antwerp, belgium

another beautiful, city of belgium.

i liked it alot here, they have some nice old architecture with a sort of modern twist. you see all the new shops and brands within these old, but beautiful buildings.

it was just me and the korean dude, we packed sandwiches from breakfast so we saved some money on lunch and walked all the way to the river and just sat there, talked, had sandwiches with some music for about an hour or so before we walked back to the station.

oh and the station was really pretty! it wasnt really huge huge, but the main hall was really incredible, it looks like it should be some church or something..

the old lady in the last photo looks so cute in her blue coat.

busstations,

sayram - narrati.

sunday afternoon in Museum Folkwang,

hiedelberg,

another old, beautiful old town but with a castle!

i spent the easter weekend in this city, cycling around town. i wanted to visit the others in either paris or eindhoven but the tickets were too expensive that weekend so i decided to get a bus down to hiedelberg and spend the weekend here.

it was really pretty, the pebble stoned grounds, the old buildings..

anyway last post for tonight, guten nacht!

wetzlar,

an old town and ancient city, well known for the production of leica cameras.

Assalamualaikum, alhamdulillah I have arrived safely here in germany. i was here 2 weeks ago but was moving around and busy with getting some admin stuff done. but alhamdulillah everything is finally settling down and i cant wait to start the sem!

dinner at a small shack,

that day we wanted something different so we went walking around and stopped by this little ‘restaurant’ for dinner. they only had banmien (dry noodles) and mameng (the meat and fats on skewers) which was as usual awesome.

we ordered a big bowl of banmien and shared, and we also had a couple of rounds of skewers. :D

you can see woman wearing the head scarf, most of the kazakhs living there are muslims! in fact the family we stayed with are also muslim.

when we ate, there wasnt anyone else around except for these 3 little kids. they were a little shy and keeps stealing glances at us. but that was at first, until we spoke the little mandarin we knew and impressed them a little!

we didnt exchange much, just laughs and a few words here and there. they knew a little english though. they knew numbers and we had a little conversation about how much the meal cost.

anyway, this last kid, the one in the last photo, we were wondering is he was a boy or a girl. haha because i thought that shes was a girl, i mean, look at what she’s wearing! but someone thought otherwise..

horse riding,

sayram lake.

the best, best horse riding experience i’ve ever had in my life. one of the best experience i’ve ever had in my life.

it wasnt like the other horse rides we had, we had guides but they let us go on our own! and the best thing is, the horse listens! though most of the time he wants to eat some grass.

i even managed to get it to gallop! and that was pretty scary, cos i wasnt expecting it to run when i said the command for it to run. i heard the locals using it so i tried, it didnt work for awhile but then it SUDDENLY ran! and it galloped away for a good 7 seconds. haha!

and the view got even better as we went up. everytime we went a little higher, we were like, “whoa! subhanAllah!” and our praises just got more as we reached the top.

the mountainous valleys seemed endless, and it was so wide and magnificent. you see herds of sheep spread out on the open, with the one shepherd standing by the side.. subhanAllah.

and as we reached the top, it was freezing cold. the wind was so strong as there we no trees to  block off the wind, but really, to see the sunset like that was something.. Alhamdulillah.

then there was this little girl who followed us along, she was just wearing a piece of clothing and she didnt seem to freeze at all. we had multiple jackets on, with socks and gloves and all that and we were freezing.. you can see here in one of the photos, her squatting down with the grass and trees in the background.

masyaAllah.. i’m very happy just recalling these.. anw, ive been busy with admin stuff for exchange hence the missing of some posts.. im currently waiting for my german visa for already a month now and still havnt gotten any news about it.. doa for me, brothers and sisters out there that everything runs smoothly insyaAllah.. :)

i’ve also set up a facebook page for my photos, people who are not friends with me on facebook can see them. there’s not much uploaded, but i’ll slowly put them in insyaAllah. here’s the link to the page, if you like what you see like it and share it! ;)

Photos by Haikal Aziz check it out! :D

afternoon by the lake,

marriage by the lake,

we were walking by the lake and we saw this. they probably just got married, the was a crowd of family and friends with them and they were actually very curious to see us.

and look at her wedding dress!

riding young,

after putting our bags down at our yurt, we walked around a little to the other village nearby.

it’s pretty cool how young boys have their own horses, and do they sure know how to ride them! i would want a horse. they’re so cool.

dusk approaching,

sleeper bus to yili.

we played bridged till there was no light. wait, actually we stopped when the driver told us to keep quiet and go to sleep. HAHA. it’s amazing what we do to keep the game going.

one funny incident happened here, where irshad had a chewing gum stuck to his elbow! he was resting his arm against the window until he realised something on his arm and when he raised his arm, you can see the gum stretched from his elbow to the window!

and one more funny thing happened also which involves someones toe (remember*)

in the end, some lady slept at my seat and i had to move to another bed, irshad too, he had to go all the way to the back cos the second driver went to sleep at his place.

we reached the location at about 4am, surrounded by taxi drivers trying to get us as their passengers. we wanted to go to sayram lake and the price they quoted was pretty ridiculous.

the thing is we had time, plus we were the only people there. the rest seemed to have their own transport or have found their way to where they wanted to go. so it makes sense that, if we wait long enough, they would sort of ‘fight’ for us and we’ll get the best deal.

that’s what we did, we just said no and another driver will try to better the previous drivers’ deal. and this would go on for quite awhile. after they realised that we werent really in a hurry, they grew less persistent which was good. we just sat by the road in the cold, with some of them, some took pictures with us with their camera phones, they spoke uyghur with each other and laughed, and we laughed and it was actually quite peaceful.

we waited for fajr prayers and in the end we got a driver who lent us his prayer mat to pray. irshad and aidil went first, then me and faiz. we prayed by the entrance of a shopping mall. alhamdulillah.

after which, we went straight to put our bags into his taxi and drove off to sayram lake..

handsome man,

i think he looks like clint eastwood. like really. dont you think so? he looks super cool, with that hat on, has deep green eyes and looks like a total badass. like clint eastwood.

ok anw, this was at the stop at kuytun, while waiting for the bus. basically we didnt know which city to go for us to reach sayram lake, but the bus station staff were so nice and helpful.

we wanted to get tickets but this young lady selling the tickets just told us to go into the waiting area and wait. she couldnt speak english, just like a few words and it was really cute! she seemed like those kampung kampung girls that came to the city to work. she was super nice and helpful, she went out of the cubicle where she was selling the tickets to help us, even with her little english, she tried her best to make it easy for us.

we waited for quite a long time like 4-5 hours i think? and everytime we felt very unsure, we would go up to her cubicle and point to the watch and she would just smile sweetly and with her hands tell us to wait.

anw, squatting seems to be like the thing also in china. i tried, but i cant do that for long. it hurts my knees.

i would just wanna say that i think this man looks super cool. that’s all.

man,

kuytun bus station.