Kota Cinta Paris

Wow, the title is so 'propa' while it was only a business trip during last summer. Summer is always the best time to travel around in Europe. It was such a bliss :-) A week time was packed with meetings in La defense and it was only on the last day before going to airport, my colleagues and I managed to squeeze our time for our personal agenda. Me and my lady friend went for a sight seeing via metro train and  did 'quick' shopping for some souvenirs & personal stuffs. Our project head shopped the LV handbag for his wife ('wink wink'-bizibodi mode) and another guy colleague went for shopping too... Who says that only ladies love shopping ;)

Well, pics taken in this beautiful city of love. 

A perfect backdrop of Eiffel Tower from Trocadero on a cloudy day.
There were many souvenir vendors around which ones could get better deals if to compare with sold at the shops however it was a bit irritating when they kept on 'persuading' tourists to buy their stuffs.

Musee du Louvre

Buildings nearby the Musee du Louvre

-Arc de Triomphe-

On the second night in Paris, we had a casual dinner-cruising sponsored by the host partner.

Amazing view of Paris aka the city of light along the river

~La Defense Paris ~

In front of our hotel @ CNIT building.

Grande Arche in La Defense

~La Fayette Mall~

While in Holland...

Actually, this was a business trip in April this year. I had the project review workshop in Rijswijk, a town in the Western Netherlands and a suburb of the Hague. It's quite a small and quiet town. It was a week trip and on the last day, we went to Amsterdam and spent a night before flew back to KL.

In Rijswijk, I stayed at Grand Winston hotel. Nothing special about the hotel but I kinda like the breakfast provided here which they had variety choices of food and beverages. Personally, I love their pancake, freshly blended juices and fresh fruits :)

Picture of hotel: google

The Rijswijk town in the morning, pix taken in front of the hotel.

We took this tram to The Hague (Den Haag)

It was very convenient and the trip to The Hague only took 10 mins.

The Hague town

'jalan-jalan cari makan' in Den Haag.

We had dinner at this muslim restaurant in Den Haag

Halal Restaurant in Rijswijk

Dinner @ Istanbul Restaurant

My schedule was really pack, so I didn't have a chance to go to Kuekenhof, the famous tulip field in Holland. Btw, I passed by the field of tulips on the way to Amsterdam and the pix above was taken from moving vehicle on the highway. That's why it 's blurry;p. So I paste the clearer version from google :)

Tulip field: google picture

pix from Keukenhof's website

*Info on Keukenhof (based on keukenhof's website):

Opening times:

22 March to 20 May 2012

Open from 8.00 am to 19.30 pm daily including Sundays & public hols

Ticket office closes at 6pm.

Entrance Fees 2012:

Adults and 65+	€ 14,50 per person
Children (4-11 years)	€ 7,00 per person
Parking (vehicles)	€ 6,00 per vehicle
Parking (busses)	free

Nice view otw to Amsterdam

We arrived Amsterdam around 8pm and it was not dark yet.

Stayed at a cozy & reasonably priced hotel near the Dam Square, Rho Hotel.

The tram line near the Dam Square

My colleagues and I had dinner at the Malaysian Restaurant, Wau Restaurant that night. It had a variety of Malaysian food such as satay, chicken curry, etc. That night, I had rice with 'asam pedas' prawn and 'teh tarik' and I can say the taste was authentic.

Back from dinner, we passed by the Red Light District.

Infamous place among the tourists and locals, especially guys.

Dam Square area at night

The next morning, we went to the flower market and passed by this beautiful channel.

Flower market.

flower market.

This tulips pix was taken at the Schiphol airport.

Last minute notice to Dubai

In the first place, agak cuak to get few emails, sms and calls from Dubai office and my boss while I was on my leave last school / christmas hols. And more, while I was enjoying my precious time with family back in my hometown. Definitely office work would be the last thing that I want to think of, sigh... The original schedule was a few days trip to Dubai & Iraq and I'll be in KL before new year. It turned out that my stay there was postponed till the following week. So I miss the long weekend in KL. However, spent weekend in Dubai = shopping 'kain' ;) What a therapy :))

Antara kedai2 kain di Dubai.

Dan agak rambang mata...

End up, I've to get another slightly bigger luggage than what I brought (that small red luggage). Hmm, pergi Uzbek beli bag, pergi UK beli bag, I need to carry larger luggage or extra luggage even I've been told for a 3-5 days trip, just in case!

Baghdad??

This is my first time in Baghdad, the city of late Saadam Hussein. Being outstation in Iraq is a different experience altogether compared to other part of countries that I've been. Due to current unstable situation in this country, we can't take for granted the risks that we might face. For the first time in my life, I put on a 5kg bullet proof vest, with the help of bodyguard (it's heavy ok) and I was escorted with armed bodyguards, armed driver and also escorted with two separate security bullet proof vehicles whenever we need to go out from the camp. It's a company procedure for the security vehicles to escort our 4WD, each of them is in front and behind of ours. For the first time also, I hear this kind of instruction from my bodyguard: "if both of me and the driver got shot, pls press this button. This will link to the security for a rescue" Hmm... do you think it is such a cool instruction?? 

One of the street in the city of Baghdad. The picture taken otw to Ministry of Oil.
Not many pictures taken as I was conscious with the presence of armies with suspicious look along the checkpoints...

Along the way here, we had to go through series of army check points, went through the body scan machines, showed them our passports, etc. Hmmm, procedures that I normally watched in the action movies and apparently I'm experiencing all these, now. We convoyed with 4 SUVs for the 3 of us to go for a meeting with Iraq Ministry of Oil staffs. The bodyguards waited outside of the meeting room and we were escorted all the way until we reach the camp. The con is, we don't have the chance to go to somewhere else. It's strictly business. No fridge magnets peeps!

Alhamdulillah, the meeting went smoothly. And alhamdulillah so far so good. We did hear some shootings sound from a far distance. I'm not sure whether it's a training camp nearby or any real shootings were actually taken place. I noticed few attacks-status from the security screen during the security briefing on the first day here however those were far from our camp. I always pray to Allah for our safety and can go back to Kl as scheduled. Thank God, they have wifi here in the camp. I don't care if I don't have big screen tv or fridge in the room but I desperately need to get access to the Internet. Alhamdulillah we have all of those in the room ;) There were few electric trips occurred during our stay. It was damm scary at first. Just imagine that I was in total darkness in the new army camp. However it only takes like 3-5 mins each time. After several times, I've got used to it huhu...

Can't wait to fly back to Dubai tomorrow and hope to be back to KL on Friday as scheduled. I miss my family. Akid started his new year school without me and hubby around. Poor him ;(

Bullet proof jacket and helmet beside each bed in the camp

I'm in Muscat...

Nov 13th 2009.

This post has been in the draft form for like a month ago while I was out stationed in Muscat with my 2 other colleagues... I remembered, I gave up as the Internet connection in the room was not stable. Till then, I was extremely busy to update this blog of mine... Currently, I'm on my 3 wks-leave, resting & working from home... bliss, bliss...;) but I guess I have to go to work on the 3rd week, if not the 'never-ever-finished-office work will start piling up... :(

Sight of a camel on the desert otw to site visit. It was a day trip by a 4W drive which was 4 hrs journey to site and coming back to Muscat for another 4 hours. Reached Muscat @ night huhu... We were refreshed by having delicious 'kebab' cooked by Zamzabi folks by the dim street...

Mountainous view along the journey

My room.

It was not bad even at a cheaper place @RM600/nite compared to next door hotel, Hyatt @1K/nite.

Stopped @ Sink hole otw back from our personal trip.

Fortunately we got a day off, waiting for conformation from site mgmt to obtain permission to enter site. At the same time, It did compensate for working over weekends on Sat & Sun ;P

One of the famous forts in Muscat

Stayed @ this hotel - Muscat Safari Resort.

We could picked the fresh dates falling from trees...

The view of the Oman beach. It was all covered by pebbles...

This was @ Wadi Shaab. It took us 1 hour to walk along the pebbled path under direct hot sunlight before we reached the right place for having our lunch... however it was worth the effort after we reached the splendid view of grand canyon with the small river of clear greenish water flowing in the middle...

View of golf course for PDO (JV of Oman & Shell) staffs