Bali in a Day

Bali!

Attended a conference (2 days) in Bali, with Shim.

1st day attended conference faithfully, and they had conference dinner at night. The conference organizers brought the Kecak Dance team from Ubud to perform during the dinner, so that (kecak) can be ticked done in the checklist. Second day conference, we attended until the closing ceremony and only went around Sanur area near the hotel we stayed in.

Kecak Dance

The towel display by housekeeping... cute but kinda creepy too, hehe.

I have contacted the tourguide that my friend recommended, on day-3, a full day tour around Bali.

Imagine, only ONE (1) day to cover Bali. Of course, it's not enough. But, we tried to maximize whatever time we have left and make the best of it. We told our guide, Pak Suar some of the places we'd like to cover and he brought us to these places. He also brought us to some sorvenir shops which we know as a common practice of tourguides, and Shim made quite a handsome number of purchases while I was being selective and calculative, haha.

In Monkey Forest.

 The Temple in Monkey Forest, Ubud.

Rice terrace fields of Ubud in Bali

Mount Kintamani

- Stopped for lunch...

Coming back from lunch, stopped at a Coffee Shop that has coffee trees, beans... and Luwak (the source of Kopi Luwak).

Mr. Luwak.....Mr.Luwak and frenz like to eat coffee beans, and known to be good at choosing the best beans. Then their droppings (that still contain the beans intact) are washed n processed into coffee powders = Kopi Luwak. 

Then we had a super long drive all the way to Tanah Rata. We wanted to catch the sunset, and PakSuar said we would make it on time. Trusting him, we enjoyed the view, the ride and... slept halfway through... haha (coz the night before I slept at 4am finishing some works... haiz)

2012 Escapade - Cameron Highlands

1 July 2012

Cameron Highlands - quite a common and popular place for the locals in Malaysia to visit or spend holidays. I have been here a few times.

What makes this trip interesting, is the fact that I'm assigned as the "tour-guide" for Shim, a Penangite who never been to CH before, and Aisy who is Shim's friend from Bahrain - they studied together in Sheffield Uni, in UK. Aisy came down for some sort of solo backpacking tour in some parts of Msia, which includes CH, Langkawi, Penang and KL. Shim decided to guide her around, and asked me to join em since I've been to CH quite a number of times.

1 July 2012 - Shim and I moved from Taiping (where we just had a homestay trip with our uni friends), and drove down south to KLIA. We picked her up (the flight was slightly delayed) and drove back north to Perak to CH via Tapah.  Assigned as the driver, this was also my first drive via Tapah, as usually I would go via Simpang Pulai. Tapah route was quite tricky and challenging, but all 3 of us reached CH finally and checked in our hotel in Strawberry Park Resort at about 8.45pm. We were exhausted... of course, Aisy was having slight jetlag from the 8hours (+-) flight. Regardless, we went out for a quick dinner and later jumped on our beds after some series of catch-up as well as perkenalan (for me),  finally getting the rest we needed. 

For 2 days  we went around roaming around CH. Being the guide, I planned the visits n so on, but basically I was being quite random and ad-hoc as well, depending on their preferences along the way. 

I loved the Cameron Bharat Tea plantations, walked down all the way to the area where there is this narrow river and more teasss. Btw, since it was not a school holidays, and it was Monday... we had some privacy, not so many people at that time :-) The weather, at times it drizzled... making the air cooler. 

Some time in the evening...after visiting a few rose, cactus and strawberry farms, the rain poured and we were stranded in a strawberry farm which was faraway from other farms and only had few foreign workers (Aisy wanted to go to Mossy Forest, I drove there but we returned as we found out it was quite secluded and further. Upon returning back, the rain poured heavily almost making it impossible to drive on the small hillside road, so that's why we stopped at the farm). We reminded each other to be cautious, but we visited the farm nonetheless. After that we went to the Time Tunnel Museum which I kinda loved for the nostalgia feel it had. Basically they are collections of things from the 50s to 80s... and oh...I just love these stuff u know :P Luckily, Shim and Aisy loved it too, so takde la syok sendiri je kan. Hehe.

We wrap-up the day, with dinner and went back.

2July 2011 - Breakfast was heavenly just like the day before :-)

Aisy was looking forward to a more adventurous activity; after not being able to make it to mossy forest the day before, she asked about hiking or waterfalls in the area. I told her that for hiking, it was kinda late to plan for that, it would be better off if we had more friends or hike in a group. We then decided to check out the waterfalls. Unfortunately, due to a lot of development in the area lately, both waterfalls was a let down. 

The water was not clear and looked like teh tarik... adeh. We took some shots, and dipped our legs in the safer waterfall and went back to check out from the hotel. The hotel is highly recommended for travelers looking for comfort and seclusive area.

We visited some farms and went to the Boh plantation, we had lite brunch. They have a tea leaves factory which operates at certain time, and allows visitor to have a peep at the processes. It was rather educational hehe. 

Ok.... driveee back to Penang. We stopped by Ipoh, to grab late lunch. A friend of a friend recommended a nasi kandar place but didnt mention that they close early, so we went all the way just to see them closing and washing their stall.... haiz. We settled for what ever they had in nearby astaka (few stalls there) and filled our tummy.

Drove back to Penang, to my home and they visited my parents. Shim then went back to her home in island, bringing Aish with her. They left for Langkawi the following day, but I didn't join them.

After they came back to Penang, I joined em, we went to Botanical Garden. But we also let Aisy enjoy Penang esp Feringgi on her own first before I met her in Georgetown the next day and brought her around some places. She was very keen to explore different cultures so I brought her to the Buddhist (Siamese and Burmese) temple, and then to Fort Cornwallis, and around Georgetown. My parents and Shim later joined us for dinner, and 3 of us, Shim, Aisy and I went back to Feringgi to spent the night. We sent her off the next day in the airport, where she would take domestic flight to KL and continue her last part of her trip to Msia.

Some pics from Penang trip:

It was indeed a fun, (extended) week... in which, made Shim and I strongly consider being a tour guide in future... hehehhe.

Sawadee Ka

Recently, I joined a working trip to Surat Thani, Thailand.

This is my first time in Thailand. Thailand is just few hours (approx 3hrs) from my hometown, but the closest I ever been to Thailand was the border town, Msia side - PadangBesar, Perlis.

So I was very thrilled :D

We went by a mini bus, I think in Msia we call it Van besaq lah. It was comfy and spacious... as there were 8 of us (the delegates) while the Van can fit up to 11 people (excluding driver).

far left, the mini bus @ van - near Changlun border

We went into Thai through Changlun (another border town). Changlun is in Kedah, and the name of this Town is in Thai language which means the 'fallen elephant'. I was sleepy all the way, as I took motion sickness pill before the journey. Instead of enjoying the view, I was sleeping every now and then. But manage to peep through the window once a while. My impression.... "La, sama macam Kedah ja, mcm tak kuar Msia pun" Hahaha... yeah, felt like we are still in Msia, environment same with Kedah and Perlis :D but of course that make sense since they share same heritage back in those days.

There were few slightly flooded villages and that gave us chills... praying that the rain would stop and it would not reach hazardous level especially in surat thani, or on our way back.

We stopped in Hatyai for breakfast.. 10am thai time. It's a muslim restaurant, deco looks flashy... but with moderate price range... food not bad ;-)

Continue.....
Stopped in Nakkon Si Thammarat for lunch. A small restaurant by the road, that has one of the best Tomyam I ever tasted :P Kawwww

Ok... Go on....
Reached Surat Thani around 5pm Thai time = 6pm MY time. We left Penang around 8am... we travelled 10hours on road. We treated ourselves with seafood dinner blast! haha... the Udang sangat mengujakan :P

The next day, after the meeting was over, we took Seatran Ferry to Ko Samui.

Another good thing was.... it didnt rain. It did rain for a while while we were having meeting... then it stopped :D Alhamdulillah, our journey made easy.

The journey took about 1hour30mins... I think... I was not wearing a watch, my phone was switched off and I was not really aware of the time LOL... what a way to travel huh :P But then, since there were quite a number of us, and the trip was planned by the project manager, it felt relaxing n quite liberating to just follow along and forget about everything else. (One of my buddy was using temporary Thai number during the trip, which we shared.... so I just passed the number to my family if they were to contact me) What ever plans they had, we just followed along. But hehe.. i did have a request on one thing "I want to ride an elephant" and was keen and determined to do that during the trip :P The journey was smooth despite high tides and windy day. We almost went all wet when the ferry hit the high tide, splashing on us. For the record, we were standing on the 3rd floor of the ferry okayy... wow. haha

Ko Samui (ko means island / pulau), once we stepped foot on the island... i felt at peace. Maybe the atmosphere. It was clean, and fresh air. The environment, in my opinion, is kinda similar to Pulau Pangkor. But of course, in KoSamui you'll have a lil bit more entertainment to look out for. However, the types of entertainment doesnt really coincide with my preferences... so, ok... let's just do some sightseeing and relaxing only kay ;-) Full moon party? No, thank you lah, heheh... oh ya btw, this famous party takes place in another island next to Samui known as Ko Pangan.

The resort's room was mabeles. Each block (ours: 2 floors, with 5 rooms in each floor) has its own swimming pool. We got the room at ground floor, and our door opened out to the pool. So.... first agenda! a dip in the pool lah! haha...

Check out the resort: http://www.floristresort.com/

Night came, we walked around the street in Chaweng. Lots of gift shops, sorvenir stuff, tatoo shops, fast food chains, pubs, and Spas... yeahh Spa :) But we kept that for next day... walking along the street... and knowing me, looking for Fridge Magnets lor!

Up (left&right) : Chaweng streets at night
Below (left): Banana Pancake @ Roti canai pisang, prepared in many interesting ways
below (right): chaweng, daytime

Morning... the tide was still high. Breakfast by the beach.... nice!

We went on Island-road tour and stopped by some temples to learn about the people and the island and get some nice pix shots.

We also stopped by some of the beaches. One of the place is famous for the "grandfather and grandmother rock". It's in the shape of somthing that will be rated 18sx if blogs have movie-rating system... huhu. Google if u want, coz im not posting the pixxies here, haha! Another famous thing in Ko-Samui is the coconut... the dodol... and this... Coconut Ice-cream. It's delicious... but I got tummy ache after eating it.. must be my bad diet management, dont blame the coconut :D

Ok.... the most exciting part - the elephant Farm :-)
It costed 700 baht (+- RM70) per person.

At first, after sitting on the elephanto.. I felt kinda guilty. I asked the guide whether he/she (the elephant) was okay with our weight combination and all that. The guide assured us it's ok for her.... ouh it's a female... and her name is Tetya. She would stop and raise her trunk... it means she's happy and wanted to say thank you (as was told by the guide)... and she did that quite a number of times, she must be happy that we kept on complimenting her :P Ouh, I really hope she was, as I enjoyed the ride so much. We went on jungle trek, and in middle of the trek, the guide went down and snapped pictures of us, with Tetya giving out so many different poses...haha, cute. Then the guide asked if we want to 'drive' the elephant, to which I quickly agreed and moved to the front... Kinda scary when the track went a lil bit downhill, scared I might just fall off like dat.. ayyaa... But whoa, it was great experience. Thanx Tetya :*

Left: at the back of the elephant. Right:Tetya carrying other tourists

After elephant farm, we stopped by a waterfall area... then proceeded to Chaweng area again. Its SPA time! I took the body massage for 1 hour package. Ouh wow..... interesting :)) Btw, the prices:

Then later, we just hang around the beach... and walked on the streets again. This part of the streets was further up than the area we were at last night.


I found a celebrity there! can u guess.... who .?
Found him lying on the Chewang beach.....wow... awak sunbathing ker???



Then went back to the resort.... rested for a while, had a dip again... (tried to swim... still not able to swim correctly :P)

Night.. walked around Chaweng again :-) last minute shopping and coffee... and back to the resort.
Next morning, the sea was calmer, no high tides... kinda miss the windy weather :P

We rushed to the jetty and got our ferry.... Hmm, it was a hot, humid day...yeahhh... the previous days' windy weather was better :P On the ferry,  Felt like I was in a vacuum, like the air barely moved (ok, exaggerating a lil here ..) Hehe... I slept for half'n hour before going back to the railings, enjoying the view....

HOkayy.... back in SuratThani..... and back we go!
Journey back. Tried to read some papers.. before feeling dizzy and Zzzzzz... hahhahaha. But hey, no more motion sickness pill ok....

Stopped in Hatyai again. for lunch. Hmmm... nyamnesss lunchhhhh... me loikeee...

Stopped in Danok (Thai border), got some Longan and Mampalam :D
Back in Malaysia... Weee

Reached Penang at 9pm.... so tired :P

Phew..ouh wait..
I almost forgot....

the celebrity I found in Ko Samui....in Chaweng beach...

found him lying on the sand... but from my observation, he looked kinda... dead....

Why spongie? nickelodeon not paying u enuff aar?? :(
RIP Spongie.... sob sob sob

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Summary of Ko-Samui. Interesting , beautiful, clean place. But I prefer Langkawi ;-) But jetty langkawi  and Jetty kuala kedah need to improve a bit la, in terms of cleanliness aar  :D tanggungjawab bersama kan yg ini :P

Would love to see Krabi and Phuket. There's another trip to these 2 places next year January, the student society is organising it... but haih... due to time and budget constraint, I can't follow that one. maybe some other time in future la kan.


Kapun Ka .