London Here I Come!

I'm leaving for London for 10 days away, with my Dad.  As you can see, we've been to a few holidays lately and hubby and I agreed earlier on that he will stay back as his workload at monthends are always very hectic.  I cannot say enough how great a guy my hubby is (ahem! I'm bias, you might think), and I thank him for releasing me for this break.

In fact, hubby encouraged me to spend time with my dad, and I really appreciate that.  It's a rare opportunity to go travelling and sightseeing for just the two of us, a passion that both dad and I have in common.  My love for London and her country is undoubted.   When dad had his sabbatical in 1985, it was my first time stepping foot in this beautiful country.  I feel in love with it at 7.

Our last first trip back to the United Kingdom was our children's first...  in February 2010 for 18 days.  That is still the BEST holiday I ever had.  If you read about them from my archive, you will see why.

Going away now, I have mixed feelings.  It's hard to feel excited with all the recent tragedies in the air.  Even when we booked our tickets, we contemplated other airlines and still preferred Malaysia Airlines because of the direct route and time of arrival.  At that time, I thought that such "bad luck" will not strike twice, but MH17 compounded my fear.

Still, we decide to proceed, despite the prospect of getting a full refund.  Everyday I ask God to watch over my family and my trip.  I'm placing my trust in God, that ask if you could, please pray along with me for journey mercies to and fro.

We've been married 10 years this year, and it's the first time we are away from each other for so long.  To say we will miss each other will be a gross understatement.

We will be together again very soon... I love you all always!

Bangkok Holiday Day 2 & 3: Shopping and more shopping!

Day 2
14th July 2014

One of the best things about being on a holiday is waking up late (if you are on a free and easy program) and not having to worry about meals and what to cook.  The only question is, "What to do?  Where to go?"

But as it is, our hotel provides complimentary breakfast and believe this, they serve pork!  How lovely!  Selection was satisfactory and food quality could be better, but overall nothing to complain. Service was good and we enjoyed our rounds of continental and asian fare.

Travelling with hubby, whether alone or with the children, is always great because he is like a local tour guide, guiding us through the maze of shops and leading us back and forth so we don't get lost. I merely had to say, "Honeeeyyy, I wanna go MBK..." and he'd be ever ready.  The best part?  This man I married doesn't complain or grumble about shopping.  So imagine how fun it is!

We spent the whole day in one mall.  In the evening, we headed back to our hotel to clean up and then have dinner at a local kopitiam a few metres away.  Nothing grand, nothing fanciful.  Just plain local Thai food.  As we walked in a group of Westerners were occupying one table and another group of Thai boys formed another table half way through our dinner.  We ordered a rice dish, a noodle dish and a centre dish... total damage was only THB180 (equivalent to RM18).

I mean, I like it.  Coz with the kids, we'd probably head somewhere nicer and pricier.  The kopitiam was farely clean and the chefs and kitchen helpers all wear caps and face masks.

After dinner, we headed for another round of massage at the same place.  This time my masseur is called Apple and she's a petite sized lady but with strong arms.  I chose the Thai massage for 1 hour, whilst hubby went for the foot massage again.

That 1 hour... WAS. TOTAL. BLISS.  I wish I can bundle Apple up and bring her back to Malaysia with me.  But then, that'd be human trafficking is it?  So I did not.  But I vouched that if I ever go back to Prathumwan area I will look for Apple.


Day 3
15th July 2014

After breakfast today, we decided to walk around Siam Discovery, Siam Centre and Siam Paragon.  There is an overhead bridge link from the BTS station in front of our hotel that leads us to MBK and Siam Discovery (I hope I got this right... hubby please correct me).  Now you see, my memory of directions is very poor.  Hubby would tease me and say it's easy to bring me somewhere and sell me, hahaha... but my standard reply is I have no market value now, and he won't get a good deal from all the outlay he poured on me.  Haha...

Jokes aside, Siam Discovery is nothing much.  It's a typical mall, similar to what we can find back home, but with less offerings and no crowd.  Honestly, place looks a bit pathetic.

Siam Centre has a different outlook and feel, catering more for the youths and young adults.  The interior decoration is mostly black, and the shops are more funky and young-ish.  Not for us oldies.  Haha.

Next stop, Siam Paragon.  A high end place.  But their food floor offers many selection, so long as you are willing to pay.  We hopped into MNG which was having sale, but they didn't have my size for the pieces that I wanted.  : (  Zara was not having sale, so we decided to pass.

Fooling around

Today's activity was less interesting, and more of killing time.  By 11am, we headed back to the hotel to pack up and check out at 12noon.

The cab from the airport to the hotel cost us THB700 for a Camry.  The trip from the hotel to the airport, by just radioing a cab (the bellman did this for us) cost only a fraction, THB300.

Flight was slightly delayed and departed at 1530, arriving KLIA2 at 1830.

Kids and Joanne were already home with Mama Yeh Yeh waiting for us!  After a fun and relaxing 3D2N away, it's great to be home with the family.

Bangkok Holiday Day 1: Hello Chatuchak!

Day 1
13th July 2014

The night before we bade our children goodbye because our flight departed early at 8:25am, which means we needed to be at the airport by 6:25am, and arranged for our trusty cab driver to pick us up at 5:15am.  We set our phone alarms to wake us at 4:45am.

Vic wanted to wake at the same time as us to see us before we left.  Of course we objected as we didn't want her to lose any sleep but finally we came to a common ground that I will nudge her.  If she wakes, she wakes, if she doesn't then no unhappiness, ok?  Deal!  In the morning, I kept my part and she opened her eyes a little and mumbled good bye to us.

We had porridge breakfast in KFC, KLIA2 then proceeded to our gate.  You know since the last time we missed our flight to Hanoi was because we engaged in an interesting chat over porridge as well, so this time we consciously kept watch of time.

Upon arrival at the rather quiet airport, we took a cab to our hotel, Mercure Bangkok Siam Hotel along the busy Rama 1 road.  Surprisingly the cab driver did not know where our hotel was, despite us showing him the address (in English, which he did not understand nor speak) and the map.  He didn't carry a phone either, so there was no way for him to contact the hotel for directions.  We kept our eyes on signboards just to make sure he's not bringing two foreigners to sell, haha... and secretly my heart was already travelling to our next destination, Chatuchak Market.

Finally found our hotel, and all he could say is, "Ohhh, Ibis!!"  That's because the two hotels share the same location.  We are just diagonally opposite MBK Shopping Mall, and a stone's throw away from Siam Discovery, Siam Centre and Siam Paragon.

The bathroom is modern and sleek.  I like it that the toiletries are kept to a minimal and extras like toothbrush, cotton buds, etc are provided upon request.  

Our room is smaller than the standard hotel room size, but spacious enough for two of us, and can still put in two kids in the future.  The sofa at the end of the room is big enough for one person to sleep.  

Chatuchak Market

Our first trip to Bangkok was before William came along, possibly in the year 2006.  That trip, we intentionally chose a hotel near Chatuchak Market but ended up shopping in downtown instead. Our second trip was in December 2011 with Mama Yeh Yeh, Yee Sok See Sam, Theodore and friends for 4D3N and it was during this trip that I had my first experience of Chatuchak.  I was impressed and amazed at so much selection at unbelievable prices.

Our last attempt to Bangkok last year was cancelled last minute.  We burned our air tickets and hotel accommodation which was paid in full.  Naturally this trip we learnt not to book our hotel too early, and waited till the last two weeks.

The BTS was just at our hotel doorstep (see, this hotel is really a gem!) and we did only one change of train to Mo Chit stop, which is outside Chatuchak.  The whole journey took no longer than 30 minutes, and cost us only THB42 per person (Equivalent to RM4.2)

Waiting for our train... we are entertained by TV ads on the platform and in the train

Our lunch venue

Pork noodle soup - yummy and wholesome!

Snacks that we ate along the way

Art and craft materials

Clothes, shoes and accessories

Lights and decorations

Potteries 

Decorative birds

Magnets

Plastic flowers and bangles

Shoes

Dinner at MBK.  We were recommended a shop called Nova Kitchen from the information counter that serves Thai-Chinese cuisine.  Food was good, and as a tourist we get a tourist discount card for selected shops in MBK.  For above THB350 in Nova Kitchen, we are entitled for 10% discount.  Not bad eh?

Our dinner:  Pineapple fried rice, green curry with roti, mixed seafood tom yam soup and prawn in egg puree

Walking to / fro hotel and MBK.  See how safe the road is?  Exposed cables and uneven pavements.  

After dinner, we headed for massage.  There is a place just within 3 minutes walking distance from our hotel that charges very very reasonable price.  So reasonable, I couldn't help laughing just thinking about it!  Hahaha... At first hubby was hesitant as he is not keen on massage, but after a tiring day out and prospect of waiting 1 hour for me to finish mine, changed his mind!  And what a great decision it was!  He fell asleep next to me, snoring!  : )

Thai massage is always best!  A million times better than Indonesian!

Happiness.  Sleep.... zzzzzzz

My Thoughts on Mother's Day and Father's Day

I know this is a very backdated post... as you can see I have been behind in many of my posts, neglecting to update, and just playing catch-up.  Once I'm done with this post, I will be putting up yet another holiday post followed by another.  So bear with me while I bore you with my travel logs.

Mother's Day

Yet another day in the calender but it is on this day, that I am made to feel a lot more special.  My two beautiful children have started compiling their gifts as early as a week before with little hand crafts and drawings/colorings from their school, kindy, BaoBei centre and Children Church.

And earlier that day when hubby was away on a business trip, he had someone delivered...

FLOWERS... with a special message which obviously I cannot post here!!!

Hubby can be very romantic at times, but this is totally, totally unexpected because he's not away for long anyway.  My good helper have them dried and placed in a glass bottle for safekeeping.  : )

When hubby came home that evening, he brought us out to The Good Batch for dinner as a celebration and appreciation to both Joanne and myself.  We had the kids thank Kakak for her work in our house, as she takes off a lot of my load.

When I read about the sacrifices and dedications of many mothers who slog from the wee hours in the mornings, to the late hours at night, without complain and without help, I salute them. Whilst I feel touched at hearing and reading wonderful Mother's Day stories, I cannot fully relate as my domestic helper, Joanne does all the cleaning, washing and majority cooking.  She ensures the kids have ironed uniforms and clean school shoes and have their water bottles always filled.  I feel blessed as she is our answered prayer, and takes a whole load off me from the house chores so that I can concentrate more on my project works outside and breathe down play with the kids.

As I reflect on my duties as a mother, I know I have a lot to learn.  Victoria and William each present to us different sets of challenges as parents! Sometimes we make mistakes as parents and sometimes we pat ourselves for job well done, but at the end of the day, I know it's only because of them that we have the privilege to celebrate parent's day.

My role model remains my mom - to me, she is the BEST mom and grandmother - ever patient, ever loving, ever forgiving, never complaining, never comparing, never calculating.

A Korean dinner with Popo and Korean family who calls her "Mummy" too

Father's Day

Father's Day was celebrated with just as much love, albeit less glamour of outside food... we had

Homebaked shepherd Pie... first time bake and I have to say... as humbly as I can... it's DELISH!!

and for dessert,

Nutella Croissants - which doesn't look nice nor taste like artisan bakeries, but at least it didn't give us a tummy ache... hehehe

To the man who prioritizes family time over work...

Daddy / Hubby, your sacrifices will pay off!  We love you more than we show or tell you!

Taking an evening swim over the weekend

Hong Kong Day 6: Bye bye!

Day 6
Sunday, 8th June 2014

This morning hubby and I woke late, so we rushed to pack the last minute stuff from the refrigerator.  I used the induction cooker to heat up our breakfast (leftover claypot rice from last night's dinner) and we also finished up the birthday cake.

As I cooked, the kids cleaned up, and hubby packed up.  Good that there is a kitchen for us to use.

Leaving the place, we walked from our studio to the MTR station, did a couple of interchanges which was very convenient, got our refund for the Oyster cards, and then it's off to the airport via the Airport Express.

They took turns sitting by the window... the trip there, it was William, and the return trip, it was Vic's turn.  Keeping entertained with UNO cards, or just napping in the aircraft.

Flight AK135 departed Hong Kong 1320 and arrived KLIA2 at 1710.

Hong Kong Day 5: Celebrating my birthday @ The Peninsula Hotel and HK Island

Day 5
Saturday, 7 June 2014

Our original itinerary was shuffled a little to suit today's arrangement made by hubby.  Initially it was supposed to be a surprise, but I think because it's too obvious (changing the original itinerary which I prepared is too obvious, don't you think?) and he couldn't contain his excitement kua, or that he didn't want me to wonder why the phone calls coming into our local HK sim number.

So we had breakfast at Tim Ho Wan Dim Sum rated 1 star Michelin.  We went to their original shop at Sham Shui Po.  The walk from the MTR was around 10-15 minutes through closed shops, or shops doing trading/transportation businesses.  There weren't many people around that area at that time, and we didn't see many eateries too, so trying to look far ahead if we could spot a queue coming from a shop...

Finally found it!

Got a ticket, waited a short while before we were given a table.  Whilst waiting, we asked the waiter the fastest way to get to Tsim Sha Tsui as we had our lunch appointment at 12noon, and also selected our dishes from an English menu.

The food was gloooorrrriioouuusss!!  Now this is what we were really waiting for!  Hong Kong dim sum ROCKS!!  Pity we only got here the second last day, and tomorrow it'd be too rush to eat here again before flying off.  The har gau is exactly like what we've read - soft skin, fresh huge prawns, not starchy.  

The char siew (BBQ pork) bun was served the last, and I understand that later it's for the right reason... save the best for last!  Trays and trays of char siew bun were balanced on the waitresses' palm and served to almost each table... within minutes the trays were empty!  When we dug into the bun, it was warm and soft!  Now if we have to fly back to HK, this would be one of the reasons to.  

We didn't stay long, like I said we had to rush for our next eating appointment.  We took a cab because the MTR station was quite a walk.  Hubby didn't want us to run and sweat arriving at the hotel, so we hailed down a cab.  The jam into TST was typical and expected, said the cab driver who was not really chatty.  

Arrived at The Peninsula.  I'm 36 today - such a big girl (age wise, not size ok) and this is my first time into the much talked about The Peninsula.  The kids, well... what can I say?  They are just too blessed and fortunate!  

Lunch appointment made at Spring Moon restaurant.  

This is one of their signature dish... the Hangzhou Beggar's Fortune Chicken which needed to be booked in advance... cost a freaking HKD680 for this (close to RM300)

Needs to be knocked up first

Crispy pigeon?  

Xiao long pau

This is very nice... eel with honey glazed and topped with crispy fried ginger... even the vege on the side were delicious!

Braised bean curd in some special sauce

And a specially ordered cake from hubby... he had the hotel arranged this.  The most lovely and tastiest sponge fruit cake I've ever eaten!  Even the cream was not too heavy or over sweet!

And whilst we went gallivanting later, the hotel kept the balance of the birthday cake for us.  

Another must-do in HK was to take the Star Ferry across to HK island... and so we did.  The walk was pleasant and much needed, after all the food we intake.  Breakfast was great, lunch was equally good if not better but William with the smallest capacity stopped half way through lunch, and we relied on Vic to help us to clear the dishes.  She's good, and despite being very full herself, I appreciated her efforts.

The bill, least to say... is one I would not approve.  But hubby insist so I let him exercise his veto power.

Need to buy property?  Haha... 

Shopping area in Causeway Bay... but we didn't walk around here

At night we checked out Tung Po which is a Dai Pai Dong style of eating, but in air conditioned.  Booking is highly recommended as the place is always very full.  We were given dinner slots at 5:30pm or 6pm (I can't recall exactly now).  

From North Point MTR exit, it's just a stone's throw away across the road. 

This was when we arrived, but man, the crowd just swelled in minutes!  There were those who walk in and had to wait in the "waiting area"... what you see here is just a part of the eatery.

Service was fast (what you expect, right?) and we ordered lamb, pork knuckle, frog porridge, pork ribs and mantis prawn (I think)... seriously, I forgotten the exact names.

The cold beer was amazing!!

This ends our eating spree and walking spree for today.  From dim sum to hotel to dai pai dong, it's back to our studio and packing up now.