Imran's Kifli.net

I had a 3 weeks holiday for my Christmas break. Knowing this, I started planning my holiday back in October. After considering both Paris and Rome, I decided to go with Rome. I have always wanted to visit the Eternal City and see for myself the marvels of Roman architecture. The basic details of my trip are below:

• Duration: 5 days 4 nights (19th Dec to 23rd Dec 2011)
• Accommodation: Hotel Madrid, GBP242 per person for 4 nights
• Flight: Easyjet, GBP157 (return flight from Bristol to Rome)
• Season/Temperature: Winter, average 0 to 2 degrees Celsius

Note: click on images to enlarge and click on links for further info.

DK Eyewitness Rome

Prior to coming to Rome, I bought the DK Eyewitness Travel book for Rome (~£12 on Amazon). I used it to plan my trip to maximise our stay there. I highly recommend it. One of its unique features is the “suggested itinerary” which I modified to meet our interest. Our planned itinerary is listed below.

For further details on what we did, please continue reading (this post is separated by days below)

Day 1 – 19 December 2011 (available below)

1. Spanish Steps – evening view
2. Trevi Fountain – evening view

Day 2 – 20 December 2011 (available below)

1. Colosseum
2. Palatine Hill
3. Roman Forum
4. Capitol Hill
5. Pantheon
6. Piazza Navona & Christmas Market

Day 3 – 21 December 2011 (to be published soon)

1. Vatican City
2. St Peter’s Basilica
3. Vatican Musems & Sistine Chapel

Day 4 – 22 December 2011 (to be published soon)

1. Trevi Fountain – day view
2. Spanish Steps – day view
3. Shopping at Via dei Condotti
4. Villa Borghese
5. Circus Maximus
6. Baths of Caracalla
7. Piazza del Popolo – evening view

Day 5 – 23 December 2011 (to be published soon)

1. Mausoleum of Augustus
2. Palace of Justice
3. Hadrian’s Mausoleum
4. Piazza del Popolo – day view
5. Fly back to UK

If you’re interested in seeing the photos I took in Rome, it is available in my Flickr page here.

Day 1 (19 December 2011)

Leonardo Express

We arrived in Rome Fiumicino airport around 4PM. From there, we took the Leonardo Express train to Termini (the central train station in the city). The Leonardo Express was €16 and the trip took us 30 minutes. From Termini, we took the Metro to Spagna, the district where our hotel is located. I was quite shocked to see the sad state of these Metro stations. Although it provides efficient and timely service, in general the Metro stations looks very old and dirty. Wires dangling, trash, vandalisms etc.

When we arrived in Spagna, we exited right next to the Spanish Steps. I was quite pleased to know that our hotel, Hotel Madrid, was very near the Spanish Steps and the famous shopping district, Via dei Condotti. As for the hotel, I find the guy at the counter quite friendly. In terms of facilities, it’s your average Rome hotel. I find the small old lift amusing. The rooms were OK, but the bathroom really surprised us. It’s obvious they had put some effort into upgrading the bathrooms. It was very nice. Our room had a very nice view of the small streets beneath (we were on the 3rd floor).

Hotel Madrid

After settling in, it was around 6PM (sunset is around 5PM). We took out our map and went out exploring the city. We went to the famous Via dei Condotti where all the fancy brands are located. From there, we walked south towards Trevi Fountain. I was surprised to find the distances between locations were quite near (I guess things tend to look far from each other on a map).

Trevi Fountain

The Trevi fountain was absolutely gorgeous. The lightings under the water and around the scultures made everything looked surreal. We sat beside the fountain for a while, admiring the designs. After taking photos, we had dinner at a nice cosy Italian restaurant nearby. After that, we walked back along the small alleys in the city to explore the shops.

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Early this year I accepted an offer from Cardiff University to study the MBA. On 21 September 2011, I left Malaysia, heading to the UK on Etihad. My journey started with a pleasant surprise when I was given a free upgrade to Business Class. It’s true what they say about UAE based airlines, they definitely know how to offer the best hospitality up in the air.

Note: click on images to enlarge and click on links for further info.

Etihad - Business Class

Image above: The interior of Etihad’s business class

Etihad - Reclining chairs

Apart from being able to recline the chair to become a full bed, it also provides a full back massage (similar to Osim‘s concept). Actually if I really think about it, it might just be an Osim chair built into the seat.

My flight had a 2 hour transit in Abu Dhabi. I was really amazed with the airport. It’s massive, modern, and they have all sorts of shops for shopping and dining. Very impressive.

Heathrow - Cardiff Uni pickup

I arrived in Heathrow around 7AM. There was a massive queue at Immigration, and they had a dedicated queue for first time students coming to the UK. I was stuck in the queue for nearly 30 minutes. Once I was out, the Cardiff  International Office was there to greet me and other international students that arrived that morning.

The bus ride from Heathrow to Cardiff took around 2 hours 30 minutes. They took us straight to a hall next to the business school where our accommodation is being sorted out. Since I took private accommodation, I got to skip the whole thing entirely.

I had chosen Victoria Hall, which is a private college hall. The hall is a mere 5 minutes walk from the Business School. Since I had done all the payments and paperwork online, all I did when the university took us there was sign some papers and collected my keys.

Victoria Hall

It took me a few days to settle in. Shopping for groceries, bedding and other miscellaneous items took a few trips to the city. Adjusting to student life after working for 4 years turns out not to be that easy after all.

In my flat, there are 5 rooms. My other flatmates are 1 Thai and 3 Chinese (mainland). The Thai guy is also doing MBA, so it feels nice to have a coursemate living nearby. The other 3 Chinese guys are undergrads.

I’ll try to post as frequent possible throughout my MBA.

I was in Tanzania from 1st July to 10th July 2011 to climb Mount Kilimanjaro and to experience the Safari. Below is a detailed account of my trip.

Note: click on images to enlarge and click on links for further info.

Mount Kilimanjaro

Basic facts on Mount Kilimanjaro

• 5,895 meters (19,341 ft)
• Highest mountain in Tanzania
• Highest mountain in Africa
• One of the 7 Summits of the World
• World’s highest free-standing mountain

Mountain Operator
After much research, we decided to go with Team Kilimanjaro, a London based mountain operator. Details of the climb are below:

• Operator: Team Kilimanjaro
• Website: http://www.teamkilimanjaro.com
• Route: TK Rongai 7 days
• Mode: Full Camping
• Cost: USD2016 (per person for a group of 4)

Earlier in our discussion, we were considering Marangu (a route with huts, no camping required) and Machame (a very famous route that offers excellent scenery). However, given that we wanted a route that offers the best acclimatisation and the best summit rates, the mountain operator suggested their own version of Rongai, dubbed “TK Rongai”.

Kilimanjaro route map

TK, which stands for Team Kilimanjaro, has developed their own version of Rongai which is by far one of the most unique on the market due to its excellent acclamatisation and high success rate. This is a full camping route that starts at the north of the mountain (in red in the map above) and ends at the south-east of the mountain (down the Marangu route, marked in light green in the map), hence you get to see both sides of the mountain.

Our decision to go with Team Kilimanjaro and to choose their specially tailored TK Rongai route was the best decision we made that guaranteed us a trouble-free trip and first class service by TK’s team members.

Flight

KL > Doha > Dar Es Salaam > Kilimanjaro

My flight to Tanzania was from Kuala Lumpur. I was quite concerned with baggage loss/delays, hence I flew into Tanzania with Qatar Airways, a highly respectable airline. Our route and transit:

Kuala Lumpur > Doha > Dar Es Salaam > Kilimanjaro

The flight from Kuala Lumpur to Dar Es Salaam was on Qatar Airways. The flight cost was RM4,333 (US$1,443). I bought this ticket directly from Qatar Airways’ website.

Precision Air

The flight from Dar Es Salaam to Kilimanjaro was on Precision Air, a local airline. The flight cost was RM1,008 (US$336). I bought this ticket from Vayama.com.

Total Flight: RM4,333 (US$1,443) + RM1,008 (US$336) = RM5,341 (US$1,779)

For Malaysian travelers, we do not need to obtain Visa into Tanzania. The immigration officer will greet you with a friendly “karibu” at the airport. Most non-African nationalities are requested to obtain visa on arrival.

Upon arrival in Kilimanjaro airport, TK picked us up and transferred us to Arusha, where we would be spending 2 nights before the climb. The journey from Kilimanjaro airport to Arusha took around 45 mins.

Arusha
Refer to my Arusha blog post here: http://imran.kifli.net/2011/07/tanzania-arusha/

Safari
Refer to my Safari blog post here: http://imran.kifli.net/2011/07/tanzania-safari/

Kilimanjaro – Video summary
My Kilimanjaro trip is summarized in the video below. If you do not have time to read the full details, please enjoy the video below:

Expedition summary:

• Day 1: Trek from Rongai Gate (1997m) to Simba Camp (2635m) – 3 hours, 7KM
• Day 2: Trek from Simba Camp to Kikelelwa Camp (3675m) – 9 hours, 12KM
• Day 3: Trek from Kikelelwa Camp to Mawenzi Camp (4302m) – 5 hours, 4KM
• Day 4: Trek from Mawenzi Camp to School Hut (4717m) – 6 hours, 8KM
• Day 5: Trek from School Hut to summit (5895m). From summit trek to Kibo Hut (4714m)
• Day 6: Trek from Kibo Hut (4714m) to Mandara Hut (2723m) – 9 hours, 22KM
• Day 7: Trek from Mandara Hut to Marangu Gate (1905m) – 3 hours, 8KM

The full set of photos from this expedition is available on my Flickr here: Kilimanjaro Album

If you’re interested in the details of our adventure, please continue reading: Read more…

Main article: Mount Kilimanjaro Expedition

Note: click on images to enlarge and click on links for further info.

I was in Tanzania from 1st July to 10th July 2011. The purpose of this trip was to climb Mount Kilimanjaro (refer to main article above) and to experience the Safari. During our trip, we stayed for 3 nights in Arusha (2 nights before the climb and 1 night after).

Street views of Arusha

Arusha, as most bloggers put it, is your average African town. It’s small, with lots of people walking around during the day. Albeit its modest infrastructure, it is able to meet your basic needs. They have a supermarket selling all sorts of local and imported goods, a “cinema” mall, a number of African and other western/asian restaurants, and is reasonably safe for a foreigner to travel around.

The Outpost Lodge

Our Mountain Operator, Team Kilimanjaro (website here), arranged our accommodation to be at The Outpost Lodge (website here). It is located on Serengeti Road, away from the normal noise of traffic and touts. It has it’s own laundry service, room with TVs, internet room (with PCs), lounge, and a small swimming pool to chill by. It even serves good coffee such as cafe latte or cappuccino at the restaurant (around ~US$3).

Outpost Lodge - rooms

Outpost Lodge - swimming pool

We paid US$128 per night (that’s US$32 per person per night as we had 4 people in our group). I highly recommended The Outpost Lodge to travelers with a “medium budget”. If you’re on a “high budget”, you might want to consider The African Tulip Hotel (website: http://www.theafricantulip.com). The African Tulip was quite near to our place.

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We were in Tanzania from 1st July to 10th July 2011. We had 1 free day before our Kilimanjaro climb began on 3rd July 2011. So, on 2nd July, we went for Safari (‘safari’ in Swahili means journey).

To read about our Kilimanjaro climb, click here: http://imran.kifli.net/2011/08/tanzania-mount-kilimanjaro/

We went for safari with our mountain operator, Team Kilimanjaro (website here), as they offered us a discount since we were climbing with them. We choose Tarangire National Park and it was USD169 per person (for a group of 4).

Initially we thought of going to the nearby Arusha National Park, but a Malaysian friend working in Arusha said that Arusha National Park doesn’t have that much animals, and he recommended either Lake Manyara or Tarangire. I did some additional research and 1 day before we left I emailed our safari operator to inform them that I would like to go to Tarangire instead.

Tarangire map from Arusha

Arusha National Park is a mere 45 mins away from Arusha town, compared to Tarangire which is  a 2 hour drive. But since it offers more wildlife, we didn’t mind the travelling. On the way to Tarangire we saw a number of Masai villages. Check out the video below that shows our key photos and videos from our safari:

We saw the following animals at Tarangire:

1. Warthog (“pumba” from Lion King)
2. Zebras
3. Wildebeests
4. Impalas
5. Waterbucks
6. Elephants
7. Ostricth
8. Lion
9. Giraffe
10. Baboons

All in all I was very pleased with my safari experience. The number of wildlife I saw at Tarangire exceeded my expectations and I am very impressed with the hospitality and friendliness of the Tanzanian people.

I plan to return to Tanzania in the future for a pure safari trip, to visit the Serengeti. They had a 4 days 3 night safari which includes the Serengeti but the price was around USD 1300 and that was too expensive for us as our priority was Kilimanjaro.

Hakuna matata (no worries), I’ll visit this wonderful country again in the future!

To view all our safari photos, check out my Flickr page here.

Nur Kasih The Movie

The whole family went to watch the much anticipated Nur Kasih the movie on 20th May 2011. For those interested, check out the trailer below.

I have separated the review into pros and cons. Read below: [SPOILER ALERT]:

Pros

1. Excellent cinematography. Some scenes, like the one at the cemetery, had a superb angle. We were gobsmacked!
2. Superb acting
3. Location of certain scenes was brilliant, especially the ones shot overseas (the one in Petra, Jordan)
4. Well defined plot with sub-plots that gave the whole movie an enjoyable depth
5. All characters had depth and were colourful characters (I guess that was inherited from the TV series, I am comparing this to the recently released Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa where the characters and plot were too simple)
6. Brilliant Islamic messaging that highlights modern stereotypes.
   • This is the scene where Adam invited an Ustaz to the rehab center that he owns for talk on a certain religious topic. The Ustaz refused to proceed with the talk as he said the audience (the boys and girls in the rehab) were not dressed appropriately and lack manners. Adam said there’s no point if we enforced manners and Islamic dressing if we do not help them with their inner understanding on the religion, rather than focusing on the facade. The Ustaz did not agree and he left.
   • Another is when the boss of a certain firm wanted to engage Nur Amina to design a night club (she’s an architect). Amina refused to accept the job offer as she said it’s against her principles to be involved in something that is not permitted in Islam (haram activities). The boss lashed back at her saying she sounded ridiculous, like somebody from a village, and with this mindset she could never progress in this modern world. He also said she is not being thankful as he said he could have given the job to anybody.

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Day 2 (Saturday, 26^th March 2011)

Related posts: Siem Reap Day 1, Day 2, Day 3

Today is our 1 day Angkor tour. Soknin (our tour guide) picked us up around 8AM. We headed straight to the Angkor registration counter. There were different counters for different ticket types.

• 1 day pass: USD20
• 3 day pass: USD40
• 7 day pass: USD60

Since we signed up for the 1 day tour, Soknin went to the counter to pay and collect our tickets. We also had to line up to take a photo ID for our 1 day pass. The photo ID is used to enter the various temples that we’ll be going on later.

Angkor registration

Our first stop was Angkor Wat. OK, for those who are not familiar with the Angkor temples, refer to the map below.

Angkor Temple Map

Angkor Wat is only 1 of the many temple complexes in the whole area. The Angkor Wat complex is 1.5KM by 1.5KM. And other complexes are way bigger than that. It was after I visited Angkor Wat that I realized I should have taken either the 3 day or 5 day tour. I’m a big ancient history buff and there were other temples complexes that I wanted to see that are just too far and couldn’t be covered within the 1 day trip.

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Day 1 (25th March 2011)

Related posts: Siem Reap Day 1, Day 2, Day 3

This is my blog entry of our 4 days 3 nights trip to Siem Reap, Cambodia. We took the Air Asia Go package for RM1139. Below are the details:

• Hotel (Prince D Angkor Hotel) + Flight = RM865
• Transfer from airport to hotel = RM12
• Transfer from hotel to airport = RM12
• Angkor Wat 1 day tour (small circuit) = RM161
• Tonle Sap floating village morning tour = RM89

We arrived in Siem Reap around 7:45AM, just as scheduled. I was impressed with the airport. It was modern, the staffs were friendly and it was of modest size (for a town like Siem Reap).

Siem Reap Airport - baggage collection

Baggage pickup was a breeze as our flight was the only flight that arrived that morning. On our way out some of us converted our US Dollars to the Cambodian Riel. The exchange rate was around USD1 = 4000 Riel. I didn’t change any as I’ve been told the US Dollar is very much in use here (due to the fluctuations of the Cambodian Riel).

Near the exit, I spotted an Axiata Hello mobile service provider shop. Axiata is a big Malaysian mobile brand, hence I walked over to see what packages they were offering. Turns out the prepaid plan (USD 10) had good value for money. I was mainly interested in the data plan as I’m a facebook and twitter on-the-go kinda guy. They have a prepaid Blackberry plan where the daily data plan is USD0.75 for 10MB. I signed up for that one. Activation took around 5-10 minutes and right after that I was able to tweet and facebook immediately.

Siem Reap airport - pickup

We were greeted at the entrance of the airport by a tour guide from Seagull Tourist, Mr Thun Soknin. A very polite and friendly Cambodian. He explained to us basic Cambodian culture, 2 of which I shall point out here:

1. Cambodian women do not shake hands with men, they only do the Sampeah
2. The Sampeah has 4 different “respect levels”, from friends or peers (at chest level), to adults or parents (at mouth level), to Buddhist monks (at forehead level) and finally to god or Buddha (above your head)

It is interesting to note that Malay custom has a similar concept when performing a “sembah” (similar to Sampeah) to royalty. For example, in the Perak royal court, the sembah at mouth level is done to “Raja bergelar”, the one at forehead level is performed to “Raja Muda” and the one above your head is performed for the Sultan.

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Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa

Finally, the long awaited Malaysian movie of the year was released a few days ago. For those who haven’t heard of this movie, check out the trailer below. Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa is based loosely on the actual Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa that written in the 16th Century (historians are still unsure exactly when it was written).

I went to see it with my family a few days ago and this is by far the best action-epic movie that a Malaysian producer has ever made. It was amazing. The cast, the fighting scenes and the special effects.

Anyway, here are my reviews [SPOILER ALERT]:

• Very good action scene. Fast paced, realistic fighting choreography and impressive show of epic battles
• Interesting plot with sub-stories, although they could improve by providing more depth on other characters
• Excellent casting. They got the perfect hero, and the heroin
• Brilliant display of culture and dressing of the time (~2nd Century CE)
• Beautifully written classic Malay language, especially the poems, absolute classic
• Not so brilliant choice of music, they should have created a proper theme song
• The ending was a bit rush, you would agree if you had watched it. They could use a few more scenes to show what happened after the battle. For example, they could use a scene to show Merong’s body brought back to his village and Embok crying over his body, while putting her hand on her tummy (she was pregnant), saying “zuriat-zuriat mu akan berlansung dari kandunganku and jadilah mereka raja-raja yang teragung di tanah ini” (English: your descendants would live on from my womb and they would be great kings of this land). Yes, that was my modest attempt at classic Malay.

All in all, it was a great effort by KRU Studios. I felt really proud watching it. Malaysian production has come a long way, and this movie is definitely gonna make it internationally. They have room for improvement, and I hope from here onwards we’ll be creating even bigger and better epic movies!

Tan Son Nhat International Airport

I didn’t set my expectations very high. Being a socialist country with a deep war history, I figured the development would be about the same as Jakarta, or perhaps less. I was in for a big surprise when I landed at Tan Son Nhat International Airport (HCMC’s international airport). Their airport is modern, clean, efficient, and they really captured my heart with the “ASEAN” lane. Their airport is miles ahead of Jakarta’s sleazy and dirty airport!

Caravelle Hotel

We checked into Caravelle Hotel, which is right smack in the middle of District 1. We had a nice view of the city. One smart thing that I did in this trip (which I should have done for the Jakarta trip) was that I got myself a travel guide book. I highly recommend getting a travel guide book to everyone as it helps you to plan your trips better and so that you know what are the key attractions of your destination.

HCMC Travel Guide

Halal @ Saigon

As all of us were hungry, we went to explore the nearby areas for restaurants. Mum smsed her friend to see if there are any halal restaurants in the area. Surprisingly, our hotel is quite near to the Muslim quarter in the city. We reached the Muslim area less than 10 minutes. We had lunch at a restaurant called Halal at Saigon. The food was awesome and reasonably priced. I was surprised to find the staff there speaking Malay! Later I found out the owner is a Malaysian lady, so perhaps they learnt from each other?

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