Continue from here.

After 2 nights in Berjaya, we moved to our luxurious room in The Datai on our last day. Yes, that was how I compromised, 2 nights in Berjaya, 1 night in Datai.

I have to say, it’s no wonder Datai is ranked as the no. 2 hotel in Tripadvisor (at this time of writing). The minute we stepped in, they knew who I was (from our entourage I guess); we were escorted to the bar for our welcome drink (luxurious juice and not those run down cordial), and were given cold towels to freshen ourselves; my forms were brought to me for signing.

From the number of people I recorded in my booking, the room was prepared to cater for us. I asked for a cot in my booking, but they did more! One of the day bed has been converted to a bed, and extra bath robes and towels were provided without me requesting. They really look into the details.

The room was very spacious and comfortable; we even got our own Lavazza coffee machine in the room (freshly brewed coffee as and when we wanted!), the service impeccable, and the resort just blends in beautifully with the surrounding rainforest.

Girls chilling (1st top left pix was from Berjaya, the rest fr Datai)

Unlike popular believe, Datai does welcome young guests. It’s just that the main pool is restricted to adults and the young guests have to use the pool at the Beach Club (where the beach is), which is a nice stroll away through the rainforest.

At the Beach Club, beach towels are brought to you, you get ice water served, and also cold face towels delivered. After we moved to Datai, we didn’t go out any more for meals, we just wanted to fully enjoy the service and facilities.

The beach is nicer and cleaner, with softer sand. It doesn’t have the shallow pools like the ones in Berjaya though, but still, the kids have fun.

They don’t have a shallow wading pool or a baby pool, but Zara with her floats on, could be left alone playing in the pool, we just kept an eye on her from a far. As for Zaria, she refused to put on her neck float, and preferred to sit at the steps of the pool just splashing water.

I also have my birthday eve dinner at the Beach Club. Zara was dining for free, but the chefs actually took the trouble to prepare something not in their buffet menu for her. The following day’s lunch, when I was undecided on what to order for Zara, the waitress asked what type of food Zara likes, and the waitress got the kitchen to made her fried rice with ikan bilis (Malay : white baits) which wasn’t on the menu! What can I say about the service?

When we asked for a late check out because our flight was close to 6pm, I was thinking even 1hr later would be nice. The front desk requested for our flight details, and then told us we can have the room till 3pm! What a delight! Snob hotels like Equatorial should really learn from them.

I so regret we didn’t stay there for 2 nights as Daddy had suggested, especially since they are running the Rainforest Promo where the rate is almost half of the published rate. I was just trying to be nice to Daddy’s pocket. *Sigh* By the way, price for local meals in Datai is almost the same as what Bon Ton charges,  I just think Bon Ton is overcharging!

Overall, it was quite a nice trip, except Daddy and I have no time for ourselves, and we seemed to need double of the time to do everything. More time needed for everybody to shower and get ready, more time needed to finish a meal, so, we have less time to go around or visit other parts of the island.

We have to plan for another trip before year end and I wonder if we should bring one of the maids this time.

Thanks to Chanel, many months ago, I booked the tickets to Langkawi when MAS had their RM1 promo. For 4 of us, it was ~RM300 return. Cheap cheap.

Then many years ago, when we were sipping tea in The Datai with my Greek friends, my friend’s hubby vowed to his wife, “If you gave me a daugther next year, I’ll bring you back here, and this time we’ll be staying and not just sipping tea.” Daddy, not loosing out, said the same to me. In deed, we have Zara the following year, so it’s time for Daddy to fulfill his promise. But Datai is so expensive, how to make him pay? So we compromised.

We left the maids at home, and headed to Langkawi, with an active toddler and a beginning-to-be-mobile baby. Brave huh?

We got our car from the airport, a Honda City, 4D/3N for RM240. I just love travelling off peak.

Our 1st stop upon arriving Langkawi was Bon Ton, can you beat it? Nasi Goreng for RM36? Laksa for RM28? .. but we have to say, the environment was nice, although the tables and chairs can do with some cleaning (cat fur and dust everywhere!).

Girls in Bon Ton, padi fields and cow dung just a stone throw away

A close friend sold us her Berjaya room stay for RM50/night. We were supposed to get a Superior room, but when the reception saw Zara batting her eyes we came in a family, she upgraded us to Deluxe, which comes with a day bed, and a king bed.

The Beach around Berjaya is nice and clean, with a few shallow pools where Zara could play in. My only complain is, the property is huge! For you to get to the main hall where everything is, you have to call for a buggy to bring you there. Zara loved it though, she said it’s like a roller coaster ride, since the challets are all located on hilly terrain, the rides to the main hall is very bumpy.

This is Zaria’s first time playing at the beach. She was a wee bit afraid of the waves, but happy to be able to play with sand, and even eat some.

Zara just loves the sea! Even under the scorching sun, she refused to get under the shade. Thank goodness Daddy didn’t mind the sun, so he followed everywhere she went.

Nobody should leave Langkawi without going on the cable car ride, more so if you stay in Berjaya, because it’s just a 2min drive away.

Top right pix : The track which is suspended and linked from station 1, unfortunately is closed.

We drove to Kuah town on the 2nd night, kitchen wear and chocolates were so cheap, not forgetting alchohol too. We just bought some Swiss Cadbury that’s all (I can imagine Shopping Amah grabbing everything from Kuah, and maybe even some Kleenix if she were in Langkawi).

Eating in Langkawi is expensive, even out of the hotel. I wonder if people knew we’re not local, so they really cut our throats. Mantis prawns at a road side restaurant (not beach front or posh) ~ RM60 for 2? We also bought bread and buns from Tun’s bakery, The Loaf, ~RM15 for a raisin loaf, ~RM6 for a savoury bun. Bread is of high quality, but price is a bit steep I think.

To be continued here.

We brought the 2 girls for a holiday recently, just Daddy and I and the two girls without the maids.
We thought it was our holiday….

… The truth is, it was the maids’. While we were busy handling the kids, I’m sure they had a good time at home, watching TV, and probably sipping Pina Calada while chilling out in the wading pool.

We thought Zaria has this thing about remote controls..

…. The truth is, she’s just able to fall asleep, anytime, anywhere, even midway eating.

We thought getting a hotel with big bed is important..
… The truth is, it doesn’t matter, because in the night, they snuggled so close to me, all of us could actually fit into a single bed.

We thought she likes nice hotels… The truth is she very much prefes home..
When I asked her, “So, did you like the hotel?”
“Yah”
“We stay here for a few more days ok?”
“No No No.. I want to go home.”
“The bed in the hotel is so comfortable, why do you want to go home?”
“My bed is even more comfortable.”
“But we don’t have swimming pool in our house.”
“Have wut. My swimming pool got Mickey Mouse one, even nicer.”

I also have nice swimming pool wut!

Holiday post will come later.

Brought girls swimming at my sis’ on Friday, they loved it!

Morib on Saturday, Zara was very happy to be at the beach with Daddy. My mistake for not bringing her swimming costume, so she had to play in her going out clothes.

Zaria was so keen to join Zara on the mud sand, but I was afraid of getting her dirty, so she was on my hip and shoulder most of the time at the beach.

Sunday was another full day activity.

Brought the girls to visit a friend. Their son, Jaden is 2.5months younger than Zara and about 2.5Kg heavier than her.
Zaria was very happy to play with Jaden’s toys.
Later it was off to a friend’s daugther’s Elisa’s 2nd birthday party. Surprisingly, Zara wasn’t afraid of the Mc Donald’s mascot, Hairy Berry, which looks like an oval Ribena Berry (what is that thing called anyway?)
Brought Zara to do some painting, a charity drive at Plaza Damas which allows donor of RM30 to do a 6×6 everything provided for oil on canvas painting.

Some of the girls sepia photos taken by Daddy (which I’m against, since you can convert colour photos to sepia anyway using software)

Every night, when we reached home, the two girls were knackered.

Putrajaya has some fun things going on, so we actually made 2 trips there this weekend.

On Friday night, we went to see the fireworks since Jazz has been blogging about it so frequently. We went at about 8pm, just so we could bring the kids to the fun fair near the fireworks display. Such a rip off that was. Entrance fee was : RM5 per adults, RM3 for kids; and the rides were all RM6 and above. They even charged parents RM3 if they need to stand next to and accompany the child in the carrousel ride!

Since it was so expensive, we only let Zara went on 3 rides (2 x hotair balloon merry-go-round and 1 x carrousel), as she wouldn’t do it herself, we have to accompany her on the rides.

The many exorbidantly priced rides in the funfair!

Zara had some fun, but Zaria was a bit dopey throughout

At close to 9pm, all the rides were temporary shut down, so that the whole place became quiet and dark for the fireworks display. We got a really nice view of the fireworks from the funfair ground (the camera ran out of battery so no photos of the firewarks). It was quite nice, but I heard this was probably one of the worse display in the entire competition.

On Saturday morning, we took off to Putrajaya again. Why? Because the cows are in town! You know the Marche cows that kids so love? There are about 20 of them on display near the Ministry of Agriculture.

Zara enjoyed it very much initially, she wanted to ride on each and every cow. However, it was a super hot day, after being under the scorching sun for about 30mins, she started whining and asked us to go home.

A few of the priviledged ones which Zara chose to ride on

Zaria didn’t know what the fuss was about, but she just tagged along. Zara trying to milk one of the cows

We were then off for some lunch in an airconditioned place.

For those of you who like the cows, go check them out, I heard they are moving them about, and the final destination is supposed to be KLCC.

Oh boy, Miabambina and Ms Fairface tagged me on the subject I’m most passionate about.. food. I love to eat, I love good food, and this is one thing I’m willing to spend. I have so many things I like, I don’t know where to start…

So I’ll stick to the title : Food Around The World, literally, what more with my recent trip to Singapore, I made two delicious ‘international’ discoveries.

In Singapore, I was shopping for something to eat for breakfast on my last night, and I saw this pot of yogurt for sale in Market Square, Tangling Mall. I was more interested in the terracotta pot which was holding the yogurt, so I bought it, even though it was S$8 per pot (1 serving). I chose the one with honey, the way I like my yogurt.

The following morning, when I scoped the first spoon into the mouth, mama mia, what a heavenly sensation!! I had never tasted yogurt this delicious before. It was very creamy and smooth, and the honey taste was very distinctive (in Chinese you’ll say it’s very ‘hiong’ or ‘siang’). I normally gobbled up my breakfast because of hunger, but this time, I slowly tasted every spoon of it; letting the euphoric taste linger. Too bad, my ice box was full, or I would have bought a few pots for later enjoyment back home. This is the La Fermiere yogurt from France. If you haven’t tasted it and is a great fan of yogurt, you have to try this!! I heard, it’s one of the best yogurt in the world (from doing a google search).

Too bad, it’s not available in Malaysia, or I would have gladly paid RM20 a pot for the occasional indulgence.

The other gastronomic discovery is the zhongs from Hong Kong. A nice Hong Kong colleague of mine brought two from Maxim for me when we met in Singapore. We had one over the weekend and boy it was delicious!!

The rice was first wrapped with two pieces of bamboo leaves, then tightly bundled up with lotus leaves. The zhong has both the fragrance of the leaves. It was big enough for two big eaters like myself and Daddy, filled with pieces of roast duck (which I’m a big fan), lentils (I think that’s what it was), a nice salted egg yolk, a piece of lard (which we discarded), and a whole scallop. Oh boy.. what a treat it was.

The zhong and the momento of the orgasmic experience

Now I’m a convert for Hong Kong zhong and french yogurt! Can’t wait for the weekend to arrive so we can share the next zhong; and I’m looking forward to my next trip to Singapore for more La Fermiere orgasmic experience. Sorry yeah, these 2 items are not from my home town and I’m not sticking to the original tag.

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Here’s the trail of the tag 

Mybabybay loves Asam Laksa from Penang, Malaysia
JustMyThoughts loves Penang Char Koay Teow
My Lil Venture loves Laksa Sarawak
Monterssorimum loves Teluk Intan Chee Cheong Fun
Chinnee loves Melaka Wan Tan Mee
PeimunLeah loves Hakka Lei Cha
Hui Sia
Jonamum
Karen loves Pan Mee
Something about Lai loves Crispy duck skin from China
Simple American loves Cheese Enchiladas
Nicole Tan loves Char Tau Kueh
Velverse loves Otak-otak
Kenny Ng loves Jawa Mee
Fatty Poh loves Nasi Dagang Kelantan
wmw loves Kuih Tutu
Lyrical Lemongrass loves Asam Boi
Pinkelle loves Mee Siput and Keropok Lekor
Ms Fair Face loves BBQ Sambal Stingray
Mia Bambina loves Chicken & Beef Pie
Zara’s Mama discovered Hong Kong Zhong and La Fermiere Yogurt

I would like to tag :
Malaika’s Mummy
Mom of Cairo
Vien
Ah Ben
And Baby Shern

continues from here

2:30am : Still no news from MAS Lost & Found counter. Tried calling them numerous times, no reply.
Called MAS 24hrs line, to check if they can locate someone in the airport to understand the situation. Repeated my whole story for the 3rd time (Breast milk, precious, urgent, spoil if arrived late were words/phrases I have to keep repeating to add urgency to the situation). Harry from MAS checked, and confirmed MH610 already landed. He would try to call his colleagues in KLIA, and then will call me back.
3:00am : No calls from Harry. I called the 24hr line again. Rosa was the one who picked up my call. She said they are still trying to locate someone in the airport, but wasn’t able to. She kept silence most of the time when I asked her, “What is happening on your side?” “So how now?” This really frustrated me. Asked her for the manager. A Patma came to the line, and she said she’ll try her best to locate someone.
3:15am : Roslan from KLIA called, said my things were with them, but they could only deliver to me at 5am. WTF?!!! He called from his mobile so I have his number. I paced around the room wondering if I should wait till 5am.
3:30am : Decided to drive to KLIA on my own to collect my liquid gold instead. Called and informed Roslan, I could hear a delighted tone in him when he added, “So we don’t need to send it over to you?”
4:15am : Arrived KLIA. Roslan’s crew handed my things to me. “Sorry yeah miss, lots of problem today, that’s why can’t call you earlier.” I just sped off. Niah mah fu lat!! Now how do I claim my toll and petrol to the airport?
5:00am : Reached home. Sorted the milk. What was still frozen, I quickly tossed it back into the freezer. What was partially thawed, I poured out the thawed milk into the bottle and then tossed the frozen back to the freezer. Took me half hour to do this.
Wrote a note to tell Daddy and the maids I wanted to sleep in, and I wanted no disturbance. Moved a mattress over to the study (didn’t want to be awaken when the kids wake up at 8am), and dozed off.
6:00am : Daddy came over with a crying Zara. “She wants you.” Dropped her on my mattress and walked back to the room. I was too tired to argue with him or I would have given him a big knock on the head for doing this since I needed to sleep. I carried Zara back to the room and tried to pacify her as well as get her back to sleep.
6:15am : Went back to the study and when I was about to doze off. Daddy came over again as Zara woke up and cried when she didn’t see me!!!!
6:30am : Made sure Zara is asleep. Since the maid were all up, I told them I’ll be sleeping in, and moved my mattress to their room, locked the door, and slept!
10:00am : Woke up feeling like a zombie.

I’m the kind who has to take 8hrs of sleep every night.. so I’m not in my element today!

Screw Malaysian Airlines for such screw up and such customer service! Damn the new regulations and Changi not giving exemption to nursing mums!

Now let me see if I can claim back my return trip to KLIA to collect the missing baggage the airline caused!

I was on a business trip for 3 days.
I woke up daily at 6:30am to express milk.
Shortened my lunch hour to 1/2 hour to express milk.
Instead of going shopping immediately after work (Great Singapore Sales is on), I stayed back in the hotel for another half hour to express milk.
Every night, after I’d expressed milk for the last time, got the hotel to store all the milk in the freezer for me, washed all the bottles, it would be 12am.
Now, is the milk precious or not?

8:00pm : Arrived Changi airport for my 9:20pm flight MH610
8:15pm : Checked in my suitcase, and was told MH610 has been delayed to 9:45pm. Suitcase tagged with MH610.
8:20pm : Before passing immigration, I asked security check point if I could carry my 2litre of frozen milk with me on board. I was denied entry, even though it mentioned “special dietery requirement” is excempted. They let me get out to ‘sort out’ my problem.
8:30pm : Got some masking tape from the shop, and taped up my cooler box and cooler bag.
8:45pm : Checked in my cooler box, and cooler bag. I was told flight MH610 has been delayed infinitely, and we would be put on MH608 departing at 9:30pm instead. Both my cooler box and cooler bag were tagged wtih MH608 tags.
9:00pm : Rushed through immigration, and went to the gate.
9:30pm : Started boarding the flight.
10:00pm : Flight took off finally.
11:00pm : Arrived KLIA. Went straight to claim my baggage.
11:15pm : Suitcase appeared.
11:45pm : Still no sign of my cooler bag and cooler box (anxious).
11:50pm : Was told no more items left in cargo, and I should proceed to Lost & Found to lodge a complain. (fuming)
12:00am : Have to tell the guy the content in the cooler box and cooler bag, and how important it is. He told me there’ll be no more incoming flight from Singapore. Have to tell him Susu Ibu is Breast Milk in English, to help him type that in to the report to indicate the urgency, and see if Singapore can help me to store the milk back into the freezer. I also took the Changi baggage handler number from him.
12:10am : Boarded my cab. On the way home, called up Changi baggage handler, phone was answered in 3 rings. The guy who took my call told me that at his end, he couldn’t see the cooler box or bag, he told me to call MAS counter in Changi. Called MAS counter in Changi, Nur who answered (picked up within 3 rings as well), told me she’ll help me trace the bags, and will call me back.
12:20am : Nur told me bags have been located, they have been mistakenly (she didn’t use this word, but how else could the bags ended up in the wrong flight) loaded into MH610, which will depart at 1am or later from Singapore.
12:35am : Reached home. Called Nur again, and she confirmed MH610 would be departing at 1am. Called MAS Lost & Found counter, it took me 6 attempts, infinite rings, before I reached a Roslan. He’s aware of my situation (probably became the big talk among the boys, this susu ibu thingy), and said he’ll send the bags immediately when the flight arrived.
1:00am : Called Nur in Changi again, and she said MH610 has taken off.
1:40am : Waited and Waited and Waited.

…. to be continued

Hijackqueen mentioned that there’ll be a bloggers’ meet at Morib on 1st May last week, I wasn’t keen initially, puting off by the thought of the heat and having to nurse Zara in sweat. When I asked her again if it was still on Monday, she said no takers so she called it off. Hmmmphhhh!

With a spontanious husband, we headed for Morib again yesterday, arriving 6hrs too late for the bloggers’ meet (which actually took place), and 3hrs too late for the tide.

Half a year ago, when we were there at the same hour, it was low tide. This time, it was high tide when we arrived at 3:30pm, and there’s no beach for us!! What more there’s no breeze, and most part of the picnic ground was wet or muddy due to the frequent rain we’d been experiancing. Sigh.

We still managed to get a spot luckily, but since it was pretty hot and we didn’t have much to do, we left after a short while. We headed to Tanjung Sepat for seafood, but chose the wrong restaurant (Restaurant Lovers Bridge) and waited for almost an hour for our dinner (even though we arrived at the restaurant at 5:30pm). With the dining area perched on planks above the sea, and strong breeze blowing at us, the wait was bearable; the girls were kept contented by watching the waves and cooled by the breeze. Seafood was very fresh and delicious, but the wait was just too long.

Still, the girls have a good outing. Lots of smiles from them.

Girls at Morib, and the Lovers Bridge at Tanjung Sepat

Michelle and Shoppingmum wanted to know this, so they tagged me.

I absolutely love travelling. Before the kids arrived, Daddy and I made sure we went on vacation once a year. We like outdoors and nature and love to go to places which offer this. When I went on business trips, I tried to find time to visit National Parks nearby. Been to Maldives; Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia; Turkey; many national parks in Northern California; Great Wall of China; French Alps and Riveria; Scotland; around Athens and Eastern Europe and would like to see more! Since the kids arrived, we only went to places and countries nearby. I hope when they are older, we could either bring them along or leave them behind to visit these places : (in sequence of desire) Grand Canyon, Meteora, Santorini, Mykonos, Ayers Rocks, Niagara Falls,  Mongolian Grassland, Bhutan, Sahara Desert. Wonder when it’ll be but one thing for sure, I need to start saving now.

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**Start Copy**

Proposition : Where do you want to go Next, OUTSIDE OF YOUR COUNTRY, for tourism, work , study, whatever.

Requirements: Find some info about the place, itinerary etc, pics if possible so you get MORE Traffic coming in, and maybe some people can find somewhere to go to. Excludes your NEXT DOOR NEIGHBOUR, ie Singapore,Malaysia,Brunei, a country that borders yours.You must register for MyBloglog so we can blogwalk ah…..get it?

Quantity : FIVE PEOPLE.

Tag Mode : Chain Link. 15 of them.
You leave 15 people and their DEEP LINK of their Blog Name and TAGGED POST and hit out for five more. So it will look like

Azrin going Down Under
MaRLinda in Disneyland Paris
Athira Baby and her Balamory Antics
Msau to Japan
Shoppingmum to Europe
Angeleyes off to Bora-Bora
Giddy Tiger snorkelling in The Maldives
Jess to Europe
Michelle go around the world

**Add in the blog you got the tag from and tagged post.** (In this case, for example, you should add “Zara’s Mama wants to experiance nature around the world“) 

Extra Rules: you cannot Tag another person who has performed the Tagging Rights to Travel. Check yr commentators.
You MUST PASS this tag within 7 days of receiving it , or lose a day’s worth of Blog Revenue or $10 to charity. Can?Makes it interesting anyway. So no Lazy Tags running about, and yeah, eventually, there will be less than a 1:3 chance you can’t tag that someone. And pay those people in the list a visit, you never know if you can pinch / recycle some ideas for your next entry!

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And I tag :
King’s Wife (Bags shopping?)
Sasha (Persia/Iran? So you can buy more of your sharp sharp shoes?)
Sesame (I know you’d seen lots of places, with Gavin now, where do you want to go?)
Mom2Ashley (diving paradise?)
Chooi Peng (quick, last trip before you deliver)