Snowing!!!

Yea, I wasn't expecting to post this, but it snowed today! And it's also the first time in my life I see it snowing... Well, I got to do a new side to Cambridge. Ha, I guess snowing only looks cool and amazing to us that come from the tropics, seriously, the rest of the population just carried on with their life. Ha, oh well, here are some nice shots of Cambridge that I took today.

The Backs
Me in King's grounds
The River Cam
King's Courtyard

3rd Court of Christ's
Christ's Fellows Garden
Yea, it's snowing!!!

Snowing!!!

Yea, I wasn't expecting to post this, but it snowed today! And it's also the first time in my life I see it snowing... Well, I got to do a new side to Cambridge. Ha, I guess snowing only looks cool and amazing to us that come from the tropics, seriously, the rest of the population just carried on with their life. Ha, oh well, here are some nice shots of Cambridge that I took today.

The Backs
Me in King's grounds
The River Cam
King's Courtyard

3rd Court of Christ's
Christ's Fellows Garden
Yea, it's snowing!!!

Morocco(2)

Fes, is one of the oldest cities in the world. Fes el Bali, their old city is a UNESCO-heritage site and I totally understood why. There’s plenty of really old buildings inside (definition: close to 1000 years old), and the souks are a mini tourist attraction of their own. We felt that we were good enough (due to SAF) to navigate the streets on our own, but sad to say, we got lost a number of times and we even walked about in circles. But they do have a lot of interesting sights, such as a shop selling camel meat, tanneries, and a lot of weird funny gadget shops. Haha, and I remembered my friend who was bargaining with this shop owner who said, “Look, I am a Muslim and it is against my religion to lie. The price I give you is the best price.” Haha. The sad thing is that despite the rich history, we didn’t have a tour guide so I will say that we failed to understand the significance of some of the places.

Well, I didn’t spend much time in Tangiers, so I can’t comment much on the city. On the whole, I will say Morocco is an interesting experience and it does broaden your horizons as well as enabled you to understand the Arab culture and history better.

Oh I ate plenty of couscous and tajine in Morocco too. Apparently its unique to this part of the world, but it is really nice! Its steamed semolina and they usually serve it with chicken, mutton, beef or vegetables. A bit like our briyani, but of course, I still miss the Dunman Nasi Briyani more! Oh, the other main disd they have is tajine, which is a stew. Looks like our curry vegetables/chicken, but its not spicy. Another thing, they actually have something that looks like roti prata here!!! But they pour honey over it, fold it and chop it into small slices so it looks like our popiah. I must say the food here is really good, much nicer than the food that I had in the UK.

Morocco (1)

I shall split my trip into several parts. So the first part is the first week I spent in Morocco, yes, my first time in the Africa continent.

In my opinion, Morocco is not exactly the type of big tourist places that people will want to go. They don’t exactly have ‘major’ attractions, and if you will like to see more fantastic Moorish architecture, southern Spain is better. But, it is really interesting as the way their cities are built and laid out, as well as their lifestyle is something that is radically different from what we can find in East and Southeast Asia, as well as in Europe.

But if you plan to visit Morocco, Marrakesh is a good place to visit. The main tourist attractions there are the Koutoubia mosque (left), which really stands out there and Djema El Fna, which is their central city square. It was indeed an experience trying to navigate their souks, or markets, for the way the streets are laid and organised renders most maps useless. In fact, none of the maps which their tourist office provides actually showed the many small sidewalks. So ya, I must say that you do feel lost inside their markets. Marrakesh is certainly a good place to relax and just let time flies – there’s Club Med there too, so it is a good place to just chill. Oh it is also close enough to the Sahara desert and the Atlas mountains, so it is a good place to start from if you plan to go to those places. Oh yup, the place on the right is the ruins of the former El Badi Palace, which meant incomparable.

Casablanca is relatively boring. Although it is the most famous city in Morocco, it is not the capital city, and they only have one significant tourist attraction – Hassan II Mosque. I must say it is really remarkable, as it is the world’s second largest mosque and it has the world’s tallest minaret. There’s a retractable roof, and they have huge pillars of ‘thirsty hippo’ to absorb the moisture. Yes, the pillars you see in the bottom right photo are made of a material that helps to absorb moisture.

Aerial view of Casablanca

By the way, you can see the Atlantic Ocean too! Haha, the first time in my life to see the Atlantic. Rabat, the capital city, offers a fantastic view of the ocean, and you can see the waves in all their glory.

Oh, Rabat is much more interesting as they have a necropolis, a mausoleum for their previous king, Mohammed V, and plenty of other interesting sights and sounds. Their ancient medina (city) is also far more easier to navigate than the other places I went.

Oh that's the ruins of the necropolis on the left.Thats the Hassan Mosque, which is close to 1000 years old.

Back

Heya, I’m finally back from my super long trip. For those who have been following, it has been a really long 36 days of travelling for me. Seriously, I’m still trying to recollect my entire trip so I guess I will slowly and gradually post about the different parts of my trip and upload pictures for all to share.

Anyway, I know I’m a bit slow but Happy New Year! I hope everything has been turning out to be fine for all, and hopefully the year 2007 will be a good one for all.

Hmm, so yup, I’m now in Cambridge, waiting for term to start. But it is not as relaxing as it sounds because there’s still some work that I need to complete…

Ok, will blog more next time. Time to do some work.