Our Last Quarterly Meeting......

Today is our last quarterly meeting with Adnan Zainal Abidin, the CEO of ELNG, who will fly back to Malaysia to shoulder another vital role as one of the Vice Presidents of Petronas. That such recognition, if I may say it, is given to a person who really deserved it – Congratulations Adnan. He has been with this Petronas JV in Egypt since April 2006. During his 4 years (and 2 months) stint and sovereignty, he has made numbers of significant improvement to the company, such as, HR systems, QHSE culture process, Plant Operations philosophy and to certain extends the mindset & culture of the local. He had successfully placed this young dynamic company at least at par with the world class multinationals veterans. Number of achievements had been attained, such as, 14 Million man-hours without LTI, Tri-ISO certifications, RosPa Gold Awards, etc. during his reign. Interestingly, many people that I’d met sincerely mentioned that one of Adnans’ legacies, which is close to their heart and soul, is the Masjid At Taqwa. All these will never be realized without the excellent leadership styles that he possessed, his determination, high sense of integrity, resilience, his mental endurance and last but not least, professionalism.
Talking about his character and behavior; he was the type that never bother about protocol – down to earth, simple yet assertive; he may look fierce but he has a big white heart that never take things personal and negative; approachable and easy to mingle with; and last but not least he has superb CPU that always kept himself up-to-date in all aspects, thus enable him to execute any tasks mandated to him brilliantly.
Million of thanks for all the things that you have done to me that had made me who I am now and please accept our humble apologies for all our shortcomings. Wish you all the best for your future endeavor and undertakings. May you achieve Allah swt’s blessing for any good things that you do.

Mori Sushi Cairo Experience

Alhamdullillah, we had the chance to try the Japanese cuisine at Mori Sushi at Road 9, al Maadi, Cairo during our visit to Cairo early this week, which coincide with M Aiman and Afiqah’s 2 days break. Japanese cuisine – sushi, tempura, sheshimi - is one of my favorites. The only thing that sometime holds us back is the cost, which is sometime ridiculously expensive.
M Aiman and Afiqah tried various items in the menu. I, besides the standard sushi sets, tried Japanese chicken noodle that I thought was similar to the popular Sarawak Kolong Mee aka Mee kolok. In summary, the service and the hospitality of the staff were commendable; the foods and mixed fresh fruit juices were scrumptious and luscious; the ambience was awesome and to top it all, the price was reasonable. Thanks to Mustafa for successfully arranging this family dinner.

Summer Exhibition: Their Last Attempt

Kudos to both Afi and Muhammad Afiq for their relentless efforts they put in making their last art exhibition in Egypt not only successful but a memorable one. Thanks also to their art master – Mr. Yates for persistently showing them the path, guiding them passionately and coached them sincerely. Nevertheless, like I used to say, it is all depends on us ourselves to perceive, adopt and adapt the things around us. We can have a good teachers, superb systems, excellent tools, etc. , but if we do not put our attitude and efforts to achieve what we is good for us, then don’t blame others.
We, Nana, M Aiman, Afiqah and I, as part of the team, spent around 45 minutes with them to boost their morale and to provide them with our inexorable support for their success. Muhammad Asri was with them, besides lending his hands but also learning from his brothers on how to manage the exhibition.

This year, Afi presented his ‘dynamic model’, the ‘Iceberg’ and ‘black & white’ sketch, whereas M Afiq had 3 items on display; the ‘dead end’, the ‘animation’ and the ‘futuristic’ art. All the art pieces were not only awesome but unique and impressive.

What else could I say; all the best for your future endeavor and most of all, may Allah swt bless whatever that you do good for you, family, relatives, friends and community irrespective of their colors, shapes and paradigm.

Breakthroughs by Andrew Mathews

""Imagine you are driving a race car at 200 km an hour when suddenly you find yourself sliding out of control and heading for a brick wall. What do you do?If you said, "Close my eyes" that's not a good answer.Here's what all race car drivers know and what Toyota Corolla drivers should know – when you lose control, you keep your eyes fixed on where you want to go.You don't look at where you have been. You don't even look at where you are. You focus on where you need to get to. So what about when your life veers out of control? The same rule applies. You keep your eyes fixed on where you want to go. If you have just lost all your money, you don't look back. If you just lost your job, you don't look back. If you just left a relationship, you don't look back. You forget about blaming your boyfriend. You forget about blaming yourself.
IN A NUTSHELL

When times get rough there's one way out. Keep your mind fixed on where you want to go."

Above is the excerpt from my subscription from Andrew Mathews newsletter no 61 subscription. Well, he is one of my favorites authors and I had series of his books on my shelves. Plan to grab his latest - Happiness in Hard Times when I go back to Malaysia later or probably will ask my friend to by one and pay him later. Back to the above, the newsletter arrived in my email this morning when I was on the way to office. It came right when I need it. One way or another, it has boosted back my morale.

LN00: Lebanon Adventure

We continued our backpacking trip to Lebanon on 8th of April 2010. We moved out from Al Balad Hotel at 07:20 hours. Amid the chilly morning of Dimashq, Ahmed had waited for us with his Hyundai H1 since 07:05 hours. We arrived at the Syrian border around 08:40 hours after a brief stop at the tomb of Habil. Actually, from Dimashq to the Syrian border through the Mezzeh highway is about 30 kilometers away or about 30 minutes drive. Alhamdullillah, the weather was on our side and all of us were zealously excited to see what Lebanon has to offer.
We spent or rather wasted about 50 minutes of our time at the border merely because of the unorganized implementation of processes. I believed there are systems and good processes in placed, but because of the poor management and attitude of people, time was wasted, customers grumble and tarnished the image of their beloved country. What had agitated me most during the 50 minutes was; we were ‘kicked’ from one counter to another, etc. and at one instance, there were group of people who came later immediately entertained simply because of ‘felus’. It was a matter of principle. I’d prefer to stay hours in the queue rather than denying my dignity.
We left the border at 09:30 hours and arrived at Lebanon border 15 minutes later. As we approached the border, we were a little bit worried by the presence of fully equipped masculine looking army and police officers. They were however, very friendly and kind to us. It was more organized here as compared to its neighbor. While waiting for Azmi to settle the immigration matter, amid the freezing weather, we had good sips of tea and coffee at the nearby kiosk. Amir helped me to change my USD at one of the money changer 50 meters away from the Immigration office next to the well-maintained public toilets. Despite many cars and people, it took us about 30 minutes to clear up all the necessary things.

After happily crossing both borders, we went through Baalbek, but we decided to go straight to Jeita Grotto and skipped visiting the historical spots of Baalbek, which mainly are just the ruins or remnants of the old castle and palace. At a glance, the scenarios at the border town and other suburbs were more happenings, modern and serene as compared to Syria. Nevertheless, that was not what we were here for!.

Lebanon or Lubnan in Arabic or Malay is officially the Republic of Lebanon. Located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, Lebanon is bordered by Syria to the north and east, and Israel to the south. Lebanon's location at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian hinterland has dictated its rich history, and shaped a cultural identity of religious and ethnic diversity.

The distance between the Lebanon borders to Beirut is about 60 km. However, we spent almost 2 hours crossing the mountain range before arriving at the coastal region of Lebanon mainly due to heavy traffics on the narrow winding roads. This was one of the things that Lebanon needs to look into seriously – the road system.

LN01: Jeita Gretto - our Half Cooked Experience!

Lebanon is a country of karsts areas rich with mountains that offer spectacular scenery and scenic view and the mountainous caves are spread in different regions. In one of these regions in the valley of Nahr El-Kalb at 18km North of Beirut, is found Jeita Grotto, one of the most marvelous natural wonders in the world. The road leading to the caverns is carved in the mountains and surrounded with trees. The all around beautiful nature is perfectly in tune with the site.

Our main intention of visiting Jeita Grotto, one of the popular touristic spots of Lebanon, was photo shooting session of its magnificent water cave. We arrived there at around 11:15 hours, the weather was nice and there were only few groups of visitors at the lower grotto – basically its main entrance.

With a magisterial splendor, the grotto is characterized by extraordinary limestone concretions of stalactites and stalagmites sculpted naturally in different forms, sizes and colors. That was what I read.

I went to the tickets counter and enquired from the friendly charming English speaking staff all the details, the dos and the don’ts of Jeita Grotto. The price of tickets for 10 of us, which includes the teleferik ride, visit to both lower and upper Grottos, was about 100 USD. Very impressive indeed! But what turned me off, the lady informed me that we are not allowed to take photo, unfortunately!!!!!Hence, we cancelled off our plan – which did not conform to our main objective. Feeling cheated by the information I read in their website, we ended up taking photos at the base or at the entrance of the Grotto.

LN02: The Lovely Jouneih

18 km north of Beirut is Jounieh; the playground of the Middle East as described by "The Washington Post" few years ago. Beautifully located on the majestic Bay of Jounieh on the sea coast of the Mediterranean, Jounieh, is the city of ancient civilizations and a modern business center for the today visionary entrepreneur.
This city still retains some of the charm of yesterday in the old stone souq area near ferry terminal. The area-known as "Old Jounieh" has recently undergone an overhaul and there are outdoor cafes and restaurants mixed among boutiques, artisan shops, banks, supermarkets, hotels of all categories. The beach line was awesome, sexy and lured our temptations.
It is said that, during the summer season, a night time ascent and descent gives you a remarkable sparkling view of the Jounieh and bay area. During the spring and early summer months, you can leave a balmy sunny day along the cost and arrive at a fog enshrouded terminal building on the top.

After wandering around the ‘old’ and ‘new’ Jounieh, our hunger forced us to stop at KFC, located in front of the beach line. Muhammd Afiq and I went to the Western Union to change my USD and we spent some time exploring the beautiful spectacular beaches and the well-organized/designed town - and still developing. The people were in general belong to the high-class categories, wearing branded attires and driving high end cars, such as Porsche, X6, Lamborghini, etc. Sad to mention, Pesona or Gen2 or any other similar species, were not in the list!

I must say, the cost and standards of living here is relatively high. Ranked 4th in the world, the total GDP (2010 estimates) of this 4.3 million population was about 59 Billion USD, which gives another number of 15K USD per Capita. These facts had proven me wrong. As the saying goes; “seeing is believing.” It was always in my little mind that, Lebanon in general was still under-privileged and far behind from the development line. The attitude of the people had helped the country to bounce back from their past dramatically positive.

LN03: Byblos

From Jeita Grotto we went to Byblos or Jubayl in Arabic. It is a Mediterranean city in the Mount Lebanon Governorate, about 42 kilometers north of Beirut. Byblos is believed to have been founded around 5000 BC, and according to fragments attributed to the semi-legendary pre-Trojan war Phoenician historian Sanchuniathon, it was built by Cronus as the first city in Phoenicia. Today it is believed by many to be one the oldest continuously-inhabited cities in the world.
It is attractive to archaeologists because of the successive layers of debris resulting from centuries of human habitation. The site first appears to have been settled during the Neolithic period, approximately 5000 BC. Neothlithic remains of some buildings can be observed at the site. During the 3rd millennium BC, the first signs of a town can be observed, with the remains of well-built houses of uniform size. This was the period when the Phoenician civilization began to develop.

Today, Byblos is a modern city. It remains one of Lebanon's biggest tourist attractions, mainly because of its rich history and scenic mountains overlooking the Mediterranean. Most of the people of Byblos are Maronite Catholics.

It is a prosperous place with glass-fronted office buildings and crowded streets. But within the old town, medieval Arab and Crusader remains are continuous reminders of the past. Nearby are the extensive excavations that make Byblos one of the most important archaeological sites in the area.

We performed our obligation prayers at a small mosque called Masjid Ibrahim Adham within the tourist area of the Byblos port. Next to the mosque was a souvenir shop owned by very friendly old men (could not recall his name). After the congregation prayer, we had the chance meeting group of Lebanese from Tyre of the southern Lebanon. And, as for remembrance, they invited us to take picture with them, who were mainly teachers in profession.

The Lebanese is one of the beautiful species created by Allah swt not only by their physical appearance, but also their ascent, hospitality and attitudes. Albeit the destruction resulted from the commotion with their neighbor, they managed to recover and bounced back expeditiously in many aspects – infrastructure, economy and morale. Last year, where many countries around the globe hit by the recession, they have recorded a positive increase of tourist visiting them.

LN04: Beirut that I know...

It is one of the places in this world that I must visit. Alhamdullillah, with the wealth and health granted by Allah swt, my dream came true. I have read and heard lot of stories about Beirut especially its ‘involvement’ in the never ending story of Israel-Arab crisis. Even though, the ambience and the relationship are considerably improving, but some of the wounds are still bleeding. CNN and some other Western media persistently conveyed half cooked messages to the people around the globe and some (news) of the stories were fabricated. They were, however, had successfully convinced people with their ‘news’ that had created a negative perception about the Arabs in general. Ironically, the Arabs or the Muslims themselves (definitely not all) influenced by the propaganda merely to satisfy their desire and on the other hand, sad to mention, had disregarded the truth of the Qur’an and al Hadith.
Talking about Beirut, it is positioned on a peninsula extending westward into the Mediterranean Sea, about 94 km north of the Lebanon-Israel border. It is the largest city in Lebanon and accommodates more than 2.1 Million inhabitants. The city is flanked by the Lebanon mountains; it has taken on a triangular shape, largely influenced by its situation between and atop two hills: Al-Ashrafieh and Al-Musaytibah. The Beirut Governorate area is of 18 square kilometers, and the city's metropolitan area is of 67 square kilometers. The coast is rather diverse; rocky beaches, sandy shores, and cliffs are situated beside one another.

One of the most famous districts at Beirut is Raouché – a densely residential and commercial neighborhood. It is known for its upscale apartment buildings, numerous restaurants, cliff-side cafés and its wide seaside sidewalk, the Corniche, where strollers and joggers crowd the pavements in the evenings and weekends.

During one fine evening, we joined the crowd at the Raouché’s corniche. We strolled along the corniche while enjoying the Mediterranean breeze and meeting people from various parts of the world. Fun and entertaining! We went to the sexy beach and climbed the nearby cliff – for photo shooting of course! It was awesome! Some Lebanese teenagers greeted us in Chinese and some smart dude politely asked us - “where are you from?” – A standard question we normally we received from Arab kids, and sometime – “what is your name?”

Off the coast of Raouché, there is a natural landmark called the Pigeons' Rock (also known as the Rock of Raouché). Located at Beirut's western-most tip, the two huge rock formations, which stand like gigantic sentinels, are a popular destination for locals and visitors alike. Unfortunately, the timing was not suitable to capture the uniqueness of these rocks. I was not actually satisfied from the result of my efforts – see top picture above. Anyway, taking photo at this popular spot together with other craze shutter bugs was indeed a very memorable experience.

One thing that I must mention here; while sitting and relaxing at corniche, you will be able to see many high-end charming cars driven by exquisites and gorgeous high class Lebanese. Masha Allah! I paused and recalled a famous analogy: A good ship is called a ship when it functions excellently crossing the wild ocean. It needs water to function, but if the water fills in the haulage of the ship, it will not be able to function and sink. Henceforth, we need the world for us to build ourselves for the life thereafter, but be careful ! …Don’t let the world enter in you.

New Books on our Shelf

These are three of our latest books collections. On the left - The Leader who Had No Title by Robin Sharma – the no 1 bestselling author of The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, which I’ve bought at the KLIA’s International departure annex building when I was in Malaysia early this month. The PS, I love You by Cecilia Ahern – one of the international bestseller, bought by Afi at the Summer Bazaar for his mom. Autumn Quail by the late popular Egyptian Writer, Naguib Mahfouz bought by Nana at San Stefano to complete her Naguib Mahfouz collection. As for me, The Leader who Had No Title is one of my favorites so far. It was indeed very entertaining yet enlightening. The author, Robin Sharma had successfully customized the story line with simple English conforming to users – of all levels’ requirement. I must say, it is a management book, but suitable for all walks of life – the corporate group and laymen alike. I have asked my kids who are at the high school to read it as well. They were quite hesitant as they thought the book is not suitable for them. It was not a good excuse though; hence I explained it to them. Quoted from the book; “ No excellent leader ever got to lofty platform they reached by feebly clinging to fear filled excuses”. My dear kids, victims leave by excuses – and ultimately die by them.

The Culture of this Millennium?

Culture as defined by Encarta English Dictionary: shared beliefs and values of group – the beliefs, customs, practices, and social behavior of a particular nation or people or people with shared beliefs and practices or shared attitudes – a particular set of attitude that characterizes a group of people. Culture in my definition is the manifestation of the language, mind and soul of group of people who have one common aspect. By having said that, culture exists since the existence of human being thousands of years ago. There are hundreds if not thousands types of culture that evolves from one decade to another, which makes our life full of fun, interesting and yet challenging.
In this decade, the blend of creativity and innovation has made our life much simpler and borderless. The colors, shapes and characters, which traditionally defined the culture of human being is no more relevant. In this millennium, there are many types of culture born and developed by people. And one of it, the one that I am going to talk is the Facebook Culture.
Facebook was founded by Mark Elliot Zuckerberg who was born in White Plains, New York to a Jewish family and raise in Dobbs Ferry, New York. Born in May 14, 1984, he is currently one of the youngest (at 26 years old) billionaires in the world with personal wealth of US$4 billion. Actually, Zuckerberg co-founded Facebook (FB) with fellow classmates Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin, and Chris Hughes while attending Harvard and to be specific, he launched it from his dorm room on February 4, 2004. Thanks to him and his friends for inventing such innovative infrastructure in the cyberspace that had made this world become more ‘smaller’ and borderless.
Zuckerberg, in my opinion has not only invented FB for people to share their photos and thoughts, but instead had created and developed a cyberspace community with its own culture. In short span of time, relatively speaking, people of all levels from all walks of life of various faiths, globally, became united and unconsciously subscribed themselves to the community – the FB Community (FBC). Irrespective of their mother tongue languages, the FBC has its own language and literature, comprises of simplified words and emoticons, hence the FBC Jargon.
The FB allows its community to release their attitude – perception, thoughts, and disposition openly in the net (they brazenly ‘exposed’ their identities or even dignities!!!?) ; it provokes its member to defend and show-off their ego voluntarily – shamelessly; it encourages its people to talk or chat free of charge, 24 hours a day and seven days a week – hence they talk openly everything under the sun, flirting, criticizing, joking, etc., even to someone who actually they don’t know whom they never meet before; and it educates its people in many aspects, such as business, innovation, etc.
As much as we know, every coin has two sides and what I am worry about the FBC are: its people somehow or rather, had disengaged their values and principles; deviated from the religious path (need to be further elaborated though); lose their focus, thus unproductive; and devalued their dignity. This is alarming! Albeit equipped with great CPU and the fifth sense, human being, more often than not, misused or abused what had been given to them – many things. Wives sneaked around from their husbands to satisfy their crazes and addictions – chatting with their so called ‘friends’ - friends whom they actually did not have any single clue of their backgrounds, motif and agenda; through FB or any other platforms. Worst case, they chat addictively and excitingly with webcam ‘on’ adventuring their desire, hence, hooked with immoral activity denying their faith and dignity! They gave excuses to not giving attention to their husbands just to be with its community – the FBC and, of course, vice-versa. And, what astonished me, she, without feeling any guilty with pride doing it!

Light at The Above of the Tunnel

Dalam perjalanan kami ke syurga, kami tersesat di sebuah persimpangan, ada sebuah mahligai yang bergermelapan mengalir air madu dicelah taman dihiasi permata biru, kami khayal selalu!
Dalam perjalanan kami ke syurga, kami hanyut dibuai suara merdu, mendayu membuat kami kamaruk memburu kata-kata palsu, semudah itu?
Dalam perjalanan kami ke syurga, kami ketagih berhibur mengadai melanggar batas maruah menurut hawa nafsu tanpa segan silu, lupakah sapa kamu?
Dalam perjalanan kami ke syurga, kami terpaut tertipu oleh rupa palsu mengumpan kalbu yang terkulai layu membuat kami terpaku, walaupun kami tahu semuanya tipu?
Hancur harapanku, punah segala pelaburanku, sia-sia semua kata-kata hikmah ku, berkecai semua kasih sayangku yang selama ini ku pangku demi keluarga sanak saudaraku, demi Allah yang Satu. Namun, kata-kata Allah Rabbul Jalil - “jangan kamu sangka kamu sudah beriman, sedangkan kamu belum di uji? “ – memujuk hati sanubari ku yang layu. “sedangkan Nabi mangampunkan ummah”, kata-kata hikmah menyinari kalbuku. Terima kasih Allah kerana menjinakkan hati dan memulihkan pemikiran ku dengan sinar iman dan nur ilmu. Aku terharu, aku pilu, aku silu, aku terkedu dengan apa yang berlaku, namun, aku percaya masih ada sinar menyinari hidupku dari Allah Yang Satu.

A Zaidi's Farewell:M Rosdi's House Warming:Solat Hajat

Yesterday, after my hectic Malaysia trip, I went to Cairo with Nana, M Aiman, Afiqah attending Ahmad Zaidi’s farewell at Le Pacha, Giza – located between Al Soraya and MaXim along the Nile River. We moved from Alexandria, specifically from our house at around 16:05 hours. It was rather late though. Mild migraine attacked me, thus forced myself to shut off my eyes and brain. It worked, after almost two third of the trip, I woke up and stop at my favorite Masjid Ar Rahman near Castrol Fuel station along the Desert road or highway. Refreshed by the ablution, I performed my two raka’at ‘Asar prayer.
Alhamdullillah, the traffic was not that heavy and we arrived at Le Pacha around 19:15 hours. I was the first to arrive and it is always better to be the first though.
The food was great and the ambience was nice. After Zaidi recited his nearly 20 minute’s farewell speech, the party adjourned at 22:55 hours.
Nana and the kids were at Yusmadi’s house. They fetched me from Le Pacha, despite the horrible traffic congestion, at 23:05 hours. I have slight miscalculated the road traffic versus the Egyptian culture, hence the very late check in at JW Marriot at Mirage city. The highly competent caliber of the JW Marriot and their great efficient services energized my franticness and motivated my self-esteem. Upon my arrival at the lobby around 00:15 hours, I showed them the on-line hotel booking confirmation from my PDA. The lead crew, Michael responded positively; “No need Sir, we know you very well” and he went immediately to the monitor while his hospitality entertained me. I explained to him why I was late and he felt sorry for that.”Ok Sir, I will give you our Junior Suite!” he comforted me. “That is great Michael” I jovially responded and thanked him. It was merely less than ten minutes, I received the card key and left for the suite with Nana and the kids.
We checked out at 12:00 hours the next day and went to Maadi for Mohamed Rosdi’s house-warming party after the Friday prayer. It was a great house-warming, the varieties of foods were great and M Rosdi was really a superb host.
At 17:50 hours we arrived at “Rumah Sarawak” for the Solat el Hajat program organized by IMSAK – the Association of Sarawak Student in Egypt. This decent association had somehow or rather made tremendous improvement in many aspects: The cleanliness of their hostel is remarkably clean and organize; there were many significant activities and program organized since early this year; now they had recently launched their first mini market; they had also renovated another room for rental purposes to any visitors or travelers (mainly due to the existing one is fully occupied; they are currently working with the Malaysian Embassy formulating a project paper for the major renovation of the whole building and last but not least, they had just got their blog launched (in February 2010) in the cyberspace – http://IMSAKMESIR.blogspot.Com.
After the program – Solat Hajat, we departed for Alexandria at around 20:44 hours. Afiqah and m Aiman slept all the way. I dozed off the half way through and finally arrived at 23:55 hours. Alhamdullillah Salamah.

8 hours Experience at KLIA

Immediately after the President Special Address on May 4 2010 at KL Convention Center, I skipped the refreshment part of the program, grabbed my luggage from the concierge, paid the hotel taxi service sums of RM 150 and off me go to KLIA. That was around 16:50 hours. It was raining heavily during the first half of the journey. Arrived at the KLIA around 17:50 hours. The ETD of my flight to Doha was actually on May 5 2010 at 02:55 hours. But, I decided to go to KLIA early simply because I want to study the people character and behavior or to specific, travelers. Basically I have 7 hours to do that! After I have placed my medium luggage and a box filled with dry foods onto the trolley, I went to the food court at the second floor of this modern contemporary majestic building that had won several awards. I pressed the “down” button of the modern industrial size elevator. Then, I waited for few minutes. After a while, the tempered glass door of one of the elevators opened. The indicator indicated me “UP”. However, I decided to go in. There were few people inside the elevator – a man at late 30s with his 3 kids I think and an old woman. “ops, it goes up!” I blurted “well it’s ok” I continued talking to myself. After few seconds of silence, the man with his three kids candidly reminded us; “if you see the green button, it means ‘UP’ and the red button for ‘DOWN’.” I responded courteously; “Oh .. Yes, it is…emm..thank you…,really ignorant about it!” ‘Ting’ the bell – the audio level indicator indicating the elevator has arrived at the booked level. The door opened and the man with his three kids and a trolley went out, without saying ‘hi’ whatsoever. He is not obligated to do it anyway?. He did nothing wrong. The point that I want to make is; that was a character by itself that colors our life.

The 2nd floor level indicator blinked and another ‘Ting’ came out. I went out from that glass box and pushed my trolley out to the 2nd floor – the food court of this majestic building. I parked the trolley not far from one of the food outlets, while keeping my eyes to it, and grabbed one of my favorites Malaysian dish – fried cat fish with chilli..yummy yummy! Then, I went to the beverages counter. I stood there for few minutes while enthusiastically watching one of the crew preparing ‘teh tarik’. Another guy came to left side of the queue. Another crew came to the counter and without feeling guilty she asked the guy who came later his order! I whispered to myself; “cool down Saiful…don’t say anything!..relax”..then she gave her me her egoistic look, starred at me and said nothing! I opened up my mouth; “Hot lemon tea please!” I asked politely. She shook her head. I guessed she did not catch up my words. I smiled and repeated nicely my order; “Hot lemon tea…..” she then put her fingers on the cash register and claimed; “4.50 ringgit..” I took the small change that I kept inside my pocket while she prepared my order. After not more than one minute, she returned to the counter with the hot lemon tea. She put the drink on the counter and I handed over the money to her. I had to carry the paper cup filled with almost full hot lemon tea to my table which was about 10 meters away. I mean literally hot tea! Along the way, the hot tea spilled onto my hand and fingers. And, it was really irritated! I ran to the counter for tissue paper. Again, the same girl, somberly hesitant responded to my request. I poured my mineral water on to the tissue paper provided by the girl and placed it to the burnt part of my hand and finger. The simple first-aid helped reducing the pain. It was just a minor burnt though. Again, the point that I want to make is; that one of its kind Cashier –girl was another character that had taught me another lesson.
I spent almost one and a half hours at the food court, watching Discovery Channel. Few meters away behind me was a romantic Chinese couple planning their future, laughing and joking mesmerizing their future so as to enhancing their relationship. In front of me, I saw a European lady struggling to order a local fruit juice. I think the local vendor; a young teenage boy was not able to converse fluently in English that caused the miscommunication. I did not make any move though and that was bad of me! Suddenly, the Chinese lady behind me walked to the stall and helped the European lady with her order. I continued watching the Survivor series to kill the time.
The hot lemon tea had been cooled by the chilly atmosphere of the food court. I walked out from the court and went to the departure floor. Both power packs of my satellite guided devices had drained out. I looked at my watch for solat el Maghrib – 40 minutes to go. I still have ample time but I decided to reach the Prayer room to recharge the power pack of my mobile units. After completing my ablution, I went in and found one three-pin-socket on the wall. Unfortunately, it was not functioning. I put back the charger and sat quietly at the back side of the Prayer room. 5 minutes later, I saw three Uzbek performed their ‘Asar congregation @ 19:05 hours? After the second ‘salam’, one of them left. An old Qataris man who speaks good English sat on a chair few feet away, called him; “Where are you from?” he asked politely but with his husky Arabic slang. “Uzbekistan” replied the young good looking guy. “you had prayed 4 raka’at ‘Asar” asked the Qataris; “actually you can pray only 2 raka’at” he continued while showing his two fingers. The Uzbek explained to him that; “I cannot pray 4 raka’at because I stay here and I am not musafirin….my other two friends can”….. He left the room and I just smiled at him. At 19:20 hours sharp, one guy at mid 30s made the Prayer Call – Adzan, while the Qataris voluntarily lent his hands with the prayer mat or ‘sejadah’ in Malay or even in Arabic. I joint him. Sad to mention, some of the mats had worn down and some produced reeking horrible smell! The same guy recited the ‘Iqamah’, and we, mainly the Malays invited unanimously the Qataris man to lead our congregation prayer.
After the prayer, I went to the check-in counter information board. I’d learnt nothing about my flight information yet. Thus, I went to the information counter and asked one of properly dressed young little girl named Azirah; “where would be the check-in counter for Qatar Airways, Miss?” She gave me her big smile, which clearly shown her steel braces clamped on the two rows of her teeth. “F, Sir” she replied. I was skeptical with the answer, because normally it was ‘J’, thus I asked her back; “Are you sure?”. “Yes, Sir….I am very sure” She re affirmed and continued; “Yes, I know it was normally there…’J’, but now the authority placed it at ‘F’.” I thanked her and smiled away. That was another character of people. I walked out from the Information Counter and pushed my trolley to a book store at the other side of the building. I went in and made a round; nothing attracted me and went out! I roamed around at the International Departure area; I saw one guy was sitting on the floor of the wall near the KLIA information kiosk on his left and ATM machines on his right. As I getting closer, he was actually charging his mobile set using the socket sets. That had reminded me about the drained out power of my blackberry. There was a ‘machine’ called Free Charging for Mobile Battery not far from that guy. I had a close look, tried to figure out what is it and how to use it and yet skeptical about it. It looked dodgy to me!...what about if it ‘swallow’ my battery set? Anyway, not to waste my time I used another socket available to charge my Nokia set. There I was, ‘stranded’ waiting to get my phone at least half charged. I sat on my trolley that I parked near one of the futuristically clad beams while experimenting the two lenses that I’ve bought 2 days ago.... to be continued.

KL from the window of 2908 - Mandarin Oriental

I arrived at one of my favorites hotel – the Mandarin Oriental around 23:25 hours. Not what I have expected. I took an Express Railway Link or ERL that was supposedly an express 28 minutes ride from KLIA to KL Central. However, it turned out to be a non express service with 4 stops that caused us about 10 minutes delay! For the same amount of money that you have paid, it was a little bit frustrated. Well, that’s life. What options did I have during that particular time? Nevertheless, the check-in process was very smooth. Upon my arrival at the reception or the front desk, the receptionist – a young Chinese lady (can’t recall her name) greeted me; “Welcome to Mandarin Oriental Sir….Can I help you Sir?” I gave her my passport and reciprocated; “Thank you..yes, please…I would like to check-in.” she took my passport and at the same time out of her courtesy, she politely asked me; “how was your trip, Sir?” “Well, it was a long hectic trip…..but what to do though” I responded with my somber mood. “Yes, Mr. Hj Joll, you will be staying here for two nights and would you prefer smoking or a non smoking room?” She excitingly addressed me by name but courteously reaffirmed my booking. “Nope, I’ve got no preference….thank you” I confirmed my requirement. She took merely 5 minutes and handed over the card key to me; “here is you room key Sir, have a nice day” she kindly closed the conversation, in which I responded;”That was fast…great, thank you”. Near to KLCC and their distinctive services are the two main reasons I put myself here when I am on business trip. Very convenient!
I woke up for my Fajr prayer around 06:05 hours and continued my nap again. The last time I stayed in this hotel was July 2009. Within that short span of time, I would say, there were a lot of changes and development going on around KL. Right in front of the Mandarin Oriental for instance – the view from 2908, 10 months ago, the Developer was still struggling with the ground floor or the lower level of the exclusive condominium. Now, it was up and occupied by millionaire club members and societies. The garden or landscape in front of the hotel has been removed to give way for another project – the underground tunnel and one of the concierges said, for underground shopping complex. Whether his claim was true or not, the fact is that, construction is going on aggressively. The view of KL’s skyline and its inhabitants from this room was amazing and impressive. It reflected the strength and the attitude of the people economically, etc.
KL is always an interesting place to visit. InsyaAllah, God willing, my next tour of duty will be probably based in KL or to be specific the PETRONAS Twin Tower (PETH). Honestly, this is not really my preference. But, as long as I would like to stay with the current Employer, I will commit myself to their policy, business needs and requirements. In my opinion, complying with the companies’ rules is part of the ibadah if you understand the fundamentals of the Islamic teaching well. One needs to put their best efforts, honest and sincerely for Allah swt in anything that he does in this world. What really important is the Almighty Allah Rabbul Jalil’s Blessing, Grace and Mercy. O Allah, please place us at the right place which You think is better for us. Aamiin.