Reliving Memories: Dinner by the Beach

I used to take Hubby for dinner at Kan Eang Restaurant. It is situated along the beach of Ao Chalong, south of Phuket. I used to live nearby (Fisherman Way, Rawai) so I know the place well. The restaurant has improved so much. The ambience was nicer, more authentic, with live band playing in the background. Well, the prices had gone up too... which shocked my beauty to death. LOL. As always, we ordered fried rice (crab for me and seafood for hubby), tomyum and nam manaw (iced lemon juice). The place was still beautiful... and having dinner by the beach made it even more beautiful... we not only revived memories... we were building memories as well!

Here's my Thai fried rice - crab.

The famous Thai delicacy - tomyum (It wasn't what I expected it to be though). The last time I had it there was thicker with coconut milk, I think.. But this time, it was just with chili paste. But it was still good.

I actually had a list of food to eat when in Phuket. And fried rice crab by the beach was in it. Glad to be able to savor one of my favorite Thai fried rice flavours. Having it with tomyum and iced lemon tea was perfect. I couldn't wait to eat more Thai food! Oh, by the way, our bill came in this box... isn't it amazing? Thailand is amazing, indeed!

Reliving Memories: Dimsum for Breakfast

Everytime we go to Hatyai, either by bus, train or by car, we always end up having breakfast at our favorite Dimsum place, the Bird's Nest. This trip was not an exemption. In fact, we invited friends to join us for breakfast. I know there are a lot of cheaper and better Dimsum in Malaysia... it's just that we have started the tradition already. It's like always coming home to a breakfast... you know what I mean...

We were chatting our hearts out with friends... and we were telling them of our trip to Phuket... and I casually said we are going to revive our moments. It's actually not the right term so Mimi and Lits told me it shouldn't be so... So I said reliving the memories would be a better term. So from now on, everytime I talk about our Phuket trip... the title would be: Reliving Memories. How's that, huh.

Sandwiched between the Clouds

Flying by Air Asia to Alor Setar...

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Tae Bo

So I started doing Tae Bo again. The last time I did Tae Bo exercise was when I was preparing for my wedding... I had to get my body ready for my ideal wedding gown! I love the result of tae bo... coupled with pilates was even better.

What is Tae Bo, by the way? Tae Bo is an aerobic exercise routine developed by tae kwon do practitioner Billy Blanks. Blanks developed the routine in 1989, by combining music with elements from his tae kwon do and boxing training to form an intense workout regimen. During the 1990s, some celebrities (such as Paula Abdul) started using Blanks as their personal trainer and a series of videos were mass-marketed to the public. As a result, Tae Bo became somewhat of a pop culture phenomenon in the late 1990s. Tae Bo classes are taught worldwide. Tae Bo includes many of the same punches and kicks as karate, but is not intended for fighting—it was not meant for any combat or self-defense applications. There are no throws, grappling moves, or ground fighting techniques in Tae Bo. Its only intent is to increase health through movement. Tae Bo also includes aerobic exercises intended to strengthen all muscles of the body with basic choreography.

So far, I have only done once. Will try to do it again today. But my, oh my... how painful my body is now. But of course, I have to persevere. I am, after all, aiming to have a swimsuit ready body for my special holiday trip with Hubby to Phuket.

China Trip

My friend Loretta was kind enough to let me know she was planning a China trip. Since I really wanted to go to China... in fact I had been planning to visit China next year... I told her I was going to consider it. I had been facebooking about my China trip since two weeks ago when I was about to book my ticket to Macau. So it's not really a secret.

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So... the plan was to fly from KL - Macau. We found such cheap flight (107RM) from Air Asia from KL - Macau. So we booked our tix already. From Macau, we take a ferry to Hong Kong... meet Fendi and Gucci... and if Louis Vuitton is there, we would meet LV too. *wink. Planning on visiting Disneyland Hong Kong too... but I think I will give it a miss since my family wouldn't be there with me (oh yes, did I mention I was planning to go without hubby and kids? so it's purely girls' trip). If I go there without family, I would probably be feeling guilty the whole time, I wouldn't enjoy it. So I'm gonna give it a miss.

From Hong Kong we take a train ride to Guang Zhou... then to Shenzen and finish our trip with a visit to Chongqing. I don't know all about these places. But my friend does... she has a Lonely Planet book with her. Lonely Planet Travel Guide is really handy when you do trips. I was going to buy a copy and found it's a bit too pricy. Well, now, I think I will be needing it... so it's probably a good investment. I search for all these places in the Lonely Planet online but I think it's not complete. So you need to buy a hard copy. I'll probably consider buying Lonely Planet travel guide for a Christmas gift for myself. Hehehe.

Anyways, the trip will be in April 2009. So God-willing, I could go with girlfriends for this trip. Anybody wanna go with us?

Tropicana Golf and Country Club

I dunno whether this entry is qualified for Scenic Sunday. But just wanna show you the Tropicana Golf and Country Club's entrance to its clubhouse by night.

I couldn't resist posting the dome's photo, too. It's simple and yet it looks elegant. Oh well, sometimes, you look more elegant when you are simple. ;)

Christmas at The Curve - Malaysia

Just wanna show you how Malaysians do Christmas decorations in malls, especially the Christmas decos at The Curve Mall.

For different my world entries, click the badge above that says "My World."

Self Check-in at LCCT

I was quite impressed with the technology they are using even at Budget Terminals here in Malaysia. When hubby and I flew to Alor Star, hubby took me to a machine. I was wondering why we went there... until I read "self check-in."

It helps a lot especially when you're in a hurry. There is no more long queue. You just go and check-in yourself. It's probbaly just for Air Asia flights. Oh well, the LCCT (low cost carrier terminal) at Sepang serves Air Asia. And that's a good thing. There are just too many flights for Air Asia that it would get crazy once there are more than one flights in the same hour. I wonder if the service is also available in other countries too. It's very impressive.

Port Dickson Beach

Port Dickson beach at Sunset

Damansara Village

Our friends, Patrick and Josephine, took us to a seafood last Saturday. The kids were with my parents-in-law so I and hubby truly enjoyed the food...without having to worry whether the kids would have enough to eat or what... They took us to Damansara Village Seafood Restaurant in PJ (Petaling Jaya). We had big crabs and steam boat seafood with herbal soup.

These are fresh crabs, direct from the aquarium

Fresh fish

Fresh vegetables plus quail eggs, shrimp balls, fish balls, etc.

We also ordered fresh shrimps... also direct from the aquarium.

Fresh mussels

This was my bowl - first serving with cooked mussels inside.

It was really good. I don't mind going back there again.

The Essence of Christmas

Went to visit The Curve in Damansara Utama with friends today. Here are the pics I took while walking around The Curve.

I think The Curve spent so much just to make all these Decos.

Seeing all those with friends was really fun. My friend, Jac, who has been to the Philippines once said nothing can beat Christmas Decos in the Philippines though. She said when she was walking around the mall in Makati, she was so impressed with how much Filipinos could decorate the place like that. Well, I believed her because in the Philippines, Christmas is a grand thing. We even start decorating our houses/places at the beginning of September itself!

Anyways, the Christmas decorations in The Curve were quite beautiful. I was searching for something though... And I couldn't find it. I walked around hoping to find it. Nothing. I couldn't see it.

I couldn't see the essence of Christmas. And that's a sad thing because the essence of Christmas is when you celebrate the birth of Jesus, our Savior, our Lord. Not a Christmas that's full of fairies, santas, trees, balls or tinsels. It's when Jesus was born. That's the essence of Christmas. Probably if I look in the Christian bookstore I could find a Nativity Set. It's when you see it that you're reminded of the essence of Christmas.

Thai Odyssey at One Utama

Last Saturday, when we visited a couple friends, they offered to take us to a Traditional Thai massage. Hubby and I hadn't done Thai massage for a long long time now and we were craving for it. We said yes. Today, we went to pick her up from her condo in Mont Kiara (Kiara II) and went to Thai Oddysey at One Utama.

We were pre-booked at 3:00pm but there was some kind of mistake so we re-booked to 4:00pm. 10 meters away from the massage place, you could smell the eucalyptus aromatherapy oil. We were ushered to a room with two mattresses on the floor. We then changed into pyjamas prepared for us.

Samantha was getting ready for the massage too. Hehehe. It was actually a 2-hour massage. It was worth it... We felt so rejuvinated and refreshed after the massage. The masseurs were from Thailand... so I tried remembering how to speak Thai (which I learned when I was posted in Phuket for almost 3 years).

The kids had fun for the first hour, doing the massage themselves, lying down next to me and their daddy... giving me a lot of kisses (it was awesome)... but towards the 2nd hour, they started getting bored and sleepy. By the end of the massage, Samantha was sleeping. Hehehe.

Anyways, just grateful for friends that gave us this 2-hour Thai traditional massage. God is awesome!

Tunnel to the Twin Towers - Malaysia

My entry for:

and

Last Thursday, we drove through this tunnel to get us to...

KLCC Petronas Twin Towers - the second tallest twin towers in the world.

Kuching, Sarawak

A month after we got married, a friend invited us to Kuching, Sarawak, East Malaysia. Peter did some teachings and I tagged along and did a bit of teaching too. It was quite a good trip. That time, I didn't have my digital camera yet... so whatever photo I'm showing here is not mine. Our hots took us to Sarawak Cultural village where we saw a different culture compared to the West Malaysia culture. What interested me the most was when we were on our way to Sarawak Cultural village, we passed by Gunung Santubong and saw that spectacular view of a mountain.

I didn't know that it carried so much of legendary tales. Actually, when you are there, you can see an image of two women, with long hair, facing down (the image, which I googled, isn't showing justice to the image of a woman with long hair. next time I go there, I make sure to capture the real image. promise. :D). Legend has it that there were two princesses that lived in the heavenly kingdom Kayangan. The Crown Prince fell in love with both of them, but they refused to be joint wives. The King of Kayangan banished the princesses to earth, where they became Gunung Santubong and the nearby Gunung Seijinjang. Geographically, Gunung Santubong provides a spectacular backdrop to hotel resorts, local fishing villages, and the Sarawak Cultural Village. Its striking peak is visible from Kuching on most days.

Pancit Palabok

One of the Filipino dishes I miss eating is pancit palabok. My classmates and I (during college days) would go to Jet's Pop Garden to have it.

As we know noodle is introduced to Philippines by the Chinese. Filipinos took it and made dishes with ingredients available locally to them. Pancit Palabok is made of rice noodle with shrimp and pork or chicken sauce topped with what we call chicharon or pork crackling,hard boiled egg, smoke fish, boiled shrimp, spring onions and lemon. I haven't done pancit palabok yet. But if I can find a recipe for pnacit palabok, that would be great.

My Travel Personality - Adventurer

Your Travel Personality Is: The Adventurer

For you, travel is how you learn about the world. And you like to learn the stuff that's not in guidebooks. You truly have wanderlust. When you're not traveling, you're dreaming about where you'll go next. And your travels are truly legendary - they leave you with stories you'll be telling for the rest of your life!

What's Your Travel Personality?

Sentosa Island - Singapore

Sentosa Island, Singapore - November 2005
We celebrated our 2nd year wedding anniversary there 3 years ago. On the background is said to be the southernmost tip of Asia.

Alor Star from the 18th Floor

A view of Alor Star, from the 18th floor of Holiday Villa, Alor Star, Malaysia

My hubby and I flew to Alor Star for a meeting last week. Alor Star, formerly known as Alor Setar is the state capital of Kedah, Malaysia. It is also a distribution center for manufacturing and agricultural products such as paddy, and the royal seat of the Kedah state since the establishment of this city. It is also the birth place of a few famous personalities in Malaysia, including two former Prime Ministers, YTM Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia's first Prime Minister, and Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad, Malaysia's fourth Prime Minister (image of his house is shown below). Alor Star was granted city status on 21 December 2003.

This was where Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad, Malaysia's fourth Prime Minister, spent his growing up years...