Kelana Convoy: Day 5

So now, it was day 5. Last night it was rain heavily, even the cooking tent almost being flew away. At that night, in the cooking tent, I along with the guys that joined the trip held the tent to its position and also open cafe for drinks. I started to know the guys better that night! It was a wonderful night indeed. The nasi lemak also was delicious!

During the day, we went to Innsbruck. It was quite a small town in Austria yet it is the capital city for the state of Tyrol. In Innsbruck, we get a chance to see the Golden Roof. The roof was not actually made by gold, but the copper plate and gold coating. It is a symbol of greatness for the King at that time.

The golden roof and a silver women! 

The invisible. 

Another monument in innsbruck!

We also had a chance to buy Swarovski product here. It was quite cheap compare to the other places. If I'm not mistaken, the Crystal World exhibit was closed due to renovation, so it was quite a dissapointment for us. Anyway, many of the people in my trip get Swarovski product here, or at least a Swarovski Keychain for 12 euro. Not me! XD P/s: too bad no swarovski picture was taken.

We also visited Bergisel, the ramp for ski jump for Winter Olympic 2012 I think. The architect for the ramp was Malaysian.

Bergisel jump!

 These were the pictures around Innsbruck!

Team USA

The scenery in Austria is very stunning. There quite a lot of mountain along the road. I just love it.

Nice one!

After Austria, we were on our way to Italy! Tomorrow would be nice with Venice as our destination!
Sorry for the late post! See you again tomorrow!

Kelana Convoy: Day 4

Today journey starts with 3 hours drive to Neuschweinstein Castle. The journey took about 5 hours (if I remembered it right) from the castle.
The castle was originally a homage from King Ludwig II to Richard Wagner. The Walt Disney castle also was inspired by this castle. Okay enough with the story! Let's the picture do the talk.

The castle from below!

Neuschweinstein Castle!

The scenery was so beautifull!

The castle at the bottom of the hill. Can't remembered the name.

 After the castle, we were heading to Austria! We make one stop along the way to take picture. The scenery that was stunning! Subhanallah!

Subhanallah!

Love the piccas!

See you again tomorrow!

Kelana Convoy: Day 3

We had to pack up our camp in the morning. The process started to get fast as everybody get used to pack up their tent and people started to helping each other out. The destination of the day was Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Frankfurt is among the biggest and busiest city in Germany. 

Conquest of Europe
18 June to 2 July 2011

First we stopped at the big Euro sign at the European Central bank. This was the place where they (Kelana convoy trip) usually took a group picture. We had one too! Then, we had 2 hours to walk around Frankfurt. 

I like thisone..

Frankly speaking, there were nothing much to see. We had a chance to go to the top of one shopping mall to view the Frankfurt from above. From there, we can see clearly the old and new Frankfurt. I forgot what Mr Khairul explanation, but I'm pretty sure that they both were separated by the Main River. 

The new Frankfurt

The old Frankfurt

Two hours was enough to stay at Frankfurt I guess, unless you want to do some real shopping! There was sale in 2 3 places too. Later of the day, we went to the camp site somewhere along the road between Frankfurt and Nauchweinstein Castle. 

Frankfurt from above

Niqab

 I always have curiosity when I see women in niqab. Although I might have the intention to see how the face looks like, but there were something that hold back the thought. And she indirectly gained my respect. It might be the beauty of Niqab, for me at least. The reward for such a great deeds that the women with niqab did.

Yesterday I meet a women with niqab during a meeting and turned out she was my junior back in high school. The curiosity risen even more as I might have seen the face before. Despite the curiosity, I respect her for taken a great step in search of Allah blessing. 

By the way, I want to clarify that I don't have any bad intention to her or any other women with niqab yet the curiosity risen make me realize that Allah had make us to be the best of all mankind. It also make me realize how bad my level of submission to Allah. 

Let's change for the better and the best! 

May Allah bless you, Sister.  

Kelana Convoy: Day 2

The day started with bad news. Maybe some drunken people had sabotage the bus. The emergency door had been open and it can’t be closed. So we can’t get to the places as planned. We ended up using one bus back and forth to pick up people. The destinations for the day were Volendam and Amsterdam!

The clog collections

The first stop was the Clog and Cheese factory. The clog is a wooden shoe, a traditional shoe for the Holland people. It seems practical to use the shoe, but it was quite hard for people nowadays. I heard that the clog was about to extinct. The cheese was good. The taste of the cheese was difference on what I usually had back in US. The fact that cheese could be as hard as rock was quite surprising anyway!

The collection of cheeses

Then, we stopped at one of the traditional windmill for several pictures.

The Windmill

After that, we were heading to Volendam. There was a diamond presentation and also Holland traditional clothes photo session. I could not get a chance to go for the photo session as there are too many people at that time. The view in Volendam was nice, the lake and many boat add up some points to the beautiful scenery.

Donar Kebab!

I got the chance to taste the Donar Kebab, the one that Boss, Najmi and Erin had been talking about. I am not sure if it was the one, but the name was Donar Kebab and it was awesome!

The Smallest house, 1m wide..

In the evening, we went to Amsterdam. First, we went for sightseeing by river cruise. It was a disappointment. Kelana Convoy should not ever recommend that I think.  Btw, we got a chance to see the smallest house, 1m wide. The tax for house was based on the wide of the house, so the people who live inside pay the "cukai pintu" the least tax ever! 

As we got only 4 hours to spend in Amsterdam, and the river cruise took about 1 hour to finish, I would not recommend the river cruise at all. By the way, I was able to go to the I amsterdam statue and the red light district even spend just a little time in both places.

I amsterdam

Holland is popular with its regulation that allows drug and prostitution if I am not mistaken. The red light district, as the name suggest, had many room or door with a red light at the top of it. The red light indicates that there are prostitute inside the room. I had seen someone negotiate with the prostitute. Well, I forgot to take the picture of how the red light rooms look like. 

Kelana Convoy: Day 1

The journey starts at Park Lane, London. The bus picked us up at somewhere around 8.30 am and we are straightly heading to Amsterdam. UK and other European countries are separated by sea. After 3 hours journey, we arrive at the border of UK. The bus get into a train and the train brought us to France using underwater railways through the sea. It's call Eurotunnel.

Bus in the Eurotunnel (credit to Ziyad)

After that we stopped at the Chocolate factory in Belgium. The chocolate there was nice and at reasonable price. But beware, if you bought a chocolate from here, watch out for gelatin in the chocolate. Some of them might have it. 

Hello Yogi bear!

Especially for you, my love...<3

After the chocolate factory, we were heading straight to the campsite called, Amsterdame Bose! In the bus, there was an ice breaking session where everyone gets a chance to introduce themselves. It was the first times where all of us need to set up camp and also find a tent-mate. The camp site had free wi-fi, which was the only campsite that has it throughout the trip. The day ends with ice breaking session with several other people.

Kelana Convoy!

I wrote this post on my way back to Malaysian after 20 days in Europe. Overall this holiday was superb. It was totally worth it with all the hard work that I had been working on the past year.

I joined the Kelana Convoy trip after being introduced by a friend. The trip goes to 8 countries around Europe for 15 days. The countries include Belgium, Holland, Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Paris and the UK. It was fun and I shall say it is the easy way to conquer Europe if you have a small budget. Here the list of reason why you should join the trip.

Conquest of Europe trip 2011

1) The price was reasonable.

- The trip that I just joined cost me about 599 GBP, or about 1000 USD. It was reasonable price as you get the accommodation (tent), food and transport. The visitor tax for some places also included in the price.

2) It Muslim-friendly.

- The food served was Halal, which mean you can get rid of the biggest worries while travelling abroad. There are certain days where lunch was not provided. However, the crew will tell you places where you can get Halal food, or at least seafood.

- The Qibla direction and Solat time was provided.

3) Tour guide and language lesson day

- When the group spends the in big city such as Venice, Rome or Paris, there are crews that will make a walking tour. So for those who do not want to read the map or subway directories, they can follow the crew visiting the places in the city. Mostly families and quite old people will join this walking tour.

The crews also teach language for the different countries. ‘Thank you’ and ‘Hi’ in the different language is a must if you are travelling in Europe.

4) Sleeping in tent!

- Sleeping in tent for 15 days was not as bad as I thought at first. It was fun instead. I booked a cabin at the Swiss campsite, but I ended up voluntarily sleeping in the tent. It was fun!

Maybe it was not for some people, especially for older people. There are cabin option available for those who do not want to camp.

5) Malaysian friends for all over the world.

In my trip, there are people come from US, Canada, Doha, UK, Ireland and even New Zealand. Not to forget, Malaysia! Here was the place to make new friend. Don’t afraid to join the trip alone as you will make new friends to accompany you around the Europe!

6) Spending time with family.

- I’m pretty sure that several families that joined the trip had a great time. I think Nadiah had. Some graduates in UK and their parent joined this trip before their graduation. Some even come from Malaysia. 

Of all the reasons above, bear in mind that this is budget trip. You are required to wash the dishes, setting up the tent by yourself, helping with the cooking and cleaning and also cleaning up the campsite. And some campsites do charge for hot shower, so don’t get mad, it was common. 

One of the campsite!

Oh wait I noticed that Air Asia X was not as bad as pictures by some friends. The legroom was the widest that I had so far. Even travelling with MAS, you can’t get the legroom as wide as this. I haven’t taste the food at the time I wrote this post. I hope it is nice.

I will published the each day diary from the first day until day 15. I could not post it live during the trip as the internet were limited. So bear with this blog for another 15 days. It's start now!