Mount Kinabalu

5th to 7th Dec

Climbing Mt. Kinabalu is a very challenging event for us, although this is a 3rd time attempt for Simon and 2nd attempt for SY. What make this trip so meaningful is that we climb the mountain together as husband and wife. Those previous climbs were just together with friends , who had given a lot of encouragement along the journey.

While in this climb, the journey reflexes our life being together as husband and wife. No matter how difficult we hike...we still smile and laugh to each other...we encouraged each other to make sure that we would reach the peak together...and we really did it together! We managed to reach the Low's Peak and the beautiful sunrise brighter our day!

Not forgetting during the horrible descending pathway...we faced the toughest moment together, by giving strong encouragement to complete the journey. The rocky pathway and the sudden bad weather were like killing us!!! Because of love and care, our spirit went on and finally...we reached the Timpohon Gate together and managed to catch up a chartered bus in Kinabalu Park just on time!

Although we are experiencing serious leg mucles pain now, we are happy that we had successfully reached the peak together. Facing the difficult trail together leaves another special memory in us...we dived together, we also climbed together...and we had succeeded! For all this, Thank God for giving us the wonderful memories~~~

At Kinabalu Park Reception Office

World Heritage Monument

"The peak" Mural

Our room shared with another couple

The Hostel's Living Room

Balsam Cafe

A "cheers" before our journey begins...

Ready to start off at Timpohon Gate

The stairs of hell!!!

Simon and the guide, Michael

Salute them......

Half way to Laban Rata

Another 500m to reach Laban Rata

At last, we arrived at Laban Rata

Our dorm key to room which also shared with another couple

Cafe in Laban Rata

Our packed lunch provided by Sutera Sanctuary Lodges...
brought all the way from Kinabalu Park

Sunset view from Laban Rata

View from Low's peak

A kiss of success

The sun is rising......

What a Wonderful View!

Sayat-Sayat Hut

Back to the cafe in Laban Rata

Certificates of Achievement

Mataking Island

-28th Nov 2009-

Today...is our 1st wedding anniversary. To make the day SPECIAL, Simon planned a surprise trip to Mataking Island. After knowing the news, SY felt so touched...and was holding tears in her eyes...We've been talking about this island for quite sometimes but due to our busy schedule, a visit to Mataking has to be delayed...until an idea came out for the 1st wedding anniversary celebration!

What so special about Mataking Island? Coz it consists of 2 islands, with only 1 resort...It is an island of romance, filled with so muUucChh love when you and your spouse are in the heart of the island. We had such a great fun there, although we only spent for 2 days-1 night.

Pictures uploaded here share the unforgettable memory of our very Special Day!

At the jetty in Semporna

Mataking Kecil Island (left) and Mataking Island (right)

Warm welcome greetings from the staff

At the Reception Office

Mataking Kecil Island at the far end

Long stretch of beautiful beach from Mataking Island to Mataking Kecil Island
(only during low tide)

At King Watch Tower

The Restaurant

Lunch time!

Our Chalet's Room

Other nearby chalets

After snorkeling........

Jacuzzi during sunset...what a relax moment!

Our Reserved Table

Special Dinner...the staff were singing "You're Wonderful Tonight" to SY...awww...

Blowing the candle in celebrating our 1st wedding anniversary...cheers!!!~~

Another kiss.......

THANKS to the Staff and Manager for making our day even more SPECIAL!

Cutting cake moment...

Jungle Trekking during night-time

Baby coconut crab...we couldn't find the adult one...

Rare sea cucumber

Turtle Eggs Hatching Centre

Peacock Sanctuary

MANY THANKS to lovely hubby...!

Shells collected from the island

Pangkor Island

on 9th Oct...

We took a day trip to Pangkor Island. The journey from Lumut (about 20min drive from Sitiawan) to Pangkor Island takes about 45min ferry ride. After reached the island, we rented a car to round the island. Another memorable place for Simon, but it was a first time visit for SY! We were blessed with good weather on that day...What a fascinating place for holiday!

Teluk Batik

On 8th Oct...

Just a short trip to Teluk Batik after work...From Sitiawan, it takes about 15min drive to reach there. Teluk Batik is one of the memorable places for Simon =D He has been visiting this place since kid...Let's see the new look of Teluk Batik after some developments carried out there in recent years...

Together with us are Mr & Mrs Ngoi, our project collaborators in Sitiawan

Foods in Sitiawan, Perak

How did we gain X-tra weight???Let's see our meal uptake during our working trips in Sitiawan...the 1st trip was in Oct (2 weeks), while the 2nd trip was in Nov (1 week)....

One of the famous Foo Chow dishes: Meat Ball Mee

Home made Tau Fu Fa; the nicest tau fu fa that we've ever eaten!

very soft and tasty!

Guang Ping - Must try this when you visit Sitiawan!

Zhu Chong Fan - only RM2.20!

a very special Char Kuey Teow - cooked with the heat from charcoal

La-La - different species from the markets; love it so much!!!

Another famous Foo Chow dish: Red Wine Mee

Delicious Cendol - only cost RM1

Miss this Tom Yam Seafood so much!!! It was so HHooooOottT~~~~~

Bigger portion than the displayed pic....

New dish for us to try on - Spicy Garlic Chicken - Not bad the taste!

Fried oyster with egg

We enjoyed every single dish so much!!! The foods in Sitiawan are so cheap...with average RM2.50 per dish and RM1.50 per drink (juice) for one person! Can you find price like this in your place???No-no in Sabah!

Macau - Day 4 & 5 (30-31/10/2009)

On the 4th day, we visited Cotai Island which is located next to Macau Mainland. We took a FOC bus to the City of Dreams, and then walked across to Venetian Resort. The "Bubble Show" in the City of Dreams is so mind blowing and the shopping spree in the Venetian Resort is so magnificent! Venetian Resort is just like a mini version of Venice. These 2 places already last us for the whole day and subsequently, we failed to visit Taipa Village as we had to rush back to Largo do Senando for a bowl of ginger milk before fly back to Malaysia on the next day. At night, we spent another few hours at St. Paul's Ruin for the wonderful night-view before heading back to Hotel for a gambling maestro. Simon managed to win back his MOP50 in the bet!

We did not have enough time to do the last minute shopping on the final day as our flight was rescheduled from 5.30pm to 10.30am. What a bad readjustment of the flight schedule! Anyway, we already had the BEST time there! Enjoyed much in the trip, although we expected to spend exactly 5 days there..........

Like usual, mum is hunting for her favorite dried seafood to serve nice dishes for her beloved family back home in Taiping....

Vasco da Gamma Park near to Hotel Royal

Hard Rock Hotel in City of Dreams

3D Mermaid with the lion fish.....coOooll!!!!

Hard Rock Collections......

Waiting for the Bubble Show......it was so nice and we ended up watching it twice!

Venetian Resort

Hunting for food.......

Gondola Rides

MU's supporter!

Free transportation back to Macau Mainland......

Ginger Milk with red bean

Kon Lou Mee with internal organs of pork at Felicidade District behind San Ma Lo

Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro

Special drink from Macau

Mum n Dad's room

Our room

Macau International Airport

Bye Bye Macau.......................

Macau - Day 3 (29/10/2009)

Day 3 - Our journey was slow down as we were experiencing leg muscles pain due to long-hour walk on the day before. Anyhow, we managed to cover the new Macau district created by land reclamation, from the Cultural Center to Kun Iam Statue to Wine and Grand Prix Museum, and and lastly to Fisherman's Whaft.

It was still early when we arrived at the Cultural Center, so ended up we went to the Sand's casino for a scroll and Simon lost MOP50 for the beat.....what a bad start of the day huh..... Visit to casino is a must when you are having a vacation in Macau! Besides the Sand's casino, we also visited Grand Lisboa's and Wynn's casino at that night. No gambling this time, but rather spend more time on the sculptures displayed in the Grand Lisboa's lobby. All the sculptures are so astonishing! Really salute the creators of each individual sculpture...

We also managed to catch up with the Musical Fountain outside the Wynn Hotel. We felt so in love with the Musical Fountain when a romantic music was played, and felt so rocky when the rhythms of the music get faster... After enjoyed 2 shows of the Musical Fountain (the shows continue for the whole night with different musics), we joined in for the 3D Dragon performance. The performance was so unique, in which the 3D Dragon appeared from a golden globe with a lotus opened up! The Dragon looks so real! The background music used in the performance gave a big effect on it. We really felt the "beauty" of the Dragon~~~~~

So here are some of the pictures taken on our Day 3 in Macau..........

Breakfast time..........

Vasco da Gamma Garden

Hotel Royal indoor swimming pool with heater

Sand's Casino

Our Reflections =D

Cultural Center

Art Museum

Okay...SY found HIM in the old photo displayed...

MGM

Kun Iam Statue (20-metre bronze figure of the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy was sculpted by a Portuguese and cast in China)

Dr Carlos D'Assumpcao Park

Good facilities provided by the Government for the public...

Lunch time!!!!

Portuguese Green Vege Soup

Luv this Portuguese Baked Pork Rice...but too big portion!!!

Lotus symbolic the return of Macau to China

Grand Prix Museum

Second place is taking the shot......so failed to be in the photo.............

Wine Museum

shy! shy!

The oldest wine in the world - 194 years old

Babylon Casino....

The starting of Christmas decoration...

Grand Lisbao

Dinner time.........

Wynn Hotel with the Musical Fountain in front

3D Dragon Performance in Wynn Hotel

To be continued for our final visit on day 4 & 5..............

Macau - Day 2 (28/10/2009)

2nd day in Macau - the most tiring day among our vacations!!!! Today, we had a walking tour from St. Paul's Ruin to Camoes Garden where St. Antony's Church is located. Then we walked all the way down to Largo do Senando and towards south to Penha Hill. From the hill, we walked down to A-Ma Temple. From the temple, we walked back to Senando Square passed by the Gate of Understanding and took a rest in Nam Van Lake for a Cybernetic Fountain. Phewww......... we had walked around apprx. 40% of the entire Macau, excluding Taipa and Coloane of cause!

Largo do Senando

St. Paul's Ruin

Scanning through the Menu for breakfast...

Deep fried fish balls

Na Tza Temple -in btw-

See us???????

Macau Museum, a must visit museum. It is very interesting and we spent almost 3 hours in that building! Really reflect the Chinese cultures and traditions which have similarity to the Malaysian Chinese cultures.

The most interesting part in the museum, showing the path of western and eastern histories that have similar pattern in evolving script, philosophy, religion, empire, technology and foreign contact.

Guia Fort and Light House

Cameos Square

Lunch near to Cameos Square

St Dominic's Church

Sir Robert Ho Tung Chinese Library

St Augustine's Church

Dom Pedro V Theater

St. Lawrence's Church

Penha Chapel

At Penha Hill

Macau Maritime Museum

Pointing at our Scorpio's Sign

A-Ma Temple

Gate of Understanding

Houses along Avenida da República

Cybernatic fountain -not so interesting-

View from waterfront of Avenida da Praia Grande

Showing off Portuguese tart

Dinner at Largo do Senando

St Dominic's Church

Night view of St. Paul's Ruin

Concert near to Macau Museum

Pearl tea from Largo do Senando

Will be coming up for our 3rd day tour of macau...... =D

Macau - Day 1(27/10/2009)

Macau Trip is a very meaningful trip for both of us. It was a first birthday celebration after we've tighten up the knot as husband and wife. To make it even more meaningful, Simon managed to celebrate his 30th birthday with his parents in this trip where he never had a chance to celebrate his birthday with them after he left Taiping since 1999. So on the first day in Macau, Simon had planned a location for our birthday celebration - Macau Tower (338 m high from sea level)...in the 360 degree Restaurant and joint the Skywalk-X (223 m high from sea level) to make the day more special and memorable!

Enjoy our Special Day with us in the following shots............

Macau Airport

Checking in

Our first lunch near Mercado Municipal

Stay on with our next upload on Macau Trip......

Baking Baking!

by SY

Okay...my mood now has swung into baking! Never crossed in mind that baking is so fun and interesting! Before this, baking was not in the list of my interests! I'm more keen with outdoor activities, especially those adventurous activities, as you know, so baking is definitely out from my mind.

How then I pick up the interest of baking? It started from Taiping actually. Whenever I happened to visit Simon's parents in Taiping, I used to spend time to chit-chat with mum-in-law while watching her baking the cakes. There is no doubt that she can make perfect cakes and biscuits! If you had ever tried on Simon's mum's home baked cake, you know why we don't want to miss to bring the cakes back to our home! After sometimes, I was just thinking since I like her cakes so much, why don't I try to bake it at home? From there, the beria-ia interest of baking started.......

I started to bake the basic butter cakes....and now trying to bake different types of cake by referring to the recipes from internet =D I used the recipes as a guideline, but I also modified the ingredients along the way...well...can we call this as Experiment also???hehehehe.....

I remembered that on the first time when I checked on my home baked cake, I was shocked and ended up with laughter!hahaha!!(My hubby was laughing on that too!!!) 1st time experience...the cake supposed to be butter cake, but it turned out like a pancake!!!!ohmmm!!! You may check on the pic below....geeee....I knew that we should use oven to bake cake, but I just would like to try it on the microwave. The cake appeared so 'ugly' and not tempting at all~~~~ Ah is okay...we can perfect it slowly after some practices...=D just...no more microwave again!!!

Once a week, I'll bake cake, either the same type from the previous one or the new type. I just want to perfect my skill in baking. Besides filling up my spare times (since no shopping center for me to hang around and no gerai2 makan pisang goreng/ubi goreng for me to fill up my stomach), I can serve my hubby with my yummy home baked cakes (no matter how bad the taste is, he definitely won't complain and this is the best altitude of him *wink*)! Yummy.....which I hope.... ;)

My next type of cakes to bake? Pandan sponge cake, classic cheese cake, carrot cake..................

Orange Butter Cake became Pancake...

Baking of Orange Butter Cake was successful =D

Durian Cake!!!YAAmmm....



Banana Cake


Orange Cake with Choc Pattern



Mixed Nuts Orange Cake



Still perfecting the recipes for a better texture and taste...