The Sanctuary TALES | Close Encounter in Teganung Kite'.....

Hamzah and myself, we were paddling our canoe around Terusan Pulau Besar yesterday at dusk. Pulau Besar gained its notoriety some 30 years back in the 80's when the post Vietnam war Vietnamese refugees first landed in Teganung in huge numbers. The then Minister of Defence, Dr M wanted them shot at sea. The numbers swell to the point finally all of them were transferred to an off shore island, Pulau Bidong.

Terusan Pulau Besar enveloped Pulau Besar between the raging South China Seasea, separated by a thin strip of sand, and the muara of Sungei Merang. It's water is murky and dark, typical of all mangrove swamp within the Setiu basin.

Both of us know that there were incidental sightings of juvenile crocodiles, three to four feet in lenght,, basking in the noon sun ,on the bank of the  abandoned almost completed massive club house and twenty or so abandoned exclusive bungalows near The Sanctuary.

The Sanctuary happened to be a small piece of heaven on earth, on that thin strip of sand,[ opposite Redang Island ],sandwiched between the raging South China Sea  in February, and a small 'alor' called Sungai Telaga Papan, and shortly joining into the dark calm water of the Terusan Pulau Besar, at  Pantai Telaga Papan, Merang, Teganung Darul Runtuh.

[ why Darul runtuh?......Everything in Teganung are in a state of possible 'runtuh', from the stadium, the masjid and even the yet to be opened Lebuhraya Pantai Timur. I do not foresee any possible drastic  change in this state of affair until we send one or two present or past numero uno of Malaysia behind bars! Only then will there be a change of our paradigm of governance and accountability,  hopefully percolating from the top down. But of course this is another matter worth writing a post doctoral thesis on. But who is going to write and act on this. Our professors in the universities are at present 'kangkong' professors!. Our AG and IGP, nothing to shout about! Both extreme example of mediocrity.....this is a digression, of course, an important one for me at least, otherwise I end up shooting some blokes somewhere. ]

Three weeks earlier while passing a group of fisherman manning and repairing their boats on the river bank, I jokingly asked whether 'there is anything big' in the water. One of them shouted back, in local Teganung/Kelantan linggo:

'kalu demo rasa gedeguk, tu jolo lah!'. [ if you feel something bumping your canoe from underneath, that is it! ]

Hamzah and myself, we took that as a joke and carried on, but not for long. After about half a kilometre around the terusan, we turned back. The water looked too murky and still, to our liking.

This time on I told Hamzah we were going full scale around the island and explore further. We planned to go round the island and head back to al Qalwa in a round about fashion. But when we reached the deepest segment of the terusan, furthest away from our pondok, about one kilometre, we  notice a school of fish jumping out just suddenly over the surface.

'Ada benda besar ni Dakto!.......', Hamzah , my Pattani carpenter/builder muttered softly but with some anxiety and panic . Understandable. He was paddling behind while I was  in front in the 2-men canoe. He was in a position of watching my back while his was fully exposed!

Just shortly after that I felt the canoe  being shakened badly and grazed from below. Just to reassure myself, I shouted to Hamzah,

'Guano demo nih Mezah tebolah sangat nih?!' [ why!,, why are you so clumsy, Hamzah? ]

' Tidok ambo Dakto!' [ not me Doctor! ], Hamzah answered, and I could detect  a sense of panic and urgency in his voice. He must have been thinking on the same line as me.

Both of us looked back and saw a bronze hump separating two icy eyes, surfacing to the left of our canoe, some 40 feet away.

The snort to the eyes was about 2 feet something!

'OMG! This is the infamous estuarine crocodile, the ' buaya tembaga',...and they don't get to this colour unless they are fully matured', I thought to myself from my previous reading  about estuarine crocodiles found near Sungei Linggi in Nogori, Endau Rompin in Johor and Sungai Kinabatangan, Sarawak.

Both of us , we did not have the time to say any prayer at that moment . We just paddled hard and fast towards the river bank.

Up till now I still cannot fathom why the croc did not come back to make a second 'pass' at us or at least  'ngap' poor Hamzah from the back, since our canoe is quite flat and we were sitting ducks!
It has the speed and the ability and natural instinct to do just that .
That is just in its gene.
That  would have toppled the canoe easily.
But it did not!

Was it my solat Tahajjud and  solat Tasbih the night before or was it the size or the lack of size of the croc that prevented it from coming at us for a second pass .
Probably both I think.
Anyway it is nice otherwise both of us would had a different 'address' by today....
HE is not yet ready to see both of us or rather we, in our varying degrees of heedlessness, are not yet ready enough to be presented to HIM. It is a mercy and rahmah from HIM for the 'delay'.
Mashaallah, al Hamdullillah.

Over dinner that night Hamzah confided to me ,
' Ambo dae Jani, sokmo senok perok bilo Dakto ajak kito gi main kanu...'
[ Myself and Jani, we get lumps in our tummies when Doc invite us to go canoeing..... ]

That reminded me of a poem we standard six pupils used to commit to memory some 5o or so years back. The Charge of The Light Brigade by Lord Tennyson, a poem on an actual happening and 'bungling' due to a gross miscommunication during the Anglo-Prussian War of 18something :


" Forward, The Light Brigade! "
Was there a man dismay'd
Not tho' the soldier knew 
Someone had blunder'd.
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die. 
Into the Valley of Death,
Rode the six hundred.

" OK Mezah dae Jani, lain kali kito gi main di Kenyir atau pong di Sungai Paka  atau  Sungai Teganung. Sana ambo dengar tak dok boyo! kito bolih main sining tapi tok leh lepah dari club house.",

I tried to reassure both of them.
I am not sure that is enough reassurance for Hamzah and Jani.
From their perspective,The Boss is always right, even when he is wrong!

I love Teganung.
Teganung Kite'.

Still water runs deep.......200 metres beyond these boats is croc territory.

Pedro, retired ex-polo, Dr Nik, retired, ex endurance rider....

Old man and the sea.....

A one kilometre horse, a show horse,or an endurance horse, it is all about working on the 'mind'......working on Pedro to not fear the wave!

OMG!...I am getting prosperous!

The raging sea in mid February

The Sanctuary.......far from the maddening crowd in kl; far from the national clowns of ntr,pandi and nazri; just the wind,the sun and yourself. 

Beneath this calmness lies a secret.....

 

Some photos of The Sanctuary : work in progress.
http://translandjourney.blogspot.my/2014/09/toyota-land-cruiser-hj-47.html

Transland Journey.....A Change of Route

1...http://drnikisahak.blogspot.com/2012/05/transland-journey.html

2...http://drnikisahak.blogspot.com/2012/06/transland-journey-choice-of-vehicle.html

Woken up just now at 4am with a 'bloody' toothache. Did the tahajjud, to no avail. Still painful. Went down to the kitchen to take one more ultracet tablet [combination of tramal and paracetamol ] and decided maybe a spot of 'writing' would take the pain away.

Just 4 hours earlier finished 3rd discussion with Peng and Bab on Transland Journey, over roti canai and popia. Another Malay Collegian [ Anwar Ibrahim's classmate , ?class of 64], Mohd Faizal Ismail, from Merlbourne, joined the discussion. He had earlier in the year wanted me to do the Australian outback with him. That has to be postponed or brought forward to December this year.

For now, Kuala Lumpur - London,   via the SILK ROUTE, has to take priority for 2013.

Myanmar probably would not open up it's borders in time for our trip next year, so the Myanmar- Nepal- India route is out of question. We would attempt the 'old' Petronas Adventure Team route via Cambodia's Vientiane- Hanoi- XIan- Xinkiang route and crossover to the Russia's many  S'tans, then head for the Caspian Sea, entering Norway via Helsinki, then right on to London. Time frame ? 2 months. We do not want to miss the many World heritage places  peppered along the way.

To avoid extreme winter cold, we need to leave  early, perhaps on the 6th day of Eid next year in mid August. 


Peng , the most intellectual of us three will firm up on the route detail. Bab will look into visa issues and 'carnet de passage' for our vehicles. As for myself, I would need to make some friendly visits  and call old friends in Sime's Land Rover and UMW Toyota for some much needed friendly 'advice' and help.

Between us we decided we are not doing this transland journey with the ubiquitous 'Landcruiser' afterall. We are firm believers in change, 'the old giving place to the young upstrarts', so to speak. Young 'upstarts', like  Hilux and Land Rover Defender 110, also deserve a decent bite at fame. We will give the new 'Hilux' a chance and  at the same time we do not want to forget our most dependable Land Rover Defender as well. It is after all an icon and we,  despite all pretenses, ARE BRITISH. Only our bottoms are not white !


My other friend , Nadzru from Ranhill Apakahnamadiadah retorted the other day that 'we are a bunch of old semi- retarded boys scouts' !
On second thought, at 60 +, for all three of us, that is a nice compliment.
'Thank you Nadzru !'

The 'bloody' pain has disappeared already. Magic !

Time for subuh Prayer.




....................................................................................




grand pa and doc man,

I know you grand pa is a 'cherookee, landy stiff upper lip type' of man while doc man and myself are basically 'toyota cheapskate' people.

Doc man is still impressed with his prado 1997 even though it now lay rusting in his garage and repeated urge from yours truly to part with his Prado has so far failed. I want to redo his 1995 Prado for my Transland Journey. 

Myself, having gone thru Hilux double cab 2.5  turbodiesel auto for 6 years from 2005 , and now switched to a  new 'marhein' 2.5 diesel single cab Hilux, minus all the frills. My previous twin cab was OK but after only 5 years of usage mine started give funny sound every time when I engage the auto . 4 years and the auto start making this kind of sound is quite disconcerting. The undercarriage is also 'softy softy'. In the 3rd year, my mechanic outside Toyota had to replace the nut and bolt holding the shaft to the back axle joint. And I am no 4wd man thru and thru. Just the occasional jaunts in the forest of Gua Musang.

I am keeping my fingers cross with my new Single cab, working in my farm....no more auto for me though, at least not on my 4wd. Toyota does build Hilux for tough work but I would stay away from it's auto.It is not robust enough.

Having said that to be fair to Toyota, I did a fair 250k kilometres in 5 years on the previous one, one quarter of the mileage on hills and mud in 4wd mode.

This current single cab, just in 5 months covered 30k kilometres plying between KL and Gua Musang twice a month,  the rest mainly used in permanent 4wd mode ,25 days a month on the hills and in mud . Pretty hardy type of work I must say, but I am worried about the soft undercarriage.

I thot the single cab is spartan  but 4 weeks ago I test drive Sime's pick up Land Rover in PJ...it gave my Toyota an instant 'SUV'  status. Land Rover Defender is  really just not any man's transport. It is a 4wd truck in permanent 4wd mode with an attitude........certainly not for sissies.

Doc man, what say you about Prado.?

grand pa, tell me more about the Defender 110, manual or auto....I am still open to Land Rover as our vehicle for our Transland Journey, especially Phase 2 and Phase 3, where we are doing the Mediterranean/Moroccan/ Libya /Tunisia/Algerian coastline countries followed by the Moscow/Siberia/Vladivostok phase. 

Probably need time to get used to it, the landy I mean, but the rating given by some motor 'analyst'  are quite disturbing........

At the end of the day, my question now is : when I do get down to doing it it, do I do it with a 'Jap wannabee' or do I do it with the 'Brits' ?.....England , my God !, played like a bunch of softy 'pondans' in the Euro.

They are just a bunch of overpaid miliionaires in football boots!

Or should I go back to  the safe option,what most people do it with : LANDCRUISER, the 1990's type I mean with few sophisticated electronics.

nik howk

Transland Journey : Choice of Vehicle

Peng and Bab,


Tentatively we have agreed that our transland journey would encompass 4 to 5 phases :


Phase 1
Kuala Lumpur London via Burma [ hopefully they open up their border by August 2013], India , Nepal, Pakistan [ a fast one thru Pakistan insayaallah !],,,thru to cross Kyber Pass to part of Southern China, on to Iran, Turkey, Bulgaria, Croatia, Bosnia, Germany, Switzerland, France, Holland...and London.
We will go at pedestrian pace and probably 2 months would be enough.....[ Peng, you to check out on the National Geographic, on sights and views that are to be visited along the way]. Then garaged our vehicle somewhere in France.


Phase 2
[probably late 2013 or early 2014]
We do the Muslim Conquest route in the reverse order,
Andalusian Cordoba and Serville, cross over to Morocco, Tunisia, Libya [ Nato insyaallah would be  out of Libya by then and some semblance of peace prevail insyaallh after they have finished with the Libyans !], Algeria, Egypt, Syria [ same expectation ], and finally Turkey, ending in Istanbul.


Phase 3
[sometime in mid 2014]
From Turkey, we go to the Stan's, backtrack to Moscow and do the trans-Siberian across Russia up to Vladisvostok, Beijing, Hanoi Vientiane, Bangkok and finally KL.


Phase 4
Crossover by ferry to Medan, Sumatera and drive northward to Bandar Acheh and from there southward to Jakarta, Bali, Timor, and crossover to Darwin by ferry . Drive via Alice Spring down to Adelaide, Tasmania, crossover to Auckland, Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound, right down to Invercargill.


What have I missed ?
Africa from Cape Town to Egypt !
We need some armoury training with some Ak45....
If we are still around, yes Africa, why not.


Peng  and Bab, the million ringgit question is WHAT VEHICLE ?
I have already got my Hilux single cabin which I can co-drive with my son..
Bastamam suggested a landcruiser, an old secondhand for both of you.
I think a 4.2 litre one would be ideal but that would push up your diesel/petrol bill.
What about a 1997 Prado ?
Doc Man can perhaps give his experience with a Prado 1997......Doc Man , give us your input on your Prado please....and I am still waiting for you to say , " Yes , I will join you guys ! "


...................................................................

doc man,

 you are a prado man. tell me more about this animalpower wise,driveability on slippery hills, mud terrain. maintainence and repair, spare parts availability, price,road tax

how to source a good one ,boleh bawa round dunia atau tidak ..at this age.

what is your recommendation.

i want a vehicle that is reliable, free of electronics, and decently cheap that if i have to leave it in a a desert somewhere or in nepal, i can leave it without feeling 'i am ' bleedings'

any recommendation.

if i use those older landcruiser with big cc like 4.2 litre or 4.7 litres how do i reduce their road tax.....someone told me can register as vintage car...10 % road tax

.........................................................................

Nik Howk,

You never give up with me Nik. I appreciate your effort.Actually I was about to agree to become crazy like you to go along for the test run to Bangkok.But, that seem to be just  a scout trip to you.

Prado is a good car, smooth suspension on normal road and off road. It is good for our old body musculature when it swing left & right. Plenty of space.

Petronas was using Prado on their Silk road run few years ago, amongst others. The series was shown on TV which I followed.Ample power for your purpose, good & proper selection of tyres. Don't aspect you to go through deep mud. Probably more on sandy stone slippery hills.

You go for  good bargin price in 2nd  handshops in KL. A good mechanic have to test ride the car for you and hear & look at the engine. Who else, my confidence is my Ah Seng, the local kampung China man of Temangan.Road tax $1450, I think. Price about 20-30K, my guess. Go see mudah.com.

I have driven mine in flood water 2-3 ft of rushing water in Tanah Merah & Jeli, when I was caught in flash flood.

But there are some electronic, which can die! But you can carry spare board.I had a problem with electronic which control the idling speed, control or something. Had to be check by a computer. Per check about $60.00 at that time, 10-12 yrs ago.The original board cost >$4,000 from Toyota. But manage to get 2nd hand one for only $1,000 by my mechanic. 

Best still, went to radio shop in KB, brought both to compare, he repaired the faulty chip costing only $2.00. So, I carry the repaired one for spare. Parts to be carried with you can be easily by the mechanic, such as the front rod & ?? , the front bar, steering ?.. Tak ingat all the name.Kena buka buku to identify the part which need regular changing. Bearing, belts, spare alternator,  water pump, oil pump, filter, electronic ignition, carburetor, etc.

Your best choice, travel in style, no hassle about breakdown will be the double cab hilux. Get the Toyota UMW guys to supply you with two or three new Hilux. It is peanuts to them...compared to the exposure they can get from you guys. I magine, 3 years on the road, 3 or 4 'half crazy over 60 year olds' driving around the world. It has never been done in a  hilux. They will love it.

Go for the petrol one. Not many mechanic are well equip to handle diesel engine I think. Need to check the free availability of diesel everywhere.

The new one probably good suspension, comfortable for the body on rough terrain.

Or look around for a good secondhand twin cab hilux, few years old could bring down the price so much.Good point since the car in available everywhere in the world, so no problem with spares.The canopy at the back, custom made  from Thailand,  would give security to your things.If you guys prefer diesel,I would recommend  the new 3.0 litre turbo diesel hilux anytime rather than an old Prado.

 Ok le! Sound me if the boy scout route is still on the agenda.

Doc Azman

...................................................................................................

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته
Doc Azman  and Nik Howk...


if I were to do the KL/Kayu Hitam/Bangkok, then any car will do as the highway is better than our North South Highway plus zero tolls on the Thai side.

As for choice of engines, for me the turbo diesel is preferable due to its  fuel efficiency, and economy, and due to less maintenance required. Diesel is commonly used by industries and available anywhere in the world. Malaysia has a peculiar law that discourages use of diesel engines due to the ignorance of its lawmakers in Parliament. Elsewhere in the world, diesel is the choice.
The planned trip is not an off road adventure as I see it. The expedition shall stick to roads and highways we often assume that our roads are the best in the world and that all other countries do not have paved/metaled roads, I would say no modifications to stock/standard vehicles may be necessary. Perhaps heavy duty dampers may be preferred. 

It does not matter if the vehicle is new or second hand and if you plan to fly back to Malaysia, the vehicles need not be abandoned but  can always be donated to charities, wherever you may want to end the trip.,, e.g. the Red Crecent Society or to some Palestinian farmers in The West Bank or Gaza.
Ha,ha,ha...thinking aloud!


Grand Pa


.................................................................................


Grand Pa,

Your discourse and comment on car engine is revealing.......you are very experienced.

why then a cherookee 4.0 in your heyday may I ask....what was the road tax like.??

from your comment I would expect you to be a landcruiser enthusiast,  or at least a Landy, unless your company was paying for the cherokeee. These Americans are guzzlers

Nik Howk,

............................................................................................

Nik Howk,

Funny?... I have rescued, using the Jeep,Toyota land cruisers, Isuzus and even a Suzuki Jeep in the jungles of Pahang. I even pulled a 5 ton lorry stuck in the sand on the beach in front of my house. The Jeeps are no joking matter.

 politics aside, you'd be surprised of the fuel economy. You see it is simple actually, the principle is that of power:weight ratio. The engine is a powerful 200hp pulling only a kerb weight of less than two metric tons. That is akin to 200 horses pulling a small cart. Not much energy required. On the other extreme, imagine the same cart is pulled by say 20 horses, that wold take alot of energy per horse.

Secondly the American engine is a "lazy" engine meaning it has longer stroke than the bore so the engine is a high torque,low revving engine meaning, its pulling power is very good and facilitates higher gear ratios. At 110km/hour, the rev counter shall only show the engine speed at around 200rpm. That is low engine speed by any standards and that translates to economy and engine life longevity. When travelling from Madinah to Makkah in aGMC,a distance of about 450km, the driver travelled consistently at 200km/h. The rev counter showed 300rpm. I took a pic of it but it is in my old computer . I think I already posted it in this egroup.Now, you drive your Japanese car at 1110 km/hour and note the engine revolution (rev counter). You tell me.

Thirdly, you go to a work shop where you can see the under carriage of your Jap car and compare to that of the JEEP or the Land Rover. You notice that the western makes are well endowed , The ball joints, the shafts, the rack ends the tie rods etc are all solidly built, wanting in the Japanese makes. Do not take my word for it. Make the visual comparison.

The Kuantan-KL fuel consumption was no more than that of a Proton Wira. Only the road tax was prohibitive, the product of a naive government policy.

Grand Pa

........................................................................................

Howk,

I had the privilege of meeting Mr Sharip this pm courtesy of Mat Ali Woerr.  Sharip had been participating in many long distance Petronas expedition, including Europe -Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya -Istanbul, as one of the official mechanics.

 Dia kata " bawak kereta biasa pun tak apa.  jalan semua bagus."

Peng

.......................................................................

Peng, 

I am already thinking beyond Kuala Lumpur- London. Besides that, Karakurom Highway is not a walk in the park. I am thinking of our phase 2 and 3 which could be tough. If you want it easy, just take a flight to London, rent a car and travel to your heart's content sleeping in caravan parks all across Europe.

Nik Howk

...........................................................................

Howk,

Taking a flight to europe and travel in a rented car? no sweat, you can do that twice a year.  No big deal

Are we meeting on 29th or 30th?  I am getting mixed signal here, as i am beginning to get mixed signal from howk!

salam, 

Peng

..............................................................................

Nick Howk,

No backing off.  We are all heading according to your plan.See you Friday June 29^th, 2012.

 Bab

.......................................................................................

Peng and Bab,

NO !.....i am not backing off.

just my alter ego telling me to be just 60 and go easy...

but my bucket list is still 'boy scout'.....the transland journey is on.

if you are wondering why i am up at this hour..terbangun tadi with a start, sembahyang suboh at 5 am !!! ingat dah pagi...ingat sudah 'missed dia'....

that is being 60........nak tidur pun takut. takut2 bangun dah 'man rabbuka !'......[http://drnikisahak.blogspot.com/2010/11/ma-rabbukawho-is-your-lord.html ]

my childhood friend, nadzru said we are a bunch of overgrown 'boys scouts !';

ok we are, so what. we are proud to still be 'boy scouts' at 60, and not walking around with the help of a third leg......

the trip is on guys !!

anyone has any significant experience owning and driving the landrover defender ?
this is another vehicle we should consider especially for phase 2 and 3.

nik howk

Transland Journey

It all started with a religious polemical argument within my fellow form-mates in MCKK [ class of 69 ] in the jubileeintan69 website.
Two chaps were almost getting too hot under the collar over some 'ranting' issues, the usual 'purist'  vs 'traditional'.

I interjected and suggested we discuss a possible Kuala Lumpur- London drive instead to 'defuse' the hot situation.
Two weeks later saw myself, Peng[ an oncological paediatrics consultant from UH, semiretired, survived cancer of colon ], Bab [ ex Petronas ] and three others brainstorming on this [ Jed, Deng and Bastamam ].

Driving to London at 60 !!??
As usual with most Malaysian style  brainstorming session, we had teh tarik to 'warm up' the neurons , then gulp in a couple of roti canais, followed by a full plateful of  mee mamak. Then , and only a 'much later' then , the 'storm', sans the brains..........

Talk about 'crazy' people, we do have a lot of them coming from MCKK, at least during my time I was there.....that is why we have such thing as BERSIH  now. Restless souls, semiretarded childhood , a preamble to a delayed protracted adolescence  coalescing into late adulthood !!
But we are certainly no  'sissies' from VI or St John like our friend NTR .......
[ NTR was definitely not MCKK of course, not like his late dad... Otherwise he would not be so 'takut2' as he is now. Everyone in and out of Amenu knows his problem, but the typical' lallang' he is, he is not reading in between the lines and still  waiting for someone else to 'bersih' his problem ! My God ! Once a 'lallang', always a 'lallang' ! Must be in the water they serve at St John or VI. No wonder they always lost in Rugby to even RMC .]


We are doing the KL- London drive sometime next year, probably August after Eid. We agreed on a possible route driving thru Myanmar[ hopefully Myammar opens up its border by then], Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Pakistan [  Osama Ben Laden's Abottabad, Quetta etc etc] and on to Iran via the Kyber Pass, then Turkey. From Turkey onwards it would very 'light and easy' heading for Europe and London, via Bulgaria, Slovenia, Serbia and Croatia, Bavaria and Switzerland. My initial plan for leaving on the eve of Ramadan and doing the Umrah and Eid in Makkah midway was shot down .Bab and Peng were unfortunately not 'mad' enough.


We reckoned 2 months would be ideal for us to be able to pack in visits to some World Heritage spots and towns along the way.I will drive my Hilux single cabin with the help of my 2 boys, while Peng and Bab plus minus wife will probably in between them secure an old Landcruiser Prado. We plan to 'camp' as much as we can along the way. On  'breaking camp' in London we would go our separate ways. If Bab's and Peng's Prado is still intact by then they will ship it back to KL. Plan B would be to sell it as scrap iron in East London.So far my other classmates are not yet 'mad' enough to 'want to join us'.


I have my very own plan B and plan C : will drive down to Florence and leave my Hilux there with my son in law and daughter who is currently looking after Malaysia's 'durian plantation'  owned by Petronas there.
Some eight months later, after doing some decent work in my hospital back in KL, I would take a two month break and do the 'Muslim Conquest' route in the reverse direction:
Serville, Cordoba, Gibraltar, Tangier, Casablanca, Tripoli , etc and etc and finally Cairo. That would be , insyaallah the 2nd phase.

Godwilling , in late 2014, plan C would be  a trans-Siberian cross to Vladivostok from Moscow and the Stans in the West. This would require a wee bit more of ' mind over matter doa  and zikr' as this is basically no man's land. Insyaallah.
'Angan2 orang tua'.




PS : 
that 'mind over matter doas' and zikr would be ...


'ya  Muqallibal qulub, thabit qalbi alla kaa ta'atik
ya Muqallibal qulub, thabit qalbi alla kaa di nik'
oh The One Who changes hearts, make my heart firm in Your obedience
oh The One Who changes hearts, make my heart firm in Your Din


'bismillah himajreha wa mursaha innarobbi la Ghafur rur Rahim'
in the name of Allah it's sailing and it's anchorage, He is al Ghafur [ most forgiving ] and al Rahim [ most merciful ].


'allahumma innaka 'affuwwun tuhibbul 'afwa fa' fu anni' [ doa laylatul qadr ]
oh Allah, You are The One who pardons greatly, and love to pardon, so pardon me


'hasbunallah wa ni' mal Wakeel'
Allah suffice for me, He is al Wakeel


'has biyallah hula illa hailla huwa alai hi tawwakal tu huwa Rabbul arsil Azim'
[ the 'mother' of all tawwakal ]


'rabbirfili wa liwa lidayya wal mukmini wal mukminat'
oh Rabb, absolve me from my sin, my parents and all muslims, males and females


la hawla wala kuwwata illa billah hil Alim yul A zim
there is no change or power except Allah. He is al Alim [ all knowing ] , al Azim [ most high ]


la ila haillallah huwahdahu lasharikalah lahul mulku wa lahul hamdu yuhyi wayumit wa huwa ala kulli lishain Qadir


and 'mother' of all zikir,
la ila haillallah


and finally,
'la ila hailla anta subha nakainni kun tu minazzolimin'
Prophet Jonah's doa, when he was  swallowed and subsequently 'delivered' by the whale.




We all are no Prophet Jonah, but what the heck, even though these are short doa's , but all 'supergedebe' and superheavy  with  connotations within the 'al ghaiba'.
Try them everyday, morning, evening and night. In prayer and outside prayer. In sujud and outside sujud.
Do this with deep sincerity and reflection.
In all your waking moments : standing, sitting and occasionally while sleeping
Remember Him in everything that you do.
Internalize your doa and zikr in your psyche.
You will be on an entirely different 'plane'.
Imagine, no more over-reverence to people irrespective of their position and background.
That constitute ' spiritual and mental' freedom.

They work all the time.
Believe me.