Lotsa fun @ The Lost World of Tambun

We reached Ipoh about 2:30 pm and went straight to the hotel as it was already check-in time. The hotel, Ritz Garden was.. ermmm.. okay, let's not talk about the hotel, you can check its review in Agoda to find out..but don't ever think that is has anything to do with Ritz Carlton or something. So the next day after breakfast, we went straight to The Lost World of Tambun. The name of the place is already GEMPAK, but let's see how gempak it is.. 

First, of course like all theme parks, nothing is free, well it's not that pocket-burning expensive, RM45 for adults and RM38 for children. It was raining when we reached there, but who cares, we are all gonna get ourselves WET afterall, right?

this is one of what's left of the Lost World of Tambun, this place could be the altar used for worshiping or something.. all, pose for the camera before we hit the pool and say cheeseeee!

mama and babah took this extreme ride and came out hugging each other.. guest they should take the ride more often eh?.. hehe.. Mama said, it was scary as hell and that would be her last, but it's alright cause she will still be hugging babah once in a while right mama? hehe  

it took one man and a boy to carry this giant float..

and it was so huge that all 4 of us could sit on it, for this drifting ride..  

mama didn't let me play with Kak Neesa and Kak Tasha here cause the pool is too deep for me..

but this one is for us children, but still with the help of the kakaks.. we were having lots of fun..

but I got bored with the same routine, climb and then slide.. so what's next?

so we proceeded to the hot springs, the water was warm in there..

Kak Tasha is enjoying the water.. all smiling, isn't she lovely, when I grow up I want to be like her..

after the hot springs, we took a shower and change our clothes and it was time for theme park rides. I was disappointed as there were only a handful only.. most of them are not for children below six... I could only watch them play.. sigh

so this was what left for me to play ,as usual, this carousel was the only ride suitable.. boring.. you can see the expression of my face..

then we took a train ride around the park, the train stopped a while for the tiger show, literally, and we were shown how the tiger were fed and that the tiger could jump so high to catch meats thrown at them, pity the animals..

the train ride finished at about 3 pm, how time flies! and we haven't had our lunch yet, so its time to head out of the park and look for souvenirs before we leave for home. Babah bought us this tiger mask for me and bear for Adeeb, mama bought us t-shirts, fridge magnets and key-chains. The journey home would take about 2 hours and most of us fell asleep along the journey home.. my only regret was that we didn't go to the Petting Zoo, due to time constraints, but it was alright cause zoos like that are everywhere.. 

Good bye Ipoh, till we meet again.. zzzzzzzz

A Trip to Remember ~ Penang Part II

my oh my.. this post is long overdue, it's been a while since we last posted in here.. well the trip was still very much intact in my memories.. especially on the second day when we visited Bukit Bendera, and how on earth the other name is Penang Hill, shouldn't it be Flag Hill or otherwise, Bukit Pulau Pinang? Or because the name isn't glamorous ? Yeah.. think about it, Flag Hill? Come on.. hehe, but seriously, it was once called Flagstaff Hill.. 

the queue for the cable car or train, was looongggggg! It was school holiday so what do you expect? We should have come earlier in the morning to avoid the queue. When we got to the top, which is about 830 meters above sea level, the air was very much cooler up here, not as cool as Cameron Highlands but probably about 3-4 degrees cooler than the temperature down there.. we spent about 1/2 an hour there and then headed back to town as we have to check in at our next hotel.. the hotel that we stayed didn't allow us to extend another night as it was fully booked..

the hotel, Krystal Suites was located at the other end of the city, near Bayan Baru/Bayan Lepas area, in the vicinity of factories and stuff, Penang's largest mall, Queensbay Mall is also nearby. It's a two room serviced apartment to be exact, and Kak Neesa & Kak Tasha love it coz the had their own room there.. For lunch, we went to The Original Kayu Nasi Kandar at Bukit Jambul which is not far from our hotel. The food was.. man, delicious!! Seriously! Mama endorsed it, and you know mama wasn't really into mamak food and stuff..

after that we went to Batu Feringghi from there, where Malaysia's first Hard Rock Hotel is located.. the last 10 years or so, Penang has changed, a lot.. Tanjung Bungah to Batu Feringghi is now crowded with condos and luxury apartments.. the thing about Penang is that, you can build the apartments almost everywhere as long as you have the sea view, and in Penang there is hundreds of kilometers of beach! I mean, beaches! While in KL, Petronas Twin Towers view fetch the highest price, well.. I think (and I may be wrong). Funny how the very same persons who complained about how wasteful the twin towers project was during Tun Mahathir era, are the same people who would pay for the tower view..

the Hard Rock Cafes has become a must-see places for most of the people, including babah. It's some sort of an alter-ego stuff, when you are not that 'rock' anymore. You see, wearing the t-shirt is kind of a statement for some, like you were once 'cool', while for the others, it's just natural.. what the hell am I talking about?

Mama planned to stay at the hotel earlier but cancelled it as we should spend the RM500 a night for something else, hmm maybe on our next trip we will not feel guilty about spending that much cash, So, instead, we toured the hotel, the cafe, the lobby, peeked on the swimming pool.. I swear to God, it looked cool!

and of course.. The Rock Shop..

Back in the hotel, Adeeb just couldn't wait to look at the photos of him wearing the HRC T-shirt..

that night, we went to Queensbay Mall, nothing much to see.. malls normally look the same.. anywhere, so we spent 1/2 an hour and left! It was a tiring day.. so we retired early.. zzzz

the next day, after a simple breakfast in the hotel room, we went to the city centre looking for souvenirs, I don't really sure what is Penang famed for, the food? not sure if we can we bring back the curry, hmmm what else? Mama was looking for pickles to bring back home, so we went to Chowrasta market, at Penang Road. The place sound like a Bob Marley song, but contrary to what you think, it was an Urdu words mean 'cross road' or something.. After that we had our lunch at another nasi kandar restaurant, this time at Nasi Kandar Pokok Ketapang, not far from the market before we left Penang.. 

Bye-bye Penang! Till we meet again!

A Trip to Remember ~ Penang Part 1

Few days before this trip, mama mentioned about going to The Lost World of Tambun for a holiday, but not before we spend a night or two in Penang. Penang? sounds great, I know they have beautiful beaches there and hills too. One of the few Hard Rock Hotel is in Penang, so this place must be very happening!

after more than 4 hours on the road.. we reached Penang just in time for lunch, so we went to a restaurant at Prangin Mall, a shopping mall adjacent to Komtar. Everybody was starving so we just ate at the first restaurant that we found. It was still early to proceed to the hotel as we were told to check in at 3 pm, so we went for window shopping at the mall.

this was the hotel that we checked in, The Northam Suite Hotel, a bit far from the city centre but nicely located facing the sea.. the check in process was anything but smooth and we only managed to enter the room after 3:30 pm..

the suite is spacious, just look at the bathroom! It is huge!!

With king size bed.. and beautiful view of the sea.. we were gonna love this hotel. We have to freeze the moment and catch it on camera, look at me and babah trying to look cute with that duckface pose.. hehe

Adeeb, posing for the camera.. isn't he's cute? Well, he thinks so.. and that is how a boy who think he's cute posing for the camera. Adeeb will kill me if he read this.. and that will be in two, three years time till he can read.. hehe

just after we checked in, changed Adeeb's diaper.. (and mine) we went to Balik Pulau with mama's friend, Auntie Aini, Touted to be the best laksa in Penang and Seberang Perai.. Unfortunately I don't eat laksa, and so is babah and Adeeb. Not to worry, as we ordered, quite the best, bihun sup in the whole of Penang and Seberang Perai.. It was a great place called Laksa Janggus, located at Kampung Perlis (not to confuse it with Negeri Perlis okay). It is a self service restaurant and you have to queue to order, and the queue was quite long.. and it is a problem for babah, as he can be a little bit impatient sometimes.. hmmm

we were all sooo tired that night, too tired to go out.. so we asked babah to tapau food and he returned with pasembor and yong tau foo. I know yong tau foo, mama loves it, but pasembor? never heard of that, but I like it, although not quite perut friendly with its thick gravy. Some people would simply call this rojak, rojak tambi etc. and there is possibly hundred types of rojak out there, and not all are called rojak..

the next day was spent in the pool.. after breakfast, we changed to our swimming suits and went straight to the pool. Great, nobody were there except us.. I guess nobody was interested to plunge into cold water, in a cold strong wind, with stomach still full after breakfast,.. except us.. but who cares, as Pak Long would usually say.. ada Aku Kesah??

the view from the pool was great! if you look at the photos above, it looked as though the pool is placed dangerously too near to the edge. Well it wasn't and actually there is a balcony next to it.. but for me, it's still scary though, as the pool is not for children and the strong wind add up to the scary experience..

so.. it's not surprising that I was the first to get out of there..

I better save my energy for the Lost World of Tambun tomorrow!

A Day to Remember ~ Sunway Lagoon Nov 2011

To tell you guys the truth, I was not feeling well since our previous trip to Melaka. If you guys notice my sullen face during the Melaka trip, you can tell how sickly I look. Even during our day trip to Sunway Lagoon, I was not fully recovered from the cold and to make things worse, mama suffered the same thing. Anyway, trying our best to be a good hostess, we managed to join usu & the kids to the three times winner of Asia's Best Attraction award (2007-2009)

Despite my being pretty sick even to crack a smile for the camera, we really had a great time there especially my little brother...well, considering the fact that it was his first time, his enthusiasm was reasonable to me. I remembered my first trip to this theme park somewhere in 2009, it was nothing much to be frank, perhaps I was too young to have fun back then ;)

We had a carousel ride at the amusement park, it was fun if you enjoy doing something unadventurous hehe... adeeb even requested for another round, but we were running out of time and we didn't want to waste our awfully expensive entrance fees on some boring stuff...there's so much to explore, dear brother so get off your butt and let's get going!

Next, we headed to the wildlife park. You can see that adeeb was not easy to handle hehehe...We were looking for an elephant, or a giraffe at least but there wasn't any in sight...however, there were quite a number of monkeys and some species of birds which reminded me of KL bird park

can't wait to join the crowds at the waterpark ~ our final destination

it was a pity that I can't join them in the waterpark as long as I wanted to huhu... I was suffering diarrhea & left some valuable 'souvenir' at the souvenir shop when mama was shopping for souvenirs, and that's it! mama didn't let me stay any longer in the pool, but the best part was, I got to wear the brand new Sunway t shirt, I guess when you lose something you gain something else ;))

When feyfey and syaza were played out and easily falling asleep, my little brother seemed to have endless fun in the pool...mama had to drag him away from the pool and you can hear him screaming out frantically, LOL...adeeb adeeb, spare some energy for our next trip to the lost world of tambun, dear brother ;))

Melaka Revisited ~ Nov 2011

I have always been fascinated with Bandar Melaka, it's the same way I feel about Kuching.. both are historical cities and both are very unique in their own way. Old buildings are still there.. and in the case of Melaka, it goes way back to 1500s.. if I get the year correct hehe. But it is old and you can still feel it and touch it. But there is no sign that the Kerajaan Melaka was there, the Parameswara or Hang Tuah legacy was just on story book and not on the street of Melaka, you can't feel it as if it wasn't really there and make me wonder if it's just a myth. Prof Khoo could be right.. Well, back to Bandar Melaka, you see, it's the character of the city which is very important.. and not whether they have the tallest twin towers or the largest national flag.. or whatever..

though it was my 3rd time visiting this place, it was actually my first time visiting the Taming Sari tower. Reputed to be the first and probably the only gyro tower in Malaysia which offers spectacular view of the historical city from 80 meters high. Once it reaches the top, it gives us 360-degree spectacular and panoramic view of the city and beyond, as far as the eyes can see..

and this was also our first visit to the Maritime Museum, to be honest we were not really interested with the history of ships or seas or maritime for that matter, but the replica of Flora de La Mar or Flower of The Sea,  in which the museum is located. The replica is not the exact size of the Portuguese ship which sank sometime in 1512 right after the fall of Malacca in the hand of the Portuguese, but it still large enough to house four eras of Malacca maritime history namely the golden era of Malacca Sultanate, Portuguese era, Dutch era and British era up to the time of independence..

while on the way down from the third floor of the ship.. err museum.. we sat at the balcony of the museum enjoying the river view from there..

next we took a cruise along Malacca River.. 

the boat was full & and a bit congested.. so we didn't really have space to move around to take pictures..

back to the Mahkota Hotel.. our favourite place to stay while in Malacca.. I could see the pool from here, babah promised to take us to the pool tomorrow morning.. yeayyyy!

I was feeling tired and the hot weather made my head dizzy.. so I slept early, babah went to Mahkota Parade with Adeeb and mama stayed with me at the hotel that night.. 

Luckily when I got up the next day.. my headache was gone.. and we enjoyed our breakfast at the hotel..

after the breakfast we went to the swimming pool as promised.. looking at the pictures, Adeeb was hysterical.. this boy loves water sooo much..  hehe!

we spent about an hour and a half in the pool and checked out of the hotel slightly after 12 pm.. we need to send babah to the airport after that as he was taking the flight to Miri on that evening. I don't want to talk about babah returning to Miri.. coz I hate it so much when it happens.. lucky that Feyfey and Syaza will stay with us for a few days more.. at least something to look forward to while on our journey home..