Lang Tengah Island

A perfect paradise to literally do nothing and just let our hair down. A perfect paradise where all their living creatures whether on land or sea are larger than their normal counterparts, where inviting crystal clear water greets and plenty of dead corals line the beach.

When Siew and I first moved to Moldyland aka Kuala Terengganu, we promised ourselves that we would conquered aka visit all the well known islands around the state by the end of our 3 years stay there. And so after conquering Cotton Island, Redang Island and Perhentian Island in the past 3 years, we finally made our way to this piece of heaven that is pretty much still very undisturbed after our Profesional 3 exam last month.

Honestly after visiting all the other above islands, Lang Tengah is the most beautiful of them all imho. Especially their underwater. Still so crystal clear and practically unpolluted. We went snorkeling at around 3 spots and all the fishes that we saw there are like the combination of fishes from Cotton, Redang and Perhentian islands. Only that there are even more varieties of the fishes, corals and other underwater livings that we had never seen previously. And the fishes there are so not shy friendly they just came nibbling and swimming around us all the time. At times, the fishes were just milimeters away from my face that I could even stroke their scaly cold body without them swimming away. Besides, as I had said all the fishes there are like super well fed because all of them are like super gigantic and huge. All the colorful fishes, the clownfishes and even the sharks are larger and they have like abundant of the Christmas trees corals that I really love.

I really love the tranquility and the serenity of the island. The blue blue water and the even bluer sky. And believe it anot, we also saw a round rainbow! Like really really round. The whole island is quite small and there's not much activities on the island but yet I truly enjoyed spending my time simply sitting by the beach watching the crystal clear water and perfect sky waiting for sunset, walking around taking pictures, watching crabs, soaking my feet in the cold, clear water, reading my novel and sleeping under the shady trees while enjoying the nice cool sea breeze, hearing my favourite tunes and the sound of the gentle waves crashing against the shore. It was perfect bliss.

And guess what? While we were there, we also saw some Taiwan celebrities who are supposedly very famous in Taiwan now which we unfortunately had no idea who they were until we came back and told our friends and our friends went like 'Whoa, YOU ALL SAW ANGELA BABY'? (We only knew Angela Baby was there because one of the crew member told us so) Truth was, there was also the filming of this movie 'Love You You Island' at that time. It's apparently a sequel to the famous 'Summer Holiday' movie filmed in Redang Island (part of the reason why Redang is so famous now anyway) and the best part was, there was one scene where they were actually filming right in front of us while we were lazing our afternoon away and the lead actor was sitting right there in front of us with us trying hard to fit his face into our knowledge on Taiwan celebs. And then I think Angela Baby walked past and there they were filming their scene. The thing is, I'm not much into Taiwan entertainment and such and the only Taiwan celebs I know are like Jackie Wu, Jay Chou, Jolin Tsai, F4, Fah Ren Heit and S.H.E to name a few.

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#14 - This was one of the scene for the movie which was supposedly a secret! I accidentally took this picture on the first day before knowing it's actually part of the movie scene. Now you saw it FIRST here! Actually so small cannot really see anything also. :)

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#23- The many dead corals washed ashore.

#24 - The resort we stayed in. Not the best resort but they have excellent service.

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#27 - Say aye aye to Captain Allison.

#28 - Now say aye aye to Captain Siew.

#29 - The 'island' girl that kinda shocked us with her age.

I was in paradise for 3 days literally practicing the art of doing nothing. The island is really so beautiful that I was starting to feel reluctant to share it with you guys just because I wish to keep the island a secret so that not many people will know about it and go there and eventually spoil the place! I definitely wants to go back again to visit the underwater especially and I do love you long long, Lang Tengah Island. :)

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Sabaidee

Means 'Hello' in Laos!

Time in Laos is an hour slower than Malaysia and we had just arrived a few hours ago at 4.30pm local time. Weather here in Laos is super hot for now so much for it's rainy season. The first thing we did was to change some Laos kip at the airport because I had read that it's the cheapest to be exchanging kip at the airport and the rate currently is RM 1 to 2200 kip. Not the best rate I must say because usually RM 1 is to about 2500 kip.

We then hopped into a cab which took us downtown to the riverfront where most of the backpacker's hostels and guesthouses aggregates and fortunately the guesthouse that I was hoping to stay in still has room available so here I am at Mixay guesthouse enjoying their free wifi service in their lobby with their tv in the background playing some super dramatic Thailand drama. Nonetheless, there are certain limitations to their wifi service such as that it's only available daily from 11.00 am to 11.00 pm and that we can only online at the guesthouse lobby.

We only had time for an evening walk by the drying up Mekong River by the riverfront just now and we settled for a local dinner at one of the stall vendors by the river. The riverfront is really pretty much like the riverfront in Phnom Penh or Gurney Drive in Penang. Shall blog about that next time. For now, I just want to say a simple hi to everyone from Vientiane.

My sim card is currently faulty, I don't know why but it can't detect any local network so I can't roam and I can't send out or receive any calls or messages. So, in a sense luckily I had decided to bring my netbook along this time hence still contactable as long as there's wifi connections which is suprisingly good here.

Gonna spend tomorrow exploring Vientiane then head up to Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang in the next few days. So till my next update, take care and have a great day world. :)

Fresh in at Wattay International Airport.

Vientiane riverfront.

Our first evening in Laos :)

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Sage, The Gardens

HT and I finally got to try out Sage Restaurant and Wine Bar at The Gardens. After hearing so many good reviews about it and a failed attempt to booked a place there last Christmas, at last we managed to booked ourselves a table there last night. We are usually not so haute with our dinner but since we had two celebrations to call for (our belated 3rd anniversary and also our graduation from med school. We were literally eating our books on our 3rd anniversary), we decided to indulge and reward ourselves over some real fancy food in an upscale restaurant even if it means eating in small portions in a hush hush environmnent with the waiters/waitresses observing you almost every second ready to serve and assist to ensure you have a very pleasant dining experience. Honestly, I think I will be more comfortable eating without having anyone observing me from the side all the time but well, that's part of the fine dining experience, so I'm not complaining.

The restaurant was kinda empty on a weeknight and I personally prefer it like that. The waiter and waitress serving us last night were very attentive, so attentive it kinda gave me the goosebumps. We were seated by the window and I totally love watching the night view of KL while enjoying our dinner.

I'm in great love with this restaurant now.

The interior of the restaurant - Classy and warm ambience.

We both ordered the dinner set menus, one Sage and one Gourmet (the Gourmet set having an additional chef special of the day) and they actually had quite a good number of appetizers, main courses and desserts to choose from their ever changing menus.

Complimentary sashimi with roe to start our dinner.

Chef special of the day - cold noodle with fresh scallop.

My choice of appetizer - Royale of Maine Lobster with Sea Scallop and Yuzu citrus. I absolutely adore the sweetness of the lobster, scallop and the broth.

His choice of appetizer - Confit of Duck Leg with Puy Lentil and Olives. The duck leg was cooked to perfection, tender and juicy at the same time.

My main course - Glazed Atlantic Seabass with Kataifi Prawn and Crustacean oil. The seabass was really fresh, juicy and sweet. Every bite was simply heavenly.

His choice of main course - Risotto of Mushroom with Foie Gras and Sauce Perigueux. The risotto was very good, every mouthful mades you craves for the next almost immediately. I'm not a big fan of foie gras so I left it to HT to judge that and he said that fatty piece of liver was very succulent.

My choice of dessert - Belgian Dark Chocolate Fondant with Earl Grey Tea ice cream. This was one super sinful dessert with oozing dark rich chocolate that tantalized my tastebuds with utter sweetness. The earl grey tea ice cream was a wonderful neutralizer to an otherwise sweetness overload.

His choice of dessert- Baked Apple Strudel with Caramel ice cream. Not as sinful as the dark chocolate, this had a lighter shade of sweetness making an equally good and hearty finisher to an awesome dinner.

Us at Sage, The Gardens

Fancy names aside, the food were pure bliss. They were really really good, very much worth every single cent of our money, making us very satisfied and happy at the end of our meal. Sage definitely did not disappoint us with their good reviews and excellent quality of food, service and ambience. We were glad we made the right decision to visit Sage for our double celebrations. We both are greatly in love with the restaurant now and we certainly looks forward to going back there for more in the future. :)

Sage Restaurant and Wine Bar,
The Gardens Residence Level 6,
The Gardens, Mid Valley City,
Lingkaran Syed Putra,
59200 Kuala Lumpur
Tel : 03- 2268 1328
Website : http://www.sagekl.com

Disclaimer : This is an unpaid food review/advertorial. All recommendations are based on my POV only, hence any discrepancy in taste or opinion is very much regretted.

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Ouch Ouch!

Shoot shoot! Run run! Bam bam bam bam bam!

That was how I filled my whole morning today; running, hiding and getting down and dirty shooting down 'enemies' in a game of paintball in a converted open area in Bukit Jalil.

This was my first paintball experience and seriously after lots of 'scary' stories I hear from friends who had experienced paintball, I had prepared myself to be pretty bruised all over at the end of the day but I guessed I had worried a little too much because fortunately, I had managed to escape quite unscathed with only a tiny induration at my elbow.

Nonetheless, getting hit was still painful! Even with the small pellets. They might as well just call the game painball too. I can just imagine getting hit by those huge pellets which can surely cause more severe damage and perhaps then I will end up looking more like an over tan dalmation. But overall it was good experience and definitely good fun especially when playing it with a bunch of friends who are also very sporting. I actually enjoy the kick of firing from a paintball gun especially when it hit targets. haha! And especially when the gun is not as heavy as the real ones or those in the shooting range. I think paintball is the only game that I'm willing to pay for pain. Makes me sounds much like a sadist now although I'm obviously not one but paintball is really a game of 'no pain no gain no fun'. :)

The guns.

The pellets. Looks really like Nips now don't they?

The gamers ready for action.

Okay, my bed is calling out to me already. It's been a pretty long day and tomorrow I have to go back to my uni again to settle some graduation and convocation stuff. So till then, good night everyone and have a good week ahead. :)

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Kota Bharu

During my family visit to Kuala Terengganu last week, we made a last minute spontaneous decision to make a half a day roadtrip to Kota Bharu, the Royal City of Kelantan since Kota Bharu is just about 170 km from Kuala Terengganu. But because there is no highway connecting this part of the east coast, on top of the jam, it actually took us about 3 hours to reach the place.

We reached KB town late in the afternoon and we settled for a quick late lunch at the Kebun Sultan food court which ironically sells all sorts of food from all over Malaysia, Thailand and even Singapore except Kelantan itself. I was trying to look for something Kelantanese (it's unfortunate the best nasi kerabu as recommended by Owi wasn't open that day) but there was none in the food court.

I found this roti bak gua (bread with bbq pork) with egg and chicken floss though.

We drove around KB town after lunch and I realized Kota Bharu is definitely a much bigger town than Kuala Terengganu. Although they too do not have a cinema (we tried searching for the rumoured boy-girl separated cinema but couldn't find any) but at least they have a Parkson and Tesco and more Chinese restaurants.

We decided to visit one of the many batik factories around KB and with the help of google and my gps, we found ourselves at Nordin Batik. Batik is one of Malaysia's traditional superior craft and is very well known in the east coast. At Nordin Batik, we were allowed to visit their workshop where they manually drew (right from their own creativity) and dyed the batiks. And thanks to the nice people there, we also had the opportunity to try our hands at batik drawing! It's not difficult but batik drawing certainly requires inspiration, creativity and most importantly skill. Draw too fast or too slow and your batik will be ruin. It's almost like a school field trip again where we went factory visiting and got briefed etc. haha! None the less, I always find it interesting to learn a little more and to gain different insights on the occupation of others as I find it enriching to my life experiences.

Getting inspiration to draw his batik.

Dyeing the batik cloth.

The wax-resisting dye used.

The half done batik air-dried.

Getting a feel of batik drawing.

The end products - colorful beautiful batiks.

More batiks.

Woven songkets also sold at Nordin Batik.

Finally we made our way to the famous Yati Ayam Percik for dinner. Ayam percik which directly translates into 'sprinkle chicken' is actually really spicy barbecued chicken. These chickens seasoned with a whole variety of spices and condiments are then barbecued over charcoal fire and is a very popular local dish of Kelantan.

The place was bustling with customers.

Some of the other local delights sold at the stall. Seriously I don't know what's that suspicious reddish glutinous rice looking thing and green kuih is but the one on the right is laksam which is in fact Terengganu laksa.

Another east coast local delicacy. A modified version of akok with fried onions and chillis on top.

Of the many suspicious looking local east coast delights, this is by far one of my favourite. It's known as the satar ikan and I think it's more of a Terengganu specialty than Kelantan but Yati sold them too so I took it for my parents to try.

The satar ikan - a mixture of mash fish, garlic, onions, coconut and chilli wrapped in banana leaf poked in bamboo stick and grilled over charcoal.

Chicken on sticks.

Yati's nasi kerabu which is a slightly different version from the ones I ate in Terengganu. For one, they used normal white rice instead of the blue rice and there's no salted egg.

Star for the night - The famous Ayam Percik. 

Honestly, after hearing so much about it, I kinda had quite high expectation for it but perhaps because of the high expectation, I thought the chicken is overrated. Although the chicken was one super huge piece of chicken which can be easily shared by two and I find the gravy really good (their gravy is the bomb) but the chicken itself is very dry and hard to chew. But well, it's surely one of the better ayam percik around and for a filling local meal in Kota Bharu, you might consider giving this place a visit.

We left Kota Bharu after dinner and only arrived back in KT around midnight. It was a short roadtrip but a rather fulfilling one indeed. Well, there's still much of Kota Bharu to be explored and that only means warranting a second visit. So yeah, east coast, I'll be back! :)

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