Guongzhou - loud and clear

Hi! hi! rombongan china telah selamat kembali ke tanah air. Ya, badan semua sakit, duit habis, tapi happy. All in all an enjoyable trip. Group kami 13 orang semua yang mana 12 adalah family. Yang seorang tu groupleader yang mengatur trip untuk office club (my sis office). Kami ni orang luar yang ikut2 office orang punya trip tapi last2 staff semua tarik diri, kami pula yang tinggal.


So this is the story of 4 sisters, 1 brother, 1 sis-inlaw, 4 nieces and 2 nephews, touring Guongzhou, Shenzen, Hongkong and Macau in 6 days. Lets begin :

DAY 1

We arrived at Guongzhou about 2.30pm. Off to lunch. Very bad traffic. It's not weekend. Its Thursday. Punyaaa banyakkk manusia di tempat ni! Congested. We got to the restaurant almost 4pm. Very late lunch.

Qinghai Muslim Restaurant. Sedap makanan dia. Surprising, sebab banyak dengar cerita masakan sini either too masin or tasteless tapi makanan kami sedap-sedap belaka.

Zoom la sendiri ok.

Tapi service dia aduh! punya kasar. Pelayan dia hantar makanan main hentak ja pinggan sampai sekali tu, pecah teapot nya. Seriously. Mengalir air teh dari teapot bottom tu. Bodohkan. Merosakkan harta sendiri.

Anyway, lepas makan, kami di bawa ke Beijing Street. Tempat shopping la . Engine belum panas jadi tiada pembelian dulu. Tapi adalah 'beberapa orang itu' yang terpisah dari kami bila balik bas mengangkut barang., menimbulkan rasa persaingan di kalangan lain. uiii !...awalnya shopping..nantii..

Beijing Street

2 jam di Beijing Street, lepas tu kami pergi PearlRiver Night Cruise. Cruising di waktu malam. Cantiknyaa pemandangan...bangunan2 sekeliling semua diliputi lampu neon.. its a beautiful sight from the river. We couldn't believe it. Just this morning we were in KK, now look at these...

Me & niece

Lepas sejam setengah cruising, kami late dinner, 10pm di restoran yang sama.

Dekat jam 11pm baru check-in hotel. Furama Hotel.

DAY 2

Wake up call 7am. Breakfast 8am. 9 am out touring. First stop, 5 Ram Statue. Ini adalah sebuah taman yang di tengahnya terbina tugu 5 kambing, lambang bagi Guangzhou. Adalah legenda nya, pasal 5 dewa yang jadi kambing atau ada kambing sakti. Entah. Something like that la.

Cantik juga this park. Lush green. It's an old park and it has that ancient look. A vast area. We didn't tour every corner but form where we stood, di sana sini ada cina tua bertaici dan ada yang berdancing. Serius!. Old couples exercising ballroom dancing.

dancing in the park

Diorang ni memang rajin exercise ba kan.Pagi pagi lagi. Bukan macam kita. Bangun-bangun makan nasi lemak.

Next destination, Yuntai Park. Another taman.

Again, beautiful. Very big park. And hilly. None of my sisters sanggup meround (they're just gonna take pictures around the entrance) so I dragged my brother and nephews, I just had to look around. Yes tiring walk, up and down the hill but it was a nice walk, cool weather and the view..gosh..worth the sweat.

amazing landscape don't u think?

and breathtaking rose garden

And just when we reached the top of the hill, we spotted this lady with a tentful of costumes and accessories behind her. Curious, we approached and found that she's offering rental of costumes & pictures. Only 10 yuan. About RM5.40. Thats cheap. Brother got his eye on the pedang samurai and I just love the bright colored korea dress. Apa lagi. Mula la kami berangan.

ala-ala princess bersiar-siar di taman sambil dikawal oleh shogun

We were supposed to meet down 12.30 for the next journey but when the others learned of our adventure up there, semua berlari balik ke bukit tu to take pictures too. They only had 5 minutes. Needless to say they exceeded it. They came down after 30 minutes. Guide was clearly displeased. Alah..next agenda was lunch anyway. Thier pics :-

After lunch we were brought to a silk market.

The kain were all beautiful but no purchases made. Very expensive.



Final tour for the day was Shang Xia Jiu.

A walking street shopping area. Strictly walking. No cars pass here.

Tapi berjalan sampai patah kaki pun memang nda habis. Kawasannya sebesar alam. Dan barangkali sebagai hukuman kerana kelewatan tadi, kami cuma diberi 2 jam, walaupun kami plead more.

So me & sis just chose 1 mall and made some purchases there.

For dinner, we went to a different restaurant. Not as sedap as previous one. Dan lambattt! Kami sampai jam 6pm tapi sudah 7pm masih menunggu. Another thing. We were stunned by the noise. I mean, yes the place was full. But they talk loud here. I mean LOUD. They're practically shouting at each other when having conversation. Dan seperti biasa, tiadalah service nya lemah lembut. Semua kasar. Hempas-hempas. Huh.

bersambung..

bon voyage

Am leaving for Guongzhou tomorrow. The much anticipated trip with my sisters. All-girls. No spouses. I'm trying not to get too excited (tho' I am!). Let's hope everything plain sailing and lots of fun!

I'll be back in a week.

Cheerio!

away from home

The day before hari raya haji, we went round the kampung watching people preparing Raya. Lawn being mowed, dried leaves being burnt, buluh stacked up for lemang.

Somehow we ended at the beach, away from the buzzes, away from home, just staring into horizon.

Perfect weather, cool breeze.

Immediately we gathered the kids and had a day out at the beach.

Pantai Ayer Pancur Hitam. Popular spot for mandi manda di laut.

First they hit the playground.

Then, off to the water. Feeling the ripples in their feet.

In the end, in the water they go , splashing about till sunset.

These 2 (Helmy & Haiqal) determined to push the log into the sea.

And what of my raya? As usual frantic. 8.30 am people started streaming in from masjid, and I was still in the shower, having just finished cooking the last dish. No time for pictures. They were lots of people and we were kept on our toes refilling the dish. When it was over, masing-masing berlimpangan penat, dengan baju raya pun pelanting, tinggal pakai tshirt ja. Panas.

The guys then changed to tshirt too and went off to the slaughtering place. Gotong royong melapah kerbau. (No gory pictures).

But the next morning, we breakfast soto daging..

selamat hari raya aidil adha

Tomorrow we're off to Labuan for Hari Raya Haji till Tuesday.

So till then, here's wishing everyone selamat hari raya aidil adha!!

Shabbymom, enjoy Brunei! You must go to Restoran Aminah and order ambuyat, (ofcourse) and sample the cendol. It's the best!

Whimsy, keep up on your home makeover. Surprise us!

Bye!

shopping spree

Isetan sale. 50% and additional 10-20% for members. Sangguplah aku mengapply member card RM20 (2 yrs). Borong baju anak2. Anak buah 2 orang tu pun shopping sakan. Berbaloi la ada card. Di KLCC ada Isetan, jadi kami tak payah pergi jauh2. Shuttle bus dari hotel 5 min saja sampai.

Next day we browsed Bukit Bintang. Still via hotel shuttle bus. We were dropped at KL Plaza. Metrojaya doing sale. I spent hours browsing handbag and shoes. I really wanted new ones. Couldn't find them. Ada ja masalah. Tiada size la, handbag ada stain la. Instead I kept buying clothes for kids.

Elle sportswear. 70%.

Dissatisfied, I went back to KLCC in the evening with hubby. I found the perfect slingbag at Esprit and the travelling shoes at Hush Puppies. Baru lah puas hati.

MIL said she must go to Jalan TAR. Other makciks back home pesan minyak gamat, balsam serai dan lain2 yang sewaktu dengannya. So next day, we took a cab to Mydin. Memanglah tempat ni murah sangat kan. Barang2 macam toiletries and skincare sungguh murah. My inlaws use Olay Total Effect - the moisturiser & cleanser set baru RM 29.90. Di sini paling murah pun RM 34.


Kebetulan sudah di area situ, aku ambil kesempatan beli baju kaftan dan tudung2. Lepas tu cepat2 sebelum kami terpengaruh membeli kain-kain ela, kami terus ke SOGO. Pun sale juga.


tudung-tudungan

kaftan

Sebenarnya aku tiada lagi mau beli apa2. Semua sudah dapat. Beg, kasut, baju, tudung. Kira mau kasi kawan MIL saja (she got a blouse and trousers). Tapi entah kesarungan, keluar dari SOGO aku mengangkut comforter set. Cuma RM100 lebih. Jean Perry collection worth RM 635. I even agonised to take 2. Bukan berat bah tu kan. But I didn't dare risk hubby's displeasure. Hmmph.

Dalam gambar nda nampak cantik. Aku belum beli kamera macam Anies. Tapi memang cantik.Exclusive look.

Then we waited for Mak Ngah (MIL's sister who resides in Ampang) to take us out lunch. Brought us to Istana Budaya cafe (sedapnya makan sana. kelas buffet spread dia macam hotel. i couldn't take photos, what would mak ngah said). It so happened mak ngah's grandson was taking part in a musical theatre 'Sinbad' there. So we were meeting him and his mom , Yanti. Yanti got us tickets to watch the 8.30 pm show. Only 2 tickets still unsold. I didn't go (i went to the spa). I asked niece to accompany MIL. They weren't allowed phototaking during show so couldn't share the excitement.


Before the last day, I brought MIL to Ampang Park, just across our hotel. This is the place for busana muslim, baju kurung and intricately beaded tudung-tudung. She wasn't buying much the previous days so I thought maybe she would find something here. But again, it was me who 'found things'. I ended up with a baju kurung and a silk blouse. Well..for hari raya haji.

Ini sebahagian pembelian anak-anak. Yang lain2 tu, underwear, pyjamas, jacket and trousers. Malas snap semua.

OK. Itu saja cerita-cerita KL aku. Sekian terimakasih.

Oh lupa. Kali ni AirAsia baik dengan kami. Tiada kelewatan. Luggage kami tidak terlebih had. All in all a good trip.

tourist in kl

Hi! I'm backkkk! Lovely to be home. Our first trip with the kids for the year and they enjoyed it. My hubby's two nieces joined us as their parents were off in Miri for Shell's annual dinner. So there were 8 of us altogether including mom-in-law.

We stayed at Nikko Hotel at Jalan Ampang. Nice hotel.

Actually my sister was there too the whole family. Didn't plan anything for group outing. We didn't want to repeat Genting visit and everybody's been to Sunway enuf times, beside we stayed at different hotel so in the end we head separate ways, meeting once in KLCC. (actually what in each other's mind was, mega sale time! who need other planning?)

Traveling with small kids who couldn't stand walking & hanging around for hours at shopping malls obliged us to divide shifts. Most times, it's hubby who got to baby-sit (hihihi..tq love..). I would go out with MIL and the 2 anak dara and he stayed with the 3 kids going swimming, playing games or whatever it was they fancy. Free hourly shuttle bus service to KLCC and Bukit Bintang so it was very convenient for us.

On the third day, hubby decided to let the kids try the tour double decker bus we so enjoyed in Singapore. I had misgivings at first knowing KL is unlike Singapore, fearing we would regret it as we would be exposed to polluted air and traffic jams.

But when the bus arrived, I immediately changed my mind. It was very clean, smell new and airconditioned. Only a small area at the back is open-decked. The scheduled timing was a bit off due to KL's traffic but wasn't too bad. The kids love it. They thought it so cool.

Jadi kami mengada-ngada lah jadi tourist sekejap. Pergi round KL , to all the areas in KL we've never been and never bothered, Chinatown, Little India, Bird Park, Museum, etc.

Some pics at the Museum :-

I'm not a keen photographer (read:pemalas), so they aren't many to load here.

I love the hotel where we stayed. I love the spa. Named Sompoton Spa, all the masseurs are Sabahan. I got a good extra nice full body massage on our last night. (aku memang suka self-pampering ni). Warm bath, massage, scrubs are my things. They rid me of all the aches from lugging things and walking too much.

To be continued....