Koko restaurant @Pulau Kapas

I didn’t know it was quite a bad idea to go to East Coast islands in September. As monsoon is coming, it rains almost every day. When we arrived in the morning about 930am, the sky was cloudy and started to rain. But Alhamdulillah not so heavy.

On the 2nd day, it was a bright sunny, only drizzling in the evening. 

And it’s also not a good time to swim because jellyfish season has started apparently. We can see many of them from the island jetty. But as advised, it’s better to swim in the afternoon till early evening to avoid them. So we had to cancel a snorkeling trip. Instead, we just swam at the shoreline and did kayaking. But still, it has corals and we can see many type of fish too. I found a family of Nemo!

I went with 3 other friend-colleagues. They’re from Philippines and I’m glad that I got to introduce one of our best islands in Peninsular. The island is only about 6km from Marang jetty, so we can actually see the mainland from the island. It’s still beautiful with the clear blue water.

Other than my experience swimming, crawling, climbing and hiking to the Bukit Singa, there’s nothing much highlight for this trip. But one thing I wanna share out loud is the Koko restaurant. The food there was amazing and delicious. The people were so friendly and the abang chef was so nice to spend times to chit chat with us.

Basically, they offered a local food. We had dinner there for 2 nights and tried the delicious Chicken with Coco sauce. Well, its actually a ‘ayam masak lemak cili padi’. My damn favorite kot! Then we tried masak singgang or I think they called it Ginger sauce. I forgot the type of fish, but it was very yummy. We also ate fried King Fish with sweet sour sauce which was so tasty too! 

😋

3-meals dinner for 4

The yummy masak lemak cili padi

Masak singgang ikan

To those who want to go to Pulau Kapas, I definitely recommend this restaurant. The price is reasonable especially when you share with more than 2 people. It’s surely worth the money. 
Thumbs up! 👍

HAPPY FRIENDSHIP DAY...?

I’ve known some people who are stingy, but generous to give their food

I’ve known some people who live well but they don’t even want to share their salad

There are people who you just met but you know you have chemistry together
There are people who you’ve met in a while but you know it’s going to shatter
There are people who you’ve known for years but they don’t even bother
There are people who you don’t meet anymore but you know they’re friends forever
There are people who cut-off a friendship because they think they’re better

There are people who don’t know you but they talk bad about you
There are people who slander and insult you
There are people who like to judge you
Please ignore, literally what we must do

Ignore because they’re only a toxic
A toxic that has no power over your feelings
A toxic that doesn’t worth your energy
A toxic that is not important in your life
A toxic that you need to remove and stay apart

Unlike a friend
A friend is someone who understands you
A friend is someone who you can argue
A friend is someone who can disagree with you
But still remain friends because they care for you

• ck | 29082018 •

The Superb Cebu

The currency exchange rate as of 5^th August, 2018.

1 MYR = 12.8111 PHP

---------------------------------------------

We’ve been looking for flight tickets to Cebu since last year, main reason is to attend the wedding of our dear friend-colleague, Merlyn. She’s married her >8-year lover, Rey, which is also our colleague.

Wikipedia source: Cebu is a province of the Philippines, in the country’s Central Visayas region, comprising Cebu Island and more than 150 smaller surrounding islands and islets. 

There are many beautiful and well-known tourist attractions in Cebu province. The beaches, islands and waterfalls. So, we’re looking forward to go around the big island and make the wedding as the side trip. Hehe.

Initially, only 3 of us but then ended-up with additional 3. Trip will be for 7 days but we have only 4 days to explore the land and do all the activities.

Here to share the itinerary that I worked with my friend, Ron.

*Time zone +8 GMT, same as in Malaysia.

Day 1

1300: Depart to KLIA2 Airport

1755: Flight to Cebu (4-hour journey)

2200: Arrival at Mactan-Cebu International Airport

2300: Check-in to Tsai Hotel and Residences

After that, we went out to have a dinner. The target place is Jollibee!

Yes, Jollibee, the pinoy’s proud and brag. For the first timer, sorry to say, it’s not as delicious as I thought. Sorry, I still vote for KFC! *but after trying the KFC there, it tastes a bit saltier than usual.

But but, the beef steak at Jollibee deserves a thumbs up. With the gravy, it’s yummeh~

Cost:

Grab from Airport to Hotel - P300 for 6 pax

Jollibee - P120

My first Jollibee with Mocha float. Nyummm~

Day 2

0900: The Big Wedding

The church is just a walking distance from hotel. After the church, we went to the Beverly View Events at Beverly Hills subdivision for the wedding reception by a shuttle van.

The ceremony ended about 4pm.

The magical wedding that I witnessed 💖

1600: Quick visit to Taoist Temple

Just for photography purposes.

Went back to hotel, freshen up and meet the newly-weds for dinner. We had dinner together at I.T Park. I had Jollibee again. Cos u know, it’s hard to find a halal food there.

I also had the can’t-wait-to-try-again desert, Halo Halo. Nyummm. But I think, the one that I ate in Mang Inasal is much tastier.

Cost:

Jollibee – P170

Day 3

0300: Wake-up Call from hotel

0400: Going to South Bus Terminal

0730: Arrive in Brgy. Tan-awan, Oslob

When we arrived, the place was already crowded with people. We bought a package to swim with Whale Sharks included a trip to Sumilon Island at Aaron’s dive centre.

And you know what, we had to wait more than 2 hours until our turn and finally been called at about 1050am!!

But the exhaustions are gone after seeing that gentle giants, big beautiful creatures! They worth the wait for sure. Although we only had about 15-20 mins to see them.

Do you think swimming with Whale Sharks is bad? Read here:

https://www.granadabeachhouse.ph/oslob-whale-shark-tour-history/

There are rules that we must follow, such as – do not touch them, no camera flash, do not apply a sun screen and only swim in distance of 4m.

Marine biologists stationed at the area always look after the Whale Sharks and while swimming, you can see many divers at the bottom to record and monitor the process.

1100: Swim with Whale Sharks

Photobomber!

Then we took a lunch at the stall nearby. I had an instant noodle and breads with tuna. Bought more to bring to Sumilon Island. Picnic by the beach!

1245: Sumilon Island

Swim and relax at the white sand beach. Clear blue water with nothing on the floor. Luckily the weather was not very hot and we really enjoyed the 3ft waves.

Went back to Aaron’s at about 330pm.

White beach at Sumilon Island

After checking a few options of transports to go to Moalboal, we finally decided to hire a car as it’s quite cheap and more convenience. Before going to Moalboal, the driver helped to take us to Tumalog Falls.

From the parking spot, we walked down and uphill about 15mins to reach the falls. The high bedrocks but small waterfalls with a shower drops, shallow green-milk pool and fortunately, only few couples there. Yeah, we had the whole place for ourselves.

1600: Quick visit to Tumalog Falls

Having shower at Tumalog Falls

1730: Going to Moalboal

1930: Arrive in Moalboal and check-in at Moalboal T Breeze Coastal Resort

The journey took about 2 hours from the coast to coast. When we reached there, it’s already dark and the road to our hidden resort has no lights and narrow, we can only see bushes at left and right which seemed to be a perfect scene for a horror movie.

After checking in, we had dinner at the resort. We were sitting in front of reception area where it’s just next to the beach, but we can’t see anything because it was pitch dark. We just listened to the music of waves crashing the resort walls.

About the food, I was expecting a nice seafood but unfortunately, they only have fish and prawns. So I ordered a prawn pasta. But too bad, the prawns were small and looked like a frozen food. Not worth for the expensive price.

That prawn pasta

Cost:

Bus from Cebu to Oslob – P192

Swim with Whale Sharks + Sumilon Island – P1440

Sumilan entrance fee – P50

Tumalog Falls entrance fee – P20

Car to Moalboal – P2400 for 6 pax

Dinner – P335

Room – P10,500 for 4 pax for 3 nights

Day 4

Woke up early and walked towards the reception where I can finally see the open ocean. OMG it’s amazingly beautiful! I’m happy I chose this place.

The amazing scenery in front of Moalboal T Breeze Coastal Resort.

0715: Going to Kawasan Falls

We hired the same kuya to drive us for a day. He picked us in the morning and directly went to Badian where the Kawasan Falls located. It took about 30 mins and before that, we stopped at Mc Donalds for breakfast.

0740: Reached the shop where we registered for the canyoneering activity. There are few packages but apparently the others not interested to go for extreme. So we just took the easy peasy which completed in only 2 hours.

What is Canyoneering?

Canyoning or canyoneering (in US) is a popular outdoor trek that involves traveling down creeks or streams within a canyon through variety of means including walking, jumping, swimming, climbing, abseiling.

The activity started after a short briefing and we rode a habal-habal for 15 mins to reach the starting point. From there, we trekked about 20 mins to reach the 1^st jumping spot. It was so relieved when I saw the stunning turquoise water.

Overall, we did about 5-6 jumps and slided over small falls. The highest jump I did was about 25 ft! It’s terrifying but we had so much fun! Even though the amount I paid was quite pricey but the experience I had was priceless. I glad I did it!

The 25ft jump!

The adrenaline junkies!

1100: Back to the shop and had a free lunch

1200: Going to Kawasan Falls

Tremendous place! I don’t know how many times I asked this but why the water color is turquoise? Like, why our waterfalls (in Malaysia) have no such color? *unless it’s hidden somewhere*

This waterfall is already well-known. Hence, it attracted a big crowd. Hence, many photobombers. Hence, I feel annoyed. 😒

Before this, the bamboo raft can be rented and floated in the middle, but now no longer allowed. And, we MUST wear a life jacket to pass through the falls area. Because I was told that someone drowned a month before. Ewyuhh creepy~

One of the falls on the way to the main pool

The turquoise water

1600: Left Kawasan Falls

Get changed and stopped at shopping mall, Graisano Grand. We were looking for a birthday cake because IT’S MY BIRTHDAY!!! I wanted a chocolate slice cake or cupcake but there’s only choc muffin. But it’s ok. Ron bought for 4 of us. His treat. Oh ya btw, the other friend 2 just took a bus to Cebu city cos they were going to Bohol tour tomorrow. While the 4 of us decided to stay in Moalboal and planned for an island hopping + snorkeling trip.

And before going back to our resort, we bought a roasted chicken and a few stuffed rice that looks like ketupat for our dinner. As u know, it’s dark to go out at night and the food at the resort is expensive and not delicious.

We went back by tricycle because the Kuya driver just dropped us at the mall. It was a fun ride. Hehe.

1800: Reached our room and get prepared for dinner.

We had a small party for my birthday with choc muffins and chicken cake! Soo yummehh~ Thanks dear friends for celebrating. Hugss!

My choc muffin and chicken cake

Cost:

Breakfast McD – P200

Canyoneering – P1500

Transport – P1800 for 6 pax

Kawasan falls entrance – P45

Dinner – P241

Day 5

0700: Wake up time

Yesterday, we bought some instant noodles, bread, tuna and peanut butter to have a breakfast in front of the resort where we can see the picturesque ocean and enjoyed the sea breeze. 

The kind of place I wanna be every morning

1030: White sand beach

We decided not to proceed with the island hopping plan and just chilled at the beach instead. The trip costs P3500 for 6 people but because it’s only 4 of us, it’s gonna be quite overpriced.

The beach is only 10 mins walk from our resort. It has a sand bar, shallow clean water and rolling waves. We just spent a day from high tide to low tide, sitting under the hut, swam, relaxed, took photos, ate noodles and swam again. I was hoping to see turtles but they were nowhere to be seen.

Chillin' at White Sand beach

1400: Walked back to resort.

I thought to rent a floater but it’s already low tide and it’s no way to be used. Sad.

This was the time when we received a call from our friend, who were in Bohol for their day tour, informed us that an unfortunate incident happened, somehow the other friend injured her elbow. He said an ATV flipped over her and she had to be rushed to hospital. It was chaotic and tensioned situation, calls back to back, caused some disagreement but then, they finally got into a ferry to go back to Cebu city at 5pm. It’s confirmed that her bone is fractured *OMG that’s damn painful*, however the doctor said she can have a surgery when she’s back in KL.

1730: Ready for dinner

We ordered shrimp sinigang and chicken green curry at the resort. Gonna give them a final trial. I tasted the chicken curry on the 1^st day we arrived and I knew it tasted good although I actually like it spicy. But it’s still not bad. And that was the 1^st time I tried sinigang. Sinigang is a famous Filipino cuisine, kind of soup or stew. Its sour and savory taste most often associated with tamarind. It tastes alike with our Malay dish, singgang without turmeric powder. But you see, sinigang and singgang, sound similar right?

I rated the food 3 out of 5, cos it’s quite appetizing and additional 1 more star for the pleasant mango milkshake. That’s yummehhh!

Chicken Green Curry, Sinigang and the delicious Mango Milkshake 😋

Enjoyed the rest of the day at resort, watching sunset, packed up and slept early cos we had to catch a bus back to Cebu city on tomorrow morning. 

Cost:

White beach entrance fee – P10

Hut – P300

Lunch – P100

Dinner – P285

Day 6

0600: Tricycle arrived to fetch us to Bus stop

0630: Ride a bus to Cebu city

0930: Went to Taboan

This place is famous with dried fish. All of them purchased a lot, for their family and friends, while I just there sitting on a chair, waiting cos I bought nothing. Hehe.

Sorry, just not interested.

1100: Met up with the other 2 at Airbnb, San Marino Residences.

The friend who was injured, unable to move properly so we had to cancel the plan for City tour.

When I thought I was gonna die of boredom, they bought me a cake, KFC, Halo-Halo from Mang Inasal, gave me a balloon and celebrated my birthday again. What a surprise. More hugs and kisses for them. Hehe~

Yeay, I got a choc cake and balloon! 🙌

1830: Me and other 2 friends decided to go for a quick visit at 10,000 roses cafe.

This place which consist 10,000 artificial white roses that glow with LED lights and located at a sea-side, has become an Instagram worthy and made us very were eager to see it by ourselves.

When checking in Google maps, the place is only 17km away, but it takes about an hour drive. *well it actually took about 30min* After asking around, we rode a van that will drop us at the area and from there, we took a tricycart (a cart carried by a bicycle) which in total, the transportation cost is very cheap, compared to go by Grab.

If you want cheaper, you can take a habal-habal or jeepney.

It’s actually best to go there at dusk until night, but when we arrived at 730pm, it’s already dark. And damn so many people! And as u know, it’s annoying when it comes to – photoshoot session.

Well, it’s fine. We were happy that we went there, it’s a very lovely (yes, it makes u feel romantic 😍) place although some LED lights are already off. They should maintain the place, ensure the roses are still white, not faded and dirty, or else this place will turn to be overrated.

2100: Back to Cebu city and slept early to catch a flight at 755am.

It’s a bit disappointed that I can’t go to Temple of Leah and Tops Lookout. But overall, I was very happy and satisfied with this full-of-activities holiday.

Cost:

Tricycle to bus station – P200 for 4 pax

Bus from Moalboal to Cebu – P140

Jollibee – P120

Van to Cordova – P35 per pax

Tricycart to 10,000 roses café – P25 per pax

Room - 300 per pax

Day 7

1830: Left to Airport by Grab

Oh ya, for foreigners, in case if you don’t know, we have to pay a Terminal fee at the airport. When I went to Boracay, the terminal fee was P700 so I already put-aside that amount, but when I reached at the counter, I was informed the amount to pay is P850. So yeah, you have no choice. 😔

Cost:

Grab to Airport – P255 for 3 pax

Terminal Fee – P850

Goodbye Cebu city! Your people and your places are very awesome!

Salamat po!

10 annoying things my cats do

First of all, let me introduce my kitties.

Cheezi and Chiki

They do a lot of – seriously A LOT of annoying things. But to list them all, it’s gonna be a never ending story. So just let me share only these 10.

1. They both don’t use a litter box at home, they pee and poo at bathroom floor instead. So what always happened – just after the hard work of cleaning a bathroom, they will come and poo again. *facepalm*

2. Running around and jumping on bed in the middle of the night.

3. Bila da tutup lampu, da baring atas katil nak tido, time tu la Chiki datang duduk kat bantal kepala, bersihkan bulu ia dekat stengah jam.

4. Cheezi punya port tido kat celah kaki. Dan ia selalu kais-kais dengan tangan berbulu tu siap keluar kuku sebab nak masuk dalam selimut.

5. When I slept too long, Cheezi will come and meow-meow in front of my face.

6. Takkan boleh lipat baju dengan aman, sebab dorang akan kacau dan sibuk nak masuk dalam bakul.

7. Cannot let a wardrobe open, they will jump inside, mess it up and sleep.

8. Can’t go to bathroom with door closed. They will scratch and make noise. So most of the time I will let them in and watch me bathing. *roll eyes*

9. When mopping, they will run and slide on the wet floor. To chase them away, switch on the vacuum. Hehe.

10. Cheezi likes to scratch on fabric material, so he always uses sofa, chairs and destroy my laundry beg. While Chiki likes to scratch on woods, so my door and wardrobe already have many many cuts. I still failed to get them to stop. I even bought a wood scratching post, but they still scratch at other places. *scratching head*

But how f**king annoying they are, I still want to live with them and can’t bear losing them, cos I love them so much.

I guess only cat owners will understand. Hehe.

Road to Hatyai...failed!

The incident on last weekend was so enraged and frustrated. When I got home, I googled about it and found this.

Source: http://www.thaiembassy.com/thailand/changes-visa-exempt.php

When preparing an itinerary for this mainly a food hunting trip and a short getaway on weekend, I googled a lot - about where to stay, places to go, what to eat. In the process, I came across other people’s blog, sharing their experience to Hatyai overland but too bad, didn’t find any to pre-warn about this issue.

So this what happened –

Me and my other 3 friends from Philippines planned for a weekend trip to Hatyai. We took a bus from KL and bought a return tickets for the next day. We even paid for a hotel room online.

Our bus reached at the Sadao Boundary post to enter Thailand on Saturday 930am. It started to get fishy when there’s a man in casual attire pulled one of my friend and asked her for RM100 to skip the queue. She felt strange but chose to ignore and just got back to the queue again. After checking their passport by the officer at the counter, my friends were directed to the office at the back. I had my passport stamped with no problem as I’m Malaysian. When I went to meet them at the back office, I saw the same man talking shouting to them, asked to pay RM100 or showed 10,000 THB, or else they had to return to Malaysia. Things got so confusing at first because I never heard about this fee and the officer didn’t try to explain nicely, instead they were extremely rude.

We’re going to stay just for a day and do you think each of us must spend 10,000 THB there?

We showed the return bus tickets but they don’t care.

All my friends have a working visa in Malaysia, but they don’t care too.

To cut a story short, my friends were denied to enter Thailand and banned to come back in a day. Just note that we didn’t fight and tried to negotiate properly but still NONE of them cared to even bother.

Apparently, this rules exist decades ago, but the implementation varies. No wonder many people not aware of it and my Thai friends didn’t know about it either. I read in few forums, blogs and news, some of the tourists were asked to pay up to RM300, some of them were asked to show 20,000 THB and some of them were not asked for anything. It’s obviously a scam and what disturbed the most was the treatment and harassment we got from the officers.

I respect any rules at any country, but I hope all the immigration officers also be more respectful and more humanely.

And here some stories I found on internet:

• https://www.worldofbuzz.com/two-malaysian-denied-entry-thailand-checkpoint-not-bringing-enough-cash/

• https://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/992844-some-tourist-visa-holders-being-asked-to-show-20000-baht-in-cash-when-entering-thailand/

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_C7ItJArlQs

• https://www.tripadvisor.com.sg/ShowTopic-g297921-i9790-k9266253-o10-Immigration_scam-Hat_Yai_Songkhla_Province.html

I’m just sharing this to let others know, even for Malaysian, that you may need to prepare 10,000 THB to enter Thailand by land as they have a right to ask it from you, at anytime.

Good luck!

Things I did in Langkawi

Once upon a time, I lived in Langkawi for about 3 months. Can’t remember the exact time but as I still remember, I didn’t explore much.

The only attraction place I went was Pantai Cenang.

Now after 7 years, I came back to this isle of legend. And this time, I took along my mom and a niece.

The holiday started a day after our national general election.  So the happy feelings from the GE’s result added more for this trip.

1^st day

• We took a flight from KLIA and reached Langkawi airport at almost 6pm. Rent an AXIA – cheap, its only RM50 a day, and drove straight to check-in at T Star Cottage (https://www.tstarcottage.com.my/). I always like to stay near to a beach and this place, although it’s small, it’s still comfy and has a peaceful ambience. Totally worth every penny. But be careful of monkeys!

• Dinner at Selera Lubuk Buaya, Jalan Pantai Tengah. A tasty Thai food.

2^nd day 

• Lunch Ikan Bakar at restaurant near to airport
• Cable Car

• 3D Art Paradise 

• Pantai Pasir Tengkorak

• Telaga Harbor

• Dataran Helang

• Dinner at Chef Zack restaurant

3^rd day

• Island Hopping trip. We went to Pulau Dayang Bunting, Pulau Beras Basah and Eagle Feeding point at Pulau Singa Besar

• Lunch at Pantai Cenang. Very delicious and affordable seafood.

• Mahsuri Village. It’s nothing much, there’s her tomb, houses and a small museum. Purposely brought mom to visit and at least something interesting that we got to see a traditional music performance.

• Shopping chocolates at Kompleks HIG. Many varieties and they say the price is mostly cheaper there.
• Laksa Kaw Ikan Sekoq tepi airport. A few food truck to choose, mostly selling laksa, char kuey teow and rojak. Too many people so it’s quite slow to get your food. And for me, the laksa I tried not really delicious tho.
• Went to Teluk Baru, just to watch the bay again.

4^th Day

• Breakfast at Roti Canai Blackpepper, Jalan Kedawang. Ingatkan apa la roti canai blackpepper, rupanya kuah tu kuah blackpepper. Sedap jugak. Nasi lemak pon sedap
• Flight back to KLIA at 10am

Actually, there are many other places you can go in Langkawi. As I was with my mom, it’s quite limited to do activities, only suitable for sight-seeing places. However I was glad that mom managed to reach Pulau Dayang Bunting, which she had to do a trekking about 15-20 mins. I felt guilty tho to see her struggle. Uhh~ but thank God nothing bad happened.

The next time to go Langkawi, maybe I’ll put these in the list:

• Snorkeling and diving in Payar Island
• Seven Wells waterfall
• Paragliding
• Tanjung Rhu beach
• Mangrove Tour
• Jetski island hopping
• Skytrex

Btw, thanks Langkawi for the good memories :)