Travelog Santorini, Greece Part 1

Assalammualaikum n hi,


Last summer, my husband and I went to Greece. It was an exciting trip and rasa rugi pulak kalau tak tulis tempat-tempat yang kitorang dah pergi. Kalau biar je, sure dah lupa semua  almost semua tempat yang kitorang pergi and aktiviti yang kitorg buat kat sana.

First, let me remind myself that the cost for this trip is about £550 p person. This includes flights, accommodation, transports, food, tourist attraction fees, and souvenir.

Flight Stansted, London to Athens Greece Ryan Air £256
Flight Athens to Santorini Aegean Airline £ 279.73
Pension Petros Santorini 3 nights 120 Euro = £100
Pan Hotel Athens 1 night £67.24
Ariston Hotel Larissa £ 3 nights £96.92
Megabus £11 + £40 + £11
Terravision £30 return

We went there mainly because of the recommendation given by our friend, laily. She gave triple thumbs up for Santorini and 1 thumb up for Athens. The scenery, atmosphere and culture in Santorini was just spectacular and I can only think that the island really illustrate a piece of heaven.

So, how do we get there? Well, we took a flight from Stansted London to Athens, Greece using RyanAir. The flight only takes about 3 and 1/2 hours from London. But before that, there's a long dramatic story that happened to us just to get to London. From Leeds, we decided to get to Victoria Station to London by Megabus. Initially, it costs us only £5.50 per person. The bus was scheduled at 12:40 am. It has been ages since we last took bus to anywhere. So, we just assumed that the Megabus stand would still be at the same place as last year, at the Kirkgate. We did not know that the bus stand has been changed to York Road, it was just one block away from Kirkgate. It was printed on the freaking ticket. But we did not noticed it soon enough. Hence, we waited at Kirkgate area. There were a few other people who looks like they were about to do a gig what will all their hippie attire and guitars at the stand as well. They asked us if we were waiting for the Megabus too. We said "yes". So, the very-confident-us waited at the stand for a couple of minutes before we noticed a Megabus were coming to our direction. But, the thing is the bus didn't stop. It just went passed through us. We were a bit confused then. We thought, oh well, maybe that bus wasn't for us. It was 12:39 am at the time. Maybe the bus was running late. So, we waited for another 15 minutes at the lame bus stand area. Suddenly, it just hits us. Oh no! What if we might have actually missed the bus? We checked the printed bus ticket confirmation again and then we realized that the bus waited at York Road, not Kirkgate!

We were panicking at the time because we were about to blew our £550-worth of vacation. Everything has been paid when we made our booking with no-cancellation and refund policy. So, we decided to buy the next Megabus ticket regardless of the price; it was £40 per person and made sure that we waited at the right place. Lucky for us, we bump into other Malaysian who missed the bus too. So ada geng. But their flight is in the afternoon. Ours is at 11:05 am. We were supposed to arrive at Victoria Station around 5 am with previous ticket. But with our current ticket, we will arrived at around 8.30 am. If only the bus from Victoria to Stansted airport comes at the right time, then we can make it. If not, we don't! We can only pray that Allah will help us.

The flight itinerary

Luck is just not on our side, we did not make it in time. We arrived a wee bit late and we rushed to the Terravision stand area, about 7 minutes walking distance from Victoria Station. It was 9-ish at the time. The duration from Terravision stand to Stansted airport takes roughly about 1 and 1/2 hours. Therefore, even though if we were able to get the 9.30 am bus to Stansted, the chance of us making it in time to the plane would still be small. I was so disappointed that I almost cried at the stand area. I wasn't prepared to go back to Leeds. 

Despite the odds, we just took the bus. We will try to figure out other ways to get to Greece no matter what. So, there we went. We arrived at Stansted at 11 am. We were so sure that we have missed the flight so we went straight to RyanAir assistance booth. We gave the staff our flight itinerary and told him that we want to buy the next flight ticket, praying that its not too expensive. He then checked the flight info on his computer screen. He looked amused, not sure why. He then stamped our flight itinerary cum flight ticket and told us to go straight to boarding area. The flight was apparently delayed! We were shocked but nonetheless were very happy excited and relief that Allah has actually made a perfect plan ahead of us. Who knew the flight delay could actually saved us all the troubles. We can't thank Allah enough for this.

At the end of the day, we made it to Athens and get to catch the flight to Santorini in the evening (7pm Santorini time). I will write more about the beautiful Santorini in the next post.

I miss Santorini.

efi x

Medical Grads

Salam,

I have always been an avid reader of Pagalavan blog. I like how honest he is and his writings are such an eye opener. His blog is one of my ways of updating myself with whats happening in Malaysia's medical world. I really recommend this blog if you are keen to go back and work, wether as an HO, MO or a specialist in Malaysia's govt hospitals .

In his latest post, it seems that he gained massive visitors from people all over the world especially from Malaysia and Russia just because he mentioned that Russion graduates are "bad". Such a bold man. Loving his style. gaga. Looking at the comments, I can see that many Russian peeps have been defending themselves and I do pity them. I know many of my Jasinian aka TGBian friends who are doing 'fast track MARA' medicine in Russia and oh, most of them have graduated now. They are all very smart people, honest. Only those who scored their trial MARA SPM and did great in the interview got the offer. And obviously, at such young age, who would refuse an offer to do medicine in Russia just after you received your SPM results?

I feel sorry that the majority of Russian grads are being generalised as bad doctors. I pretty much blame the government who sent and sponsored their students over there without properly looking at the university's credibility. I hope they will stop sending students to cikai universities anymore. brrr

p/s: I am so jelly to those who went doing medicine in Russia when I was 17 (just before SPM). I still remember how sad I am when I found out that I didn't get the offer to go to Russia. Hmm.

Then, I kind of jelly with people doing medicine elsewhere who have almost 100% passing rate. (Thats only because I never see anyone ever failed from the university, or if they failed thats prob because they really didn't study or not coming to exams at all) Like wth. Best gileeee. I struggled like mad in here. Endless essays and literature reviews, placement's assessments, MINICEX, WPBA, audits, SSC, clinical placements and exams with high passing marks, which consequently have put me into depression, self esteem and weight issues for 5 years. Then again, God knows best.

efi~

Travelog Alexandria, Egypt Part 2

Salam and hi,

Here is the Part 2 aka what we do on our second day in Alexandria. First, breakfast in the hotel. Roti arab, boiled egg, cheese 2-3 jenis, fig jam and honey. Boleh makan but sikit2 je la. haha. Boleh makan roti cicah madu je. huhu

The breakfast- all pre made

Roti arab

I cracked the egg but later gave it to hubby

El-Mursi Abul-Abbas Mosque

KFC pilihan hati- semua muka gembira

Posing copy cat couple sebelah kitorang :p

Ni kediaman rasmi Royal rasenye 

Us 5

Kucing makan ikan fresh baru tangkap. Ada orang mancing baik hati kasi.

Bride and Groom photoshoot. They all wear Western nye baju kawin in here. Wonder why...

Bunga atas kereta orang kahwin

Pinat kirai jubah 25 Le each

Cari-cari

Tudung banyak corak tapi semua kecik2 licin2 and mahal jugak. In average each 35-45 Le gak. Pandai tawar murah lagi kot dapat? Tapi sebab kami tourist almost like jangan harap la :/

banyak betol jual selipar comel dok rumah ni

Don't know whats this. Rase makanan yang macam Muller rice tu. huhu

Kebab everywhere

Later, we went to  Roman theatre (Built in the 2nd century AD, this Roman amphitheater has 13 semicircular tiers made of white and gray marble). With student discounts we paid 15 Le bahagi 5. This place is a proof that those Roman people has conquered Alexandria one. More details about this place can be seen here. It takes about 1-2 hours touring around this place if you really appreciate the history. If just jalan-jalan tangkap gambar probably 30-40 minutes pun cukup dah. 

Then, we went to Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa. With student discounts, we paid 25 Le each. But they didn't allow camera/video inside, so no pictures. This place a bit in the middle of nowhere. Susah jugak nak cari. Pusing-pusing in the city for a few times, tanya random strangers banyak kali baru jumpa. Bila sampai, ada quite a few British and American tourists gak kat sini with their own tour guide/translator. This place is also one of the seven medieval wonders of the world. 

It was Friday that day and the guys want to perform the Friday prayers. So, we went to El-Mursi Abul-Abbas Mosque. A quite famous mosque in here. Built in 1929. Cantik but tempat perempuan dia kecik skit and toilet hmmm... could do better. Anywhere in Egypt pun actually could do better in terms of hygiene to be fair.

Habis sembahyang, kami semua lapppaaaar. Blame the breakfast. And we want KFC. Murah and nampak macam sedap. Bila makan, memang lagi sedap daripada UK and comparable to Malaysia nye KFC. Menjilat jari ;D

Dah kenyang, kami menuju ke Montazah Palace Gardens. Paid 7 Le per person. It is rather an abnormally huge garden. Ramai orang kahwin shooting sini, couple dating datang sini, picnic family pun mari sini, sambut birthday pun kat sini jugak. They have pantai yang boleh pancing ikan, naik boat, makan-makan. Macam ada kat sini.  Kebun kurma pun ada jugak. 

Petang sikit, kitorang ke Manshiyyah Market. Pinat and me bertungkus lumus mencari jubah, tudung untuk diri sendiri, orang pesan etc etc. But susah rupanya nak cari yang cantik and murah wuuu. Kat Malaysia and Indon lagi banyak rupenye. 

In the end, agak hampa jugak sebab tak dapat beli apa-apa sangat. beli 3 helai shawl= 100 Le. mahal2. uk pun lagi murah shawl. Then, beli jubah arab color meriah tu 25 Le each. Beli 4 jadi 100 Le. Tu je :/

Malam tu, kami ke San Stefano. Tempat shopping posh kat sini. Dekat dengan Four Season Hotel. Kitorang beli dinner chinese food take away, jalan-jalan tengok kedai, makan ice cream, jumpa beberapa orang Malaysia yang study Egypt,  then balik hotel awal. Not sure why. Maybe sebab dah penat and kereta bunyi pelik. Kene bawak bengkel. 

All in all, kalau hotel ada heater dah perfect dah trip hari ni. Oh kalau TV ada channel English and Wifi available pun best. Tipu orang hotel kata ada wifi tapi takde pun sebenarnya. Nak surf only kat lobby from 10 am till 3 pm =.='

Till then.

efi :)

Travelog Alexandria, Egypt Part 1

Salam and hi,

Studying for finals is hard when you have internet within your reach. You may attempt to do online questions on your laptop but your finger is itching to open instagram on your iPhone, while the iPad which was meant to help you by showing medical Youtube videos has betrayed you by showing your favourite Korean movie scenes instead. Sigh. Your books? Well they are opened all the time regardless. My my my. My lack of concentration and focus is worsening lately.

Anyways, I want to write down about my experience in Alexandria in this post. From Mansoura, it took about 3-4 hours driving to get to Alexandria. Luckily, we hired an Indonesian Ustaz who speaks Arabic, who drives Toyota Avanza van (I really thought this ustaz is an elderly who works as tour guide in Egypt. But guess what, ustaz ni umur 25 i think? err mude nye). It cost us 715 Le Per day in Alexandria and 600 Le in Cairo.

Arriving in Alexandria, the first place we went to is our Hotel. We booked Hotel Siesta Alexandria. For three nights, 1 double room and 1 triple room cost us GBP 229. The hotel was not too bad except for finite amount of hot water in the bathroom and lack of heater in the room. It was freezing cold at night. Mind you its still cold in winter although its Egypt. huhu.

Le window

Le sofa

Pictures of the lobby in Siesta Hotel.

Then, finished checked-in and settling down in the room, we went to Alexandria City Centre. It is a really huge mall in Alexandria. We only wanted to eat some simple food in a clean place, so the ustaz brought us here. We decided to eat at the food court since its usually quick, cheap and clean.

I chose chicken kebab and some rice. Cost me about 30 Le i think.

This is pinat's seafood platter and rice. Bit more expensive than mine

This is Azree with his food. Think its the same as mine

They got pizza hut, KFC, Baskin robin, Carl's Junior etc. Plenty of western food branches I must say.

Us without nazam I look chubby here lalalala~

Us right in front of Alexandria City Centre. Thanks ustaz for capturing this picture. hehe

We decided to change our itineraries since we were 3-4 hours behind of our itineraries. So, instead of going straight to Alexandria National Museum, we skipped the museum and went to Fort Qaitbey aka Benteng Qaitbey Alexandria and Pharos Lighthouse Alexandria first.  This is because, according to the ustaz,  this place look better during sunset. He's right though. hehe. These places are included in the ancient 7 wonders of the world. They are significant in Egypt history.  A must go!

I like this pic. Such a peaceful place.

Some of the stalls on the way to benteng Qaitbey

Souvenirss

Me and my other half with the background of Fort Qaitbey. Its actually an imposing castle fortress. The real one was destroyed due to natural disaster (earthquake) or war? Not sure. haha Don't quote me on this.

Enjoying the sunset view in front of Fort Qaitbey

Some more picturesque view of Fort Qaitbey

Since, it almost dark, there's nothing much to see anymore. So the ustaz brought us to Stanley Bridge before we went to dinner. Why it's called Stanley bridge? I have no idea. According to ustaz, a guy named Stanley build this bridge haha Hafta check the fact.

Here is the Stanley Bridge. A normal looking bridge with the view of Mediterranean sea at its side. Since its one of the tourist attractions, a must go jugak.

Nothing to do here

For dinner, we went to Hosny restaurant. The name of this restaurant reminded me of my classmate who have similar name. haha. This is a seafood restaurant. Quite a posh one I think? We went here primarily because they have Wifi. Ha. Time to update Fb, Instagram and twitter (although I don't have twitter)

Hosny restaurant

Le fishes with goggly eyes

The meja makan

Nazam looked happy here but in reality he was actually struggling to connect to the Wifi when we were all managed to connect to the router easily. Tough luck when internet doesn't like you

This is the actual face of a satisfied customer.

Ordered a grilled fish kongsi 5. Sedap gila a. Rugi tak amek sekor sorang

This is ala prawn nasi goreng. They have side dishes too. Sedap but a bit melekit nasi die

And that's how we spend our first day in Alexandria.

Later Part 2, 3, 4, 5.....

Efi

Travelog Mansoura, Egypt

Salam and hi,

I'm so hangat-hangat tahi ayam bila nk tulis blog. Mula-mula semangat, lepas tu bila malas menjelma habis berabuk blog. not good not good

This post is a bit like my mini-diary when I was in Mansoura, Egypt.

So here we go:

2am: Arrived at Cairo airport. Surprisingly ramai sangat orang dekat immigration die. We were confused for a bit bila a French man yang beratur belakang kitorang suggest kitorang bayar visa tiket at another counter. Dia cite yang die da beratur lama, then bila sampai kaunter immigration diorang suruh die pergi beli visa and beratur balik. Poor guy. So, nazam and my hubby pun pergi juga lah beli visa ticket. I couldn't remember how much we paid for that. The think is they only accept GBP pounds, euro and some other currencies but not Egyption pounds. Very inconvenient! blergh. While waiting for our turn, we managed to witness few dramatic quarrel scenes between some foreigners and immigration officers. Its hilarious because they were both shouting in languages that both of them didn't understand. As a bystander, I just mind my own business. Its 2 am guys. Thankfully, our immigration process went smoothly but the visa ticket. Apparently we don't have to pay for them because we are Malaysians. They gave a refund thanks kakak kaunter.

3.30 am: From cairo airport, we were then dijemput oleh apip and ain (adik kami) ke Mansoura. Naseb baik diorang baik hati jemput kalau tak memang susah nak cari transport at that time. Dengan tak faham bahasa arab, senang kene tipu dan perjalanan yg amik mase almost 3 jam. Diorang booked van and driver, harga 250 Le. So bahagi dengan 5, sorang bayar 50 Le. Bersamaan RM25. Kira murah la tu untuk perjalanan jauh kan. I couldn't remember much of the journey cause I was knackered. I just remembered that the driver drove so fast and braked thousand times due to the bumps on the road.

6.15 am: We arrived at Mansoura. Home sweet home. Walaupun bukan rumah kitorang. hehe. Sembahyang subuh and tido. Like a boss

10 am: Bangun tido. Had shower, breakfast, bincang-bincang nak jalan mane and

10.30 am: The excitement began. kiki

breakfast strawberry gitu

Gambar blur skit. This is in front of ain-apip house door

here's the couple ain-apip hehe

11 am: Tour guide kate jom jalan university mansoura. Daripada rumah dalam 10 minit jalan kaki je dah sampai. University diorang besar jugak. Amek beberapa jam jugak nak cover satu university ke separuh je?

Pintu gerbang university

Stadium diorang pun besar

Ni diorang punye school. Mansoura-manchester programme med edu

Us in front of kedai jual buku medic. Murahh. Depan cover macam original dalam rupenye sume photostate haha

1.00 pm- 5.00 pm: Dah habis melawat University kitorang jalan-jalan keluar pulak. Lapar sebab dah tengah hari kan. Kitorang decide nk g beli makan bungkus, and then makan dekat tepi Sungai Nil. Bunyi cambest kan. ngeh

Power mini bus ni. Orang-orang Arab pun power. Banyak orang boleh sumbat

Ni saje je letak sbb budak tu comel

Pemandangan biase di Mansoura. Bangunan tinggi, banyak kereta, banyak orang dan bising dengan hon. 

Lunch kitorang: Kebab hehe

Tapi sebab tak jumpe gamba sungai Nil yang kat Mansoura tak boleh nak letak. huhu. Then dalam perjalanan balik tu, kitorang sempat singgah kedai kek La Poire Mansoura. Sedap kek die. Recommended untuk try kek situ. hehe. 

5pm-7pm: Lepas sembahyang sume dekat rumah, kami klua balik untuk cari buku-buku Pinat yang ayah die kirim. Memorable moment dalam perjalanan ke kedai ni ialah bile kitorang kene naik van angkut diorang. Murah sangat tapi kalau orang cam kami ni rase bahaya gile bila naik van ni. Dah lah laju, pintu takle tutup sesak dalam van tu. Kalau takde lelaki memang jangan harap lah nak naik haha. 

Saya sempat beli satu quran terjemahan bahasa malaysia. best sebab ada warne-warne untuk tajwid :)

Jalan ke kedai buku agama and quran. Siap tunjuk good lagi orang tu :p

7pm-9pm: Kami teruskan aktiviti dengan mencari makan malam pulak. hoho. Sebab egypt famous dengan nasi mandi hadramawt and ramai recommend suruh try koshary, tour guide kami pun dengan baik hatinye bawak kami ke kedai makan 2 ni. Btw, aiman and kausar pun join dinner ni. Memang meriah kedai kecik ni penuh dengan kitorang je ;D Lepas makan, diorang bawak pulak ke kedai jus buah. Semua buah ade cakap je nak ape.

Ini ialah koshary. Nasi campur macaroni campur tamoto sauce skit and bahan-bahan lain. Sedap. Murah pulak tu. 2 Le je bersamaan RM1 dan dalam pounds 20 pence je. Kenyangg kalau makan. 

Ini ialah nasi mandi hadramawt (ayam). Standed nasi kaler kuning dan ayam roast. Makan dengan set side dishes dalam 20 Le = RM10, atau GBP2. Kat UK mane nak dapat nasi murah caniii wuuu

Ni antara salah satu side dish die. 

Ni pulak nak masukkan dalam blog sebab ade baby comel name Amna. Muke amoyy habis. hehe

I choose pomegranate juice, tepi tu husband puny carrot susu. Memang rase pure jugak lah juice2 diorang ni. 

Ni waffle coklat diorang. Comel je siap ade stick lagi macam ice cream hehe

 9pm: Malam tu kami tumpang kereta AimanKausar drove by Apip ke tempat-tempat best Mansoura. Salah satu nye ialah balai polis yang baru di bom sehari sebelum kami sampai. Ramai polis and orang kat situ. huhu. Then diorang bawak ke satu jalan kat Mansoura ni. Jalan tu macam happening malam-malam sebab banyak orang jual barang like jubah, manisan etc. Tapi sebab dah dalam kereta, saya best je tido. ngek. tak tau pun cane rupe jalan tu hewhew 

Bombing punye berite on 23rd Dec 13. Kami sampai 24th Dec. Alhamdulillah selamat 

 Dan seterusnya, sampai rumah saya pengsan lagi. Orang lain pun same kot?

Till then~

efi :)