Trip to Langkawi Island

After absence of 2 years, we've finally manage to go for a small trip of 3 days 2 nights at Langkawi. Early preparations were made for flight and accomodations. Since my mother-in-law might feel out-of-place during the trip, we bring along someone close to her as her partner. This is also a chance to convince her to use a proper walking stick instead of an umbrella by telling her stories that we can't take it into the plane's cabin.

Though the trip is of 3 days, we only manage to visit Underwater World, Crocodile Farm and Wildlife Park only. Too bad the cable car was closed for maintenance as we were looking forward for it. But I doubt even if it's open, we can find the time to go there. Reasons being we need to really make lots of time for the elderly to stroll and shop. It really took them ages just to shop for one thing, worst still they can't decide what to get. Finding a good place to eat is another issue as what we wanted to eat ended up as what they do not want to eat. And when we reached the place where it serves food that they can eat, it also took them a long to decide what they wanted to eat!

However, it is still an enjoyable trip and William is really enjoying himself in the new place and environment, and we did get many good photos for memories. On and off, William does get abit cranky due to insufficient nap time between travels but all is well when he got the chance to sightseeing.

Company Trip to Pulau Jerejak

Last year, our company promised of a company trip "over the sea". This year they fullfills it by going to Jerejak Island (in a way it is still over the sea with the ferry trip). Though my office is only a stonethrow away from Pulau Jerejak, I had never touch foot there before. Most of the people went there will say "it's boring", "nothing much to do", "the food is bad" etc. So when my company decided to go there as a company trip this year, those who knew about it says "aiyah, go other place also better lah... waste money and time only...". So for most of us that is from Penang branch, we never really got excited about the trip.

Finally the day came, 2 days trip from 15th August 2009 till 16th August 2009. The first day itself is very sunny and hot. A bus fetch those flew from JB and KL to the Jerejak jetty from the Penang airport while those from Penang drove and parked our cars there. Everyone met up and took the 11.30am ferry over to Jerejak island. Surprisingly, I had a very good time there. The trip is not as tiring and rushed compared to last year, we had ample time to relax and do some free strolling around the resort. The games that we had were short and sweet. We also had funs from dancing and singing.

The trip so close to Penang island is a blessing as well as I get to go back at night to be with my baby, while the rest stayed overnight at the resort. I went back to the resort the next early morning, and though I'm alone, the ferry trip was even more pleasant with its cool fresh air and wonderful scenary. As the headcount going to the resort is small, we took a small boat instead which I liked a lot (windy and faster :P).

At the end of the day, most of the staff requested to go Bali next year. Let's see what the management can do about it.

Taiping Zoo

My husband and I purposely took leave (I need to clear my leave anyway due to the coming maternity leaves) to go to Taiping to visit the zoo. It has been more than 5 years since we last went there, and it was quite memorable. In fact, we prefered Taiping Zoo compared to National Zoo in KL and Singapore Zoo as the track is easier to walk and animals are easier to see, though this will translate to being a smaller confinement area for the animals which would be unhealthty.

Most animals are in the shades to avoid the rain

Too bad our visit was cut short as it was raining in Taiping throughout the day.

Karaoke Taxi

During my business trip to KL yesterday, I manage to catch a LCCT budget taxi that is equipped with karaoke function. The taxi driver proudly pronounced that this is the first taxi in Malaysia that allows the passengers to sing karaoke inside the taxi. There's 3 mini LCD screens inside the taxi so that individual passenger can have their own view of the MTV if they are not travelling alone. You can even make request on the songs and the driver is glad to change the CD for you if he has it. The driver provided me his calling card, and you'll be surprised from the name printed that he's a Japanese. So for those that wished to sing to their heart content while commuting inside a taxi to/fro LCCT, do let me know.

The mini LCD screen for your own view

Feel free to use the mic and sing your heart out

Trip to Bukit Tinggi (Berjaya Hills)

This was my second trip to Bukit Tinggi Resort, which is now known as Berjaya Hills. My first trip was 5 years ago which was quite memorable. However, we did not manage to take any photo during the first trip due to faulty camera. This time was a chance to shoot whatever we had missed out. Furthermore there were supposed to be new attractions since we last went as there were still some on-going development during our first trip which appeared to be none!.

It took us about 7 hours ride from Penang to reach Berjaya Hills inclusive of stops for breakfast at AutoCity, lunch in Ipoh, few rest stops along the way, many cars in highway, heavy rain, lost in Sg Buloh area etc... Since we reached there quite late, we only manage to visit the french village and ate dinner at one of the restaurant there as well. There's French Castle nearby but it is closed for public due to some "private event" which makes us very disappointed.

No longer an ugly duckling

The next morning, we left for Japanese Garden & Botanical Garden. The landscaping and scenaries were breathtaking. The old folks that travels with us was unable to enjoy the track much due to their wobbly legs. Luckily we took some video of the scenaries so that they can watch it when we get back.



Our final stop was the Rabbit farm. The rabbits had reduced tremendously since we first went there, and the place for feeding petting was partitioned into one small area. We suspect it could be due to the unbearable torture that the rabbits had to endure from children that we had seen during our first trip (pulling the ear, swinging & throwing the rabbit here & there...). It was a shame that the Rabbit farm was reduced in such a state, else it would be a nice place for families to enjoy themselves, just that we need to ban all those "naughty" children.

Singapore Trip - Day 4

Today is the last day we'll be in Singapore. We started the day by having breakfast at Chinatown. I suspect Singaporean likes sweet stuff, cos even their 1/2 boiled eggs are served with pepper and dark soy sauce (sweet). My husband had very hard time accomodating with the change of flavour, as we usually takes it with light soy sauce instead (salty). After the "weird-tasting" breakfast, we head down to some stores to buy souvenirs.

We tried to go to DHL hot-air balloon ride but it was raining the whole day. So we ended up shopping at Bugis Junction instead. It was really disappointing for both of us not having to go on the ride. Hopefully the ride will still be available few years down the road, should we plan to go to Singapore again. We left Singapore at around 3pm to catch our flights back to Penang.

In all, it was quite an fun trip. Too bad the trip was abit too short and we did not manage to go to all places that we had planned earlier.

Singapore Trip - Day 3

We went to Jurong Bird Park in the morning. I'm not sure why, but few of my friends laughed at me when they learned I went to the Bird park. We reached there around 11am and managed to catch the morning show. It was drizzling earlier on, causing the environment to be very hot and humid after the show, thus making us feel very unpleasant to walk around the park. We stopped by air-conditioned places to catch some breather any chance we got.

Super hungry birds

There's a place where visitors can feed the birds and snap some nice photos while feeding the birds. Infact, the birds just followed you everywhere you go with the feeding on your hand. In other area, it was difficult to see any bird at all, as there were too many bushes/trees around, and the birds like to hide in these places.

Next we went the Zoo, and reached there around 4pm by taking a long journey in a bus from the MRT station. The white tigers there was magnificent. There's a polar bear as well, but the bear seemed abit "cuckoo" in the head as it keep walking the same path, round and round the whole time. Perhaps it is lonely as there's no other mate at all.

Mr "famous" guy in candy and toothpaste ad

We did not go for the night safari as was planning to meet my friend that is currently staying in Singapore for dinner. She brought us to Bukit Timah for indian food, which i feel is quite nice. I guess we must have been to the wrong places to eat all these while.

After dinner, we went for some sight-seeing in areas around City Hall. Singapore National Library was super huge, more than 10 stories if not mistaken, and the land area stretches the whole road. Even our camera cannot fit the whole front area of the library. From there, we stopped by the parliment, clarke quay and merlion for more photo shooting. Here, we saw 2 beggers in Singapore for the first time. It seems that the rate of encounter in Singapore tourist area was relatively low :)

The huge National Library

Night scene of Clarke Quay

Singapore Trip - Day 2

We started the day at about 10am. After getting ready, we head down to Harbourfront Centre MRT in order to get to Sentosa Island. After asking around for where the cable car station is located, we continued on to purchase the necessary admission tickets and proceed with our destination. There are some nice views of the sea and harbour during the ride. Some development works were being done in Sentosa Island as well, probably to cater for new resorts and attractions.

Our first stop at Sentosa was the Butterfly Farm. Though it is big, it was abit disappointing as there were very little butterflies. The Butterfly Farm in Penang was definately better, and cheaper as well :P There is a live scorpion where we can hold with our hands for photo shooting. Alot of people was scared to touch it.

I braved myself by letting it stayed at the back of my palm for photo shooting :)

It started to rain then in Sentosa when we proceeded to Underwater World. There were lots of marine life and the dugong was very memorable. We were conned into purchasing some photos for SG$15 a piece. Next we proceeded to pink dolphine show (yes, the dolphines are really pink in color naturally, not dyed). The show was too short, only lasted for 30 minutes, perhaps due to the rain. We did not carry any umbrella with us, and uses plastic bags to temporarily shield our head instead. After a few stops at other attractions in Sentosa, we went back to the main island and stopped by at Vivo city for some window-shopping. Again, my hubby was sad as cannot found any toys that he wanted and complaining KL shopping was better.

We continued on to Suntec City at night for more toys hunting. We managed to find 2 shops there selling toys and collectibles, and my hubby was very excited to see some of the rare toys and bought two of them back. He was smiling all the way back to the hotel, and played all night long with his new treasures. For me, i was relieved as he no longer bugged me to bring him places to buy toys.

Singapore Trip - Day 1

This is my first time going to Singapore. As for my hubby, this was his 2nd trip. His first trip was when he was about 6-7 yrs old. So you can say that both of us are quite blur about the whole trip. We prepared 1 week ahead deciding which places to go, how to get there, checking out the maps, deciding on the routes etc.

We reached JB Senai airport at around 1.30pm, and took the Causeway Link bus (RM8) to go to Kotaraya station. From there, we took SBS bus no 170 (RM1.10), stopped at JB customs to scan our passport, board the same bus again which drove us to Singapore customs. There we stopped again to stamp our passports and scanned our luggage. There was someone behind us trying to smuggle some lobster, and was stopped by the immigration officer. We quickly came out (worry the officer may associate us with the smuggler) to board the same bus again and head to Kranji MRT station.

We managed to borrow 2 EzLink cards from our friends that frequents Singapore alot. Singapore had a neat way of interconnecting their public transport. You can use the same card for MRT and bus transportation for cashless transactions. The rate is cheaper when using the card as well. Our local public transport should learn from this. From the Kranji station, we stopped at Tanjung Pagar station and walked to Duxton hotel, the place where we're going to stay for 3 nights. It took us about 10 minutes walk to reach the hotel by following the map. Along the way, we admire some of the nice building structures. Surprisingly, Singapore is not as hot as Penang, and it was actually pleasant to walk. There were little cars on the road and no rubbish at sight. We also notice there are alot of Latio on the road as well. Malaysia had just launched the model few months back, and we hardly see it on the road. By the time we reached the hotel, it was almost 4pm. After resting for awhile, we went out and took some photos along the walkway. Then we notice that the MRT station is just right in front of us. Stupid map! Should have not follow it exactly. In all, it was just 3 minutes walk from the hotel to the MRT station.

The hotel that we stayed

The view of the lobby

Our destination for today was Bugis Junction (had very late lunch there), Bugis Street, Sim Lim Square and few shopping malls at Orchard Road. We notice that Singaporean eat their ice-creams clamped between 2 wafer biscuits. We used to have that in Penang when we were small, but now is replaced in cone instead. Our legs were aching from all the walking due to lack of exercise. I even had blisters :( My husband was hoping to get some nice toys at Forum Shopping Centre but was disappointed instead, though i manage to get some nice souvenirs from Takashimaya. We had dinner back at Tanjung Pagar foodcourt, but the food was terrible. Should have ordered the sandwich instead.

Trip to Cameron Highlands and the "Dangerous" event

I went to Cameron Highlands with some of my colleagues early May 2007, since most of use had never been there before. The four of us (all ladies) drove all the way up there from Penang via the new road exited from Simpang Pulai. We started our journey from my home at about 8.15am, ate breakfast at Autocity in Juru and reacjed Cameron at about 12.30pm. We managed to check in early at the hotel and proceed to sight-seeing after placing our bags in our rooms. Cameron was not as cold as we had thought it would be, at times i feel the temperature is almost the same as Penang. However, it is indeeda wonderfule place for taking photos, as the scenaries were exceptionally beautiful. Ofcourse, another plus was the cheap greens and strawberries that you can find almost anywhere in Cameron. We had our fair share of purchasing the greens, honey and strawberries.

We did encounter one event which i think we would remember for a very long time, not to mention that this event really makes me very disappointed at how our crime prevention in Malaysia works. Here's how the story goes...
I was driving the four of us were planning to go to Time Tunnel on our way back to hotel from Brinchang. We saw a big signboard on the right side of the road, indicating 150m to our destination. Moments later, we saw another small signboard at the left side of the road, followed by a left turn which had a very big gate opened. Thinking it is the way to go to our destination, we make a left turn. We then notice that it was a dead end, and make a U-turn in order to exit the area. Then we saw one malay guy was closing the gate which leads to the main road. We drove up behind the guy, thinking that he will open the gate for us. Instead, the malay guy proceed to close the gate and even lock the gate with a padlock and kept the key. We told him that we need to go out, and he scolded us that we cannot make a u-turn here. Without listening to our explanations, he went inside his house, lock the door and close all the windows. We honked the guy few times but he never come out from his house.
There were a little girl playing in that area, which i think is also staying in that area as well, were trying to open the gate for us. When she notice that it had been locked with a padlock, she ran to the guy's house and asked him to open the gate. Again, the guy did not come out. We quickly called the emergency line (112) using our handphone. I told the lady operator that we were locked inside by one guy and gave our whereabout in Cameron Highlands, but the operator is unable to connect us to the Police station in Cameron Highlands. The lady says that the number is not updated in their system!!. Furthermore, the lady asked me whether Cameron Highlands and Genting Highlands is it the same area. It took the operator more than 5 minutes to finally get us thru the Police station. If the guy was serious at hurting us, it would have take less than that to do so, and our emergency line took us more than 5 minutes.
In the meantime, 2 of my colleague (Jennifer & WaiLin) came out from the car and went to the gate, trying to call people from the opposite of the road to help us. They were waving their hands high and low, but people who saw us from the opposite road ignored us. As i was talking to a policeman on the line, a lady staying in that area came out to see what happenned. She signalled us indicating that the guy was crazy and then called the guy to open the gate for us. Finally the guy opened the gate and we quickly drove out and parked at the side of the main road waiting for the police. All these events is about 10 minutes.
We waited for more than 1/2 hour by the road side but the police still never come. I called the police again, and they said it is on their way. Then we notice that the crazy guy was observing our car. After that, he took a long wood and was walking towards us. We quickly drove our car to the opposite shops where there were lots of people buying things. I then called the police again, saying that we do not want to wait anymore, then only a car approached us with 3 guy inside and it was the police car. The total waiting time was about 45 minutes. Again, if the situation were really dangerous, what would happenned to us then. We told the officers on what happenned. They then went to the place to investigate while we waited. The policemen came out moments later, and told us that they were unable to find the guy, and that they managed to talk to other people and they did not know what had happenned. Obviously they did not talk to the childrens running around there as well. The policemen suggested us to make a report at the police station for cover purposes, in case anything happenned to us later. We followed their car to the police station, and the trip is less than 5 minutes (and it took them more than 45 mins to reach us).
At the police station, there is one fat policeman who is supposed to take our report, but he seems unwilling to do so and kept saying it is our fault. We tried to explain to him, but it seems he cannot understand what we are trying to say (his english command is very poor and our malay command is also poor, like chicken talking to duck). He then send me to talk to his superior (En Sabri) and i explained everything him. The superior english was quite good and understands what i was saying. In the end, we did manage to complete our report but we were unable to receive a copy of it as they says it is their off day. A policeman (Sgt Wan) did call me later at night to clarify the issue and says that the guy that locked us in maybe crazy, and that he will checkout for us the next morning. We did not receive any more news after that. So you think they really do their work after that, or simply take our report just to silence us? God knows.

Rude taxi driver

With the launch of Visit Malaysia Year 2007, we would have thought that the service levels must have or at least improved in Malaysia to promote tourism. But this is not so during my trip to KL last weekend. We had just reached KL Sentral and engaged a taxi to bring us to our hotel thru the ticket counter. When we bought the ticket, we showed the sales person our luggage to determine whether extra charge is needed, and there are none as we only had one small hand-carry luggage. As we walked out from the building, the taxi driver approached us, look at the ticket and said the amount is not enough. He told us to store the luggage in the car boot and to pay him the cost of doing so. When we told him that the sales counter did not imply such need and we would want to hand-carry it, to our surprise he shouted saying that the sales counter do not knowing anything and insisting to store the luggage in the boot. We don't mind paying the extra charge, but the taxi driver should not treat his customer rudely. Another thing is that, during the whole trip to the hotel, the taxi driver kept honking at the other drivers and motorcyclist on the road. Can you imagine what kind of impressions this would give to visitors and tourist to our country? Bad bad service. And i was looking for a complaint form to fill in...