Continues from here.

♥November 30th♥

The last day of our holiday in Lombok, and both Zara and I woke up 6am+ when it was already bright outside. She wanted to go to the pool, while I wanted to walk around the beach.

So we compromised. Beach first, pool later.

It was a lovely day to explore the beautiful grounds of Jeeva Klui and Klui Beach.

A lost crab found in the garden

When I tried to bring it out to the beach, it started frothing. Wonder if it’s a reaction of anger, or fear

A lone fisherman

Water at Klui Beach is very clear, and corals can be found near the shore

Mossy rock at the tide pool

Girls searching for clams at the tide pools

Local warongs at Klui Beach which were abandoned on that day

Cows gracing near Klui Beach

Very soft and fine black volcanic sand.

Beautiful and serene Klui Beach

Footprints of a Bird or Chicken?

Jeeva Klui has a couple of these pavilions for sunbathers in the day, and romantic dinners in the night.

House keeper in Jeeva Klui

Outdoor seating at the Restaurant. Not many early risers, hence it was totally empty.

Zaria and Daddy joined us an hour later for breakfast, and of course, Zaria wanted to spend time at the pool too. So the girls had pool side breakfast.

My breakfast, Nasi Goreng

Daddy’s breakfast, soft boiled eggs

Zara’s breakfast, omelette

Zaria’s breakfast, french toasts

The girls spent some time at the pool and then we had to return to the room to pack.

Our souvenir from Lombok – some seashells and dead corals swept to the beach. The red corals are from Pink Beach, which gave the beach there a pink hue.

We are so going to miss Lombok, Jeeva Beloam, and beautiful Jeeva Klui.

The spacious verendah of our room

The spacious toilet area

The shower area in the room

Everything here is so beautiful, even the Do Not Disturb and Make Up Room Sign.

This was one of the best holidays we’d been on. Lombok is such a gem, we’d definitely return, maybe next year.

Our currency is weakening, every time when I want to buy something from Singapore, the exchange rate would have made it very unaffordable.

Instead of saving in Ringgit, should we instead invest in us mint? Is it a safer bet?

I really need to think of a way to invest, save, to stretch the Ringgit further.

Going back to my pay, it hasn’t increased much, when prices of everything keep going up.

Like all children, the girls love to watch TV (we have no Astro, so they can only watch DVDs which we purchased for them), and also play games on the iPad.

Like a tiger mom, I only allow them to watch TV or have a 20~30min go on iPad when they have done what I’d assigned them to do for the day. It can be writing their journal or doing worksheets, depending. And if they have misbehaved, for example, fighting over who goes first on the iPad, then they’ll be grounded; and they will have to go without iPad or TV for a day/a week (depending on the severity of what they’d done).

On no gadgets and TV days, the girls will come out with all kinds of activities to keep themselves occupied; and of course having a sister each means they can still have a blast. Here are some moments of them doing things together on such days.

Reading a comic together.

Playing word games. They try to create as many words as possible using only the letters of a word (elephant, for example)

Climbing door frame. I was told, if a kid has done this, it means they have had an awesome child hood!

Pretending they were super heros, and designing their own super costumes and weapons.

Building a tent in the room and camping

Playing limbo rock using a stick they found in the house.

At times, no games are required, they just chi-chat.

Precious.

Continues from here.

♥November 29th♥

We didn’t really know what we wanted to do, but we thought it’ll be good to take a day tour, to see a traditional Sasak Village (Sasak are indigenous people of the island of Lombok), to go to the foot of Mount Rinjani.

While at breakfast, Daddy went out to a tour centre across the road from Jeeva Klui (just a small shed, but there’s car/motorbike rental and tour organising operated from there). We met with a driver we befriended at the airport on the day we arrived, he was picking up someone from Jeeva Klui. He suggested we rent a car for half a day to start off (~USD30/half day) and if we exceeded the 6hr we can always extend to a full day rental (~USD40/full day). As he was busy the day, he recommended his colleague.

So a plan was set. Herlan, his colleague, would pick us up at 11am.

Of course, while all these were being planned, the girls were at the pool, swimming, playing games, chatting, and…

Jumping..

My favourite shot. The 2 of them jumping together!

Herlan arrived on the dot. We wanted to go to Mount Rinjani, but it was too late since just the driving itself will take some time (and there’s trekking to be done too). Since we wanted to see a Sasak Village, he suggested driving South, on the way, we could stop at the Pottery and Weaving Village.

Thus began a typical Lombok day tour.

1st stop, is Banyumulek, the pottery village of Lombok, about 7km away from Mataram. The girls had a chance to try their hands on making some pottery.

Zara made a cup

Zaria of all things, made a snake! (Do you know how difficult it was to pack the snake to prevent it from breaking in the luggage?)

I wanted to buy 4 earthen mini casseroles with lids, they only have 1 with lid, and they couldn’t find lids that were perfect fit for the other casseroles I’d picked out, so I ended up didn’t buy anything.

After Banyumulek, we headed towards Sukarara, the weaving village, through villages and narrow roads.

We were attracted by corns drying at the road side by locals.

And we saw a lady removing corn kernels the traditional way. They were corns from her farm, and she would send the kernels later to be milled into flour.

As it was closed to lunch time, and we were no where near any tourist spot, we broke for lunch at a decent looking local warung. This is my USD1.2 lunch, Nasi Campur (Indonesian : Mixed rice), absolutely delicious!

Girls have rice with fried eggs; and Daddy had something similar like mine with salted eggs; (Remember if you ever go to Lombok, tried their salted eggs or buy them back as souvenirs. They are very tasty!). We had a few bottles of Teh Botol, a few packs of local fish crackers/keropok, and with Herlan’s lunch included, it was about USD7. Our cheapest meal in Lombok.

Next stop, Sukarara. We went to a village co-orp, and at the shop front, looms were placed with women doing a demonstration of how weaving is done.

I made an obligatory purchase, 2 small scarves. If you asked me, I think it was a waste of time going to Banyumulek, and Sukarara, unless you were planning to buy potteries or sarongs.

Besides bemos (converted passenger-carrying minivans), cidomo (horse-drawn cart) is another popular means of transport for locals. We spotted one ferrying school children home near Sukarara.

After Sukarara, we went to Sade, one of the most frequented traditional Sasak village in Lombok, villagers here disregard their modernising surroundings and continue to live in the old traditional way.

A guide immediately came forward and took us around upon our arrival.

The Sasak-style roof, which is symbol of Lombok architecture

Guess what the roof is used for? It’s to store grains from previous harvest (that’s why the height and the width of the roof).

There’s a Sasak ‘show-house’ for visitors, and we took a look.

Zaria coming down from the kitchen and second bed room

The lower floor where the main living room and master bedroom is

Due to tourism, the whole village was kind of like a souvenir market. Every house along the main lane (that tourist pass) has some souvenirs to sell to visitors.

There are back lanes where we could see people moving about doing their daily chores, and the real living condition.

A used kettle in the kitchen

A little girl.

Rice being dried (which would be turned into rice snack later) infested with flies.

Maybe it’s just me, I didn’t think it was worth the trouble visiting Sade, or Banyumule and Sukarara . We could have spent the time visiting other beautiful beaches.

We talked about Lombok Coffee in the car and how nice it is, especially the ones served in Jeeva Beloam. Herlan, our driver, told us his grandma grinds her own coffee and he has some at home, and invited us over to his place for coffee.

On our way there, we saw a Lombok wedding procession.

Herlan’s coffee was indeed very very aromatic and nice. I was eager to buy some home, so Herlan brought us to Kebon Roek Traditional Market, which runs in the morning, as well as in the evening, where locals get their groceries, and fresh produce from. That was the highlight of the day, at least to me.

Lots of cidomos outside the market waiting for pessangers

All kinds of snack were sold. Peanut cake being made fresh.

Vendors selling their produce on the floor.

Dry grocer

One of the vendors’ old weighing scale

Tofu and Tempe (one of my favourite food) seller

Basket load of Lombok tomatoes

Vegetable seller

Seafood seller.

Steamed mackerel for sale.

Fresh mackerel for sale.

Fish seller.

Coconut for sale

Fresh herbs and spice seller.

I bought some coffee powder, pepper corns from the market, and also a pastel and mortar for sambal. I was happy.

When in Lombok, one of the dishes you shouldn’t miss is Ayam Taliwang, a Lombok specialty of kampung (free range) chicken seasoned with special spices, and then either grilled or deep fried. I tried it at Jeeva Beloam, and didn’t really like it because the chicken used was wild chicken and it has a very strong ‘game’ taste.

Herlan brought us to Taliwang Irama at Mataram, a favourite among Indonesians. A simple restaurant, with greasy floor, stained table, filled with Indonesian tourists. Although no ambiance, the food served there was great! We ordered a chicken each, the girls wanted theirs fried, we ordered ours grilled; we added honey prawns, tempe (the best), and gado-gado to complete the meal. Herlan ate with us.

The chicken, very well seasoned and delicious!!

After dinner we headed back to the hotel. On the way back, we passed Senggigi town, many hawkers were set up at the road side selling BBQ and steam corns. Seems the locals like snacking on this, while they sat at the beach to relax.

Back at the hotel, Zaria decided to do some drawing before we go to the beach to have the extra Ayam Taliwang we packed home.

The chicken was so good, Zaria finished most of it (her 2nd chicken).

We just sat by the beach, have our chicken, chi-chatted and recalled all the things we’d done in Lombok.

Continues from here.

♥November 28th♥

Jeeva Klui, is a small boutique hotel with 35 rooms located on Klui Beach, 5km away from Senggigi, the main Lombok tourist area. The place is beautiful : the rooms spacious and functional, the grounds immaculately kept and nicely landscaped. Every thing is very stylish yet rustic.

Our room was a partial ocean room, located on the top floor of a two-story bangalow.

This was the view from our verandah.

Our room key.

The bangalow with our room on the top floor.

The girls were so happy there was a pool, like me, they prefer to swim in fresh water instead of sea water. We took a table at the restaurant which was close to the pool for breakfast to keep an eye on the girls while they swam.

Watching over the girls over breakfast

My healthy breakfast

Lounging by the pool.

It was hard to get the girl out of the pool, but we wanted to go to Senggigi for lunch and a walk about, and when they were told they could buy something from the art market, they agreed to shower and get dressed.

We took a bemo (small covered pick-up truck with narrow padded seating benches in the rear) to Senggigi, which we flagged outside of Jeeve Klui, and it cost about USD1 for 4 of us for the trip (an aircon taxi would probably be about ~USD2).

Senggigi is the main tourism centre on Lombok. Not as large or busy as its Bali counterparts, it’s more laid-back, with a small art market for shopping, a couple of mini-marts (we were looking for supermarket, but we only saw those 24 hours mini marts), a few spas. There were many cafes and restaurants that line the beach and along the main road, some local warungs, and lots of tour and dive/snorkeling centres.

We had lunch at Yessy Cafe (nice fried fish, simple hut like setting, nothing to shout about), and then did a walk about in Senggigi.

A sign board for a tour centre at the beach.

A painting on the wall of a restaurant

Lots of boats docking at the beach

A local warung at the beach.

Snorkeling and dive centre drying the equipment.

I don’t know where these baby turtles come from and why they are kept in the small tank, I hope they would be released out to the sea and not ended up on someone’s dining table.

A BBQ Warung we wanted to try, but only served beef mainly.

Late afternoon, I had a massage, the girls have their pedicure manicure done in a spa (all came out to be about RM60), while Daddy had a beer (or two?) at a bar waiting for us. Everyone had an hour doing what they like best.

Locals in Lombok are friendly, and we chatted with a few. Nobody seems to be in a rush, and they look like life is good to them.

Friendly local with ukulele

The son of the Bemo driver we took back to the hotel.

We went back to Jeeva Klui in the evening to catch the sunset, and the girls went back to the pool.

All around Jeeve Klui, sandstone statues like these can be seen.

Jeeva Klui restaurant in the evening

Jeeva Klui restaurant outdoor sitting in the evening

The sunset wasn’t that spectacular as it was a cloudy day. If it was a good and clear day, you can actually the sunset with Bali’s Mt Agung (yes, you can actually see Mount Agung from Jeeva Klui) on the horizon.

It was very nice though to have a sunset drink by the pool while watching over the girls enjoying themselves in the pool.

I love the turn down service in Jeeva Klui. It’s always interesting to see how they’d placed Fifi in the room.

For dinner, instead of dining in Jeeva Klui like the day before, we decided to take a cab to go to Mataram (the capital of the Province of Nusa Tenggara Barat, the province Lombok belongs to).

Daddy found this restaurant, Warung Menega online, and wanted to try out. It’s a Seafood BBQ restaurant by the sea. The fish and prawns (Lombok sure have the best prawn I’d ever tasted) were fantastic!

After dinner, we went back to the hotel, hang about in the reception area, and game room, and then off to bed.

Jeeva Klui reception in the night

Continues here.

Continues from here.

♥November 27th♥

On our 3rd day at Jeeva Beloam Beach Camp, we’d arranged to do soft tracking around Tanjung Ringgit.

We had a hearty breakfast and started our journey at 7:30am, with April and another Camp Host Jawa accompanying us.

Soft tracking it’s called; but…. it was about 5km journey and 2.5hrs track, walking through some thorny bushes (with April and Jawa giving us all the help like parting the bushes for us, or carrying the children over them etc), hilly rocky path, and what I couldn’t stand most is, because of the dry season, we hardly got any shelter from the plants/trees around, and even though it’s early morning, it was HOT!

April helping Zara with through thorny bushes

Tracking along the cliff

The reward? Spectacular View!

Tanjung Ringgit – Cliff

Both April and Jawa helped with the girls, while we followed them closely. With Daddy making many stops to photograph the grand view or whatever he fancied.

There were a couple of beaches we walked passed, and the girls spent some time exploring.

Leaving their mark on one of the beaches

Because we have 2 children with us, Irwan was arranged to meet us mid point with the car, just in case the children were too tired to go on.

Irwan and Jawa, spent sometime with the girls at the tide pools showing them various sea snails.

The girls decided to move on with the tracking, and not take the car back. (Zaria regretted afterwards)

And continued the exploring…

Zaria got a bit tired after a while, and had to be coaxed by April.

And because it was so hot, when she saw the sea next, she said she wanted to jump into the sea (April had to hold on to her just in case she really jumped in).

We made a couple of rest stop finding whatever shelter we have, and there were more beautiful views that greeted us.

Beautiful views after beautiful views followed by more walking.

Finally, Zaria gave up and wanted to be carried. Luckily Daddy had the stamina to carry her and walk on.

We tracked from Beloam all the way to the Light House, and then Irwan picked us up from the Light House so that we didn’t have to walk the return journey (I don’t think I could have made the return journey walking in the heat).

How did the girls do? They did well… Me? I had massive heat stroke after that, with throbbing migraine, and I had to lie down and missed lunch.

We rested in the room till about 2pm and then it was time to leave Jeeva Beloam Beach Camp. Irwan drove us to our next hotel, Jeeva Klui near Senggigi, which is about 2hrs away.

I was in a bad state and just slept throughout the journey; and then had to rest further in Jeeva Klui. I didn’t even manage a proper good bye and thank you to all of those in Jeeva Beloam who made our stay so memorable.

After this trip to Jeeva Beloam, I’m known as the softie in the family. Snorkeling… sea sick. Soft tracking under the sun… heat stroke..

Continues here.

Continues from here.

♥November 26th♥

We woke up when it got bright and the aircon was turned off (~6am). This was the view from our bed.

After breakfast, April and another Camp Host, Irwan, brought us to Pink Beach or Pantai Pink for snorkeling. The beach is called Pink Beach due to its pink colored sand which is formed by dead red corals, the sea calm and clear with corals near to the shore, so it’s suitable for swimming and snorkeling.

There were a couple of fishermen there making breakfast of grilled fish.

Fisherman Grilling Fresh Mackerels

No special BBQ equipment required to grill these mackerels. They were just propped up by the fire using twigs.

Friendly fishermen

Small fishing boats docking at the beach.

Check out the crystal clear water

We wanted to bring the girls out snorkeling, but they complained the snorkels were very uncomfortable (pinching their noses). So instead, they played at the beach and swam at the shallow part of the sea. April brought me and Daddy out to snorkel, while Irwan accompanied and took care of the girls.

I was all geared to snorkel the whole morning. Was excited to see bright colored star fishes in the sea bed not far from the shore. After about 15mins and when we went out further, I started feeling nauseous. The goggles affected my vision, and made me feel sick. We haven’t even reached the nice corals yet and I requested to turn back.

So I nursed my sea sick siting down under a shaded tree, while the girls got entertained by Irwan and April, and Daddy went around taking photos.

Thank goodness by lunch time, I got better, and managed to enjoy the sumptuous lunch served at Jeeva Beloam. Except breakfast, lunch and dinner were 3 courses (Zara got fattened by the end of the trip due to this). The chef, even though just cooking for 4 of us (and maybe the staff too), gave us 2~3 items to choose for each course.

This is our lunch for the day.

Bread for all

For starters :

My chicken soup

Daddy’s squid salad

Girls didn’t like the starter so they went straight to main courses.

Zaria’s fish and chips

Zara’s Hawaian pizza

Our chicken satay

The dessert, Cream Caramel

As it was too hot in the afternoon to do anything, we just went back to our room to laze about. I got the girls to do writing, and the coolest place to be is at the verandah (Remember no electricity supply? So we have to depend on the sea breeze to cool us down).

Zara doing writing at Jeeva Beloam verandah to earn her time on iPad.

In the evening, April brought us out around Tanjung Ringgit.

The closest ‘commercialisation’ we got near Jeeva Beloam is this warung right next to the Jeeva Beloam guard house at the entrance of the property. The people who lived around Tanjung Ringgit depended on the land for livelihood. They farm and also rear cows on this piece on land. They are poor (in monetary sense but may be richer than us city folks in other things) but warmth. They invited Daddy for coffee when he went out walking alone.

Tanjung Ringgit, used to be the base of Japanese armed force during World War II period, there is a Japanese hiding cave (which we didn’t explore, as April told us it’s not safe to do so) and some cannons left behind by the Japanese soldiers, although most of them have been taken away. The bumpy semi-paved roads where laid by the Japanese back then. The attraction around here is the beautiful beaches, the spectacular cliffs, and because of its remoteness, there’s no crowds, building, just nature.

As it was dry season when we were there, all trees have shed leaves and gone barren.

There was a simple lighthouse on Tanjung Riggit.

The sole Japanese WWII cannon left behind and still standing

This strange flower was blooming everywhere, even though it was the dry season

We were glad that the Camp Hosts in Jeeva Beloam helped us with our girls especially during the excursion nearby. Here, April holding on to Zaria as she got a bit excited running around the bumpy hill.

Enjoying the view at Tanjung Ringgit

We were told that the salt content in the sea water around Tanjung Ringgit is higher, making the seafood and fish more delicious, so locals like going cliff fishing here.

Cliff fisherman

Another cliff fisherman

The view here is stunning.

This is the car that we used during our stay in Jeeva Beloam. Now Zaria is saying we should get one of these so that we have more space to carry things.

About 5:30pm, it started to get dark. The barren trees looked pretty creepy (although pretty) at dusk.

Back at Jeeva Beloam Beach Camp, the girls wanted to play at the beach even when it’s dark. Just when we hit the beach, a staff sent a lamp over. He told us he would be standing close by should we need any assistance and then he went and stood 50 meters away. That’s how it is in Jeeva Beloam, the Camp Hosts are nearby to help and assist you, but at the same time giving you space and privacy.

Continues here.

There were a couple of holidays the last few weeks, and we took the opportunity to visit different places, and one of them is the Malaysia Agriculture Park (Taman Pertanian Malaysia in Malay) in Shah Alam (sometimes also called Bukit Cahaya Agriculture Park or Bukit Cerakah).

We planned to cycle in the park and to visit the Four Seasons Temperate House which the girls went in 2010 during the ‘winter season’.

We brought along Zaria’s bike since she still needs her training wheels, and rented the 3 other bikes for us. As there were a long queue for the cheaper adult bikes, we took the more expensive ones, which cost about RM10 per hour (while the cheaper one is a Ringgit or two per hour).

The girls did well, riding on the hilly path, when the slopes got too steep, we all pushed our bikes up hill. When it’s a down hill ride, they all went zooming down. We had many rest and snack stops along the way. When the going got a bit tough and when it got too hot, Zaria would complain and nagged at us, “Whose bright idea is it to come here?”

We cycled all the way to SkyTrex Adventure Park, and then the little one got too tired and grouchy so we took the shuttle bus back to the visitor centre. Shuttle bus is provided for free, and it goes between the Visitor Centre and SkyTrex Adventure Park. They allowed bicycles to be loaded onto the bus which is a plus point.

We returned our bikes and parked Zaria’s bike at the bicycle rental place; and then went to have lunch at the small eatery at the visitor centre.

It was a super hot day, but they girls still wanted to visit the Four Seasons Temperate House which is on another path different from SkyTrex. We decided to walk there.

We found some ‘propeller seed’ along the walking path.

We were told the Four Seasons Temperate House was closed on that day, because they were working on the change of season there. Just our luck!

Instead we went to the Observation Tower, and spent some time there.

The girls with their bountiful energy can still ‘exercise’ at the Exercise Park.

Me? I took a nap beneath the Observation Tower.

Although it was a hot day, and we worked out the whole day with all the cycling and walking, the girls still had lots of energy to take photos of their surrounding.
I’m always amazed at the energy they have!

The park is actually a very good place to spend a day at, however, like all Malaysia public facilities, the toilet there is horrendous! The one that we visited had not been washed for ages, there were fossil like poop found in all the toilet bowls! BUEK!

We’ll still go back again though, just try to avoid using the toilet. We want to bring the girls to SkyTrex and the Four Seasons Temperate House next round.

Note :
Entrance fee to the Park is
RM3.00 for adult and children 12 years and above
RM1.00 for children 4 to 11 years old

I was away during the weekend accompanying my dad to do his chemo in Singapore. When I got back, I saw this piece of writing by Zaria about Zaria.

Bad spelling, and bad punctuation aside, it shows that she adores her sister.

She’s always amaze at Zara’s ability, especially Zara’s ability to ‘swish’ her hips on the hula hoop.

………

And here are the girls on the hula hoops. Zara is a pro.

While Zaria is still learning.

For little girls, combing, styling, braiding (or attempting to braid) hair is one of the most fun things to do. Zara and Zaria sometimes spend hours trying on different headbands, or clips, or trying to create different hairstyle, on themselves, on each other and sometimes on their soft toys.

Now that we got The Barbie Hairtastic Cut & Style, they can do it on Barbie too!

This set comes with hair extension, a couple of hair accessories, and a pair of scissors and comb to cut and style Barbie’s hair.

Let the girls show you how they style their Barbie’s hair in the next post.

I’ll be announcing the Winners of Barbie Design and Dress Studio Giveaway soon too. Stay tuned.