The Wedding Videos - Syahirah Solemnisation and Reception February 2020

I intend to write a special entry for the wedding preparation. But before that, I'm sharing her 2 videos that Khairul Razali created for her. Khairul is one of Nazhif's good friend, an Architect turned video's creator. We met him at Nazhif's girlfriend brother's wedding. Hope you enjoy the 2 videos while I had a time to share the details of it.

The solemnisation on 2nd February 2020

The reception on 8th February 2020 Remarks: I'm planning to study the video making to debut as a Vlogger soon. Please pray for me okay...

Hello 2021, Goodbye 2020

Today, 2nd January was my official registered birthday. I’m 54 today and very glad that only 1 more year for me to achieve my financial freedom. Time does fly so slowly few years back, but not any more. From now on, I could stay cool and stop counting the 12 months countdown like what I did in the past. It has been more than a year that Covid-19, sent down by the Almighty as a test and a warning to human kind affected everyone in the world whether small or big scale. Although the vaccine has been distributing in many parts of the world but some prediction written by the Forbes, Nicholas Reiman said that the United Nation is warning in year 2021 could be the bleakest and darkest outlook ever. Famine in 2021, a widespread of scarcity of food due to inflation, crop failure, population imbalance, political instability due to pandemic aftermath could be the worst in terms of humanitarian catastrophes in the organisation’s 75 years history.

I took this matter seriously and I hope you do too. I started telling people close to me to be prudent in their daily expense by remembering what the Prophet Yusoff advised to the Pharaoh backed in his day interpreting the Pharaoh’s dream. Stay diligent in maintaining social distance and try as much to stay at home as it is the best vaccine everybody ever needed. Stating this fact, I would not be including traveling as part as my important to do list for 2021.

Looking back, spending 366 days in 2020, a leap year wasn’t bad at all. The first movement control order, known as the 1st MCO commencing from 18th March till 4th May 2020 with 6 months moratorium has helped me to settle the blue house commitment. I used the surplus from not paying the 6 months Altitude Condominium for my wet kitchen built-in cabinet. The kitchen looks neat and tidy, it helps everyone in the house to have cooking mood. In May, due to economic instability, the Government has issued a conditional MCO where many of us are able to resume works. We woked from home from March till May whereby every paperwork were done in digital format and it's quite an inconvenience with no revenue to be generated. All our projects at the 3 different site re-commence its activity in early May simultaneously with the CMCO.

Before the 2nd lock down, on 15th October 2020, we had achieve so much in the office. We completed and handed over the 2 crucial project in Gamuda Gardens and Gamuda KK257 that is scheduled for handing over vacant possession to the buyers. During that short period of time also, the Group decided for VSS, yes, the Voluntary Separation Scheme was offered as a operational cost cutting measure. Many has applied and many has got it. 15th October 2020 was their last working date. It gave us a new start and strength for the Company to face the challenges and obstacles in 2021.

That’s all about work and the nation. Our family are truly blessed as before the MCO, Syahirah’s wedding went ahead on schedule, successfully on both of her solemnization and her reception day. Hubby and I went back to my hometown in Kelantan by road to invite relatives and friends to the wedding. We started our journey on 1st January 2020 to Raub, Kuala Lipis, Temerloh and arrived a bit late in Bachok. We stayed at my brother’s new house. The next day, on 2nd January 2021 we went to Jeli, visited my parent’s late house now passed down to my late sister who passed down to her children. I had some vision of what I wanted to do while looking at my late father’s surau in JKR Base Camp and the orchard that he left us. I hope I would be able to implement that in 2022.

We followed Kuala Terengganu coastal road on the way back to KL. It was worth the trip as we got to see how the East Coast states being developed over the last few years since our last visit. There are quite a number of attraction beside its beautiful beaches and the Crystal and Floating Mosque. There’s newly completed Drawbridge, Central Market and a walk through Chinatown that in my opinion is a must visit place when in Kuala Terengganu.

Syahirah’s solemnization was on 2nd February where we invited only about 200 people to our house. The following week, on 8th February, a day after her 28th birthday was her reception which was also held at the house. I became Syahirah’s wedding planner for both occasion. The event went very well as according to what I imagined it was to be. My neighbours claimed it was wedding of the year, and I took it as a compliment.

Although we spent a lot for the weddings and the trip for Nazhif’s convocation a year before, the Almighty has helped us in His special way that hubby and I do not feel that much burden. Toward the end of the year, with major commitment cleared away, I manage to treat myself for a GLC 200 AMG, also with Allah’s blessing. He, being the Ar-Rahman has blessed me for what I did in 2020 and I stay indebted to Him till the day He called me. The greatest gift that was bestowed to me in 2020 is a close relationship between us. Happy new year Everyone.. stay safe! Remarks: Photos in this entry are from our trip back to Kelantan, hubby in fron of my late father's surau and both of us at the Kuala Terengganu Drawbridge. The rest of the photos are from Syahirah's solemnisation and reception day.

A special video by Nasrul "All Around Taiwan", Nash Film

Before I end up the blog entries about our Taiwan trip from 12th till 15th December 2018, about a week, I wish to share the video that has been uploaded by Nasrul in his Youtube Channel, Nash Film. He has been filming the entire trip at his own sweet time and imagination. Although I tried to improve the content to strictly follow our itinerary but he was not bothered to follow my request. As always, he will do what he likes to do following his own way. However, in my own biased opinion, the video turn very lovely. Do enjoy...

With warmest regards to All, Noor Aswana Mustapha Kuala Lumpur 28th December 2020 P/s: I will upload an obligatory entry on 1st January 2021 "Farewell 2020, Welcome 2021" ... InshaAllah!

Day 7 - Last day in Taiwan, exploring Taipei the capital city

Travelling date: 15th December 2018. We sent a message to the house owner saying that we will collect our bags later in the evening as our flight is at night. She said its fine for us to drop the key at her mail box as she understood teh hassle to bring all the luggage along with us while exploring Taipei city for the last time. After we've done with packing, locked our luggage, we took the rented Vios to Da’an district to drop the car. Things didn’t go right as right after Syahirah took the car from her father she accidently scratched a taxi and caused a traffic jam. The police came to arbitrate the matter and Hotai Car Leasing took the case into their hand as the rent included the insurance. Hubby had to pay an extra penalty for the loss that the rental company had while the car was under repaired. Nasrul and I let the 2 of them, father and daughter to resolve their dispute among themselves.

We walked toward the left hand side of the shops row trying to find a good place to eat. There is a restaurant that served Malaysian food somewhere there. Although it wasn’t a halal restaurant, the owner cum chef willing to friend Mee Goreng mamak without meat and/or other un-halal ingredients for us. The food is not cheap but the taste is good, hence no complaint paying more for something that you truly enjoyed at the end of the day. The restaurant belong to a Chinese Malaysian man married to local Taiwanese lady. It has its own crowd and are doing well.

Thereafter, we took a public transport, train from Technology Building station still in Da’an District to a famous shopping area in Ximending which is located in Wanhua District. We made friends along the way. This place was so crowded with local and tourist as it is a tourist attraction area. By the way, Ximending literally means "West Gate District" as it once was a suburb near the historical west gate of the old city, commonly described as the Shibuya or Harajuku of Taipei, in reference to these youth-centric districts of Tokyo. It first re-launched in 1999 as a walkable, people friendly area and subsequently expanded. It is true that Ximending is one of the places that secondary school students, university students, and other hip, young people (and too many tourists) go to eat, drink, shop, enjoy music and movies, and people watch in Taipei, just as they do in these areas of Tokyo.

However, Ximending's main walking areas, described as "Xi Men Walker" when translated into English on signs in the area according to Taiwanese are much better than most of Shibuya's back streets. The best of Ximending has been purposefully designed for people with more modest scale, street trees, attractive pavers, and helpful signage. There's so much to see in Ximending, ranging from the famous Red House theatre, music venue, and creative street market to restaurants and plenty of tiny boutiques, street food etc. We did a last minute shopping buying souvenirs and clothes to finish off our Taiwanese dollar before heading home. We visited few other places that I already forgotten about as the trip was 2 years ago. Will not prolong any entries in the future anymore, therefore, I hope, I oblige... sigh!

By 5pm, we were ready to go back to our accommodation, collected the bag and took a cab to the airport. We had a nice cool dinner with a decent food at the airport after check-in our luggage. It was around 8pm and at 10.30pm we found a comfortable place to pray, musolla sort of thing that was provided in the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport not far from the boarding gate to our plane. That’s wrap our story in Taiwan.

Day 6 - Road Trip from Sun Moon Lake - Qinjing Farm, Nantou County - Taichung - Taipei

Travelling date: 14th December 2018. This would be our last day of the road trip in Taiwan. It’s a day where we were to return to Taipei from Sun Moon Lake and the rest of the tour places in our touring list. That morning, we were ready to leave and checked out from the hotel by 9am. On the way ot, we saw another stunning view of the lakes from the Petrol kiosk and had to stop for some exploration. Lucky we did, as our mood, the weather and the places intermingle in the photos that I’m sharing in this entry.

Sun Moon Lake is located 748 meters above sea level. It is 27 meter deep and has a surface area of approximately 7.93 km2. The area surrounding the lake has many trails for hiking. The lake and its surrounding countryside have been designated one of thirteen national scenic areas in Taiwan. For those in construction industry would relate the lake at this large scale would come with the Dam Construction, meant to generate electricity. There are several hydroelectric power plants been built in the Sun Moon Lake since 1919, including Mingtan Pumped Storage Hydro Power Plant and Minhu Pumped Storage Hydro Power Station. When the first hydroelectric plant was finished in 1934, it was considered to be one of the most important infrastructure constructions of the time. Wujie Dam, also completed in 1934, diverts water from the Zhuoshui River to increase hydroelectric generation at the lake. The Jiji Line railroad was built to facilitate the construction. This are the info that I gathered from the Wikipedia.

Our next destination was to be in Qingjing Farm where we saw a lot in Visit Taiwan flyers, the white Taiwan sheep’s on a high mountain range. The Qingjing Farm, also known as Cingjing Farm, is a tourist attraction farm in Ren'ai Township, Nantou County. It took us only an hour to arrive in this beautiful farm, mostly crowded place in the weekend. Apparently, the farm was established on 20 February 1961 as the settling place for the demobilized soldiers and their dependents who were listed in the armed forces. It is located in an altitude of 1,750 meters above sea level, therefore the road to this place are quite interesting but the weather is generally mild all year. In the months from May to September, the average temperature is between 15℃ and 23℃.

Qingjing Farm offers exquisite scenes all four seasons of the year, each with its own unique interest, which would be toured on your own pace and at your own steps. You must pay an entrance fee to enter but once inside you can enjoy what they offered; Mountain Reflection in Green Lake, 487-Steps Trail, Clouds Covering the Mountain, Green Green Grasslands, Fragrance of Fruit Orchards, Sincere Heart Makes Wishes Come True. You basically can fully savour the sweet serenity of the high mountain countryside.

Qingjing, in its broad sense covers Qingjing Farm and its neighbourhoods, from Wushe to Meifeng. It is intersected by Provincial Highway 14A but Waze and Google Map apps will direct you easily to this place. I would advise you to come during weekdays, try avoiding weekend as the place might be flooded with local tourist as well as foreign tourist. We met a Chinese Malaysian family while having lunch at the 7-Eleven. They were there for almost a week already but didn’t covered the whole island like we did. According to them, they are regularly visiting Taiwan as its nearer and cheaper for holiday.

Our next and last destination was to visit Zhongshe Flower Market, also known as Houli Flower Farm or Chungshe Flower Garden in different publications. There’s an entrance fee to this place as the place has been well advertised by the tourist agency, so only Nasrul and I were exploring partially of its flower garden over the 6 hectares of flowers. Hubby and Syahirah chose to wait outside, within the compound at the food outlet and enjoying the flower gardens at a free zone area.

There were several types of flowers are in bloom throughout the year. One of the biggest highlights of the flower farm is during tulip season. Every year from January to March, up to 300,000 tulip bulbs are in full bloom, similar to what you will find in the Netherlands. Zhongshe Flower Market is the only flower farm that succeeded in growing tulips in all of Taiwan. The flower farm also sells products as they are commercial parties. They sell seasonal flowers and potted plants, while other gardening materials, flower vases and even fertilizer are also available. You may find many photo backdrops around the 6 hectares of flower fields. One of the main features of Zhongshe Flower Market is the photography backdrop zones, where different props are used to set the stage for gorgeous photographs. The flower farm is a popular spot for wedding photography. Many couples bring a professional photographer to take wedding photos. Some of the backdrops include a wedding gown arch, scenes that resemble European fairy tale and many musical instruments, including a white piano placed in the middle of a lavender field.

We headed back to Taipei to rest at our final Air BNB accommodation in Shongshan district. It was good to end the trip but our last accommodation was on the highest floor without a lift. We had to drag all or belonging as we need to return the car the next day.

Day 5 - Road Trip from Kaohsiung - Tainan - Sun Moon Lake (Yuchi Township, Nantou County)

Travelling date: 13th December 2018. For information, Syahirah was on medical leave during the trip as she just got discharged from the hospital after an operation on her left foot. The operated area took times to heal. Before the trip, it was Dr Ng from Mediviron Clinic who did the treatment (open the bandage, cleanse the wound, applied the medicine and bandaged back) for her. Dr Ng provided sufficient medicine for her to do the treatment twice a day on her own, at night and in the morning.

Our morning routine was quite simple. I usually will woke up first for Fajr prayer and 28 minutes after the Syuruk prayer, prepared breakfast, arrange clothing for everyone and packing. Our breakfast were usually bread, noodles cup, cereal and coffee. Next I woke Syahirah up first since she needed some time to do the treatment. In any trip, hubby will be the last person who is ready to leave so, it’s very important to get him to follow our departure time. And of course, I'm the time keeper who adamantly will try to get everyone to stick to my long list itinerary :)

Day 5 road trip was quite interesting as we had so many places to visit. Therefore, we left Kaohsing before 10.00 am. We first headed to Tainan, which is the oldest city in Taiwan since we discovered about a Halal restaurant from the Trip Advisor. The place is called Ali’s Kitchen operated by a mixed marriage couple. The husband is a Pakistani and the wife is a local Taiwanese. They met when they studied in US. They converted the front house as a kitchen that sells authentic Pakistani food. They happened to open the shop while doing some preparation for their business for the next day when we arrived. We were lucky and thankful that he was willing to serve us lunch and cooked a little more for us to pack for our dinner.

The couple are God sent people. They shared their life story and vice versa. Their 2 children’s were studied abroad, in America, both of them. They usually took turn to visit and will close the kitchen one or 2 months every year for that trip. They also open their house for the tourist to rent, duly advertise in Air BNB. Both of them are no longer working 9 to 5 job but running their kitchen and renting business on a full time basis. The wife even took us to the Bank for hubby to exchange some of his US Dollar, very helpful and very friendly indeed. Before we departed, the wife gave us lots of gifts, mostly foods and tea. By the way, Taiwan is famous for their tea, herbal and bubble tea etc.

We left Tainan city at around 1pm heading towards Sun Moon Lake, a lake located in Yuchi Township, Nantou County. But for those who wishes to explore Tainan city, you may visit their must-sees attraction such as the Confucius Temple, Chimei Museum and the historical Anping District. Be sure to make a trip to Hua Yuan (Flower) Night Market, as it was the most popular night market in Tainan.

A three-hour drive away from Gueiren District (where Ali Kitchen in Tainan is located) lies the massive and marvellous Sun Moon Lake. We explored Yuchi Township which has many attractions built around the enormous lake area as to boast the tourism in Taiwan. Sun Moon Lake clear waters and picturesque mountains in the backdrop is a must-visit for all nature lovers. Among its variety of attractions to visit around the area include the Sun Moon Lake Ropeway, Ita Thao Village and Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village. Sun Moon Lake is a great choice for first time visitors like us as we’d get to witness the stunning beauty of both the lakes and the mountains of Taiwan. We took so many photos over the site area as the time we were there was before the sunset. It makes all photos beautifully captured and really worth the trip and the money that we spent.

We adjourned to look for our hotel after the sunset which is located in less than 15 minutes’ drive. As it was a week days, the entire area wasn’t as busy as it was on the weekend. Hence we found no difficulties at all to park our car, looking for a restaurant to eat. There’s no crowd that was occupied the areas at night. After we secured the key to our room and placed or belonging inside, we straightaway explored the area looking for dinner. Yes, there is no specific Halal Restaurant that we could find so, we opted for pork’s free menu.

Remarks: majority of the photos in this entry were snapped from Sun Moon Lake. I'm still not use to new blogging setting in Google. Its not as friendly as before where I can edit and type photos description and arrange the setting like I'm typing in words, to say the least.

Day 4 - Road Trip from Taitung to Kaohsiung

Travelling date: 12th December 2018 The road distance from Taitung to Kaohsiung is around 163km and it took about 3 and a half hour if without any stop. We departed from a housing area where we stayed close to 11.30am after filling up our stomach with heavy breakfast that I created from whatever food stock that we brought.

Knowing the difficulties in finding a halal restaurant, we planned ahead to stop for lunch at the 7-Eleven. The 7-E outlet that we cose to stopped was in Fanglio Township which has a clean toilets nearing Kaohsiung. I would really recommended 7-Eleven to those who is not really particular on the food. You can find mostly basic foods such as rice, pasta, bread, fruits, dessert,drinks etc which is good for breakfast, lunch or dinner. And usually it seated next to Petrol station which is so convenience to traveler.

The first destination that we are targeted to visit was the Kaohsiung Mosque. Kaohsiung Mosque is the largest mosque in Kaohsiung and the main gathering site of Muslims within the city. It is situated in Lingya District, the second mosque being built in Taiwan after Taipei Grand Mosque in Taipei. The mosque was constructed in 1990 and open to public in 1992. The 1st floor is dedicated for the male and female dormitories, female prayer room and female activity center. The 2nd floor is the main prayer hall, study center for Arabic language and Islamic culture display room. The 3rd floor is the guest room, youth activity center, office and kitchen. The mosque also features the imam office, administration office, library and ablution area. The Imam and the mosque caretaker were very helpful to us. They showed us the ablution and toilet area. We stayed a bit longer for Asar praying with him. Not many people came for Asar maybe because a lot of people were still working at that time. We met an Indonesian girl who studied in Kaohsiung who is a regular to the mosque as she came for a halal meal. There are a Halal restaurants owned byMuslim people beside the mosque.

After prayer, we quickly adjourned to the largest shopping mall in Kaohsiung, EDA Mall as the priority was to change the currency as we run out of Taiwan Dollar. EDA Mall is actually a resort city and being decorated with Christmas decorations all over as we were there during Christmas time. We chose to have Subway for dinner. Thereafter we looked for money changer and had a brief tour, rather a window shopping. We left the mall shortly after to look for our Air BNB accommodation in Sinsing District. The apartment caretaker was quite nice to show my husband where to park the car. Apparently, the apartment is seated just next to Liuhe Tourist Night Market. Liuhe and Ruifeng night markets are the most famous in Kaohsiung. Syahirah and Nasrul were exploring the night market just the 2 of them as the parent were too tired and ready for bed. That’s pretty much all of what we were doing in Kaohsiung.

For information, Kaohsiung is a massive port city in southern Taiwan. It is a home to many skyscrapers, such as the 248m tall Tuntex Sky Tower that were light up almost every night just like our KL Twin Tower and KL Tower. Beside the skyscrapers the city is known for its diversity of parks, i.e. Love River that was upgraded with walking paths and cafes along its banks, and cruise boats navigating for the tourist. For those who travels to shop, may choose the higher end products from the high end mall just like EDA Mall or medium class shops and a night markets. Since we were on tight budget and the purpose of travel is to record our presence in Taiwan without a need to repeat a trip, a road trip circling the island was more than enough.