Last Dec, we went up to Penang Hill early in the morning. I am glad that not many people and the queue were short. The train came very fast. In fact the operator told us, the new train only takes 5 minutes to go up. Compare to the old one, it is so much better. Adult ticket is RM8 and Child ticket is RM4 for Malaysian. Remember to keep the ticket for return trip, unless you want to hike down.

The view up there is breath taking. We paid RM30 for a buggy to take our family of 4 round the hill. We saw many luxurious bungalows, a broken bridge, lots of trees, plants and a very old postbox dated 1818.

I will definitely go up there again. The air is really fresh!

The Funicular Railway

Breath Taking View

The Tea Cafe

The Old Train

The Hill Map

The Oldest Postbox Dated 1818

Happy to receive this from Hasbro!

It started when I bought a Kreo-O Megatron Lego set for Timothy when I was in Hong Kong. However I discovered there were 2 pieces missing and we cannot build the Megatron robot. Sigh. I hopped on to the Hasbro website and found the customer service web page. I wrote to them using their online form. After a few weeks, there were no replies.

One night while I was working during US time, I tried out their CS online chat service. After a few tries, it failed to connect me to an agent. Being persistent I never give up. I decided to put United State as my location and wah la…it connected me to an agent. I got to chat with her online and because I am from AP, she will ask the AP manager to contact me.

The Hasbro manager did email me and I got a surprise. He asked me to send back the current set and he will send me a new replacement set. However, I just told him that I needed the missing pieces. He said that he will need to open up a new set and find the missing pieces. It was better for him to send me the new set. Hey how can I argue with that, right?

Here is the package and my children can make the Megatron again! This is what I call great Customer Service.

One day, I decided to surf the net to check out some local vacation spot for my children. It is very simple for them, all I need is a hotel room with bathtub, a TV with cartoon network and a big nice swimming pool.

Anyway, I stumble on Hot Springs in Ipoh. That will be a good relaxing spot for my hubby and me. I got a special deal for the hotel and a free voucher to the Hot Springs for 2 with breakfast. The Hot Springs is just opposite the hotel.

My family loved it. The Hot Springs only start at 6pm and the water is of course very warm. It has 8 different pool and 1 suana cave. Entrance fee is RM15 per person. I felt refresh after soaking for a good 30 minutes. There are also water jets to do some massaging as you soak yourself in the pool.

Next day, Emily pestered me to bring her to the Petting Zoo. Actually I have no plans to go into the Theme Park as entrance fees for the family is pricey. It was a hot day too and I rather stay in door. After much pestering, we decided to go.

The Petting Zoo was great as we got to feed the animals. Timothy enjoyed feeding the parrots. The parrots were smart, they use their beak to pick up the kuaci, crack it, take the seed and leave the shells on our hand. I liked feeding the smaller birds. I put seeds in my hand, lifted it high and the birds land on my hand and start pecking all the seeds. However there was a huge bird flew by and took all the seeds away. It was fun for my children and I.

My children went for the water fun after that. How can they resist? We allowed them to play for a while before we head back home.

Enjoy the pictures:

On the second day of Chinese New Year, Emily developed wheezing at night and a slight fever. Due to public holiday, most clinics were closed. I resort to bringing her to the hospital (Pantai Medical Cheras), at least they have emergency wad open. Oh boy, there was a queue and we waited. Everyone has to wait, no difference whether emergency or not.

It came to our turn and here is the conversation with the MO.

Doc: What’s wrong with her?
Me: She has wheezing and need the nebulizer. She also has a slight fever.
Doc: You doctor? *taken back by his sarcasm, I went speechless*
Doc: Does she have flu?
Me: Yes, started with runny nose 2 days ago.
Doc: What color what her phlegm or nose discharge?
Me: Don’t know because no discharge, she didn’t even blow her nose.
Doc: I don’t mean to be rude but I need to understand her situation…bla bla..bla.. *yeah right*
Doc: Is she asthmatic?
Me: Nope. But she is allergic to certain type of food like M&M and Japanese biscuit. Every time she takes it, she will get wheezing.
Doc: I believed she is asthmatic. Did you take her to see a specialist?
Me: Yes, in fact her doctor is a pediatrician.
Doc: Did she do a test?
Me: No because her wheezing attack is not frequent. Once or twice a year.

He kept going on about her being asthmatic. Well next time, I go to my pediatric doc, I will ask her. I still don’t believe my girl is asthmatic. Maybe she is allergy to certain food that causes the wheezing. I read in the web that allergy is not asthma.

After she had a cause of nebulizer, she felt much better. Note to self, I need to bring the nebulizer unit with me the next time I travel with her. In fact after 1 day, she totally recovered with no fever.

That’s not the end. I went to the pharmacy to collect medication. Guess what? The nurse gave me 2 bottles of fever medicine, 1 bottle of antibiotic, 1 bottle of ventolin and 1 bottle of cough mixture. I was shocked to see 2 bottles of fever medicine as she only have mild fever.

I rejected 1 bottle of fever med and antibiotic. I believed it is not necessary. I got a refund of RM$60. Make sure you check the medicine that your doctor give you. Not all are needed.

However, they couldn’t give me a bill with refund taken out. Some more the officer dared to ask me to claim more from my company. *rolled eyes* Really where is the ethics here?

That’s it, no more Pantai Medical Cheras for me. The first time, the MO failed to put an IV and now this. Hrmm, wonder how they train the officers there.

I must say that Hong Kong people are very creative. As I was there, I saw different creation of Christmas Trees. They must put lots of thoughts into attracting people to see these trees. Let me show you the different types of Christmas trees here. Aren’t they creative?

Chocolate Tree:

Recycle Box Tree:

Glass Tree:

Colorful Tree:

Huge Normal Tree:

I must say that there are many food varieties in Hong Kong and most of them are delicious. However it is very expensive to eat in Hong Kong because of its high standard of living. I ran out of cash mainly due to food because most of the time we pick small eating places and they only accept cash.

First day we tried the beef noodle and Tim tried the seafood noodle. I was disappointed with the wan tan noodle because it was difficult to chew and there is a kind of smell which Emily rejected. The Hong Kong Kai Lan was crunchy, it goes well with Oyster sauce.

Disneyland food was extra expensive, however the portion was big. I love the morning breakfast, the simple fried noodle, somehow is tasty with the unhealthy ham.

The “siu mei” (aka roasted) is a must try in Hong Kong. The have roasted goose, chicken, pork and duck. All of them were equally delicious. When I was there I watch a documentary on how the chef roast the delicious roasted duck or goose. The chef has to make sure that the right amount of heat and turning the goose at different period. It is done on a underground fire stove with no electronic gadget to adjust temperature. They used water to lower the temperature. That’s how they make the roasted goose or duck so tasty and delicious. You can almost get it anywhere in Hong Kong. If I stayed there long enough, I may develop high cholesterol because of this. 😛

Dim Sum is one of the popular meal in Hong Kong and the variety of dim sum they have is amazing. We tried the Shanghai style Dim Sum, a little different from the local one. We had Shanghai noodle and the famous dumpling. Too bad I didn’t find the local dim sum place to eat. Sorry only 2 pictures as I was too hungry when the food is served.

The best meal so far was the street meal. I still have craving over it until today. Basically you stand on the street to eat. My kids love the bbq sausages. I tried the curry tripes, curry meatballs, squid balls and curry squid. It is fantastic and smells good too!

After the street food, we drop by Lucky Dessert place to have some delicious dessert of coz. Tim ordered the Green Tea Ice Cream. Boy it was freezing outside and he still loves the ice scraping green tea ice-cream. I had the mango sago milk dessert, the taste is superb! My hubby had the hot double boil papaya soup. You must try their desserts if you are there.

Hot Pot is also another food I like there especially during the cold weather. Somehow my entire family loves hot pot.

Their milk tea is different there but the teh tarik here is much better. Their curry is not so spicy, as Hong Kong people do not eat spicy food compare to the people here. I wished I had more time to eat more food, there are other food that I wanted to try but either too far or no time. Maybe next trip!

After this post, I am getting hungry, aren’t you?

As I was shopping in Hong Kong, I like to look at their boots. I really like their winter boots. In fact I got one for my girl and she loved it, so much. You can find all kinds of boots from the wooly ones to the leather ones. I almost wanted to get one for work but I didn’t. Lazy to try on.

Boots I got for my girl:

Besides the boots, I also like their winter collection coats. I tried most of them but their sizes are way too small for me. Anyway, a sad thing here is that we do not have winter here to enjoy those clothing.

Hong Kong is a crowded city, congested with people everywhere at anytime. I was told some do not have an office to work, they are on the street all the time. I still cannot get it how people can text using their mobile phone and walk at the same time. Hong Kong is not the same as before as I see many people from China coming into that country.

Back to my family vacation, we started with Disneyland. We check out of the hotel early morning, left the big luggage bag in the hotel’s storage facility, just took a smaller bag to check into Disneyland hotel. I bought the promo package online, 2D/1N hotel stay with 2Days park tickets.

I anticipated a crowd but there weren’t any. We could get through all the rides and some shows on the first day. We even queue to take pictures with the Disney characters. If you are going, do plan for 2 days to cover every inch and corner. You never know when the crowd will appear. My children love the Astro Blaster from Toy Story which we went more than 9 times. Emily wanted to achieve Level 5 which she did. A few times on Pooh Honey Pot, Autopedia and Small World rides.

I took my children to the Space Mountain ride. They didn’t know what they were in for. It was really fun but both were scared and didn’t want a repeat.

We went to the Stitch show but after entering, Stitch spoke in Mandarin. I had to translate some of it to my children. Emily got pick to chat with the mandarin speaking Stitch. I had to be her translator. Tim wanted to watch the English version but it was at 2pm.

The shows were superb, every one of them. I liked the 3D show and the Golden Mickeys. All shows time are listed on the brochure.

The Christmas decorations were all over Disneyland and the night lightings were very nice. They even have fake snow there at the Main Street. The best was the fireworks! I couldn’t snap any pictures because my camera ran out of battery. So sad.

Ready to view the pictures, warning lots of pictures to load..…

I had made a booking very early in the year for a Hong Kong vacation for my family. Well my frequent flyer miles were expiring and I need to use them before it is gone. I thought about going Korea for a ski trip but I was afraid of language problem. In the end, I picked Hong Kong, more suited for the kids.
Anyway, I only have to pay tax for the air tickets to Hong Kong for my family. However HK hotels are very expensive. I am glad I got cooperate rates for the hotels too. Everything else is expensive in HK because of their standard of living.

It is the second time for my family to go to Hong Kong. We did the same trip 2 or 3 years ago but somehow I felt it was too short. This time, I planned a little longer because I anticipated a lot of walking and kids get tired.

I planned 2 days in Disneyland, 1 day Noah’s Ark, 2 days shopping and 1 day Ocean Park. I also wanted to go Sai Kung for seafood but failed to do so. It was really a bummer because I was short of cash, I didn’t change much cash there. Everything there uses cash instead of credit card. Ended up I didn’t buy much stuff except at stores which use credit card.

The hotel arrangements were to spend 2N in Disneyland, 2N is Kowloon and the rest in Hong Kong island. The Kowloon Hotel was very convenient to eatery places, shops, MTR and of coz near Victoria Harbor. It is also a short MTR station to Mongkok and Yau Ma Tei, where lot of shopping can be done. However the rooms were a little small. I like the Grand Harbor Hotel with was a little bigger but it has a very beautiful harbor view, also near the MTR station. Of coz, the usual Disneyland Hollywood hotel is also spacious. All three hotels have a bathtub which my children love. They never get tired of playing water even on a cold day.

The Kowloon Hotel:

The Disneyland Hollywood Hotel, more spacious with 2 twin bed and seaview. The seaview is a little far for me:

Harbor Grand HK Hotel:

A Beautiful Harbor View:

Before I went for my vacation, I thought of cutting my long hair. I guess it been 1.5 years since I last cut my hair. Actually I wanted a few inches above my shoulder. I walked into the hair salon with Emily. She also wanted to cut her fringe which is almost touching her eyes.

You know how the hair dresser cut my hair. He used a rubber band, tied my hair and cut it all at one shot. That’s the end of my long hair.

I was chatting with the hair dresser and he continued snipping away my hair. As I looked up, I was shocked to see how shot he cut my hair. I really didn’t expect it to be so short.

Anyway, my hair grows very fast so not a worry. I just have to bear with it a couple of months. Now it is so much easier to manage my hair. I don’t have to blow dry and uses lesser shampoo/conditioner. It feels great!