Maria Noel

Maria Noel is our Basque language expert. Born in Argentina, she is now a History professor and Basque language teacher and plans to further her studies in Mythology and Ancient Religions. Certainly a great addition to the team, Maria is a proud mother of a 10-year-old boy and a 4-month old girl. One who has travelled quite extensively to Spain, Basque Country and England, Maria has ‘travelled’ and ’seen’ even more by working for the team!

Jessica

Jessica is one passionate translator. Doing Chinese Traditional translations for us, she found translating so enjoyable that she quit her job to concentrate on freelance translation and has no regrets since! Jessica has an MA in Children’s Literature, loves reading and travelling and hopes to travel around the world one day.

Ahmed Amin

Ahmed Amin, our Arabic translator, is one very busy man. He does business administration and tutoring, and we are lucky that he still manages to find time for us! Working in the UAE, Ahmede is currently on vacation in Egypt. His trip would surely be a interesting experience to share with us when he comes back.

Stefan Petkes

Stefan Petkes is our Romanian translator and proud father to Andra, his lovely 14 month old daughter.

Rei	Rei is our Japanese translator who has lived in the US for the past 8.5 years. She has many years of translating, 6 years to be exact! She has worked mainly with theatre and film, doing scripts, letters and reviews. Truly a ‘woman of words’ :)

Emma Cazabonne

Translating our sites to the romantic language of French is Emma Cazabonne. She is an Emma of many trades! She has written a book titled “A Light to Enlighten the Darkness: Daily Readings for Meditation During the Winter Season”, paints rocks, teaches English and tutors French via Skype. If you want an image immortalized in a unique way, send her a picture and she can paint it on a rock for you! Check out her site.

Liang Qin is our Simplified Chinese  translator, working for a busy company in China and is also a part-time freelance translator. She used to live in the UK and has an Msc in Applied Psychological Research there. She traveled a lot in Britain and loves the beautiful view there, however is upset to having had no time to looking around in the Europe. She also likes Chinese cooking and Chinese music. She is hoping to travel around the world and making more friends, and letting more people to know about China!

Debora Perricone

Debora Perricone is 28 years old, lives in Turin, Italy and is happily married :D She is a freelance translator and also works for a company. She graduated in Foreign Languages and Literature with a thesis in Cinema History and Criticism. She loves cinema, English and North American Literature and traveling.

Matthias Heining

Based in Bavaria, Germany is Matthias Heining. He now wants to visit Malaysia after getting enticed by a4 trip! He is one who loves talking for hours, hates bad exchange rates, loves “The Scream” by Edvard Munch, dislikes unfair people and enjoys working with Linux and Unix. He seems to be a truly colourful character!

SunYoung (Sophie) Henderson

SunYoung(Sophie) is our Korean translator who currently lives in Canada. She has travelled through most of Asia, Europe and Canada so far! Her favourite travel spot would have to be amazing Laos. She found every part of Laos incredible, relaxing and very beautiful. She loves travelling and seeing the world. She hopes her next adventure will take her to somewhere in Central America or Africa!

Ehsan Forghani

This is Ehsan Forghani, our Persian translator and aged 21 years old. His biggest goals in life are to be a great music composer, mastering English and developing computer games. He plays the guitar and loves it. He’s says that he’s not a very talkative guy, studies computer science and wants to pay tribute to the people who helped him in this duty: Mr. Hadi Forghani, his father and his friend, Moeen Tabrizi.

Melanie Mosqueda

Melanie Mosqueda is our Tagalog translator. A registered nurse with a BS in accountancy, Melanie started doing translations when she volunteered for the UN. She is now learning Norwegian and very soon, she could be our Norwegian translations too!

Also in our team is Joanna Trinh who does the Vietnamese translation and based in Malaysia, Mirna Soininen works on the Finnish ones, our Hungarian translations are done by Matyas Gyongyosi and Kelly M. Matos is our Portuguese expert.

A big thanks to them for their role in reaching out to the world!

• We need your language
• More Than 500 Words
• The Globe Corner Bookstores
• Introducing our gorgeous Penang writer and her hometown
• Pin’s Bad Reading Habit

Istanbul is the old Constantinople, named after Roman emperor Constantine. He was the first Roman emperor who halted the persecution of Christians by the Roman empire. It happened that way because, on a day of a crucial battle against a more powerful army, Constantine got a vision of bright light that had the symbol of the Cross and was told, “in hoc signo, vince”, meaning, “in this sign, conquer”. Constantine did just that and adapted the Cross as the symbol for his army and during the course of the big battle, his outnumbered forces drove out the enemy soldiers and cavalry, in which the enemy (actually a Roman rebel aspiring to be the Caesar emperor) himself was drowned in the river stampede, where the decisive battle took place. Byzantium city became emperor Constantine’s capital, replacing distant Rome. Byzantium was later renamed Constantinople in honor of the emperor.

Blue mosque or Sultanamet Camil

Text by M J Krishna, travel writer. Need any additonal info or clarification with regard to the articles? Write to mj.a4friends@gmail.com

• Tour to Nantes, France
• LOST AND FOUND; Return of the Prodigal Elder
• Mapper’s Framework
• Batu Caves, The Shrine Along The Rocky River
• Writers’ FAQ

“No visa problem for them; after all, they are aged”, said Chennai travel consultant Vasanthi as she handed over the visa-stamped passports of the two elders who were accompanying us on our 6-nation Asia tour the next day. There were fears about the seniors adjusting to our hectic schedule during the next 13 days as we would criss-cross countries and oceans during the travel. Of the five of us, four had already been to China together in 2006, and had adjusted to the smells of strange and non-vegetarian cuisine around us as we partook of pure veg food. However, the fifth member this time might have problems, we were told, being used to only *thair sadham,* curd rice, even during his recent tour in the US. We briefed him on the adjustments that he needed to do in the next two weeks. No problem, he assured us.

We were into our second week when we flew into Kuala Lumpur from Indonesia. Malay *Imigresen* official Kamatchi Ammal stamped our passports and smiled a welcome. It was another ten minutes and we were through customs when we realized that one of our elders was missing. We waited for him
outside the arrival terminal, and there was still no sign of him. While our friends Venkat and Krishnamurthy looked for him at the restaurants outside, Ann and I went back in, on our search, past customs, on to the duty-free shops and to the “lost and found” counter (!). Finding no trace of him yet, we went to the toilets and fearing the worst, opened every stall inside, checking in vain, for the missing man.

I then took the escalator up and went back to check with the *Imigresen* official, Kamatchi Ammal, who advised me to meet her superior. Meeting the senior officer, I showed him the missing elder’s photograph fearing we might have lost him on our way out. He then took me to the police room where I gave a complete description of the man, his photo and passport number, handing over my Malaysian cell-phone number to the police officer, requesting him to help trace the missing man, and call me if he had any news. By now, our elder had gone missing for over an hour and I slowly took the stairs down and beyond the customs enclosure when my phone rang with bleak news from friend Venkat
that the senior was not sighted yet.. When my cell rang again, a voice confirmed my identity and said that there was someone anxious to speak to me.. a booming voice followed, and lo, it was an excited
*Govindanna*calling me on the good Samaritan’s phone, informing me that he was stuck alone at the bus terminal outside, wondering why we were not there yet! Boy, were the four of us relieved at the return of my prodigal brother? *Terimah Kasih, *thank you, I later told the good Samaritan with the phone, rushing to see my *anna..*

Later, when we went on the city train, while discovering the Malay capital city of the two rivers, all of us, including host Meyyappan had a hearty laugh with *Govindanna, *asking him how he hit upon the idea of walking to the bus terminal, and the tension-filled hour he gave us when he went lost, until we finally found him…Enclosed is a picture of our group… It might be shaky; a by-stander at KL *Sentral Stesen* clicked it, but ours was one group delighted to have *Govindanna *(front, right in pic.) back with us that evening ….

Happy ending :)

From MJ Krishna, travel writer

Need any additonal info or clarification with regard to the articles? Write to mj.a4friends@gmail.com

• Missing Whiteboard
• News Today – Fabien WANTED!
• Hidden Museum – An Hour Expedition with Adline
• Saving the Kopi 2-Happy ending?
• The 3U’s- Unique, Updated and Useful

I was discussion an email problem with Jo, who is frustrating with TM’s email problem. After few email exchange, we have shared our Blog, and to my surprise, she is the founder of this interesting project.

Green Animal Shelter & Sanctuary (GrASS)

Check it out Green Animal Shelter & Sanctuary (GrASS)

• Pearly’s Malaysian Blog Award
• Clarence meets friends here!
• Animal Ambassador
• Big Day
• 16 to 76

Penang oh Penang… The so-called heaven of Chinese delicacies… Of course what I mean here is the delicious Penang street food. “When one talks about Penang, we think of FOOD FOOD FOOD nothing but the food. Yes, that’s one of the main reason why people come to Penang. We have undeniably the best food around in my opinion, every corner, every hawker’s char koay teow I eat, I taste no difference because to me, they all taste the same, which is delicious! But Penang is more than what meets the eye. Since I’ve started reading up about history, culture and more things about Penang, I feel even prouder to be a Penangnite. It has everything you can ever dream of (I don’t mean to brag). Good cheap food, nice people, beaches, hills, rich heritage and culture. Anything you wish to have under the sun!” Said our Penang writer, Sharon Ong talking about her hometown.

We’re glad that a passionate writer, Sharon Ong from Penang is now joining a4trip to introduce her lovely hometown to us. “When I was first invited to become a member for a4trip, I was very very thrilled indeed! I was super excited that I was jumping around telling my family and couldn’t stop being all happy and excited. You guys do the thing I’ve always dream of and love doing. Two words. Travel and Write.”

A fun loving girl who love travel, love eating, love trying something new, love socializing, love writing and many many more. With her outgoing personality and her love to her hometown, I’m sure she is the best candidate for our Penang travel guide.

“I guess what I like best about my hometown is not only the availability of food in every corner at any time but also the kind of life I can choose to lead here. I could have chosen to work in other cities but I chose to come back to penang, because one, my family is in Penang and two, despite being the industrial base and gearing for more development on the island, Penang still gives one a choice to lead a rather laid back life, unlike other cities where everyday is rush hour day. I love the fact that everything is so close to each other, my working place is 8 mins drive from my house, biggest shopping mall is 15 mins from where I live… every place is within reach! And there’s no toll involved! How superb is that :D I love Penang, I definitely *HEART* it. Best state in Malaysia with everything under the sun, hands down!”

When she was asked about what she like about her hometown, excitedly she said she loves all the food around Penang and every places she wish to go is within reach. Every Penangnite is proud of their varieties food. For all the food lovers out there who crave for varieties of good food, Penang is the best place!

• 16 to 76
• Saving the Kopi 2-Happy ending?
• A summer holiday in Poland for $100!
• Passion of Adrian, our proofreader
• We Love Our Wives :)

If interns are like a box of chocolates, you will never know what you will get! When they first came to work, we don’t really know what will happen in the next three months. Let’s see what they have done…

They eat a lot

again…

and again…

They get nervous during presentation.

But, this will not stop them from sending messages at work…

We work hard and they play harder

Not enough with that…

and again…

If you know anything good about them, post it here. I may be wrong. They will be back to school after tomorrow, so don’t wait, say it now. Agnes, Eunice and Yichin – if you have anything to defend to say about yourself, we would love to hear from you too.

• Missing Whiteboard
• A day in a4trip
• Saving the Kopi
• Wannie’s Tour on Duty
• Introducing our gorgeous Penang writer and her hometown

If you are asked for your postal address from Yichin earlier, the little small monster are probably on their way to your house now, struggling their way by air, sea or land – here is a little hint of what would be knocking your doors soon. Thanks again to the gift-sending team for this little surprise.

We hope all of you will like it :)

• You Got Rabbit!
• Mappers’ talk
• They Come, They Play, They Go
• Riding West Coast Malaysia
• GrASS, It’s Green!

If your friends are going to Macau, I bet you would love to see them coming back with two hands of the craving portuguese egg tarts. I got this news from Agnes that her sister went to Macau. After much lobbying by me and her sister, Wannie was forced agreed to buy us some gifts.

After a week long waiting, I was surprised to see a plastic bag full of travel guides and maps of Macau on my desk yesterday. Thanks Wannie, it is yummier than egg tarts, we love it! Thanks.

• The Globe Corner Bookstores
• Mapper’s Framework
• Amy, the writer of Sydney Travel Guide is here!
• New born member
• Giggling at the Live Googling of Google?

It shocked all of us when receiving the email from Jen yesterday, our writer for Vientiane, Laos. She had a terrible fall during her recent Tioman trip, 10 feet onto rocks and sand while having a BBQ dinner. Oh, she injured her neck and was in traction but recovering now. Her parents is taking care of her now.

Please don’t feel bad about any delay on our project. Nothing is more important than for you to get well soon, and we would love to work with you again!

• Missing Whiteboard
• Clarence meets friends here!
• Air Sick
• Introducing our gorgeous Penang writer and her hometown
• They Come, They Play, They Go

We arrived at the hidden place at 11am. It is easier if you’re taking the Jalan Bangsar road, heading towards KL city. You’ll pass National Museum and KTM headquarters on your left, and you can find the lost, but remarkable place to visit – Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia.

The Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia is one of the world’s youngest museums. This 10-years old, South East Asia’s largest museum of Islamic art houses almost eight thousand artifacts. These range from the tiniest pieces of jewelery to one of the world’s largest scale models of the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca.

Unlike most other museums, IAMM hosts not just collections from Persia and the Middle East, but also artifacts from Asia, particularly China, India and Southeast Asia. Forgive me, I’m not going to describe each item here. Adline guided us on an hour tour with detail briefing on every gallery. I’m not going to repeat that again (even if I do, I can’t be as good as Adline), buy yourself a ticket (RM12 per person), drop a visit to the museum any time from 10am to 6pm. Shown in the picture is one of the oldest mosque in Kampung Laut, Kelantan.

I particularly like the Qur’an & Manuscript Gallery on the first floor. The collections include treatise on the Prophet Muhammad Ottoman Turkey, marriage certificate of Iran, and many others. Adline showed us the amazing gold-printed cover page of each Qur’an and told us some of the oldest collection there are acquired from Malay Sultans.

Ikat – literally meaning ‘tie’ or ‘bind’. Don’t miss the textile gallery. Lot of interesting Ikat are on displayed, including Limar, Patola, Munisak, etc.

Just like IKEA, the museum restaurant serves middle eastern cuisine when your leg complaints. Opposite the restaurant, where you can find the museum shop with wide variety of crafts. Well, I must admit, it is one of the most interesting museum shop. The logo of the museum is a Kufi square, and this is embedded in most of their souvenir beautifully – don’t miss it!

Check this out! The handy guidebook IKAT is written by Adline. There is also a guidebook of the museum – RM9.90 each.

Enough for the museum, I can’t wait to introduce the best tour guide of the day, our friend Adline – Working mum & freelance writer. Next to her is Marcus!

This is Pin, with Adline. Too bad, Adline had to say good bye to us in rush for her next meeting. There are about 12 galleries here including Achitecture, India, China, Malay, Jewellery, Arms & Armour, Woodwork, Coin & Seal, Metalwork and Ceramins Gallery.

• Meeting the PM…
• Adline at the Silk Ikats of Central Asia Exhibition
• Saving the Kopi
• Choi from Korea
• Miss World Pageant

Followed by a series of Redang, BBQ, Farewell, Lunches, Dinners, Karaoke, Sales Drop… We’ve decided to start another series of Night Shift, Work to Die, Revamp Guidebook, Translation…

First batch of night shift friends reporting to work. Check out the guy on the right, he is going to buzz you for the coming months!

The last one leaving office will be the champion of the day – They will do anything to win, including this liquid-like hand protecting device.

• A day in a4trip
• Clarence meets friends here!
• Amy, the writer of Sydney Travel Guide is here!
• Big Day
• Missing Whiteboard

I must admit, I’m not good at writing at all. This largely contributed by the bad reading habit I have since I was in primary school. I know, it is an excuse :)

In those days, I read about 10 to 20 stories books a day. My book limit was easily over quota, and I had to use my friend’s name, simply to feed me, the book scanning machine. The reason is simple, I jump word by word and never go into details. It is like picking from every page, important keywords and guess the story. One bad thing about this is, I am never good at writing great essay, both English and Chinese.

We want to create a Most Remarkable travel guidebook and sell it on a best Travel Guide Platform. Me and my development team, come from a background of build and operate online business. To produce Remarkable guidebook, we have the best writers in our team joined us, and we will make it for sure, one day.

Yet, I believe, we shall find no excuse to also involve in the production of the guidebook. We would like to get involved, and know our products better. Eisen suggested to record down the activities in producing the guidebook, will keep updating this page :)

15 July 2008
Working on guesthouse in Malacca. I wanted to include Best way to book your room (SMS, phone, email, hotel booking website?). Emailed the owner of guesthouse to verify with them. This dirty job should be done by us first and include in the guidebook. Malacca can be divided to Heritage area and Malacca Raya area. Probably 2-3 guesthouse in each area. I have this idea, a good travel guide should help our travelers to plan, theoretically, they need not to refer to any other website, we should make sure all info are included in the guidebook. We have to help them to decide what is best guesthouse. Surrounding picture of the guesthouse is important. Picture shared by other travelers on that particular guesthouse can be included in the guidebook as well. I think it is crucial to interview owner of guesthouse to find out the availability rate of their guesthouse in general. I am thinking of including Youth Hostel and also info of those CSurfers who allow travelers to stay at their house. I might get more info from Hospitality Club or CouchSurfers website. Probably hot shower and WIFI info as well.

• When All Rooms are Taken!
• 9 New Asian Destinations Added!
• A story from Aida, writer of Manila Travel Guide
• Improving a4trip for You
• Writer’s Framework

When Ryanne came to work the first day, I was not around. It was after a week, I got to know her more and find out how outstanding she is.

Today, she will be taking care of the whiteboard for one last day. After 3-months of her chasing-picture hard work and undertable activities, it was now full of proud members and endangered species!

Ryanne will be back to her college in Terengganu. If you are missing her, you can drive your way there to the east coast. For those who wish to visit her in her hometown in Malacca, make sure you know when she is back. If you are lost, get the Malacca guidebook.

I got an email just now from Agnes & Eunice. Looks like they have opted to adopt the poor whiteboard. Thanks ya!

Do well in your study, Ryanne! We look forward to work with you SOON!

• Riding West Coast Malaysia
• Clarence meets friends here!
• They Come, They Play, They Go
• Pin’s Bad Reading Habit
• A day in a4trip

It was a fresh Tuesday morning with blue sky outside the office…

Wait, what is happening to our daily morning meeting? Looks like it could be not enough sleep last night, or run out of marketing ideas!

It was then Ammie came to office together her ‘Super-A’ roses all the way from Cameron Highland.

Roses in vase? Courtesy of Ammie’s Le Fiores online florist. You would love to see one in your office’s table, order now.

Well, it is not always you get present made-in-sweden. Jian, gout’ed, still make his way to visit us in the office with some swedish alcohol and chocolate. Jian Alcohol lights us up :)

Chailee and Weikey completed their internship training and both are leaving us soon becoming mappers now. Mixed feeling! True is, we miss them both, but we also enjoy the KFC – compare this picture with the one taken during morning meeting and you will know what I am trying to say :)

Two sets for three?

We are going to miss Chailee much after she back to school. Hurry up, everyone taking picture in turns. Starts from Jian, Nic and Weikiat…

Yong, my sister Lynn and Chailee

Hungry look #1…

Hungry look #2…

Champion of the day, Weikey

Back to default mode, eat!

Pin and his new-found personal assistant, Agnes.

3.30pm, picture taken in front of Kill & Fry Chicken. Get back to work :)

• BBQ
• Miss World Pageant
• Night Shift
• Fellowship Across The Seas
• You Got Rabbit!

After 6 months of test and measuring with our first website (above), we are launching the new a4trip website, today! Yes, in the next couple hours! If you want to find out how we solve the problem of removing shopping cart, yet still allowing multiple orders – stay tuned!

The work will not stop here. We will continue adding more new languages, features and other fine-tuning… which would keep Weikiat busy for the coming days still. Weikiat, the very important peson behind this challenging revamp, is pushing our development to the next new high!

I did a quick search on Google.com with keyword ‘a4trip’ and it returned 8,170 results. Let’s see how much we can grow from here! It would be interesting to check this back in the future.

• Giggling at the Live Googling of Google?
• News Today – Fabien WANTED!
• Night Shift
• Once upon a time, there’s a little girl named Shirley…
• Pin’s Bad Reading Habit

It was through the short article, we got to know Adline, working mum & freelance writer. Working on this project, it is great that we can meet wonderful friends out there.

• Pearly’s Malaysian Blog Award
• Hidden Museum – An Hour Expedition with Adline
• A story from Aida, writer of Manila Travel Guide
• Who’s Behind Those Languages?
• Clarence meets friends here!

On Sunday, 9th of June, we managed to catch up with Clarence, our writer for Malacca. The gathering is held at the Geographer Cafe at around 3 pm in the afternoon, as Pin and Chin Seng departed from Kluang at around 1 pm.

An Engineer by training, Clarence works in the semi-conductor industry and is based in the Otak-otak town- Muar.

Unfortunately, we are unable to meet up with Fabien, the mapper who will be working with Clarence on the Malacca Guidebook.

Clarence, we hope you’ll enjoy reading Meatball Sundae!

• News Today – Fabien WANTED!
• Riding West Coast Malaysia
• Pin’s Bad Reading Habit
• More Than 500 Words
• Writer’s Framework

Here’s our 16-year old Charity Ambassador- Mei Yen, also known as Jojo. The picture above is taken while Mei Yen is working as a volunteer at SPCA Penang. Find more about SPCA Penang at their website www.spca-penang.net

Besides taking care of homeless animals, Jojo is also interested in shopping, blogging, photography and music. She’s also a vegetarian “most of the time”, as she also eat a bit of fish from time to time.

During an email interview, Lim said ,”I am particularly passionate about animal rights so the reason why I’d like to join and become a charity ambassador is the help increase animal awareness among us and all help spread the word. I believe animals deserve to be treated well and I am very against animal abuse.”

Featured above is Barbara, who has recently joined the a4trip Team as a proofreader. She’s now 76 years old, and her birthday is on the 20th of October. Bookmark that in your calendar!

When it comes to good food, Barbara said. “I LOVE having my meals cooked and served by somebody else!”

• Animal Ambassador
• Elephant Sanctuary and Deerland
• Once upon a time, there’s a little girl named Shirley…
• News Today – Fabien WANTED!
• Amy, the writer of Sydney Travel Guide is here!

Marcus and I met our research advisor, Dr. Lee Yee Loon (centre) and his son (left-most) in Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre during the SMIDEX 2008 event. His research focuses on light weight concrete. More showcase can be found online at his Concrete Entrepreneur portal.

• Getting stuck in writing?
• Yi Chin’s B’day… Pizza Big Feast!!
• Bangkok writer found
• Batu Caves, The Shrine Along The Rocky River
• BBQ

After receiving Choi’s SMS that he’d just touched down in Malaysia, the team begin to schedule their plans to meet up with the man.

After a spine-tingling ride (from PJ to KL in less than 15 minutes), Pin and Marcus managed to catch Choi in Tune Hotel at around 10:40 pm. A few weeks back, due to heavy traffic and a little miscommunications, Marcus & Eisen missed the opportunity to meet up with Choi on his brief visit to Malaysia.

This time round, not only did Pin and Marcus “surrounded” Choi with their warm Malaysia-style welcome (which also means being late for 8 minutes), they also managed to convince Choi to try out the popular Malaysian bevearage- Teh Tarik, translated literally as “Pull Tea”.

Apart from translationg the Guidebooks from English to Korean, Choi will also add additional insights for his Korean readers to make the Guidebooks more relevant. Choi stayed in Vietnam for more than 10 years and he is been actively traveling around South East Asia.

• The Geographer Cafe Gathering
• Writers’ FAQ
• Hidden Museum – An Hour Expedition with Adline
• We need your language
• BBQ