Malindo Air - how lucky are we

Assalamualaikum and hello folks!

Let's start with a bit of ramblings about this site. As most of you have noticed, we are indeed trying to revive this site. We started blogging circa 2010 and it has been three years (of emptiness and sorrow) without any updates. Do bear with us.

Now lets talk about Malindo Air.

As the name suggests, it's a combination of names of two nations - Malaysia and Indonesia. You guys can easily spot it that "Mal-" stands for Malaysia and "-indo" for Indonesia. The company is a result of a JV between NADI of Malaysia and PT Lion Air of Indonesia.

Operationally, the company calls themselves as hybrid airline - placing themselves in between the low cost and full service airline. Geographically, Malindo Air operates in two airports; in the Klang Valley i.e. the Subang Airport and the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, KLIA.

At the time of writing this post, we still haven't tried their service - but close relatives of ours had. They seemed to like the aircraft; especially the leg room, the in flight entertainment, the meal, the luggage allowance, departing from KLIA - all those without hidden additional costs!

Recently, Malindo Air had a promotion - giving out free tickets to selected destinations. We logged on to their website and tried searching for flights from Subang Airport to Kuala Terengganu. And guess what, the tickets were really free (not including the airport taxes)!  We didn't proceed with the booking though, as the date that we chose falls on the same date as the upcoming Raya Haji - definitely we can't make it.

And now, they are having another promotion. Check out below.

Please note that we are in no way related to Malindo Air.

Holiday Chronicle would like to welcome Malindo Air. Surely they will give the incumbent players - the MAS, AirAsia, Fireflyz, Berjaya Air - a run on their money and benefits many holiday 'goers' in Malaysia =)

Perth, Australia

Hi all, 

So now it's my turn to type. Sharing you lot bits of Perth, Australia. 

Oh my I can't remember whether I flew in with MAS or AirAsia. Hahaha =D Yes, the trip was made more than a year ago, without my husband. 

Accommodation 

I stayed in a studio apartment which I seriously forgot the name. But it is just next to the Pan Pacific. It is not that far from the city center. I even walked together with my parents to the city center. 

For those who cannot walk that much, do not fret. Free shuttle is available y'all! 

The neighbour.

Transportation

Free transit is provided in the city und it is called Central Area Transit, CAT. The same TransPerth train ticket can be used for TransPerth bus as well. How convenient is that eyh. 

To Freemantle, either by train or cruise. Instead of just paying AUS$3.80 per person (by TransPerth train) my father paid AUS$25 per person for a one way cruise ride.

The reason why we took the cruise; wanted to witness Perth's millionaires' row. 

Millionaires' row by the river.

A park in Freemantle.

The Bell Tower

We took the free shuttle to go round the city and stopped at multiple locations. But since our accommodation is quite near to the Bell Tower, we walked instead.

We even went extra miles to visit the Aquarium of Western Australia, AQWA. Superb!

AQWA

Magnificent!

Tickle tickle =D

Dare to touch?

Food
There are many restaurants to dine in but not many of halal ones. Food is quite pricy in Perth compared to UK. A roll of lamb kebab is AUS$9.80 = RM31.16 but in UK a lamb kebab is only about £4 = RM20. A pack of two pieces of uncooked salmon fillets is priced at approximately AUS$13 = RM41.34 but in UK it is only £6 = RM30. 

Edible seafood fried rice and fried noodle in the city.
But not as tasty as home cooked ones.

Since our unit had a decent size kitchen with cooker and all, we did some groceries and prepared simple dinner. We shopped for ingredients at Woolworth. We went crazy over Arnotts chocolate cookies! 

Cooking oil. 

Self prepared pizza. 

Seafood platter in Freemantle.

Luscious sardines for dinner!

Had a beautiful break in Perth with my parents and younger brother. I don't mind visiting Perth again ;) 

Waiting for the jet plane. 

Splendid Cairo, Egypt

Cairo of Egypt (arabic: Qaherah of Misr) was a splendid and challenging holiday destination for us. Back in the year 2010 when we were still undergraduates, we took a ten days holiday package from Kembara Sufi and paid about £315 per person, inclusive of everything except meals and flight tickets. We booked our flights through STA Travel.

We were greeted by a very nice chap, Mr. Ariffin at the airport and his colleague. The night drive experience was indeed a surprised one - there are literally no lanes - or even if there is one, the drivers are not bothered to drive within their respective lanes. Crazy!

Our trip was divided into three parts - Qaherah, Iskandariah (or Alexandria) and Sinai peninsular. Kembara Sufi does have another different package which covers the southern part of Egypt - Aswan and Luxor. Due to the heat and extreme climate in June, we decided to not proceed with Aswan and Luxor.

The City of Cairo is the most populated city in Africa and the city associates itself with ancient Egypt - the Great Sphinx and Great Pyramid residing in Giza is adjacent to Cairo. The City of Cairo is blessed with River Nile, flowing through the city. The Egyptian has the ability to turn dry inhabitable dessert into a green park at the flick of their fingers. Nahhh basically with Allah's will ;-) We recommend you to spend time in Al-Azhar Park.

Good food is easy to get and it is cheap. The thing that we love most about Egypt is its very affordable fresh fruit juice - guava, mango, tamarind, sugar cane. You can quench your thirst with just LE1 (one Egyptian pound equivalent approximately one eight of a British Pound) per glass.

Our trip was in June so it was very.... very hot. Don't be surprised if you could finish five glasses of juice in one go. Plus, our driver never switched the air-cond on for some unknown reason. While in Cairo, we always brought at least two 1.5 liter bottled water with us during tour, to get us through the day.

There are many masjid (mosque) in Cairo and one of the famous masjid is Masjid Sultan Hassan - this is where the four scholars of four mazhab conducted their classes simultaneously in one place. Here, we met one of the bilals (person who calls for prayer) which we failed to remember his name. Erk..

This bilal really has a ver melodious voice. And he loves Malaysians =)

Cairo is also where the Sultan Salahuddin Fortress situated. This fortress is one of his many fortresses that he built in Egypt during his campaign to unite the Muslim world. He was one of the great rulers and conquerors of the Muslim world. If you don't know who he is, you might want to see the movie entitled Kingdom of Heaven.

Visiting the pyramid and the Sphinx is a must, to see the greatness of this ancient version of KLCC. So we went there, took several pictures and never had the extra money to pay for the fee to go inside it. he he. From that moment, we strongly believed that the pyramid and Sphinx were built by aliens. Refer to Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Alien vs Predator movies. Haha!

There are countless tombs of many famous Islamic scholars. One that we can recall for now is the tomb of (Makam) Imam As Shafie. We had the chance to visit his mosque and his tomb.

Khan Khalili is the largest bazaar in Cairo and its history dates back 650 years ago. We went to see the busy bazaar after visiting Masjid Saidina Hussain nearby. The masjid also houses several belongings of the late Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Makam Saidina Hussain (Rasulullah s.a.w. 's grandson) is in the masjid too.

Cruising on a boat in River Nile at night enjoying the enchanting lights of the city is an option to spend your evening. But be warned! They play loud musics on the boat and you have to yell to speak to the person seating next to you. People danced to the music, literally enjoyed themselves.

For accommodation, we stayed in student villas (different villas depending on the daily tour) in Malaysian student accommodation complex. When we say villa, it is indeed furnished luxuriously. Perlis Villa is a big one - three rooms for three, large bath room, a kitchen with all the utensils and cooking ware, TV room to enjoy the World Cup 2010, dining room, two guest lounge, washing machine etc. We got a master suite to ourselves with an attached bath.

An entry on Alexandria and Sinai will be uploaded laterrrr. We need to refresh ourselves and dig out old photos for us to track our activities in both places. =)


note: Qaherah means the conqueror or the vanquish.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia The Mysterious Land

Cambodia or well known as Kemboja by the malaysians is a country full of surprises! Basically we only spent 4 days in Phnom Penh and didn’t have the chance to visit other states. Phnom Penh is the capital city and the environment is more or less like Bandung, Indonesia.

Getting there:
Flew in by AirAsia (the cheapest way besides illegal boats). Had this experience in LCCT where the cambodians (who work etc. in Malaysia) asked for our favor to bring some stuffs (milo, canned food etc.) back for their family. In the end we did not help them since we were unsure whether it is truly milo or some cannabis or cocaine packed neatly. Beware guys. They might look sympathetic but be stern.
We booked for a hotel pick up earlier on. It actually came with the AirAsia holiday package.

The Hotel Driver

Accommodation:
We stayed at the Holiday Villa. Very convenient since it is located in the city. We had a suite to ourselves. With a bathroom attached (plus a bathtub), a mini fridge, a cute 20″ tv and a pretty large wardrobe for two! Spacious~ We had ample room to perform our prayer (solat) and also to have a quick yoga. The service was excellent. The staffs were helpful and they received 5 stars from us!


Food :
Basically we had most of our dinners at the hotel. It was hassle free. They even serve TEH TARIK (malaysian favourite milk tea) and ROTI CANAI (malaysian favourite bread for breakfast) upon request! We tried the Cambodian curry at the hotel and it was pretty good. Different from the typical mamak curry.
Our driver, Tony bought us one of the cambodian snacks which is made from banana and glutinous rice (pulut). It tastes like lepat pisang. Oh yes we found one malaysian restaurant but we forgot the location. The restaurant reminds us of Kelantan little food stall.

The Cambodian Lepat Pisang

Tour:
We had our own tour guide and driver. Just had to book for the tour at the hotel reception and it only cost us US$50 for one day. Worth every penny. The tour includes Russian Market, Killing Field, Torture Museum etc. Or you can even go to these places on your own by Tuk Tuk (motorcycle trishaw) which is cheaper since you do not have to pay for the tour guide and the comfortable air-conditioned ride!

One of the remaining skulls at the Killing Field

New Beginning, New List

Assalamualaikum and Hello all,

Remember this?



The list above was created in the year 2009-2010 while we were still pursuing our Engineering degree. But now, it has been more than three years, thus we have made a new list as below and crossing out the places we've been to together (yes, there are certain places that my other half went without me such as Paris, Tokyo, Australia, China and Jakarta!).

1. Cairo, Egypt
2. Istanbul, Turkey
3. Tokyo, Japan
4. Jordan
5. Prague, Czech Republic
6. Makkah and Madina, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
7. Malaga and Granada, Spain
8. Korea
9. Bosnia
10. Dubai and Abu Dhabi, UAE
11. Phonm Penh, Cambodia
12. Bandung and Jakarta, Indonesia
13. Taman Negara (National Park) Sarawak, Malaysia
14. New Zealand
15. Marrakesh, Morocco
16. Paris, France
17. etc.

Yes, finally I'm able to come up with a new entry!
Since we are now back in Malaysia for good, we have less chance to travel around Europe. But we still manage to go for short trips in Malaysia, at least once a year.
Both my wife and I will share with you lot more about our trips and vacations.

Stay tuned!

More competition means more cheap flights!

Firefly recently announced that they are starting to fly jet aircraft in order to carry passengers to more destinations. This will boost its carrying capacity and perhaps enables it to serve longer flight haul. Fleet expansion is part of their plans to serve the Eastern Malaysian. By Jan 2011, there will be three local airlines serving the KL-KK and KL-Kuching routes!

Firefly currently operates ATR 72-500 turbopropeller aircraft serving passengers to destinations in Indonesia, Thailands, Singapore and Peninsular Malaysia from their hubs in Penang and Subang SkyPark.

According to a news report, Firefly will acquire 30 Boeing 737-800 from 2011 and 2015 as part of their expansion exercise besides helping MAS to facilitate a better flight connectivity for the European market. The source said the new aircraft will fly from Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

This would put more stress on the ticket price and we should anticipate price war between its rival Air Asia. Firefly offers tickets starting from RM9. Log on to their website for more into http://www.fireflyz.com.my/

Don't miss offer and start planning for your vacation now!

image source:
blog.fireflyz.com.my

Holiday Chronicle team takes this as a blessing

Air Asia to get new stewardess!

Salam and hello peeps!

It has been a long and long time since we last updated this website. Sorry guys and you know it has been a hectic six months.

Have you heard of the latest news?

Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Group will dress up as AirAsia stewardess and serve the passengers!

According to a source, both F1 team bosses Branson and Tony Fernandes made a bet that losing team will have the honour dressing up as a flight attendant. If Lotus Racing were to lose to Virgin Racing, Fernandes will have to dress as a stewardess and serve the Virgin Atlantic flight. We belief people are more excited to see Fernandes dressing up as stewardess =D

Isn't this exciting to have Richard Branson serving you while you are on a plane from Kuala Lumpur to London? If you think it is, then you should stay alert for their announcement on the flight details which is coming out very soon. Bad thing is, you have to bid for the seat (would you do that just to be served by Branson? Honestly I won't :D ) and the good thing is, they are not doing this for money. The proceeds of the bidding will go to any charity of Branson's choice.

Congratulations for both Lotus Racing and Virgin Racing as they managed to finish the F1 season. To Branson and Fernandes, we hope to see more exciting duel from you guys ;-)


Alrite, stay tuned for next entry!

Our Next Destination

Assalamualaikum wbt and Greetings =)

It has been a very tough weeks and today we've just finished our first paper for our final exams. Yeay! It means that we will have a long holiday *ehem-ehem* (holiday but still have loads of work to do).

Remember the list of places that we wish to go?

1. Bandung and Jakarta, Indonesia
2. Bosnia
3. Cairo, Egypt
4. Paris, France
5. Marrakesh, Morocco
6. Makkah and Madina, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
7. Dubai and Abu Dhabi, UAE
8. Tokyo, Japan
9. Istanbul, Turkey
10. Prague, Czech Republic
11. Malaga and Granada, Spain
12. Taman Negara (National Park) Sarawak, Malaysia
13. Somewhere in New Zealand

So there we have one place down, and 12 more to go. Our next stop will be Cairo (Kaherah). We have booked our tickets and tour guide so hopefully everything will be going well as planned.

To those who are sitting for exams, Holiday Chronicle would like to wish you all the very best and always remember to work hard and play hard. Bye!

Langkawi Island, Malaysia

Langkawi is the biggest island in Malaysia situated in northern coast of Malaysian Peninsular. Governed by the state of Kedah and Langkawi boasts its duty free shopping status. Almost everything is a lot cheaper than the mainland. You can get lots of chocolates there =p

Langkawi is accessible by flights to its International Airport through services offered by Malaysia Airlines, Air Asia, Singapore Airlines and Firefly.

Firefly: connecting Subang and Penang

Air Asia: connecting LCCT Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Penang

Malaysia Airlines: seems like connecting Langkawi to anywhere. trust me. look at their website.

You can also get there by ferry and the service is provided by www.langkawi-ferry.com, connecting Langkawi to Kuala Perlis, Kuala Kedah, Penang and Satun.

My family on vacation. At the top one the hills in Langkawi. We went up by sky lift.

Langkawi is also home of international aerospace exhibition called LIMA (Langkawi International Maritime & Aerospace Exhibition) which is held....can't remember the frequency. This is where companies and governments sign their deals for military, maritime and aerospace equipments and also aero-acrobatics performance.

Here are list of places/activities you can visit/do:

1. Shopping
2. Visit historical places (Heard of Mahsuri before?)
3. Beach
4. Safari
5. Cheese factory
6. Marina/yacth
7. Small islands around Langkawi


Optimum length of stay is 4 days and 3 nights.

The best way to get around on the island is by a car. There are many car hire companies operating in the airport and you can hire them at affordable price.

What are you up to while on holiday?

Some of us might define holiday as a time where you sit lazily in your couch watching TV with crisp in your left hand and cola in the other. Some will do anything vigorous that make your body full of adrenaline as part of holiday such as kayak, jungle tracking or extreme biking.

Here are lists of activities/holiday theme you might want to consider:

Shopping

This is indeed what we love to do. We love shopping in Spain as Spain is home of Zara and Massimo Dutti. You can get those stuffs a lot cheaper there. Sometimes we just go to Gunwharf Quays for a day off on a particular week. If you don't mind stuffs with no brand (i.e. unbranded), go to China. They have lots to offer!

NOTE: you can shop for stuffs here

Health tourism

What?

Yeah seriously health tourism. They have bypass surgery, medical check up, heart transplant and everything while you are on holiday. Check out here: Health Tourism Malaysia. They said it's cheaper than anywhere else in the developed country. Well, it might be cheaper in China =p

Leisure and Entertainment

To name a few...

Genting Highlands, Cameron Highlands, Bukit Tinggi, Fraser's Hill, Pulau Pinang, Pulau Langkawi, Pulau Redang, Pulau Sipadan (all in Malaysia)

Resort World Sentosa, Universal Studios (Singapore)

Legoland, Madame Tussaud, Alton Towers (UK)

anything, just google for them.

Nature

For nature lovers out there, go to Borneo. Borneo has lots to offer. You can also experience to live with the natives there. Love jungle tracking? Try climbing up to the highest peak in south east Asia, Mt. Kinabalu. Borneo has one of the largest rainforest in the world and home of thousands of species.

What about safari in South Africa? If you want to see lions like in the Lion King, Africa is the place, Borneo does not have any lions.

Business

No way. I object that. Business is business and holiday is holiday. Full stop.





So, which one will you pick? =)

Tourism & Places

Countries in the south east Asia (SEA) region are actively promoting their country to attract more tourist. They offer many kinds of holiday packages at many holiday destinations that is worth for the money and experience. For example, recently Singapore can be proud of its new Universal Studios and Malaysia has internationally admired Pulau Sipadan.

And many of these countries are well connected other region of the world as to Australia, New Zealand even some parts of China and India thanks to some of the worlds best international low budget airlines like Airasia, Firefly, Tiger Airways and Jetstar Airways. And flying is the best way to get around in SEA region as most countries are island country plus their land transport facilities are not like in the European countries where bus and train services are very reliable.

Malaysia has its own tourism offices in overseas. Here I give some of the overseas offices:

UK
Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board
57 Trafalgar Square London, London WC2N 5DU, United Kingdom
Phone: +442 079 307 932 Fax: +442 079 309 015
Email: mtpb.london@tourism.gov.my / info@tourism-malaysia.co.uk

France
Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board
Weissfrauenstrasse 12 - 16, D-60311 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Phone: 0049 69 460923420 Fax: 0049 69 460923499
Email: mtpb.frankfurt@tourism.gov.my / info@tourismmalaysia.de
Website: www.tourismmalaysia.de

India
Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board
4th Floor, Vijaya Towers, No. 4, Kodambakkam High Road, Chennai 600 034, India
Phone: +0091 44 4506 8080 / 8181 / 8282 Fax: +0091 44 4506 8383
Email: mtpb.chennai@tourism.gov.my
Website: www.malaysiajao.com

full list is here

For list of ASEAN Tourism Offices, click HERE

Decided where to go this coming summer? =)

Mother's Day

Many parts of the world celebrates Mother's Day on the 9th of May every year and this includes Malaysia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Germany etc. You can have a look here for list of countries.

On this very special occasion, how about a treat of island get away in Pulau Redang or Pulau Sipadan?

Or a gift of rose fragrance?


Remember to always cheer your mum and dad =)

Masjids in Spain

Assalamualaikum a.k.a Peace be upon all of you =)

As most of you already know, me and my other half went to Spain - mainly Malaga, Granada and Cordoba. It was a 5d4n backpacking holiday and we had much fun there - includes all the shopping we did. May be our viewers should know that ZARA is originated from Spain.

We went to all the palaces and fortresses in each of the cities and it is easy to get around in the cities by foot. Of course, you have to put your backpack somewhere safe. In this post, I would like to share specifically about masjids that we found.

1. Masjid Al-Murobito (Spanish: Mezquita Al-Murobito) City of Cordoba

Situated inside Jardines de la Merced (Gardens of Merced), in Avenida De Los Tejares (Avenue Tejares), city of Cordoba It features something that is very unusual for a masjid in Europe - a dome. It is such a small masjid and you wouldn't expect to see it in the middle of a garden.

We asked one of the shopkeeper in the La Mezquita (Masjid Cordoba) complex. He is a Morrocan and luckily he can speak English.

We: Assalamualaikum, do you know any mosque around here?

He: Waalaikumsalam, mosque, for pray or for visit?

It was a bit surprising to hear such thing. Of course we were looking a place to perform our prayer but, he was speaking the truth. We were in the city where masjids are for tourists to visit. Well, this is also true in some parts of Malaysia - a Muslim country?

2. Masjid at-Taqwa City of Granada

Situated somewhere near the Elvira Street. The biggest masjid I found in Spain - it two floors. It has good facility for taking wuduk and toilets. I found this www.granadamosque.com when I googled for mosque in Granada. I don't know whether that Granada Mosque is the same as Masjid at-Taqwa. Let's have a look inside the masjid.

3. Masjid in Malaga

No, we didn't found one. Because we didn't ask. Because we didn't have to. Because we perform all our prayer in the place we stay. May be our viewers can share the masjids they found in Malaga =)

Alright, have a good weekend! C ya!

La Alhambra

More photos as promised.
Hope these photos help in boosting your interest to travel =)

Welcome to the Palacios Nazaries in Alhambra.

The Albaycin from Palacios Nazaries.
Amazing.
Normal Sony camera was used. Not DSLR.

The happy dude in the Palacios garden.

The happy dude likes the unique architecture.

More on happy dude with the unique ceiling.

Go and witness the beautiful city yourself.
Worth every penny.
Have a good day people!