My Stay With The Cape Malays

I will never forget my pleasant stay in Cape Town with the Cape Malays of South Africa. The hospitality of Dr Fahmi and Madam Fareeda will be impossible to be repaid. The offer to stay in their house during my arrival, all the delicious Cape-Malay food that they cook, that I often laugh to how much similar the names are: "begedil, belacan, sambal, bubur, etc', the crash course tour around Cape Town, tracing back the Malay heritage. It is so interesting how they always refer to themselves as the Malays to me, like "We the Malay men are always like this, and Malay women tend to be...this and that", like hey, you're talking to a Malay as well. Haha. No words can describe how blessed my stay in Cape Town was with them hosting me. I am so touched to know that Dr Fahmi is suffering from cancer and is in chemotherapy, but his energy in taking me around Cape Town is admirable. To dear readers, please pray for his health and longevity. Even though it was just for 4 days, they pretty much are like my African grandparents! One of the days they took me for a walk along Boulder's Beach to see the penguins:

Uncle Fahmi was very helpful and enthusiastic towards my cause. He got me a live interview at a South African radio station, set me a meeting with the Islamic Medical Association of South Africa, and took me to the free health clinic their association built to provide health for the poor and needy.

One day they took me to the Bokaap area, the Cape-Malays settlements. It is interesting to know that the Cape Malays originated from the Malaysia-Indonesia region during the Dutch Colonial times. Many of them are descendants of freedom fighters, religious leaders and prominent people who are sent off by the Dutch into exile to Cape Town. Many of the Malay words are still used such as 'terimakasih', 'meninggal', 'lebaran' and such. Bokaap consists of very colorful houses, with the background of the magnificent Table Mountain. 

On the last day, I went to the top of the mountain. The view up there is absolutely beautiful, like I am on an island in a sea of clouds! I went there early morning and it is almost just me up there, having the mountain all to myself ;)

My stay in Cape Town has been most wonderful. I truely think Cape Town is a place that is largely unexplored by Malaysian tourists because I rarely hear Malaysian coming to South Africa or Cape Town for holidays when it is absolutely the perfect place to be! I would really recommend a visit, because if given another chance, I will be here again for sure!

Living In My Dream House

I have always wanted to stay in a house over viewing the sea, with stables and green fields where horses graze, preferably set with a background of a huge majestic mountain. I never thought the dream came true for me, even though just for a 2 days stay. I  booked a hotel for my stay in Cape Town just through reviews on TripAdvisor, but little I know that it is actually a house, and as I am the only guest for the whole of my stay, I got the house all to myself! The house is situated in Noordhoek, a little bit far from the city centre of Cape Town, making it a very peaceful township. The best thing is that it overviews the sea on one side, and is surrounded by mountains on the other. So there is a horse on my backyard and I have no idea what to do with it. I think no amount of words can do justice towards how beautiful the place is, I'll let pictures do the talking, and this is the theme song for my stay here, Bic Runga's Listening For The Weather. For some reason the song reminds me of horse stables, haha and that is why it is the song of the day!:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9VcabruWc0

The Time of My Life

Longest itinerary I ever had

In a few hours time, I will be starting on what I think would be one of the best times of my life. It will be a 4 months journey across the globe from Kuala Lumpur to Johannesburg to deliver my One Young World speech in front of the likes of Kofi Annan, Richard Branson, Professor Muhammad Yunus, Jamie Oliver and Bob Geldolf. Then to Kruger National Park, staying INSIDE the safari for 3 days to catch sight of the Big 5: the lion, African elephant, Cape buffalo, leopard, and rhinoceros. Then flying off to Cape town for my 3 days stay hosted by the Malay-African Cape people, to marvel over the magnificent Table Mountain and observe the cute penguins at Boulder Beach

Afterwards, I am going to Norway to deliver a Keynote Lecture at the Global Health and Vaccination Research Conference 2013 at the University of Bergen, riding what is deemed the best train ride views in the world from Oslo to Bergen. Perhaps I will visit the Fjords of Norway afterwards, one of the great natural wonders of the world.

Once I'm done in Norway, I would make my way back to South-east Asia, to Cambodia for Hospitals Beyond Boundaries Health Screening Project for 3 days. Then coming back to Malaysia for my convocation. Then I would attend the Global Social Business Summit in Kuala Lumpur, 7th-9th November as one of the 6 youth ambassador selected across the world by Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus' The Grameen Creative Lab

On 11th November, I will fly off to Geneva, Switzerland to start my work as an intern at the World Health Organization (WHO). What happens afterwards? Only Allah knows. I am very thankful for all these opportunities He gave me. I've never felt so blessed in my life. Thank you to all my family members who supported me and believed in what I do

Of Mountains an Volcanoes: The Bromo Experience

The trip to Bromo was absolutely one of a kind experience. From the conference in Yogyakarta, I tagged along with my dear Indonesian friends Oghe and Yodha to the city of Malang 6 hours away. However, they both just recently went to Bromo. Luckily, there were also 4 other people already registered as we went to the tour agent, so my travel that day will be along with those other four.

I met all of them at 1 a.m. at their hotel and our tour starts at the same time. The journey to the top was freaking scary with narrow and bumpy roads. It was so dark all you can see are the stars and the path ahead shined by the jeep. It took 3 hours to get to the base point. We reached the base around 4, and there we met so many other people from other tours. They were all preparing for the last hike up to the top, and were having breakfast, coffee while waiting for the sun to rise around 5 a.m

We went to the top around 4.30 a.m. It was freezing cold, and the air up there was thin so we easily get breathless as we hiked up the hill. It was still dark, and the skies were amazingly clear. There were a lot of people up there waiting for the sunrise, watching the stars. The stars were beautiful, and we occasionally see shooting stars, and everybody will go ‘Oooh’ everytime they see one. It was kinda funny

Then, the first orange streak appears above the horizon. Sunrise was coming, everybody was so excited, I’ve never seen people so excited seeing a sunrise before, people usually dread waking up in the morning. Haha. As the sun came out, the grounds below became more and more visible. The mountains seems floating above the clouds. The view was absolutely amazing, I can never be able to describe it in words. We were there for almost 2 hours just marveling the beauty of Allah’s creation. 

 Then we went down by the jeep to one of the hills with the same view of Mount Bromo. I had a really nice coffee overviewing the volcano. Best coffee experience ever! As I was sitting there looking at the volcano I saw small miniature boxes moving around the volcano leaving the trail. I looked more carefully and realized, heck, it was the jeeps! I never realized the volcano is so freaking huge until I compare it with the size of the jeeps which looks so minute next to the volcano. Then we made it down to the volcano crater itself.

We stopped by at ground level near the volcano to have some breakfast. The place was like a desert, full of sands and dusts. We literally ate dust along with our breakfast. We took a few photos and continued our journey to the volcano crater.

We had to stop 2 km away from the crater and started hiking again. It was so tiring, but on top, we can see the crater so deep and scary you’re gonna be so dead if you slip into one of these  

Then we went down and passed through a somewhat grass field that looked that African savannah. It was beautiful as well, and we took a lot of pictures, and went ahead to see some of the hillside farms, watched the people growing various fruits and vegetables, and lastly went to a waterfall.

The trip has taught me that the Creator’s creation is so magnificent, amazing and huge and we are just a speck of dust in comparison to the universe he created. Sometimes when we are so stuck up in our daily life, we forget these things. We forget that your troubles is just a speck in a dust in a universe. I need to take times for this kind of trips once in awhile. It reminds me that whatever you face in life, there is always a way to get through it, and when you don’t, don’t worry. Life is so much worth living to see other beautiful things on earth

My Japan Experience Part II: Ueno, Akihabara & Shinjuku

When I was five my imagination of Tokyo was only limited to buildings being busted by Ultraman when he accidentally sat on them while having his usual evening fight with dinosaur-like creatures. When I finally step foot on the city itself 20 years later, I realize that Tokyo is a lot more than that. It is a hectic, neon-lit megalopolis with out of the world street crowds. It's a city that has full ability to overload your senses with sights and sounds. It is a city where people move fast all the time. Crazy as it seems, Tokyo is remarkably safe and reliable where everything runs on.the.dot. With tons to offer fans of design, anime, technology art or culture alike, it is impossible for someone to discover even half of Tokyo in a day. But that is what me and my friend tried to do anyway (and failed miserably). However did cover a lot of the highlights around Tokyo. Let me tell you about our whole day journey

Neon-clad Shinjuku at night

We first went to Ueno Park. We didn't really plan to go there, but we had to activate our Japanese Railway Pass (a pass that allows us to use the trains as we like for 5 whole days!) at the Ueno Station, and we passed by the park that looked inviting. So we just went in and learned that it is one of the oldest parks in Tokyo and has a lot of museums in it: Orient Museum, the Shitamachi Museum, the Tokyo National Museum and the National Science Museum, to name a few. There are statues scattered throughout the park as well, but I liked this one the most:

Trying my level best to imitate this Thinker

This is where I am supposed to disappear into the mist

 I remembered that my SSM research supervisor, Prof Shamsul told us that there used to be Pandas in the park zoo, but too bad the last one died a couple of years ago. We had a good walk around the park. It was still early morning, so we went to a Starbucks for a quick pick-me-up and studied the subway map before continuing our journey whole day journey around Tokyo

Nice exteriors!

Studying the subway map with the aid of glasses and caffeine

So after getting relatively smarter about the subway maps, we hopped on to the subway and head towards Akihabara, Tokyo's 'Electric Town' crazy Otakus back in my hometown are dying to go to, and for a good reason too. It is a heaven for them with hundreds of stores specializing in everything related to anime, manga, video games, figurines, and card games. One of the recently popular attraction around here is the 'maid cafe' where the waitresses dress up and act like maids in animes. Here's an example of one who's too shy to be taken picture of, or maybe she's scared her mom would read my blog and ask what the heck is my daughter there: 

''Oh dang, I should be in school''

For those who has no idea what Otaku is and cannot name even more than 3 anime characters, don't fret. Akihabara also offers a wide range of electronic items, which is actually why it got the name 'Electric Town' anyway. They offer everything from the newest computers, cameras, televisions, mobile phones, electronics parts and home appliances to second-hand goods and electronic junk. 

Young and old people come to buy electronic stuff

After Akihabara, Electronic Town, we went to Nippori, Textile Town. My friend had a lot of Japanese cotton to buy for his family. Compared to Akihabara, Nippori is relatively quiet. People don't buy textiles on weekends I guess. As boys, we had no idea which cottons are good, which are not, which are beautiful, which are downright ugly, so we just selected some random ones and moved on to our next destination: Shinjuku

At one of the crossroads in Shinjuku

Shinjuku was a place so convoluted with people. Even the streets are closed for cars to let people walk. It houses one of the busiest train station in the world, which explains the crowd. There's an enormous shopping centre in Shinjuku, the Times Square. If you think that Kinokuniya in Kuala Lumpur is big enough, you have seen nothing yet. The Times Square is connected to a Kinokuniya bookstore which has 7 floors! Yep, 7 floors full of books. My kind of place! Too bad I we could not spend too much time in Kinokuniya because there is a lot more of Tokyo we have to see. I will continue my Tokyo journey in my next post. Coming up: Meiji-Jingu, Harajuku, Shibuya and Yokohama. Till then! ;)

Bookstore with 7 floors. How cool is that?

The bridge that links the Times Square to Kinokuniya