Summer in Taiwan: Of Maokong Gondola Ride and Stinky Tofu

Okay, so Kak Timi, Fatt and Kak Elle had arrived and we stayed together in the same room. End of Day 1.

For Day 2, we checked out from the hostel and took the MRT and later, the taxi to our hotel, Holiday Inn Taipei! :D

After checking in, talking to some of the participants there, we decided to just walk around to see what the place has in store for us.

The Walk-around was in the form of taking a bus to the Maokong Station! :P

 The APPS committees brought us to the base of Maokong Mountain, Taipei, where we had taken a cable car ride to the top of the mountain. 

You could choose between 'Normal Cable Car' or 'Clear Glass Floor Cable Car'!

Being the adventurous sort of people, we naturally opted for the latter. :)

The return fare is about NT$50, which about RM5.00 if I'm not mistaken. 

 Fatt and a cute Taiwanese girl. I-forgot-your-name sorry!!! Dx

And presenting.......

THE STINKY TOFU!!!!!

Atiqah treated us the 'Stinky Tofu'. It's basically Tofu that were fermented for several days, thus giving itself the characteristic putrid scent that is its name 'Stinky'. We doubted the 'halal' status of it at first, but Atiqah was very sure that it was halal so we went ahead to each of us having one piece. I couldn't even stomach one piece of it. So, yeah, one piece it is then. I'm not going to try it another time.

And oh, Fatt googled about 'Stinky Tofu' after we got back to Malaysia. She said that all the ingredients are halal and it basically suits the vegetarians so INSYA ALLAH, it is HALAL. :D But of course, it's up to you whether you wanted to try it or not. If ragu-ragu, tak payah makan lah.

EDIT: Now I'm feeling dubious about its Halal status. I'm not going to eat it next time. :(

How to describe its smell?

You know the smell when the garbage collectors' lorry passed along your house to collect the garbage? It was a bit like that. 

It tasted very sour due to the fermentation process and I had to gulp it down with my bubble tea because I really couldn't bear to chew it... Dx.
Ridzuan said that he couldn't really taste the sourness and the stinky-ness of the tofu as his sweet fragrant jasmine tea kinds of masked the taste and smell of it.

The committee members also treated us to 2 bowls of ice-taufufa.

After the early afternoon snack, we walked along the path leading to the Tea Plantation Factory.

It was quite a long journey by foot, and along the way, we stopped by a very quaint Tea Shop. It's like a coffee shop, but it sells...TEA. Yeah, haha. Maokong Mountain is like Malaysia's 'Cameron Highlands'.

I lost some of the pics in my camera so this is the only one picture that I could get from facebook.

Once we reached there, we were being self-served (LOL) with fresh hot tea.

Different types of Tea 

Tea-leaves machine-sort of.

And we went back to the Maokong Station and once again took the Gondola to the base of the mountain. :)

We went back to the hotel, Holiday Inn Taipei by bus. The hotel is awesome of course. Two people per room. Atiqah was my roommate throughout the entire stay. We had great time together, cracking weird jokes, laughing our heads off every night. :D

I do not know the exact rates of the rooms of this hotel, as the rate has been included in our registration fees.

My oh-so-comfortable BED! :D

Can't believe I actually jumped into the bandwagon by posting pictures of bathrooms! 

THE END. 

Summer in Taiwan: Taipei Main Station and EZ Stay Main Taipei

I know, it's already 2014!! Dx

The seven of us Pharmacy students of IIUM went to Taipei, Taiwan in July 2012 for the Asia Pacific Pharmaceutical Symposium (APPS) 2012, which is basically an international gathering of Pharmacy students across the Asia Pacific Region. The pharmacy students/societies are very active. We have National Gathering of Pharmacy Students (NoGaps) for Malaysian students,  APPS for Asia Pacific Region and World Congress for ahem...pharmacy students all around the world, organised by International Pharmacy Students Federation (IPSF). So far, I had joined the NoGaps and APPS. World Congress? Oh, takde rezeki lagi...And I'm in my final year now. *sobs*

It was summertime back then in Taiwan. We had to wake up at 3 in the morning to perform our subuh prayer. The weather was very hot and dry, unlike Malaysia (hot and humid). 

Anyway, 

The 'Taiwan' posts will be posted randomly, in no specific chronological order. 

Nothing much happened on the first day. Tiqah and I, together with Ridzuan and Nash took the same flight to Taipei Taiwan from LCCT, Malaysia and we arrived there in the afternoon. Fatt, Kak Elle and Kak Timi took a night flight to Taipei, Taiwan. 

 I am in LOVE with this sandwich! It costs RM10 though. T__T

After 5 hours of journey, we finally arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport 

They have this system to detect the thermal readings aka temperature of people by just looking at the screen which shows people's temperature colour in the body (explaining in layman's terms). If it's orange or red, it means that your body temperature is high. I guess they wanted to prevent any H1N1 or influenza outbreak from spreading to their country. I was feeling a bit feverish at that time but hey, I escaped the 'temperature check!', :P 

 From the Airport, we bought a bus ticket to Taipei Main Station. It costs NT$125, which is about RM12.50! It was about 1-2 hours journey there. 

And oh, also bought the prepaid there. NT$350 which was approximately RM35.00. Tak habis pakai pun.... But it was quite handy to purchase Taiwan's number there. We travelled a lot, so we tend to contact each other frequently ( In case we got lost). 

 Street views from the bus. I couldn't take nice pictures from a moving vehicle. :P 

Taipei Main Station, yaay! It's a combination of Bus Station and MRT station. 

 We crossed the road to get to our hostel, which is located in that red/terracotta building with the billboard. 

Elevator is freaking slow like KOP's elevator. >__<

Views from the floor of our hostel. HOSTEL. Not hotel. :P 

 After quite a long hunt for this hostel, and asking many people of its location in this building we finally found the EZ Taipei Main Station Backpackers' Hostel. 

 The owner is a Japanese guy. He couldn't really understand English. Tiqah made a reservation for all 7 of us. It costs about not more than RM100 for a person, if I'm not mistaken, which is expensive la jugak. PER PERSON. Check out the website/blog: EZ Stay Main Taipei 

 I occupied the top bunk! :D 

All 5 of us girls stayed in the same room. 

Shampoo and Bath Gel provided . 

Fatt, Kak Elina and Kak Timi were bound to arrive around midnight. So, the four of us set upon a food hunt, and we found out that the halal restaurant we wanted to go was closed! Feeling really hungry, we just decided to eat Fillet o-Fish at McDonald's there, coz we didn't have any choice. We had chosen to eat Fillet-o-Fish because it is made of fish, and that Tiqah said that they used different oil to fry the fish, tawakkal je lahh...haha.

I'll be posting about my Taiwan 2012 trip everyday starting from today, because I was in a hurry, I'll be going to Beijing next week. 

So, stay tuned! xD

Of Dramaticness

"Orang yang dramatic selalu dapat misadventures"- quoted by me.

It happened again.

The question is, should I embrace this 'dramatic' side of me?

Or should I shun it, never to become dramatic ever again?

I love this dramatic side of me,

But I agree, I am getting a bit overboard.

There have been lessons/tests that Allah has given me.

Amongst them,

Tests of Confidence (Operation ABORT Inferiority Complexes)

Tests of Not comparing yourself with others

Tests of Perseverance! (oh yes!)
Tests of Not caring what people think of you (yeeesss) 

So far I did well in those tests I guess.
Those tests had lead me towards loving myself and my flaws, by not comparing myself to others, not caring what people think of me, to never give up whenever I failed something. 

But there is another test

"Test of dramaticness". 

A dramatic person will never become a good leader. 

So I think I failed this test. 

There will be a number of tests regarding this. And I hope I will ace them all. Never give up! Nooo!!

And then there'll come another series of tests, all serves to change myself into a better person. 

Till then... 

Less than a year to go.

Salaam'alaik

Yesterday was the IPhA's Annual Grand Meeting, and it was an event organized by us, the Rx9, the final year/fourth year seniors of Kulliyyah of Pharmacy.

Together with a sarcastic yet very responsible guy, the two of us were assigned as the Heads of Public Relation and Protocol for the AGM. It means that we have to approach the candidates, take their details and forced them to sign the consent forms.

It is not at all an easy job. You'll get stressed out dealing with different kind of people. The deadline is approaching and yet, there is still a number of candidates who wouldn't contend for some posts of IPhA. And thus one day, we found out that a presidential candidate from the notorious 3rd year refused to contend for the presidential post, because he said he was being prank by his classmates.

Then, came the day where some of us final year students marched into the 3rd year lecture hall next door and I went to the rostrum and said "Do you think it's mature for you guys to be playing pranks to someone on an important thing like this?" and "This time, no pranks are allowed!" 

Thus, the election to nominate the presidential candidates was carried out once again. Top 3 candidates were chosen by their batch for the Presidential post. All 3 candidates were very enthusiastic, kudos to them for their efforts.

Anyway, iira and I were paired as the MCs for the election session. It was an informal emceeing and it was fun! It was way better than the last time we were paired together for an informal emceeing which was during our first year. :D Yeah, asides from the inevitable stammers here and there, I'm quite satisfied with our performance last night. 

All 99 of us worked very hard to ensure that everything would turn out okay. Because we were working with each other, of which we had been together for almost 4 years, and that we know each other well (some of us), this spells unity. We were very united when it comes to jobs like this. This AGM kinds of reflects our batch's achievement, all those hard works we had done finally paid off.

And I think I'm gonna miss this moment when I've graduated. 

Honestly, I regret not having much fun when I was at school, because I was focusing too much on my studies, and that there were that inferiority complexes, all those 'internal' problems, the battles with myself, that hinders me from having fun with my friends. Thus, I don't have that much of memories with my friends. 

Thus as I embarked into my foundation years, I have made it clear that 'I SHALL HAVE FUN AND I SHALL MAKE MEMORIES!!' and yes, looking back at those glorious 2 years of CFS, I am glad that I have made that decision. I didn't regret for any single thing that I haven't done when I was in CFS, because, I have done almost everything! I found great friends there, yes. I made great memories, I had lots of fun! Alhamdulillah. 

This 'principle' of 'making memories' continues even until here. So far, I enjoyed the time I had spent with my friends throughout this almost 4 years of undergraduate studies. I joined almost all the activities organized and I can say that I have made lots of memories (bitter and sweet! haha).

So yes, the 1st semester of the final year is almost coming to its end. One more semester to go and we will graduate from this university, armed with knowledge, full with experiences, insya Allah.

I gotta say, that I'm gonna miss my classmates. I'm gonna miss the havocs in the class, sitting together in the lecture halls, trying not to fall asleep whenever the lecturer is talking, haha.

Yup, so that's all from me. Thank you for reading. 

6 years old!!!

6 years ago, a few weeks after I had finished my SPM Examination, with no plan whatsoever on what to do with my life ( I was a confused 17 years old teen), I decided to create a blog. That particular day fell on the 14th of December 2007.

Fast forward to 6 years later, it is now, the 14th of December 2013!!! And I'm already in my final year of the Pharmacy course!!!! 

So, yes. Happy Birthday to this blog!!!! :D

I'll try my best to continue blogging for as long as my head is sane, and as long as my hands could type, insya Allah. 

To you, small number of special selected people who could tolerate my nonsense, dramas and antics, you guys are the awesome-st people on earth! Thank you for reading my blog!!! Feel free to take a slice of cake from anywhere (bayar sendiri!!) to commemorate the 6th birthday of this blog! Hahaha

With that, thank you! :) 

Robotic Android

Taken from here 

"While other would come to the class without their homework done because they were reading about an interest of theirs, I never missed an assignment" 

LOL HEYYY I read about my wide range of interests most of the time as well, but then again, I'd never failed to submit my assignments/lab reports ON TIME too! 

I get it, he's a robot. Hehh.... 

Dr Whodoodle

My personal best score so far with the initial selection of David Tennant as the 10th Doctor who made it through all the 'adventures' with NO REGENERATION!!! xD (I hate the graveyard scene)

I reckon I could get a higher score but I have other things to do... 

Till then, who-dles!!! 

of Relationship with Him...

Thinking about my life throughout these years from the moment I've been introduced into this world and until now, I realized that Allah really loves me so much. He had given me a wonderful family with healthy/amazing parents and siblings, I am born without any mental or physical disabilities, I am bestowed with the gift of a good brain (only that I do not fully utilize it and that is entirely my fault, haha) that I could pursue my studies up to the tertiary level. I am so blessed! You know, out of 7 billion world population, he had picked me to be amongst the fortunate ones, giving me everything that I need, and of course it is for a solid reason.

Now,what have I done so far to reciprocate His love towards me? I know that with all the good things he had given me, there must be something that He wished I would think and reflect of. The 'good things' served to ease my path towards what had been written for me. Everything is ready, but it is me who is not moving. 

Perhaps because I am being complacent. Unlike Malala Yousafzai, education was given to me instead of me seeking for it. I was born in a country which emphasizes on the importance of education (especially for women) instead of the one which banned the education for girls and women. I am so ashamed with myself.

The best thing to do right now is to focus on my relationship with Allah. I must please Allah in every aspect, in every single moment in my life. Whenever I am about to do something, I would ask myself "Would Allah approve of this?". I fully realized the importance of a strong relationship with my Creator. He is the Provider, the Compeller, the Bestower of Peace, the Bestower of Honour, the Protector, and soo many other attributes from all the 99 of His beautiful and magnificent names (Asma al Husna). 

As for now, I have found the answer to my question. How could I reach the place which He wanted me to go? That place is Jannah of course. 

The answer is straightforward, simple and that everyone knows about it, but not everyone realizes the importance of it: To do everything sincerely because of Him. 

When I attempt to please Allah, I would work hard, solely because of Him, and not because of other non-powerful human beings. I would not do anything that could invoke His wrath, as this could damage our relationship. I've just realized that whenever I had done something bad (and that I feel veerrryyy bad afterwards), He does not directly punish me. He loves me so much that He wanted me to repent to Him. 

I admit that there were times when my imaan was up and down, and when I was in the 'down moment', I feel so lonely and helpless. There is this hole in my heart that can't filled with anything else other than my love towards Allah. I want to love Him again, I want to experience the feeling of being in love with Him, again, just like during my 'up moments'. And so, I went back towards His embrace, and I feel ashamed with myself, for doing this over and over again. But I am reminded of the fact that I am not a prophet or a messenger. I am just a human being that is not maksum (pure/free from sin). I know that Allah wanted me to go back towards Him, just like a loving mother who would always welcome her children no matter what wrong things they had committed. 

So, let's just please Allah and no one else. Human beings would never be pleased. Allah looks at our efforts while the humans judge us by our achievements/results.
Memorize the meanings of the 99 names of Allah. He has ALL the attributes of which if you really understand each one of them, it would help you survive in this temporary, imperfect world. 

With that, may peace be upon you and may you have a great blessed day ahead! :) 

The Queen of Procrastination and Procrastinators.

Indeed, I am THE CLEANER, THE LIST MAKER, THE NAPPER, THE SIDE TRACKER, THE INTERNET RESEARCHER, THE WATCHER AND THE PERPETUATOR! HAHAHA

From 9gag.com 

End of Rehab

I had forgotten to post about my 7 days twitter addiction rehab programme.

Well, it's over! Yaay! I am so proud of myself for being able to resist the temptation of tweeting and even opening the twitter tab, haha.

One important thing that I have learned from this 7 Days rehab is: "It is not necessary to let most of your thoughts known to other people". 

Anyway, thoughts I have been saving throughout the duration of the Rehab (most of them Random, it is soo me): 

1. Saw an old lady selling kerepek in front of A&W. She seemed so pitiful and she looked at me with her pleading eyes, asking me to buy her kerepek. I told her to wait first, as I'm gonna go inside to buy burger and drinks. Then I munched on my burger, talking to my friends at the same time thinking about that old lady. I took a peek outside and found that she was still there. There was a well-dressed woman buying kerepek from the old lady. I smiled and went ahead talking to my friends, deciding to buy kerepek from her as soon as I stepped out from A&W. But alas, as my friends and I went out from the fast food restaurant, the old lady was nowhere to be seen. I was quite sad and regretted my decision of not buying the kerepek from her earlier. I vowed to buy kerepek from her on Thursday, where I'll be going to the Kemaman Hospital again for attachment. I prayed that I will meet that old lady again. But when I went there again, the old lady was not there. I am sad. The moral of the story is, when there comes a chance for you to do good to others, GRAB that chance, never let it go! Or else you'll regret it, just like me. I don't know why, I have soft spots towards the elderly and small kids, perhaps because the geriatric people remind me of my late grandmothers, and small kids remind me of my little brother Haziq.

2. The physicians handwritings at Hospital Kemaman are WAYYYY BETTER than the ugly handwritings of the physicians from HTAA. HTAA suffocates me with its crowded wards and MOs/specialists yelling to the HOs during ward rounds. The pharmacists at HTAA are very good and experienced, but they could be too strict somehow. I dislike it when a person corrected the mistakes of another person in a not-so-nice way. I mean come on, we're learning! 

3.  I used to hate it whenever someone pointed out my mistakes directly or that I have realized about my mistakes by myself. But now, I have grown to accept who I am and to improve myself in many things. I realized that those 'embarrassing moments' of 'discovering your mistakes' actually are lessons meant to be taken. Hence, I don't feel that embarrassed anymore. There were initial embarrassments of course. But you just got to move forwards and try not to make that same mistake again. =)

4.The feeling of receiving your new parcels is very indescribable. It is like, you're getting a present from someone, and that someone is YOU!!. I think that I am addicted towards online shopping. First it's books, then moving on to clothes and stuffs! Oh God! I think I am transforming into a woman. My mom would approve of this! And I think it is time for me to introduce to my tomboy-ish sister, the 'wonderful world of clothes'. I gotta admit that I did experience some buyers' remorse once in a while. But you learned from your experience right? And once you had bought something that really meets your expectation, you will feel extremely satisfied and happy! I hereby declare that I have fully grasped the meaning of 'retail therapy'.

5. The best revenge is IMMENSE SUCCESS! Also to prove it to those arrogant people/any arrogant person.

6. I miss skating so much. Be it roller blading or ice skating, I've done both. :) I was happy when I found out that I could fit into Haziq's size-adjustable roller blades and so being the child as I always am, I happily 'bladed' around the house porch, while my other siblings with their big shoe size looked at me jealously. :P

7.  Re-watching 'Pendekar Bujang Lapok' for the umpteenth time! No matter how many times that scenes had been played again and again, that the same dialogues had been uttered again and again up till the point where I can memorize those memorable lines, the movie (and his other movies) had never ceased to amaze me, had never failed to entertain me, for P.Ramlee is a legend, and he will always remain a legend, the best and most versatile actor/director/musician/scriptwriter in the world!

Ah well, that's all for now I guess. Toodles! :D 

Remaining Average

Taken from 9gag. 

The Seven Days Twitter Addiction Rehab Programme

I have been tweeting since 2009, which is quite early as compared to 90% of my friends of twitter, and 80% of those on Twitter now (made up my own statistics for the latter, LOL). 

The desire to log in to twitter and to just express my thoughts freely in just 140 characters, to communicate virtually with others, to look at what other tweeters have in store for me based on their tweets, is just...overwhelming!

The first website that I'd browse the moment I woke up in the morning would be twitter, and I'd keep on opening the twitter tab even though there's nothing! I'd scroll down for the tweets from other 'tweeters' in case I had missed anything and until I've reached to the bottom of the page (whereby the tweets were the ones I have read before), I'd scroll up again, and the cycle is repeated over and over again. 

I know that this addiction has to stop now, or it will NEVER be stopped! Thus before it will take its toll on me, I decided to intervene! By MYSELF! I mean, I couldn't stay this way forever! 

Two years ago, I had came across this interesting article in the Female Magazine (Emma Watson cover) about how the editorial team had made a 7 days abstinence programs for themselves. Those programs were

1. Facebook Addiction Rehab

2. TV addiction Rehab

3. Angry Birds Addiction Rehab

and there are some others.

Right after they have finished their 'Rehab program', they emerged as someone new, someone who had been reborn (LOL), what else? Cleansed, purified, washed? :P
 What's more, throughout the 7 days, they had done many beneficial things in the hours that they usually spent on Twitter/Facebook/in front of the television. 

Like I said, I have to do something about this 'Twitter Addiction'. Let's just give it a 7-day trial. If it is a success, then I'd continue it, insya-Allah.

And I'd make another 'Rehab Program' for myself, like 'Facebook Rehab Programme'. Facebook can be so mentally and emotionally unhealthy, you know. FYI, I'm not addicted to facebook. 

Or, 'Internet Rehab Programme'. This is too drastic, isn't it? Haha.

I'm glad I never got to try to play 'Candy Crush'. I heard that it is highly addictive. 

Know, for the 7 Days Twitter Rehab Programme, I have several things in mind:

1. I am not allowed to access the Twitter website (log out!!!) for 7 days. 

2. If I feel like 'tweeting', I should read a book instead. And that book would be 'Robert Kiyosaki's 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad'. LOL. 

3. If I feel like tweeting, I should blog instead. 

4. Maybe I should post diary entries on '7 Days without Twitter'. :P

So yes, that's all for me. The '7 Days Twitter Rehab Programme' will commence on the 10th of November 2013, 12 midnight! 

You see, I envy my friends who do not have facebook accounts, who are not active of Facebook, who do not have Twitter accounts, who tweeted very RARELY. 

Of course, envy couldn't solve anything. Besides, I have the power to control myself! 

Bye Twitter, see you in another 7 days (or longer than that, I hope!) 

Determined!

Mom called, and she inspired me to keep focusing on my goals!

It is not the time to daydream, Sarah. I mean, you should not daydream 24/7 (not that I ever did), you must focus on your goals!

The so-called problems around you are INSIGNIFICANT! They only served to distract you away from your true path, your destiny! LOL

Okay, focusing on my goals.

It's 1.44 am, and I'm typing my PBB report due Friday. Hehehe..

PBB: Pharmaceutical Biotechnology and Biopharmaceutics. 

Marilah kita mendengar lagu yang inspiring originally by Michael Bolton, an entertaining acapella rendition by Rendezvous Quartet. Hehe.