maldives in snapshots #3

arriving in maafushi island, one of the public islands in maldives.

zaman dulu-dulu public islands ni tourists tak pergi sebab takde accommodation, yang duduk situ cuma locals. hotel boleh bukak kat private island je. sebab tu maldives ni dikira premium holiday destination since kita wajib pergi private islands yang ada resort dan chalet yang mahal.

since few years ago, government maldives dah open public islands untuk tourists, makanya ramai orang awam bukak homestay, which opens the doors to maldives.

sekarang maldives dah jadi affordable tourist destination. tapi beza laa private dengan public island ni, so you have to lower your expectations a bit. apa-apa pun laut dia memang awesome!

turun dari bot, ada orang tolong tolakkan beg
walaupun murah, tapi servis diorang memang first class

nah package untuk water sports. memang mahal weh. harga in USD

kaani beach hotel, tempat kitorang stay

maldives in snapshots #2

pictures in male, pronounced ma-le bukan male yang membawa maksud lelaki ye haha.

apa yang aku ingat, male ni capital city of maldives. island kecik yang mampat dan sarat dengan orang, bangunan, dan kenderaan.

actually bagus kalau dapat explore maldives ni. buat yang tak tahu, maldives ni bukan satu negara pulau yang besar tapi terdiri daripada gugusan beratus pulau yang kecil. so bagus kalau dapat explore the life of a maldivian. bukan sekadar fly in ke pulau paling cantik yang terkenal dengan resort eksklusif dan keindahan bagai syurga dunia.

i mean, kat maldives pun ada pulau yang dijadikan tempat buangan sampah je. so yeah, di syurga dunia tetap ada manusia yang perlu hidup. dan segala masalah biasa di tempat kita, di tempat diorang jadi lagi bermasalah sebab limited space.

di masjid lama

maldives in snapshots #1

i won't bebel much about maldives, sebab aku malas nak bercerita sangat pasal trip ni haha.

i went there in May 2016 (!!!) so it was almost a year ago.

i am so very terrible at keeping my travel posts updated.

the pictures below were taken in hulhumale island, the airport island and also their youth city.

cute block houses

gotong royong cat masjid

double cleansing routine

orang korea memang obsessed dengan cleansing. diorang yang first cipta konsep double cleansing, mungkin.

so apakemende double cleansing ni?

basically, you cleanse your face twice, with:
1) oil-based cleanser first, then
2) foam cleanser/water-based cleanser

sebenarnya mitos yang orang pegang kuat ialah kulit berminyak = naik jerawat. sure, kalau minyak (atau lebih tepat ialah sebum) tu kotor pastu tersumbat dalam pores, memang laa naik jerawat. tapi minyak yang kita apply atas kulit tak menyebabkan jerawat. even sebum yang dirembeskan kulit kita tu untuk regulate skin moisture and form a barrier.

oil-based cleanser ni berfungsi macam makeup remover, untuk buang segala impurities atas kulit. even though aku tak pakai makeup (i finish off my routine with a bb cream and that's it), i use it supaya minyak tu boleh trap segala benda kotor atas muka dan lepas tu senang untuk dibasuh keluar.

currently i'm using this:

dah kotor sikit dah lid dia

Banila co Clean it Zero
RM 59 (without GST) for 100ml @ Hermo.my

my new obsession - skincare!

kalau perasan laa, aku dah lama tak update blog. partly sebab aku busy (like seriously, and if i have to choose between blogging and tengok kdrama, aku pilih kdrama opkos). partly sebab aku semakin malas.

then i thought maybe it's because blogging feels very routine.

aku selalu dah upload gambar travel and draft post siap-siap supaya senang nak menaip bila mood datang.

tapi mood tak datang-datang. bila nak menaip je, jari keras. maybe sebab sebelum ni aku taip mostly in english? memang aku plan untuk taip in english supaya at least aku dapat practise written english yang makin berkarat ahaha.

so this time around aku rojakkan semua laa ye. tukar format menulis sikit. and share benda-benda lain selain travel jugak.

if you know me, you know only 2 things matter in my life: work and traveling.

travel ni tak dapat buat setiap hari, and work drives me crazy lately. so akhir 2016 lalu, aku decide untuk find something new. satu hobi yang aku boleh buat everyday, no matter how busy i am.

so i chose skincare! hahaha.

ceritanya, bukan sebab aku banyak sangat tengok kdrama (i am a moderate fan - aku takde artis feveret or pelakon feveret or whatnot). aku realize kalau dah nama artis tu confirm laa lawa, muka airbrushed memanjang.

tapi my 'revelation' happens in chiang mai. aku ikut day trip dengan travel agent dan ada 2 orang wanita korea join sekali dalam van yang sama. jeng jeng jeng.. aku terfikir kenapa laa orang korea ni kulit diorang cantik-cantik. ni real life depan mata ni, dan bukan dalam TV.

okay, i am sold. first thing aku buat lepas balik chiang mai - pergi kedai face shop dekat ioi mall putrajaya.

and the rest is history.

you might be wondering, why skincare and not makeup?

tokyo #16 - our stay in iriya

i'm sharing about where i stayed in tokyo.
the name of the neighbourhood is iriya,
roughly a few metro stops to ueno.
we stayed in an airbnb japanese-style house.
for me the location is okay,
since central tokyo can be expensive.

actually the story of how i managed to walk to this house is quite amazing.
i had no idea of the exact location of the house,
i had no wifi or phone line,
i was alone and nobody was there waiting for me.
all i had was a rough sketch of a map showing the way from the metro station to the house
that i took a screenshot of from malaysia.

in tokyo, the metro exit is not so straightforward.
iriya metro station alone has 4 exits and only one of them has an elevator.
i arrived and had no idea which exit to get out of,
not to mention in which direction i should start walking to hahaha T.T
bigggg mistake, honestly.
tbh i vividly remember then that london, paris, and seoul
also have many exits out of one metro station.
why didn't i think that i would have the same problem in tokyo -.-"

i was just praying a lot that i would get to the house before it gets too dark,
lugging my heavy luggage haha.
i managed to not get too lost, in the end.
found the house within an hour.
i have to thank my crazy brain for being a genius
and Allah for looking out for me.

navigating in tokyo is actually fine,
it's just that you have to understand where you're going,
to have a sense of direction,
and to always have a map (and wifi) with you.
in a few days i was already a pro in taking metros
and understanding where is where in tokyo.
i'm proud to be a non-typical girl in this stuff haha.

seriously, tokyo held so many adventures and stories for me.

narrow buildings

sakura at the main road <3

just around the corner of our house

beautiful manhole covers

tokyo #15 - roppongi & shinjuku gyoen national park

last day in tokyo :(

btw, it has almost been a year since my trip to tokyo o.O

took me soooo long to finish posting this.

my last day was rainy, but i still wanted to go to roppongi

for hard rock cafe shirts and this spider monster!

 

hugeee spider

only 7 of these spiders in this world