My journey to Phuket, Thailand - Part 4 (Final)

Continued from Part 3

Friday, 31st October 2008. Last day of the convention. That morning, we woke up early because the organizer said that the program will be start early. Awal la sangat. Hehe. We need to bring down all of our belongings because as soon as the convention is over, we need to went out from Thailand before 12 am (Thailand time) or else, we need to sleep at the border. We'll see later. ;) Then, we bring all our things and put it in the bus before we went to have our breakfast. That morning, I ate one plate of fried rice combination plus wanton mee, one plate of omelette, sausages and baked beans, one plate of bread and croissant plus gutter and one bowl of coco crunch plus cornfalkes and their siblings with milk. ;) How was it? Ada bran? Hehe.

After I finished my breakfast, I went into the convention place. Wahlauwei~~ Still empty. The participant still not filling in the blanks. Hehe. I knew that would happen and it happened. ;P And the session resumed like the original schedule. 6 presenters remain for the last day presentation. First presentation focused on topic gender gap in higher education. It was presented by Special Advisor to Minister of Higher Learning (MOHE) Malaysia, Prof Dr Md Yusof Abu Bakar and the President of University of St Louis, Philippines, Dr Rosalinda P Valdepenas.

Second paper focused on ASEAN students mobility. The presenters were Deputy Vice Chancellor (Student Affairs) of Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT), Prof Dr Abd Majid Mohd Isa and Professor of University of Indonesia, Prof Dr Wan Usman Wan Achmad. Lastly, final presentation was focused on helping program for high risk students in higher education. Presenter involved were Vice President for Student Development Sport & Culture of Prince of Songkla University, Prof Dr Padoongyot Duangmala and College Principal of MARA Institute of Technology (UiTM), Dr Norzanah Mat Nor. The convention ends later that.

After that, all participants started to clear the hall. Where were they going? Going back la. The lunch was put in polysterene because the time is running out. Can't eat there. I took one and went down to go to the bus. I got the girl's(the one that I usha-ing) contacts too. ;) Just before we leave the hotel, we solat jama' qasr zohor and asar first. We left the hotel at 2 pm (Malaysia time). Later that night, do you think we manage to pass through the border? ;) No, we don't. We slept in the bus at the border until 5.30 am, Saturday, 1st November 2008. Only then we can enter Malaysia. Alhamdulillah. I'm back to Malaysia. Syukur. Many, many syukur. We changed bus at UUM and went back to UMP just after that. Alhamdulillah, we arrived safely at UMP just after maghrib. :)

That's the end of the journey. I think I love to be here in Malaysia. In the same time, I think I need to go out to see others country too, right? ;) Well, that's all for this post. Stay tuned for more updates exclusively from me, Jamil. Your friend. :) Wassalam.

My journey to Phuket, Thailand - Part 3

Continued from Part 2

Thursday, 1st day of convention. 8 presenters presented their papers at the first day.

First paper was focusing in experiental learning in higher education on linking classroom and community. It was presented by Founder of ARROW Malaysia, Ms Rashidah Abdullah and Lecturer from Prince of Songkla University (PSU), Aj Mary Rosezella Doerflein (waa..hard to pronounce her name). Second paper focused in developing leadership talents in universities through the role of student service professionals. The presenters were Vice Chancellor of Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM), Tan Sri Nordin Kardi and Asst. Director of University Scholars Programme (USP) from National University of Singapore (NUS), Ms Ng Yun Sian.

Thirdly, it focused on universiti industry linkage through the role of student service professionals. Presenters involved were Director of Co Curriculum Centre from Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Prof. Dr. Mohammad Shatar Sabran and Director of Government Programme IBM Malaysia, Mr Hasannudin Hasan. The last presentation of the day focused on leadership and citizenship education in universities. The presenters were Professor from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Tan Sri Datuk Prof Ir Dr Zulkifli Tan Sri Ghazali and Director General of National Civics Bureau Malaysia (BTN) Malaysia, Dato' Shagul Hamid Abdullah.

That evening, after all 8 papers were presented, there was a special session with the Deputy Minister of Higher Learning, Dato' Idris Harun. That's the end of the 1st day.

Well, as I'm listeing to the paper presentation, sometimes I get lost in space because of sleepy. Hehe. So, what did I do? Going to the toilet to wash my face? No, I didn't. To overcome it, I snappy, snappy with the Sony DSC-R1. Amik gambo la senang citer. Haha. Suffi also do the same. At the same time, I also keep usha-ing this one girl. ;P Jeng, jeng, jeng...

That night, we don't have any program. Free lah kirenye. After isya' all 10 of us went out to search something to eat. Besides that, some wanted to buy souvenirs. We walked through the street to find stalls or reataurant that sold halal foods. Quite hard to find though. We walk and walk and walk. We found one but it seems full house. We continued our search. Finally we've found one. Alhamdulillah. :) All of us ate almost the same meal. Another problem we faced was the stall auntie didn't quite understand what were we talking. Aiyaya. Then, there was this girl she helped us out because she can talk Thai language. Thank you la. After eating, all of us continue to walk through the street. The night there was very happening. My advice, prepare mentally and spiritually if you want to come there. If not, you maybe lost in space though.

That night, we were separated. I walked with Suffi and the others walked in one group. We walked through until almost 2 am (Malaysia time). I'm actually can't stand to be in a place with many crowd and the crowd is wandering around. My head will feel pusing-pusing you know. Only sometimes I can handle and that depends. Hehe. We walked quite far. Until Holiday Inn if I'm not mistaken. I don't even reach that place when I walked through the streets the evening before. So, I took out the bussiness card that given by the souvenir shop yesterday. Then I asked this local cop where is that address. He asked one disabled man near that. Maybe he was not from that place. The disable man told that it was on the reverse side of our path. Alamak. Salah jalan sudah. So, we went that way to go back to the hotel.

On the way back, we pass by this road. There was so many people there. I don't go there because I felt uneasy at it. We continued our journey back. Then, we saw some people on the other side of the road. Looks like the other UMP-ians. Finally, we met them again and we walked back to the hotel together. Really tired that night.

Continue reading in Part 4... ;)

My journey to Phuket, Thailand - Part 2

Continued from Part 1

At last, on Wednesday 5.30 am like that, I woke up and we were there in Phuket. :) Alhamdulillah, we arrived safely. One thing that played in my mind that morning was, where are we going to solat Subuh?? I kept thinking that until we enter the hotel where the convensyen was held. Then, Suffi suggested that we just solat at the wide area. So, we took our wudhu' and perform solat Subuh at a wide area on the 3rd floor of the hotel, nearby the gym.

After that, we went out from the hotel because we can only checked in at 12 in the noon (Thailand time). Aiya. Nevermind. We went to look for breakfast with USIM delegation after a brief explanation about the place and where can we get halal food there from the organizer officer. On the way while looking for the food, we took pictures lah as usual. Hehe. Phuket was once destroyed by tsunami. Looks like the were now back into business again. Not long after that, we found a small stall that served halal food. En Saha also was there when we arrived. I ate rice with chicken curry and cabbage. The curry looked delicious. So, I took it like I always do; three spoon of it. And the results, damn hot the curry. Luckily I didn't take spoonfull of it. If not, maybe I can't finish it. Hehe. Sazwan ate it in front of the fan. ;P The price for mine's was 40 Baht. Just like eating at UMP cafeteria. The price I mean. But, it's okay. Importantly it's halal. ;) After breakfast, we walked through the place. The place where we stayed named Patong.

As we were going to continue our walk, the rain fell. We took a shelter at in front of an Arab restaurant. The rain had slowed down. I turned my face to the ATM place; the others sheltered under there except me and Suffi. Aiya. They were gone. Then I and Suffi went to look for them until the Family Mart besides the Hard Rock cafe. They weren't there. So, we decided to go back to the hotel. As soon as we arrived there, we rest for a while in front of the receptionist counter until we can check in. Anjang and Izzah was also there. CikD later went back to the hotel from following the others. We checked in as soon as 12 noon. Finally, we checked in. I was in a room with Suffi and CikD. Our room numbered 2737. After that, we cleaned up ourselves and went out again at 3 pm (Malaysia time). We were planned to go to the masjid nearby to solat. The masjid name Masjid Nurul Huda and the solat hall was at the top. Just 15 minutes walk from the hotel. I'm glad to found a masjid there. :) Means the place was also populated by Muslims. Alhamdulillah. After solat, we met some kids which were there playing among themselves under the masjid. We also had a time to took pictures with them.

After that, we went to meet Anjang and Izzah at Dubai Restaurant. It's a halal restaurant. We were having our lunch there. I ate chicken briyani costs 220 Baht and a cup of tea costs 30 Baht. Expensive right? Very much expensive. But nevermind. I just want to try it. Hehe. ;) Then we went to this souvenir shop. I bought souvenirs for my classmates and friends. It costs me 730 Baht. The price wasn't bad. I finished almost all of my Baht money that time. Hehe. Later then, we went to a souvenir shop that was almost 30-45 minutes away from the hotel; by walking. I bought souvenir for my classmates. Later that evening, we went bck to the hotel to prepare for dinner that night.

The program started with a dinner that night. It was held at the Orchid grand ballroom if I'm not mistaken the name. All of us were having dinner as the opening ceremony for the convention. One the guest of honor that I know was UUM Vice Chancellor, Tan Sri Nordin Kardi. Prof. Dr. Abd Jalil was also there. The dinner end up at 10 pm (Malaysia time). Then we went down to the lobby as for it was still early to sleep. Hehe. ;P The plug point there was meant for two pinned plug only. Aisey. Means, I can only charged my Sony Ericsson phone and the DSLR camera. My laptop, it dead while I'm transferring the pictures. Alahai~~

Continue reading in Part 3... ;)

My journey to Phuket, Thailand - Part 1

Assalamualaikum my friends! We meet again. Well, I was just returned back to UMP last Saturday. I was planning to update by blog while I'm on the go but unfortunately the internet wasn't free there. It's rated at 120 Baht per hour. Very expensive right? ;) Nevermind, I still can update it here at UMP. Actually, I was there for a convensyen named "Regional Convention on Student Development". It was held at Puket Graceland Resort & Spa, Phuket, Thailand. Let me start the story.

I went to Phuket with 9 others; Cikma, CikD, Ude, Anjang, Suffi, Sazwan, 'Izzat Don, Izyannisa' and Izzah. We depart from UMP to the North on Monday at 10.30 pm like that by UMP bus. I don't sleep at first wh nthe bus departed like I usually do when I travel by bus. Instead, I have a little chat with Suffi the YDP. He told me that he wanted to construct a blog. I said,"Great, just do it." But he still wanted to collect the information before he can write the blog. And we also chat about other issues that I don't clearly remember. ;P First, we stopped at Temerloh R&R to eat and drink something there. Just a quick one before continuing the journey. After that, I slept until we arrived at somewhere in Perak which I don't remember the R&R name. It's the one near to Kedah one I think. We stopped there to solat Subuh and have our morning tea (I drank milo...hehe). After the quick break, we continued our journey. We were supposed to be at UUM (Sintok) that evening; Tuesday, 5.00 pm.

We've arrived early at 10.00 am at Changloon. Then, Cikma bring us to have our lunch at a restaurant named Pokok Sawa. She said that the ikan bakar there was the best. Unfortunately when we arrived, the ikan bakar is still not served. So, we decided to just eat what is served. The meal and the price was good. I recommended you to go there to eat when you go to Perlis. ;) After that, we continued our journey to Masjid Syed Putra Jamalullail, Perlis. We cleaned up ourselves and solat jama' qasr Zohor and Asar there. As soon as we finish, moved to Kangar and took a walk there. I and the boys went to a market there to buy some snack to eat. Then, Cikma brought us to her Pak Su's house near there. That time was almost 4 pm in the evening. This was our last destination before we went to UUM. Pak Su is a very well educated person; so do his children. I saw it by the graduation day pictures of his children that was hanged at the wall of his house. He was a teacher back then and he told us about he travelled around during his bujang days. An interesting man he is. FYI, Shahidan Kassim's house was in front of Pak Su's house. ;)

At 4.30 pm, we moved to UUM. As we arrived, we waited for others to come. It was 3 buses I think that depart with us. We waited at UUM's HEPA. I found something interesting there. All clubs and associations have their own post box at HEPA UUM. And there were many clubs though. I wonder if one day UMP could have one like that. ;) After all participants have arrived, we transferred our luggages into UUM's bus because we travelled by UUM bus, of course. En Saha and En Shahrizai also followed us. We depart from UUM at almost 6.30 pm like that after we filled in the travelling forms. 7 pm, We first arrived at the Malaysia Immigration post. We give our passport to the officer and he stamped it. Then, we went into the bus again and continued our journey to the Malaysia-Thailand border. The time was 7.30 pm. Again, we give our passport to the officer there and he stamped it. Only then we were valid to pass through the border.

That was the first time I went crossed the Malaysian border to Thailand. ;) Well, I've never been to other nation. But the earth is still the same right? The only thing that different was name; Malaysia and Thailand. Then, we ate at a restaurant there. I also solat jama' qasr Maghrib and Isya' at the musolla there. According to them, the journey will take about 8 hours. Wow. That's really a long journey though. Looks like we have to be in the bus all night long. I was at first a bit surprised because when I look at the restaurant's watch and my watch, there's a one hour gap. Means, Thailand time is one hour late than Malaysia. Then I got it, the fact that Malaysia time is one hour quick. Hehe.

We continued our journey to Phuket at 9.30 pm (Malaysia time). In the bus, what's more can I do. Just sleep lah. Hehe. ;P I also didn't realize how many time have the bus stopped. Nevermind. As long as we arrived safely to our destination. Thailand is still preserving their culture even though there were many development that was going on, like Suffi said. I was awaken when the bus stopped but I don't went out because there was nothing to do outside there and it's dark. Can't even play soccer. Ehehe. ;)

Continue reading in Part 2... ;)

First paper down...

Alhamdulillah. I've just got back from my 1st final exam paper, Software Testing. Quite tough paper. Especially the case study part. The questions are killing me though. But somehow, I manage to answer all with all knowledge that I have that related to this subject. It's a theory paper, well, theory is my weakness but I still need to learn theory because from theory comes practical, right? I'll be taking the second paper this Friday, 7th October 2008. Artificial Intelligence. Okay, I need to work on it cause it's also a quite tough one. Chow! ;)

Good Luck for Final Exam!

Assalamualaikum all! Especially my friends whom will take their final exam starting today until a month later. I have a special message for all of you here :

Updates will be up later on. Just stay tuned. Peace! :)

P/S : Study wei, final exam ni. Jangan dok main DOTA aje. Haha. ;P