21 guns...

i hate... politic.
heh, okey, i know it's wrong for me to say that. but i don't hate politic which is clean, which is done for the good of people, for peace, for strengthening Islam. i love that kind of politic. but then, are we living with that kind of politic nowadays?
i hate dirty politic, the one which is filled with empty promises, bribery, back-stabber. the one which is only chaotic when it's time for voting but quiet down suddenly when it's done. i hate those smiling people promising everything before the voting and end up coming back with nothing when it's finished... seriously... i'm still waiting for obama to call back the american troops from iraq, like he promised to do before he became president. and, yeah, still waiting.
still... waiting... still...
talking about american troops. do you think they like what they're doing there? do you think they like being called murderer, murderer of innocent people, murderer of women and children? do you think they admire their blood-stained hands? some cold-blooded, empty-hearted soldiers may not care, they're just doing what they're asked to do, but some, or i might say, most of them do care. most americans even expressed their dissatisfaction with the injustice done to those innocent people in various way. riots, public exclamation by actors and actresses at various awards, songs. which brings us to this. this particular song by greenday, 21 guns. greenday is famous for their trademark sarcastic lyrics towards war. just watch their wake me up before september ends's video clip. you'll get the idea. and here's the words from 21 guns...
Do you know what's worth fighting for?
When it's not worth dying for?
Does it take your breath away
And you feel yourself suffocating?
Does the pain weigh out the pride?
And you look for a place to hide?
Did someone break your heart inside?
You're in ruins
One,
21 guns
Lay down your arms,
give up the fight
One,
21 guns
Throw up your arms into the sky,
you and I
When you're at the end of the road
And you lost all sense of control
And your thoughts have taken their toll
When your mind breaks the spirit of your soul
Your faith walks on broken glass
And the hangover doesn't pass
Nothing's ever built to last
You're in ruins
One,
21 guns
Lay down your arms,
give up the fight
One,
21 guns
Throw up your arms into the sky,
you and I
Did you try to live on your own
When you burned down the house and home?
Did you stand too close to the fire
Like a liar looking for forgiveness from a stone?
When it's time to live and let die
And you can't get another try
Something inside this heart has died
You're in ruins
One,
21 guns
Lay down your arms,
give up the fight
One,
21 guns
Throw up your arms into the sky
One,
21 guns
Lay down your arms,
give up the fight
One,
21 guns
Throw up your arms into the sky,
you and I
brilliant words, eh? tug something in your heart, ey?
i've highlighted the phrases which emphasized only one thing: guilt.
that's what those soldiers with heart mostly feel. that's the dillema they've fallen into. divided between service to their country and their own consciousness. killing people. that's way too high a price to pay.
back to politic. people questioned me for not voting. for me, it's plain and simple. it is my right. it is also my right to choose who's the best leader for me. for the people. i'm young. i'm not that good in judging who's the best one. i'm still observing. kalau sendiri masih tak sure siapa yang betul-betul boleh memimpin, takkan senang-senang nak main pilih je? if he's not the right one, then macam mana? saja dapat dosa bersubahat.
nothing is worth fighting for if it's not worth dying for...
pejuang melayu dulu pernah menegakkan: berjuang la habis-habisan sehingga titisan darah yang terakhir. itu waktu nak memerdekakan negara. waktu nak membebaskan tanah air dari belenggu penjajah. that is one fight definitely worth dying for.
sekarang? i'm still observing. i'm still searching. i'm still trying. i'm still deciding.
if there's finally a fight worth dying for, count me in.

introducing... Mr. Aussie...

Here is Mr. Aussie. And his joey in his arms, named... Joey... heh!! do you know that a baby for kangaroo and koala is called joey? hence, for easier recognition in the future, I called the baby for my Mr. Aussie, Joey!!
And reminder for any of you human out there about to have babies, don't ever, and I repeat, e.v.e.r., name your baby, joey... it's an equivalent to the names of the babies of particular types of animals in Australia... now you know, thanks to me, ihih!!
so, back to my Mr. Aussie.. where was he born, you ask me? here it is...
Here I was standing with my sis-in-law in front of the place where Mr. Aussie was born, the Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne, hugging him for the very first time... he cost me AUSD28... quite expensive when you convert to ringgit malaysia, around 70+ ringgit, but his cuteness is worth it... not to mention his very well-behaved joey (since that particular baby was stitched to his dad's front, he can't actually go anywhere now, can he?)hehehe...
here's where i gathered the info about Mr. Aussie's species, at the Healesville Sanctuary (more about it in melbourne trip entries, which i'll upload later, maybe... hopefully, i will be that rajin, :))

And here's a pic of a real koala, which i forgot what was his name... he was sleeping, though, it was not yet time to open his eyes, which he will when it's lunchtime, but we were early, so we only caught him sleeping cutely hugging the tree...
Koalas, unlike kangaroos are very shy animals... they hardly come closer to human, just curling themselves around the tree trunks and covering their faces with their hands... unlike kangaroos which we can actually feed with our own hands as they come trotting closer to human, no shame at all...:)
And now, here is Mr. Aussie with his new companions...

Or maybe I should say here are Baby Pooh and Baby Pinky Measles with their new companion, Mr. Aussie and Baby Joey...heh... they are still teaching Mr. Aussie how to speak malay, and english without the Australian brawl (G'day, mate!!)... just kidding! hehe...
If they really do speak, i'll pass out on the bed... seriously.
so, there they are, my companions...
hm...
p/s: pray i'll be rajin enough to post entries on the trip to melbourne... berkobar-kobar sebenarnya nak buat travellog, but then, the trip was almost two weeks, we went to a lot of places, so there were a lot of things to tell... not enough time to do it 2nite, though, there are pics to be edited, bla..bla...bla...
see ya... I'm gonna go hugging my companions now! ciao!! ;)

Muslimah t-shirts from my sister

Salam... my sis is selling some pretty cute muslimah t-shirts...these are the photos for the tshirts, with available sizes and the price...

1. AQ103, sizes: 1 M, 1 XL, price: RM42

2. AQ 104, sizes: 1 M (only!), price:RM42

3. AQ120, size: 1 XXL, price: RM39

4. 125C, sizes: 2 S, 1 M, price: RM42

5. AQ125D, Sizes: 2 S, 1 M, price: RM42

6. AQ127A, sizes: 1 L, price: RM42

7. AQ113 Purple, sizes: 1 M, price:RM39

8. 115B brown, sizes: 1 XL, price: RM39

9. AQ115C, sizes: 1 S, 1 L, price: RM39

Pardon the blurry images of the last three photos. I couldn't get the clearer image from the website...

So, since photos hardly represent the real thing besides the pattern, here's a reference of size for anyone who's interested...

This self-acclaimed model is wearing S, since she's skinny to the bone (rolling eyes).. if u'r interested in any of the above t-shirts, u can imaginarily compare ur size to this perasan model, okay... if u've decided on buying any that u like, please message me on facebook and we'll discuss on payment and delivery... tq for browsing (and buying, i hope! hehe)... :)

bangkok trip part two...korn-khun-ka!!

050210...

So, the third day of us in bangkok began with indecisiveness...heh, what a word... well, the story goes like this...

Axlida planned for us to go to 2 places, Kanchanaburi, a place where there was a railway dubbed The Death Railway because it was built during the WW2 by prisoners of war (POW) maybe, ordered by the soldiers... entah la soldiers mana and many people died working on it...and Ayuthayya (forgive the spelling if it's wrong), which was where the ruins of temples are situated... both have picturesque scenery i suspected, but then the driver refused to go to both places, claiming it was too long a distance between the two... so, after much thought, and some pretty misunderstood suggestions from the driver himself, we decided on Kanchanaburi instead of Ayuthayya... well, we've been to the Grand Palace, we've seen the temples there and basically went along many temples along the way of our journey, so we couldn't possibly waste two hours to go see yet another temple...

And probably to make us feel better, on the way to the Death Railway, the driver stopped @ Ratchaburi, where there was one of the tourist attraction you can only see in Thailand, The Floating Market... yeah, yeah, we had a pretty nice driver...

here we were @ the starting place for the floating market. we were going there on a boat or sampan, actually, and we got air kelapa for free!!

here we were in a very properly shaded boat... it was so $#@^%&* hot in Thailand!!

we strolled along the river ( i forgot the name of the river), there were souvenir vendors along the riverbank who keep on bargaining with us (which we guiltily refused, but i bought a couple t-shirts, though) until we arrived at the....

....floating market!!

so many things were sold here... souvenirs, food, fruits, clothes, hats, pots, you name it...

there were fresh, sweet fruits, no preservatives what-so-ever, okay...

it was a sight you don't see everywhere, you know.

so glad, i got 2 see it live...

Then, when we finished buying fruits, strolling back towards the starting point, we saw that the people we paid for the boat had already put our pics which they took earlier before we took off, into small plates for souvenir, for thb100 each (after much bargaining with kelantanese language with one of them who knew kelantanese malay, heh!)...we bought them for safe keeping.

Then we proceeded to Kanchanaburi... it turned out to be a good idea because there were so many souvenir shops there...

we chased the tourist train (the yellow one in the pic) to the other side of the river by walking on the railway with our knees shaking, looking straight forward, afraid to look down at the water below... ye la, it was named The Death Railway for a reason, it killed people, for God's sake...

gayat siot jalan atas railway ni... dah la memang boleh nampak air kat bawah... dah la jauh jugak nak menyampai ke sebelah sana...

yup, we arrived at the other side of River Kwai, safe and sound, and took pics at the beautiful landscape...

here's how the railway looked like on the other side of the river...

it does look kinda creepy, eh? haunting... hm...

After we went back to the other side of the river, knees shaking less than before, there were some tourists who were amazed by us muslims who were still very much covered from head to toe even when it felt like forty degrees hot, so amazed that they took pic with us...


and guess what? they were muslims too!! from russia!! hahaha.. talk about contradictory...

aduhai, dunia...dunia...

on our way back from kanchanaburi, we saw these buses which were heavily decorated with graffitis... and they were school buses...quite a striking sight, i would say... nice...

Memang, kinda realize that Thai people have creativity streaks not many other people have or show... they can do whatever to gain money... sell souvenirs, handcraft things, perform b-dance in the middle of junction to the MRT station, do mimic acts, do massage...

And realize jugak bandar bangkok itself yang bersih, tak nampak sampah pun... according to k hery, because of their strong Buddhism, these Thai people believe in karma... do good things, you get good things and vice versa, so you can hardly see any litter along side the road or wherever since littering is a bad thing and they won't want bad things to 'boomerang' back to them... hm... how do we, as muslims who've been taught these lessons too, compared to them? nak compare from kl's cleanliness and bangkok's pun jadi la... that is something to think about.
So, done with kanchanaburi... we went back to bangkok, went back to MBK because some of us tetiba mengigau nak beli thai silks (including me la...) and then, during the nite, we went back to the Suan Lum nite market for...

Massage!!

Mana boleh pergi Thai tak pergi massage... walaupun setakat massage kaki je, tetap kena buat...heh!!

Syiok habisan tu!!

Then we went back to k hery's house, she cooked us yet another late dinner (so owed her big time!) and back to the hotel..zzz... esok dah nak balik...:(

060210...

Tapi, sebelum balik, got yet another destination to go...heh... sempat lagi tu...
k hery took us to Chatuchak market, the biggest market in Thailand, which apparently opened only on weekend.

Semua benda ada kat sini... it even has a specified map for the market itself, telling what section selling what goods... ant there were a whole load of goods... nak apa, cakap je... souvenirs, home decors, clothes, accesories, food, pets... a day is not enough to go through the market and we only had half a day... lepas tu dah nak pergi airport... so, kitaorang basically jalan2 kat bahagian souvenirs je... then we had lunch dekat one of the halal stalls kat situ, makan tomyam thailand, another must-do, and bersiap nak balik...

We went back to k hery's house to get our bags, which reproduced themselves sebab banyak sangat benda yang dibeli, eheh, said good bye to her (so many, many thanks k hery!! nanti nak pergi lagi!) and proceeded to the airport... another amazing race la pulak dengan drebar teksi pun dah tolong cuak untuk kita orang yang nak catch flight ni, bawak 140km/j...ish...ish... ish...another race lepas check in sebab boarding hall tu punya la jauh.... a.d.u.h.a.i...

Tapi sempat make it on time to board the plane back to Malaysia, Alhamdulillah...

All in all, definitely one trip to remember... tu yang rajin pergi tulis kat blog ni... heh!!

korp-khun-ka (thank you!) Thailand!

bangkok trip part one... sawatdee-kaa!!

ola... so here is the reason why i haven't been here, visiting my blog for quite sometime.
i went to bangkok!!

heh! it was a trip to be remembered, most assuredly... it was a trip arranged by my friend from smss and matrix, miss axlida... she invited me to go way back last year, because she wanted to book the airasia ticket early to get the cheapest price, and guess what? the flight only costed us about rm320 going and coming, eyay!!
It was a trip with friends... cha, also a colleague from smss and roommate from matrix, her friends, yusma and azira, and axlida's dental colleagues, k hana and k jiha...

Waktu mula2 plan nak pergi, fikir jugak macam mana nak bagitau abah ni, maklum la trip ke luar negara... kalau mi, ikutkan aje apa abah decide... it took me quite by surprise bila dia bagi pergi, heh...

And here goes the trip yang bak kata axlida, memang macam amazing race... because before going tu rasa cuak sebab waktu flight tiba di kl dari trg bezanya sejam lebih je dengan flight to bangkok... memang cuak la sempat ke tak nak check-in... thank God airasia ada web check-in... just kena drop luggage kalau ada (we planned on backpacking, tapi k jiha and k hana bawak jugak checked-in luggage sebab dia orang memang nak shopping habisan kat sana, heh!)and chop boarding pass yang dah siap print tu je...

Despite that, the race begins: 030210...

On board the flight to kl, kita orang usha stewardess tu sorang, nama dia kenchana, kalau tak silap, supaya bagi kitaorang keluar awal. Mula2 dia tak nak bagi. And then, came this charming steward, amir, discussing with us and finally they allowed us to sit at the hot rows in front... still, we made a scene by opening the overhead luggage before the airplane came to a complete stop... kena sembur sikit kat situ, heh... but, then, we were technically escorted from the plane to the arriving hall... tu pun siap terlajak sikit, berlari tak de brek kecemasan punya pasal... we checked-in, and ran again to the boarding hall...

this is us, dah selamat masuk boarding hall, baru la poyo tayang pasport masing-masing2...hehe

and then sampai kat suvarnabumi airport, bangkok.

at the airport, we went to a travel agency, bargaining a trip straight to the Grand Palace... it was almost 2.30 local time and the place closed @ 3.30... and so here we went again, racing amazingly...kehkehkeh...

from left: yusma, azira, me, cha, k hani and k jiha... axlida was the one taking this pic, apparently...

And yeah, we did arrive on time, Alhamdulillah... and the tour guide was kind enough to help us snapping pics... he was quite a photographer... always saying good...good...kinda funny, heh!

here's some pics he took.. quite a breathtaking scenery @ the Grand Palace... this place is on a very vast ground, i forgot the actual size... it housed the temple of Emerald Buddha and some other amazing looking buildings with intricate details of carving... not made of gold, however, but it did look like one.. it used to be the palace for the kings of Thailand before they have more modern structure somewhere else...and we went past it too... covered with trees, we couldn't really see the building.

We spent an hour @ the grand palace, since it closed to the visitors around 4.30... then, the tour guide brought us to a jewelry maker shop, to a tailor-made suit shop with its fabric costing hundred of ringgit malaysias! and oh, i forgot, the rate here is rm1=10 thai baht. So, their money is slightly cheaper than ours, glad to know that, heh! but of course, we won't spend it on suits which we hardly wear, so we went on...

We went to check into our hotel, Ibis Hotel down the Sathorn Road which apparently skirted around a number of embassies, such as Austria's, Denmark's and Malaysia's. We practically had to plead a little, since they wouldn't allow 7 people sharing two rooms. Our bad, i guess, nak jimat punya pasal, but we went on with that plan, anyway... kena pandai-pandaila, rite? takkan nak habiskan duit kat hotel, which we hardly stayed in.. ye la, pergi situ nak jalan2, bukan honeymoon!!:p

And that nite, we met with k hery, k jiha's friend who's been staying in bangkok for almost two years now, ALONE! Can you imagine that?And she took us to Suan Lum night market, quite nearby to the hotel.

that's k hery second from left... and besides her, with green tudung is axlida...

Then, k hery took us walking around the hectic night life of bangkok to one of halal restaurant there... on the way tu siap nampak orang jual pil viagra bersepah tepi jalan... aduih, masalah!!

muka penat dah banyak sangat jalan...

the food was yummy-yummy delicious, though... ngantuk2 pun makan banyak jugak... heheh...

Dah kenyang, dah berat mata, we went back to the hotel to catch our very much needed sleep, even while anxious for tomorrow...

040210...

Pattaya!!

We spent half a day there enjoying the beautiful beach and squinting our eyes against the more unpleasant sight of foreigners displaying their bodies...duh! no pics here of that, of course!!

We went back to bangkok, stopped @ a mosque to pray (yup, ada masjid, walaupun tak sebanyak temples, at least ada, Alhamdulillah..), stopped again @ a factory outlet, which was not what we wanted it to be, so we moved on to bangkok, half-sleeping, half-laughing @ axlida's fruitless attempt of talking and explaining things to the driver who didn't speak english... heh, so how did we interact with him? Sometimes, through drawing, sign language, and the desperate last resort was to call his agent who could speak english, heh, kelakar... he was very nice, though...

And that nite, we took the MRT from satani Lumphini (that's Lumphini station, for those of u who can't understand Thai yet, heh! berlagak!)which was closest to our hotel and went shopping!!

Er, technically, we went to a couple of the shopping malls there in bangkok...MBK and Siam Centre... there was another one, Siam Paragon, which is equivalent to our Pavilion, housing the brands we can hardly afford, so we didn't go there... tak nak buang masa, weh... we did not buy much on that nite, tak de sangat yang berkenan, mostly kat situ local brands, but cha, yusma and azira did bargain for thai silks and bought a whole load of them each...
Then, we went to k hery's house to eat because we were terribly-terribly hungry, and she cooked us tomyam and nasi... (isk, terharu...)and we went back to the hotel after that to crash land on our beds... zzz...

forward to second part, key...

got a lil' bit angry today...

i had this one methadone patient coming to the clinic today with stitches around his badly swollen right eye and which can barely be opened... and both eyes were bloodshot... i was stunned for a moment.. apa kena pulak la?? i asked him what happened, and he said some idiots, four or more, beat him...
the story, according to him, goes like this: he was helping his friend, another methadone patient, to send his rosak motorcycle to a workshop... okay, fine, then he went home ke ke mana entah, tak tau la... and then suddenly the workshop people called him and accused him of stealing some spare parts, ke equipments apa entah kat workshop tu, and beat him... without proof.. oh, wait, they claimed they had proof... they asked a 'tok bomoh' and the 'tok bomoh' said the stuff was stolen by this guy.. who knew nothing whatsoever about it... what.the.hell?
and this mangsa keadaan had to pay for something he didn't do just because a tok bomoh said he did it.. i mean, come on.. what world are we living in? ingat ni macam citer p ramlee, nujum pak belalang ke nak pakai bomoh-bomoh predicted those things? tau tak p ramlee tu cuma nak sindir orang melayu, yang percaya sangat dengan benda syirik macam tu... ni, contohnya la ni... idiots who don't have any better reason to accuse an innocent man, guna alasan tok bomoh... tak ke stupid, bodoh namanya tu??
in my opinion, they just used that as an excuse... ada ke tok bomoh zaman sekarang boleh tengok dalam a bowl of water and nampak pencuri macam p ramlee buat dalam citer tu nampak perompak sembunyikan lembu n kambing tu?i don't think so... they just say whatever fixed their minds to say, as long as somebody pays for the blame... and furthermore, i suspected that they knew this guy was a drug addict (and i stress the word 'was', because he is on methadone treatment, he wants to change and he is changing, slowly.. dah tak ambik dadah, dah tak nampak serabai), and they thought people won't question their accusation...
and this is where i'm angry at... i mean, come on la... i spent almost every day going to that clinic and seeing these guys who used to be sampah masyarakat (as they called it before) changing from drug addicts to someone who have found something better in their lives. i'm not saying i have soft spots for them, ada je kadang-kadang tu rasa nak ketuk kepala dia orang ni, but then these people, most of them, anyway, including this guy really aspired to change... i saw with my own eyes their improvement... daripada rambut ada ekor ngalahkan ponytail perempuan dah dikerat jadi cropped head... dari berjambang, berjanggut ngalahkan dumbledore, dah dicukur jadi whiskers je... nampak dia orang nak berubah, image-wise, and thinking-wise... but then, when society, other people who don't understand, treat them like this, their only-just-budding self confidence dropped back to ground zero... silap-silap boleh jadi depressed, boleh jadi ambik dadah balik... do we want that? no, of course not, dammit! tau tak betapa susahnya dia orang nak sedar, nak lawan that seductive addiction and to come to the clinic and admitting they need treatment? tau tak how much courage they have to have to be able to do that?and people senang-senang je tuduh dia orang buat macam-macam, just because he used to be useless before... poor guy... he cried in front of me today... and i got quite speechless, didn't know what to do...
have to admit, though, biasa je tuduh orang.. kalau dengar cerita ada rumah kena masuk pencuri ke, nampak mamat suspicious sikit tengah duk cari besi buruk nak jual ke, memang automatik akan tuduh ha, tu mesti drug addict nak cari duit nak beli dadah... might be true, might be not... mana tau kut yang duk cari besi buruk tu sebab nak jual nak biaya pelajaran nak jadi doktor ke apa ke? we don't know people's actual intention, because we can't read people's mind and what's in their heart...
but, i do believe this guy didn't do what he was accused of... and he was beaten like he was a piece of crap, useless and guilty of everything... kesiannya...
at the end of the clinic tadi, memang ramai lagi patients methadone yang stayed, dengar cerita... this guy wanted to go to the police right after methadone, to make report... i heard a few of the guys, asking him to tell them if ever he wanted to payback... deep down i agreed... heh, but i can't actually support them directly, not a very professional thing to do in my line of work.... tak nak jugak nanti masuk headline berita, patient methadone hosp hulu trg mengamuk kat workshop mana2 entah because pharmacist dia orang suruh pergi balas dendam... but still, i smiled to myself secretly... because at that particular point of time, i saw the bond between these people grow... they've come this far to change, and along the way they made friends, and they had each others' backs... secretly, i'm proud of them, of that particular spirit and support they showed to fellow comrade...
tapi, kalau ada yang betul2 buat perangai, memang namanya nak kena ketuk kepala je tu...:)