First trip to Bangkok with family was....

ok.

Was initially anxious as we were supposed to reach there on the eve of Yaumul Arafah. The Best Day of The Whole Year.

Restrained all outings during the day, and spent it in the hotel room.

Alhamdulillah alhamdulillah alhamdulillah.

The Muslim community was quite well-to-do (as seen at the Masjid Hidayatul Islam where we had our Eid al-Adha prayers which started at 9am), and interestingly, all attendees were gifted with 50 Bahth (20 Bahth for children), followed by a Yaseen n Tahlil recitation (maybe bcos the Eid day falls on a Jumu'ah) andddd Makan Berdulang session! Authentic Thai dishes (all meat-based) with sweet pineapples and other sweets. Alhamdulillah.

The only sad part was noticing that most of the other dulangs were unfinished. So much rice, veggies, pineapples and dishes were abandoned on the dulangs.

#heartbroken

My sis tried to rationalize by saying that perhaps they cooked smth similar at their houses...

Allah ﷻ yahdiina wa yaj'alana minas syaakiriin

...

It's only when I returned home that I noticed I didn't buy much things.

Justttt enough to share with my close friends n colleagues, but that's abt it.

Due to: "cantiiiiknya bende ni, tapi kalau beli, takut tak pakai. Nanti membazir... terperuk je... etc."

So mostly I bought things for others who happened to cross my mind, except for some tamarind chewy snacks UNcoates with sugar. hehe. sukaaa~

Kak Mai mentioned that she liked Bangkok.

Well, the night markets are quite nice. The food too (although not very easy to find halal food. But when found, they're goood). But some are just too spicy... mcm.nak.membunuh. Grrr..

The people are generally nice.

Very clean.

Personally, I would still prefer to travel to a Muslim-majority country...

To help contribute to their economy,

To be delighted at the sight of our places of worship all over, instead of temples,

To be more ascertained by the halal status of the food (and the barakah, if they are prepared with the mentioning of Allah's names n selawat...) :')

Nevertheless, I've to remind myself to go thru basic conversation vocab before future trips to places where many people do not speak much English ☺️

It's kinda frustrating not able to understand much of what people say to u (I recall the experience with the reflexologist. haha).

Here are some pics for memory sake. Of the sunset view from the Ferries Wheel at Asiatique (altho I admit this pic totally doesn't do justice as the actual view was muchh more breathtaking, Glory be to The Creator!) and the elephant ride at Attatuya. Oh! And I was very pleased indeed to come across a musolla exclusively for ladies at Level 2 of Platinum Mall (which was right across our Amari Watergate hotel). The one for Muslimin is at Level 4.

...

Spiritually, hope to be able to participate in another Pilgrims at Home program next year, as it did help to push myself throughout the Blessed Days. Although of course I need to IMPROVE so much.

tsk.

Most importantly, Istiqamah ya Khadijah.

And as Anisah Iman Al-Kull reminded us:

Ultimately, it's the fruit that matters;

Are all those deeds transforming us into better Muslims at the end of the day???

:'((