I took lots of pics with my camera (the old Nikon camera) and below are some of the pics :-

Mahatma Gandhi, if I'm not mistaken. All the figures has names on them but I was not really taking note.

Mao Zedong - He was a Marxist military and political leader, and philosopher, who led the Communist Party of China to victory against the Kuomintang in the Chinese Civil War, also leading it through the War of Resistance

Mahathir Mohamad!

Aung San Suu Kyi

Queen Elizabeth.

Pablo Picasso

Lee Hsien Loong

Albert Einstein

David Beckham ... don't look so serious-lah! Hahaha...

The late Micheal Jackson in his famous pose

Britney Spears

Bruce Lee

Thai tv personality - Ken Theeradej Wongpuapan - I initially thought he was a real person standing at the corner looking at our direction! Hahaha..

Kate Winslet

Michelle Yeoh

Julia Roberts with her million dollar smile.

Will Smith

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie

This one I really cannot remember his name. If I am not wrong, he is a Korean celebrity.

All the wax figures in Madame Tussauds are made to be as exact as possible to the real person – from the colour of the eyes, to the skin colour and the clothes are donated by the personality itself (where possible).  According to the write up, the wax figures are constantly checked and touched up.  Even the clothes are changed and sent for laundry! There are many figurines in Madame Tussauds – maybe close to 70 or more.  I looked at the website recently and saw that they added a new figurine in the collection – Lady Gaga!

They have small games and attires which you can don and pose with the figurines.  Hubby wore the musician attire and hat and posed with Mozart… which was really funny … because some of the visitors thought that hubby was part of the figurines as he was trying his best to stay still for me to photograph him.

I left out many of the pictures I’ve taken – there is also Mozart, Barack Obama, Jack Sparrow, Spiderman … and the list goes on.  Madame Tussauds is a good place to visit if you have kids or even if you are not a kid yourself.

Madame Tussauds Bangkok

Location : 6th Floor, Siam Discovery Center
Opening Hours : 10:00 – 21:00
Ticket Prices : 800 bath (Adult) 600 bath (Children under 12 years). Check online for discounts.
Website : http://www.madametussauds.com/bangkok

If you’ve never been to a wax museum before, Madame Tussauds is a good one

Below are some pics I took of Muffin at Desa Parkcity :-

*sniff* *sniff*

Kissing is allowed in this park ... I mean for our little furry friends

Doing some stunts while drinking water from the bottle.

Now, lets see... any other dogs that I can chase?

Muffin and her mummy - its just for a split second that she stood still enough for this shot to be taken. The next shot was just the mummy and Muffin's butt... hahaha...

Desa Parkcity’s park is a favorite spot for dog owners during weekends as dogs are allowed to roam freely in the beautiful park.  Dog owners and dogs gets to interact and network with each other ~ and I can feel an instant bonding amongst those who were there.  I made many new furry friends

Location of Desa Parkcity Dog Friendly Park

[mappress mapid="6"]

There are many different flowers and gift ideas to help you say what you want to say.  Below are some nice ones… but you should really go check out this website for more flowers inspiration and ideas.  Their hand bouquets are really lovely with vibrant colors matched perfectly for any occasion.  They also have a wide range of flowers and occassion-based flowers arrangement to give you a glimpse of what they have to offer.

And if flowers don’t work for you… try these pretty photo frames.  I like these frames because they are handmade and are non conventional, making them unique and different – just like how you would want your gifts to be!

The best of it all is that Bloom2U is running a special promotion from 23rd June to 31 August 2011 – where they are giving up to 70% discount!  More details at www.bloom2u.com or www.facebook.com/bloom2u or follow their twitter at @Bloom2ucom

30% off fresh flowers!

The Big Bloom Sale

Bloom2U Outlets :-

LG25 IPC Shopping Center (formerly known as IKANO Shopping Center)

LG17 EMPIRE Shopping Gallery

(All flowers and photo frame images are copyright of Bloom2U)

Mother-in-law and her sister stayed in Adeline’s Villa – the newer phase of Adeline’s Rest House (Adeline Villa) while the rest of us stayed in Adeline’s Rest House, which is more of a back-to-nature chalet type.

7 of us slept in this house, that is built over a small stream. Inside the house, you will think that its raining outside...but actually the sound is the stream not the rain.

4 others stayed in this house, which is much smaller than ours. Under this house is a hammock - nice...

Most of the houses are built on top of the little stream, and surrounded by lots of greens.

The walls of the houses are made of bamboo strips (very much like the orang asli houses) and the balcony door is a draw down type (no lock). The room door has no key but you can bring your own padlock

Overall map of Adeline's Rest House - its hand drawn ... so authentic... adds flavour to the resort

Each of the house in Adeline’s Rest House is divided into two portion – the room and the balcony. Because space was scarce and there were 7 of us in one of the houses, hubby and myself volunteered to sleep in the balcony area. I admit I was a bit too gung-ho because the balcony had no door and anyone can just walk in and cart us away (that is if they could manage a heavy weight like me.. lol). It has a draw-down bamboo blind as a door, with no actual door and anyone or any animal (if any) can just walk in to the balcony where we were sleeping. I never thought about it until it was time to sleep… but the tiredness make me doze off pretty quickly.

At 2am I had this sudden urge to go to the washroom – and the toilet is not attached to the houses. Like the old kampung houses, the toilets in Adeline’s Rest House are outside and you have to walk outside in the open to go to the washroom. Our unit is just 5 steps away from the washroom – so its a quick walk to and fro and back to bed. Just before we could close our eyes, all lights went off – it was like an electricity trip or something. It was complete darkness outside and I couldn’t really sleep after that for fear that there could be someone lurking out there in the darkness and we would have no clue because we can’t see anything out there. I think I only managed to sleep after like 1 hour or so.

Bathing is a real problem for me because I’m so used to warm water bath. The bath on the first day after getting soaked in the rain was awakening. The water is not just cold but icy cold – it felt like ice water from the refrigerator! I think only hubby and me took a bath right after the rain. And the next morning, I think I was the only one that took a bath at 7am. The water is freezing! It would be really nice if Adeline’s Rest House could have water heater installed.  Staying at Adeline’s Rest House is a new experience, even for a kampung girl like me … let alone the other urbanites.  LOL.  The price stated in the website for Adeline’s Rest House ranges from RM98 to RM138 per pax, depending on the type of food package you choose.  Adeline’s Rest House also have packages which includes the outdoor activities.

On the other hand, mother-in-law stayed in Adeline’s Villa, which is about 200 metres away from Adeline’s Rest House. Their unit (No. 111) is on the slope overlooking the kitchen and dining area, with a scenery of the hills and lush greenery. The best part of it all is that the walls are completely glass – so you can practically lie down on the bed while enjoying the scenery! It comes with bathroom attached and pretty huge one too! Inside the room are three single beds and one double bed. The beds are configured this way for each room, and they don’t adjust it even if you have less guest in the room. I didn’t take an actual pic of the villa.. but here’s a glimpse of how beautiful it is.  The package for 2 Day 1 Night stay at Adeline’s Villa is RM188 (please check their website for exact price, which is subject to changes) per pax – and this includes one lunch, one dinner and one breakfast.

One of the villa - notice the nice walls and classy window panes.

Mum in law's unit in the background. You can see the balcony on the right top side of the pic

One of the unit in front of my mum in law's unit. Nice huh?

The food is very good to my standard. Let the pics tell the story.

Open concept kitchen at Adeline's Villa. They are preparing the food and serving it to you piping hot. Their display counter itself makes the food look extra appetizing!

Dinner is BBQ ... yummy yummy

Hubby opted for no rice...

Breakfast is also very good. Maybe the cold made me extra hungry

The famous bamboo soup at Adeline's Villa

We also ate durians during our stop over at Gopeng town and this old man helped us choose really nice durians. They were quite cheap – comparatively in KL it would have cost 3 fold. His shop is on the same row with the Heritage House – his is the corner lot, near to the roundabout.

Durian at Gopeng

The afternoon we arrived at Adeline’s Rest House, it started to rain so instead of caving at Gua Kandu, we stayed back to rest and went to the swollen river which looked pretty scary! It had a bridge that connects both sides and is completely covered in water every time it rains. According to the locals, the local’s access (by car/van/lorry) are completely cut off every time it rains but there is another pedestrian bridge though not accessible by big vehicles on the top.

The rain water from upstream was so rapid and swift, it looked like a perfect spot for white water rafting. It is completely covered the bridge that connects the two sides.

Another pic of the river. The river is a mere 100 metres away from Adeline's Rest House. We initially thought we could take a dip in the river.

I took this pic from the pedestrian bridge on top of the river.

The stay at Adeline’s Rest House is something new for me and I love the back-to-nature feel to it.  Besides Adeline’s Rest House, the Gua Kandu caving is a real test to our mental and physical limits.  While staying at Adeline’s Rest House, there are a host of other activities to keep you occupied – white water rafting, wet abseiling, jungle trekking, night walk, Rajah Brooke butterfly watching and they also cater for team building.

An article about Adeline’s Rest House in The Star ~ http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2007/7/1/sundaymetro/17780102&sec=sundaymetro

Contact Information for Adeline’s Rest House and Adeline’s Villa

Address : Lot 13302, Mukim Teja, Kampung Geruntum, Sungai Itik, 31600 Gopeng, Perak, Malaysia.
Website : http://www.adelinevilla.com
Telephone : 6017 572 1113(Adeline) or 6019 556 1113(Ian)
E-mail: rumahrehatadeline@yahoo.com
Remarks : Adeline’s Villa is 200 meters away from Adeline’s Rest House.

Adeline’s Rest House is highly recommended for those who love eco-adventure!

Hubby’s sister brought the entire family for an eco-adventure trip to Gua Kandu over the weekend.  Gua Kandu is a limestone cave in Gopeng, and was previously used as a communist base.  According to our tour guide (Kent and Along from Adeline’s Villa), the legend says that the name Kandu originated from a local boy who went inside the cave and never came out… ever.  He warned us about sighting of the boy in cave, which of course sent jitters up our sleeves. LOL.

There was 13 of us in this whole trip, and 11 opted for the Gua Kandu caving experience.

Its a real experience from the start…we were transported to the cave in a 4 wheel drive, all of us standing behind the open area like a herd of cows.  I suddenly understood what it was like to be cow… hahaha …  But the scariest part is that the road leading to Gua Kandu, which is a single lane road with two way traffic.  At times the vehicle has to swerve to the side in which the valley is right on the side…probably the height of a 5 storey building! It took about 15 minutes for us to arrive at the entrance of Gua Kandu.  On arriaval, we were presented with helmets by our tour guides which really made us look like porcupine. Hahaha..

Very funny looking helmets that everyone has to wear as a precautionary measure. It looked very funny ~ like a porcupine head! They supply the helmets without headlamps, so you have to buy your own.

It rained the day before, so the road up Gua Kandu was very slippery and muddy.  Its a trail with ropes and lots of branches you could hold onto but it is still pretty scary at certain points.  Its a steep hike up and absolutely not suitable for small kids and the elderly, unless they are capable of the climb on their own.  After a 10 minute hike up, we finally reached the entrance of Gua Kandu and were given a briefing by Kent, our guide.  We switched on our headlamps and were whisked into a small entrance which was really really dark.  Hubby bought us very brightly lit headlamps so it was really helpful.  We were asked to walk in a line, and Along (the tour guide) was the last in the line followed by hubby and me – prior to that hubby was already freaking me out with some gory stories.  Inside the cave, we were shown stalagmite and stalactite formations…plenty of them.  According to Kent, it take 100 years for it to grow 1 inch!  We then stopped by a chamber… which is a huge area that you could really sit down and have a meeting and Kent told us that there are reportedly some 360 chambers in Gua Kandu and only 9 has been explored.  Below are some pics I took in the cave, many are not very clear because of poor lighting.

After a short walk in the cave, we reached this opening but we were told that we can't get out from here because its a steep cliff outside.

Some of these were really beautiful and transparent ... very crystal-like. Its wet and we were asked not to touch it.

It probably take hundreds of thousands of years to form this. Looks majestic!

Original writings in Gua Kandu by the communist. Nephew trying to read what's being written.

Overall, the inside of Gua Kandu was a combination of wet, dry and dusty.  At times, the Gua Kandu entrance is so small that you need to squat and sometimes it is so huge you can’t even tell how high the cave’s ceiling is.  The helmet is very handy because I knocked my head on the cave’s ceiling a few times.  Our guide also asked us to switched off all our lights at one of the chamber, just to experience how it is to be in the cave without lights.  Its pitch dark that you can’t even see your own hands!  Its quite eerie!

When we finally reached the exit of Gua Kandu, its again another climb down a steep slope.  Because of the rain the day before, it was really slippery and most of us fell at least once during the climb down.  Our guides, Kent and Along was really helpful throughout the entire journey – Kent could speak English very well, is very knowledgeable about Gua Kandu and could pull humor along the way to help ease our nervousness while Along helped us in most of our climbs and made sure we were all safe and sound.

My next post is about our stay at Adeline’s Rest House and some pics on the bridge that got submerged because of the heavy downpour.

It took two hours to complete the whole caving experience at Gua Kandu and *phew* its tiring, fun and exciting!

Belanga has a very kampung look, walls with cement render but tastefully furnished kitchen ~ everything looks very ‘designer’ and classy, so is the price tag  *LOL*.  Looks aside, their food is really really good.

Personally I’m a fan of Nasi Kerabu and Nasi Dagang, so I rarely try out the other food in the menu – but I read other reviews saying that their Laksam and Nasi Tumpang is excellent too. The ingredients that they used on the Nasi Kerabu is freshly cut and you can feel the juiciness of the raw vegetables. Most of the Nasi Kerabu I’ve tried feels dry because the ingredients are cut gazillion years ago and loses its fresh taste.

Nasi Kerabu at Belanga

The Nasi Kerabu has got fried grated coconut, cucumber, beansprouts, daun kusum (not sure what this is called in English), salted egg and keropok (fried fritters).

You get to choose either Ikan Bakar (grilled fish) or Daging (roasted beef) as the main dish.  I absolutely love the Ikan Bakar, and for those who know me well knows that I actually don’t like to eat fish but for the Nasi Kerabu at Belanga, fish is THE CHOICE .  Sometimes good food converts you… hahaha…  The fish is grilled to perfection and served hot.

Nasi Kerabu with Daging

My dad was already mixing the whole plate of Nasi Kerabu when I took the above pic – it tells you how good it look (and taste!).  His was the Daging version, there are about 10 pieces of sliced beef.  Being a Kelantanese himself, he said the food is good compared to the many we’ve tried in KL.  Price is a bit steep because you can buy a plate of Nasi Kerabu (I admit not comparable in terms of ambience and freshness) for RM3.00 or less in normal shops … especially in our usual place in Taman Kok Doh, Segambut.  Belanga’s Nasi Kerabu is more than RM10.00 per plate.  You can expect chalking up a bill of more than RM50.00 for 3 person… but the satisfaction of eating good Kelantanese food … yummy!

LOCATION OF BELANGA :

The Gardens (the basement floor)
Empire Shopping Gallery (2nd or 3rd floor)
SS2 Mall (Ground floor)

Belanga serves one of the best Nasi Kerabu in Kuala Lumpur, in my opinion, and is a definite must for those who love Kelantanese cuisine.

In my little mini car, we packed all our stuff inclusive of all the joss paper which my mum has folded neatly.  We have planned this trip months back, booked Tune Hotels even before it was opened and hubby even planned where we were going for our meals.

The trip was a long 8 hours because we wanted to adhere by the speed limit of 90km/h … many angry car drivers zoomed passed us, tailed us very closely or overtook us dangerously.  We almost got into a few accidents because of these irresponsible drivers.  That’s what you get for obeying the law in Malaysia.  Hmm…  Anyway, we got to Kota Bahru safely and checked into Tune Hotels Kota Bahru.

We booked the Tune Hotel Kota Bahru room at RM0.15 per night!

Tune Hotels Kota Bahru is spanking new and car park was easy to get because the other shops in the same row were not operating yet.

We were told that they have other car park available if there are not empty spots on the ground floor.  Location is perfect because there is the KB Mall (with lots of eateries, shops and supermarket) across the road.  Inside Tune Hotel is also a 24 hour eatery serving Kelantan cuisine.  Our room is on the 7th floor, and everything is tip top in the room ~ nice plush bed, clean white sheets, clean tiled floor, power shower … and a TV!  Yes ~ now there is entertainment in the room but with a small price to pay.  We did not opt for the TV because we were not going to spend much time in the room anyway.  Maybe in our next trip… lol…

Not sure what the place name is.. they serve steamboat Malay-Thai style. Very relaxed place. Its on Jalan Pengkalan Chepa

On our first night in Kota Bahru, we went for this Malay-Thai steamboat called Chim Chum.  It is a buffet steamboat and they have a variety of cooked food as well – the Kelantan Laksa, Bubur, Fried Mee and lots of fruits and ulam.  Per pax is RM16 (if I am not wrong)…

We never miss this everytime we go back to Kota Bahru - our favourite nasi lauk. I can't find it in KL.

Next morning, we had our usual Nasi Lauk (or Nasi Berlauk) for breakfast.  Its just a simple steaming hot rice with curry gravy and chicken, braised cucumber (very unique and not available anywhere else in this style & taste), half piece of boiled egg.  Looks very normal but the taste is extraordinary!  Yummy yummy…  This is one type of food that I can only find in Kota Bahru, or I should say only in Kelantan.  Its like street food available only in Kelantan.

Standing Chicken ... its at a place called Chiengmai in Wakaf Baru

Hubby wanted to try the ‘standing chicken’ he read about in some food blog ~ so we went to this place called Chiengmai in Wakaf Baru.  Its deep inside the kampungs ~ so you need some directions before you can make your way there.  You need GPS to get there.  But the locals know the place well, and you guessed it.. it was packed with locals.  The skin is crispy but I felt the sauce is weird.  Maybe I just don’t know how to appreciate this Thai-Chinese fusion?

We also took the opportunity to buy mangoes, buah salak (snake fruit?), our favourite Akok (some type of kuih made of santan) and lots of other goodies.

The car went full of joss paper and came back full of food!  But then, yes, that’s our annual Kota Bahru trip.

But since the urban guy is so keen to go, we obliged and off we went to Penang island to search for this place called Goh Huat Seng Teochew Charcoal Steamboat in Lebuh Kimberley.

Even though I’m born in Penang and spent a couple of growing up year there, I was never familiar with the roads in Penang.  So, it was a bit of merry-go-round before we finally found Lebuh Kimberley.  Even with GPS (non voice assisted GPS) and a very lousy navigator (the urban guy), the expert driver (yours truly) still managed to find this special charcoal steamboat restaurant. Hahaha…

I must say that the steamboat pot itself is unique… look at it yourself.  Its pretty shallow so it is quite hard to dish out the stuff you put in.  The helping is surprisingly little ~ the one you see in the pic is stuff for 2 pax.   When the charcoal steamboat pot arrived, there was already vegetables placed inside – so unlike the KL version that they serve you the vegetables raw and you choose whether you want to put it in the pot, this one is already inside.  The soup is quite tasty.. must be their secret recipe.  We ordered a plate of mee to go with the meal, and it taste quite good too.  Our total bill (2 pax steamboat + 1 plate of mee + chinese tea for 3 pax) came to RM52.  Not too bad for a different experience.

If you are keen to try the charcoal steamboat at Goh Huat Seng, be early (not later than 6:30pm) because it can get packed and parking is quite a challenge.  We arrived at 7:00pm and there were only two empty tables by then.

The charcoal steamboat pot is quite small and they put a long funnel on top to prevent the charcoal fire from flying all over.

There were cuttlefish, fish, chicken meat, sotong ... etc. This plate is for 2 pax.

The first place came with this plate too ... meat, tau foo and other meat balls ... collectively they are for 2 pax

The worst part about ordering is not having a menu. We simply ordered a mee without actually knowing what it would be like. The outcome is ok, but not what hubby wanted.

(Pictures are courtesy of Bryan Koh – thank you for the nice photography!)

Goh Huat Seng Teochew Charcoal Steamboat

Address: 59A, Kimberly Street, Penang.
Price : RM20 per pax (for steamboat only)

Check out the location at the below map.

[mappress mapid="5"]

Charcoal steamboat is pretty interesting as most steamboat these days (commercial or at home) do not use the traditional charcoal version anymore.

That was my answer when I was asked which hotel I would prefer to put up in for my stay in Penang.  There were other choices but I wanted to try Tune Hotels since there was so much hype about it.  It was a trip to give a short talk in Segi Penang, that I covered in my last post…. and that was back in 2009.

I’m impressed with Tune Hotels because it lived up to its promises of 5 star quality ~ rather than use words, let the pictures tell the story…

There is no coffee tea making facility in the room, but there is 7 11 downstairs where you can buy any stuff you want 24 hours a day.  Even though the hotel is basic, it is good enough for me ~ a good bed, hot & powerful shower, convenience when I need it.  Oh yes, there is no TV in the room so for the TV addict… bring your own portable tv.. hahahaha…

Update on Tune Hotels

Tune Hotels now have TVs installed in the rooms so there is now entertainment in the room for a small fee.

I’ve done a few speaking sessions in the past, also on IT security, which is part of my job as the Senior Marketing Manager.  I was speaking on behalf of the company I was working with (back then) and the objective was to spread awareness on IT security and of course, to sell what we were selling (obviously).  But this round was a little different, because I was the only speaker for the day and the audience was there just for this session.

It happened in 2009, so it was quite a while back.  I was cleaning up the files and folders and came across the below pics of my visit to Segi Penang, and me as a speaker for the day.  Segi Penang also wrote a short article on the speaking session at their website :- http://www.segi.edu.my/news/Penang_IT_Security.html.

Being the speaker gives you an opportunity to say what you want to say, with minimal interruption and its a good chance to sell… LOL

It was a fun and exhilarating experience to be a speaker in front of student, lecturer and staff combination in Segi College Penang.  Other speaking sessions I’ve did was for TAR College in PJ and Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) in Penang and Kuala Lumpur, on the same topic and approach.

Being a speaker in front of a huge audience is quite challenging – you have to remember what you want to say, you need to control the crowd, you need to entertain the crowd and you need to focus on those whom are not paying attention and also those whom are paying close attention to you.  I learn a lot from these experiences and I would never trade them for anything else.

Given a chance… I would want to be a speaker again but on the topic of marketing or social media