Staycation

 KL Hilton, KL Sentral

12-14 Dec 2021

We picked up Faris at SDAR on Friday 10 Dec 2021, at 12.30 noon. It was jammed everywhere as there was a accident on North South Highway and we had to use LEKAS to reach Seremban. So happy to see Faris again and can't wait to hear his stories about his life in the hostel. We also help send Johan's wallet to his house, which he left in the class.

We checked in on Sunday and swim at the pool at 5 - 6.15 pm. After that we played archery at the side of the pool. We need to book the time to use the pool and also time for breakfast. We were given only an hour to finish our breakfast which is really a hassle as I like to take my own sweet time to savour and try all they have to offer. 

The kids enjoyed the pool so much as it had a decent slides and they had fun trying it. 

Before this we also stayed at Intercontinental Hotel, Jln Ampang and it was good too. Inter breakfast was 7 - 9 am so we had ample time. 

Foods was bought from the surrounding shops like Penang Kayu Nasi Kandar, Subway in NU Sentral etc. 

After we checked out, we went shopping at NU Sentral and we had Baskin Robbins too. After that we had lunch at Nasi Lemak Wanjo in Kg. Baru. 

Royal Belum Houseboat Trip 

Tasik Banding/Temenggor

Gerik, Perak

17-19 Dec 2021

It all started when my sisters suggested that we go somewhere during the school holidays in Dec. We had the MCO due to Covid19 lifted middle of Oct and we went to Langkawi first as it was announced as the travel bubble destination before other places are open. Langkawi was so boring this time, I end up feeling not in the mood to do anything. 

We tried to ask for a few places in Melaka just for our family to gather, but all places are full and the ones available are too expensive. One fine day I had an idea, I liked my previous Royal Belum trip with my company, so why not this time I brought my family there. It will be fun and a new experience for them.

So I contacted Ju from UMW IPS and Ita from UMW Toyota asking for contacts and was directed to Dila, the sales agent for Caravan Serai Holidays. I asked for quotation and was given 2, one with transport (RM449) and the other one without (RM389). After consulting my family they choose to go with the bus as it would be a hassle to drive to the jetty and we might have to book a homestay coming back from Tasik as it would be dangerous to drive late at night. The bus would cost RM2,200 more and we agree to it as it would be convenient.

The plan does not always run smoothly as I wish and there was a lot of drama along the way before the trip materialised. I was told by Dila on Friday the 10th of Dec that their boats run into problems and were confiscated by the government as some of their participants break the SOP of Royal Belum. I give them until Monday 13 Dec to confirm whether the trip will go on or not. After much difficulties I managed to speak to Bella, Dila's boss that finally clear up all the actual issues that crop up and I give her the chance to look for an alternative by Tuesday's afternoon, 14 Dec. By about 3pm Bella did not call and I called her and was told that she did not managed to find a boat for me and asked for the deposit of RM5,700 to be refunded. I was of course frustrated but came to accept the fact that the trip had to be cancelled. I told my family the same afternoon and everyone redha.

That night at 10.40 Bella called me and told me she managed to ask a group to change their date and I can have the boat on the dates that I planned! Subhanallah! My tears actually came out hearing the good news and I whatsapp my family to let them know. They were ecstatic of course :) Bella said we had to pay extra RM80 as it was a new boat but RM40 will be borned by the company. In the end I only paid RM700 extra as half of it was discounted by Dila. I requested Bangmok as the tour leader as previously engaged in the UMW trip. 

So the bus came to an area near my house at 10 and we load everything by 10.32pm. Departed at 10.40pm and reached the jetty at 8 am after a stop at RnR Sg. Perak and solat subuh and breakfast at Masjid Gerik. I was raining heavily that morning but luckily it reduced to a drizzle when we reach the jetty. We upload all the bags onto the boat and carefully treaded tebing sungai to go inside the houseboat. 

The boat was pretty new but not that clean I guess. And it was leaking at a few places when it rains. There were 8 rooms at the top level of the boat and 2 downstairs. So Mak and Abah stay in the room downstairs and the rest of us are on top. There are 4 bathroom upstairs that is so convenient. The old boat had 4 baths, all at lower section of the boat. 

First Day

The boat was running for 5 hours to a place they called Pulau Tujuh. As it was the monsoon season, the water level increased and we are able to go until Pulau 7. Otherwise the boat had to dock at Pulau Lima. That afternoon, we swim in the green lake and play with the raft and kayak. Fazil joined my family in this trip and we had fun swimming. I am happy seeing all my nephews and nieces happily enjoying themselves. The food served was delicious too. Although it rains the 3 days we were there, we still had fun.

Second Day

Was told that we cannot go to the waterfall today as there are 'kepala air' coming from the top of the hill and the water is actually brown as it brings debrises with the force of the water. We went to see Rafflesia flower in the jungle but there's a lot of pacat that I hate! I actually had to pluck them away from my shoes as they go crazy looking for their victims. The pacat climbed onto Ariana's hand and Dini was crying and panicking. Danish and Afrina were also scared. I quickly went back to the boat with hubby as I can't stand the pacat. Hubby later discovered that one pacat managed to climb to his yummy and bit him hahahaha.

We managed to see a half bloom flower which is lovely. After that we continue swimming and playing with the kayak and rakit. The boat also pulled the kayak and rakit and they had fun! 

Third Day

We went to the waterfall as it had stopped raining for a while. The water was so cold and one pacat managed to jump to my finger on the way to the waterfall. Seeing the pacat Abg Aiman refused to go inside the water but jumped when I told him that 'kat batu tu lagi byk pacat!' hahahaha.. Coming back from the waterfall we swim and played with the rakit again. The speedboat pulled the rakit again and the kids like it. I just sat on the speedboat watching the kids enjoying themselves. 

The boat head towards the jetty at about 12 noon and my swimsuit was blown away and fell into the water *cryyyyyy* It was about RM260 per set huhuhuhu.. I was so sad but could not do anything about it. Might have to buy a new one. 

The boat reached the jetty at about 3pm just after I finished my lunch as I was busy packing things upstairs. This time the boat parked at the jetty and we climb up and load the bags onto the bus. We took photos at the jetty area and departed soon after. After a few stops we reached Bandar Nusaputra at about 11.20 pm as there were traffic jams along the way. It had been a good trip after all. 

When I had internet connection, I discovered that I had 999++ messages and came to know that Selangor was flooded in a few places including Shah Alam. 

Slept late that night and woke up late too :) 

(Will upload the photos later)

 

Faris going to Boarding School

31 March 2021, Wednesday

The result of the MRSM entry application was released on 10 March 2021 and Faris didn't get it. There's not even an appeal button to click on, unlike some of my friend's kid that I asked. I accept the result, I redha cause I have prayed that Faris be given the best school for him. So MRSM might not be it. I will wait for the result of SBP application. Whatever the result is, it will be the best as I had prayed for Faris, Insya Allah.

I am a bit worried for Faris because he's not consistent in his exam, sometimes good, sometimes not too good. I dont know how he fares in his SBP exam that he took at Sek Seri Puteri last month as hubby's the one who brought him to the exam. What worries me is that they seems to have problems with some document that hubby brought, saying that it's not the one they wanted. 

But the consolation is hubby thinks Faris did well in the exam as when he interviewed him about the questions Faris seems to be able to answer well. And so we wait. 

19 March 2021

We had to go back to JB and applied for surat merentas negeri from the police as Selangor is still in PKPB. We left the kids at home with bibik as we're afraid the approval might not be obtained. 

And today is the day the result of SBP application is released. However we are not able to check with the link given by Pn. Rose the admin of the kids' tuition centre. And so we wait for later to check.

Later in the afternoon CY Mas message in and asked whether Faris got SBP and I said I cannot go in. She gave me a link to check and I dutifully did as she asked. We were dumbfounded and can't believe our eyes when the page says "Tahniah! Anda ditawarkan ke Tingkatan 1 Sekolah Khusus Tahun 2021 Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia.

And we were further dumbfounded upon further checking that he got Sekolah Dato' Abdul Razak! All the while we had been thinking that if he fails to obtain admission, I will appeal to my school via our Alumni as Alumni's had 10% quota for admission  of our kids. 

We actually choose Sek Sains Alam Shah in Cheras, SASER in Seremban and Samura my school during application as MCKK, SAS and SDAR cannot be chosen. We cannot click at the school's name so we understood that those schools will be allowed to choose its own student. 

We told hubby's family and I think my BIL will be the most happiest as SDAR is his alma matter and he always talked about the school. 

When we broke the news to Faris, his response is: I don't want to go to asrama. Huhu. So the days after that was spent brainwashing him to accept the fact that he will go to asrama, whether he likes it or not. Alhamdulillah he seems receptive after a while.

We started preparing things for his school, baju and seluar sekolah (3 sets), kasut hitam macam orang kerja (we bought 2, 1 of it is RM70 at Bata and the other one hb bought online for RM29), slack hitam and other colors (4 pcs), songkok, t-shirt collar putih, singlet putih (3), track bottom (3). The bills is RM198 (+ Ariana's kain pengawas RM41.90) + RM260 paid by hb). Other things like cadar, sarung bantal, baldi, tie, selimut etc need to be bought at the school's koop as some of it has the school logo on it which bills will come to RM659.

Other than that we need to pay yuran makan of RM3 per day for those with income RM5000 and above. If your household income is below RM5K you only need to pay RM1 per day. 

Today I asked a friend to help CTC'ed the documents for registration and we need to do a few more things like medical check up, take passport photos and buy toiletries and snacks for Faris. I also need to fill up various forms that my hb will not do as he hates filling up forms.

Registration will be on 6th April 2021 and my BIL will tag along. He must be excited to go to his alma mater again hehe.

My hope is for Faris to be happy at the school, to learn properly, to cope with any difficulties, to manage on his own, to be independent and hopefully he will receive help in the event he's not able to. I hope he won't miss home too much and that we will be able to visit him often. It will be Ramadhan soon and it worries me somehow. You know Faris never wake up for sahur on his own huhu. I hope everything will go smoothly, Insya Allah.

Till then. 

2 June 2020
Tuesday

Gosh.. It had been ages since I last wrote in here. I was just busy living my life, taking care of the kids that I don't even remember that I had a blog huhu.

Now that we are under Movement Control Order (MCO) because of the Covid19 virus since 18 March 2020, I had more times as 3 days in a week will be WFH (working from home). I missed my mom and my kampung badly, I cried when the PM announced that going balik kampung for raya is not allowed this year and I haven't gone balik kampung for 3 months now. It was bad for me as I make balik kampung journey compulsory every month because I like giving allowance to my mak and abah straight to their hands.

I can't wait to go jalan-jalan and travelling. The worst thing is that I had already paid for accomodations in Ilham Resort for our family gathering that we planned originally in March but had to postpone until June and now until July. I am not even sure we can go when it is July as the MCO might be extended beyond 9 June 2020. 

[Latest update 15 June 2020: MCO was not extended beyond 9 June 2020, so we will be going balik kampung soon. My kids also can't wait and had already plan to bring all the mercun that I bought for them. Some of the mercun we did not know how to light/fire as we always play in kampung, and there will be a lot of people that knows]

I really hope that at least we can go travel locally, maybe to an island or a beach just to enjoy the scenery.

Going to US is out of the question now and our visa is going to expire in 2021. I hope we can continue travelling soon.. I missed travelling so much. There is still a lot of places that I want to go, Eastern Europe, Scandinavian, Iceland, New Zealand etc.

Hopefully the virus will disappear soon. Insya Allah. All with Allah's will.

Tasik Banding, Gerik, Perak

Date : 29 Sept to 1 Oct 2017

Organised by : Kelab UMW

Payment : Ahli Kelab RM200 
                 Non-Members RM380

29 Sept 2017 - Friday

The journey starts at 1 am on Friday morning so we had to be at UMW at 12 midnight. As I was working on that Thursday, I went back home first to continue packing my backpack that I bought specially for the trip, a 40L Decathlon backpack with blue and turquoise color. I also bought another bag of 15L but decided against using it as it had no front pocket. I need to put lots of things and organised it properly so I decided to bring my red Kipling bag.

I went out from the house at 11 and reached the office at 11.25 pm. I parked at the back of my office building with Kak M and Rose. Had to carry the heavy backpack to the bus parked at the side of the road. The trip organiser is Caravan Serai and a guy named Mok was assigned to take care of us. It was cold in the bus and I used my light sweater to act as my blanket.

The bus stopped twice, one at a rest area and I bought a pack of seedless jambu that I thought could be eaten at the boat and another one for subuh prayer at Masjid Gerik. We had another stop at a restaurant by the name of Rahim Maideen before we reached the jetty to have breakfast. I had nasi lemak bungkus with telur goreng and teh o for RM4. We reached the jetty at about 8.30 am.

We took group photo and was given an hour to look around the jetty. It had a food court at the main terminal, a toilet that you had to pay 50 sen to use and shops selling shirts on Royal Belum.

We had to go down hill to the houseboat of Caravan Serai and I slipped and fall flat on my butt with the heavy backpack because it was covered will gravels and it rolls when you step on it. I don't understand why they had such a huge and nice jetty but the houseboat is not using it but instead they parked at the side of the hill where there is no steps or stairs for people to go down. It was dangerous and I suggest you use the rope that they put to help you go down.

When we are inside the boat we were told that it had technical problems and will take some times for them to fix it and the latest we will depart is at 11 am. We take the time to look around the boat and set up our place to sleep upstairs. There are a big hall at the front of the boat, 2 crew rooms, 1 toilet, 1 shower room in front and another 1 toilet and shower room at the back assigned to the boys. Upstairs had 4 room (3 for girls and 1 for the boys to change) and another family area for us to solat and for the guys to sleep at night. The 4 of us had the last room for girls with no bed, only 3 mattresses. The other 2 rooms had double decker bed.

We finally depart from the jetty at 11.20 am had cekodok as our brunch. The houseboat rule is, we had to wash our own utensil after we eat, I don't really like it as we had to go to the kitchen so often. 

We reached our destination after we had our lunch. We went to perkampungan org asli named Sri Wangi and pass our contribution to the kids and their head named Kuwong. They plant ubi kayu, keledek and raise chicken for their food and to sell in exchange for money. They also fish for their food. It was raining when we go down to our boat and it was slippery as hell as I was wearing my slipper. I had to hold on to Sabrina while going down.

In the afternoon, we swim in the lake with our life jacket on. It was difficult to breath wearing the life jacket, need to slim down huhuhu. Queuing for shower reminds me of my hostel life in school. The bath is a bit smelly so I don't intend to stay in there for long. It was very basic really. The water is being pumped from the lake itself and stored in a water tank. We had tea of cekodok and kuih keledek.

At night we had an introduction session and after that karaoke and we play UNO with Ju and the gang from IPS. Finally slept at 12 midnight and was told that I snored huhu


30 Sept 2017 - Saturday

My day starts at 5.30 am as I had stomach ache and need to go to the loo.. I might as well take my bath when the rest is still sleeping. We had our breakfast at 8.30 am, mee and meehoon goreng, ubi kayu with sambal hijau pedas and kuih keledek goreng. After that we did warm up exercise and went by speed boat to Sungai Kooi, Royal Belum. There's a pretty pokok kayu tumbang there that we made as our backdrop to take our pictures. When everyone's done with picture taking, we proceed to hike for 30 minutes to reach a magnificent waterfall. My shoes is wet crossing rivers 4x, going up through rocks and trying to avoid the pacat but the view is totally worth it. We spent about 30 minutes and we start our hike down. 

Went back to the houseboat and had our lunch of telur ikan and ikan pekasam. First time tried the telur ikan, not bad. At 2.30 pm we went by speed boat to Sg. Papan via its jambatan gantung to hike for 20 minutes to see the salt rock. Saw a giant ulat gonggok on the way. 

We came back and when I went up to change my tudung for the swim, a big pacat rolled down from my feet. Arghhhhh!! Finally I got bitten by a pacat that I had tried to avoid so much! It was so big euww.. lucky I didn't even realised that it was there. It doesn't feel anything, but the bleeding wont stop. Had to ask Azra for a handyplast to stop the blood. We had a swim in the lake again but this time I saw something unpleasant. I kept quite and try to wash away the thing and continue swimming. That thing however later got stuck to our rakit and I told the girls on the rakit and they go euwww and everyone quickly climb up huhuhu. And that time, Mok doesn't have to remind us to come up from the swim hehe. 

They served us tea (can't recall the food hehehe). Dinner is BBQ (chicken and  lamb). The lamb is a bit tough but the chicken is nice. After dinner, we played UNO while some of us participated in karaoke contest. I slept early as I felt so tired. The food on the boat was good and I really enjoyed it. 


Day 3 - 1 Oct 2017 - Sunday

I woke up around 6.30 am. It was easy waking up here, and you don't feel sleepy, I really don't know why. Q for a while to use the bath.

There is a problem fixing your kiblat when you solat on the boat as it can head in different direction. Most of the time I just follow those who solat before me.

We had a marvellous nasi lemak for breakfast, really enjoyed having it at the front of the boat facing the lake. Mok had set up a tikar for us to eat in front. 

We went to Sg Ruok by speed boat that takes about 10 minutes to reach. Had to hike for 25 minutes to reach the waterfall with ikan kelah in it. Managed to keep my shoes dry this time but wet on the way back haha. The water was freaking cold but once you are in it, u don't feel the cold already. The group from UTP is already there, so the waterfall is pretty crowded. We swim for a while but was called to go back 30 minutes later.. arghhhhh!

We choose the track along the river on the way back and we actually had to walk in the river with our shoes. That's how my shoes got wet. Came back and got to Q again for shower. It was so hot in the room by this time but I decided to solat first, drenched with sweat. Then go down, had lunch and continue packing. By the time I am done, the boat had already reach the jetty. 

The crew of Caravan Serai are very helpful and they assist me in carrying my 2 bags to the bus. The bus departs at about 2.30 pm and after 3 stops and traffic jams here and there, we reach Shah Alam at 11.30 pm. It was raining heavily when I drove home and arrived at 11.50pm.

Good experience over all for me, I get to know other staffs in UMW, particularly those from IPS aka geng UNO i.e. Azra, Azam, Faisal and Ajib.

The Bag Project and Bentong Trip

4 May 2017

Thursday 

I took leave on Wednesday to run a few errands. I started the day early by going off at 7.20 am as I need to be at Sri Damansara by 9 am. Checked Waze for the earliest trip possible so had to go through MEX hiway, paid RM3.50 toll, exit Jln Kuchai Lama, go to Kerinchi Link pay RM2.50, and Sprint hiway RM2.00 and managed to reach Fazilah's house at 8.30 am. 

Then we set off to Sri Damansara and managed to be there just before 9 am. We had to queue for about 40m and settled our registration by 9.50 am. By then Joy called Noe wanting to collect the mee siput from her and we were in a bit of a dilemma as to how to accommodate her in our plan. We finally decided to turn back to Bandar Utama and wait for her to grab a car to their house as she had received the green light to follow us to Bentong.

We set the Waze and asked direction from the guys from our school esp the bikers. We managed to reach Lemang To' Ki at about 12.15 noon and I was feeling ravenous at that time. We took 2 ayam bakar, 1 lemang (RM12) with rendang ayam (RM6) and daging (RM6) which I think I paid RM39 in total for it. Then we add another lemang and another plate of rendang daging. The combination of the hot lemang together with the rendang daging was really marvellous! There were not so many people considering it was on Wed. I was told that the place is very crowded on weekends.

When we've finished eating, I tapau another 3 lemang and 3 rendang daging, 1 is for Ju who had asked to tapau the day before. We took a few photos before leaving the restaurant and proceeded to look for durians! Stopped by the 1st stall that we saw and it was sooo expensive, D24 is RM33 per kilo, much more expensive than the one that we tried along the road in Puchong that day at RM28 per kilo. We tried 1 nevertheless and it was overripe I think, not so satisfactory to us.

After that we headed back to Sri Damansara to collect the the bags and lepak at BU before heading out to Curve to have ice cream coz Noe is craving for one.

Went home after that and reach the house at 8.20pm. I cut the BR cake that hubby bought on Monday but had to postpone cutting it as his Mak Ngah passed away on my birthday.

It was a very happy day for me, alhamdulillah.

 

Going up Puncak Sapu Tangan

Sunday 9 April 2017

Interesting name, Puncak Sapu Tangan. It was actually located inside Taman Botani, Shah Alam where you have to go through Section 8 and passed through Bukit Bandaraya entrance. Pay RM3 parking charges and another RM3 to enter Taman Botani.

Me and Suraya actually joined Tini's JK1M's group as we don't know the way. There are 8 of them in a group wearing a pink/purple shirt. However Suraya managed to outrun all of them and ended up hiking with a monkey instead! Hahaha

We started late at around 9 am having to wait for all the members to reach the entrance. From the entrance, we go to the left, slowly going up on a tar road. When we reached a junction, we go to the right, going uphill until we reach another junction that says: Bukit Sapu Tangan 1.8 kilometer

As usual, I took my own sweet time at my leisurely pace but managed to be in the middle group with Tini and her son Aiman. I think my stamina had increased a bit since I started exercising. I can now climb the staircase to my office at 5th floor, eventhough still panting, but less time taken to reach the 5th floor.

I remembered my first climb to Bukit Gasing early of the year, I nearly fainted I think.. I can actually see stars coming out of my head. 

Going up the hill, seeing the tar road leading to the peak, i cannot deny that it is a daunting task, but I managed without any drama this time. We reach the peak with the wooden tower 1 hour after we hike. In total it took us about 2 hours and 20 minutes to complete the hike. It was a good sweat and I had soto at Restoren Zai Section 8 after that with Tini & Su.

By now I really enjoyed hiking and looking forward to the next hike at Bukit Gasing with the gang.