New Year (2)...

on the way balik dr office td, dlm perjalanan ke pintu keluar office, sambil turun tangga aku sembang ngan sorang mamat org putih ni, he's british, age dlm late 40's kot dan dia belum jadi muslim. aku tanya dia... so what's ur plan for new year?

dia jawab... dia tak sure... dia ada dapat invitation for party, but he doesn't feel like going... dengan apa terjadi kat gaza sekarang... dia tak rasa dia patut enjoy the celebration and go partying...

he asked plan aku... aku cakap aku mmg tak de plan n tak pernah ada apa2 plan pun utk new year... new year is like any other day of the year...

then... kita org pun berpisah... aku terus menuju ke pintu keluar then dia plak g ke edit suite.

2 things ada dalam kepala aku masa aku menuju ke kereta...

1. sejauh mana effect pada diri aku bila mana ada muslim lain kena oppress... kena bunuh... kena tindas... dekat negara lain... kenapa tak ada banyak rasa benci kat dalam diri aku... kenapa kurang sungguh aku rasa sedih atas apa berlaku... mcm tak de apa2 pun berlaku... and for certain people sejauh mana kita tahu pun apa yg berlaku kat gaza tu... and kalau lah berdebat dgn bukan islam n katanya gaza patut kena serang sbb dia lancarkan roket dulu, mampu tak ilmu kat dlm otak nak pertahan kan bahawa gaza mmg tak patut kena serang... pertahankan hak muslim di gaza? atau mmg tak tahu apa2 langsung pasal perang ni, and tak perlu ambil tahu.

2. aku jugak terfikir, kenapa kita kena tunggu new year utk buat resolusi... kenapa kena tunggu new year br nak berubah... bukan ke new year sekadar tukar tarikh calendar... it's just another day in ur life... kalau nak berubah kepada kebaikan... at any time berubah je lah... kenapa iltizam dan tekad tu taruh lepas new year... kalau tak sempat new year.. tinggal niat je lah...

so apa resolusi new year aku??? hmm... there's no specific for this year... and kalau aku terfikir nak buat benda baik or benda baru... aku buat je... tanpa menunggu tahun baru... insyaAllah...

New Year....

selamat tahun baru hijri and miladi...

am now tgh muhasabah diri... what have i done for the past one year... and what i should do for next year...

insyaAllah...

Roadtrip - Hari 6 - Hari 8

Hari 6

Hari ni fullday kitaorg ambil dhow trip cari dolphin... mmg cantik musanddam ni... nothing much to say about it... the pics say it all...
Lepas dhow trip, aku sempat g ke khor an najd which is 25 km away from hotel... dah petang masa tu, sempat gak sampai melalui jalan batu2. unik nya khor ni kerana this is the only khor yg blh sampai naik kereta....

mlm tu kitaorg nak buat impromptu BBQ... i can say it was the best BBQ ever kitaorg pernah buat.. one sbb we were somewhere but doha... second sbb mmg impromptu... third sepanjang perjalanan 6 hari kitaorg belum lg dpt duduk relax n sembang2 mcm kat doha... plus the whole day was really relaxing...

Hari 7

kitaorg balik semula ke Dubai... last stop sebelum balik semula ke Doha... Dubai as usual very hectic. sempat g ke ikea (festival city dubai), Dubai mall dan Global village... driving dlm kumpulan kat dubai... mmg memenatkan...

Hari 8

from dubai... kitaorg plan utk terus balik ke doha... cuma singgah sekejap kat Masjid Abu Dhabi... katanya masjid terbesar di dunia... Masya Allah...mmg cantik.. sampai aku rasa distracted, macam bukan dlm masjid plak...

we reached doha jam 11pm... driving back tak seteruk driving pergi hari tu... sekejap je rasanya dah lengkap 8 hari... when we left doha... semua mcm ragu2... jadi ke tak trip ni... alhamdulillah.. semua selamat... balik with no drama2... hahaha...

Roadtrip : Hari 3 - Hari 5...

Hari ketiga

Baru lah berkesempatan nak membuat lawatan.... tak de plan utk travel jauh2 except by petang nak ke Muscat which is 2 hours away from Nizwa.

First place nak pergi... Jabal Syams. approx. 3000meter above sea level... the highest point in Oman... and ada 2nd largest canyon in the world!!! dari jalan besar 38km je... nak ke jabal syams, kena tuju ke Al Hamra i.e. antara Bahla ngan Nizwa... from there ikut je lah jalan tu... ooopss... GPS tak de pun tunjuk camner nak ke sana.. so guna guide book je. On the way to go up to the peak, kitaorg nampak satu kampung tinggal kat wadi ghul. tak tahu kenapa kena tinggal... but the village is so unique... umah2 mcm dipahat dr batu bukit je...

dr 38km tu.. rasa nya 28km jalan tar... lagi 10km... jalan batu2... so 4x4 is recommendable... perjalanan dlm 1 jam je... tp ada various places cantik ambil gambar... so we spent almost 4 hours naik dan turun... view from above... Masya Allah... marvellous!!!

lepas turun dr Jabal Syams, kitaorg nak g ke Bahla Fort dan Jibrin Castle. Pekan Bahla ni famous for its pottery and fort, and fort ni consider the biggest in Middle East and now under restoration. it is also dibawah UNESCO preservation pun. selain tu, Bahla ni famous among arab2 as centre of Black Magic... apa yg magic nya aku pun tak tahu... tp mmg area ni byk jin kot.. and org yg jaga jin... :-)

tp bahla fort ni tak leh masuk pun, tgk dr luar je. but we managed utk masuk kat Jibrin Castle. said to be one of the finest castle yg masih preserve kat mid east. it's huge and beautiful... but similar with other old fort n castle kat qatar ni, there's no information kat area tu yg kita blh baca utk admire the place more... so dtg.. tgk buta2 je without info... ambil gambar n balik ;-)

around 4 kitaorg g terus ke Muscat... and what a good timing... abe, akak n kimi sampai ke muscat 30 min lepas kitaorg check in hotel. depa bertiga ni naik flight ke abu dhabi then br meet up kat muscat ni. depa tak dpt cuti awal, so lain skit plan nya... terus jadi havoc when depa join the group... and mlm tu kita org g corniche... ambil angin.

Hari 4

Sebelum bertolak dari Doha, we tot that hari ke empat ni, i.e. 8hb December ni hari raya haji. so we expect semua kedai tutup. and it is hari raya haji for orang2 kat Malaysia, kat Doha, kat UAE, kat Saudi... and almost for everyone all over the world. tp... Sultan Quboos kat Oman ni, tak declare raya haji for Oman, 9hb br Oman punya raya haji... katanya tak nampak anak bulan. So blh lah kitaorg g souq :-) and kedai2 pun buka :-)

Hari ni... concentrated on Muscat. I've been to Muscat before... so senang lah skit nak jalan2 around... basically i know some basic city orientation lah kan... in the morning, we had breakfast kat D'arcy cafe kat Qurm beach near inter-con hotel... lepas breakfast ambil gambar kat beach... biasa lah... tu je main activity... bergambar... bergambar... bergambar... non stop... tp abe dgn sukarela nya nak try buat stunt... and try buat lompatan dr tangga, dia tak bg pun org ambil gambar sbb katanya nak try je dulu... alih2 dia jatuh tergolek... dah lah gambar tak ambil sesia je stunt dia... tp dia bukan je jatuh tergolek, siap sakit kaki lagi.. at first we tot sekadar terpelecok, tergeliat some sort like that... tp bila petang g hospital rupanya tulang retak... tu lah bahana org tua yg masih ingat dia muda... hik hik hik...anyway, lepas Qurm beach we went for short and quick shopping kat Souq Muttrah... then pastu camwhoring kat depan Sultan Quboos Palace... kat situ je dah penat photographer kitaorg ambil gambar :-) then... pusing2 town sampai ke Bar Al-Jissah... and lepas dr abe diplaster kat policlinic, before balik hotel, we went to the Masjid Sultan Quboos. (for more pics of muscat, ada kat dlm my previous trip to Muscat :-) )

Hari 5

Another long journey today... we travelled to Musanddam dari Muscat... cover approximately 560km!!! took us about 10 jam... with 2 hours kat 2 borders... we have to cross Oman - UAE border kat Hatta.. then cross semula UAE - Oman kat Tibat.

Since hari ni hari raya haji in Oman... jalan agak lengang which is good for us lah... cumanya nak cari tempat breakfast lah susah skit.. hehehe... we end up had breakfast kat Sohar Beach Resort... :-)

Roadtrip : Hari 1 - Hari 2

2 hari pertama ni byk nya on the road... hari 1 - Doha - Dubai.... hari 2 - Dubai - Nizwa.

Hari 1 (5/12/2008)
Kitaorg bertolak seperti dirancang. Jam 2am dr Doha. Aku yg tak sempat tido sebelum bertolak, agak kepenatan utk drive. Plus my sis-in-law's sis plak ada kat Doha mlm tu. so bawak dia jalan2 kat souq sampai lewat mlm, then terus bersiap utk roadtrip.

it was a smooth ride, sampai few km nak sampai border when che le realised yg dia tak bawak ID, Lesen dan car registration card, definitely dia nak kena turn back. dia je patah balik, we all bawak slow sampai lah lepas border sehingga lebih kurang 40km sebelum border Saudi-UAE, kitaorg had breakfast dan tunggu che le sampai dia tiba situ. delay abt 3 hrs. no hal, sbb nothing to rush pun.

Border Qatar-Saudi agak senang, sbb tak perlu turun kereta. lepas satu post ke satu post follow je kaunter. except masa nak cek brg dlm kereta, itu pun kejap je. tp border Saudi - UAE agak leceh, kena keluar kereta, isi form then kena buat retina check, semua ni kat border UAE lah.

We all reached dubai at 4pm.. thats 14hours drive!!! actually, tak lah panjang mcm tu.
From Doha - Saudi Border - 1 hour (90km)
Saudi border to UAE border - 1 hour (120km)
UAE border to Abu Dhabi - 3 hours (350km)
Abu Dhabi to Dubai - 1.5 hours (140km)
At each border crossing - 1 hour so total 2 hours
Delay - 3 hours
Lain - lain... Toilet break - isi minyak - beli salik

talking abt beli Salik, masa beli tu pun aku telah mendelaykan group. the owner of the car i drove kata dah ada salik, tp bila aku cek mcm tak de... after few phone calls, aku decided utk beli je salik tu... it costs us AED100 - AED50 for the card AED50 top up.

btw, aku drive kereta kawan aku utk trip ni. a land cruiser. utk bawak kereta org lain cross border, what u need is to register kat muror (jabatan pengangkutan kot). dia akan keluar receipt kebenaran bw kereta org lain. it cost u QR5 je utk dpt kan resit ni.

sesampai kat Dubai, sebab dah petang/malam, tak sempat lah nak g wild wadi as planned. but we went to Mall of Emirates, for dinner... ada few plan nak main ski... tp mahal sgt... and disebabkan kepenatan driving, we went back to hotel and tido... end of day 1.

Hari 2 (6.12.08)
another long driving day... dari Dubai ke Nizwa. the road was uneventful. we left Dubai at around 9am. cross satu border kat al ain... yg tak puas hati nya, kita org kena caj AED65 sorang utk keluar dr UAE. based on my reading sepatutnya kena AED25 je... tp apa nak buat, we have to pay lah... utk masuk ke oman, kena bayar visa on arrival OR3 (QR30) kids are free.

we stop for lunch kat Ibri. surprisingly, makanan kat situ was delicious... or kitaorg je lapar kot... hehehe... mmg semua org berselera makan (except che le yg ter masuk ke toilet before makan... hik hik hik, terus hilang selera dia). we continued travelled after lunch. sampai kat bahla, nak singgah kat jibrin castle n bahla fort. the castle closed at 4pm, kitaorg lambat 5 minit... so we decided utk dtg semula the next day.

jam 5pm kitaorg sampai nizwa, check in hotel... then terus ke pekan nizwa... g pasar malam... n stroll around. again too tired to stay late... jam 9pm we went back to hotel... except for few yg singgah kat Pizza Hut for dinner :-)