Showing posts with label Holidays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Holidays. Show all posts
Pangkor Laut
26 August 2008, Tuesday
continue from here…
Day 2
I woke up quite early to catch the morning rays (okaaay … did not manage to catch the sun rise) way before the 2 boys got up. As Aiden is still on his restricted diet of no chicken/egg produce, I actually brought the slow cooker along to make his daily porridge. Time was spent preparing his meal, and by the time the 2 lazy pokers got up, we moseyed our way to breakfast.
I could really enjoy this life of doing nothing and having time on your hands to just enjoy the sea breeze, good food and great company. What more can one asked for?
Here's Aiden with his new friends, none of them could speak English by the way, in the library corner after breakfast. Hubby and I spent a quiet morning reading papers/books and surfing the net.
continue from here…
Day 2
I woke up quite early to catch the morning rays (okaaay … did not manage to catch the sun rise) way before the 2 boys got up. As Aiden is still on his restricted diet of no chicken/egg produce, I actually brought the slow cooker along to make his daily porridge. Time was spent preparing his meal, and by the time the 2 lazy pokers got up, we moseyed our way to breakfast.
I could really enjoy this life of doing nothing and having time on your hands to just enjoy the sea breeze, good food and great company. What more can one asked for?
Here's Aiden with his new friends, none of them could speak English by the way, in the library corner after breakfast. Hubby and I spent a quiet morning reading papers/books and surfing the net.
at the library
You're too young for Scrabble dear
Later in the afternoon, we had lunch by the beach – appropriately named Emerald Bay, the water was as green as emerald. Aiden, being a city boy that he is, was complaining all the way: that he had dirt (actually sand) in his sandals. It was really a comical sight for us, where he is playing with sand sitting on a towel! Noticed his displeasure every time sand got onto the towel!
The beach looks fun!
Mmm - check out those babes
Mummy - I dont like the sand!
Get the sand out of my towel!
You poor city boy...We celebrated Hubby's birthday and our wedding anniversary earlier, since we were in a resort; and I had made arrangements earlier for a birthday cake celebration (by the way the resort gave this to us complimentary!) which they had promptly served after our Haagen Daz ice cream dessert during Dinner. It came with musicians who did a duet in front of us, singing romantic songs....
chocolate mousse cake
So that was the end of Day 2, after a lazy after dinner stroll, we went back to our Villa to enjoy the remaining part of the evening.
Our Short Escapade
15 Aug 2008, Friday
What an eventful weekend it was last week. So many people were celebrating the auspicious 08-08-08 date, with weddings and births; we decided to "run away" to where the tag line of the resort was "One Island, One Resort".
It was absolutely fantabulous, I really don’t know what other words can describe our short but beautiful holiday, even though we had the little one with us. Some of my friends lamented why bring Aiden along, when it's a holiday set for a romantic interlude. But I couldn’t bear to leave him behind whilst we soak ourselves in the sun, sea and fun.
We left KL early on Friday morning hoping to catch the 11am ferry via Lumut, but alas, we missed the boat by a mere 5 minutes. It didn’t help too with hubby getting a speeding ticket along the way (!!). Trying to keep to mood up, we waited for the next ferry which took us to the island at 2pm.
Boy oh boy, the service is like "mou tak teng" – upon stepping onto the jetty, it was like one guest relation officer to one couple/family. They knew us by names and after a cool welcome drink and speedy check in, we were whisked to our villas.
Some photos of our Beach Villa:
It was absolutely fantabulous, I really don’t know what other words can describe our short but beautiful holiday, even though we had the little one with us. Some of my friends lamented why bring Aiden along, when it's a holiday set for a romantic interlude. But I couldn’t bear to leave him behind whilst we soak ourselves in the sun, sea and fun.
We left KL early on Friday morning hoping to catch the 11am ferry via Lumut, but alas, we missed the boat by a mere 5 minutes. It didn’t help too with hubby getting a speeding ticket along the way (!!). Trying to keep to mood up, we waited for the next ferry which took us to the island at 2pm.
Boy oh boy, the service is like "mou tak teng" – upon stepping onto the jetty, it was like one guest relation officer to one couple/family. They knew us by names and after a cool welcome drink and speedy check in, we were whisked to our villas.
Some photos of our Beach Villa:
the bedroom
expansive bathroom, check out the open air bath tub at the end
I like the little window next to our closet
bathroom amenities Day 1
We had late lunch, almost at 330pm at an informal bar/lounge overlooking the sea and the infinity pool. Thereafter, we all sauntered to the Spa reception to check out the Spa Menu and facilities. Aiden had a good time feeding the koi fish and turtles there, whilst lou kong had a personalized session with an Ayurvedic doctor.
After that, all three, Aiden, soaked in our villa's open air bath tub. It was heaven / bliss.
More photos:
We had late lunch, almost at 330pm at an informal bar/lounge overlooking the sea and the infinity pool. Thereafter, we all sauntered to the Spa reception to check out the Spa Menu and facilities. Aiden had a good time feeding the koi fish and turtles there, whilst lou kong had a personalized session with an Ayurvedic doctor.
After that, all three, Aiden, soaked in our villa's open air bath tub. It was heaven / bliss.
More photos:
bar overlooking infinity pool / beach
bliss...
Aiden checking out the babes
At the Spa Village
Having loads of fun
Aiden in our bath tubWe had late dinner at 830pm with Chinese sit down consisting of fish, succulent prawns and scallops with asparagus; overlooking the sea (although we couldn’t see much in the dark!). Yummy....
So that's our First Day, more updates to come in my next post... in the meantime, I leave you with this:
to be continued....
Trip To Singapore
10 April 2008, Thursday
Aiden took his maiden trip to Singapore last month. It certainly was quite exciting for hubby & I, and we had planned this up as early as February. I planned for a day's leave and took Aiden for to make his very first passport! I must say that our Immigration Department's services has stepped up of late, and I was surprised by their somewhat efficiency. Because I had Aiden in tow, we didn’t have to queue for the submission of documents, and managed to get into a special waiting line for oldies, preggies and exceptional cases. It took us all but less than an hour and I was surprised to hear that we could even collect the passport after 3 hours. Well, of course I didn’t want to wait and chose to return at the end of the business day, just as they were about to close. It took me less than 5 minutes this time.
It wasn’t a real holiday per se, as we were attending hubby's cousin's wedding. It was beautiful – held under a marquee at Fort Canning Park. Although it got a little warm towards the end of the night, as it was held outdoors under like a hundred spot lights.
We stayed here, managed to get a special deal through the internet. Although it's not smack in the middle of the city, it was a stone's throw away from the MRT station and we had no trouble getting around for the 3 days that we were there.
The stay was considerably short as we took a mid morning flight to Singapore and we could do much on the first day. Aiden was such a good boy, and slept immediately after lunch. We could not do much thereafter but to get ready for the wedding that evening. So voila, that was Day 1 gone….
On Day 2, we took a quick breakfast along Orchard Road, and headed for Tangs – we found out that there was a Baby Promotion that weekend. We bagged ourselves ~ err ok, more for Aiden, a Maclaren stroller – that was going for less than SGD250.00! We thought it was quite a steal. We then had dim sums with relatives and that took us to mid afternoon. We were quite pooped by then with all the walking and decided to return to the hotel to rest. Of course Aiden missed his routine nap but he was as perky as ever at the hotel and we really didn’t get much rest at all!!
That night, we went to visit our Godson and their parents who were based in Singapore and Aiden didn’t wait soon enough to make their apartment his new home. When we wanted to leave at the end of the night, he waved bye bye to us and promptly settled himself on my Godson's bed to continue playing!!
We left Singapore in the mid afternoon flight the next day, suffice to say we didn’t really do any serious damage to our pockets.
Leaving you with some photos of Aiden …
Aiden took his maiden trip to Singapore last month. It certainly was quite exciting for hubby & I, and we had planned this up as early as February. I planned for a day's leave and took Aiden for to make his very first passport! I must say that our Immigration Department's services has stepped up of late, and I was surprised by their somewhat efficiency. Because I had Aiden in tow, we didn’t have to queue for the submission of documents, and managed to get into a special waiting line for oldies, preggies and exceptional cases. It took us all but less than an hour and I was surprised to hear that we could even collect the passport after 3 hours. Well, of course I didn’t want to wait and chose to return at the end of the business day, just as they were about to close. It took me less than 5 minutes this time.
It wasn’t a real holiday per se, as we were attending hubby's cousin's wedding. It was beautiful – held under a marquee at Fort Canning Park. Although it got a little warm towards the end of the night, as it was held outdoors under like a hundred spot lights.
We stayed here, managed to get a special deal through the internet. Although it's not smack in the middle of the city, it was a stone's throw away from the MRT station and we had no trouble getting around for the 3 days that we were there.
The stay was considerably short as we took a mid morning flight to Singapore and we could do much on the first day. Aiden was such a good boy, and slept immediately after lunch. We could not do much thereafter but to get ready for the wedding that evening. So voila, that was Day 1 gone….
On Day 2, we took a quick breakfast along Orchard Road, and headed for Tangs – we found out that there was a Baby Promotion that weekend. We bagged ourselves ~ err ok, more for Aiden, a Maclaren stroller – that was going for less than SGD250.00! We thought it was quite a steal. We then had dim sums with relatives and that took us to mid afternoon. We were quite pooped by then with all the walking and decided to return to the hotel to rest. Of course Aiden missed his routine nap but he was as perky as ever at the hotel and we really didn’t get much rest at all!!
That night, we went to visit our Godson and their parents who were based in Singapore and Aiden didn’t wait soon enough to make their apartment his new home. When we wanted to leave at the end of the night, he waved bye bye to us and promptly settled himself on my Godson's bed to continue playing!!
We left Singapore in the mid afternoon flight the next day, suffice to say we didn’t really do any serious damage to our pockets.
Leaving you with some photos of Aiden …
Taking his photo was a nightmare - it was close to 15 mins and 10 takes after that we managed a decent shot
Jumping - jumping - jumping: at the hotel in Singapore
Ma mee - can we take this bed home?Aiden's New Home
15 January 2008, Tuesday
[yet another backdated post]
Aiden was very excited when he got into his new home. It fitted him perfectly, and this was one home where he could actually reach for the windows and doors! Both mummy and daddy stood aside proudly while he explored this new place and after a good 10 seconds, he declared it His.
You may be wondering if we just bought a new place? Actually, no….
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this new place is just the right height for me
check out the window - I can actually reach the sill
ahh - let's get comfortable
Daddy - can we take this home? Aha - Caught you there! This was taken on Christmas Day in Westin Hotel, KL. The 3 of us, hubby, baby and 1 splurged 1 night and stayed in the hotel on Christmas' Eve. We had a 5 course set dinner at EEST (a restaurant in Westin) and later on took to the KL lights around Bukit Bintang area and Pavilion. Of course Aiden had the most fun exploring the hotel room and huge bathroom and didn’t get to bed until 1130pm that night. As for me and hubby, we slept on Westin's trademark "Heavenly Bed" full of bliss……
Preparing for Christmas 2007
14 Jan 2008, Monday
[backdated post]
Here's Santa's little helper….well, not so little anymore eh? Now, he can help me hang ornaments on the tree (errr – I think it was more like removing and destroying the ornaments on the tree).
When I was putting up the tree, I recalled Xmas 2006, when he was barely 6 months old and was presented with a walker by my parents! How time flies!
[backdated post]
Here's Santa's little helper….well, not so little anymore eh? Now, he can help me hang ornaments on the tree (errr – I think it was more like removing and destroying the ornaments on the tree).
When I was putting up the tree, I recalled Xmas 2006, when he was barely 6 months old and was presented with a walker by my parents! How time flies!
Psst - there will be several backdated posts coming ahead as I have not updated my blog for so long !
To Give Or Not Give
16 October 2007, Tuesday
(Part 1 of our trip to Siem Reap)
That is the question that constantly plagued Hubs and I when we visited Siem Reap some weeks back. Apart from visiting the astounding ruins of what we have come to know as Angkor Wat and its surrounding temples such as Angkor Thom; Hubs and I were overwhelmed with the level of poverty and the sight of grubby children and pleading young mothers with comatose babies can be pretty hard to bear.
So it's an aged old question for us, and we all know that most of the time pity is what moves us to give but is giving always the right thing to do? Also, due to this tourist habit of giving in to child begging, many of the poor Khmer parents are forced to send their children to beg while they stay at home. According to Friend's International, Khmer children have the capacity to earn up to 10 times more as compared to their parents take home pay if they were both working full time.
Some of the most disturbing scenes of beggars in Cambodia are those involving mothers with young babies. Hubs and I experienced this during a boat ride out in the Tonle Sap Lake. During a leisure stop by the tour guide, a small sampan guided by a young mother and her 3 children – a teenage girl, a young boy around 5 years old and a baby stopped by our boat. As though on cue, the teenage girl started to plead with me to buy a can of soft drink or some bananas; the little boy (only in short pants) was crying and it was obvious his mother was scolding him. We didn’t know what the girl was saying (they were Vietnamese), and all I understood was these 3 words "Please … buy something". I was cajoled into buying a can of soft drink for USD1, of which I gave to the boat driver. They awful thing was that as soon as they kayaked away, the teenage girl stopped her pity look and talked in normal tones with her mother and the boy had stop crying altogether. They were heading towards their next target some 100 meters away…
Here are some photos we captured of the Floating Village where Khmers and Vietnamese (we were told they were refugees) live together:
(Part 1 of our trip to Siem Reap)
That is the question that constantly plagued Hubs and I when we visited Siem Reap some weeks back. Apart from visiting the astounding ruins of what we have come to know as Angkor Wat and its surrounding temples such as Angkor Thom; Hubs and I were overwhelmed with the level of poverty and the sight of grubby children and pleading young mothers with comatose babies can be pretty hard to bear.
So it's an aged old question for us, and we all know that most of the time pity is what moves us to give but is giving always the right thing to do? Also, due to this tourist habit of giving in to child begging, many of the poor Khmer parents are forced to send their children to beg while they stay at home. According to Friend's International, Khmer children have the capacity to earn up to 10 times more as compared to their parents take home pay if they were both working full time.
Some of the most disturbing scenes of beggars in Cambodia are those involving mothers with young babies. Hubs and I experienced this during a boat ride out in the Tonle Sap Lake. During a leisure stop by the tour guide, a small sampan guided by a young mother and her 3 children – a teenage girl, a young boy around 5 years old and a baby stopped by our boat. As though on cue, the teenage girl started to plead with me to buy a can of soft drink or some bananas; the little boy (only in short pants) was crying and it was obvious his mother was scolding him. We didn’t know what the girl was saying (they were Vietnamese), and all I understood was these 3 words "Please … buy something". I was cajoled into buying a can of soft drink for USD1, of which I gave to the boat driver. They awful thing was that as soon as they kayaked away, the teenage girl stopped her pity look and talked in normal tones with her mother and the boy had stop crying altogether. They were heading towards their next target some 100 meters away…
Here are some photos we captured of the Floating Village where Khmers and Vietnamese (we were told they were refugees) live together:
to be continued..
Note: NGO's and welfare workers in Cambodia seek for tourists to help children and the community through various alternatives. They have a huge network managed by Friends –International with the support of Cambodia Ministry of Tourism, USAID, UNICEF, AusAID amongst many others.
We're Going on A Holiday
27 September 2007, Thursday
We're going on a holiday tomorrow, just Hubs and me!! So I'm leaving you with several pictures of our travel destination (hee hee) and will update all with more details when I return. Have a cheerful weekend ahead ...
The Spa Village
06 September 2007, ThursdayHubs gave me a reprieve from the little tyke on Day-3 of our holiday so with much guilt (okay the guilt lasted for 15 mins only) I waltzed towards the Spa Village located at the east wing of the hotel. I had made prior reservations for a 50 minutes Balinese massage and was told to be there 10 minutes prior to the set time. What surprised me was that all their massages/treatments come with a 45 minute tea bath. So I actually had close to 2 hours of peace and me-time....Ahhh, it was heavenly bliss.....
Less talk and more photos? Mine does not do justice, so here's the site to the Spa Village.
Clockwise from left: My four-clawed bath tub filled with crysanthemum flowers and other nice smelling herbs; An open massage bed should you choose to have it there; The Waiting Room in between the tea bath and massage; Tea bags for eyes, and coarse sugar and lemon to scrub elbows and knees plus cold honey lime juice to keep your senses tingling....
(Top) : Trying my very best to keep my dignity and let you see what I experienced...Bliss; (Bottom): The massage room with Miss Ae
Our Merdeka Holiday (Part 2)
05 September 2007, Wednesday
We started our journey to CHR late because we by the time Aiden got ready, after his milk, bath and fruits, and WE got ready ~ hubs had to drive to at least 2 petrol stations to top up the black oil in the car plus we had to drop the maid off at MIL's; it was already noon and very close to Aiden's lunch time. Our journey had barely started when we had to make a pit stop at the Sungai Buloh rest stop to feed Aiden his porridge.
We started our journey to CHR late because we by the time Aiden got ready, after his milk, bath and fruits, and WE got ready ~ hubs had to drive to at least 2 petrol stations to top up the black oil in the car plus we had to drop the maid off at MIL's; it was already noon and very close to Aiden's lunch time. Our journey had barely started when we had to make a pit stop at the Sungai Buloh rest stop to feed Aiden his porridge.
Aiden was excited with all the commotion that he missed his morning nap. This was all the luggage we took, less than half compared to our first trip to Bukit Tinggi last year. The red SKII bag was filled with Aiden's paraphenaliaThe journey up was so-so, Aiden was so tired from the out-of-norm activities in the morning that he was cranky and cried for most of the time during the journey up. He fell asleep for an hour just before reaching Tapah but promptly woke up when we reached Simpang Pulai. From then on, he was like a little terror in the car, cryingfor a good half hour before he managed to fall asleep again. This time he slept all the way to our hotel. For those who are planning to go, take the Simpang Pulai way. It's a good route to use.
We didn’t venture out on Day 1 but spent most of the time at the hotel; starting off with tea and scones at the Jim Thompson room. Perhaps we had set our expectations a little too high, as the scones were a disappointment, but given the ambience and level of service – one is willing to give this an oversight. The sandwiches and crispy spring rolls had made up for it.
At the Jim Thompson room prior to check in. Note the background....ahhh blissThe bedroom was quaint looking, with a colonial feel to it, given the 4 poster bed, wooden flooring plus white wooden blinds on the windows. Personally the bathroom was a tad too small for me given that this is a boutique hotel, and I thought that they should have provided us with a proper baby cot versus a Graco play pen with a thin mattress.
Our bedroom. Notice the Graco play pen which is supposedly their baby cot. All the bedrooms come with a small balcony overlooking the golf course
The evening quickly passed and we had our first meal, dinner at the Dining Room. I must say that the service of the staff was close to excellent as they always made sure our needs were met. The quality of the food was quite good, and vegetables were very fresh. Hubs had a steak and I settled for cod fish. Although it was a 4 course dinner, we only managed 3, and had the waiter sent us our dessert in the room because Aiden needed his sleep.
We began Day 2 with a hearty breakfast, and went for a car ride around Cameron's. We did not make a lot of stops as Aiden fell promptly asleep once more in the car. I have not been to Cameron's for almost 3 years now, but I must say that development and commercialization sure is setting in at the highlands. You see stalls selling "fresh strawberries / jam" & "fried mushrooms" almost everywhere you turn. I'm glad that we chose to go on a weekday as we had most to the highlands to ourselves with little traffic.
At the Reading Room with Aiden doing his balancing act
Hubs was so kind to volunteer in taking care of Aiden for the rest of the afternoon when I decided to visit the Village Spa. I'll update about this in another post. Actually, the guilt lasted for maybe 10 – 15mins : from my room to the entrance of the spa. After that, it was just me, the aromatic oil and the masseur. Bliss….
Dinner was quite the repeat of Day 1 as Gonbei, the Japanese restaurant, was closed for maintenance. We reckon it was a just a nicer way to put it, but in reality it was because there were not enough guests in the establishment on a weekday. However, the staff was nice to prepare a Japanese set meal for us at the Dining Room. Verdict: not as good as Gonbei in KL. Given another chance, I would have chosen the set menu once more.
One set back with the hotel is the location as it is situated facing the main road leading towards Brinchang and out of Camerons. Being the eve of Merdeka Day, we were inundated with bikers between 11am till nearly 4am out having a good time. As it was also a stretch of straight road, they tended to speed and honk their horns. Normally, I would have brushed this away, but with a sleeping baby, every time a group of bikers sped by, I would cringe. Let's just say it was not a good night for all 3 of us, as Aiden woke up several times in the night crying.
It was our last Day at the resort, and having experienced a cranky baby in the car on our way up, we decided to leave Cameron's slightly earlier, timing it with his morning nap. After a quick stop at Kea Farm ~ what to do, I had to go buy my RM1 per packet vegetables and mushrooms; we made our home. It was a blissful ride as Aiden slept the moment we left the hotel all the way to Tapah.
I asked Hubs this question on our way home: "Did you enjoy the trip, B?" He just said "Let's wait till the baby is much older before we go on our next trip….yawn"
Nevertheless, I had an enjoyable time with both my babies and definitely am looking forward to many more to come.
Our Merdeka Holiday (Part 1)
04 September 2007, Tuesday
Here's a preview to the hotel that we stayed in. I will update more when I get the pictures sorted out; amidst the tons of work waiting for me in office...
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