Dead Sea vs The Sea of Galilee

Salam to all..

I terpanggil untuk copy and paste an email been forwarded by my fellow colleague...it's an interesting piece..

Baca dengan teliti dan hayati nya..

Why it is called "Dead Sea?" - Author : Unknown        

Sitting in the Geography class in school, I remember how fascinated I was when we were being taught all about the Dead Sea. As you probably recall,the Dead Sea is really a Lake, not a sea!

Its so high in salt content that the human body can float easily. You can almost lie down and read a book! The salt in the Dead Sea is as high as 35% - almost 10 times the normal ocean water. And all that saltiness has meant that there is no life at all in the Dead Sea. No fish. No vegetation. No sea animals. Nothing lives in the Dead Sea.                                                                                                       

And hence the name: "Dead Sea".

While the Dead Sea has remained etched in my memory, I don't seem to recall learning about the Sea of Galilee in my school Geography lesson. So when I heard about the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea and the tale of the two seas - I was intrigued. Turns out that the Sea of Galilee is just north of the Dead Sea. Both the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea receive their water from River Jordan. And yet, they are very, very different.          

Unlike the Dead Sea, the Sea of Galilee is pretty, resplendent with rich, colorful marine life. There are lots of plants. And lots of fish too. In fact, the sea of Galilee is home to over twenty different types fishes.

Same region, same source of water, and yet while one sea is full of life, the other is dead.

Why?

Here apparently is why. The River Jordan flows into the Sea of Galilee and then flows out. The water simply passes through the Sea of Galilee in and then out - and that keeps the Sea healthy and vibrant, rich with marine life.

But the Dead Sea is far below the mean sea level, that it has no outlet. The water flows in from the River Jordan, but it does not flow out as there are no outlet streams. It is estimated that over a million tons of water evaporated from the Dead Sea every day. Leaving it salty. Too full of minerals. And unfit for any marine life.

The Dead Sea takes water from the River Jordan, and holds it. It does not give. Result? No life at all!..                              

Food for Thoughts:

Life is not just about getting. It's about giving. We all need to learn from the Sea of Galilee.

We are fortunate to get wealth, knowledge, love and respect. But if we don't learn to give, we could all end up like the Dead Sea. The love and the respect, the wealth and the knowledge could all evaporate. Like the water in the Dead Sea.

If we keep the Dead Sea mentality of merely taking in more and more water, more money, more of everything, the results are obviously disastrous.

To make sure that we are living in the sea of our own life, we must have outlets, and many outlets!

For love and wealth - and everything else that we get in our life, we make sure we don't just get, we give too. Open the taps. And we'll open the floodgates to joy and happiness. Make that a conscious habit. To share is to give.

Similarly, communication is also a flow between two or more parties, and if one just receive and do not give, it eventually become a Dead Sea.

  
So, what a thought kan? Hopefully we can see ourselves as The Sea of Galilee as life is just a loan from God. A loan to share.


A bit about history of Dead Sea (as mentioned by one of my colleague as well)

Dead Sea tu ialah lapisan bumi yang telah diterlangkupkan oleh Jibrail a.s. atas perintah Allah s.w.t. terhadap kaum Nabi Lut a.s. Dead Sea menjadi suatu tempat yang dilaknat Allah sehingga hari kiamat sebagaimana yang Nabi Mohd saw nukilkan. Sebab itulah tiada makhluk Allah seperti ikan dan tumbuh2an yang mahu tinggal di Dead Sea tersebut….

Sama2 lah kita muhasabah diri..

dun make a promise...

...if u dont have the intention to keep it...

Do not make any commitment, if ur heart's not fully into it

Do not say 'yes' to something that u r not sure whether it's okay for u

Do not say if u have no intention to act

Do not appear strong if you are easily mended

Do not be a person unless he/she is you

Do not easily get influenced by one's act, words, or behavior untill u lost your ownself

Do not make any DECISION without even THINK of it

Do not run from your mistake coz it'll hunt you down. Be a man and face it.

Do not make bullshit excuses just to make you look good/innocent. People around you are not stupid.

Do not copy someone else's dream and passion. Visualise your own dream based on your passion.

Do not live in someone else's life. Create your own interesting life and be proud of it.

...these are life's ethics...a reminder to myself that i like to share with all of you...

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Gold Coast ~ Part 2

14th Oct 2011..our 2nd day of the trip but 1st day in Gold Coast..we arrived around 7.30am but got out from international arrival gate at about 8.15am..lama jugak nak lepas masuk gate tu..it is true when everybody said that australian airport customs are strict..they are! especially to tourists who come from different continent. Plus, we brought a bag full of dried and canned foods so we've been detained by the customs for checkup. Actually, we have to declare all items especially medicine and food we brought in first, then only they checked. But a big thanks to Yan as an AJK makanan, all the foods lepas kastam. All the food ok..which means she did her research well..tapi..tapi..tapi..yang buat kami lama tersekat di kastam ialah sebungkus kecil pil poh chai kepunyaan seseorg yg takut sakit perut ketike dalam plane..we called it as tragedi 'kerana poh chai'..korang nak tau pil poh chai tu ape? inilah mendenye..

ngeee..pil chi-kit teck aun laaa..they called it poh chai pill..tips: dun ever bring this to australia unless u wanna declare yourseld having seizure if not taking this pill..siap kene isi borang declaration bagai ok. haha..ok, u may want to check this web 1st before thinking of bringing foods/medicine from outside.

So, after the detailed check up, we were safely in the gold coast territory legally. So, first thing first, we have to figured out how we're going to be transported to our pre-booked apartment. So, at last, we made our way to this booth called Shuttle. They have good bargain on free-several-day pass on bus or they called it as Translink. It cost us around AUD95 for 5-days free pass of translink inclusive of airport transfer to our apartment an also transfer to theme parks. Comparing to renting a car which may cost us more (rental fee, petrol and parking fee), we decided to maneuver around the city by bus; yet, the system is quite good, and easy to understand (ok, we took at least one day to understand what bus to take, and where to take it..ok la tu kan..hehe)..plus the bus route covers all attraction places..

please look into this booth if you choose to ride on bus around the city

this is the 5-day-free pass that cost us AUD95 which is about RM320. Basically inclusive of all transportation cost we need to spend during our stay.

meneliti all phamplet/flyers about all attraction places and activities in gold coast. lots and lots of info to digest. but all there. you just have to dig in. gambar di atas menunjukkan ke-serious-an berbincang mengenai what other things that gold coast offers.

on the bus that transfer us from gc airport to our apartment. took us around 45minutes to reach out apartment

Ok, cerita sket pasal our accommodation. We stayed at Blue Water Luxury Apartment (ok,name je luxury, tapi xder lah luxurious sgt pon) which we pre-booked via booking.com. That is the best bargain that we can get so far since there are 4 of us and we need 2 bedroom apartment with all the facilities (kitchen, kitchenette, and laundry). The apartment located in Labrador, which is about 7km from Surfers Paradise, the heart of Gold Coast (GC). Oh, sangat x mampu untuk duduk di tengah2 bandaraya itu..cause for an apartment like where we stayed may cost us at least AUD50 more per night at Surfers Paradise. The apartment cost us RM420/person for 6d 5n.

all round the apartment..so ok la for RM330 per night kan? bahagi empat? you do the math..

 Jadi..hari pertama nie sgt penat after 7 hours in plane..kitorg rehat jap..then terus sambung activity dengan as per planned itinerary..since it is our first day, we planned to just go around the city and hit the shopping place. So, we headed to Pacific Fair. Since we had the 5-day-free-pass, tersalah naik bas pon xder masalah. haha..the journey took longer than expected sbb salah naik bas..

Review on Pacific Fair..emmm ok laa..for me, NOT a good bargain shopping place...haha..i prefer Harbour Town (we'll get there in one of next entry ya..)..didnt buy much here unless shirt and dress from Cotton On..but it has ice cream stall yang damn delicious and an amazing kebab stall ever..this kebab stall is the best-est we ever had at GC..andd...the place got Coles (a market like Tesco/Carrefour) that close at 10.00pm whereas the rest shops closed at 5pm..so, we bought our food supplies here in later time..

a local is trying to help us with the bus system..oh, he's handsome but he's a kid...:p

Yan yang gembira dapat eskrem besh...

strolling around

inside the not-so-cheap-Shopping Centre..but fae, liza n yan did shop for perfume here..its quite a good bargain..

this is the kebab stall im talking about..if you're happen to come here dun forget to fill ur stomach with this..its worthy

kedai kebab yang ala2 subway..bahan2 yg nak taruk dalam kebab kite boleh pilih sndiri

ok..too much photo of this kebab thingy...jadi dapat bayangkan kesedapannye kan?

shopping food supplies @ coles in pacific fair

Later that night..we come out again..to the famous surfers paradise...since the bus system is 24hours, so we have no problem to go out late night. Its weekend night, so we can see hot chicks come and out of bars and pub parties..but our main intention is to go to the night market..nothing much been sold here except for rare items for gifts and souvenir..but that night we had a extremely beautiful moon by the sea..its one hell of a view..

street performer..rare!

dance floor in the middle of the street

 the beautiful moon by the sea..oh, so romantic!

the night market

merenung bulan..bahagia, bukan?

us in front of hard rock cafe..ala..lampu x nyale penuh pulak..spoil!

ripley's believe it or not @ surfers paradise

  another ice-cream session in front of hard rock cafe..its coppenhagen's extremely delicious ice cream..must try!

oh, there is an incident happened after this session..liza lost her purse together with her passport on our back home..what? hilang passport?! yes, i know..its quite a mess..but we've survived it..more of it later guys!

Gold Coast ~ Part 1

Yep..as i promised earlier..i will update entry on my latest pre-planned trip for this year..and yeah..if u refer to this entry u will know that i went to Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia recently...

First of all, please let me educate u some little piece of information about Australia..as u can see Australia been divided into 6 states which are New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and Northern Australia...If you hit Australia in the google, you'll find that the origins are indigenous Australians which are divided into several regional group..and mostly famous indigenous Australian in Queensland is Murri...But somewhere in 400years back, the Englishmen from European countries has settled in Australia and it became a place of deporting convicted criminals (just like America) and quickly grew its population. So, that is how we see a lot of english people in Australia. They are actually from the Europe just like us, who are mostly from either Indonesia or Thailand.

So, Gold Coast is basically in Queensland and so is Brisbane. Gold Coast is located in Eastern Australia, south to Brisbane and north to Sydney. You can see clearly in map below.

map of Australia - courtesy of google

As you can see, Gold Coast located in Queensland but it is adjacent and share its border with New South Wales. In fact, we even found the border gate between New South Wales and Queensland when we were in Tweed Heads town.

If you zoom a bit in, you'll found that in Gold Coast itself been divided into smaller towns. But, the biggest and most happening is surely Surfers Paradise, the heart of Gold Coast. That is why most tourist (with lotsa money..hehe) will choose to stay in the heart of Gold Coast cause this place live till late night whereas most of the shops and markets in smaller towns closed as early as 5pm.

Ok, enough bout Gold Coast and Australia geographically, lets start to talk about the trip. This trip has been planned a year ealier. Biasalah..nak beli flight tiket AirAsia yang zero fare kene beli setahun awal la. If im not mistaken, the flight ticket was bought during the promo for Air Asia zero fare around August 2010. Once it launched, we (me, fae, liza n yan) straight away decided our destination and date. Tips: Nak grab free seats ni bukan senang ye kawan2..perlu bersekang mata dan mempunyai access internet yang laju untuk berebut. Dan sangat sukar untuk dapat tarikh yang kite nak, jadi kene la adjust sikit2. Mende murah kan, kene la berebut. Tapi bila da berjaya booked to mmg gembira tahap lompat bintang. Dan, sila sediakan sekeping kredit kad yang mempunyai baki yang banyak didalam nye terumatanya kalau nak beli tiket destinasi yang jauh2..ini memang nanges..T_T..hancur hati tengok baki kad da tinggal sikit..

Yep, we successfully booked a satisfying fare. It costs us around RM600++ for through and flow seven hour flight ticket from LCCT to Coolangatta Airport, Gold Coast. Ok la kan..dari nak bayar beribu..7 hour flight, takkan nak expect harga tiket RM66 pulak kan?

The trip as a whole: we didnt take any of pre-booked tour packages. We did research on our own and we custom made the itinerary ourselves. We'll get into that along the update entries ye.

13th Oct 2011 - Our flight from LCCT depart at 9.25pm. Its a night flight. Yeay! Boleh tido dalam flight (boleh ke?). Since its international flight, we have to be there atleast 2 hour earlier (tips!) so, dengan jasabaik kawan yan, Apex, yang menghantar kami (me, liza n yan je..fae datang sendiri) ke airport, kami sampai jam 6ptg. Ye, gile awal. Tapi better than late dan terkocoh2 nak bag drop bagai..oh, tips lagi: if u're flying with Air Asia, please make sure to check in online, either via mobile or internet and get your boarding pass printed out. Its faster and easier. Then, at the airport, just straight away to bag drop counter to check in ur luggage. You'll save RM10 per person instead. (Ha, dah macam promoter Air Asia dah ni!)

Air Asia improved a lot y'know. Cause i never got any flight delayed so far. Our flight took off precisely at 9.25pm. The flight is half full. So, we still have room to change seat. fuh lega.kalau tak kene dok ngan strangers. But somehow, i n fae manage to change seat, 3 seater for us both. Liza n Yan sgt selesa kat tempat diorg kot, jadi x tuka seat. Meal was served as early as two hours after took off. So, for the rest of the flight time, kami kelaparan. Nasib baik night flight so most of the time we were asleep..in hunger..T.T..

ok, this is the dish being served during flight. tips again : please do pre-booked your meal..its much2 cheaper compared to purchase in-flight. Pre-booked meal being served once only..kalau lapar lagi, silalah beli sendiri kat trolly yg flight attendant tolak tu yer..

jadi kat sini terimalahh beberapa keping gamba kami mase departure dalam flight..

In-flight meal : international meal yg x sedap. Saranan: sila choose Malaysian meal..lagi sedap dan kenyang..oh, coke tu tambah sndiri ye..RM6 setin..T.T

me and fae happy dapat chop tempat baru

gamba ni flight attandant yg tolong amekkan..mekaceh cik pramugari..

xduduk tepi tingkat..maka dapat gambar tingkat je..gamba luar tingkap da x nampak.T.T

arrived at Coolangatta Airport

Liza, Yan and Me

we arrived at Coolangatta Airport at about 7.30 in the morning...damn early but kat sane dah cerah terang menderang ok..

ok korang..nnti i update lagi untuk hari2 seterusnya di gold coast ok? see u in the next entry..