Road Trip to Pulau Perhentian -> 18th ~ 21st September, 2008

This time our road trip brought us to at least 5 states in Malaysia. My assignment for this trip is to plan for the trip and that includes doing the bookings and also doing the supporting navigator for the driver and become co pilot :) One week before this trip i had the opportunity to speak to key operators in the island to arrange for our accomodation ad well as transfers to the island and back. With the help from a few tips from people who had visited the island i finally made up my mind that we are indeed going to perhentian island Besar and the Resort i have chosen for our stay there was Arwana Eco Resort.

Below is teh road map that we use for our road trip which was very hlpful indeed :)



Our road trip started on the 18th, with raymond and Philippe taking turns at the wheels throughout the journey going up starting from Kuala Lumpur up to Kuala Besut. Through out this whole journey we managed to cross over 5 states in total and they are ; Selangor, Pahang, Trengganu, kelantan and finally Perak. Not too bad for a road trip to be able to cover 5 states within 3 days! Our journey kicked off from KL at around 7pm with just one stopped over for "makan" at the road side Burger Kings, So we just take away and hope to eat in the car...and greedy me having to eat my doubled cheezed burger and frise in peace while the two people doing the navigation and the driving was just eating nuggets and fries hehehe then we procedded using the highway up to Bentong then turn left to proceed to Raub, Pahang then Kuala Lipis then the longest stretched ever to Gua Musang and Philippe finally made a switch with Raymond on the wheels. We were driving in the darkness so to speak as i think this road is not so famous (dont ask me why) but its just one stretched 2 lane road across some Palm Oil trees estate, that made us believed that the road is never going to end and that we hardly see any lights coming or going....then finally we reach to a stopping point for a police check point and then off we went again and still no road sign then finally we met with the another end of the police checking point and we finally ask them are we on the right track and thank goodness he said yes you just follow the road straight ahead and straight ahead we went and we went...it was about 12am or so then and finally we reach Kuala Krai and another long stretched of road by this time they have made one toilet break and coffee break where i pack us some coffee in a thermos and some petit Lu to go with it...

Then we continue our journey and Raymond is once again on the wheels and this time we are driving from Kuala Krai towards Machang and after a topsy turvy turning here and there finally we got to Jerteh and at around 2am in the morning all of us are feeling a bit of fatigue from the longest journey ever even for non driving person like me hehehe...

We finally reach to our accomodation at kuala Besut which is Nan Hotel. For a 65 ringgit per night stay for Three person in a family room of one double bed and a single bed it was fine indeed. The next morning we woke up at 6.30 am as our boat ride to Pulau Perhentian was already arranged to be at 8.00 in the morning and so we met with Solihin our car caretaker for the 3 days we will be away and Roslina the person incharged for our boat transfer to the island.

so, at 7.45am we were off to our Resort at Pulau perhentian Besar
some pictures taken at the kuala Besut Jetty and of Philippe so happy to be on the boat indeed :) also on the jetty during our arrival :)

some pictures of us minutes after checking in to our own bunggalows and we are just next door neighbours to each other and just relaxing listenign to the waves from our front sea view balcony.

We went walking and taking pictures and went swimming for a while after that as our first snorkelling trip was supposed to be that afternoon at 2pm but was cancelled due to heavy rain :((

here are some of the sights at the resort

more sights around the resort


Then i steal some time for myself and be myself, peace and serenity....clarity moment time for me :)

then we sample our food prepared by the resort which was pre ordered as the package includes; breakfast, lunch and dinner for 3 days and 2 nights..and so the picture above is just a sample of what we had for the time we were there...is no wonder i gained weight!! hahahaha

Then the fun begins!
Equipt with my disposable wtar camera our journey underwater begins after being postpone on the first day so we make it up the next day and had 2 snorkelling trip back to back! phewwwww!!

here are the product of the underwater disposable camera! i didnt like how it turned out BUT enough to say that i will definately get me an underwater camera soon before i got o any diving or snorkelling trip and its a promise!

then we steal sometime just to be with ourself, Peace and Serenity...raycilliently we walk the sands and watch the wave that promises a beautiful tomorrow :)

And then, it was time for us to leave the isalnd of Perhentian Besar and i leave you guys wt these beautiful scenic pics from the island :)

although our island adventure is done and over it somehow our road journey havent. So we start off from Kuala besut, to Jerteh and stopping by at one particular stall just to get my banana heheh :)

Then we tried to find some place where we can get some lunch but unfortunately its during the Fasting month and being in the state where its majority are muslim i guess it was a slim chance to get any small stalls to sell something to eatso what Philippe said is...ok we do "Puasa" aussi :)) so it was not until we reached Jeli which is border from kelantan with trengganu that we finally found a "pasar ramadhan" at 4pm where we went to buy some food ...wow it was a great reliever indeed and raymond and philippe were like two superstars there as they were amazed that the two can actually converse in bahasa malaysia...i was just observing them and it was so funny :) the colourful food they have is just so beautiful...i didnt get any photos of this area as i was busy agonising with a stomach ache aka gastric urghhh! anyhow it was a woonderful expereince we had some ayam panggang, nasi ayam and some murtabak ayam which was really delish!

so we continued with our journey to Gerik and here it was uphill all the way until lenggong then finally we cut short the journey by taking highway one from Kuala Kangsar all the way to Kuala Lumpur. we reached home sweet home by 1030pm and once again fatigue crept in and we were all dead in our bed by 11pm and so the story ends:)

was a delightful journey raymond and I had with our visitor Philippe. One that we all will cherish always in our mind and in our heart :) merci beaucoup philippe for travelling with us to the unknown and hope to do it again with you and hopefully this time you will join us in Kota Kinabalu , sabah where you get to have the title Prince Philippe!! hehehehehe

da di da di da!
C & R

KLPF - Kuala Lumpur Photography Festival 2008

I'm so gonna drag my sweetheart to go to this function as we are getting ourselves a new underwater camera and so it'll be a good idea to drop by to this kind of function to check out some more brands available hope to get a good deal from this photography festival!!

and also to check out their free seminars and forums :) I wish my photography geng chicky egg, pretty kissmey and Ms Danne and morientez are here so we can all attend this free thingy together huhuhu but malang tak berbau everyone is in kk huhuhu

Ah well i hope to gain something from this ..i hope :)

regardez et voyez,
Clarity!

the vixen came to town :)

My beloved sister Mapsy Doodle a.k.a Super Vixen, finally touched down in KL and i cant help but feel ecstatic..i was waiting at the arrival hall and my eyes was scouting for a tiny girl..thatshow i remembered my baby sis all this while she is reall tiny, o me that is :) then finally i saw a girl, clad in black long sleeved shirt and trousers and it fit looking like mapsy and YES! i was her,my baby sis had finally arrived! Sometime in June or July i cant remember but mon coeur and i thought it would be cool to give my sister a a break from work, bf and family for even just for 4 days and spend time with us here in KL and so..mon coeur sudgested that we send her an advanced birthday gift which is a ticket to fly down to KL for 4 days and have merry time with us :) It was the greatest sudgestion ever coz i've missed my sister so much as we spend a lot of time photographing things and hang out with her some time and so i miss that and this get together is going to make me smile from ear to ear because Raymond and i love her company shes just so funny and witty and so serious all at the same time

And so she flew!

We had our coffee at starbucks at LCCT and off we go to Maple :)

During her time here i planned to keep her as busy as can be and so i time was pretty packed with wholesome goodness :)

mapsy and her forever peace sign :)

collection of our pics taken by Raymond :)

Encore, pics of us taken by my sweetheart, mon coeur :)

Our very Melaka-an Menu :)

The essence of Melaka!

having a break at the mall for some cuppa and look at mapsy and her favourite snack :)

gotcha! :))

Here and there in Melakaof Mapsy and Raymond :) I guess raymond caught the bug of showing PEACE sign too from Mapsy hehehe..catching indeed this bug hehehe :)

Random pics of all of us, Philippe,Raymond, Mal & Mapsy and somewhere around there is me :)

I like this picture very much shows a lot of Melaka tradition with the baba and nyonyas of the drinking tea custom. We had chrysentinum Tea. exquisitely delish ;)

then for dinner that night we went out to The Carat Club in Pavillion and it was wonderful treat indeed : Thank Philippe and Mal for introducing this nice restaurant to us :) I guess its a new trend now that a place selling diamond jewelleries is also an eatery. I guess you buy ur diamond then dine there hahahha :)
And here is the auspicious food..try the Salmon thingy its delish!!!

After the Melaka trip we had another go at the Batu Caves and its kinda like back to roots voyage for both of us where in Melaka we felt very chinese and when in Batu Caves suddenly we are feeling very indian indeed :) I guess this is good thing avout being mixed blooded, everything seemed to blend in one or the other :)

Why we had them dots over our forehead is tha we just finished with our head massage using the coconut oil but with extract from jasmine flower so no coconut smell but jasmine. It was really am a good massage and those are looks of two very relaxed gals :) and...they gifted us with a bottle each of the jasmine extract coconut oil for our hair :) Thank you very much for the gift and its very good for my hair and been using it ever since i got it :)

When we were there we were also treated to a dancing troope which was nice and very entertaining..my sister mapsy was asked to go on stage but she was shy and so we just watched the performance with smiles on our face :)

And for the 2nd time around, Raymond's friend Krish was not around so raymond had to play host to Mapsy and show her around the caves and outside:) And IT was our 2nd visit to Batu Caves in two weeks so Raymond is very very familliar with the place indeed :)

A collage of mapsy taken at the Bat Caves...i like taking picture of her when she is in action with her camera! Am so proud of her, my tiny tot lil sister, the photographer!

Just as i promised, I told her i'd bring her to something japanese and so i brought her to the Yuritei Japanese Tea House @ Sentul Park - Koi Centre

Our food @Yuritei Japanese Tea House :)

We had a blast and it was a priveledge too, to have the opportunity to meet up with the 5 times champions of the World Koi competition and he is really cutest , the largest and the oldest which the caretaker was telling us he is now about 11 years old and the most beautiful and best behaviour koi ever. Ah well its no wonder he holds the world title 5 times! Kudos to the fish! I guess it applies to Malaysian born fish too to say this---> Malaysia boleh! hehehe

Then comes dinner we went to Cuisine Studio , where we were hoping to meet with the auspicious Chef who happens to be Raymond and Philippe's freind, but unfortunately he was out on another function so we got along fine with the other chef at Cuisine studio and thats Chef Bruno :)


Yummy indeed :)

The next day, was shopping day so we head off to Bukit bintan for some shopping and lunch and this time mapsy doodle treated me for Lunch at Tapanyaki and it was my first time there and all i can say is i will definately come back again :) wonderful food indeed :)

The next day we meet up with our aunt alys at 1Utama for lunch and she is to send us over to the airport to send mapsy off and so we had lunch at Zoup! but no photos unfortunately i just fogot to take any huhuhu :(

All in all my lil sister's trip to KL for a visit was really wonderful we love her company and hope to do it again in the near future and hopefully this time jonjon is in the picture :)


Before i wrap things up here, i leave you guys with some of my favourite pics from our trips :)

my fav picture of myself and sis #1, photographer : Raymond



my fav picture of myself and sis #2, photographer : Raymond

my fav picture of my sis , photographer : Cilla
my fav picture of myself and Raymond #1, photographer : Mapsy

Thank you to my baby sis for you valuable time spent with us, and to our wonderful guests, Mal and Philippe thank you for joining us on this trip and making it more wonderful with laughter and smiles and to my beloved Raymond for making things happened and putting smiles to my face every single day! Wo ai nie :)

Love always
C & R

One more time....

During my recent trip back home, we happen to be riding in my car and my mom was driving and shafeeq my cousin played this particular song "One More Time" by the group Daft Punk its been ages since i heard it and i must say i really like it and i happened to turn to my side where mon coeur is and guess what i saw ....i cant help but capture the moment :) Hope you guys enjoy watching this video clip as much as i do heheheh :)

Also wanna thank my cousin Shafeeq for re introducing me back to this song its a blast!

here is the original song from the group Daft Punk
One more time indeed!

One more time!
Clarity!

2nd Trip to Batu Caves with our guests from Paris :)

Our 2nd Trip to Batu Caves brings us two more guests and that is Philippe & Ma l. Since Batu Caves is just close to where we are we decided to head up there just for kicks. The weather was nice too warm sunny day the only thing thats missing is a warm smile from their friend krish @ batu caves as he was not available to meet up with Philippe as he was out stationed. Anyhow, hope to do catch up with him in the near future indeed.

The entrance to Batu Caves and some pics of us taken from inside the car.

Mal, me, Philippe & Raymond

the 272 steps to the caves...wow..va va voom!

the entrance to the cave

some pics of us inside the cave where theres a small temple is located for rituals to bless a newborn child and other types of rituals for the Hindu

Raymond having a go with the thingy jutting down from the cave ceilling....

The view looking down from the where we are at the entrance of the cave

And the local residence of the cave ..which scared the %#@* out of me for they can become agressive when they see you with food so their behaviour is so unpredictable and to anyone coming to Batu Caves with attention to feed them monkeys please dont! they can get very agressive and especially if you are with a child going up the caves and meeting a bunch of monkeys on ur way up especially if you have food in your hand is not advisable as they get agressive once you are done feeding them as they think you still have food. so beware and be carefulwith these animals.

All in all it was a lovely day at batu caves and yes we will come again as its a nice place to bring guests for a visit. Facinating indeed!

Batu Caves Encore!
C & R

Chill out time with my cousin Hannie :)

A few sundays back, mon coeur and myself decided to visit the butterfly Park and so we decided to drop by my aunt's place to pick up her 11 year old daughter to accompany us to the park. As Usual, paying for the tickets is just so funny because there it says foreigner and Malaysians and of course the difference is huge...hahahaha but its ok its worth it! ;)

At he park entrance

Then the Koi fish pond

then the turtle cove :) hannie's favourite hehehe

Then finally the butterflies :)

Random pics of us at the park...

dead and alive dont know which is which but these things are alive at least someof it...euuuwwww

Look at the happy smile on Hannie's face :)

papillons encore :)

Hannie encore :)
Then finally after the visit to the rama-rama park we vow to come visit the bird park next and its just next door to the papillons park....so, next time it is! ;)

Then we head off to IKEA for mon coeur have some supplies to get from IKEA for his DIY projects so off we go to The Curve and IKEA for some window shopping and dinner treat for Hannie :)

Look at hannie enjoying the ride on the trolley pushed by mon coeur :)

Here is where we took Hannie for her dinner treat; Bubba Gump & Shrimp Co.

Our Dinner served :)

After the dinner pics :)

All in all it was a great outing wt Hannie and hope to do it again soon to our next place to visit at Taman Tasik Perdana and that is the Birds Park. So stay tuned folks! ;)

papillons encore!
C&R