Product Review

This is our personal product/gadget reviews. We write based on our experience purchasing and using the item.

Recipe * Resepi * Resep

I started baking when I was 12. At that time one of my favorite past time reading was my mum's recipe book. It was a notebook with dark blue plastic cover. Mum would put side notes and draw on how the recipe would look like when it was done...we had a camera but taking food photo was not something common in those years.  There was no internet, no blog or websites with free recipes.

Recipes was like treasure, inherit from generation to another generation. I remembered during our visits to relatives or friends, mum would politely ask if they can share the recipe of the cookies, cakes etc that was served by our host. Some would be happily share their 'secret' recipe, while some hesitate.... it's a 'secret' anyway.

With an internet evolution and abundance of TV programs with Cooking Show, sharing recipe is become so common. I collected & adjusted some basic recipes for over 20 years. Some was from mum's recipe book and some from recipe book, websites and blogs. Here I will share those recipes in my collection for easy reference for family, friends and myself...well I can't remember it all :).  Recipes that was tested and proven to be one that meet my taste bud and enjoyed by people around me.. Feel free to try it, copy it and share in your blog if you wish to (with your own photo, of course, plagiarist is a No No ya) .. and with reference to where it originate would be nice (^o^)...

Perhentian Island .. a quick gateway

The last time I went to Perhentian was on Apr 2010, for my Open Water Diving license.
12 Apr 2010 to be exact.
After some incident being carried away by strong underwater current while diving in Phuket in 2011, I kinda have little bit of phobia towards sea. I had not touch sea water since then.

Well, now is 2014, hallooo... we have to keep going. What happened in past is past. :)

So for my son's 7th birthday, we off for quick 3 days 2 night stay at Perhentian Island, to celebrate brithday and to overcome some fear towards sea.

This is our first oyako vacation - to mark the beginning of ultimate Mum & Son travel adventure (^^)

Camera : Sony Xperia ZR phone camera ( 2 photos were from GoPro Hero3)
Mode of Travel : by Car, ERL, flight, taxi & speedboat.

4:15 am  - Drive to Putrajaya Sentral, parked  at the covered parking. ( Cost for 4 days : RM16)
4:50 am  - KLIA Transit to KLIA2 (Cost for 1 adult, 1 child : RM9.20)
6:20 am  - Air Asia Flight to Kota Bahru ( we had some promo ticket for RM250 for 2 of us)
7:30 am  - took airport taxi to Kuala Besut Jetty ( RM78, nice comfy Nissan Sentra cab)
9:20 am  - Speedboat to Perhentian Island (it's RM70 per/pax 2 ways and RM5 for Marine Park fees)
10:00 am - Arrived to Abdul Chalet - Check in time was at 12:30pm, so we decided to leave our bag, took out swimsuit and straight into the water! no time wasted at all.
* price shown here for reference purpose only, to see how much inflation has affected for our next trip. :P

I definitely love this mode of travel compare to long night bus ride from KL to Kuala Besut that I used to had.

Perhentian. It is still a magnificent place.... quite over developed though ( I saw a white big mosque is being built at one part of the island)

This time round we stay at Abdul Chalet, at the big island. Neverbeen to Perhentian Besar or big island of Perhentian. Always read about this chalet at Tripadvisor, ranked at No 1, so why not check it out myself. Quite lucky, still managed to book a Standard Garden View Chalet for RM160/night ( actually I was hoping to book for the Deluxe Seaview room)

The room is at far better quality compare to those at Long Beach. It comes with 24 hours electric, aircond, fan, hot water, fridge and timber floor. Room quality is similar to Shari la resort at Coral Bay, at the small island, but Shari la's room are quite far from beach, you have to walk a bit.

Abdul Chalet's located right on the beach. Although our room is called Garden view room, it is actually just about 10 steps at the back from the Deluxe Seaview room :).

We had a great time with extreme sunburn due to sunblock malfunction!... We saw a turtle, 4 baby sharks and lotsss of colourful coral fishes...

these 2 photos was taken by boatman using GoPro Hero3 during our snorkelling trip.... and this made me so inspired to get one GoPro for myself...hehe

Here's some photos of the room... the bathroom is spacious, you can sleep 4 people comfortably inside the bathroom.. lol.

Night view at the chalet's restaurant. They served BBQ, but not as nice as Shari la's BBQ option. Still, my son enjoyed his BBQ prawn so much that he had that for both dinners. Oh ya their Manggo Lassi is very nice too.

 The beautiful beach right in front of the chalet. You can snorkel to the platform, where there's still  some corals and fishes.

Abundance of fishes under the jetty, next to the chalet. My son, love this spot. He spent most of the time here. He even fed the entire pack of Gardenia bread for these fishes.... and I see a lot of visitor brought along Gardenia bread to fed this fishes... quite worry if the chemicals in the bread might turn these fishes into some sort of mutation... (^p^;). 

 

we got the second floor room, so we can still enjoy see partly seaview from our balcony...with some green roof of the seaview room.

Sunset evening shot. Yes, that is my son in the water. :) He wanted to sleep in the water if possible.

We left Perhentian for 1 night stay at Kota Bahru. The initial plan was to visit the town, to go to Kopitiam Kita for breakfast and try the famous Roti Titab, visit the museum and to see some art performance at the cultural village. But my son had fever from the 3rd day and the weather was extremely hot in Kota Bahru. We stayed at Tune Hotel, KB which is located about 20 steps away from KB Mall. Quite a big shopping mall in Kota Bahru. It has everything. :)

Quickly, we're back into the town people mode and start to shop some stuff at KB Mall and laid on the bed watching TV whole day. :P

Notes to myself for next island vacation with my son.

Essential items to pack for my son:

1) Fever, sea sickness & allergy medicine

2) CoolFever patch (helpful when kid having fever due to exposed to heat for long time)

3) Gamat oil/cream

4) Some heated ointment/oil for body massage..minyak urut :)

5) Water bottle, mark with my son's name.To measure that he drinks enough water.  

6) Good sunblock that is suitaable for our skin.

For myself :

1) Cucumber / Aloevera collagen mask from Skin Recovery. This is reallly good to sooth my skin after a day exposed to the sun.

2) Aloevera gel.

Till the next trip...  :)





Legoland Malaysia

owh it's the latest frenzy in Malaysia. Legoland!!!

I have been to Tokyo Disneyland, Tokyo Disney Sea... I've seen lots of photos of Universal Studio ( haven't been to any yet) but to be honest I never heard the existence of Legoland as an amusement park until I watched a TV program showing about how the Malaysian talent assembling the Lego bricks for Legoland. I am not really a theme park kind of person.

So to further celebrate and welcoming 2014 we off for short trip to Legoland & Johor Premium Outlet. I Googled and search for info's before going so I am all geared up for the trip.
I purchased our tickets online 7 days earlier and get the 20% discounts. RM112 for adult & RM88 for kid. Booked a stay at KSL Hotel for 1 night.

11 Jan :
We depart early morning at 5am sharp, with approximate 4 hours drive I arrived at the Legoland entrance at 9:40 am, good enough to watch the opening dance. :) but to my disappointment only 1 Lego Chima and 1 Lego Brick were there. I was hoping like many characters to be there dancing like at Disneyland.

To get to Legoland from KL via North-South Plus Highway, take the exit Senai Utara. From there head to Nusajaya/Kota Iskandar. You will see the signboards of Legoland after that. It is located at the middle of nowhere. Make sure you fuel up your tank or have enough fuel for 100 km before entering the area.

As advised by many bloggers I am all ready with SunBlock, RainCoat, drinking water and some on-the-go snacks. Legoland staff did check on bags, but they check on bigger size bag like backpack. I saw family in front of me was stopped for bringing in like 10 cups of instant noodles. hehehe

Overall experience was good. The facilities, the place are rbeautiful. You can see how much effort are being put to create all those masterpiece from Lego bricks. But the staff maybe a little bit turn off. Unlike other theme park I have been to, I think they are not friendly enough or not in the character of theme park staff.
Nissan Driving School for age 7 above attraction was closed when we approach the place and the staff didn't know whther it's going to be close for entire day or temporary. That was a turn off. Luckily, it went up running after we queue for Boating school. Overall there were not many people. From the view of their huge car park, only about 100 cars were there. Still I can feel the waiting time, especially at Boating school. I cannot imagine how it's going to be during peak time. Other attraction was smooth. No long queue. But as I mentioned earlier, the staff need to smile more and doesn't make the face like being forced to do the work.

The weather wasn't really hot, it was cloudy but it was hot enough to make my face reddish. No major sunburn.

we played almost all the games except Beetle Bounce because my son wasn't interested. We finished touring the park by 3 pm. It wasn't really big and the real attractions were not many.

we had lunch at Knight Feast at Lego Kingdom. RM20 for Grilled Chicken set. Not bad and most important it tasted good. AI wants some Lego and after shopping we left the park.

We checked in at KSL Hotel. It says that we can get free entrance to KSL Dinosaur Alive water park ( that is another reason why I didn't purchase Legoland Waterpark ticket). So we went there after hotel check in.

I think the KSL waterpark is overcharged. RM50 for adult per entrance. Only 1 small slide and 3 other very small slides. 2 water buckets and 5-6 Dinosaurs that moves, yeah they moves their tails, made some sound and splash water from their mouth. That's it. Lucky it was complimentary with the room fees.  Even if it's RM15 per entrance I would feel expensive, RM50??? you must be kidding me..

KSL Hotel is attached to shopping complex. It's big and packed like Sg Wang plaza. A lot of booths selling watches, smartphone cover,  accessories, clothes.. almost anything at very reasonable price. There's Tesco there but  limited place to dine for Muslims. The food court cater only Chinese food. Nice place to do shopping though.

12 Jan
Next day - Johor Premium Outlet. Wow so many people. the car park was 3/4 full. Maybe due to Chinese New year, people were doing shopping there. By 4pm we drove back to KL. Traffic was clear. Arrived home at 8pm.


My legoland tips
1) Bring own Raincoat to survive for Dino Island attraction. You will get completely wet inside out. I brought with me super cheap raincoat that I bought at RM 2 each for 1 time use.   Or you can purchase Legoland raincoat at RM 12 each.
2) As advised by others, SunBlock is a must.
3) Since it's very hot, few attractions do splash water, like Aquazone. I think sport shoes may not be wise enough. Go with comfortable sandals that easy to dry out.
4) Non peak time, can buy themepark & waterpark ticket in a day - enough time to play all at both parks.

Next Mission : Legoland Hotel stay + themepark + waterpark experience.

No photos taken during this trip because I left my camera at home... lalalalala

Welcome 2014

a bit late for new year celebration, but it's better late than never.

I have many plans and wishes for 2014. One of it is to start writing this blog. So I can have a piece of memories of what had happened or places I had visited.

Nothing much accomplished in 2013, so I am hoping for 2014 to give a colorful and memorable event in my life.

Kicked off with 1st January celebration; I watch Dinosaurs movie with my son. Started with nice breakfast Nasi lemak + Teh tarik @Teh Tarik Place at IOI mall, overlooking the lake view. Then we had awaken our senses with the 6D movie. I had mistakenly chose the Natural Roller Coaster ( well I wasn't sure what is 6D movie anyway). For 10 minutes long we had been shaken on the seat, as if we were riding a Roller Coaster. Wait, normal Roller Coaster never took that long...10 minutes is very long for roller coaster experience...lol.. we may not go for that again.

My son, AI is seven years old! it's a big event for any parent, I feel like I had passed one of the milestones of motherhood. Good luck my son.