Strait of Malacca Mosque

A beauty will always be a beauty..
This is the word that I can use to describe the Masjid Selat Melaka. As the name, the position of this mosque is literally at the strait of Malacca. It is 2 hours away from Kuala Lumpur. This mosque development started on 2003 and only finished on 2006. It took almost 3 years to create this beauty. The concept of this building mixed the Arabian and Malay architecture style. And what makes this Mosque become different with others is the building of the Mosque is on top of water. So we also can called this Mosque as a Floating Mosque.

There are several things that I found a little bit uncommon with this mosque :

View

astonishing!!

This is the view from the back of the mosque. First time I stepped in front of the mosque, I was too excited. Then I walked to the back of the mosque, there's nothing than Subhanallah.. We can hear the sound of the wave and the wind from the sea. Not to forget at the beautiful blue sky, without clouds on it.

Vacancy

Actually it was my husband who's paying attention to this unique vacancy ad. It is different yet using a catchy kind of wording. This mosque is looking for Makmum. In Moslem, Makmum means the follower of Imam at the praying time. Since this mosque was built at the very end of the road and at the strait, there are not so many people can come to pray in this mosque. That is why, by using Pahala as the reward (from the Almighty), they invite us to come at the praying time.



Tower

multi function tower

The tower of the mosque have a double function. Not only used for the mosque purpose, but also as the light house at the night. The tower itself, is still in the same area of the mosque.

Child Friendly

children play area

Not so many of mosque that I have been visited got a children play area and a baby care area. This mosque prepare for those thing, they got the children play area at the corner of the mosque and the baby care inside the woman toilet. All of the part of the mosque is very clean. I found this toilet is the cleanest kind of toilet that I have ever visited.







The area surrounding this mosque is still so quite. There are no housing around it. But, just next to the mosque, they are developing a unique kind of building, looks like using an Arabian style, but I can not get the exact information about the function of the building. Whatever the purpose of the building, I hope it can make the mosque can get more visitors so that the mosque management can pull down the vacancy ad as soon as possible ('',)

Also visit my other Mosque journey here :
Hongkong
Shah Alam
Islamic Art Museum

While In Hongkong - Masjid and Halal Food Tour

While In Hongkong is my travelling story about Hongkong. Will write it in a random way from my very own point of view.

I managed to stay at JJ Hotel, a small and nice 3 stars hotel, located inside the office building called Lucky Centre in Wan Chai district. When decided to booked this hotel, we checked for the hotel condition thru Trip Advisor, Booking.com and also from Agoda's visitors reviews. The reviews were good and the most important thing is the hotel is just 5 minutes away from a mosque. Since in Hongkong it will not be easy to find Halal food, so that will be the best choice to stay anywhere nearby a mosque. Usually in that area there will be several places selling Halal food.

This time we arranged our time so that we can visits 2 famous mosque in Hongkong. One which is nearby to our hotel "Masjid Ammar and Osman Ramju Sadick Islamic Centre" and the other one is "Masjid Jami' Kowloon". 

This Ammar and Osman Ramju, is a mosque and also an Islamic Centre. So despite the main function as a praying place, this place also has a library, learning centre, and even an Islamic canteen. This Mosque actually was a replacement for a former Mosque in Happy Valley. Built at 1981, currently this place is still nice and clean. 

Located at the 40 Oi Kwan Road, Wan Chai, Hongkong. It is so easy to find this place. 

By MTR

From Central MTR station, switched the MTR to Island Line and stop at Wan Chai Station and exit from the Southern Playground. From here, walk about 10 minutes to this place through the Johnston Road. 

By Bus

Take a walk from Central MTR station to Jardine House bus stop. Take the bus number 962, only 4 stops away, and walk about 2 minutes to the mosque. 

And for you who's craving for a Halal Chinese Food, this place is like a heaven on earth. They served a delicious dim sum, and meals with a reasonable price. For me the Red Bean Pau is my favourite. 

To get to the Islamic Centre Canteen, just enter the building and used the lift to the 5th floor. The canteen open from 10 am to 8 pm and for the dim sum, only until 3 pm.

The second Mosque that we've visited was the Masjid Jami' Kowloon. Located at 105 Nathan Road, only a minute away from Tsim Tsa Tsui MTR Station. This is the most busy area in Hongkong after Causeway Bay district. 

When we arrived at this place, it was a praying time. The mosque get the crowd at that time. Different people from different country come to this with the same purpose, to pray. I saw lots of Arab and India people go inside the mosque. 

While waiting for my husband to pray, I walk around to find the Halal food around here. And this is what I found in front of the mosque building. The big standing banner about Al-Maidah Kebab. Located at 13 G/F, Tsim Tsa Tsui Mansion, Nathan Road.

Unfortunately, somehow we can not find the place. Instead we are directed to a weird restaurant named Mughal Club. The place is at 2nd floor, Flat 2 11, Hai Phong Mansion. Weird because when we enter the building, downstairs the place just so nice, but after we go into the restaurant at the 2nd floor, the place is so small. No one is eating there except us. Scary at first, but then the people there is nice. Only the food is a little bit pricey and the taste was just okay. The view from the restaurant is also very poor. Am not so happy after all, but well that's the art of travelling. 

Another place that I also got the brochure in front of the Mosque is Ziafat. The place is at 6/F Harilela Mansion, 81 Nathan Road. While mentioning mansion to this places, please forget the mansion that we usually saw in TV, just totally different.

The other place that we went to eat is an Indonesian restaurant named Rumah Makan Sedap Gurih. This restaurant is located at the hook of Sugar Street Rd, Causeway Bay Area. The food is good, got a real taste of Indonesian's food. The visitors was not only Indonesian people, maybe the Hongkong residents also likes to eat there because the food and the price.

Other than this restaurant, actually there are lot of Indonesian and Halal food around Causeway Bay area, such as :

Blitar Cafe
Shop 201, 2/F, Causeway Bay Centre, 19-23. Sugar Street.

Warung Malang
Flat B-2, 2/F, 9-11 Pennington Street, Causeway Bay.

For the full reference of Halal food at Hongkong, can be found at this site.

And not to be forgotten, there is also one place at the Disneyland that sell Halal food. It is at the Adventure land area, just in front of the Jungle Tree. They served Indian food and also some of Western food like fish fillet. One set of the menu is in a huge portion, can buy 2 set menu for 3 people. The price for one set menu is around HKD 88, pricey but worth it because of the huge portion.

After all, the best thing for this travelling is, actually is not that hard to find Halal food in Hongkong. Even though we are very well prepared in bringing along our own food, it was also nice to try the local food there.

Read the next post  about Hongkong here.. :)