PADI Open Water Experience

One of the best experience ever. Swimming with the fishes and staying underwater is so cool, literally! If you haven’t tried diving before, then you are missing out a whole lot of adventure and fun.

We had our first diving adventure with Sunny Cove  and their instructors were very professional and most importantly, they focus on safety techniques and how to be confident in water. And, I thought these were the vital techniques for a beginner diver. We went to Tioman Island, Malaysia for our 2d1n diving experience!

We were on this swimming platform throughout our Day 1 dive. One by one, with an aid of a thick rope – we were being led down to the sea bed with a depth of less than 5m. Instructed to make our way underwater by deflating our BCD also known as Buoyancy Control Device and at the same time equalising slowly  as to prevent the sudden increment of pressure in the ears and lungs. I guess this must be the most challenging part of our diving experience.

The fear of being underwater in the sea is so much different from our usual pool session. Plus, making our way down to the sea-bed for the first time and to perform safety skills such as removing our mask & re-wearing it, and to share air with a buddy.

After a few attempts of getting underwater, we kind of got used to it and find it extremely enjoyable and fun! Even though W nose bleed a little, as he had some trouble equalising. We were told by our instructor that it was a very common ‘injury’ for first-timers, just as long as we don’t bleed from our ears we are good. Haha!

Day 2 dives session were absolutely breath-taking. We were all able to better control our buoyancy, get under-water within a minute and simply, enjoy our dive. We saw many fishes like puffer-fish and trigger fish (ZOMG, first time for our Tioman instructor too!), turtles, black tip shark and many beautiful corals.

I am so glad to have them during my Open Water Diving experience. It was unforgettable with many fun moments in & out of the water.

I guess the love for diving is the surreal feeling you get to experience underwater, controlling your own breathing and movement around. Nothing but yourself. Nothing but peace. I can’t wait for us going on our next course! 2016, hopefully! 🙂 

XOXO

Ipoh and Cameron Highlands Trip

Finally, got the time to pen down my reflection trip back to Ipoh and Cameron Highlands with the family! This trip was a long planned by W for my family and closest relatives to visit his hometown. He did many arrangements for transport and lodging, not forgetting the planning of the itinerary with his parents.

Therefore, those time together was really precious to me and W. Seeing them getting together, having fun, relaxing and enjoying every moment with the family was just worth every single bit of tedious planning back behind. It was my parents’ first trip to Ipoh and my 8th? I still enjoy going back every time, with the good food, companion and little things that brings you back from the city life to a slower pace town. One of my favourite place, still.

Every where was place-perfect for #ootd shots! Anyhow, you can see a wall back drop or a vintage looking street, just anywhere around the streets of Ipoh. Street painting along Ipoh Old Town, drawn by famous Lithuanian artist Ernest Zacharevic who also did old streets art along George Town, Penang too! Blending in the environment, these street painting depict scenes of local cultural day-to-day activities. Adding a touch of liveliness and warmth to the quiet alleys. I love these Kopi-O painting best!

When talking about Ipoh, we think about food, food and more food! One of the food haven in the world, yes, they have the best bean sprouts, steamed chicken, white coffee, smoothest flat rice noodles Hor Fun, Dim Sum, Assam Laksa and seafood. It is true that Malaysia have the best food in the world, fusion cuisine to Chinese style food never go wrong. We can never get to taste such traditional food in Singapore anymore, that explains why more people are driving/traveling up to places like Ipoh and Penang just for their food. 

Here’s a website on the famous eateries in Ipoh. Not forgetting, home-cooked dishes! I love the Sour Chicken best and will be mastering this recipe soon! The home brew soup was simmered for 4 hours, which explains the thickness and rich colour with the sweetest taste. Cooking at home warms our heart even more, as cooking takes much effort and time. From the buying to the preparation to the cooking and lastly, to the washing. Therefore, be appreciative for the people who cook for you. It isn’t as easy as eating and only mothers goes through trouble like this, to bring out the best on the table.

Enjoying the pretty sunset from MH Hotel, Ipoh. The beauty of nature, simplest yet so fulfilling. Allowing me to do some reflections in life, on how sometimes we take things so seriously. Being on a trip, make me realized how fortunate I am to be here, living and enjoying time with my family. Appreciative and contented. I realized that nothing is more significant than our family presence and being together. Sometimes, we all chase after material things like a house, a car, a dream trip or even that branded bag. Neglecting the people around us, chasing after dreams that is selfishly yours.

But I thought living on for my loved ones is significantly more important than chasing that selfish dream. Providing them with what I have is the best thing I could ever do, right now. I don’t want to live my life with regrets not providing or spending enough time with them. Take effort, plan and travel with the family. That can only be the best thing on Earth.

The smiles on your faces, priceless.

More like a reflection post instead of my usual food introductory post. A time to rest and refresh the mind to focus on the right things. We may not be the richest, but contentment makes a wealthy man ♥

Malacca Getaway

Planned for a short getaway with W for the longest time, and we both decided on the nearest town to explore; Malacca aka Melaka. We booked bus tickets from Starmart Express priced at $45 per pax (two-way). The bus was comfortable and spacious, making the 3 hours drive pleasant!

Day 1

This was the first time I traveled to Malacca and was so excited after seeing photos and reviews online about the delicious food around Malacca Town! One of which is definitely the chicken rice balls originated from Malacca, and that was our first stop once we reach Malacca Central.

We visited Kedai Kopi Chung Hwa which is known to be the best chicken rice ball stall in Malacca. The famous queue was a 35 minutes wait and finally both of us got ourselves a table! Excitedly, we ordered our usual portion. The chicken rice balls are served in a plate of 5, golf-ball sized. Chicken rice balls are steamed rice with chicken stock, cooked with extra water for more sticky texture for the rice balls shaping purposes. Not forgetting, the smooth and silky steamed kampong chicken served with thick ginger sauce. The combination of both sums up a perfecto meal! Combining it with their garlic chilli sauce, I guess I had the best chicken rice balls ever! Both W and I gorged out on 1 whole chicken! *Rub tummy*

 

Kedai Kopi Chung Wah
18, Jalan Hang Jebat,
75200 Melaka

Opening hours: 7.30am – 3.00pm

After our meal, we headed to Jonker Street for some street shopping and realized that there were many antiques shop and vintage street backgrounds for awesome OOTD shots! Not just that, but Jonker Street is full of cute character themed boutique shop, like Hello Kitty, Mr Potato and Mamee Monster! Too cute!

Cute little eggs popsicle ice! We came across I Sayang Bikes(单车生活馆) across Jonker Street and saw bicycle rental for just RM3/hour. Under such cooling nice weather, we thought it would be a great idea to explore town further with our bicycles instead of just walking around the same area. It was such a pleasant experience as it was my first time cycling in a foreign grounds, amusing. I like the idea of having control of where we are heading and being flexible in that sense. Cycling seems to be one of the best way to explore and travel.

After our little adventure tour we had, Jash came over to pick us up. Both Jash and Huizhen came up from Kuala Lumpur to meet us! Glad we made time and effort for this short getaway together, cause we miss each other too much! They bought us to Malacca’s most famous food; Satay Celup at Capitol Satay.

Satay Celup is very popular in Malacca and exclusively famous. We see lok lok everywhere in Malaysia, but it is just not the same. Both Jash and Huizhen go to Capitol Satay every time they visited Malacca. Renowned for its ridiculously long queues, we arrived at 4.45pm and waited near 2 hours for a table. The queue were the length of 7 shop houses!

Capitol Satay operates from 5pm and queues starts forming even before 4pm! WHAT?! This is the one and only Capitol Satay Celup in Malacca, they do not have any brother, sister or other branches. Satay celup is also known as steamboat satay, where sticks of raw or semi-cooked meat and vegetables are dipped into a boiling pot of satay gravy for several minutes. There is a very wide assortment available and each stick cost RM 1, randomly customers who ate more were given big prawns and scallops which cost RM 1 too! That’s the catch!

Our big prawn of the day! 🙂

Capitol Satay

41, Lorong Bukit Cina, 75100, Melaka, Malaysia
Opening Hours: Daily from 5pm (Closed on Mondays)

Being the lead of the day, Jash bought us to “Longkang Siham“ (Back Alley Si Ham) located near Madam King Shopping Complex. Packed with more than 40 years of history, I felt like I was in a reverse time-zone! There is no such back alley food stalls in Singapore or any part of Malaysia, except in Malacca. They sold boiled cockles also known as si ham, calms (la la), prawns, cuttlefish with kang kong and 4 Treasures which includes beancurd skin, fried dough, fish cakes and tofu. Super yummy!

Longkang Siham
Off Jalan Bunga Raya Lane, Melaka
(near Madam King Complex)

Open from: 7.30pm onwards

Much needed walk along Jonker Street; Pasar Malam (Night Market). We got ourselves lots of goodies from vegetables cutter to shower tap to glues to towels! Heh!

Day 2

Rise and shine! Headed to a coffee shop where W’s relative introduced us for breakfast. I love their toasts as they uses charcoal instead of a electric stove. We had steamed and toasted bread with coffees!

Tried their local laksa too! A lot like the ones in Singapore, curry mee + beehoon.

Jash drove us outskirt of Malacca Town to try this! He raved so much about it and wanted us to try the Coconut Shake! It was a 20 minutes drove from town. Just look at the amount of coconuts here! Woah! Must be really good business! 

Yummy-licious Coconut Shake! I like! Refreshing and cooling for the warm day! 

As we had the best chicken rice ball yesterday, we decided to head back again for more! I will miss this very much! Even W was full of praise with Chung Wah chicken rice balls! Yes, that is a crazy amount of 40 rice balls. Let’s dig in!

What’s a trip to Malacca without eating Chendol? We had the original chendol with Gula Melaka along Jonker Street. Chendol is typically made of coconut milk, green starched noodles with pandan flavoring, red beans, shaved ice and palm sugar.

ONE BITE DURIAN PUFFS! This was listed a must-try along Jonker Street and Jash suggested that we each try one, even though we are stuffed to the brim! Non-stop eating trip! But it was worth the calories! The durian puff burst inside your mouth and oozes! Slurps.
Visited A Famosa, a Portuguese fortress located in Malacca after shopping at Pahlawan Shopping Mall. A Famosa is among the oldest surviving European architectural remains in South East Asia. The Porta de Santiago, a small gate house, is the only remaining part of the fortress still standing.  Before heading to Malacca, I have heard all about their famous mille crepes cakes! When Windie learned that we were going to Malacca, she urged us to try the Mille Crepes from Nadeje and also warned us that they usually sell out by evening. Nadeje is conveniently located at Mahkota Parade, which was nearJonker Street.

Mille crepes are not kueh lapis. The multi-layered cake is made of fresh homemade custard cream and is best eaten chilled. Four of us shared 2 slices of cake, as we were too stuffed from chicken rice, durian puffs and chendol. Burp.

Summing up the 2d1n short getaway with W, Jash and Huizhen. Taking a break from work and other stuffs, just have fun and eat non stop! Thankful for the trip and I will be back to Malacca for chicken rice balls and satay celup! Yummy!

CAR vs. WILD Road Trip with Discovery Channel & 2013 Formula 1 Night Race – Singapore Grand Prix

What an opportunity to have a chance to join Bill Wu and Gary Humphrey from Discovery Channel Southeast Asia in Car vs. Wild Road Trip in partnership with Jeep.

It was truly an amazing and fun experience to travel as a convoy of Jeep, SUV and MPV. This is definitely an eye-opening experience for me, as it is my first time traveling on a convoy.

Registration starts at Chrysler showroom at about 6.30am. Allocation of Jeep Cars by Discovery Channel and distribution of goodie bag. Bump into Car 21 with Alvin Tan, owner of the vehicle whom is really friendly and nice along the road trip. Initially, he thought both me and Bell are Korean! Heh! Convoy flags off to Batang Kali, Johor, Malaysia! Learning survival techniques from Gary Humphrey was really interesting and enriching! On how a chewing gum could be used as fishing bait and how we could use a needle as a compass. Rally Racer Bill Wu was quick to perform his Jeep-ing skills and how Jeep should be operated on rough terrain/slopes.

What an off-road experience!

***

2013 Formula 1 Night Race – Singapore Grand Prix

 

An annual must-go event for the car fanatic and that will be the Formula 1 Night Race – Singapore Grand Prix. Getting the privilege to be here and witnessing all the fast cars practice and awesome performance from Big Bang! During the 3 days event, major roads connecting Marina Bay and Suntec City were shut, therefore causing major congestion around that area. Heading there via public transport is best.

Those super cars are too fast to be captured on iPhone! Boo 😦

Antique cars exhibition in the Circuit Park. Really love these vintage looking cars! These cars are from Singapore and Malaysia owners. Do you know what’s the meaning of a yellow-red car plate? These cars with yellow-red car plate are directly imported cars from overseas, so owners are only allowed to drive them 28 days in a year! A driving ‘permit’ coupon is attached in these cars.

Other than the super cars and antique cars, another definite highlight tonight is: Big Bang!

TOP! He is so good looking! ❤

Ending with Taeyang! Looking forward to 2014 Formula 1 Night already!