Hong Kong Trip - 1st Day I

It has been a long time I didn't update my blog. There are many busy things happen around me, house renovation, wedding preparation, cny, Valentine's day preparation and bla... bla... bla....

However, I still manage to steal some time travel to Hong Kong and Macau for a week. This was the 2nd time for me and 3rd time for my dear to Hong Kong. Thus, this was all about jalan-jalan

and makan makan (eating and walk around) trip.

I had my very first meal 鱼胶粉 (fish gelatin dumpling noodles) somewhere in kowloon once we arrived in Hong Kong. The dumpling skin was made of fish gelatin and it's more sticky compare to ordinary dumpling. And I really like it, cos I love all sticky food such as glutinous rice.

Then we went to a wet market some where in Wong Kok. I saw a lot of fresh and live seafood. It would be great if we had a kitchen in Hong Kong to cook dishes. ( Dear, next time can we rent a apartment with kitchen?)

I found something I love to eat very much -- Frog! OMG! Can't believe it, I saw it alive!!!

Baby Fullmoon Party Decoration

This time it's a baby boy's fullmoon party, so the theme color definitely would be baby blue! To make it more boyish look, despite of flowers, I chose bear as the main character for the decoration.

Decorated backdrop and baby cot for presenting baby to the guess.

An 'Egg' shape flowers arrangement on the coffee table. Egg is a symbolic icon for new born.

A bear riding on bicycle carrying a posy of flowers welcome the arrival of Baby Lucas.

Beach Wedding Party

It's fun to attend beach wedding party, especially with those friends who could really go all out for fun. See, how enjoy they were singing and dancing on the sea shore! There is only one thing worry about beach party in Malaysia -- Raining! Luckily it didn't happen on that day, if not I think the bride sure would cry like hell.... lol!

A friend wedding at Vistana Hotel

Finally I got the photos from the wedding couple last weekend. But the cd that contains 1500++ pictures. *Phew...* I have used some time to dig out which photos that related to me, but i found out that those pictures are mostly 'human potraits' lol! Out of no choice, I share some photos of mine, my dear and some friends on the event.

Group of the wedding couple's friends.

Yam...... Seng....... Toast from the brothers.

Heroine.... lay down all the boys.... lol!

Me and my sweet dear.

Birthday Holiday

Babies born everyday, and every day is somebody birthday. One of our everyday activity is sending bouquet for birthday girl/boy to their work place. However, I found that 50% people take leave on their birthday. Thus I know that many treat their birthday as a very important day.

Well, maybe I never do this in my life, I feel quite surprise of this. I really don't know how they celebrate their birthday. I guess they go to salon for facial, set hair and make-up for dinner date? Wow, if that's the case, they really have a big celebration for birthday! lol!

Nonetheless, I get to know that many just want to rest for a day, treat themselve better on their 'big day'! For working class, to relax at home for a day during the weekday is a luxury, isn't? That's the best birthday gift for themselve.

Wedding Decoration at Vistana Hotel, Penang

I had done a wedding flower decoration at Vistana Hotel few months ago. I wait for the wedding couple to send me some photos taken by the professional photographer, but I don't receive anything until now. So I decide to post some photos taken by myself, before it rot！Lol!

Flower stands along the red carpet.

I combined both ikebana and english style to my flowers decoration.

Reception table flowers decoration. I used antorium as my main flower, because its red heart shape which brought a lot of meaning to the new wedding couple.

Bali Day 5 - Nandini

It was the last day we stayed in Bali. We stayed in Nandini Bali Jungle Resort & Spa for our last 2 nights in Ubud. Nandini is a very isolated resort located on slope of the Ayung River Valley.

Morning view at the balcony from our room.

Me, picture taken outside of our villa.

My dear were enjoying his morning walk along the steps access to the gondola.

Gondola that carries passenger to villas from different level.

River Ayung, located down hill of Nandini Resort. Access by gondola and hundred steps to the river. My picture couldn't be shown here, cos I am not confident with my bikini's look. lol!

Rice field beside Nandini Resort.

We spent the whole morning in Nandini resort by playing at the river and trekking on the rice field. For lunch, we had the famous 'babi guling' at Warung Ibu Oka. Before we went back to the resort for our massage session, we walked around Ubud and had some window shopping for those oil paintings and crafts. And then, we came to a very beautiful Pura Taman Saraswati. How nice if I could have a lily pond and balinese garden in my house like this.

We would leave Bali on the next morning, thus we had our candle-lit dinner in the resort. Before the dinner, we went for a balinese massage at the riverside spa of the resort. It was a very nice experience for being massaged accompany by the sound of river flow and insects. At that moment, I really wished that I could stay forever in this paradise......

Bali Day 4 - Ubud here I come!

I couldn't wait for going to the beautiful Ubud, I had heard a lot about arts, culturals, food, shopping, natural scenery and trekking activities. But first, I tried a Balinese dessert which called 'Pisang Rai'. It was really good, sliced banana steamed in some sticky souce (which taste similar to chinese new year sticky cake). People who like cny sticky cake sure would like this too.

There was no night life in Ubud, so we spent our night watching dance performance at beautiful Ubud Palace. They had Barong and variety of other dances on friday night.

Bali Day 3

We needed to return the car today, so we rushed to the rice terrace field nearby Gunung Lempuyang early in the morning. It was not so magnificent as my expectation, but not too bad for a first timer like me.

A balinese woman carrying some leaves on her head, climbing from the rice terrace towards the main road. They are all very good in balancing, as it is not easy to carry such a big basket.

The whole morning on the 3rd day was only for rice terrace. It was about 1pm when we reached Kuta, and we changed our vehicle to motorcycle. Well, it is much convenient riding on motorcycle to explore Kuta and Legian. We had our lunch at Warung Yogya, which located at Jln. Padma Utara, Legian. I had nasi campur again, and it was so much different compare to the previous I tried. They had something like meat frost that make the dish taste better.

After the meal, we heading to Uluwatu to see sunset and Kecak performance. It was quite a good experience watching Kecak. It feature a large choir of bare-chested man who, packed in a swaying, fire-lit circle, chant a hypnotic 'chak-a-chak' accompaniment. If you only want to watch one balinese dance, this is the one recommended.

After the Kecak performance, there was nothing left to do in Uluwatu. While on the way back, we had BBQ seafood dinner at a candle-lit table on the sand at Jimbaran bay.

Surfing in Bali

I had my very first surfing lesson in Kuta beach. Kuta beach is the best place for beginners. Like other sports, we need a profesional lesson to master the skill, but surfing was not in our schedule. However, I really wanted to experience surfing, but due to the time constrain, I only managed to try bodysurf. It's very fun and exciting! I felt glad that I had tried it in Bali, as Bali is a paradise for surfer. Next time maybe I will take a professional surfing lesson to truely experience the fun of surfing. If you plan go to Bali, do not miss out surfing, check out www.prosurfschool.com or www.schoolofsurf.com to get more infomation for surfing classes. It really made my trip different from expected!

Bali Day 2 - Pura Besakih & Kintamani

We reached Pura Besakih finally. Great scene as expected and most of the artifact still remain originally. The sacred Mt. Agung is at the back of Pura Besakih. As usual, there are many steps for ancient hindu temple, same as Pura Besakih too. (Anyway, it consider much more lesser compare to Angkor Wat, and the steps in Besakih were easier to climb.)

Guess what was this made of? It was all made of rice! Amazing! Balinese are always good in art and craft. Its all shown in their daily life activities, including their offering ceremony which is part of their most important event in life.

After a long walk in Besakih, we decided to go to another famous spot nearby, the Kintamani Volcano. We reached the viewing spot just before the sunset. It was so beautiful, and hey... it was my first time seeing valcano in real! lol! So sampat!

Bali Day 2 - On the way to Pura Besakih

It was a long day for my second day in Bali, thus I devide it to 2 parts. Our main destination was to Pura Besakih, the biggest and important temple in Bali.

We started our journey in a pleasant morning, everything was so beautiful in Bali. They like to arrange flowers in many ways and everywhere. I took this picture in my hotel's lobby, red roses petals and egg flowers floating on water in a wide round glass plate.

We had our 'brunch' at a paddy field side restaurant, my 'tam chiak' dear was happily satisfied by the delicious asam fish head and natural breeze.

A farmer was working on the paddy field, it was real and not a show. It had been a long time I never see this scenery in Malaysia. What a great memory recall!

After the meal, we continue our journey, it took almost 2 hours to the destination. I took this photo on the road, there were many tall bambo sticks with yellow 'flag'. I guessed it was something related to the balinese hinduism custom.

When almost reach Pura Besakih, we saw a house holding wedding ceremony. The Balinese use a lot of leaf weaving to decorate their house on the ceremony.

Their handcrafts were so neat and beautiful. I really loved to learn weaving from them if I could stay for 1 month. lol!

I shot the wedding car too, it was not so pretty decorated, but I liked the way they kept in their balinese hinduism style.

My First Day in Bali

Me and my dear reached Denpasar at noon by Airasia from Singapore. After we picked up our rented car from the airport and checked in hotel in Kuta, we started our hunt for a good restaurant for lunch. However, we didn't go far for our first meal in Kuta, because my stomach started making noise and my legs hardly moved fast with an empty stomach. LOL! As the result, we had our first meal in Made's Warung at Jalan Pantai Kuta which was just 5 minutes walk from our hotel. Luckily the food there was quite nice. Their nasi campur had almost 8 different small portion dishes mixed with rice in a plate. For those who like to try balinese dishes, nasi campur could be a wise choice.

My first picture took in Bali, from the charming Made's Warung.

There was not much time left after our meal, we decided to visit Tahah Lot Temple as the distance took only 1 hour from Kuta. We reached there just in time to see the amazing beautiful sunset.

And then, we spent a romantic evening having some drinks in an open air restaurant in Tanah Lot.

Shenzhen Seafood

Seafood is a specialty in Shenzhen, at least the local think that is it. A local (my parent's property agent in Shenzhen) brought us to a seafood restaurant. Most of the fish and sea creatures were still alive. Maybe this is influenced by Hongkong's culture, that all seafood must be sold alive, otherwise the value would be different. 

However, the cooking method of the seafood in Shenzhen was not so interesting. They just can't bring out the freshness and 'sweetness' of fresh seafood. Sometimes the seafood been overcooked and added too much salt. Ee.... I still prefer our sweet and sour crab, assam prawn, curry fish head, teochew steam fish, fried sotong, lala fried with kam heong....ect. LOL!

There were many different choices of seafood that we never see in Malaysia. They even had the fresh abalone! And for oyster lover, don't miss it, it's really cheap! Only RM2 per oyster!

Hong Kong 1 Day Trip

Before I start to blog about my Bali trip, I want to finish my story of ShenZhen first. I managed to visit Hongkong for 1 day. My pa registered me to a local travel agency in Shenzhen. The trip cost about RM200 only, it is very cheap! You wouldn't believe that the trip even included 2 meals and ticket to Ocean Park. However, the trip was very rush, but I did enjoy the trip with some Chinese young girls who came from Liao Ning and Beijing. 

The only bad thing was they put us in an emporium that in particular for China's tourist to buy jewelry, branded cosmetics, perfumes, electronic devices... ects. It really wasted my time, and it took almost 2 hours. If not because of this stupid arrangement, I think I might have time to visit Victoria Peak.

The forever blooming Bauhinia.

Cable car in Ocean Park.

One of my favourite place in Ocean Park, the Jelly Fish Aquarium.

 

Bruce Lee‘s statue at Avenue of Stars.

A nice view from the night tour on ferry at Victoria Harbor.