Another Trip to UK: A disastrous one

I returned to the same place I was same time last year. Although I knew this week long trip will be pretty hectic in schedule, but never crossed my mind that this was my worst experience ever!

It was a rough start. When the flight from home were cancelled and moved to the next available flight, this had caused the connecting flight to London to depart, sadly without me. The first point of disappointment when I was told that upon arrival to Kuala Lumpur, a staff will be available immediately to assist. Sadly, no one was there waiting. Worst when it took the airline staff 2 hours to get things sorted out and finally arranged my transfer for night lodging and booked me to the next morning flight. The nearest hotel they got me on was an hour away from KLIA as all nearby hotels were fully booked, no thanks to F1 race. I only managed to get some 3-hours sleep but still pleased to board the plane and practically slept the whole journey through. I was glad to arrived London although much later that I should be if the first flight would have waited for me.

Journey home was worst. I missed the flight home! I was at Cardiff for the weekend. The first train I boarded from Cardiff was cancelled after an hour due to a technical issue. When the next train arrived, we were told to get on that train but to our unfortunate, even this train was stuck for an hour due to the signaling damage caused by vandalism. Just when I wanted to get off for a taxi, the train attendant announced that the train will depart within the next 10 minutes. True enough, the train moved but not for long though. It just stopped middle of nowhere waiting for the signaling to continue. An hour in the middle of nowhere with no other way for any passenger to get in or even out, gosh we are practically all trapped! Resulted of that, my original 4.15pm train finally reached Paddington station 30 minutes before my flight, which obvious enough I will never make it for the flight. Still I took my chances and hop on Heathrow Express which cost me GBP 18, but that does not help much anymore. I was way too late for the flight. A normal 2.5 hours journey from Cardiff to Paddington now took me 5 hours had cost me a bomb - miss of flight, a night spent in the Airport, a new ticket back home (which thankfully the airline allowed for a ticket re-issue and only charged me for GBP45 as penalty, pheewwww!) and late for work! Boy, what an awful experience (lesson).

Albeit the rough journeys, everything else was lovely. The weather was perfect, greens are sprouting, flowers of all sorts were in full blooms and the people here are friendly as always.

 

*next post on trip to Cardiff

Jalan-Jalan Cari Makan Trip: Ipoh

This was a long overdue post of one of our makan (eating) trip to Ipoh. Both hubby and I went down to Ipoh for a 2D1N trip mainly to purchase one of the home decoration for our home but a trip would not be complete without savoring good F-O-O-D wouldn't it? 

So we did what we know best....hunt for something special to eat! Guess what we had in that two very days?

It started with dinner as we arrived Ipoh pretty late, so we went for a little early dinner at Kedai Makanan Rasa Lain in Bercham. We ordered their home-made fish balls, claypot crab tanghoon that is huge enough even for 4 pax and salted egg prawns. 

The Hall of Fame

 Claypot Crab with Tanghoon

 Claypot Crab with Tanghoon

 Salted Egg Prawns

 Home-made Fish Balls

 The aftermath

Breakfast of the following day would be none of other than timsum at Foh San Dim Sum Ipoh. These are just some of the many dishes we had and also not forgetting to try on the special Double Layer Milk dessert and Mango Pudding.

We left back home slightly after lunch hours. As we are still full from the heavy breakfast, we stopped by at JJ-Cakes for some yummy swiss rolls to go.

On the way home, we en-route to Serdang to try on Fried Porridge at Sin Aik Kee Restaurant. We were a little too early when we arrived. The shop has just start to prepare so we took a stroll around the lake.

 

Just when the shop opened for business, we were those first few tables already having our dinner. We ordered the fried Porridge of course. But those who knew us well would know that a single dish would never be enough for us, so we add on 2 more side dish - Kerabu Mango and Cockles.

Fried Porridge

 Cockles

 Kerabu Mango

And that's the end of our Makan Trip!!

 Beautiful Sunset to accompany home

Return to yesteryears: Batu Gajah (part 3)

Batu Gajah has now become part of my parent’s daily life. They would be there almost every evening to relax and occasionally bump into one or two old friends from the neighborhood. Last Saturday, I went back to my parent’s and spent the whole evening at Batu Gajah with them. We were practically there spending some quality time chit-chatting away the whole 5-hours.

Being back to Batu Gajah has and will always bring back good childhood memories to me. It was our little hidden playground during the hot sunny days. Now more than 15 years later, I am glad to be back again. Though the place has changed tremendously lot, but the change has now turned it into a beautiful garden – undoubtedly a great little place to get away from the busy outside world.

Blue dragonfly

Growing wild mushroom after couple days rain

Bright yellow flower

Crawling plants

Fallen leaves

  

Picture (Left) - Daun Sirih; (Right) - An old vase

Picture (Left) - Wild plants; (Right) - Fern

Wild berries

My favorite spot

 

 The other sight of the river

 Serenity

 Small fishes feeding on a piece of crackers

 These bright colored ones were store bought and let to wild

 Look carefully...notice anything?

Monkeys! I had no idea what species of the monkeys they were. They had greyish-black body with white eye ring and lips - so adorable!

5D4N Trip to Phuket – Aleenta Resort & Spa

The second part of our journey was the long waited for. Obviously we are both all psyche knowing that we will have a villa with private pool to our own for the next two nights. This is by far the most expensive place we have ever stayed! *grin*

As day three started, we both rise early to head out to Aleenta Resort & Spa (http://www.aleenta.com/phuket/) located in Phang Nga which estimated to be an hour away. Good thing that we have packed our luggage the night before, so as soon as we were awake and showered, we both head down to the hotel lobby. I went straight on to proceed with the checkout procedure while hubby went across the road to return the rental motorbike and at the same time to hook up with a taxi to bring us to the next destination. Hubby managed to get us deal with a taxi driver to drive us all the way to Aleenta Resort & Spa and also to pick us up two nights later to airport for our flight home.

With Phuket further behind us, it is getting more exciting as we are now so much closer to the private villa. The taxi driver told us that this was his second time to Aleenta Resort & Spa; the first was with a honeymooner couple four years back and second, of course was with us now!

Our ride dropped us right in front of the resort lobby. The friendly driver gave hubby his name card and confirmed on the date and time to pick us two days later. 

Resort Lobby

View from Lobby

The check-in was pretty easy and soon enough we were brought to our villa No. 202. The resort staff tours us around the one bedroom private and spacious pool villa before finally left us to enjoy. Courtesy from the management to celebration on our special occasion, there were flowers arrangement with two lovey-dovey swan on bed, box of heart shaped chocolate, a bouquet of rose flowers and a great bottle of Aleenta White wine for that special turndown/magical moment. I am all overjoyed with the great service and arrangements from the resort staffs along with the complimentary gifts for us.

Villa No. 202

 

Entrance to private luxury

Living room

Living Room

Bed decorations 

Picture (Left) - Towel folded swan with rose petal decorations, bouquet of rose & heart shape chocolate; (Right) - iPod and iDock with preloaded music

Picture (Left) - Complimentary Aleenta white wine; (Right) - Free fresh daily fruits

Picture (Left) - Outdoor bathtub; (Right) - View of pool with bathtub

Private pool

Sundeck

View from sundeck

View from living room

Hubby and I rested for a while before plunge into the 180 sq. meter pool. After that we both squeezed in the outdoor bathtub while snipping away the white wine.

Perfect!

Just before the sun start setting, we both went for a short tour around the resort area. Not many guest during this time around, probably due to the low season. The resort has no public pool except for large garden with fish pond and fountain as all villas within the resort has its own private/sharing pool depending the type of villa available. The white sandy beach is free from rubbish and very well taken care of. There were many beach chairs for one to just sit back and relax while enjoying the cold breeze and the sound of waves. Now this is what I called a great getaway from all busy daily schedules.

Walkway heading to our villa

Walkway to resort garden

Picture (Left) Resort restaurant; (Right) - Resort garden

Resort restaurant overlooking to garden area

Resort bar area by the beach

Picture (Left & Right) - Surroundings of resort

Ocean View Loft, another type of villa with sharing pool

Ocean View Loft

Ocean View Loft

 Picture (Left) - Massage house just next to our villa; (Right) Rest area around massage house

 

Another of resort restaurant with guest chef to serve diners

White sandy beach with beach chairs

One can even request for romantic dinner by the beach

View of resort from the beach

Clean beach

Serene view

Sunset being blocked by thick clouds

As night fall, hubby and I head back for a quick shower. To my delight, our room was fragrantly smelled. Seems that the room service lady had dropped by our room while we were out touring the resort and lighted the aromatherapy burner. For dinner, since nothing much within the resort area (unless we took a taxi out) so we figured we try out one of the resort restaurant. That was when we had the most expensive fried glass noodle throughout our life. 

Picture (Left) - Restaurant where we had our dinner at; (Right) Walkway to resort toilet

Our meal for the night

When dinner is done, it is time for our private swim…and when I said private I also meant going for unclothed swim. *grin*

The next morning, we rise early to enjoy the complimentary breakfast. Breakfast was served at the same restaurant where we had our dinner the night before. When the food arrived, I felt like a king (err, queen perhaps). The food came in a 3-tier stand but that still not include the main course yet. Main course were selections of many choices which includes porridge, omelet, udon and pancakes (well that was the least I can recall from the main course menu). When we were both all stuffed, we went for a short walk as our room was still being clean by ‘the maid’.

Breafast is served

The main courses 

The room was all nice and cleaned after we returned. Then off we went into the pool again and not forgetting our stock of alcohol and Lays potato crisp which has been a must each time we were in Thailand *grin*. So that was it, the whole day activities was practically between the pool and bathtub, then chilled out at the living room with tower building games where hubby lost 9 straight games to me *grin*. Lunch and dinner was served in-room as well. We were both practically hidden in the villa for the whole day.

Maid in room

Special moment to celebrate

I can live like this forever!

Picture (Left & Right) - Perfect view from the bathtub

Our usual supply of alcohol

Board games to fill up some time

Hubs lost 9 straight game to me on this one

Our lunch in-room

...and dinner too!

As final day arrive, I was practically hesitant to leave but good times has to come to an end too. Hubby found a book with all the interesting stories of previous guest of villa no. 202 and figured I jot down our part of stories in this book too. We both went for final plunge before our ride came to pick us up at 12pm local time to head to airport on Phuket island.

Waving final goodbye to Phuket as we fly off on Fireflyz. This was definitely a trip to remember!

Goodbye Phuket

Trip to remember!!