~That which was never written~

It's been such a long while since I last updated my blog. It's not that I don't have anything to write about, be it interesting or otherwise, truthfully speaking I have loads to write about. It's just that I feel like I don't have the time to.

Though that's what I'm claiming.

In reality I still have time to waste doing other stuff. Writing a post will presumably take a whole night and with my workload I kept feeling a sense of guilt each time I'm about to write up a post. This has been holding me back every time, in addition to the amount of stuff I want to write about since the last post ('Eidul-Fitri, London, Paintball, OH!, Lab, Life, New Pals, Barcelona, etc. etc.). So much has happened and it will take too long to recall each and every one of them, and I just don't have the hours and energy =_=''.

I have a CPGS first-year thesis submission due on the 3rd of December, and I am supposed to be using my time solely working on it, looking at the proximity of the deadline. InshaAllah I'll make it through, I just need to work harder. Pray for me please =]
I'm expecting this blog to stay dormant until I submit my thesis, so please bear with me.

Spirit, Passion and most importantly Effort, to fulfill the purpose of achieving Allah's Pleasure and help uphold the name of Islam.

InshaAllah.

~Ramadhan Mubarak~

This is the first time I am going through the holiest month of Ramadhan in another country, thousands of miles away from home. I was getting eager to celebrate its arrival a few days before. Fasting here is almost 3 hours longer than back home, so in order to prepare for it I fasted for a few days during Sha'aban which takes even longer. The days are getting shorter as we go further into Ramadhan and compared to the first day, the fasting period has now shorten by about 36 minutes, and by the time Syawal comes it will have shorten by about 2 hours. Thanks to the sunnah fasts during Sha'aban fasting for an elongated period of time compared to what I was accustomed to was not that much of a problem.

When Ramadhan first came I encountered a dilemma: which prayer times should I follow? I've been using IslamicFinder's calculation method (Muslim World League) ever since I came here, where Fajar was 3:04 am, Maghrib 8:33pm and Isha' 10:34pm on the first of Ramadhan. But according to the Cambridge Muslim Welfare Society Ramadhan time table, Fajar was at 3:50am, Maghrib 8:36pm and Isha' 9.43pm. The solution is to choose one and stick to it, but which? Although some might just choose the latter since it is more convenient, but it is not enough to convince me. I researched a bit and I made a decision after reading an article on moonsighting.com, and considering that I am also planning to pray tarawih at the mosque I'll have to follow their timing, so it's better to just stick with the latter prayer times.

Following that, my daily routines changed accordingly. I now go to the lab around 1 hour later than usual since I now have less sleeping time. Lunchtime was spent at the library reading Qur'an and napping (10-20 mins only ok? takde la lama sgt pon) and I leave my department around 10-15 mins before maghrib and go straight to the mosque. Some people will already be there, reading the Qur'an and waiting for Iftar while more people start coming. Food was already spread in paper plates, which consists of dates, grapes, bits of banana, (occassionally) plums, apples and a type of cucur I've never seen before, probably an indian or pakistani recipe. Then they'll go for Maghrib jemaah prayers before going for more food at the back. The food will usually be rice with lamb curry, a plate of veggies to be shared and a piece of apple or digestives.


Boleh tahan gak la meriah puasa kat sini in my opinion, although the same pattern of decreasing saf lines for tarawih as nights pass can be observed as in Malaysia. The mosque was overflowing during the second night kalau tak silap. I heard an announcer asking the jemaah to fill in the front lines to make way for the latecomers who were outside the entrance. The imam for tarawih prayers covers at least a juzu' each night for 20 rakaats.

However there's something I observe happening here dari dulu which I really despise. Banyak orang yg pakai seluar macam takde tali pinggang je, pastu bila rukuk ataupun sujud, terdedahlah lurah yg tidak ingin dilihat. Bukan sorang dua jer, but anywhere I go there will always be someone in that vicinity who is doing that. To those people, I don't know if you realise this, but be aware that for women AND men, that is aurat, and it should be covered at all times, especially during solat. So when that happens how do you think it affects the legibility of your solat? And it disturbs the jemaah behind you who has to endure glimpsing at it.. There are so many simple solutions for this you know, such as wearing a bigger shirt that can cover your whole waist and the area below it, or tuck your t-shirt in. Kalau rasa skema sangat pakailah dua lapis, lapisan dalam tucked in. Pakai tali pinggang pon boleh, ikat ketat2 jgn bagi jatuh, ataupon tiap kali nak sujud tarik seluar tuh naik dulu. Senang sesangat.
But the main point is there might be so many little mistakes, even bigger sins that we commit without realising. It's important to be wary of those, and repent to Allah for all those 'hidden' sin, especially now we are entering the second 10 days of Ramadhan, the days of forgiveness.


*yawns* it's getting late and I still need to prepare for my sahur.. I'll take my leave for now and continue tomorrow.

Ramadhan Mubarak peeps~
;)

~Another usual week.. and some more~

"....Next post will most probably not have this much of a gap.."

(quoted from my previous post)

Heh.. Just how wrong can I be? @_@'' Sorry about that though.. as can be expected I was very busy. A lot of stuff happened that I want to talk/write about but.. banyak sangat dah, sampai tak tau dapat tulis ikut kronologi ke tak.

Anyways, a few weeks ago my classmate during my MEng times in UNiM safely arrived in the UK to do her PhD in Chemical Engineering at the University of Nottingham. Setelah bersusah payah ek? ;) I'm glad you reached here safely at last. Seems like work has already been piled on you, good luck with that ^^.

I cam malas nak tulis much about what had been going on around here. Basically my work here had been progressing fine, I've done pretty much 80% of the C++ codings (well, 90% of Stage 1, which pretty much is most of the whole project anyways). Debugging took a lot of time, energy and brain power. Had been going back from the lab at 8 pm and even stayed up till almost 4 am several times. Showed some of the results which I obtained from it to my supervisor and he seemed happy about it, although I'm stuck with a problem with the program essential to be solved (after solving another one the entire day). But I'm enjoying it. I like programming stuff (which most of my friends know it). C++ is quite different from Flash Actionscript 2.0 and Matlab: harder to write, more complex and much more powerful. It's challenging, and it's one skill that is valuable, although I haven't been doing even more complex stuff like some of my colleagues here do.

Anyways, hati tergerak nak tulis blog post ini adalah kerana baru terbaca post terbaru seorang kawan rapat. Tetiba dapat inspirasi nak tulis sesuatu seperti itu. Kepada yang malas: she wrote a guide for future (IIUM) students. Lots of good advice I should say =] While reading it, I remembered some people who asked me on how to get into Cambridge, what should be done, any advice, requested to see my personal statement during my application and such. So I decided to write a bit on the procedures and some of the pros and cons just to give an overview of my journey experience from Malaysia to Cambridge, and hope that more people will get here. It's quite lonely for us Malay bachelors here if you ask me, tak byk muka Melayu sgt. Be reminded though that I applied for Postgraduate studies, and it might be significantly different from Undergraduate level applications. For example, I need not attend an interview, but some people I know of (undergrads) had to.

Introduction

(Taken from worldguides.com)

Recently JPA had announced they will stop sending in students for undergraduate studies abroad (especially to the UK), except for top-notch universities (Cambridge and Oxford) or for post graduate studies.
It can be easily observed that Malay students here are scarce, which raises a question: Why? Paraphrasing a friend of mine: "Student kita pandai-pandai je sebenarnya, tapi berapa sangat yang masuk Cambridge, Oxford? Suma macam takut2 nak masuk, padahal kalo tgk ramai je Malaysian Chinese dapat je masuk". The point here is: don't feel inferior, you ARE capable.

I'm not a very excellent student myself. People I met before are all more hardworking than I am. I didn't get a First Class for my MEng undergrad, I only got a 2:1. But still I tried to get in, and Alhamdulillah Allah gave me the rezeki to. It's not easy, but it's not impossible.

Some advantages and disadvantages:
Pros:

1. Getting an offer from Cambridge will give you an almost 100% chance of getting sponsorship. Most even pay a lot more than usual.
2. Being one of the top universities in the world, it is where a lot of the top minds around the world gathers at. It will be a very good experience, and more knowledge to be gained and brought home.
3. High quality education. It's not like other universities don't offer this but Cambridge didn't just become one of the top universities for nothing.
4. The Cambridge name is a valuable asset. InshaAllah obtaining it can secure a good future careerwise.
5. Cambridge is a beautiful place. =) [to me. though some people don't like it]
   

Cons:

1. The process is VERY long and tedious. One main point to note is that Cambridge is 800 years old and is very SLOW. A friend of mine paid DHL to go and get a document from Cambridge to her because they were taking forever.
2. The Board of Graduate Studies (BoGS) is very hard to be contacted. Expect one-way communication.
   
3. Entry requirements are quite high, but still it is not impossible to break through.
4. People will have high expectations of you. Be it in or when you leave the university.

Some info about Cambridge:

1. They celebrated their 800th anniversary last year.
2. There are no campus like most other universities. It is a university town, so the whole town is the university itself. It has 31 colleges (basically where students eat, live and socialise. Each student must be a member of a college). Each college is independent of the university and has their own budget and funding. The richest and most prestigious college is Trinity College.
3. Cambridge is not that big of a city/town. The city centre is quite cramped and cars can have trouble going around the city and find parking. I don't know about the bus facility here (since I never used them), since bus stops are quite far anyways. Yet Cambridge is big enough to make walking very tiresome and long.
   
4. Bicycles are the main mode of transport in Cambridge. The city has the highest percentage of cyclists in the UK and has the highest cycle theft rate as well.
   

Applying to Cambridge

These apply to most Universities, and Cambridge is just one of them.

1. There are two methods of applying, online and by mail/hand. I chose the latter when I applied because you have to pay £25 for the processing fees for online application and none by mail (although I think now they require a fee for mail applications as well).
2. Ideally for postgraduates, you should have already contacted your supervisor and discuss a research proposal, which is required in the application. However this is optional, you can leave it entirely up to the department to decide, having defined clearly your area of research interest in the application. But in doing this you will not have any choices and will have to accept whatever they might give, and this might also slow down the process.
3. Write up a good personal statement. This is very important, because it helps them in their decision in admitting you or not. Many guidelines can be obtained from the net, e.g. here, and even good accepted samples. The statement does not need to be an autobiography, make it simple and compact. State out your achievements and why you should be chosen. Treat it as if you're applying for a job.
4. They will ask if you have any financial sponsor or you will be funding by yourself. Just put that you're sponsored (which is highly likely anyways if you can get an offer). Sponsored students are more likely to be accepted. Unless you've already secured studentship from the university (which is very hard to get).
5. A CV might or might not be required according to different departments. Make sure of this, but it is best if you have already prepared one. You're applying for a job, remember?
6. One thing about Cambridge is they want hard copies. They want original proofs so there will be a lot of postage and couriers you should expect. Faximile is a good option as well, send letters using it.
   

Some documents and other stuff are required for the application. Some can be sent after you get a conditional offer although it is recommended to send earlier. They are already stated on the application requirement though:

1. Original result transcripts. You need to ask your previous institution for reprints, which will take time and a bit of money. Keep this in mind since it can mess up your timeplan.
2. References from at least two academic referees who have known you for... three years kot, and in sealed envelopes, so you must meet up with the referees and ask them to send to you.
3. IELTS. You MUST do IELTS. If you have done it in the past, it has already expired after 2 years. It's expensive and consumes a LOT of time, so be sure to do it early. Unless you were from an English speaking university, it is a requirement. They required me to do IELTS before, but since I graduated from UNiM (which is obviously an English-speaking university) I sent an appeal to them (since I was running out of time) and they asked me to do an English assessment online and I got exempted.

Another part of the application lets you choose your top two college choices that you intend to join. If both rejects you, they'll apply you for another random college. There are several criteria that you need to consider in choosing a college:

1. Location. You are most probably going to live in the college accommodation, the best is if it's situated near the place you need to go everyday (department, restaurants, etc.).
2. % of accommodation acceptance. Not all college members get accommodation. Check at the college's website for this information, you don't want to have all the requirements fulfilled but no place to stay.
3. Maximum length of accommodation term. As far as I know, Trinity (or was it Kings) College only offers up to a year of accommodation, by then you have to evacuate. Wolfson provides up to four years.
4. Value. If you worry you might have financial problems, some colleges have fundings to accommodate for student emergencies or even studentships. You can choose wealthy colleges for that, and these colleges usually have more stuff going on (activities and the likes).
5. Fame. Isaac Newton was from Trinity, Stephen Hawking is a fellow of Gonville & Caius, Charles Darwin was from Christ's, Tunku Abdul Rahman was from St Catharine's. This might not even be slightly relevant, but it might be worth considering.
   
6. Scenery and overall beauty. Hey, this IS important. Most colleges are beautiful already, but some have historic values for those who likes history and magnificent architecture.

After you get your conditional offer, just do your best in fulfilling the conditions stipulated. It should be straightforward.

1. Oh yeah, by this time apply for a sponsorship IMMEDIATELY. This will definitely be one of the requirements and they will want proof of financial capabilities. Get a financial affidavit and COURIER to them. Snail mail is just not reliable enough. Yeah they don't want any scans of it through email or what, they want originals.
2. And now for the most irritating nuisance of all: the Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS). If you're going for postgraduate in most Sciences or Engineering courses in the UK, ATAS clearance is a must. Check the FCO website for details. You need an ATAS letter from the university and using it you have to apply for ATAS clearance (note the difference) online . This will take up to 20 working days. You need both to get your visa, any one missing and it will be an automatic rejection. You can already apply for the clearance once you have the research statement from your supervisor. ASK HIM/HER DIRECTLY for it. Don't just wait. Well, your supervisor or the research secretary. This is VERY important because the BoGS will only send it to you (online) AFTER you fulfill all conditions, which means even more time consumed. This was a nightmare for me before and almost made me unable to catch the 2nd February registration deadline. Other universities I applied gave a research statement as soon as they offered me a conditional offer, but as I mentioned, Cambridge is terribly SLOW.
3. You might need to do an interview, but since I didn't I can't help in this aspect.
   

Yeah that should be most of what is required. I hope it will help a lot of hopefuls, or push others to consider coming here. It is just like any other university, you just have to work harder to get in. If you really want it, it wouldn't be a problem inshaAllah.

Another thing not to forget, SOLAT HAJAT, every single day if possible. Pray to get in sincerely. Do not apply and just leave it like that. No matter what you do, if He does not permit you to, you will not get it. Period.
And if you don't get it after all the work, then inshaAllah that is for your own best. Allah is the All-Knowing, what we want might not be the best for us no matter how we think. Have faith and never give up. Redha dengan apa yang kita dapat. Besides, in the end even a graduate from an unfamous institution can be a whole lot better than a graduate from Oxford.

Personally, as I said I want to see more Malays here. =/
I'll do whatever I can to help, this being the first step.

~Out of hiatus~

It has been almost a month since I last blogged.

Mostly it's because there's nothing much to blog about.. and the rest is because there really is nothing much to blog about.

But I guess I'll just reach out once in a while and talk (type) about what I've been up to this whole time, since some people (yes not just one) are starting to ask about it. I do realise my blog has been left for quite some time, but it's mostly 'cause I'm getting busy and I kept feeling guilty if I were to spend time typing up a blog post instead of filling up my C++ project with codes or populating my literature review with words in LaTeX. Even then I'll still find other channels to procrastinate with (read: FB, youtube, stalking) <.<''' so I figured, rather than doing that, writing up a blog post is better in some way..

Lab and Organisation

Life has been the same basically. Going to the lab at 9 (although mean time is 9:30) and getting back at 6:30-7:00pm (which is still quite bright, now is 8:16pm and it's like.... 6:30pm in Malaysia).. That would be my everyday routine, though I'll make the schedule more flexible when MK is not around =P. Yeah.. I have 'office hours' see? Balik memang quite penat..

A few weeks ago I realised I wasn't organised enough, especially because I had a lot of stuff that needs to be done: Rebuttal work, Peer Review, C++ Programming and Steady State Analysis (SSA). Oh, I didn't mention reading did I? LOADS of reading. Journal papers especially. So "what's rebuttal and peer review" you might ask. Basically when you send a paper to a journal to be published, after the editors accept it, they will send it to other peer scientists who are "experts" on the topic to be reviewed. They'll send their reviews and you will have to do a rebuttal; i.e. a reply to state you've made appropriate changes to the paper and to rebut anything you disagree with them. So that's what a rebuttal and peer review is. My project's predecessor PhD student had sent a paper for publishing before he went back and after his viva, reviews for that paper came. He (and MK) asked me to help him with the rebuttal work (basically calculating more stuff using Gaussian). After some time MK asked me to do a review on a paper which he got, since he wants me to have the experience. I agree that both are valuable experience for me, but being a bit unorganised I had quite some trouble with them. You see, those two are urgent, but one needs to wait (Gaussian takes ages to give converged results) and the other is.... ergh. Leceh. I needed to read it in detail and check with other papers as well, and since I'm not that experienced yet in this thing I need to refer to a lot of stuff. One of the things in reviews that I frequently see is aside from sentence structure/other petty stuff, it is important to criticise something technical about it, I mean like.. the author's theories, his understanding on the matter, his methods, what he concluded, his interpretation on what he did, his results, his explanation, etc. etc. To criticise others I myself need a level of understanding of that topic which I'm no "expert" in. So since banyak keje and all, secara otomatiknya saya menjadi malas hendak buat.. pening kot kepala baca each word and making sure it sounds right (takleh skim through jer) checking his references to make sure he's not making it up..

Then the C++ thing, I still need to read up on the other projects the group had been doing, and the SSA needs quite a lot of reading, planning, and it is quite important as well since it might be the main topic of my future paper.

The problem arose when I can't focus. When I tried focusing on one work, I'll feel like I'm neglecting another important work and terasa nak buat yang tu pulak. Buat sikit, and mula cam panic sket because of the sheer magnitude of difficulty and work that needed to be done. The process was then repeated. In the end nothing much was achieved in any of the work.

So I set myself to think of a solution, and the answer I got (which is working fine too) is to have a planner (yeah. kinda obvious I must say....). Well not just a planner, I need to construct a scheduled To-Do-List for the whole day, everyday. Break up my work into smaller parts, plan out when to do them, lay it out in a schedule spreading out on a day or two. It's simple yet very effective. Now when I focus on a work, I can forget about all other work that I have, since I know (...believe.) I'll be doing it anyways in the future as planned, and nothing will be left out. So now my work with peer reviewing done, what's left is C++.. and SSA. Both are progressing I believe, and interesting to be done. 8D

London

I've been going to London quite a lot now, ever since I found the brothers in Finsbury Park :D. Hanging out with them is always fun, and now I'm also going there for usrah, unless susah nak pergi and so a friend of mine there will instead come here to Cambridge. They're very sporting, lawak, fun people, and they have such a close bond. ^^ And they're always reminding each other about Islam and how muslims should be. Oh, and they cook delicious Malay food 8).

The last time I went there was last weekend, just lepak2, tido sana semalaman, tgk derang main basketball, usrah, main tenis... and my old hobby got into practice: doing magic tricks >:D Heh seriyes teringat zaman UNiM dulu when I'll go around tricking so many people, accused of being Satan or using Jin/syaitan/toyol/w.e. synonyms. Huge success.. heheheheheh x)

They ajak main basketball skali, but since I has this... ball-in-motion-o-phobia I can't play. It's a condition where if I see a ball as big as a futsal ball (or bigger) flying into a certain radius of airspace around me I'll get a sort of panic attack, heart beating quicker, adrenaline rush, ketakutan and I'll either elak or tepis for sure. Recently I've found out that it doesn't even need to be a ball.. as long as it's as wide as a ball (e.g. a frisbee) and it flies within my area, I'll definitely react. =_=''' Kinda pathetic and limits my choices of sports.. A tennis ball is fine, even though it can still get me cuak gak.. but it's controllable. Not basketballs, not soccer and the likes, and not frisbees.. >.>

So I tried playing tennis.. and realised just how much I suck... like totally. Pukulan suma tah ke mana... serve pon jadik if i was lucky.. and the ball will most likely not be returned by me.. at least not legally.. and at a reachable height by normal humans. I was told that I was not supposed to use my wrist, but too late. Waktu tu dah sampai Cambridge.. anyway I realised that fact after successfully managed to get the racquet in contact with the ball like... 5 times? I began to understand why mama said to me a long time before, you can only play either badminton or tennis, not both. =/ I guess the only way is to unlearn some badminton techniques that I've been using and learn the tennis way of playing. Whatever it is, my first impression was: I HATE TENNIS.

*Heh, I fell asleep at this point, now is 8:19am Friday the 21st. Lovely sunny day outside and I'm eating up my breakfast cereals*

But with all that's happening, sometimes I feel like I'm not my age.. I don't feel 20 (almost 21) pon... kengkadang terasa macam... I'm 24-25. Bila pegi London tengok diorang buat kerja, I felt: Teringat masa buat degree dulu, berapa tahun lepas. T=

I guess my whole life I never mixed with (a lot of) friends around my age, and now that I'm with them I feel older.. (Even though they might be more matured than me) Sometimes I wonder too am I too young to be doing a PhD?

Nevertheless I never regretted coming here to do what I'm doing, or got to finish MEng just last year. I've really hoped for this ever since my final year in MEng, to be doing PhD. I'm never too young, it can be done, and I'm gonna do it.

Last Sunday was a very significant day for me. 16th of May.. So many has happened on this date just last year. Besides Teachers' Day, it is also the day of my final MEng exam paper, H84MPS, Multi-Phase Systems with Dr Sergey Spotar as the lecturer, which marked the end of my whole MEng in Chemical Engineering course. But most of all it was the day my life changed forever. C=

Anyways. 8:40am and tak mandi lagi. Gotta rush and go to lab. Next post will most probably not have this much of a gap..

[Oh. And to that someone in Bangi/Kajang, if you're reading this please tell me if you've gotten a PostPak envelope delivered to you ok? ;) I'm expecting today, though knowing Malaysian Postal Service.. ntah ah, tak tau nak expect.]

~3 years ago & now (Part II)~

Day 1 (Continued)

[Continued from the previous blog post]

Out of the Luxembourg garden, we saw a map and again we found out we were going on the wrong direction. We finally reached the Panthéon after a few minutes of walking.

We didn't manage to get inside the building though. Tak tau kenapa, the guard refused me in and I didn't understand a word he's saying.

Finally for the day, we went to the Arc de Triomphe. ^^

At last dapat gak pegi situ. It had been a dream for me once upon a time to get there.. and I can't remember why. Not the Eiffel tower, not Versailles but the Arc that I really wanted to go to. Pelik lak rasa.

Izzit just me or am I getting more berisi? =S

The sun set after a while, so I took the opportunity to take pictures of it before calling it a day and went back home with sore legs and an exhausted body:

Sunset in Paris C=

Oh. It also was our first sighting of the Eiffel Tower since we got here, but since it was already late and our legs were screaming in pain, we decided to go there tomorrow.

Eiffel tower berkelip2 di waktu malam.

On the way home, I came across a librairie, and suddenly remembered something. I went inside and asked the shopkeeper for a particular book as a souvenir to a certain bookworm I know of. As expected, they have it. But I didn't buy it yet since I don't know if that certain bookworm already has that book or not, if yes then it would be a waste. So I decided I'll ask la bookworm if she already has one before buying.

Day 2

Last night's sleep made our body feel more refreshed. We went on according to plan and the next stop was: Eiffel Tower ^^. So we went to le Tour de Eiffel station, tak ingat by RER or Metro, but we had to change trains in between. Oh I guess I didn't tell you that one of the trains was a double decker train? Naturally we just HAD to sit at the top floor seats x). Upon arrival, we had to walk a bit before reaching the base of the Eiffel Tower.

2nd floor of RER train.

 The base of the Eiffel tower

We bought the tickets to the 2nd observatory floor (the first has a cafe if I'm not mistaken). Puas menangkap gambar situ I bought another ticket to go further on to the summit. Faisal refused to follow though, since he wanted to conserve his euros and that floor is already enough for him.

 Panoramic view of Paris, with Musée de la Marine at the middle

I got back down to where Faisal was and bought souvenirs before we went back to ground level. We walked on to the Parc du Champs de Mars (on the opposite direction of the panoramic picture above) to get a full picture of the tower (the third photo with Eiffel tower above) and we reached (I think) the Ecole Militaire.

I don't think we can get on that building though.. even though I wanted to. Anyways we then went back and I looked for another Librairie since la bookworm said she still hasn't obtained that book yet. I found the book at a different store, and for a better deal: €0.50 more for a hard cover, brillant. This is the book in question:

I don't understand heck of what is written there except for a few simple words. I bet that particular bookworm is reading these with glee and excitement..

To La Bookworm: Sorry for previewing it already ok? I just want to torture you a bit by giving you a sneak peek and making you teruja dan tak sabar menunggu xP. It will take quite some time before it starts its long journey to Malaisie.

We got back, rest for a bit, solat and I went to the McD for some internet. As the sun set at around 8:30pm (local time) I got back, solat and we went off to see Paris at night. Well more like Eiffel Tower at night:

Day 3

On the third day, our destination was only one for the whole day, Disneyland Paris ^.^

Our 3-day Metro+RER ticket is only valid to Zone 3 and the stop to Disneyland Paris is at Zone 5. So we got off at the edge of Zone 3 and bought return tickets to the station.

And there we were, at Disneyland Paris. ^^ It was FUN indeed. Much better than Genting I would say (and that is to be expected). Rides dia best and the place was magnifique. Unfortunately Faisal has a problem with motion sickness, so he refused to go on any of the roller coasters. So I had to ride on them alone <.< .. kesian gak rasa but... whattodo. He also refused to go on the Tower of Terror (kinda like a Solero Shot but with a theme and in a building) even though I tried convincing him that it doesn't have anything to do with motion sickness since it won't involve any sharp swerves or 360-degree spins. His alasan this time? Gayat. Oh well. The ride should have been better if not because of this group of kecoh french people at the back row bising2 and menyanyi2 at times which ruined the fun <.< Even the staff had to give an announcement to us (which can be translated) to jangan bising sangat. I don't think it's gonna be easy to describe how our trip there was, and since a picture is worth a thousand words anyways, I'll let them do the talking:

More pictures will be posted on Facebook for our Day 3 and Day 4 trips. I'll put the link here after they're uploaded.

Day 4

Our final day in Paris. The train will be departing at 9+ pm so there was ample time to go for another trip somewhere. We checked out of the hotel and went to Gare du Nord to keep our bags in lockers. We then took the RER to Musée d'Orsay, crossed the river there and walked on to the Musée du Louvre. You guessed right, our final destination was to visit one of the largest museums in the world. We planned on visiting each part of the museum before going back.

..but they weren't kidding when they said it's one of the largest museums in the world. After finishing up to the 1st floor (it has floors -1 (LG), 0 (G), 1 and 2) exhaustion and leg cramps prevented us from moving on, so we skipped the whole of the topmost floor. It was TOO. BIG. We actually planned on "ok kita pergi Musee d'Orsay lak kalo sempat lagi lepas habis Louvre". It's not about time, it's about getting yourself killed by nonstop walking. The trip was ok, although the Islam exhibition was closed that day.. Here are some pictures of the exhibition, and again I'll put the album link here after I upload the museum pictures on Facebook.

After Louvre, we visited the Paris Mosque. Heh seronok lak nampak masjid.. Since Cambridge doesn't have one.. We went there for Zuhur and Asar prayers, but we didn't manage to find the place to take our wudhu'. Tried asking the keeper there but he doesn't speak English when we asked him, and he asked if we can speak Arabic instead. At least I studied Arabic during my school years and not French.. so I chose that as our medium of communication with that man, and yeah we got to where the wudhu' place is, performed our prayers and went out for a very late lunch.

The Grande Mosquée de Paris.

When we got back to Gare du Nord, we thought our train was at 9:30 or 9:55 pm and sempat buat benda lain dulu, before we found out it was at 9:13 pm. We rushed to the station, through the counter and through the UK border control in order to catch the train. We got down and realised we were at coach 18, which was 13 coaches away from ours @_@. We had to run and got on in time... PHEW. Got to London around 10:30++ pm and got back to good ol' Cambridge the next morning.

Good to be back in Cambridge. "Yeah where else can you find cows in the city centre other than here eh?"

....the taxi driver was not kidding:

There ye go, COWSSS!! Doesn't that scream KAMPUNG to you?

So that was my 4-day trip to Paris. One thing I'd say is, in my opinion it's a city where you'll most probably want to visit just once in your lifetime. If I do have to go there again in the future, I'll go see Versailles, which we didn't manage to during the course of the four days.

Au revoir Paris.

~3 years ago & now (Part I)~

It was three years ago. [Well, kinda.]

A boy looked at the Place Charles de Gaulles, Paris, from above through the monitor of his laptop. Utilising the free innovative Google Earth (TM) software, he set his eyes for a bird's eye view on that certain spot in Paris to look at one of France's national monument, the Arc de Triomphe (de l'Étoile). He was somehow awed by the triumphal arch which dated back to the time of Napoleon. It sat majestically at the focal point of twelve roads which meet at a roundabout circling about it, amidst the complicated network of streets and roads all over the city. The sheer complexity of the road network in Paris can be compared to a spider web, or more like cracks fully propagated across a whole windshield of a car (yeah, I know the comparison sounds terrible). He looked at the satellite view of the historic city over and over again... from a monument to another historical monument.. from the Arc to the Eiffel Tower.. and he wondered if he will ever reach that part of the earth, thousands of miles (and RM) away from his home country.. thus he just sat there and stared at the image on his monitor in admiration and envy.. [it sounds sad, or even pitiful, I know].. for he believed he might never be able to set foot on that land.. but little did he expect what God had planned for him.

Though nowadays we can just use maps.google.com. We can even get street views.

Three years later.. [Roughly.. kinda]

He walked (and even managed to get a bit lost) through the (crazy) network of roads he had seen years before. He saw the Arc he was so interested in years before..and he confirmed its existence using his three senses (two were irrelevant. No prizes for any correct guesses to what they are). He was.. in Paris.

Never had he expected to be able to get there, but he actually got to just a few days ago =]

To see the monuments with his own eyes, to feel them, just being there, and most importantly getting there with his own strength (accompanied by a friend, Faisal) is like a dream come true. He might not be a history enthusiast like some people he knows of but he can't help admiring the tales behind the objects of the past and the art portrayed by them. It took a great amount of time, hard work and creative minds to produce such results which survived through history.

The author in front of the Arc de Triomphe, Place Charles de Gaulle, Paris.

Ok that was a very long introduction from me. Long story short: I got to Paris and had been to almost all the historical places I've once dreamt of going.

It was a four days three nights visit from 19th to the 22nd of April last week, me and Faisal (who happens to be my kakngah's classmate when they were in Standard 1/2, the bro-in-law of a friend here in Cambridge, the son of my parents' kenalan when they were still at Sheffield, and the cousin of a friend of my bestest friend).

Faisal Badaruddin, my Paris travelling partner.

We stayed in a hotel near Stade de France. Although people were unable to come out of the UK due to the volcanic ash incident, we were able to, thanks to Eurostar trains and rails which were unaffected by it. Unfortunately my bestest friend did not manage to come although she planned to on the 20th due to that particular incident =[.

Overall in my opinion, Paris is not the cleanest city in the world. Every RER and Metro (the underground trains) stations I went to have some sort of pungent smell in a corner. The stations themselves did not look like it had been cleaned regularly.. Memang nampak agak kotor jer..
and most people I saw are quite rude. In the train I saw people putting their feet on the seats opposite them, and refused to put it down when another person (with a huge suitcase) gestured politely so that he can sit [more like ignored him totally and not even looking]. I know I can't make conclusions just from the behaviours of some people I saw there, but that was the image I got from them. I did meet a lot of polite and nice people there though.
It is also expected that most people there can not (or would not) speak English. I had to communicate quite a lot with few French phrases and sentences that I learnt from that small Collins French phrasebook. Some of the most frequently used were: "Vous parlez anglais?" (and hoped for the rare and relieving "oui" as the answer or "yes, I do") "Je ne parle français pas", "combien?", "merci (beaucoup)", "oui/non", "bon jour/soir/nuit", "excusez moi", "pardon". I can't expect to know how to speak french just from 4 days of staying there anyways.. unlike someone I know of who learnt it at the Alliance Française years back.

Day 1

We arrived at the Paris Gare du Nord station and got a teeny bit lost walking and looking for our hotel. Turned out it was FAR away..and we were walking on the wrong direction anyways... So we got back to the station and took the RER to La Plaine-Stade de France and to our hotel. We got out right after settling in, got to the McD nearest there and used its free WiFi (the hotel only had paid WiFi, which was very expensive) to plan out our sightseeing destinations. Faisal wrote on the map while I searched for any relevant information [and getting the much-needed dosage of YM and FB].

The first destination? The Notre Dame Cathedral.
Yeah it's a cathedral. The only reasons I find it interesting to visit was of the art both inside and outside the place, and that it was the setting for the old Disney classic The Hunchback of Notre Dame which I've watched countless times during my childhood days.

Notre Dame Cathedral (Top) and the Disney Classic Hunchback of Notre Dame (below), where you can see the cathedral at the background.

Getting inside was free, but I don't think it is if you want to get to the top floors, so we only toured the ground floor. The art was interesting, but the longer we are there the creepier we felt, so we just took pictures around the building and got out. We were walking towards the station before we found this:

*Gasps* a crypt? Just for your information:
crypt [krɪpt]

1. An underground vault or chamber, especially one beneath a church that is used as a burial place. [thefreedictionary.com]

A tomb? Creepy yet interesting... We hesitated but I managed to pull Faisal with me down the stairs and we reached the front gate. We pushed and pulled. It was locked.
Then I saw a door at the side, with a card reader.. "Might be the staff entrance" I voiced out. Our curiosity was pushing us to get in.. and suddenly the door opened and someone came out and went off the stairs. I blocked the door from closing, and asked Faisal nak masuk tak? We decided it was worth a try, if somehow we were found and told off that it was not a place to be visited at that time we will just oblige and get out, no big deal.. and the guy who got out cam tak heran pon ngan kitorang. After experimented a bit with the door to make sure we will not be locked inside, we walked through the passage. It was quite brightly lit, and near the middle I smelled some sort of perfume.. at the end was a turn to the right.. and I didn't know what to expect. It was already getting eerie with all the drawings on the walls of the passage... We went on and we saw them...
..arranged beautifully in rows..


rows and rows of...


....

.... cars.



We had apparently stumbled upon the Notre Dame carpark. Fun indeed.

Hati terasa geram tatkala merasa diperbodohkan.. Walhal ia adalah salah kami sendiri..

Can't deny it was very funny at the time.. we got out while cursing to ourselves and the innocent designer of the place.

Next we went to our next destination, le Panthéon near Luxembourg. Mula2 tersalah jalan (again) though, and got to the Luxembourg garden (Jardin du Luxembourg). Ok la gak, dapat tengok the Senate building and a LOT of people bersantai.. either lying down on the grass or sitting down on chairs provided while reading a book, studying or just chatting with friends.

Blood-red tulips 8)

 People in front of the Senate building.

They even have donkey carriages!

*Oops. Gotta rush for lunch at the house of a visiting Prof from UM to Cambridge.. a bus ride away to Longstanton. Cerita terpaksa cut short here, will continue when I get back.*


[End of Part 1]