Days 44 and 45 of 77 of KK 2019. Somewhere on the Atlantic, off Isle of Wight on the legendary flagship of the Cunard Line, the Queen Mary II. InsyaAllah a 7 day crossing, leaving Southampton Docks yesterday and arriving New York Harbour and InsyaAllah seeing the Statue of Liberty on the morning of September 1st.

A specially designed ocean liner, carrying Cunard’s long tradition of Atlantic crossing since 1840, this current QM has been in operation since 2004. Completely stable so far, it has four special stabilisers to ensure that. In fact it’s the only ship doing or capable of properly doing an Atlantic crossing as such. Alhamdullilah, all good on board – talks, shows, decks, dressing up, food, more food and happy to find the chef de cuisine is from Bangi! Everything great, except Internet is intermittent, non existent or expensive! #kretapikir. 🍲🙏🚢

26 August 2019

Black & White Gala Dinner on the Queen Mary II. Not only is the Chef de Cuisine from Bangi, we met Kelvin, the Maitre De who is from Kuching!

Still discovering this beautiful ocean liner. A few trivia or not so trivia : it’s the only ship doing the ocean crossing, engineers drool over it, it has 40 percent more steel than average, a heavy ship that allows it to drive through the oceans, has the largest per passenger public area, its the only cruise / liner that has a kennel (18 dogs and one lucky cat on board tonight)! Alhamdullilah. 🙏🚢🕺💃🧛‍♂️ #kretapikir

27 August 2019

Day 47 of 77 of KK 2019, Day 5 of 8 of Queen Mary 2 ‘s ocean crossing to NYC. That’s as far as we could go, anything further they may actually throw us into the Atlantic!

Getting into the rhythm of the ocean liner of meals, shows, talks, reading, more food, walk around the promenade and expensive Internet. Catching up on sleep and reading. In a few hours, we hope to catch sight of some marine life as we approach Newfoundland and this evening we are scheduled to pass by the closest point to the resting place of HMS Titanic. August is the tail end of the iceberg season, but InsyaAllah all ok. Notwithstanding we got this far by taking trains from half a world away, still a bit of Greta guilt for the crossing 😬, but otherwise alhamdullilah all good thus far. #kretapikir. 🙏🚢🎊

30 August 2019

Near, far, wherever you are! … Salam Merdeka from aboard the Queen Mary 2 Atlantic Crossing to New York

Super duper thanks to Maitre D’Hotel Kelvin Tan from Kuching, Chef de Cuisine Moerdanny Hassan from Bangi and Faith Tan from the front office and Klang for putting together a magnificent Merdeka lunch for all of us. And a very special thank you to Dato Anthony and Datin Andrea Cooper, great friends of Malaysia. Congratulations Dato Anthony, celebrating his 80th birthday soon, many more InsyaAllah.

Faith printed the flags and put them with coffee stirrers and stuck them into the cucumber slices and telur rebus. My little Jalur Gemilang that has been with me since Kajang, 50 days ago, was paired with one chopstick and then thrust proudly into Cunard’s silver candelabra of sorts. All QED, Malaysia Boleh! 😁🇲🇾💪🏼. Nasi lemak, roti canai, rendang, satay, pisang goreng…the only thing missing was Durian! Salam Merdeka dan Maal Hijrah. Alhamdullilah. #kretapikir 🙏🚢🇲🇾

1 September 2019