Mini Escapism : Pantai Air Leleh, Pekan + Eid

It's just Af, Ma and I this year for our Eid at Pekan, Pahang. My other siblings were at my dad's with our new 'mak tiri' - it still sounds odd for all of us for having to accept a new family member. Roughly our first few days of Eid were packed with variety of foods from all our aunts' and uncles' open houses, mini escapisms during late afternoon before sundown, and answering to people's questions mostly on why my other siblings were absent + am I pregnant yet? *no. 

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This sudden idea came from Af, on our first day of Eid. We were both bored and too shy to mingle around with people, so Af asked whether there were any interesting places in Pekan to visit. I can't think of any except for the nearest beach in Teluk Chempedak - for me it was still too far to spend around 40 minutes ride. So I asked my cousins and they suggested Pantai Air Leleh near the town. I've never heard of it before, we Googled the place and thought the images were decent enough for our time-constraint visit. It took around 15 minutes from the town to arrive there. We borrowed Ma's car !

Here what we found. A nice clean beach, strong wind, almost deserted except of few pondoks with couples hanging out - chatting. We were both excited ! I didn't even know we have a fast access to such a beautiful scenery near our kampung. All this time I can only imagine the dirty Pahang River when I think about Pekan. I was so wrong.  

There were 2 families playing by the beach. I spent the time mostly snapping pictures and trying to find a big crab. The weather was really nice, there was even a 5-minutes light hot rain showered us all - but nobody really bothered. Huge cloud blocked the sun so it wasn't hot and humid. Things moved slower, the sound of the beach was peaceful, and there weren't many people around to disturb the calm environment :D

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This is the location to our new secret hideout :

Note : There were small rubbish like plastic bottles, pampers, tires and stuffs alongside of the farther side of the beach, of course. But compared to what we have in Port Dickson or Tanjung Sepat where I can't even dip my feet in the water, this beach was quite decent and clean. 

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We were both pretty awkward in front of the camera, so this is the only picture of us taken by ma on the first day of Raya :

We spent 3 days in Pekan and by the forth day of our short holiday, we travelled back to the KL city. We stopped by at Raub to visit Af's family and makan2 raya before we headed back. There wasn't any famous festive-season traffic yet, we were one day early. Ma slept all the way because she wasn't feeling well, so Af drove back the Exora and I read Game of Thrones all the way.

Pekan to Raub - Almost 3 hours
Raub to KL - Around 2 hours

Happy Eid 2016 !

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Video compilation by Af :

ESCAPISM EID 2016 from Farikarim on Vimeo.

I loooove the video and the song, thank youuuu ~ ❤ 

Mini Escapism : Kemaman + Kuantan - Part 2

The sunrise hunters :

Af woke me up around 6 am as planned. It wasn't that hard to wake up because we all slept early the night before. So I woke Aja and Aja tried to wake Wati but failed :D Ma sarcastically said that it was way too easy for me to wake up for sunrise hunting than Subuh prayer :p Mihmihmih.

So only the 3 of us then. 

At first, we went to the Cherating Beach. When we arrived, it was still dark but it was at least 6:45 am - there should be a subtle light from the hidden sun in the sky. But there was none. We stayed for awhile, tried to explore the place but finally realized that the sun came up from behind the Cherating Hill so we might missed the first peak ! Af said that we should change the location and we drove to Pantai Mak Nik instead.

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From there we waited and waited for the sun. It was such a blue morning, the battalion of clouds were marching, there was no sun rises beneath the sea :( We finally missed it. We stayed until almost 8am before heading back to our homestay house with roti tulur for breakfast.

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Brunch at Warung Aziz Satar : 

Before we checked out, we managed to wash our car and vacuum our car. Now we know how hard it is to actually find time to clean it up especially when we are living in an apartment and park the car in the parking lot building. This was our 3rd time and it rained afterwards =.= 

We went to the same food stalls again for brunch. People weren't that many as the day before because we came not during peak hour. The foods for lunch were ready so we just decided to eat before we headed back to KL. I took my normal half rice, and ikan masak tempoyak with ulam. Those simple foods, but later one by one, new food came to our table. It was Aja again ! So there were sata, keropok lekor, sotong + udang goreng tepung, pulut mangga, and some more foods that I even forgot to list =,= Aja is one dangerous species, I tell you. She can make us all fat by these feasting habit of hers. Ha.

We were really full and happy :D

I don't know how I can survive the way back without dozing off.

After the feast, we said our goodbyes and decided to head home separately knowing that they want to shop for more food + souvenirs to bring back home and I want to explore more.

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The random stop :

This time we used google map - just so I can view the road myself and see if we can stop by anywhere. I saw one small road next to the beach with 2 exit and entrance - so I lead the way to the road just to see if it leads to somewhere nice. The small road looked abandoned but clean and well taken care. There were no tall wild grasses or forest-like bushes around, but kampung houses can be seen from afar. Af parked the car next to the beach's hill and we walked to the beach. 

It was an open view to a huge white beach ! No one was around - assuming it was lunch time and I guess people don't go there during hot afternoon. But it was nice and windy, the sea was really far ahead and tiny crabs were scattering.

I was so happy. The sand looked so white under the sun. We took several shots and a huge cloud came and blocked the sun, so it weren't that hot. 

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The Pandan Waterfall, Kuantan :

On the way back, we had to use the road to Kuantan to reach the highway. I saw a huge signboard about Air Terjun Pandan, Kuantan and decided that we should make a stop. I texted them in the Whatsapp group saying that Af and I were going to take a walk at the waterfall. 

About an hour later, we arrived at the area and saw my family was about to park their car as well. Hah.

There were many people swimming and having a picnic. So we walked some more deeper to reach the high view beautiful waterfall :D There was a long roped bridge to the other side - you can take a beautiful view of the waterfall here. If you are not afraid of heights. *Ma and Aja were, and we enjoyed scaring them with swaying the bridge while they walk.

We didn't went into the water, just dipped our feet to feel the cold water and sat on a huge rocks. Maybe next time we will have a proper picnic :)

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Place : Janda Baik, Pahang

Last weekend, our SecretGroup family went to Janda Baik, Pahang for our yearly Rejuvenate 2013 to recap last year's achievements, whether we reached our target or not, to roughly discuss this year's goals, also to improve our bonding and working skills.

We went to Suria Hill Resort in Janda Baik after the Friday's prayer. The beauty of our little family is how well-planned we all are in doing something, roughly speaking from the outsider's point of view, although I have never worked in other company before to make this comparison. I loved how we all were given a handout with structured timelines, grouping plans, additional notes, maps, and such things. Precious little thing. 

We arrived in the afternoon and were given shared rooms. 

Here is a summary and some photos ! :

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Activity 1 : Zubedy , MAD program

Our highlight event was on the second day, a program with Zubedy : Making A Difference ( MAD ) by Mr. Anuprakash. Yes, 'the' Zubedy, famous Anas Zubedy ! If Mr. Anas came on that day, maybe I'll have a hard time focusing on the program :D Anyhow, the one day program was filled with talks, open discussion and group activities. 

We learned about artificial boundaries, our true potential, P1 - P3, whether we know things that we should know and how to achieve our goals, excuses, and those little sub-titles in most motivational program. I loved the program, I learned a lot and I feel recharged. Most of us did. Somehow reminders like this trigger what we already know deep inside our heart and it showed us the important things in our life. It was not like other ordinary motivational talks, because I didn't feel sleepy at all *which was a great sign, because I know I can't listen to long lectures on anything.   

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Activity 2 : BBQ , Back-to-School Themed Dinner

Last year's Rejuvenate, we had a movie-themed night, where everyone wore costumes from any movies. This year, it was a school-theme dinner. I had a hard time finding school uniform, it has been almost 10 years since I left school. *how fast! So I chose to wear Kadet Remaja's tshirt with a green beret. Some of us chose to wear school uniform, teacher, gardener, etc. 

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Activity 3 : Telematch

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SecretGroup Family :