Went to Bahrain last weekend to renew our passports. Sempat pergi City centre and took few photos around Bahrain. To me, Bahrain is very expensive - nasi goreng Thai RM30/plate, sweet sour prawn RM50/plate, Pepsi RM10/can, 2-bedroom apartment RM580/night, Wahoo tickets RM90/person. In few years time, it may be same in Malaysia, so be ready!

Hope one day, there'll be a similar signboard bearing - ONEPAKA.COM

Future Venture capiltalist??

Fried Maggi Mee

Fried Maggi mee has been the top menu here after my wife and family left for vacation. Incase anyone of you out there who is or soon-to-be in similar situation, I put together this step by step instructions which might help you make this "bachelor period" better than ever....and also for my dear wife after she comes back from vacation, hopefully you will be guided...


Ingredients:
1. 1 pkt of instant noodle (can be Maggi, Indo Mee etc. or incase nothing available, spaghetti pun ok).
2. 4 pcs small chicken (or beef) sausages, cut in small pieces, macam dibawah..
3. Red onion and garlic, cut into small pieces....I like it small, so that it cook faster.
4. 5 pieces of prawn...frozen without shells easier...defrost first dalam air panas.
5. Fresh lettuce , or any other sayur...I choose lattuce cause cepat masak.


Some veggies is a MUST! It will give that "sweet" and negate that "hanyir" taste from kicap etc. Incase you do not have any other veggies except for some frozen (maybe 2-3 weeks old, that your wife forgot and left inside the fridge) lettuce like this one pun ok...but this afternoon I bought a fresh piece of lettuce...so I can get rid of this last piece of frozen lettuce...


And being health concious person, I would throw away the "perasa" that come with the packet of noodle...

ONLY after the water boiled, put in the noodle and after 1 min 23 sec., turn off the heat. Let the water cool slowly with the noodle inside.
While the water is boiling you can get started frying the onion, garlic, chicken sausage, prawn and an egg....DO NOT stir the egg until it is hard, otherwise it will get "mushy" and floucollate with the rest of whats already inside the pan..oh use olive oil, if you have, otherwise sunflower oil..for frying..
Then you kacau and kacau...you can start smelling the "fried üdang" aroma ...it may not smell very nice but surely it will taste good...so it will be worth it...don't worry.

See..it is looking good already.....by this time you'll understand why they make instant noodle....tak tahan ohh...

Then you take out the noodle from the water...and put it in the pan with the rest...kacau-kacau..

Then add kicap pekat and chili sauce or tomato souce..whatever you like...do not need to add too much kicap, cause the sausage already masin and too much kicap make things turn black and ugly....when food looks ugly, it normally taste bad....all except for akok....I'll write about this later.

Oh...don't forget to add the lettuce..you can turn-off the heat and add the lattuce after that...I like my lettuce semi-cook...and if you have lemon, squeeze half of it..

And.... you got yourself a magnificient dinner....enjoy...

BBBUUURRRRRPPPPP!!!!!!!!

KEHEBATAN SURAH AL-IKHLAS

"Au zubillah himinashsyaitan nirrajim...bismilla hirrahmannirrahim"

Tafsirannya:

Aku berlindung dengan Allah daripada syaitan yang direjam, Allah yang Maha Pemurah lagi Maha Mengasihani.

Bacalah ayat ini sebelum anda memulakan apa-apa saja kerja kerana dengan bacaan ini akan keluarlah iblis dan syaitan yang berada didalam tubuh kita dan juga di sekeliling kita, mereka akan berlari keluar umpama cacing kepanasan.

Sebelum anda masuk rumah, bacalah ayat di atas, kemudian bacalah surah Al-Ikhlas sebanyak 3 kali:

"Qulhuwallahu ahad. Allahussamad. Lamyalid walam yu-lad. Walam yakul lahu kufuwan ahad".

Masuklah rumah dengan kaki kanan dan dengan membaca bismillah. Berilah salam kepada anggota rumah dan sekiranya tiada orang di rumah berilah salam kerana malaikat rumah akan menyahut. Amalkanlah bersolat kerana salam pertama (ianya wajib) yang diucapkan pada akhir solat akan membantu kita menjawab persoalan kubur.

Apabila malaikat memberi salam, seorang yang jarang bersolat akan sukar menjawab salam tersebut. Tetapi bagi mereka yang kerap bersolat, amalan daripada salam yang diucap di akhir solat akan menolongnya menjawab salam malaikat itu.

Diriwayatkan oleh Iman Bukhari sabda Nabi Muhammad s.a.w:
"Barang siapa membaca Qul huwa"llahu ahad 100,000 kali maka sesungguhnya ia telah menebus dirinya dari Allah, maka menyeru yang menyeru dari pihak Allah di langit dan di bumi. Kusaksikan bahwa sifulan itu telah menjadi pemendekaan Allah sesungguhnya ia adalah pemerdekaan dari sisi Allah, Sesungguhnya ia adalah pemerdekaan dari neraka". Inilah yang dinamakan membaca Qulhua"llah ahad satu hatam yaitu 100,000 kali dengan diwiridkan seberapa ribu kesanggupan kita sehari.

Sabda Rasulullah S.A.W yang bermaksud:
Barangsiapa membaca surah Al-Ikhlas sewaktu sakit sehingga dia meninggal dunia, maka dia tidak akan membusuk di dalam kuburnya, akan selamat dia dari kesempitan kuburnya dan para malaikat akan membawanya dengan sayap mereka melintasi titian siratul mustaqim lalu menuju ke syurga. (Demikian diterangkan dalam Tadzikaratul Qurthuby).

Rasulullah SAW pernah bertanya sebuah teka-teki kepada umatnya Siapakah antara Kamu yang dapat khatam Qur'an dalam jangkamasa dua-tiga minit? Tiada seorang dari sahabatnya yang menjawab. Malah Saiyidina Ummar telah mengatakan bahawa ianya mustahil untuk mengatam Qur'an dalam begitu cepat. Kemudiannya Saiyyidina Ali mengangkat tangannya. Saiyidina Ummar bersuara kepada Saiyidina Ali bahawa Saiyidina Ali (yang sedang kecil pada waktu itu) tidak tahu apa yang dikatakannya itu. Lantas Saiyidina Ali membaca surah Al-Ikhlas tiga kali. Rasulullah SAW menjawab dengan mengatakan bahawa Saiyidina Ali betul. Membaca surah Al-Ikhlas sekali ganjarannya sama dengan membaca 10 jus kitab Al-Quran. Lalu dengan membaca surah Al-Ikhlas sebanyak tiga kali qatamlah Quran kerana ianya sama dengan membaca 30 jus Al-Quran.

Berkata Ibnu Abbas r.a. bahawa Rasulullah SAW telah bersabda:
Ketika saya (Rasulullah SAW) israk ke langit, maka saya telah melihat Arasy di atas 360,000 sendi dan jarak jauh antara satu sendi ke satu sendi ialah 300,000 tahun perjalanan. Pada tiap-tiap sendi itu terdapat padang sahara sebanyak 12,000 dan luasnya setiap satu padang sahara itu seluas dari timur hingga ke barat. Pada setiap padang sahara itu terdapat 80,000 malaikat yang mana kesemuanya membaca surah Al-Ikhlas. Setelah mereka selesai membaca surah tersebut maka berkata mereka:

Wahai Tuhan kami, sesungguhnya pahala dari bacaan kami ini kami berikan kepada orang yang membaca surah Al-Ikhlas baik ianya lelaki mahupun perempuan.

Sabda Rasulullah SAW lagi:
Demi Allah yang jiwaku ditanganNya, sesungguhnya Qul Huwallahu Ahadu itu tertulis di sayap malaikat Jibrail a.s, Allahhus Somad itu tertulis di sayap malaikat Mikail a.s, Lamyalid walam yuulad tertulis pada sayap malaikat Izrail a.s, Walam yakullahu kufuwan ahadu tertulis pada sayap malaikat Israfil a.s.

Siapa membaca surah Fatihah, al-ikhlas, al-falaq, dan an-annas setiap satu sebanyak 7 kali selepas solat jumaat, nescaya terpelihara dari perkara keji dan segala bala hinggalah ke jumaat yang berikiutnya.

Jika dibaca 3 surah ini al-ikhlas, al-falaq and an-nass pagi dan petang nescaya tidak mengalami apa-apa kesusahan.

The cute one...

It was sometime after summer of 2006, when Adam & Lukman started pestering for a pet...we don't know where they have this idea from, but most probably from school. Since then we kept giving them excuses after excuses. We came up with all sorts of "pre-requisites" to qualify for a pet. One is to prove that they are brave enough to go downstairs and our backyard at night, incase they need to feed the pet..and they did...then they have to take care of their own room and beds....and the did..somewhat.

Then we argued about what would it be - a hamster, gerboil, parrot, fish...anything that can be kept in a cage...but no..they want a cat...a cat???? then we have to worry about where it would shit and sleep...who is going to feed them etc. etc...so the discussions kept going on and on for several months....

In October 2006, Mira left for Malaysia with Khaliesa and Aisya, leaving Adam and Lukman with me..the boys were well behaved and seemed to be quite independent when I was away for work or even at the rig site. During Ramadhan they were trying hard and few times went to Tarawikh...so when they asked again for a pet, I finally gave in.....

We drove to a pet shop in Khobar and met this couple who had 8 small kittens for sale. We bought one of them at SAR800....ya...very expensive cat...but whats important at that time was that the two brothers were very-very happy and exteremely excited...we put up the night in Dhahran and drove back the next day with the cat.....since that day, this cat has been a wonderful addition to our family....

We first named him Tom....this photo was taken about 4 months after we got him.

And how time flies. One day a friend told us it is actually a SHE....no probs, so we named her Lilo...
Few months later, we brought Lilo to a vet, who told us it is actually a HE...but what the heck, we still going to call him Lilo. So far he hasn't complain.
Isn't he cute???
And his favourite past time is sleep, sleep and sleep....

Everyone is very fond of Lilo. We fight with each other all the time, but never with Lilo...well except for Ibu i.e when Lilo accidently did it on the floor a few times..Lilo's favourite is Lukman....for some reason...
Nowadays, in the evening Lilo will make noise so that we let him go outside. Normally he will go out at 7:00 pm and returns around 9-10 pm. Sometime when there is a storm outside, we don't allow him to go outside and he will wait at the door, hoping that someone will open it and off he goes...

Dubai 2008

On Sunday morning April 6, 2008, we started our journey to Dubai, UAE. We arrived at Saudi-UAE border at 10:00 am. The immigration process was quite simple. About 45 minutes later we were back on the road.

Though we do have plans to overnight in Abu Dhabi, we have to cancel it at the last minute. Abu Dhabi is actually on an island and we have to take a short exit to get there. We decided not to enter the city but stop for lunch in Abu Al Abyad, a town near the exit.

Not knowing any restaurants around the area, we bought sandwiches and had a picnic in a park.

We continued our journey and arrived in Dubai about 3:00 pm.

We passed by the city to our hotel in the Diera district.....someday, I hope to see buildings like these in Kota Bharu....

See that tallest building under construction? When completed, it will be the tallest building in the world.....Mahathir said, so what? I have two of these in KL...

Finally arrived at the Lotus Grand Apt...the journey was quite smooth and no problem finding the hotel.....my personal advice if you like to travel like this, you will need the Garmin Nuvi GPS. This 2-bedroom apt suited us very well....

After dropping our bags, prayed maghrib, we don't waste time and went straight to the Ski Dubai Snow Park in the Emirates Mall. This is actually the biggest snow park in the world.

It costs UAED 80 (~ RM65) per person, including snow jackets, boots, socks and helmets. You have to bring your own gloves......you'll need it....

Gearing up...We did not actually went to the Ski Slope because we did not know how to ski..what do you expect?...it will be difficult to practise skiing if you live in the desert. We only went to the Snow Park..it was reallly cold....my guesstimate it was ~4C or something like that....

Aisya tried the Bobsled several times....very daring little girl!! Even Lukman wouldn't dare to try!
See the ski slope behind us..

This is the "tyre" slope....

It has been a very long day..Khaliesa can't seem to open her eyes.. We left the Snow place near closing time. By the time we got back to our room, we were almost dead. But on the following day we were ready to 'charge' again. We changed our plan a bit and decided to go to the Wild Wadi Water park. We figured since it was a weekday, there should be less crowd.

And the children really had a BLAST!! This place is a must if you have young children..it was however a bit costly, UAED120 per person, after discounts...you can get the discount coupons from the hotel lobbies, all over Dubai..

The Summit Surge and Rushdown Ravine was a great fun!

Khaliesa actually made a scene after this ride. We ended up doing this for another three times before we convinced her to move on...

Juha's Dhow...when the big bucket tipped, lots and lots of water came out and...

Too much time was spent here...but it was fun!!!

An extremely satisfied customer.....this smile is worth a million bucks.....

Breaker's Bay in the evening...

Master Blaster...an uphill water roller coaster ride..
Starring Adam and Lukman...

The Jumeirah Beach Hotel (in the background)...too bad, it was fully booked..

"Flow Riders"......ehmm..bila nak terror macam dia eh...?

Adam pun nok try gok...

.....and the rest is history....

The famous Burj Al-Arab is actually near the Wild Wadi....... but it was also fully booked...maybe next time....most probably in the next lifetime...

You guessed it right...we only left Wild Wadi only when it was about to close...~ 7:00 pm....well we have to make our money's worth isn't it?

One the way back, we stopped at Chillis for dinner....even the food here here is cheaper than at Wild Wadi.
World's longest Hummer?

The next day, we got on the road to Ras Alkhaimah & Khorfakkan..a town on the Gulf of Oman..

The drive across the UAE peninsular was quite scenic..well if you come from the Arabian deserts, these 'botak'hills also looks pretty...

We stopped here to look around...don't really know what it was, but there must be something because many European tourists stopped....Aisya was trying to figure it out..

Finally we arrived at The Oceanic Hotel, Khorfakkan.

This is a small beach-port town..also a favourite diving spot for Europeans, but we decided not to dive that day...the fact that we don't know how to swim has got something to do with it..

Playing on the beach, near the hotel.

The hotel was not new, but the Indian workers were quite friendly. Its restaurant though was very expensive ~UAED80 per head. We are not big eaters and we are cheap.... so we decided that eating outside suits better for us. We had another picnic (again...?) near the beach for lunch one afternoon. The restaurants were just across the road from the beach. We just order the food and they will deliver to us on the beach...hows that for good service? Mira said....soooo convenient one...


We ordered little too much food that day, there were lots of left-over....a guy passed by on a bicycle, we packed the food and gave it to him...he was very happy!

Gimme food or I will "tanduk" you..! See my "tanduk" is growing...!

"Why do we have to eat rice everytime...?"

"See, I can make Aisya cry just by looking at her...."

"I am happy...no complains here" ==> Well, keep it that way..

After 4 pieces of chicken and 2 packets of beriani rice.....

That night we had dinner at one of the seafood restaurant in town...it was very nice. After two days in Khorfakkan, we drove back to Dubai.


We took a different route this time, passing close to Oman border. We took a photo of this old castle on the way...a picture of this castle is actually on the UAE currency notes.

Re-entering Dubai city.....

That evening, we went for a Dhow cruise-dinner with Datuk K and family..so happen he was in town on business trip.

Not that Dato K - CT lah...ni Datuk K from Dhahran...

We stayed in Dubai for another two days. Did some shopping but really not much...it was not sale season in Dubai during this time...so buy bit here, bit there onlylah...

We did not do much that last two days accept for shopping. We spent almost half of the day at the Dubai Outlet Mall...perhaps this was the only place we would dare to buy anything..it was really not that cheap, but "bearable"...however there were plenty of choices..

Then the time has finally come for us to go home......how sad.....but what to do?..one thing the children were really looking forward to see Lilo...btw Lilo was admitted in Dhahran because of a fight the night before we left. We sent him to the doctor and left him there for treatment....long story cut short..


On the way back we decided to drive around the Jumeirah area. We went to the PALM..one of Dubai's premier reclaimed land development projects. We were expecting miles and miles of beaches, but these are the only thing we could see from the roads on the PALM....soooo many buildings oooo!!....the beaches must be on the other side...could not see from here..

We decided to park our yatch here for next few months...

We found our mission statement:

I thought he is still operating in Afghanistan or somewhere there?

Last few peeks at Dubai city...really fascinating..
One thing here, they don't have big mosques, but mostly medium size and very nice design.

We arrived at our house in Udhailiyah at about 10:00 pm that evening. UAE is a very nice country and very safe to drive. This last week has been a memorable week for us. We are grateful to Allah for the safe journey. This is a really enjoyable trip and everyone had a great time.

ALHAMDULILLAH, ANOTHER MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!