Name in initials on Saudia Airline tickets.

So this time, we flew to London with Saudia. I booked the tickets through an agent  - TravelUp, as I couldn't book directly on the Saudia's website. What happened when I tried to book through Saudia's website is I couldn't insert my name nor my children's name because due to our long names, we ran out of the maximum characters available to insert. I didn't know what to do so that was why I booked through an agent then prayed hard that the agent was reliable --- after 3 days of purchase, I still had not receive my e-tickets so I had to email them. But then they were fast to respond and I got the e-tickets a day after my email. Phew

So back on my e-tickets, when I booked though TravelUp's website, I was able to register our names with full characters in the booking. However, when I received my e-tickets, some of our names where put in initials! For example, let say my name is 'Sarah Sue Ann binti Muhammad', the name on my e-tickets were shown as 'Sarah S A binti Muhammad'. I immediately emailed the agent again, and this was their reply.

 

I swear I was having anxiety for a couple of months, I tried 'google'-ing for peoples experience, I tried contacting Saudia's office in Kuala Lumpur (which surprisingly they don't have one?). I emailed Saudia's website customer service and they weren't very helpful. They ask me to liaise with the travel agent as they only tend to matters for tickets purchase through their website. So after a few months of stress, I decided to have faith and just hope everything went well -- and it did! Yeay.

Alhamdulillah, everything was fine, we went to London and arrived back safety in Kuala Lumpur without any issues with the tickets. So for those of you who are reading this and stressing out over your name on e-tickets, rest assure that as long as your first name and last name is stated on the tickets, the names in between can be in initials.

So in my case, Sarah Sue Ann binti Muhammad - Sarah S A binti Muhammad was ok. P/s: bukan nama sebenar hehe.

This is based on my experience on Saudia though, can't speak for other airlines because I usually have my name in full on the tickets

Renew passport di UTC Kuala Lumpur (Pudu)

Semalam dah pergi Pejabat Imigresen Kajang nak renew passport. Tapi dah sampai sana dalam 9am, baru teringat yang aku lupa nak bawak gambar Zara. Tengok orang dah panjang beratur so kitorang pun balik jela. Tak check pulak nombor still ada atau dah habis. Pagi ni sekali lagi ke sana, sampai dalam 8.20am tengok orang dah panjang beratur. Kat hujung barisan ada guard tunggu, dia bagitau nombor untuk hari ni dah habis. Dia suggest pergi ke UTC Pudu (open until 10pm) or datang esok sebab weekdays takdela ramai sangat. But Rabu dah nak fly ke Medan, Isnin & Selasa aku training full day so tak boleh nak keluar office. Nak taknak terpaksa la ke UTC Pudu jugak.

Sampai Pudu dalam 9am. Masa tengah naik parking nampak macam ada ramai orang beratur, barisan panjang giler. Kitorang agak tu la kot line ambik no untuk urusan passport so aku pun angkat Zara yang tengah tidur, terus turun kereta pergi beratur, sementara HB pergi cari parking. Ada la 2-3 kali turun naik aku tengok HB lalu, punya la susah nak cari parking.

Beratur 9am, dapat nombor at almost 11am. 2jam berdiri beratur nak ambik nombor. Tu pun Alhamdulillah nasib baik la sempat dapat nombor. Dia limitkan 400 sehari, teka kitorang nombor berapa?

Sebenarnya awal-awal lagi guard dah kira orang and cut off line. Sepanjang 2 jam beratur belakang kitorang ada la dalam 30 orang. Sekali dah sampai counter, 6 je orang belakang kitorang yang dapat nombor, yang lain kena datang hari lain because nombor habis. Kesian sangat tengok. Jadi macam tu sebab masa guard tengah kira, ada yang tak ada kat line. For example ada satu family 5 orang yang nak buat passport tapi yang beratur kat line cuma sorang, yang lain duduk tepi then bila dah nak sampai depan baru masuk line balik. Tu yang guard terkira lebih orang kat belakang.

Lepas dapat nombor, pegawai kat counter cakap nanti datang balik lepas 4 jam. What? Ok so kitorang pun balik rumah dulu sebab Zara pun tidur tak mandi lagi kan. Kira-kira after 4 jam tu dalam 3pm la. Tapi aku macam dapat agak, mesti by 3pm pun lambat lagi nak sampai giliran kitorang. Sebab if office bukak sampai 10pm, kenapa dia nak limitkan nombor sampai 400 je? So obviously nombor 393 & 394 dah nearly at the end of office hour. Kitorang sampai balik Pudu dalam 4pm. Masa tu baru 223. So dalam 160 nombor lagi. Kitorang pun turun la jalan-jalan kat terminal dulu. Office tu pulak rehat 7pm-8pm.

Lepas solat Magrib semua baru pegi balik office, finally sampai la giliran kitorang dalam 8.45pm. Aku tanya untuk budak umur 2 tahun boleh tak guna gambar yang tangkap kat kedai, dia kata tak boleh kena ambik gambar kat situ jugak. Tak sure whether this rule applies tu Imigresen UTC Pudu ni je ke or sama semua tempat. Alhamdulillah mudah la jugak nak bagi Zara duduk diam. Nasib baik ada patung burung kt counter so kitorang ambik burung tu letak sebelah camera nak bagi dia pandang. Tapi masa nak ambik cap jari Zara macam panic sikit and menangis tak nak bagi tangan. Dia pun dah penat seharian kat sana, memang la nak meragam je.

Gambar passport Zara yang dah tangkap siap-siap kat kedai, tapi tak boleh guna.

Patut kena tunggu 1 jam untuk collect passport, tapi sebab dah last-last tak ramai orang dah so laju sikit la. Dalam 20 minit kitorang dah boleh collect passport then dalam 9.30pm bertolak balik. Literally 12 hours nak buat passport!

So lesson learnt today:
1. Avoid buat passport last minit
2. Avoid datang weekend
3. Avoid renew passport during school holidays.

Unless if you don't have infants or toddler and boleh datang beratur at 6am then maybe you can go for it.

Medan Year End Vacation, 2014.

Insyaallah this December I'm going on a short family vacation to Medan. 3 days 3 nights. Kenapa 3 days? Sebab flight dari KL pun dah malam so ETA at Medan around 8pm++ local time. I heard the journey from Kualanamu Aiport to the city where most hotels are pun dah around 1 hour kan? So maybe if we're lucky we can arrive at the hotel before 11pm.

So the plan is
Day 1: Terus ke Danau Toba and spend one night there
Day 2: Singgah Berastagi on the way balik Medan
Day 3: Flight balik KL is at 5pm so probably after checkout jalan-jalan kat Medan dulu

Rasa macam agak rushing jugak tapi masa beli tiket flight to I had no idea the journey from Medan to Danau Toba tu agak lama. Oh well lets just make the best of the time that we have.

Any recommendations of Muslim supir or tips around Medan? Hotel apa yang best dan selesa untuk Muslim family with elderly and toddler, dan senang dapatkan makanan halal. What is the best way to go from the airport to the hotel? Ambik taxi from airport or arrange airport transfer with the hotel? What is the rate for airport transfer and hotel apa pulak yang provide airport transfer? Gosh so many things I still need to find out. Any quotation or anything, please contact me at sue_xoxo@yahoo.com. Thanks!

On another note, Selamat Hari Raya Aidiladha to all Muslims!

How we spent our raya.

Beli Cath Kidston direct dari UK (www.cathkidston.com)

Cath Kidston UK ada buat sales. Congak-congak kalau beli dari UK campur international postage ke Malaysia, harga boleh dapat still lagi murah dari outlet kat Malaysia ni. Jadi aku pun beli la share postage dengan Kakak & Mak, lagi la jimat. I placed the order on June 28th and expect for the parcel to arrive in 2 weeks time sebab dia tulis international delivery will arrive within 10 working days. Hari tu aku pernah order barang MUA dari UK pun barang sampai dalam 2 minggu.

On July 2nd dapat email dari Cath Kidston informing that my items was dispatched.

Then on July 4th , aku dapat call from an unknown number. Thank goodness I picked up because usually I don't take calls from anonymous number. Rupanya yang call tu DHL nak bagitau that I have a package from UK, but DHL tak cover delivery to my address. And then ada some custom charges that I need to pay. So the option was I could go and pickup the package myself at their customer service center in Shah Alam, or I can make the payment to their account, then once I give the proof of payment they will send the item to me via poslaju FOC. At first I wanted them to the send my package via poslaju, I paid for postage kot kenapa nak kena pickup barang sendiri pulak. But come to think of it rasa tak sabar pulak nak dapat barang. Lagipun tomorrow is a Saturday and I've no plan.

I asked HB if I can go to Shah Alam early in the morning because usually Zara will sleep until noon. Tapi HB offered to go and pickup the parcel for me. Thank goodness because I'm not really familiar with Shah Alam area.

The total price of my purchase was £223 and the custom tax that I had to pay was RM184.43. Tak tau la macam mana dia kira. I think its 10% of the items value + shipping fee, plus duty handling charge. I think duty handling charge tu is for DHL kot.

Mek kecik ni pulak yang tak sabar lebih nak bukak kotak

Tadaa!

Mak beli dua beg, Kakak empat beg, aku beli empat beg tiga wallet. Whoops. Tapi cepat giler barang sampai, so I'm happy with that. :)

My Raya Dilemma

Raya tahun ni buat aku rasa serba salah. Tahun ni giliran raya kat kampung HB. Tapi Mak, Abah & Syafiq nak pergi umrah seminggu sebelum raya and balik seminggu lepas raya meaning diorang akan beraya kat sana. Redza pulak kena raya atas kapal, so Bebi at 8 months pregnant kena raya sorang-sorang. Kakak is still unsure whether she'd be working on raya or she'll finished her housemanship by raya. But even if dia cuti, its just her family and Bebi la. Tak sampai hati pulak rasanya nak tinggal diorang.

Thank goodness I thought of an idea. I know HB nak sangat aku balik kampung merasa berbuka puasa kat sana. Dia nak Zara balik jumpa Umi & Abah. So according to plan kitorang akan bergerak balik kampung 2 days before raya. Ticket flight dah last minit baru nak cari memang mahal giler la. Gigih aku duk survey ticket flight. I found that kalau nak balik naik flight bulan puasa ni, the ticket price boleh tahan la. Tak mahal pun. Dalam RM400 for the three of us (tak termasuk baggage). And if aku balik dengan Zara naik flight hari raya pertama, ada flight yang affordable la, RM400 for us both.

So the decision was, a week before raya kitorang balik kampung nak berbuka kat sana. Then HB akan drive balik kampung dulu maybe one or two days before raya, and aku & Zara akan naik flight lepas solat raya. So win win situtation la, kitorang dapat balik berbuka kat kampung, aku dapat sambut raya with Bebi & Kakak, and also my family in Kelantan. :)

Langkawi Day 2: Langkawi Cable Car, Oriental Village.

Since hari ni kitorang duduk hotel kat Pantai Cenang, aku punya plan nak spend the whole day kat area ni je, maybe mandi pantai ke. Petang Jumaat lepas pindah hotel kat Kuah baru naik cable car. Tapi Abah kata petang tak sesuai nak naik cable car takut berangin, and if its too windy cable car akan stop beroperasi. I'd prefer to avoid the weekend sebab baca biasa orang beratur panjang nak naik cable car. Like I read in blogs ada yang menunggu up to 30-45 minutes. Even though cuti sekolah baru habis minggu lepas, but just to be on the safe side. So bottom line is hari ni jela kitorang naik cable car.

Zara malam tadi nak dekat 5am baru tidur kot! Geram betul, dia excited tempat baru maybe. Bilik pun luas, so seronokla dia jalan sana sini usik semua benda. So as usual bila tidur lambat tengah hari la baru bangun. Mula-mula Mak tak nak ikut jadi lepas solat Zuhur terus bersiap nak jalan. Bila kitorang dah siap baru la Mak tiba-tiba nak ikut so sementara menunggu Mak bersiap kitorang keluar dulu jenguk-jenguk kedai duty free nearby.

Singgah McD sebelah The Zon nak bagi Zara makan. I really want to find out betul ke orang kata kalau makan kedai kat Langkawi ni tak ada tax. Well I got my answer, its true! So the stated price is the nett price. Lepas bagi Zara makan masuk The Zon survey chocs jap. Since ada lagi 4 hari kat sini, boleh la kot nak survey survey harga dulu then dah tau mana yang paling murah baru beli. Aku siap pesan kat HB, tengok je dulu nanti baru beli. :p

Balik semula hotel ambik Mak Abah, dah nak dekat pukul 3pm. Oriental Village ni kalau dari Pantai Cenang dia agak jauh ke belah atas pulau. Takes about half an hour kot, kena patah balik ikut laluan airport. then lalu jalan pusing-pusing yang buat aku rasa pening and tak sabar nak sampai. We passed by a few hotels on the way, one of them was Kuala Muda Inn. Patut la selalu ada promo and bagi harga murah. I wouldn't stay there myself, sebab macam jauh dari semua benda and dia duduk sorang-sorang je kat area tu. Just my two cents.

Sampai Oriental Village aku cakap kat HB, "tempat ni macam dilanggar helang". Then he was like "helang? dilanggar garuda la". LOL. Tapi memang sunyi takde orang. Weekdays kot. The place reminds me a bit of Colmar Tropicale, Bukit Tinggi.

Ticket naik cable car untuk warganegara RM15 which is half of the normal price. But you need to show your ID to get that price. Abah dah jalan laju kedepan nak belikan ticket siap-siap, sekali Abah patah balik sebab nak kena kutip IC setiap orang. Ingatkan Zara free, tapi untuk children 2-12 years kena bayar RM10. Cis. Since tak ramai orang hari ni, tak payah nak beratur langsung, terus je dapat naik cable car. I read in someone's blog time ramai orang, they have to fill up each cable car to the max (6 person) so sumbat jela dengan orang tak kenal pun. Tapi time kitorang naik tu sebab tak ramai so dia tak kisah pun each party in their own cable car. Air tak boleh bawak naik ye, ada rak kat entrance kena tinggal kat situ. Unless air tu ada dalam beg dia takde la beria check. HB baru je lepas beli air, belum sempat minum and still pegang kat tangan, then staff suruh tinggal kat bawah. Kesian HB, turun nanti dah tak sejuk air. Hehe.

The experience naik cable car, seriously gayat giler! Aku pernah la naik cable car a few times dulu masa kecik kat UK, kat Switzerland and paling latest a few times kat Genting Highland. Tapi yang ni serious takut giler sebab aku rasa cable car dia macam kecik sangat, then bila anyone bergerak je rasa bergoyang-goyang. Masa nak dekat sampai puncak Gunung Macinchang tu pulak ada lurah yang dalam giler so bila tengok bawah memang jarak kita dalam cable car tu dengan tanah SANGAT jauh. 

At the first station.

Cable car tu stop kat dua station. Well, not exactly stop sebab cable car tu always bergerak kan but you need to get out at the first station, staff yang suruh. My guess is to be fair untuk orang yang tengah beratur dari first station nak naik ke second station. Tapi tengok ada je orang lain yang insist tak nak turun. Maybe sebab tengah tak ramai orang kot. Memang annoying jugak masa beratur nak naik ke station kedua, a few cable car sampai tapi orang tak nak keluar at the first station so kita kena tunggu lagi for the next cable car. Keluar je dari cable car kat first stop tu I literally had weak knees. Rasa macam nak terus turun tak nak naik ke station kedua (puncak) but unfortunately tempat naik cable car untuk turun bawah is on the other side so memang kena naik dulu baru boleh turun.

Zara makan aiskrim kat puncak Gunung Machinchang

Skybridge kat puncak tengah tutup for renovation. Too bad sebab rasanya aku takkan naik cable car ni lagi kot. Kat atas ada small food stall, tak banyak makanan pun. Ada burger, nasi lemak bungkus, kerepek-kerepek, ice creams and a few other foods that I don't recall. On the way naik tadi Zara tidur je, dah sampai puncak baru dia bangun so masa nak turun dia sedar. Kesian Zara, ketakutan dalam cable car tu. Tapi aku rasa perjalanan turun takdela setakut perjalanan naik tadi. And rasa laju je masa turun, taktau nape. Hehe.

Keluar dari Oriental Village kitorang singgah Pantai Pasir Hitam. Tapi sebab kepenatan aku tak tengok pun pantai dia, duduk makan kat kedai makan je. Then on the way balik ke hotel lalu jalan yang ada banyak kedai jual minyak gamat. Tapi dah nak magrib so semua kedai dah tutup.

Malam lepas Magrib keluar cari makan dengan Abah. Aku dengan HB macam nak makan western or anything else selain nasi. Tapi Mak nak ikan bakar. Kitorang keluar dengan kereta but ended up parking a few hundred meters je dari hotel and jalan kaki cari kedai makan. We ate at Restoran Haji Ramli tapi ikan bakar dia tak berapa sedap, rasa kering.

Pantai Cenang really reminds me of Aonang Beach, Krabi. Hotel-hotel and kedai jual souvenirs sepanjang jalan, the spas and lively restaurants, booth offering island hopping and water activity packages, seriously macam kat Krabi. Cuma kat Aonang Beach kedai dia satu belah je, seberang jalan tu boleh terus nampak pantai so sambil jalan kat kedai boleh nampak laut. Kat Cenang ni pulak pantai dia dah tersorok belakang bangunan, what a shame.

Langkawi Day 1: Adina Drive in Motel, Pantai Cenang.

Heading to Langkawi today didn't have me all excited because I was too tired from work. Pagi petang berdiri jaga exam got me exhausted. Habis jaga exam 4.45pm terus punch card dan balik rumah sambung packing last minute, solat Asar then terus bersiap and ambik Zara dulu before ambik HB kat office dia. Flight 9.20pm so we had plenty of time and tak perlu rushing sangat. Park kereta kat Putrajaya Sentral lepas tu naik KLIA Transit to KLIA2, tiket sama harga dengan ke KLIA, RM6.20/person even though KLIA2 stop is after KLIA.

Dalam KLIA Transit to KLIA2

Sampai KLIA2 makan dulu, solat jamak qasar then baru masuk gate. Flight delay sikit dalam 9.45pm baru berlepas. Took about an hour so landed around 10.45pm.

We can see the plane from the waiting area.

Alhamdulillah Abah dah menunggu sebab flight Mak Abah tengah hari tadi. So Abah dah sewa kereta siap-siap. Jarak airport ke hotel is about 20 minutes tapi kitorang singgah tapau makanan dulu. Abah dah tolong check in for our room masa diorang check in tengah hari tadi. So dapatla bilik sebelah-menyebelah.

Kitorang stay kat Adina Drive-in Motel, area Pantai Cenang. Rate RM122/night untuk Studio Room (through Agoda)which has one double bed and one single bed. So kalau nak duduk bertiga tu kira murahla. Bilik luas tapi kurang bersih. Ceiling bersawang, lantai berpasir. Rasa macam nak beli penyapu je sapu bilik tu sendiri. Celah-celah katil pun macam tak bersapu. Nasib baik katil and toilet ok. Untuk katil double tu diorang bagi selimut untuk single jugak. So aku ni nak share dengan anak 2 tahun pun macam tak cukup apatah lagi kalau orang dewasa nak share berdua. Zara if you know is a fidgety toddler, jenis semua benda dia nak usik so as a mother aku ni cukup cerewet pasal kebersihan bila travel.

 

Bangunan bilik kitorang yang sebelah kiri in this pic, naik tangga tingkat atas. Kereta siap boleh park depan bilik masing-masing as there were plenty of space. So kalau duduk sini malas serabut cari parking area area Pantai Cenang, boleh je tinggal kereta kat hotel and jalan kaki.

Ada sink kat luar bilik. Kettle, iron and ironing board also provided in each room. Cuma nak makan macam susah sebab takde kerusi. Yang ada cuma bangku kecik kat almari solek so aku makan kat situ jela.

Atas ni gambar bilik Mak actually, and gambar pun Mak yang ambik. I forgot to take pictures of my room. Tapi sama je pun bilik aku and Mak.

And this is the toilet, also in bilik Mak and pic from Mak. Ours was similar anyway. The downside was toilet flush bilik kitorang rosak, keeps on flushing non stop sampai mengganggu tidur aku malam first tu. Second night aku pergi tutup pipe water supply ke flush tu and pasang bila perlu je.

Kitorang book hotel ni 2 malam, then lagi 2 malam nak duduk Kuah pulak. The best thing about this hotel is the location. It is within walking distance to Cenang Mall, The Zon and other duty free shops. Kalau nak ke pantai kena seberang jalan and lalu between kedai-kedai | other hotels dalam 50-100m (I'm not good at estimating distance). Nak cari makan pun senang tapi kedai makan area Pantai Cenang ni mahal-mahal sebab kat kawasan tarikan pelancong kan. Kedai makanan Arab bukan main banyak. Hotel ada swimming pool, nampak dari balkoni bilik je tapi tak sempat nak guna so not sure about the cleanliness. Tapi macam kecik je sesuai untuk kanak-kanak.

I wouldn't say I won't come back to this hotel, but maybe next time I'm here I'd like to check out other hotels especially the ones across the roads right in front of the beach.