Tagging along

Bismillah.

For this three days onward, me and my sister are going to stay longer accompanying my father for he is attending IBM's invitation.

 

This IBM's event of Business Partner Advisory Council 2011 are held in Hotel Intercontinental Asiana Saigon. According to father, this annual event is for the purpose of sharing and giving the picture of how information technology is currently progressing in the West. Therefore, IT solution's company in Asia could stay updated and anticipate of what will come in the future.The best thing for this event is that, everything from flight tickets, hotel and food will be accommodated by IBM. Me and my sister, kami tumpang sekaki la! :)

Ayah, thanks for tagging us along. Love you. :D

When Malaysian goes to Vietnam

Bismillah.

Arrived in Ho Chi Minh city two days ago along with my parents and my little sister. Just four of us. Were four of us. Now, just the three of us. Last night, we sent mother to the airport since she has to work today. We spent the last two days solely for shopping. Mother had always been the one all geared up and had been pulling us around to here and there. It is like she had the map and travel guide in her head. She could remember stores and streets very well. I know she had been looking forward to shop in Vietnam. Mother is always passionate about shopping which somehow I think is good. Now that she's gone home, i wonder what my day here in Saigon would be like.

And guess what, i think most Malay from Malaysia are like that. You see, when were walking around in the city, it was very easy to spot another Malay Malaysian in sight. I don't see many Chinese Malaysian here. Or maybe they look alike with the local Vietnamese that I don't recognized them. So far, I've met only one group of Chinese Malaysian and one group of Indian Malaysian. Other than that, Malay and Malay again. You can recognize them from their veil/hijab style and clothing. And their hands are always full of plastic shopping bags. That's what I'm talking about. Malaysian like to shop especially when the place offers cheap and various things to shop. Trust me. I have seen it Bandung and Bangkok. Now, I'm witnessing it again in Vietnam.

I think the reason of this phenomenon is due to the rising of low cost airlines systems in Malaysia. The famous AirAsia tagline, "Now everyone can fly" really works. You can even save up to 70% if you booked a year in advance. This low cost airlines has opened the opportunity for everyone to go abroad and thus, expanding their shopping coverage. To go shopping in neighbouring countries is way cheaper especially going to country that has lower currency rate than your country. :) And you know what, last night when we were lining up to check-in at the airport, most of people are Malaysian! I think they might be in the same case like my mother where they go travel and/or shop just for the weekend. Remember again, that "Now everyone can fly"? hehe.

we were in the queue for check-in. See those people behind us?

sorry for the blurry image

People can escape fromm their routine workloads in the weekdays and escape in the weekend! As they say, borderless world. huh? Thanks to AirAsia for making people less stress and spend less money. ;)

I will write more on travel in Vietnam. Stay tune.

Let's spin the globe.

Bismillah.

I have been thinking to skip my Europe Trip journal because I think it is too overload. Since my internship in Bosnia, i have been blogging and writing on my travel in Europe for almost 7 months now. =P

So, i decided to skip Europe story for a while. Let's make a spin to the world globe. Searching Asia, alright? :)

Tomorrow, i will leave the country for Vietnam. This is my first time to Ho Chi Minh City as it will be second for the rest member of my family. But, they didn't enjoy much of Vietnam since they went there during Chinese New Year, and everything, stores and souvenirs shops were closed. And this time, hoping for a better shopping spree.

As for myself, I could not wait to taste Vietnamese local food. According to my family, Vietnamese cuisine is very different and unique. I doubt that and still do. I have the feeling that it would be something like chinese-style cooking which i'm not into. But, when my family members trying very hard to convince me, now I could not wait to swallow it. :)

Am i gonna hook up onVietnamese cuisine? We shall see that.

May Allah bless our journey to Saigon. Ameen.

Till then.

Viva la Venice!

Bismillah.

First Visit to Venice

The first time was when I accidentally ‘drop-by’ at Venice while in Zagreb, Croatia two months earlier. ;p This first time also made us feel how lucky we are to be there in Venice when the city was having carnival.  The famous winter carnival in Venice happened from February 26 till  March 8. You know, it is when everyone is wearing colourful traditional masks, and some in costumes and the city is crowded with people and Venetian costumes parade. Yes, that’s what I’m talking about. The feeling of “Casanova” was felt all over us. ;p

When we were lining up to buy boat ticket, a stranger came to us and gave us his tickets for free. Alhamdulillah. I guess the saying "Don't talk to stranger" is not always relevant. :P

Heading to San Marco

Seeing everyone with masks on, I decided to join the crowd. Looking at those beautifully made mask excites me to have one. Furthermore, during the carnival, the masks are cheaper.

Trying out masks was so much fun. :D

He loves me...

.

...he loves me not..

Oooouuu... Okay, I like this one. 

At Piazza San Marco. The building behind us is the Basilica of San Marco, one of the best known church of Byzantine architecture.

Actually, we had chosen Venice to be part of our EuroTrip. Since we went there without the other five members, the possibility to come back to Venice was very high. Datang lagi sekali pun datang la :)

Second Visit to Venice

We started the journey as early at 4am or so in the morning from Sarajevo and headed to Venice. The journey took 10 hours and we arrived Venice around 3pm and right away checked in at Villa Dori. Nice place.

At the entrance of our villa. Simple. I like it.

View in the room

Then, we hopped on a mini-bus provided by the hotel to go to Venice which is located at saltwater lagoon stretches along shorelines. Well that explained why the city smells salty and somehow stinks. ;p

My favourite view of the building

I still can't believe that I finished the whole pizza by myself. It was my first time. 

We took the evening lightly as we were just arrived. We walked and saw loads of stores that sell masks, souvenirs and even you can find Chanel store there. The small booths can easily be found on the street and to our surprised, we can say that most of the booths were held by Bangladeshi. Some even asked us, “You are from Malaysia?” and spoke Malay with us. Funny.  J I wonder how Malaysia has been recognized in the eyes of Bangladesh people. And because of that, I got a discount for an Italian bag which I bought for my sister. :D Yo, thanks!

Moreover, Venice would be perfect if you are looking for some place romantic.

The next day, our mission in Venice was to ride the famous boat in Venice, the gondola. We tried to search and bargain for a cheaper price to ride gondola. But then, if you want cheaper price then they will reduce the time. We bargained for 70 Euro and all they could offer is for 40 minutes ride. Fine. We took the offer and sailed through the city. 

Venice has been known by so many names, some of which are, “City of Water”, “City of Masks”, “The Floating City” and “City of Canals”.

When we woke up this morning, it was freaking freezing. Upon the stroke of 11am, the sun started to show itself and the air gets warmer. I felt much better just the sun was too bright. So it’s time to put your shades on. I have got to understand the four-season weather now. In the morning it would be very cold but yet it gets better and warmer as the sun shines through the day. But, it will get colder again when the night falls.

I can say that you can complete touring the city just in one day if you start from morning till dinner time.

As to be expected, most of the restaurants serve their Italian specialty. Pizzeria is everywhere. I went into a pizza restaurant once which only serves pizza. I was overwhelmed just by looking at the menu booklet.  There are like seven pages just merely for pizza toppings. I didn’t know that they could come up with such variety of  toppings. We can also choose what kind of tomato sauce we want on our pizza, with cheese or without, thick or thin crust. Well, for us Muslims, there are not many choices we have. Always go for something veggie and fishy. J

Whoa! What a huge pizza! 

In the afternoon, we dashed out from Venice city, heading to our next stop, Switzerland. :)