hell(o) Malaysia

Catatan : Soon the photos will be displayed, secepatnya. Hehehehe.

Jadi, pada postingan ini, saya mau sok pake Bahasa Inggris cacad getoh. Happy reading!

Mom woke me up. It was April 24th, 2018 and the weather was cloudy. I had to go to the Soekarno–Hatta International airport for my very first flight. With all of my ignorance, I flew to Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2. Alone and clueless -- I realized, The Unforgettable moment in my life has already started.

That was the first day of International Islamic Cultural Connect Malaysia 2018 and my body was already tired. After flying for 2 hours, I arrived at KLIA2. I met the other delegates in Malaysia’s airport, then we went to the Masjid Putra in Putrajaya Prefecture.

When I still at home, my friend who has an aunt in Malaysia told me about that mosque. She said, if we want to enter Masjid Putra, we would use a coat that had a similar design to a Harry Potter coat. I was really curious about that until I arrived at Masjid Putra. In the fact, the coat was just given to people who didn’t use proper clothes to cover their body. And me? Since I was properly using my clothes, I couldn’t use that coat. Well, even I felt a little bit upset about that, I was still happy because I did make friends with many people there.

Me and Masjid Putra

After praying and doing something else in here (such as taking so many pictures), we went back to the bus. The next destination is the landmark of Malaysia, The Petronas Twin Towers. I had always been dreaming of traveling around the world since I was a little girl. I had wanted to visit many landmarks, and guess what? Thanks to IICC, my dream has already started to become a reality. We did many fun things in The Petronas Twin Towers. We also met many Indonesian people and many foreigners. After that, we went to our hotel and took a rest.

The birth of beauty J

The sun was shining brightly and the second day did come! The first destination for today was Bank Nasional Malaysia (BNM). Before going there, we stopped in Dataran Merdeka to take some pics and do some social interactions with people there. After that, we resumed our trip to BNM. In BNM, we were given much knowledge about investment.

Dataran Merdeka

Because of the strict time schedule, we couldn’t go to the museum in BNM and we could not even go to the National Mosque of Malaysia. Well, actually I was not too sad because we did go to the Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia. Again, we met many people there. We also went to Pusat Kebudayaan USIM and get much knowledge.

Bank Nasional Malaysia

It was time for shopping! The next destination was Central Market. The committee only gave us 45 minutes to buy anything that we wanted. Here I was so sad because I did not buy many things. It was because of the lack of time! I even forgot to buy souvenirs for my teacher and my close friends.

Me and Kak Faiqah in The Central Market

Actually, after going to the Central Market, we had to stop by the hotel and take a rest. But, my roommates asked me to go with them to ‘somewhere’. Finally, Kak Dini, Kak Wulan, Kak Salwa, Kak Ivon, Kak Arini, and I planned to go from the hotel to take a walk around Kuala Lumpur. We were going ‘nge-gembel’ in Malaysia--the place that was really strange and new for the six of us! We used Grab Car, and it was only 6 ringgit for going to the KL tower!

Finally, we went to the KL Tower in 2 different cars. The first car was for Kak Ivon, Kak Salwa, and Kak Wulan, and the other car was for Kak Dini, Kak Arini, and I. After I arrived at KL Tower, that was so strange because I didn’t see the first car. After waiting for 1 hour, I concluded that they got lost! Unfortunately, none of the three of us had an internet connection so we could not communicate with them. We were so panicked because of: first, we are in Malaysia, the new place that we didn’t know, and the second, it was 1 a.m! In addition, we are women!

The scene at 1 a.m. from KL Tower

We were desperate. We were searching for the first car until we met the security of KL Tower. Kak Dini asked them for a handphone to call Kak Wulan; the one and only who had an internet connection. That was a scary moment that succeeded to make me feel like crying. But even though we were so panicked, I still tried to make the condition better by asking them to take pictures while waiting. So, there we were, stupidly taking photos in the middle of the night in Malaysia!

After taking so many idiotic photos (because luckily the camera was with us), we saw someone. No, it was a few people, with hijab! And they were walking towards us! Finally, we met them. Unfortunately, we could only take pictures in the KL Tower’s gate, because the KL Tower itself was already closed at 11 p.m. When were taking photos, we queued up to take pictures of each other. It was a play of I-took-your-pic-you-take-mine kind of thing. And after the last one took photos, the light was turned off! The KL Tower suddenly went so dark, followed by the Twin Towers. Because that place was so scary, we decided to go; go somewhere.

6 crazy ‘gembel’ persons

Now, we were going to a street. We took photos on that street because we thought that it was so cool. After having some fun there, we decided to continue our journey. We walked to the traffic light, taking some photos again (we are women, get it?). Suddenly, the rain came! We ran to a canopy to cover our body from the rain. We were laughing so hard, we were happy.

Then, Kak Ivon said that we have to go back to the hotel. We wanted to book the Grab Car, but we were clueless about our exact location. Not so long after that, a man appeared. Bravely, we tried to ask him. Kak Ivon got really freakish because she tried to use Malaysian Language, but unexpectedly, the man was not Malaysian. He said he only knew English, he didn’t know the local language. I had never talked with a foreigner before because I never feel confident with my English. But, this was different, we needed to talk to him, I needed to talk to him.

We even took a photo with him---Wait, that face was mine? -_-

For the first time in forever, I talked to the foreigner. It was so strange because I understood what he said, and he also understood me. I didn’t believe it, I could talk with the foreigner! We had a chat for at least 15 minutes. Because of it, I didn’t feel afraid again to talk with the foreigner, thank God. After that, Kak Ivon said that our car had already arrived. So we must say goodbye to him. And finally, we went back to the hotel and sleep. That was a long night!

On the way to the hotel

The second day passed and this was the third day. We checked out from the hotel and went to the IIUM, International Islamic University of Malaysia. We were really lucky because we could attend the great talk show. The Talk Show was about a lovely topic, women, and fitnah. I was really being inspired by Ustadzah Raudatul in her talk show. It was so outstanding. After that, I met many new friends. I was talking with them in English, without no fear.

After having a great three days in Malaysia, finally, it was time to say goodbye. We must come back to our own perspective homes. To Jakarta, Aceh, Pekanbaru, Bandung, and many more. But one thing that we would remember in the rest of our lives, is this greatest moment with the greatest people!