Showing posts with label travels. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travels. Show all posts

Saturday, October 02, 2010

MySelangor Story| Day 4 - Chill-ax-ing Day at Pyramid!

Day 4!! Vote here^^

Just in case you didn't read Day 3 (please read it here^^), I spent the night over at a homestay village called Sungai Haji Dorani, whereby myself, Denise, MsXeroz and Dania where placed under the care of these two sweet ladies.

It was great to have their company for the night as opposed to sleeping all ALONE in a superior deluxe room Genting on then 2nd night (read it here). The funny thing was although we were all tired after a long day's trip, we couldn't sleep :S

Maybe it's the sudden down-grade from a superior deluxe room to a mosquito-infested-master bedroom-with-two-not-so-comfy-double beds.

Or maybe it's just because when you have four girls together, our mouths can't seem to keep themselves shut. lol.

Maybe we should have thrown ourselves a slumber party that night :S

Ahh...I really regret that we didn't cam-whore together in the bedroom *sad betul*

But nevertheless, we did manage to get some beauty sleep and woke up early in time for breakfast: ketupat with chicken rendang. We even had time to say our farewells to our lovely hosts.

That's me, Kak Hani in the pink tudung and MakCik Haliwati (my "sifu" in ketupat-making)

A group picture of the MySelangor Story bloggers!
(credits to Spectre)

Once we took the group pictures, at 9.35am we boarded our VIP 3-seater bus and left Dorani Homestay.

Bye-bye Dorani Homestay *blows a kiss*

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Bus-ride again

By now I was kinda numb to sitting on the bus, I think my butt sized increased by an inch or so especially after the long hours on the bus the day before. LOL.

Most of the bloggers slept on the bus, while I was being super-hardworking :P

That's me writing up my Day 1 and Day 2 posts using my trusted lappie :)
(credits to Spectre)

Okay, that's a not the 100% truth, my lappie can only survive 2hours at max using the battery, so halfway round the journey I'd either be chatting with Feeq, who became my pet bro through the trip, or getting a power nap.

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Sunway Pyramid

Okay, being a Klangite (person from Klang) I forgot the countless times that I've been to Sunway Pyramid or Pyramid (for short) e.g. I was there on Merdeka Eve with my friends and enjoyed ice-skating. So to be honest, I went

"not again"

when I found out that we're going to Pyramid as part of the contest.

But my thought's that my visit to Pyramid would be boring was proved wrong.

First of all although I've been to Pyramid a LOT, it's usually for window-shopping. Never have I stayed in any of the Sunway Hotels [Sunway has two hotels in the area: Sunway Resort Hotel & Pyramid Tower Hotel].

And thanks to
Sunway City Berhad the official Integrated Resort for MySelangor Story, we the bloggers got to spend not one, but TWO nights in the Pyramid Tower Hotel!

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Lunchie

After we checked into our rooms, where my roommate was Jing Yi, we quickly gathered again at the hotel's lobby for lunch. I was super hungry by that time. In fact, I was almost hungry all the time during the contest, which explains why I've put on weight *sigh*

But hungry or not, when it comes to taking pictures, girls will stop everything else and pose for the camera!!

*ka-chak*
(from left to right: Me, MsXeroz, Dania, ChiaLi and Jing Yi)
p.s: Do go and read their blog and if you like it *I'm sure you will* vote for them as well :)

Lunch was arranged by Sunway City Berhad at Mantra Restaurant and Bar, located at on the ground floor i.e the ice skating ring balcony, which was conveniently near to Pyramid Tower Hotel!


The restaurant served us great indian cuisine in a buffet-style :)

Main:


Dessert:
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Lepak-time

After lunch, we were given a great news by our "mummy" Amelia!

We had the whole day FREE!!!

Yes, no need to travel around and we were given all the time to loiter around Pyramid. (If only we had the free time in Kanching Waterfalls instead!!)

So, some of us formed a little group to "discover" what Pyramid has to offer.
The first crazy thing that we did was thanks to MsXeroz.

Guess what she did?

Fuyoh...look at the crowd of bloggers around her! Like paparazzi right?

Well the whole thing started because MsXeroz told us that the customer service in Pyramid is superb. So to prove the fact, we did an experiment.

Hypothesis:

Customer Service in Sunway Pyramid is good.

Experiment:

Sending MsXeroz to terrorize ask a few questions e.g.

"what are the things to do in Sunway Pyramid"

Conclusion: Hypothesis proven!

Yes, the sweet lady patients explained the many questions aimed at her and even posed for the bloggers in the end :)


p.s: There is also a tourist police office right outside Pyramid for travelers who would like to learn more about tour packages in Selangor. (see if you can spot me in the pic :P)


What followed the mini-experiment, is I what I call

"jia pa bo tai ji zho"session (in hokkien)

or when translated directly to english goes:

eat full-full nothing to do session
(okay, it doesn't make any sense, does it?)

In other words, we did loads of non-nonsensical posing around Sunway Pyramid. These pictures shall give you a glimpse on what "jia pa bo tai ji zho" means :P


Posing on the railway tracks of the imaginary Sunway Pyramid KTM Station


Run forest, run!

Goodbye, we're leaving our loved ones~~ *waves*
Me and MsXeroz acting funny.

LOL. Aren't those pictures amusing?

Well, a little more serious stuff now. Just for the information for those who aren't from Selangor or KL, Sunway Pyramid is a really large shopping mall. In fact it's one of my favourite malls in town because I really like the concept while they have: different themed-sections.


Which has the interior designed in Moroccan flavours, and shops which sell stuff from the middle eastern country.

Girls posing on a connecting bridge in the Marrakesh section of the mall.

While posing, we caught this pizza!

There is also this section called the Asian Avenue.

The shops at this section sell a wide array of clothes for youngsters :)


In fact Pyramid is so huge a mall that there's even a indoor ferris wheel!


It's own digital centre, where you can get all your IT gadgets from.


And also it's own ice-skating rink!

(In fact it's the only one that I know of in Selangor! Except for the ancient ice-rink in Mines, which I think has now closed down)

After all that, we finally decided to return to our rooms to get some nap before we were required to gather again for dinner :)

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Private time

So back in the room, I cam-whored. LOL

Then I decided to take out my lappie to transfer the pictures which I took and then cam-whored some more. Simon, I told you this post is gonna be LOADED with my cute pics! XD


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Dinner *nom nom nom*


I was initially really hyped out about having dinner at the Sun & Surf Cafe as I heard that they served a great variety of delicious food.

But, to be really honest, I was kind of disappointed. Although we, the bloggers, got in for free, the thought of having to pay RM78++ for the buffet dinner there saddened me.

Why so?

1. We didn't get any drinks except for iced water (and tea or coffee..which we only found out in the end when one of the bloggers asked. Shouldn't they at least come over and ask what we'd like?)

2. Although the spread was pretty good (Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Grilled, Kebab..erm..I forgot the rest :S) the taste of the food wasn't something to shout about.

Nevertheless, I got my stomach filled!

Round 1: Fruits

(Yes, I start with fruits. I don't think it's medically proven yet, but the "experts" in food diet says that fruits should be taken before meals. In fact, they should be taken during day time on an empty stomach at least 20-30mins before a meal in order for better absorption of the vitamins :)

Round 2: Assorted sushi and seafood.


Round 3:

Grilled lamb, prawns & Taiwan Sausage.

p.s: the lamb was burnt and the meat was so tough I only took 2 bites out of it *food wastage i know*

Round 4:

I took rice and some assorted chinese cuisine (forgot to take a pic though)


Round 5:

Desserts!

The selection of desserts at the cafe.

And finally, Round 6:

Ice-cream.

(as you can see, the ice-cream melted really fast making it all so messy = =)


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Night Walk

After filling up our stomachs, we decided to take a night walk around Pyramid to allow time for the stomach to digest. Well, basically it's another "jia pa bo tai ji zho"session. LOL.


Fancy chandelier in the lobby of Sunway Resorts Hotel


Sunway Resorts Hotel


I love this picture taken by Tian Chad

The best part of our night walk has got to be the fancy light decorations outside of Sunway Pyramid itself! These lovely lights are put up every now and then around Pyramid, and will be changed according to the festivities in Malaysia :)

Seeing all the lovely light decorations reminded me of the lights we saw in i-city on the first day :)


So that about sums up Day 4 in Sunway Pyramid!!


Last but not least, my signature pose!

This time with MsXeroz as my partner^^

Please vote for Day 4 here^^

Stay tuned for Day 5 of MySelangor Story!

XOXO,

Wen Yi

Friday, October 01, 2010

MySelangor Story| Day 3 - Waterfalls & Fireflies

Vote for my Day 3 here :)

*get ready for another long post. lol*
Just in case you missed out what happened the day before click here (Day 2).

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The "accident"

As mentioned in Day 2, Resorts World Genting were extremely generous to us and instead of having breakfast at the common buffet area in First World, we got breakfast at the World Club Lounge which has a birds-eye view of the whole outdoor theme park!

But the main highlight during breakfast is not the view or the fantastic spread of breakfast served.

The highlight is the accident which happened during breakfast!!

That's me and Kak Ning with a big hole on her beautiful new pink blouse!

*pic thanks to Spectre using his HTC*

Guess what happened that made me look like this?

*sad-constipated-like-face*

*pic thanks to Spectre using his HTC*

P.s did you notice that I CHANGED my shirt??

In fact the "accident" that happened was sooo dramatic that not only Nicole from MsXeroz did a news coverage on it!

*pic thanks to Spectre using his HTC*

Even the manager of the restaurant and a few of his staff came over to ask Me and Kak Ning if we were okay!!!

To be really honest, I still am at a blur as to what happened that morning.

I was really hungry and wanted to get a piece of pancake and as I opened the heavy lid, a candle (which Kak Ning suspects has been misplaced by the waiter right in front of the pancakes) fell over and the wax spilled all over the place!

The wax was burning hot and it got my shirt, my pants, and even slightly burned my legs, and it BURNT that hole on Kak Ning's pretty pink blouse :(

Re-cap of the pink blouse yg berlubang *sorry kak ning*


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Chin Swee Caves Temple

Anyways, that's the highlight of the day before we departed from Genting and made our way down hill to Chin Swee Caves Temple.

Haven't heard of Chin Swee Caves Temple?

It's a taoist temple located about 5-10 mins drive down from the peak of Genting Highlands i.e. 4600 ft above sea level. The view there is really scenic, plus it has about the same cooling weather as the peak of Genting. Thus explaining why Genting built a "hotel" there.

A panoramic-view around Chin Swee Temple (taken using Pentax Optio WS80 )

A wide-angle view which is a combi of 2 photos taken using Pentax Optio WS80.

The big pagoda on the left is called the Million Buddha Tower, while the building on the right is the Goh Tong Hall.

The Goh Tong Hall..


There was also a statue of the late Tan Sri Dato Seri (Dr) Lim Goh Tong who is the founder of both Genting Highlands and Chin Swee Caves Temple.

Apparently the late Dato had a dream while he was sleeping in the cave, which was then not developed to what you see in the pictures. In his dream, a deity told him that he will make big money if he built a temple. So wah lah, you get Chin Swee Caves Temple!

Once again, we were rushing for time as we had to make it all the way to Kanching Waterfalls in Rawang by lunch time. Thus, I didn't have the time to fully discover what the temple had. I just checked their website and realized that I missed out on a lot of other statues e.g. a beautiful statue of Kuan Yin *sigh* Well, for those who want to see what else there is to be seen in Chin Swee Caves Temple here's their official website.


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Kanching Waterfalls

After almost 90mins of having my ass stuck to the seat of the bus, we arrived at Hutan Lipur Kanching! *gyaahh!! super excited*

Just in case you didn't know, I had been wanting to go to Kanching Waterfalls since a few months back!!! But the trip never happened because my friends freaked out thanks to the "kencing tikus" issue. What's the "kencing tikus" or "rat's urine" story? read my post on it here :)

Kanching waterfalls is situated in Rawang, Selangor!

Nearby the entrance was this dude with birds and a beautiful green parrot :)

Kanching Falls are managed by Tourism Selangor.

And what made me want to go to Kanching Falls so desperately is the fact that its a 7 tiered falls! Yes SEVEN!! *super excited!!*

note: click on the picture to enlarge so that you can have a better view of the map of Kanching Falls :)

Once again, I am kinda saddened as we had to rush for time, again *sigh* So we didn't get the time to see all 7-tiers of the falls. We only managed to get to the 3rd tier, or was it the 4th @.@

But anyways, here are some pictures of the falls for you to enjoy :)

Has that gotten you hyped up in going to the falls?

Doesn't the pictures just scream out of for you to go soak yourself in the cooling water??!

I hope it did, because I know for sure that I'll be going BACK to the falls!!!! And when I go, I will make sure I conquer all the 7-tiers of the waterfalls!! *evil laugh*

Directions to go Kanching Waterfalls

  • Follow the road to Kepong and Rawang (E1) for about 20 to 30 minutes
  • Look for brown signs pointing the way to Hutan Lipur Sg. Kanching.
  • See signs for Templers Park and just after the protruding limestock rock on the right.
  • Kanching Park is also on the right but you need to make a U-turn another 1-2 km further down.
  • Go straight until you pass by a Petronas station on the left and stop at the next traffic light in the right lane.
  • A Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet will be on your right side.
  • Make the U-turn and go back on the same road until you see the entry sign for Kanching on the left.
  • It's a quick descent to the entrance parking lot, so be aware.
  • If you miss it, no problem. There is a U-turn up the road after passing the limestone rock. So just repeat the above.

I got the directions here or you can also visit Virtual Malaysia)

But let me warn you first.

A friendly neighborhood advice from Tourism Selangor .

Well, the obvious accidents that they refer too are e.g. accidental deaths in the waterfall *choiiiiiii~~~ touchwood*

But also the dangers of this seemingly adorable monkey!!

ohh...don't let this picture of this cute-monkey-showing-its-little-birdie-while-munching-on-a-piece-of-chip fool you!! They are in fact really fierce and daring especially when they move in a big group. They'll come charging at you to get your food!! *evil laugh* I got a video of them taking a can of Coca-cola but that's not for today. *I will try to upload this in the future*

After a quick lunch at the falls, we then headed to Sabak Bernam, the other end of Selangor!


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The "Kampung" Experience


So once again, I had my ass stuck to the seat of the bus for another 3 hours @.@

Why on earth did we travel all the way to Sabak Bernam??

The answer is because we were to be hosted at Dorani Homestay.

Well, although to be really honest, I was kinda bummed up from sitting in the bus for long hours, the feeling immediately went off upon arrival at the homestay village at 4pm.

Once we alighted from the bus, we were greet by the sound of kompangs and even people with bunga mangga!!!

(note: kompang is a traditional malay music instrument, which is usually made of animal skin, and is held by the men shown in the picture below. Bunga Mangga = the cute flower like deco in pink and silver, which is a prop usually used for functions e.g. malay weddings)

The opening act shown by the friendly people in the Sungai Haji Dorani Village warmed my heart :) They even served us some malay delicacies for tea, and even performed a Kuda Kepang Performance for us!

Kuda Kepang is a traditional Malay dance using a 2D piece of wooden/rattan made into the shape of a horse *note the little details painted on the horse? note also the man in blue sitting on the stage? he's the one playing the music for the kuda kepang performance*

After being shown the performance, we the MySelangor Story bloggers were given a chance to learn the dance.

That's KK with the shades on his head, and Victor (my SUPER X4 junior from INTEC) learning a trick or two on how to dance.

What followed later on was another performance called the Barongan Performance.

Barongan is a mystical creature which if I'm not mistaken, is a combination of a tiger and a dog.

I need to point out however, that the sound system was pretty bad, because when the emcee was explaining about Barongan, I couldn't really catch what he mentioned. Not only that I think that there were insufficient information given out on the dances performed e.g. no explanation on what the dance represents.

Nevertheless, Sungai Haji Dorani Homestay is a pretty cool place!

I love the scenery there.

I love this picture which I took. How the scenery of the coconut tree is reflected on the information board :)


As it's a homestay it means that the bloggers will be staying with "surrogate" parents for the night. I was lucky enought to get to spend the night with Denise (my sweet buddy), Nicole (or more fondly known as the famous MsXeroz in her blog. I learned that night that she's my "sampat" buddy for the trip :P) and Dania (a great blogger with a great smile!).

Upon arrival to the house, we immediately plopped ourselves down in the living room, where we got Mak Cik Haliwati to teach us how to make a ketupat!

Mak Cik Haliwati our "sifu"

After trying for 2 hours, yes TWO HOURS, I finally made these three babies!! Of course with the help from my sifu in tidying up the loose ends :P

A panoramic view of the living room of the house I stayed in (taken using Pentax Optio WS80 )

A panoramic view of the bathroom.(taken using Pentax Optio WS80 )

And just to prove how "kampung" the place is, guess what I saw in our bedroom??

KeluangMan?

p.s to non-malaysians: Keluang Man is Malaysia's own version of, well, Batman! LOL!

or

CicakMan??

p.s to non-malaysians: CicakMan is Malaysia's own version of, you guess it, Spiderman! (Cicak = Lizard)

No lah~

I saw a creature with MANY MANY legs!!

Jeng Jeng Jeng~

............

..........

........

......

....

.

A millipede!

Details of Kampung Dorani Homestay can be found in the blog. Other than the giving out performances, they also organize many other activities e.g. making and flying or own traditional malay kite: Wau, fishing, trips to the paddy fields, cockle-finding, and many other activities :)


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Fireflies

At 8pm we departed from the village to another village in Kuala Selangor to catch see fireflies! (please don't catch the fireflies, okay? They are already going extinct so we must do our best to preserve them. Plus you'll get fined up to RM1000 if you are caught catching a firefly!!)

At 9pm (after another hour in the bus...*sigh* yes, today was a day whereby more than 6 hours was spent on board!!) we arrived at the Kampung Kuantan Firefly Park, Kuala Selangor! (I am kinda bad in giving directions so here's a link to Virtual Malaysia to guide you)

Alrights, it was kinda hard to snap pictures of the fireflies, not only because there is a strict "no flash" policy.

No..I don't mean this kind of flashing :P

But because the light emitted by these tiny little firelies are too dim to be captured using digital cameras. The best way to see these little creatures is to take a boat ride, which costs RM40 for a boat that can accommodate up to 4 people i.e. RM10/pax :)

I caught this picture of a cute angmoh boy sleeping while waiting for my boat ride :)

After the boat ride, we headed to the mini-theater (Panggung-mini) for a free introductory video about fireflies :)

After that, we adjourned to Tanjung Karang for a taste of the infamous satay: Satay Hut

They sell super-large or XL satay sticks which are about DOUBLE of the standard satay you get in KL for RM1.10, which is well-worth your money as they are generous in the portion of meat given.

This picture below is the standard sized satay which is served in Satay Hut.

The taste of the meat is different from the standard satay I've tried as the meat is marinade with herbs. There are a few herbs used, but I could only tell the taste of lemongrass, which made it really appetizing!

Another plus point about the satay would be the fact that it isn't too sweet e.g. Satay Kajang = too sweet. P.s: it's unhealthy to consume too much sugar! *plz take this health advise from a learning-pharmacist :P*

So that's all for Day 3 of the MySelangor Story adventure.

By now, you should know that I end my posts with my signature pose :)

*especially for you Jeje^^V

Vote for me here :)

Stay tuned for Day 4 tomorrow!

XOXO,

Wen Yi

p.s: As mentioned before, any comments, good or bad, are welcomed^^ So do drop me a comment, or like this post if you do, or even help me spread the word by sharing this post on twitter/facebook.
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