returning to my real hometown

Three years back, when I was in Form 3, after my PMR examination, my family and I decided to go for a vacation in Indonesia for a week. We went there together with four of my parents’ friends. It was my very first time being on the flight and also my first experience going abroad. I was nervous at first when the plane is about to board as I have no idea at all what it is like. In the plane, I was fascinated by the view of the land from the sky when I look through the window. It was so beautiful to see the land that I lived on from up there. As time passes, I started to imagine how the land called Indonesia looks like. Half an hour after boarding from KLIA, we were about to reach our destination. A few minutes later, the plane landed at Jakarta’s airport, which I can’t remember the airport’s name. By the way, it was a thrilled and memorable journey for me. My siblings and I were the one who feel very excited on that time as we were there, at last. We were heading to the person that responsible to pick us up and we found him holding a card that written in a big font there my father’s name. My father actually has friends there, so he asked his friends to do him a favour; find a driver who can also be the tourist guide for us to make the vacation easier. The journey began when we left the airport.

You must be wondering why I said “Returning to my real hometown.” Here is some history about my family. For your information, my paternal grandparents were originated from Indonesia. My grandfather came from a small area in East of Jawa called Ponorogo. On the other hand, my grandmother came from Jakarta, Indonesia as she has quite an affluent family compared to my grandfather. They were both then moved to Tanah Melayu at that time with their own family. According to my father, there are some of my grandparents’ family who still living there but obviously he cannot find any of them because he don’t even have an idea who they are and where they are living now. Deep in my father’s heart, he still wants to try his best to at least find who was his father’s family and relatives so that all the family members can gather back.

Now, come back to my vacation story. The first place we were heading to right after the arrival was my father’s friends’ house. We slept there for two days then we started our own journey. The driver which was also the tourist guide took us to some of the famous shopping mall in Jakarta. My sisters and I were given one thousand rupiah each (RM400 in Malaysia currency on that time) to shop and buy whatever we want. Unfortunately, that was the only money we have for the whole week in Indonesia as my father said so and we have to be careful in using our money. Obviously shopping was our favourite activity and we really enjoyed doing that as in Indonesia, we found that things were cheaper there compared to Malaysia. Roughly, the first three days can also be said as ‘shopping days.’

The forth day, early in the morning, about 7.30 a.m (which local time was 6.30 a.m) we were out for a place named Tangkuban Perahu which is one of the historical places in Indonesia. The journey took us about two hours to arrive there because as far that I can remember, this historical place wasn’t in the area of Jakarta but in Bandung. We took about 1 hour to reach the top of Tangkuban Perahu from Bandung town. Along the way, I can see the variety of trees lining up to greet us. Tangkuban mean flipped and Perahu mean boat. It literally means the shape of the mountain looks like a flipped boat. It was good to be there as I can breathe with the fresh air there and it is very relaxing to look at such breathtaking views. I bought a lot of souvenirs for my friends there as they sell them in very low price as long as we are willing to pay. The bad coincidence was, on the day we were up there, my sisters and I all wearing ‘baju kurung’ to climb the mountain and to be in such places. The worst is that, after being at Tangkuban Perahu, the driver took us to Ancholl which is the famous and the most beautiful beach in Indonesia and also the biggest theme park. All three of us entered the theme park and plays all the games in there with ‘baju kurung.’ Although we realised that everyone was looking at us, but we doesn’t even care about them and decided to ignore what they will think about us and all we have in mind was “enjoy.” It may be the first and the last time we were there.

The next day, we went to a museum (like Museum Melaka) which I can’t remember the name. There are some archaeological sites in there that tells how the Indonesian’s warriors fight for their independent against the invaders that invaded their country. From there, we gained a lot of knowledge about how hard was Indonesian fighting for their freedom. On the last day, before going home, my father decided that we will sleep at the five stars hotel there. We were as excited as it was the first time being in such five stars hotel with the big room and all that. We feel like we want to stay longer there so that we can enjoy it more. Unfortunately we can’t as we have to return home whether we like or not. Actually there are a lot of things that I wanted to share, but I think this is more than enough as Mr. Derrick only asks for five paragraphs for each post. By the way, Indonesia was a nice place to visit especially with family. And I’ll go there again for this upcoming holiday.

Me and myself

First and foremost, my name is Nurul Aain binti Misman. I live in Kajang, Selangor with my beloved family, where my hometown is very famous place for food like satay. I enjoyed living there very much as it is pretty near to the town. Thus, the facilities like public transport are always there whenever I wish to go out with my friends. I can even went to get for the public transport alone as there is always cabs or buses that passed around my living area. Furthermore, being near to the town and shopping complex like Mines Shopping Fair, Jaya Jusco and Alamanda makes me easier to spend time with my family members and hence strengthen our relationship among others. Next thing I want to share with you is about my family. My family contains of 6 members overall including me and my three siblings; two sisters and a brother and not to forget my parents. But here I have an additional members in my house that is my grandmother who lived with my family since my eldest sister was born until now. I love my family very much as family come first in any ways and for me, my family is the most important things than other things in the world. I'm very grateful to have this supportive and lovely family.

My hobbies during my free time are listening to the music and surfing the net. I found this as an interesting things to do in my leisure time as it relaxing and benefits me in every way. By listening to the music, I can release all my tension by singing along with the singer and I found that it is very effective way of 'shaking' my stressed away. I usually surf the net whenever I have nothing to do and I feel like searching for something interesting that can cure my boredom. Surfing the net makes me updated myself with the current issues on what is going on in today's world and also I can catch up with the latest song from my favourite artist. Besides that, I can also keep in contact with my friends wherever they are via the net. Getting a lot of new friends will be the most interesting part of this activity. I can get to know people from all over the world and this makes me enjoyed this activity the most. Now, I truly believe that, everything in this world is just on my fingertips.

Spending time with the beloved ones is favourite weekends activity. In contrast, completing the coursework and also revising the lesson will be the most boring activities to do in my weekends. Studying makes me feel that the times passes very slow and this really makes me bored. But now I realised that I should appreciate this slow-passes-time the most as I get to refresh all the things that I have studied and hammer it in my mind for my Ausmat course that I have been doing now in KBU in order to make me possible to fly to my dreams land, Australia. Now, all those studying and revising the lesson have replaced the enjoyable time I've spent with my beloved ones and whether I like it or not, this have be my favourite activity for the next nine months. With all the efforts, I wish that I manage to fly and work for my ambition there.

As everyone else, my birthday is always the happiest day in my life. Something that makes this date- 21st June, is a very special date is my mother and I was born in the same date. I often spend some times to celebrate my family members’ and even my friends’ birthday. I have my personal view about birthday as if it is the most important day as compared to any other day in the world. Within these special days, nobody has ever born in this world even a very successful man have their very own date of birth. Last year was the best experience of mine; celebrating birthday with my family as I’ve been celebrating birthday for five years with my friends at school. My family and I went to Genting Highlands on our (my mother and I) birthday. The best part was when my mother enjoyed together with us to play in the theme park in Genting Highlands. In addition, it is my first time being there, and my the first time being there is the best things because it was of my birthday and of course because first time is always said to be the best experience ever for every people in this world. I felt very excited in that time to play all the things in that theme park with my mother and also my three siblings. We ended up by coming late to the hotel as if the time we were going out is about ten more minutes for the theme park to close. It was the happiest day of my life and I always wish that such day will always happen in my life.


The last thing I want to share here is my first time experience of my life going to zoo!! I was full with excitement like a six years old child excited to go to the zoo. I felt happy and sad at the same time as at the age of 18 only I managed to step my foot on the place called Zoo but my brother, he have been visited this place on the age of five only. This first time was in the last semester break. My family and I went to Melaka for three days as our school holidays vacation and my father decided want to visit Zoo Melaka. I remember my excitement when the first time I saw all kinds of animals in the zoo as if I want to scream out my lung to tell everyone that “This is my first time going to the zoo!!!. Hooray!” but then I would not scream as I still got my mind sane. I took a snap on every single animal that I saw in that place. This is the things that could ever forget in my life as I will remember the first time I have been visited the zoo is on my 18 years of my life.