Being among the leaders

Two weeks ago I flew off to Dubai to attend Annual World Takaful Conference with another colleague. I took my family with me because I couldn't bear the thought of leaving my 1 year old baby at home for a week. That's one and the other reason is I was lazy to manage my EBM (expressed breast milk) and to fly the packets back to Malaysia.

I managed to convince my husband to come along with me, and to take care of Iris during my conference which only took about 1 and a half day. Anyway we stayed at the hotel where my conference was held, so no biggie. I even went up during lunch time to help put Iris to nap. Or maybe I wasn't helping hahah.. because before I went up I saw the two was happily watching elmo on you tube. Of course she was happy to see me then I put her to nap, and went back down to my conference. When she woke up about half hour later only to see that I was not around, hubby said she went bananas. Luckily the second half of the day took only about 1.5 hours or so. Don't ask me what hubby did when Iris went bonkers, the most important thing is, THUMBS UP to my husband, for passing the test of being alone with the baby for the whole day.

Anyway, my experience going to the conference was great. There were only few representatives from Malaysian companies, and they were all CEOs, MDs, paling cikai pon Heads of department. I was probably the youngest there, and people pay little attention to me, probably wondering if I was in the wrong course.

 

Before I left my previous job, I was contemplating because I was slowly climbing up the corporate ladder, meeting with regulators, consultants, and other peers, I thought I was losing it all. But I guess, I feel even better now that I am in the supervision line, not only I get to meet the leaders of our Malaysian companies, I get to meet the leaders of multinational companies. What an amazing feeling.

Although I admit it was a bit tiring, trying to act professional and matured altogether, I was kinda proud of myself getting the opportunity to mingle with these great people. And I must tell you something that really made me prouder, women were probably less than 10% of the total attendees, and this malay lady, a managing director from an asset management company in Malaysia, was one of the speaker for the second day. She went up the stage with red kurung modern, so elegant, tak main la black blazer. Tinggi mana pun kita, jangan lupa angkat darjat melayu. chewah.

Felda Hot Springs, Sungkai

Okay, how many of us had really taken the opportunity to visit our very own hot springs? Honestly, I have never thought that we have such place to visit here in Malaysia.


We have one in each Ulu Legong, Kedah, Langkawi, Melaka, Negeri Sembilan, Sabah and the most famous one is in Sungai Klah, Sungkai Perak (1 day is definitely not enough). We booked a villa with three huge bedrooms.

the hall

one of the bedrooms (there are two os such bedroom size in the villa)

the kitchen area, well, you can cook too...

Dalam villa, ada private pool. You can turn the water to hot water (which comes from the hot springs) or to cold water (from the mountain)

There is also a spacious area for your to do BBQ while berendam.

This is a fish pond just opposite our villa.

Bila bagi makan, begitu lah kerenah ikan.

Berjalan kaki ke cafe nearby for breakfast.

Peta inside the area

Ali test water, panas ke tak

 The first kolam that we went was hot water pool. Ok la, tak lah hot mana. But seronok jugak bermandi manda.

This is the source of the hot water for this pool. Notice the sign board is written 'BAHAYA'. Ali said it is really hot. But still ok la..

Ali berani sangat la mandi at the 'BAHAYA' area.

Algae is said to be very good to cure skin disorders, fractures, and quite a number of other penyakit, but i cant remember.

Oleh kerana algae dikatakan bagus, Mak Jah pon letak kat seluruh muka :)

Ini rupanya kacip fatimah!

 Selepas mandi di hot water, we went to the next area di mana airnya lebih panas. BOILING hot ok. Sebab tu boleh merebus telur.

Brought satu papan of telur and rebus semuanya..

Seriously, it tasted better than normal boiled eggs. Probably the suphur in the water yang buat the telur sedap.

You definitely cannot put your leg in the boiling water, but you can only stand on the rocks.. Still panas, I cannot tahan.

Notice the temperature?

The water was not boiling, but hot enough to make your feet turn rosy.

 OK, puas mandi and rendam dalam air panas, we went to mandi air gunung pulak. SEJUKKKKK..

Panas pun sudah, sejuk pun sudah, we went for therapy.

Not only the batu is painful, but the air on it was also damn hot.

This is not so hot, probably dalam 30 C.

I remember my bestfriend used to put Temu Lawak on her face, so this is how it looks like, ok

 Haaa... yang bawah ni paling best.

Kita bukan saja-saja je baring. Under this pondok, mengalirlah air about 100C. once in a while wap nya naik ke atas, macam sauna la gitu. BEST. Terasa perut kempis after half an hour :p

Just outside the hotel area, ada makcik ni jual kelapa and pisang goreng, termasuk cempedak goreng. BEST GILER.

Oh, they have a delivery service too for the kuih-kuih, sent directly to the villa. :) Kalau terasa nak makan best, you can also order from this lady, they can cook and deliver to your door. Best kan?

Tempat ni memang best for families or a group of friends to go and chill. bring your BBQ set, or you can also use theirs. The idea is to chill.

Room rates about RM1k during peak per night, so I guess off peak it is about RM600 to RM800. But memang worth it, because of the space, the facilities and ammenities. It is about 1.5 hrs drive from KL. They also have day trip passes about RM 6-10.

Oh, I would definitely go again!!!



Christmas 2008 Holiday: Singapore

Day 1:
Left KL to JB after lunch. Stayed over at my aunt’s place in JB and we spent the night chilling at home.

Day 2:

The most hated part of the days..traffic jam in Singapore!

We drove to Singapore, spent some time at the immigration and wasted a lot of time on the Singapore highway to get to Sentosa Island. We got lost of course! We were actually there at the exit to Sentosa but there were no signboard showing us the direction to get to the island, so we missed the turning. Memang lah the signboard dia not as good as Malaysia.. I tell you it is not easy to get lost in Malaysia.. but in Singapore.. oh my..maybe they are too advanced for us. Everybody is using GPRS so they don’t rely too much on the signboards. Unlike us…

Luckily we have a friend staying in Singapore so she helped us on finding our way back to Sentosa. Kita tapau nasi from the mainland and makan dalam kereta before we got our tickets to the Underwaterworld. So many people laaa…. And the place wasn’t that great pun..i was told that our very own Aquaria is so much better. I haven’t been there myself but I believe it’s true. The Underwaterworld was very small and sempit and ventilation very bad laa.. ada orang-orang yang busuk ketiak hangit masuk..adohaii… tak jadi tangkap gambar.. but I still enjoyed watching the ikan-ikan. Well, I guess I just love watching exhibitions.

Stingray

Look at the size of the fish. It is bigger than an 8 year old kid.

This would be my favourite fish because of the shape.

I don't know what's this supposed to be. Prolly a giant octopus?

The giant crab

The Great White Shark

Obor-obor glow in the dark

Later, we walked to the Siloso Beach which was about 5 minutes away from the Underwater. They said that it’s nice, but I personally think there’s nothing special about the beach. Biasa je la.. but that’s where they hold their beach parties for most of their celebrations.

At night, we went to the Night Safari. That was my second time going there but I didn’t mind…I like watching the animal shows. Tapi ticket mahal nak mampos… But it was good.

I was trying to snatch the kayu, my friend, Zetty was trying to help that person to light api. Later, she got scared because she actually touched the patung's face. Ali wanted to be in the picture too..but he wanted to stand next to the lady patung holding the child. And guess what la he wanted to do...? He wanted to jentik the lady's 'toot'..!!! Tapi dia malu..byk orang..haha!

Day 3:
S.H.O.P.P.I.N.G!!! The most awaited activity. We went to Orchard Rd and of course we barged in to each and every mall along the road. The ladies were only looking for handbags while the boys were more interested on football jerseys and of course men accessories. I wouldn’t say the Boxing-day sale was as good as the ones in the UK. I wouldn’t say that the prices were way much cheaper than Malaysia. But I would say that the selections were DAMN good. They have more varieties, and the things that has just arrived in Malaysia, are already on sale in Singapore! Some of the designers’ handbags can be gotten for less than a thousand ringgit. So you’ll be a fool if you don’t grab any. :p

However I found that most of the good stuff had been grabbed before Christmas. Only lucky people like my friend got to buy a DKNY handbag which is in the new arrival selections in Malaysia and she got it for RM 500+. She also bought one Braun Buffel handbag for the same price. Now that was really a good bargain for her.

I wasn’t as lucky as that though. My eyes were not locked on any of the stuff that was on discounts. Damn! Sepanjang I was there, I only had my eyes on the new arrival handbags. They were new that they have not even entered Malaysia. So I bought myself one DKNY and a Guess bag (that has a design macam Tod’s). Tak mampu beli Tod’s, dapat Guess design macam Tod’s pon jadi lah..hehe.. and I loved it! But they cost me a bomb! Thanks to my bonus!

Nevertheless, I guess Ali didn’t enjoy it as much as I did. That’s because he couldn’t find his cycling stuff over there and I feel really really bad for that. But I’m glad he got his jersey anyway.

Generally, nothing is really cheap over there. They are considered cheap if you are getting SGD salary. How I wish….!!!

This is a picture of us counting our last SGD to get ourselves Carl's Jr burger before heading back to JB. Kesian!