Peacefulness By The Sea

When we're young we have faith in what is seen, but when we're old we know that what is seen is traced in air and built on water - Maxwell Anderson

It's almost a month since my vacation in Kuala Terengganu with the kids but still this pic haunted me with so many unanswered question. When I snapped this on my way back from Kuala Terengganu to Puchong, I couldn't help myself from  wondering whether the old man sleep there because of it's peacefulness or because he doesn't have any place to go. Looking at him through my camera lens, make me feel sad because old folks always remind me of my parent and how much I miss them especially my late father. This picture also remind me to always check on my mom back in Kampung. You see, even a picture can remind us of something important that we might forget, or is it just me?  

I wanted to approach the old man and talk to him because I wanted to know his real condition but I couldn't bring myself to disturb his peaceful rest/sleep. Moreover I am not someone who like to poke my nose into peoples business. In my heart, I pray that he was there for his afternoon nap, that he have a house somewhere there that he have someone to take care of him, that he wasn't homeless as I thought. I know it's a bad habit to jump into assumption but pardon me for being one when it's concerned with old folks. 

Whoever this old  man, I pray to God to take care of him till the end. I won't forget his peaceful nap. I am glad that I captured that moment of him and to whom it may concerned, if you happened to stumble upon this post and  know this old man or maybe you are his families/relatives and you feel offended of me snapping his picture without consent and want me to remove it, please do let me know. Please do accept my apologizes because my intention is merely to share what I saw and my thought of it.

Till next post, happy weekend you all! Peace!

Cuti-Cuti Malaysia: Kuala Terengganu

Hello hello blogging world!

How's your day so far? The haze problem here in Puchong is quite bad today :( My kids especially my 2nd son and daughter is facing a breathing problem  a.k.a asthma and it's made me worried :(  I even deterred my eldest son from participating in his sport day. Hopefully this air pollution will be solved soonest before it caused further damage (*sigh). As promised, I am going to share a bit here and there about my family short vacation during school holiday early June.

3 week ago on 31st May until 2nd June, we went to Terengganu for short vacation and.. Si mama malar berjalan, main bujang2 so it was kiddos turn to have fun and at the same time to visit their relatives from their father's side.

We stayed at Saudagar Beach Resort (located  for 2 night that costed me RM160 per night for family room, a spacious room with 3 queen-size mattress and a small but clean bathroom. Actually the normal rates is RM110 for family room but since it was peak season (school holiday), the price has been increased. The room was okay but I couldn't stand the noise of people talking or even poo-pooing from the room next door.. Buli kamu bayangkan apa perasaan saya bila dengar bunyi kentut yang teramat kuat dari bilik sebelah? Gross but funny as well.. Hahaha! I choose this resort not only because it was the only hotel that have vacant room for that weekend but also because it have a very nice beach where you can let you kids swim and play with the sand. I love beach, so did my kids :)

At Pantai Kemasik

Where we stayed

Interior of our room

Visiting kids' father kampung

We spent most of our 1st day at kids' father kampung and only went back to our hotel at night. On the 2nd day, we spent half of our day at the beach just behind Saudagar Beach Resort and the kids were having fun playing with sand but no swimming on that day because of the wild waves. In the afternoon, we went to Bukit Puteri, Turtle Alley, Chinatown and also the famous Pasar Payang.

Enjoying the morning sea breeze

Can't let the kids swim but didn't mean they can't play with the bubbly waves :P

Look at them...

Eldest son, engrossed with his project

2nd son, playing in the wavy water..

The daughter trying to build a castle

My youngest !

Haha, yoga yg x jadi! :P

Inside Pasar Payang

Classic Parking meter

At Bukit Puteri

Ini anak minta snap pic of him with the cannon

Turtle Alley - Nice spot for photoshoot

Peace from Tunung Family :P

WEIIII!

On the wall

Peace People!

My youngest feeling naik penyu.. haha!

Chinatown

It started raining before we can visit the crystal mosque and other places, so we cancelled our plan. Well, next time we will go to that place..We dropped by to kids' father kampung again that evening before went back to our hotel. On the 3rd day, we spent our time at the beach again before checking out and bound back to Puchong. This time the sea was calm and clear and we took our time to enjoy swimming.

I am enjoying the water and the morning sun :P

My boys...Err, where was my daughter? She was waiting for het turn untuk didukung oleh mamanya :P

I love Beaches!

Our journey back to Puchong took about 10 hours because of the heavy traffic from Genting Highland towards Gombak but that was okay since we arrived home safe and sound! Overall, it was a fun holiday and importantly it was my quality time with my kids.

Okay, that's a bit sharing of my vacation with kiddos. Thanks for reading and Happy Sunday people!

“My soul is full of longing
for the secret of the sea,
and the heart of the great ocean
sends a thrilling pulse through me.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Medan Trip 23/5 - 26/5: Part 2 (Samosir Island - Berastagi - Medan)

Hello hello people!!

Yeah..yeah..I am as slow as snail in posting entry but I am super busy at office since I m back from my cuti-cuti Malaysia with kiddos! Don't worry, will share a bit here and there about it soon but as for now, lets continue with my trip to Medan ok.. Sabar para pembaca yang dikasihi sekalian (*cehh, ayat minta kasihan ba itu..hehe) and be ready for super long post!!

On 25th May, after a restful night at Samosir Villa Resort, Just and me (*forgot to inform that we were roommates during this trip) woke up early and go snapping pics for remembrance around the hotel area and also in front of our room which was facing the magnificent Lake Toba. The hotel was beautiful artificially but the services were poor and the staff was kind of rude (*the buffet breakfast also 'poor' - broken glass and plates for guests?? What the...). Our room have no AC, toilet paper and water heater! We were not expecting this but we were too tired to argue. Just and me open our window to let the lake's air/breeze coolant our room or we going to feel like in oven..

Room 07!

Breath-taking view in front of our room

Another breath-taking view from left side of our room

Peace all the way from Samosir Island!

Group picture (minus the pacik)

Part of the front view of the Samosir Villas.. Snapped from speeding boat, jadi dapat half seja..haha!

Cruised back to Parapat (Ajibata Jetty) around 10am and we head off to our next pit stop which was Simarjarunjung where we had our IDR65k lunch only after 3 hours after we had our brekky.. Adeii, ketat perut tapi saya makan juga sebab the lunch cost me around RM20++ people! Tapi menyesal saya sebab tidak pi rasa2 tu teh herba.. It was included! Menyesal tahap gaban because Simarjarunjung is known for its Teh Halia.. Dapat rasa pisang goreng seja but to me, it was same taste as our own pisang goreng, in other word not that special (*smile).

Writing/words on the wall caught my attention - meaningful!

the bus stop area in front of Ajibata Jetty - lengang!

Front yard of Simarjarunjung Restaurant

Inside the Restaurant and the house of teas..

Peace, it's makan time!

Rupa pisang goreng di Simarjarunjung - biasa seja kan..

The ingredients for herbal tea

After early lunch we continue our 1 1/2 hours journey along a bumpy road (*yeah, this time worst than the day before -_- ) to the famous Sipiso-piso waterfall.. Luckily the view of the magnificent lake Toba was breath-taking and as always my amateur hands keep snapping the view with my compact camera. Errm, actually keep snapping dengan harapan ada juga yang 'tersangkut' cantik..wakaka!

Akhirnya, dapat juga snap pic yang buli tahan (-_-) haha!

The road to Sipiso-piso Waterfall

The Sipiso-piso Waterfall was indeed so beautiful but the place were crowded with people picnicking there and the smell from the public toilet also kind of disturbance to my sensitive nose. The place was not well managed/maintained - vandalisme. We only spent like 30min there to snap pictures of the Waterfall (from afar because we didn't have much time to go down the stairs and see it closed-up). I bought a tee there but I forgot to buy FM of Sipiso-piso Waterfall..Huarghhh!!

Souvenirs shop at the entrance of the waterfall

OMG! Magnificent kan..

Ini gaya wajib ok! Wakaka!

The view is great..tapi vandalism on the wall bikin sakit mata. Kalau grafiti buli accept lagi..tsk..tsk

I wish my house built in front of this view..

I was here !

Next stop was Berastagi, a must visit place that famous for its colorful fruits and vegetables market where we bought some fruits, more FMs and souvenirs. Oh well, fruits were everywhere and I was expecting the price to be way cheaper than our local pasar malam but disappointed to know that it was the same.. Saya ingat kalau persaingan banyak, harga pun murah2 la kan...Hurmmm... I tried to look for Sipiso-piso FM but I was out of luck because the shopper have no stock of it. 

Macet people!

Fruits and vegetables are everywhere!

 

I bought the seeds of this 2 flower

The journey from Berastagi to Medan was the most challenging because of the bumpy road and heavy traffic. We only managed to reach our hotel, Soechi Intenational Hotel around 11pm but I only went off to bed around 2am, after I finished up this novel with title 'Teduhan Kasih' (*wink2). Dinner? Errr, we stopped by at the 24 hours shop (Indo Marek) to buy instant noodles etc and have dinner in our room that night because we were too exhausted..

 
The next day, on 26th May, the last day of our trip, we went for souvenirs hunting at Kedai Batik & Telekung Wajir (*didn't buy anything there) and Pajak Ikan (*bought 5 set of toddler shirt-pant and 2 t-shirt, telekungs and kain pelikat for souvenirs). We didn't have much time to do the city tour to Maimom Palace and Masjid Raya but we were taken to this place to snap some pics (in front of it hokeh) since it was in our itinerary, after we had our dinner at Ayam Penyet Ria Restaurant. The lunch was F.O.C, gratis from our tour agency (*smile)..We didn't even have time to stop by at Hajjah Mariani/ Zulaikha/ Rika / Amanda to shop for lapis legit, bika ambon and brownies but it was understandable, so we placed our order for thru our tour guide..

Telekung yang bersepah-sepah sampai ke lantai dan dipijak-pijak..tsk..tsk

Pajak Ikan Street

Restoran Ayam penyet Ria ya tuan2, puan2 - Oh my..I look fat here! LOL

Picture with our tour guide, Pak Adam

We were here!

I have no head cover so can't enter the area - RESPECTO!

We arrived at the airport around 2.30pm, 3 hours before our departure to KL. The airport was small (*didn't notice it when I 1st arrived because we were rushing that time) and crowded..
 

Gaya happy mau balik suda...hehe

Masa datang 1 bag-pack seja, balik ambil ko tambahan 1 beg yang beratnya 10kg - so ladies, please purchased your additional luggage ok!

 At 5.25pm Medan time, we departed and reached KL about 55min later..Pheww!

Overall, as I said I enjoyed this whole trip but I think our time was so short that everything were done in rush, that I don't have the time to feel the excitement kicking in like my trip to Langkawi where I spent lot of quality time to learn about the Island and even to mix with people on that Island. But as I said it was understandable. However, I do wish that next time, I will have the chance to venture the Samosir Island (hiking or jungle trekking or swimming in the Lake Toba), learn the place and its culture and mix with the Batak tribe etc..God willing!
 
That's the end of my Medan group trip story.. Gumbiranya hati sebab managed to finish it within 2 weeks. I hope my story is not too boring and all of you can imagine what I see, what I feels a nd what I experienced during this short trip..


Until next entry people! Happy weekend!



Note:-
1) Every pictures were snapped by my Nikon coolpix compact camera and my samsung note camera - raw and no editing done (because I don't know how to edit it..hahaha!) except for resizing. Kalau tidak cantik, anggap ja cantik kio sebab sia  ni bukan professional photographer. Saya main snap ja..haha!

2) If you are reader from Indonesia and you feel offended with words or pics or even my opinion/perspective, please accept my sincere apology because I didn't mean to offend anyone with this post. This is merely my honest opinion (not a review), experienced while I travel to this area.