Bicycle Ride with Ah Koo

My brother took Elyssa on a bicycle ride this evening.

Must adjust seat belt first

Yay..... all ready to go

And we are off!

Elyssa and her Ah Koo
Alamak.... mummy didn't see earlier. Safety aspect- FAIL! Helmet and seatbelt strap not adjusted properly.

Ah Kong helping to remove helmet

This is actually Elyssa's second ride on the bicycle with her Ah Koo. The first time (few weeks back), she was so scared that she didn't utter a single word during the entire journey! Ha ha.. not easy for this girl to be speechless.

So I was surprised when she wanted to try again today. Still scared but at least she could answer some basic questions that my brother asked her during the journey. I think with a few more tries, she will start enjoying these rides :)

Sick

My poor princess is sick :(
Down with mild fever, flu and cough. Had to skip her Gymboree class and a swimming session planned with her cousins.

She has been AWFULLY cranky today. When she's upstairs, she wants to go downstairs. When I accompany her down, she wants to go upstairs. She bawls at every little thing eg when I want to clean goo from her nose or when she knocks herself slightly on the sofa or when she doesn't get what she wants. *Sigh*. I hope she recovers soon!

But at times she was still her normal cheeky self. She gave me a good laugh this morning - She asked me where daddy was so I told her daddy was taking a shower in the bathroom. She went to the room, knocked on the bathroom door and hollered out loud :
"Daddy, Are you washing your BACKSIDE?????"

Daddy couldn't hear her in the bathroom so she shouted out loud the same question at least 8 times. Ha hahhhh!!!!! I hope the neighbours didn't hear that. ;)

Visit to the Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary

A few weeks back, my SIL suggested a trip to the Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary for her 3 nieces. We finally made it yesterday during the Hari Raya Haji public holiday. I told Elyssa about the elephant trip early this week and she seemed excited enough. But the night before the trip, she quietly told me she didn't want to go as she was scared. Aiyo! My seemingly tough little girl is such a softie inside ;) She only agreed to go when I reassured her that daddy will carry her if she gets scared.

We went in 2 cars for the approx 2 hour journey to the Temerloh district. Stopped by at Bentong town for the famous wan tan mee and home made ice-cream.

The famous Kow Po ice-cream shop
I've never seen a local ice-cream shop before!

The ice-cream platter (RM10) hubby and I shared
We chose peanut, sweet corn, pandan and chocolate ice-cream. Nice and creamy. I didn't like the peanut flavour cos it was a tad salty but it was hubby's favourite.

After filling up our tummies, we headed straight to the elephant sanctuary.

We already pre-booked the free tickets for the entrance and rides. Wanted to watch the video presentation scheduled for 1.30pm but the viewing room was packed so we had to skip it. Just before 2pm, we walked over to the elephant site.

Big crowd waiting for the elephants

A not too happy Elyssa in her classic "nervous, so must play with belly button" position

Finally! The crowd was so excited when the elephants appeared.

Elephant Parade
I was expecting some kind of show, but there was none

Elephants taken for a quick dip in the river

After the quick dip in the river, the next activities were :

1) Elephant feeding - boxes of food (slightly rotten papaya, watermelon and cucumber cut into big chunks) were brought out so that visitors could feed the elephants.

2) Elephant riding - 2 sections : 1 for adults (on adult elephants) and 1 for kids (on baby elephants). No seats, just bareback on the elephant with the handler.

3) Water activity in the river - those with tickets could sit on the elephant backs then get dunked into the water.


Activity 1 - Feeding

Yup, that's MY hand feeding the elephant!
Elyssa (who was in daddy's arms) refused to go near the elephant so I had to resort to self photography. Quite scary when the huge elephant trunk got so close to me!

Elyssa with daddy

Ha ha.... see the scared look on her face?

Activity 2 - Riding

My 2 nieces - Chloe and Charmaine riding a baby elephant

Elyssa watching the elephant rides from afar

Elyssa and I

Activity 3 - Water activity

Watching from a distance

We had 4 tickets among us, but skipped it since we were too lazy to go through the hassle of washing up if we were to get dunked. (just look at the colour of the water!)

Other photos -

Poor baby elephant with a stump for one of the legs.

Me touching the baby elephant.
Very hairy!

After the elephant sanctuary, we went back to KL for an early dinner back. Took this simple but sweet photo of Elyssa and her Chloe jie jie. Elyssa absolutely adores this jie jie!

2 years, 7 months old

My little Elyssa is now 2 years, 7 months old.



About her:

1. Weight : 13.6kg

2. Sometimes a good jie-jie, sometimes a bad jie-jie to her two baby cousins. When she's good, she plays with them and loves to "help" them by propping up their milk bottles, fetching stuff etc. When she's bad, she takes away whatever toys they are playing even if it results in crying babies :( I think it's a way for her to seek attention.

3. When she poos in her potty at home, she must take a small book to "read". Why? So she can be just like mummy. Ha ha!

4. Her mouth is still like a leaky tap. She has never stopped drooling since she was a baby.

5. She enjoys pushing her little stroller around when we go out to shopping centres.
What amuses me most is that she likes to imitate what we do. I've heard her say to her little Miss Sunshine toy : "Must be good girl ok? Sit in stroller. Cannot pao-pao." Sometimes, she stops to carry her toy - "Aiyo, you naughty girl. Why you cry? Elyssa pao-pao leeetle while only. Cannot too long. Afterwards Elyssa hands tired. Little while only ok? Later you must sit down". or sometimes : "Little Miss Sunshine - you see the cat there? So cute hor?"

Ha haa....... very similar to what we have told her last time.

6. She's very much at a Miss Copy Cat stage. Many times, we ponder about her behaviour before realising that's exactly what we do sub-consciously. I guess she's silently observing us all the time!

7. My mum has started to teach her Mandarin. She now knows basic Mandarin phrases like "I want to drink milk", " go wash hand" , "I want to poo poo", body parts in Mandarin and counting from 1 to 10. Pretty soon, she'll be better than her daddy :)

Short Holiday - Tg Sepat & Bagan Lalang (Day 3)

Day 3
As usual, Elyssa was up before 8am and started chattering away. *Sigh*, no difference to her whether it was a weekend or not. All I wanted to do was to sleep!

Then I discovered another big plus point of travelling with friends......more people to keep her entertained. Yay! This lazy mummy managed to snooze for another hour plus. Bliss! Actually, I was also pleased that she was comfortable enough to just talk and play with our friends without hubby and I being around. :)
(thanks Aunty MS and Eu for bearing with Miss "Zhi Zhar Poh"!)

After the wonderful beauty sleep, we headed off to the Golden Palm Gold Coast Resort again. Doris, the homestay owner kindly offered to bring us in since she's a member of the resort.

Some photos of the super-hard-to-get-into resort :

Villas

Bedroom

Master room

Swimming Pool

The resort was actually much nicer than I expected.
But package rate was something like RM8k+ for 7 nights to use within a year and RM 30k+ for 25 years. Nah....... I think my Marriott package is wayyyyyy better! Why be restricted to just ONE location ? And I don't even have the confidence this place will be around for 25 years!

Anyway, after the resort, we made a quick stop at a Fisherman's Pier -

Then to a Longan Farm -

Longan
Not in season though. Only a few trees with fruits

Passion fruit and "Hu Low"

(the old fashioned drinking bottles I see in kung fu movies!)

More "Hu Low"
These will be dried then cored to make the old fashioned bottles for decoration purposes

Pineapple
Ok..... not that I've not seen a pineapple plant before. But since already in the farm, then take photo loh...

After the farm, we were all famished and ready for lunch. Polished everything very quickly!

Lunch

Some dishes not in photo

We headed back to KL in our respective cars after lunch.

I wasn't expecting much at first, but I ended up really enjoying the short holiday. Don't really know how to describe it, but during the 3 days, I just felt so "free" from some of the things that have been troubling me recently.

Short Holiday - Tg Sepat & Bagan Lalang (Day 2)

On Day 2, we had a late breakfast then we went to collect our reservation of 18 precious paos!!

The Handmade Paos

I wasn't expecting too much from the paos (I usually get disappointed with hyped-up stuff) but I ended up just loving the "sang yuk pao". The combination of the yummy pork filling and the fluffy pao was just excellent. I think it was the best pao I ever had! I regretted not buying more the next day to bring home. We tried the "mui choy", peanut and 'choy' paos too, but those were so-so only. They had the same fluffy pao texture, but to me the filing is just as important.

Oh, and after the pao shop, we went again to the coffee shop next door to stock up on more coffee. Yup, we tried making the coffee ourselves in the house and it tasted just as good as the samples given out (he hee.... must test cos sometimes samples taste so much better. Like how I can never make a cup of Milo as good as those given out from the Milo vans!)

Then we went back to chill out at our homestay house. Best to stay in during the scorching sun period around 1 to 4pm!

Homestay Details
- single storey bungalow with 3 bedrooms
- simple but clean furnishings
- all bedrooms and living room fully air-conditioned
- bedroom 1 & 2 : queen bed + 1 double decker bed ; bedroom 3 : queen bed + single bed
- plenty of blankets and pillows provided (but no towels)
- cooking and bbq facilities provided
- my favourite part of the house : the big patio overlooking the big garden overlooking the lake. Lovely!
- market rate : RM400 per night. (we got a huge discount cos it's owned by a friend's friend)
- contact : Doris (phone number : 0126543064. She has double storey units as well)

Photos -

Back view of the house

The lovely patio where we spent many, many hours just chilling out

Simple gazebo in the garden. It was lovely to chat there too!

Plenty of space for Elyssa to run around

View from the gazebo
(ok, I positioned the camera above the not-so-pretty green chain linked fence)

When it wasn't so hot, we went to the Bagan Lalang beach. Enjoyed the simple pleasures of life - flying kites and blowing bubbles! ( ha ha...... the blowing bubbles enjoyment wasn't just restricted to Elyssa)

View of the beach

Elyssa still doesn't like the sand. See how tightly she clung on to daddy!

Happy girl playing with bubbles

Kite flying with friends

After that, we wanted to go over to the Golden Palm Gold Coast Resort to check out the place. The security there was so strict........ we couldn't even even go in to see. Hmmmpphhh!!

We had our seafood dinner at one of the Malay shops nearby. Let's see - Grilled stingray, Tom Yum soup, Crabs in 3 flavoured sauce, Kangkung belacan, Grilled squid, Otak-otak, Grilled fish, fruit juices and rice. Bill was higher than expected.

Best dish of the night - Grilled Fish.
No idea what fish though!

Same routine after dinner - after Elyssa slept, we continued chatting with snacks and wine until the wee hours of the morning. Ok, plus we had a short tarot card reading session. That was a little spooky!

We also realised that it was time to leave the next morning. Gosh, how come time flew by so fast?

-End of Day 2 -

Short Holiday - Tg Sepat & Bagan Lalang (Day 1)

During the long Deepavali weekend, we went with a small group of friends for a short 3D,2N holiday in Tg Sepat and Bagan Lalang.

Some people were already asking us......."Hah? 3 days? What to do there?"
Well, it was meant to be a relaxing holiday :) And looking back, I'm so glad we didn't squeeze it to 2D,1N. We had plenty of time to just chill and catch up!

Day 1

The famous Pao Shop

It was just a small shop so we were shocked to see two tourist buses parked nearby! Just look at the crowd! It was as if all the paos were being given for free. We wanted to buy some to try but were told every single pao has been reserved. What??????? So, I got into the 'kiasu' mood and made reservations for 18 paos for the following day. Ha hahh...... I never imagined I would ever queue up and make reservations for Paos !!!!

Coffee Shop
After the Pao shop, we went to the shop next door selling coffee. We were given small samples to try out and it was really good. Very aromatic.

Mushroom farm
After a leisurely tea break of "oh chien" (fried oyster) and drinks at an old style kopitiam, we proceeded to the mushroom farm. The farm part was actually just a row of mushrooms. Nothing much to see. We spent most of the time in the shop buying mushrooms and mushroom related stuff (mushroom powder, mushroom drinks etc).

Lingzhi Mushroom - at first, I thought it was fake cos it was so bright and shiny.

Other types of mushroom -

Lovers Bridge area
Then we proceeded to the area around Lovers Bridge. Ahhhh...... so peaceful and serene!

I just love this photo. It was actually my last shot before my camera battery died.

We had our seafood dinner at the Lover's Bridge Restaurant. When the waitress came to take our order, she told us it was a one hour wait. Ok loh........ leisurely trip mah. We ended up buying and eating lots of keropok (from a nearby shop) while waiting for our food. Food was nothing great actually. No photos since my camera battery died.

Patio @ our Homestay House
After dinner, we went back to our homestay house. (Photo taken the following morning. Will write more about this lovely house in my next post). After I managed to get Elyssa to sleep around 10pm, I joined the rest for a chit-chat session at the outdoor patio. It felt so nice to have an activity after Elyssa's bed time!!! Ha ha! We all had a good time talking and laughing till the wee hours of the morning. :)

-End of Day 1-