Tag Archives: souvenirs

Kuching trip with my daughter – getting souvenirs, The Reef and the Regatta

Posted in Everyday Life, Food and Drinks, Leisure & Travel, Places to Eat by

I was in Kuching with my daughter for a wedding. After the event, we went to two places to get some souvenirs to bring back to Melaka. First was a trip to Kubah Ria.

KUBAH RIA

Kubah Ria is basically a market. My sister bought some midin, mi kolok and Sarawak Laksa paste. I, on the other hand, was looking for Chelum Chocolate Cafe. This cafe sells artisan chocolates. I saw on Instagram that it’s locally produced with very Sarawakian flavours. Thankfully, they have testers in the store. I bought the ones that my daughter likes, which are the ones with Sago Pearl and Tebaloi. The chocolate bars were priced at RM7/piece. I bought 40.

KEK LAPIS WARISAN

Previously, I have always gone to Kampung Gersik for my kuih lapis. This is someplace new. Honestly, I wouldn’t know the difference, but the idea of being able to watch how the kek lapis are made is interesting. Visitors can have a look at it at this outlet.

What’s more important is that I get to buy my kek lumut, kek belacan and Cadbury. They have the usual buy 10 free 1 promo, but I only bought 7. Cause everyone is on a diet. Plus, not everyone would appreciate the gesture of my bringing kuih lapis for everyone to eat at the workplace. Its availability in semenanjung has made it less exclusive. Although I do remember buying 1 loaf each for my colleagues in Hospital Jasin during my working period there. That was a long time ago. Over time, kuih lapis is just another cake to some people.

I did buy a few cat T-shirts for my husband and kids. Haneem really wanted a cat t-shirt. If I had more time, I’d probably shop for kain pasang with pua kumbu patterns. Alas, time was something I did not have.

Dinner at The Reef

Since we were in Kuching for the weekend, we felt that our chances of securing a table at Topspot would be small. Hence, my sister made a booking at The Reef. She put in an order for several dishes that were promptly served upon our arrival. Haneem really loved her midin, and she was able to finish her bowl of rice on her own! Good job.

After the dinner with my sister and her family, Haneem and I walked a little bit more to the Padungan cat statue. This particular cat changes its attire with the festive season. Since it is Deepavali, the cat was in an Indian outfit.

The Regatta

The Regatta and Festival Kraf Borneo was also happening during our visit. All this was organised at The Waterfront. So, we went there after breakfast on the day of our departure. We managed to watch a few boats racing. It was really fun and honestly got our adrenaline rushing too. The women with their oars and roars were such a beautiful sight. They were like warriors. The men, of course, were super sado.

I guess this sums up our girls’ trip to Kuching. It was too short and I look forward to another trip to Kuching again soon. Once I have saved up enough money. I really want to come during the time they’d play the Disney orchestra at The Waterfront. I wonder when their next show is in 2026. I really want to experience it. How fabulous it would be!

Langkawi 2023 : Our sloth-ish itinerary

Posted in Leisure & Travel, Reviews by

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.