BW Portrait of My AdaMia

Vacation in Langkawi Island

Some pictures taken during our recent vacation in Langkawi Island, Malaysia to celebrate our 6th. anniversary. Yup, it has been six wonderful years with 2 gorgeous kids!

5th. Anniversary Vacation in Disneyland, Paris

Hey peeps! This is another an overdue entry from me. Yeah, I know! I have quite a few overdue posts in my list to be honest. At the end of April, on the 30th. to be exact, me and my wife celebrated our 5th. anniversary. Alhamdulillah, it has been a wonderful journey for the past 5 years for us and we are grateful to be blessed with two lovely kids to complete our life.

We decided that this time for our 5th. anniversary we wanted to celebrate it in Disneyland, Paris. Firstly because the kids are definitely gonna enjoy it and secondly, it reminisces some great memories that me and my wife share together, I'll let you know later =). So for a change, we decided to take train instead of flight, just to experience something new. Adam surely enjoyed it very much because he loves train but not Mia, she just could not stay still even for a while. We had to take turn to entertain her. We started our journey from London St. Pancras in the morning to Lille, France for interchange. The journey took more than an hour and we stopped there for about an hour before we took the train to Marne-La-Vallee, which is the train station for Disneyland. There are actually direct train services to Disneyland from London but only very few trips per day and the cost is more expensive.

We stayed in one of the Disneyland hotels, Dream Castle Hotel, so it didn't took us long to get to the hotel from the train station by taking the free shuttle bus. The hotel is well decorated with Disney characters and the kids loved it so much especially Adam. The first day, we just spent our time at the hotel and went to La Vallee designer outlet, just nearby. Shopping? Nah! We did not get anything for ourselves because it was just too expensive for us. We just had ice cream! The second day was when all the excitement happened, we went to Disneyland Park!

This particular seat is exactly where me and my wife seated together about 8 years ago. Here is where I first said the magic "L" word to her and here is when we decided to begin our journey together. Alhamdulillah (Prais be to God), we make it until this very moment and hopefully for many, many years ahead.

This picture was taken in front of the Adventure Land.

Look at how happy Adam was when he met some of the famous Disney characters. The look on his face and his smile were definitely priceless!

On the third day, our initial plan was to go to the city centre of Paris because I only bought one day ticket for the parks. Paris is approximately an hour journey by train from Disneyland. Unfortunately that day, there was a train strike, so most of the train services almost dead and the taxi services took advantage of it by charging a ridiculously expensive fare to those who want to go to Paris. So we decided to go to Walt Disney Studio which we did not go in the previous day because we did not have enough time. Walt Disney Studio is located just next to Disneyland Park. So I bought another day tickets for both parks (there's no ticket for single park, it has to be both). I thought it's gonna cost me a lot more than the first tickets that I bought online before we came, but surprisingly it's slightly cheaper! Phew! We thought it was actually good that we did not get to go to Paris because we were sure that the kids would not be able to enjoy it as much as in Walt Disney Studio and Disneyland Park. Whenever we plan for any trips, we always have to make sure that the kids will be able to enjoy it, if not they are gonna get cranky and moody and at the end of the day, noone will have a great time. So the rule is simple, if the kids are happy, then everyone will be happy! It's a win-win situation...Hehe...

Here are some pictures in the Walt Disney Studio....

Everyday, both the Disneyland Park and Walt Disney Studio, they have a parade before the end of the day. Basically, all the people will fill up the spaces along the main road in the park to watch the parade of all the cartoon characters. We saw that even an hour before the parade people were starting to pack the areas just to get the best viewing position. We didn't come early but we were lucky to be able to find quite a good location for ourselves. Adam also had a great opportunity to join the parade with the other kids.

Glad to see these two kids were happy and had a great time. It's just worth everything, priceless!

My Surprised Birthday Vacation

As mentioned in my previous post, it was my birthday last month & my wife surprised me with a lovely vacation which I only knew the destination when we arrived at the airport. Yeah, it was a secret! I was very excited when I knew that it was Majorca, a beautiful island located in Mediterranean sea in Spain. I was also quite lucky because my birthday fell during the long Easter Holiday & my wife planned it perfectly for us to spend a relaxed & enjoying week of vacation in that island.

We took midnight flight & it took just over 2 hours to reach Majorca. Then from the airport, there was a shuttle bus to the hotel waiting for us. The journey on the road took about another hour & the kids slept most of the time through out the whole journey. So we spent the first day pretty much on travelling. The hotel we stayed in was in Alcudia, an old town with some Roman influence which can be seen from the buildings around. The town itself is not that big and you can see a lot of people walking & cycling to move about in the area.

Oh before I forgot, this entry is gonna be loaded with lots of pictures because I took hundreds of pictures during this trip. It's just very hard for me to choose and those in this entry are some of my favourite ones. Another thing, some of these pictures were taken with my new camera, a birthday gift from my wife =) (another present is a gorgeous hand-knitted cardigan!!). She knew that I need a back up camera (just a point & shoot camera) especially when we are travelling with the kids. It is quite an uphill task for me to take pictures by holding my DSLR on one hand while the other holding the kids especially Adam & some other bags, toys etc. She bought me S95 which works like wonders! Very compact, practical (can use with one hand because it's light) & yet produces great quality pictures, almost as good as those produced by DSLR. I bet it might be hard for you to know which pictures are from my S95...heh...I think that's enough of me talking, hope you enjoy the pictures!

The beautiful sunrise at the beach

White sandy beach that stretches for miles

The jetty for boat landing to pick up passengers to go to few other beaches on the island

Our main activity there was just relaxing on the beach & joined the kids playing with the sand.

Just look at how happy that little cheeky girl...

She even slept with her swimming suit because she was just too tired of being cheeky...hehe...

We love the seafood there especially the paella. However it was quite pricey there.

One of the day, Adam wanted to get on a boat, so we took the boat service from the jetty to go to Formentor beach which is approximately more than an hour journey.

This is the Formentor beach, Adam's favourite.

He loved playing in the little pools between the rocks.

On other day, we went to Alcudia Old Town where you can see some of the remaining of ancient Roman building like this fortress that surrounds a church.

Amongst all, I think I like this picture the most. I just feel so happy seeing my family having a great time together while we were there. A great moment that we will cherish.

Finally, thank you so much to my ever so loving wife for the surprised wonderful birthday vacation. It's definitely my best birthday celebration so far & I truly loved it so much. Love you so much!

A picture that is worth......

I have a great story to tell about this photo which has a significant memory that me and my wife will remember it, maybe for the rest of our life...heheh...

We always hear that people say a picture is worth a thousand words but this one, it's quite memorable because it's not just worth a thousand words but it also worth Euro 40...hehe..It's not that I won it in any photography competition, believe it or not I had to pay that amount of money in order to capture this photo.

This photo is a scenery that I photographed during sunset on our way back from the magnificent Alhambra in Granada to our hotel in Torrox Costa, Malaga. I was driving on a long and quite highway at that time and saw this beautiful mountain lighted beautifully by the sunset that gives such a warm tone to the surrounding area. I was attracted to it and pulled over to photograph the scenery. I managed to get 3-4 shots and suddenly I was alerted by a loud honk from across the road and it was 3 policemen riding on their bike asking me to stop taking pictures and continue our journey back.

So I thought that was it. But no, no, no..a few minutes later suddenly I saw the same police riders from the rear view mirror riding so fast and flashing their lights. In a blink of an eye they already overtook us and waved me to stop. I was quite surprised really, firstly I thought when they first honked me from the other side of the highway, it was just a warning with no further consequences. Secondly, man! they were really fast to make a u-turn from the opposite side of the highway in order to "chase" us. If I'm not mistaken the nearest round about was quite a few miles back. I guess they were really, really wanted to catch me then...heheh...

After that, they came over to tell me that it was an offense to stop at the road side to take pictures. So as usual, I just said sorry and admitted my mistake...hehe...Then they issued me a summon that worth Euro 40! So that's the story why this picture is worth that much. Even though I was quite a bit upset that time to lose such amount of money but I think it's a great experience and moment that we will always remember by whenever we see this picture again..hehe..

P/s: Anyone wants to buy this picture? Say, Euro 40? =D

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The Special Birthday Celebration in Alhambra, Granada, SPAIN

It has been quite sometimes since I last updated this blog of mine. I've actually got quite a few long overdue posts in my list, just don't know when can I find the time to do them. Anyway, let me start with this very special entry first. I think this entry is gonna be quite long and probably a lot of pictures, so please bear with me.

January is always a special month for me because it's the birthday month of my lovely girls, my wife and my princess Mia. So, I planned a surprise birthday vacation for my wife. I think I started the plan about a month or two before her birthday, scouting some perfect locations to celebrate her birthday, searching the best packages and make bookings. Finally I decided to go to Andalusia, a perfect place to go during winter time.

Andalusia is a region in Southern of Spain which consists of a few cities/towns like Seville, Malaga, Cordoba, Granada, Almeria and maybe a few more that I've forgotten. I think it's location is at the bottom tip of Europe before reaching to Africa. Therefore the weather is just perfect, sunny most of the time and moderate temperature, not too cold and not too hot especially during winter. We departed from London to Malaga and the flight took about 2.5 hours. Prior arriving to Malaga, I made an arrangement to book a car which was very convenient for us with 2 kids to move around while we were there. I think it is the best option if you go there with family, less hassle and you have the total freedom to manage your own time. I figured it would be difficult if we joined a tour because the kids won't be able to enjoy themselves due to the fact that normally tours are all prearranged and have schedule to follow. I just don't want us to disturb other people's plan and most importantly I want us especially the kids to have a great and memorable time that we spent together there.

Our hotel is Riu Ferrara Hotel and it's located in Torrox Costa, a seaside. It's about 45 minutes drive from the Malaga Airport. Since we went there right after the long Christmas and New Year holiday, so the place wasn't that busy, not so many tourists, which is great because we can have quite time to enjoy ourselves. We stayed in a 2 bedrooms self-catering apartment which I think is perfect for our family. We love the hotel, everything is just lovely, the facilities, the hospitality, the environment, the location that close to the beach and the quite and beautiful surrounding area. Oh, there are also lots of eating places, souvenir shops and other facilities like supermarkets, banks and petrol stations in that area. I think they are all walking distance. So on first day, we just spent our time in the hotel, the beach and the nearby area. So happy to see the kids having a great time at the beach.

Me and my kids having a wonderful time together at the beach. Yup, I made that sand castle for Adam. It took me ages to do it because because Adam kept crushing it down. My wife had to distract him playing with the water so that I could complete the sand castle. It was totally worth it because Adam loved it!

The second day was the highlight of the trip because it was my wife birthday and it was the day we went to one of our dream places, Alhambra. It's located in Granada and about 1.5 hours drive from our hotel. Alhambra literally means "the red one" if I'm not mistaken. This is because the material that was used to built the palace and the fortress is red. It's one of the major attractions in Spain and famous with its Islamic Architecture that was embedded in the design and decoration of most of the buildings in Alhambra especially the Palace of Nasrids.

This picture was taken inside The Palace of Charles V, The Roman Emperor. It was built and integrated in Alhambra within the Nasrid fortifications after the Christians conquered the Andalusia region.

After that, we went to The Palace of Nasrids which is one of the main attractions in Alhambra. When we bought the entry tickets, we were given the time to enter this palace. This is because only a certain number of visitors can go inside the palace at a time. So you have to come at your given time and if you missed it, you might not be able to go inside which is a really, really big waste because you're gonna regret to miss something historical and so beautiful.

The picture on the left I think is a typical picture that people will take when they come here or search about Alhambra from the internet.

It looks majestic...

Islamic art is beautifully integrated in every design of the building in Alhambra.

The pool in Alhambra complex

The view of Albaycin of Granada from Alhambra.

Visiting Alhambra was a wonderful experience for all of us. Like my wife said, it is a place unlike any others that we have been before, it's unique and truly magnificent. An experience that we never forget. So we went back to hotel with a very satisfied heart and I was glad to see my wife enjoying her time there on her birthday.

Originally the plan was on the next day I wanted to bring my wife to Cordoba, another historical place which famous with its Islamic influence architecture. If I'm not mistaken it has a Cathedral-Mosque which is known as Mezquita. Initially, it was a church, then it became the Great Mosque of Cordoba during Muslim era in Andalusia before it was converted back to a church until now. However, Cordoba is quite far away from our hotel and takes more than 2 hours to drive. The kids were already tired and we thought the long drive to and back is just too much for the kids especially like Adam and Mia who hardly stay still..hehe.. so we decided to just stay and spend our time to relax and rest in the hotel and the beach. After that, we took the opportunity to go to the city centre of Malaga and of course I also brought them to La Rosaleda, the home ground of Malaga Football Club..hehe..

Whenever we have the opportunity to go to a place where we have never been before, we always love to try the local food, just to experience something different and new. We were lucky because there are loads of restaurants near our hotel. I think seafood is quite famous in Spain and they are relatively cheap. Our favourite is the bottom right dish called seafood "paella" and it's Spain's national dish. It's delicious and Mia loved it very much!

So I guess, that's it our memorable family vacation to the world of Andalusia, particularly Alhambra to celebrate my lovely wife's birthday. Hope she had a great time there, I certainly had and hopefully one day we can come back here again.

Finally, the picture of the gorgeous sunset near our hotel.