.:Simply Funtasy:.

522 PW Confinement Center - Honest Review and My Stories

2021-05-20T17:04:00.001+08:00

Pregnancy, labor, and delivery, then what next?

Confinement, of course.

Confinement, which literally translates to "sitting the month", has become a deeply ingrained tradition in Chinese society. Women are advised to stay indoors for recovery from the trauma of birth and feeding the newborn.

There's a lot of do's and don't during this confinement period, and my gosh, the traditional ones are too damn strict. You cannot touch the water. You cannot blow cold wind. You cannot bathe nor wash your hair. Thankfully, the tradition has been improvised according to the advancement of technology and society lah, so not so miserable anymore, but I still do follow some of the rules, eg, I didn't wash my hair until the 20th day and I wore a long sarong throughout my confinement.

When we found out that we're pregnant, the next big thing was confinement. There were few options to choose from at the time: my mom coming to our place, I go back to KB, I go to Sing's place, we hire a confinement lady and a confinement center.

Honestly speaking, confinement center was like the very first thing pop out of our head. The reasons being, 1) our house is a 2-story terrace but there's no bathroom and toilet on the second floor, meaning we have to go up and down the stairs since the rooms were all upstairs, so it would be very inconvenient for my mom or the confinement lady; 2) our place is not really suitable to have a guest (aka the confinement lady) to stay in, my mom ok lah coz she's family, so confinement lady is sorta out; 3) if my mom were to come and help me with my confinement, tak boleh harap Sing to take her to the market to buy food; 4) Sing would miss me and the baby very much if I were to go back KB or to his place; 5) The confinement centers around Penang are quite cheap compared to other places like KL and Johor.

So, yeah, confinement center it is.

Then, the next thing was to Google for the center that is nearest to our place in Bertam. The first confinement center we visited was PW, and right there and then, we decided to book a place and pay the deposit.

9am Breakfast

12 noon Lunch

3pm Tea time

6pm Dinner

9pm Supper

Miss Chong's homebaked siew pao

(I realized that I only take pictures of the food and nothing much else, so haha, only food pictures loh)

When the KK nurse asked me about my postpartum plan, she shook her head as I gave her my answer lol. Why? I would deliver at a private hospital and do my confinement at a confinement center. Bad combo! Why? Private hospitals (not all) are not very breastfeeding supportive*, whereas it's hard for you to learn much about your baby when you stay at a confinement center. She told me that those mothers who stayed at confinement centers didn't even know how many times their baby poops, so I swore that I won't be those kinds of mothers.

*Breastfeeding friendly is not the same as breastfeeding supportive - the statement I learned from The Breastfeeding Advocates Network TBAN. In my understanding, BF friendly is like "Oh, you have breast milk? Great! Give it to us and we'll feed your baby with it." but they don't really of much help when you have problems with breastfeeding such as latching problem, milk supply etc. I experienced it firsthand after I delivered my baby and when I stayed at the confinement center. Thankfully, Eggy is able to latch well after confinement.

Back to the story. So, after my labor on 26th, my ob-gyn decided to let me stay for another night at the hospital due to the rather difficult delivery, I suppose. Eggy had to be admitted for 2 more days after I was discharged because of his high jaundice level, so I went to the center without him. *cry*

He joined me two days later *kiss*

There are few types of rooms available at PW Confinement Center. Four rooms are the proper rooms while there are about 8 partitioned rooms of 2 sizes. The room I booked was the bigger partitioned room cost RM6000 for a month. Luckily it wasn't a packed month (only 6 mothers), so I didn't have a neighbor next to my room. Due to the thin wall and the sliding door of the partitioned rooms, if you have a neighbor, and worse, if you are a light sleeper, you won't have a good rest yikes. I heard that from a mother who stayed next to a noisy mom.

From then on, I started my laidback and leisure confinement journey. I complained a little when I had to get up in the middle of the night to pump, but argh that was way better than handling a crying baby! They provide 5 meals a day (9am breakfast, 12pm lunch, 3pm tea time, 6pm dinner, and 9pm supper) with an unlimited supply of red dates water. The boss, Miss Chong, cooked all our meals. All mothers sit together in the main hall for meals, hence the chance to socialize and chitchat. Mothers stay upstairs while the babies stay at the nursery downstairs, and we get to see them during the daytime (they lock the nursery door at 8pm till the next morning).

One of my fav dishes - Chicken chop

There's one phrase to comment about the food: Too Much Pork! I was quite shocked when I had to eat porks after porks for lunch and dinner, and a mother who gave birth 3 days before me told me that we had to eat pork and not other meat for the first 12 days. What made me kinda confused was that there were also very few vegetable dishes. Luckily, I didn't constipate due to the meaty meals.

Back to the breastfeeding topics, here's a problem about this kind of traditional confinement place (and most people lah actually): they want to know "how much" the baby is drinking, hence they would prefer bottle-feeding than us latching the babies. I understand that they want to make their jobs easier since they have to look after so many babies, but it sorta discourages us to try latching.

Another thing that made my heart ache was that Eggy was quite a slow drinker, so there were few occasions when I saw the nanny was trying to let him finish his bottle as if she was stuffing a goose in the foie gras production. I admit that I was sissy lah as I didn't dare to tell her off. She did that because Eggy cried earlier than usual if he drank less milk, so by feeding him more, he would sleep longer and wake up a little later (which is also a problem there). So, sometimes I would take note of the time, and when it was almost time to nurse him, I would bring him up to my room (the room was only big enough for a queen bed, so babies sleep at nursery) and feed him myself. When he couldn't finish and keep on nudging the bottle away, I'd drink them up! I was so worried about latching because I failed by trying to attempt it at the center, but thankfully Eggy was cooperative and he latches very well after confinement.

Since the nannies prefer bottle-feeding, hence the beginning of my exclusively pumping life.

The usual sight on the table in my room - looks like the assembly line of a factory lol

I was very anxious and worried the first few days after labor because 1) I couldn't get Eggy to latch on me while we were at the hospital; 2) He was FM fed since day one; 3) My yield was pathetic as I didn't get the stimulation needed (him latching) to produce milk. WhatsApp and Instagram were my best friends as I asked questions on Insta and consulted some mothers about breastfeeding. I only got a few droplets when I tried to squeeze and Chen quickly stopped me (virtually) because she said they were the essence and don't waste them! "Feed them to your baby!" Okay okay.

After he was discharged and sent to the center, I quickly carried him up to my room and he latched for the first time on the 4th day he came to this world! *Cheers with tears* On that very night, I finally managed to squeeze out 10 ml of milk by Marmet Technique aka hand expressing. From almost nothing to 10 ml in a day! I still didn't get anything from the electric pump so for the next 3 days, I used the hand expression tandem with haakaa milk collector to express the milk out of my boob.

And then, I suddenly felt that maybe I should give the electric pump a try again since I got the Medela Freestyle pump for free (I didn't check the price when I got it, but after Chen and some mothers exclaimed in surprise that I have a Medela, I did a quick search, and yeah, I won't buy it myself if it's up to me lol!), and so I did. Surprise, surprise, I got 5 oz from 1 pump session! But it was just one-time thing lah because I didn't get that much yield on my next pump.

In my experience, the difference between exclusively pumping and the direct latch is that my boobs always feel very empty and light after I start latching Eggy after confinement. During confinement, I would feel engorged and heavy even after pumping, especially when my body started responding to the effect of papaya soup - it is said to be the ultimate milk booster, even caused 2-3 mothers to be engorged yikes. They would carry their babies back to their room as babies are the best pump in the world mah. Too bad Eggy wasn't much of help back then, so I had to deal with it myself - felt very proud of myself too when I successfully cleared the blocked milk duct on your own via hand expression.

The ultimate milk booster - papaya soup

Here's another thing about traditional confinement center/lady: read *traditional*. Nowadays, mothers are more modern and scientific-based, and a lot of confinement myths have been debunked lah, so they tend to not follow the traditional ways eg in terms of treating jaundice. In here, the nannies will feed your babies Chinese herbal powder for jaundice and 'shock' - yes, babies tend to startle a lot and then cry, there's a 'powder' for that, but with your consent, of course. If you don't want, they won't force you.

One last thing about this place is the hygiene. It is an aged bungalow with wooden built-in cupboards and the many things piled up all over the house, so, yes, our long-tailed pals have been partying behind all the cupboards and stuff. I didn't see any lah but the mothers did spot one or two lurking around the house.

All in all, here's my two cents:

1) This is quite a decent confinement center with awesome food.

2) I am thankful that my body can produce milk after latching.

3) I must say that (good) confinement centers are a brilliant existence over confinement lady because it solves so many problems at once - there's someone to cook for you, someone to take care of your babies, all you do is eat - pump - sleep.

My Labor and Delivery Experience

2021-05-13T16:44:00.000+08:00

DOB: 26th Feb 2021, boy, 3.41 kg, 57 cm.

On 19th Feb, a week before labor, I had an appointment with my ob-gyn. There was still no sign of labor, and my amniotic fluid was still sufficient, so he asked me to come back on 28th (my estimated due date was on 1st March) to check on me and the baby again and discuss the labor options.

On 24th, I had an appointment at KK. The nurse checked on me and said "anytime now, be prepared."

On 25th morning, I noticed some light spotting when I went to the toilet but no pain whatsoever. I called my ob-gyn assistant to ask if the doctor was available today. We discussed and decided to pack up and go straight to the hospital.

P/S: This was the decision both of us are still a little regret making even until now. Not in a bad way lah. After reading some posts on the mommies' group, we realized that we should have waited for a day or two or even go to KK or the government hospital first. Maybe my labor would be a little easy (and less expensive lol).

So, yeah, my ob-gyn checked on me and said that I've opened 2 cm. This was the first time I had the pelvic exam and gosh I despised it so much. He advised that it was better to admit right there and then since spotting without contraction can be dangerous and there was a sign that the amniotic fluid was decreasing. Another reason was that I needed to do the Covid test. He also said that if contraction didn't happen by that very day, I would be induced that very night.

(Due to the pandemic, mothers-to-be are required to do the Covid test before admission, and husbands are not allowed at all to accompany their wives during labor but can accompany wives if we stay in a single room.)

The room was available only after lunch, so we went to 7 Village for their kuew tiao th'ng and came back for the test and admission. After I settled down in the ward, Sing went back to his shop (yes, he opened his shop before we went to the hospital and asked his workers to manage while he was gone) and pack his stuff up.

Contraction didn't happen throughout the day, so I was induced at 10.30pm. Before that, the nurse inserted the suppository and wow, I did not fancy the pangsai feeling haha. It felt as if my anus was an out-of-control faucet lol. Then, the doc came and inserted the inducing pill into my va-jay-jay after some pelvic exams (again).

The first contraction started at 11pm and they sent me back to my ward. The nurse told me that if the pain was too much for me to bear, I could ring them up and they would inject a painkiller for me to ease the pain.

Oh gosh, the contraction was another thing that I despised. It was like the continuous pain when you laosai/had diarrhea and no matter how many times you sat on the toilet, the pain just wouldn't go away! It happened like once every 30 minutes. I couldn't sleep at all gah! I kept walking around the ward (thankfully I stayed in the single room), went in and out of the toilet, sat upright, lay down, turned here and there until 3 am when I couldn't take it anymore, and asked the nurse to administer whatever drug that could knock me out. I needed that rest for the push tomorrow! They came in and asked what painkiller do I need. I simply whined, "The nurse told me to just ring the bell, she didn't tell me what kind of drug, just do something." Then, they injected my butt and the pain eased so much. I could still feel the contraction happening but the pain disappeared, and I could finally sleep through the night. Well, not really also because I was interrupted so many times throughout the night as they came in to check my BP and all.

The next morning, after breakfast, I walked to the labor room hand in hand with Sing. He couldn't accompany me though so I had to face the battle on my own. Sobs!

I didn't wear glasses, take my phone with me etc, so all I did was lying on the bed, staring at the clock on the wall like a blind woman, and waiting. At 10.30am, after all-night of pain, it only opened 5cm, so the doc decided to induce me again, this time the IV drip type. And so there I was, lying on the bed, waking and passing out with nothing to do. The nurses came in and out to check on me (plus countless pelvic exams gah!), and asked me to call for them if I felt as if I wanted to pangsai.

I couldn't really say that I felt like it, but by 3pm, after another pelvic exam, the nurse said that it had opened 10 cm and that's when the push officially started. She even told me that the delivery would be over by 3.30pm so confidently. Oh, you were so wrong leh...

I thought that the ob-gyn would come during the 10 cm time. Then only I know that the nurse would be there with me until I push the baby's head out only would they call for the doctor to come for the rest of the labor. The nurse also encouraged me to push with all my might, given that the baby's heartbeat was going strong, because if I failed and the doctor came to take over, he would instantly choose to vacuum my baby out and the nurses didn't want that to happen. They preferred I gave birth all-natural lah actually since I had the strength and the baby was okay. I also thought that they would put up the leg supports like what I saw on TV but nope, I was lying on the bed, sometimes side lying, while doing all the pushing.

Anyhow, all those lotus pose and squat didn't really open my hip as I couldn't really push Eggy out. So many times when the nurse said she could feel Eggy's head, but I just couldn't push him all out. I asked for a second dose of painkiller (not epidural), thinking that it could help reduce the pain and I could still feel the contraction, but I regretted the decision because not only was the pain there, but I felt damn sleepy! I felt as if I passed out every time the contraction was over and woke up again when the contraction came ah! The nurses kept encouraging me on and on, telling me that Eggy was going strong as if he wanted to be delivered naturally.

I pushed for 1 hour+ until Dr Tan came at 4.20pm and took over. (Later, the nurse told me that she also wanted to call for the doctor already but he came on his own lol). He checked on me, put on the leg supports, and decided to suck Eggy out. In between the pains, I was quite anxious as Dr. Tan was a nervous freak to which somehow affected the nurses' actions too yikes.

Finally, at 4.47 pm, Eggy was sucked out via vacuum. My first thought as I watched him exiting my body was, "Damn, he (his body) is so long!" Yup, he was the longest and heaviest baby in the nursery that day lol. As the baby was taken away, Dr. Tan did the stitches on me and let me rest in the labor room. I literally passed out lah.

He came in a moment later, holding my hand and praising me for a job well done. He said that the nurses complimenting me, saying that I followed their instructions very well, pushing whenever needed, and not cursing and yelling. In short, I was good girl lah haha! Then, since I always asked him about skin-to-skin after delivery, breastfeeding and all during checkups, he kinda smirked and said, "See? Do you think you can breastfeed now? Do you still want to do skin-to-skin? I bet all you want to do now is to sleep, right? Now, sleep!" (Ok lah now that I think of it, I think he was kinda harsh lah because you can't deprive my request to hold my baby and all mah, but I was too exhausted to argue lol).

I was so tired that I slept for the whole hour in the labor room. When they pushed me back to my room, I held Sing's hands and my tears flowed out like rain. I even had the feeling that my mission there was completed and we could go home now, leaving the baby at the hospital lol!

I had my dinner, replied to messages, uploaded pictures, and passed out, and woke up again in the middle of the night to reply to messages and all. It wasn't until the next day that I got to meet my little handsome prince.

After such tedious labor, you look like your father and take your father's surname. -_-

Eggy had to be admitted for another 2 days though because he had a rather high level of jaundice. I was discharged, went home to pack up, and went to the confinement center. He came and joined me two days later.

And that was my labor and delivery experience.

Pregnant with Eggy

2021-05-13T15:35:00.003+08:00

Who knew a long-winded person like me would be so lazy to update my blogs haha.

I thought it's because of my dull and boring life, but then there were several occasions that were quite interesting to write about, so no excuse for that.

I blame it on my translation and editor job lah. Because the job is to translate/edit novels and stories, so I had enough quota and burnt enough brain cells for the assignments that I don't have the time and effort left to update my own stuff. Plus, I don't earn much money through blogging anyway, why waste the time here lol.

Anyway, I do miss blogging a lot, because, as the first sentence stated, I'm damn long-winded lah, so here's my first post after, let's see, Sept 2020!

I predict it's gonna be such a long-winded post so I spare you the pain by doing another post for the labor and delivery experience. (Does anyone care? lol)

Well, 2020 was quite eventful in general with Covid, lockdown (Malaysia calls it MCO Movement Control Order) and all, and in private too because I got married, got a pair of guinea pigs (again), and got pregnant!

Honestly speaking, we didn't expect to be pregnant so quickly (but the baby is a wanted child lah hehe). Here's why.

Our ROM was on Valentine's Day. Before we got married, I already told aka warned mom that I might not want to have a child. Mom was cool at first so I thought she was okay with it.

Fast forward to the beginning of MCO 1.0 in March 2020 and in May, mom suddenly messaged me and asked, "So how's your belly? Any news yet?"

Eh, I thought we already agreed that I don't want a child?!

Anyway, Sing and I talked and we decided to give it a try, thinking that I wouldn't get pregnant so easily because of my irregular period and all, but what do you know? I was pregnant by just trying for a month!

At 20 weeks

Our wedding was scheduled for June (my side) and July (groom's side). We were worried that we couldn't go on with it due to the lockdown, so when it was lifted in early June, We quickly made all the arrangements necessary and rushed back to Kelantan. That was also when I started to feel very nauseated, lack appetite, and exhausted. I thought it was because of the hectic wedding but Chen suggested otherwise.

So, after we came back from Kelantan, I did the pregnancy test, and yay, we're pregnant!

Honeymoon at Hard Rock Hotel in Aug 2020 (Er Jie sponsored)

However, I didn't really feel the 'joy' of being pregnant because the first trimester sucks. It was 1000 times worst than my usual PMS yikes! I couldn't eat, I vomited almost everything, I found some food very smelly, including Sing! It was only getting a little better after the first trimester.

After we found out that we were pregnant, we went to the local Klinik Kesihatan (KK) aka maternity public clinic to 'open a book'. In Malaysia, expectant moms can go to the KK near their residency area to register for antenatal check-ups and KK will give you a pink book during your first registration, hence the 'open a book' statement. I must say that Malaysia's medical benefits for pregnant women are very wholesome! So far, I received free checkups, free blood and urine tests, free injections, free dental (inspection, scaling and filling), free medicine, free everything! I never spent a single cent in KK, but I did pay for RM5 per visit at the government hospital because of the low-lying placenta.

We thought that we could simply walk in for first-time registration but thanks-but-no-thanks to the pandemic, you can only enter the clinic IF you have an appointment, so we were kicked out (in a kind way) and the nurse asked us to make an appointment via call or WhatsApp. I was given a date a few days later, and our appointment was when I was around 10 weeks pregnant.

The first-time registration took quite a long time. We were there for almost 4 hours! Husbands need to be there too as they have to do a blood test and whatnot. Funny thing was, towards the end of the visit after all the interviews, blood and urine tests etc, I was called to the nurse room, and when the nurse looked through my details, she suddenly looked up at me and asked, "Where is your pregnancy test result? How do you know you're pregnant? Did you do a scan or something? How do you know you're pregnant?" I was quite shocked and said that I missed my period, I did the test at home and it was two lines loh. Then she hurriedly asked me to do another urine test for verification because it was only valid if it was done at the clinic lol. I think she thought that all Chinese would go to the private clinic to get a scan haha.

It was quite an eventful journey too throughout my pregnancy. I would feel nauseated mostly during the evening shower so I didn't dare to eat heavy lunch or Nasi Kandar. I was very busy with my work (mostly because I procrastinate hehe) so sometimes I forgot to talk to my boy. There were few times when my urine tests were flagged so I had to go back for the BP checkups, and I had to do the MGTT test three freaking times! Every time I went for checkups, I always wondered how did the working moms manage their time. My job was home-based with flexible schedule so I could come and go as I like as long as my work was completed by the deadline, but what about those working moms? The typical duration for a checkup is usually 2-3 hours long, most of the time is just waiting and waiting. 1 hour is considered fast!

Oh yes, regarding the gender. During the early pregnancy, Sing would always call the baby Mini Nee, insisting that it was a girl haha. Then, we decided to give birth at Pantai Hospital Sungai Petani and made an appointment to see Dr. Tan Chiang Hooi when I was 22 weeks pregnant. That was when the sad thunder struck him.

It was a BOY! Haha! Sing was so sad for a few days. Kesian. Because of this, the baby's nickname was changed from Mini Nee to Eggy. Eggy comes from the Chinese nick 坏蛋 aka 蛋蛋.

Another big event was when I sprained my toe when I was 30 weeks pregnant. It happened because of the freaking mice!

at 30 weeks with the bandaged toe

One day, I found out that the packagings of the food (dry food, luckily) in one of our cabinets were torn, such as the instant noodles, salt, and sugar. At first, I thought there was something inside the cabinet that was poking at the packaging until I smelled something funny and found the urine and poo traces in the cabinet! So, on one afternoon, before I went out for lunch, for some reason, I decided to clean up the cabinet a little bit, and that was when I bumped into that freaking mice!! I needed to squat down to the cabinet. It was only so tiny btw. It jumped out of fright and ran out of the cabinet! While I was squatting down, I think mother instinct strikes because instead of sitting down (which was safer but might be dangerous for the baby), I instinctively stood up, but I couldn't find the balance so I kinda studded my big toe. It was so painful, I think it was even more painful than when I sprained my ankle.

The toe looked normal but it was actually very damn painful!

Started to swell at night

The pain intensified more and more throughout the day, started swelling at night, and at one point I couldn't take it anymore and asked Sing to drive me to the emergency department at the hospital. The doctors couldn't do X-ray on me due to my pregnancy. They concluded that I might either sprain my toe or the toe was broken, so they sent me home with a painkiller prescription and asked me to go back a week later.

On that very weekend, the KK nurse came to do a home visit. When she called, she was already in front of my gate! What if I wasn't home? Haha! Initially, I thought KK found out about my case and sent a nurse to see me, but it was a regular home visit. Nonetheless, the sprained toe incident still gave the nurse a surprise though.

A week later, the pain subsided so much that I didn't really feel anything anymore, but the doctor decided to splint the toe though, which made my life more miserable because I have to keep the splint dry! Can you imagine how I shower? I had to move a chair for me to sit and a stool for me to rest the injured foot. Even the nurses and doctors were so worried when I went for checkups lol.

It was quite smooth sailing towards the end of the pregnancy. Going to bed became a huge project because I needed bolsters and pillows all over me for my back and legs.

Next, it was time for the bun to come out of the oven!

Guinea Pig Project

2020-09-06T17:28:00.000+08:00

Yup, I fall into the trap again haha!

It all started during the MCO (Movement Control Order) period back in Mac-Apr, the tightest moment when everyone literally stayed at home. Hubby couldn't open shop so he stayed at home, almost died of boredom.

I was okay though coz: 1) I'm one of those excellent stay-at-home people, I have tonnes of things to do at home! 2) My work is home-based so... well, that explains it.

So, to ease hubby's boredom, I started talking about how I used to have guinea pigs as pets yadda yadda, then we both got excited. My excitement died down very fast but not him, in fact, he got more and more excited so I kinda yield to his interest lah.

Then I started seriously lecture him about the responsibility of rearing this piggies, what to expect, what to do on daily basis, what to do on weekly basis, what they eat, what to buy, budget, vet, etc, and he was like, "Okay babe, I'm ready! Just tell me what to do and I'll do it!"

Then, the movement restriction was lifted to a 'soft launch', that's when he could open his shop, and I reconfirm if he still wanted to get those piggies, and he was serious, so ok lah, start shopping for their stuff! For the first shopping spree, I bought the basic stuff: cage, bedding, and food (hay, pellet).

I decided to do things a little different this time than when I first had them back in 2011. Since we have a spare room in the house, we can house a big cage inside the room, which also means that I have to think about the bedding I want to use to make everyone's life easier.

I must say, things are so different now compared to last time: things are so much cheaper now, information is abundant (Facebook groups, Youtube, etc), more resources, etc. Cheaper stuff is the most important part lah haha, like so so much cheaper leh! There are so much more brands to choose from, online shopping has gotten easier and I'm spoiled with choices (unlike last time, I could only buy from either pet stores or online shopping-but only the branded stuff yikes)

Ok, back to the topic. The first change is the bedding. This time, instead of used shirts (because I don't have that much stock), I try the towel+fleece blanket layer bedding. I bought the cheap towels (RM1.90 per piece), and the fleece blanket is RM19.90 per piece. At first, I'm worried that the big cage = more cleaning, but nope, they only pee and poo at several specific locations so cleaning is easy! Plus, the towel and fleece are very absorbable, so there's no foul smell etc, which ease the cleaning and changing too. Fleece or cloth is very good to their little feet too so it's a win-win!

The second change is the dining area. I get the idea from the videos and suggestions that they use the litter tray for the dining area, which is the best idea ever! Guinea pigs love to shit where they eat, so 'surround' the area with a litter tray really ease the cleaning A LOT! I layer the litter tray with newspaper and husk pellet, so far, it doesn't smell, it doesn't get too dusty, superb absorbent, awesome!

Next: the piggies!

I bought them from a seller/breeder in Kedah for RM100. Hubby wanted a pair of females but it was really hard to get (according to the seller, even the litters he get from his sows are mostly male) so we settled for two males. We went to his place to see the piggies and we're lucky to find them. The white/choco was a month old but the beige was a newborn then, so we waited for a month to get them.

The piggies were very skittish (as expected), so the day as piggies parents started! Well, guinea pigs are good pets to start if you ever want to get started with having a pet (better in a pair coz they are social animals) because they are quite easy to take care of.

Hay is their staple food, then you have to refill their pellets and fresh veggies (I feed them twice, morning and night), their water. The cleaning is up to you, really. Back in the days when I was using the used clothes, it wasn't very absorbent so the smell was quite strong, I needed to change them every 2 days. But with the fleece/towel combo, there is no smell at all, so the daily cleaning is just sweeping up the poops then change the fleece once a week. Of course, there are many different cage setups from the other owners, so it's up to you on how to build their cage.

Sleeping in his bowl! Cute!

Sleeping together! Cute!

Well, I have another idea for their 'beds': Bras!

I have quite a lot of used bras that I couldn't wear anymore, but I don't know what to do about them! Then, I came up with an idea - make them into piggie beds lol!

The piggies seem to love it as I saw them laying around, look very cozy and comfortable!

Hubby really lives up to his promise - which is to clean/sweep the poops every night after work and change the bedding every week, kudos to him! Well, he has to do it lah now since I'm pregnant - cannot exhaust myself!

Look at his little stretchy feet! Cute!

It's their first month with us, and so far so good! They are still very skittish around us but there are times when they just give up and let me pet them haha!

I hope my baby isn't allergy to them or their food lah please!

Jasmine is in Town!

2020-04-27T18:42:00.002+08:00

OMG it's been like, what, years!!! I think we last met was at 1U / One World Hotel when Ashton was still a baby! OMG time flies like it doesn't give a damn!

It was such a surprise because: 1) I didn't know she was visiting Penang;
2) I didn't even know she was coming back to Malaysia for CNY!!!
OMG failed big time!

The night before, I saw her Insta-stories with Ashton and a backdrop that read 'Hard Rock' then I was like, OK maybe they went to the Hard Rock in other countries, but nope! It was hours later when I realized it was Hard Rock Penang ah wei!!! 迟钝到~~

Without a second thought, I WhatsApp and flew all the way to see her the next morning!
Hard Rock is located at the very end of Penang Island okay? Both hubz and I shared the same expression in different times when we learned that they were at Hard Rock.

The minute I arrived at Hard Rock, we (being me, Kaima, and Jas + Ra!) went to the 'nearby' foodcourt to tapao lunch, 'nearby' was like 20 minutes away also from Batu Ferringhi to Tanjung Bungah. Too bad, the food wasn't very nice but they were glad to have local food haha!

We spent the rest of the evening at the pool.

None of us brought our phones but never mind, no one was free to take pictures anyway. Three adults vs three kids also a lot of hard works! I in-charged of Kaitlyn mostly because the parents looked after the younger ones. That girl can swim!

We had a poolside teatime/dinner, went back to the room to bath, and everything, and I had to leave early because the kids couldn't sleep! Lol. The kids are way too adorable, luckily get to warm up to me by the end of the day haha!

Great catch-up but too little time to chat. 可惜! Next time next time!

Moon Gate, Penang, Malaysia

2020-04-27T18:20:00.000+08:00

A hike up Moongate 5 in Penang Island back in March.

I was with the same crowd, FH and Chai Ling, whom I went to Pantai Kerachut aka Monkey Beach hike with the addition of a new friend - Teng.

The entrance of the hill is located at the Penang Botanical Garden, very easy to find with the awesome entrance gate out front, and parking is actually by the roadside (let's hope no saman).

We started hiking pretty late actually, 11am. Please take note that most hiking trips I participated in started in the wee hour in the morning, some even started at 4am! I was afraid of the scorching sun but thankfully the hill has a lot of tall trees and shaded areas that I barely feel the sun. The heat - Yes, but the burning part - Nope.

The trail is quite long but relatively easy, most of the trails are the cement stairs which I dislike as I feel the impact on the knee, still prefer earth ground.
I don't know how to describe the mechanism but going up the stairs vs going up on the ground feels very different.

We had to take plenty of breaks in between because Chai Ling pancited frequently LOL, which made it even harder for her to go continuously because of the stairs!

Along the way, we bumped into plenty of hikers, old and young, who went up the stairs in a breeze! One auntie told us that if we came later in the evening, there's a group of frequent hikers who would come to make tea and coffee, so we can enjoy the relaxing time at the station above! So fun!

Finally, after half an hour or so, we reached Station 5. The place is very well-maintained, with clean toilets, several gym facilities in the area, a nice place to relax after the long hike.

Apparently, if we go on further, we may hike across the hill and go to the Bukit Bendera! Wow! Not this time though...

On the way down, we came to a point where, I think, it was a look-out point that oversees Gurney and Tanjung Tokong. It's either we went the other way on the way up or we simply too tired to notice it haha!

Halfway

Overall, I enjoyed it very much! And I miss hiking very badly!

It's quite a bummer that most of the wonderful hills are on the island instead of the mainland, otherwise, I think I would hike at least once a week!

Updates

2020-04-27T16:57:00.000+08:00

Wow, I've neglected you for so long, sorry...

Now that I work as a web novel translator, I have to type so many stories that I feel a little guilty if I do other things, especially writing, that doesn't earn money LOL. So, there goes my storytelling hobby too.

Also, ever since I took up the translator job, I don't feel like blogging too haha, although I don't have many stories to blog about because I hardly go anywhere and do anything.

Nonetheless, here are some quick updates:
1) Have been job-searching (engineering, lecturing, and so forth) since last July to no avail, only been called to ONE interview so far.
I've applied everywhere and through every channel: Jobstreets, 'cables' (help from my social network, recommendations from friends & my Ph.D. supervisor, some even help me forward my resume), so on so forth. No means no.

2) In the middle of the job-searching fiasco, I bumped into a job ad on Instagram about a freelance translator post from the company called Chill Solutions, I'd applied it (they have a test, translating a short text from Mandarin to English), failed, applied the second time with different text, passed and got the job. However, I don't really enjoy working with them due to their limited jobs to distribute to the translators, the pay, and particularly because their WhatsApp group is too noisy lol. I have to say this company is pretty great because the interaction and communication are very direct and dynamic, but I just don't feel belonged. Besides, here's my other reason...
After failing the test at Chill Solutions, I bumped into another translation job ad in the Fastjobs app from the company called EndlessFantasy Translations. I applied, did the test (very long text OMG), and passed. Then, I was assigned to a novel where I was one of the main translators of the job. Because I was very productive and quick, the one who arranges the work assignments assigned me to more books and now even new books. The salaries are getting more and more consistent, and also quite lucrative. Now that hubby isn't able to earn an income due to the pandemic and MCO (movement control order), the salary does help ease the financial burden at home.

3) I don't know why, maybe because I didn't have any permanent 9-to-5 job, I feel quite reluctant to get a regular daytime job, especially with this ongoing home-based translation job. I get to work at the comfort of my home (no expenses to travel to-fro workplace - fuel, toll, etc), I have time to cook lunch and dinner (reduce expenses on eating out), I get to go anywhere at any time I want (no need apply for leave, waiting for leave, etc), and so on.
The drawbacks:
1. lack of social circle. Yes, most of the time, only hubz and his workers, sometimes the shopkeepers beside his shop, badminton kaki every Wed, hiking friends rarely, and that's it.
2. can be quite depressed at times, especially during this MCO period. Hubz and I are quite different in terms of taking care of the household. He is the laid-back, casual, procrastinate type. Me, on the other hand, had a very fierce grandma and was trained, since young, to be quick and spontaneous in this compartment. There were so many occasions that I just exploded because of his all-time favorite reason: I forgot mah~
He forgot how to fold the bedsheet because we only do it once a week, like I also do it once a week but why I can remember and you not?
He forgot how to clean the fishes because we rarely do it but I also rarely do it why can I remember and you not?
I do the laundry, hang the clothes, ok lah he takes the clothes in, but he rarely folds them and put them back in the wardrobe like, need me to rotan is it?
I think the most heartbreaking part was when he told me that because of my nagging, he felt like 本来想帮的，都变得不大想帮了因为怕被骂. Then only I realized, and I literally said to him, 因为你少了十多二十年被骂的经验.

4) We still in the middle of thinking about whether to get a child or not. Got fear leh, how? Since my job is quite flexible, I guess a baby won't make much of a difference, and like everyone says, money is never enough lol.

I guess that's about it, and, guess what, still chatty as usual, haha!

Home Improvement

2019-08-18T17:40:00.002+08:00

Moved in with le bf in April.

The house is a double storey low cost terrace house, so we don't have a back door, literally.
You imagine the usual terrace house, then that usual terrace house is cut in half, and the back door of that usual terrace house is the front door of another house. Macam townhouse but we're connected back-to-back not upstairs-and-downstairs lah. Anyway, you don't care, so let's move on.

We stay at Bertam area of Kepala Batas, which has a LOT of Taman. The area is quiet me like-y. One of the best thing about this move is that, le bf opens a furniture store, so our house was furnished pretty quickly with supplier-priced furnitures haha! And the quality is good too yay!

However, the down side about low cost housing is that, the flooring is cement floor. You know, like the floor in your classroom. My tolerance of things is quite high but not this one.

The thing about cement floor is that, no matter how many times you mop the floor, it feels dusty after 5 minutes of mopping it. To mop until it shines and smooth takes years that I refuse to do. So we looked for flooring options that is cheap (because owner doesn't want to bear it).

Owner already did a lot of things though, like the car porch, the awning, the tiling for downstairs, a mini store room, and I thought she would include the tiling for upstairs too but it seems they overbudget, so OK lah fine we do it ourselves.

At first, we were considering the plastic mat that is often used in hostel (and the room I rented years ago), but the disadvantages quickly discouraged me. Then we found this self adhesive vinyl flooring that looked amazing! The price for these flooring is about RM 70-80, depending on the thickness. We first bought the 45sqft 2.0mm thickness ones at RM85.90, and the second batch we got was 54sqft 1.8mm at RM74.90.

We have three rooms in the house, all upstairs, and cemented (as well as the stairs). We started applying it on the small room for testing and it was great! Then we bought two more boxes for the master bedroom.

Sing kept procrastinating so I decided to do it myself. All you need is a bucket of water with cloth (to clean the floor before applying), marker pen, ruler, cutting knife or scissors (I find scissors is better in cutting the pieces) and patience.

I skipped the floor under the bed because the bed is too damn heavy and I was lazy as well lah. This work really tests your patience and the way you applied it to prevent gaps between the pieces. It took me about 4 hours to finish applying this 115sqft room. Sing miscalculated the size of the room though, so if I were to apply the whole room including underneath the bed, two boxes of flooring wouldn't be enough -_-

Completed!
Finally, happy to walk into the room without having to tip toe and straight jump onto the bed.

New Niece: Yao 瑶

2019-08-18T16:39:00.000+08:00

Let's revive this blog for awhile~ I miss blogging! I miss writing (casually)!

I have a new niece!!

OK she's already six month old by now, consider throwback lah hah!

Chen (my sister and the mother of the new niece) asked my mom to help in her confinement month, to cook, to do laundry and what not. Her MIL helped during her first born but she couldn't make it for this one so my mom is up. Since I was in the middle of correcting my thesis, I promised to go along as assistant when my correction was done.

Her expected due was supposed to be on the end of Feb, which was few weeks after CNY. Everyone already planned their things. I too already planned my things.
Finished correction in two weeks - go to KL.

However, thing took an unexpected turn.

On the 19th 7am, Chen messaged on our group chat saying her tummy hurts and she will go to the hospital after drop off her first kid Xuan at nanny. Two weeks early!!!

I told Sing (le new bf) about it and that I might have to go to KL two weeks earlier than anticipated, and he was like "then you have to finish the correction by this week loh if you wanna go this weekend. Can?"

Proven, desperate times call for desperate measures. The correction that I have procrastinated for 2 months, managed to finish it up by 4 days lol!!

Her delivery was super fast too this time (just like her first born). By 12pm we got the message that she has delivered!
In fact, Chen said it's actually faster than Xuan, 7.30-ish am she went in delivery room, by 8-ish am already delivered!! But because her phone was with her husband, and her husband went to send Xuan to nanny, she couldn't contact anyone. And also because her husband wasn't around, the nurses kept on calling him to attend to the wife to no avail lol.

Hi you!

Mom went a little earlier to start fixing up the confinement meals. I went two days later.

My task was easy (and hard physically). I was there as chaffeur, babysitter, nanny, lifter, bodyguard, runner, mail girl and also bin for the food mom cooked. The three of us actually ate 10 whole chicken in 14 days! It was hard during the time but it's such a great memory.

Yao is such an easy baby to take care of!! For the carer lah, not the mom. She doesn't cry much, she can play by herself, she sleeps and naps a lot! As for the mother though, unlike her sister, Yao didn't drink much, so Chen had quite serious fever at one point due to breast engorgement and she skipped pumping the night before. Yikes! Chen said Xuan would just direct latch all the while so she didn't have to pump so much, but this Yao was the opposite.

As for the big sister, *sigh* I wish she doesn't crush her baby sister. Chen gave all kinds of "new baby is coming" pep talk to her and she seemed ok-ish, but when the baby came along, all hell break loose -_-

Cried after being scolded for kicking me

During the confinement month, she stayed at her nanny's place and we took her home on weekends. The jealous of divided love was undeniable, but she hopes to get 120% of our love TO her even when the full attention is on her. Hmmm.. So many times she would just free fall onto the baby!! So, whenever she's at home, we played and played and went swimming to divert her energy.

After the confinement, I came back with very heat-y body! Mom cooked a separate dishes for her and I besides Chen's confinement food and it's still so heaty! My period postponed for the whole month yikes! I can feel myself burning from the inside lol. It took me about a week to start feeling the heat drain away.

At six months old, she starts interacting with people, and she interacts A LOT!!! Such a cheeky baby!! Her sister was a very cool toddler, hardly smile and it took the whole circus act just to get her giggle ONCE -_- Yao is the direct opposite. She smiles the minute you make eye contact, and giggled and laughed a little when you tease her! So sweet I gonna die!!!

Wang Gunung, Sungai Batu Pahat, Perlis

2018-09-12T10:52:00.002+08:00

Phew~ Now that I've finished all my thesis shenanigans and ready to submit for viva, let's get started with the overdue blog posts!!

A very super awesome hike!!

Distance: 9.5km
Moving time: 3 hours
Elevation: 500m

Verdict: One of the toughest hikes I've been to, and I haven't been to that many hikes LOL. It is tough and challenging but doable, the view is definitely to die for. I would really LOVE to visit again.

A little info about Wang Gunung: It is located at Sungai Batu Pahat, for those who familiar, its entrance is nearby the Taman Ular the golf club area. A permit is necessary, do take note of that. The permit can be obtained at Perlis Forestry Department for RM5/person. The hike actually criss and cross on the Malaysia-Thailand border, which is very interesting to me. It is considered challenging and tough, some trails require very steep climb with rope (not technical), so glove and a pair of good gripping shoes are highly recommended. More info from here.

The hike was in July. It was supposed to be a co-joint hike with another group coming from KL. Hairil was one of the guide and he was the one who asked us to join this group. There was another friend to join along but she had to cancel last minute.

The itinerary stated the hike started at 4am and gathering time was at 3am!! It took me about 20 minutes to arrive the location, add in the preparation time etc, I literally slept at 9pm and woke up at 1.30am -_- When I woke up, my housemate hadn't sleep yet, so she asked if I hadn't sleep or just about to sleep LOL. She was very surprised when I told her I'm going for a hike AT THIS TIME, then asked me to check out the eclipse. What eclipse?

THIS!

Sorry, that was as far as my phone, TP-Link Neffos X1, can do in taking moon picture -_- Apparently, this was the longest total lunar eclipse of the 21st century. Like WHAT!? Yeah, I am ignorant and obnoxious like that lol. I seriously didn't know anything about it until my housemate told me so, and when I arrived at the gathering point and the guys asked me to look up.

After waiting some time later, we were told the van those KL gang took broke down, and transportation problem etc causing them to be so late to depart from KL, so Hairil gathered 6 of us to ascend first at 4am.

Entrance - taken after descend

The ascend was like the midnight ascend to the peak at Mount Kinabalu - in the dark. It was a good thing because we couldn't see anything except anything our headlight shine at, so we could only be able to concentrate on the hike and nothing else, aka couldn't see how steep the climb or how narrow the trail etc. Come daylight and OMG this was where we hiked up?!

One of the Malaysia-Thailand border stone

No much pictures ascending and descending because I was too busy climbing. I was with the two hiking pioneers in Perlis (Hairil and Abang Razak) who were the ones responsible in routing the trail!! Thank you!

I made the wrong decision to wear a 3/4 pants, it was loose (I had to stop and pull the pants up so many freaking time) and I couldn't tugged in the pants into socks to prevent leeches. It was raining for few days (luckily it was dry the day of the hike) so the trek was a little muddy and slippery. Due to the humid, it was leech party aka Pesta Pacat, leeches everywhere!!! Abang Razak handed a miracle water, a lemongrass solution thingy that can knock off the pacat, and it partially worked. I had at least 6 leeches bites around my foot and ankle of both legs, and one actually got up to my butt cheek!

Not long after the walk from entrance, we were asked to put on our gloves as it was hiking with the help of rope time! OMG it was really slippery, you have to watch out not to stay too close to the one in front of you to prevent their slip foot hitting you in the face!! YES it is THAT steep!! I think all those leg days do help out as I learn how to use my legs properly and effectively for the hike. At some part of the hike, we actually walked on the Thailand side. That was pretty cool if you ask me.

We reached the summit at 6.30am and the sun was starting to come out.

Malaysia side

Thailand side

While enjoying the view, the KL group caught up and managed to reach the summit as well.

According to them (me eavesdropping), they were a group of coworkers working at a hospital in Klang (I didn't get the name), consisting of doctors, nurses, etc, and their plan was to depart from Klang at 4-5pm. Unfortunately, their van broke down in Perak (I think?) and they waited for the contingency plan, departing again at about 12am!! They arrived at about 5am and immediately started the ascend! A million dollar question was asked:"If you all come, does it mean the hospital is closed for the weekend? Or you have other staffs in the hospital?" The question went unanswered (or they did but I didn't hear).

The Malaysia-Thailand border stone on the summit

Honestly, I don't think the pictures do any justice though. The view is so beautiful and magnificient, the sound of nature is very soothing, it is really great!!

The group descended first as we waited for them to clear the area for pictures lol. Hairil said I'm very good in the hike so we can definitely catch up.

The challenging part about the descend was that, I get to see the trek I came up from. OMG it was so steep!! Still, no pictures coz I was too busy going down.

At the last part of the climb, one of the lady sprained her ankle hence she couldn't use her legs strength properly. As there were all guys and I was the only woman besides her, I volunteered to become her human tongkat aka climbing stick. I didn't know how else to assist but to stand in front of her and ask her to throw her weight on me when descending. At first, she was very cautious as she didn't want to burden me. But after few slips and falls, she did throw herself at me hehe. OK lah I'm glad to help, thanks to my very strong legs! :p

At the end of the hike, I was tired, no any single muscle straining but tired because of the early wake and all lol. Seriousl

Jajaran Telipon aka Bukit Tok Dun, Perlis/Kedah Border

2018-07-10T16:50:00.001+08:00

Started hiking again woohoo!

This time, after coming to Perlis for soooo long, finally had the chance to explore Perlis' hills!!
One at a time!

Thanks to Sing Mei, a new welcome-to-hell MSc student, I got a chance to meet up with Hairil, one of the otais (experts) among Perlis hikers. We booked a date with him on the 28th July to Wang Gunung, one of the magnificient hills in Perlis.

For starter, he invited us to join their school rugby team for a hike to Jajaran Telipong aka Bukit Tok Dun.

He was surprised when I told him I've been here since 2007 and only been to Gua Sami.
"RUGINYAAAAA" lol

According to him, the name of Bukit Tok Dun actually comes from the locals, whom said 'ya we called this place Tok Dun' when he asked the locals about the name of the place.

Part of the hill belongs to FELDA where they have palm tree plants around it. The soft reopening for hikers is also granted by FELDA. Why reopening?

This hill was viral-ed few years ago and it suddenly became, not only hikers hotspot, but also hotspot for youngsters with motor and those who have plans to do 'project' here, which literally destroyed this wonderful hiking destination in some ways. FELDA couldn't take it and decided to close down the place for public.

After awhile, they re-opened the place for regular hikers and kinda warned them not to viral the place again. A letter for permission is required if you are going in a team or a large group. This group of pioneer Perlis hikers is still looking for a new name for this place, and Jajaran Telipong (JT) is the official name for this hill range.

I guess my blog doesn't have the 'viral' effect or influence, thus the post haha.

The hill is located at the opposite of my uni campus, where the parking is beside a big water tank, a very significant landmark. I literally drove towards it when looking for the place haha.

The significant landmark

I went twice last week, once on Thursday and once on Saturday.

The Thursday's hike began at 8am. They brought the school rugby team for some training on the hill who will have a tournament in few weeks time, we tagged along. Few of the teachers are also going to Mount Kinabalu on October, so they are training for that too.

I left my trusted kampung adidas shoe at my sister's place in KL, so I had to wear my regular Power sports shoe, which wasn't a wise choice haihhh.

JT is not really my kind of hill preference as it is under development for palm tree estate, meaning the trails are 'man-made'. Loose stones everywhere, roads for the workers' motorbikes and 4WD, sigh... But the view is awesome!! This part of Perlis/Kedah border is untouched for most part of it, so the view is super green and nice!!

The hike took us about 30 minutes to the peak, around 2km (?). It was overcast and windy on Thursday, and it started to drizzle and rain when we reached the peak. We managed to catch a rainbow!!

Can you see a rainbow??

This group of rascal boys kena tortured on the peak haha!

The rain started to slow down and Hairil suggested to start descending. Wow this really put Power sport shoe to the test. The muddy ground and slippery stones made me think twice about coming back again...

On the way down, Hairil pointed out few roads that would misdirect us, as a warning in case we want to come by ourselves.

***** ***** *****

And I did go back! Haha!

I wasn't going anywhere on the weekend, when Hairil suggested for another round to JT on Saturday, I quickly jumped on board!

So excited I went to buy a new pair of kampung adidas too! Lol. Anywho, the problem with kampung adidas is that, the sole is so thin every steps feel like walking on acupuncture mat.

This time around, the hike started at 7am.

It wasn't very windy, it was breezily cold, nice weather too!

Enroute, we bumped into an aunty who hiked solo, named Wendy who turned out to be one of the regular hikers. She made me consider to come alone whenever I want to haha!

We spotted some trucks carrying bicycles and whatnot going up and down the hills. As we reached the peak, it turned out that there was a cycling event going on that day.

Can you spot those tiny dots of humans pushing their bikes up the hill?

It was such a wonderful weather that day, I was pleased. Feels so great to meet up with some awesomes hikers too!

Hiking bug bit me! Help!

Series Review: Person of Interest

2018-05-17T14:31:00.000+08:00

Let me start with this statement:

'BEST SHOW EVER'

Period.

Harold Finch: "Sooner or later both of us will probably wind up dead. Actually dead this time. I said I'd tell you the truth. Didn't say you'd like it." (Pilot, S01E01)

Person of Interest (POI) ended in 2016, 5 seasons, 103 episodes.

This is a long overdue post, I've been keeping this draft for 2 years now, finally the time to publish it lol.

POI is a show about a super computer, a ASI (artificial super intelligence), that assisted a geeky billionaire Harold Finch and the ex-army super macho dude John Reese helping people and catching bad guys.

Started off as a 'concerned third party', because the computer only gives them social security number, they don't know if that person is a victim or perpetrator, so they would often follow and track down that particular person (one or few persons each episode), jump right in when the person is in trouble and say "you don't know me but you are in trouble, someone is trying to kill you, FOLLOW ME!" And if someone like John Reese tells me to follow him, I would, no question asked! This thing they do often get them into some inteferrence and attention from the 'authority' lah, eg the police etc, so they have to work as stealthly as possible.

That's pretty much the concept of the show, in Season 1. Things started to take off a little differently from Season 2, when more good guys and bad guys and grey area guys starting to come out batch by batch, and the plots thicken.

After the season finale (Season 5), I re-watched the series from the beginning from time to time, coz I forgot some of the plots and the relationship between this person and that. And, Woah! My mind was blown all over again.

**** SPOILER ALERT ****

Everyone goes a long way.

In Season 1, Elias tried to kill Carter.
In Season 2 Carter rescued Elias from being murdered and hid him (OK not her idea but still).
In Season 3, Simmons shot Carter dead and Elias took revenge by murdered Simmons, and this is one of the best scenes I love it so much.
People was so pissed when Carter dies and was even pissed-er when Shaw joined (because they claimed Shaw was in the way in Finch-Reese bromance). I was pissed too lah when they killed off Carter (because Taraji went to do Empire) but I was OK with Shaw joining. She is like the Reese female-counterpart and I love the things going on between her and Root.

John Reese is one complicated character. He was about to commit suicide when Finch hired him, so he always has this thought that he is always indebted to Finch, like all the time, especially when he was about to die, like so many times throughout the series.

Not just once John was shot (almost die that kind of shot) and thanked Harold for giving him a second chance. This happened few times throughout the series.

In Season 3, John was strapped in a bomb vest, had the bro-to-bro talk with Finch.

John Reese: "Something you said once. About how sooner or later we'd both probably wind up dead." (Dead Reckoning, S02E13)

John Reese:"I'm pretty sure I'd be dead already if you hadn't found me." (Dead Reckoning, S02E13)

In Season 5, the same rooftop scene, almost similar conversation between Harold and John, different ending.

**** END OF SPOILER *****

I prefer listening to OSTs while writing thesis. Piano, orchestra, symphony, jazz and classical musics etc make me sleepy. Songs are worst, I tend to sing along and there goes my writing ability LOL. Hans Zimmer, John Willliams, James Newton Howard, James Horner are among my favorite. Then I bumped into Ramin Djawadi in Spotify Artist Radio, and shame to say, now only I know he is the OST composer for POI! Wow all those musics bring back so damn lot of memories, hence this post.

I was sad when the show was over, I wished there were more but making that kind of ending means that was it. Let me just say, let it end like that. Don't renew it. Do a spin-off instead. Just don't touch this team anymore.

Last but not least, here's my thought about this show. Again.

BEST SHOW EVER.

Period.

Heartbroken

2018-05-10T15:07:00.000+08:00

It was a rough break up for me.
Nothing ugly but it hurts me so much. Pains me a lot.
At the beginning, I cried myself to sleep.
People asked me to stop looking at the pictures, stop reading the blogs, stop checking him online.
Easier said than done.
I see friends feel helpless seeing me so down.
I can't even imagine how my mom feel when she sees me crying.
I am a cry baby, but I've never cried in front of her because of some guy.
I was as cool as a rock when it comes to talking about the end of a relationship.
But not this time.

I intentionally frequently upload my pictures on Instagram and Facebook.
Just to let him see what he has missed out.
What he has given up on.
I am your goddess, am I not?
Now, It has become 'I was your goddess'.
I thought I will feel better, but I am not.
I am just tricking myself into believing this is how I'm gonna feel better.
At the end of the day, I feel lonely, empty and void.

I used to be so scared of updating my Instagram.
It often came with a question of him asking,
"When do you have time for your thesis if you do so many OTHER things?"
My mom was on his side about this.
"活该! Padan muka! Serve you right! You have this coming!", she said.
When I told her about the breakup.
I procrastinate too much.
It's my procrastination that partially lead to this breakup.

'Move on', they say.
'Let it go', they say.
Easier said than done.
The memories that he gave for the past few years, there were mostly good and hardly bad.
Do you know how difficult it is for me?
When you don't have bad memories about a person,
and you had to find a way to forget him? Forgive him? Let go?

Now, he has given me a clear sign that leads to the final conclusion.
The ultimatum, that he can give me.
Tag was removed. I was unfollowed.
It might seem shallow, but, coming from him, this says something.
This move carries a weight.
It had been surreal, but now, it is clear.
It is really time to let go and move on.
I read a quote that says "Forgiveness is the best revenge"
I must learn.
I must release him.
I must release myself from this.

Thanks for the memories
(for some reason, I can't find 2015 pictures)

2D1N Kuala Terengganu Weekend Getaway

2018-04-23T15:48:00.001+08:00

Had a short trip over the weekend with my buddies at Kuala Terengganu, about 150+- km away from my hometown, Kota Bharu, 3 hours driving distance.

FY took the bus from Perlis to KB, arriving at 4.30am, and we both drove to KT at the ungodly hour early in the morning. There's very very few cars, some roads don't even have lamps that was pretty horrifying, and we arrived safely at Seok's house 3 hours later.

Seok is a lecturer at Unisza, she owns a house in KT, comfy, spacious and minimalist, so her place is our accommodation.

Thanks to her too, we don't have to plan anything, just let her bring us around woohoo!

First thing in the morning when we arrived, we headed to KT Chinatown for breakfast and sight-seeing.

Frankly, besides it being the neighbor state, I've only been to KT twice and I've NEVER been to this famous Chinatown! LOL.

We had our breakfast at one of Seok's favourite shop, I had dried pan mee. No photo coz we were too damn hungry to take one!

We took a stroll along the road, as it was only 9am, 90% of the shop were still closed. We walked into another tourist spot, Pasar Payang, but came out five minutes later as it is no different from the one we have in KB, Pasar Siti Khadijah!

Note: Me and Seok are from Kelantan, she was my junior in secondary school! FY's dad is from Kelantan too and she's been to the Pasar before.

As the Chinatown is located right next to the Terengganu River, we went there to take some pictures and wasted some time LOL.

No need baju for this, just the signboard will do LOL

Doing some touristy thing

One of the many decorative mural lanes in Chinatown

Next, we went to Batu Burok beach.

The beach is conveniently located near the city centre so we went to check it out. I've been here before so no biggie but was interested in the swings they installed by the beach.

As it was near noon, we literally brace ourselves to come out from the car, got to the swings for photo snapping, took a few swings, checked the photos under shade and ran into the car again LOL.

After the swing, we decided to visit the Terengganu State Museum.

LOL I'm sorry but how pathetic the place has to be that we opt to visit museum?! I'm not a fan of local museums in Malaysia as it is repetitive and nothing much to see, and I was surprised to learn that there's no mall in KT!! Just Mydin and Giant!! R U serious? And people keep saying how impoverished and backward Kelantan is!? OMG all we DON'T have is cinema!!

Ok enough rant, thanks for continue reading.

Ticket:
Adult RM 5, Children RM 2, Students in uniform RM 1
Non-citizen Adult RM 15, Children RM 10

The museum is surprisingly huge on the look from the outside, and inside too, But too bad the air-cond wasn't strong enough that it was not cooling at all to escape the heat. I was sleepy and tired from the early wake up and driving, so it made everything worse. Luckily, I was there with my gossipping buddies so no boring chats haha!

After the visit, we headed back to Chinatown for our lunch. Seok recommended the popular Madam Bee's Kitchen for some authentic local delicacies.

(operaing hour: 9.30 am - 5.00 pm, closed on Wed)

It is one of the narrow shops along Chinatown with clean and delicate ambience.

I ordered a Laksa Terengganu, which looks oily and dry but it was YUM! The noodle is springy and the curry is nice. Highly recommended.

I find that laksa in the east coast is more towards the 'lemak' side (greasy?) as compared to the North.

After lunch, we made a detour to Unisza, then we went back to Seok's house to rest. I took a quick nap as my eyes cannot tahan dy!

At the evening, we went out again for another local delicacies for tea time.

Warung Pok Nong

Operating hour: 3.30pm - 8.00pm, closed on Tuesday

It is by the seaside and there's a lot of people queueing up by the time we arrived.

They serve battered deep fried seafood which consist of fish, shrimp and squid.

Pricing:
Fish - RM4.00 per piece
Shrimp - RM5.00 for 4 pieces
Squid - according to size

It is self service concept where you queue up, and quickly grab the tong and pick up your food! You got to be fast too coz if you are slow, people are going to snap that food right in front of your eyes! The queue was long as people are waiting for the food to refill.

There are two big trays on the counter that are for fishes and prawns. The squid is served separately where you shout the order to the aunty when it's your turn, and she will bring the squid out on a plate, put a price tag on it and hand it to you. Then, you pay next to the food counter.

We took 3 fishes and a squid that costs us RM 26.00. I wanted to take the shrimps but it looks too small for the price so I gave up.

On every table there is a scissors for you to slice the squids into tiny pieces.

The squid and fishes were fresh and juicy. The batter is cruncy and doesn't too powdery, but you have to eat it fast while it's still hot coz the oil would slowly drip into the plate, mixing up with the batter and becomes a little ew-wy.

After the meal, we spent some time by the beach on the swing, again! It's really nice that they installed these swings by the beach, fun time with family and friends.

We went back to town again and made an unwise decision of having a chinese dinner lol. The restaurant that Seok fancied were full house for that night because of a wedding reception, so we had to make do with the restaurant next to it, which, according to Seok, is not as nice and pricey. We ordered 3 dishes, a dish too many and we couldn't finish the food =(

We spent the night in the house chillin', chattin' and watchin' TV.

The next day, Seok brought us to a Warung Nasi Kerabu Pok Din for breakfast.

They have nasi kerabu, nasi berlauk and nasi minyak, price range between RM 4.00 - 6.00.

When it was our turn, the beef daging bakar was finished! So sad! =( So I had nasi kerabu with chicken.

It was nice, but not too special for me as I can have the same thing in Kelantan lol. I think with the beef it would be nicer.

We spent the afternoon chilling at UMT (Universiti Malaysia Terengganu) campus LOL. The campus is by the beach and I am so jealous!

We sat at one of the pavilion by the beach, overlooking the sea, chit-chatting, and observed the students climbing over the fence to get to the beach!?

Like, seriously, there is a pathway that lead to the beach from the campus, but there's a gate there and it was locked, so the students would toss everything over the gate, climb over the fence, pick up their stuff and walk towards somewhere! We wanted to go and have to look to see what did they bring, where were they heading etc, but it was too hot so we gave up that thought haha!

Since it was really no where else to go, we decided to watch movie - Ready Player One.

The only cinema in KT is at this place called PB Sentral, and the building is literally the whole cinema! All the levels have cinema halls and ONLY cinema halls! Except a bowling alley.

Since there was still time, we walked towards the next building, Payar Bunga Square to have a look. It was a UTC building with some shoplots, which means boring. -_-

We had a tea at Harold's cafe.

The movie was great!! Not gonna review the movie here, but it is great! I'm not really a game person growing up so I could only recognize a few pop culture reference here and there, the acting is a little stiff-y, but overall, it was great! It's been awhile since I watched a movie in cinema so it was a great treat for me.

We headed back to Seok's house to pack, FY and I leave KT at 6pm, some traffic jams here and there because of road construction (typically pre-election drama), sent her to bus station by 10pm, and I went home after that.

It was short, nice, fun, relax, chillin'. It's great to catch up with them, and it's great to discover KT.
I might plan a day trip with mom just for movie lol.

两天一夜瓜拉登嘉楼游记

2018-04-23T14:24:00.000+08:00

好久没写游记咯，来更新这个没落的部落格一下。

上个周末去了一趟瓜拉登嘉楼，跟两个闺蜜一起深度游。

瓜拉登嘉楼距离哥打巴鲁大概 150km+- 三个小时的路程。

闺蜜一号云从玻璃市坐巴士来吉兰丹，然后我俩相伴早上五点驾车前往瓜拉登嘉楼。

七早八早的，路上没什么车，有几段路甚至是没有路灯的，有点小可怕。

所幸，三个小时后没惊无险地抵达闺蜜二号霞的家。

霞在瓜拉登嘉楼的一间叫 Unisza 的大学当教授，她在那里买了一间家，很舒适，也解决了落脚的问题。

也多亏了她这位地头蛇，我们可以轻轻松松毫无计划地被她载着到处游。

游：

1）唐人街

人家就说嘛，住得越近，越不会去那个地方游玩。话说我在吉兰丹长大，我没去过热浪岛停泊岛也，兰卡威倒是去了超过十次 LOL。

这竟然是我第一次在登嘉楼唐人街踏足噢！

一大早的，我们到唐人街吃早餐，关顾了霞很喜欢的面馆。没拍照因为我们都太饿了！

吃饱喝足后，就在唐人街随便乱逛。那时还差不多早上九点，90%的店都还没开门。

走进了一个很像吉兰丹大巴刹的 Pasar Payang，走进去不到五分钟就出来了哈哈！完全对那个地方没有好奇心的说~~~

注：我和霞是吉兰丹人，中学时她是小我一介的学妹。云的爸爸是吉兰丹人，她也去过大巴刹走走了。

实在没事做，我们就到河边拍照~~ 也发现到我们仨都是长发眼睛妹也~~

唐人街牌坊

壮妞扮蝴蝶

某条小巷

三个长发妞的倒影

2）Batu Burok 海边

一大早的就到海边去，是嫌自己不够黑吗哈哈！

Batu Burok 海滩是一个在市区里的海滩，非常方便。

我之前就来过了所以并不稀奇，倒是对新添加的秋千很是感兴趣。也不管太阳多猛了，就跳下车荡秋千！

3）博物馆

天啊，一个地方能多没地方走，竟然要去博物馆 LOL。

出乎意料地，瓜拉登嘉楼还真的是没什么地方可以游走呢，比哥打巴鲁少得好多好多啊~

可是，值得一提的是，博物馆好大一间哪~~ 就是冷气非常不给力！外面热到要死，里面的冷气好像在吹气一样弱不经风的，要死了！还要五块钱入门票！

本来，我就对本地博物馆兴趣缺缺的了，感觉每一间博物馆的东西都一样。更惨的是，因为我严重不够睡（早上四点就起身了），所以有点行尸走肉的...

4）PB Sentral 看戏

PB Sentral，对我来说，是一栋很有趣的建筑物。

因为整栋楼都是电影院！！

从lift lobby拍的对面墙壁彩绘

真的，整栋楼空空的，一家店都没有，就只是电影院和一个保龄球场。

看了《Ready Player One》，好好看噢！

电影院很新很舒服，只是很冷，我穿着短裤没带外套冷死了。

5）大学游

霞带着我们去了她的大学 Unisza 走一圈，隔天又去了 UMT (Universiti Malaysia Terengganu) 光一圈。

Unisza 就一间小小的大学，以前是学校，后来因为现任教育部长 Idris Jusoh 是登嘉楼人兼前任州务大臣，所以就把它搞起来了。

比较起来，UMT就壮观得多！校园靠海！！！很羡慕啊！！

没拍照，只是坐在校园海边旁的凉亭下吹风聊天，一边看着大学生们拎着大大小小的东西攀爬栏杆到海边去！？我们也很无解也非常好奇很想一探究竟看看那些学生到底是去哪里做什么，可是天气实在太热了所以作罢。

吃！！！最重要的就是吃！！：

1）美夫人原乡馆 FB

9.30am - 5.00pm, 星期三休息。

地点在唐人街里头，小小的一间店，食物非常赞！

我点了 Laksa Terengganu，看起来有点干有点油腻可是非常好吃噢！

粉条很Q弹，加哩不辣也不油，整体上很好吃！属于 lemak 类型的 laksa，和北马 Laksa 不同。

值得一提的是，这个 laksa Terengganu是放在油纸上，然后摆在一个小藤篓里端出来的，很特别。

2）Warung Pok Nong 吃炸海鲜 FB

3.30pm - 8.00pm or 卖完为止，星期二休息。

靠海的一间木板店面，人山人海，排着长长的队伍。

标价：
炸鱼 - 一条 RM4.00
炸虾 - 四条 RM5.00
炸Sotong - 价钱以大小计算
Keropok - 我没注意看价钱

原本想拿炸虾的，可是因为看到那些虾好像很小，霞也不能吃，所以没拿。我们拿了三条鱼和一条 Sotong，RM26.00。

这里是self service的，排队，然后拿盘子夹食物。之所以会大排长龙是因为食物很快就被扫光啊~~ 一上桌就一堆夹子抢着夹食物，所以来这里吃，要够狠，不然你就慢慢等了。鱼和虾都是会放在柜台前的两个大盘子上，而sotong是一条两条的放在盘子上端出来，你要几条要喊噢。

每张桌子都会放着夹子和剪刀，自行剪Sotong。

鱼和sotong很新鲜很好吃，估计是因为客似云来，食材都会卖光光所以不会吃到囤货吧。鱼就还好，可是sotong要趁热吃，不然那些油会溢出来，和那些粉混在一起会有点恶心。

3）Warung Nasi Kerabu Pok Din FB

第二天早餐，我们吃登嘉楼的吉兰丹版 nasi kerabu 兰花饭 LOL。

这里贩卖着 nasi kerabu 兰花饭，nasi berlauk 白饭和 nasi minyak 五颜六色饭，价钱介于 RM 4.00 - 6.00。

很遗憾哪，轮到我们的时候，牛肉 daging bakar 已经完了 =( 没办法，就只是拿nasi kerabu鸡肉了。

很好吃，也不会太特别因为我这里也有得吃呵呵。

蓝色的饭是用一种叫 bunga telang 的花染色的，颜色会比较浅。如果你看到那种兰花饭的蓝色是很深的，就代表有放色料的。

这里的饭也是都装在油纸上，然后再用小藤篓端出来，很方便啊都不用洗盘子了~

4）Harold's cafe, Payar Bunga Square

没什么特别，就在等电影的空档到隔壁的面包店喝茶吹水。

*********** ************* **************

大致上就这样。
短短的两天一夜，周日下午六点我和云驱车去吉兰丹。
一路上有几段路修路（大选前的惯例场景）。
晚上十点送她上巴士。
旅途结束！

番外篇：

To 宏，
我还是会想起你。淡淡地，云淡风轻地想起你。
我在吃炸鱼的时候，在吃 laksa Terengganu 的时候，想起你，觉得你应该会喜欢吃。
以前你曾经说过，你宁愿带着我也不想自己去旅行，因为沿途遇到的东西，你会想起我，想想我看到那些东西应该会很感兴趣。
这种幸福已经不属于我了，该死啊。
上次我和你去KT的时候，时间有点仓促，没怎么走（可是KT还真的没什么地方可以走）
下次，你有机会再去，就去看看吧。

情已逝

2018-03-10T09:52:00.000+08:00

每次分手都要写点东西做纪念啊哈哈
是有什么好记录的呢

四年多。一千五百六百多天。
虽然是远距离没有常呆在一起，聚在一起的时候的回忆却都是美好的。

四年哪。
去意已决，我还能怎样。
说不爱就不爱了，我有可奈何。
爱真的像泡沫啊。
心真的像遥控器啊。
昨天一路看着他，突然感觉他好陌生啊。
这个他真的是他吗。

已经不哭了。
已经哭不出来了。

与其说心痛，还不如说心缺了一角。
就好象被一把利刀不见血地划了一下。
我这是什么桃花运啊。

要去冲个花凉了。
又要放手往前走了。
祝福我吧。

Bikepacking: 3D2N Tanjung Sepat Raya Trip (Part 2)

2017-07-03T11:00:00.000+08:00

Link to Part 1 here!

DAY 2: Tanjung Sepat - Sungai Pelek

Moving time: 3h42m
Distance: 51.3 km
Average speed: 13.9 km/h

Despite sleeping quite late the night before (12.30-ish?), everyone woke up pretty early and off we went to have our seafood bak kut teh breakfast at Ah Hock.

Hmmmm, honestly speaking, Klang BKT (bak kut teh) is so much nicer! This was my first time trying seafood BKT and I've been really curious about the taste, and it didn't disappoint.... On the curiousity, I mean. The taste was, hmm, some kind of different that it's in the 'been there done that' list, so nope for second time. BKT and seafood just don't add up lah in my opinion. We ordered two pots of BKT, one was the seafood version and the other was the original pork version. I think because of the seafood, the broth didn't taste as good and the seafood also didn't taste that good, not even the prawn. It just isn't my cup of 'tea'*, if you know what I mean.

*Bak Kut Teh stands for pork, bones and tea in Hokkien. It is a famous dish, especially in Klang. One of the history about this dish is that, the coolies working at Port Klang would cook up a pot, throwing everything edible they could get with some herbs and spice as their main food.

I made an unwise decision of not bringing an extra padded pants, so I kinda bugged Hon to give me his "Pleaseeee... I wear your pants you ride SR saddle lah*" and he obliged.

*SR saddle, in full name Selle Royal, is a range of bicycle saddles that is, according to Hon, 'good stuff''. A friend upgraded the saddle before she sold the Lerun bicycle to Hon.

The first pit stop was Arowana Tapioca Factory.

Woohoo we had the whole place for ourselves!! ...and another family.

I didn't expect the place would be so empty on the first day of Raya. I thought that's when people (non-Muslim in particular) comes out for getaway or something... The shop was literally empty, the production line in the factory was not in demo, it's just us~ So we did the fun thing of trying ALL the samples, nit-picking "他们讲现做现卖，骗人的咯" etc. The chips were really nice, honestly.

(Hon and I went again the next day with his sister and family and it was like two different scenarios! So full of people and all the racks were empty!)

After chips shopping, began a touring that, almost none of us expected to be that long. =_=

For 20 km, the nothingness, comparing unfavorably with Bukit Jugra - Morib route, ensued. That stretch of Federal Route 5 was undeniably in quite a good condition with motorbike lane, but oh damn that road doesn't have shades AT ALL!!! OK lah there are trees here and there but the one tree appeared 10 km later and one tree every 1 km like that DAMN! Even a shabby shade also really precious.

The very precious shade

To make matters worse, not only there's no shades, there weren't even shops or stores or mini markets or petrol stations on that stretch of road, and even if there were, it was closed. This drove everyone insane a little haha it was like we headed towards nothing!

We made a detour into Bagan Lalang for 'treasure hunting', in hope of finding shops selling water. I expect there would be some shops along the way since we were heading towards a tourist place - a beach, but, nope. Fortunately, we found a closed kedai kopi which is attached to a house and the owner was around, so we asked him to sell us some water, which was god-send! He invited us over for a Raya treat but we had to get moving so we declined.

Chilling at the beach

Avani Sepand Goldcoast Resort

Recharge, rehydrate, in shade!

We continued our journey to Sungai Pelek, when the sun was directly on our head! =_=

Finally!

This cendol was seriously god-send!!

The first thing we looked for when arriving Sungai Pelek town was - LUNCH! Before that, we saw a god-send cendol mobile stall by the road so we just had to have that!

I leaned my bike against the Sungai Pelek signboard which was right next to the stall but not under shade. We were eating our cendol, chitchatting with the cendol stall uncle, him reminiscing his old days of how he and his friends went on bikepacking back in the 80s, when suddenly there was a loud *POP* at our area, like someone threw firecrackers toward us and everyone was surprised, even the pigeons! LOL The cendol stall uncle was like "who did that!? They even scared the birds!!"

That's when I noticed there were some threads sticking out of my bike's tyre, I touched it, pulled it, and realized "DAMN Hon it's your bike's tyre lah it PECAH!!"

BUSTED!

Apparently, according to the owner Hon, the tyres, Schawlbe Smart Sam, both front and back, were supposed to be replaced early of the year because of its shell life or something. And. He. Did. Not. He thought of changing them in the morning of our Day 1 but it would take at least 30 minutes and we were running late and he decided against it.

Then this happened...

The gang were like "WOW blogger you got story to write dy!!!" hmmmm yeah I donno, unlucky yet fortunate I guess?

Everyone was a little panicky, we moved the bicycle to the side, and I have to say we have a great touring team!! Everyone look at the problem as if it's their own, help in anyway they could, and it was awesome!!

Hon brought only the inner tube but not the tyre, so it only solved one problem. One local uncle saw us and asked about what's going on, decided to help us out by going to see if a bicycle shop nearby was open. He came back shortly after saying the shop was closed, but he's gonna go to the owner's house to ask him to come over. OMG uncle are you an Angel? The shop owner came, he looked at the tyre and unfortunately his shop didn't have the 27.5" size tyre, so we had to think of a way to tackle the burst tyre.

Yellow baju uncle, feeling sorry he couldn't help much
but you did so much!

So this bunch of engineers + biz owners + foreman throwing ideas here and there about fixing the burst tyre. Thankfully Jeffery works as a car repair shop foreman, so while the other fellows were like "maybe we can do this, put that, so theoretically it gonna work", he went down and "let's do it!" Haha... Like in the real world lah, when the engineers come up with a proposal, and the technicians do it.

They shared the idea of fixing a tyre by layering it with leaves or newspapers etc but it's just theory to them until NOW! =) First, cardboard was tear in stripe and layer them down on the part where it peach. Then cut the burst tube into stripe and layer it on top of the cardboard to prevent scratching. Put in the new tube and pump just as enough. Lastly, tie cable ties over the bursting part to prevent the 'wound' from opening.

TA-DA! WOW

The problem was fixed in less than an hour!

I had to be the one to ride it as heavy rider wouldn't do it any good. We had our lunch at Restoran Mathi and hang out while waiting for the sun to chill out a little.

Riding back to Tanjung Sepat was a challenge, like in the first 2 minutes haha! Seriously it didn't feel any different, the ride was like riding a normal bike. Thankfully half way through, the clouds started to crowd and they hid the sun a little woohoo!

We got back in one piece, just like day 1, rest, bath, and head back out for dinner at Red House Snacks. The place was full and we kinda reserved a table which would only be available 30 minutes later. We went to hang out at a nearby temple and they had a Guangdong Opera (Is that how it called?) sponsored by someone. The show started at 8 so we didn't watch it.

Bamboo clams with shells

Oh-jen again

Errr yam something (right) and trademark prawn (left

After dinner, we had a coffee time at a shop called 'Miss Vietnam 越南妹咖啡'. They have all sorts of drinks but since it was on the signboard, we had to order their Vietnam coffee loh right... Hon ordered a local coffee so we could taste the difference. The taste was really overwhelmed on the first sip! And the overwhelming continued for the next several sips until the end haha.

We ended the day with the tapioca chips, gua zi, and me learning how to play lami aka mahjong rummy.

Day 3:

We didn't want to risk riding back although the tyre seemed to work perfectly fine (let's not forget there was 20-30km of nothingness and we had another 20km to go than the rest of them), so Hon asked his sister to drive over and 'rescue' us.

Bye bye guys!! Enjoy the 70km back!

Since the sister and family needed some time to come over, we went to the 'famous' 等一下咖啡室 Kedai Makan & Minuman Kian Heng to lepak. The meaning of the chinese name of the shop is 'Wait for awhile', which was also the pet phrase of the shop aunty. "Dan jit eh dan jit eh dan jit eh" whenever someone orders something lol!

Iced milk coffee, iced kopi-O + ice cream aka affogato local style, fresh bahulu 鸡蛋糕

Initially this was where the gang wanted to have breakfast at that morning, but Rex Googled it and Google told him the shop was closed on Monday, so we went to other place. When Hon and I explored around town, I found that the shop was opened after all. So we sent over pictures to make them jealous muahaha!

The shop was at the intersection of a very busy lane where the famous Hai Yew Heng 海友兴手工包 was located, so we sat at the table outside overlooking the intersection, looking at the chaotic traffic while sipping our coffee.

See this crazy crowd? The road was nearly empty the day before

A couple of local uncles came over to join our table, and we started chitchatting. As a local, they couldn't understand what is so great about this place that people from town swarming over. The increase of tourists, which benefits 2% of the population in Tanjung Sepat, makes everything expensive and the rest of the 98% of the population feels the price hike on their throat (when WE thinks the food here is cheap yikes). They told Hon they would go to Klang for food why do you come here? Hahaha uncles very frustrated.

Finally, rescue came, Hon fixed the bike on the carrier (first time! He didn't even unbox it!). Both mountain bikes on the carrier was a little too heavy that it dented the bumper a little (fixed with hot water pour on it).

We stopped by the busy lane for the sister to shop, had lunch at 家乡小吃, went to the tapioca factory (which was a nightmare!!) and off we went home!

-End of Trip-

IMO: Fun gang. Great companion. Really appreciate how helpful they are in fixing the tyre problems. And finally get the feeling of yelling 吃碰胡 in real life hahaha! I've always been playing Mahjong on the phone so it does all the calculation and suggestion etc for me, but in real life it really trains the brain...

Until next time~~~

Link to Part 1 here!

Bikepacking: 3D2N Tanjung Sepat Raya Trip (Part 1)

2017-07-02T12:45:00.004+08:00

Link to Part 2 here!

Itinerary:

Stay: Myguest

Day 1:

- Klang/Kota Kemuning to Tanjung Sepat (via Bukit Jugra, Pantai Morib)

- Food: Restoran Viking (Bukit Jugra hill foot), 家乡小吃 (Lorong 14 Tanjung Sepat)

Day 2:

- Arowana Tapioca Factory

- Bagan Lalang

- Sungai Pelek

- Food: Restoran Ah Hock (seafood bak kut teh), Restoran Mathi (Sungai Pelek), Red House Snacks (Tanjung Sepat), Miss Vietnam coffee

Day 3:

- Kedai Makan & Minuman Kian Heng 等一下咖啡室

- BACK!

11 of us on a 3D2N bikepacking from Klang (me and Hon)/Kota Kemuning (the rest) to Tanjung Sepat.

Verdict: Bring anything necessary eg enough water + electrolyte + power gel + whatever to hydrate and spare tubes and parts and stuff because 50% of the route is in the middle of nowhere = just you and the nature!!

Jenjarom breakfast
From left: Rex, Jareen, Eunice, Maye, me, Hon, Wilson, Winnie, Jeffery, Keng, KC

Bike specs:
2 Lerun Evo Team with different tyres
1) Maxxis detonator (front) + Schawlbe marathon plus (back)
2) Schawlbe Smart Sam (both)

Klang - Tanjung Sepat:
Moving Time: 5:52:11
Distance: 100.3 km (!!)
Average speed: 17.1 km/h
Elevation gain: 663 m

Tanjung Sepat - Klang:
NAIK KERETA (story up later)

DAY 1:

Since the gathering point was at Kota Kemuning, we (Hon and I) decided to just cycle there because: 1) Hon wanted to use two Lerun mountain bikes this time; 2) his car (Proton Saga BLM cannot fit two mountain bikes); 3) It's just 20km, can cover lah...

By the time we arrived at the site, they were fixing and getting their bikes ready so we had a quick breakfast.

We used the under-development Bandar Rimbayu route which was amazing! Low traffic (almost no cars), wide and nice roads, nice~ The only downside is that since it's a new housing project, the trees by the roadside are still very green so no shades.

SKVE - exiting Bandar Rimbayu

Going into palm estates!

This is actually a BOH plantation sign but Eunice (who took this picture) missed that -_-

The next 10km was a route where there's only us, palm trees, rubber estates, very few houses and since it's Raya eve, none of the shops were open~~ until we reached Jenjarom for another breakfast.

After breakfast, Hon lead our group. I was a little confused because he used the Jalan Klang-Banting which usually is our route back to Klang from Jenjarom, and he said "Yup we're going back! I get RM500 dy can 收工" (he was treasurer). Yeah right...

We took a left turn at the Carey Island roundabout, and another 20km without anything but us!

We made a detour at Bukit Jugra where half of the group waited at the bottom of the hill and half of us heading to the peak!

Chinese Cemetery with sibeh nice view (风水must be damn good)

I was a little scared thinking of conquer the peak but Hon encouraged me to do so since we were riding mountain bikes (MB has more gears comparing to RB so although it's heavier, it can climb!). He kept on saying "after the cemetery I wanna U-turn dy so damn steep", and he did, and I was all gung-ho thinking I is possible so I continued my climb.

Wanna die dy

...BUT DAMN it is so steep I had to stop three times!!! And non-stop cursing!!! DAMN! At every stop, I wanted to U-turn since I've already been up there several times by car, I've seen the views, I think I have no regret, and Winnie kept on pushing to go on "你能的你能的！一点点罢了!" "You can do it!!! Just a little bit more!!!"

YOUR HEAD!! That is the biggest lie in every fitness region I swear to you, regardless cycling or running or hiking or HIIT or whatsoever!

But that kept me moving LOL.

800m climb, 129m elevation, I took 15m30s to complete the climb.

Finally!!!

OK lah worth it

下山吃饭！

Finally such exhausting climb, we had to refuel our energy! So next stop was LUNCH!! at Restaurant Viking.

Oh yeah, now that I've been on 2-3 bikepacking trips with about 5-6 of them in this gang, I've upgraded to blogger! LOL... They know that I blog, so they give me chance to take pictures on everything to write about haha!

gam heong bamboo clam - so nice they stripped the clams

CRABSSS (I forgot what sauce is it)

CRABSSS (I think the sauce is sweet sour or something)

Steamed... erm... forgot what type of fish

I love Hon so much; he is allergy to the crab (more like to its outer shell) hence we almost never eat crabs; thanks to gang of friends I get to eat crabs! Hehehe~~

After the hearty meal, it's another 25km of nothingness~~ and by nothing, I mean there's only us, cows, cow dungs all over, very low traffic, few houses and that's it! Let me tell you, these cows are super curious! Whenever we cycled by, these cows looked up from chewing the grass and just stared at us until we were gone LOL. I actually felt kinda threatened haha!

It was about 6pm by the time we arrived Tanjung Sepat, went to our homestay - Myguest - which looks exactly like the picture! The bed is comfy, the room is comfy, the compound is large, it was a haven after 10 hours of cycling in the hot weather! The downsides are the common area has no air-cond but just fans (not a good thing for a big hall) and some rooms have crawly bugs ~~eg cockroaches yikes~~ !!

We settled down, unloading our stuffs from the bikes, chose our rooms, bath, relaxing our sore legs and saddle sore, checking out the surrounding of the homestay etc etc...

We got out at 7.30pm for dinner, at a place called 家乡小食 at Lorong 14 and the meal was awesOme!

Siam style fried tofu

蚝煎 oyster omelette awesome style
the gooey stuff on top of the egg is actually 蚝珠 aka baby oyster which is delicious!

Fish paste soup 鱼滑汤

Teochew style steamed red grouper

RM234 for 11 pax, not bad huh?

We went to the store to get water, beers and snacks, headed back, and hang out~

This was how four of us ended the night - learn how to play mahjong IRL

Link to Part 2 here!

Bicycle 'Foodie' Touring: 3D2N Labour Day Trip Sitiawan-Pangkor

2017-05-04T00:17:00.001+08:00

Hey, long time no update~ Let me clean the spider webs first....

*fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu*

*cough* *cough*

OK done!

14 of us had a 3D2N cycling touring around Sitiawan and Pangkor.
Verdict: Damn HOT Argh!!! And makan until so puas hahaha!!

Itinerary:
Day 1:
- Drive from Kota Damansara to Sitiawan
- Tour around Sitiawan Town
- Tua Pek Kong temple
- Food: Restoran Jiann Chyi, Sekinchan (shark porridge); 三条路李记包店 Pillow Pao, Coconut Jelly & Ice Cream, Lido Restoran

Day 2:
- to Pangkor!
- Dutch Fort
- Fu Lin Kong Temple
- Tour around Pangkor Island
- Food: Kampung Koh morning market; Kou Lou Restoran, Pangkor

Day 3:
- Food: Villa Seafood Restoran
- BACK!

Pangkor Ship
From left: Rex, Jareen, Sunny, Wilson, Winnie, Max, Christine, JH, SP, Mayi, *shameless flex* me, Wai Yean, Eunice, Hon

I didn't have any records, regardless Strava or whatevs, about this trip because my phone broke and I couldn't be bothered to download the app in another phone. So I didn't have any details about the distance, elevation, speed etc.

DAY 1:

We gathered at a mamak stall in Kota Damansara for breakfast and as the take off point. I mean, drive out point lol. To those who think we rode all the way from KL, thanks for the thought!! But nope, we drove to Sitiawan. We had a quick 'tea time' at Sekinchan - shark porridge!

Shark porridge

Fried shark

Chili shrimp

Despite the long weekend (weekend + Labor Day break), the traffic was alright. Part of the roads were under construction and we saw some groups were cycling on the damaged road OMG. I pity their butts.

We arrived Sitiawan at about 2pm and OMG damn hot!!!

If it's just me and Hon, we would sleep the daylight away and only go out at the evening. Thanks to the tour, we were kinda 'forced' to go out for food since we hadn't had lunch yet.

Sitiawan is known as mini Foochow in the Peninsular (Sarawak being the state with majority Foochow clan). Various traditional Foochow dishes are served everywhere and it's so yum!

First meal: 三条路李记包店 Pillow Pao

We had our first meal, the pillow pao, at a nearby basketball court with cane drink. I don't like eating flour products so it didn't tickle my taste bud.

Our next foodie stop was a dessert shop Kelapapa at about 8km away, and all of us almost collapsed after we arrived the place and the shop was closed!!! Wahlao it was that close to tear down the door and rip off the roof. -____- Luckily there's another dessert shop nearby, so OK cool down a bit~

吃饱喝足, we visited Tua Pek Gong Temple 品仙祠大伯公和观音堂. They said this temple is famous of its efficacious in wish granting, and I came out with my own theory: Coz the place was right next to the giant power grid! All those electromagnetic sure give high power lol!

By the way, this temple is HUGE! Surrounded by a great big wall, the compound was so big and the statues were so big I felt so small. Some friends had their prayers while Hon and I explored around. There's a tiny mangrove swamp by the temple and we had photo-ing fun there.

We had our dinner fix at the famous Lido Restaurant. It was recommended by the locals so, die die must try lah. The restaurant is famous of its Foochow dishes and Oh BOY it didn't disappoint at all!! They moved to a 'Lido Hall' not far from their previous shop lot. Just realized none of us taken (or uploaded) any food pictures from this dinner, oopsie~ We ordered their 'best sellers', such as the Foochow red wine mee sua, Foochow fishballs, fish maw, pork knuckles, about 7-8 dishes in total. Can skip their Loh Mee coz nothing so special but the rest are all thumbs up!!

Note: Such great fun to eat with a big group coz you get to order so many food and try every single one of them!!! It's pathetic when there's only two of us (usually) since we can't order much.

We ended the night with few bottles of beer and chit chat. I wasn't a good drinker so after 3 small glasses I already face red red 脸红红. Hon was slightly unhappy coz I didn't help in loading the bicycles into the car, and a few cuddles solved it hehe.

DAY 2:

We started the day early by packing, checked out and had our breakfast at Kampung Koh morning market. We ordered a dishes called 蛋燕, dried and soup version.

Dried

Soup

The noodles are made from tapioca flour and egg - chewy, thick and very fulfilling. It's RM3.60 per bowl and quite a big portion! Satisfies with a full tummy and cheap price.

Next, we moved our ass towards the Lumut Jetty to catch the ferry to Pangkor Island!

We parked our cars at the multi-level car parks right next to the jetty (RM0.60 per hour) and pushes our bikes to the jetty terminal. The round trip fare is RM14 and they charge RM3 per bicycle per trip / RM6 per motorbike (pay to the ferry people). Max 7 bicycles are allowed per ferry so 14 of us were divided into 2 trips, which wasn't too far apart.

Hello Pangkor~ Please love me~

The 'vehicles' were dropped off at the fishing boats jetty which was about 1km away from the humans' jetty. We had a tea break at the nearby kopitiam while waiting for the homestay to be ready. Had super yum kuihs from the nearby stall!

I don't know what's the name but it's covered with flour and the inside is peanut. Super yum!!

Tapioca cake - super yum too!

The homestay wasn't ready by the time we arrived, so we left our 'luggage' at the owner's spare house, and had a quick tour at the town.

This was my second visit to Pangkor Island and I seriously couldn't remember much about this place since it was almost 10 years ago since I last visited. I only remembered the huge 缘 stone at some temple. I kept teasing Hon because ‘上一次我跟喜欢我的人来，这次我跟我喜欢的人来’ - 'Last time I came with the person who likes me; this time I came with the person I likey' - and he beh tahan coz he couldn't get over the first sentence LOLOL!

Dutch fort

It was really damn hot so we stopped at a covered hall alike place to avoid the heat. Such a wise choice coz their kangkung squid was to die for!!! The fried peanut on top was the plus point OMG!!! The kangkung was scalded just nice, the squid was boiled just nice - unlike the usual rubbery feel that I tasted too often, and the peanuts! OMG I really thought about snatching the whole box from the table LOL.

The place was by the road leading towards the Fu Lin Kong Temple, on the left.

RM9 per plate

Oh yes, this is the place I had a slight memory about Pangkor - Fu Lin Kong Temple 福临宫. It was too hot that I couldn't bother to explore the place again, rather just hang out under the tree lol.

See that 缘?

Me under the stone, back in 2005? 2006?

When the homestay was ready, we quickly rushed back, settled down, bathed and got a quick nap. By 4pm-ish, we headed out again for our round island tour, about 15km.

Group photo at homestay porch

Can I just say, DAMN!! Never underestimate the hilly road of Pangkor my fellow friends... I was told, our elevation was of 20% gradient or more, which means, hmmmm I donno what it means technically but it means 'HELL LAH' to the legs!!

Some parts of the hills are either too steep to climb or too steep to descend, we opt to pushing our bicycles for safety reason. Thanks to the hellish leg days from my previous 2 months of weight training, I managed to climb most of the hills using Hon's Lerun Evo Team. I still kinda skeptical when they said I was really great as I was able to climb those hills, then ofcoz more praising and complementing means more cocky of me on the inside lah hahaha!! Although I was all "where got no lah I just happened to ride the bike that can help me climb..." Hon read right through me coz I started to talk about my 160kg leg press and couldn't stop hahaha!

The hilly climb was excruciating but the scenery after the climb and steepy descend was worthwhile. Open seaview, awesome landscape, a tree full of hornbills, so pleasant~~

Then the road led us straight through several beaches that I can only described the place as 'tiny Pantai Cenang'. Narrow roads, rows and rows of resorts, rows and rows of food stalls, and dozens of motorbikes! The beach lane was filled with exhaust waste ewwwww!! Even the crossroads right next to the Pangkor Ship statue was very much alike the crossroads between Pantai Cenang and Pantai Tengah in Langkawi. We had our dinner at Kou Lou Restaurant when it started to rain cats and dogs. The rain was so heavy we had a couple of beers (which ofcoz didn't relate to the rain at all *smirk*)

The rain went on and on for about 1 hour++ and I was kinda worried we might have trouble traveling in the dark (despite having torchlight on the bike) after big rain. To my surprise, the restaurant was actually just merely 500m away from our homestay~ Cheh~~~

The night was spent calculating expenses, chitchatting, gulping down a glass of Barley, and sleep. I was awaken by the sound of Hon 'crying' in the middle of the night - turned out he was having a cramp hahaha!! Then we cuddled because he was cold and I was warmy and toasty coz I kept my blanket on.

DAY 3:

We had to start the day early because I had a plane to catch at 9pm in Subang. I was thankful the group was very cooperative but I felt sorry lah coz they actually didn't have to rush.

We had breakfast near the jetty. It was really awesome as we can order food from next door or the food stall by the roadside.

Chee Cheong Fun - very flavorful, unexpected and amazing

Dropped by the shop selling local delicacies for a quick shopping, grabbed a bag of dried shrimp 虾米 for mum and a dried squid for myself.

The number of passengers taking the return ferry was alright but instead the motorbikes were surprisingly a lot. We boarded the ferry at about 10.40am.

Before heading back, we had 'light' lunch at Villa Seafood Restaurant at Sitiawan.

They wanted to eat here on the first night while riding back to the homestay as this restaurant was full with cars. Fortunately they were open on lunch hour and we got to have a feast.

The red wine mee sua was nothing to shout about (majority found the mee sua at Lido was much better), but the fish, the lala, the CRABSSSS!! Everything was finger-licking good. The spicy sour lala was a 'hit' coz it was so spicy smell-wise, the minute it was served on the table, everyone's noses were tickled and couldn't stop sneezing LOL.

Hon was allergy to crabs so I hardly have any chance to devour crab, this time my tummy was very happy =)

Red wine mee sua

Teochew style steamed grouper

Spicy sour Lala

CRAB!!!!!
Marmite crab

We stopped by a mee sua place to buy few packets of mee sua, and started our journey back.

Because of road construction and traffic jam, Waze recommended the KKB route back to KL, and things were made 'eventful' when your bladder was 'hinting' but there's nothing but palm trees on a stretch of 30-40km road -_____- Thankfully I didn't pissed my pants and found a kopitiam to release LOL.

We arrived in time for me to get a quick shower at Hon's sister's place, had a quick dinner and headed to the airport early. My laptop bag strap was torn and my flight was delayed 20 min -_-

IMO: This group was fun!!! It was called foodie tour for the obvious reason - we makan non-stop, did u realize that? Everyone was so helpful and attentive towards each other, everyone loves to eat, everyone eats everything, everyone cincai to everything, it was fun!!! Let's have another trip soon ya?

HIIT The Obesity Charity Run: 7 km run 6 HIIT stations

2016-12-06T21:41:00.001+08:00

Ganged-up with FY, we joined the HIIT The Obesity Charity Run at Kota Kemuning last weekend.

This charity run was organised by Anytime Fitness Malaysia for the Great Heart Charity Association (Persatuan Kasih Sejati) and the proceeds raised from the run would be 100% contribute to the association.

Honestly I wasn't so noble lah about joining this event, let the organiser think about the fund raising. I was excited when Theresa first broke the news, so I quickly asked my fitness-partner-in-crime FY to join as a team of 2 together.

Everything was as vague and clueless, up til the very last week only we were announced what kind of workout routines at every station, and OMG it was hard!!

7 km run + 6 HIIT stations to complete:

HIIT station 1: Mountain climber x 50 (left right count ONE)
HIIT station 2: Hurdle jump x 30
HIIT station 3: Explosive jack x 20
HIIT station 4: Burpee x 20
HIIT station 5: Pommel jump x 50 (in, out count ONE)
HIIT station 6: Alternate lunges jump x 30

-_____________________-"

I tried the whole routine once in the gym minus the run, couldn't even finish the alternate lunge jump OMG!!

In order to get the finisher medal, you have to collect all 6 wristbands from the 6 stations. If you register in team, say team of 2, you can divide the work and both of you can get the medal.

We stayed at the nearby Kino Hotel for convenience purpose. We spent whole day at 1 Utama the day before hahaha!

Call me haughty, but as a HIIT enthusiast, I find it unacceptable as most of the participants didn't actually know/realize what they got themselves into. Seriously, I overheard someone said "I don't even know what hiit is! LOL" -____- LOL your head.

Since this run was, I think, one of its kind in Malaysia thus far, everything was really new to the participants, the organisers, the coaches at each station etc.

I absolutely love/hate the workout at each station, and I definitely didn't like the running part the most LOL. Although as a team, we could divide our routine, but in the end both of us did all the stations and earned our own wristband hehe!

Completed!

We pakat wore the T shirt from Theresa's 6 weeks METAFIT challenge and we were the few blacks in the sea of fluorescent green!

OK it was fun! Let play again if they have season 2!! :D

三天两夜霹雳太平生日旅记

2016-10-16T21:50:00.000+08:00

生日那几天去了霹雳太平游玩。

近几年‘开发’的北部火车行程真的是太棒了！从玻璃市Arau出发到太平，虽然需要在大山脚转站，可是只用了三个小时，RM14.10。

跟宏宏小抱怨了一下 -- 我们刚在一起的我的第一个生日，住了刚新开张的酒店，在豪华酒店E&O吃自助晚餐 -- 现在，就酱！去一个小地方，住在一个整层楼共用两间浴室的旅馆！

“在一起久了就是酱的咯~你还想怎样？”

也是。。。

而且在某一次我还忘了他为我烘焙的那个生日蛋糕！记得的竟然是我妹！那一天把他气死了！虽然那个情景回想起来蛮好笑的~~~ 我们算是打平啦~~

我们住在宏宏很常住的 Sojourn Beds & Cafe，位于 Jalan Kota。

我们俩都好喜欢太平！它的食物，它的平价，它的景色。重点是吃东西很便宜！哪里还找得到三块半的鸡饭？？

重点摘要：

吃喝：

1) 新板华顺烟花炒粿条

地点：Jalan Besar, Jalan Simpang, 34000 Taiping, Perak. (McD drive-thru 对面)

营业时间：拜一到拜六 7pm - 12am 售完为止

一开始宏给我看照片的时候，我还以为这个地方的特色就是那个烟花，食物不怎么样。可是，不是也，很好吃耶！Sorry uncle....

他的店离我们住的地方有段距离。Waze带路时找不到他的店，还以为Waze又带我们去荷兰了。既然一场来到就不甘愿放弃，我们继续在旁边的店面绕圈，终于给找到了！它的档口比较偏暗，我们看的不是很清楚。

拜一晚上没什么人潮。我们坐下，叫水，order吃，就等着看表演。这里有鸡蛋和鸭蛋可以选。

刚好我们坐的座位没有东西挡着，表演看得一清二楚！Uncle是用炭炒的，味道就不在话下，每次加新炭时，uncle就会用特制的小风扇吹着炭，那些炭火biu biu biu地好像烟花酱很壮观！为了要拍好照片，每次uncle加炭宏都会cue我摆好手机等拍照。

炭炒果然不是盖的，再加上uncle炒了好几十年的那个锅气更不是盖的。整盘好香好香。油腻了点，还在他们家用了叶子把油都稍微吸收了。我奇怪的是第一次看人家用这种好像荷叶的叶子，一般不是都用香蕉叶的吗？

而且，应该叫一盘没有豆芽的。吃到一半我就开始忙着挑豆芽了 -___-

***** ***** *****

2) La Promise Cafe

地点：No.1, Susur ILBP/1, Jalan Istana Larut Business Park, 34000 Taiping, Perak.

营业时间：11 am - 10.30 pm

说到过生日，当然就少不了蛋糕咯。而且是我这个时不时会有蛋糕瘾的人。

我们俩其实不是会去hipster cafe（我们也把它叫装逼cafe）的人，不会特地去找cafe喝茶吃东西。可是宏在网上找到这个地方，每个介绍的人都说他们家的蛋糕在太平是最好吃的！！这种话讲谁也会讲，写谁也会写，不能轻易相信的。当然是要自己去试试看咯...

那一天我们是从太平山下来直接去的。那天是个很安静的下午，店里就只有几个顾客，天也开始下着阵阵的小雨（又渐渐变成非常大的雨）。那时一两个做工的人忙进忙出地拿着一tray又一tray新鲜的muffin，看起来像是要拿去夜市卖还是什么的因为他们把这些muffin一个个装在小袋子再放在那些橙色的塑料tray里。

我们点了饮料，鸡翅，两块蛋糕，两个muffin。

饮料没什么特别，可能用的巧克力粉不是很好所以Ice chocolate和mocha味道有点怪怪的。

鸡翅超好吃！腌料做得好，烘得也刚刚好，好吃到吮手指！只是四个鸡翅十多块有点小贵。

评价真的没骗人！蛋糕和 muffin 超好吃的啦！！听说这家店的老板在外国（忘了哪个国家）跟人家学做蛋糕再回来开店的，果然学了一身好功夫回来 :D

坦白说我从来没吃过这么好吃的蛋糕~ 蛋糕绵绵的很松很软，它的cream不会很甜，一个才六/七块钱！ Secret Recipe的都没有这么好吃。

再来，我的妈啊他们家的 muffin 也太好吃了！话说我不怎么喜欢吃 muffin，也可以说我不怎么喜欢面粉制品 - 面包那些我都不大爱吃 - 可是我的妈啊他们家的 muffin 也太好吃了吧！很烦所以我只说两次 :p

因为看着它新鲜出炉我们先拿了一个橙皮的，外脆内软！！外面脆脆的，里面软得不像话！！没几秒我们把它扒光，然后再加一个巧克力的。好香好好吃！！而且才两块多一个，超便宜的！！

巴生锦盛要关就随他吧，以后要吃蛋糕我来太平就好！

3) Restoran Kampung Wang 甘榜旺海鲜餐室

地点：3266, Jalan Tembikai, 34000 Taiping, Perak.

营业时间：11 am - 11 pm

本来要去十八丁看日落吃晚餐的，可是旅馆主人说：“干嘛去这么远？太平这里就有便宜又好吃的海鲜了~~~”

所以，好吧，我们就听她的。她建议我们驾车去，可是我们很快搜寻一下，发现我们步行距离差不多一公里而已，而且驾车还要绕大路比较远，走路就可以抄小路比较近，所以我们就走路去咯。

这家店离 Taiping Mall 大概五百米，穿过一个叫“首都俱乐部”的建筑物，一排一排的排屋，然后就看到它了，角落大大的一间。

我本来想叫螃蟹吃的，可是他们没有 - 也没有很失望啦，因为螃蟹这种东西也要看时候的，可遇不可求。

全部的小桌子都有人坐了，我们俩坐了八人座的座位！

叫了三样菜 - 娘惹蒸鱼，甘香鸡，咸蛋虾姑。RM47多。

刚好叫的这几样菜很下饭，口味不会太重，全部都刚刚好，只是份量太大了，吃的我们俩很撑！

因为只有我们两个，店里aunty就提议弄个蒸鱼肉。很下饭，也不会太辣，吃的很开心。

娘惹蒸鱼

甘香鸡

咸蛋虾姑

5) Larut Matang Hawker Center 拉律马登小食中心

地点：No 1, Jalan Panggung Wayang, 34000 Taiping, Perak.

营业时间：早餐至中午吧

这次在这里我只想介绍一样食物 - 72号档口的云吞面。

话说来到一个新地方的小食中心，要想知道该吃什么就要看当地人都叫了什么和叫了哪一档的。

第一天刚到时，饿死了。看到好几张桌子的人都叫了用一样盘装的云吞面，而且是样子看起来很不错的那种，我就快快用眼神跟踪跟到那个档口去。

在这个可怜的玻璃市里是没有干捞云吞面这种东西的。回到吉兰丹最想吃的东西也是云吞面哈哈，还给我娘说过呢~

可是，这么多人叫，真的不是盖的。我还连续两天都吃它呢！面烫得刚刚好，不会太涨也不会太硬，酱料调得非常棒，叉烧云吞都不吝啬，赞~~~

5) Pasar Siang Malam - 猪肠粉

地点：No 4, Market Square, Jalan Kota, 34000 Taiping, Perak. (KFC 旁边)

营业时间：7 pm 到售完为止，星期天休息

在这个小食中心要介绍的也就只是这一样 - 二号档口猪肠粉。

重点也是因为每次我们都是吃饱饱了才来这里吃宵夜，肚子里没空位吃别的东西了。

坦白说，很喜欢吃他的猪肠粉是因为，妈的那个炸葱好像不用钱酱，满满的一盘一点都不吝啬！

第一晚去吃的时候我以为我吃不下了，就提议跟宏共吃一盘。他很衰的，看死我一定会吃很多，所以叫了大盘的。我一看到满满的炸葱，筷子完全停不下来！！宏顶不顺又去叫了一盘。Uncle还跑过来调侃：“喂，你（宏）不是说不够吃？做么还分她（我）吃？？” -___- Uncle，你管我俩吃货要相亲相爱...

第二晚，吃了饱饱的甘榜旺晚餐后，我们俩还是顶着个吃饱了撑着的肚子去吃了这个猪肠粉。本来打算两个人吃一盘的，结果变成一人一份！！哈哈哈肥死！！

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

玩乐：

太平山/拉律山

现在去过了太平山，我觉得到了太平，除了太平湖，太平山是另一个必去的景点。
（虽然，住在吉隆坡好几年连吉隆坡塔也没上过啦）

海拔 1250m，要上山只有两种方法：走上去（不是开玩笑的陡和窄，大概要用上四-六个小时）；不然就是坐他们准备的 Land Rover Defender，一趟上下山十块钱，时间为 8.30 am, 10.30 am, 12.30 pm 和 2.30 pm。私家车不准上山。

已经停产的了 Land Rover Defender
话说人家 Natgeo 也是用它上山下海的

如果要乘坐 Land Rover 上山，最低人数要达四个人一辆车。所以如果那个时段只有两个人，那两个人就要给四个人的坐车费 RM40 才可以上山。旺季时就一票难求了。平时只有一辆上下山，旺季时就多达三辆载得满满满的。

其实hor，讲真的，那个十块钱是为了买坐 Land Rover 过山车的经验滴！！好爽好兴奋啊！！山路窄得只够一辆车使用（其实刚好可以塞两辆 Land Rover 的）又九拐十八弯的，不让私家车上山的确是明智的决定。看到那些登山者站在窄窄的路边让路时我也帮他们捏了一把冷汗。心脏不好的，容易晕车的慎入呀~~ 驾车的 pakcik 几乎都没有踩刹车的也！360度拐弯也是直接扫过的咧！整个大概八公里的上山路程用了20-25分钟。

至于山顶嘛，除了走来走去兼享受冷冷的气候，基本上也没其它事可以做了。山顶唯一的 cafe 只在周末开店，杂货店什么的也没有，所以要自带饮料食物上山噢。山顶有几间洋房可以租用。

山顶没什么被开发，景色很自然，人工建筑物不多，好喜欢好喜欢！

既然都被叫“雨城”，下雨是太平的特征。本来青天白云大太阳的，没过一下子乌云席卷而来，下雨！！

来了来了！

我坐在云中啦啦啦

上到山上什么都不想做了，只想呆呆的坐着看风景。拍了几张照片 send 给娘亲。我跟宏都觉得我娘亲一定很喜欢这个地方，aunty 可以上来打坐！

话说如果你是步行上山，要做好非常累可是不能坐吉普车下山的心理准备。我们遇到两个走到山顶的年轻男女，累得半死问我们能不能坐车下山，我们面有难色因为我们坐的那辆车已经满座了。。。

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

这个生日过得满开心的。一大早有个小宝贝的照片祝我生日快乐，然后那个大宝贝喋喋不休地唱着生日歌~~~ 好好好三姨心领了！ *muaks*

三姨生日快乐！！

3D2N Taiping Birthday Getaway

2016-10-15T20:17:00.000+08:00

Happy birthday 3 Yi ^^

Hiiiiii youuuuuu *muaks* *muaks* *muaks*

Had a birthday getaway to Taiping, Perak, with Hon.

Took the komuter from Arau to Taiping is such a breeze - although I need to interchange at Bukit Mertajam station. It took me 3 hours and RM14.10 to get there.

I made a tad complaint about my birthday when we first started dating was staying at a new (refurbished) hotel and a dinner buffet at E&O Hotel, and now THIS - just a getaway to some town and sleeps in a hostel (we took private room lah) with shared toilets!

"Well, this happens when we are together for so long".

Yeah true also. And I sort of forgot about the birthday cake he baked during that 'extravagant' birthday (and Chen remembered hahaha!!! That moment was so funny although I broke Hon's heart :p ), so we are even lah~

We stayed at Hon's 'usual place' - Sojourn Beds & Cafe at Jalan Kota.

Both of us have a fondness for Taiping, be it the food, the price of the food, the scenery etc.

For my part, mainly is the price lah. Where else can you get a RM3.50 chicken rice in the whole Malaysia!? Taiping! Only Taiping! Heeee...

FOOD:

1) Simpang Duck Egg Fried Kueh Teow

Location: Jalan Besar, Jalan Simpang, 34000 Taiping, Perak. (opposite McD drive-thru, next to a well-lit Malay food court)
Opening hours: 7pm - 12am (while stocks last), close on Sunday

When Hon showed me the picture, I thought this place is all about the firework 'shows' and not so much about the food. I am so wrong. Sorry uncle!

We couldn't find the place at first. When Waze said "you have reached your destination", we saw nothing but a well-lit Malay makan place and shop-lots, thinking the shop might have closed down already due to outdated posts about his place. It's quite a distance from where we stayed though, so we turned around and looked for it again. And luckily we did just that because the stall was just next door!

It wasn't very crowded on a Monday night, so we sat, ordered drinks and waited for the 'show'.

We sat two tables away from the 'kitchen' and we had a clear view of the show! When uncle added a new piece of charcoal, he would use a self-made fan to heat things up, and that's when the firework show started. Hon cued me everytime uncle added charcoal to snap the perfect firework pics.

It was a bit oily but thanks to the leaf for soaking up the oil, though it's a little odd to use other kind of leaf instead of banana leaf. Charcoal-fried stuff is the best as it fills with the charcoal smokiness. I should have opt for beansprout-less though. Half way through I had to start picking up the taugeh because it's too many now lol.

2) La Promise Cafe

Location: No. 1, Susur ILBP/1, Jalan Istana Larut Business Park, 34000 Taiping, Perak. (corner lot of a shoplot)
Opening hours: 11 am - 10.30 pm

It's a birthday getaway, a cake is a must!! A MUST!!

We are not the cafe-hopping type so we don't usually visit cafes. Hon said he read in some blog, stating this cafe sells the BEST cake in Taiping. Well gotta check that out right??!!

We went after we came down from Bukit Larut. It was a quiet evening when we stepped into the cafe, and rain started to drizzle and it was such a wonderful timing for a nice piece of cake and drinks. They were baking muffins, seems to be a stock supply for something as they were stuffing the muffins in the plastic trays.

We ordered drinks, a 4-piece chicken wings, two cakes and two muffins. The drinks were nothing too special so skip! The chicken wings were marinated well and fried perfectly - finger licking good!! It's quite expensive though.

So me. No perfect food pic sorry

The reviews are real!!! The cakes and muffins were so so SO GOOD!

Soft and moist cakes, not too sweet creams, nice!

Muffins aren't really my favorite dessert in the world but theirs are really nice!!! Freshly out from oven, crispy and crusty on the outside, soft, warm, fluff on the inside, SO GOOD! We started with a orange peel ones, then grabbed another chocolate ones when it came out from the kitchen. SO GOOD! And cheap too, RM2 sth per piece!

3) Restoran Kampung Wang

Location: 3266, Jalan Tembikai, 34000 Taiping, Perak.
(walking distance - 500m - from Taiping Mall, it's surrounded by terrace houses)
Opening hours: 11 am - 11 pm

The hostel's owner recommended us this when we said we intended to go to Kuala Sepetang for a sunset dinner - "Don't have to go so far lah, you can have nice seafood dinner here in Taiping town!"

OK so we took her advice and tried this restaurant that she talked about. She suggested we drive there, Hon googled the place up and it's about 1km from where we stay, and according to Google map, it's further to drive coz we can cut through small roads if we walk.

We walked through a Kelab Capitol, passed a row of terrace houses, and there it was, corner lot shop with large signboards.

I wanted to have crabs but they don't have any - already expected that as crabs are considered a season food.

We sat at an 8 persons table as all the smaller tables were occupied lol. We had Nyonya style steamed fish, salted egg mantis shrimp and gam heong chicken. The food was nice! The portion of each dishes was quite big for two person and I burst my tummy finishing them. Luckily I didn't have a heartburn or indigestion later that night.

Total came to RM47 including rice and drinks.

4) Larut Matang Hawker Centre

Location: No 1, Jalan Panggung Wayang, 34000 Taiping, Perak.

I only want to introduce a single food this time lol.

Uncovered another nice food here in this hawker centre - Wan Tan Mee!!! I had these two days in a row hahaha!

Please check out stall no. 72!

5) Pasar Siang Malam

This one too, single food recommendation only lol.

Stall no. 2 chee cheong fun, facing KFC.

OMG this uncle's fried shallots like no need money one. Freaking generous!!! We went for this two nights in a row too hahaha!

On the first night, I thought I was too full to have this as supper, so I asked to share with Hon. He ordered a big one, and the minute I saw that mountain of fried shallots I swallowed half of it! Hon had to order a second plate muahaha! The uncle was like "I thought you like it so much. You still let her eat yours?" lol uncle don't like that lah...

On the second night, after our heavy dinner at Restoran Kampung Wang, we both were so full! Yet we still made plan for this, and we each had one plate muahaha! Fat die :D

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Place of interest: Bukit Larut

Now that I've been to Bukit Larut, I think it's safe to say that, besides Taiping Lake, Bukit Larut is another must-visit place when we go to Taiping.

1250m above sea level, there's two ways to go up this hill, either on foot or by the Land Rover Defender they provided, RM10 per round trip, the time is 8.30am, 10.30am, 12.30pm and 2.30pm.

About the Land Rover trip, the minimum is 4 pax per jeep, which means if there's only two of you, you have to pay RM40 for the trip uphill. During peak season, the seats are selling out very fast.

Honestly, I think the RM10 is to buy the roller coaster road trip uphill! Woah!! It was sooooo fun!! Not for faint-hearted and motion sickness people, it can get very dizzy as there are many hairpin curves and the pakcik literally went full U-turn without braking! OMG! This roller coaster trip took about 20-25 minutes to reach the top.

As for the peak, there's really isn't anything to do other than strolling around. The only cafe is only opened on the weekends, there's no mini market or whatsoever. There are some bungalows available for rent.

It was cold and breezy on the peak. It wasn't very commercialized and developed which I love about.

Well-known as the Raintown, the sunny day was quickly swallowed by a dash of dark clouds, and within minutes rain came!

Places like this make you wanna put down your devices, look at each other and talk. I snapped a few pictures and sent to mom, urging her for another trip! That aunty very hard to invite for trip one haih...

Overall, it was a nice trip and birthday. Thanks bee.

2D3N ICED Conference in Phuket

2016-08-15T10:02:00.000+08:00

Went to Phuket for a 2 days conference, a collaboration between UniMAP (my Uni) and PSU - Prince of Songkhla University, Thailand. The schools that are in-charge of this conference are Computer and MicroE, which are not the school I'm in, so I didn't know 99% of the staffs/lecturers there, except Fan Yun haha! I stick to her all the time LOL!

The conference was on Thurs & Fri. I only decided to go two weeks before the date, FY got a lil upset coz she booked flight ticket back on Fri afternoon. If only I decided earlier she would have stayed longer yikes! She is such an angel coz despite my indecisiveness, her offer of letting me crash her room still stand til the very end hehe! She is one of the committees so she gets a free room, and thanks to this/her, I spent so little on this trip!

The bus journey took 12 hours!! I sat until my butt hurts and my back sore.

Surviving the bus ride

LUNCH!!
OK not lunch...
DESSERT!!
Siam Potong ice cream - coconut bi-color cendol & milk tea flavor

Entering Phuket Island

The conference took place at Graceland Resort in Patong, Phuket.

The resort itself was elegant and nice. Their gym was awesome!!! Their pools were awesome too!!! They couldn't fit all the committees in this resort so some of the committees, including us, stayed at Kalim Resort, Graceland's sister resort. It was about 2km from Patong, considered outskirt of the happening places. yet the room was huuuuuge! I think we can easily fit 6 people in one room.

I brought along my smelly pillow for neck support in the bus

Pretty cool central control thingy

P/S: from now onwards, time stated is +7 GMT and currency stated is Baht (B).

We arrived at 10pm local time, and we were too tired to walk far so we settled our dinner, adventurously, at an outdoor roadside beachside sit-on-a-floor-mat steamboat! LOL

As we walked out from the resort, we saw several local Thais sitting by the roadside and eating what seems to be steamboat! Out of curiosity, and we both agreed to test our iron stomach, we decided that's what we're gonna have for dinner!

The menu was pretty simple. 200B per pot/set, three choices - beef, seafood, chicken. The setup was simple too, just a floor mat and a brick/tiles to put the clay stove things. There's strong wind that night, so the fire was furious! It was quite creepy/dirty as I saw few mouses running around, FY was facing the other way so she didn't see them, and she shouted at me not to look! Haha!

The locals were chatting and drinking and having the time of their life, one of them even put on songs in their car and enjoyed the food! Nice experience~ Thank goodness, after the meal, none of us got diarrhea. Iron stomach checked!

Conference kit and my overseas purse
OK first time ever - no recycle bag?!

Main stage

Main door

Juniors!

The conference was A-OK. Get to know few undergrad and postgrad students, most of them freaking nervous! Ah, the conference newbies. I was all old-bird telling them to "Relax!! It's just a conference!" LOL.

The first day was spent in the conference venue for the first session and opening ceremony.

Had lunch at a shop selling pork and chicken rice. FY got to flaunt her limited Thai hehe.

Later in the evening, I ditched FY (coz she had committee's duty to do) and befriended Joanne, a soon-to-graduate undergrad, and brought her around Patong town the way I knew it from two years ago. Had a second round of Patong town walk with FY after her duty.

Three girls conquering Patong!

Hey you! I'm back

The weather wasn't very kind to us during our stay

Dinner - vegan briyani

We didn't get to cover much coz of the limited time we were there, and I have to keep reassuring them - NO! Patong does not represent the whole of Phuket! Please come back again and explore other places in Phuket! Pleaseeee.

Yeah you can say I love Thailand very much LOL. I wish I can speak Thai.

Even when FY's colleagues talked about the infamous Bangla Road and how it 'pretty much sums up what Phuket is like', I went on the defensive mode again. I kept pointing at the Phuket map and said "See? This is the only part you've covered... There's so much more to see out there!!"

I thought this would be another uneventful conference although it's my first overseas conference, and then 'things' happened.

My turn to present - first session on the second day

After my session, FY and I went for a last minute walk/shopping before her flight, and we stumbled across a barricaded road.

It was right next to Impiana Resort, and it's not really barricaded, just a few guys in army uniform and bullet-proof vest (GASP!) standing in the middle of the road and closed the road with a no-entry red ribbon. No one was there to stop us from continuing but we got scared so we hide at the side lol.

Worried but curious, I asked the Impiana staff (the guy in the white shirt on the right) why did they close the road. The staff was like "Bomb! In front!"

0___0

But, of course, if you don't know me, I am a daredevil, sorta. Instead of quickly running away, we both stand inside a closed cafe and took pictures. Haha. The aunty who owns the touring shop where we stand hurriedly pack her stuff and 'close shop'. We asked her again what happened, and her info was very frightening: "Suspected 80 bombs around Surat Thani, and 12 around Phuket". Yikes! As it was also the Queen's Birthday that day (equivalent to Thailand Mothers' Day - a big deal in Thailand), there was a celebration/function going on by the beach, and the aunty asked us to stay away since it's one of the suspected bombing hotspot.

I quickly updated the news to my family and Hon. FY was frustrated as her transport to the airport was brought forward - she couldn't see the action and had to rush to airport before lunch. Sigh. She kept asking me to keep her posted "If you think you wanna walk around after this. I kinda knew you wanna" Can you not know me so well? Haha!

Firetruck & Explosive Squad passing through!

Parking of all the authorized cars

News circulating our conference transport group chat

Despite being alone and all, I decided to walk around town 'just to see'. Surprisingly, 3-4 hours after the road closed incident, Patong town seems to be alive and kicking! Tourists and people filling the roads, shops, malls, everywhere. I walked to the closed road and it didn't even show any signs of a dangerous situation just few hours before.

The Queen's Birthday - Thailand Mother's Day - function venue

As I said earlier, the Queen's Birthday was a really big deal in Thailand. All the Thai channels were showing the same thing - prayers and gift giving to the monks and speeches and song singing and fireworks and everything! For several hours! All the Thai embassy around the world was also celebrating.

Check out the coconut tree! The wind was strong, no kidding!

Yummy sunset!

Since I was all alone the last night, I got a simple microwaved dinner from Family Mart. Sound so sad ya? Hehe. Got to watch 'The Godfather' incompletely.

Phuket must be sad to see me leaving coz it rained heavily since midnight until our departure time at 7am! Another exhausting 12 hours bus ride back.

That's it! Nothing much, nothing too fun - except the bomb threat incident. Thank goodness FY was such an awesome and wonderful travelling companion! The eating part was the best coz we both are quite adventurous when it comes to food haha!

I think I'll be back again Phuket. Or, the least I can do is say good things about you. =)

And, seriously, don't judge Phuket based on Patong. As much as I like Phuket, Patong is the very last thing I would recommend - unless you like to party.

Hmmmm.... Can someone name me as 'Phuket ambassador'? :p

Bicycle Touring: 2D1N Raya Trip KL - Bentong - Raub

2016-07-13T21:00:00.000+08:00

*Photos courtesy of Hon, Weisto, Rex and JH

10 of us going, 11 of us coming back.
No, we did not bring any 'entity' back with us. Uncle Sunny went a day earlier than us and came back with us.
Verdict: 2D1N cycling trip is too damn tiring :(

Genting Sempah - Raub:

Distance 96.7km

Moving time 5h43m

Average speed 16.9km/h

Elevation 1874m.

Raub - Genting Sempah:

Distance 69.8km

Moving time 4h38m

Average speed 15.1km/h

Elevation 1572m.

We gathered at Genting Sempah McD R&R as the take off point. Luckily for me and Hon, we managed to find a mamak shop opened at Batu Caves to have our breakfast, the others had to make do with the only stall opened at the R&R.

It was drizzling with light rain on the departure day so we had to delay our departure time from 7am to 8am as the rain slowed down a little. The first 10-20km was mostly downhill so it would be wiser to go on a better weather.

Complete group photo at homestay
From right: Weisto, Eunice, Jeffery, Uncle Sunny, JH, Wilson & Winnie (husband & wife), Rex & Jareen (couple),
Nee & Hon (sticky couple)

On the way, all of us had a fair share of whining, rain-mud puddle + bad road condition = pain in the ass, literally.

Teh tarik waterfall behind us in the middle of nowhere

云海

雨过天晴

Kin Tick Orchard Village - half way there!

We arrived Bentong just in time for brunch, but thanks-but-no-thanks to the Raya holiday, the place was jam-packed with cars and humans!! Thankfully, we came with bicycles, so we tried to waltz our way around to find a place with empty seats, which was such a big challenge.We quickly settled our meal and continued on.

Bentong!

During the itinerary discussion (I was not part of it because I was tagging along only lol), Rex proposed a detour to Chamang waterfall which everyone agreed on. Hon thought the waterfall was on our way towards Raub, but nope, everyone was wrong and didn't expect it was actually a one-way-in-one-way-out journey. Instead of 'a part of the journey', it was actually a 20km add on yikes!

5 more km to climb

Not only that, the road to the waterfall gets narrower and reach a point of bottleneck where all the cars were stuck uphill! Thankfully, again, we were on bikes, and I couldn't stop humming happy songs while overtaking all the stuck cars heeeeee!

Good gracious the waterfall was so huge and beautiful!!!

I was reluctant to go into the water because of the long cycling pants and the shoes and whatnot, but they managed to 'lure' me into it regardless lol.

Cleaned up, water in, gear up, and off we went again.

We used the alternative route to Raub from Bentong, and oh boy that was some TOUGH CLIMB!!!

Almost there ALMOST THERE!!!

We all know so well and hate so much about the encouragement talks like "KEEP GOING! You're almost there!!!!!", or "5 more min to go!!! 5 more min....... to the signboard" =_= We laughed and cursed and sighed and puffed and gasped and paddled and paddled and paddled. I rolled my eyes all the way to the back of the eye sockets and swore at the top of my lung everytime a hill showed up OMG.

Rex kept reassuring us about this Durian landmark thing which meant we were half way there, and ironically enough, at one of our regroup and rest point, there was indeed a durian statue.

蓝天白云
The liu lian statue was just in front of us

When we were finally at the Durian statue, Rex was like:"YES!! Good job guys! Another 20km to go!" WHATTTTTT?!!?

Kg. Baru Sang Lee, Durian statue

The traumatizing uphill rides didn't end like that. When we finally arrived Raub, we went up the wrong hill while looking for our homestay. For crying out loud, Raub people all stay uphill one!!! OMG!

Neighbor's dog

Bicycles parking porch

Our accommodation - Hillgarden Homestay

Heading out for dinner

Dinner!!

We had our dinner at the famous Restoran Ratha. Their famous dish is the curry fish head, and it doesn't disappoint. The squid/ sotong and mutton also very nice. Only downside - expensive loh.

Big pot of fish head curry - RM85
Small pot RM55, Medium pot around RM60-70

Sotong (RM22), mutton (RM22) and cabbage

Some wanted to have beer so we went to the only convenient store that some knew - Tunas Manja. 5 of us (me included) were detached from the large group and got lost a little, when we finally found our way to the store, the two BFs so gan jiong waited outside LOL! Who ask you guys go so fast and never look back!? =P

Chillin'

The almighty housewife Winnie cooked us all Luo Han Guo for the heatness of daytime ride; bought watermelon to beat the heatness as well. The gang sat at the garden outside for more chit chat but me the 不合群 one went to bed lol.

The next day, our planned departure was 7am. If it was up to Hon and I, we would definitely stay another night sigh.

Packing, preparing

Hon checking me up

Breakfast

We used the 'highway' on our way back as it was about 8km shorter than the way we came, and it was a wise choice too as the downhill can get us going without paddling for almost 2-3km! Woohoo!

Stretching out the stressed thighs

ABC Dessert refuel at Kow Po, Bentong
Yay!!

Our joyful ride ended when we arrived Suria Hot Spring Resort Bentong. The last 20km was the worst. Mostly uphill, my thighs were soaring, my ankles were feeling funny-ly, I was so exhausted it reminded me of the hike to Nuang few years ago that I cried at the end of the hike, just like this one but I didn't. I didn't cry, I mean. LOL. Hon stopped when I said I felt like crying, he fed me water, and there I saw, the roof of the RnR building! 到了到了到了!!

The beginning of the treacherous climb - all smile :D

IMO: I find 2D1N bike touring is a little too rush and tiring, in fact, there wasn't really a 'touring' involved, just cycling. I don't blame them as they only have 2 days break and have to go to work the day after. It would be wiser to fit in one more day to actually tour the place. Even though going to Hatyai is shorter, there's no way I want to do it 2D1N. Just sayin'
OH, and we realized a bike stand aka tongkat for the bicycle is so important! Often times we had to stop at random places to rest and regroup without any trees or poles or something to lean our bike on, it was quite inconvenient.

Dating on Two Wheels: 3D2N Hatyai (again...)

2016-06-03T21:04:00.000+08:00

Long distance cycling attire

Again again we went again...

Maybe the food, the expenses, the people, donno, both of us have some kind of fondness for Hatyai LOL.

This time around, we were all gung-ho after our first experience, no fear no nervous no nothing muahaha!

Unfortunate event still happened though LOL. I went back to my house to take my passport, when Hon reversed out from the house, we heard a loud bang from the back tyre, and there it was a nail sticking into the tyre! Since it was very early, 6 am mind you, we had to waste our time at McD while waiting for the workshop to open, which, in the case of Perlis, good luck finding any workshop that opens before 9am.

Good news was the nail didn't puncture the inner tube so no damage there; Greater news was despite our late departure, the weather was cloudy and overcast (there was a freaky storm going on the day before), so the ride was at ease. Hmmm, come to think about it, it wasn't that unfortunate after all.

Although both of us were very confident in 'knowing the way already', we still purchase a SIM card just in case, 49 Baht with a 90 Baht top up, which was kinda unnecessary coz we only used it in one occasion.

Hon changed the Lerun tyre to a slick Maxxis Detonator tire, it is lighter and can go faster. We used the same route that we did few months ago, the 'rural roads' that are under the Department of Rural Roads, like, seriously. They even have signboards by the roadside, I didn't have a chance to snap a picture of it. Hon took a wrong turn at one of the junction, luckily me the mightier one remembered the route perfectly woohoo!

Time (on saddle): 3 hour 6 minute
Distance (from Padang Besar) 64.62km
Average speed 20.8 km/h

This time, we stayed at Hi-Season Hotel, located 3km away from Kim Yong Market and Lee Garden area.

This area is considered outside of tourist spots because there's not even one massage parlour in the 1km radius. But that wasn't much of a problem coz we planned to get around the places on bicycles this time.

bicycle personal parking lot - IN THE ROOM

Oh yeah, Hon installed a touring rack on his Lerun so less burden on luggage!

The hotel elevators are kinda small and our room was at 4th floor, so we had to pull the bike upright to fit into the elevator. The staff never say anything so we assumed it's OK to do so.

The consequence of not wearing gloves - BURN baby BURN!

Our initial plan was to fix in a day trip to Songkhla which is about 30km from Hatyai, but my saddle sore didn't agree, and Hon didn't feel like it too, so we just hang out around Hatyai.

City tour cycling attire - WHY SO UGLY ONE!?

We tried another dimsum place - Ah Ma Dimsum - for breakfast, and I have to say our Hatyai dimsum standard was set too high thanks to Cook Chai dimsum shop, this was such a disappointment.

16 Baht per plate is considered cheap, nice place with air-conditioning, very presentable if you are to bring tourists to this place, but...

..... IT'S ALL FROZEN STUFF!

You know, like you buy those packets of fishballs and dimsums in the store those kind of thing, that's how I feel when I looked at the displays of the dimsum. They also use 'fake stuff' like the Angry Bird balls/meats/whatsoever aiyoh! Even the buns and fried foods couldn't tickle our tastebud sigh. This is all your fault lah Cook Chai!

Most of the food seemed to be in the fridge for too long, even after they sprinkle onion oil on it, it didn't carry the fragrance, sigh...

Hon saw me frowning and he was like "Okok be patient, one of my aim is to try other dimsum place then we go Cook Chai the next day" LOL.

We also fixed in Hon's favorite pork leg rice (khao kha moo in Thai) at the Odeon mall's food court. We tried one at an eatery shop opposite of Odeon and yikes, not only is it expensive, it is not as nice too.

It's been drizzles and rains the whole time we were at Hatyai, so we couldn't do/go much. A pack of scooter convoy from Malaysia stayed at the hotel we stayed in too. We didn't chat with any of them though, and their kids (came with cars, I think as support cars) played at the elevators which pissed me off.

On the second day, we went to Big C to see what's all the fuss about everyone saying 'MUST GO BIG C', and, haha yeah it's kinda fun as they have bicycle parking and we fooled around there LOL.

At night, we went to Greenway market and Asean market to shop and eat. I forgot which night markets that I went to already last time so this is a whole new experience again for me.

Greenway Night Market - Open on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It is more localize, more food stalls and very organized shops selling various kinds of stuffs. We prefer here to eat as they have more local and non-halal food. My best attempt here was to order this bowl of kuey teow soup with limited Thai, even managed to tell her I don't want taugeh! Hahaha! And it's only 40 Baht!

Yummy yum yum!

Asean Night Market - Closed on Monday and Tuesday. I think this is the one that they say 'recently renovated', because this market is very systematic and clean and spacious and a pleasure place to shop and eat! The food court is at the 'partial' second floor that they have a bar-like tables by the corridor overlooking the shops below. Hon stated "THIS is far more better than Chatuchak in Bangkok, don't you think so??"Yeah I would prefer here over Chatuchak over 1029879273 times. However, most foods here are halal, so we went back to Greenway for our dinner. Sorry I still love me some pork. The shops are very organized, although not divided according to category, the walkways are spacious and wide, it is a very pleasant place to shop.

Verdict: Go to Greenway to eat, go to Asean to shop - they are only 500m apart.

On the third/last morning, we just had to go to our favorite place - Cook Chai - for our dimsum fix. (took more pix too LOL)

We didn't order their additional food/dishes other than dimsum, as opposed to what we planned to do. All we had was the dimsum.

Ahhhh bless my tummy =) this place always makes me overeat!!

The dimsum here is 18 Baht per tray, slightly expensive than Ah Ma but so much better! The pot of Chinese tea though is kinda overpriced, forgot how much but it's pricey, so Hon thought of bringing his own pack of tea the next time we visit.

It was hot sunny day the day we went back. We learnt our lesson this time and use only the main roads - the way we came, instead of the trunk roads again.

On the way, we made a pit stop at a nice cafe 'in the middle of nowhere' for a sweet tea/coffee break.

It was really in the middle of nowhere, because....THIS!

Haha how often can you see a cow strapped behind a pickup truck waiting by the roadside in town!? Yeah the passenger of this truck waiting for her drink Haha!

We made another pit stop to take this picture of a newly built temple, which I didn't recall seeing this few months back.

We arrived Perlis, slept for a night, woke up the next day for the 5km run in Perlis Marathon, and I was down for 2 days because of headache, nausea, vomiting add on with sore shin -_-

On this trip, we only spent about 3500 Baht exclude hotel, which comes to a total of less than RM400 for two.

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Thanks for past experience, I finally get to feel the convenience of cycling in Hatyai.
Although it takes longer times and effort to get to Hatyai from Perlis, traveling by bicycle in Hatyai itself gives us greater mobility! The last time we went, even a 1km walk seems like a hassle and tiresome, but this time we got to go to places 3km, 4km or even 5km away from our hotel, no problem! Considering you have to take a tuk-tuk ride everytime you don't want to walk, you save a small fortune there - ~~every tuk-tuk ride within 2km radius is charged 20 Baht per head. (old info)~~
Heard from a friend who frequents Hatyai - Nowadays they charge 30 Baht per head for Thai, and prepare to be 'slaughtered' if you are foreigners. This makes cycling a wiser option even!!
Not only it saves money, it saves energy too! Cycling definitely use less energy than walking, you only have to bring a bicycle lock that's all!