POSTCROSSING AND POSTCARDS

Have you ever heard of postcrossing.com? No?

Well, it is a site where people from all over the world exchange postcard by getting each other's home address and send cards to random people. It is a joy to see beautiful cards and stamps in your post box whenever you come home from school.

To date, I have received 89 cards and 84 cards are on their way to their respective recipients.
I have been a member of postcrossing.com since 8 years ago. I should have hundreds of cards by now, I haven't. I took a break for 4-5 years due to hectic work schedule.

The best part of this hobby is getting the stamps, and the postcards themselves that give me the favourite themes of mine esp. ANIMALS, landscapes, places and cultures.

Do you know what? I had printed my own postcard! Yea...I snapped a lovely photo of Tempurung Cave in Perak and got it printed. I printed it enough to get me going in this exchange project. I shared the cost with my sister and we send this card, designed and photographed by me, with a serial number of A01 written on it and a trademark "photographed by Norlilawati.

A card from Portugal

From Canada

Top postcard is from Portugal

Isn't my card lovely? I will print more cards after I run out of stock of this cave card.

 I shall wait every day for new cards to arrive in my post box. 

TURKEY TRIP 2009

Saturday, June 13, 2009

MY TURKEY EXCURSION DAY ONE

One place that I had dreamt

 to go is Cappadocia, Turkey

 where I wanted to spend a night

 in a cave hotel.

 Yea...a dream comes true! I had

 spent a night in 

DEDELI KONAK, Cappadocia.

 It was awesome as the room is

 always 

cold at night! There was no 

air-conditioned

 in the room and the air there is 

mountain

 fresh. Our dining hall is on the

 roof top where 

we can see the scenic view of

 Cappadokia town 

and villages 

surrounding the motel. 

I had two memorable tour of 

Cappadokia 

with the first one started 

on the day we arrived at 

Cappadokya

 and the second one was on 

the day we were headed to 

another destination 

that is Pamukkale.

3 rd June 2009

I took a seven-day tour of 

Jasminne Tour Agency

 of Istanbul for around RM1880 more or less.

 We had a visit of four places; Istanbul, Cappadocia, 

Pamukkale and Kusadasi. The first day 

at Istanbul I agreed to join a daily tour which was 

Bhosporous Tour for 30 Euro per person.

 It was conducted by Plan Tour. We went for a boat excursion

 for a half day trip. 

It was wonderful and earlier on we had a sight seeing of the city. 

My sister, Norsiah and 

I went around the city on foot and met two locals and we took a snap

 with them. 

We needed local currency, so we went to a money changer outlet

 at Sultanahmet. 

We overnight at Hotel Erboy at Sultanahmet and the staff at first 

seemed unfriendly,

 except for the chief clerk named Sinan. After the boat excursion, 

we went to a nearby 

cyber cafe near the hotel to check emails and to send news home. 

The owner or 

may be a man on duty in the cafe, offered me an apple tea. 

After I had done my work at 

 the internet, the man asked me to join him for a cup of coffee.

 I said, I had to go back 

to the hotel as I was about to be dark. To my surprised,

 it was 7.00 p.m. but it was still very 

bright outside! Wow....I forgot I was in Istanbul.

Lombok, Indonesia 27 - 31 Disember 2016

The best oversea trip ever because the whole family members were here....priceless to me.
Love ya all!

Lombok? Secluded and calm because I like it Gili Air, less crowded. The last day in Gili Air, there was a "Mandi Safar" ceremony at the beach. I had never witnessed one in Malaysia, but I got the chance to feel the air of festivity in Indonesia. Rich in culture...Malays got the same superstitious years ago, but now it is gone. Due to stronger Islamisation of the society, gone would be the superstitious practices.

And as usual.....It is a must for me to visit local schools! Here, I was with the teachers and  pupils of SN1 Gili Indah.

We also met a dance teacher, Mr Maskor, on our way to the Island of Gili Air. Later, on the last day of our trip, we went to Mr Maskor's  shabby hut to meet his family. Truly, I was all emphatized with their humble life.

The happiest moment with my beloved family, again, priceless.... 

Perth, Australia 26 - 31 August 2017

Hi Mate!

Down under there I was....with Tini, and Koala and Joey.
The best of all? The long-awaited opportunity; spot the whales! Alhamdullillah....I'm so blessed.

Koala :)

Aborigines of Australia  :)

Western Australian Botanic Garden

Rottnest Island trip ...whale watching activity! Hurray, spot one!

South Korea Revisited 2018

Anyong Haseyo!

I understand the language at the very basic level. I remembered this country as a friendly and safe country to visit together with friends and families.
Here  I was again, meeting Grace and Kim Jae Hee...I couldn't achieve my goals of visiting schools without their help!

Guess what? I went to Michohul Foreign Languages School, Incheon and Munwon Middle School, Gwacheon City, Seoul.

Biya enjoyed herself very much meeting Korean new friends! She wanted to come back to Seoul! Oh, needless to say, my niece, my sister and brother-in-law were part of our group of only families!

My family .....

21 March 2018 : Kim, her brother, her sister-in-law treated us at Soong's restaurant. He even sang a few songs for us that night. Lovely warmth nights with true friends....priceless...

 24 March 2018 : Grace, Baby Philippe and Yuhan ...

Gamsahamnida everyone!

Brunei Visit 2017

I have never thought that I would visit Brunei Darussalam until my school decided to make it our school visit destination.

So, I prepared the paperwork, applied for MOE's approval and letters to a few schools requesting visits.

We also took three students with us as they were the school debaters. Sekolah Menengah Pengiran
Jaya helped us to make a friendly debate competition a very interesting and exciting event.

The two best parts of the visit; we won the competition as the champion and Brunei's Crown Prince simply handed a packet of Brunei's Dollars to us! Out of the blue, while we were taking photographs in front of his palace, we were approached by the Palace personal. He said the Raja Muda Perempuan was very pleased to see us. Then, one of the Crown Prince's relatives, came out to shake hands with us and hand us the "pocket" money. It was RM900 worth of the pocket money!

I am so thankful to Allah s.w.t for this opportunity. Alhamdullillah.

The Netherlands End of Summer of 2016

The land of the windmills. Yeah, I was there in September 2016!

This time around I took a flight of Turkish Airlines, as not to have the same on board experience when I had a  trip to Paris & UK where I boarded Qatar Airways. I had boarded Emirates in 2011 when I went to USA. I think I like Turkish Airlines the most (so far). Cathay Pacific was the airline when I went to Taiwan in 2009 and Malaysia Airlines when I went to Turkey in 2009 too.

Opps, sorry about the flight history.

Now back to my travelogue.

Below is the photo that I took in Amsterdam.

This one at Zaan Sach.

With my travel buddy, my elder sister, Yati.

In front of the Dam.

Highlight of the visit! The students of RSG Tromo Mester, Steenwijk.

With Marieke at Giethorn, the best place ever! Sailing through canals and waterways onto the big lake and eating ice cream bought on board a boat.

Mr Adrian with me and his students. Wow, very tall boys in their teens. I feel so small!