Driving back was always easy in the past. But this time, jam was extremely bad. We used to travel very early in odd hours to beat the jam, but this time, hubby said we should enjoy and take our time.

Jam along the whole stretch highway from Toll at Gombak Exit till Bentong

I think it is because it was a long school holiday week and not only the Chinese would travel, but all races took the opportunity to travel back as well. I was worried about the very bad jam and subscribed to the Maxis Data Package that morning so I can check the traffic online @ http://unlinked.net/twitter/kl-traffic-update.php.

I was so right indeed and there were no escape no matter at what hour. Hence, jam in whole Malaysia started from early Saturday morning till late night. Horrid betul!

We reached Kuantan very late that night and began to get busy on the next day for prayer to our ancestor. Boys were much bigger this year and they could help us fold the burning papers.

*Pai Ti Kong*

BIL lead the prayer to invite GOD of Wealth and we all followed that night. The kids were having so much fun but I missed MIL and FIL. If only they are still around to see we have a pair of twin in the family……

Boys got occupied by sweeping the floor during CNY, hehe

It was quite bored over there during day time because their little cousins were not around to play. They only look forward to night time when they get to join their older cousins starts to “play cards” *wink*.

Mighty Dragon at the entrance to Jonker Street (facing the bridge to the direction of the Stadhuys)

On 2nd day of CNY, we traveled down to Melaka. We have always like seeing the lights at Jonker Street especially at night, but Melaka is just getting more and more crowded as time passed. Jam is bad enough on all weekends, so you can imagine how bad it is during CNY celebration!

We are lucky that mum’s house is just down town so hubby and I could drive into Jonker Street past midnight to admire the lights, everyday whenever we are back to Melaka:)

My parents already have 5 grand children and one brother is getting marry very soon. Once they have baby, don’t think one table could fit us all anymore. So kids, next year you all go to another table, k!

When I was young, I was very close to my cousins from my aunts. This year, some of us managed to gather again. Gathering like this always make me so *HAPPY* while hubby felt it was very boring as we *YAK…YAK…YAK*…away about our past time, LOL !!!

Twin boys with my cousins’ children. So funny seeing them play, hehe…..

My all-time favourite traditional butter cake from Tai-T Bakery, Melaka, pretty or not?

I still remember MIL would buy a cake for the prayer to invite the GOD of WEALTH on CNY eve. Obviously I got influenced and so I found a reason to buy myself a cake in Melaka, a traditional butter cake with super fattening butter cream some more, hehe…. thanks to my craving

More coming up at our celebration with friends upon coming back home….

It looks like a mini guitar and I was told it is very easy to play Ukulele.  Not sure an Ukulele is handled the same as the prs hollowbody ii electrical guitar but at least it is quite affordable.

My neighbour’s boy has been taking up music lesson during the holiday and he can play an Ukulele now. I like the sound of it and was tempted to send QQ as well, but too bad we did not make it during our last holiday because we have been traveling a lot. Will see if QQ wants to pick up music lesson during the long holiday this time.

This year, I do not have to shop around for cookies because I got the best cookies from Siew Li, a very fantastic baker who is also my secondary school friend

Instead of finding around for the nian kao bargain at the morning market, this year I ordered them instead from a maker which my friend bought from last year. These Nian Kao taste simply the BEST but extremely pricey too, Rm20 for each (instead of RM13 for similar size). Luckily we only buy these once a year…..

We are now waiting for everyone to wake up and we shall leave home today to hubby’s hometown first. Hope it will not be super jam by the time we hit on road later in the morning.

Last but not least, wishing all my friends and all readers out there a very Happy and Prosperous CNY. Can’t wait to read the updates from friends via FB and pictures uploaded on blog on this Auspicious Celebration soon :p

Late MIL used to cook using charcoal and to me, her dishes (especially soup) were the best in the whole wide world!

One of hubby’s is the Fish Maw Soup his mum used to cook during CNY.

Simple and light flavour Fish Maw Soup (that consist of only ginger, pork slice, fish maw)

Instead of buying ready dried Fish Maw, late MIL used to dry and fry them herself. Unfortunately, no one, inclusive of her four daugthers, inherited the way she did it. I regretted I did not learn it from her as well.

However she taught me how to boil it, and its pretty easy. Now, getting the best Fish Maw is the only obstacle.

Over the years, I finally found an old Granny who dried her own Fish Maw and it’s simply the best.  Too bad I was late this year, and all her 120 packs were sold.

Today in the wet market, there was another vege stall who recommended her home fried Fish Maw and I decided to try it tonight, because if it is good, I am going to grab all the few packets she still have tomorrow.

Hubby rated my Fish Maw Soup 9/10. I tell hubby I’ll probably learn to boil soup using charcoal later on.

Well, I just have to pray hard that the vegetable stall still has those few packets tomorrow!!!

Update 15/1/2012: Finally got myself three more packs fish maw this morning. Boy, the whole market was extremely crowded. Luckily we woke up so early this morning….

But now we are back to reality, and it is already the second week since the school restart.

Boys are getting used to their new routine now and starting to love their new school. Didi automatically gets up in the morning. obediently drink his milk, let me help him brushing his teeth and change into his uniform. Korkor on the other hand is still a bit manja, as usual, needs some sweet talk.

Although travel is a bit far out, I fell deeply in love with their preschool. Parents need to personally walk and fetch their kids into and from classroom in the morning and after school. Initially don’t quite like the idea of parking my car, having to walk 2 boys down some more, but now I am very eager to do so, hehe…..because I see plenty surprises, each morning I walk them into their class.

For instant, few days back, I notice a little drum. Both my boys enjoyed drumming and then forgot about my existence. The next day, the was a hand-drawn and painted dragon head pasted to a small vegetable basket for dragon dance. Following day, there was another additional bad dragon head. And today, the good dragon has been dressed up with a piece of long red blanket.

Besides, I also get to see very fantastic hand-made apparatus/toys the kids are playing in the morning upon reaching school. My boys love going warming up at the playground first, before walking into their class.

And today, my boys showed me they painted a big red cupboard house while I saw another hand-painted tall paper tree with orange balls sticking to it (must be mandarin oranges) from another class. Not only my sons can’t wait to go to school again, I can’t even wait to see what is going to appear in their class tomorrow!

So, with a red house, an mandarin orange tree, one good dragon, one bad dragon, and don’t know what else, I think I roughly know what the school is coming up with for CNY. So much crazy effort from the teachers hor, to start off their new little kids on such big painting project!

We had to leave home very early due to jam so I have to put the kids early to bed daily. Getting Korkor to school is a bit challenging though. First, they are not used to wake up in the “cooling and dark” condition. Then Korkor won’t wanna let me brush his teeth, not wanting to change into his uniform and only wants Mummy to carry him into school.

I initially planned to just “throw” them and drive off, but because this pre-school practice so much of “Loving & Care”, hence we were encouraged to be there with our kids for the first few days before letting go.

Kids were on their own already by this week, so it wasn’t too bad. B I was exhausted from sending and picking kids to and back from school and tuition,  starting from 7am onwards.

QQ had her wish fulfilled and she has been selected as her school librarian this year.

Gonbei San Starhill

During last Saturday, we utilized our cheap coupons and went to Gonbei San for Japanese Buffet. It was only Rm50/nett per adult and Rm25/nett for kids above 6years old. Great bargain eh!

Food served here is very, very good. Even much better than our previous Shumatsu Buffet @ Eyuzu, Eastin Hotel. Normally I do not fancy Sashimi, but here at Gonbei San, I enjoyed fresh Sashi for the very FIRST TIME!

Kids brought along some toys so they get to play with their cousin and leave us eating in peace

Doraemon Mascott Appearance @ Tokyo Street Pavillion KL

After lunch, we crossed over to Pavillion. Korkor was looking forward to see Ultraman but guess Ultranman went back and Doraemon came over.

QQ was very happy to find some character which is only slightly taller than her :p

The Magnificent 600-ft Long Dragon at Pavilion KL

There was also some CNY performance from Sunny Angels (little girls singing CNY songs) and Lion Dance while we were there.

On Sunday we completed all our CNY shopping at The Garden Mid Valley.

Hence we all now counting down to ushering the arrival of the 2012 Dragon Year in this coming Chinese New Year celebration, which is only FOURTEEN DAYS away

I had a mixed feeling on which hotel I should book while we were in Penang because  this trip was unplanned. Many warned me up front about the old hotels with lousy old rooms.

However we had quite a trouble driving up there because the jam was horrible. It took us around 1-2hours crawling from one small town in Cameron to reach our hotel. I suppose it was a wrong timing to go to Cameron Highland

Newly Refurbished Room @ Equatorial Cameron Highland

But after comparing the price, I finally took Equatorial Hotel when I read that they have refurbished superior rooms stating on their website. It was Rm310.88net with Rm88 F&B credit (with a 50% refundable for unused credit).

Look what we have got ourselves, a very beautiful room!!!!  Love it to the max!!

Kids only wants to be in the hotel room and not else where

After checking into our room, we quickly walked down to Kea Farm which is just around the corner to grab something to eat. Oh my, we were in a great shocked and great dismay how dirty and ugly Cameron has turned into. Indon maids are the one now operating most of the stalls and the crowd made walking around even worst until we had to carry the boys along the busy road.

Without wasting time, we got ourselves one pack fresh strawberries (which is so HARD TO FIND) and some steamed corn back to hotel. Well, I felt regretted of letting the kids eating those strawberries raw like that because it was all spray with lots of pesticides (we saw it in our own eyes at a farm later on :”[ )

Charcoal Steamboat at Brinchang

After a short rest in hotel room, we drove down to Brinchang for steamboat dinner. It was another horror C.R.A.W.L.I.N.G. down all the way and it took us more than  O.N.E hour drive to reach Brinchang which is just a 5 mins drive away, thanks to the very crowded pasar malam which sells lots of junks and nothing about fresh flowers or fruits.

Initially we both told QQ, that Cameron Highland was a very cooling and romantic place, where we could see people with rosy cheeks, selling flowers and strawberries everywhere at all corners in Cameron Highland. Unfortunately it was all only memory and no longer in reality.

Steamboat dinner was still as good as before. However the whole town was so filthy and there was rubbish at every corner.

Beautiful Fire place at the lobby of Equatorial Hotel

After dinner, we took a drive down to Tanah Rata and drove around the places before going back to hotel. Shops looks lousy now and Cameron no longer looks like a place in Malaysia because there were way too many Indonesian operating from stores, Bangladesh tending most of the farms.

Beautiful morning view from our hotel room

We all love it at Equatorial Hotel because it is the only level in the whole Cameron where we could at least see some mist. It was very chilling up there compare to those hotels in Brinchang.

Splendid looking Boh Tea Centre @ Sg.Palas Tea Plantation

So afraid of getting stuck in the narrow winding road, I pulled the kids up from bed very early that morning and we drove into Boh Tea Centre at Sg.Palas. Driving in there was a bliss because there were 2 cars in front of us leading us into that place.

A very relaxing breakfast at Sg.Palas Boh Tea House

View from our breakfast table was simply breathtaking!  We spent quite sometime sitting up there, enjoying the cool breeze.

I had scones and the kids had strawberry cake each. But still nothing beats hubby’s pack of hot and spicy Nasi Lemak in that cool weather :p

Driving out was a bit scary then because our car was at the outside side of the very narrow HIGH HILL SLOPE…..**sshivvverrrrs**

We also visited the Cactus Corner and Bee Farm. Nothing much to see at the Bee Farm but QQ and hubby got some plants from the Cactus Corner.

Nothing beats our standby yummy instant noodle, kids..oh..kids….!

Before we checked out, the kids had some instant noodle. Good to let them eat all time just in case we are caught in a bad crawl again, especially during festive season, sigh….

We decided to take the Tapah road back because I am eager to catch the waterfall. The boys were knocked off in car after lunch at Brinchang because I pulled them up too early. Hubby did made a few stops at some nice hotels so QQ and I went down to catch some pictures.

Driving through Smokehouse Inn and took some shots at the very classy Cameron Highland Resort

I did not have a chance to try out evening tea (or the famous scones, to be exact) at the Smokehouse Inn nor Lord’s Cafe which was closed during Christmas.

But we did made a stop at Bharat Tea House on our way down for tea and toilet trip on our way back home. Reached home very late at night as driving down the Tapah Road was quite dangerous and scary.

Lesson learnt: Although it was a great holiday for us this year, we will never, EVER dare to drive up to places like this during peak holiday…*sweat betul*

First time for us being served tea by our younger generation

A niece from hubby family finally got married and timing was great for all of us. If it is not for this occasion, I would not get a chance to travel up to Penang again (I am so in-love with everything in Penang, but unfortunately not hubby..)

By the time we reached Alor Setar, hubby wasn’t feeling good already and I was very dizzy too. So are the rest of our relatives. Probably over heated in the delayed long drive, I think. Thank GOD all 3 kids were fine and I tried to feed them lots of fresh fruits everyday.

Most of us (my two SIL and family, one BIL) were staying in the same hotel with rooms next to each other so all kids get to play together while all the sakit-kepala adults popped in some Panadols, and catch some nap in the afternoon. We did not even manage to drive out to go to Bukit Kayu Hitam as planned earlier.

Upon checking out the next morning (after wedding dinner night), we drove down straight into Ipoh and ta-pau some Salted Chicken from Aun Kheng Lim shop. Hubby love the very strong Dong Guai herb taste so we bought FOUR birds and freeze in our fridge…*YUMMZ!

Aun Keng Lim Salted Chicken (Yim Kok Kai)
No 24,Jalan Theatre, 30300 Ipoh. Tel : 05-2542998

We were suppose to stay and spend a day in Ipoh, but seeing there was nothing much to do (except eating and visiting some caves), we switched plan last minute and drove up Cameron Highland instead. Luckily I had not booked or paid the hotel online, ….*phiew*…

…coming up next…our Cameron Highland Trip (for the first time in the past 10 years!)

Instead of going to Tambun, we went to Teluk Kumbar for seafood. Found out we have two options to dine at Teluk Kumbar. One is Hao You (Good Friend Restaurant) and another further in is Hai Boey (recommended by Sharon and Agnes).

After picking up SIL from the airport, we drove to Hai Boey Seafood at Teluk Kumbar. We picked Hai Boey Restaurant since this place is much prettier than the other.

I did not make a reservation because we did not know if our GPS would work. Great that we arrived at around 6pm, so we still could secure a table, however a bit far in from the beach.

Kids get to play while I went around clicking some pictures while waiting for food to arrive. Definitely a splendid place for family dinners and kids would not get bored waiting for food

Claypot Fish @ Hai Boey

Claypot Fish recommended by many. However I personally find it so-so only and this dish could not even beat the Claypot Talapia served at Wang Hee @ Mahkota Cheras.

Signature Dish: Deep Fried Brinjal, Right: Hot-Sour Steamed Kappa

As much as we like, we try to avoid fried dishes during our travel since everyone was drinking very little fluid and to avoid constipation (especially the kids!).  So you could see we only ordered one fried dish.

The Hot-sour kappa is really nice and I love the sourish gravy!

Tau Fu Fa Dish and Tung Po Yuk with mini buns

We also ordered extremely small crab dishes (done with Fried Salted Prawn and Hot Sour) and everything cost Rm260 for 8 adults. Definitely not cheap but worth the experience since we have not been to this place.

Hai Boey Seafood Address:
29 MK 9, Pasir Belanda, Teluk Kumbar, 11900 Bayan Lepas, Penang.

We had a little trouble getting out of Teluk Kumbar because there was a pasar malam along that road that night which cause a very bad crawl.

However we managed to see the beautiful Penang bridge for the first time in dark and only reaches Alor Setar around 10.30pm.

Driving all the way to Genting Cafe @ Island Glades would be my ultimate choice for the unforgettable yummy Chee Cheong Fun but since we were staying in Traders, I found out that we have plenty options around that vicinity too.

Googled for found this alternative Chee Cheong Fun at Macalister Street to look for Seow Fong Lye Cafe. However the place was so quiet as if no one was eating. I should have gone down to check but since I had a back up place on GPS, we drove to Soon Yuen Cafe instead.

Chee Cheong Fun @ Soon Yuen Cafe, Penang

Quite near to our hotel but Chowrasta Market is located just next to this place. Bad decision to drive over into this place but luckily we got a parking in front of Chrowrasta market. Knowing there is no way we could eat in busy places like this with the boys, I quickly run down to Soon Yuen Cafe and tapau whatever I want to buy for breakfast. Even manage to get some fresh fruits from the market.

To get out of the place is another problem since it was a one way street. Hubby had to slowly drive through the mad crowd to get out of that place. Sorry folks! We won’t drive into the lane if only we knew there is a market inside!!!

Dining at the comfort of our nice hotel room

Good to learn that Traders is actually situated so near to so many places. No wonder we saw so many people ta-pau food back to hotel, day and night. Perhaps I can walk myself to the market next time while the kids were still asleep. It is surely Traders Hotel again, if we go to Penang again, next time!

Straits Quay

After breakfast, the kids went down to play in the pool again until we are ready to check out. It was still to early for lunch so we try out luck to find Straits Quay (funny that Straits Quay was not traceable through GPS so trace it using Island Plaza, the building next to it.

Both twin boys were already fallen asleep by the time we reached there. Hubby had to wait in car while QQ and I went down to check what’s in there. There were plenty to buy from a flea market inside this place. It is a nice place to hang around :p

The place is so beautiful and I am sure my boys would love to see those boats and yachts. If only they could see this too.

Roti Babi @ Nyonya Breeze

Since we still got time to kill, we drove back to town for look for this restaurant called Nyonya Breeze which was highly recommended by Agnes. No regret driving back all the way to town because the food is FANTASTIC!!!

We first had Roti Babi, the appetizer for that day. Kids LOVE it!!

Sambal Goreng @ Nyonya Breeze

Sambal Goreng which consist of prawns, eggplant and cashew nuts in a savoury, tangy sauce. This dish is soooo delicious and I am dying to find out how to make this dish. Anyone knows, please tell me ok?

Left: Pee Hu Char with lettuce wrap, Right: Bian Chee

We always think that most Nyonya dishes would be very spicy but looking back at all dishes recommended, none of our dishes were spicy, and yet they taste sooo good. Will surely come back again to this place!

Bubur Pulut Hitam

Penang Nyonya Food certainly taste very different from those we have in Melaka. Definitely worth stopping by at this restaurant, if you ever go to Penang. Now I know why Agnes would surely visit this place each time she goes to Penang.

Full-screenNyonya Breeze Address:
No.50, Abu Siti Lane, 10400 Georgetown,Penang

Mc Queen @ The One Academy

QQ spotted this while we were looking for Nyonya Breeze. You will be able to find CARS at The One Academy, which is just located behind Nyonya Breeze!

Mater  @ The One Academy

This one looks even more REAL! The boys were really excited seeing CARS so REAL!

After that, we went to Queensbay Mall to meet up with a friend, while waiting for 2nd SIL to arrive at the airport. Stay tune and check out where we went next for dinner in Penang with hubby’s family before we drove up to Alor Setar that night