The Holidays

This has to be the laziest holiday ever. We had nothing planned except watch movies. Last week, we caught Pirates of The Carribean on 3D and couple of days later, Kung Fu Panda. Tickets were hard to get on weekends and we almost wanted to watch Diary of A Wimpy Kid when we couldn't get tickets for the movie we wanted. All we wanted to do was slouch in the cinema seats with pop corn and Coke (and bubble tea for me).

She looks forward to movie nights at home too. We'll switch off the lights and the hall is really dark. She sits on the middle of the sofa and insists hubs and me to sit beside her. She calls it a 'Happy Family Seat', papa on her left and Mama on her right. She'll give us each a couch pillow to hug in case we are cold. :)

We allowed her late nights and she'll sleep through when we send her to the babysitters and continue her naps till almost 10am. After all, it's holidays !!!.  Iron Man 1 & 2 almost every other day.. *sigh* and watched some very silly movie like Splice (go read reviews on the sex scene, you'll know why but we had to ff the scenes 8x with the little one also watching), I ordered a stop halfway through the movie, too many f*** words.

Watched Shaolin last night and Amber's watching Diary Of A Wimpy Kid now.

Never watched so many movies in a week !

The Weekend Before Christmas

We didn't have any holiday plans for Amber and decided to go Malacca for a short visit. A very last moment decision and since it's also school holidays and Christmas being very near, it wasn't  a wise decision. Malacca was packed, the whole town was congested.

It was flooded.

Flooded with Singaporeans. 

No offense but I see more 'S' car plates than M'sian cars.

We're lucky to get a room through a contact as all other hotels were fully booked. We left for Malacca early Saturday morning, with this in mind :

 Yummylicious lip smacking chicken rice balls. 

This place is where locals go and recommended by my colleague, Anthony. After previous disappointed visits to the chicken rice balls at Jonker's Street, Anthony checked out this place for me and warned me to be there early. The tau-keh closes shop when her chicken rice balls sells out and that can be as early as noon, depending on the crowd. I can't read Chinese but this is easy to locate. Follow the sign to Pusat Bandaraya, past the Malacca Hospital, next to Wang Food Court, once you see a makan shack under a big tree and you're spot on !

We met up with Thomas, Joanne and Sharon at Malacca. Thomas was our tour guide of honour and other than the chicken rice place, which was on my priority list, I let him take the lead on where to eat and what to do. .

He took us for a hike up St John's Fort. Perfect to burn off the chicken rice.

 Hiking up to St. John's fort, we found these saga trees, a reminiscence of my childhood, where saga tree grows in abundance near the stone hall of my primary school :

I collected a handful home. Amber wants to do something artsy with it.. perhaps stick it on a cardboard to the shape of a butterfly. I have better ideas. I might just sew five stones with them. I miss my childhood days of playing five stones by the corridor of my classroom.

 

and everyone roped in to help pick up the tiny red saga seeds.

 the kids were too happy to playing catch ...

..

and laughing...

and screaming too.

 Amber plucked some flowers and asked me to clip to her hair.

 On our way down, we found someone selling fresh coconut. A refreshing treat for all of us.

 

And the daddies did something silly, they asked the girls to climb up the pinang tree :P

and the 2 little monkeys tried and called for help when they realised it wasn't easy being a monkey :)

 Our next stop was A Farmosa Fort and St Paul's Church..

Again, an interesting photography place with lotsa space for kids to run around

 

By late afternoon, the kids were flat out and so were we. Took a short nap, showered and hit the streets again.

Wanted to take the River Cruise but the queue was too long.

The kids were in tears, they could only see the barge go past and waved to each barge :(

We hopped on to the Portuguese Settlement at Ujong Pasir.

This one is a must during Christmas time. Most of the houses (at least 90%) was decorated with Christmas splendor. I've never seen such elaborate decorations, really amazing.

 

As usual, it was very crowded and many residence were expecting tourist, we chatted with some and they told us all lighting and decoratives are at their own expense. No sponsorship from the state government except for a few houses with Aik Cheong, Julie biscuits or Tiger logo. We only made a short stop, take some pics and head off for supper at Jonker's Street's Geographer's Cafe.

Guess who had most fun at Geographer's Cafe ?

 

After a few jug of beer, the daddies took their princesses to the dance floor and disco-ed away. 

We moms, too old for the dance floor, just relaxed, had a few drinks and took pics.

When the daddies got tired of dancing (they are old too !!!), the girls took on the dance floor 

Look at Amber, it was already past midnight and she's still jiving away with Sharon..

The next morning, after breakfast, we went straight for the cruise. The girls has been nagging about it all night and chanting in their sleep and there's no way we can return to KL without boarding the river cruise.

We were early, we got our tickets and waited for around 15 minutes for our turn :

 The cruise is 45 minutes long and goes along the Malacca River... to and fro. Something exciting for the girls but I fell asleep during the journey *yawn*

 

Then hubs took some photos of the girls near the riverfront while I sneaked out for shopping at Jonker's Street. 

Then Thomas took us for the famous Malaccan pork satay ..... it's slightly off Jonker's Street, and it was good.. the gravy is different from our usual Satay. Sweet and spicey with lots of blended pineapples. 

Very nice satay and definitely worth a trip back here again.

We left Malacca in the afternoon and got caught in a massive jam getting out of Malacca, again with Singaporean cars at our front, back and sides.. sigh.. took us an hour to get to Ayer Keroh toll.

That was our weekend before Christmas ! 

On the fifth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.

What We Did At Camerons

Once we checked in at Equatorial Apartments, our first stop was Sg Palas Boh Tea Plantation. Since it was a weekday and not many tourist up at the highlands and rushing in and out of the plantation, driving through the narrow windy road was easy!

Stopping by Boh Plantation is now our ritual, if I could have things my way, I'd live here and sip English Boh tea everyday, breath fresh air, sooth my eyes with the greenery. Camerons would be an excellent retirement home except that medical facilities are not up to par in case of emergencies and retirees need the best medical care right ?

Lush, lush greens

and more..




She requested for her hair to be blown salon style.. 'turn turn turn the fringe' and blow, left right and middle. Amber ! She's taking me as her special assistant. Mama to pack her clothes, Mama to coordinate her clothes and Mama to style her hair  like Tweety Bird and Mama to blow her fringe 'pok pok' style.. aka puffed up fringe. It was a lot puffier until the breezy wind at the plantations messed it up.

We stopped by at the Big Red Strawberry Farm and squeezed in some time to pluck some strawberries. At Rm40/kg, the price is triple of what you'd have to pay at pasar malam or pasar pagi but it's worth the fun. Not to mention the few that we nicked and popped into our mouth ! :)

She's sulking when I said Rm40/kg is way way toooo expensive !!

Plucking strawberries is an experience and fun too but I don't think it'll be fun if I have to stoop and spy for fat and ripe strawberries 8hr/day x 5day/wk .. right ? or not ?

a flower budding to a strawberry.



I had to make sure she cut only the fat ripe ones as there's 'sherrifs' walking around and reprimanding those who cut not-so-nice ones and dump them to the floor when they find fatter, redder berries.



Our loot.

Amber was looking for this poser. She remembered the last time we were here with Yuen Wen cheh-cheh and Ah Huat kor-kor, all 3 posed for a pic here. This trip, she had to pose alone.

Tataaa... for Day 1. nothing much to report on this trip anyway, since it's a part work trip.

Dinner ar Ocen Seafood, Tanjung Sepat

With tummies rumbling and mouth watering, we adjourned to dinner, leaving Bagan Lalang around 7-ish pm, just in time to watch the sunset and it was a beautiful sight. Vincent and Cougar, Annie's hubs asked us to follow their car and this is our first outing together, both of them kept a close watch and made sure we are close behind and getting lost in Tanjung Sepat is no joke !

We landed ourselves at "Ocen Seafood Restaurant" , next to Qingren Qiao (Lovers Bridge) local products shop. I'm not sure Ocen was spelled intentionally to promote it's or-chien or somebody missed out an 'a'. Nevertheless, hubs was excited and upon parking his car, he said he could 'smell' the good food. I'd say we're lucky coz the next car arriving after us was turned away by the Ocen.. *tutup already*... the lady told the patrons. Boy, I cannot imagine how frustrating it would be for them..

The souvenir shop, famed for it's homemade tom yam paste. Moi got a jar .. can't wait to hv a tomyam night with my homegrown serai and kaffir lime..




Lots of traditional tit bits and ting ting candies.

Next to Ocen Seafood was the famed Lover's bridge :

Long eh ? it's actually a jetty going out to sea and I suppose fisherman will land their catch here ? Neh ? Too late to see anything.

Alright, we were growling with hunger and left it to Vincent and Cougar to order food. Just order we said, no need to waste time and ask.. we 'apa pun makan'. :D

Kangkong and Nestum sotong. I like this sotong very much coz it's not dipped in thick batter..

Gung po mantis prawn and famous Tg Sepat fishballs

Taufoo kang in claypot. Served bubbling hot. I like this dish very much drizzled with black vinegar.

Sweet and sour pork. Fearles and Cruz loves this dish. they call it 'red sauce meat' :D

Steamed snapper teochew style. Very simple but nice.

And the star of the night :

Or-Chien .. fried fresh baby oysters.. Ocen style... comes sizzling on hotplate, half cooked. Boy, this is so YUMZZZ... I'd order double portion next time. Luckily Annie didn't like this dish, we all had more to share.. muahahahaha...

Amber, hungry already.. ate rice with fishball and soup and lots of steamed fish.

For her to lick her plates clean, it has to be good.

This is what we had for 6 adults (minus the fishball soup, already served and eaten)

Now you see it,

Now you dont :

We were famished and dinner was excellent. For 6 adults and 5 kids, the bill came up to RM170+. Cheap eh ?

I'd definitely make another trip here.

Bagan Lalang

Annie Q gave me a surprise call on Saturday, asked if we'd like to join her family and another friend - Melissa and Vincent to Bagan Lalang. Hubs who is not an adventurous fella gave me a bigger surprise by wanting to go. Since it's school holidays and for whateva reason I don't know, both of us in holiday mood :D

As I know and read about Bagan Lalang from other mummy's post, it's a beachside resort and fun for a day's play. With advise from Annie, I packed water, towels and snacks.

We followed our trusted Garmin GPS for directions. Took the NSE, exit at Nilai and follow the signs to LCCT and Sepang Gold Coast, we were there in about an hour. I realised I had left Amber's bag of beach toys and swimsuit at home, what a bummer ! We were saved by the many stalls selling kites and bubble guns. I quickly wanted to get another swimsuit for Amber but it was all sold out. So, you can tell this place is very popular eh ?



Hubs got a bubble gun and Princess kite for Amber. See the bag Amber is carrying ? It's Tesco's new Green bag, Toy Story 3 theme.

We spent too much time shopping and when we reached the beach, the water had receeded way back. Luckily I didn't get the swimsuit for her tho'.. muahahaa..


On the background is Sepang Gold Coast Resort. I wouldn't call the coast "Gold" but I'd think with more truthful names like Sepang Muddy Coast, the rooms wouldn't sell either. .LOL !

Amber shooting bubbles.. all she wants, unlike at home, I'll forbid her to shoot anywhere except in the toilet.

Then hubs set up the kite.. sail it and tugged along with Amber but she was too enthusiastic to let the kite fly, it actually flew off, far far away..

So, we had to get another kite. This time, we are smarter, we tie the ends of the string to the coil.
The second kite, hubs asked Amber to sail it.

up up and away.....

Then it was my turn to sail the kite. FUN ! Can't remember the last time I sailed a kite. Prob 30 odd years ago ?

Amber played with the sand and built her own 'sandcastle'

Hubs and I took turn to sail the kite. Hubs was more excited, like a little kid coz this is his first time sailing kites ! He came to my rescue everytime my kite refuse to sail .

My first 'camping' adventure... no doubt a short trip but it was fun and an experience for me.

Thanks Annie for inviting us..

We waited till sunset, a beautiful sight, and then packed our stuff, ready to go for dinner. . I know it'll be another exciting place coz Annie already warned me of a good dinner and not to each too much snacks. Knowing her hubs and his friend to be sporting fellas.. .. .. hubs and I quickly set out Garmin to save the location for our next visit.

Thanks Annie for an interesting Sunday evening out with the family !