Being Malaysian's Malay, I believed everyone would agree with me on this. No food gives us satisfaction more that  rice. Just like Korean cannot live without kimchi and Indian without curry. For sure, I can substitute my meals with noodles, western and such but usually, at the end of the day, I would turn to rice. On the contrary to my better half, I have not much appetite for western. I would agree with western food depends on my mood but I always have appetite for rice, given any situation, any time of the day, any season of year or any climate which drove my husband crazy most of the times ha ha ha. 

During normal day, I would asked earlier what my family wanted to have for lunch and dinner so I can plan my work but if they didn't come up with anything they feel like having, the answer will always rice, rice and nothing else but rice unless something else was suggested.

And this is what happened if the decision is solely up to me - full course of kampung style lunch. 

:: Lemak Cili Padi Ayam with Kentang. The second best lemak cili padi I've ever taste ( the best will always be my mum's of course) was at Restaurant P.Ramlee at KLCC. I think the restaurant has been closed not long after but the taste of it's lemak cili padi lingers until now. Well, actually what I wanted to share is that they fried their chicken before putting it into the gravy and I was hooked since then and started doing so each time I make Lemak Cili Padi ::

:: Must have every time I cooked lemak or curry. The saltiness from ikan masin compliment the santan-ish meal well. As I've mentioned in many posts before, my husband and I have a very different palate and that includes our preference of ikan masin. I preferred sepat or talang more but he loves tenggiri jeruk so  we just had to have both usually ::

:: Famously known as jer jer or jarjel in middle east. I think the other or rather the westernized name for this green thing is arugula. You'll find this ulam abundance in Arab's world. This is ze main side dish to go with almost everything here. Rice, grilled, bread and whatnot. Hubby usually bought our stock after every Friday prayer from the hawker outside mosque.

:: I called this Udang goreng belacan with kangkung instead of Kangkung Goreng belacan with udang because udang is more than kangkong he he he.. ::

Husband received an invitation by embassy to an event called Malaysia Gala Dinner for launching of Visit Malaysia Year 2014 on 13th May, and we are more than honored and happy to attend. The event took place at Marriot Courtyard Hotel, Kuwait.

Since I'm into my 28 weeks as we speak, looking good is least of my concern because I don't look good in no matter what I put on at this stage ha ha ha. Whatever could fit me would be fine, I'll take it.. 

:: There's an official photographer roaming around the lobby to take a photo of you and you can request to get it printed in a hard case frame like this. Makes a really good memento ::

:: Ours ::

Tourism Malaysia rent out all three ballrooms I think. One is to cater booths for all hoteliers and travel agencies which participating in this events. The other one is where the launching took place and another one is allocated for dining. 

There's also one booth prepared outside for all guests to have a hands on batik chanting's experience. I think  if there's only one product that can presented Malaysia's best, than batik it is.

In overall, the event went smooth, entertaining and in relaxing mode. I mean no lengthy speeches whatsoever. The Master of Ceremony of the day is no other than Mr Mahathir Lokman and I immediately got star struck hahaha. He spoke well, very charismatic and funny at the same time. It's so easy to see why he was the best for the job. 

We were entertained by series of traditional dances that represented Malaysia's multiracial cultures by dancers from Istana Budaya and also famous quintet before the launching and during dinner. Listening to Ct Nurhaliza's song - Nirmala and other songs performed that night really trigger those homesick feeling. I'm sure most of us can't be helped but feeling thrilled and sad at the same time.

:: Familiar face right?? I believed they're indeed the face of Malay traditional's music ::

The launching was done by Malaysian Embassy to Kuwait H.E Dato Adnan Hj Othman after a brief presentation on what Malaysia has to offer by Datuk Azizan Noordin, Tourism Malaysia Deputy Director General - Planning and the dinner follow suit. Wide extensive spread was prepared that night with a mixture of Arabic, Malaysian and western style.

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Akhir kata, to both Malaysian embassy and Tourism Malaysia, thank you for letting us be a part of this wonderful event and and to others, come and visit Malaysia he he....

:: Malaysia bolehhh !! ::

P/s : Most photos used taken from Megat's FB, unless stated otherwise :)

This is a compilation post of day 9 and day 10 of our trip. I must say, the hardest part during our 15 days trip simply because of extreme climate. I've made prior checking for all places we're going to visit beforehand, as a heads up and also to make my packing easier but no research prepares me for what Italy has to offer ha ha ha. Sadly, the harsh weather did tainted small bit to an otherwise perfect trip. 

As you know, Italy is actually a beautiful historical country with so many historic sites, building, monuments and statues from late medieval period. And due to their ancient background, almost everything was protected and preserved by the government up to their roads. I'm pretty sure everyone knows that most roads in this side of the world is paved and gravel type, therefore, no heavy vehicles were allowed to enter the city to protect the seal coat roads. I heard something like they enforcing ten tones off limit vehicles into the city. And because of our main transportation is indeed heavy vehicle aka bus, thus a lot lot lot of walking involved. Walking is fine I reckon but it will be much nicer should the weather is kinder. 

Okay, enough of the introduction. Our day starts today by driving across Appennine Mountains, past Bologna onto Pisa, specifically to visit Leaning Tower of Pisa. 

Ohh before that, once we enter Italy, we were brought to one checkpoint to pay for the "permit" to enter the city. This customary rules is made known to all tour managers, tour guides and also bus drivers. This permit is needed so you'll be able to drive in ZTL ( Zona Traffico Limitato) or limited traffic zone. Mostly most cities will have this ZTL specially in the historic center. Some cities doesn't even allowed traffic to enter for the very same reason I mentioned above so either you walk, park your vehicle at the designated area provided in the city outskirts, usually within walking distance and take shuttle from there. And that's what we have to do to reach Pisa.. 

Our bus took us to the shuttle bus terminal outside the center area and from there we need to board the shuttle bus provided by the council. It's not free though but because we were travelling in a group, the payment was inclusive in the package tour so the tour manager handled that part. Among many perks travelling with a group. You can skipped this little petty thing and troublesome part in the trip. Luxury you don't have if you travelling by yourself.

From the bus stop, we had to walk around 500-600 meters to reach Pisa. 

I am usually quite easily distracted by the street vendors. Even if I'm not buying, I'll make a point to stop and do some window shopping. However, this long stretch street failed to distract me. I don't even bat an eye since the weather is so freaking hot. All I care about is the nearest shades area. To show how severed the climate here, we immediately developed sunburns although we were all covered in sunblock and exposed to sun not more than 1 hour by this time. Sighhhh...

:: The girls's expression is self explanatory hihihih ::

:: Literally I had to drag them out in the sun to take photo. I was actually had planned to do what most tourist did during visiting Pisa. You know some fancy, witty poses with the tower you would usually see in travel blog, but given the weather, I gave up even before trying ::

:: The fanciest pose I managed to strike that took few agony attempts and the outcome wasn't even that impressive ha ha ha ::

:: This is us, most of the time ::

:: And proof that we're not alone :) ::

We were given around 2 hours to explore the area, took photo and we were also told to get our lunch here. For the first time ever during the whole trip, 2 hours seems a bit too long huhuhu. There's not much shades or air conditioned restaurant nearby. Maybe there is but I just don't feel particularly adventurous to explore the back alleys just to get quick lunch and even the girls is hesitant to walk any further so we opted for the nearest decent looking eatery - Mc Donalds. As expected, the air conditioned indoor section is full to the brim, so we had to settled with outside seating area. Grabbed a bite or two and headed back to our meeting point. Time is crucial and everybody was reminded frequently by Mr Mohan earlier to be on time as we need to catch the shuttle bus at certain time so that we won't messed up our schedule. You know, the shuttle bus had fixed schedule too and should you missed the attempted one, you will need to wait for quite sometime for the next one. Surprisingly, unlike previous stops in Swiss, Belgium and all, everybody has no problem with punctuality this time. We even got there 10 minutes early! Something that never happened during our previous days in this trip. I can see that everyone just can't wait to climb on our comfortable-air conditioned bus, me included ha ha ha.

Next is Florence. 

The bus dropped us at the designated area for buses and just when we thought our agony has ended, we were made to walk quite a distance, I think almost 1 km into city of Florence, under hot blazing sun, with no shades area whatsoever. I must confessed that I was THIS close to turn back and gave up the Florence city tour. Kids were having the hardest time and I just can't blame them. Even us adults were having a tough time and my patience level was actually dropped to a very dangerous level. All of us agreed that this part of the tour is not suitable for family travelling with kids. At least the tour manager can be a little considerate with our conditions and probably arranged another transportation. Trust me, I am more than happy to pay little extra for a cab or trishaw whatsoever. 

However, we made it to the city center and by the time we were there, I can safely say that, me and the rest of my tour mate have lost interest with what Florence has to offer. What's with the thought that we had to make another 1 km walk back to the bus in a short while. Pretty disappointing because I am actually looking forward to visit Florence.

:: Infront Gates of Paradise. Errrmm agak nye la ha ha I forgot already. But indeed a very famous gate laaa.. Alis had word not interested written all over her face ::

:: Modern trishaw. I was actually buggering my husband to rent this on our way back to escape the walking part. Unfortunately I can't recall why we ended up cancelling the intention ::

:: Fooling around on our way back to entertain the kids. Actually I do not know what is this "thing" but it has horoscope sign on it so we made the kids to stand on their horoscope signs and took photo ::

If you're into arts, paintings, museums, monuments and sculptures, then Florence is a must to visit. I frankly believed you will enjoy your time there. Unfortunately, I can't say the same as I'm not into all the above and to make it worse, I have no passion for hot weather. Yeahhh, I'm diva liddat, sue me he he he. I mean, don't get me wrong. Italy, Florence is a very interesting place to visit and I'm sure things would have been different if we went there during winter or during any other season but summer. My opinion and how this post going will definitely twisted 360 degree then. But I'm not going to lie and given false testimonial of my experience by saying that everything is nice, pretty and dandy because that's definitely not what's happening. It's not the place lar, so as to say. I think it's safe to say that we were there at the wrong time and wrong season of  year, for all it's worth.  It's part and parcel of travelling I guess. You gained some and you loose some. And honestly, in overall, Italy is just not for me and I don't think I'll ever repeat Florence, except for their pasta.. To Die For !!

We were taken to dinner and straight away to our hotel in Umbria.

:: Warm quick shower and comfy bed, come to mamma ::

The next day, we start our day with light continental breakfast and check out. 

Today we will cover Vatican City and Colloseum in the later part of the day. 

Before that, we were taken to the Time Elevator, an interesting introduction to Rome history and glory in a form of  4 dimensional motion show. It's like watching a 4D movie with motion and all. It is rather good experience because we got to know briefly, if not thoroughly, the Roman history and understand it more before starting the tour, in a very interactive way especially for the girls caused at least they did enjoy the motion, shaking, getting sprinkled by water part, if not for the educational bit. And also it did helped a lot in relating all the places we were about to visit through out the day after watching the presentation. The show took probably around 45 minutes and once done we were ushered to The Vatican City nearby.

The Vatican, lies within Rome, is the smallest city in the world, with government and troupe of military of their own definitely need no introduction. There are few rules to abide in order to enter though, especially on clothing part. No bare shoulders, back, shorts, mini skirt, for example. You will stopped from entering should you did not follow the rules and regulations and the soldiers guiding the entrance were pretty strict about it. They will deny your entry should you did not meet the rules. We met our local tour guide that will serve us that day, an old lady with a very thick accent and rhythmic way of speaking, which I forgot her name already, my bad. If my mind served me correctly, I think it's Bianca.. 

Another important fact that I think vital is, there's a few places in EU where you need to hire a local trained tour guide as per their government law. It is illegal for the unlicensed non local tour manager to give briefing on this particular places, probably because they wanted to protect the history itself as the local tour guide was properly trained and certified to guide the tourist. If the tour manager failed to abide to this, the tour manager can get caught immediately. And trust me, for the sake of trying to escaping from engaging and paying the local guide, some tour company did came up with various trick. One of the trick that we got to witnessed ourselves is using some sort of earpiece device. Each tour group members were provided device like hands free headset and their tour manager will communicate and give briefing via the device. Well, it is probably not a good idea even if you think you doing it secretly because we were told that the police and government did place a lot of non uniform police officers and detectives around the area.

Anyway, back to Vatican city. The queue to enter was painfully long, uncovered and the weather is not in any better state compared to yesterday. Furthermore, there's group of uncivilized and self centered people who decided to rudely cutting queue without thinking of others. Very inconsiderate and it is only natural that their action caused a fight among the visitors.

Super hot weather + sweat induced que + rude and selfish people = Not a very good combo!

So yes, indeed another tense and unpleasant day.

:: Swiss army that was responsible for the safety of Vatican City and guiding the access to all entrances into the city state ::

Let's go inside shall we.. 

There were too many people inside so it was hard to get a good quality photo. The building itself is pretty awesome with all the detailing and murals you just can't help but wondering how on earth that people in the olden days came out with that with very a limited technologies and tools. To me, regardless what is your religion and believes is, it is okay to adore the amazing structures and appreciate the beauty of it as it has nothing to do with religion wise whatsoever. Of course, as a Muslim, the feeling is totally different altogether compared to when we first saw Kaabah.

:: The guard again. Can their uniform get any colorful that that? he he he ::

:: All pictures in this post and also few posts away is raw and un edited. The sky is truly clear and ocean blue that day ::

:: Half of me is in Rome and half of me is in Vatican City he he he.. The kids leg was not long and stretchy enough to do this pose so mummy gotta do it ::

:: Cranky and famished Erin refused to let her picture be taken ::

Then we were taken on a stroll along the Rome City headed towards where our bus were parked. While strolling, we were also given some brief explanation on significant buildings we passed by during our route. 

:: Ze most practical, affordable and wallet friendly souvenirs he he he ::

:: You'd find these image abundances all around Rome. At first I thought that this lady is an old lady seeing from her wrinkly hands, the way she dressed and such but Bianca told us that actually, the lady is indeed a young lady, camouflaged as an old lady to fish sympathies. Which is why, only the hands was visible to the eye of visitors and the rest of it was covered including their face. The hand was 'painted' to make it looks as if it's belong to an old lady. This "sujud" pose is their typical pose and trick in order to protect their faces from be seen and blew their disguise. Wallahualam.. Anyway, to me, if you're feeling like giving them money, then it is really your own choice and your own deeds. Go ahead. The fact that these peoples is actually lying is not really our problem. If we decided to give then, we gained one good deed and if the truth is they were lying, we will gained another deed for being cheated. So, get cheated or not, you'll still gained pahala, Insya Allah ::

We proceed our journey on a bus, passed by Piazza Venezia which is famously known as Marble wedding cake, then Circus Maximus which is used in Hollywood movie Ben Hur. There's a wide screen in the middle of the Circus Maximus and we were told that the gigantic screen was put up the night before and provided by the government specially for broadcasting UEFA Euro 2012 where Italy made it to finale going against Spain. Unfortunately, Italy was defeated by Spain so basically Rome was in grieving mood when we were there ha ha ha. 

We reached Colosseum after around 10 minutes. Bad news is the weather is still scorching hot and we need to do quite a walking. Another bad news is most of the kids were already sleeping by now and refuse to cooperate in the tour anymore. Here comes the good news, there's a lot of stalls selling frozen iced bottled water which is really a god sent at moment like this but again another bad news followed up is the the price was very costly. A bottle of water is around 2 euro - 5 euro and one is not enough. In short, it added pretty fast. In total, we need around 4-5 bottles to survive the brutal sun so do your maths.

:: Bianca giving briefing. Erin was deep asleep when we dragged her down the bus and she just refused to walk so papa had to piggy back her in order not to delay the rest of the group. You can see that in a tense situation like that time, she turned up to one and only comfort in her world, puting! ::

:: Pity Erin. She's having a hard time during this particular part of the trip and my husband had it harder. She's quite heavy you see, around 17-18 kg heavy, by this time. I wish I could be of some help but I can't even lift my own legs ha ha ha. Sorry Erin, mummy no friend with you right now, you go friend friend with papa ::

:: Alis and our tour mate daughter, Kavyar. They fast becoming good friends ::

:: Clearly not enjoying themselves ::

:: And one for the album ::

After a brief tour, we climbed back to our bus, bid farewell to Bianca and proceed our journey to dinner and  our hotel in Tuscany. 

Tomorrow we'll be heading to Mont Blanc, Chamonix, back to cooler climate and snow yeayyy.. And I can see that everybody was enlighten and looking forward for tomorrow's journey..