Last departure to Egypt

.... as a student, I wish. Will probably come again as a tourist, perhaps haha.

So this time was totally different. Different vibes, different feeling. As much as I got excited to go back to my temporary home, I'd feel rather sad to be apart from my husband. Of course, I was ready for this. He was too. But, to go through it was just.. hard!

To be honest, we weren't really that sad, until.. when I needed to pass the international departure gate, we hugged for goodbye then he looked me in the eyes. "No, please no. I can't start this or else this won't stop haha" - my brain said so. But my heart said the opposite, "Oh, no. He cried. Can he please not. I'm weak". I cried too.

Must. Be. Strong.

I am so weak when it comes to people crying for me. I can't do this.

When Ameerul hold my entire head (small head haha), he looked at me right into my eyes, I could see his teary eyes and no, he cried. And his brother took our pictures hahaha and the entire family actually was there witnessed us saying goodbye and encouraging us to hug and kiss longer since we were going to be apart like very funny okay cause I feel like I was going for a war battle leaving my loved one here as if I wasn't coming back haha.

But true, one year is really long (especially for newlyweds lol).

I salam-ed everyone. I cried a lot when I hugged my mother in law cause why was she so nice, why was I so blessed, god this reminded me of my mom who was in Kelantan, god I was so weak.

My footsteps felt heavier as I walked alone after that. I looked back many times until I couldn't see them anymore. The funny sad part was whenever I looked back to see them, Ameerul was always there waving at me. Then I looked back again after a few steps, Ameerul was still there just staring and waving. I looked back again while pulling my luggage, Ameerul was still there while the other family members were starting to disperse. God, was he that loyal? Hahaha.

I cried, guys. Forget coolness. I missed my husband already just after I sat on the plane.

I sat next to a friendly medical student who also studies in Egypt, we made friends and still keeping in touch till now. It was a smooth journey and it's so nice that we got along so well, it's funny cause it really felt like we already knew each other for so long. We shared our stories and many more issues especially our crazy experiences in Egypt and of course our first selfie ever. Lol.

Reached Egypt around 2 am local time, I felt empty cause Egypt was quite and chilly. I missed him. Was it just yesterday he helped me packing my luggage? Was it just yesterday we ate together?

I was such a drama queen. Haha.

Everything got back to normal again after all. It is my final year, though.

So, next time, we will come here together right? Hehehe.

When in Bali

Still owe a wedding blog post.

But never mind. Still in the honeymoon story.

One of the highlights of our trip to Bali was a-day trip to Uluwatu and Tanah Lot. Cause we stayed in Kuta and hired a tourist guide to there.

Well, I heard they were beautiful. And they really were! Yes of course the nature lover (who else?) loved it so much, he said, "Alright, give me some me time to just enjoy this view". Duhh, "You can just Youtube this, no need to be so focus". I was right, right? Hahaha.

Okay, so Tanah Lot first. Yes, so nice. Calm. No wonder people would come here to pray and meditate. But I simply can't do that - cause there were a lot of tourist. Hahaha. It was really nice, I lost my words to describe this. Our tourist guide was a kind man, he knew what we needed. What I wanted. He kept telling the whole stories about Bali to us (sometimes I snored away, Ameerul listened to him with a full concentration) but it was interesting.

We stopped by Pandawa Beach and Nusa Dua to pray. And to eat ayam betutuk (not again, thanks) at the famous restaurant there. And what's interesting for me was that mosque in Nusa Dua which was located next to 4 other places of worship (Catholics church, Protestants church, Hindu temple and Buddhist temple).

Anddd to see how the locals processed the Luwak coffee. Nay Nescafe, you shouldn't feel threatened. I'm still gonna choose you over the bitter Luwak coffee. Hahaha. But everyone should see Ameerul's face when he tried ginger coffee cause they also served another 12 cups of variety of coffee. Funnayyy. Not a big problem for me - hot ginger drink is my monthly drink routine.

Oh yes, Uluwatu finally! Much less like Tanah Lot. Cause it's a temple. But the scenery there was totally breathtaking. Couldn't stop taking Boomerang shots and amazed by the beauty of the waves. Awhh. Major love!

And then we moved to see a romantic sunset in New Kuta.

Uluwatu Temple and the head of...some boy.

Hahahaha.

beach boy

Just thought that Ameerul needs his own post on how much he loved nature while we were in Bali. Not just Bali! Well, I deserve a blog post of myself too, since I needed to be with him all the time and sitting next to him accompanying him enjoying the beach breeze. Like what?! Hahaha.

(I'm not a travel blogger, so don't expect anything haha).

So, Kuta Beach. It was nice, but too crowded. Maybe because it was near to Kuta town that it became the easiest access to everyone. It was 10 minutes away by foot from our first hotel. It was nearbyto a mall - Beachwalk Mall I think, Hard Rock too and many more. So it was much less like the hot spot for the tourists. I personally didn't like the idea of staying here for a long time, cause it's too crowded. Literally crowded. Yeah, maybe it was on weekend, but still weekdays also the same. But someone loved it here, so we (I) needed to stay hahaha.

Next, Segara Beach. Niceeee. Much better than Kuta Beach. Actually all beaches look the same to me. With the waves, sand and all. But this one's better because it was a lot less calmer than the previous one. Still, a lot of people came here too, but this one's overlooking a shopping mall. Hahaha so no wonder I gave it a credit lol. I mean, it was a win-win situation right, for both of us. 

And then, my favvvvv beach of all! Pandawa Beach! Wohooo. The best ever. I wish I could swim in here. It was a clean, crystal clear beach. But we can't because we were on our way to Uluwatu, so we just stopped here for a while. I really loved it here. Nice, clean, calm and not crowded. And of course the beach boy loved it so so so much. He told me so many times that he just wanted to stay there for a day. No, we can't dude. Gather your sense. Haha. So he decided to play by the seaside, immersing his both feet for the first time in Bali, guys. Cause it was so tempting and it's just so rude not to do that to the perfect beach. Awhh, even the hate-the-hot-places girl woman like me also wanted one. Hehehe. 

And Dreamland Beach in New Kuta. Not in Kuta but somewhere in a new developing town called New Kuta. Also nice but we were already in love with Pandawa Beach so we felt like nothing left we wanted to see hahaha so useless both of us. We were just here for sunset by the way. 

To be honest, I didn't really like the idea of the beach. Cause it's too sandy hahaha oh my god I'm so spoiled. Yesss, the sand will follow you to the hotel room and you'll just get itchy by that. It sticks to your shawls and clothes. Even your hotel bathroom showers salty water. Hahaha. But yes, you got someone opposite to you. I got Ameerul, the beach lover.

 What. A. Luck.

Hahaha. So, wish me luck.

eat, pray, love

Hahahaha.

Naah! Just because we were in Bali. But I swear, we weren't really "eat, pray, love" there. Yeahh, probably putting on "love" element a little bit. But most of the time, we were just... be us. Haha. We fought. We argued. Then only we loved. And the cycle repeated. Hahaha I swear I felt like going on a trip with my best friend. We can just relax, be ourselves, teased each other, wrestled each other (read: tickled my bone cause I'm so skinny I have no fat hahaha). And that's how I dreamed it to be. Not necessary to be in love all the time.

So how was Bali? Bali was sooooo nice. I mean, Bali itself. Minus the people. I don't really prefer crowded (and hot) places (read: Egypt hahaha) but yeah Bali was so beautiful. The beaches, the waterfall, the greens and all. Ameerul loved the beaches so much, I just knew, that he could be there for a long period of time just staring at the waves with a total dont-talk-to-me kind of concentration. Oh god. I thought he must be in a deep thought about something then later he said, "That waves used to be strong a while ago". W.E.I.R.D. I married a weird nature lover. Hehehe. While I am more to a history lover.

We'd been there for 6 days and 5 nights. Not too long but not too short, just nice that we were able to have some good times for ourselves after those tired phase of wedding. Just chilling by the beaches - almost everyday zzz and strolling around Kuta town, by foot that we insisted we were a total tourist we should explored everything by our own hahahaha not funny. Kuta town was near to our hotel by the way. We didn't take any tour to anywhere except to Uluwatu and Tanah Lot.

We learnt a lot about each other throughout this trip. He may not be the same person you've ever knew for 6 years until you live with him. He's normal by the way haha don't worry. It's just that I was able to learn a new side of him that made me fell in love with him even deeper. And also a new side of him that sometimes you just wanted to strangle him hahaha, I did that by the way, literally. And that's when he tickled my rib bone zzz.

And also this would be a very meaningful trip for both of us too. It's our first trip together by the way. We felt rather sad as well because we both knew we didn't have much time left before I flew back to Egypt for another 1 year, so we tried our best to just spend our time wisely together. That's sad. He said this to me when he stared at the waves at the beach then he held my hand while saying, "I'm gonna miss you". God, just thank God. He's normal after all, thinking about me, not only about that freaking waves pattern hahaha.

But anyway, it was just perfect there. With him. And everything.

 Our first hotel.

The truth was; we still felt awkward to hug each other in a photo, publicly hahaha.

Can someone move the woman? Hahaha

In front of our second hotel. 

Short people problem. When you're just as tall as his chest. But my face matters more. Lol.

2 days 1 night in Alexandria

Just a very short trip to Alexandria with my Egypt sisters during Sham el-Naseem break.

It took 4 hours to Alex from Zagazig by road, my motion sickness got me sleeping throughout the journey after I took a pill and just to find myself wake up several times sweating. It's early summer at that time by the way. It's really hot - my face burnt. I had weeks-long episodes of not knowing myself hahaha. (After the trip, we all had nights of face masking to get rid of the sunburned face - totally discouraged haha)

I'd been there twice before, all with different people. And my recent trip to Alex was with my classmates and it was all 9 of us.

Day 1

So we started the journey early in the morning (couldn't get ready properly cause my neighborhood suddenly blacked out zzz) and they all had an egg and falafel wrapped by a pita bread as breakfast. 

In Alex, we fully traveled by public transports, except to a few first places we rented a van with the help of this one friendly Egyptian. And entered every places with the discount from our student cards. So here's the tip: Bring along your student card (though not from any local universities, and claim you're Malaysian. Cause people here treat Malaysians really nice haha)

Okay, at around 1130 am, our first stop was Pompey's Pillar (Amoud Al Sawari). I was kinda hypo at this time, cause I didn't eat my breakfast yet (didn't feel like eating so early in the morning) and I was still under the influence of my motion sickness med. Plus it' really hot there, I can't really focused. But we just gotta do what we gotta do; selfies (just girls doing what girls gotta do hahaha). And at the end, I just sat there quietly sharing my breakfast with a cat while the other were happily playing tourist around the area. 

You can read more about Pompey's Pillar online (Hi Rab the history lover hahaha)

Alright, next was Roman Theater (Masrah Rumany). Read more about Roman Theater here.

Lunch time at this one seafood restaurant near to Qaitbay Citadel. What's Alex without seafood, right. I was getting myself back - so energetic now, so alive hahaha. And we walked to Qaitbay after lunch. Shela and I had been here before with our families, so while the other entered inside, we sat there by the sea taking as much pictures as we wanted, talking to some random Egyptians, watching some people on the boats got hit by crazy waves, just enjoying a very nice breeze. 

Second tip: always check the availability of the places you wish to visit cause Qaitbay closes early on Friday so the other girls were mad that they couldn't get enough pictures hahaha and the guard just chased them out hahahah. 

It was still so hot but the breeze really helped. We really didn't feel like going to the next place. Just wanna sit there all day. More about Qaitbay Citadel here.

And spending some sunset watching at the Stanley Bridge which was so nice to get to see people just chilling an evening air with the loved ones, fishing and all. Then, moved to our home stay which operated by some Malaysians who was living there with a nice rates and facilities. At night, all of them going out to the mall to find some foods leaving me, Shela and Aifaa at home cause we were too lazy to go out. So we played Uno instead. They came back with food, some groceries and Uno game continued until midnight hahaha.

#themyth If you travel to this Stanley Bridge with your loved ones, there's a high chance that you will be together with him/her for forever. Awww hahaha.

Day 2

They woke up earlyyyyyy in the morning and had a few rounds of Uno games (at 5 am, seriously you people? Crazy haha), I was the last one to wake up to find Syaza cooked instant noodles for breakfast. Everybody got ready to Maamoura Beach.

The beaches here are clean, cause they treat them like a private one. Most of them need an entrance fee. We just had a productive morning by cycling hahaha. And brunch at the nearest restaurant.

We got home to check out and heading directly to The Library of Alexandria. That was my third time there. Having fun this time with the pharmacist-to-be at the Pharmacy books section, dreaming about becoming the book worm (which is never hahaha).

And so, we got back to Zagazig.