three

the best things in life come in threes. the triple celebrations i.e. the big three O birthday, the eid and the national day, were all great especially with our little family of three, alhamdulillah. thanks to all fellow friends and family for the warm wishes. love u all. take care! ;)

*the three of us: mr bunny, mrs hunny and miss jr

again

just came back from singapore. again? was planning for a city breakaway. just the two of us hunny and bunny. the most affordable ones was singapore, after cost calculation between a few holiday hotspots has been prepared ;). plus, singapore was chosen since the bunny gonna do his first official run of the year, finally :P

a little bit about the short holiday. it was very exhausting but real fun and i enjoyed every bit of it including one part where i've become very clumsy. thank god it was 5am in the morning and everyone was fast asleep, hehehe...

p/s: backdated entry, yet again :P

passenger

traveling long distance on a car? no more as the back seat passenger. the worst 12-hour experience ever :P.

wonderland

fell in love with the ipod and iphone loving (or obsessed?) country. felt like just got back from a wonderland. perhaps it's because i have some complications with some matter in mine. that's typical. u will see others to be better than yours. in actual fact, everywhere is the same. something may been seen cooler but may not be the same case for the rest.

it's been ages since the last time i've traveled. well, it's true. the last time was in july when we went to our pre-honeymoon island getaway. this very trip to singapore was the only holiday me and bunny can enjoy after occupied with lots of weddings this year. and we had a lot of fun. real glad ;)

this trip was part of my business trip (to jb) and a running event (standard chartered singapore marathon) registered by both of us and was participated by bunny and the rest of the running clan except me, so sad :(. i was in the supporters club, though. it's ok, i'll make a comeback next year. hopefully for a full marathon, fingers cross, hehehe...

apart from the running event, me and bunny spent some quality time together in the city. we went sightseeing, window shopping and a little bit of actual shopping *wink*wink*. but the best part of the trip is the food feast. we ate almost everything, anything halal that is ;)

miles

spent raya 6610 miles away from home for 7 years, yet i have the hardest time to digest the fact that i will be celebrating eid at a place that is way less than 660 miles from the rest of the family this year :(.

nevertheless, this year's eid is the most that i look forward to - celebrating with the bunny *excited*. if everything go as plan, hunny n bunny will celebrate first day of eid in kl and the second day in kb, insyaAllah.

as at 11.00pm on raya eve, everything is so different from what i've experienced as long as i can remember. from food preparation for both today's iftar and eid tomorrow to takbir raya from house to house (only for guys, that is). exhausting but i think everything is well worth it...

singapore

there are at least 3 different ways to and fro singapore from msia. in the recent years, i've traveled to singapore via different means of transportation. one, by flight (both ways). two, via train to the lion city and flew back home. and three, the recent one was by foot to malaysian immigration at jb and by bus to singapore's check point. the latter was quite fascinating for me since my partner in crime kept telling his adventurous stories of day outings to singapore when he was younger. he's no longer that young ok, hahaha!!!

btw, it took us almost 2 hours to reach the city. we didn't actually have anything planned so we only went for lunch and did some window shopping. then we went back to jb as i still have some job to do before driving back to kl. great mini city getaway indeed ;)

p/s: this entry was only posted on june 11 due to time constraint :P. apology for the inconvenience caused, hehehe...

train

travel by train? haven't done that in ages, locally that is. i went to singapore with the bunny, sis n cuz and the running buddies. the rest travelled by air while the four of us took the night train. traveling in pyjamas. cool huh?

*the cuz n sis in the train ready to sleep ;)

nevertheless, this very trip to singapore is somewhat an elaborate one. one part was for standard chartered singapore marathon. and the other was sightseeing baby! i was able to see more of singapore as if i'm a true tourist. we went to lots of tourist spots namely merlion park and sentosa island and less of shopping time. as per my previous post: runaway, to shop in singapore is not meaningful. prices are still much cheaper in malaysia. i didn't buy anything for myself apart from some chocolates that are hard to find in kl. love them to bits *yummy*. if only i brought bigger bag and if only i've booked the baggage allowance for the return flight, i would most definitely buy more of these delicious chocs! lesson learned right? :P

*some of us with our scsm finisher medals

oh btw, rucksack inn, the hostel that we've stayed was truely awesome!

*hunny heart rucksack!

road

first time ever in my life i've broken over 5 road rules in less than 5 minutes, which includes went through no entry & no u-turn signs and ran over the red light. not proud of it though :P. crazy? maybe but not really. it's a public holiday and since its eid, not so many peeps were in town except my family that is, hehehe...

our family don't really celebrate eid adha as much as eid fitr. it should have been the other way round.  but it's the tradition :P. even since my dad was still around, we seldom go back to my parents' hometown, neither perak nor kelantan during eid adha. plus, this year's was even lamer since my grandma is in kl. so no point of us going back to kb. but last year's was great though. we did something different. very impromptu. my mom, younger bro, 2 sis and i decided to go for a roadtrip to taiping, celebrating eid with my dad's cousins. on our way there, we had a pitstop at teluk intan. visiting my dad's hometown and his family's resting place. and i must admit, i miss them so much esp my papa...

anywho, since my grandma is here, we had a small get-together at my house. my mom and aunts had a pot luck and surprisingly a lot of food was on the table waiting to be eaten by us the hungry fellows :P. after the feast, i've decided to go out with my sisters, away from the gossip monsters in da house, hahaha!!!

*sisters enjoying coffee/choc frap and cheesecake while playing chess & checkers

hidden

too many hidden charges... that's what i can say about thailand. firstly people say tipping isn't compulsory but is well-practiced everywhere. a big as if! it is actually in the top of the to-do list. no tip means no service. well, as a former waitress at a restaurant i do understand that a tip is something that you're waiting for after a well great service given. but still, it is not something you should expect if you don't deserve it, rite? and especially when we didn't even ask for the service but yet we are expected to give the tips. that's so uncool...

nway, i just got back from a trip to bangkok and pattaya with the little brothers and their gf. great time that we've had apart from the suck tour guide (pardon my delicate french, hehehe...). how can a travel agency expects someone who is non-english and non-malay spoken to guide us in a country that only speaks thai except for the usuals "same same" and "no good" :P and most importantly writes in non-roman characters? and when the guide only knows to guide us to expensive places and those explicit shows. but what the heck, we've survived. have the most splendid time at the shopping haven. wish that we've got the fortune to spend more at the markets. great stuff they have. will definitely go back, no doubt *wink*wink*

 

 *with the little brothers at bangkok

 *having our usual authentic thai meal

oh btw, i've done another thing that's in the to-do list: parasailing. cool ain't it, hehehe...

sabah

just got back from one of the most exciting trips of my life. the itinerary went like this. saturday am: our flight to kk. went straight to masjid negeri sabah for work event after checking in at the hotel. sunday am: borneo run, started and ended at stadium likas (prolly one of the best run tracks to date). sunday pm: island hopping. tea break at pasar malam and dinner with very elaborate seafood selection. monday am: white water rafting at sg padas (my first time rafting and one of the things in my to-do list *wink*wink*). monday pm: dinner at pasar malam with smaller scale of seafood selection. tuesday am: jalan-jalan at kk town. tuesday pm: our journey to kundasang. wednesday am: poring hot spring. wednesday pm: back to kk, flight back to kl and the end of our trip :(

*white water rafting at sg padas

there were few dramas involved in the trip. love the most is the so-called "15-minutes drama - the series of unfortunate events". it was hilarious indeed, the things that no one can imagine happened in a very short period. here how's the story goes:

we were on our way to kundasang from kk. rent 3 cars: 2 wiras and an iswara. just a few miles before reaching kundasang, one of the wiras stopped. the engine only managed to start after a couple of minutes. we continued our journey. at that time, the other wira has arrived at the destination. meanwhile, only a few steps to reached the town, the very same wira had a flat tyre. fortunately iswara was there to assist. the funny story starts here. quoted from hanis, "how many people does it take to change a flat tyre? three guys!". three hunky(?) guys from both cars tried to change the flat tyre. why three? rusty bits from the tyre rim, very old car jack and a worn spare tyre. nonsense, rite? nway, the rain suddenly pour while we were changing the tyre. and the drama continues... fixed the tyre then one of the nuts literally broke. we were almost broke to tears laughing. nway, the drama didn't finish there. we've reached at the nearby workshop. then we moved to another workshop as the first one can't repair the broken nut. while the car was moving, my door actually flung open and almost hit the car parked at the front. to add, i didn't even wear the seat belt at that time and was laughing throughout the time i pull the door back hoping i didn't fell out of the car. and funny thing is i can't even remember when i opened the door. prolly we were so excited recalling the story while waiting that i forgot to close the door. silly me :P.

apparently, i've used over 3 times saying the word indeed for this particular drama, hehehe...

*all 11 of us at tm resort kundasang

p/s: some of the entries were back-dated as i've only got the chance to complete the posts. apologies...

bitchy

i've never been so bitchy in my life until this very roadtrip, which initially was from kb to kl but ended up as the trip from hell. NOT! just exaggerating, hehehe... was not that bad to begin with. maybe the exhaustion made me become a bit harsh, hahaha!!!

me, my two sisters and my cousin was on our way back to kl. we've took the wrong route back and used the farther route. it may be longer but very calming as it was the coastal route. after reaching kuala terengganu, we've decided to stay one nite at cherating as my cousin's parents are staying there. on our way, we've made some pitstops. the first was a beach at kt. very nice indeed. then we continued our journey and made some other stops to buy some keropok lekor, for toilet break and pray. the things that pissed me off was the waste of time waiting for the cousin to get back to the car to continue the journey. every single time. it was already dark when we almost reached cherating and there was no signboard of the direction and the road was pitch dark. the rain started to pour to make things worse. nevermind that, we reached the destination eventually only after 10 hours drive from kb :P

*the ever nice view at our first pitstop

eid

another eid celeb, another batch of new dresses? prolly not for me. and again, i go for recycling, mix and match to be precise. and voila! they became new dresses. clever, ain't it? as i didn't spend any money on my attire, i have made some enhancement to ryan and very much impress with it. he now has a new set of tyres and sports rim, a couple of side moulding and a new set of wipers. well, ryan wants to beraya too, rite? :P

this eid would prolly be the most relaxing one i had. not many houses to visit as some of the relatives didn't come back to kb. i just stayed at home watching the tele. well, i was really busy before eid break and didn't have any time to rest. so i've used this chance to get back what i've missed ;)

*nik abd majid & nik zainon's eligible bachelors & bachelorettes grandchildren

burned

burned, by the sun that is... extra strength. from two events in less than two weeks. one was from tioman island escapade and the other was from roadtrip to kuantan for digi run at teluk cempedak. coincidentally, both events were actually the third for each category. tioman was my third island breakaway and digi run was the third run that i've actually entered and ran. and both of them gave me the weirdest and shiniest tan that i've ever had :P. i hope this is the darkest i could go. can't stand the brightness of my round eyes everytime i looked into the mirror, hahaha!!!

btw, i really had a great time at tioman. went there with my bro and his mates. the trip wasn't filled with harsh activities apart from the boat ride for island snorkeling trip, which was WET indeed. so wet that we were drenched even before we get the chance to jump into the sea :P. all in all, it was such a relaxing 4 days and 3 nites for me. i even had to take another day off to get the right mood for work mode *thanks boss*.

*the bro and his mates

on the other hand, the roadtrip to kuantan was such an exhausting one. rite after i went back to work from the holiday to the island, i had to work very hard. for 3 days, work started at 8am and it ended at 12 midnite. no kidding! i didn't even get the chance to train for the run, hence the poor performance *excuses*. well, not really :P. if only i was prepared and had good nite sleeps, i would assume i could manage to get away with better result. i stopped 3 times during the run, which i never done before. i'd never stop during training and real run. i just can't stand the haze and the scorching heat. and the lack of energy gave me no choice but to take a breather. but the trip was not all that bad. the cool breeze from the beach and the picturesque scenery cleared up my mind for a bit ;)

*hunny bunny at tc

runaway

still don't get it why people willing to travel all the way to singapore to shop when they can get real bargain right here in malaysia. i might agree if the currency exchange is attractive. but SGD1 at RM2.41 is not something that agreeable. u may find some cool designs that is not available in malaysia but to add the additional expenses to the costing is so not cool to someone as calculative as me, hehehe...

by the way, i went to the land of the lion over the weekend. not to shop, i have to remind u :P, but to become kl running team official photographer *wink*wink*. a bunch of friends entered saucony 100plus passion run 2009 at singapore. since i didn't get the chance to register for the run, i volunteered to take their running pics. a bit exhausting though since it's not all running. we did some browsing, touring, shopping and food hunting. but still a great experience since the last time i went there was in 1996. 13 years, a lot have changed...

*with the fellow running mates

impression

first impression might not be accurate. but the experience i had while in indonesia might deem to be true. a total of 8 days and 6 nites in jakarta and surabaya had led me to believe that indonesian are easily charaterised by their look. the fair looking people are usually rich while the darker ones are most likely to be poor. not to judge people by its cover or being narrow-minded, but the observation had led me to make such decision. well, i just have to go to indonesia again to confirm, hehehe...

nway, i just got back from surabaya, the second indonesian city i've visited this year. i had a blast apart from the motion sickness i've to endure from hours of travelling in the car. the 5 days 4 nites trip was such an extreme one. but the experince exploring mt ijen, mt bromo and surabaya itself is priceless. it was such a trip to be remembered. will consider to go there again if time and most importantly money permits, *wink*wink*.

*at penanjakan with a view of bromo at the back

breakaway

just got back from a vacation with my little sisters. this time around it was outside msia that i haven't done for nearly 2 years. the place was jakarta, indonesia. it was somewhat great apart from the traffic in the city, which was way beyond unbelievable. the locals simply use the horn just like we use the signal to alert the other road users. a piece of advise: if you're an acousticophobic or simply short-tempered, please be extra precautious. or else...

nway, the great thing about being in indonesia is that your money stretches like no one's business, hehehe... we've spent like we've won a lottery. services are so cheap. taxi ride was just like a bus ride in msia. the downside of it is that designer stuff is still expensive. more expensive than that in msia, that is. whatever it is, i will still consider another trip to indonesia but most definitely not to jakarta. will try bali or bandung for the next round of vacation to the country.

and... i can't wait for my next holiday in november or sooner *wink*wink*.

*in a bajaj, just after touchdown at jakarta

calling

this week i've encountered a couple of things that are related to the calling. the first would be the island breakaway. me and my colleagues just came back from pulau pemanggil, which literally means the "caller island". it was cool. the island is somewhat a virgin island but not so virgin. u know what i meant, rite? :p. it doesn't have that full facilities just like what they have in redang. i quite like that. can still feel the authenticity of an actual island. however, i would say that redang is much more exquisite and better in terms of the coral, the sea and the beach. at pemanggil, especially at where we stayed, there was no beach. my dreams of laying on a lounge chair at the beach still not being fulfilled. well, maybe i just need to ask someone to plan another getaway at another island for me *grin*. start saving up now!

the second thing would be the passing of a friend of my mates. she passed away a couple of days ago. it was so unfortunate for her and the family. she only knew she was sick only a few weeks ago and what suprised us all is that she has a very critical illness and it was actually at the final stage! knowing that you have one of the most feared disease will definitely shocked you, let alone knowing that you only have a few days to live. this event has definitely made us all think how fortunate for us to be able to still breathe the air and and to have the chance to rectify all the wrong things that we have done in our life. in addition, we need to be extra careful in what we eat and do in our everyday life. take extra cautious. remember, put on sunblock. not to stay fair, but to avoid the harmful uv rays, which can lead to skin cancer... *can't believe i can write something this serious :P*

*me and my mates

ryan

the travel back to kl from kb was such an adventurous one and yet ryan had been such a doll today. why? u ask. this time around, i took gua musang route since there weren't a lot of traffic on the road. when we were in pahang, my mom told me to take the alternative route since it should be clearer and no traffic lights. so, since i'm not really in the condition to drive (really was sleepy, thank god nothing happened), i just followed my mom's instruction without realising that the fuel is almost gone. i only noticed it once the light started to blink, which means the tank only left approximately 3 or 6 litres (can't remember :P) of petrol, which is roughly 30-60km depends on how fast you go. i was like, "oh my god! where on earth can i find a petrol pump in the middle of nowhere". i was freaking out a bit. the only way i can do was switching off the air conditioner to save some fuel before i can find any gas station. we were sweating like pigs but we had no choice :(.

the meter has read 50km since the light started to blink and we were still 30km away from the next r&r. i said to myself there's no way i'm gonna push ryan in the middle of the highway. to make things worse, the highway is a hilly one. really scared that ryan can't make it. i drove on the emergency lane. and drove less than 60km/h and even slower than those trucks and buses, hehehe...

it was another 200m left when ryan started to slow down. oh, please ryan. don't do this now. i kept praying that we can make it to the petrol pump in time without any embarassment. my wish came true. we made it just in the nick of time. oh, how much i love you ryan ;).

btw, to those who still didn't get it, ryan is my trustworthy myvi. the ever cute black mini mpv. the one and only bf i have, at the mo *wink*wink*. love you to bits!

impress

am really impress with myself. i didn't spend anything for my raya attire. not even a single cent. but i still managed to look really cool during eid. it's something, huh? *grin*. as i mentioned before, i'm not a big fan of baju kurung/kebaya. let alone wearing them. but since it's eid celebration, obviously i have to allow myself to wear them, rite? thank god that i have some baju kebayas, which are still hanging in my closet, untouched.

btw, eid celebration this year wasn't that happening compared to last year. this was because some of my relatives didn't come back to kelantan as this year is the year they are celebrating eid at their spouses' hometown. although, eid this year can still be considered as one of the OK years. to add, i think i'm getting fatter now. please, please stop serving those delectable raya dishes. need to start reducing the food intake! oh so i wish, hehehe...

*with my brothers, sisters & cousins

record

i've broke my own record, in driving that is. never before i've drove over 8 hours, straight! the longest i've done before was 5 hours. today, i managed to drive to kota bharu by myself, all the way from kl accompanied by my mom and 2 little sisters. it has been a brand new experience for me. exhausting but finally now i know how my dad felt when we were little. it has always been him that drove everytime we went back to kb (my mom drove whenever my dad needed the rest). it must have been worse. u know kids, can't sit still in the car. especially yours truly, hehehe... got car sick everytime travelling by car. that's why i always travelled by air if going back to kb. but now, since i've own a car, i have to be the driver *whateva* :P

so nway, we departed from kl at 7.30am (ish). thank god i'm a morning person. it'll prolly gonna be hard for me to stay awake if i weren't :P. the road was a bit clear, than what we've expected. planned to follow gua musang route. but looking at the high traffic at exit to raub, we've followed the route via kuantan. well, based on experience (comparing to last year), i would say, i'd prefer the latter. a bit expensive though since have to pay toll and the route is farther, but eventually u'll reach the destination stress-free ;). all i need now is a full body massage. the masseur is waiting for me downstairs. later, dude ;)