Holiday Stories Continues

And so continuing from the point where we landed up at Penang International Airport…. if you are still guessing where are we headed to… Aija..IT”S PHULET ISLAND lo !!

There here goes our tickets..

Boring wait at the airport..

Boarding the plane....

And up up up we go…… bye Penang .. 

Here comes muffins and grape juice (not bad Firefly’s service… )

After bout an hour in the air…. down down down we go

HELLO PHUKET.. (not much of friendly smiles from the officers at the aiport )

Anyway… what a feeling to finally reach our long-awaited holiday destination. Our hotel was about and hour and a half drive from the aiport.

There here is our Hotel. Upon our arrival we were greeted by a sweet Thai hotel staff. She asked our name and immediately summon a bell boy to get our luggage (we only had one black luggage). And then ushered us to the tram to the check-in lobby. When we reached the check in lobby we saw many ang-mo(s) carrying their own luggages but we did not have to. I felt weird.. Then at the check in counter many guest were waiting  in the sitting area but we were ushered to the front desk. Once again at the mention of Lionel Lim’s name… we were ushered to another desk which has the sign “Hilton honors”..They served us with guava juice and prepared cold towels. What a treat!  We had a quick check in and after all was done the staff handed us a card asking us to fill it up since we are returning guests… SHOCK!! I’ve never stayed in Hilton, How Could I Be A Returning Guest even??????

Looking at the details of the card we found out they made a mistake. Lionel Lim’s name was mistaken for another Lionel Lim residing in Singapore who owns a Hilton Club Membership. Now it clicks.. That’s why we were treated so royally from the start. Anyway the cool thing is that the staff told us, it’s ok, it was their mistake but the service they intend to provide will still go on for us..

So can you imagine paying a cheap package offered by Firefly but able to stay in a super high class room with superb view. And cleaners cleaning your room 3 times a day. Even our room door, bed and toilet was decorated with orchid flowers. Lovely.

 

Here’s our room… Room 306.. notice the big toilet and the toiletries’ brand.. CRABTREE & EVELYN!!. the toilet papers were rolled into that fan shape evryday and the hand towel folded into that cute little Dumbo evryday too..

The sun was scorching hot… the monsoon ended two days before we came. So with light shirts, shorts and cool shades, we walked out of the hotel grounds on Karon streets to rent a bike. We got one for a good deal of RM 30 for 2 days. With a Suzuki automtatic scooter we decided to tour the whole town of Karon. First stop was lunch at a boutique hote by the beach. I particularly love the ambience anchitecture beauty of each boutique hotel. It’s unique each in its own way.

Lunch is over.. what else???? GUESS?? shopping la…. here comes a long list of souvenirs for a long list of people back home. hahaha.. so we got all of it at Karon that day. Welcome to Karon’s Town and sunset view and Karon’s beach.

Dinner at Karon, we decided to go for the locals. Pancake. RotiCanai pastry with toppings and filling. Interesting blend.

By that time of the day, it really felt we were bout to crash due to exhaustion from a WHOLE day of travelling. Back at the hotel we took a nice hot bubble bath, drank coffee, ate chips, watch TV and zzzz.

Arise and Shine…I was looking forward to our buffet breakfast. Eager to taste what a 7 star hotel buffet breakfast would be.. And i was indeed pleasantly surprised…. A BREAKFAST BY THE POOL… Awesome.. with a high canvas roof over our heads to keep direct sun.. we got enough sun to warm the cool morning surrounded by the sounds and sight of blue waters and a man made waterfall. The food was luxurious. LITERALLY an INTERNATIONAL buffet. There was large and variety selection of pastries, buns, cakes, cheese, hams, cereals with all kinds of nuts (including cashew nuts), thai dishes, western dishes, oriental dishes, Malaysian dishes (pau, wan tan), korean dishes, SUSHI, etc….. etc….. etc.. Oh and also 5 selections of juices excluding coffee and tea. We at so full we skipped lunch that day.

Well here we are on the second day at Phuket. Second day took us to the town of Patong (the town that got hit badly during the tsunami). Patong has a flat landscape compared to Karon which actually made it vulnarable during the tsunami. We shopped and rode through the streets of Patong. Beautiful archituring. Nice long beaches. Interestingly though they were badly hit due to the tsunami, the town actually bloom back almost overnight. Not forgetting, we also spend sometime soaking in the sun on Patong’s beach and enjoying the clear waters of Patong waters. Wonderful experience.

We did not stay long at Patong. By mid day we headed back to our resort for a good swim at the pool. As we were laying on the pool chairs we were served with juicy dragon fruits and watermelons.

Evening came another beautiful sunset….

Tonight we decided to visit Kata Town. Kata beach was more rocky and doesn’t really have long beaches. It was Our last night here at Phuket so we decided to go for a romantic beach seafood dinner. We rode and rode and stumble upon Mom Tri’s Kitchen-Fine Dining by the beach. As we step inside the building it was as if we were stepping into Wonderland. Lush gardens build on different tiers, nice round steps leading the way down to the restaurant. Fountains surrounded the place creating a calming effect. The whole place was litted with huge lanterns hanging from the trees. finally we heard the music of the piano. Located deep in the garden, was the little restaurant that stretched out ABOVE the sea. Build on rocks, the whole place was magical. It was like a dream come true. As we ate we could hear and see the waves hitting the rocks.

 

 

Since it was suppose to be a fine dinner for us.. we ordered the most expensive dish on the menu (this is another first time experience). We had SEAFOOD PLATTER for two. The meal began with starters of bread, bread sticks, tortillas and baked aubergine with cheese. A plate of fresh green salad…Then comes the big bang of … mussels, white prawns, tiger, prawns, huge lobsters, and a whole white Garupa. Later we were served with Strawberry Fondue for deserts.. Exquisite dining. Great service. How much better a dinner could I ever asked for.

We rode the bike one last time through Kata and Karon stopping on the fly at one shop cos I spotted a beutiful skirt. LOL.. Yup I got my favourite souvenir on the last day the last stroll through town. Back again at our room. We opened and all the gifts and souvenirs we bought and started figuring out how are we to pack them into one Black Luggage.

That Night I slept peacefull, with deep gratitude for God’s blessing ONCE AGAIN. A wonderful gift from God.

Bye PHUKET

  

counting my blessings and naming it one by one

My Week-Long Holiday

Mon – Tues:

For the first time we are going to leave our little home unattended for so long. It was still dark when we left our home. I felt my heart skipping away into that happy holiday mood. I love the coolness of that morning. We drove and drove and at around 9 am we reached our first destination of our Holidays; BIDOR!!!! Hometown of my darl. We were suppose to meet our college mates here who were also on a college field trip, but since we arrived earlier, Lionel drove to his aunty’s noodle shop. WAH a plate of noodles with curry sauce, with lots of liu and 2 cups of drinks only costs us less than RM 4. Cant believe!!! KL RM 4 can only fill a quart of your tummy! We strolled the small town for a while longer. A nostalgic feeling, laid back mood could be sensed throughout the town.

Then the VANS arrived. The bunch of BCM-ers finally touched down on Bidor. And they were ready to devour all the food they could. MUAhahahaha.. DUCK NOODLES was the first to be devoured. Many duck’s drumsticks were cruely chopped off to feed these mouths from KL. ……………………………………………………………………….it was a pity DELICIOUS!!

After consuming ducks, the whole bunch of us moved on to destination 2: KAMPAR! Driving along the crowded streets of people cycling, riding bikes without helmet and big old Hup Seng Buses roaring away, one of our friends spotted our next food stop. The ice kacang shop. Wahlau… at the entrance of the shop was a sign “buy 10 free 1″ back in KL even with the offer of buy 1 free 1, people will still walk away. But I am really wondering what’s with Kamparians that they can confidently put a buy 10 free 1 sign. Either the food is really good or people there love contributing to the economy even if they only get back minimal rewards. Anyway back to the ice-kacang eating frenzy… it was indeed a cold frenzy.. We ordered almost every type we can find on the menu. And we did receive the buy 10 free 1 offer.. LOL

 

Eating did not ceased after ice-kacang.. we went on snacking on anything we see sold along our way. Too much I forgot what i ate even. Look at all the hungry posers

 

Good thing we took a break from food and headed to more nature activities. Waterfall was it..! lovely refreshing and good de-stressin. The guys went crazy, the girls were kept cool. haha. Great fun time and crazy time skipping stones. Some of us could skip a good 4 times while many of the rest just sanked the stone.

    

This is the I LOVE NATURE GIRL……. and her recruits

   

The good part is at least we are not gluttons always..though we may sound like a bunch of them… Our next stop was not about food anymore..It was truly an experience for all of us and it was an interesting one. We visited a drug rehab centre known as the Vineyard Keepers. Visiting Rehab centres always sounds so uncool especially for a holiday stop over. I felt that way…. but wait a minute.. the moment we drove in the drive way of the centre.. It was like in somekind of recreational centre more than a drug rehab centre. SERIOUS.. DEAD SERIOUS… it is a beautiful place.. The rehabilated druggies literally did beautiful wall carvings on almost everywall. The most beautiful part was the chapel. It looked like a cathedral. Angels singing, playing musical instruments, bible story characters we all carved and painted carefully on the walls. The most painstaking art was carving scripture verses. Every alphabet was carved beautifully in celtic fonts ALL OVER THE WALLS.

The centre owns a massive plot of land which allow them to have a fully equipped gym with full sets of weights and sand bags. They have several courts for sports, a huge football fields a farm of cows goats and sheeps. They reared a kennel of huge K9 Dogs. Foxes, monkeys, birds fishes was all part of their animal family. Another section of their land was  alocated for a gorgeous orchard of flowers, plants, fruit trees and vegetation.

When that little excursion was done… we were all set back on FOOD.. food and more food.. It’ll make you feel blotted if I would to blog the details of the food we had.. So I better not spoil your apetite.. My advice is: Go to ipoh and experience the food yourself and BLOG bout it.

Alas we can finally take our shower and bunk in for the night. We all bunk in Emanuel Church, Ipoh like sardines in a can. We girls were shivering through the night in a small air-con room, with hardly any blanket to cover and woke up with sore backs and sore necks from sleeping on the hard floor with only our bags or stack of clothes as pillows.

Here we go gila-gila-siao-siao-pose-pose and SNAP SNAP in the main sanctuary :P

 

   

But morning breakfast was comforting to our aches and sprains. Good chee-cheong-fun with the famous mushroom souce. YOU CAN’T get this kind in KL! Look at the toast bread ….. topped with the irresistable mouth watering perfectly done half boiled eggs. Look at the yoke… imagine in seeping through your taste buds as you munch on the freshly toasted bread. YUMMY YUMMY YUM YUM.. I WANT IT NOW!!!!!

Here is a Travel Tip when visiting IPOH.. YOU MUST STOP BY THIS SHOP… (Yee Hup)

Here’s where you can get fresh from the oven Hiong Peng and other chinese homemade Biscuits. This is the shop most famous in all Ipoh. They have several branches all over Ipoh but this particular shop we went is the want where the biscuits are baked then supplied to the branches.. So you guarantee get the freshest of the freshest. After that food shopping we stop for coffee and tea at a mamak. This was our last destination with the gang at Ipoh. The gang would continue into the cave of Gua Tempurung, attempting to finished still in one clean piece. While my hun and me would continue up north to Penang.

The journey to Penang seem to me like a blink of the eye and .. BINGO we reached.. well maybe is because I slept all the way til Penang Bridge. Woke up just in time to take pictures of the Bridge. From the bridge Penang looked like a serene lively harbour city. We headed to Gelugor to USM to meet my bestfriend but the hardworking friend of my was still in lectures so she told me to shop from 12 pm to 6pm then only return to USM. She suggested me to shop at queensbay mall. Shopping.. hmm sounds good for a KL-lite. So we made our way to queensbay. Not familiar with the roads on the island we traveled almost half of Penang to get to the mall which was only like 10 mins away from where we started off. We hit one wrong road after another that’s how we ended up exploring half of the island before finally reaching the mall. The mall is HUGE-MONG-GOUS…. You’ll probably shop til you drop and faint… Dun ever attempt shopping at that mall for so many hours with your Boyfriends.. They will forever be traumatizzzzed.

Anyway, after that long hour shopping, I finally got to meet my dear Eang Bee. We talked alot as usual… it was a good thing her boyfriend was able to join us too.They were a good host. They brought us round Penang town and continue to feed our glutonny. We bunk at his apartment that night. Apparently that night at the apartment i pulled a muscle in my neck. Well many of you may not know that I have weak neck muscles since 14 years old. Due to that I was always advice not to strain my neck and to stay away from active sports. But as you know the way I play my games, no one will think my neck is not suited for any of those sports. Okay so I pulled my neck and it was really bad I could hardly move my neck. I could not even sit down. Almost any slight pressure on my neck in almost any position sent sharp pain from my lower neck to the back of my head. It was really a downer..

Thankfully my caring darl, bought yoko-yoko from a 7-11 store and I pop in a good dose of Postan, lay flat on my back and decide to just sleep off. My darl said a prayer and all i could remember after that was a good tight sleep with my darl beside me through the night.
Wed:

The traffic noice from the streets below woke us up. I sat up, turned and stretched my neck a little here and there … and…. Thank God! It was so much better. Just a little sore stil but no more sharp pains. So I applied more Yoko-yoko and off for breakfast. Eang bee and Abe brought us for Pan Mee and Nasi Lemak. ooooo The Nasi Lemak is so  so much nicer than what we get at Kanna.. LOL…

It was quite a rush breakfast because we had to beat the morning traffic and get to the Penang International Airport for our next Holiday destination.

So zoom zoom we went within minutes we were at the huge automatic glass door of Penang International Airport’s arrival entrace. We bid our dear friends bye… and off they went with our car. They would be babysitting our car for the next 3 days. What a Lovely and fun couple they were…. I wish my best friend all the best.. It’s really fun to hang out with your best friend that had been with you since primary til secondary school days. And the double joy is to be able to share our lives and fun with two added love of our life. What a journey together.

Walking through the airport we check in our single black luggage, got our tickets and chilled at Mc D with a cup of hot tea.

YOU MAY BE NOW WONDERING TO KNOW MORE ABOUT OUR NEXT HOLIDAY DESTINATION…

GUESS WHAT…… YOU WILL SOON READ ABOUT IT MORE

IN MY NEXT POST….

……………..to be continued

CLICK HERE to view Bidor-Ipoh Holiday Album

Here And There

Here and There

At this moment

Here and There

Every week for me

All the way from Cheras

To Kota Kemuning

Lord, at this moment

I’m Here and There

 

Hustling and Bustling from one place to another. My wardrobe have been a mobile one since this month.

My toiletries and accessories have also gone on the move with me. It feels strange to be moving and not being home so often.

But it’s an interesting and challenging journey.

I miss home when the weekend comes and then when the weekend ends I miss my new Home at K.K

 

Thanks KK-rians for your friendship

Miss you guys for now!!!

see you all soon!!!!

What Were My Holidays Like?

Okay…. This is how the holiday started..

The first week went by like this:~

DAY 1&2

UPHILL… Naik Bukit Genting With BCM Gals just for one night…. we ate, played, prayed, ate more, watch wayang, bump each other, and **cuddle** in one room.

 

DAY 3

Leon came back from Spore by plane..after Lionel fetch him and his female fren, Ai Min from air port, they came to my house to pick me up for a whole day of outing…. PHEW!! actually it was an outing to satisfy Leon and his singaporian friend’s food craving. Thank God I live in Msia… Yumm Yumm!

So first stop was Dim Sum.. Leon Paid.. whoo-hoo… Second was KFC @ Curve, then back to Kota Kemuning for homecook dinner… supper was with BCM fellas, Danny, Victor Lee and Girlfren, Jon Koo, Lionel, Me, Leon and Ai Min.

Day 4

Mid val with Ps. Ooi Lin’s family til lunch den headed to Leon’s dentist for his surgery, but good for him, the surgery was not done and it was postponed again. So headed off to Tesco for shopping with the whole family…. shop till you drop…..good thing none off us drop..LOL…

well.. oh ya.. that night we had a show “run fat boy run”… Aft that lionel, leon and ai min slept over at my house so that the next day we did not have to wake up so early to visit Miracle (Leon’s Kai Lui) at Sg. Long.

Day 5

Miracle House… see miracle… den Went to Klang to pick stuffs up …….

Dinner was great!!!! we went for Korean Barbeque with Painted Picture Band and then went over to one of the band member’s house to play Nintendo V.. wakakkakakaka cool… we played boxing, golf and tennis.. it was fun to see the silly expressions of everyone.

 tap-tap-tap with Leon’s IPhone

 Korean Barbecue~Look at the Meat… YUM YUM

 Virtual Boxing with Lionel on Nintendo

Then came the weekend back to church and work……

SUNDAY.. ARGHHH WOKE UP WITH A RED EYE on the right eye… sighs down with sore eye……

Week two was stressful yet the happenings in the week did bring some relief :~

Monday I tried to get enough rest for the family dinner in the evening but eyes did not really cooperate much.. it watered and watered….

Wednesday was the day we went to Cyberview Lodge to check out the place….YEAH!! finally prayer answered. He provided us an award winning garden… Truly he gives and takes away all for a better plan!! 

Thursday, shopping for dresses with the Kay Renn, Yuli, Wai Chi, and Eang Bee…..YEAH YEAH!! Double blessing cos’ now I don’t have to worry about their dresses! Another Big Relief

ooooh but Friday came and eyes hurt even more. Went to doc again for a change of medication cos’ the first medication did not seem to work very well.. sighs..

Saturday, woke up.. *gasp*GOSH. BOTH EYES were red.. the virus must have spread in the night to the left eye.

And Sunday came, swollen, extremely painful and teary. My already small eyes looked even smaller now. NO!!! Then after the service, one of my member who also had sore eyes said he dripped the eye drop every hour and it helped his eyes clear faster. So I decided to be my own doc and started dripping the drops every hour …… GUESS WHAT!!!???

I could sit up the whole afternoon and finisg my assignment without the slightest pain or teary eyes. And best of all the swelling went down, pain got tremendously lesser, and my eyes came back to its normal size..

 

How would I evaluate the holidays????!!????!!

 It was everything but DULL

Yup Thats Bout It!!

Mr. Prez’s Daughters Wedding

The reason i’m posting bout Ps. Kok Kee’s Daughter’s wedding is because the venue captivated me…

The wedding dinner was at the Bankers Club located on the 22nd floor of Amoda building, right opposite Times Square.

Here are the photos:-

This is the cocktail section which is the main hall where the cake cutting and toast will be held. As you will see in the photos, this area has a large sitting area with couches and also in the middle of the hall there is a grand stairway leading to the second leval. Hight ceilings and high big windows made the room such a grandeur! There is a baby grand piano at one end of this section and also another louge room linking this hall. The wood furnishing is awesome. So like some 18th century Britist Aristocrat social gathering venue.

 

Snapshots from the large windows:~

 

Hall Ambience at 7.30 pm:~

The Dining Hall is another section of the venue. Its a two leval section. The upper section has grand balconies over looking the lower section.