Birthday vacation for my girls | Cameron Valley Tea, Cameron Highlands |

 

It's been ages since I last posted anything here. A lot of things happened last few months and one of it was the birthday of my lovely girls, my wife and my daughter Mia which was in January.We went to Cameron Highlands, famous for its tea and cold weather. The temperature is always about 20-ish but it's already cold enough for all of us at this tropical part of the world where the sun shines through out the year! Cameron Highlands is approximately 2 hours plus driving from Kuala Lumpur (KL), just perfect for a day trip for those who want a quick getaway from the hectic city life. Enough rambling, hope you enjoy the first series of pictures of our vacation in Cameron Highlands! First series? Seriously? Haha...I know, I know, even to get one entry posted already takes me ages to do it, now I want it done in few series? Haha..At least the motivation is there right?

The kids were so amazed with the stunning view of the green tea farm.

Happy wife, happy life =)

 

 

This hill is actually quite high. Adam was so determined to ask me joining climbing to the top. I was reluctant at first but he was so resistance and I just followed. Glad that I followed him because the view was breathtaking from up there.

 

 

These tea leaves are freshly picked twice daily.

 

The trip was not complete without taking the kids to see the tea factory so that they know how tea leaves are processed to make the tea that they love to drink everyday.

 

The aroma of fresh tea is just refreshing!

 

The lovely birthday girls

Back to nature in secluded Janda Baik

We love nature and whenever we have the opportunity especially during weekends, we will escape the hectic life in city & spend our time together peacefully in places like beaches, rivers, islands, waterfalls etc. Recently we went to Janda Baik, a beautiful place with luscious landscape just outside Kuala Lumpur. It is approximately 1.5 hours by car and we stayed in D'Ark Resort. Upon arriving there, we were entertained with a gorgeous scenery along the way and when arrived there this lovely river awaits us right in front of the resort! It is relatively shallow and just perfect for paddling for the kids.

Breathtaking view as the background of the resort.

Clean, tidy and well maintain lawn at the entrance of the resort.

We came here without any prior booking (last minute decision..hehe). We were lucky that there were still available rooms & to top it up which was the best thing happened, our room was upgraded to executive suite! What a perfect start! In the picture below, our room is at the top level, the only stairs seen in the picture leads to our room. The view from the room is just lovely.

As usual, the kids love paddling in the water. Both of them are quite independent especially Adam. We only supervise them from distance.

While the kids enjoying themselves paddling in the water, I was bbq-ing the fresh fish that we bought from the local people nearby the resort. Yup, it's scrumptious! The kids love it when they came up to the riverbank for food.

Peacefulness...

My precious Adam and Mia.

Adam"s 5th. Birthday Celebration | Legoland, Malaysia

Last month we went to Legoland in Nusajaya, Johor to celebrate Adam's 5th. birthday. Since it's not that far from Johor Bahru which about 10-15 minutes drive, we decided to stay in Pulai Spring Resort. I'm so glad that Adam really had a great time there! Happy belated birthday son, we love you so much!

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!