Assalamualaikum, hi friends
This is my first entry. actually i'm not a good writer, but i love to read people write about their life, about those beautiful memories. Sometime all good memory shouldn't be recede just like that and to me personally a true happiness is when it is being shared. Now here i am, just want to share my story :P hope you all enjoy. The story began when my friend "tok janggut" invite me to join a trip to iceland doing backpacking style. This was the first time i join backpacker. Before this i used to follow my family roadtrip to thailand and indonesia. Usually my dad would arranged everything from hotel, food, flight and even the destination -.-" haha sound like loser. When we were in group of backpacker we work as a team. No more comfort zone, you should discover all the good places where you want to go. Do a research about place you want to go. For this trip, everyone must do all preparation for the vacation because Iceland among the unique ones. Don't ever underestimate the weather in Iceland or you might get killed. Actually most of my friend didn't know where iceland is, they even mispronounced iceland as ireland. "wei ilyas hang p mana?" i said "aku p iceland" they be like "ice whutt??" what the hell is wrong with them haha. Iceland is such a nice country. Their people care about visitor who visit their country because tourist like me always underestimate the weather in Iceland. In Malaysia even in heavy rain i can steadily ride my bike like a boss haha. But in iceland don't you dare to do that unless you are a yetty :P the local people in Iceland are always prepared for the worst. At the back of their car, they have a shovel, an axe and their truck tires must be equipped with chain. I was like wow, during the first time i saw their truck, it was bigger than i thought. In Malaysia we used to see 4x4 triton as the most coolest truck ever in Malaysia, which would be used by civil engineer and businessmen. Well, not all but mostly laaa.
However, in iceland an old single lady was also driving 4x4 truck alone in snow blizzard. Yet i as a young "handsome" XD man still couldn't get a car license.. haha. What a total loser.
14 FEBRUARY 2015
I already planned for my journey to Iceland to be the most adventurous journey ever. So i decided to ride my LC135 alone from kulim to shah alam with a bag full of stuff. I know it was a stupid decision that i ever made but i already did it -.-" so i woke up from sleep at 8.00 am with new spirit, felt like the best morning ever in my life. i said to myself "today you gonna make a memorable history in your life". My mom was so worried, i know deep in her heart she wouldn't let me ride my bike alone to shah alam. But seeing intensity of her son, she let me go. After i hugged my mom, my journey began. i had my fresh morning start with nasi lemak and teh tarik after that i was already heading to Shah Alam. It was a smooth ride that day, wore a rayban and pair of earphone, with wind hitting on my face strongly while listening to pearl jam. Sometime i sang along with the songs I prepared in the song list. It made me feel alive XD
but one thing that i learned from this journey: If you ride alone DONT EVER stop until you reach RNR because something happened to me. I stopped under the flyover for a while to smoke a cigaratte, suddenly an old saga car stop by in front of me, 2 man age about about 3-series asked me. where are you going? why do you stop here? i just played tough and answered him bravely. Actually i was so afraid at that time because one of the guys had a swiss knife hung from his pocket. Then i just thought that i needed to leave them as quickly as possible. When i got on my motorcycle, suddenly they asked 10 ringgit from me. I gave it to them, then i quickly left the crime scene. I was the victim *sigh. luckily they just asedk for 10 ringgit. What if they wanted my motorcycle? if the took all my money? Peaceful Malaysia ptttffff -.-". I got to shah alam at 5.00 pm. i stayed at uncle's house at seksyen 12 "if i'm not mistaken". I met my friend azizi. We talked a lot. So far it was a good start for my adventure to the land of fire and ice.
15 FEBRUARY 2015
Hello sunshine, hehe still kicking ass with happy mood. Smiles on my face, woke up at 6.00 am, feel the morning spirit by seeing a sunrise. My friend from Damansara fikri a.k.a piee picked me up at McD.
I stayed at his house for another night. That night we spent our time at SS restaurant with piee's friend names Arip with his girlfriend.
i bought a drink name "i kiss you" haha what the hell? bitter and sour taste ever blerghhh. I could not finish my drink -.-" a waste of RM7.00
16 FEBRUARY 2015
The real journey start now, today i'm packing up my stuff. Then i went to the curve buying all the food needed and changed my money to euros. Walking alone through the big mall, sometime sort of flashback happen to me. I smiled it back to the old me. such a beautiful day :)
After buying all stuff, i'm heading back to Flora Damansara pack all my stuff. At 7.00 pm piee and Arip send me to KLIA. It was one of the hell of the ride. traffic jam was so bad. Arip drove a car like an actor in the movie. So fast and i'm shiver as hel but like always, still pay tough "laju lagi laju lagi" i said to Arip haha. Kuala Lumpur is well known by traffic jam , so i don't want to get stuck in traffic jam. I pay 3.5k for ticket so i'm not gonna miss it booo~~ i arrived at airport 9.00 pm, i was alone waiting for my friend. 1st person that i met was Puppet. Well when we travel we use a travel nickname. I don't even know real name of puppet. By the way they called me "mat sayoq" thanks to tok janggut for give me this cute-tess name ever. Damn youu~~~ after that tok janggut, gendut and izan arrived.
the group isn't complete yet, reen already in iceland at that time.
again we double check our stuff. At that time i still could not believe that we would go to iceland. This whole new thing i'm gonna experienced by myself how does the food? how does it feel with real snow? curiousity is all over my head. So we take off by 12.00 pm tadaaa ~~ andd here we go.
17 FEBRUARY 2015
After an uncomfortable sleep in a plane. It was 12 hours flight. We touchdown on Amsterdam at 6.00 am. I got lil bit confused due to jet lagged but i don't give a damn to it. My time was so precious so i got no time to think about it haha. When we reached Amsterdam it was so cold, at that time i got scared how we want to survive in Iceland enviroment T.T quickly i go to toilet and wear my long john. Then i acted like local haha.it was 7 hours transit in Amsterdam, so we decided to went to Amsterdam Central.
You can feel the morning breeze so cold maybe it around 10 degree. I left my jacket in my luggage bag. luckily i brought with me pair of hand glove. We get there by train. From Schippol Airport to Amsterdam Central it charged you around 10 euro. We walked through the town you can see the architecture of Amsterdam. Feel the morning atmosphere, people are so busy going to work and in the town they got bicycle lane. it was a really wonderful view.
There a many muslim food in amsterdam, so you will have no problem when finding a food. We check the cheapest souvenirs shop because when we heading back to Malaysia, again we will transit at Amsterdam. After a joyful walk, we heading back to Schippol airport. 11.00 am we fly to Iceland. We were greeting by snow storm at iceland. it was twice damn cold than amsterdam. tok janggut challenge me to go outside without wearing a winter jacket. Here i come brother huh!!
After settle up our stuff and rental car we continue to pick reen at reykjavik. We don't even know reen very well actually. We just know her through the whatapp group. Reen worked at Frankfurt, Germany. She came to iceland alone and meet up with us. Behind her innocent face she really a brave woman :P Now we are complete the group of six, ready to rumble over the land fire and ice.
18 FEBRUARY 2015
First day in iceland, woke up in the morning and I could see snow through window, nice and picturesque view, damn i miss it so much. took breakfast, we cooked in apartment. In iceland there is no halal restaurant. You got to buy things to cook from grocery stores. there were 2 famous grocery stores, kronan and bonus. After breakfast we started our journey to golden circle, geyser and gullfoss.
In the night we went to see The Imagine Peace Tower
19FEBRUARY 2015
Last night we brainstormed about activities for the next day. According to our plan, we will go to Akureyri. It was about 600 km from Reykjavik. It was a really interesting day. We had very bad experience. That incident was the worst that could happen in Iceland if we underestimate the weather. If you want to start a journey in Iceland make sure you check the weather forecast on internet. That day was a nightmare, with snow blizzard and the temperature was about -10. We couldn't see a thing when we hit the snow storm. The road was covered by thick snow. At certain time we couldn't even move our car, the tires spun. Luckily there were some locals who helped us out. They asked us to follow them. Reen was the driver for that day. I kept teasing her "in reen we trust" haha.
Alhamdulilah finally we reached einishus cottage at 7.00 pm.
After geting a warm bath, we went to the volcano. Gendut drove the car that night, it didn't look like the storm was going to stop. Driving the car at night in the middle of snow storm is really dangerous. We could not see a thing, there was no street light, we just depended on 2 poles by the road sides. If you just see only 1 pole, that means you actually get off the road. That what was what happened to us, Gendut saw only 1 pole and we were actually off the road. Luckily we were just off the road, what if we had fallen off a cliff? A wonderful vacation could turn into a disaster. We couldn't get our car back on the road due to thick snow.
So we called the rescue team, they arrived after around 10 minutes. The locals that were passing by were truly helpful. They kept trying to push our car back on the road but failed. So after the rescue team helped us out, they escorted us back to the hotel and we were told that the volcano and aurora were not active that day. We got really frustrated that day. The rescuer taught us how to set our camera if we wanted to capture aurora. There was a lot of conversation between us and them. They seemed really nice. Even though it was a frustrating day, it was enjoyable to me.
20 FEBRUARY 2015
According to our itinerary, on that day we were supposed to go south. Actually the distance from north to south was not too far. But the road was closed, so we had to use a longer road, we drove the car from Akureyri to get back to Reykjavik, then we went to Hali. It was about 1000 km. Gendut drove the car, i was the co pilot haha. It a long drive. Before we started our journey we went to Godafoss, it was a great start seeing a wonderful view.
The best thing about Iceland is there were a lot of places to stop with nice views. So along the journey you will not get bored.
21 FEBRUARY 2015
So yesterday was a long day. That day we would be heading to the ice cave. I got so excited. I really wanted to see the ice cave and quickly got into it. We started by snapping some pictures.
Reen left the bottle in the car last night, guess what happened?
The day was just nice because we could see the sunrise. Then we stopped to see the waterfall at the foot of the mountain. It was really a beautiful view. I felt like i wanted to stay there forever. After that we went to the glacier. There, we could see how much global warming has affected us. The saddest truth :(
Then, we headed to the ice cave. Actually if you want to go to see the ice cave, it is better that you go with a tour guide. After we reached tour guide place, they took us to the ice cave. I got so excited, we got through a rocky road to get us to ice cave. and here we are XD
We finished our tour at 7.00 pm. Then we headed to Vik. Our car ran out of gas. At that time most of the shops were closed and we were having a problem to find a gas station. When we found the gas station there was no cashier inside. You can only fill the fuel by using a credit card. Thanks to puppet, he was the hero of the day haha. From this experience, I learned that before you go to another country make sure you hope for the best and prepare for the worst. After we reached Vik, we were told by the owner of the hostel that on the next day, there would be a severe snowstorm and she asked us when we would be leaving the Iceland. She just gave us 2 choices, either we stayed there and didn't get out tomorrow or left Vik immediately. Then we said that we already booked her hotel paid for it, but then she said, "i'm not that too cruel, i'm not gonna take your money. You should worry about your own safety" That was really really nice of her. I fell in love with ICELAND T.T After that, we went to another hostel.
22 FEBRUARY 2015
nothing much that day, we were resting on that day. There a some crazy activity that we done. tadaaa~~~
that day was the last day in Iceland. Reen over bought thing at grocery haha and we found naked salt. The way they advertised the naked salt was so funny and actually very naked -.-"
we cooked a special meals. It was a joyful day. At the evening we went to Blue Lagoon. After got through a tired fun week, it would be a best ending for us by relaxing in warm pool.
23 FEBRUARY
Well there so much beautiful memory that we had in Iceland. Our vacations is already reached to the end. We packed our stuff. We reached at the airport at 4.00 am. I, Gendut and tok janggut had a one last cigarette and tok janggut kicked some ice, he said "aku nak sepak salji yang terakhir". Reen had to go back to German. i snapped one last of her picture and i said "we gonna miss you" hehe. That was the last time i saw her. We reached Amsterdam at 11.00 am. We snapped some picture, spend our excess money buying food and souvenirs.
We check in at airport at 6.00 pm and take off at 8.00 pm. We reached KLIA at 3.00 pm on the next day.
So that all, this was my 1st happiest adventure. I missed those beautiful memories. Get along with new friends. To me, in this life no matter how bad it was, there no such as ending, it always a new beginning. Praise to Allah for gave me a chance to experienced this kind of adventure. In the past, i used to share this kind of beautiful memory with someone that i use to know. I truly missed those conversation. I wish i can have it back again. But time has change, maybe i deserve better life. Thanks for read this. May allah bless all of you.
THANK YOU, ASSALAMUALAIKUM :)
