Post Holiday Mood

Just had sister's graduation and holiday in Whangarei and it was great. 

I am going full mode into work and can't wait until my next holiday and parents to come again. Yay!! It was awesome spending time with them. I woke up early and slept later than them. It is definitely worth sleeping less. 

Have a wedding to attend and help and Christmas/New Year catch up with hubby's relatives so this will keep me busy till beginning January. Then I will need to sit down and think about what I want to do for the year etc. Am going to plan out some stuff and another holiday (not the April). Lol haven't had my April holiday and I am thinking the next one. 

Well this actually keeps me going otherwise life is boring. Oh yeah I also want to plan out something for myself for work and personal development too. All these will definitely keep me going. 

Yay me!

The definition of holiday

I recall having a conversation with friends about everyone's definition of holiday. Theirs was to sit at home and relax.Hubby's was to fly out to a beach holiday destination and sit at the beachside whole day doing nothing.Mine was to explore places, sort of adventure. Out the whole day and only back in the hotel room at night to rest and start all over the following day.

They laughed at me and commented that is more tiring than a normal working day. I commented that it was a waste of money, flying out all the way to your choice of destination and accomplish nothing.

So that is just 3 different definitions of holiday from 4 people.

The night went on

Our friend, S picked us up and brought us to Pakuranga night market. I do like the place because there were so many food. Hubby didn't really like it, I think. There weren't a lot of seats so we couldn't sit down to eat the food that we want. Just talking about it makes me hungry. The food are cheap too. I would love to bring back some of the food but unfortunately we didn't have check in luggage. Only brought carry on bag.

After the night market, we went to a restaurant where hubby had his nasi lemak. He ate till he was so full. Oh yeah, we saw someone he knew from uni. When we came back, aunty told us that the acquittance told hubby's cousin that he saw him and a different girl. Hubby's cousin told him not to start rumour. I just laughed because obviously, he didn't see me behind.

Anyway, after nasi lemak and a bit of heart to heart talk with S we went over to another friend's apartment in city where she took us to see the NZI centre. The building isn't that huge compared to Chch building. Everyone's desks look squashed. There isn't much space to walk around if it was daytime. But there were a lot of break out areas. I do like that.

Went back to apartment to get S and four of us went over to Sky City to sight see. Lol it was fun though. There are limited things to do in city central. Next time I suppose we have to go out from the city to see things.

Suppose this blog will be bombarded with posts with the upcoming holidays. Hehehehe..

The next day

When we arrived, I thought we should walk on the main street to look at things or eat since the shops were still opened but there were so many drunken people around. They really made NZ look bad because the main street is supposed to look good for the tourists.

I know we are not tourists but I am embarrassed for them knowing that tourists' first impression is that Kiwis made a fool out of themselves and damaging the reputations. I was told that there would be liqour ban on the main street soon. Good!

The next day, we woke up early and walked around the city before settling down for lunch at Grand Harbour Chinese Restaurant. According to hubby, the restaurant is very famous. John Campbell went there too. Lol We met up with one of our wing chun instructors who moved up to Auckland. It was good catching up with her. We later went over to someone's house to practice wing chun. We learnt quite a bit from him.

After that, friend from Mosaic who moved up to Auckland came to pick us up for dinner. Shall be the next post. Hehehe..

 

Hotels

The spam comments are increasing and there's quite a bit to delete since I don't check here that often. Sigh, when I am away for upcoming hols, it will probably be worst. I think I would have to check it from time to time.

Right, I am still tired but much better than yesterday. We have yet to upload some photos from phone to computer desktop. Doesn't work on mac unfortunately. Sigh..

Arrived in Auckland on Friday evening and took airbus express from airport to city central. The hotel was ok but wasn't up to hubby's standard. Lol I don't know whether to say if the rate was worth it or not but my gut is saying not worth it. The room looks really old as well as the toilet. The bed looks ok from the photo so I assume it was ok until we saw it in person. There wasn't any photos on the toilet on the website. I should have chosen Hotel Scenic though, the photos look much better.

Anyway, the next time I probably won't book at both hotels. I will try The Sebel because I booked this hotel for the staff at work and they all think it looks good. I don't know if it is cheaper but I hope they have staff discounts. Lol

I think I babble too much in this post. I shall continue in the next one. I shall label this post as above.

 

 

Short trip

I think I had the intention to put this link out but can't remember much. Anyway, here goes. Think it was because of the zoning for schools. Most likely, it would be about kids who want to go to their school of choice but can't because they do not stay within the school zone.

Quite tired today as we just came back from Auckland. Trip was awesome and short. Managed to meet up friends who are up there so that was good. I shall blog another day as my brain can't work properly right now. Definitely need to sleep early tonight since we have been sleeping late and less while in Auckland and spending time outside.

Flight was ok because it wasn't the small plane. Hehehe.. lucky it was Air New Zealand flights because the Jetstar ones were delayed.

China Trip I

Our trip to China was a 5 days/4 nights VIP tour, why VIP ? this is
because there were only 4 of us in the group and we had a driver and a
tour guide to ourselves, we did everything fast and efficient because of
the small group.

Day 1 we went to Su-Zhou ( 州 ) straight from Shanghai Pudong Airport,
first visit was to a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Shizi Lin (狮子林) , Su-
Zhou is famous for gardens, so we had a great time taking photos of
the spectacular views. After dinner saw us walking down one of the
shopping street in town.

China Trip II

Day 2 and Day 3 we went to various small towns where we visited the
water village, fresh water pearl factory, Song Dynasty Theme Park,
Hangzhou - where we visited the green plantation. Day 3 we went back
to Shanghai where we visited the Pearl Tower . That night we had a
cruise on the HuangPu River and took lots of photos of the surrounding
night views including the famous Bunt. Dinner we had fried eggs
AGAIN !! Day 5 we were supposed to go for shopping but the shops
were not opened, I think the guide only wanted us to look at the shops,
fair enough, we save some money because we could not shop. After
lunch we used the high speed train to go to Pudong airport for our flight
back to Brunei, thus concluded our 5 days tour of Shanghai. Overall
nothing much to see but the companies are the best. We decided to
visit China again in the near future.

Travel

After one week in China, finally back home but caught stomach flu on the last day of the trip, I estimated I went to the toilet for around 80 times for the duration and it finally ended when I was back home when I can use my own washroom comfortably. I think it was because of a lot of gas trapped inside, lucky I have the ability to control the output of the gas, hohohoho ……..

This China trip was indeed enjoyable partly because of the company, besides enjoying the view we also enjoyed talking and laughing and those jokes that only people of our age can made, old jokes ??!!

I shall blog more about China when I am more free, at the moment I am preparing for the next trip in April, Kenya here we come !!

han namja

currently listening to the song One Man by KJK. dont know why im feeling emotional. not that i understand the lyrics at all. hahaha.

last weekend was great, a friend came down for a visit from chch, and we had a great time just chilling - played poker and blackjack, talked, watched youtube, went out to kwangchow for dinner, then back to a friend's place where the 4 of us just hung out, listened to music and chatted. it was relaxing. been awhile since we just sat and enjoyed the music. there was even candlelight to set the mood hehe.

this coming week will be more relaxing i hope. last week before uni starts.

from the holiday baker

the result of sushi making.

it tasted great! :D but it was not as nice the next day.

he trick to it, i guess we should not refrigerate it!

this week i will attempt something strawberry based. and curry puffs :D hehe

Miri

Oops must have forgotten to put in the last part of my holiday, which is Miri. Anyway, we spent 2 and half days with relatives and some friends. It was a bit of last minute and I only manage to meet up with 2 friends. I know the rest of them are busy and I only had 2 days. But it's ok, we can always meet up another time if I am back there yeah?

Oh we also had dinner with cousins. Ta da..

Yay!!! So fun, I wish I could spend more time in Miri but we had to fly back to KL for more shopping and to fly back home. Well, I guess there's always next time. Next holiday? Maybe next year but I will plan something closer and more affordable. I mean, with the wedding ceremony coming up, we really don't have budget to go too far.

Holiday Tales Part V

Ok I have no idea what I was going to write about this photo even though I left it in one of my draft posts. Lol. Anyway, it is Phi Phi island from a distance. The hotel we stayed was just right in front of the beach. It is cool to stay right in front of the beach though. Certainly once in a lifetime. No I don't think I would stay there again. I don't mean the hotel, I meant right in front of the beach.

Cold!!! is what I will tell you if you ask me how am I doing lately. It was -4 degrees on Monday morning when I walked from the car to work and 0 degrees today. Super cold. Two more months before spring. Counting down the days till it is warm. At least I have something to look forward to this month. Yay!! I am seeing mummy and daddy. *jumping up and down*

Roughly I have ideas on how to plan my wedding but I really have no idea what kind I want. Most women are happy to be getting married I am sure and they usually always have engagement rings on their promise ring finger. Oh wait, I am not too sure what promise ring finger means but I knew it is linked to married stuff. Lol

For the honeymoon, you definitely want to go somewhere like the photo above yeah? Hehehe..

Beach

I actually lost track of what posts are in order because I drafted some and left them here so I might as well just post all of them out.

This is Phi Phi Island beach when on low tide. During the high tide in the morning, I can't swim at all because the water splashing in kept pushing me towards the shore and I can't see anything at all. I wanted to see the fishes. Oh I should start with the day.

Woke up on the third day and had breakfast. Then we were picked up to go to the Bay to wait for speed boat to

I love the beach here. I know the weather is hot but it's just so relaxing here. The villa rooms are alright. I guess you don't really need to stay in such a nice villa just so you can relax at the beach here. You can also snorkel too. I tried that and it was awesome. I know I cannot stand breathing through mouth so I can just stand up whenever I feel like it. The water was only up till my knees. Oh yeah the villa house number plaque here are not too bad. They are quite nice and simple too. I think last year we got one for our post box. Still looking good.

Phang Nga Bay

I think I better continue to put up some of the holiday posts that I have been postponing. Lazy and busy.. =P

The next day, woke up a little early for breakfast at the lobby before we were picked up to join our tour to see Phang Nga Bay. I think by the end of it, we felt that we should have gone to other tour. But I am glad that we did something more. The journey actually only started at 10.30am driving towards the mainland and sitting the long tail boat to see James Bond Island. It's nothing interesting lah since it's just a rock there and a small market. Tried to take photos since we were there already.



Then we were off to kayak. We didn't have to paddle ourselves, which I thought we were. Oh it started raining and we got wet. Lol After that, we quickly headed over to the floating village where we had our lunch. The tour guide said no shopping as it was going to start raining again and we had to get back to mainland.



Yup, so we were wet while on the way back to mainland because it just started raining halfway. When reached mainland, the bus sent us to the Island Safari branch where we had elephant trekking, ATV ride and fish spa. Hmm.. I enjoyed all. We also saw monkey show. Wasn't sure if it was part of our tour but anyway, we were allowed to walk about. We had dirt all over the body from sitting the ATV so we had to wash ourselves after that. No we didn't get to use any soap. I doubt we get to use african soap too. At least it wasn't that cold since we were wet.



By the end of the day, we were sent home to our hotels. We were the last one since we were the first ones to be picked up in the morning. We just ate at the hotel restaurants. The food were quite good. We had Thai cuisine. =)

Holiday Tales Part III

Oops, I haven't been posting my holiday tales so here's one. I will try not to forget to post once in a while besides updating news here. Check out the potion bottle that we bought from Universal Studio in Singapore. I don't think it's easy to find these shape of bottle.



I was trying to drink but posing for photo. Oh yeah we were wearing the rain transparent jacket because it was raining outside. Real hard! I haven't seen the heavy rain for so long. Well, not the week before since we were in KL that time.



Gosh, the tv signal kept going off and annoying me. I can't watch tv programme properly. Really need to get better antennas for digital tv soon. We bought a better one a year and half ago and it worked so well. Now it's getting worse. Sigh, the lifeline is not long.

Hotel

Yes, here it is. I just included one photo of the hotel. It is seriously very nice. More are in facebook album so check out there. The place is quite far from the 'attractions' though it is cheap and nice. For those who just wants to go there to relax, then the hotel is the best to stay in. =)

I didn't really get enough sleep because I spent my time enjoying the villa and seeing things outside. I probably look very sleepy when people see me. I think I need to get cream remove dark circles under eyes because I have them almost every single day. People do comment that I look tired and sleepy. Yes, sometimes I feel tired but sometimes I don't. Seriously.

Holiday Tales IV

The hotel is really worth it. =) The villa is so nice and modern. I don't feel like going out and just want to enjoy the villa but we have already decide that we are going to tour the beaches. I shall dedicate one post to put just the hotel photos. Actually, I will put a few since I have got some in the facebook album.

The beaches are alright. I am not a beach person so to me, beaches are almost the same. Yes I know there are different beaches but it's just sand and people sitting down enjoying the sun and bumming around. I prefer to walk about and do something useful. But it's alright. It's a differet holiday. We moved on to another beach which is another 10 minutes drive away. Just walk around the beach and then saw a fish spa shop.

I have been waiting to try out the fish spa ever since I saw one in Singapore so yep, I got to sit in. It was ticklish at first with the fishes biting off the dead skin cells. After 10 minutes, the feeling got better and I just stared at the fishes. =) I recorded the whole thing too. Hohoho..

After that, we drove to Patong, which is another 10 minutes drive and parked nearby. Gosh, there were so many cars and motorbikes. Oh yeah, the car rental sales person told us to watch out for motorbikes when driving about. They are everywhere and darling had to slow down every time.

So after walking about the town, we left to go back to rest a little before driving to Phromtemp Cape to see sunset. There were so many people there and it was hard to find car park. Took quite a few photos there before driving back to hotel.

We had our candlelight dinner at our room that night and used the villa pool. Check out the photos in facebook. Hoho.. I wanted to make full use of the villa that we were staying in so we stayed up late to use the pool and enjoy ourselves in the entertainment room. I don't know whether the floors are laminate flooring or not but the place sure is nice to be around. I would love to go back there again some day.

In Penang and to Phuket

On the last day in Penang, his two uncles & family and us went to Penang for day trip. Went to see the Buddha temple and the snake temple. Took lots of photos at those places. After having lunch, we went to the airport. We found out that we should have bought our air ticket from Penang to Phuket.

Wasted 7 hours of our time flying back and forth when the flight from Penang to Phuket only took 20 minutes. We could have spent more time in Phuket. Sigh.. now we learnt that we will have to do more research on our next holiday trip and plan properly. We spent too much time on travelling and that shorten our trip a lot. Next time, we must stay at one location and enjoy our holiday.

So anyway, we arrived Phuket at night and rented a car to drive towards our hotel. It took a while as the signs were in Thai and we were in foreign country. It was quite far from airport and we were thinking that the hotel better be worth it. I shall reveal more in the next post. Hohoho..

Must really check out Polaris Ranger Accessories for our next trip. But of course, the trip must be more towards hiking since the accessories are about them. =)

An experience

After arriving back to KL from Singapore, we took the bus back to One U shopping mall where family friend picked us up to go back to their house. That night, we had dinner with them , aunty Angie, darling's big aunty, her daughter and son in law. The next day, darling, aunty angie, big aunty and I flew to Penang. Arrived there and drove over the bridge to smaller suburb where one of his uncle and family are living. We stayed with them for the next 2 nights.

His uncle took us to Penang for dinner that night and also see the seaside, Gurney road where the 2004 Asian Tsunami hit. There were a lot of apartments and hotels along the road. It's one of the tourist attractions.

The next day, all of us including his uncle family drove to Selama (darling's hometown) and met the rest of the relatives. We sat through the calling of his great grandmother, his grandfather and his father's spirit to earth. I was introduced to the spirits through the host's body. It's quite unbelievable. We also had tea ceremony at his grandmother's house serving the rest of the dead spirits. Just before dinner that night, we had tea ceremony with his other uncles and aunties. It just feel surreal. I mean, I never seen something like this before.

After dinner, went back to one uncle's house and just sat there talking the whole night. That just sums up the whole day. Didn't even go shopping for anything in Penang. We wanted to look out for equestrian clothing if they are on sale.