Family Vacation: Patong Beach, Phuket (Part 3)

Second day at Phuket, we decided to spent our time for sight seeing around the beach and search for any good offer to visit some interesting places there.

And one of the thing that we discovered was that, kenapa banyak sangat Indian food kat sini? Not only roti naan, tandoori jer ada dijual, they also served seafood, tomyam kung and so on. So, for our brunch, we decided just to give it a try.

Tomyam Kung, Tandoori, Manggo Sticky Rice and Prawn Fried Rice...

We ordered the food as above, roti naan, dan macam-macam lagi. The food was not that bad but it's quite pricy.

Dah kenyang, baru boleh start jalan-jalan. We had a long walk along the beach, till we found a booth that gave good offer for tour packages. Since masa pun dah hampir tengahari, so kitaorang decided to make a half day visit to:

1. Phuket Big Buddha

2. Cashew Nut Farm

3. Pornthip Food Store

Big Buddha (Mingmonkol Buddha)

This Buddha located on the hilltop in Nakkerd Hills between Chalong and Karon Beach. Sebelum naik ke puncak, dari bawah dah boleh nampak patung tu. The right above picture shows the complete look of the place. The place not 100% complete. But the statue (white marble one) almost 90% complete.

They built temporary steps to see the statue much more closer. Above pics show the entrance to get closer to the statue. Semput jap naik tangga, stop ambik pic kat tangga, to capture the hilltop view. And, there is a tree full of golden bells. People bought the bells, wrote their wishes on the bells and hang them up on that tree.

More views and terjumpa bendera Malaysia kat puncak bukit tuh...

The biggest buddha is the white marble one. The whole structure from marble. Punyalah cantik dan berseni. It was so amazing to see how they built this gigantic statue patiently by using marble. And, ada banyak lagi statue lain yang kecik-kecik punya. Sebelum bina marble statue, kat atas bukit nih dah ada golden buddha (middle pic) sejak dulu lagi.

Cashew Nut Farm...

Siapa suka makan kekacang dan nak kacang gajus yang sedap, fresh and murah, boleh didapati di sini. Suka tengok pokok gajus dihias dengan fake cashew fruits. There were many kind of flavours to be choose from and cashew nut drink pun ada dijual.

Pornthip, Food Store...

Sini biasa jer, jual pelbagai jenis makanan ringan. Dodol pun ada kat sini.

Gem's Stores...

Entah kenapalah kalau pergi Bali pun, mesti bawak tempat-tempat gem or silver nih. Tapi kat sini, design barang kemas dia memang superb compared kat Bali. Kalau dah kaya raya, ada tersangkut satu dua cincin atau gelang kat situ. Sorrylah take photo is not allowed in the gallery room.

One of the mosque in Phuket and sunset at Patong Beach...

Along the way home, sempat lalu and snap gambar masjid kat situ dan tengok sunset. After that, terus pergi dinner seafood. Dinner seafood kita show for next entry. Dah tahap malas dah nih nak karang ayat panjang-panjang nih.

Ok, last-last, dah nak habis. Ku akhiri dengan banana nutella crepe yang menjadi top favourite setiap malam di sana. Cantik jer dia bukak warung depan hotel kita.

Gerai abang ni, hanya dibuka pada waktu malam. Setiap malam memang tak miss untuk beli crepe. Nak balik last day ke airport, sempat lagi beli satu.

Abang cincin & gelang emas besar nih, memang pandai buat crepe dan gerai dia lebih jadi tumpuan compared to other crepe stalls.

Selain banana nutella, kita pernah order, banana peanut butter dan Kamal pernah order egg chocolate. Since dah sedap sangat makan tiap-tiap malam, kita capturelah gerai abang nih untuk kenangan.

Baan Laimai Beach Resort & Spa, Phuket (Part 2)

Baan Laimai is a 3 stars hotel, decorated with Thai traditional decor and located in front of Patong Beach. What makes this hotel so special is each room has its own unique ambience or character and atmosphere and very homely.

As there were lots of hotels at Patong Beach starting from budget to 5 or 6 stars hotels, it took us almost half an hour to find the place. Our driver, memang tak boleh harap langsung. Mula-mula bawak ke BanThai (huh memang grand giler hotel nih), lepas tu dekat setengah jam pusing punya pusing, baru ternampak sign board kecik jer kat tepi jalan. Patutler tak nampak. Macam mana nak nampak, sampai malam, depan hotel ada open-air restaurant and live entertainment. Memang tak perasan langsung lobby hotel kat situ.

Besides, along the beach was so happening with many shops and open-air restaurants. Dari pukul 8 p.m till 12 a.m memang riuh rendah dengan segala bagai aktiviti malam.

After check-in and served with welcoming drinks, ayuh pergi tengok bilik. Memang dah tak sabar nak rebah badan jer time nih...

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Sabar, jauh lagi perjalanan nak tengok bilik. Kita jalan lagi...
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Hihihi...tak jauh pun, tak sampai 1 minit dah sampai bilik pun!
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And, here we are...

Biji mata yang dah layu terus terang benderang bila dibawa oleh hotel assisstant pergi tengok bilik. We booked 4 roof top rooms (RTR) and never expected that the rooms were so so fantastic!

But one of the RTR was not available due to several maintenance, and the hotel replaced one room with Deluxe Balcony Room (DBR) which was more expensive compared to the roof tops one. From the DBR, you could view the live band straight from the balcony. Every night, memang lepas pukul 12 pagi baru boleh nyenyak tidur. So, this room for Mama & Abah.

Next to the roof top. Erk...tak ada lift lah pulak dari tingkat 3 ke tingkat 4 (roof top). Exercise sikit naik anak tangga yang tak banyak mana pun. Oh My Dior...! Cantiknyer kat atas nih!

Its like you enter to a new heaven and a peaceful area with beautiful greenery landscapes everywhere, and the rooms were actually built like a small cottage individually with sweet little balcony and love the glass sliding door so much!

The girls decided to stay in one room tho each room is for 2 persons. So, yang bestnyer Shazzy sebab dia tak perlu share ngan sapa-sapa. Two rooms placed with king beds and one room with two single beds which belongs to Kamal & Boboy.

After having hot shower dan bersiap-siap...erk bukan nak tidur, tapi nak pergi cari makanan sebab perut dah lapar sangat! So, kitaorang pun keluarlah jalan-jalan kejap for an hour, searching for food (dah pukul 12, kedai apalah yang bukak), dan ternampaklah...jeng jeng jeng...7-11 je yang bukak...huhuhu! Tak apalah alas perut jer ngan roti dulu. Next day baru kita pergi makan besh!

The next morning, it was raining heavily. Memang tak ingat dunialah tido gayanya. And selepas bersiap-siap, wuuu...nyamannyer kat atas nih. Suasana tenang, aman, memang amat-amat diimpikan untuk rehatkan diri. Since baru lepas hujan dan matahari baru nak nampak sikit , memang kitaorang tak lepaskan peluang to capture views in any angle as much as possible.

Mesti korang nak tahu kan berapa kitaorang habis untuk bilik macam nih. Ishh..mahal tau! Satu RTR is RM40. Yup betul RM40!

Ini semua kira nasib and rezeki jugak sebenarnya. That's why we never thought of with the cheap price akan dapat bilik macam tu. Thanks to Agoda.com, for helping us search the cheapest and convenience stay while at Phuket.

You need to sign up as member first to book hotels through Agoda. What made us lucky for few reasons:

1. The hotel placed an offer up to 80% from normal price might to fill up the vacancy on the period that we choosed.
2. It's not a peak period such as Christmas especially, so that made it so cheap.

Agoda is so good coz provide the lowest possible price offer for any destination worldwide.

Mula-mula memang tak percaya, risau jugak memikirkan kat manalah aku tido nih dengan harga RM40 semalam. Anyway, we had an absolutely great stay and we do missed the hotel so much till now!

Family Vacation: Patong Beach, Phuket (Part 1)

Sawadikap, Kopkunmak! Welcome to Phuket, Thailand! Itulah ayat yang kita akan dengar setibanya di Phuket Airport sahaja...huhuhu!

We took AirAsia for an hour flight to Phuket. As I mention from previous post, lepas beraya je terus ke airport. Myself, of course dah standby second cloth. The guys memang no problem dah siap pakai t-shirts and trousers. Orang yang tak standby baju, memang betul-betul continue raya kat Phuket la jawabnya...;)

Departure at 8:30 p.m and arrive at 9:30 p.m. Sampai-sampai, took mini bus (kat sana van panggil mini bus) to our hotel, Baan Lai Mai at Patong Beach. Next entry totally dedicated for our beautiful hotel stay. Wait ya!

Attention, attention! Jangan lupa cakap jubah raya mama cantik...hihihi!

From airport to Patong took 50 minutes ride. Huh, lama lagi ke nak sampai, dah penat sangat nih. Along the way, the driver brought us to tourist agency. Adoilaa...orang dah ngantuk, penat...tak kuasa nak dengar ceramah malam-malam ni. The lady in charge, showed us some interesting places to visit while on our stay there.

We decided not to accept the offer tho she promised to give the cheapest package and so on. Mama kata kalau pergi bargain kat pantai lagi murah. And, of course...she was always right!

In the end we end up posing apa sahaja scenery yang menarik kat kawasan agency tu, including our mini bus.

The best part of all for our whole trip is our hotel stay. It was totally above our expectation. And you won't believe the hotel price that we got. Wait for the next post!

And for our 5 days and 4 nights stay (11/9/2010 - 15/9/2010), here are the lists of activities yang sempat dilakukan oleh kami 8 beranak...

1. Phorntip ( food store famously visit by tourist)
2. Cashewnuts Farm (almost everyday, kunyah gajus jer kerjanya)
3. Few Gem and Jewelry's stores (lebih cantik compare to Bali)
4. Eating seafood (everyone's favourite part)
5. Phiphi Island Trip (sightseeing and snorkelling)
6. Simon Cabaret Performance (ladyboys performance)
7. Elephant Tracking
8. Buddha Temple (the biggest in Phuket)
9. Bee Farm (for honey)
10. Factory Outlet (shopping area)
11. Phuket Square (shopping area)
12. Patong's Beach "jonker walk" (free show of pole dance...huh dasyat, dasyat...)

There are many more places yang tak sempat nak pergi coz of time and budget constraint as well...huhuhu, so sad! Takper, kita simpan for second trip.

Simple Raya 2010...

It has been a week of Raya celebration and now everything gonna start back to normal routine. Meaning, kerja ofis, kerja belajar yang pending dulu akan bergerak semula...huh tak besh langsung!

Kamal and Boboy dah balik Austin since Kamal dah start kelas early, Mama, Abah and Shazzy just headed to KB, to see our house there for couple days, Enna & Huda karaoke jap sekarang nih kat IOI coz Enna need to perform for her friend's wedding, Nana, tomorrow afternoon and I'm here in front of the computer blogging dengan tak mandi lagi...eee tak wangi! Hahaha!

For Raya, we just had a simple celebration, nothing fancy. Since only four of us (Me, Huda, Enna and Shazzy) at Puchong, so malam Raya we made a last minute preparation. Last minute cari baju melayu Shazzy kat Jusco, cari bahan buat rendang dan pulut kuning. That's it. Nak tunggu orang JB turun, alamat tak breakfastlah kitaorang pagi Raya.

After Raya prayer, makan-makan, bermaaf-maafan, posing-posing jap, then we straight to Banting (sebelah abah) to see the one and only left, our lovable cuty Nenek. On the way sempat ziarah kubur atuk jap. Yang ada kat rumah nenek, Pakcik's family (my cousins, Jasmin and Johan), Mak Long's family with one of my cousin, Shima had delivered her first baby about 2 months ago. Tuk Samad's family (atuk tiri) and of course yang paling dekat, Mak Ngah's family. And the next house to visit, rumah Mak Ngah, tu jer then terus balik Puchong.

Second Raya, we headed to mama's side at Kalumpang, Hulu Selangor. Ziarah kubur atuk dan nenek and singgah rumah Tok Som (mama's aunty). We didn't stay for so long as at around 4.30 p.m, we need to straight to LCCT for our 5 days vacation. Vacation on Raya? Wait for the next post ya!

And, I end up my post with rendang ayamku. Since nak bagi sikit ke Banting, so masak dalam 3 ekor ayam. Ada sekali tu, tertengok Best Wan program and Chef Wan blend limau purut sikit untuk pes rendang. Kita pun trylah jugak. Memang sedap, sebab rempah tu lebih kuat bau limau. Pulut kuning pulak, lupa nak snap photo. Tak tahu berapa kilo kita kukus, tapi banyaklah jugak dalam satu periuk besar merendam pulut. Since beli banyak kunyit hidup, kita blend banyak-banyak kunyit hidup dan tapis airnya untuk rendam pulut. Habis kuning blender aku. Cam biasa, kita masukkan jugak sikit serbuk kunyit dan asam gelugur dan rendam selama 8 jam before kukus.

Rendang, oh rendang...

Magusto...

Panas! Panas! Panas! Jangan jealous especially orang kat Puchong atau JB sana, dengan menu sahur orang Melaka...hahaha! I repeat...SAHUR punya menu. Sahur penutup kitaorang sebelum nak raya dah esok.

Nak makan nasi...mmm..dah muak, tiap-tiap hari makan nasi. Pikir punya pikir, so terhasillah menu di bawah.

Selepas berbuka kat Jusco, shopping baju sikit (Enna yang shopping baju), then terus cari isi ayam sikit coz bahan - bahan lain dah ada kat rumah.

Piping hot from the oven...

Tengah memasak (dalam pukul 1 pagi sebab tak boleh tidur), kitaorang pun pikir lagi nama apa nak letak untuk menu yang first time kitaorang cuba. Akhirnya terhasillah nama MAGUSTO.

MA = Macaroni
GUS = Asparagus
TO = Potato

Nama tu depends on ingredients yang korang pakai. Kot-kot pakai cendawan ker, jadilah Mawanto...huhuhu!

First scoop for me...yum yum!

For not wasting our time, ayuh jenguk ke dapur kitaorang untuk melihat cara-cara membuat Magusto...

First layer: Simple Fried Macaroni

Ingredients: Macaroni, isi ayam, 2 ulas bawang putih, butter, minyak, dried oregano , tomato paste Prego, salt & pepper (S&P)

Method: Tumis bawang dalam minyak & butter. Masuk tomato paste. Kacau sebentar. Masuk ayam. Kacau lagi. Masuk macaroni. Masuk air, S&P dan tutup biar didih sampai macaroni lembut. Bila dah lembut, tutup api, masuk oregano.

We used a medium loaf pan to place the first layer (dah berbulan beli, tak ingat beli mula-mula sebab nak masak apa). Terpulang nak guna loyang bentuk apa pun. So, agak-agak ler banyak mana bahan-bahan nak masak tu.

Second layer: Cheese and Asparagus

It depends on your creativity, either to place asparagus (yang dicelur) first ke, cheese ker. Suka hati. Tapi macaroni make sure kat layer bawah sekali.

For cheesy people, add more sampai puas!

Third layer: White Sauce

Next and last layer, ku serahkan kepada Enna pula untuk membuatnya (to make it fair & square coz sahur semalam kita yang prepare).

Enna made a little twist for the normal white sauce. Erk...tahu ke apa yang normal? Mean, tumis bawang (bawang besar warna kuning dan putih yang dicincang) dalam butter, masuk tepung gandum, fresh milk & cheese. Itu normal ingredients for white sauce.

Yang lainnya ialah, Enna tumis bawang dalam butter cam biasa, tapi dia masukkan satu pek mushroom soup Campbell. Pastu untuk pekatkan lagi, tambah tepung gandum yang dibancuh dengan air. Last masuk susu, S&P.

Again for cheesey people, kalau dah gila makan cheese, kau tambah lagi dalam white sauce nih sampai...puas!

Last layer: Mash Potato

Carik-carikkan mash potato ngan garpu supaya bila bakar nanti nampak cantik jer garing part carik-carik tu...

Boil potato till soft. Rinse the water and mash. Add butter, liquid chicken stock for extra flavour (kiub pun boleh tapi larut dalam sedikit air dulu), fresh milk and S&P. For the best result, use USA potato for more fluffy texture.

Bake in preheat oven (top heat) around 160 degree celcius till the mash potato golden brown.

Eat while till hot!

A "Must Do" menu in the future...

Hasilnya...memang puas hati. Dah separuh kitaorang ngap. Jap lagi habis lah tu. Enjoy!

The Days at Austin...

Lusa dah nak raya. Mood raya tak ada...huhhu...entahlah. Kerja ofis, kerja belajar alhamdulillah apa yang sempat disetelkan, kita setelkan. Yang tak setel, pending jap, lepas raya jalan balik.

Baju raya...hmmm mix and match old and new stuffs. Raya sehari jer, next day...the whole family nak pergi terapi minda and badan for 5 days...waaa...tak sabar sangat dah ni!

Ok, lah...malas nak karang panjang-panjang, photos kat bawah nih, adalah serba sedikit aktiviti ku di masa lapang di Austin...

Ini memang wajib kena buat bila balik JB. Asal nampak jer muka aku balik, kena buat roti puding, takpun nasi ayam. Kali nih, nampak pear banyak jer kat rumah, kita experiment sikit tengok apa rasa. Hasilnya...licin!

Nih satu lagi, kek pisang "instant". Since kat rumah ada satu tandan pisang, abah aku bagi "arahan" buat kek pisang sapu coklat dan letak hirisan pisang lagi. Frankly, not my favourite. Even pergi Secret Recipe pun, tak suka makan choc banana cake kat situ. So, layan jer lah. Ignore hiasan topping yang bersepah-sepah tu.

Jenguk kebun mama. Ada lagi pisang setandan (ayok, apa lagi yang aku kena buat ngan pisang nih), and ada buah apa entah (pic kat atas tuh), dan bunga merah tu pun dari pokok buah kat atas tu.

Last minute, abah bagi lagi satu "arahan"....huhuhu. Pack biskut raya untuk staff dia. So, kerja aku membuat tag raya kat atas tu. Bila "bos" kata ok, baru tampal kat bekas tupperware yang cute-cute tu.

'Selamat Hari Raya, Maaf Zahir & Batin"