Jenjarom Buddhist Temple

Was bored. So I followed my parents to this famous temple in Jenjarom. It is near Klang. It's really famous as there are so many people there. Estimated about few thousand people there. It took about 2 hours to go through the traffic to get to the actual venue (and 1 hour to get out from there). I was a bit regretted to join the trip but I thought what the heck let's just go there and see for myself. I took this opportunity to take some pictures:

 
The lanterns along the entrance of the temple

 
The flowers and the giant lantern in the open area just outside the temple.

The close-up on flowers

The love shape GuanYin bamboo shoots

The pineapple shape GuanYin bamboo shoots

Nice bamboos

The buddhist statues

The wishing pond

You can make wishes on this tree too. Just hang your note there.

 
"The Mortal Clean Earth" - Temple Entrance

The lotus pond - Very Zen!

The Zen Garden!

Many lanterns are hung on the side walk

More lanterns...

The temple itself... Looks like Forbidden City

Donate some money and you will be given wishing lotus candles

Close up for Egypt trip

After some specific topics about Egypt, I think I have to write a overall experience of the trip. I do not want you to misunderstand and miss the chance to Egypt.

I enjoy the trip. And I think for every trip, the companion of you is very important. That will conclude whether you enjoy the trip or not. I have had very good companions throughout the trip! Thanks again Alice, Sam, Seng Beng and of course not to forget Adam.

However, health issue is also important to decide whether you can enjoy the trip. I was sick, so I was not really have the health to support me for the whole trip. I took a lot of medicine. I finished the whole bag (normal plastic bag that you get from grocery shopping) of medicine that Seng Beng brought there. I was laughing at him, and ended up I am the one who finished it. FINISH IT!

Place....
Egypt is a place where I think still a must go place in my list. And I have got it marked as "visited" now. It is one of the world seven wonder! Some tips for you. You have to go with some preparation, make your study of the country before you go. Learn basic Arabic number character for your easiness when you make payment. Bring along your student ID if you still keep one. It's useful to get half price discount for entrance charges.

And other things about the place, I have mentioned before, the toilet!
You will need maximum 5 days to be in Cairo. not to stay more than that, there is nothing much besides a few must go places:
1) Pyramid
2) Mohamed Ali Mosque
3) Museum
4) Nile River Cruising

If you have more days, try other places like Sham-el Sheikh that we went or Luxor, which we missed out in the plan.


Food....
Do not expect much about the food. Some basic food is available, like Kebab and pita. Always Barbecue food, with very little or no vegetable.

Price....
The price for imported products are very expensive. Products like corn flakes that with selling price of RM 5.99 in Malaysia is selling about RM 20 in Cairo. Potato chips that selling at RM 3.99 in Malaysia worth RM 10 in Egypt. It's ridiculous. And raw eggs!!!! It's about RM 1 for each of them.

Eating out and if it's a dine-in restaurant, you have to pay very high price then. You have to pay for the very expensive service changed, and dine-in charge. Based on our experience, it cost about EP 126 to EP 170 for 2 pax.

Nothing much for shopping. You would not really like the fashion there. Perhaps you might wanna buy some souvenirs. The souvenirs are very very very very expensive. And I think not worth to buy it, especially the souvenirs are printed "Made in China". APA LAR!!!

Peoples....
The classic thing about their peoples is their driving behaviour,which I mentioned in previous blog. And besides that peoples there in Cairo are not that friendly. They always say something bad in Arabic on us. There was once, Alice was mad, she didn't know what did the lady talk about us, so she said it very fiercely to the woman "MAKINSTAWA", which means "non of your business". The woman was shocked, and speechless. We walked away like that.

They didn't know much in English. They are mostly communicate in Arabic. It's very difficult to survive there without knowing how to speak in Arabic.

Some other words that I learn in Arabic are:
1) Ya Lah - Let's go
2) Lah - No
3) Shukran - Thank you

Another classic thing about Egyptian is, they start their day very late, and they end their day very late too. We went out for sight seeing every afternoon after 1pm-2pm. I remembered there was once, Alice said want to bring me for very good Hot Dog. So we gotta wait when Ahmed is free, and another of Sam's friend is free, so we have car to go there. Sam told me to pick me at 10.30pm. I was shocked at first, but I take it, as I know they have late dinner already. But when I was sleeping on the couch and woke up at 10.30pm, they were not there yet. They arrived 11pm, and we arrived restaurant at 11.30pm. I have no appetite to eat at all at that hour. Mr. Seng Beng uncle was tired, he couldn't even join us, he slept early :P

Before I forgot, their breakfast + lunch (our brunch) is at 4pm-5pm. It's also their main meal of the day.

With our observation, we found the peoples there are very fat. And they do not move much. I felt so good to be skinny category there!

Transport....
It's very easy to get taxi in Cairo or Sham-el Sheikh. Taxi in Cairo looked aging. They are old. The only problem with taxi is, they do not understand English. How are you going to tell them where you are heading to. And they do not follow meter in Cairo. You have to negotiate price when you are on taxi.

There is train to the city too. The amazing thing is, there is no map at the ticket counter or anywhere before entering to the station. So, with the limited English that they know, and zero Arabic that we know, we feel lost, and we can't even communicate that lead us can't go out by our own without Sam.

We rented van from Hisham (Sam's second brother) to the tourist spots. It's EP 200/day. It's convenience.

Additional tips to Egypt. You gotta know someone there. You can't backpack there! NO WAY! It's not that safe for backpacker. You can choose to get tour package if you do not have friends there.

We spent very little for this trip. I spent RM 1800 for total exclude airfare. And it's included the expenses I had in Dubai.

Dubai for transit, I found nothing special there. Yes, many rich man. But Makinstawa (non of your business). So what's the point to see people rich? I rather I am the one. It's like little India. And nothing special about Dubai except, the whole place is puzzled by money, and only shopping malls are available. Nothing special in the shopping malls.

If you talked about the Mall of Emirates, there is a ski place in the mall. I rather suggest you to go Australia, New Zealand, Canada, or Switzerland for Ski. Not this place, everything is man-made.

There are many nice building. Yes, but I personally feel building is still a building. It's nothing special. It's just built in different shape and some they purposely make it looks old, which it's still a new one. The famous hotel that I post previously, I found it look like the "TM Building" in KL, Malaysia. Really.....Dubai has no own identity...besides a rich place!

If you like shopping, visit MALAYSIA PLEASE! You got 5 stars hotel at 1 star hotel rate in Dubai! And you have plenty of choice for your shopping experience! With Good FOOD, and CLEAN toilets!

Cleanliness of Egypt

This is a special request from Alice. She requested me to write how dirty Egypt is...hehe...
Well well... Before I visited Egypt, I was warned by Alice. However, I didn't believe it. May be simply because of I was overwhelming by the my dream's pyramid.

Alice emailed me, remind me to bring wet tissue. She told me, I will need it during the trip. Things are dirty.

First two days when I was in Cairo, Alice told me her father-in-law, and mother-in-law always ask Sam. "where is your wife?", Sam always has the same answer, "She is cleaning the unit (the floor that owned by Sam, where Alice stay in Cairo). The in-law felt very strange and asked the son "Why your wife clean the unit everyday?"

Alice even brush the floor, and toilet, and vacuum very often. She uses a lot of toilet paper to clean the toilet bowl before using it. Well, to remind, the unit is belong to them. So no outsider is using the toilet. However, whenever she wants to use it, she still clean it a few times.

It's simply because the place in Cairo is too dusty!

My finger nails was coated with black colour, and no matter I cut, I clean, and I wash, I couldn't remove it away. My finger nails were clean on the second minutes I cut it when I arrived my home in KL. It's really difficult to keep the hand clean. Don't ask me why...


I have no comment on the food cleanliness, as I didn't see how they cook or wash the dish.

The worst case about cleanliness was the toilet. When we were on the way to Sham-el Sheikh, we need to stop for output definitely. It was 6 hours driving trip!

So there was once, the toilet was very dirty. I saw left-over shit in the toilet bowl. I covered the shit with tissue paper, and I told Alice, it's safe to go in. And when everybody was back into car, they asked, did you guys see shit on the wall? Goshh...KNN....I luckily didn't see it.

As usual, I need to go washroom again at second stop. There is no rest house along highway, therefore it was difficult to find toilet. We found petrol station to go for toilet. This toilet were locked by the petrol station cashier. When I went in to check it out, I almost puke. The toilet were very very extremely dirty!!!!! I have never seen such a dirty place. You can "see", "smell", and "touch" the kanasai toilet. I decided not to use the toilet bowl, which full with the multiple non-flushed output. I wonder what did they eat. Why it was so smelly, and so disgusting. When the moment I was out from the toilet, Alice checked with me the toilet situation, whether okay to use. Well, the moment I wanted to reply her, I wanted to vomit. It's really disgusting, and I couldn't explain to her. I asked her not to use, as she couldn't even accept the first one.(This is the picture I could find from internet, which is similar to what I saw. Well, I couldn't take a single breath and wanted to die there. I couldn't take the real situation for you. This picture is much better than what I saw)

Until today, whenever I wanted to talk about this toilet, I can still visualize the toilet very clearly in my mind. And I feel that I am very lucky to be in Malaysia, as the public toilets here are not as bad as in Egypt. My complaints about Malaysia toilets have to keep it back for temporarily.

Drivers in Egypt

Alice requested me to write how dangerous were we on the road when we went Sham-el Sheikh, and the way back from Sham-el Sheikh. Well, let me talk about the overall Egyptian driving standard. The comments here are some from Seng Beng input. Thanks Seng Beng that really putting hard work to think about it, and I felt sorry that, I was like forcing him to write...hehe....

1) One of the very big common driving habit that Egyptian has, which we couldn't accept is...
They do not turn on the light during night time! So when the car come from opposite side, "seems like" cannot see them, they will flash the light to give the opposite car aware of their existence.

We were so surprise when we saw it, because when we walked, it's difficult for us to identify whether the car is moving or parking. Moreover, when they see peoples crossing road, they accelerate even faster, like wanna "hit you die".

2) They like double signal! They always use double signal, which we think convey very misleading message to the cars behind. According to Sam, it's their law, which Alice doubted with it, and so as Seng Beng and I doubted with it. :P

3) They drive crazily with horn. I felt they drive very dangerously. However, Alice and Seng Beng got different view from me. They think that they drivers in Egypt are very skillful. They drive very carefully. As everyone drive with no manner, so the drivers got to be very careful. We seldom see accident happen, we saw one only.

4) When we went to Sham-el Sheikh, the Ahmed fei chai drove very fast without considering us behind was actually following his car. He felt very fun to drive fast, and let Sam to chase him. As I think the only skill he has is only driving. It was so dangerous, as Sam is lack of experience driving in Egypt, and he is not familiar with Egypt roads anymore. And he tends to drive to the side, because it's different driving side from Sydney!

5) When we were on the way back from Sham-el Sheikh to Cairo, it was 3.35am. It was so dark. Both sides are mountains, and really really dark. And same thing, Ahmed fei chai drove very fast! And there was also a car which broke down, and didn't put on any signal or give awareness from far. Sam didn't see it, luckily Alice told Sam. Or else, we are oh...oh liao....

Well, thanks god that, we are safe!

My Dream's Trip - Cairo, Egypt, and others

Going Egypt is always my dream since I was young. It's a mystery place that I always feel there are a lot of secret carry from the old time till now. So I have made it. I have been there from 21st Dec 2007 to 1st January 2008. I then transit at Dubai, and I took the opportunity to go the world famous trading city in U.A.E. from 1st January to 3rd of January 2008.

Let me share with you some of my pictures and short stories.

This is a trip that I went with my friends, Alice, her husband Sam, her son Adam, and my senior Seng Beng. And we also went to Sham-el Sheikh with Ahmed (Sam's best friend) and his wife, Basmah as well.

Cairo

Ahmed Zaki, this is where Sam's family stay. They have the whole building, and the lower ground is their office.


We went Giza on the third day of my trip. That's where Pyramid located. We ride horse to go in. Most of the tourist take buses into the Pyramid.
You might think, why not camel? It's too tall. Not for me! :P This is my first time riding a horse. See??? How tall are our horses?


There are eight pyramids in Giza. We stopped at the smallest Pyramid, as the big one, we are not able to take picture of the whole thing.
This is the funny picture that we found out, we capture Seng beng in the picture too. This is not in purpose.

This is Osman. The boy that take care of my horse.
Arh....... Pyramid? It's just on my finger tips.
Behind me? Adam is changing his diapers. ha......happy me. First time see desert. Sua gu...

After the pyramid, we had our dinner at this restaurant... they use traditional oven to bake bread and roast chicken! They cook at the entrance of the restaurant.
This is where to the dining place...
The interior of that restaurant...
We went to the "cheapest market" in Cairo. This is at the Hussein street (If I am not mistaken). We picked 8 pieces of souvenirs, they charged RM 800++. VERY EXPENSIVE!



Same place...
We went to the cafe that famous as Cairo to feel the feeling at cafe (like our mamak). The feeling is good, Mamak Feel, Restaurant price. We had this rice pudding, which made by rice, and soak it into yogurt. It's.....not nice hehe
We went for cruise at the next state. I couldn't name it anymore. Perhaps when Alice back to online, she could tell.

This is Egyptian Museum. The price for foreigner and local is a big gap. Local is EP 2, and foreigner is EP 50. And with student card, I enjoyed 50% off :P I have been using the same student ID for the past 10 years :) I also enjoyed 10% discount for my shopping at New Castle, UK two years ago!

Cute Adam...

Alice and I, at outside of the museum. We were not allowed to take picture inside the museum. I also entered The Royal Mummies Hall to see those Royal Family Mummies.

We went for dinner at 11.30pm to eat very good sausage in bun. Due to dine in is expensive, we eat outside of the restaurant, at the car. It's still expensive. I think.
We went for horse cart for city tour. It's dangerous :P as the horse cart go on the normal road!
We went to Ahmed's bike store. His dad opened a bike shop for him and his brother. And he also own a gift shop. Their life is like 60's China life style.

I asked for water at Ahmed's bike shop. I appreciated he gave me a glass of water to take my medicine. After I returning the glass to him, I then realised that, that's shared glass. Everyone use that glass for water. Ehmm..ehm....well...it's over.
This is the coffee stall that at the river bank. See how simple, and .....dirty?

We were in Cairo City!!!

We always wonder, why the road, and street are always busy? What are they doing? Are there many jobless peoples? Why they walk on the street all time? They drive very fast, and carefully, because every driver in Egypt is like F1 driver, when they see you crossing road, they will accelerate ...FASTER!!!

This is a night market near by Sam's house. This is basically little China. They are all selling Made in China stocks! and obviously, they bought over priced items.
We also bought some fresh juice to drink there, and Alice was lucky to get a foreign object in the pack.....a white colour of worm! YIACKSSSSS

We also visited Mohamad Ali Mosque, which also called Citadel of Salah al-Din. Again, I enjoyed student price here too! hehe....


We wanted to start Indian show...actually...



Inside the mosque....

Cairo City behind me....Busy busy city


Here is another cruise we took at Nile River, at the Cairo City. Suppose we wanted to take those very big cruise, but due to no reservation has been made, we can't go anymore. And that's the last day at Cairo, we then take this small boat to tour Nile River at the night time. Very cold...
Lucky me with thick winter jacket.



Sham-El Sheikh
We went to Sham-el Sheikh, with 6 hours driving distance from Cairo. The way to Sham-el Sheikh was very nice desert. And a lot of dinosaur (some grass grow with distance) to keep Adam stay...Sham-el Sheikh is a place, where can see beautiful beach. Many European traveled there, and we didn't really see many Egyptian there for living. Just small population there to work at the tourist spots. And basically the whole place is for tourist. There are many top's hotels.
We were happy that three of us out from apartment only. Alice, Seng beng and I. It's more relax...hehe
We were at outside of our apartment
When we cross road, I found this....at the middle of the road....Why? So many cigarette buds?
In front of our apartment...The lady with tudung is Basmah, Behind her was me, then Alice, Sam, then Ahmed. The kid is Adam.
Alice and me ...posing....
nice apartment?
This is the busy street at Sham-El Sheikh. We had our both nights dinner there....Nice restaurant....
The New Year Eve, Seng Beng and I walked at the busy street. Others didn't join because Alice need to take care of Adam, Sam and Ahmed need to nap in order to drive later. And Basmah prefer to stay back.
Forgot which hotel...
The Street....again...
This is XXX Beach....sorry, not really know where were we...After some walked, Seng beng and I decided to go Casino to earn some money to cover our trip. We won USD 400!!! Good New Year Eve!!


My first time trying Shi Sha....I almost cannot breath...


Dubai....
It's almost end of the trip. We transit at Dubai as said. I don't like this artificial place. Everything is fake, they are puzzled by money.

This city is full with foreigner, not the local peoples. A lot of peoples from India, Sri Langka, Pakistan, Chinese, Philipines, and Africa. And guess what, in the shopping mall, some of the shops played Indian song. "What a nice environment"...


Dubai Museum....Slightly better than Malaysia one, which see Baju Kebaya, Sari, and Cheong Sum. There is one thing that attracted us. One of the display in the museum, it used lighting to change the outer and interior of the tomb.


This is the river where Dubai city people use to travel to the opposite river bank.
This is the boat that we pay Durham 1 to go over opposite bank. The are a lot of boats , which no waiting time.This is Old Souk (Old Market) of Dubai. They sell a lot of fabric. And most of the shops are operated by Indian, Pakistan, and Chinese.
We then walked to the museum, this is not the real Camel. I do not dare to take picture with camel ehh....We saw a tour bus. We ran on the bus without asking any detail. And it's DRH 175 each pax! Damn expensive! Well, it's okay, we understand to be tourist, it's a must to pay for this unfair high price. Okay, we are still happy...

View from the river...
This is the famous hotel...Burj Al Arab Hotel. The restaurant on the top floor can see the view of Dubai while the lowest floor of restaurant can see underwater aquarium.
This is beach of Jumeirah. It's nice. But we don't have time to be there. We were on the bus.
We reached Souk Madinat, Jumeirah. Souk means market. Again, this is man-made market. Nice fake view, but if there is choice, I wanna go for historical place. I felt like I was at Sunway pyramid.
At the restaurant that we had our lunch. Japango. Really expensive food.
In the souk ...
Inside the souk...
Another building I found quite special. It looks like Palm Tree....

We also went to the biggest shopping mall, The Mall of Emirates. There is an indoor ski. Well, Again, man-made. Sien...

I went off second day, lucky that I were there for a day only....Seng Beng had another day for transit....he was suffering :P

I'll write later to share my comments for the trip...

** P/S: You may see, my face grow round!!! Shit!!! There is different from day 1 to day 14th**
More pics available later, after I exchange with my friends...We are all in different countries, it takes time...