Pulau Burung, Port Dickson

Once again mom-in-law invited us to join her at Teluk Kemang, Port Dickson. During our stay this time, while training for our upcoming running event, hubby and I found this nice place to enjoy the beautiful scenery of the sea called Pulau Burung which located near the Cahaya Negeri beach.

Actually it is a small island which have only 1 building i.e the conservation tower where you can see a spectacular vuew from up there. I saw lots of people fishing here so I guess it must be a good spot for fishing activity.

2D1N at Johor Bahru

Beside attending the AIA vitality MWH Night Run,  we also took the opportunity to visit hubby older sister and exploring some place that I managed to google thru travelling blogger.

We checked in at Euro + Hotel that I booked thru Agoda which costed us RM150 per night for family room. It's new, comfortable enough for us and cheap family friendly hotel.

After lunch, we went to Johor's Zoo with sister-in-law family which is a must visit attraction according to travelling blogs that I read before our 2D1N trip to Johor Bahru. It is actually a mini zoo but I think it's better than Zoo Negara because kiddos really did have a good time here. Entrance fee is RM2/pax for adult and RM1/pax for kids.

Family Potrait is a must

The Fee Board

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The next day after night run, we managed to stop by at Legoland and took some photos. Nope, we did not enter legoland but wandering at the mall in front of it before we continued our journey back to Puchong. We reached puchong at 6pm after 3 hours driving, quite fast because of the smooth traffic.

Overall, this 2D1N trip to Johor is considered okay although we missed many hot spot especially nice foods spot due to time limit. Need to stay longer in order to venture all of the nice and recommended places in Johor Bahru.

AIA Vitality Men's Women's Health Night Run-Johor

A week ago on 7th January 2016, we went to Johor merely because we joined the AIA vitality MWH Night Run which is held at Puteri Harbour, Johor Bahru. 

It was a free registration because hubby won 2 free pass from IG contest. My 1st running event without any training, not even walking or jogging for the past 3 months,LOL!  

The event can be considered as a fun one because there a lots of activities you can try out at the event site but suprisingly only few hundreds runners at this event. 

Overall to me it was a smooth and enjoyable running event; ood numbers of portable toilets, enough water stations, generous goodie bag, good medal design and scenery running route as well. Not forget to mention their amazing volunteer and supporting team!

Food Hunting At Muar, Johor

hunting is one of my favorite activity just because I love foods and my tummy constantly hungry all the time, hahaha!

Last week during Christmas holiday, we joined MIL to stay at Muar for 2D1N to chillax and hunts for Muar delicacies since we have no plan for the long weekend. Kiddos was excited because they will able to meet their cousins (from hubby side).

It took approximFood ately about an hour and 45min drive from Puchong to Muar and our 1st stop is Tanjung Emas Food Court where we have yummy asam pedas for lunch and refreshing ABC for dessert. 3 kali minta nasi tambah sebab finger licking good ba tu asam pedas!

After lunch, we went to Nur Hawa Homestay which located at Sungai Abong, Muar. It's a spacious house with 6 rooms (2 equipped with A/C, the others with fans and A/C at living room) and 3 bathroom. BIL booked this homestay at discounted rates of RM250/night because he is local. Normal price is RM380/night hokey! Kira harga kasih sayang untuk orang2 asal sungai Abong ler..

After checked in, we went to the stall in front of the homestay; duduk lepak-lepak mengeteh sambil makan pisang goreng  while waiting for the others to arrive. I can say that we were just ate and ate and ate the whole afternoon because there are many food stall nearby the homestay!

After Maghrib, we went to Medan Ikan Bakar Sabak Awor, our main purpose of spending a night at Muar. There were 17 of us and we ordered 5 L size crabs, 1kg of kupang, 6 M size ikan kembungs, 5 L size ikan tongkol, 1.3kg prawns, 2 M size siakap, 3 plates of mixed veges, 3 jug of beverage and 4 pot of rice that costed us RM280. Very cheap isn't it? If we have that in Puchong, it might cost more than RM350!  Medan Ikan bakar Sabak Awok always packed with customer so it's better to come early because you might have to wait for vacant table.

The next day, we went to Sai Kee Kopi 434 but unfortunately it's full and there were peoples waiting for their turn to be seated so we cancelled our plan to have a drink there and went to try the so called Mee Bandung Udang Muo Ori. I am not fan of mee bandung but this one taste so good man! RM12/plate but worth it and don't forget the big glass of air bandung soda, slurpp!

Jalan-jalan cari makan definitely is my thing. Hubby, lets do it again! Lol!

Picnic At Sungai Kemensah

My eldest son said, "ma, tak payah pergi cuti mahal-mahal. Bawa kami pergi picnic mandi sungai lagi best. Jimat, tak membazir duit" A very mature and considerate words from my 13years old son. Dang it, tiba-tiba mata masuk habuk pula...

Oh well, couldn't say more since he is totally correct. Why spending $$$ money when we can have fun and quality time with our family with just $$. So 2 weeks ago we went to picnic at Kemensah River which located at Kampung Kemensah Ampang, nearby Zoo Negara. I just found out about this picnic tho, lol!

We drove off from Puchong at 8am and arrived there around 8.45am and managed to secure a strategic picnic spot with Celi Chalet/Campsite with RM15 fee. Yep, it's not free like Sungai Congkak but it's okay because unlike Sungai Congkak, the area is clean, well maintain and necessity such as toilet and changing room with shower are provided. There are huts and chalets priced between RM20-RM120 for those who want to stay overnight. Oh ya, they also provided Bbq equipment with reasonable price or you can make you own bbq table, ngehehe!

huts and chalets

We played and soaked in the water for almost 2 hours before the coldness beat me off and forced my youngest son and me to retreat and changed into dry clothes. Orang keding cepat kesejukan ba. By the time we were about to drove off back home, the place is starting to get super-crowded. Luckily we were early or else I might not able to join hubby and kiddos in the water since I tend to feel awkward and uncomfortable with crowd of people who normally 'stare', pheww!

breakfast at river side

we were freezing!

soaking like a hippopotamus, lol!

Compulsary wefie!

Hubby said, next time will set our 'date' here so that we can try those ATV ride adventure that they offered there (*finger crossed). Only adult aged 18yrs above allowed to ride ATV, so can't bring kiddos next time.

posing pun jadilah..hahaha!

Overall, it was one of our cheap but fun picnic trip for our family and I don't mind repeating it over and over again because it's one of method of exposing the kids to love nature. 

free advertising for Celi Chalet :P

Family Day At Pengkalan Balak, Melaka

Assalamualaikum wbt.

Just want to share about family day (Mister family) that we attended last month before the draft become stale. Mister's sibling has been planning this family day/trip after the wedding of mister's brother on March. Although I am not part of their whatsapp group, my sis-in-law(SIL) always keep me on tabs on important news such as place selection, the date of execution and the theme for our family day. Pening ba saya ratus2 message come all in once bila on data/wifi. 

Our 1st choice was Desa Balqis Beach Resort but it was full on 29th and 30th August. So we opted for 2nd choice which is Pengkalan Balak and we choose to stay at Seraya Chalet. We all agreed to the blue theme and I am glad that my SIL heed my suggestion over using 'family day 2015' instead of 'family reunion 2015' on our blue-theme t-shirt. The T-shirt was cheap and I really like the material; soft and cool. It only costed RM68.80 for mister, me and kiddos T-shirt.

We drove from Puchong around 9.00am after having light breakfast of buns and milo and reached pengkalan Balak around 10.30am. Since the other family members just started their journey, we drove round and round looking for good stall/restaurant and choose this owned by an old man and have our lunch there. We ordered 6 plate of rice, 2 bowls of yummy asam pedas  ikan kembung (kuah is refillable), veges, fried chickens and 6 different beverage and it only costed us RM32. Super cheap and the food is delicious! Unfortunately I forgot the name of this stall (*sighed). 

The only pic I took at that time, LOL!

Around 2pm, the others arrived and we checked in to our room at Seraya Chalet. We booked 8 rooms in total at RM100/room which I considered cheap since it was peak season. We didn't start any games until 5.30pm because we were waiting for mister's eldest sister from Johor to arrive. Moreover it was scorching hot and  bit hazy that noon, jadi kami lepak-lepak, borak-borak sambil makan (lagi) makanan yang MIL masak dari rumah.

We are lucky because the beach was less crowded that we have the space to do all of those games created by SIL a.k.a the organizer. It was fun and hilarious games where we were divided into 4 group (adult+kids mixed). The guys cheated most of time (LOL) that the ultimate judge (MIL) find it hard to determine who is the winner. In the end, group who showed good cooperation won. Not much pic taken (by me) during games because I was busy having fun, hehehe!

Pics while doing games at the beach

Beside the games, I took the opportunity to do the banana boat rides with my sis-in-law and bro-in-law. The fee is cheap; RM10/pax with min 6pax per ride (approximately 15min). I was laughing hard for the whole ride because of my SIL keep screaming and 'swearing' every time we shouted 'fly' and 'terbalik' to the boat operator, hahahaha! Elan and Daniel also want to ride but mister didn't allow them to do so despite of green light from me. Hurmmm, kesian, nanti kamu besar sikit la baru main kio anak2.

Banana Boat ride

Incomplete 'us' - 2 is missing in action (sibuk mandi laut)

Mister's family

That night after Solat Maghrib and Isyak, we went for dinner hunting but end up with restaurant with terrible service and expensive with so-so foods, grrrrrr! We waited for almost 20min before the waitress took our order and have to wait for almost an hour before getting our food! Their excuses; short of staff. Duh, kasi tau awal-awal la ba kan. Lost appetite terus tu malam, grrrr!

Forced smile - Warning; Don't dine out at this restaurant!

After those horrible dinner, we continued with our family bonding time; random quizzes for kids, gift exchange for adults and lastly souvenirs/hampers for all of us. We keep chit-chatting after that and the others still chatting when I went to bed at 1am. Banyak betul gosip dorang, tidak terlayan saya mo dengar, kihkihkih!

Enjoying the night

The kids being asked random question about the family

Woke up early the next morning and have breakfast at nearby stall while kids went to play at the beach again. 3 bungkus nasi lemak kena bedal sebab terlampau lapar. By the time we checked out from Seraya Chalet, the haze was pretty bad so my family went back to Puchong while the others follow my MIL to her friend's kenduri. 

Overall, this family day was so fun and I think they will make this annual activity from now and hopefully will able to join it again (*finger crossed).

Family pic before bound back to Puchong + compulsory 'mikirayou' pose ;P

I heart this pic (^^) V

Oh well, hopefully this long post won't bore you all to death. Glad that finally I am able to publish this before my laziness strike. Until next post, peace!

Picnic At Sungai Congkak

During the recent school mid-term break, I didn't plan any trip or holiday for our family because the budget is quite tight nowadays plus I am saving for approaching Ramadhan and Aidilfitri. 

However, knowing that the kids need a fresh air and their dose of nature, we visited our favorite camping/picnic spot at Sungai Congkak. Kiddos love this place because it remind them of the stream nearby my home at village. They miss our kampung so much! Hopefully can secure our flight ticket end of this year or next year (*finger crossed). 

Visiting Sungai Congkak cost me nothing except for the parking fee (and foods of course) but nobody collecting those fee when we went there during the mid-term break. Normally there will be local people collecting RM5 per car. It was really a nice small river/stream with clean and clear water. We didn't bring any foods with us because there are lots of stall selling various kind of foods along the road and the riverside..

We let the kiddos play to their heart content before we went to their grandma place. Mister drove a little bit further and we realized that there are trekking area too. Will explore this area in future with kiddos. Oh yeah, I really loves nature but I am phobia of earth worm! Pathetic, I know right...

On the way to kiddos grandma place, we passed by the Semenyih Dam. The view is so beautiful and majestic. No wonder it is popular as a photoshoot background. We parked for a while and let the kids fed the monkeys (from inside our car) that loitering around waiting for visitors to give them foods. Well ya, sempat juga saya practice picture snapping skill yang saya belajar dari online sama kawan i.e si Just, ngehehe! Scolded mister few times sebab kasi fokus tu kamera on me instead of the view. Siou kio darling, LOL!

Overall, kiddos having fun and I got to spend quality time with them. Yeah, I know their trip was not as luxury as their friends but I rather bring them to the place where they can learn to appreciate the nature than to the place where they can only learn to spend and show off.

Snapped few pics just enough to capture the moments we spend together:-

Wefie!

kiddos and me kesiukan berendam. jernih kan tu air...

Hasil latihan, ngehehe!

Saya dan rakyat jelata :D

P/S:- I think most people know about but just for those not aware, resort and chalets are available for those who want to spend a night there and get the feel on living among the nature.