Not Your Plaything
5 hours ago
[PHOTOS] Impromptu Road Trip to Hallstatt, Austria
November 10, 2016
It was a mixture of planned & impromptu trip actually. I had this thought in mind since last summer break, while re-watching Maryam's vlogs for so many times, I've lost count. :p The plan to travel with everyone, like we used to do during first & second year. Since then, everyone has one's own plan for holidays.
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| The lake. |
Just to share with you (again), our exam system is different than in Malaysia. The final exams are orally and there will be few spaces only for every exam dates (in which we need to fight for the dates). I personally call it "SIS war". Student A may book a date on Day 1, while Student B may have an exam on Day 3. So, basically most of us will not have exams on the same day, that's one of the reason you always see me travelling solo. Some may finish their exam earlier and they make use of the free time earlier. Some may finish exam later and only then he/she starts travelling.
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| Why road trip? Haha, the same answer. Last minute plan, travelling by car is much more cheaper. One way journey from Prague takes around 5 hours, since we started from Hradec Kralove, it will be around 7 hours. It's better compared to train / bus. Some may even take 11 hours! |
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| Impromptu. We managed to secure a car just few hours before the trip. Lol. It was hard to find a 7-seaters car in Hradec Kralove. We even planned to rent 2 separate cars - but, the cost will be higher especially the petrol/diesel/parking/vignette |
It was my first time dealing with this company, actually recommended by one of my favourite senior, she even ask me to request for this specific car. And wow, we got it. The car uses diesel (much more cheaper I can say).
I wish I knew this company years before. So we could go road trip to Istanbul, Turkey and cities in Italy together, I mean the 7 of us. T_T
Kalau-kalau ni mainan syaitan, syuh syuh.
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| Tadaaa, our rented car - Ssangyoung. Actually we rented this car from a company in Prague. Luckily, it is an automatic car, so, we can have many drivers! Some of us are not familiar with manual cars. |
The first attraction is to enjoy the view from the top of Hallstatt. There are salt mine, salt shop and skywalk. You can get up there either by this funicular OR you can hike up.
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| The funicular. |
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| Prices for funicular. It depends if you want a return ticket or one way ticket or combined ticket with entrance to salt mine. If you are a student, please make sure to bring along your student ID, the lady really check our ID. T_T |
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| View from the funicular. |
The skywalk is also known as the viewing platform - UNESCO World Heritage View. To get to the platform, you can either use stairs or simply take the lift. :)
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| View 1 |
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| View 2 |
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| The platform. |
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| Addeenians. |
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| I think I know the building before, but I forget about this. T_T |
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| There is also a salt mine on top of the hill (I am not sure if this is a mountain or a hill). The salt mine is still functioning and the income from salt production was given to the kings and emperors in Vienna for centuries. Not sure about it now. |
Salt was an important preservative. Well, nowadays we still use salt in our daily food. One thing for sure, salt is still mined in Hallstatt till now. In the picture above you can read 'Archaeology in Hallstatt', it is interesting to say that all organic objects within the mine have survived, due to preservative effects of salt.
Salt Shop
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| You can buy Hallstatt's salt here, in this shop. |
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| They make variety of salt products with other ingredients. Like salt + pepper, salt + cinnamon, salt + chili peppers etc. |
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| Salt with tomato + mozarella, salt with garlic. |
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| They sell other common souvenirs - books, keychain, fridge magnet etc. |
Done with the hill. We took the funicular to return to the base and then, we walked to Centrum (the lake basically).
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| The houses here reminded me of Bled. They look similar :) |
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| If you drive from Prague, you will reach Hallstatt once you pass this tunnel. |
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| I don't know what happen to my pictures lately. T_T |
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| Walking along the old town of Hallstatt. Trust me, many Asians as well, including us. |
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| I think I can stay in this kind of place for years. |
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| Waterfall. |
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| Strolling around the town of Hallstatt. |
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| The center, maybe? |
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| Almost night in Hallstatt. |
The sunset was around 4.30. Approaching night time, we decided to leave Hallstatt for our hotel. The hotel is about 90km away, in Rohrmoos-Untertal. We managed to get an apartment for € 72 for 6 persons. We thought we can add another person with not so much extra charge. Because this is a vacation, we hope everyone will get a good sleep with comforters for each of us. Unfortunately, this hotel didn't want to provide extra sheets and even charge us extra € 20. T_T Not to forget, € 1.50 for city tax per person.
Nasiblaa apartment dia selesa. Except, no free wifi. LOL
It's okay, disconnect to connect, right?
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| The view from the hotel. It was raining the whole day and even foggy like this. |
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| Alpine Club By Diamond Resorts |
Some of us volunteered to prepare for breakfast and food to eat along the journey back home. There you go, egg sandwiches and fried mee.
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| I love this kind of trip where I don't have to spend lots of money in restaurants / kebab shops. |
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| Dan paling penting, makanan disediakan dengan penuh kasih sayang. HEHE |
Costs for the journey
- Car + insurance = € 259
- Vignette = CZK 275
- Parking (4hours +) = € 8
- Diesel = € 71 + CZK 1 020
- Tol (highway with so many tunnels) = € 5
- Funicular = € 14
- Food = € 27
- Hotel = € 103
Total cost per person (7 persons)
= € 70 + CZK 185
** around RM 360
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| Till next road trip with them, insyAllah. |
p/s - If you are going to Hallstatt, try to put Dachstein in your itinerary :) I haven't been there, but seriously it looks interesting!
HK, Czech
161109
Kisah Saluran Pencernaan - Polyp and Kissing
November 9, 2016
I was spending 5 hours in endoscopic center in my hospital yesterday, standing the whole time there. Managed to watch at least 4 procedures involving this endoscopic thing.
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| Morning meeting. |
I will try to share the medical points in Malay okay :)
1. Apa itu saluran pencernaan?
In English, it is digestive tract or medically called gastrointestinal tract (GIT). Ni saluran dari makanan masuk dalam badan sampailah diproses keluar sebagai najis. Dalam masa yang sama, saluran ni jugak akan ambil nutrients dari makanan untuk kegunaan badan kita.
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| Source - Google |
Susah jugak buat medical post in Malay ni. Hehe.
2. Macam mana laluan makanan dalam saluran ni?
Makanan masuk melalui mulut (well, semua orang tahu kot). Except in few cases, bantuan pemakanan untuk dapatkan nutrient diberi melalui hidung or straight ke saluran darah.
Okay, makanan akan lalu organ-organ utama - lebih kurang macam ni:
- Mouth (mulut) - kat sini ada lidah, gigi etc nak pecah-pecahkan makanan tu
- Esophagus (esofagus) - saluran yang menghubungkan mulut dengan perut
- Stomach (perut) - cernakan protein
- Small intestine (usus kecil) - ada 3 parts (duodenum, jejunum & ileum)
- Large intestine (usus besar) - nama bahagian dia bergantung pada posisi dia
- Rectum
- Anus (dubur)
3. Apa tu endoscopy? Apa kaitan endoscopy dengan saluran pencernaan?
Okay, kat hospital ada banyak cara nak tengok organ dalaman kita. Paling selalu orang buat ialah Ultrasound (selamat, senang, murah). X-ray pun common. CT, MRI dan seangkatan dengannya tu advanced sikit - patients akan dihantar ke sini bila tak jumpa benda-benda yang pathology (bukan normal) dalam ultrasound / X-ray. CT / MRI bukan senang-senang nak buat, biasanya sebab kos.
Sorry, saya tak dapat nak share dari Malaysian Health Care System (not yet exposed well to it). Kalau kat Czech, CT / MRI is agak common jugak (mungkin faktor belanja perubatan ditanggung oleh insurans)
Back to endoscopy.
Endoscopy ni satu prosedur untuk tengok saluran pencernaan kita. Boleh digunakan sebagai alat nak tahu apa masalah GIT kita, dan kalau kena masanya boleh digunakan sebagai alat nak merawat jugak. Diagnostic & Therapeutic gitu.
Caranya ialah:
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| Source - http://www.alltohealth.com/all-you-need-to-know-about-an-endoscopy/ |
Upper endoscopy
- Masukkan tube yang ada kamera dalam mulut ke arah bawah (untuk tengok saluran belah atas - esophagus, stomach, sebahagian usus kecil)
Colonoscopy
- Masukkan tube yang ada kamera melalui dubur ke atas (untuk tengok saluran belah bawah - dubur, usus besar, appendix, sebahagian usus kecil).
Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography (ERCP)
- Masukkan tube (macam point nombor satu) - tapi untuk ni, lebih pada nak tengok pancreas, hempedu dan saluran diorang etc.
4. Apa pula polyp ni?
Kat Malaysia dipanggil polyp (polip) jugak kot? Dia macam gumpalan sel dari sel-sel usus besar ni. Tak berbahaya tapi kalau dibiarkan ada risiko untuk dapat colorectal cancer. Cancer jenis ni antara yang common kat Czech.
Biasanya kat Czech akan jadikan colonoscopy sebagai saringan colorectal cancer ni - especially kalau patients tu ada symptoms macam berak berdarah (rectal bleeding), kurang darah merah (anemia), sembelit / diarrhea dalam tempoh yang lama. Tak lupa jugak kalau ada sejarah ahli keluarga yang ada colorectal cancer ni.
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| Source - http://www.webmd.com/colorectal-cancer/colon-polyp |
Polyps boleh jadi bila sel-sel takde kawalan yang baik. Sebab tu ada risiko untuk jadi cancer - sel-sel yang tak normal boleh membesar sesuka hati dia je, sistem badan tak mampu nak control.
5. Jadi, apa kaitan polyp dengan kissing?
Hohoho.
...
Ada patient semalam ni memang suka bersembang. Masa doktor tengah buat colonoscopy, doktor explain apa yang kita boleh nampak melalui kamera tu.
Dia salah faham dengan terms ni. Hohooooo
Polip vs polib
Polip in Czech means polyp
Polib in Czech means kissing
Tu je. Tapi boleh jadi bahan gelak-gelak la semalam. Lol.
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| Translation |
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Nah, kalau nak baca lebih:
HK, Czech
161109
[Photos] Hiking to Pramen Labe & Pan?avsky Waterfall, the Highest in Czech Republic
November 8, 2016
In previous part of this hiking trip, I mentioned about two points of interest that I was really looking forward to.
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| Let's go! |
Here! This is one of them.
1. Pramen Labe
It simply means Source of Labe.
For those people who have not been to Czech yet, you might never heard about Labe River. But, this river is the best part of my town Hradec Kralove. I usually jog, walk and even cycle along the river - see how significant it is in my heart.
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| Can you see Hradec Kralove there? Basically there is a wall full of the badges. What do they mean? The badges show which cities Labe River pass through! :D |
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| See, a lot! Two countries included - Czech & Germany. |
The other name of this river is Elbe (mostly used for German parts of it). I think I mentioned a lot about this river in most posts in this blog. Hehe
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| Basically this is it. Macam telaga je dah. :p The scary part that time was, I was literally walking on the icy water - not sure if the water is the river itself or the frozen snow. |
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| After Pramen Labe, my next stop was a restaurant - to warm myself with a cup of hot chocolate or maybe some warm soup. I need heater obviously, my feet were frozen, my socks were wet. See the roof? That's the restaurant. Not so many people in it, I bet because of the weather. |
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| Interior design of the restaurant. I ordered garlic soup. That's the only cheap vegetarian food. Haha. |
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| View from my seat. |
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| After buying some postcards and I warmed myself enough, I continued my hiking trip to the next point. The views never fail to amaze me, despite it was so cold! |
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| Look, snow everywhere on the trail. I just could not differentiate any stones beneath the snow. T_T |
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| Glad to have blue sky suddenly. |
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| SubhanAllah :D |
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| Okayyyy, this is the place! Can you see the water flowing? |
It doesn't look interesting right?
But guess what, this is actually a waterfall. And another fact, it is the highest waterfall in Czech Republic! with 148 meters.
2. Pan?avsky waterfall
Yes, it is not as big as waterfall in Malaysia though. I can just imagine Lata Kinjang in Tapah-Cameron Highlands - almost 200meters high.
That are two main attractions of this mountain - Krkono?e Mountain.
Okayy, let's just enjoy the views of the rest of the trip.
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| I love the view. |
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| Fuhhhhhhh. |
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| This is a building for soldiers I think? |
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| It's almost sunset. |
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| Sunset. |
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| Look at the signboards. Hahaha. I could not read anything at all. Make sure to have the maps with you to make sure you will not get lost. |
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| Sunset with thick clouds. |
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| On the way back. Walking down the mountains were challenging as well. So slippery and I walked just like penguins. :p |
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| Kasut yang banyak berjasa. HAHA, Pity this running shoes. :p |
I managed to get back to the bus stop about 6pm, an hour earlier than estimated time. It was very dark at that time, luckily I brought along a torchlight. :p Falling down onto icy roads were uncountable. Haha
p/s - The next day, I went wall-climbing for 3 hours. Seriously I have no idea where my energy comes from.
p/s/s - Yes, I finished the whole route of 20km :D
p/s/s - Yes, I finished the whole route of 20km :D
HK, Czech
161107
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