Kal El

Di sebabkan malam tadi hampir semua orang tido lambat, maka ramailah yang terlepas semayang subuh ekekekek... Kuar-kuar tengok sungai (konon nak melayan perasaan tepi sungai) terserempak dengan 2 ikan duyung (S ngan H) tengah celup-celup kaki dalam air... aku apa lagik... terus ler pi join diorang sekali.. kerja-kerja menambak sungai untuk buat empangan bermula 7 pagi dan berakhir 11:30 pagi. Makanan pagi tu was nasi lemak and puding castard.. sayangnya sambal nasi lemak tu sikit... sedap woooo... pekat!


Puan A came by and everbody, hahahaha kene plak amik IQ TEST!!! Nasib baik IQ ku betul2 at the first point dalam kategori GOOD. Hahahah saspen gak kalau2 IQ rendah kan? After IQ test, we played Gestures, aku tak main sebab perutku kembung (as it is memang sentiasa kembung pun!) So, jadik photographer ler... lepas tu main Statue Dance aka Mikey dopey dance game ekekeke. Memang seronok tengok Mike menari... macam ulat.. menguit-nguit hahahaha. Souvenirs were handed to everyone and then semua start packing... nak balik dah... uwaaaaa! Lepas ni dah takde dengar bunyik sungai masa tido.. best woooo hehehehe... ok la, lain kali bleh datang lagi ke Janda Baik... walaupun takde pun jumpa janda di sana....eh ada janda la... tapi biarlah rahsia kuang...kuang...kuang... janda jahat se Malaysia tau...

This is the first time CS staff goes out on a company retreat. Our destination - Janda Baik @ "Taman Hana, Wadi Hussein".

Everyone gathered at Projet Gombak before moving in convoy to Janda Baik. Arrived at Janda Baik slightly after 1pm - hahahah terlepas junction to Janda Baik sebenarnya.... heheheheh.samapi-sampai terus kemas-kemas and ada yang tak sabar2 nak mandi. Puan N brought pulut kuning, nasi impit, rendang and kentang goreng berlada... wahhhh sedap wooo and someone brought nasi lemak.. makan sama-sama and then Tuan Syed Hussein Alattas spent about 2 hourswith CS staff bercerita tentang sejarah Taman Hana, Wadi Hussein dan falsafah-falsafah hidupnya yang ingin dikongsi bersama 'adik-adik' dari CS.

That night we had BBQ - Ya Allah makanan punya la banyak... yang gemuk makin gemuk... yang kurus tetap kurus jugak sebab yang gemuk dah perabih makanan depa. Candles and pelita were lighted around the BBQ area creating a very cosy ambience. Ada sesi nyanyi menyanyi sambil gitar dimainkan oleh TL maka terserlahla bakat-bakat penyanyi yang terpendam di kalangan staf CS... muahahahahahah!

Lepas penat melalak, ramai yang pi jalan-jalan keliling taman Pak Habib yang dipenuhi kolam dan pokok-pokok dari lebih 30 negara. Ada jugak yang main JENGA... ahahahaha aku antara yang terlibat dalam perlawanan penuh emosi JENGA. Tapi ada jugak yang dah duk dalam hutan tepi sungai... masih nak bermesyuarat hahahahah jangan marah ye!

Last-last semua terbongkang kat tengah hall tido.... tak sabar tunggu esok! Nak berenang beb!

Leaving for KL today. After breakfast headed for the airport via the hotel shutle. The driver was a Malaysian, from Miri, Sarawak. Seems there are many Malaysian working in Brunei, especially those from Sarawak.

I've had had no chance to explore Brunei when I was here but the visit was short and pleasant. What was special was the people, the culture, which i thought was similar but somewhat different to those practiced in Malaysia. One obvious thing is Bruneians are very soft spoken and gentle. Even the language, even though the same one spoken in Malaysia, has a slight difference in it - 'anda' in Malaysia means 'you' but in Brunei means 'Us'.

Took a direct Brunei Airlines to KLIA. I love Brunei Airlines because they make ir a practice to recite the prayers before departure - something different from other airlines in the world.

After breakfast, took the hotel shuttle to another hotel about 25km off town where it was nearer to the meeting venue. Went to the meeting with an acquantance's car. The meting ended after lunch time and returned to the hotel.

Took the opportunity to walk around town - well there were nothing else to do. So i took pictures of bandar Seri Begawan, went to the same shopping complex and bought some souvenirs for family and friends.

Returned to the hotel at night via cab (Cabs here are costly - about RM25 per trip) Used the hotel Internet to send report for today's meeting to the big boss and went to bed after that.

Since this is a business trip, had to go to the office first. From the office at about 11am, took the PUTRA LRT to Kuala Lumpur Sentral and checked in at the KL Terminal. The check in staff was busy yackity yacking with his friend and spelled trouble for me later on.

Took the ERL to KLIA and the MAS flight to Kota Kinabalu was delayed for about an hour. Arrived KK International Airport and had to rush to the check in counter for Brunei Airlines to Bandar Seri Begawan.

Earlier at KL Sentral I was told that my baggage would go striaght to Brunei and I need not check them in at KK. Arriving Bandar Seri Begawan i realised that my baggage did not arrive - delayed until the next morning because i was suppose to check in to Brunei Airlines. Thank you to the yackity yacking KL Sentral airport staff.

Since there is going to be a business meeting early tomorrow, I decided to go shopping for clothes and toiletries. Walked to the nearest and only shopping complex in Bandar Seri Begawan (there is another shopping complex but not within walking distance) and shop for the necessities.

Took a cab back to the hotel (very friendly staff but was rather empty) and rested. Early day tommorow!

When i was writing this entry, I couldn't help but let tears flow down my cheek. The past week when mother's day advertisements were played all week long over Era.fm proved a mental and emotional torture for me. Many times, I cried while driving to work. The sadness of losing a dear mother and the memories of her is unbearable. I just wish i could have another chance to see my mother and hear her voice one last time. This year's mother's day, we celebrated ka'ngah (mummy's sister) and mak mah, our eldest cousin's mother-in-law at Putrajaya Lake Club. The scenery that night was beautiful and the food was excellent. I am sure mummy would appreciate a gathering like that but of course, we were there with mummy in mind.

I miss you mummy. Hanya hadiah doa dan bunga-bungaan kesukaan mummy yang dapat berikan tahun ini...

Also to my late atok, Happy Mother's Day...

Today is our last day here. Time to leave and go back to the city. I've never been to Kuantan so we drove there after checking out and took the longer way home.

It turned out Kuantan is a small town with low rise buildings and nothing much to see. But good enough, I could tell people i've been to Kuantan after all. Heheheh.

We engraved our names on the wall of the chalet, hoping to come back to the same chalet the next time we're here.

Ahahah so both of us bangun lambat and we missed the sunrise. By the time we woke up the sun has risen far too late. We decided on this second day in Cherating to drive to Kemaman and started looking for keropok souvenirs - bought some RM100 bucks worth of keropok for giveaways and drove around Kemaman town after that.

The chalet was ok, cheap and comfortable. Spent time at the beach again in the evening and at night we went to look for a stall with astro; to have dinner as well as watch Man United's game that night.

I guess this vacation to Cherating is meant for us to have a good, pleasant rest and that was what we did. The air was cool, didn't rain that heavily, just drizzles and we spent alot of time at the village by the beach.

At last! A long 'overdue' vacation - ni kira desperate la.. the last we went was to Genting last year, and after that takde pergi memana until la this one. A short, sweet and cheap vacation hehehehe. Bertolak dari BA pukul 9:30 pagi and went to Alliance to pay the house loan, singgah Dharbar kat Melawati for breakfast then singgah my father's house. By the time kitorang masuk highway was about 11:30am. The tol charges were RM4 at gombak, another RM2.50 near Karak and RM19.00 on the new Lebuhraya Pantai Timur. Arrived Kuantan at about 3pm.

The actual planning started a couple of weeks before; bookings etc. although we have talked about going since as early as February! We managed to get a place kat Seberang Balok since most of the chalets refuse to take advance booking (eventhough i offered to pay in advance) and all the large 3 - 4 star resorts were fully booked. So, we had no choice but to book at Kabana Resort. Upon arrival (that is after terlajak ke near Kemaman - didn't expect this Kabana was like 30 minutes drive to Cherating) we were greeted with an unpleasant news of paip pecah dekat Kabana. Bilik pun boleh tahan tak best - the place was deserted and macam a ghost motel je la.. hehehe ada swimming pool but didn't look inviting at all. So we decided to go back to Kampung Cherating to see whether we could get a last minute room at a decent chalet there. Lucky enough we got a place for RM74 at Cherating Mini Motel (it's a bungalow style chalet with TV, Aircond, 1 double bed, a single bed and an attached bathroom) Ok ler.. happy hehehehe. So we had to go back to Kabana and return their keys and hopefully get some refund from our booking (kat situ price was RM80 per room per night).

At Kabana it was hard to convince the owner that we do not want the room due to 'takda air' lucky us that the water supply was still not on at 5:30pm. So gunalah alasan tu and i negotiated with the resort owner and offered a half day payment for his room. Kira win-win situation and got la my RM100 back.

After taking a short nap, I was eager to see the sun set. Hahahah that's the reason for going to the beach at 7pm! Disspointed by no sun set view (Blocked by some pine trees) we hopped for a drink kat Duyong Seafood Restaurant.. balik to our 'bungalows' and prepare for dinner. (Dari lunch tak makan!) and drove to Kemaman. Had nasi goreng ayam and my dear had favourite tom yam campur (which was tak sedap at all) hahaha and headed back to Kg Cherating after a short drive along Kuala Kemaman beach. We watched Cerekarama on TV3 and tido after that.. tak sabarnya nak tengok sunrise the next morning!