Wadi Rum-Jordan

Two weeks ago, hubby and I went to Wadi Rum with a group of friends from different countries. Basically they are hubby's colleagues coming from Romania, Mexico and France. We did had a great time together on bumpy jeep tour, watching shooting stars together at night and of course joking around during the trip.

Let me start with some intro about the place. Wadi Rum is a protected area covering 720 square kilometers of dramatic desert wilderness in the south of Jordan. Huge mountains of sandstone and granite emerge, sheer-sided, from wide sandy valleys to reach heights of 1700 meters and more. Narrow canyons and fissures cut deep into the mountains and many conceal ancient rock drawings etched by the peoples of the desert over millennia. Bedouin tribes still live among the mountains of Rum and their large goat-hair tents are a special feature of the landscape. The temperatures can vary from a daytime average of 32°C down to 4°C at night.

There are various of camps available in Wadi Rum to stay and we chose Bait Ali as the environment are better compare to others. We chose to stay in chalet as well not going for tent stay as I am worried that I will have thousands of mosquitoes bites as souvenirs home. This is something that freak me out when I read those comments online about the tent stay.

The main entrance of the camp.

In Bait Ali, you can choose to stay either on tent(right) or the chalet(left).

Closer look of the chalets. All houses in Amman are square, even chalets!

The interior.

Bathroom with hot shower in desert is something luxury :)

The living room once you enter from the main door.

The lounge. We had our breakfast and dinner here.

Swimming pool in the desert is something extra-ordinary too :)

A big aloe plant in desert, something that worth a picture!

On jeep tour around the desert.

 Our driver told us that there is a hot spring in between the rocks but we didn't climb it as the route seems a bit dangerous. We were not prepare ourselves for any hiking.

The sands are red!

The "Siq" in Wadi Rum.

Picture taken by my friend, Nicole. You can see how tired I was. Walking through the sands for an hour ain't not easy.

Our driver.

Historical writing on the wall.

The most interesting spot, Umm Fruth or known as "stone bridge".

The guys climbed up!

To climb up was easy and they had difficulty to come down. Thus, they get the young driver to guide them.

We were sleeping at the empty land between the chalets and the tents to catch the shooting stars. It was my very 1st experience to see so many shooting stars in one night. And of course I made my wish once I caught a shooting star. So I got lots of wishes! All of us were closing our eyes due to the strong flash from the camera and suppose our environment was dark and quiet. The mosquitoes were having "International buffet" while we were enjoying the shooting stars! :)

We just spent a night at Wadi Rum and the next day we headed to Aqaba for a seafood lunch before going back to Amman.

Glass boat adventure at Aqaba. The temperature was 40 celcius! My face was all red cause by the hot weather :(

And who knows our car air conditioner broke down on the way back to Amman. So it was like double killing! Anyway, we did enjoyed the trip and looking foward for more trips in future :)

Women Values

I was traveling to Wadi Rum last weekend and the road trip was about 4 to 5 hours. I cant sleep for the whole 4 hours so I ended up viewing the views that catch my sight along the highway. Most of the places is not develop where you still can see rubbish everywhere along the road. Thus came into my mind, Jordan should be rich as their currency is almost the same with Euro but from the view it doesn't show the way it is. The highway is bad and there is no fascinating views along the road. This is really giving a bad impression to the tourists.

There are some small stalls selling vegetables, fruits or drinks along the highway so that you can take a rest. And I met some local ladies who were wearing their traditional suits ( The long black dress) at the stall. The temperature was really hot that time and I was wondering how could they stand the hot wearing the dress. They were looking at me interestingly as I was only wearing a singlet and short pants. I am not sure if they thought that I should not wear like that or they were just jealous of me that I can dress like that in public. They give me a feeling that they are the traditional ladies who are low in values from their innocent eyes.

Women values in MiddleEast country are still low. I believe the ladies are trying to improve to gain their rights but it only happens in city and not around the country. For those ladies who never got a chance to move to the city, I believe they will never get a proper education and they are just wait to get married and obey to their husband till the last breath. I still heard some stories about the husband beated his wife or sexually abuse and the wife cannot do anything, not even lodge a report to the police. Or maybe the wife knew that even she lodge a complain also in vain because the police are man too, they are not going to help them.

I understand that it happens not only in MiddleEast but also in other countries but I think the rate should be higher in MiddleEast. I really hope there is an organization to help the poor women out there. In a same time, I am glad for what I am. At least, I get my proper education, have the rights to fight back, have the rights to say NO, have the rights to choose, or even show a black face to my husband when I am unhappy or angry.

Well, "different culture" is what I learned. You got to accept it. I am always wondering why people are looking down at women. I think women is the most wonderful creature on earth. Have you ever think that only women can help to continue the generations? Without women, what can men do to continue their species? When we were young, most of the time were taken care by the mother even though both mum and dad are working. Don't you agree that we will tend to forgot father's day rather than mother's day?

Some husband claim that they should have more power as they are the bread winner but have you ever think that you only think yourself are the bread winner? Who knows your wife can give a better living to the family when she works and husband staying at home taking care of the kids? And even your wife is a housewife should have respect from the husband and the society of course as they give up everything just to build a happy family at home and clean up your mess.

Anyway, everything will be good if we respect to each other, do not care if he is a man or woman, Ceo or garbage cleaner. "Respect" is something that we should learn. 

Picture taken in Dubai in 2009. How's our life will be if both of us are Arabian? Well, I think we will be bored covering ourselves with black and white dress everyday.

Hubbie's Birthday

Obviously this is a late post. I almost forgot to blog about his birthday. Well, his birthday was on 28th May, just a week after we were back from our vacation. I must be too busy with the laundry and cleaning (trying to find some excuses). That day, we went for a lunch at Ruby Tuesday at City Mall followed by Iron Man 2 at the cinema. And we went to Le Royal Hotel for a dinner. It was just like a lazy Saturday that we always have.

 Buddha Bar at Le Royal.

I noticed a significant change in hubbie. He get broader day by day! And I have a lovely cushion now. Anyway..Hope he will always good in health and love me more day by day! yeah! :)

Japan Tour ( Love story in Hokkaido & Spring in Tokyo) by AppleVacations

Apple Vacations or Apple Holidays is famous for Japan trips. Once we had decided to go on tour for our Japan trip, Apple is the only tour company that came into our mind. After the tour, I can conclude that the tour was nice with good arrangement of hotels, foods were good, bus driver was good and the most important, we had an experience tour guide. But anyway, I feel dissatisfaction with my tour booking session with the operator from Apple. Some operators in Apple seems like hiding some information. I need to deal with few operators in order to know everything. At that point of time, I was frustrated and felt so much to drop the bookings. God seems to hear my frustrations, and finally appointed a lady named Apple from Apple to handle my case. Things were got much more better and brought back my confidence to the company. As you all know, for a Japan trip, it could cost between RM6,000 to RM10,000 per person. I just want to make sure that the money that we are going to spend has its value.

Hokkaido is one of the best place for honeymooners. We were suppose to spend our very 1st honeymoon in Hokkaido last year but due to time and financial constraints, we moved it to this year. We went to Taiwan instead for our honeymoon. Anyway, we still could felt the romance when we were in Hokkaido though it was not our 1st honeymoon. The environment was so nice and you will definitely fall in love with it. Here are some pictures to share when we were in Hokkaido :)

 Jigokudani is know as Hell Valley.

Toyako

Bear Range in Hokkaido.

Otaru

Hokkaido's former government building.

Odori Park.

 Clock House.

  Taking cable car to the top of the Olympic Ski Jump at Okurayama.

Something happened once we reached the top. My husband had transformed to one of the "Kawai Boys".

Almost same size with my head! or bigger?

From the tour, we spent 2 days in Tokyo. The tour guide brought us to Shinjuku and Ginza for shopping and of course to the famous Asakusa Kannon Temple and Disneyland.

Asakusa Kannon Temple.

 Disneyland~

That's all for Japan. Arigatou Gozaimasu!

Honeymoon at Japan-Ohayo Gozaimasu! Tadaima :)

Dear all my readers, sorry for not updating my blog regurlarly. I was busy after the Japan trip. Too much housework for me and after those housework, I was tired and only able to upload pictures in Facebook.Please come back and stay with my blog as my life had reset to default!

Well, my Japan trip was a good one. I think anyone who go to Japan, will not come back with regret. I spent about 11 days in Japan covering Hokkaido, Tokyo and Mount Fuji area. It was really great, love it! For the first 8 days, we followed a tour to go around Hokkaido and Tokyo. The tour was from Apple Vacation, Kuala Lumpur. I think the tour was pretty good and worth for money as the food, transportation and hotels was arranged nicely and the hotels were 4 to 5 stars. I would say I will definitely recommend to my friends and family in future.

For the remaining 3 days, we spent our own sweet time to the Mount Fuji area and Tokyo. Hubbie had a new experience as he rode the Fujiyama in Fuji-Q Highland!Fujiyama is one of the tallest and longest steel coasters in the world. This megacoaster stands 26 stories tall, features a steep 230-foot descent at a 65 degree angle and a top speed of 80.8 mph. After the twenty three story plunge, Fujiyama's trains follow a double out and back layout with a number of airtime producing hills and drops that is well over a mile in length.And yes, hubbie went alone for the coaster this time, as my legs were shaking when I saw the route for the coaster was really high!

You can see the Fujiyama route now~ It is in Guinness book of world records as well.

Can you spot where is hubbie? Everyone waiting for the ride, excited or scared?

Another scary "superman ride"

Fuji-Q Highland is located near to Mount Fuji, from it's name I am sure you should be able to guess it. You can enter Fuji-Q with a cheaper fee if you do not intend to play those coasters but just to look around. I think this is really good when I think about my parents in law who always need to pay the full ticket entrance but they never play those coasters or games at all. Their intention is just to bring the children in, enjoy the game and take pictures.

ShibaZakura~

We went to Shibazakura as well. This was unplanned. As we reached the Kawaguchiko station, we saw the poster of it and we know we must spend some time for it. Thanks GOD for the lovely surprise! It is really worth to pay a visit here.

 Cable car ride to the top to enjoy the scenery.

Another great experience that we rode around the Kawaguchiko Lake!

So fun and I got tanned after 3 hours ride. I forgot to apply sunblock! :(

 I always ahead of him :)

Basically we spent 2 days for all these. Traveling time from Shinjuku station to Kawaguchiko station suppose to take us 2 hours but it ended up 3 hours. Traveling time from Kawaguchiko station to Shibazakura suppose to take us 45 minutes but it ended up 3 hours as well! Traffic was really bad that time. So as you can see, the traveling parts took off most of our time. Anyway, I still can say that it is worth it! We stayed overnight at Yumedono Onsenji to enjoy the onsen again. You definitely need an onsen after a tired traveling day.

The other day we traveled back to Tokyo to continue our adventure to the Tsukiji market, Meiji-Jingu Shrine and my shopping spree of course. And yes, only allocated half day to do shopping and it was raining as well. Thus, cant shop much but only those "Must Buy" items from Japan!

 Tokyo tower. And my face were super pale that time cause I am super tired to dead~

 Hard Rock at Roponggi. For all hello kitty lovers, Hard Rock Tokyo do have limited edition t-shirts with hello kitty! This is something that you can only buy in Japan~

Tsukiji Market. Their fish market very clean and you don't feel stink at all. Seems like Malaysia need lots of improvement.

Meiji-Jingu Shrine.

 Harajuku for shopping!

 The famous Shibuya-crossing.

This is all we did for our 3 days of free and easy. Quite compact if you count in the traveling time, food time, and of course sleeping time. I will blog more about the tour in Hokkaido next. If you ask me what I miss most after the trip, I would say I miss the environment and courtesy of the people. Places are clean everywhere even the toilets and Japanese can be voted as the "Most Polite" human in the world. As for food, I miss their Ramen and sweet melon! You may think I must be eat too much of Maggi instant noodle, how could I miss their noodle but not the shashimi or snow crab? Well, maybe I like soup too much, the ramen with the hot soup is really mouth-watering and I don't mind to have it everyday. Plus they have lots of choice for the soup base. :)