Me Gusta Viajar

This next track comes from the CD collection of our best buddy, Gergely Liptak during our long drive through the night to Malaga. It's a fan-made video, mind you. I personally don't approve. :P


Manu Chao - Me Gustas Tu

Me gustan los aviones, me gustas tu.
Me gusta viajar, me gustas tu.
Me gusta la maana, me gustas tu.
Me gusta el viento, me gustas tu.
Me gusta soar, me gustas tu.
Me gusta la mar, me gustas tu.

Que voy a hacer,
je ne sais pas
Que voy a hacer
Je ne sais plus
Que voy a hacer
Je suis perdu
Que horas son, mi corazon

Me gusta la moto, me gustas tu.
Me gusta correr, me gustas tu.
Me gusta la lluvia, me gustas tu.
Me gusta volver, me gustas tu.
Me gusta marihuana, me gustas tu.
Me gusta colombiana, me gustas tu.
Me gusta la montaa, me gustas tu.
Me gusta la noche, me gustas tu.

Me gusta la cena, me gustas tu.
Me gusta la vecina, me gustas tu.
Me gusta su cocina, me gustas tu.
Me gusta camelar, me gustas tu.
Me gusta la guitarra, me gustas tu.
Me gusta el regaee, me gustas tu.

Me gusta la canela, me gustas tu.
Me gusta el fuego, me gustas tu.
Me gusta menear, me gustas tu.
Me gusta la Corua, me gustas tu.
Me gusta Malasaa, me gustas tu.
Me gusta la castaa, me gustas tu.
Me gusta Guatemala, me gustas tu.

Your friendly translation,

I like airplanes, I like you
I like to travel, I like you
I like the morning, I like you
I like the wind, I like you
I like to dream, I like you
I like the sea, I like you

What am I gonna do?
I don't know
What am I gonna do?
I don't know anymore
What am I gonna do?
I am lost
What time is it, my heart?

I like the motorcycle, I like you
I like to run, I like you
I like the rain, I like you
I like to come back, I like you
I like marihuana, I like you
I like colombiana, I like you
I like the mountain, I like you
I like the night, I like you

I like dinner, I like you
I like the neighbor, I like you
I like her cooking, I like you
I like camelar, I like you
I like the guitar, I like you
I like reggae, I like you

I like cinnamon, I like you
I like fire, I like you
I like to shake it, I like you
I like Coruña , I like you
I like malasaña, I like you
I like chestnuts, I like you
I like Guatemala, I like you

We'd like to dedicate this song to none other than the HITCH itself: the roads we traversed, the sights we saw, the sounds we heard, the smells we sniffed (?), the beds we slept on, the food we ate, the long days without a proper shower, the breakfast bars, the lifts that never were, the music, the sunrises, the sunsets, the road signs, the rest stops, the petrol stations, the cars, the buses, the trains, the ferries (hehe, Wani), THE truck, and of course, the people.

Me gusta autostop, me gustas tu.

Our Hitch Route

Day One: Monday 19th March 2007













Day Two: Tuesday 20th March 2007











Day Three: Wednesday 21st March 2007











Day Four: Thursday 22nd March 2007











Day Five: Friday 23rd March 2007











Day Six: Saturday 24th March 2007











Day Seven: Sunday 25th March 2007











Day Eight: Monday 26th March 2007

Can't You See What Love Has Done?

Sorries for hijacking the blog away from Wani's pics. (Scroll down! Scroll down!) There's more where that came from, by the way.

If there's one thing that was a constant companion throughout our hitch, it's gotta be the music. Between Wani's endless Disney tune serenading to keep our drivers awake and whatever happened to be on the radio in the lifts that we got on, there's enough memorable music to make a soundtrack of. And that's exactly what we hope to do.

WaniFaeezLutfi Morocco Hitch - The Official Soundtrack. £3.99 a copy. All proceeds go to charity.

Kidding. Of course it'll be free!

This particular song was playing in the vehicle of Emilie and Boris, on the way to Barcelona.



U2 - Window in the Skies

The shackles are undone
The bullet's quit the gun
The heat that's in the sun
Will keep us when there's none

The rule has been disproved
The stone, it has been moved
The grain is now a groove
All debts are removed

Oh, can't you see what love has done
Oh, can't you see what love has done
Oh, can't you see what love has done
What it's doing to me

Love makes strange enemies
Makes love where love may please
Soul in its striptease
Hate brought to its knees

The sky over our head
We can reach it from our bed
If you let me in your heart
And out of my head

Please don't ever let me out of here
I've got no shame

I know I hurt you and I made you cry
Did everything but murder you and I
But love left a window in the skies
And to love I raphsodize

To every broken heart
For every heart that cries
Love left a window in the skies
And to love I raphsodize

I hereby dedicate it to my two hitch partners, Wani & Lutfi.

Our love has indeed done a lot. Sorry for being the occasional bitch. Especially in situations where it would have been optimal to have less bitchiness. I wouldn't have done the hitch with anyone else in the world.

Enjoy the music, people!

spain - morocco

with emilie and boris who drove us from beziers all the way to barcelona. we love you both soo much!













faeez tasting his first paella de mariscos in barcelona!












with henry, our awesome truck driver who spoke not a single english word! we love you sooo much Henry! and your truck and music were muy bien!












costa del sol - the guys with gregely liptak, the awesome 190cm hungarian who looks 3 years younger after he shaves :) greg, you're so funny!














with greg! thanks greg, for driving us alll the way from valencia to malaga. i miss the conversations we had throughout the night. we miss you!!!














costa del sol - beautiful place where we watched the sunrise with greg! thanks greg. we love you!!!!
















malaga - after gregely dropped us off, we took some time out to make our new signs. faeez drew a very ugly octopus. :)













casablanca: Hassan II Mosque is the largest religious monument in the world after Mecca. we even saw a rainbow that morning.















jamaa el fna - we ate so much! so much. just so much. calamaries, bastillas, shish kebabs, tajines, mint tea, loads more.













that's us on another rooftop in marrakesh. we had mint tea and were asked to pay ridiculously high prices for what we were wearing.











i bought 3 solitaires! and that was what we were playing at the rooftop of our hostel in marrakesh.












ahhh snails... i didnt like them. faeez and lutfi did. they went back for more the next night. not me.














jamaa el fna - without it, marrakesh would be just another city in morocco. we loved marrakesh!

we r on our way to malaga!

sunday has been masya ALlah

after breakfast at the hostel, we had churros con chocolate before setting off...
kesimpulannya we took a bus out to tarragona - like the herb: tarragon
then we got stuck till about 4pm, took a taxi to the services which cost us 23euros!

found out it was illegal thank god sara gave us a ride in her pajero to reus.
reus was a super dead town and we were ready to get our sleeping bags out and sleep under the bridge for the night.
after about half an hour an old man and lady took us elsewhere in their bmw. they used to hitch hike and told us they´d drop us at a more suitable place where the traffic was definitely heading towards castellon and valencia.
again we were dropped off at a dodgy place where we were ready to get our sleepig bags out and sleep under the roof of a random factory.

after about half an hour a photo journalist took us to cambrills. his name was pere. soooo baik!
when he dropped us off at cambrills, he said that if we were stuck and didnt get a ride out to give him a call and we could sleep at his house. sweeeeetttt gilaaaaaaaaaaaa!
¨he´s the greatest guy in the universe!¨said Wani.
¨I see right through you Wani¨said Faeez
¨hahaha¨said Lutfi.

after about half an hour henry took us on our first truck ride to valencia!
henry said wani´s spanish was MUY BIENNNNNNNNN
wooohooooo! with the limited spanish I ada, we foudn out that he is from peru, 38 years old, lives in barcelona, his wife is from huelva and works in administation? and has an 11 year old daughter, and the band playing one of the songs was from andalucia.

along the way during one of the stops henry took, we met gregg, a hungarian travelling to malaga! wooohooooo greg rockssssssss.
we talked a lot in the car. about how horrible life was in hungary under the soviet rule.
faeez and wani sang many disney and malay songs while lutfi slept.
told greg a lot about islam and malaysia.

insya Allah we´ll be in algeceiras before 4pm and will reach tangier asap!
and now we r stopping somewhere...on the way almeria... greg is sleeping. adios amigos. hasta luego! from us three.

Allah sangat menunjukkan kuasaNya kepada kami hari ini - semalam. its 4.30am and faeez and I havent really slept at all. good night.

Doop-doop... doop-doop...

That was my feeble attempt to imitate the sound of a heartbeat, by the way.

We're starting our hitch tomorrow! Egads, I haven't packed yet!

Before we officially set off, we'd like to say thank you once again to all our charitable contributors. This wouldn't have been possible without you!

There's not much else to say really. We'll be starting our hitch from good old Coventry, make our way down to Portsmouth, take a ferry to Le Havre ... and we'll see where the road takes us from there! What's adventure without some uncertainty, eh?

If you're interested in tracking our progress, you can do so here: hitch.lcd.org.uk/hts

You should know our names by now. Otherwise, our group number is 3.

If you see that we somehow managed to end up in Mongolia or something, start worrying.

If you don't hear from us after the 30th of April, start worrying.

Otherwise, don't worry lah! We'll be fine. And we love you, too.


Keep us in your prayers, InsyaAllah.

The best of alms giving is that which springeth from the heart, and is uttered by the lips to soften the wounds of the injured.
- Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h)

Stay charitable!

We're still alive!

Hello True Believers!

Apologies for the complete lack of updates but worry ye not - we still live! We're just extremely unfriendly. Alas, the life of a uni finalist approaching the end of term is not a very mirthful one. Tests, essays and assignments descend upon us like flocks of rabid geese and I should stop talking like a dork because it's not very flattering!

We have a Health & Safety briefing coming this Thursday that LINK makes compulsory for all Hitchers. So if you love us and worry for our health and safety, it's okay - we're going to be well briefed on umm.. health and safety.

We still need to buy a portable whiteboard with washable markers. And I still need a haircut!

And this post serves no other purpose really rather than to satisfy my desire to write something that is non-academic!

Thanks much to our latest contributors. You make us happy!

Happy birthday, Kak Farah. We still await your donation with great fervor. :)

(Stay charitable.)

Hitch me a ride to educate a child in Africa

Like Faeez, I also prepared an article for a local newspaper. My article was published on Sunday in Brunei Times. This was on the front cover!



This is the article from Brunei Times:



This is my original unedited article, which was proofread by a select few. All remaining errors in this version are mine:



Enjoy! and stay charitable :)

Hello!

Look what we've done with all your money!!! Nice suits and dress.

Haha. Kidding.

Really.

Picture was taken after our emceeing stint during Warwick Malaysia Night on February 3rd. Despite what anyone else may think, I think it was a great success; blunders, foibles and script-amnesia-bouts withstanding.

A great big thanks to Khalis for making sure all the slides went up just when they were supposed to. You're the man!

More pictures, courtesy of Melvin Lee (Chi Yuan), can be found here.

In the meantime, as always, stay charitable. (So we can buy more stuff.)

I realize that's not funny anymore. Sorry. Stay charitable!

Anonymity

We've had a string of anonymous contributions lately.

It's sort of ironic because at the very beginning, I wanted all of our donations to come from silent, mysterious, rich, dying, old men in far-off lands who were sympathetic to our cause.

Now it's driving me crazy.

Mostly because we KNOW you're not dying, old men in far-off lands.

Of course, that's no reason not to be thankful. And thankful we are.



Thank you for your support but please note that that souvenir deal we have is only applicable if we know who you are! So if you want that super-duper-cool key chain from Morocco, you gotta let us know!

Stay charitable. (But let us know if you do.)

Doing it for charity

Yep, that's what we're doing. Doing it for charity.

The Star in Malaysia published a write-up of our fundraising efforts in their Education section today. Please view the heavily edited article here.

Do it.

The Pelita Affair

Hello people! Warwick Malaysia Night is back and we are proud to present to you:

The Pelita Affair.

It is a night of colour, drama, music and delicious food! It is a night where we showcase our diverse culture with acting, singing, dancing and our infamous Dikir Barat. Our Dikir Barat has been touted the best in the UK amongst all the Malaysian Societies in the UK and is well worth watching! If you don't believe us, come along to watch us perform at our taster session at the Piazza on Wednesday, 31st of January, Week 4 and experience it for yourself!

Malaysia Night will take place on Saturday 3^rd of February 2007 at the Butterworth Hall, with the show commencing at 7:30pm. There are also dinner tickets available for those who want to sample authentic Malaysian cuisine. The dinner consists of 3 mains and a dessert and promises to be very scrumptious and spicy Malaysian food! So get them while you can! Tickets are priced as follows

Dinner & Show: £15 [only 300 available]
Show Only: £9

To book tickets for you and your friends, simply e-mail warwickmsa@gmail.com. Easy as 1,2,3! Hope to see you on the night!

And what's MORE interesting is that; wani, faeez and lutfi will be your emcees for the night! Knowing us, we'll be entertaining you and possibly make you laugh till you cry! heeheehee. SO get your tickets NOW and make sure you get as many friends as you can to come and see us warwick-ians in action! Looking forward to see you guys there! OH! Before i forget, please please bring a lot of extra cash along :) we'll be collecting more donations for the children in Africa. Alhamdulillah we've reached our initial target of 2000pounds but it'll be AMAZING if we can get another 1000.

Final words, STAY CHARITABLE!

Color Me Astounded

Wow.

Will the benevolent Mr/Mrs/Miss/Dr/Tun/Dato'/Datin/His Royal Highness 'lalalala lalalala' please step forward?

We promise we won't tell anyone. But we need to know!

It's driving us insane. And we're losing sleep. And I'm not eating right. And we need to know!

Tidur tak lena. Makan tak kenyang. Mandi tak basah. So we need to know!

Please let us know.

And let us know whose 'cute little faces' you want us to take pictures of.

p/s: Thank you very much.

Picture Session

We had a picture session yesterday for publicity purposes. And I present to you the best shots! At least in my opinion. The others may beg to differ.

Thanks to Melvin for being our on-hand photographer. Be amazed at our 'act-natural' poses!

Have fun making up your own captions!

Milestones

milestone (mīl'stōn') noun [C] (UK ALSO milepost)
1 a stone or post at the side of the road on which is marked the distance to various places, especially to the nearest large town

2 an important event in the development or history of something or in someone's life

I like milestones. Especially during those long, boring balik kampung journeys, where the road was seemingly endless and the only reprieve you got was the numbers by the side of the road going down one by one.

And today, we've reached a milestone in our fundraising.

1500

75%

It's funny how there was a time I was worried we wouldn't even reach the minimum. And now look at that.

This post was supposed to be more meaningful and heart-wrenching. But let's just keep it happy.

Look! You've made us happy!


You know I'm happy when I'm willing to put up a picture of myself looking stupid.

Thank you for making us happy.

And here's to more milestones along the road.

Stay Charitable!

Time

Surah 103
Al-'Asr (Time)

Bismillaah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem
Wal 'Asr
Innal insaana lafee khusr
Illal ladhenna aamannu
Wa 'amilus saalihaati wa tawaasau bilhaqq
Wa tawaasau bis sabr

In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
Time is witness that, surely, mankind suffers loss,
except for those of faith,
Who do good, and become a model of truthful living,
and together practice patience and constancy.

Translated by Kabir Helminski