Johannesburg-South Africa

Apologize since no photo is available. We were supposed to catch a flight back to Malaysia from Malawi in the morning. However due to the late flight of Malaysia Airline during its leg from Brazil to Johannesburg, we were provided accomodation in a hotel in downtown Johannesburg. Friends told us Johannesburg is quite famous for its muggers. Upon boarding the bus, announcement was made to the hotel guest not to wander the streets since they were unsafe. We spent the whole day in the hotel. The next day we were on our way to Malaysia.

Lilongwe Malawi

Took Malaysia Airlines to Malawi right after the visit to SriLanka. We were there to survey to develop a billing system for our subsidiary. Malawi is in South Central Africa. 

The flight took almost 12 hours. Need to transit in Johannesburg and catch a flight to Malawi. Majority of the population are Muslims. The office were sited in Linglongwe. The weather was mild. There were not much to see here. We stayed only for 3 days.

 

Malawi

Colombo-Sri Lanka

Visited Colombo, SriLanka to study for the development of a billing system in 1994. Colombo is a developed city by the sea. The place was on high security due to constant attack of Tamil Tiger on public places. We met some Colombian Malays. Plenty of tasty food here. 

Bought lots of tea since they are famous for it. Three days after I left Colombo, the hotel which we stayed were bombed by the rebellions.

SriLanka is popular with its natural sea beaches. It is famous for its blended tea of various flavour and eye-catching packaging.

Colombo

Delhi, Bombay, Bangalore, Madras, Hyderabad-India

New Delhi

Visited Usha Group of Companies. The first leg of visit is New Delhi which sited their main office. Took the flight from KL via Bangkok using Thai Airlines since Malaysia airline does not have KL-New Delhi flight back in 1993. Had dinner with their chairman that night. 

Next day we flew to Bombay to visit one of the College there. Did not manage to get to see any of the Hindi filmstar here although India film industry is based in Bombay. 

Later we flew to Hyderabad where we visited their manufacturing office. Hyderabad in further south on a highland. 

Then, over to Bangalore, India Silicon Valley. We flew back to KL via Madras.

In another occasion, I had a second visit to India where we stayed in Calcutta for one month attending a short course. We were housed in Usha resident apartment. We cooked our own food throughout the month long stay.

In a rare occasion, the night we arrived was Diwali or Deepavali celebration. Over here, they fire, fire crackers from mignight until early dawn to celebrate Divali. In the first week, everyone of us were down with diarhoe. A lady participant had to be warded due to its seriousness. Since we had consumed the local bacteria, we had build the antibodies then. Our stomach is able to consume local food without any further problem right after that. During the one month stay, we shopped and eat. Bought a lot of sarees and Hindi CD movies and songs. 

Samarkand, Tashkent - Uzbekistan

Went to Uzbekistan in 1994 to visit their R&D department in Tashkent the state capital of Uzbek. Dr Najem and Izhan join the trip. Our intention is to scout for talents to work in our R&D office. Stayed there for a week. The R&D center were not that fully equipped unlike ours in Malaysia, but they produces lots of research papers.

Dr Adham host took us to visit their ski mountain resort. We took the cable car right to the mountain top. Since it was summer, there are not many people around. Our host Dr Adham took us around. During one night, he took us to see the famous Russian ballet.

We were lucky to had visited the country when they were celebrating their 100 years of their scientist . It was held in another city called Samarkand. In Samarkand, we had the opportunity to visit the famous Imam Bukhari Mosque & Moseuleum. However they Center were short of reading materials especially the Quran since they were not allowed to practice Islam freely during the communist period. On my return trip to Malaysia later, I organized to collect the Quran from office mates and had them shipped to Tashkent.

Their mosque were of high architecture value but not fully utilized for prayers.

We later recruited Dr Azham to work in our office. He worked in our R&D for almost 7 years. During his stay in Malaysia, I played host to him on several occasion. Took him back to my hometown in Kedah and brought him to places like PD and Penang. During fasting month I used to invite him for break-fasting in my home and took him for the Terawih prayers.

Samarkand

Fruit Market Tashkent

Dr Adham & Hazim in Penang

Paris-France

Add caption

I took a bullet train from Schipoll Airport. Reached Paris 2.5 hours later. Check into a modest hotel or a motel in fact. Things are very expensive here. I just live on bread and coffee. Next day I bought the day fare ticket for Paris underground train. The first place I went to visit was the Eifel Tower. Later walked to the Etoile and visited Notre Dame and other famous sites. Later that night I took a night train to Frankfurt. I had to share the sleeping berth with 5 other passengers. Reached Frankfurt 7 hours later. Check in to the airport business lounge, cleaned myself, took a bath and enjoy breakfast while waiting for the flight back to Kuala Lumpur Malaysia

Amsterdam-Holland

Right after visiting Berlin,Germany, I took a flight to Amsterdam. Earlier I had called a local Dutch friend working in Malaysia to pick me up. I put up in a hotel away from the city center. 

Next day we visited places of interest namely the windmills & flower gardens. Visited one of those Photo Studio in Volendam to dress in the native Dutch attire. In the night, we visited the famous night spots. 

The following day my host send me off to the train station. I took the bullet train to Paris.

 

Volendam

Windmill in Zann Schanns

Bohn, Berlin-Germany

Berlin

One fine day a company based in Malaysia approched me if we were interested to visit their company in Germany. Of course I obliged and we were on our way to Germany. Landed in Franfurt and took another flight to Bohn. Visited their office next day. 

The following evening, we took a flight to Berlin to visit Deushe Telekom.  Later over theweekend, our host took us to Japanese Palace outside Berlin. The tour guide took us the whole morning visiting all the luxury rooms used during the reign. Later we visited the vast gardens. 

In the night, we had dinner in the Pakistani restaurant and visited some famous night spots. 

After visiting the host company and Deusch Telecom, we flew back to Frankfurt. I did not however took the flight back home to Malaysia. I had other plans. I send my belongings back home via my colleague. I bought a back pack a night before, planning to travel to Amsterdam and Paris. Visit my other site for story of Amsterdam and Paris. 

Tokyo, Yokohama-Japan

This is my second visit to Japan. My first visit was in 1983. This time, it was a a visit to NTT Tokyo. We visited their R&D office.


Over the weekend we took the opportunity to visit Disneyland Tokyo.

Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK

In 1992, I had the opportunity for further studies in the UK. Got admission to the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne for a masters programme in Computer Science. Newcastle is a town in the north east of England bordering Scotland. I brought along the family with 3 boys aged 5, 7 and 9 years.

At Newcastle Airport we were met by Malaysian families and were put up at one of their homes We stayed with Nordin Endut family from UPM for a couple of nights until we managed to rent a flat unit right across the street along Wingrove Road.

Stayed at Wingrove gardens during the one year stay. A week later we bought a Volvo GL740 for 2700 pounds. During the time the exchange rate was RM4 to a pound. We did lots of travelling using the Volvo during our stay. It only broke down once during one of our trip to London. We shipped it back to Malaysia upon return.

During the first month of stay we had to huddle round the fireplace since it was winter and we are foreign to the cold environment. Strong wind that seeped through holes in the walls made it worst. We decide to move to another unit upstairs 2 doors away. It solved the problem since the unit comes with a central heater. 

The kids go to schools just round the corner of the street. There are many Malaysian in that school and thus the kids had no opportunity to converse in English except on small occasions.

During the first week on Saturday Nordin brought us to Blaydon Car Boot Sale for us to get the necessities for the new home. We got all the basic home stuff at a bargain price. Even though they were used items, but are still in good condition. Car boot sale had been our standard weekly routine since then. They were however closed for the next two months due to winter.

On the second week we drove to Bradford to look for kitchen wares. Lots of Malaysian goes there shopping. Before winter came, we went to visit the lake district which is famous for their lakes

There are many Malaysian family around this neighborhood. In Newcastle itself there were about 100 families & bachelors. Most families are lecturers doing their Masters & Phds. Nordin had become our close family friends during our stay. Over the weekends we visit each other since the children are very close and are same age. We had 3 boys and they had 3 girls. At the end of our term, we had another boy and Nordin had another girl.

Every weekend apart from boot sale, we drove to Lake District, visits Castle, theme Parks which are within 1 -3 hours drive. They are mostly day trips and we normally bring pack foods during the trip to save cost. The allowances we got from the sponsor are just enough for the house rental and food.

Halal meat are plenty since there are many Pakistani shops around. We used to go to Kedai Haji along Tamworth Road. On several occasion we went to Tynemouth to the fisherman wharf to get fresh prawn & fish.

We used to organise meetings at the Malaysian house in Benwell. Every fortnight, Nordin, Arshad and Wan used to organise usrah at our homes. Each one of us will take turn to organise them.

During our one year stay, we travelled to London 3 times since it is only 5 hours drive. Each trip, we stayed at Rumah Pak Abu which charged us 50 pound per room per night. Pak Abu is a Malaysian who migrated to become a British resident. He was a retired Underground Tube train driver.

We also visited famous town such as Durham, Stoke-on-Trents, Blackburn, Blackpool, Liverpool, Nottingham, Manchester, Leeds, Cardiff, Bristol, Edinburgh. During most of the overnight stay, we put up tent and rented cabin.

In one of the visit we went for the summer student meet in Wales. We also travel west to stay in Lampeter and later drove to Stoke on Trent to take the children to the theme park - Alton Towers.

In one of our visit, we stayed in Glasgow in Rahman's house. Rahman is related to my sister in law. This is the first time we knew Rahman and he and wife are such a nice families. Rahman works with the navy and he was in Glasgow for the construction of Malaysia Navy frigate.

In winter, we played snow in Glenshee Scotland. 

 
We stopped travelling for one month when my wife gave birth to a baby boy (the fourth boy) Hazim in Feb 93. Hazim was born at Newcastle General Hospital. However due to love of travelling, we were on the street again after her confinement. This time we travelled south to the Cornwall District. It is at the southern most part of England called it Lands End. Here we stayed in the caravan.

Our second visit to UK was during our return trip from US in Dec 1997. We stop over for a week stay. In London we stayed with our neighbour next door Abang Yusof who was attached to the Malaysian Embassy. We rented a car and travelled north to Lancaster, Stoke and our former home in Newcastle.

In Lancaster we stayed at a friends house studying here.The reason we travelled to Newcastle is to show Hazim the hospital where he was born. On our way back to London, we stop by Blackburn to buy Clark shoes and Stoke-on-Trent to buy porcelein wares.

Hanif & Hafidz with the headmistress

Hartside on way to Lake District

Lochness Lake in Scotland

Hazim just born at Newcastle General Hospital

Staying in static caravan in Lands End

Tokyo, Yokohama

Travelling on the Ferry to Hakone Checkpoint

My first trip overseas was to Japan in 1983. It was a factory visit tour to Tokyo & Yokohama. It was my first trip overseas since started work in 1981. We visited Sumitomo cable factory in Yokohama. Sumitomo had been providing cables all those years to our company.

On Saturday & Sunday, our host took us to Hakone Checkpoint to visit the Japanese Cherry Blossom. They also took is to Shinjuku, Ginza, Harajuku, Akihabara. Travelling in Tokyo is mostly by the MRT which is a very efficient transport service. They have guards manning the station and will use a long stick to push passengers in. Only then the driver closes the door and move the train.

Our host took us to several interesting tourist sites during the weekend.