christineKeiEen. sharing thoughts

Hello all! Back on this blog to 'pen' down yet another memorable holiday trip. Sat for my very last paper of the academic year last friday and finally am now enjoying the long awaited break *throwsconfetti* As i type this blog, I am in total bliss, in the comfort of my home :) To everyone who are in post-exams mode, Happy Holiday! To those who still have a few pending papers, Hang on there!! You can do it!!

Went for a much-deserved getaway with my uni-mates to Langkawi. Looked forward to it for so so long during the whole dreadful exam period (Typical student, forever complaining about exams. Don't mind me. I suppose exams aren't that bad if you're prepared.) Anyhow, back to the topic. Langkawi!! The first time I visited this beautiful island was back in Standard 6, during the post-UPSR trip. Needless to say, I have very minimal recollection of how the place looks like. I remember the fun I had with my friends back then, but not much about the island itself (scenery, food, beach etc)

This time around, I went there via firefly airline. Departed from Subang airport and reached in roughly an hour thirty minutes. We pre-booked our accommodation (well, not me, it was all my friend's effort. So, shout out to SAM the organiser. Thank you!!) - Green Village, situated not too far from the airport. It's pretty near the Cenang Beach, which is where we enjoyed the beach, sun and water sports/activities. We rented 2 Myvi's, RM240 for a full 3 days, which is a pretty decent price I would say. Just nice for the 8 of us.
If you're heading to Langkawi and you or your friends could drive, I highly recommend renting your own car(s). Other than not having to constantly fret about your transportation, you could go anywhere, anytime without much restrictions. So that's a plus! Don't worry about not knowing where to rent cars. You will definitely be approached by 'agents' when you arrive at the airport.

Was extra excited about the trip cause it was my first trip with them :D

One of my favourite girl from uni! She's cheerful, bubbly, sweet, innocent etc. Long story short, the trip wouldn't be fun without her :)

Short flight, sneak in some on-flight read. My current read : To Kill a Mockingjay.
One of the thing that i look forward to the most after exams is being able to read my novels!!

Langkawi bound!

What do you do in Langkawi?

Beach fun!
I for one wouldn't mind spending most of my holiday by the beach. Plus Pantai Cenang is incredibly beautiful. Blazing sun in the clear blue sky, cooling sand on my toes, the gentle wash of waves by the shore. Perfect! I didn't even mind the heat much once we got to the beach. We hung out by the beach everyday during our 3 days 2 nights trip.

1. You can just chill and soak in the beautiful view while sun-tanning, or having a read, or having a
drink (pretty sure everyone knows this. Langkawi = cheap alcohol), or just chat away with your
friends.

BLISS. Post- exams relaxation
Pardon the flaws on my complexion.

:/ crappy colour quality. I'm thinking of getting a camera for myself. A decent and affordable one, suggestions anyone?

2. If you're the more adventurous kind, I suggest water sports/activities. There's jet ski (roughly RM150
per jet ski/ 30 mins), banana boat (roughly RM15 per person), Kayak (charged per 30mins), para-
sailing. These are the ones I saw at Pantai Cenang.
I tried kayaking and banana boat, couple of my friends went jet-skiing and said it was much thrill. I
enjoyed kayaking, once you kayak out into the sea, it feels very relaxing. Everything is calm and
quiet out in the sea.

oh so round, oh so chubby :/

3. Also, bring a frisbee and play Ultimate at the beach!! If not the game, flicking with friends is also
equally fun and enjoyable! Absolutely love it!

Fun fact : The game/sport is called Ultimate, not frisbee. Frisbee is the disc you play Ultimate with.
and No, It is not a dog thing. I suppose dogs play with frisbee too. Why the distinction? Both
humans and dogs can play with frisbee :D

Futsal at the beach is pretty fun too. So, bring a ball along. Note, you would need to deflate it in order to bring it onboard the flight.

4. Take lots and lots of pictures. I/we didn't spend much time camwhoring this time around, was busy
having fun :) But still managed to get a couple of good shots, I think. Check out these awesome jump
shots I took with my phone. Not too bad no?

Pretty sure I got better at jump shots by the beach already, compared to the ones I did back in Thailand. haha

PS: If you drove yourself to Pantai Cenang, you could park at the parking space of Cenang Mall. Then
a short distance walk to the beach, just right across the street from the mall.

PPS : If you're ever at Pantai Cenang, look for the Seeman Watersports. They provide great services,
from banana boat to jet ski etc etc. Not only are their prices reasonable, they are very very
friendly. Especially one of the business owner (i suppose), Sam. He made us enjoyed our visit at
Pantai Cenang immensely.

Duty-free shopping
I suppose there's quite a few spots you could do your duty-free shopping at. I was at the Zon duty-free mall which is next to the Langkawi Underwater World.
Basically, there's only 2 main things to buy in Langkawi duty- free malls (in my opinion) - chocolates and alcohol. You could get other duty-free stuffs like perfumes, shades, skin care etc at any international airport ie. KLIA/KLIA 2 (side tracking, again, i heard KLIA2 is amazing, big, spacious, luxurious? i have yet to visit it)
I bought some green tea and strawberry kitkats :)

Kilim Geoforest Park
It's a packaged tour thing. Ours was about 4 hours, boat ride the whole way, visited the crocodile cave (no crocodile), bat cave (very small, the ones in Sarawak/Sabah are more impressive), fed the fishes, fed the monkeys, saw some eagles. Overall, the tour was ok, quite enjoyable, with the right company of course. Nothing too special but it is still nice to be able to admire the nature.

Walking through bat cave in the rain

Group Selfie!

Boat ride selfie!

Langkawi Cable Car

I would say this is a must-visit place if it's your first time in Langkawi. Actually I've been to this great tourist spot 9 years ago during my 1st visit to Langkawi. Much nostalgic this time around of visiting there. It's really nice to see Langkawi from such a view point :)

Oh, and lots of picture taking too.

Cable car selfiesss!

Much vanity

heh.

and, That's pretty much what I did in Langkawi.
In a nutshell, the trip was awesome!
Really enjoyed myself, thanks to the amazing bunch. It was the perfect post-exams getaway.

Time to hit the sack now

Good night

Sweet dreams

Hii, my long abandoned blog! *waves* The last i blogged was April last year. I guess I was just pre-occupied with Uni, classes, and just life basically. A little rambling before i get into what the title says alright? :)

I decided on starting a blog this time around last year. Back then, I was free almost 24/7 cause I was on a break, free from classes, and books and studying. I wanted a medium to share random things I do, thoughts I have, of family vacations and trips with friends and etc. Then, shortly after that, my course started. Brand new phase of life, which I am really enjoying so far, I may add.

Let's see, what happened during the period I wasn't blogging? Erm, classes went on as usual, did my finals and had a month break till September 2013. To which I went on a few trips/ outings with my friends. We went for a short food trip to Malacca. Spent a night at Eagle Ranch, Port Dickson, where we had some outdoorsy fun (paintball, swimming, etc) After the break, went back to school till Dec where I had a week off before New Year and that's when I went for a family trip to Thailand!! We spent Christmas there! Throughout the whole of last year, I've tried lots and lots of delicious food. Honestly, from time to time when I do go to a nice place to eat or what not, I think to myself, "Hmm, I should blog about this, I should blog about that" BUT, I just didn't bring myself to do it all the time *lazybug* Maybe I should start blogging about things I intend to blog more often this year *fingerscrossed*

Alrighty then, Thailand!!
We were there for 8days, travelling from Bangkok to Chiang Mai to Chiangrai and Pattaya. And let me first get this out of my chest, I DID NOT get lots and lots of amazingly cheap, nice clothes. Reason being I did not visit Chatuchak, the infamous Bangkok night market, opened every fridays and weekends. My family didn't visit that place simply because Bangkok was not all that safe when we were there because riots were going on due to political mishap and we decided to keep our time in Bangkok short, prioritising safety over clothes. So, FYI, to all you girls looking for a massive clothing haul, Chatuchak is where you're suppose to go!

I shall write more on my time in Bangkok in a different post, this post would be dedicated to the FUN my family and I had in Pattaya. This was the final 2.5 days of our vacation btw. Pattaya is a beautiful place, packed with tourist. Us Lays stayed at the Hilton, Pattaya situated above/in Central Festival Pattaya Beach (shopping mall) looking into a long, beautiful stretch of beach. Judging on the location we were staying at, you could already guess we had such a good stay. A short and quick walk to enjoy the beach and shopping spree as well. The view from our balcony was amazing!! both at day and night. During the night, right across the street, along the beach, a night market comes alive. However, I don't recommend you buying things, especially clothes as they are quite pricey. You would expect the local sellers to take advantage of the situation (tourists spot, peak of holiday season) Anyhow, the night market is still a recommended place to visit to experience the exciting and lively vibe.

Yes, everyone was excited about the view. Haha!

Night market

Waking up in the morning, I see a breath-taking view from my balcony. Clear blue sky and some distance away into the sea area, you spot little parachutes flying around. Am I doing a good job at describing it? I regret not taking a picture of the view. Was too caught up admiring plus I think, I was too focused on heading to the breakfast buffet. Haha. One of my favourite thing about vacations are breakfast! Be it from the local morning market or hotel buffets. I really appreciate a good hotel that provides scrumptious breakfast buffet (and comfy bathrooms for comfy baths). The one in Hilton is pretty good. Wide variety from English breakfast to Asian style (of dim sum and porridge and fried noodles, rice and etc) to Western breakfast (eggs benedict, bacons, WAFFLES, cereals) to Japanese sushis. *Drools* thinking about breakfast buffets is making me hungry. I absolutely love them!

Outdoor dining area where we had our breakfast

Breakfast view. My horrible photography skill does not do it justice.

Night time pool view

Infinity pool btw. Beautiful.

We had some island/beach time at Pattaya. Went on the speed boat, stopped at the middle of the route to the island for some parachuting fun!! I realise when I say parachute, you may think i jumped off a plane. Well, I didn't do that, although it would be so cool (adding it to my bucket list). We were strapped on a parachute and a speed boat pull us around for a little 'fly' up in the air. Not much of an extreme, I know, but regardless, it was our first time (my siblings and I) so we were all beyond excited!! Now, after experiencing it, I would say it is a must-do. It's not scary, you don't experience that kind of butterfly-sinking feeling you have when you're plunging down on a roller-coaster or swinging downwards on a pirate ship ride, which I HATE. You get to enjoy wind in your face and the view would be great.

As for the beach or island in Pattaya, I wouldn't recommend it. Maybe not during Decembers or the colder season in Pattaya. While we were there, the weather was pretty chilly. Despite it being sunny, it was still quite cold. Due to the weather, we weren't able to go snorkelling as well. Besides, the small stretch of beach was PACK!! There were so so many people, which makes it a little difficult to enjoy. Small space, Too many people. So, if you want to enjoy a full-on beach/island experience, visit Pattaya during Summer/warmer season or go to SABAH, KOTA KINABALU!! Side-tracking a little, the islands in KK are amazing!! I've been there twice, once for a family vacation, the second time with some college friends. I had such a great time snorkelling and enjoying the beach at the islands. Definitely highly recommended.

My sister, clearly enjoying the 'ride'

Little brother, more than eager to try it!

Me and all of my siblings gave it a try. All of us enjoyed it!! :)

Waiting for my turn. Felt a little nervous apart from excitement cause you don't know what to expect. But, mostly, excited.

LANDED.

The LAY'S :)

Basically sums up what me and my sisters did the whole time we were at the island. LOL. Trying to get good jump shots. Can't lie, we got lots of stare, but none were disapproving stares though, most were pretty entertained by us. haha :) We made them smile.

and Voila!! the results of countless jumps on the beach. My little sister is a natural though. She looks like a model from a campaign poster or some sort in this picture, yes? :)

Me on the other hand, well, not so graceful. I jumped SO many times, yet not a single nice picture like my sis. Sigh. Thus, these pictures, the more decent ones from my many failed-jumpshots.

Credits to my second sister for helping me and my little sister snap those jump shots. She was really good at it. I used up so much time that she didn't have time to jump. Opps! Sorry again mei mei.

Visited the Pattaya Floating Market. I would say it's more of a place to just visit, walk around, chill, relax, snack a little, not to shop. Similarly, most of everything there is quite expensive. Some random pictures for you.

One of my absolute favourite of Thai delicacies, MANGO sticky rice!!! oh, sweet juicy mangoes, i miss you.

Durian pancake. Not too good though.

Thai tea // Lemon tea

Doggy!!

An area where you feed fishes with a baby bottle.

Hi, little goat!

Dad eating a scorpion! No, he didn't, just posed with it. He couldn't bring himself to do it. Neither can I actually. Eating creepy crawlies are too much for me.
Btw, check out the expression of the man behind my dad. haha!!

We also went to watch a transgender aka she-male show. I hope I'm not being too rude by saying she-male. The show was honestly very enjoyable. I did not expect it to be such a GRAND production. Let pictures do the talking. I have alot more pictures but will randomly show you few.

PS : their body figure are, wow. With parts which are highly desired or 'in-trend' of a female body figure today, ie. thigh gaps, fish bone, abs etc.