Before the Raya mad rush, we took a week off and headed North for our once a year trip to Penang.

The night before, Daddy asked, “You sure we need to bring along Jelly?” (he was thinking of bringing his dad instead).
Imagine we’d been having this bring-don’t-bring conversation since August, and made a decision and now this?
I was ‘tulan’ (Cantonese : annoyed) and replied, “If you can feed the girls, bath them, wash the bottles after their feed, then no need to bring.” Grrrrr…
Of course Jelly came along eventually.

We took off on Saturday, with a car choked full of things. It’s no joke travelling with 2 young kids.

When we had a pitstop at an R&R some where near Tapah, we kidded with Zara and told her that we’ll be staying in one of the outdoor pavilions; nearby, some goats were bleating. She was worried, and when she was convinced we were staying there, she said, “I think we better go home.”
Daddy still teasing, “We thought both of you like farm stay, that’s why we chose this hotel.”
Zara replied, “I don’t like farm stay, I like home stay more. We go home better.”
I pretended to cancel this hotel and told her we’ll try to get another room in Penang. She was relieved, but still added “If no nice hotel, then we drive back home ok?” o.O”

First stop of course is St Anne’s (church) at Bukit Mertajam.

In the old chapel, Zara said her prayer while all Zaria wanted to do was blow off the candles at the alter (of course after Happy Birthday singing). -.-”

While looking around, Zara stopped at the statues showing Jesus’ crucifixion looking very sad and asked me, “Mummy, why the people so wicked they want to nail Jesus on the cross.”
Seriously, for me who still have questions about my religion, I don’t know how to answer her.

We stopped at Bukit Tambun for dinner, the restaurant that we went to last year was closed to public for a wedding so we had to go to another restaurant (some fishing-floating restaurant). Food was lousy. Phhhhbbbbbt…

We arrived at Bayview Beach Resort at 8:30pm. Zara was so happy and relieved when we stepped into the room. We took the L-shaped family room again. The room is spacious and clean; 4 of us took the king bed, and Jelly took one of the single beds. We had an early night although I was tempted to sneak out to start my DVD shopping.

Sunday morning was spent at the pool and at the beach. Zara preferred the earlier, while Zaria the latter.
When we brought Zaria to the pool and took her to a deeper end where her feet couldn’t touch the ground, she said, “I’m scared.” or “I don’t yike(like)”. When we asked Zara to go to the beach, she said, “I don’t want, the sand is so rough.” So we had to split into two groups. 1 to the beach, 1 at the pool.

For lunch, the girls had Pizza from Papa Pizza at Tanjung Bunga, while we had char kuey teow (Hokkien : fried flat rice noodle) behind Papa Pizza. I think the pizza was better than the kuey teow.

Love this shot of the girls, just up from their naps and attacking the left over pizza.

In the evening, we headed to the Botanical Gardens. Zaria, the adventurer, tried to get close to the monkeys, and a few times almost got attacked by them. She was a bit disappointed to know that the monkeys were ‘not-friendly’ and ‘naughty’.

They loved the place, the flowers, the plants, the space.

A lot of people were crowding around this guy at the entrance of the garden. He was selling curry puffs, spring rolls, wades, samosas. What made it so special is after you’d chosen what you want, he’ll cut them up and pour asam laksa soup over them. I had a piece of ‘asam laksa’ spring roll, and it was quite good.

Dinner was at Nonya Breeze (we never missed it). Still so good, still so reasonably priced.

Monday morning after breakfast, we visited Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion. We missed 30mins of the guided tour, and still, the girls were getting a bit restless following the guide for the rest of the 30mins. This place is beautifully maintained, but girls have no appreciation for all these.

We had char kuey teow at Lorong Selamat. Yummy but very expensive. RM14 for 2 plates and even the boiled sugar cane water cost RM1.70.

After the girls’ nap back in the hotel, we split into 2 groups and let them chill out at the pool and beach again.

Guess what we had for dinner? Papa Pizza was so good we went there for dinner (actually, it’s also because the Phang Hainanese Seafood Restaurant we wanted to go was closed).

Tuesday morning, we finally managed to see a horse at the beach (horse riding was one of the reason why we chose to stay in Batu Feringgi). After agreeing on the price (RM50 for 2 rounds), I took the girls. Poor horse had to endure the weight of the 3 of us. Zaria was really happy to finally get to ride on a horse. She kept patting and saying, “Hello horse.”.

(Some sad fact : This horse used to be a race horse, and retired after 5 years of racing. It became a horse for holiday goers to ride on at the beach until it reaches 10years old. What happened next? The owner will sell it to some Chinese who’ll turn it into horse satay. Humans are so cruel. -.- )

Zara spent more time at the pool after the horse riding, and I squeezed in a foot massage by the pool. Zaria went back to the room with Jelly for a nap. Before 1pm, we checked out and left the hotel. On our way out, we had a very tired Zara snoozing, and a very energetic Zaria singing.

Last weekend was a long weekend, my sisters, their kids, my dad and our family decided to make a trip to Pulau Ketam.

To take the boat over, we went to the jetty which is at South Port, Port Klang. A ~30 minutes boat ride cost us RM7 for adults, and RM4 for school going kids.

It has been ages since I last went to Pulau Ketam. It’s still very charming; every thing is built on eleveted ground, with small narrow cement streets (only bicycles allowed) and colourful houses in different shades of turquoise.

For the kids, Pulau Ketam has not much to offer, but for us adults, it was the food : sea food, lala (Malay : clam) omelete, cendol (one of the best I’d tested), and fried prawn dough (some kind of cucur udang).

Ok, my sis told me to mention this. We had lunch at the first restaurant that faces the jetty (can’t remember the name), recommended by a local we met on the boat. Food was so so, the waiter was rude. Only the gong bou har gou (Cantonese: spicy crayfish), and steam red snapper are worth mentioning. RM190 for a set meal for 8 adults + 4 kids. My sis said, “Make sure you write this in your blog, the waiter is damn rude, food is not good, don’t ever eat here.”

I’m not sure about the other smaller restaurants further down the busy main street, but you can probably give this big one a miss.

After our early lunch (we were warned wait time in restaurants can be more than an hour on public holidays when people start flooding in), we went exploring. The kids have their cousins to play with, that kept them happy. We didn’t go far though, because my dad was in a hurry to go (always the case), and a storm was also brewing.

We left at 3pm, after snacking in a coffee shop. The boats between island and mainland operate like busses, there was a long queue when we reached at the jetty. When a boat arrived, every body was like trying to squeeze themselves forward to get into the boat so as not to miss it. Such is the way of Malaysians, sigh.

When we got back to the main land, my sister asked, “So, whose bright idea was it?” o.O

The guilty man claimed we’ll go back again another day, when there’s no rain and no rush to go home so he could take more photos.

Here are the photos taken.

For Sale – Dried sea food claimed to be produced by home industry.

Zara all messy eating her pre-lunch snack.

Daddy is very proud of this shot he took.

Shops in different shade of turquoise.

At the back of the main street, looks like every one owns a boat.

Zaria enjoying the breeze and checking out the boats from a bridge.

Turquoise rules.

A window to a Senior Club.

A dying trade, a barber ‘grooming’ his customer.

Tasha sheltering from rain with an umbrella hat.

Zara having a good laugh (aha, she’s also in turquoise).

Zaria about to doze off.

Love this shot of my sister and Tasha.

After the incident, we still went ahead and brought the girls to Bagan Lalang.
(Daddy said he’ll try to bring us there every once a month if not more.)

You asked how to get there? Where it is?
Bagan Lalang is actually after Sepang. So we took the KLIA highway, and then turned into Sepang. You’ll see the sign board pointing you to Sepang Gold Coast or Bagan Lalang, just follow that.

Why go there so often?
Because the girls like it. Imagine Zaria will suddenly say this at home while playing, “Want go Alang-alang. Play play sand.”
The water and sand is cleaner than Port Dickson or Morib, the waves are calm, and there’s a big stretch of shallow pool. We probably only need to worry about the jelly fish.
Daddy likes to see the girls a bit tan.
This is such a good place to take photos of the girls at play.

The only problem is bathing the girls after they play.
We bath them outside a shop, using the water from the hose, and pay the owner some money.

Photos for this round :

Daddy and the girls.

Zaria giving thumbs up to Bagan Lalang.

There are lots of crabs hiding out.

Zara combing the beach for sea snails.

Zara picking up sea snails.

Zaria loves the mess.

Zaria loves the mud.

Zaria playing in the shallow pool (big area of the sea is with this water level).

Migratory Birds (?).

Love this shot of the girls (I wouldn’t join in, afraid the mud will stick to me, since I don’t have a place to shower).

Zara showing Zaria how to dig for crabs.

Zaria picked up the skill very quickly.

See how dirty she got?

After Zara stopped and left the beach, Zaria still wanted to dig for crabs.

The short stretch of sandy beach at Bagan Lalang.

We stayed till sunset. And the view is marvelous.

However, we also got attacks from sandflies, and all of us got bumps all over when we got home.

When the girls heard Bagan Lalang, they all got excited! Daddy brought them there once when I was away on my business trip, Zara said it was fun, Zaria squeled, “Play Play Sand!”

I wasn’t quite convinced especially after seeing the photos that Daddy had taken the last trip. Like this one here.

But, for the sake of the girls, I relented.

I made some onigiri (my first attempt) using the rice Daddy bought from Japan. (Yums! But the girls didn’t like it)

Packed a picnic basket, and an ice box filled with our favourite drinks; off we go, on a cloudy Saturday.

Check out what we found in the shallow pool.
Guess what this is?

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And look how much they love it.

Zara danced and did gymnastics

Zaria was so happy she was smiling and laughing all the time.

Zaria jumped on puddles after puddles. See her ‘lifted’ here.

They played and fed each other ‘mud-pies’.

Zara catching crabs

And my favourite of all the photos.
Zaria checking out what’s in the mud

The girls got really dirty at the end, but they had so much fun. Lovely outing! We’ll definitely go again.

Continue from here.

On the last day of the training in Houston, Friday, 6th June, I took a 3hrs flight to New York, to visit my best friend, Ping, who’s 7 months pregnant. I spent 3 days there (you should see Daddy’s sour face when I told him I was extending my stay). We’d never spent so many days together before since 1997. It was really good catching up with her, at the same time I managed to see a bit of New York.

When I arrived, New York was hit with a heat wave, so throughout my stay, it was very hot, always above 30c!

Our first stop on Saturday morning was my favouritest shop in US, Whole Foods Market.
I only managed to glance through things at the skin care and health care department, no time for the supermarket as we had to rush to our next stop. The Big Apple Barbecue Party at Maddison Square Park.

So hot, such long queues and wait! If it was me, I wouldn’t be bothered, but it’s a big thing since all the famous barbecue joints around US will have a stall here in this event. Ping’s hubby is a big fan of barbecue.

After you queue for ages, you get your food, and sit in the park to have your meal.

If you are drinking, too bad, you’ll have to stand and finish your drink before you can step into the picnic area.

After being under the sun for 2 hrs, we went back to Ping’s place for a nap.

In the evening, we went to walk about in Greenwich Village .

Around The Village. Check out the Limo and the fire escapes.

Nice houses, all with back yard away from prying eyes.

Patriotic Artwork.

I had the best meal for the whole US trip in Mary’s Fish Camp. A small little restaurant which is bustling with activities.

We shared half a lobster and fish.
So delicious I tell you!

Sunday morning, we walked about around Tribeca, where Ping lives. This is the view a few minutes walk from her appartment.

We had breakfast at the World Finance Centre. This is the famous Winter Garden within the building.

Through the building, I saw Ground Zero of the World Trade Centres.
Such a vast gap! Now with some construction going on.

We then went on a free return trip ride on the Staten Island Ferries (such a bargain!), you get nice view of Statue Liberty from the ferry.

Also Manhatan skyline.

Next stop Central Park. So big.. but not shady enough. I was sweating profusely.

Ping decided to head on home to rest after Central Park and I continued my walk around Time Square. I hid myself in shops to enjoy the cool aircondition most of the time.

There’s a big Ferrel’s Wheels in ToysRUs at Time Square. If only the girls were with me!

I managed to navigate through New York Subway with a guide Ping left me and got myself home. New York subway isn’t glamourous at all.

Following Day (Monday), Ping decided it’s too hot to go out, so I went on my own.

Checked out Rockefeller Centre.

Walked along Fifth Avenue.

Checked out Apple Shop and FAO Shwarz Toy Shop
Too bad, no more iPhones for sales!

Then I met up with Ping at Kitchenette for lunch! Such a nice place, and the food is very homely. Love their cookies on display.

After lunch, it was off home to pack and leave for the airport. I took my flight home from New York, flight hours is shortened to 20+hrs.

You want a glimpse of my shopping? I bought lots of natural skin care and ointments (for the girls), mainly from Whole Foods Market.

My bag is 8Kg overweight but luckily they just let me through. *phew*.

Continuation from here.

After a few phone calls, multiple online chats with Simple American, we finalised our plans for the weekend in between our 2 weeks training.

5 of us were meeting S.A and family in San Antonio. We drove 3hrs there on Friday night (30th May) right after class. My colleagues weren’t very sure about being shown around by ‘my friend’, S.A., but after a few hours spent with he and his family, they thought he was the nicest American they’d ever met! Such hospitality, driving all the way down from Houston, so that he could be our tour guide.

Here is what we’d done and see.

Forget NeverLost, tailing S.A is much safer.

First stop is Enchanted Rock.

Someone’s artwork.

That’s the rock we’re climbing.

The trail up Enchanted Rock.

The view from the summit. (Those 2 are S.A’s kids)

With temparature above 30C and no trees to provide shade, it was quite torturous. S.A did a good job by having a cooler in his truck, and he had so much cold water, Starbucks coffee to pass around!

Lunch was at Fredericksburg, a charming little small German town.

We get to sample a lot of Texas specialty from a Rustlin Rob’s, from jams to dips to fudges. Try all you want and can!

And while trying to take a rest after lunch before our next destination, we realised we were siting right under a Pecan tree!

We started cracking them and distributing them among ourselves.
They are so expensive in Malaysia, and you get to eat them for free right in Texas!

Our next statepark was Pedernales Falls.

Everywhere in the park, you get warned about Flash Floods.

The area that we visited (you can swim in some pools but this one we visited didn’t allow even the water to be touched).

This reminds me of Pamukkale in Turkey.

We left Pedernales Falls at ~8pm but the sky was still bright! I’m quite amazed that S.A’s kids were so sweet and didn’t mind following a group of adults going from places to places. They blended in so well. Some other kids would probably have complained!

The following morning, we visited Mecardo, a Mexican market, in San Antonio. It’s shopping for us ladies, and the men did some sight seeing around San Antonio.

Credit : Mom2Ashley

After lunch, it was another round of shopping in San Marco’s Premium Outlet! My friend’s Timberland which was bought the week before got thrown away by Houskeeping in the hotel, the hotel gave him USD100 as compansation, this was why we went back, to get another pair of Timberland. We shopped till the shops were closed (6pm). Without the Memorial Day Sale Discount, and S.A following me around, I didn’t get much (very ‘paiseh’ or shy), but still ended up with another handbag (I swear this is going to be my last handbag purchase for a long long time.)

Before we headed back to Houston, we stopped at Austin, the capital of Texas, just to do a quick glance around the State Capital.

Around the State Capital.

Credit : Mom2Ashley

The State Capital, Austin.

My Shanghai colleague commented that Texas sky seems higher, and bluer. I so love the sky in Texas!

What else did we discovered? Texas squirrels are so shameless!

It was then time to bid farewell to S.A and family (although I got to meet them another around for dinner the following week). We were both leaving for different parts of Houston.

For dinner, it was something that S.A talked about. The burget joint that’s only available in Texas!
Whataburger! Whatameal!

May is a month full of travelling, but I think after my trip to US, there’ll be no more travels, and I’ll be home bound, at least for work.

I was in Houston for a 2 weeks training with 5 other colleagues from this region, for a company who’s very concern about cost, my manager must have fought real hard for us; and it’s economy class all the way, such class!

Mom2Ashley and I flew off on May 24th (Saturday), a good night sleep at Changi, and then it’s our 24hrs flight to Houston (*shudder* just thinking about the flight). Luckily we got good seats (thanks to my SIA friend), and on the 2nd part of the flight, the plane was quite empty and we could have a row of seat each to ourselves.

We transitted at Moscow. Where instructions were barked out, and every body looked so serious and unfriendly.

4 movies, and a few interupted short sleeps, and many meals later, we reached Houston at the wee hour on Sunday night; collected our car (with GPS, Always Never Lost, of course), went straight to the hotel, washed up and slept (or at least try to).

Monday 26th May was Memorial Day in US. Unlike my other colleagues who went sight seeing around Houston, Mom2Ashley, myself and another Hong Kong colleague drove up to San Marcos, 3hrs away, in the morning, just so we can do some serious shopping in Prime Outlet (rated as 3rd best place to shop in the world by some TV channel) and Tanger Outlet which are side by side each other.

It was worth the trip, especially with the Memorial Day sales on. Gap dresses were going for ~USD10, Osh Kosh had 50% and Coach had 25% discount store wide, etc etc.

Some of the brands in this outlet which are normally not available in other US outlets (at least those in Calirfornia which I’d visited).

Credit : Mom2Ahsley

I got the girls a few dresses, tops and pants, and got myself a handbag (not from Coach though). Check out our combined loot in the trunk!

Credit : Mom2Ahsley

We headed back to Houston contented, happy, and knackered. Dinner was just along the highway, some good old Texan BBQ.

Tuesday was the start of the training. The office is no Google Office, but it’s probably our company nicest office complex. With tall big trees every where, feel as though we’re in a park; so green, so much glass and light.

One of the cafeterias.

Link bridges link up all the office buildings.

Buildings are built among tall trees.

Training was good. You finally realised that the knowledge that you have, is no worse than the so called expert (but we learnt it the hard way by doing a lot of self reading). 😛

No food pix you realised? I’m not impressed with Texas food at all (Sorry Simple American). A lot of Mexican restaurants, Asian food is so so (think Sichuan spicy chicken == Tobasco sauce chicken), Italian food is mediocre. Simple American said steaks are really good, but since I don’t take beef, I can’t vouch for that. I love the pre-pack sushi from the office though!

Miss me? Miss my girls?

I have been so busy it’s crazy!!

Here’s some glimpses of what I’d been doing.

Can you recognise this face? Or the cap?
Yes! I’m the first, I’m the first to meet Simple American!!
We did some soul ‘linguistic’ searching, he finally knew what the real meaning of PIAK is, or how to pronounce ‘Roti Canai’ and ‘Nasi Lemak’.

Visited a place with a fake miniature Statue Of Liberty.

And then this place with this dense skyline.

As for the girls, this is what they are saying..

She and her icy cold stare.

The manja Zaria is always asking me to ‘come’ or ‘carry’.

Juicy details will come later!

My dad gave us a treat to Krabi, Thailand over the weekend. He paid for flight and accomodation, we paid for all other expenses. It was a family holiday, 15 of us.

Zara has been looking forward to the trip. The night before we left, she chickened out though.
Zara : Mummy, I don’t want Sam jie-jie, Norman kor-kor, Ah Kim and Yi Yi they all to go to Krabi with us.
Me : But why? It’ll be so much fun to go with them. I thought you like them.
Zara : I like them, but I don’t want them to go to Krabi with us. Because, the hotel only have 2 beds, where is Fifi and I going to sleep?
Haha, she thought we’re all going to squeeze into 1 room.

We stayed in Pakasai Resort at Ao Nang Beach, and we took 5 rooms. There’s no beach though in the hotel, the beach is across the road, but then, it’s not a fantastic stretch of beach, so we didn’t even bother walking over.

Check out the troops, without the parents.

Upon arrival, it was just rest and relax. Napped, shopped, swam and of course ate. Food is really good and reasonably priced.

Shopping at Ao Nang is like shopping in Patong Beach 15years ago, a bit more laid back. I didn’t get much, just 3 pairs of fake Billabong shorts and a pair of slippers because the strap on my Croc Cleo snapped!

We travelled in motorbike powered taxi around Ao Nang.

We wanted to do island hopping on the 2nd day. 1,200 Baht to charter a long tail boat for the whole day and we can choose to stop over at 4 islands. We took 2 boats and we didn’t go beyond the 1st island, Koh Poda. We were expecting a dry ride and probably champagne served on board, but throughout the 30mins journey, sea water kept splashing at us. We were all drenched when we arrived Koh Poda, where you get beautiful white sand, and clear blue sea.

Children having fun at the beach.

Sam bringing Zara out for a swim. Had to give her a neck float too, double protection.

After that, it was another 30mins wet ride back to Ao Nang. Brrrrrrrr!

The kids spent lots of time at the pool, getting burnt!

On the 3rd day, we chartered a van to bring us to Krabi town.

There’s a small night market in Krabi, where you can get all kinds of street food and fruits.

And then the driver brought us to a very nice local restaurant (but I forgot the name! Haih), with big garden, a stream, and even a windmill and an unused ferris wheels. When we arrived, we actually screamed in delight! Like some dungus (Malay : fools)!

Children hanging around at the big spacious garden.

(this shot is a bit blur, but I like the warmth of it)

I love these 2 shots of my dad fussing over Zara. Wiping her sweat, and fanning her because she’s always drenched in sweat.

And guess who is the tiredess of all? Zaria of course!

Zara too was so keen in playing that she shortened her nap and sleep time in Krabi; when we got back, she slept till 11am the following morning! Her latest ever!

I went to Beijing for work for a week from 4th May to 10th May. This is my 2nd trip to Beijing, the last round was 5 years ago in 2003, where I spent the first 10days touring before starting the week’s work trip. There are more high rises and the Hutongs (胡同) are no where to be found (I heard only a few selected ones were kept and turned into tourist attraction). I’d not seen any one spitting and smoking in public places is now banned (that doesn’t mean people can’t smoke in restaurants though but there’s dedicated smoking area). The air is thick with dust and exhaust fumes, making me cough every time when I walked the 10minutes journey.

We finished work most days between 7:30pm to 8:30pm. I have another 2 colleagues who also went along from Singapore and Hong Kong, and we spent our after work hours shopping, dining and chi chatting. This round, I only managed to do a little shopping because shops including supermarkets close at 9:30pm in most places.

As usual, I took a lot of photos of food which we ate for lunch and dinner. I have to say, Beijing food is rather good and cheaper compared to Malaysia.

Here are the photos…

Tian An Men, the imposing Mao’s portrait.

Tian An Men square from a far.

Around Tian An Men. The soldier is not doing a friendly wave, it fact, he was saying “NO” to my camera.. but too late.

Dishes from 渝乡人家 (Yu Xiang Ren Jia), a Sichuan restaurant; where we had our first dinner organised by the Chinese colleagues, and lunch where my users from my previous program treated me. Pics : fried glutinous rice cake; steam dumpling made with glutinous rice flour; fried flat bread; the spicy but delicious dishes we had for lunch.

On the 2nd night, we had the nicest roast duck in 大董烤鸭店(团结湖店) (Da Dong Roast Duck Restaurant). It’s way better than the overly commercialised 全聚德(Quan Ju De). We found the size of the menu ridiculous though. Look at this.. (notice my watch at the lower right bottom)

The beautiful and delicious dishes : Asparagus Soup with sea urchin; Orange soup; Calamari in salt and pepper; Fried winter bamboo shoot.

Bean curd; Cod fish with vege; Fried millet (done like fried rice); duck soup

And the best Beijng Roast Duck. All these for RM230.

Group lunch dishes in 娃哈哈 (Wa Ha Ha). Stuff lotus root; shredded bean curd; cold vege; duck soup (so delicious).

Lunch at 中发宏 (Zhong Fa Hong) : Stir fried vege; Jelly with chili oil (凉粉辣油); Salted egg fried pumpkin; Red bean pan cake.

Lunch at 中发宏 was so good and reasonably priced, we went again on our last day. Duck stew; chicken fried with green chili (Yums!)

This is the view around the office. Decorated compressor; Rush Hour cyclists; The unfinished CCTV building; Buildings around Chao Yang District (朝阳区).

On our last day we had dinner at a nice restaurant in an old house with a court yard. Inside 那家小馆 (Na Jia Xiao Guan)

Roast Duck cold dish; Crispy prawns; Steam sweetened Shanyao (山药); Stir Fried chives, black fungus and egg.

Fried vege; cod and mango with goose liver sauce; spicy fish pot; and some Dianxin (点心).

And if all this good food doesn’t appeal to you, you can check out the Olympic food from the stalls in WangFuJin (王府井)…..
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Deep fried Sea Horse and Scorpions

Deep fried Star Fish

Deep fried Scorpions, crickets, silk worms, and lizards

I didn’t bought or try any, and got scolded, “你买不买啊？？你不买就走开” (Are you buying, if you are not buying get lost). Your cup of tea?