Atlantis Theme Park Experience

Our family's trip went to the Atlantis Aquaventure was the greatest experience over all. Atlantis had been the "big hit" since it started. It is located on Jumeirah coastal area of Dubai and it takes us about 45 minutes to reach there. The biggest wet land with huge lagoon that divides into different section that is from lazy river to the fast rapid section.

On the other zone of the lagoon there is also a wet playground for kids to linger around for hours and hours. And the most adventurous section that the kids really enjoy is a four storey pyramid that named as Ziggurat. On this section there are four types of slide with different level of steepness where I was being cheated by the kids until I felt really wanted to faint (hehehe... as if I was dropping into a huge hole)later then I refused to go to the next level. On the lower level of the pyramid which is really interesting is that we pass through the water tunnel and above it we can see sharks and different types of fish.

21st December

Happy Anniversary to both of us. Thank you my hubby for being patient with all the beauty and obstacles that we have gone for the past 23 years. You're the man that I always love and wanted to grow old with . You're a reflection of everything that is wonderful in the world.

Family Day in Sur

On second day of Eid Adha we planned to have a family day at Sur. It is located on the northeastern coast of Oman about 160km from Muscat. It took us about 3 hours to reach there and Sur is well-known of it beautiful beach and mountain scenery. In June 2007 Sur was drastically battered by cyclone Gonu.

This time we went in a big crowd that is around 8 families, unfortunately Hj Amin and Sajali/Zaleha could not join us because they were having their own vacation. We started our journey at 8.00 a.m but before we reached Sur we decided to stop at Wadi Shabb to have our breakfast. While waiting for Rohimi's family ,Raja n Fauzi lead us to Bima Sink Hole ,the beautiful water reservation founded in Sur. Reached Sur at 1.30 p.m but before check-in we had our lunch near the beach. Though our food were cold but because dah terlalu lapar we enjoyed eating them all.

Relax sekejap then at 4.30 we intended to go to the Turtle beach which is about 46km from city centre but couldn't able to reach there cos it's almost maghrib so we just stopped to the nearest beach. The kids were happy having their football match but then feeling frustrated with the sunset where they have to go back. At night we have our barbecue on the beach outside the hotel area. sangat lah seronoknya.

Next day, before going back to Muscat we went to the Turte Beach resort lepak-lepak there for almost one hour. Before departed, we had our lunch at one of Sur restaurant then off we go........ and planning for our next trip.

Visit to the Grand Mosque

On the first day of Eid Adha we decided to visit Sultan Qabbus Grand Mosque. We gathered around 9.30 at the parking place and dressed like the Omani. The tourist thought we are the Omanis. They were very impressed by our look thus some even took our picture.

The terachu-cha-cha ladies in the model set-up.

Group Tour to Dubai

After postponding the trip to Dubai for quite number of times finally during the Oman National Day we decided to go together for 3 days holiday. There were 4 families going, left behind our Oja who could not go due to her passport almost expire and kak Faridah due to some personal reason. We decided to depart early because we did not want to get stuck at the Emirate border.

Supposed to arrive Dubai at 10.30 a.m but we ladies terhegeh-hegeh lagi nak shopping at carpet and vase area. Finally, each one of us managed to kecek our partner and bought the carpet happily. Since Sayed and Sajali kids never drive the quad bike so we stopped by again at the quad drive place.

Reached Dubai around 3.30 p.m but surprisingly Dubai road was jammed thus unpurposedly Sajali lost his track and was left behind. Luckily that he knew to get his way to Deira City Centre and finally managed to reach their hotel by taxi. (he..he.. teringat my first time to Dubai)

We reached our hotel around 6.30 p.m where everybody were exhausted so we thought of having our dinner at the Mall of Emirate .

Next day, since Haji and Sayed were invited by their friends to play golf we intended to have our shopping at Mall of Emirate only. Excited looking at the winter cloth furthermore the weather is getting cold masing-masing lah membeli baju sejuk. Late in the evening we have to send Sajali's family back to Deira to get back their car and having our dinner at my favourite place China Times.

On the third day we drove to Dubai Mall(the largest shopping mall in Dubai) to have our brunch. We managed to visit the largest Aquarium but could not enter due to the long que. Able to watch different species of fish from outside for few minutes then we went back to OMAN.......

Farewell dinner to our Malaysian friends

It seems that it has been a long time I did not update my blog, maklumlah busy sangat. Three days after we moved in, we were involved in International Day then followed with the Malaysian day. We were busy with our small business where we had a fruitfull return. Sangatlah seronok nya.

Last November 19 we organised a farewell dinner for our three Malaysian friend who are about to leave Oman. Roza and her kids will leave Oman on 27 November to continue her teaching whereas Meor is posted back to Kuala Lumpur and our Mr Nazri has finished his contract .

The dinner started after maghrib and as usual the participants are our close friends here. Thanks to our ambassador and his third secretary for willingly coming to our unformal function. Unfortunately we could not have our Malaysian food that night due to unforseen circumtances and thanks again to our pregnant sister Oja sangat-sangatlah bersusah payah for ordering the Omani food at Bin Ateeq.

Packing..packing

Lately, I have been busy alone doing the clearing and packing everything in this house. Eventhough the house is small but since two years staying here, I started to bring different sorts of things that I like. Then when come to moving out I will crack my head to pack it up.

In two days time, we will be moving to our new house located at Al-Ansab which is about 3 km from my kids school. First, I need to empty all the drawers before the movers come and it seems that I have to clear too many unwanted things that clogged my apartment. Thinking of packing time ...its so tiring, fortunately my ever ready two best friends willing to assist. They even helped me to collect the cartoons from Lulu's backyard and last friday they all together giving their hands to bring some of the items. By thursday I must finish and everything must be in the cartoon because I dont like to mess during the shifting time. By tomorrow they have to come to my house to dismantle our curtains and closet. Today I finished almost 80 percent with the packing . My hubby was astonised seeing that all are ready. "Eh.. dah kemas "..tu je lah dia cakap. He didn't know that I have been sweating . hehe (sori k dady)

Ah... It is not easy to move from one house to another but thinking of my kids are growing up and they need their own privacy no matter what we have to move. Actually I really like to stay put where we are now since most of what I want are within distance. Whenever I am short of kitchen needs I can immediately go down to Safeer . Baskin Robbin, KFC, Taza and my kids favourite place Ice Skating are within the vicinity. No shortage of water and when there are problems we just call Asraf then "five minutes after" he will come to settle it... Indian english that I picked in Oman...who cares

Eventhough our new house is a little far but big enough to accomodate my family and visiting friends. It has 6 bedrooms with attached toilet, one living room and one big dining room.

Welcom Home Ainaa

Al'Ainaa with the other teams from TAISM had gone to Cairo for the volleyball tournament. They went on 22nd till 26.10.2008. Last night we went to the airport to welcome their teams , walaupun kalah but they still managed to smile seeing their families welcoming them.

The boys team were given applaused for becoming the champion. It's ok Ainaa eventhough your teams had lost the game, atleast you guys have had tried your best.

Next year masih ada, more training and play as a team..hehehe... dapat jauk pegi Cairo Na oh....

Happy Birthday girl

My dearest Aida , since today is your birthday, mummy wish you joy and happiness and always pray for your health and successful on whatever you do. You must always know that we are so proud to have such a discipline and co'operate girl like you.

HAPPY BIRHTDAY!!!!!!!`(hadiah claim kat daddy lah)

Karaoke Fever

Semenjak Hamzah/Lynn bukak business karaoke ni... there's nothing else that we did or talked about except karaoke...karaoke. Whenever there are functions or gathering their portable karaoke set ni kan.... dah menjadi their permanent handbag lah.

Last weekend we had a family gathering at Saloma/Azlan house at Al Khuwair 33. As usual after performing our majlis doa tahlil ,will never forget with our makan beramai-ramai.

Then finally the exciting event is off-course the karaoke session. That night everybody trying to show off their talent, even yang tak tahu menyanyi pun dah pandai.

To eager and excited with karaoke until we did not realised that time has come to midnight.... barulah sedar nak balik...

Adopted Daughter

Within this 6 days we will be busy entertaining our guest who are coming from The New Cairo British International School. Their purpose to come here are to participate in the Volley Ball tournament which were organised by Taism. Since my daughter Aina, is in the team so we need to host at least 2 students to stay with us. The omputeh style are always like that, they will never let the students to stay at the hotels or maybe their one way of cost saving but nevertheless it's not a big deal for our family though.
Eventhough my house is small but I really feel appreciate seeing that they couldn't bother that much. Pity that they have to sleep in the living room, indeed we get ready with their bed, pillow and comforter. They seems to like and feel comfortable with it. We only need to prepare for their breakfast and dinner, sending and fetching them to school together with my children, whereas their lunch will be taken care by the student council.

These two beautiful young ladies as I can see are very friendly especially Caroline, she is from Australia. She told us that she ever lived in Indonesia for few years and she can converse some Indonesian words. When I fried cucur pisang this morning and asked them to try it she told me that she ever ate this type of food there and liked it very much. hehe lucunya anak omputeh ni. The other blonde girl who is from Denmark good in drawing told Aji that she is one of the top ten student in art.

At 4.30p.m after fetching them from school I immediately sent them to Centre point because they need to look for new clothes for their party tonight. My Aina will tumpang sekakilah having a chance to buy a new cloth. For dinner I cooked simple dish for them, i.e macaroni cheese, grill chicken with honey , mix vegetables and white rice. Then by 7.30 p.m we sent them back to school.

Day 2 in Salalah

Our second day in Salalah was very interesting because there were so many places that we need to explore. We woke up early and by 7.30a.m we have gone out for our breakfast. Luckily the coffee shop are opened so senang nak cari makan. After that we started with our first visit that is to Nabi Imran's graveyard. It is located at the city centre on An Nahdah Street. Nabi Imran was the father of Mariam who gave birth to Nabi Isa a.s. The longest graveyard that we have ever seen. Spent about 20 minutes there, then we moved upwards about 500 m to the footprints of Nabi Saleh's camel. The fourteen footprints of Nabi Saleh's sacred camel, as mentioned in the Holy Quran, rest here. The footprints have been fenced off for protection.

Next we headed to Al Balid (Archeological site). A city known as Dhufar, grew between 12th and 16th centuries. The ruins of this once magnificient city can be seen at archeological site but unfortunately we were not able to enter because it is only opened at 4.00 p.m. Then we stopped by at the corniche area where we had our coconut drink

By 10.30 we moved further to Nabi Ayoub's tomb. Lies about 40 kilometres from Salalah on Jebel Ittin, which rises up behind the town. The mosque and tomb - shrine of Nabi Ayoub mark the place where the remains of the prophet, possibly identifiend as Job in the Old Testament, can be found. Near the tomb there is a stone mosque which is believed to have been used by Nabi Ayoub for praying. There were so many people visited during this time. I also met the other friends from Muscat . They came one day earlier then us. Staying there for almost one hour and by 12.00 we moved out and checked-in at Samharam Apartment. We have our relaxed for 2 hours whereas the kids were excited to go for swimming at the pool.

We went out to have our lunch at the nearest Indian Restuarant at 2.00 p.m. Ordered for Chicken Beryani, fried King fish, curry sotong and salad oleh kerana terlalu lapar and dah sebulan tak makan indian food semua licin. Finished with our lunch we proceeded to Mughsayl which is located 40km on the west of Salalah. Mughsayl has a stretch of magnificent sandy beach , outlined by sculptured cliffs and blow holes formed in the limestone rocks, where plumes of water can reach a height of 30 metres or more. Since Khareef season is over so we could not see the splashing out of water from the blowholes.The view along the coast where the mountains meet the sea is spectacular. Feeling satisfied with the sight seeing and photographing session we rushed back to the hotel because my big baby dah ngantuk. Allowed him to rest for a shortwhile but the others geared up with their swimming suit and went to relax themselves at the pool.

At night we went out for our shopping , biasa lah ladies will never satisfied without done with their shopping. Eventhough Salalah is not a place of shopping paradise but we were enjoyed with the fascinating Salalah souq where we can find a lot of ready garments and materials. We found out that the cost of Abaya was much cheaper compared to Muscat where Roza and Zaleha bought one each for themselves. As for myself I bought some materials for our next Eid. hehehe... puas hati... Finally, bila semua dah rasa lapar, Haji introduced us to Yemeni Restaurant located at 23rd July Street the best Yemeni food ever. The rice was so yummy sampai we ordered for second big plate. At the same time we never missed with our jokes and borak-borak . When everybody felt exhausted we hurriedly went back. Fathers and kids immediately went to bed whereas the three moms continued with their chat/gossips.

Salalah Trip

On the second day of Eid we went off to Salalah. My family departed Oman at 6.30 a.m because on the way to Nizwa we missed the route therefore we need to turn back to Rusayl round about and started our journey again. We managed to chase the other two families and stop by at Adam around 8.30 to have our breakfast.
Salalah lies in the extreme south of the Sultanate of Oman, about 1,040 km from Muscat if we go by road and one hour plus by air. It is well known of its lavish green landscapes and we can see swaying of palm trees along a serene coastline.
We reached Salalah at 3.00 p.m and stopped by the green wooded mountain to wait for the others. Half and hour later Razak and family arrived but we have to wait for Sajali and family coz they could only speed at 120km. Once we arrived at Salalah town we had a difficulty at looking for hotel. semua dah fully book. We need to ronda-ronda to look for suitable hotel dah lah penat...sesat here and there pulak but actually it's quite fun. At last we managed to get Salalah Hotel which is located at the centre of the city but.. the next day we moved to Samharam Apartment which is more comfortable and affordable. At night we had our dinner at Lebonese restaurant located on the east part of salalah.

Eid Mubarak In Oman 2008

Kami sekeluarga Haji Mohamad Zunaidi ingin mengucapkan Selamat Hari Raya dan Maaf Zahir Batin kepada semua keluarga dan sahabat handai di mana jua berada.

On the first day of Eid we have family-get-together at Razak and Roza residence, at Mawaleh. After we finished with our maaf-maafan and makan-makan we proceeded to our Malaysian Ambassador house. This time we managed to take picture with our Ambassador and his wife.

Hari Raya Mood

From Mawaleh, to Ghala and the last destination for iftar is at Hamzah n Lynn house. This time around everybody are excited waiting for Hari Raya. Sampai-sampai Aji n Razak sikit-sikit nyanyi lagu Selamat Ari Raya. For the three muskeeters orang bujang pulak 'no need to say lah' muka semua berseri-seri especially our eldest brother Aji Syukur, tonight he and Adnan will be going back to Malaysia to meet their longing partner. Smiling broadly and talking about cheeky-cheeky things without bothering whatever we all disturbed them. Keep on looking at their watch thus counting for the time by saying in 10 hours dah boleh sampai lah. hehehe cian tengok orang tua berdua ni...

The most interesting part was, after performing our terawih we end up hugging each other then continued singing the Hari Raya song again. While we were busily talking about preparation for Hari raya, quietly Hamzah took out his karaoke set ...wah apalagi berebut-rebut nak pegang microphone. First, we were entertained by Aji Syukur with his 'My way' then unexpectedly our cikgu Roza showing off her hidden talent where she almost controlled the microphone bawak bermacam-macam jenis lagu. Even lagu Micheal Jackson "Beat-it" pun dia boleh bawak. eh..eheh .. boleh tahan cikgu discipline kitani. Our next highligthed of the night was our Abang Long Sayed Rafiee , the best performer of the night sang his favourite song until he danced on the spot. Everybody started to scream and laughed at him thus ada yang sindir him 'maklumlah 2 hari lagi nak balik' . hehe I think he might have that different kind of feeling....whereas he keep on saying 'dah tiga bulan lah tak balik' The funniest moment that we enjoy ever. At that moment too I realised that for us who are staying abroad thus away from families might feel lonely if we are reluctant to gather around and makes friend. Luckily we are a person who like to get along with others. tapi kadang2 kena tengok jenis kawan jugak.

Well, we ended our awesome night around 10.30 . After finished up with the clearing we went back beramai2 macam orang baru balik dari panggung wayang pulak. Besides that we also planned for our Takbir night which is going to be held at my house pulak.......... SELAMAT HARI RAYA..........MAAF ZAHIR DAN BATIN