Sneak Peak! – Good things come to those who continue to work hard with sabr (patience) and shukr (gratitude)
お久しぶりです。。
오랜만이에요!
Ah, it’s been a loooooong time since my last post (almost 5-month of update-procrastination!). Since the last post, many things happened, whether within or beyond our control. Things that may or may not affect our lives.
The Glorious Clifftop Walk
Sydney was not my first choice for a place I would like to stay for a valuable one-year of unpaid leave. I prefered Melbourne due to some reasons. For me, Sydney was pretty much like Auckland (where I stayed for 3.5 years) with respect to its hilly geography, its coastal position and its function as the central business city of the repsective country. Given the limited choice of university I was able to choose due to the duration of unpaid leave allowed, I ended up in Sydney for 1 year. And that was when I started to discover the valuable gem of Syndey: BEACHES!
One of the amazing stuffs in Shin Chitose Airport
It has been more than a month since we returned from our trip to Hokkaido Wonderland, but I can still relive the whole journey, the kuuki, the fresh air, the glorious, crimson momiji along the journey, the freedom to drive on your own and to stop whenever you want. I wish I have more time in Hokkaido (and surely my parents agree with me!). My Day 1 and Day 2 were full of airport experiences and these did not get any better when you have awesome airports as the Shin-Chitose Airport in Hokkaido.
p/s: sorry for the long delay.
p/s(2): i am skipping Part 3 that is reserved for a post on the planning stage for DIY Hokkaido
p/s(3): more pics to be uploaded soon 😉
The Majestic Al-Hambra from Afar
Getting the right destination for your upcoming adventure is not an easy feat. Especially if you are a middle class (like me) but dreams big (like me). With so many responsibilities in hand and so little time and money, prioritizing is the only way to compromise.
Alhamdulillah, with Allah’s abudant bestowals, my family and I have travelled to quite a few places around the globe and the destinations were mostly decided by ME! If you are a hardore traveller like I am, you may do these things during your free time or when you are stressed at work (at least I am): (1) checking the national holidays for next year and plan for annual leave; (2) googling the world map to choose the destination up next!
This is how it works with our family to get the proposal ‘Destination Next!’ thru: Continue reading
Traveling Tips for (Single/Sans Children) Muslimah
Re-posted from my entry in Facebook with some reformating (i’m a format-nerd!) and updating after my last trip to Turkiye.
After almost 10 years of intensive travelling & experimenting with my Umi to achieve comfortable, light travel, alhamdulillah, I am going to (slowly) start series of tips & suggestions for traveling Muslimah. Some of the tips may be common sense or even heard before but nothing hurts to share hopefully beneficial stuffs. Insyaallah I will start off with some tips on choosing the right (aside from Islam-compliant) clothing & packing as light as practicable*.
The Light of ‘Noor’ – An Inspiration in My Life
-credit to Sakkal Design (sakkal.com)
Following the ‘Traveling Tips for Muslimah’ series, I decided to revise the name to reflect my travel style better, which consequently influence the tips and advices, and to emphasise on my aim to show to the world (that is what I hope) how liberating being a ‘Noor’ is (as one of typical name of Muslim women), not only physically, but also mentally and spiritually. Continue reading
Japan’s Fabulous Four-Season as experienced by my family and I
Japan is a place that can never fail you at any time of the year, if you know the trick. There are many factors to decide on when & where to go such as the seasons, festivals, nature and weather. Continue reading
Map of Autumn Foliage in Hokkaido for 2014- credit to WeatherNews.Jp
始めの日本にドライブ、楽しみ！
It’s gonna be my first experience driving in Japan and I am sooooo excited! And it does not get any better than DIY’ing it in Hokkaido (the Japanese version of New Zealand).
The plan came about unexpectedly when I was researching for places to go since I have extra annual leave days for the remaining of 2014. I am that allergic to extra holidays. Initially, I planned to join my travel buddy Kokly with her husband for their trip in South Korea mid-October (what a meddlesome, ain’t I?). And I was tad close to buy flight tix and already had the itinerary done (save for next time insya-Allah). I was trying to get the best of autumn in South Korea since this is not my first time to the beautiful country. But the timing was just not with me given the relatively short period of autumn foliage (c.f. Japan) due to its geographical shape. (Un)expectedly, I ended up researching for none other place than Japan!! Somehow it just fitted nicely given the longer period for autumn foliage (Sorry Kokly!).
Destination: HOKKAIDO!
Our backpacks for the trip to Turkiye in Summer 2014
The plan for encore trip to Turkey has been in my mind since my first trip there in winter 2008, right after I came back for good from New Zealand. My family and I went with travel agent and despite being a good trip, the independent traveller in me was left dissatisfied.
遅咲きの光 | The Late-Blooming Noor 