Family Trip - Edinburgh

As soon as we reached Glasgow, we walked back to my hall to get prepared for our next trip to Edinburgh. Since we were going there by train, we had no problem in determining what time we should go. Train from Glasgow to Edinburgh runs every 15 minutes. After having lunch and performing our prayer, we headed to Glasgow Queen Street Station by taking cab. I usually just walk there, but this time we took cab because my grandmother tagged along. 

It took only 40 minutes from Glasgow to Edinburgh Waverly by train. Journey by bus normally takes 1 hour and 20 minutes to reach Edinburgh. Train could be cheaper than bus depending on the ticket types. Groupsave ticket only cost £24 for 4 person (for day return), but single ticket cost about £12 one way. See the difference?

Our first destination was souvenir shop. I showed my family the usual shop that I used to go because the souvenirs there are quite cheap. It is actually a bookstore The Works. They sell 3 t-shirts for £20 which is quite cheap. I don't think we could find that price in Glasgow. My family bought some t-shirts and keyrings for self and relatives.

After we finished our shopping, we headed to Travelodge Edinburgh Central located at St Mary Street. The room cost £26.50 per night which is also quite cheap and worthy as it is located in the city centre. After that, I brought my brother out to take photos at the Edinburgh Castle while my parents stayed at hotel to accompany my grandmother.

Due to road construction, several roads in the city were closed and limited. Even the road in front of the castle was affected. We had to adjust our angle so that the constructions stuffs did not enter our photos. It was dusk when we reached the castle.

We bought dinner at Mosque Kitchen take away. I ordered a couple of meat curry with rice (£5), chicken curry with rice (£4.50), naan bread (£1) and shwerma kebab (£3).

On the next morning, I brought my mother and brother to Hard Rock Cafe to buy some more souvenirs. We even went to The Works again to buy last minute souvenirs. Then, we went to Kitchen Mosque again to buy our lunch.

After having a quick lunch at hotel, we took our train back to Glasgow. We reached Glasgow safely and I feel grateful to Allah for giving me chance to see my family here, alhamdulillah... Not just only my parents and brother, but my lovely grandmother as well. What a strong lady.. XD

InsyaAllah, I will be going to Edinburgh again next month with my brother and sister-in-law.

Di Sepanjang Meeting dengan YB

Selepas keletihan berjalan sakan di Zoo Edinburgh, tibalah giliran untuk bermesyuarat bersama YB Dato' Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz iaitu Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri. Semua pelajar tajaan JPA dan MARA dijemput untuk menghadiri mesyuarat ini. Walaupun pada mulanya, tiada wakil Glasgow nak pergi oleh sebab kelewatan membalas emel JPA, akhirnya 6 orang berjaya menghadirkan diri at the very last minute. Iyela, JPA hantar emel masa kitorang pergi Spain, of course tak sempat balas. Alhamdulillah JPA emel sekali lagi cakap boleh pergi. So, masa tu terus bincang2 siapa yang nak pergi..

Mesyuarat ini berlangsung di Mosque Kitchen yang terletak berhampiran dengan Edinburgh Mosque di Nicholson Square. Dekat je dengan city, boleh jalan kaki. Tapi oleh sebab terlajak naik bas, maka kami tersesat sampai ke satu tempat yang agak jauh, lalu kami naik teksi pula untuk membetulkan arah.

Wakil Glasgow terdiri daripada aku, Duwe, Kak Pah, Kak Long, Bee dan Elaine. Wah, nama semua nama samaran kan. Meriah budak2 Glasgow ni. Ramai jugak la yang hadir, tengok senarai attendance, ada la dekat 60 orang students. Majoriti dari Edinburgh yang pasti.

Mesyuarat bermula dengan kata-kata aluan dan kemudian sesi soal jawab bersama menteri. Agak rancak juga soalan2 yang ditanya. Mula2 Joash mengorak langkah bertanyakan tentang AUKU. Dekat 2-3 kali jugak la Joash bangun tanya soalan. Lepas tu ada soalan pasal hudud, censorship, pilihanraya, Sabah dan Filipinanya serta gay di Dublin. Motif isu gay pun nak dibincangkan?? Aku pun layan jela, sebab time tu dah sangat lapar, penat dan mengantuk. Mana taknya, berjalan seharian di zoo dan hanya lunch sebutir donat. Tak kenyang tau.. Nak tau isi lanjut pasal meeting ni? Aku pun tak ingat sangat, plus I'm not into politic so much. Tau gitu2 je.. Mungkin boleh tanya pada Kak Pah yang sering konsentrasi semasa meeting.

Selepas bertalu2 soalan ditanyakan, which is 2 jam kemudian, barulah kami dibenarkan makan. Makan secara buffet tapi kena beratur panjang tauuu... Alhamdulillah makanan semua cukup. Banyak juga lauk Pakistan yang disediakan, semuanya sedap2 belaka! Tapi aku makan sekali hadap je. Memang mula2 tu ambil makanan banyak2 terus. Lepas tu tak tambah dah. Sebelum makan tadi ada sesi photography dulu. Mula2 dengan students Edinburgh, lepas tu dengan non-Edinburgh yang ada beberapa kerat je.

Edinburgh

Non-Edinburgh - Glasgow, Aberdeen,  Scottish Border, Ireland & Keele

Glasgow

Selepas habis makan2 semua, kami pun berangkat pulang ke Glasgow. Punya la payah nak pergi stesen Edinburgh Waverly sebab jalan ditutup untuk sambutan Hogmanay (New Year). Pastu Kak Pah tanya akak guard macam mana nak pergi stesen tu. Dia cakap kena lalu jalan belakang menuruni tangga spiral yang punyalah tinggi! Nasib baik tak sesat lagi...

Tiba di Glasgow dengan selamat. Dalam tren mula2 semua rancak berborak sambil mengudap2 kerupuk yang Kak Pah bagi. Lepas tu semua tertidur sampai High Street. Naseb baik aku dan Duwe tak tidur sebab takut terlepas stesen.

Balik bilik terus, ingatkan kalau rajin nak keluar semula tengok fireworks. Tetapi apakan daya, dek kerna kepenatan yang amat, sebelum jam 12 aku sudah pun melayari mimpi indah.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Goodbye 2011, welcome 2012!

Mudah-mudahan pada tahun yang baru ini, banyak amalan2 baik dapat dilaksanakan. Kurangkan aktiviti yang melaghakan dan jangan lupa study untuk masa depan.

*sorry gambar tak berapa clear, sebab orang lain yang snapkan.. *tetiba salahkan orang lain kan!* =/

Panda @Edinburgh Zoo

This trip was totally a very last minute one. We were going to Edinburgh for a meeting with YB Dato' Seri  Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department. At first none of us wanted to go to this meeting, but after JPA emailed us for a second time, about 6 of us agreed to go.

In the morning, we planned to visit Edinburgh Zoo since it was a golden opportunity to visit this zoo at this time because of the Giant Panda. The pandas will be here for about a few months only. Actually we had checked the availability on the previous day, but it said that the time slots for panda viewing were all fully booked. I think we were lucky because during the ticket purchasing, the staffs told us that we could go to the 1.45pm slot. Without thinking much, we agreed. The entrance ticket to the zoo is £13 for students (inclusive of panda viewing). The normal price is £15.

We left Glasgow Queen Street on a train at 8.15 am and arrived at Haymarket station about 50 minutes later. The train tickets were very cheap because we got a Groupsave discount where 4 persons paid for 2 only. So we spent about £5.70 for a return journey. That was much cheaper than bus. From the Haymarket station, we took Lothian bus service number 26 to the zoo. Single journey costs about £1.30.

The zoo is very huge and the surface is quite hilly. It was like going on a hiking. We had to walked on hilly roads and also on muddy paths. The first animal that we viewed here was sealion. It was huge, but it spent most of its time swimming underwater. So it was quite rare to see it on the surface. Other animals located near the entrance were flamingos, primates and ostriches. We went further up to the sun bears area. There were two of them. We all got excited when we reached the tigers, jaguars and leopards area. They were fantastic and big.

We continued our journey to the safari-like area where we could see several zebras. I wonder why there are no giraffe and elephant around here. Maybe because of the climate. We sure got a few in National Zoo in Malaysia. Lions, anteaters, foxes and deers could be found around this area as well. The lions were quite fierce. The lion kept on roaring while the lioness was quite scary as well. By the way, the weather for today was a bit chilly with light rain but not as cold as usual.

I loved the penguins. There are many of them here. A lot more than Underwaterworld Langkawi. There are so cute and I felt like wanna kick them. They swim very fast. Some of the penguins were sleeping in standing position but some of them lied down. Then, some of them swam and showed us a bit of a show. Kinda cute and adorable although their place was full with whitish poops. There are a few species of penguins here and they all live together in the same place. One of the species has a very long yellow eyebrows. Looks kinda funny.

Then, it was our time to view the pandas. The queue was quite long when we reached the place. There are two pandas here named Tian Tian and Yang Guang respectively. One of them was sleeping with bamboo while the other one roamed around the glass room. There were so lazy and fat! Rasa nak peluk seekor2.. The guide gave us some info about the pandas; about their habitat, territory, mating and eating habits.

We finished our tour in the zoo with penguin parade. About 5 penguins were assigned to parade around the area with the help of their keepers. They are sure cute and jalan terkedek2... Nak culik seekor bawak balik boleh tak? =)

Before heading out, we dropped by the souvenir shop at the entrance. There was a lot of people in the shop. I managed to buy a magnet, a pin badge, a pen and a panda soft toy. 

We took a bus back to the city for our next agenda which was a meeting with the minister and JPA..

 

This was my first time going to a zoo in UK. What I can say is that there are few differences between this zoo and National Zoo in Malaysia. The animals are different, some animals in Malaysia are not here. More penguins here. Obviously there is no panda in Malaysia. I think the zoo here is cleaner but the smell is barely the same. The entrance fee is of course cheaper in my country. =)

Malaysian Scottish Games | Edinburgh

Last weekend I joined a trip to Edinburgh to watch the Malaysian Scottish Games which is conducted annually by Malaysian students there. Since I'm here for one year only, so I decided to go there to take some photographs because I'm not really in to sports. Wanji and I took bus on Friday night and spent a night at Karim's house. He was our senior back then in IMU. The other student from Glasgow took train in the next morning.

This sports festival was held at Meadowbank Sports Centre which is reachable by bus from Karim's place. We arrived at the stadium at around 9 am and met the others there. Futsal games started at 11 am, so  we watched badminton tournament first. Lots of people entered the gmaes such as Faiz & Julia, Abg Nukman, Abg Sharifuddin & Abg Ikram etc.

Wanji & Meadowbank

 

When the futsal started, I jumped from one game to another to capture photos. Some times I was near the futsal arena, and some times I spent my time in the badminton court. The weather was extremely windy and cold. The breeze kept on attacking my face bringing sands along. =.=

Batchmates

badminton courts

Kawan2 yang baru kenal beberapa minggu lepas

Abang Nukman played Men's Single

Men's Double

Mixed Double - 2nd Place

Table tennis

Futsal team briefing

Watak utama dalam futsal

Three-coloured trees.. Very pretty =)

Wanji main kasar nampaknya..

Tu diaaaa, Watson Nyambek menyerang dengan pantas!

Nothing much I did here except taking photos. We had lunch at the lounge. Some Malaysians opened their booths here selling Malaysian cuisines ranging from nasi lemak, nasi ayam, nasi hujan panas, cendol, karipap, popiah and many more. I ended up buying nasi hujan panas and it was gooooddddd. It was served with ayam masak merah and veggies.

Some of the games results were out already with Faiz & Julia won second place in mixed double badminton and other Glasgow players also won in men's double and men's single although the futsal team didn't make it to the top 3. 

I didn't get the chance to watch other games such as basketball, dota, congkak and squash. Maybe I'll watch them in the next Malaysian Glasgow Games.. =)

We spent the rest of our day walking around the city, entering shops by shops. And one of the compulsory shop to visit was Forbidden Planet! It's a toy shop. There is one in Glasgow and Manchester. But the one in Manchester is way bigger and the toys are much cheaper than any other places. I grabbed a Harry Potter Lego set.

My lovely Lego! Tapi mahal! Benci kau!

While waiting for our bus to Glasgow, we had a coffee time at Costa, Princess Mall. After one hour or so we headed to Edinburgh Bus Station to catch our bus.

 

*malas gila nak edit gambar or letak gambar banyak2... malas2..