In between lectures, we took our break outside and watched students play cricket. Sports is really a big thing in Cambridge. The are lots of open playing fields and so much greenery around you. One could see people having discussions in the open space while others were seen enjoying all sort of activities.
Punting along River Cam we were given a guided tour of the university history and explanation on the many buildings on the river bank. This one is said to have featured in one of Harry Potter's movie. Not sure which college this building belongs to but it is an awesome sight.
Punting refers to boating in a punt. Punt is a flat-bottomed boat. The punter generally propels the punt by pushing against the river bed with a pole.
There are many popular myths associated with the University of Cambridge.
Went to Cambridge to attend training at the Judge Business School. Riding in a taxi from the train station, I really felt at awe looking at all the youngsters walking by who supposely are brilliant undergrads or postgrads at the University. Well after all Cambridge has a reputation as one of the world's most prestigious universities.
Summer starts on the 1st June. The weather has been very pleasant - dry and temperature hovering around 22 to 25 DegC. The lawn has now finally been mowed and time for setting up our mini badminton court. The kids been imprving their recquet skill and kicking ball almost every day after school. Who can blame them. Its only becoming dark after 10pm. Maghrib is at 10pm, Isya at 12pm and Suboh is between 3 and 5.20 am!
Oxford Street nowadays offers good value-for-money for shopping. Primark, though not everyones favourite, has their largest store here and offers real bargains. It does bring a different variety to the normal brands along this largest shopping street in the world.
Hey look at this! Chocolate flowing like a fountain creating a chocolate waterfall. Its best to dip with strawberries or marshmallows.
On the way back to London we passed Oxfordshire and stopped over at a well known shopping outlet called the Bicester Village.
William Shakespeare lived well in the 15th Century in what could be described as a grand house. His father, John Shakespeare was a successful glove maker and so could afford to live somewhat affluently. This house has now been turned into a musem and one could go on a tour with a guide explaining on the details of the house and how people lived in those days.
On Sunday we went to Stratfordshire, the birthplace of William Shakespeare. This greatest of English writer was born in the 15th Century in this now famous town in Uk. Stratford-upon-Avon is one of the 20 must visit places in UK. Its nearly 2 hours drive from London along M40 just before reaching Conventry and Birmingham. Unfortunately the weather during the weekend was quite wet and windy. Otherwise it would have been one of the busiest bank holiday weekend in UK.
What do you do if you are stuck in your car for 6 hours. Watch the sunset go down as you realise precious time has been wasted on the road. The traffic jam was quite weird. At one section you could ride at 135 km/hr. Then after a few km, the whole traffic stands to a halt.
Another long weekend with the last public holiday before Christmas. We went to London again (macam keMiri saja) because the kids really love to go there again. This time we thought we were smart, leaving early at 3.30 pm on Friday. But what a trip.
It sounds like utter desperation. In Borneo Bull yesterday Bruneian are told not to hesitate seeking employment overseas. This is because of current high unemployment amongst graduates. It does sounds like somebody finally throwing the towel on trying to create enough jobs albeit the country being small and still rich. With unemployment, social impacts are bound to be felt more and more.
Visiting London is always enjoyable. Ask any Bruneian. Our HM just spent the last 2-3 weeks there.
There are many theories regarding how Stonehenge came about. My favourite one is that it is a British conspiracy to build something odd just to attract tourist. What ever it is, archaeologist think that it was built around 3200 BC. I don't really care and don't surprise me a big deal. In Egypt, mega structures were already built as far back as 5000 BC. So this is like building a small garden shed in the backgarden for the ancient Egyptian.
Stonehenge is located at Salisbury. Unfortunately the gate was already closed by the time we reached there at 7.30pm. We were not alone as many others were also dissapointed.
From Bath, we set off to Salisbury. Its about an hour drive through the country side.
On Saturday, on FA Cup Final day, we drove westwards from London to Bath. The journey took 2 hours. We went for park-and-ride meaning you park your car just outside the city and then take a ride on a bus to go into the city. Its very convenient and save you all the hassle of trying to find parking spot within the city.
The Natural History Museum is one of three large museums along Cromwell Road in South Kensington. This place is worth a visit for both adult and children alike. And its free!
From the London Eye, one can directly see the Downing Street, the official residences of the UK Prime Minister (No. 10) and the Chancellor of the Exchequer (No. 11).
From the London Eye, one can easily see and recognise many famous landmarks. Across the River Thames is this building where the two Houses of the UK Parliment (the House of Lords and the House of Commons) are located. The building is actually called the Palace of Westminster.
The best place to start viewing London is by going up in one of the 32 capsules of the London Eye, also known as the Millennium Wheel.
This is the place we stayed, near to Edgware Road and about 100m from Hyde Park. Hotels in London may cost you an arm and a leg, so consider yourself lucky if you happen to have close relatives or families in London. This place is also conveniently located near to many restaurants along Edgware Road and of course within a walking distance to Oxford Street.
Its a long 4-days weekend and this time we headed to London. The last time we were there was 9 years ago in 1998. Such a long time ago! At that time we also drove from Holland. The whole car journey took about 7 hours.
This is what happened if there is a bookworm in the house. Fiz been reading all of these in the last 8 months and slowly piling them up. This doesn’t include those books that she borrowed from the school library.
Fiz has been keeping all her shopping receipts and organized them in bundles. She has been doing well with her shopping apparently. This must be a new found hobby amongst teens now days. It is a good sign that teens nowdays are more conversant when it comes to money matter.
This photo was taken while we were in Giethoorn two weekends ago. A draw bridge, a bride that can be retracted to allow boat to pass through, is common sight in Holland. The process can be quick – less than 5 minutes, depending of course how many boats are passing through.
In the old days, we used to call our favourite playground as 'Wembley'. Nowadays that name has disappeared and I struggle to find a nice name for our little practice ground in the backyard.
So the bikes were out and tyres pumped. The kids are having fun with badminton and football in the backyard these days.
Our backyard has now been transformed thanks to a Romanian. It costs 16 Euro an hour to hire a manual labourer here. He toiled for 3 weeks and spending nearly 15 hours to trim the trees, cut the hedges and clear-up the wood pile and all sort of things that were dumped by previous tennants before. Its now ready for the Spring and the Summer!
Finally we reached our destination. Assen is just over 2 hours drive from The Hague. We used to live here in 1996 till 1999 in a nice neighbourhood called Maarsdijk. The street name is called Volmachtendreef. This is our first trip back since then – nearly after 8 years!
After Lelystad we went to Giethoorn, a town in the province of Overijssel also known in the Netherlands as "Venice of the North". This is the place where you can do camping, stay in holiday houses or rent a boat to ride along the many canals. We went for a picnic along one of the canal – menu was nasi, sambal pusu, ayam goreng, and satay!
Last Sunday we went north and passed a small city called Lelystad. Its one hour drive from the Hague. Lelystad, built on reclaimed land, is approximately 5 meters below sea level. The big part of the whole area called the province of Flevoland is surrounded by lots of water – famous ones are the Markermeer and IJsselmeer. Also by woodlands, parks and flat farmland.
Its officially spring. And it has been very hot, unusual to have temperature reaching 29 deg C. Again like all other months recently, this has been the hottest April ever on record.
Our last night was spent on a 2-hours river cruise on the Nile where we had dinner and some entertainments. First one was an Egyptian belly dance!!! This dancing uses movements in every muscle of the body integrated with the music’s rhythm. The dancer’s goal is to visually communicate to the audience with the emotion and rhythm of the music.
Typical of a Turkish mosque, there is a large courtyard in the Muhammad Ali Mosque measuring 50 by 50 metres with a freestanding building in the centre. This building contains ablution fountains and facilities for washing before entering the mosque. The courtyard is enclosed by covered galleries. We were reminded by our tour guide of a brass clock which was presented by King Louis Philippe of France in 1845. The clock was reciprocated with the obelisk of Luxor now standing in Place de la Concorde in Paris.
Cairo is said to contain more than 2000 mosques. The best way to appreciate this is to go out at night to see the city skyline lighted up with thousands of minarets. The grandeous and often used for showcase to visiting dignitaries is the Mosque of Mohammed Ali. Design along Turkish lines, it took 18 years to build starting in 1830.
We flew from Amman to Cairo on Royal Jordanian Airline. Our last hotel was Soffitel La Sphinx located very close to the Pyramids (see the photo to be convinced). This was our 7th hotel during the trip. Hotel grading in Egypt is meaningless. In Cairo don't ever check-in into any 4-star hotel or lower.
Never realized till now that there are still Bedouins roaming around living in their traditional way in Jordan. These are the Nomadic Arabs, deeply proud of themselves. They live in tents scattered across the highlands, their flock of sheeps grazing like time has never moved. Camels, traditionally associated as Bedouin's best friend, are now often replaced by a Landrover or Toyota 4WD.
Been-there-done-that experience.
Most people come to the Dead Sea to pamper themselves in a seashore spa. We went to the well known Dead Sea Spa which has more focus on medical treatment, with an in-house dermatologist. We had mud application which cost US$30 per person.
It took us 3 hours to reach the Dead Sea from Petra. On the way, we stopped at Madaba and Mount Nebo, holy sites for Christian pilgrimage. Mount Nebo is a mountain in Western Jordan where the Dead Sea and the West Bank can be seen on a clear day.
This beautiful hotel is built at the top of the mountain which surround the northern side of the valley of Wadi Musa where Petra Rose-red city is located. The lobby is located at top floor followed by 11 storeys of hotel rooms going down the cliff. So it was quite awkward when using the lift -going down from the lobby rather than going up!
Wadi Rum is now one of Jordan's important tourist destinations. This isolated area offers lots of activities such as camel trekking, rock climbing amongst the massive rock formations, 4WD scrambling, camping and so on. You can spend a few hours or afew days.
Jordan's far south belongs to the desert and Bedouin. Wadi Rum is where the desert opening up an enchanting moon-like landscapes like those in the Starwars movies. It was made famous by the Lawrence of Arabia film. Many of the spectacular scenery are reachable only by 4WD.
If you only go to one place in Jordan, make it Petra located at Wadi Musa half way to the South of Jordan. It took us 3 hours to reach from the port town of Aqaba. Petra means rock in Greek, home to 20 thousands Nabataean, a nomadic tribe, whose dwellings, temples and tombs were chiselled and bored out of rock face.
A much needed rest after the long journey from Luxor. This location is not as charming and busy as the famous Sharm El-Sheik to the south but has a direct ferry connection to Aqaba in Jordan. Located at the Northwestern coast of the Gulf of Aqaba, this body of water does not seem as big as on the map. The Gulf of Aqaba and Gulf of Suez to the west form like two fingers sticking out from the Red Sea.
Definitely the lowlight of the trip was crossing the Sinai Peninsular from Cairo on the way to Jordan. After an 11-hours train ride from Luxor, we were transferred on to a bus ride which took us another 9 hours before reaching Nuweiba Village on the coast of Gulf of Aqaba.
This is located within Luxor town itself - a few minutes drive from the hotel. The complex is the most important place of worship in ancient Egypt and measures a total of 1.2 sq km in area.
