Nanie's wedding at Lumut, Perak

Yesterday we went up North to Lumut, Perak to attend cousin's wedding.. There are 3 routes to choose..

1. 210km via Kuala Selangor (3h40m)
2. 240km via Guthrie-PLUS-Bidor-Lumut (3h05m), toll RM15++
3. 270km via Rawang-PLUS-Bidor-Lumut (3h15m), toll ??

We choose the 2nd route. Nice and clear.
 

Arrived Venice Intan in about 3 hours. . And almost everyone was there. Mom and dad has arrived 2 days earlier and stay at Cik's house.
 

Later that evening we checked in at Best Western Hotel, Marina Pangkor Resort in Teluk Batik. A very nice hotel with a very good deal. A 1 bedroom suite cost only RM228/night with special government servant's rate. Online rate is about RM308/night.
 

We can't get a studio room with the rate of RM168/night as it was fully booked until year end.

The kids enjoyed the pool and of course after pool session we went to Lumut Waterfront.. has a very nice ABC party with mom and dad and all..Susi was also there!
 

On Sunday morning we went to the groom's house before we head back off to KL. Sayonara...
 

Aril and little Faeqaa

ABC feast.. yum!!

The cousins

Congratulation Nanie-chan

Berlin again...

It's Berlin trip again. This trip is going to be special for me because I'll be travelling during the fasting month of Ramadhan and my test partner is a lady!! Hooray..

It is summer time now and the day time is expected to be longer than usual. I've checked the takwim and it says imsak at 230am while maghrib is at 930pm. Wow!

I again choose KLM because there is a direct flight from KUL to Schipol, Amsterdam and the connection flight will be shorter compared to middle eastern flight with transits in the UAE, Dubai, Qatar or etc. We arrived Amsterdam at about 6am and our connection flight is at 10am. There is one flight at 7am going to Berlin but we didn't want to take the risk of flight delay or anything similar. So we had a very good time.. at the Schipol airport! Haha. But no worries, KLM lounge for business class passengers provides plenty of food and I even took my morning shower at the lounge.  Comfy :)

KLM dinner on board

Our flight to Berlin was as per schedule at 10am and we arrived an hour later. We went straight to the Park Inn Hotel at Alaxanderplatz. The was no Wifi provided and we need to pay €18 per or €6.50 per hour. This was inconvenient. But the location is quite ok where we stayed just across the metro stations "Alaxanderplatz". Opposite the hotel is the Berlin tower and Galeria Mall. During weekends, there's night market and fun park and it will be flooded with people.

Galleria and Berlin tower at Alaxanderplatz

Alaxanderplatz

Barbie house outside Alexa, near the Berlin tower

Fahsentrum or the Berlin Tower

Last time I stayed at the Steigenberger Hotel near Kurfurstendamm and it is more lively to stay in that area. More shops, malls and boutiques along the ku'damm road. I.e KaDeWe, Hard Rock Cafe, Longchamp and Lego store.

My new Muslim friend preparing my kids name-pins @ Ku'damm

This is Kurfurtendamm or known as Ku'damm

SIEMENS factory is at Rohrdamm. . Near Tegel Airport.

The GIL testing team @ SIEMENS

There are also several superbike shops.. the most popular is the Polo-motorrad motor store. There are at least 4 stores in Berlin.  All are in different areas.

Me in front of Polo-motorrad shop at Alt-Mariendorf

Omg.. I am writing all about shops.. I'll be writing about Berlin history in the next blog okay. Forgive me.. Berlin history is not really my passion as it is more on war-jews-hitler-church kinda thingy. Compared to other countries like France which are more on arts etc.

Kak Shikin purchased Hop on-Hop off ticket and handed over to me. Get to see Berlin :) Thnx

Saturday morning market outside KaDeWe

I'm going to sign off now.. it's time for break-fasting. Selamat Berbuka semua.

Wassalam

  

Me and Kak Shikin getting ready for break fasting. The sun is still bright even at 9pm

Perhentian Island

The island has never been better.. love it love it love it.. I never thought that I'll be blogging Pulau Perhentian or Perhentian Island but this time I think I should.. it was too beautiful! !

It was a day trip (again). We can stay on the island for a night or two but seems that our little baby was with granny so it have to be a day trip.

Pulau Rawa

We rented a small boat for a day, costing around RM600-750 for a 12 adult maximum passengers. For us it was 8 adult and 6 children. Small roofed boat, snorkel sets and a DIY itenary.. I.e  island hopping.

The lot!

Alternatively visitors or tourist just pay RM70/adult or RM35/child for a return trip to the island. You can choose to drop off at Perhentian Jetty or the small island jetty, depending on where your hotel is.

And oh.. mind you there is a very limited availability of electricity supply at the island if you rented a budget chalet - if I'm not mistaken only available from 7pm to 7am. The rest of the days just go to the beach and relax. But if u stay at expensive hotels then u can enjoy air conditioned room all day as u want.

Yesterday we went to several checkpoints - Turtle point, Marine park, Pulau Rawa and Watercolour. We didn't go the the Shark point as it was too deep and we were travelling with childrens. At noon we went to buy lunch at Perhentian Besar. The villagers sell pack lunch for only RM2 per set - rice with chicken curry or rice with fried beef. Superb taste with great price. Remember DO NOT buy your food at Long Beach unless u r willing to pay RM15 per plate! Ha ha.

Well actually Long Beach is the center of tourist attraction if you are looking for a 24-7 life at the island!!

Ok back to yesterday's agenda. We were lucky to get to swim with the turtle. She just came up and took her breath for several seconds then swim back down to the seabed. But we can still see her from the sea surface.

Swim with turtle at turtle point

Then we were suppose to see nemo but there was no nemo yesterday ; ( Just other fishes - parrot fish, sea cucumber etc





Ayah Ji with sea cucumber

We went to have our lunch at Pulau Rawa... the most beautiful island I've seen so far. Kids enjoy playing with the sand and the adult took a nap.

Syasya and Alin collecting "batu nemo"!!

Around 3pm we left the small island and went on for island hopping. Such beauties. . Subhanallah.. Ma sha allah..

Arrived back at Jeti Pengkalan Kg Raja at around 4pm... tired.. and happy.... ;)

New Years Eve 2010 @ Jakarta Bandung

We were suppose to celebrate New Year of 2010 in Jakarta. Redeemed our Enrich miles which was about to expire.. pick a location and fly!..

We chose Jakarta as we planned to see the new year celebration and from there we travel to Bandung to meet Hubby's old friend when he worked there several years ago. Bandung was known for it's shopping paradise and cool ambient. I am quite interested as I was never been to any part of Indonesia before..

So, we arrived Jakarta on Dec 31st 2009 and checked in at Mangga Dua. The taxi driver introduced us to that hotel and we believe it's gonna be awesome. The hotel was very near to Taman Impian Jaya Ancol - something like Disneyland.. they said.

Well, did I sound weird enough with all my descriptions? OK here goes..

When I first arrived in the heart of Jakarta, the air was so 'unpleasant'. There was too much of cigarette and exhaust smell. And the hotel we stayed was way too close to a huge sewage or.. was it a river? My throat was becoming worst as it goes and I bought a face mask. Was wearing it throughout the stay.

Later that night, we took "ojek" (riding up to 3 person on a motorbike) and also "angkot" (mini-van) to go the Taman Impian Jaya Ancol. To my surprise, there was like millions of people coming out to celebrate. We can't even queue to buy a ticket. There were even group of people who just climb the entrance gate and the security just can't do anything about it.

Then we walked and walk and walk.. like nearly 10 kilometers (exaggerating!!).. hell yeah.. it was a loooooong walk. We can't even find the park and also if there are any special place to see fireworks. Then we felt so tired and go back before we finally reached the end of the Ancol thingy. There was a huge concert going on and again.. millions of people watching.

We saw people everywhere.. like no place even to sit.

We then finally decided to go back and it was midnight. We did see some fireworks on our way back to the hotel. Felt lucky that we finally arrived the hotel. Moral of the story.. DO NOT GO NEAR JAKARTA ON NEW YEARS EVE!!! ...if u hate crowds.



Plaza Indonesia

The famous TEH BOTOL

Us at HRC Jakarta

Plaza Indonesia again

Taxi??

Now he is co-orperating

See my mask?

Millions of people everywhere



See.. people everywhere!

Along the highways too

Finally gets to see fireworks.. but from far

The next morning we took a train to Bandung. It took us 3 hours to reach there. Luckily the view was nice. We saw nice bridges and paddy fields or we call it "Padi Huma"..planted along the cliffs.. quite amazing that they can design the retaining walls for the watering system. I felt a sleep for the rest of the journeys.. ha ha!

Derry was waiting for us when we arrived at the Bandung train station. Took a van to his house and there was his wife and boy. His in-laws were also just arrived. Had a chit chat with the locals and luckily the air was fresher in Bandung.

We rented a car with driver (Pak Supir) the next day to bring us to the Tangkuban Perahu and also Ciater. Tangkuban Perahu is the world-famous inactive volcano in Java. It was my first experience seeing a volcano and went so close to it. The biggest on e was called "Kawah Ratu". It releases sulphur. Smell so bad and it's also dangerous. We went up there and enjoyed the air.

On the way back we went to Ciater hotspring. Not to mention the traffic. "Macet Macet Macet" I think we spent almost 4 to 5 hours on a normally less than an hour journey road. Our original plan to visit several Ci(s) - Which means Water or "Air" but due to the traffic we only manage to visit Ciater. Again.. thousands of people and theres wasn't even 1 spot for us to feel the hotspring. So, we just watch them having fun and there was also stage performance going on.

We went back and visited several outlets. Did buy something but wasn't really my type.. I can see imitations everywhere but people still love to buy and they feel that it was really cheap. But if I happen to come here again I hope I will find a good place for shopping.

Anyhow, one of the good things that I appreciated was the "telekung" shops. It was quite cheap but the quality wasn't excellent. I did buy one thou :)

We went back to Jakarta to catch our flight the next day.. and to end the "happy ending".. I've got food poisoning at the airport. It hurts really bad until finally I was sent to the airport Emergency room. Got drip and knock out for several hours,.. just before the plane boards. And the best thing was, we did not have enough cash to pay the Medical bill.. and they did not accept credit cards.. arghh...

Luckily 1 nice guy from the same flight lend us some money. We pay him back right after we landed at KLIA.. gosh I never felt soooo good to be home..

Conclusively, it wasn't about Indonesia but maybe we have selected the wrong location at a wrong timing. Never knew that it can be that jammed packed in Indonesia during holidays or they call it "libur"..

Next time I will write about "the other side story of Jakarta". If you don't know what I meant, I went again to Jakarta on a business trip. Those people in Jakarta was really taken care of us as I went there with the Vice President of TNB. Well it did make some different.. ! wait.. opsss.. A LOT of difference..trust me!! (well thanks to my dear PLN friend.. Bu Dhini.. mmuah mmuah)

Ta-ta

Kawah Ratu

To read more about these Kawah Ratu, Kawah Domas etc.. can visit http://alampriangan.wordpress.com/2010/10/13/gunung-tangkuban-perahu/

Tangkuban Perahu





Enjoying our Teh Botol

Pretty cool trees

Nearby tea plantation area

Singapore

Been many many years tak masuk singapore. The last time I came in was in 2005 kalau tak silap. Pregnantkan syasya.. masa tu masih boleh masuk jalan kaki ikut kastam lama sebelum melalui tambak Johor.

So this time kena lalu ikut bangunan baru... awesomely nice!

Turun basement.. took a bus RM2.. balik nanti $2 kalau tak silap.

Tiba at Woodlands and amik MRT to Bugis.. walk to Kelantan Lane fpr my helmet.

Finally got my Caberg DUKE.. a pair of red Puma boots.. pair of high cut black puma boots for abg. ..

Then went to Orchard via MRT..

Got nothing to buy not to see. So I went back to Canada embassy to collect my passport. Alhamdulillah dah siap.

I'm good to go. Till we meet again Singapore!

Ta ta