HONG KONG TRIP (THE PEAK)

While in Hong Kong, we had the opportunity to go to the Peak. The Peak is actually a tourist attraction when one visits HK. Going to the peak itself is already a memorable memory for me as we had to get onto the Peak tram in order to reach the peak. You'll be amazed with the sights of the world-famous Victoria Harbour and Kowloon, the spectacular view of the nearby city skyline, lofty skyscrapers and the tranquil green hillsides from up there. What is so special about this tram is the funicular railway which diverges to the top. If u're not used to it, u can get dizzy just like when u're in the airplane. The breathtaking scenery when u're up at the peak will stay in yr mind forever...;) The peak tram station is located at Garden Road Peak Tram Terminal. The nearest Metro is Central. From central, we walked to the station. When u see the Bank of China, U will know that u're heading the right direction.

Random pix: Upper left, HK Disneyland Hotel, captured be4 leaving,
upper right, my kids in the Disney bus. We're heading to the MRT for HK. Bottom,
 captured a family photo on our way back from
dinner @ Tsim Tsa Tsui

Top left: Dinner, Botom left: In the MRT, bottom right: Window
shopping at Tsim Tsa Tsui

After we disembarked the Metro at Central Station

Roarrrr....they really adore Alex of Madagascar. Ni penangan HKD
semalamnya la ni...

Bank of China: On our way tothe Funicular train Station

Once up there, there are a lot of shops, houses, shopping complexes, etc. Madame Tussauds and HRC are also up there.

Top left: before we enter the tram, top right: in the tram, bottom left: once
we reached the top, bottom right: souvenir shop @ the peak tram station.

Madame Tussaud HK.

Top left: Peak Tram Historical Gallery, top right: Still with his lion
 action @ the Victoria Peak.

My lil cuppie cake, Farah Alyssa...:)

There are various travel methods in HK such as the tram, ferry and buses. I'm not so sure of the efficiency as i didn't ride any of those except the Metro and the train.

Swiss Garden Residence, KL

Last April, I got the opportunity to stay at the new Swiss Garden Residence, KL for freeeee...  A few of my friends asked me, " why bother staying in KL when your house is just a few steps away?" Nah... who cares...? As long as i get free vouchers, I will go...def will go... FYI, the normal price for the room here is rm200++. Since I'm a member of this particular timeshare, once in a while, they offer me free accommodations at their home-based hotels: KL, Damai Laut and Kuantan. Kuantan is under renovation and by looking at the photos, it must be a blast! They're building mini water park at the hotel. I've used all my entitlement nights until 2014 [sigh...]. I even called the reservation department requesting to use my later nights and they refused politely by saying, "u've utilized all yr entitlement nights for next year and the year after, mam"...kah,..kah...!

Overall, I don't have any complaints staying at this hotel except for 1 thing (will tell u later). Personally, I'm not the fussy type who like to complain this and that...

We arrived at night. Fetched my daughter from school and drove to KL. Even though the distance from the school to the hotel is less than 15km, but it took us nearly 2 hours to reach the place....Jammmmmm!!!!

When i stepped into the lobby...woowww..amazed! Cantik....! Betul ke free ni..? Entah2 kena bayar... The one in KL is much nicer and more stunning than the one in Perak. Perhaps, because it is brand new.

The Lobby...

Let's see what's in the room...

The room is covered with laminated flooring, i loike! Double bed, strong shower (Every time
i enter a hotel's room, the 1st thing i will check out is the shower. Last photo, some of the
toiletries.) 

Towels, head lamp and hair dryer. I forgot to snap the tv. It's a flat screen tv, by the way.
The room is equipped with free WIFI too.

These are the views of Bukit Bintang from my room early in the morning. Looks like a construction work is in progress. I remembered there used to be a Discotheque at that corner, and then it was turned into a car park and now, i don't know what it will become. Time will tell. Don't tell me another shopping complex... Oh yes, the hotel provides free shuttle bus to KLCC a few times daily. I did ask the receptionist, "Do u have shuttle service to Bukit Bintang area?" And, he answered politely (may be i was just imagining, but to me he sounded sarcastic) " Bukit Bintang is just 10m walk from here, miss. "Uhh..ok..I know that," and I left. We went to BB after that by car...hik..hik..

VIEW 1

VIEW II

VIEW III

Other facilities here...

The pool, the gym, the playing area. All the areas are equipped with WIFI

The view from the pool

The mini exercise park, playground & sauna room

They also have a spa but i didn't go there. Not enough time. Bz shopping at Low Yatt and eating out at BB.

Remember i did mention earlier that I had one complain.  Now, here it is... Jeng...jeng...jeng..Since I was so tired driving in the jam, therefore, we just ordered the food from the hotel (room service). I ordered a 9 inch cheese pizza. In my mind, the pizza would taste just like the room service pizza in Rama Candisasa, Bali. However...

Top left: The box, bottom right: the pizaa.

It turned out to be the yuckiest pizza in the world ...I ordered for the three of us (hubby went outstation, he joined us the next day), my 2 kids tasted the pizza and they put it back in the box. The crust was thin and when u eat it, it was like u were eating Jacob biscuit, and it was also tough to chew. Never tasted a pizza as bad as this one. The cheese was also not nice, bitter and sour at the same time. I did call the restaurant and clarify with them about the pizza and they replied,"that's the authentic Italian style." "Alright...hmmm...may be next time u should think of Malaysianizing the pizza for the sake of local demand," I suggested. I'm not sure what she said was true or vice versa, perhaps if I go to Italy one day, I want to try the pizza and compare with this one. (fuh..panjangnya complain).

We also ordered...

Spaghetti Bologne with meatball...

I don't want to whine anymore,  let's just say, this one is also authentic Italian style...

On the contrary, the buffet breakfast was fine and variety.  As a member, we paid rm40 for the 4 of us. They have local as well as international selections. U can either choose to eat in the cafe (where u have easy access to all the food) or u can choose to dine outside at the terrace overlooking the city of Kuala Lumpur, yr choice!

All in all, I will give Swiss Garden Residence a 7 out of 10. That's my own personal star. I don't know about the others. Room is fine, staff is friendly, facilities tip top, and on top of that, it's freeeee... (only for that time ah), what else could u ask 4? This place is a perfect short weekend getaway away from home. In case any of u would like to try this place out, here's the address:

Swiss Garden Hotel & Residences KL
117, Jalan Pudu, 55100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 
Tel : 603 - 2141 3333   Fax : 603 - 2141 5555   

HONG KONG TRIP (DISNEYLAND HK)

Hello all! I will continue with my journey to HK Disneyland. Overall, i think HK Disneyland ((HKD) is not as big as Disneyland Paris. And, the rides are lesser. Anyway, by now HKD has added a few more wings to its park (according to some of my web friends). For a story on the hotel that we'd stayed, u may refer to this link.

HOW TO GET THERE
If u're staying at one of the Disney Hotels (there are two at the moment), you will get access to the free shuttle. You can also walk from your hotel to the park. There is a pedestrian walk for u to walk. If u're staying outside the area, do not worry as the MRT station is just around the corner. HKD is located at Lantau Island. If u're from the airport, u just take the MTR Airport Station to Sunny Bay. And, from Sunny Bay, u just take the Disney line. And it goes the same if u're from other parts of HK.

OPENING HOURS
Opening hours vary according to season. However, the normal hours would be from 10am to 8pm.

HALAL FOOD
When I was there, there was no Halal eating outlet in the park. However, I heard somewhere that HKD already has Halal eating outlet. I'm not so sure about this, either. You can check about this further.

PARK

There are five parks at HKD. Toys Story Land and Adventureland (both recently opened),  Main Street, USA, Tomorrowland, and Fantasyland.

Come, let's look at some of my personal photos at the park. Need to warn you that the photos were taken with my Nokia mobile phone and my JVC camcorder, so the quality was really bad.  Long story, u can read about it here.

Top: The Entrance. Bottom left: the dancing fountain. My kids were so
fascinated with the fountain, they didn't wanna move at all.
 Bottom Righ: Disney MRT station.

Ramdom!

1. FANTASYLAND
Unadventurous person like me would really love Fantasyland..he..he... A lot of cute rides and performance. We experienced almost all of the attractions here.

It's a small world. Very cute!

Some of the kiddy rides... Top: Queuing for Winny The Pooh
Adventure Ride. I liked that one!

2. TOMORROWLAND

As the name suggests, it's about space and outer world adventure. 1st of all, i've to admit, I didn't ride and will never ever gonna ride the Space Mountain. I'd been to 2 Disneylands so far and I'd skipped both Space Mountains. So, no photos on Space Mountain, ya... We didn't have photo inside Astro Blaster either as it was dark in there. We just had the video of the scene inside there.

Top: A photo with Buzz. All the queues for the other characters were damn long,
only Buzz was shorter. So, Buzz pon Buzz la kan... Bottom left:
Dah lupa ride apa. Bottom right: Orbitron

Top: Faris getting ready for Orbitron ride. Bottom left: Crazy professor
at the street. Bottom right: Right after Astro Blaster  we exited at the
Tomorrowland merchandise shop....

3. MAIN STREET USA

Top: The Train Station. Once u enter from the main gate, u'll see this huge
station.  We took the train 1st when we arrived just to get an overview
of the place. Bottom left: Huge Christmas tree  (i went in Dec. Chritmas mood).
Bottom right: Farah happily playing bubbles with her new friend @
Main Street USA.

We waited until the parade and the firework. It stated in the advert that HKD would have snow during the firework. So, we waited...rupa2nya buih sabun disemburnya... Ambik kau..nak sangat snow!. Pahit bila termakan...Ha..Ha!!! My 2 small kids really believed that was snow. I didn't want to spoil their emotions, so i just agreed with them. Sorry, again no photos of the snow. Only video recording... Too amazed with the 'snow' actually...

The Parade.

There are many other photos taken but i guess these are more than enough to get u all gear up to HKD. I really regretted not going into 4D show. I thought of coming back on the 2nd day just for the show. But, we ended up not going to HKD on the 2nd day. In fact, we went to Victoria Peak instead.  When I went there, Adevntureland was still not opened, but my assumption, it's similar to the one in Paris, Indiana Jones, Tom Sawyers, etc. Perhaps I should pay HKD another visit in the future..he.he..who knows...

My 7 Super Shots

HELLO ALL!

I guess most of us have known about this lil game. Or, in case u are still blurry about all this, pls pay HostelBookers.com's blog a visit! I will now continue the assignment tagged by my Malaysian Travel Blogger friend, Yafieda Jamil...Thanxs Fie, for tagging me...! All of a sudden, I become so excited searching for the photos. Somehow when looking at all the photos, it brings back old memories of all the places I'd been to. And, it makes me feel so grateful and thankful to God for giving me the opportunity to witness his beautiful creations.  It takes me a while to choose the most suitable photo for each of the category. Therefore, after a few hours of selective selection, these are the 'winners' for each category!

1. TAKES MY BREATH AWAY

Amsterdam (2009) - This photo was taken when I was on my way to Brussels from Amsterdam. I didn't really know the name of the place, actually. When seeing such breathtaking scenery, your hands would automatically grabbed the camera, and your fingers would definitely busy clicking here and there. The greenery of the field stuck in my mind until today. Not only that, the weather was also on our side that day. Just look at the sky!

2. MAKES ME LAUGH OR SMILE

Cameron Highland (2011) - This is very personal to me. No matter how angry I am, no matter how tired I am and no matter how they make me mad... I will always smile and laugh when I am with them. These are my two crown jewels. Difficult to control and stubborn at times but I love them with all my heart!

3. MAKES ME DREAM

Madame Tussauds, Bangkok, Thailand (2011) - My dream is to visit the White House. Since USA is very far and expensive to go, so, visiting Madame Tussauds would do.  If I ever visit the White House, I am pretty sure, Mr Barrack Obama is no longer the president of the USA. I love this place. I can take photos with all the famous people around the world, including the president of the United States...:)

4. MAKES ME THINK

Chu Chi Tunnel, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (2010) - This photo shows how the Vietcong cooked their meal during the war in the 70s. The food in the photo was called paper cake. The ladies used to cook the paper cake very early in the morning and only in the morning because they needed the fog to blend with their cooking's smoke so that the American Soldiers would not detect them.  I learnt a lot about life when visiting Vietnam. It really made me sat back and think, why there is war in this wonderful world?  People should live in harmony and peace. And no one, i repeat, NO ONE deserves to suffer.


5. MAKES MY MOUTH WATER

Pondok Mina Restaurant, Bali (2011) - Very appetizing! Sweet n sour gourami fish. We stopped at Pondok Mina Restaurant on our way back from Tirtagangga Water Palace. The fish was so delicious and fresh. It has a balanced taste between sweet and savory. The price was cheap too. If I'm not mistaken, it was about RM12 for the whole set consisting of the fish, rice and vegetable. The driver who took us around that day showed us the place. We told him we wanted to eat at a cheap halal eating outlet and he brought us here.

6. TELLS A STORY

Sarawak Cultural Village, Kuching, Sarawak (2011) - These skeletons were kept in the house for protection from the evil spirits. According to the Bidayuh's people (one of the indigenous races in Sarawak), when the warriors had killed their enemies, you need to keep the skeletons and perform some rituals from time to time so that the spirits would be in peace and they wouldn't haunt you and your family. Scary, isn't it?


7. THE PHOTO THAT I AM MOST PROUD OF (AKA MY WORTHY OF NAT GEO SHOT)

Lands End, Penzance, West Cornwall, UK (2000) - Hmmm... this is actually the most difficult one to find...Knowing me and my skill in photography... While scrolling up and down my files and searching high and low into all my boxes and albums, I saw this photo. Very classic and old. This was taken more than 10 years ago. I went on a day trip from Plymouth to Lands End. As the name suggests, Lands End is the extremely westerly point of the mainland of United Kingdom.  When i snapped the photo, the wind was very strong and it seemed like thunder storm was coming. The water looked rough and fierce slamming the rocky islets.


Alright folks... I rest my case! I hope u enjoy reading my 7 super shots. Before I sign off, i would like to nominate 5 interesting people whose lives are so interesting, i wish i could be like them. Ok, guys..i pass the baton to you..!

1. Rayyan @ Si Traveler Comel
2. Wilson @ Places n food 
3. John @ Kaki Berangan
4. MasZuber @  Journey of Life
5. Feeq @ Feeqsays


P/s: I'm very glad i took part in Hostelbookers 7 Super Shot.

HONG KONG TRIP (DISNEY HOLLYWOOD HOTEL)

Salam 1Malaysia to all. Today's journal is about looking a few years back where Farah had her 1st long haul journey with AA. At that time, she was 3 and her brother was 6. How time flies, it feels like it was just yesterday. After days of researching and discussing, we decided to take the kids to HK Disneyland for the coming holiday.  At that time, flight to Hk cost quite a fortune. So, we decided to land at Shenzen. At the same time, we also wanted to visit Shenzhen, so, why not we just kill two birds with one stone, right? Some people say that we do not have to take Chinese Visa to enter Shenzhen Industrial Zone but some say, you need the visa. So, to be on the safe side, we just made the double entry visa to Shenzhen... Senang cerita...!

We landed at Shenzhen Airport in the mid morning. Once we arrived in Shenzhen, we took the airport bus to Lou Wu where we could catch the train to Hong Kong. From the runaway to the terminal, we were fetched by a bus. Immigration was fast and we were at Lou Wu in no time. Even though it was December, the temperature was not that cold. I remembered it was about 19 degree celcius at that time. Once at Lou Wu, we bought train tickets to Hong Kong. Beware of the locals who offer you help with the luggage. I thought they were just helping us, well..the truth was, they were asking us for money...so, we did pay them a few RMB. Kasihan jugakkan... after all they carried our heavy luggage up the staircase... I didn't mind paying them actually, but they needed to let us know beforehand.

From Lo Wu, we took MTR Island Line to Disneyland. We had a few transits as the journey was actually from one end to the other end. Unless u are coming from HK airport, journey to HK Disneyland is much shorter.  We had to change train a few times until we reached Sunny Bay where we could catch the MRT to Disneyland.   If u plan to stay longer  at Hong Kong, i suggest u to purchase octopus Card. It's like a touch n go card for public transport. It took us almost an hour to reach Sunny Bay.  The MRT to Disneyland is very special. It has cartoon character figurines inside the train. The windows are also mickey mouse like. The wall is also about Disney characters. All in all, everything in the train relates to Disneyland. My kids were already so fascinated with the MRT. Dah la mereka memang jakun naik MRT/LRT, naik pulak MRT yang full of characters, such as this one...memang la kejakunannya terserlah.

Top: At Sunny Bay MRT Station. Bottom: inside the MRT

When we arrived at Disneyland station, we took the free Disney Bus to the hotel. Again, my children were so fascinated and very excited (even an adult like me was also so excited, let alone the kids!) looking at the passage to Disneyland.

The 1st time we saw the hotel.....Waaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....!!! Bestnyerrrr...Wait till u go into the room... We always travel cheap. So, when we got to stay at a hotel as nice as this one, hmmm.... we didn't really know what to say...he...he..he...

Our room: everything is Disney

Around the hotel

Bumped into goofy

Outside the hotel. Behind the sign is the sea. Very nice to just walk in the morning or evening or just sit and relax
on the grass.

Disney Hollywood Hotel Merchandise shop. It was December, so Christmas
spirit was in the air. 

 Jom layan antique cars...

They have large pool and Malibu Toy House for the kids. The only drawback is they do not have halal eating outlet nearby. Either u bring food from home or you can just take the MRT to Jordan or Tsim Sha Tsui. There are a lot of halal eating outlets there.

The complimentary disney shuttle if u stay at any of the two hotels

The lobby

Waiting for the bus @ Disney Hollywood Hotel

The pool

The free locker near the pool

Malibu Toy House

P/s: Mind the quality of the photos. They were captured from my hp and also my camcorder. The minute we landed at Shenzhen Airport, the camera went hay wired [sigh...]

To be cont: HK Disneyland