet and Bed of Roses or sth.

1987

2005-07-13T18:09:00.000+08:00

There we were. Everybody and anybody will always say ... life then was simpler.
I still can't remember which book it was but I remember once reading that even in the times of Socrates, people already were saying things like 'oh the good old days' and 'something is wrong with youths today'.

Oh well, the good old days.

An Evening to Remember

2005-07-08T12:01:00.000+08:00

Me and two friends since MRSM Beseri days attended a talk by Shaykh Hisham Kabbani on Friday 17th June 2005 and I will try to remember what he said. But the word 'talk' is a misnomer in this case since the usual term used is 'sohbet', a Turkish word that I think closely means 'association'. The term 'association' is much better since the surrounding and ambience of his 'talk' is most of the times informal and without any prepared agenda. The result however, is tremendously fruitful and sweet.

After Isha', dinner and all, the Shaykh started his sohbet in the usual manner and say his greetings to distinguished guests that night which was Tun Abdul Rahman (now ex-governor of Sarawak; I think the host is his daughter) and Brunei's commissioner to Malaysia. Shaykh Hisham said since we have Teacher of Teachers with us that night (alluding to Tun), then we should let him speak and we listen.

I’m writing today from my memory so hopefully the fact remain such. Tun started with a story how he met Shaykh Nazim. He had surgery once and was recuperating in London. While in a bookstore looking for Sahih Bukhari, which the store does not have at the time, he picked up a book ‘Mercy Oceans’ and was fascinated with the photo of Shaykh Nazim inside the book. He inquired if Shaykh Nazim was in London and how to meet him.

Fortune smiles and an evening was set for Shaykh Nazim to visit Tun. (Tun said his feeling then was such that since he’s the governor of Sarawak, he should not visit Shaykh Nazim but for Shaykh Nazim to come to him). However, Shaykh Nazim did not make the visit.

Tun continued that a few days later he went for Fajr at Peckham Mosque and it is custom that after prayer and all, everybody would line up to ‘salam’ with Shaykh. When Shaykh Nazim came to Tun, Shaykh stopped and apologized to Tun that he did not make it to his house because Shaykh had visitors from Turkey. Tun Abdul Rahman said that was the first time he met Shaykh and was surprised how the Shaykh knew him.

Tun continued with a few stories after that and the thing I remember most is when he said, we all can wear a turban as big as Shaykh Hisham’s, but we also must work on our heart.

Deeds & Thoughts

2005-06-10T11:42:00.000+08:00

O Allah
If my deeds take me away from you
Let my thoughts bring me back

... from Travels of Ibn Jubayr

I had my plan but ...

2005-06-06T11:36:00.000+08:00

The number '5412' did not win on 4D

It was about 3 weeks ago that after a good Sunday rest at home I thought I wanted to go to office to finish some work that had piled up. It was good timing too since my wife and son was away at in-laws. But alas, my day did not turn out as planned. Truly, things that happen to us are but things for us to ponder. Lyrics from Sami Yusuf's Who is the Loved One comes to mind:
Any one who fails
To see all the signs
Of His existence
That He has spread around

Will be completely blind
Walking in the desert sands
Having no peace of mind
Who is the Loved One? Allah
Who is al-Majid? Allah
Who is al-Hamid?

That guy really has great voice and good songs; visit him at www.samiyusuf.com

If I'm not mistaken, Shaykh Nazim once said, if something happen to to us, say Alhamdulillah; and if it's good, say Syukurillah (sp?).

Oh, it was at a traffic light with an ambulance that came from opposite side and suddenly turn to left; leaving me little road for braking except to hit his side. I'm okay but the car is recuperating!

Many Luck in Life

2005-05-18T17:03:00.000+08:00

Living Room

Stair Case

Upstairs

Masha Allah, I must show gratitude and confess my thankfulness to our dear Lord much more than what I'm doing now. My dad passed away when I was 15 and I did not feel much about it since my parents have been divorced since I was 10. Though lacking a fatherly figure, my life has been blessed by many people that I think I can't thank our dear Lord enough for it.

One such man is Mohd Affandy Yusof whom I met while a student in Kalamazoo, Michigan. My friend Riza sparked my interest in books and this Abang Fendy nourished the flame for it. Just look at his collection of books. The photos were taken in mid April 05 while visiting him in Penang after about 10 years since we last met.

In Kalamazoo, I often went to his house for good meals. Thanks to people like him, I can keep my 'bucit' even though living far from mom's cooking. His stories of travels and associations with Alims in Malaysia always fascinated me.

Nagging Zen Saying

2005-04-29T17:03:00.000+08:00

Some weeks back, there was this saying keeping playing in my head, but I can't recall the whole thing directly. Somehow I remember some words of it but the whole thing evades me. The thing is that it disturbs me like if you can imagine, you are seeing a fairy but somehow, you can't catch it because just at the right moment, she flies away. Would not it be nice if you can put a fairy in a bottle or aquarium and make it like a display thing. One that looks like Julia Roberts will be fine.

Oh the saying was this :

Chuang Tze, a Chinese philosopher, once dreamt that he was a butterfly. On waking, he said to himself, "Now, am I a man dreaming that I am a butterfly, or am I a butterfly that thinks, ‘I am Chuang?’"

May be it's not Zen at all, maybe it's Chinese ... or rojak. I could have a nice plate of mee rojak now. In my real state; not dreams.

2005-04-27T18:00:00.000+08:00

Bila Fateh merajuk

We have only one child, Muhammad Fateh, now 6 years old. I can't remember why the sad face but probably because we are leaving Penang going back to Puchong. Even a day after we got to Penang (my wife is from Bayan Lepas), Fateh said he wanted to stay for 10 days since we pack so many of his clothes, he can stay longer than us. Kids eh! They are truly our reflections. Sometimes they are instruments of our Lord guidance to us. And when that happens, we are hopefully humbled by the experience.

2005-04-27T17:58:00.000+08:00

Breakfast at Tun Sardon

A Visit to Jalan Masjid India

2005-04-26T17:39:00.000+08:00

A view of Jalan Masjid India from a Minang's restaurant

Every once in a while, my buddy & I would spend half of Saturday browsing for books etc. in Jalan Masjid India. The picture was from our visit about two weeks ago. The Pak Cik with a red table on the left side of the pic sells rings, stones etc. that normally goes with such vendor. He also sells a Kasturi. People who usually buys attar would know how Kasturi would smell like; not my favorite though, but it's alright. But not a normal occasion that you would find a Kasturi in its natural state. Seeing that I'm big and a bit asthmatic, he jumped to the advantages of Kasturi for asthma, and I asked him how much, he cooly replied RM150 a piece. Wow. You probably could buy the whole deer for that price. Oh, Kasturi I've been told is a sac found around the navel in certain musk deer. O well, give me my Ventolin lah.

But I digress. I wanted to write about this. Whenever I go there, sometimes I would feel a bit down coz I did not take my wife and son with me. I'm sure they would have enjoyed a spree around the area. But to actually make it happen, requires such precision planning that I doubt few men in Malaysia are capable of; unless they are graduates of West Point or such a place. You see, we men are easy. For such a trip to materialize, I would wake up when I normally do and if there's no family thing going on, I would call this buddy for breakfast. While eating, either one could spontaneouly say something like, 'eh, jom gi Jalan Masjid India, nak cari Qasidah Burdah la' or 'eh, jom pi Jusco, nak cari CD la' and we would drive there afterwards.

But before you say more, please visit this Robert Bly guy and see of what he would think.

Shaykh Ubaydullah Al-Ahrar

2005-04-15T09:07:00.000+08:00

I recently read about him and there's one saying from him that really strucks my nerves since at the time, I was really down. Talking about Shaykh Alauddin al-Ghujdawani, Shaykh Ubaydullah said:

"He taught me a lesson that one must struggle to keep firm and constant in the dhikr, because whatever you acquire easily, without difficulty, will not stay with you. Whatever you earn by the sweat of your brow, however, will stay with you."

I guess in whatever we do, discipline and respect can't be far away if we were to succedd. And growing up as a laid-back, tv watching, Super Mario Brothers playing kind of kid, those are difficult traits for me to keep.

In Early 2003, I once asked somebody if there's an easy way to wake up and do the tahajjuds and he replied, discipline.

How to get discipline, pray tell, for the only kid, among close to 500 students that were 3rd batch MRSM Beseri, the only kid that got detention.

Surely I must learn to keep my adab.

Jokes

2005-04-11T18:23:00.000+08:00

You may have read these before but enjoy them once again. And much like highly regarded litterature or prose, you can't translate these without losing much of their value. So enjoy them in Malay:

Tahukah Anda perkataan May Day yang diulangsebut ketika berlaku kecemasan, baik di laut atau udara berasal daripada bahasa Perancis M'aidez yang bermaksud ''tolong saya''. Perkataan Mydin yang tertera pada Pasaraya Mydin pula bukan bermaksud ia dimiliki oleh pelawak terkenal Maideen.

Tahukah Anda kedua belah kaki kita tidak sama besar kerana sebelah adalah kaki kanan dan sebelah lagi adalah kaki kiri. Namanya saja sudah tidak sama jadi tentunya besarnya juga tidak sama.

Tahukah Anda magnet ialah sejenis logam yang juga digelar besi berani. Sebagaimana namanya, magnet ialah besi yang berani menarik butir-butir besi lain kearahnya. Bagaimanapun orang yang diupah untuk menarik kereta bukanlah magnet.

Tahukah Anda burung dapat pulang kesarangnya walaupun telah keluar kadangkala hingga beribu kilometer daripada sarangnya tanpa sesat atau silap walaupun tanpa bantuan kompas. Ini kerana setiap sarang burung mempunyai alamatnya yang tersendiri sebenarnya.

Tahukah Anda bunyi perkataan lempeng dan tempeleng adalah hampir sama walaupun ia berbeza dari segi rupa bentuknya. Tapi,walaubagaimanapun orang yang kena tempeleng masih boleh memakan lempeng apabila dia berasa lapar.

Tahukah Anda antara kereta kebal dan tok guru ilmu kebal, ahlak kereta kebal adalah lebih baik kerana kereta kebal walaupun ia kebal tapi tak pernah membanggakan diri dan riak akan kekebalannya.

Tahukah Anda walaupun hidup beribu tahun kalau tak sembahyang tiada gunanya.. Jadi, sembahyanglah sebelum anda disembahyangkan.

Four Man and Interpreter

2005-04-01T15:26:00.000+08:00

My interest in reading dimly started in Darjah 3 coz at the time, my school’s library was throwing books out and I took this one book which I can’t remember the title now. But it was about world history and for the first time, I was introduced to names like Madame Curie, Thomas Edison, the Sumerians etc. But coming from a Kampung Pasir Tumboh in Kelantan, we were more interested in how to pay for school fees than extra tuition or books.

Fast forward to 1987, there I was in MRSM Beseri in Perlis and true to our gender, we had a good time. Sometimes proudly I say that among close to 500 students in our 3rd batch at the time, I was the only one who was suspended for 3 days from school. Or maybe I was the stupid one among the naughty boys; stupid enough to get caught. Among my buddies then was this guy Riza who talked about Aristotle, Metaphysics, Einstein etc like he knows what’s going on. I was like, man, this guy is a professor!

Among the books I had enjoy reading were those by Idries Shah. Here’s one story from his book ‘The way of the Sufi’, the story is attributed to our Master Jalaluddin Rumi:

THE FOUR MEN AND THE INTERPRETER
Four people were given a piece of money.
The first was a Persian. He said: 'I will buy with this some angur.'
The second was an Arab. He said: 'No, because I want inab.'
The third was Turk. He said: 'I do not want inab, I want uzum.'
The fourth was a Greek. He said: 'I want stafil.'

Because they did not know what lay behind the names of things, these four started to fight.

They had information but no knowledge.

One man of wisdom present could have reconciled them all, saying: 'I can fulfil the needs of all of you, with one and the same piece of money. If you honestly give me your trust, your one coin will become as four; and four at odds will become as one united.'

Such a man would know that each in his own language wanted the same thing, grapes.

Note:
Apart from the surface of the story, I do not know if it means anything else. One thing comes to mind, why four people, why not 3 or 2. May be there’s more to it than a good story.

Nasruddin - Punch Line

2005-03-29T15:50:00.000+08:00

Kiranya aku rasa malas skit nak buat kerja hari ni. So, here's one nugget from Nasruddin's basket:

"And just WHEN do you plan on getting a job?" Nasrudin's wife moaned after getting tired of one of his more lengthy periods of unemployment. "I do not need a job woman, I am always in the service of the Most High!" retorted Nasrudin "Well then shouldn't you be getting some form of payment for your so-called services???" she replied sarcastically, "these bills are not going to pay themselves!" Thinking about it, Nasrudin went into his backyard and, kneeling before the open sky, began to pray: "Most Merciful Allah, I am constantly in your service, and as such, I deserve some sort of financial recompense... indeed with some sort of back-pay for all those years for which I did not receive a single dime! Could You please find it in Your infinite mercy to send me some form of payment so I can pay my bills AND get my wife off my back???"

Overhearing this conversation, Nasrudin's neighbor, a moneylender, decided to play a prank on him; accordingly he grabbed a bag of gold coins and threw it over the fence so that it landed right in front of Nasrudin. Amazed at this turn of events, Nasrudin rushed inside his house to show his wife, and they both immediately began to call on shopkeepers to pay their debts and order all manner of goods. Noticing the immediate deliveries to the house, Nasrudin's neighbor became worried about his money and came running to demand it back. "What in God's name are you talking about man?" Nasrudin demanded, "I prayed to God for the money and He provided!"

Since Nasrudin adamantly refused to accept the man's version of events, the neighbor insisted that the only solution was to take the case to court to be tried before a judge. "But I cannot go to court," replied Nasrudin, "surely I cannot appear before a judge looking like this! why I have nothing appropriate to wear!"

The neighbor quickly offered to lend Nasrudin his best robe and turban."But..." began Nasrudin, "how will I go? I cannot go there riding my donkey while wearing these fine clothes!"Again, the neighbor offered Nasrudin his best horse to ride. When they stood before the judge, the moneylender quickly explained his case in great detail, going to great lengths to clarify to the court that the money that Nasrudin was spending was all his and how the whole thing was simply a misunderstanding, meanwhile Nasrudin calmly sat there, completely silent.

"Do you have anything to say in your defence?" the judge finally asked Nasrudin "What can I say Your Honor, except that my neighbor is completely insane! the poor man seems to believe that EVERYTHING I own belongs to him, my clothes, my horse, let alone my gold."

"But... but... they ARE MINE!" roared the neighbor, unable to contain himself.
"Case dismissed!" ruled the judge.

Kalau asal benih yang baik, Jatuh ke laut menjadi pulau

2005-03-29T15:42:00.000+08:00

Masa kecik kecik dulu, ada sekali ni cikgu sejarah kat sekolah kebangsaan saya (Sekolah Kebangsaan Long Ghafar, Kubang Keranji, Kota Bharu), instead of mengajar dia bercerita. Yang kita ingat best sangat cerita tu, sampai minggu lagi satu pun cerita dia tak abis. Cerita dia ada lebih kurang macam pantun kat bawah la:

Buat bangsal di Pulau Daik
Menahan taut sambil mengilau
Kalau asal benih yang baik
Jatuh ke laut menjadi pulau

Kita pun tak berapa ingat dah cite dia camne. Tapi standard cerita dulu dulu la kan, mustilah moralnya bagus. Tapi sayang, sekarang ni I rasa art of storytelling ni dah kurang dah. Konon-konon zaman modern ni apa lah guna sangat cerita ceriti macam tu kan. That was my exact thought sometime back. Never mind that, even science itself is quite limited. Look at Einstein's theory, when he first presented it, only a handful understood it. Though his theory covers much more than what Newton did, it still does not unify and encompasses all the other theories about particle mechanics.

Sadly, in my case, while extolling all that's good about the West and its byproducts, I lost the treasures that our people had. In the case of story telling however, it is not so much of a Eastern and Western phenomenon since for example, over in old Europe, we have the Grimm Brothers. And some stories about the birth of something, we can find similarities whether the story is being told in Polynesian cultures or Native American cultures. For this, my readings of Joseph Campbell has been very enlightening.

Kiranya mungkin, satu masa nanti aku kena baca balik cerita cerita lama untuk diajar pada Fateh. Sekarang ni dia baru 6 tahun dok asyik tengok katun je lah.

Cerita cerita yang ada pada orang kita, kadang2 mungkin datang dari culture lain. Pernah aku terbaca yang lagu Bangau oh Bangau tu, asal dia dari India. Dan cerita2 camni, dia punya kelebihan, kita boleh dapat pengajaran dia dari berberapa layers dan juga sudut; kira macam kueh lapis la, cerita dia sesuai untuk berbagai masa dan keadaan, especially cerita cerita Mullah Nasruddin.

Kot kot ada masa nanti aku taruk la satu dua cerita2 camni kat sini.

The Turban - Our Crown (2)

2005-03-25T08:42:00.000+08:00

Lovely Happy People

Thanks to Nef, finally got the photo here.

The Turban - Our Crown

2005-03-24T10:07:00.000+08:00

Shall write about this later but look at the lovely photo. Beautiful people with handsome dress. The way they wear their turban, if we look from above, looks like the arabic word 'meem'. Which stands for, among other things, the name of our hope for the last day, Sayyidina Muhammad, pbuh.

Note:
If there's no photo here, that means I have not been able to upload it yet.

Luvly and Great Week

2005-03-11T09:46:00.000+08:00

Thought of this last night, and wow, what a luvly and great week indeed. And it's not even Friday yet.

Allow me.

Last Sunday, a friend Riza told me about a function of sort at Masjid Baitil Aman, Jalan Damai, off Jalan Ampang. It was a talk, an association more like it, with Shaykh al-Habib 'Umar bin Hafiz. He talked about many things, which, macam pegi Khutbah Jumaat, memang lepas tu pun aku dah lupa apa dia cakap. One main point was to know, or to work towards our true worth with our Creator and to realize that all the materials things will not last. One example he gave was Sayyidina Abu Bakar r.a was a trader by profession, he had about 9 stores (I can't recall whether in Makkah or Madinah) but the Shaykh asked, "Is Sayyidina Abu Bakar r.a the same with other traders?". Next was about Abu Hurairah r.a, which is well known for being a fakir. But is he the same with other fakirs? The association was great, and so was the briyani afterward!

And last night, I went to the Naqshbandi zikir in Damansara, which is quite rare indeed; the rare part is me going there, they have the zikir every Thursday night and Saturday afternoon for ladies. And what did I find there, apart from our beloved Shaykh, there was 'kambing golek'. Now, like our experience in life, the main points in our life can be manifested by a few defining moments, an epiphany of sort. As always, after zikir, they would sing a lovely Salawat on our hope for intercession on the last day, Sayyidina Rasul. Normally it is Salawat Badar accompanied with good Gendang and all. But last night there were two babies for 'bercukur' and the Salawat was more. And with more Salawats, the merry making was of course grows proportionately.

And after that of course 'kambing golek' la bang. Que nye mestilah panjang teramat. And since I was helping in the kitchen a bit, I missed la the 'kambing golek'. Lauk lain pun dapat sikit je. Just so you know, the dinner is arrange ala buffet outside the house and there's a main spread in the house for the Shaykh and whoevers are lucky. There's no protocol who eats there but visitors will always get priority. Lepas dapat my nasi, okay lah, makan la apa yang ada. So pegi la duduk kat main spread, jenguk2 lauk kat situ. And what the hey, I was passed a plate full of kambing. Man, that was my epiphany. Sunday dapat kambing, Thursday pun dapat kambing.

So there you go. The way to a man's heart is thru his stomach. Hancur jugak budak ni ek. Makan aje tau. Hopefully, it can be more like that lyrics by Debu, "minuman ini tidak melewati kerongkongku" or something like that.

God bless.

Fenyman & Freeman Dyson

2005-03-02T12:19:00.000+08:00

Reading Nefertiti's blog yesterday reminded me of Richard Fenyman and Freeman Dyson.

While a student at Western Michigan, my indulgence are books and sleep. I like it there coz the books are so affordable compare to here. While I have varied interests, themes like science, philosophy and spirituality ranks above others.

Fenyman explains about science in a funny way and that's why he's a good reading. I do not know much about Dyson coz I have only one book of his, Disturbing the Universe, which is almost about his life and his writings on several issues. To me, the best part in that book is his description about the going on during US's atomic bomb development.

And the thing I remember most from that book is his quote of Yeats :
I would spread the clothes under your feet
But I am poor, and have only my dreams
I have spread my dreams under your feet
Tread softly, because you tread on my dreams

Maannn, kalu sapa sapa tengah cintan cintun, boleh bagi kat awek nih. While at it, I also suggest some by Elizabeth Browning.

Travels of Ibn Jubayr

2005-02-28T09:19:00.000+08:00

Went to MPH sales in Kelana Jaya last Saturday and bought a few books. Two I should mentioned are Travels of Ibn Jubayr and if I can remember correctly, Islamic Medicine. It is per chance that I should buy the first one. My friend Riza, who arrives earlier at the sale, mentioned the book to me and only a few days earlier, I was thinking of another book : Mekka in the Latter Part of the 19th Century by C. Snouck Hurgronje.

While I have not finished Ibn Jubayr, Hurgronje talks about Makkah and its people around 1894/95, especially those from Nusantara due to the Dutch and Indonesia conflict at the time. Which is really interesting since, for people like me who can't read Jawi and not Pondok oriented, we do not know much about the legacy of our wise elders. But Hurgronje talks about them and describes how some of them are comparable to other Alims in Masjidil Haram. Makes you blush with pride.

Back to Ibn Jubayr, his travels starts in 1183 from Granada to Mecca, Baghdad, Damsyik and back to Spain. Will write more later.

Kawan Saya

2005-02-08T11:17:00.000+08:00

Saya ada sorang kawan. Nama dia Riza Samad. Baca la blog dia kat r1z4.blogspot.com . Kawan kawan ni aku rasa macam Yin and Yang. We need them to sometimes show us the way in life, to share with us. Ingat lagi kata kata Jerry McGuire masa dalam lift tu, 'you complete me'. Even though dia cakap tu kat awek dia la kan. But then, bahasa Melayu kita ni ada kurang sikit. If Greeks can have 4 different words for love : Agape, Philia, Storge, & Eros, tapi kita tak ada that fine distinction between our kasih, sayang, cinta; semua maksud lebih kurang kot. Bahasa Arab aku tak tau la pulak.

But back to friendship, if Frodo has his friends, so is our Master Jalaludin Rumi with Shams of Tabriz, Cumi dan Ciki, and finally our hope for intecession on the final day, our guide and most beloved of our creator, Sayyidina Rasul with his companions esp. Sayyidina Abu Bakar.