Halloween Party at AIS Vietnam , Friday Assembly and Supprise Award for My Daughter

This week was a very busy week for me since Parents Friends Group of AIS Thu Thiem (PFGTT) was organizing the Halloween activities for the primary kids at AIS. The event was held on 31 October 2014 at Block F of AIS Thu Thiem campus. on the 31 October 2014, The Halloween event started as early as 8.15 a.m and the event was so full with primary kids and activities. I can say it was a successful event for us ( PFGTT) as the group was just formed in a less than a month old, which has been initiated by one of the parent, Ms Shiela and it has organized such an amazing activity for the primary kids in the school.

Besides The Halloween activities in the morning, there was a mass assembly for the primary student in the afternoon. All parents were invited to the event as kids were performing as well as few other activities such as announcement by the teacher and student award. Today was such a lucky day for me and my daughter as this was the first time I attended an assembly and  my daughter was performing her karate recorder and the more surprising was she had received a student awards due to the improvement in class as well as her contribution to her class. I was so proud with her.

Such a great day for me.....

New Mode of Transport & New Friends

On the 7th day we were here my husband bought a folding bicycle for both, me and my daughter with an intention to explore Ho Chi Minh with bicycle or for a light shopping from a nearby supermarket called BigC at Parkson. It was fun. We took a taxi to the shop which was located at the opposite of our area. It is located at the expats area which full of American and Europen. The owner of the shop I believed is American from the English accent he has.

Only him attended to all customers who came to the shop. I saw 2 local ladies but hardly speaks to customers but one of them maybe the partner as the 'Mat Salleh' man was keep talking to her. After minutes of surveying the bicycle we then decided to get folding bicycle for ourselves. White for me and Black for Shakira.

Here are Shakira with the "Mat Saleh" who sell the bicycle.

On the 11th day we were here, Shakira has started her school. The first time she took a school bus to school. On her first day to school I made a friend to a Korean family who send their daughters to the same school with Shakira. The 2nd day Shakira went to school I made a friend to a Philippine lady, a fulltime housewife like me. Her husband is working with INTEL and has been in Vietnam for 5 years. I invited her to our house and had a chat with her. She has 2 daughters and a son and her kids also going to the same school with Shakira. The 3rd day Shakira went to school I made another new friend, A Singaporean lady who married to a Norweigian and she has 2 sons a 2 years old daughter. She is currently has a business and only Tuesday she spend her day with her kids. She gave me  lot of useful information.

Well, life is getting interesting here. Hope I will make more friends here.

Today 6 August 2014 : Boycotting Israeli's Product Vs Consuming Local Product

Today 6 August 2014. As usual I woke as early as 5.30 a.m to perform solat subuh.Then I prepared breakfast for my husband. Like yesterday I prepared tuna sandwiches for his breakfast and for him to bring to office and not to forget a mug of coffee.

My husband will usually go down to the lobby 5 minutes before 7a.m as his company's car will pick him up at around 7.00 a.m. Once he went to the lobby, I will started sweeping and moping the floor and prepare breakfast for myself and my daughter. Today I prepared fried noodle for our breakfast. Normally I will get my daughter to have her breakfast before she start anything else such watching tv or doing her homework.

After finished our breakfast, I get ready to go to the residential management office to check the shuttle service schedule to town. We welcome pleasantly by the receptionist at the counter. The lady who attended me was hardly speaks English, so she wrote down what she understood to get my confirmation. However, she was very pleasant and helpful.

After I've done at the residential management office, I decided to drop by at the groceries shop. There, I looked for flour and some others little groceries shopping. It is very hard to find HALAL products. Now I becoming more concerned and detailed in choosing goods. I will take sometimes to read the ingredient before I place it into my shopping basket. Today I managed to get HALAL flour and sauces. Why is it hard to find HALAL Malaysian product or product from other countries here in Ho Chi Minh? I think here people in Vietnam is so Nationalist and they consume only their product.

Sometimes I was thinking that boycotting Israeli's products is not an issue if we are into local products and if we practicing purely Malaysian lifestyle. Here, in Vietnam I noticed that we can hardly found imported products. We as foreigners in this country are having difficulties to find our local products here in Vietnam or imported products from other "Mat Saleh's" countries that we used to consume in our country. Most Vietnamese I noticed, they like to consume their local product rather than imported one. Only 20% of imported product can be found at Parkson (1 in district One and another one in District 2, which I have shopped there), and most of imported products are to cater the need of foreigners who lives in the surrounding area.

We Malaysian, I noticed easily following trend of other countries especially Western countries. Eating fast food was one time become the city lifestyle, then followed by dining at the branded café like starbuck and Gloria Jeans Coffee. At one time most Malaysian favor to eat at the concept restaurants like Plan B and etc which still offering Western cuisines.  The reason behind it is to promote eating healthy food. Hey eating healthy doesn't mean we have to eat western menu, Malays menu also has varieties of healthy food. Its us to choose.

If we don't choose western menu as our lifestyle, we still can eat and not getting hungry right?. Some people choose to only eat Burger and they choose McDonald or Burger King for their main meal. But without burger you still can eat meat and bread. You still can eat meat by eating satay or rendang. If you are talking about healthy food, Jamie Olivers , the young and famous celebrity chefs has worked so hard to work on his campaign to banned fast food and he won case over McDonald years ago, and yet some of Malaysian still consume what he classified as rubbish. Only recently due to the GAZA conflicts, Malaysian realized that they should boycotting the products that has relations with Israeli's move to destroy Palestenians which Malaysian should have realize years ago by not consuming or discouraging the consumption of any imported products from other country. Besides we should promote and do campaign on consuming local products like Ramli burger.

In my opinion, I would prefer to launch local product campaign rather than loudly campaigning on boycotting Israeli's products. It is a reverse and silent technique of boycotting Israeli's product. A silent economic action to kill Israeli's economic. If we can consume 90% of local products, what  another10% can give to the Israeli's economy?. I believed by spearing the boycotting campaign out loud will only give  negative impression and threatens to us and to the country. Yes we have to support Palestinians, but we have to take a smart move to oppose Israel.

Maybe a drop of my opinion is wrong and it just my 2 cents opinion that I wish to share with all.

Just imagine "Orang Kampung" who lives in the village that doesn't has fast food chain? what they can boycott? pepsi?, coca cola? Do you think "Orang Kampung" really drinks those type of drinks? I believed they prefer kopi O or Teh Tarik.

Daily Life here in Imperia An Phu

Today is our 4th day here at Imperia An Phu. Imperia An Phu is the apartment that we are residing currently in HCMC. It is located at An Phu area in District 2, Ho Chi Minh City. We start our day very early here in Saigon, as Fajr started at 4.32 a.m. However, offices starts at the same normal hour in Malaysia which is around 8.00a.m or 8.30 a.m, while business like shopping mall, groceries shop and salon will starts business at about. 9.30 a.m or 10.00 a.m.

As you see in the above photo, a lot of motorcycles on the road , if we are in KL it will surely jammed with cars. It was informed that there are 32 million of motorcycles on the road daily in Vietnam. You can always get this information when you take a taxi when the driver is friendly enough to talk with you.

At our apartment, the company's car, taxi and buses are busy picking up their passenger as early as 6.45 a.m. Majority of working people at our apartment will be picked up by their company's car to their work. The kids will take a school bus to their school. The nearest International school to our apartment is Australian International School. This is where my daughter's schooling.

We are lucky as Parkson is just a walking distance from our apartment. Besides groceries shop, we could find some fresh fish and vegetables from Parkson. Last time I did buy some fresh cut cat fish and cut snapper. Price for seafood is quite cheap  as compare to KL. However, we have difficulties to find HALAL chicken, beef and lamb. It was on our second day, we did some shopping at Parkson in District One where we found rib eye cut beef that cost us 224,000.00 vnd (around RM33) for a 400gm meat. Another shopping spot for fresh food is METRO but I yet to go there. My husband told me that it is more like TESCO when they just opened in Shah Alam where shoppers are buying in a large volume.

Ho Chi Minh is a busy city however the life is so simple and leisure. Not much competition in life and relaxed. I started to love HCMC.

Tourist Spots in Ho Chi Minh

Yesterday I did some necessity shopping in town (District One). While walking to Highland Coffee near the Opera House from Parkson and from area near Opera House back to Parkson I managed to snap some photos of some attractions in Ho Chi Minh.

A statue near opera house, a boy playing flute

Main Entrance of Opera House

One of building housing  luxury retail outlets

I had this very mild coffee called hazelnut jelly freeze at the Highland Coffee near to Opera House

The view of district Two from our home window. If you notice, at the back of high rise buildings is a river.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Life in Saigon

2nd August 2014 is the date I will start a new life in Saigon in fact it has started.

On the 5th Hari Raya, we took a taxi to KL Sentral to check in at the MALAYSIA Airlines counter while others happily celebrating Hari Raya. After check-in we took a train to KLIA and followed by big brunch (breakfast & lunch) at EDEN. We had a very nice dimsum before saying good bye to my lovely country.

 

1 hour before departing, we boarded to the plane and we were seated at the 7th row. As usual, my daughter will happily getting her headphone but this time she wouldn't be able to enjoy the kid's meal set as ticket was booked by my husband's office. She was a bit upset however the movie has overcome her upset. It was surprised when we saw a lot of empty seats while sending my daughter to the wash room. I believed it is due to the tragedy of MH17 and MH 370, that resulted many people prefers to fly with other airlines. Pity to Malaysia Airlines.

 

2 hours journey, the plane then landed earlier than scheduled and we have to waited in a craft for about 10 minutes before we could get to airport building. I was impressed this time as the plane was landed smoothly, not the normal way where it can pull your heart out of the beat as it touched the land in a hard way. This time plane I experienced a weird ear sick as I feel so painful in my ear when the craft was about to landing. I believed it was due to my flue and I now I realized how hurt it was when my daughter always complained her ears hurts when the plane is about to landing.

 

3rd hour of journey has brought us here in Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). Here we are at Imperia An Phu, the residential that  we will reside for another one and half year. A housework has welcomed me here. Yes, I am now a full housewife who will busy doing the housework.

Saigon Vs Selangor

It is sound like football game but it is not. It may sound biased but it is about reality. I've been staying in Petaling Jaya for about more than 9 years and Petaling Jaya is one of the district in Selangor while Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) is a part of Vietnam. It is not about comparison but  it just my point of view being in 2 cities.
Petaling Jaya has been developed since 1990's and still growing rapidly with a lot more development of residential as well as business commercial area. It has become the 2nd business commercial attraction after Kuala Lumpur. Petaling Jaya has developed earlier than Cyberjaya but yet Cyberjaya has been the focus of the government to become the Malaysia's silicon valley. However, Petaling Jaya has more attraction to become more successful than Cyberjaya when the government change its MSC status policy. I am proud to see it's growth yet a bit disappointing with the authorities and the community itself.
They didn't seems proud to be a part of Petaling Jaya development. Why I said that is because I observed that many facilities are not been taken care off, rubbish all over the places even at the commercial or business spots like Mutiara Damansara and Damansara Perdana. The business owner did really what's in front of their shop. Even if there is pile of rubbish in front of their shop, they did not really bother to clean them up.
 Every Saturday morning, when I'm sending my daughter to her Kumon class, I used to see rat carcass on the road and the crow were happily eating the carcass and pieces of its flesh were spread all over places. Wasn't it disgusting to you? For me it was so disgusting. Day time its hard for me to see the cleaner staff cleaning the road side or even the pavement of the shop lots. What I observed are rubbish left in front of the shop, roadside as well as the pavement at the commercial area. It is hardly to see a man or a women in a uniform sweeping the road or pavement. Once a while I saw the landscape man do his job and leave behind leaves and whatever he cut from the tree.
Vietnam is growing, developing and well known as a poor country by many Malaysian. Here in Saigon, people live in a very simple and basic life. I like that actually.  The business and traffic jammed maybe worst than Petaling Jaya, but I'm impressed with the business owner who keep clean their premises all the time and you can see the cleaner, I believed the cleaner appointed by the authorities, keep clean the road side and the area most of the time non stop. Even the small business operator like hawkers will ensure the place surrounding their business area are always clean. It may not very clean but when you observed you can see what I mean. But one thing that many Malaysian not comfortable with, may the urine smell. This is because that they still have many undeveloped place and bushes as well as very less public toilet found here in Saigon. That's may one of the reason they urinated wherever whenever they feel required ..he..he..
Well for me its all about attitude. I believed most people in Petaling Jaya are now high standard, and thought they should not do cleaning and care about cleanliness as they thought only low standard or poor people are supposed to do the cleaning. While here in Saigon, they thought they are all the same and cleaning is everybody's responsibility. To keep their place clean is a part of their duty to upgrade and to show people they are developing.

We Are In Saigon Again

Here we are again in Saigon. This is the third time we came to Saigon for this year. I never expect that Saigon will be our second home now. But I am happy as it will give new environment and new dimension of life to me.
This time our flight was in the morning of Saturday. Actually it was a Public Holiday in celebration of our king's birthday. Since it was a public holiday, I expected many people will go for a holiday and the check in counter would be crowded with people. I decided to check in early to avoid long queue. My sister Suria and my mother sent us to KLIA. However, when we reached KLIA, the queue was short and smooth.
After checked in we walked around at the bookstore and then had drinks at our normal café prior boarding. It was a little bit too early for us, but it's okay as we could seat , relax and reading while waiting for boarding. After 15 minutes, we had drinks at the café I proceeded to the immigration counter and we went straight to gate H10. It was quite a distance and was the last gate in a row. We were waited there for about one and half hour before the gate was open at about 1.45p.m.
While waiting for the gate to be opened, I saw a group of old ladies with range of ages between 50's to 60's who went for ravel and shopping I believed. And I suspected they were all from Penang. From the conversation I heard they are a group of ladies who used to travel. One of them even suggested the group to go to Khatmandu for a holiday and heard that she had traveled to many places like Cape town, Wellington, Beijing and few others places that quite familiar as tourist spots. I was impressed on how they can explained in details for each places they've been to.
When the crew announced that the door was open for boarding, we were amongst the earliest who boarded first as we were travelers with kids. Like any other trip, I always choose to be seated at the center of the aircraft near to the  emergency door and the plane's wing. And it always besides the window. After seated, Shakira will always started searched for her favorite movie or cartoon from the small screen of the head rest of the front seat. This time she choose the Toy Story. As an adult , I will definitely  choose the lasts movie. Seconds after we started our movie the cabin crew came to confirmed that we had ordered special kid's meal for Shakira. This time the kid's meal was not as what we expected as they only served sandwiches for both kids and adults. it was maybe tea time as the flight was in the afternoon. Pity Shakira as she expected for a spaghetti like our previous flight to Saigon. Nevertheless, she ate the biscuits and chocolate provided in the box. After about 1hr 45 mins we landed at HCMC international airport. We went through the immigration counter and straight away to the café we used to wait for daddy.
Less in 10mins Shakira was waving to somebody and screamed daddy, daddy...here we are daddy and the driver is here. Alhamdulillah we didn't wait for too long. Straight away to the car and went  to our condo , Emperia Anh Phu in district 2.
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Coklat Oh Coklat

Baru baru ni Malaysia dikejutkan isu coklat Cadbury dicemari DNA babi. Well, for me it was negligence by the manufacturer and authorities and to be blamed was the manufacturer in particular. The manufacturer seems insensitive about the HALAL issue to Muslims. I believed they are aware but just being ignorance as long as they could make good money. While in the other hand the authorities has less integration amongst the respective Jabatan. For example how can MOH which did the lab research or lab test on the chocolate aware on the existence of the non HALAL ingredients while on the other hand, JAKIM who responsible on the issuance of HALAL certification  said otherwise. It was really confusing. Does the HALAL certification issued before the lab test was done or was it due to undeclared ingredient on reproduction of certified HALAL product?. The question is how does the monitoring and inspection was done over the certified HALAL product upon reproduction?. I believed the respective jabatans should have a clear guidelines and processes to monitor the HALAL certification , for example periodic inspection at the factory by the respective jabatans e.g MOH and JAKIM. The application of ISO practice may resolve the issue as by practicing ISO everyone involve with the issuance of the certification are required to follow the integrated processes.

Another issue that catched my attention was where some people who claimed they are religious were insensitive about how to keep good image of a real Muslims when they throw their opinion like they have never read books or never learn from the religious teacher.  They thought others have no brain to think or they just want to show how shallow are their knowledge about Islam. I wish to call upon all our Muslims brothers and sisters to think before you say something. it may your personal opinion but it may reflects and affects to the whole community.

Islam is a beautiful way of  life, full of positive action, energy and spirits. But human with all negativities has destroyed the beauty of Islam.

Did you realize how chocolate has brought different perspective of Muslims to the eyes of the world?

Another Day....

Life is colourful and today is another day...another day without my husband around and me with my daughter going through the day for just two of us. we begin the day with a morning greetings to each other, screaming of going for shower, get dress, a little bit of watching tv and off we go to school for my daughter and work for myself.
Life is normal and nothing challenging at work. Just a bit sour, salty , sweet of an average office routine. Nothing to be impressed with my work, nothing to talk about of work challenge, just twist of human attitude towards work and responsibility.
I wish we will be together again soon, I missed the naughty ticklish little finger tickling me before sleep, missed the kiss before go to work and miss the hug when I need it.
"Ya Allah permudahkan kami untuk bersama semula, beri kami kekuatan untuk menghadapi ujian Mu dan kau berkatilah segala perbuatan kami". Ameen.

Be Positive

I wrote this to encourage myself to be positive. Remember our life, our body and soul are belongs to Allah. We are borrowing it from Allah. As such we as person who borrow it from Allah should use it, enjoy it and make use of it in the right way as what Allah wants it.

If what we do or did ends with failure it does not mean we have failed. It may be because we did not do it hard enough or maybe Allah has some reason behind it. But we must be positive that whatever we did Allah has mapped it and only He knows. We as a normal person should strive, tawakkal and"redha as well as believing in whatever happened must have a reason behind it.

Masa Berubah, Ketentuan Allah, Peta Allah, Kita hanya Tawakkal & Redha

Tanggal 1 March 2014, merupakan bermulanya fasa baru dalam kehidupan keluarga kami. Suamiku telah mula bertugas jauh di Ho Chi Minh dan terpaksalah berpisah untuk sementara waktu. Minggu pertama berjauhan merupakan perubahan baru yang agak mencabar. Mulai minggu pertama berjauhan saya terpaksa belajar untuk menguruskan hal hal rumah sendirian, selain hal hal rumah , saya juga perlu meguruskan hal hal suami di sini, hal hal anak juga hal diri sendiri.

Mulanya rasa sangat mencabar. Namun dengan mendengar perkara perkara positif dari ustaz ustaz serta ustazah ustazah di tv dan internet, Alhamdulillah ianya membuka minda dan menjadikan saya lebih positif. Saya bersyukur kerana telah diberikan ujian Allah, berjauhan sementara dengan suami saya. Keadaan ini membuatkan saya lebih kuat untuk menghadapi kesukaran, kerana bila susah, saya akan berdoa kepada Allah memohon pertolonganNya agar dipermudahkan perjalanan kehidupan harian kami. Teringat saya pada kata kata seorang pakar motivasi wanita, kita hanya bergantung kepada Allah sahaja, bukan pada manusia atau pada sesiapa. Hidup kita ini telah ditetapkan oleh Allah, maka segala perbuatan kita, segala tindakan kita, serta segala usaha kita hendaklah kita bertawakkal kepada Allah kerana kehidupan kita telah dipetakan oleh Allah. Maka dengan itu saya percaya, walau susah macam mana cabaran yang saya terima, saya pasti allah akan mendengar saya bila saya meminta padaNya.

"Ya Allah, aku memohon kepada mu agar dipermudahkan kehidupan kami di sini dan suamiku di sana, sesungguhnya hanya Engkau yang maha mengetahui dan maha memakbulkan permohonan hambamu"...Ameen Yarabbal'alamin...