The Adventurous Day

Moving around in Delhi is not a big problem. There are always many public transports around to choose. Either you want to take it or not… On the first day on our outing we took Metro (lrt) the latest proud transportation in here. If I were to ask the reception of the hotel how do I go to a particular place, they would always suggest me to take Metro.

Besides that, my children’s favorite is auto rickshaw. It is a three wheels vehicle that looks so cute with a steering like a toy’s car. We rode a few times and really enjoyed it. In Thailand they have a bigger version called Tut-Tut.

Another favorite one would also be a trishaw. We took the trishaw from our hotel to the nearest Metro station. Huh… mmg kesian giler.. I really felt guilty looking at the mid age man struggling cycling as this is what they do to earn money. We gave him 200rp (RM13) which was quite wholesome of amount as we were not sure how much it was suppose to be.

Communications are always the problem as these kinds of people mostly don’t speak English. After we took our first ride on an auto, then we knew more or less what the fare was like. As for the auto we just paid around 50-100rp which definitely less than RM10. Huh.. mmg raya sakan ah pakcik beca tu dapat 200rp. Takpe… niat sedekah…

Since that Hakeem and Nabila always wants to take either auto or trishaw on our outing. Today is a working day for hubby so I took the kids out. We certainly took auto. I wanted to go to a place called Galleria (after browsing in the internet – gempaq giler) but sadly indah khabar dari rupa. It was just a rectangle row of shops – mostly electrical which not at all where I wanted to be.

From there I went to M.G Road (kira mcm jalan bukit bintang lah…) which has rows of Malls. I have no idea how far from Galleria to M.G Road and there were no auto available at that time. Mostly autos that passed by were full with people. With no choice we took trishaw and he sent us to the nearest Metro station.

From there we took auto to go to M.G Road. God.. this driver didn’t know or probably understand where we wanted to go just took us round and round until I have to stop him and asked whether he knows the way. How do I talk to him? – english + hindi + tamil + sign language… hahhahahahhaa.. but at the end he understood where we wanted to go!

Finally we reached at the M.G Road. Well.. I saw probably five or six Malls along the road but after the third Mall we went in, we decided to go back to the hotel. The Mall was like an empty dead place which has a few shops opened and wonders who actually go there. These were kind of Malls probably with a different kinds of crowd compare to the one I went last Sunday.

Malls over here are for the rich Indian people. On Sunday if at our place, the malls and shopping areas are always crowded with people – local people I mean. But here.. it was different especially on the weekdays. As for the auto and trishaw… memang untuk orang2 miskin dan kurang berkemampuan je. When I was on the auto boiling hot sitting stuck in the jam, I saw cars left and right of me were looking at me probably wonder what on earth of me doing sitting on that auto in the middle of a hot day.

Kesedaran dan keinsafan yang cukup tinggi timbul.. how my life is much better than others. How my country is definitely better than others. And how bless I am to have a life I have now.

Apart from all of these, people over here are very nice and welcome to outsiders. They always smile to us and jump to help at any time if we ask to. I feel safe to go around (though dah sesat masa naik auto) despite the stories that we heard about terrorist or gunfire in here. Well.. I have a few days more to explore.

Namaste From India

Namaste.. Namaste… Namaste...

I am now in Delhi, to be specific in Gurgaon where hubby is assigned to work. Gurgaon is one of Delhi’s four major satellite cities and claimed to be the best to work and live in India. It is about 30kms to New Delhi city.

The night I arrived at the airport, my first impression by looking at the airport – modern and big, it is not bad at all though I had been told about the other side of story about India. There are policemen everywhere. Along my journey to the hotel, I could see policeman stationed every 200mtrs along the road side. Hubby said it was like this since the day he arrived here and the security is even more strict due to the Commonwealth Games. I even have to scan my bags and walked thru the scan entrance to enter the hotel. It was not just the hotel but also the entrance of Malls, Metro stations or any other public area.

Anyway today is Sunday and it’s an off day for hubby. In the morning I had my first Indian breakfast – Idli with curry/dall. It was superb. Hakeem loves the poratha so much that he could finish the whole piece. As for Nabila – Indian food is not her favor so she just had pancake instead.

Today we visited Qutub Minar, the world’s tallest brick minaret. It was built under the orders of India’s first Muslim ruler Qutb-ub-din Aibak. We went there by taking Metro which claimed by the country to be WORLD-CLASS metro! Hmmm… 100x lagi perfect our LRT, Monorail or even komuter. All the stations looked like it were not fully completed.

There were electric cables hanging everywhere here and there. Then the floor some were not half tiled. It is just so dusty everywhere in here. Even in the train too was not so clean. Kira siap boleh gerak train, ok lah for them. I was imagining if this were to be in Malaysia, no way this will be approved by any of our agency in charged.

Anyway once we were at the Qutub Minar, I was stunt by the beautiful tower in front of me. It was such a brilliant and creative people we have thousand years ago who could produced with such beautiful designs. The wall has been crafted with holy Quran and it’s all in geometrical design with symmetrical order. Isn’t that amazing?

We were there for about two hours. It was getting hotter and the kids complained of exhausted and hungry. We headed to the nearest Mall just to be in a cool and comfort place. The Mall is located in Saket and called Select City Walk. The Mall is quite big and have many branded outlets.

We dropped by at the Hard Rock Café to purchase some souvenirs and t-shirts. Believe it or not the t-shirts here are super cheaps! You can get all below then RM100. It’s true that people say textiles and clothes in India are way cheaper. I am not yet to explore this part but SOON will .

We had our lunch at the hotel and hubby suggested his favorite Vege Briyani. Sumpah sedap!! It was soooo delicious. Hakeem as usual with his favorite poratha and Nabila? – mushroom soups.. Pitty her as she was not really into the Indian foods!

There goes our second day here in India. In the evening, we walked to the nearest shop to buy some munchies and then had our Maggie Mee for dinner.

My Flight To Delhi

I’ve safely arrived at the Indera Ghandi International Airport around 7.15pm. The flight was smooth – 1^st time took the Air Asia X, spacious space and nice comfort seat. It was a perfect landing by the pilot except a few incidents happened that I would like to share with all of you.

Thru out the 5 hours journey it was impossible for me to sleep or even get a peaceful rest as these people on the flight were talking non-stop LOUDLY. Gosh.. behind me were a row of family reciting their ‘mantra’ while they were trying to sleep. The fronts of me were talking non-stop loudly.

There were also kids running around on the plane macam cita hundustan.. plus touched, pulled here and there. They were making lots of noise. Tah mana ah mak bapak deorang masa tu.. There was one English lady went to the kids and told them to stop making noise as it disturbed others. The lady even asked where their parents were and told them to get back to them. They were frightened but after 15minutes they were back doing the same thing again..

Upon landing, as usual the stewardess asked everybody to switch off the hand phone and remain seated. Again when we were almost approaching terminal announcement was made that there were still hp on and it distracted the system in the plane. This time it was serious as all the crews went around the plane said it loud to switch off the hp.

Once landed again and again we had been reminded about the same thing. We were not allowed AT ALL to get up from the seat and on the hand phone. When everybody saw the crew approaching the door everybody got up. Then the announcement was made again asked everybody to remain seated. Frankly, I felt like an idiot. I never face this before in any of my flights. I was wondered at that time whether it was the air asia or India? Everybody kept still at that time waited what to happen next.

After about 5 minutes, the captain (pilot) personally made an announcement. Lebih kurang mcm ni lah bunyinya… “I only want to say this ONCE only ONCE and not going to repeat this again. During approaching the terminal I found that there are still hand phones that have not been switched off. I have to take down the plane manually as I couldn’t communicate with the tower. For the people who have their h/p switch on, please remember this. You are not just jeopardizing the communications of the flight systems but also everybody else life. I will let go this person this time but remember and bear in your mind that do not do this again to any airline that you are going to take in future”

Fuhh… giler ah…. There were ground officer and the policemen up on the plane walked and looked at each of us with fierce faces. This damn stupid monkeys on the plane (sorry ah have to say this) just didn’t listen. I actually saw many of them ON and still ON the hp even they were not allowed to.

And because of that I was stranded about 10minutes in the flight just to witness my first live bollywood movie! Anyway.. after seeing hubby all of us were happy and thrilled. We were brought to the hotel – Lemon Tree Hotel where everywhere smells lemon and wall painted lemon colors!

Leaving On A Jet Plane

Well.. Not on a jet actually.. Just Air Asia as 'everybody can fly' :). I and my two little kids - nabila, hakeem are leaving for India. We are visiting hubby in Delhi.

The airport as usual crowded with loads of people. Luckily I've checked in thru web, so just dropped the bag. Later on had our quick lunch and we are already in the waiting hall.

Our flight is scheduled to depart at 16:00 and arrive in Delhi at 19:10 (Delhi time). Hubby will be meeting us at the airport.

This is actually my first time travel with my two little kids without hubby or my elder daughter. They are now 8 and 7 years old and probably not much hassle as I don't have to carry milk or stroller.

But still I am worried especially Hakeem. I am afraid he will sleep and doesn't want to get up which he normally does. He will expect people to carry him.

As for Nabila, I am very sure not to have any problem with her. She looks so grown up today carrying her back pack and always tag along with me just to make sure we are together.

However both of them are so very excited and just can't wait to see their dad. Wait till they see the country!

Sent by Maxis from my BlackBerry® smartphone

India?

Today was such an exhausted day for me. In the morning I went to the Indian embassy to get visas for me and the kids (yeah.. I am going to India!!). Before I can submit my application the forms had been rejected because I didn’t bring the birth cert for my kids. How do i know that I have to bring that?? I kind of questioned and argued with the reception (reception and pakcik guard yg kasi no) why it was not stated in the website that I have to bring it.

She answered that it is a new rule and just being told today (ye lah tu.. like I believe) I told her still it has to be told to the public. Probably fed-up to entertain me she asked me to go to counter 7 to talk to the manager. The same issued I brought up and the same answered I received. To make the process easier with no choice I drove back to Shah Alam to get the birth cert.

It was at 10.30am at that time and I managed to get back to the embassy which located in the middle of KL at 11.45am. When I reached there the pakcik guard asked me to take a new number which I had 50 people before my number. Aduh… my knee felt so weak at that time and I knew that anytime I could just fall down.

Still holding the forms I looked around for any miracle to happen and I was lucky that the ‘manager’ that I met before suddenly appeared at the counter. I immediately ran to him (mcm drama Hindustan ni) and purposely breathe in and out loudly (nak tunjuk penat giler balik ambik birth cert ni – which actually mmg penat pun…) showed him the forms including birth cert dengan muka minta belas ihsan.

I again was lucky that I still kept the number that I took in the morning – the lucky 1040 I gave to him and he threw my 1173 number and said he will process the visas for me. Thank God.. I felt so relieved. My visa is ready to be collected tomorrow evening. There settled my first part.

The other part, I didn’t purchase the flight ticket yet! The trip is actually a last minute decision. I just want to make sure I can get the visa then only buy the ticket. From there I rushed to KL Sentral to purchase Air Asia tickets. I couldn’t purchase thru online as got problem with the credit card.

I reached there at 1.45pm and again there were 40 numbers of people before my turn. Damn.. why are all these people have to buy tickets here! I know I couldn’t make it as I have to rush back at least by 2.15pm to fetch my kids. Furthermore I would not be able to purchase the tickets even if there were no people there as I forgot to jot down all the passport number. Rasa nak hantuk je kepala kat dinding masa tu..

Tiredly I walked off from there and went towards the parking lot. Huh… visa has settled but not the tickets. I was worried at that time. In the evening, at last I managed to purchase the ticket online (thanks boy) which I already planned to go to Subang Terminal if worst comes to worst. That was my last solution actually.

However alhamdullilah finally the tickets part are done and the visas insyaalah are ready tomorrow. Well.. India.. here I come.. to meet my ‘hero’ there J

p/s: great thanks to Linda yg setia menemaniku ke hulu ke hilir setel benda ni!

Here It Goes Again

I've been sitting here alone thinking for the past seven days when hubby was at home. The precious time that we spent together and how the kids were so happy seeing their dad everyday.

Yesterday we sent him to the airport. Seven days just went off so quick.

At night, Nabila already started holding hubby's picture and t-shirt. Staring so long at the picture with the tears on her face. She had a difficulty to sleep and I had a tough time to comfort her.

This morning Hakeem woke up with not in a good mood. Whining and crying. I guess he already missed his dad.

In the car Nabila asked for the phone to chat with her dad. She was so worried whether hubby has safely arrive but at the same time afraid to disturb him.

Now they are at school and I guess that will distract them from thinking about hubby for the half day.

But tonight I am sure they will ask again about their dad with different kind of episode. This will take 1-2 weeks till they can accept the fact that hubby is away.

Parting is not easy especially for the kids. I just hope that Nabila and Hakeem can adapt with this situation without having any big impact.

Sent by Maxis from my BlackBerry® smartphone

Kenduri Doa Selamat

We are back to Malacca since last night. Today my MIL organized a kenduri doa selamat. She invited 46 students from Tahfiz Batu Berendam to recite Yasin and some doa.

We cooked all the dishes by ourselves. The gotong royong started since last night. Actually takde sape pun.. it was just my SIL, me who were helping. The foods were lauk kampung – pisang muda masak lemak, kari daging, ayam sambal, ikan masin, ulam and sambal belacan.. Nyam.. nyam…

At first I thought the students would be boys. When I saw the group stepped out from the bus, I was saying – huh.. sure tak habis makanan ni coz we cooked quite a big amount of quantity. I was wrong as the girls boleh tahan jugak makan… J

So there were no waste as the food left just enough for those at home to eat. This kenduri is especially for my father in-law. He has been sick for quite some time. Semoga Ayah Saban sihat dan sembuh dari segala penyakit.