Langkawi 2023 : Our sloth-ish itinerary

Posted in Travel, Reviews by Minci 先生

Since we are regulars, in fact, parents looking for a place to take care of our children in a different city, there wasn’t really anything strikingly new in our itinerary at Langkawi. Definitely not for international travellers to find interesting. I did record a few clips during the trip – will upload that soon on Youtube.

Laksa Power Ikan Sekoq

Just before we checked into our hotel, we went to the airfield area for a simple lunch. There are a few Laksa Ikan Sekoq stalls here but we chose the one with the yellow signboard. Cause we remembered it as the one serving the non-spicy one. Perhaps the new thing about the menu is that it now has telur sarang on the laksa. Which brings the price up to a whooping RM10 per bowl. I didn’t have pictures of it because I was too hungry. Thankfully, the laksa was delicious and was quite hoping to get a second in a few days but it was closed on the other day we came.

Langkawi Wildlife Park

This place is eerily quiet during the school holidays but we have always enjoyed coming here. The animals seemed to be well fed and the kids enjoy the interactions with the animals – by giving food. This time we met a racoon instead of a crocodile at the station where we can touch and pet the wildlife creatures.

The new thing about this place is that they have a pony ride and soon, it seems that they will bring in tigers. They also have new merchandise – this snow-like glass frame for your photo. They don’t sell the little magnets on their own anymore which is such a pity. They should just let visitors get the small magnets as a purchase option. Better something than nothing kan.

Langkawi Geopark

We went to the cable cars this time as we wanted to see the SkyBridge. That was new for us and boy it was magnificent. You could get to the bridge either by the gondola or the nature trail. We opted to go there by the trail and come back with the gondola because it’s just too tiring to hike up later on. We bought the tickets through Klook but the queue was still super long when you want to collect your tickets as they provided only one counter for online purchases.

Maha Tower

This place is new and its attraction is the sunset view. So it is better to go there later in the evening. While waiting we get to rest in the very luxurious feeling waiting area and have beverages. Do you know how sunsets look so beautiful when you see them online? Well, it’s thanks to the photographers and the video makers for making a timelapse of it. Otherwise, it is quite difficult to appreciate the sun going down bit by bit. That is why I tried to capture my own video.

I should have brought a tripod.

Because someone knocked my camera on the rails and the raw footage was somewhat ruined. I tried to edit it but it didn’t really come out that nice. Here is what I managed to capture.

Underwater World Langkawi

We always loved the penguin place when we came here. Reminds us of Happy Feet. Again the place is very quiet for school holidays. The merchandises they offer are the usual photo stuff. I just feel the merchandise team could explore more on this apart from the photo.

That’s pretty much what we did. We usually go to these places after breakfast and come back to our hotel room by noon. Then the little one and my dear husband will sleep while I finish my assignment on the laptop. Then we go out again for dinner and see the Langkawi lights at night. Even though it’s the holidays, our bedtime is still by 900pm. We feel so old. Ha ha ha. We came to Langkawi with one piece of luggage and came back with two!

I also bought a duty-free YSL Libre perfume for myself because I got influenced. And of course my favourite chocolates – Bounty & Maltesers. We returned to KL using Batik Air this time and felt way better. Kudos to management for giving complimentary bottled drinks to kids.

5Feb2023

Genting Skyworld trip with our two kids

Posted in Travel by Minci 先生

This place reminds me of Universal Studios Singapore. The layout is elaborate and very magical.

We drove to Genting Highland from our hotel in chow kit, East Riverine Boutique Hotel and parked at the space at Genting Premium Outlet. Bought tickets for the Awana SkyWay at the booth and enjoyed the view from the cable car. The ‘air gondola’ operates from 7am-11pm daily. Oh, please remember to wear a face mask in the cable car – it is compulsory since you are in a closed area with other people. It is still the rainy season at this time of the year and the fog was really thick in the morning even though it was already 10am ish. Our family was a bit underdressed and not prepared for the cold and rain.

Our last visit to Genting Highland was in 2019.

Buying tickets for our gondola in the sky

Mr Husband bought the tickets from one of the self-service machines. I downloaded the Genting Skyworld App because it is said that you could cut down your waiting times at the rides by making a booking there. You could set it up as a group booking and such. However, since there was not much of a crowd that day I did not use the app. We went there on the Thaipusam long weekend.

Ticket price:

Awana SkyWay – Standard return ticket RM18 x 4 = RMRM72. Only kids less than 90cm get to travel for free.

Genting Skyworld – I supposed it will be cheaper to get the tickets online plus there are various packages for the trip there. Our total was roughly RM620 ish for 4 pax (2 adult + 2 kids).

Genting Skyworld has 9 exciting themed worlds. Each world has its own attractions, entertainment shows, merchandise stores and F&B to enjoy. There are height restrictions for some attractions but my girl who is just above 110cm could get on most rides. It is a very ‘family-gastro and bladder-friendly’ place. Bring a water bottle to fill up at the water stations. We went our way through the theme park using the map provided so we wouldn’t miss anything.

STUDIO PLAZA

This is the main entrance which has a very golden and lavish setup. Since we were there at the opening times, we get to enjoy a mini Las Vegas-ish show for a few minutes before everyone entered the park. They had the best-smelling popcorn.

EPIC

This place is based on the animated movie of Epic.

The one where the girl shrunk and become friends with woodland creatures and then began fighting with evil forces. There are two rides here – Epic voyage to Moonhaven and Epic Hummingbird Flyers. The earlier ride is like those lazy river rides BUT you will get wet as your boat passes through a particular splash. So your options are to go on this last or go ahead with a raincoat/ extra pair of clothing. We barged ahead and got wet.

RIO

Adapted from the Rio animations – this place is super colourful with tropical colours. My brave girl went up the Samba Gliders! They had to take off their slippers cause they were hanging on the gliders but she said she was not scared at all. My son went afterwards, with the dad of course. I was not that keen to go because of the height and because I had to keep my bag in the lockers. It was too much trouble for me.

There was also their version of the teacup – Rio Carnival of Chaos and the very short ride on the merry-go-round. The Blue Sky Carousel was a double-decker, super pretty but only went around about three times! It was that quick.

ICE AGE

We watched an interactive entertainment show here. Kids love it. As an adult, I was like,“cepatlah habis.. tak habis2 nyanyi.. ha ha ha”. My girl was thrilled to know there was (fake) snow there. There were four attractions here but we only went to 2 which are the vertigo-inducing Sid’s Rock ‘N’ Slide and the Mammoth Fun Zone. The Mammoth place is like a playground. We had our lunch here at Buck’s Cafe. It was of course theme park price but thankfully delicious. We ordered two sets of rice meals, an onigiri, a strawberry sando and a few drinks. I just realized that I didn’t take any photos of the food. Probably because we were cold and hungry.

ANDROMEDA BASE

This is where the most adventurous people would enjoy rides that have thrill scores of 1.

We did not go on any rides. I did encourage Mr Husband to go but since we’ve just had lunch, being turned upside down and twirled around vigorously doesn’t sound that good. I personally am not a fan of crazy roller coasters either. We are somewhat of a very introvert couple. LOL. We did get to see the performance by Caucasian space men which was sturdy and acrobatic in nature.

ROBOTS RIVET TOWN

This town is made for little kids. Slow, comfortable, colourful rides – love it. We get to squeeze into one car at the Bigweld’s Zeppelin. The description of the ride in the pamphlet made it sound like we would fly very high. Kids would though!

LIBERTY LANE

The highlight of this place was the 3D hovercraft ride with characters from Planet of the Apes. The entranceway setup reminded me of The Mummy place at USS. It was convincing and in a way as visitors, we were immersed in our character to save the ape leader. Gosh, what was it’s name again?

At first, we thought it would be a mundane visual thing with the 3D glasses but as we got on the hovercraft, it was so real and thrilling. We wanted to get on it the second time after we’ve finished the 1st round of everything but it was temporarily closed – maybe for rest or sanitation.

CENTRAL PARK

‘Night at the Museum’ was also closed when we got there. But we did get on the Independence Day: Defiance spaceship. Our legs were hanging off the spacecraft and we were swooshing in space fighting off imaginary aliens. I would caution those who have epilepsy or vertigo to be careful on this ride because of the flashing lights and fast-motion swings. I was nauseous but I survived the ride uneventfully. Obviously, the seats were manipulated to make us feel that we are in mid-air but it was believable and exciting.

I imagined the place would be very pretty at night with the lights from the fountains. It also has a very spacious, beautifully decorated park.

EAGLE MOUNTAIN

The attraction is not open yet but they have a pretty burger eatery there to try. This place marks the end of the 9 themes and is near the entry/exit door.

Overall, it was a fun experience for me as an adult and of course even more for the kids. I am glad the fog cleared up afterwards so we could take better pictures. That is one thing off my bucket list for places to go in Malaysia. Until next time… taraaa

if you look hard enough, you can see mr husband and the son in the bushes, ready for an ambush

17Apr2019

Minci travels Macao 2019. Family friendly places of interest

Posted in Everyday Life, Good Things, Reviews, Travel by Minci 先生

We tried sightseeing to as many places as we could in Macao. Indeed, this place is fairly easy to navigate especially with its reliable cab services. Here are some of the places we went to.

Senado Square → Ruins of St Pauls Cathedral → Monte forte

Senado Square is very pretty at night. It is a public place (pedestrian-zoned) with tourists shops in between the historically designed buildings. We found the Turkish ice cream place around the corners and came to discover that the owner used to sell the kebab we were looking for based on what we read from blogs. Only, he does not sell them anymore.

The Ruins of St Pauls had whats left was this stone facade with 68 steps leading up to it. The structure has carvings of Jesuit images that has an oriental theme to it which may be of interest to some visitors.

Fortaleza do Monte is the historical military centre in Macao. It was initially built to keep of pirates but was later taken over by the Portugese. Ee was very excited to see the cannons and boy it was one heck of a climb to the top of the fort. I perspired like crazy.

Matteo Ricci : The European scholar who mastered the Chinese script and Classical Chinese

Fishermans Wharf

It’s like a theme park but maybe we picked the wrong time of the day to go there. Too early in the day? It has hotels, casinos, many interesting East meets West architecture and restaurants. Perhaps a visit to this place later at night would be more colourful as it was a bit too quiet during the day. Furthermore, we didn’t really have an idea of what to do there apart from taking pictures and enjoying the sea-nery.

Macao Science Center

This place reminded me of Petrosains Kuala Lumpur. However, because some of the science stuff uses chinese as its communication language – we find it quite difficult to enjoy certain things. Ee got bored. Even then, my favourite section was the Biomimicry area. It showcases how modern human technology draws inspirations of its innovations from animal kingdom.

For instance, the Shinkansen 500 series in Japan is designed in the shape of the kingfisher’s beak, which not only eliminates the issue of noise but also enhances the trains fuel efficiency. This change is made after Eiji Nakatsu, an engineer with JR West discovered that this bird are able to dive into water without making noise or splashing water because of Nature’s design.

You could also use your AirAsia boarding pass priviledge here for a discount. Anyhow, for us the entrance fee is cheaper using their bundle package rather than our pass.

Kun Lam Ecumenical Centre

Kun Lam is The Goddess of Mercy and here she stands 20ft tall emblemed in a special bronze. underneath her feet is a lotus shaped dome which houses information regarding Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism.

The Chinese Buddhist Goddess of Mercy is widely worshipped for her readiness to rescue those in need, and her responsiveness to peoples’ wishes.

Source : macaucloser

Macao Tower

I like that this tower is full of life with all the adrenaline rush activities. They have Bungee Jumping, SkyJump, Sky Walk and Tower Climb. Although I did not try them myself, it was still fun to watch. The 360 degrees view was majestic and great. We bought popcorn and just sat there enjoying Macao.

To sum up my experience..

…Macao is to us, a different option unlike the Krabi that we went to for like almost 3 years in a row. We look forward to coming back to Macao especially when most of the constructions have been completed. I really hope that there will be more dining out options for Muslim travelers too.

As a souvenir, we bought the usual tourist stuff – fridge magnets and “I Love Macao’ TShirts.

Perhaps next time, we would interpret the weather forecast better for half of our luggage were almost winter wear jackets when in fact Macao this time around (March/April) – is like suhu bilik ekon. Macam tu la…

I hope this gives some insights into how you could enjoy Macao as a muslim traveler without the gambling and the booze. HA HA HA HA.

15Apr2019

Minci Travels Macao 2019. Spending the day in Cotai

Posted in Everyday Life, Reviews, Travel by Minci 先生

Cotai spells out Luxury, Prestigious, Posh etc. It is a center where the buildings are huge, expensive and casinos are just everywhere. We felt a bit under-dressed walking underneath the glittering chandelier the size of our sofa at its shopping area. Perhaps next time I’ll wear a nice dress with heels. And a fashionable shawl to match. With a pair of classy sneakers in my posh backpack, just in case.

We managed to visit 3 places there. The place is so huge that we managed to lose our sense of direction even though the map for the area is readily available. Perhaps we were hungry. Even then, we couldn’t find the Indian restaurant that we badly wanted to go and try. I think they have the Peacock Restaurant there at The Venetian.

The Venetian Macao

In short, we wanted to see the much talked about San Luca Canal. Indeed, it was a beautiful place. We did not get into the gondola. We only took a picture.

The Parisian Macao

This is a separated building that houses also many shopping brands, hotel and casino. It is however connected with a bridge that you can walk through. The highlight of this particular hotel is the replica of the Eiffel Tower. You can enjoy the scenery at the observation deck if you stay at the hotel. But we weren’t guest. And we were also not members (of god knows what). So we paid for our tickets. The building was breathtaking with its tall, magnificent features but the view, was a tad disappointing.

Tickets were

MOP $108.00 for adults, MOP $85.00 for children.

It is because constructions were still happening on the Cotai Strip. So, it is not that ready yet with all the cranes, lorries and sand.

Studio City

This has got to be my favourite place. This is also a hotel and casino resort but more cinematic in appearance. The design of the external building was very Gotham city with the statues on the roof. Their collaboration with Time Warner ( which means they are also friends with Warner Bros and DC Comics) enables visitors to enjoy DC character features such as the Batman Dark Flight. We could not enter because Ee had height restrictions.

We did however enjoyed the Golden Reel, a figure 8 ferris wheel. Walking to the entrance of the elevator to the reel felt like walking to an Academy Award Show. They were playing the OST of Jurassic Park and gosh, it felt so majestic to walk through the glittering, sparkling hallway. Again, we felt under-dressed. Haha.

This is also the part where it got interesting. The guy at the counter asked if we brought our boarding passes to which my husband fortunately had. He said for any passengers boarding the Air Asia flight which flew directly to Macao can benefit from a discount to the entrance fee. So keep your boarding passes people! I am however not sure which other airline also has this perks.

By the time we finished our 15 min ride on the wheel, we were really really tired from all the walking. Yup, you can actually walk from one resort to another. It burns the calories but kills your feet. Especially with Mr Husband having to carry our 12kg Ninie.

it was only nearing 4 pm but totally exhausted. So we took the cab back home to Metropole Hotel and retired quite early to bed that day (lights out by 9pm) as we have another full day the next morning.

Take home messages :

Prepare snacks kids are familiar with. They might not want to try something new.

Wear, comfortable (fashionable, if you must) shoes

Bring a fold-able umbrella, just in case.

13Apr2019

Minci Travels Macao 2019. Metropole Hotel, Getting around & Food

Posted in Everyday Life, Travel by Minci 先生

This is part 2.

If you have kids, perhaps staying near the area of Senado Square is a good idea. At least, when the kids sleep – your older self can just roam the lit up, vibrant streets downstairs.

Getting Around

Unlike other travelers, we chose the taxi as our mode of transport. A bit on a posh side but comfortable for the family. We always start with MOP 19 on the meter. Eventhough the driver does not speak fluent English, having a picture or address of the place you intend to go would help. Despite thinking that Fishermans Wharf is a tourist spot and should be recognizable, they cannot seem to grasp what it is in English. Ha ha. cute.

They accept HKD for payment.

METROPOLE HOTEL

We initially chose the Superior Chinese Style room but was later upgraded to a Deluxe European Style Room. We also received complimentary breakfast with the room, so big thank you there. Despite the hotel situated in the busy bustling city, the noise does not seem to penetrate the walls of the hotel – unlike the hotel we stayed in Vietnam. HA ha ha. Hence, we had really restful nights during our stay there.

Our room had the usual, expected amenities ; complimentary beverages, mini fridge, a TV. The bath tub was a bonus! I managed to squeeze a bubble bath 2 nights in a row. The sockets in the room were Malaysian friendly (meaning you don’t need those international adapter thingy) and they even have readily available USB ports. What I don’t get is that you only have one switch for the entire room. In other words, you don’t have the option of putting the lights out and watching TV at the same time. Cause once the lights go out, your TV is out too. Interesting, right? ~~kedekut~~

I used the qiblat finder website to find the direction of the qiblat in the room. screenshot_20190329-151321_chrome5761446460054149522.jpg

Breakfast was in the form of an a la carte menu but with free flow coffee/tea/juice and pastries. We inquired regarding the possibility of preparing a vegetarian menu. Not that we are but under certain circumstances where we are not sure if the meat is handled/prepared the halal way , it is best to stay away and choose a safer option. The lady was happy to oblige.

“I will tell my chef – no meat, no pork or wine”

We thought that was really kind. In fact, their noodle in vegetable soup was super yummy. Padahal sayur kubis je tuh.

Food

Own packed meals

There are times when the kids are just too tired to walk which resulted in us abandoning the itinerary and have a meal in the room itself. Here is where Brahims meals becomes handy. They even give you a metal spoon in the box. Since we don’t have a microwave, we need to submerge the packet in hot boiling water for at least 8 – 10 minutes. And they come with a few flavours. We bought the mushroom and cheese rice & tomato rice.

On the other hand, we bought most of our extra beverages at the Eco RM2 store back home. oklah.. we get at least 3 sachets in a package of RM2. And it taste nice.

Ting Ting Vegetarian Cafe

On top of their cafe, they also have this little kiosk in the Jorge Alvares Square Park situated right in front of our hotel. This food joint sells vegetarian based meals and Mr Husband discovered that the owner is Vietnamese. Or was it only the person manning the kiosk. Their mushroom burger is to die for!! They also have tofu based burger and fresh smoothies.

LUO LANG RESTAURANT

This is a very familiar name to most muslim travelers. The workers are Indonesian but the owners are Macanese. We ordered a beef broth with noodles, a lamb pie which is practically karipap yang dibesarkan, the signature fig juice (ya habibi.. kiciknya gelas dia..) , rose tea and egg fried rice.

We all know the price is steep but hey, the portion was huge. We had to tapao the karipap. The Rose tea was nice but it took us so long to finish the pot. Its like never ending tea. Tuang ada lagi, tuang ada lagi.

If a culinary adventure was what you were hoping, I am afraid that this is the only thing I have for you. Yes, there are other local halal places like those with an Indonesian flavour to it. There is that Michelin peacock restaurant too. And eateries with an Indian influence to it.

This is us enjoying Turkish ice-cream. It’s time to draft the next part of the holiday.

Minci Moss

A written monologue

Tag Archives: muslim travel