My first ever Shabab Planner and PlannerAna

and possibly my last 🤣

I preordered the Shabab Planner from Anafeebn in Nov 2024. ETA was delayed until Jan 2025.

the inside of this planner is very full of colors; mine is more of earth colors. Each month, ada Goals prompt, Monthly Check-In, Religious tracker (Fasting, sunat prayers, all good deeds etc), Monthly reflections, and weekly at the bottom of the page, ada Drink Water tracker.

all sound so good right? only issue was I didn't reach for this planner at all. I just didn't feel like opening it. Kan cakap I didn't like it, inda jua. I actually enjoyed the prompts. I guess it was just not my thing. 

I did try treating it as a junk journal instead. Nah, didn't work either.

So, by end of 2025, I barely touched the thing. Ovvy, I have to let it go.

Yang cali nya, with that experienced, I went and joined preorder with Anafee again - for Planner Ana on 3rd Oct 2025 and received the planner set by end of Oct 2025.

SO pretty in real life.

as of drafting this post (4th Feb), plannernya inda bepakai, calendernya masih inda prop open, only the Planning Chart saja pakai properly.

My solution for the planner was to bawa saja ke opis to use there since opis did not provide us with 2026 planner for the first time ever! I feel the planner will be of use there amin! sayang yo bali and inda fill in. Kan dated planner ani bukan dapat pakai for next time.

As for the calender, I think I'm gonna have it open somewhere other than my study table coz I already have one there (my fav calender from Brunei Press).

Point of this story is that please jangan bali lagi for next year! Please! the 2026 one was actuallly my third time buying them. the first time was for 2024. Atu sama jua tu, inda berapa bepakai.

So yeah, for next year, bali tah sja Planning Chart nya. Hopefully ada kana jual just that. Paling-paling pun , ada set combo yang hanya jual Planning Chart and Planner (for office use, just in case no planner provided again for 2027).

my FAQ

other than the Solan Capo Emas (Soalan Campur Emas) "Ko bila lagi (kan kawin)?", 
I have another FAQ; about my travels.

without further ado, lesgo!


Question No.1
"Ke mana ko ari atu?" "apatah?"
"Where you go?" "how was it?"

You would think I love these kind of questions but not really.

Becoz:
1. People only asked to pass the time
2. People asked 'just becoz'
3. People genuinely curious but don't match my excitement when I started talking

When they asked me this, i usually become so hyped up and ready to tell them my 'adventure' time but then I see their faces. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
I have this intuition thing going on where I know I should calm down and minimize my story. It made me feel blergh and I wish they would not start up that conversation if they were not ready to hear my explosive with excitement story.

WHY YOU PLAYING WITH MY FEELINGS! ლ(́◉◞౪◟◉‵ლ


Question No. 2
"Ke mana saja tah ko?" "Bahapa saja ko di sana?" "shopping tah ko?"
"where did you go (there)?" "what did you do (there)?" "did you go shopping?"

Ok, first of all, are you sure you want to know the answer to these questions?
second of all, "I sight seeing a lot", "I sight seeing a lot", and "not really shopping coz I'm on a budget but yeah, i did buy a few knic knacs"

These questions are the most intimidating to me.
Even though it's my travel, my plan, my time and money, and it's my dream, I still feel a little anxious telling people what I did or didn't do.
People often replied with, "eh inda kan di sana saja?" "rugi tu eh inda ke sana" "sayang jua inda shopping". 
🙄🙄🙄
These responses used to mess with my head. Like, if I didn't go to the place where THEY wanted to go, I'm missing something. and If i didn't buy that one thing THEY would've just bought (becoz it's from overseas 🙄), I miss the opportunity.

Akusmi (excuse me), whose travel is this for? You kah? Me kah?
Different people, different wants and needs.
Just becoz my travel plans/ideas are not up your alley, doesn't mean I'm doing it wrong.

I just had a deja vu. have I made this kind of post before? 🤔

*search blog* yup! i did. back in March 2018. LOL but this is the 2.0 version!


Question No. 3 
"Since ko pernah ke sana, tell me what to do" "What should we do about tempat tinggal?" "Ke mana patut di aga ni?" "Berapa patut ku bawa?"
"Since you've been there, tell me what to do" "what should we do about accommodation?" "Where should we go?" "How much (money) I should bring?"

These are the questions that pushed me into making this post.

(I have a feeling this one gonna be too long but I'm not gonna break this into two part post coz, I'm not rajin)

People have the notion that since I've been there before, I must be an expert!

Ok, listen up (or read up) people! I AM NOT. 

the answer to this seems so difficult for me to give. coz i strongly believe that different people has different idea about 'travelling'. Kindly refer to Question No. 2 for my anxiety ridden reflexes. More often than not, I got annoyed.

but, I decided, I'm gonna take this opportunity to educate people.

Here we go:

it's 2019 and internet is a thing.

I'm not being ungrateful but I always feel like I'm the one person who has the least internet access or the only one who doesn't have access to wifi. 

BUT I have my phone data, and if I can do this with just that, then you definitely could too! 


Step one!
Google is your new bestfriend!
I know it can be daunting. You might feel like you don't know what you should do coz you've never done this before, etc.
But in this age and era, you must know about Google.
So, step one, open your internet browser or chrome go to Google.com (if this is not you default page, what are you doing?)

and then ask away~ 
What I did was ask Google "what to do in Seoul"

Example: 

Youtube videos will pop up with this too. So, if you are not rajin to read, watch those suggested videos.

Step two!
Accommodation!
Agoda.com
this one, I seriously cannot recommend you places to stay.
Why?
coz my idea of accommodation is cheap and for sleeping.
If you're the type to say, "eh so small the room" "no wonder cheap", please, I can't help you there.
As far as I know, hotel is expensive every where.
There will be cheap ones, of course, but you can't expect a lot.
You can't have the best of both worlds in this.
And if you're with family, definitely don't book 'hostel'..be realistic. 'hostel' is dorm like hotel room, meaning bunkers bed, shared bathroom area, no personal space, etc.
Again, you can Google your specifications; room for family, cheap hotel for family.
Also, remember to choose a hotel nearer to tourist attractions. thank me later.


Step three!
As you Google/browse thru ideas after ideas of what you should be doing in the country that you're going to visit, you definitely will have a list of places to go and things to do.
List them down. on a piece of paper or on your phone if that's more convenience you. 
I'm always the pen and paper girl, so I would list that down on paper.

this is just a sample, not mine. 

and it listed down countries but I hope you got what I mean LOL

If you wanna be extra you can do a Travel Journal like me. 
Jot everything down, where you wana go, what you wana do there, etc.

again, just a sample, not mine.

My journal was supposed to be like my travel itinerary and what I'm gonna use when I was in Seoul but it became so personal that I ended up not bringing it anywhere in fear I could lose it.
but the point of this step is to just jot everything down and making a list.
so stick to that.


Step four!
After you have your list, it is time to organize.
Yes, you must. if you come to me for advise, this is what you gonna do.

You must already have dates set on when you're gonna leave and when you gonna come back from your vacation.
with the help of the list you just make from Step Three, you now can do some military precision planning!
No, but this is gonna be awesome. especially when this is your first time going there.

for this step, Microsoft Excel is your bestfriend!

it also helps if you divide your places to visit base on area/city.

Here you can see me dividing places to visit/see base on area/city; two places to visit in a day, during night time can do shopping, etc.

I also do research on how to get there, what train to hop on, where the exit to a place from the station gonna be, etc.

I'm a little OCD, don't judge me.

I mean, every little thing helps! especially if its your first time there.

This Excel timetable was what I printed out and use all the time I was in Seoul.

Ok, ok. maybe this is not your thing. You can skip this part. Do your own thing. Improvise. You do you.
I honestly don't use this to the T! I made adjustment where needed. this is just a form of guideline. like, if that castle is close, you can go else where. you know, so you don't waste precious time and money.


Step five!
Budgeting!

here's an example from my Seoul trip.

again, depends on your wants and needs

you can break it down by days too if you want. but I can't do that. (▰˘◡˘▰)
also, something worth remembering, again, different people, different wants and needs.
I was on a budget, and yes, I do jot that I'm gonna shop but really, depends on you. If your plan is to shop then you know you gonna have to bring extra. If you plan to try all the food, again, you gotta bring extra, coz food ain't that cheap, for halal restaurant food anyway.

and that is what, when, where, and how I do my planning before my travel.

Three responses to FAQ, and additional "STEPS" on how to plan yours. 
I hope I laid it down clearly. If not, feel free to comment and I will try my best to respond back. 😉

If you noticed, this is my first time doing my planning this thorough. Even on my first solo Japan trip I wasn't this thorough. All I did on my first solo was print out a one-week time table and wrote down the places I wanna visit and i winged it when I got to Japan LOL.

but same principle applies; that plan is just a form of guideline so you don't waste precious time and money. 😉

I know this too long of a post but I wanna get it out of my system.

I wanna say thank you to Iku Tree from youtube.

it was from her video that I learn to make 'thorough' planning for my trip.

Thank You! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

Check out her video below.



Yes, her video is for solo travelling to Japan but there are a lot you can take out for your own non-solo travel planning.

and with that, I shall end this here.

Thank you so much for reading up till here.

you the MVP!

. . .

Life update (not that anyone care)

I change the layout of my blog again!
coz I was getting bored with the old one.

oh well

*shrug*


these changes are in line with my new life motto, "out with the old, in with the new".

I finally deleted my 2016 Japan photos from my phone!

transfer the rest of my 2017 photos to my harddrive too.

I've been feeling clogged for a while and after I did all the above (among other cleansing that I do), I feel unclog.

Hence, this post.

So,

I mentioned that I'm planning to travel again.

my nearest plan would this coming Dec, to Kuala Lumpur. 

I'm actually crashing Bazilah's family trip.

LOL

not really.

I've been putting it on and off since I first found out about it. Bazilah said I could tag along if I wanted to.
I booked my accommodation maybe two months ago thru agoda.com. which has this awesome features! where you can book first and pay later with free cancellation.
I thought, if in the end I decided not to go, I could just cancel the booking.

but last month, or maybe end of September, I was forced to clear my leave (work annual leave) and upset as I was, I finally decided on going to KL in December. coz I don't like the idea of taking leave off work and staying at home. That's not how I roll.

:P

Just bought my air ticket couple of weeks ago.

Lucky I managed to buy the slightly cheaper one. 

Now all I have to do is not spend money here.

hmmm

moving on~

I've finally decided to fly to Japan again next year.

I even block (book) my leave already!

ahahah

and I have been obsessing over it for almost a week now.

it's to the point of health concerning.

I have not eat properly for a few days now.

my stomach is acting funny too. :S

So, I'm taking a break now.

besides, the planning is much easier now since it would be my second time going.
although I'm not an expert, at least I know a few things, like, in regards of train rides, distances, food wise. 
I wanna go back to USJ for Harry Potter (like, duh!). and I wanted to go to Disney Sea this time around.
the main point is, I don't want to stress! I want this second time around to have more leisure time and more adventure time.

masih plan lah..the idea is confirmed. no tickets booked or purchased yet. 


things at work is tough since the beginning of the year. and I've turned into this person that I don't like because of it. 
actually, the work is ok. its the people that I can't.
*rolled eyes*

that is why, obsessing over my next trip to Japan is good thing.

it's my motivation to stay sane.

. . .

Obsess - Pre Japan Trip

I've been neglecting my Japan trip research. 

I didn't do it on purpose. I was dead busy at the office since before puasa, and then raya lagi and now. I would love to tell you in details over this 'busy-ness' but I realized, it's a waste of time telling story about my ngaleh-ness to someone who doesn't understand what it's like to be working in a 'processing' office. 

So, yeah.

Let's move on.

Someone mentioned about how I never talked about the Japan trip anymore and that made me realized, I should start again.

because (I just check and almost freaked out!) Japan trip is 45 days to go.

Last night (Saturday 23rd July, Daniel Radcliffe birthday BTW), I was supposed to be planning my 'Countdown' posts but I got bored. 

at first, I did the research in between composing the Countdown post but after a while, I found out that, doing my itinerary is far more exciting than doing my 'Countdown' post hahahaha

(my Countdown post for throwback-to-24th-Jul-2014 was done the entire afternoon of Sunday, 24th)

So,

I was mostly reading reviews the entire time I was Googling.

I search about whether or not we should buy the JR Pass (train ticket)

• a colleague (who recently just got back from Japan) said, buying transportation passes on the go is alright too, especially when you already know where to go.
• from one of the reviews I read, JR pass is, like, taking-the-easy-way-out kinda tix.
• another review said I should do more research on transportation passes but they are certain that not buying the JR pass is an OK thing.

hmmm

• and just now I found another review that said JR pass is cheaper.

So, I used Google Map to check the train route (did you know this Google map is so awesome?! it shows the cost as well!) and when I calculate the individual train tix (just train tix, excluding subways and bus fares) the total is BND396 where as the 7days JRpass cost around BND378.

I know the difference here is BND18 saja. 

One review did say yg the JRpass doesn't cover all areas but the places that I'm going to have JRpass access to them (as far as my research goes lah ah).

this is so stressful.

stressful because I'm obsessing!

no wonder I gave this a rest when I did. 

coz, Imagine me being stress out over my work and then stressing out over this itinerary stuff - people will hate me! 

hahaha

I should sleep. 

and continue this tomorrow during lunch break

muahahaha!

. . .

no picture attached coz I duno what picture I should attach; me eating my hair or the map of Japan.