The 'Ganu' Experience

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

,السلام عليكم

Sorry for the late update. I didn't have the time to post this after the trip, but seeing as just about everybody is writing about the Terengganu trip, why not join in.
I'm sure my story will be almost the same as the guy next to me, but I'll write anyway.


First day (more like night), 5 Nov.


I arrived at school around nine o'clock, by the time pretty much everybody has showed up, and in no time we were to assemble at the masjid for a briefing, and split into two groups.
I was in Group A, and were to board Bus A. At first my bus wasn't exactly boring,with all the settling in and music and stuff...and then when we stopped at the first Petronas station, and packed our "supplies", after the a couple of hours, everything went silent. I know I wasn't asleep because I was chatting with Alif, so there wasn't anything interesting to say this part of the journey. After around twelve, we snoozed. 

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Second day, 6 Nov.


Okay, here is where the fun the begins. I awoke around 4.15, finding myself at Tengku Zaharah Masjid or more commonly known as the Floating Masjid/Masjid Terapung. We were initially waiting for Bus B to arrive as our bus was somewhat faster. After a while, Bus B arrived, and since it was close to Subh prayer time, we went to the masjid to perform the Subh prayer. The imam read a full surah on both rakaats, the first was the Surah As-Sajdah, and the second was Surah Al-Insan. I pitied the ma'mum, as the majority were the elderly. Even the man in front of me prayed in the sitting position on the second rakaat. 
Then we were on our way to our home stay. Around six in the morning we arrived at a Petronas station, in Tok Jiring. At first we were clueless, wondering where the home stay is, many made jokes that the station is the home stay and to our bewilderment, the answer was it was at a tiny home estate at the back of the petrol station. To me at first, it wasn't as I expected, but Alhamdulillah it was better, a single-storey terrace house. For us boys was reserved three houses, so after a bit of playing with numbers, it was 14 people per house. Many jaws dropped. Soon after we settled in, it turned out quite comfortable even with so many people in a house.
 After everybody washed up a bit and changed clothes and had breakfast (Nasi dagang, a must for a traveler in Terengganu to try), we headed to TTI or Taman Tamadan Islam, or Islamic Civilization Park (literal translation). To our dismay, after RM10 flew away, it rained. It was a let down, but we still went out in the rain. Most of the boys rented bikes, and went on a "patrol" around the park. Al-Hafidz and I, went the old-fashioned way; by foot. Sure we were soaking wet, but it was an awesome experience. It was very nostalgic to see the Masjidil Haram and Masjid An-Nabawi replica. The Syrian masjid/fortress was very interesting, with being built on a hill and doubling as a fortress, it was a nice sight. After getting soaked to the bone, we headed to the restaurant to dry up (we were having lunch at Batu Burok Beach). Because the restaurant has a/c Al-Hafidz, Isyraf and I were shivering like.....something shivering really bad. To warm up, we bought some hot drinks. The hot drinks were really hot, good thing we were cold. Haha....Lunch! "Batu Burok Beach we meet again" popped in my head. It was a very familiar sight. Here I fulfilled my promise to return Alif's favor for buying me snacks on the way to Terengganu. We both bought Nasi ayam, and it was really quick, I suppose they pre-cooked it. 

All of us were shivering, and was kinda hard for me to eat, with the not-so-firm grip. All in all...9 ringgit flew away. 
Up next we went to Noor Arfa Craft Centre. 

It was kinda boring as I've been there before (I go to Terengganu almost annually), and the clothes were way to expensive to be worth buying. So I left NACC empty-handed. 
That night we had a BBQ. 

At first I just watched Arif grill the chickens, then I joined. I'm sure this time I did it right, with the help of Arif  and Isyraf (Thanks!). The lucky draw was exceptionally frustrating; my number was 57, and 56 and 58 were called, but not 57....grrr.....
After we were done I returned to As-Salam 4, smelling smoky and chicken-y and after a quick change (I was smelling like grilled chicken!) I went to bed.

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Last day, 7 Nov


Around 5.15 I woke up and found Mu'az and Al-Hafidz already awake. When it was near Subh, we tried to wake up everybody, the few who didn't got the huge voice of Mu'az calling out: "Bangunlah!". After breakfast we packed up as we were checking-out and headed to Payang Market/Pasar Payang, nothing much to say, bought a long sleeve t-shirt, short sleeve t-shirt and a shirt. 
Terengganu Museum. There was a lot to see, my favourite were as labeled "pickled" animals, like "pickled" snake, "pickled" dolphin and "pickled" dugong. After a bit of scouring I exited, and then (I'm getting tired typing) we went to Batu Burok Beach again for lunch.
This time I bought a plate of sizzling noodles.....and then we were off to Gombak.
On the way we stopped by at Losong to buy keropok lekor, and perform Maghrib and Isha' prayer.
Bus B broke down on the way out of Terengganu, at Lanchang, Pahang. They said the bus's brakes broke down, when you're on Karak Highway, that's a reaaallly bad thing. So after we arrived at Gombak (1 in the morning), Bus A rushed to Lanchang to pick them up.
Ok...so that's about it...

السلام عليكم