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Sunday, December 27, 2009

~ One day trip to Muar ~

Date: 27th December 2009
Location: Muar

5:00am - Woke up early to get ready for our 1 Day trip to Muar! Hubby called the contact via a pamphlet that was sent to my sil's place. The 10-seater van (charging us at $350) will be picking us at Sengkang and bring us to the places we wanted to go for the day. I guess it's not too expensive bah.

6:00am - Van came on time to pick us up and we are on our way! Went to the custom at Woodlands and my first time visit to the new custom at JB.

6:50am - Our first stop - Breakfast at Ah Koong Resturant. I heard it is a famous stall in Johor and many Singaporeans like to stop by. (There are indeed many singaporean cars :p). We ordered Fishball noodles ($8.50RM) and fish cake. Personally I think it was not too bad but not too fantastic either. Maybe thats because I'm not a fishball noodle fan. In terms of pricing.. I guess due to its fame and popularity, it is comparable to eating in Singapore.

7:30am - We continue our journey to Muar. It's about 2 hours drive up and everybody is very excited. The van is spacious and we are comfortably seated.


It is still a looong drive up and the children falling asleep after playing for some time.

10:00am - 南亭寺(善才爷庙). We are back here again! It still look pretty much the same after my last visit 5 years ago.
Hubby with Denver 5 years ago and Hubby with Gladys today! Did you see any changes? :)
11:00am - With the GPS in the van, Hubby gave the address to the driver and we manage to locate a place selling nice, delicious Otah. Uh.. so where are the photos of the otahs? I did not manage to take any pictures cos they are all inside our stomachs :p We bought 2 packets and it was all gone before we left the place. :p
It is interesting to see and observe what's in Muar as we are travelling. 余仁生 already put up decorations for CNY already! I am also hearing CNY songs in some shops. Wow.. Christmas is just over and I can feel the CNY mood!
Along the road you can see road stalls selling all kinds of food. EVEN SUSHI!!

11:50am - Yong Sheng Confectionery (http://www.yongsheng.com.my/). This is a very famous Confectionery shop with many branches in Malaysia. I believe the one we went to is the very shop that was first establish in Muar in 1952 .

There are all sorts of delicacies there.. From cakes, biscuits, hampers, honey tea, chocolates etc. You will be welcomed by the staff there asking you to try and sample their various different products. I can really eat my full there if I were to sample everything. :p Fil bought a lot of stuff... we only bought some back home. ^_^
12:30pm - Lunch at Ting Ting Resturant. We invited the driver to join us for lunch too. I did not take photos on all the food which we ordered. :p (Too paiseh cos my inlaws and uncle, auntie are there.) hehehe. We had Beehoon fishball soup, vegetables, egg, cereal prawns, toufu and prawn roll. (~$116.40RM). The kids have ice-cream cones for desserts after a heavy lunch.
:30pm - After lunch, it was basically travelling on the road and resting in the van.. We were suppose to visit another temple with fishes. Unfortunately, the driver didn't know the place and we wasted 2 hours searching for it. :( We ended up going to 2 other temples along the way and decided to end our search at 3:30pm and go for shopping instead.
6:00pm - Sutera Mall. Shopping time and we have 2 hours here! Still Eileen and Auntie didn't waste any time at all and their hands were full of shoes, clothings and bags! We had dinner at KFC and Hubby took the kids to play at the arcade and Jumping Castle while I had about half hour of personal shopping. :)

8:00pm - The driver came on time to pick us and we were all back home by 10:00pm.

Friday, December 25, 2009

~ Cycling at Pasir Ris Park ~

It's a Sunny Christmas Morning! As planned, Hubby drove us down to Pasir Ris Park for some morning exercise. Parking is free, so we only need to pay for the rentals of the bicycles. Apart from Cycling, the park also offers other activities and facilities like inline skating, pony riding, children's playground and BBQ pits.

You can go to the following website to download the map : http://www.nparks.gov.sg/cms/docs/parks/PRP_Brochure.pdf

Since Gladys is still young, she will be riding with Hubby while Denver & I will ride on ourselves. It has been many years since I last cycled... Wooo.. my cycling skills really getting rusty and needed some warm up!

Hubby gave Denver some basic tips on how to ride the bicycle and how to brake correctly. Hehehe.. He definitely needs more practice. Denver started off really slow and had difficulty cycling up the slope. (He nearly roll back when he wasn't able to go up the steep slope!) Hubby & I stopped many times in between the rides to make sure he catches up with us and we have to keep reminding Denver to keep his feet on the pedals cos he always tends to lift them in mid air while braking or moving down a slope.

You can also enjoy the scenary while cycling around the park. :)

At the end of the 1 half hour ride, Denver starts to get the hang of it and managed to increase his speed with no injuries and falls. :) I can definitely feel the tension on my thighs after going through such a slow ride. :p Still, it was fun and a good workout!

Friday, December 11, 2009

~ Cebu Manila Trip - Day 8 and 9 @ Manila ~

4th Dec 09

It's our final F&E day in Manila today! I can't believe we will be going home soon. Today we woke up later than usual. We had late breakfast at the hotel and there are lesser variety of food left.
View from our hotel room. Wendy's, Jollibee and MacDonald are just nearby.

Taking MRT ride at Boni Avenue Station to Shangril-La Plaza (one station away). There are always a lot of people in the train. The first two cabins are strictly for female, elderly and children. Since Hubby is carrying Gladys, we managed to hop on the front cabins where it is less crowded.
We had Chocolate and Damalan drink at one of the road stall.
The children spent another 500p on Arcade games. Today's lunch is at Mr Choi Kitchen. It's lunch hours and there is a crowd. We are seated on the 2nd floor of the resturant.

Our Meal : Spring bean with mince meat, Birthday noodle and Assorted Dimsum.

The dishes are quite nice and portion is enough for four of us to fill our stomach. We even cancelled our order for the steam rice.

After lunch, our last stop for this trip is the SM Mall of Asia (MOA). I believe it is the 3rd/4th largest mall in the world. You can literally spend the whole day shopping here.

Interactive Touch Screen Map of Mall of Asia. It will show you where you are and how to get to your destination.


The Big Globe which represents SM MOA is just outside the mall. It is beautifully lighted up in the night. We hit the arcades again and exchange all our tickets to gifts. Hahaha.. So funny... instead of shopping, we have been playing with games. :p

We were surprised to see 许留仙 here. We had that in HongKong a few years back. Refreshing Kiwi with Sago and Mango & Strawberry juice.

Night scene of MOA. There is an open-air area/park directly facing the sea.. In the nights, there are games for the kids, cafe and road stalls and of course with Christmas around the corner, a big Christmas Tree!

Queuing up for the Bumper car ride.
Play Time


Denver said Daddy keep banging onto his car. Well, that's what Bumper Car is for isn't it? :)

The main highlights at MOA is actually bringing the kids to see the Fireworks. There will be fireworks display every Friday & Saturday 7pm. We went to the bay by the sea to grab a good spot. There is already a long line of crowd sitting/standing by waiting for the Fireworks performance.

We stared out at sea.. Hubby holding on to Gladys while I got ready my camera to do the filming.. and HERE IT COMES!! 3 Full Minutes of AMAZING Fireworks display.. it came from a ship but there are also Fireworks from both side of the Mall! Fantastic!


Wooow.. The children enjoyed themselves.. Gladys felt that it was too loud but she loves the colours and glitter.. :)

Dinner Time! Denver already chosen what he wanted to eat.. Japanese cuisine Again! Well, since it is our final night here, we went for the Eat All You Can Buffet Dinner at YakiMIX. It's charging 580p for adults and 380p for children below 4 feet. Uhhhh.. Denver is way above 4 feet and he has to be charged as Adult price.. :( Luckily, they did not charge Gladys kids price and she gets to eat for Free. :)


There is a good spread of variety from Sashimi, Sushi, Rice, Noodles, Assorted meat for grilling, cooked dishes, Ice-creams, Cakes, Salad, Soup etc.. We spent the entire hour odd eating. GOSH.. I'm really putting on weight!

Well, all good things comes to an end.... Sniff... Time to go back and pack our luggage!

5th Dec 09

We'll be going back home today! Denver said he misses home already and can't wait to be back. I guess they had enough adventure, food and fun already. He is already telling me that he wishes to go Japan on our next trip! -_-!

We bid farewell to Hubby's colleague and the friendly staff at New Horizon. Took a cab down to the Airport and bought some souveniors too.

Snacks for the kiddos: Sausage Roll and Sugar Free Tiramisu
Lunch at the Airport: Chicken & Pork Fillet, Spaghetti and Ripe and Green Mango juice.

Get Ready to Take Off! Bye Bye Philippines!


It was great to have our laundry already washed and ironed. We only have 1 load of clothes to manage back home. ^_^ That saves me sooo much work! It's nice to be back home again.

~ End of our 9 Days 8 Night trip ~

Thursday, December 10, 2009

~ Cebu Manila Trip - Day 7 @ Manila ~

3rd Dec 09

6:30am - Not sure if it's due to the early sunrise... everyone seems to be waking up earlier. :) We have complimentary breakfast at New Horizon, and Denver loves to look for his cereals.


We are all ready for more shopping, eating and games for the next 2 days. :) But first of all, we need to send our laundry for washing again. :) This will be our final time before we return home.


The laundry shop is inside a mall opposite our hotel, so it is very convenient to drop and collect later.

Here's Hubby ordering early desserts - Buko Pandan and Buko loco with Lychee drink for us. Sweet & Yummy. Gosh.. I think I'm getting FAT!

This morning, we are visiting Greenhills where there are a whole lot of stalls selling local souveniors, shirts etc.. but it is most famous for selling Pearls. There are too many of them and I really don't know which one to patronise. We randomly walk and stop by one of the stalls. The lady says since we are her first customers of the day, she will give us special discount. Well, I'm not a superd shopper especially when it comes to jewelry.. we eventually bought some back for myself and as gifts. It is a tradition to swipe the money from their first earnings of the day on their products so as to bring in more customers and earnings.


I lost track of the other malls that we visited later on... Umm.. There is Greenbelt (high-class shopping), Landmark, Glorietta mall etc. Well, we didn't really visit all the shops in detail since there are soooo many and we have 2 kids with us. So, we walked around and eat along the way.
Lunch was at Tokyo Tokyo - Japanese fast food restaurant chain in the Philippines.

Stop by MacDonalds for Desserts and Drinks again. :) Gladys posing for Christmas. :)


Our final destination for today is PowerPlant Mall. It looks high class too.. The children had another round of arcade gaming at Power Station after following us to shop for the whole morning.

We also went for a movie treat - Planet 51. It is slightly cheaper to watch movies in the Philippines and their Popcorn taste different too. (Butter popcorn).. Not those sweet/salty type.


Hubby met up with his colleagues for dinner after the movies and this is the only time where I did not take photos of the food.. (Paiseh mah). The only one which I think was really nice was the desserts. Not too sure what was it call though...but its super soft, sweet and nice.
I was still feeling hungry when I went back to the hotel.. so I called for Room Service. hehehhe.. The value meal menu on the hotel listing was soooo attractive! 99 pesos only!! For a burger, macroni salad and Coca-cola drink! Wow! It's only about $3 SGD!!! I enjoyed my supper.. Hahaha.
End of Day 7

~ Cebu Manila Trip - Day 6 @ Manila ~

2nd Dec 09

6:00am - We woke up early, checkout of Diplomat and took a cab to the Airport.

7:30am - Reached Airport @ Mactan, check-in and seated down at Bo's Coffee Club for our breakfast.

Hubby found a small cockroach crawling around in the glass display window where the muffins, sandwiches and cakes are. He told the staff at the counter and it was gotten rid of immediately. Well, we still make our orders (since there are not much options). All of us did not have tummyache later. :) I guess we are quite trained in this area since back home we did not really make it a point to be super clean and hygienic. Hahahha..

Waiting at the boarding area.. 1 more hour to go..
On-Flight and Take off to Manila. CebuPacific Air has arranged some games while we are on board. 3 free Tote Bag to be given away for anyone who can show the items fastest as requested by the stewardess. (e.g. A pair of shoes, belt etc).
12:15pm - YEAH! We finally arrived at New Horizon Hotel! This hotel is where Hubby has been staying when he is on Business Trip and we will be here for the next 3 days. We were warmly welcomed when we reached the Hotel Lobby. Since the staffs are so familiar with Hubby already, everyone is so friendly! We pop by to say "HI" to Hubby's colleagues who are just staying next door in the other rooms on the same floor as us. ^_^
Our room is big, clean and spacious. I love the toilet with the bathtub! The hotel staffs have also helped us to joined the 2 single beds together. So kind and nice!

After putting down our luggages, Hubby took us to ride on the MRT to Shangri-La Plaza. Denver has been looking so forward as he wanted to play Animal Kaisers cards! But of course, LUNCH First, Play Later. :)

Hubby took us to STEAKTOWN as he wanted to let me try the 1 pound steak which he had before. We ordered 1 pound steak (half between hubby & I), Buffalo Chicken Wings served with their special chilli cream sauce, Chicken Lollipop and Child's portion Tenderloin. We can also take the salad from the Salad Bar.
Sizzling Steak! Yummy.... SLurp
Needless to say it was another HEAVY Lunch... We are all ready to hit the Arcade games at Power Station. This was something the kids have been looking forward to for this trip. :p
Next, we walked over to SM MegaMall for another round of shopping and eating.
Hubby says he often see a lot of people buying donuts from Krispy Kreme. So we decided to give it a try too.... So many flavours to choose from and we bought half a dozen and a Chocolate Cookie Chiller.

Verdict: It was VERY SWEET! There is a coating of sugar on the donuts. Definitely a great choice for Sweet Lovers. Ummm.. but kinda too sweet for our taste bud. :) I guess the food in Singapore taste blender since we don't really take too salty and sweet stuff. ^_^
SM Department Stall is very common in Philippines. We always love to visit the children's department. :) Finally managed to buy a pair of new shoes for Gladys.

6:20pm - Shangril-La Hotel is just walking distance from SM Mega Mall. We went to order their drink of the month (550p) and got a free toy. :) Hubby has been collecting them during his business trip since October (1 different toy for each month). We now have a Tarsier, Bat and Reindeer.
Well, I'm not sure if $17 SGD is considered cheap or expensive sitting on a comfty sofa in a 5 star hotel, having our drink and enjoying the live musical performance. But it's surely so relaxing to the body and mind that I can almost fell asleep. :)
View of Shangri-La Plaza while waiting for the cab back to our hotel. Well.. we still did not have our dinner yet. :D All of us were so full after eating so much food earlier. We stopped by Wendy's fast food resturant which is near New Horizon for a quick and simple dinner.
End of Day 6