The day is today!

           

27th May, the long waiting day is TODAY! Almost everyday I kept on reminding others and sharing what's on my mind  and reminding them of their preparations. I wouldn't want to sound too bossy but sometimes I just have to. It is for the good sake for the whole group.

         I prepared several envelopes for each family to put the amount of money  for the excursions, Russian Folklore show, tippings for the drivers and guides and not to forget tokens for all the mosques we are visiting. Everybody agreed to the amount .... well nobody protested actually. Hahahhahha....

        On each envelopes I pasted a lable with the name of the head of the family, the amount to be paid and the purpose of paying.... when dealing with money, I am very strict about it. Every cent counts..... so far so good.

        Being a mother, a sister and a very good cook, Hajjah Wan Remlah prepared Pulut Kuning and Rendang for all 46 clowns. How can we all not love her? She thinks about everybody and prepared the food with lots of love.

         It seem that everybody is so excited. Some have done packing but some have different things on their mind and the result is they will start unpacking and repacking again and again until the time to depart. As for me, what is important is the travel documents like my International Passport, Visa, Tickets and of cause the currencies! The rest is less important because you can beg, borrow, buy or worst of all steal! hahhahha

        well I have to finish my packings now or maybe repacking later.....hahhaha. I wish all of us a pleasant flight, smooth sailing, have a wonderful vacation with the other clowns.......

Bon Voyage Balticans!

Some photos telling you about The Balticans preparation for the cruise.......Enjoyyyyy

  

   

   

   

  

  

  



  

What's in store for me???

             

             A poem I wrote about my feelings throughout the many months of thinking and planning for The Balticans. I hope, everything will run smoothly as planned. Insyaallah. 

              I am definitely not your leader! No, not even near! I am just helping us. All I did was to get things organize with the little knowledge and a little experience that I have with  a little effort that I can manage of. Lets us make dua and ask forgiveness from Allah. May Allah bless us with good health, safe journey, good comradeship and good Rezeki! Insyaallah... all will be well!

              I wish all of us a wonderful cruising to the Baltics. 

              Welcome aboard to the first timers and welcome back for the experienced!

I have tried my best

To the level best that I can do

To the level best that I can think of

I contacted them

we communicated 

for many months...

we discussed

we both satisfied

we dealt.......

we agreed

Alhamdulillah

You understood me

you read my mind

Now, I am eagerly waiting for the time

a few more days to go

to see the real you

and you see me

But, need to say......

we planned......

 but Allah knows BEST!

I tried...

tried very hard 

to understand others

to help others

to fulfilled their needs

to fulfilled their wants

to satisfy them...and

to make them happy!

Now...

I am done....

I lay my plans down

I close my eyes

I make dua....

Wait for the time

What's in store for me?

May Allah give HIS blessings

May Allah give me the strength

and

look at me 

look in me

with

LOVE......lots of LOVE

Insyaallah

Majlis ilmu ...Ahlak Bermusafir

Kajang Pak Malau kajang berlipat,

Kajang saya , mengkuang layu,

Dagang Pak Malau, dagang bertempat

Dagang saya menumpang lalu.

Puyuh berlari meninggalkan sarang

Mencari makan tidak ketemu

Hamba ini seorang pedagang

Dagang untuk mencari ilmu

Apakah ertinya ini? Ertinya, orang kita sudah mula bermusafir sejak zaman dahulu lagi. Semasa kita memegang jawatan, ada ketika kita ditugaskan ke luar daerah, ke luar negeri dan ke luar negara. Maka bermusafirlah kita. Kini setelah bergelar YB (Yang Bersara), kita masih menjadi musafir apabila kita pergi bercuti, menziarah dan sebagainya. Janji, mesti melebihi 85 kilometer atau 2 marhalah!

Ternyata, ramai sudah tahu tentang ahlak bermusafir tapi ada kalanya pendapat kita bercanggah. Maklumlah pengetahuan dan latar belakang yang berbeza dan ada masanya kita memandai-mandai. Ini sangat bahaya dan merugikan.

The Balticans mengambil inisiatif memohon agar diadakan satu program berhubung kait dengan bermusafir. Alhamdulillah pada 20hb Mei 2014 bertempat di Bilik Seminar Masjid Tengku Ampuan Jemaah, Bukit Jelutong, Shah Alam, Selangor, Pengurus yang juga Imam Besarnya Ustaz Muhammad Farhan bin Wijaya, telah meruangkan masa menyampaikan ilmu Ahlak Bermusafir kepada Balticans dan keluarga yang hadir. 

Terima kasih Ustaz.

Islam galakkan kita berjalan,

Pastikan niat dan juga tujuan,

Banyak kemudahan buat kalian,

Rujuklah AlQuran sebagai panduan.

Selesaikan hutang dan amanat sebelum berangkat,

Tinggalkan keperluan, belanja dan wasiat,

Doa kenderaan mestilah ingat,

Sepanjang perjalanan mendapat rahmat.

Sebutlah Subhanallah....,

Sebutlah Masyaallah.....,

Sebutlah Alhamdulillah...,

Bila terpandang kebesaran Allah.

Berbuat baiklah bersama ahli kumpulan,

Bekalan lebih dikongsi bersama,

Peliharalah adab dan pertuturan,

Itu dituntut oleh agama.

  

Wajib bertakbir  pertama menghadap kiblat,

Kemudian bolehlah solat duduk,

Jama' takdim amat digalak,

Pastikan diri sentiasa berwudhuk.

  

Tiada alasan meninggalkan solat,

Jama' Qasar Takdim dan Takhir dianugerah Illahi,,

Insan bermusafir insan yang hebat,

Doa pemusafir pasti dimakbuli.

Makanlah apa yang tidak dikhuatiri,

Jangan makan jika tak pasti,

Ikutlah saja apa kata hati, 

Bacalah Bismillah , ikut Sunnah Nabi.

SELAMAT  MELIHAT KEBESARAN ALLAH !

Balticans Ice Breaking

The BALTICANS ....... we call us!

Nothing comes easy. Sometimes, it is easy to say than done! Sometimes your best laid plan goes haywire. We can plan to our level best but Allah knows what's BEST for us! This we have to accept.

   

    

As a human, I can never avoid making mistakes. Maybe out of stupidity, carelessness or lack of knowledge .... BUT I tried my very best... to the top most level that I can. Insyaallah, I believe, when planning something with full heartedly,  full of thoughts , full of love and tender care.... Insyaallah all will be well. Now it is up to Allah....we just make dua for the BEST for all of us.

 

After planning seriously  since Februari 2014, I managed to contact Norwegian Cruise Liner regarding our meals on board. True, there are 11  restaurants on boards Norwegian Star, but being MUslim who are subjected to Hallalan Toyiban kind of food, I take it very seriously. I managed to cater Vegeterian Meals with Seafood, Eggs and Alcohol Free for my group of 45. Alhamdulillah! All I need to do next is, upon boarding the ship, I have to see the person in charge regarding the matter. Thank you NCL!

  

Then comes to our excursions. This is a lot to explain! Out of many, only 7 of us have experienced cruising. The others love listening to our cartoon stories and decided to join us this year! Wow! It was so much easier to deal with 10 but 45 is not a joke! I needed to find a capable Excursion Agency to take us around. I read the reviews of some tour agencies by only one caught my eye and my heart agreed! We appointed SPB tours  to manage our excursions in all ports of call inclusive of Berlin, Talliin, St Petersberg, Helsinki and Stockholm! Alhamdulillah, they gave me the freedom to plan our routes. Thank you very much SPB Tours!

Last 10th May 2014, our group held and ice breaking event at le'Ter (Lembah Temir Eco Resort).It was good, smooth sailing and all of us had fun.  Since then all of us became closer and hopefully this  friendship last forever. The main objective of the event is to sit together and pray to Allah thanking HIM for all the rezeki that He gave all of us in terms of Good Health, Good Wealth but most of all Good new found friends to travel with. Also we seek forgiveness from Allah and May this trip will make us better Muslim when we see His creations as we visit the other side of the world. Definitely, the weather, the people, the environment and everything will be different from what we have. Masyaallah.....

 

I took this opportunity to explained thoroughly regarding our trip especially the excursions of what to expect, what to do, how to response, how much to pay and so on. This is important so that everybody can lead their own family or little groups without having to wait to be reminded. They need to know that we are a group of 45 and we do not have a leader. Yes, that is right.... we DO NOT HAVE a leader! Totally on our own! Everybody have to do everything themselves. It will be fun. But I believe, all will be well! Insyaallah!

At the end of the day, everyone took it seriously and so excited to our trip.
Lots of things can be done in le'Ter. We had an aerobic instuctor to do light low impact aerobic plus taichii, an imam to lead us in reciting the Yaasin and the whole of le'Ter with it's wonderful...wonderful waterfalls, wild Kelah, Koi and fruits orchard to visit. We have to say thank you to the management of le'Ter who supported us full board.... May Allah bless Tuan Haji Che Din Sulaiman, Puan Hajjah Wan Remlah Abd Ghani and their team for making our event very successful! 

Like I said, all is well.......Insyaallah. Hopefully everything turn out as planned if not better!

My upcoming voyage.....

9 days Baltic Capitals

Last year in June 2013, my friends and I, 10 of us went cruising for the first time in our life to the Mediterranean. We started from Barcelona Spain, Toulon France, Livorno, Rome and Napoli  Italy, Mykonos Greece.  Izmir and Istanbul  Turkey, Athens Greece and Venice Italy. Unfortunately we missed Athens because of a strike and we cruised up to Dubrovnik Croatia! 

All of us had fun and we shared our experiences by telling our friends back home. Guess what? This time around there will be 45 people in our group! WOW! And each and everyone of us are so excited and looking forward. 

Six families from my neighbourhood, seven families are our old friends and five families are friends of friends along with seven out of ten from the first cruise! Having problem to figure out???? No worries.... just remember the total number is forty five!!

It is not easy to please everybody in a party as big as this but for as long as all the NEEDS are fulfilled , the WANTS can just be slot in wherever and whenever possible!  hahahha cheers to all!

We called ourselves The Balticans!

Last weekend, on the 10th of May, we managed an ice breaking event in a privately owned resort by one of us in le'Ter aka Lembah Temir Eco Resort! It was marvelous! We found out that everyone can click together even with different ages, backgound, believes and profession! Amazing!! Well done Balticans! We spent a night together ( of cause in different rooms.....) and it was a good start to a wonderful friendly relationship! 

Now, time is drawing near to our departure. Everybody is busy packing and checking their list! The Norwegian Star will be our home from 28th of May to the 6th of June...... 

Safe journey to all of us!

Bon Voyage to all Balticans!