Kalau tersasar, bertaubatlah kawanku....

Bila sampai di China nie, macam2 kelakuan boleh kita tengok. Bila jauh dari Malaysia dan berada di sebuah negara yang majoritinya bukan Islam, kita tiba-tiba rasa tidak terikat dengan agama. Suasana bagaikan merubah kita padahal kitalah yang sepatutnya membentuk suasana.

Aku kesal dengan sikap beberapa orang kawan yang aku kenali. Sungguh tak sangka kerana bila berada di China, cara hidup tiba-tiba berubah. Kehidupan yang dulunya berlandaskan agama, tiba-tiba jadi sebaliknya. Jadi seperti orang yang tidak ada agama.

Dan yang sedihnya apabila dalam keaadaan mabuk dan hilang kewarasan diri, kawan aku boleh bercakap pasal agama dengan hebat sekali. Bercakap pasal perbezaan mazhab dan syariat. Akhir kepada perbualan itu, dia mengeluarkan fatwa yang membolehkan dan membenarkan tindakannya meminum arak. Aku amat sedih bila itu berlaku pada seorang manusia yang aku panggil sahabat aku.

Semestinya dengan perbuatan mungkar itu, dia akan ditemani kawan aku yg memang azali lagi bukan Islam. Kawan aku yang bukan beragama Islam sangat menyukai fatwa yang berlandaskan logik ini. Fatwa yang memberikan kelonggaran dalam beragama dan mendahulukan nafsu.

Kita ini di cipta oleh Dia. Hari ini kita gah bercakap umpama kita ini tidak ada hubungan langsung dengan Pecipta kita. Seolah-olah di akhirat kelak, kita mampu berunding tentang seksaan dan nikmat yang bakal kita perolehi. Alah, setakat siksaan sebab minum arak anytime jer boleh tanggung.

Hidup ini terlalu singkat untuk dipersiakan. Tak salah kalau kita berterusan membuat kebaikan ataupun menjauhi kejahatan. Bukankah dalam Al-Quran Allah sebut berkali-kali..setiap perbuatan akan dibalas walaupun sebesar zarah. Jadinya, kenapa kita tak berusaha untuk buat kebaikan dan meninggalkan perkara sia-sia. Sesungguhnya Allah tidak zalim tapi kitalah yang zalim terhadap diri kita sendiri.

Aku pohon pertolonganMu Ya Allah semoga Engkau redhailah hidupku dan keluargaku. Pimpinlah kami ke jalan yang benar dan jauhkanlah kami dari seksa api nerakaMu.

Hari ini mungkin kita rasa gagah melakukan kemaksiatan tanpa sikit pun rasa bersalah. Tak mustahil anak kita akan mengikut jejak langkah kita suatu hari nanti kerana hidup bagai roda. Tak selamanya kita di atas.

Manners and Policy

In China, they are several things that different from Malaysia. In here, they don’t care much about road safety. They just drive and they will honk if something got in their way.

The traffic light at junction is just merely a standing lamp with colours. Nobody care to stop when its red. The first time I got into a taxi, my leg can never stop from pushing the floor as it’s like I’m the one who’s driving. But what amazed me was, even if they disobey all kind of road regulation, I hardly seen any accident. And even if accident did happened, the traffic will not jam instantly. Everybody will just get on with the life, as simple as that.

The other things about China, they blocked certain website such as Facebook, Blogspot and Youtube. I’m not sure why, I have to find out about it very soon. So, the very first week I’m here is not a lovely experience at all. Although the internet connection is so fast compare to Malaysia, but imposing restriction to certain website is just not an ideal thing to do.

Then my housemate introduces me to the real cyber world. I call it real cyber world because I don’t have the knowledge about it before. He showed me about VPN (Virtual Private Network)…err not quite sure what it is but thing is, I have to subscribe and pay a small amount of dollar to “cheat” the China server so that I can avoid any sort of restriction. So, now I’m glad that I can update my blog. At least, this is one of many other ways to communicate with my wife in Malaysia. I know, she's always read my blog.

Internet is just so great here. Almost everywhere you can get Internet access. Using WiFi or Plug In, it just so convenience. The connection is fast that you just streaming to watch movie. Whenever I feel like I want to watch news, I just go to TV3.com.my and stream the news from there. When I want to watch English Premier League Live, I just use SOPCast and I can watch it live like using Astro.

Now with video call available, it just so easy to watch my kids jumping around in the house. Some other time, I can just call my wife handset using my Laptop without any lagging in conversation.

It just great to have this kind of technology nowadays. It just makes the world small and reachable at anytime.

Spinning around

The first intention that put me at the sidewalk was to get some street picture for myself. Maybe because I’m not that pro yet so I can’t really find the perfect picture that I want. Probably it’s there somewhere but I just failed to recognize the spot.

Anyway, I suddenly found a wet market which similar to Malaysia…. selling fish, meat, vegetable and other stuff. I also can’t get the right angle that please me but the market is just too interesting to ignore. It just so huge that almost every major item has its own building. Fish area in one building, all kind of meat at the next building, vegetable in another building and so on. Here’s the picture

Although most of the time, cleanliness is questionable but some place can be consider as clean.

This is where you can find exotic food. Frog, snake, turtle you just name it

Ramadhan is just around the corner so I think, I just have to make my own Pasar Ramadhan here in Jinhua for myself. Although, I can always have my dinner at restaurant but obviously there is no way a restaurant will open until 4 o'clock in the morning. I need to get something in case if I have to cook. Heheehee..

Anyway, when I went into the nearby supermarket, I found these...

Well of cause, the one at the right bear more weight because you got the name of Islamic Association on it. The left one probably just a 'halal' stamp to promote more sales. It is a fake 'halal' logo.

Food in China is something that I'm not comfortable to consume. They event can cheat on milk and harm millions of babies around the world. Previously, there was a case when they actually imitate chicken egg. It looks just like chicken egg but it's not. I just can't believe the Chinese can do such things. That's what happened when people look at money as their God.

Baru nak kenal tempat

Hari nie, ada satu group kawan-kawan nak pi ke Yiwu. Daripada duduk kat rumah sorang2, rasanya baik jugak ikut. Paling tidak pun boleh kenal tempat.

Jarak antara Yiwu ngan Jinhua nie lebih kurang macam PD dengan KL. Disebabkan group kawan-kawan nie dah biasa dengan jalan-jalan kat sini, kami naik bas. Dalam bas tuh, sepatah perkataan pun kami tak paham sebenarnya tapi yang peliknya, budak-budak nie tahu ja nak sampai ke Yiwu macam mana. Memang tabik laa kat depa nie..

Kan selalu kita dengar orang dok ambik pakaian borong dari China kan..? Yiwu nie antara tempatnya la. Banyak sangat industri tekstil kat Yiwu nie sampaikan orang-orang tempatan bersaing sesama sendiri. Akhirnya barang-barang jadi murah disebabkan labour cost yang sangat murah. Kita boleh beli borong dan hantar ke Malaysia dan masih lagi boleh buat untung yang banyak. Tapi kena berhati-hati dan kalau nasib tak baik, senang-senang boleh kena tipu.

Selalunya kat Yiwu nie orang beli secara pukal / kontena. Jadinya, kami cuma cari kawasan kedai yang boleh jual sikit dan murah.

Nie kawasan Binwuang. Ada 4-5 kompleks lagi macam nie yang boleh jual selain dari pukal. Tirai, cadar, alas meja, sarung bantal, quilt, karpet..macam2 barang tekstil ada sini. Baju BN pun buat kat sini

Kat Yiwu nie banyak orang luar jugak yang datang berniaga especially Pak Arab. Barang-barang yang Pak Haji dan Mak Hajjah beli dari Mekah tuh kebanyakkannya datang dari sini laaa...Kopiah, sejadah, jubah, tasbih apa semua tuh, kat sini la asalnya. Jadi, kalau nak ke Mekah tuh tak payah susah-suah beli kat Mekah. Pi ke Mekah dulu buat ibadat seikhlas hati, kemudian balik nanti baru pi beli-belah kat Yiwu.

Kedai makan arab pun banyak. Jadinya, sangatlah senang kalau nak makan atau nak sembahyang kat Yiwu nie. Ada ja restoran Islam maka adalah surau dan tandas yang bersih.

Makan Matghub kat restoran Al-Hana. Pastu minum teh tarik. Bahasa cinanya "Ha Li Po"

Nie yang best nie. Tokeh dia jual tudung tapi pakai seksi tak ingat. Pelik sungguh

Nie kedai Turki. Insya Allah semuanya halal dan baik

Alhamdulillah, memang banyak kedai Muslim kat China nie. Dah tak takut dah bila sampai bab makanan yang halal. Sekarang, tempat nak beli barang-barang murah pun dah tahu. Lepas nie, boleh la buat rancangan sikit. Yang masih lagi jadi contraint sekarang nie ialah bahasa. Tapi tak apa, itu bisa di uruskan..hehehehe

An Tie (if this is the right spelling)

I like to consider myself a lucky man. The very first week I’m here, I got a chance to join a trip to An Tie. A place where you can have activities such as swimming and boat rafting. It just came at the right time. I need to make myself busy because I kept thinking of my family back in Malaysia. This trip is just the thing that I need.

The trip was organized by the local who work in Youngman Plant, the same office with Lotus. I can’t speak a single Chinese word so I just follow whatever the plan is. Nice place and beautiful scenery. Scene that I never seen before only found in magazine. Here, I got to see it with my own eye.

Sementara menunggu air naik sebelum pintu empangan dibuka

Budak local yang sama2 arrange trip nie. Sorang pun aku tak ingat nama tapi yg pakai sunglasses tu housemate aku.

Kat parking area berlatar belakang kan gunung. Kalau subuh mesti cantik tak ingat nie

Selepas empangan dibuka, boat akan turun laju ikut jeram. Gambar nie amik kat kawasan bawah sekali

Kat bawah sikit, ada jgk yg datang basuh kereta. Kereta lawa2 plak tuh

We were there from morning until 5.00pm or 6.00pm…Obviously you can’t find any sign of Surau or place that similar. So, I perform my Zohor and Asar at any suitable place that I can find. I felt so small at that time. Perhaps, all the people there were wondering what am I doing with the act of standing, rukuk and sujud. Probably they never saw it before in their life. When I finished with my solat… They asked me in Chinese which I can’t understand a single word. All I can say “…tim pu tong, wo mahasia, chi lumpur” (saya tak paham, saya Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur)..hehehhehehhe…they just nodded their head showing a sign that they understand my circumstances. Or perhaps they must be thinking that all my pronunciations are incorrect and have another meaning. I don’t know, seriously I don’t.

Nothing Much (part 5)

I can't stand staying in the hotel...

This is the hotel that I stay when I arrived at Jinhua. It’s call Best Western World Trade Hotel. The name of the hotel is like the second large after the hotel itself. It is hard to miss and easily seen from any direction of the road. But, if you tell any taxi driver in Jinhua that you want to go to Best Western World Trade Hotel, trust me that you will never reach there. Not even close.

The taxi driver will get you to the hotel only if you say it in Chinese. Xi Mao Ping Kuan..that’s the magic word that will get you to your place. This is because most of Chinese doesn’t know how to speak in English.

I just stayed in that hotel for a couple of days only. I just can’t stand to be alone for long period of time. So I moved into my friends apartment, Times Garden (Shi Dai Hua Yuan). At least, you can cook, you have friends and most important you can feel like home. Frankly say, I just lost focus easily in any conversation this few days. I can’t register things in my head. It’s like floating in the air. All I’m thinking is my wife and kids. So, by moving into apartment, at least I can pull myself together again and keep on going.

Here is my apartment from across a river at evening.

This is the view from my apartment facing the sunrise. It is 5.30am

This view is facing the other way also at 5.30am in the morning.

It is summer now. The temperature is just so high that can make me soak with sweat even at 5.30am in the morning. When I woke up to perform my solat subuh at 4.00am, the temperature was 33 degree. The local said, normally August is the peak time for summer where everyday will be hot, hot and hot. This year going to be some Ramadhan for me I guess.

Journey to the West

From Shanghai, I have to take a train to Jinhua. The journey took me another 3 hours before I can check in to my hotel. The train only stopped at 3 stations if I’m not mistake. I forgot already, I was too tired that day. Sometimes, the train hit 210km/h. most of the time, it just travel at 160km/h. The coach design are more like a flight cabin but the seat can’t be reclined.

After 2 hours from Shanghai, I still can see apartments and high buildings along the journey. There is not single scenery where I can find an empty land throughout the 2 hours. Remember, this train move with average speed of 160km/h. It just amazing how this country develop so much in just a short period of time.

The map below shows Shanghai and Jinhua in circle. When I checked the distance between Shanghai and Jinhua with Google Map, it shows somewhere around 350km distance.

This is an enlarge map of China. The circle shows the area that I travelled

Amazing isn't it...?? This country is just too big for me...hahahaha. I had a conversation with one of the workers that work at the same place with me in Jinhua. He said, his hometown is in Harbin. He only will travel back home only once in a year. He will take train from Jinhua and 48 hours after that, he will reach his hometown. Harbin is somewhere north of China, close to Mongolia.

China surely has a lot of suprise for me...

Welcome to China..

So, I’m finally ready to go to China. The country that I never been before. An old country that full with extraordinary history. I can say China is one country that will fascinate anyone in this world.

My wife somehow found her way to KLIA just before I depart. We had a supper along with her friends that accompany her. It was a relax environment and I enjoyed it a lot. This is the picture during the supper.

It was hard to leave her all alone in Malaysia with 3 active kids. I can imagine the hardship that she’s going to face in the next 7 weeks without me. All that I can do is just pray to God to ease her burden everyday in her life. That’s all that I can do from distance.

My flight departed from Malaysia at 1.40am, Thursday. I thought I can have a good nite sleep in the cabin but I was wrong. I just realize that I can’t sleep sitting. When I arrived at Pudong Airport, Shanghai…the immigration had a thorough inspection of my luggage. They’re quite startled to found a huge cylinder like item in my luggage. I kept on telling them that the things that they suspicious much is nothing by my camera lens. Then, when I showed my Lotus ID card, they smile and let me go just like that. It just weird.

The other things that really shocked me is, the taxi driver does not even know a single English word. Not even an “ok” or “yes” or even “no”…and they drive like F1 driver except that they honk a lot even when there’s nothing odd in the front. It just their habits and they seem to enjoy it.

So, here I am…in the middle of nowhere with nobody to communicate to…

Minggu yang caca-marba

Minggu nie agak bercelaru sikit. Bermula hari Isnin sampai la ke hari Jumaat, wife aku kena hadir ke kursus yang dianjurkan oleh Kementerian Pengajian Tinggi di Politeknik Shah Alam. Makanya, tinggallah kami 4 beranak di rumah tanpa Mama disisi.

Bukannya tak biasa dengan situasi sebegitu. Sebelum nie, memang ada beberapa kali kami menghadapi situasi sebegini. Jadilah aku Abah yang mithali kat anak2 aku (waktu tu Hafiz belum ada lagi). Makanya, tiap2 malam la kami akan makan kat KFC ataupun McDonald. Itu jelah yang aku tahu. Nak masak jauh sekali.

Kali nie lain sikit sebab Hafiz tak pernah kena tinggal lagi + Hafiz masih menyusu badan. Bagi aku yang naif nie, itu masalah yang sangat besar.

Kemudian, ada permintaan dari Lotus Engineering Malaysia untuk hantar aku ke China selama lebih kurang 2 bulan (7 minggu sebenarnya). Flight aku jatuh pada hari Khamis jam 1.40pagi. Maknanya, Rabu malam lagi aku dah kena ada kat KLIA dan ketika aku bertolak ke China, wife aku masih lagi berkursus. Notis yang diberi hanyalah seminggu sahaja. Entah kenapa macam tuh pulak arrangement Lotus aku pun tak pasti. Yang best nya, aku memang tahu passport aku hilang. Sengaja aku taknak buat passport baru sebab nak amik peluang boleh claim dari company kalau dihantar bekerja luar dari Malaysia.

Prosedur untuk re-new passport, kena bawak passport lama. Kalau passport lama takdak atau hilang, kena buat report polis dahulu. Hilang ada 2 jenis :-

          1.) hilang dalam simpanan.
          2.) hilang kerana kecurian.

Disebabkan kes aku adalah hilang dalam simpanan, makanya proses pembaharuan passport akan mengambil masa selama sebulan sedangkan notis hanyalah seminggu. Jauh disudut hati aku, aku sebenarnya rasa bersyukur jugak kalau tak boleh pi china.

Sebelum nie pun aku terpaksa tolak offer dari Lotus sebab Hafiz masih kecik lagi. Kemudian ada sekali lagi nama aku di war-warkan untuk pegi ke China. Tapi aku senyap ja waktu tuh. Kali ini, tak dapat nak mengelak lagi...kena jugak pegi. Yang tak best nya, the timing is just not right.

Bila dengar Imigresen kata sebulan baru siap, aku rasa best nya tak payah pi. Tapi pada masa yang sama, aku takut persepsi boss aku akan jadi lebih negatif. Terlalu banyak sangat alasan aku apabila setiap kali nama aku naik untuk dihantar ke China. Secara tak langsung, boleh memberi kesan kat karier aku sebagai Design Engineer.

Tapi nak dijadikan cerita, dalam masa 5 hari passport aku dah siap. Sebabnya permohonan aku tuh, disertai dengan surat sokongan dari majikan dan salinan tiket kapalterbang. Dan di saat aku menulis entry kali nie, aku sebenarnya dah seminggu lebih berada di Jinhua, China.

Aku tak pernah pergi kursus, tak seperti wife aku yang memang selalu kena bersedia kerana kursus kakitangan awam nie memang banyak. Hanya aku yang tak pernah tinggalkan anak2 aku. Waktu aku nak ke KLIA, anak2 aku dijaga oleh ibu mertua aku. Takdak mak, takdak abah. Kesian tengok muka 3 beradik tuh. Tapi, anak tak menangis pun...aku ja yang sebak.

Aku akan berpuasa dan beraya disini. Raya ke-5 baru balik ke Malaysia. Harapannya, tak payah la kontrak aku kat China nie disambung lagi. Walaupun dapat duit banyak tapi I always wanted my family to be close with me. 

Bagi yang mengenali aku, aku nak mintak belas ehsan hangpa supaya doakanlah agar dipermudahkan segala urusan isteri aku selama aku takdak nie. Kesian isteri aku sorang2 kena jaga tiga anak lelaki dan pada masa yang sama kena pi kerja. Raya tahun nie, cari-carilah muka aku kat dalam ruangan Salam Perantau dalam Utusan ka, Harakah ka, Nannyang Siang Pau ka....hahahah...aduh, pening kepala aku.

Wedding Photography

(I have to removed the original picture to respect Nik's wife)

This is Nik. We work in the same Vehicle Engineering Department (VED) in Lotus. He is a good guy and recommended to any girl who wishes to have a responsible husband. Hehehe… but from the picture above, Nik is just not available anymore. Pity, pity, pity….

This is my first time doing wedding photography. Since, Nik didn’t have any dedicated photographer for his wedding (he’s kinda a very simple and outgoing guy), I just decided to volunteer myself to be his wedding photographer.

Since time is against me, I can’t follow the event from the earlier stage..so, my focus was more on the bersanding, makan sama-sama and a bit outdoor at the nearby pool.

But the best part is, I got a chance to make the picture become a coffee album. The whole VED in Lotus agreed to share the cost of the coffee album. It is more like a wedding present from us to Nik…and when the coffee album is completed, I’m so please with the result. Normally, if I print my best picture in big size..I will never get the right color that I wanted but this time around, the result is just amazing. I never expect it to be so close to what I want. I am so please.

(I have to removed the original picture to respect Nik's wife)

the size is 24inch long and 10inch width

Watching them growing

I enjoy watching my kids sleeping. It just the only way that I can look at their face as long as I wish. And if I am patience enough, I can expect some extraordinary sleeping position from my kids. Good enough to make us laugh together in the future.

Hafiz is doing his magic

Brilliant move...

Our government has been very vocal about illegal sand mining and water issue in Selangor. The best part is, everyone in UMNO are saying the same script about the issue. It’s kinda fishy for me.

Earlier, the Government struggling to answer the APCO and FELDA issue to the public. Then, they got away with it when the Israel with Mavi Marmara issue gave them a very good maneuver to their image. I personally support our government in condemning Israel at the time. Hearing Najib and Muhyiddin firmly want to bring the issue to more than just condemning Israel is somehow so aspiring to me. The government got majority of Malaysian backing their back during that time.

But, I don’t know which strategy that they took when out of the blue; the Government suddenly attacks Selagor and PKR regarding the illegal sand mining and water issue. The news spread all over our prime newspaper. All government channels were showing our leaders condemning Selangor about the issue. It took more than 20 minutes a night for merely a week. Without any room for Opposition to explain the actual thing, it’s somehow portrayed our Government as something that we do not like. A portray of a Government that like to politic more and less work.

What I don’t know was that, our Government actually planning secretly to increase the fuel and sugar price in the near time. So last night, fuel and sugar price did increase a little. Nobody ever expect it to increase until the last 3.5hours before the implementation. So today, the fuel price went up, the cooking gas price went up and sugar price also went up. Brilliant move isn't it..???

No wonder I did smell a dead fish recently.

Nothing Much (part 4)

World Cup 2010 - South Africa

I should have put this post in my blog earlier. Its world cup matter and this year, the much dreamed cup for any football nation goes to Spain. It was Spain vs Netherland in the final. After the game was force into extra time, Spain finally got a goal from Iniesta. The only goal that nite and the goal that put Spain as a world champion. I admire Spain because they always play a wonderful football. Netherland on the other hand, they display a lot of karate and kung fu during the game. I can’t understand how can that happened to a team like Netherland. They used to play a wonderful football but this year, it just different ideology altogether.

Anyway, congratulation to Spain. Hoping Malaysia to be like you one day. Adios sanchez…!!!