This has been a trip planned long time ago, my dad sponsoring a 4 days 3 nights trip to Bali (flight + accomodation) for my extended family (all 15 of us), and our family of 4 extending another 3 nights.

♥Nov 27th♥

We took an early AirAsia Flight and arrived at Bali in the afternoon. The villa has sent 2 cars over to pick us up.

Cold towel and fresh juice awaited us at the villa.

Our 6-room villa, The Longhouse, is located at the hills at Jimbaran (which meant we get magnificent view of Jimbaran Bay and Tanjung Benoa). It is 4 stories high, comes with a lift and 6 beautifully furnished rooms; it has a small pool, a plunge pool (in one of the rooms), a jacuzzi, a gym, a big dining room, a huge TV room, a massage room, and many day beds scattered around the villa. 3 dedicated staff, a chef, and a manager were at our service.

Everywhere is beautifully decorated.

Everybody was busy checking out all the floors, the rooms and the facilities upon arrival. The ooohs and the aaahs were coming from every one.

We took a room with a big comfy day bed (which became Daddy’s bed), and what I like most about the room is the big granite bathtub which the girls loved.

Girls immediately changed to their swimming costumes and hit the pool, while we adults attacked the lunch prepared by the villa.

We had a relaxing day, just lazing around at the villa, swimming, lunching and dining at the villa, chatting, etc.

♥Nov 28th♥
After a long and lazy breakfast, we went on an obligated sightseeing trip to keep the sponsor my dad happy (“No sightseeing in Bali? How can?”). Since nobody wanted to be on the road whole day, and my dad had to attend mass at 5:30pm, we chose to visit Uluwatu nearby.

Monkeys were every where, we wonder if they were trained to grab people’s things. One grabbed my SIL’s glasses when she walked passed, and only when an old man (probably its handler?) gave it corn, then peanuts, then only the monkey tossed the glasses to the ground. Our driver told us to give a couple of thousand rupiahs (few ringgit) to the man as a token sum.

Look at the monkey comfortably seated with my SIL’s glasses.

Another monkey grabbed Sam’s, my niece’s, small monkey dangling from her Kipling bag, chewed the head off, ate the stuffing, then tossed it away.

All these monkey business and being baked under the sun (36degrees daily in Bali) to get these views.

As we didn’t bring a stroller along (Bali’s roads are not meant for strollers), and Zaria didn’t want to walk much (the heat maybe?), plus she complained everytime when Daddy carried her, his sweat stung her skin, I ended up being her personal porter.

Shopping, sightseeing, walking to look for restaurants, I had to piggy back the little princess.

After Uluwatu, we went to Kuta area to shop (and tried to stay in airconditioned places), then sent my Dad and brother to church. After their evening mass, we had dinner around Kuta area, and then headed back to the Villa all sticky with sweat.

(The very detail report is for our convenience so the next time we’re in Penang, we know exactly where to eat!)

We made our yearly trip to Penang again on October 12th to 17th. No, we didn’t stay in Hard Rock, but Bayview Beach Resort next door (making it our 4th stay in this hotel). We had to go on weekdays (and the girls have to skip school) because I joined Bayview Privilege and got some vouchers usable only during weekdays.

♥12th Oct 2009♥
Our first stop as usual was St Anne’s in Bukit Mertajam. I so love the old church building.

When we entered the church, I asked Zaria to dip her fingers into the holy water to do the sign of cross. She shouted, “NO! IT’S POISONOUS!” o.O” She waited and see what happened to us before agreeing to do it, and later, at the new church, she wanted to dip her fingers in each holy water container and do the sign of cross at every entrance.

Zaria as usual climbing here and there, and Zara told her off.

Girls loved looking at the stations of cross, and especially interested in Christ’s crucifixion.

Before crossing over to Penang island, we had dinner at Bukit Tambun but found the food quality deteriorated. Should have eaten in Penang Island instead. One meal wasted.

Our first night in Bayview was in the Superior room (free), with a super huge king bed, which the whole family could sleep on comfortably.

♥13th Oct 2009♥
I drove out to look for breakfast as it was not included for our free night stay. Except for mamak stalls, there wasn’t much to offer around Batu Feringgi. I finally found a food court in some residential area, and got nasi lemak and noodle for the girls and myself, and toast for breadman Daddy.

Girls of course wanted to go to the pool after breakfast. Zaria had all the gears ready, but she was afraid to be in any part of the pool where her feet couldn’t touch the ground.

We switched to the family suite at noon time, which has 2 rooms (1 with the super king size bed again, and the other with 2 single beds) and a shared bath room. Girls were happy to have their ‘own section’, and each happily booked a bed.

After switching room, we thought of driving out to Tanjung Bunga Papa Pizza for lunch since the girls so liked it the last time. Tried as I did, the girls couldn’t stay awake on the drive, and when we got to Tanjung Bunga, both were sound asleep. Worse still, Papa Pizza was closed (I think they no longer do lunch). We couldn’t find the char kuey teow stall behind Papa Pizza as well, and all the rest of the restaurants (The Bulgaria, The Thai restaurant) were not opened! What is this? Restaurants in Penang don’t open on Tuesday? We ended just having some road side curry puff, fried sweet potatoes and some bread for lunch, and the girls later had the cheese puff I brought from home after they woke up from their nap. Another meal wasted!

In the evening, Daddy suggested we took a drive to Balik Pulau. We shouldn’t have agreed. What a waste of time. All we got to see was the big dam, the winding roads and lots of durian orchards. What saved the trip was dinner. We chanced upon this road side Seafood restaurant near Ayer Itam called, Red Bali Seafood Restaurant, which was quite good and very reasonably priced. No food pix as we didn’t bring along the maid, and every meal time was like so kan-chiong (Cantonese : nervous), trying to coax both the girls to eat.

We drove back to Batu Feringgi, did some DVD shopping, and then walked over to Hard Rock Hotel for drinks. Girls absolutely love the sandy pool area.

That night, we got the girls to sleep in their own room. Zaria reluctantly let go of my arm when I said my good night, and Zara made me promise I wouldn’t close the door to our room. At ~3am, I heard Zaria crying, and got up. She was actually walking around the other room probably looking for us. I invited her to our bed, and then she settled down. Zara too was awaken by Zaria’s cry, but when I asked her to join us in our bed, she said she was fine sleeping on her own. What a big girl’s behaviour!

♥14th Oct 2009♥
We decided to spend the whole day in the hotel. Zara swam with Daddy, while Zaria preferred to stay in the Kids’ Club. When it drizzled, Zara too came and joined Zaria at the Kids Club for arts and craft.

For lunch, we walked over to Hard Rock poolside pizzeria with our swimming gear.

Girls immediately went to play in the water play area next to the pizzeria. 2 staff actually came over to tell us to get them out, as the play area was only for hotel guests. We tried to get the girls out but they just wouldn’t listen, and anyway, we’re paying guest as well, for lunch, and who asked them to put the play area near the pizzeria? In the end, when the 3rd staff came over, I shouted for Zara and Zaria to come back and told him, “They won’t listen to me, you go and tell them yourself.” He then said, “Never mind la, I have children myself, I know how they are.”

Btw, as guests, when you get your pool towels, you are being tagged with wrist bands, so they can identify you are Hard Rock Hotel Guests in the compound (and not like us who just walked over from another hotel). Hmm..

The pizza wasn’t really that great, girls only had a little. And I guess they were also distracted by the slides and the water play area next to the pizzeria.

When we asked Zaria to pose for the camera, this was what she did.

After lunch, they continued to play under the hot sun, and I had to literally dragged them out and go back to our hotel to shower and rest.

For dinner, I met up with my friend and her family at Mama Nyonya in town. I haven’t met her for 15years (and I found her through netlog)! Her children are already 15 and 12! It was also nice to meet up with her pop star look-a-like husband.

That night, girls slept on their own beds till the next morning!

♥15th Oct 2009♥
We let the girls swim a while after breakfast, and then we had to check out to move to the city. We had the overpriced Char Kuey Teow shop on Lorong Selamat for lunch!

When we arrived, girls were asleep, and gosh, Zaria was such a tyrant when she got up. I.e. throwing the spoon when Daddy tried to feed her some ice cream, pushing the plastic chairs in the coffee shop, and the final straw was lying on the greasy floor and picking up the ice cream that dropped with her spoon earlier and then put it in her mouth! I raised my voice, gave her a smack, carried her to the toilet at the back (risking she could very well lie down on the toilet floor) and lectured her. I got a few stares from tables around, but heck! She decided to be behave when I told her I would have to close the toilet door and leave her there for a few minutes if she didn’t.

I was actually boiling mad when I ate my char kuey teow!

We got a Junior Suite in Bayview Hotel Georgetown. It was just a suite with a small room and a big living room (whatever for! I want a bigger room anytime!) The bed was just king size. I joined two of those semi-circle chairs together and told Zaria that’s her lily pad bed, just like Thumbelina, and she bought it (just for the first night though).

After a nap for everybody (did you notice every day we have to nap? Not just the kids, the adults too), we decided to explore George Town on foot!!

We took a slow walk from the hotel along Penang Road, all the way to Komtar, then to Lorong Abu Siti, have dinner in our favourite restaurant Nyonya Breeze, then walked back again to the hotel.

We stoped and rested on benches along the road (how come in KL there’s no such thing?) when the girls needed a rest. We pointed out interesting things or building to the girls, chi-chatted, and on a balmy evening, it was quite a pleasant walk. My 2 girls were great, they walked and walked (we left the stroller back home, btw), and when they were tired, they asked us to carry them.

Once, Zara said she was tired, and asked me to carry her. She’s already 18Kg, I can only carry her piggy back style. After 2~3 minutes or so, I told her my back was hurting as she’s very heavy. She told me, “Never mind mum, you can put me down. I’m not tired any more.”, and she walked the rest of the journey. Such a considerate girl.

That night, Zara, Daddy and I slept on the King bed, and I put Zaria on the make-shift ‘lily pad’ crib. I should have taken a photo but didn’t. If you wonder how the lily pad crib looks like, I actually park 2 of such chairs together to form an oval shape crib.

Credit : picture taken from Cococozy

♥16th Oct 2009♥
We took another walk around George Town after breakfast. Because of the late morning heat, this time we didn’t go that far. We stopped for tea and toast at Toh Soon (yummy!), packed Char Siew Rice for the girls from Jit Seng (girls gave thumbs up); had char kuey teow and Hokkien Mee along Penang Road (so-so). Zara started asking question, “Why we always eat only?“

When we got back to the room, girls took their naps while I went to Liang Xin Reflexology on Penang Road, near the hotel, for a 90 minutes message. Boy, it was gooood. The masseur’s strong hands kneaded all my tiredness away (doing every thing for the girls without the maid did take a toll on the body).

In the evening, we drove out this time and decided to try the char kuey teow my friend recommended, at the junction of Anson Road and Siam Road. At 6pm, the place was already packed! We ordered a big plate to share since we planned to eat at a few more places, and didn’t want to fill our stomach up at the first stop. OMG! It was scrumpilicious! And so much cheaper than Lorong Selamat’s!

Zara tried ours which was spicy, and asked for a plate for herself too. We ordered another one for the girls without chilli, and they really liked it (actually, this was their first taste of char kuey teow).

After that we went to Lebuh Kimberly for more food. I ordered a bowl of duck porridge, and then we all had dessert from the Tong-sui stall. Porridge has this strong pork intestine smell (Buek!), but my almond milk was good. Daddy bought some ham jim peng (Cantonese : some fried spice dough) from a stall, and he loved it.

Then we drove to New Lane near Sunway Hotel, a super busy place with lots of stalls, but we just ate some Apom and red bean soup.
I jokingly asked Zara, “What do you want to have for dinner? It’s 8pm now, dinner time.”.
She arched her brow and went, “Huh? I had fried kuey teow already wut.”
“That was snack, now it’s dinner. In Penang, you must eat and eat and eat.”
She frown and said, “People in Penang don’t sleep one is it? They just eat and eat and eat? I don’t want to be a midget, I want to go back and sleep.
Hehe.

Our highlight of the night was supposed to be the Tang Yuan stall directly opposite Traders Hotel. We were saving our stomach for this. Alas! The place was closed for that night! Sigh. Zara is the happiest, “Now we can go back to the hotel!”

That night, Zaria said no to the lily pad crib, so 4 of us squeezed on the king bed.

♥17th Oct 2009♥
Girls preferred to stay in the room after breakfast while I went to do some shopping in Chowrasta Market. I really should have skipped breakfast and eat at the market. There was so much on offer and they all looked good! I did pop by Toh Soon for a cup of tea first though. Bought some fresh nutmeg, some dao-zhang from Cintra Street, more DVDs (btw, the vendors in Georgetown are not as honest as the ones in Batu Ferringgi), and then walked back to the hotel.

We started packing and checked out. Lunch was again Char Kuey Teow at Lorong Selamat. This time Zaria behaved but vomited instead. She said I fed her too big a bite. o.O” I think the next time we go there, they will pay us and beg us to go else where!

On our way home, girls were rather glad, and they started telling us what they missed most. Zara was her cosy bed, and Zaria was all the jigsaw puzzles she’s left behind.

Until next year.

I was so against going to Bagan Lalang over the weekend because it’s Raya, as the bathing facilities are all operated by the Malays, I was certain we would have trouble cleaning the girls. But then, it was 3 against 1, so…..

Thank goodness it was a cloudy day, where the sun wasn’t glaring, and the weather not too hot. You should see the grin on Zaria’s face when we arrived, as though she’s reached the land of sweets.

They started by playing with the sand. The sand is so clean, so white right?

I remained under the shade on the mat reading, while Daddy brought the girls out to get dirty.

Zara loved the water.

Zaria loved the mud.

When I joined them a little later, they offered me mud pies.

My own feet getting dirty.

Zaria looked like she pooed in her swimming costume.

And I was right, all the toilets were closed, at least at our side of the beach. Imagine all this dirtiness and we only had 1 med size coleman filled with water to wash them? The mud was clinging on to their hair, their skin, their nails.. Ewww.. But, since I’m used to working with limited resources, I managed to get them cleaned.

It was ~4pm, and Daddy thought we should take a slow drive to Tanjung Sepat for dinner. When we arrived, and parked our car, we saw this :
Piglets roasted for someones wedding.

So many piglets slaugthered to have their wedding. *cruel*

At 5pm, many restaurants were already full. We chose our usual hang out. Ocen Seafood Restaurant (no, I didn’t spell it wrong. See for yourself), waited almost 15mins for a table, and another 30mins for our food.
I don’t know if the name was supposed to be Ocean with a missing A, or the restaurant was actually named after Or-Jian (Fried Oyster omelette) their famous dish…..

Zaria waiting patiently at Ocen.

After dinner, we took a stroll out to the Lovers Bridge.

It was another hour + slow drive to get us home.

When I knew that Irene had 2 Hi-5 concert tickets to give away, I immediately booked them. After discussing with Daddy, and forking out RM655, which we spent on purchasing 2 more tickets and booked a night stay in Genting (during their super peak season), we collected the 2 tickets from her. (Thanks, Irene)

So off we went to Genting on Saturday for the 7pm concert.

Girls wanted sweet before the concert.

Irene’s tickets were in front, and ours were way behind, so Daddy took the back seat, while girls and I took the front (You can see from this pix how near we were from stage).

Girls were practicing their 1, 2, 3, 4, Hi-5.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz… Oh, did you ask how the concert went? To me, it was boring. The hall was less than 20% full. When the concert started, Daddy came to the front to sit with us. Our row and the one in front were almost empty (maybe all the people who got free tickets didn’t turn up). The girls, however, rather enjoyed the ~1hr performance. Zara stood up to dance with Hi-5 members and Zaria joined in once or twice.
Honestly speaking, I wouldn’t pay again to watch it.

After the concert, the girls requested for the rides in the theme park. So I bought 2 day passes for indoor park, and let them ride on the carousel and the Paris Genting ride for as many rounds as they wanted to get my money’s worth.

The whole place was so crowded… but the girls had a quiet moment with the clown, just 2 of them, each waiting for their turns to get a baloon from the clown.

Their final ride was on the bumper car. Zaria was too young, so she had to sit with Zara. Zara was no expert in steering, and she was just going in circles; and banging on the wall and getting stuck. I was shouting instructions but Zara didn’t quite get it. At one point, both got so frustrated and started crying and the attendant had to come to their rescue. The whole time, Daddy was just standing at a corner fiddling with the camera. Grrrrr….

We only got back to the hotel at 11pm+ and by the time the girls showered and settled down, it was midnight. That night was a cold cold night, I didn’t sleep well since the girls were stirring in their sleep.

The following day, we had late breakfast, and just went on the caterpillar ride before we headed home. Daddy thought maybe we should stop by Bukit Tinggi and let the girls see a bit of the Colmar Tropicale.

There was really nothing much in the ill-maintained ‘village’, but the girls spent sometime with the swans at the ‘moat’ until Zaria got pecked by one of them and started wailing and wouldn’t stop even when we tried to pacify her. Her reason, “The swan eat (ate) my finger.”

And the whole time we were there, Daddy only took photo of this….
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Grrrr…..

On Saturday, Daddy brought us on an excursion to Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary, which is located at the Temerloh district. It was ~2hrs drive on Karak Highway (towards Raub and Exit : Lanchang) and small roads (with very good signage to the Santuary), passing small villages and Orang Asli settlements.

When we arrived ~2:30pm; they had finished distributing the ‘yellow stickers’ (which entitled you a ride on the elephant), and only left with ‘red stickers’ (which is just an ‘entrance ticket’). Entrance is free! Can you beat it? It seems the place is getting funds mainly from foreign tourists’ donation.

What the girls got to do was got real close to the elephants. However, Zara thought the elephant was dirty, didn’t want to get too close.

The elephant had just performed a trick (greeting visitors) and being awarded a pack of crysenthimum tea. o.O”

After seeing how the elephant took peanuts from my hand, Zaria too tried to feed the elephant.

Zara afraid of getting herself dirty, stood aside and watch.

Zaria is very proud she dared to do something her sister was afraid of doing.

After the feeding, the elephants were led to the river for a bath. Visitors can join in and bath the elephants. The elephants actually got a bit afraid when a big crowd jumped into the river and chased after them; they actually went to the other side of the river, and wanted to climb up to the banks. After a lot of persuation from the handlers, then only they came to the centre.

Daddy wasn’t properly dressed, so I went into the water together with the girls.

Splash! Splash! Splash! See the huge crowd?

For those with yellow stickers, you can actually take a ride on the elephant in the water.

The elephant will dive into the water.

And throw you off their backs!

After the elephants climbed back up to land, the girls wanted to swim in the water. Gosh, there’s elephants’ dropping here and there, but they refused to get up, so I have to stay with them. The river was shallow and the water extremely cooling, and there’s no foul smell or anything (but still, I DID see the droppings).

I just walked away a bit so that Daddy could take a photo of just the girls and Zaria started complaining “Mummy, why you go away? I’m drowing you know.” o.O”

They were probably in the water for about half an hour before they were willing to leave. Both girls got themselves a lilly leaf (I think that’s what it is).

Girls giving the thumbsup for the trip. I think they really like the cool dip in the pool.

In terms of washing facilities, like all Malaysian public restrooms, they are horrendous. There’s however running water, so I just gave the girls a rinse and got them changed outside of the restrooms. I cringed when I changed myself. BUEK!

On our way back to Karak highway, Daddy stopped by at a road side stall and ordered a durian. (Just in case you are wondering, no that’s not Daddy).

Zara had a taste of durian and didn’t quite like it (btw, we not a family of durian eaters).

Zara and myself waited for Daddy at the orchard owner’s shed, whiled Daddy finished off the durian.

Zara and the orchard owner.

(Daddy likes to rob the colours from our lives black and whilte photography these days; so everything is boring black and white).

It’s the girls’ school holidays; I have been hard at work, so Daddy thought this would be a good time to go for a trip. And this is his type of holiday…

We drove off not knowing where we’re going, and ended up in Kuala Selangor for lunch, at a breezy sea side restaurant.

The girls loved the prawn cracker there.

After lunch (and a nap for me), we reached Tanjung Karang, the ‘rice bowl’ of Selangor. It is harvest season now, and everywhere, we can see fields being harvested. By human

or by machine

Girls got to walk among rice fields and got to see rice on stalks up close.

and did some ‘harvesting’ themselves.

We also went to see the rice grains getting loaded onto lorries to be transported to the factory for polishing.

And this ice cream man got all excited when Daddy said he wanted to take a photo of him. He removed his helmet, arranged his hair and viola…

This is where the rice will be transported to to be polished.

Around the rice fields, we saw cement buildings like this, and Daddy said they are ‘birdnest houses’ (buildings to house swiftlets which produce birdnest).

Sekinchan, the fishing village, is just 15mins away from Tanjung Karang, so it became our next stop. Do you always hear people claiming the fishes from Sekinchan, Kuala Selangor (the Konghao fish) are nicer compared to the ones caught from the East Coast.

I wonder if it’s becaused the fishes feed on this….

We were lucky that the fishermen just came back from the sea, and the girls get to see the fishermen getting busy sorting out their catch (not that they liked, they both complained it was STINKY).

These fishes were available for sale and drew a big crowd, but we didn’t bring our ice box (since we were not prepared) and didn’t get these super fresh catch.

We then drove on to Ijok for dinner since it was only 5pm when we left Sekinchan and too early for dinner. The whole day, we spent less than RM90 on seafood meals! What a deal.

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On Sunday, when I had to work 15hours, Daddy brought the girls out kite flying in some fields. Based on the girls’ feedback, it seemed, Daddy was having more fun than them.

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If Daddy has his way, this is how he likes to spend his weekend. I’m not really against it, but I like cool aircondition and retail therapy, and can’t live on just this. Daddy asked the girls at the end if they enjoyed their weekend, both shouted, “NO!!”. o.O”

I have to clarify that my company is not rich, and normally we travel with a tight budget, but this round, we had 4 Americans travelling together (all first time to India), and so for their sake, a better hotel was chosen.

This is the continuation of the trip.

♥The Roads, Buildings and Traffic♥
Roads in Bangalore are dusty, narrow and bumpy. Drivers are constantly pressing on their honks, and 2 lane roads turned into 6 lanes because no body stick to their lanes, and all cars just squeezed into whatever space there’s available on the road, causing traffic congestion every where.

Just a few km away from the hotel, we saw little shacks at the road side, made from 4 sheets of planks and a zinc roof. Children were playing topless, while their mothers cooked from a stove outside of the house. These houses were built just next to the main roads. A skidded car could have knocked down the make shift stove or even the house. (Compared to this rv camping seems like a luxury.)

At traffic lights or a busy junctions, there’ll be beggers trying to get money from the people in the cars, and sometimes, we saw vendors trying to sell things like phone chargers, stationary from car to car.

On the street : Buildings in Bangalore; I understand in Bangalore, only the rider on the motorbike needs to wear helmet, but the pillion riders are not required; a shop providing kiddy rides which can be rented for parties.

There are lots of street vendors selling all kinds of things from coconut, roasted nuts, drinks, yogurt, cucumber slices and even rice.

We saw some signs with witty phrases for users of the road.

Motor rickshaw waiting for customers and one of a main shopping street, Brigade Road, in Bangalore.

♥My Little Adventures♥
The first day to work, I was in the car with a colleague who is also in India for the 1st time. 10 mins into the journey, the driver turned the car into a tiny lane, and stopped in front of a shaby looking building (as the car was arranged by the office, we didn’t think the driver had any bad intentions). We asked each other, “Is this the office?” The driver got down and with a big grin, told us apologatically, “Sorry sir, sorry mum, the wheels punctured. Give me 5 mins.” And then off he went like an expert and got the tyre changed in 5 minutes, as though this is his daily routine.

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On Wednesday and my first visit to the yoga class, I went through the gym and took the lift there to get to the pool side where the lesson was conducted. A hotel employee was with me in the crammed lift. I realised it took forever for the lift to climb 1 floor so I asked him what happened. He took a look at the penal and exclaimed, “Oh shit! Lift stuck!”. Oh great! My first time using this lift and I got stuck!

He immediately rang the emergency alarm, talked into the intercom. “Lift stuck. Guest with me.” To kill time, he made small talks, “Sometimes this happened.” “Very hot right? No aircon here.” (oh yes! it was like a sauna). A moment later, we heard some people outside telling us to wait and probably working on the problem. 5 minutes later, the door of the lift opened, and we were back at the gym.

The over-zealous staff pressed the 1st floor button before I could get out, and the door was closed again; and guess what? It went dead again! The same routine happened, the guy pressed the emergency alarm to ask for help, then people shuffling outside, and 5 minutes later, the lift moved and the door opened with us on the gym level again. This time, I immediately dashed out and used the stairs before the staff did anything.

See, this is a 6~7 star hotel, and the ‘sometime this happened’ just annoyed me!

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On one of the evening, a colleague brought me shopping. She’s hired a small car, and in the car was her friend and her friend’s daugther, the driver, and the 2 of us. The aircon in the car wasn’t working very well, and the taffic was really bad on that day. The winding and bumpy road, and the driver’s constantly stepping on the break didn’t help. After about 30mins we were still on the road in the hot car, the smell from our sweating bodies started to fill the car up, and I felt sick. When we arrived at the shopping street, I felt everything was spinning, and I had to tell my colleague I wasn’t well. It was after I threw up in the toilet and a hot chicken soup later, that I felt better. India’s traffic is just not for me.

♥Security♥
After last year’s bombing of 2 top hotels in Mumbai, the security in hotels, office buildings and shopping malls have tightened. All cars before driving into hotels or office premises will have to be scanned by security. They checked your booth, and under the car to see if there’s any hidden explosive. And to enter a building, you will need to submit your bags for checking or x-rayed.

In this shopping mall next to the office, the guards were checking bags at the main entrance, but I saw some people entered from the side entrance without going through a check. o.O” I wonder what’s the point if it’s not consistant.

This guard was very unhappy I took a shot of her searching through my bag. What the heck, I’m a tourist and I just acted blur.

♥Sight Seeing and Shopping♥
I have a full day on Saturday as my flight was night time, so I went exploring with 2 English ladies I met from yoga class.

We did a little sight seeing. More of the driving through the tourist spots like the town hall.

And a stop at Lalbagh Garden, where we were conned INR350 each for a guided tour.

The driver also brought us to 2 silk shops where we were able to buy silk and cotton Kurtas and pasmina shawls at a very good price.

We also made a trip to the supposedly shopping street Brigade Road, and it was a dissapointment, so dusty and dirty and the shops there were not interesting.

What I love best is the various curry pastes, bryani rice mix, premix roti flour, soup packs that I bought back home. They all had terrible packaging but I’d tried 2 of them and they were exceptionally good (MSG free and very tasty).

I have to say, besides its horrible traffic and dusty roads, I rather like India, the food, the people, the shopping. I was careful not to drink anything with ice, bottle water was always opened in my presence, and even with teeth brushing, I used mineral water, so I have no stomach problem.

I think since I have a multi entry visa for a year, I probably may go for a trip there on my own.

My very first trip to India took place from 31st March to 4th April, to the city of Bangalore. It was for a short work trip. I have heard a lot about India from Daddy’s work trips, so I had some expectation set.

Upon arriving at the airport late on Monday night, the office driver (seems this is the most popular mode of transport in Bangalore, where offices hired cars with driver to ferry staff around) greeted me with my name card held up. I was addressed as “Mum” or “Madam” from then on.

♥The Hotel – Leela Palace♥

I was put up in The Leela Palace. Upon identifying me at the reception, the staff walked me up to the room, and briefed me the facilities available in the hotel. This is the first time I have my check in done in the room in a hotel; after signing a form, and giving the staff my credit card details, she gave me a tour of the room showing me where things are. The room is big, luxurious and comfortable, the kind fit for a royalty (and I think the kind of hotel ‘Princess’ Zara would love).

I managed to further explore the facilities the following day. All corridors have high ceilings; there is a huge and beautiful garden, a nice pool (never tried it), and a luxurious spa.

Everywhere is decorated with fresh flowers. I love the way they put fresh flower petals and/or floating candles in dishes every where in the hotel.

The service there is impeccable. I had the concierge helped me carry my bags to the room (if I didn’t want to go straight back to the room when I got back); buffet breakfast came with service (fruit juice, freshly made Dosai, prathas or eggs sent to your table); Ice tea and light juice is served in the gym.

What’s more? It has a daily Yoga session held at the pool side from 6am to 7:15am. The instructor is a small bony man who flexes his body effortlessly. I dragged myself out of bed every morning to attend. A great feat for someone who normally wakes up after 7:30am daily. It sure charged me up for the rest of the day.

♥The Food♥

If you love Indian food, you have to love food in Bangalore. When our Indian food tastes very much like curry powder mixed with water, the Indian food in Bangalore is so refine. The bread or roti, dhal, savoury yogurt, curry, vege patties, cottage cheese (paneer), they are all so delicious. It’s so easy to be a vegetarian there because of the variety of vegetarian dishes. However they are all quite fattening because of the ghee used in cooking.

Breakfast was included in the hotel, and the food there was good, especially the coriander chutney. I had it with anything and everything.

Lunch was catered and we had it in the office. Love the bryani and yogurt.

I never knew Indians could make soup so delicious. Dhal with mint, chicken soup, tomato soup, yums!

A meal like that in Leela, costs me INR1220 (~RM100).

Non-Indian restaurants normally served multi cuisine dishes. I had Indian food in Japan, so I must have Japanese in India too right? Not really very nice. Ravioli and toasted brie was yummy.

The best meal was at Sahib Sindh Sultan Restaurant at Forum mall (supposedly a fine dining restaurant), where the chef offered to pose for the camera. Lunch for 3, came up to INR2073 (~RM180)

After a meal, you’ll be brought a finger bowl with a piece of lime to clean your hands; and then you are offered some of spices (beetle nut, fennel seeds, cloves, cardamom) to help with digestion, some of these spices are sprayed with a layer of silver or wrapped in silver and some sprayed with chocolate or sugar. I tried the Paan (beetle nut wrapped with leave) as well, and boy, it was horrible. It’s like eating grass with cheap lotion. I had to spit it out!

Now, aren’t all these photos nice? I was chauffered daily to work, hotel->office, office->hotel. If you blind folded me on the journey, this would be all that I see.

There are more photos to come which will show you what it’s like on the street.

Do you realise that in Malaysia when a hotel room costs you less than RM400, chances are the hotel will be pretty horrid?

During the school holidays, we decided to bring the girls to Cherating for a holidays. We booked 2 nights stay in Holiday Villa for RM270/night (from the net), Holiday Villa you know, should be ok right?

The rooms were decent and it’s challet style, but the pool is another story.

When we brought the girls to the pool, I noticed that the water was brownish, thinking it was maybe sand from the sea, I didn’t stop the girls when they jumped into the pool, gulping down some of the water in their excitement. When I got into the water to join them, then only I realised it was filth and not sand. My skin has this slimy coat, on top of that, I can smell poops and urine. People were swimming fully clothed, and their kids were in diapers and all. Ewwwwwww.

I suspect that’s how the girls got sick.

We checked out the 2nd day (even though we booked for 2 nights), and moved to Legend Hotels next door, for an additional RM100 per night. The pools were nicer and cleaner, but the rooms were pretty basic with a leaking toilet and smelly pillows. RM370 and still you get crap?

For the girls, they were not as fussy as us in terms of cleanliness, so they had fun. Two things though, Zara was asking us when we’re going home, and Zaria was requesting us to go back to the hotel with rafters (which is Holiday Villa).

For the duration we were there, we spent most of the time in the hotel, but we did try to explore the fishing villages around and event went to Chukai for brunch.

Girls at Holiday Villa Cherating

Girls at the beach in Legends Hotels – Both were fascinated by the cheap bubbles we bought them; They were playing ‘catch-me-if-you-can’ with the waves; Zaria spent most of the time at the shallow steps at the baby pool, refusing to go any where deeper where her feet couldn’t touch the ground.

Chance upon this extremely crowded coffee shop in Chukai called Hai Peng.

On our way back, popped by a village stall to have kuih still baked using wood fire

Another stop at a fishing market, where the girls have some keropok lekor (not the crunchy), and we had some satai ikan (some otak-otak style) snack.