Krabi Part II - Day 1

22nd April 2009
Our flight to Krabi was scheduled to depart from LCCT at 12:05pm. We booked for a cab to pick us up at 9:00am and arrived at LCCT at around 10:00am. The newly expanded LCCT airport confused everyone flying on the same flight with us. What would be the first thing to check when you arrive at the airport to check-in? The check-in counter, right? Where do you check the check-in counter? From the LCD display right? The LCD display showed us to check-in at some counter (forgot the number). We were quite kiasu as we were 2nd in the queue even before the counter open. Usually internation flight counter will open 2 hours before the flight but we waited till 10:30am, the counter still remained closed and the queue was getting longer.
Thanks to my kaypoh-ness. I walked to the new wing of the LCCT and found a dedicated areas for flights to Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Luckily we managed to check-in on time and still had time to have our breakfast.
Had breakfast at Theobroma Chocolate Lounge.

Mushroom cheese omelet, garlic bread and baked beans with coffee or boutique tea @ RM10.90

After breakfast, we went to the waiting lounge and waited for the gate to open. Everyone says that Air Asia always delays their flights and through my experience (I flew on Air Asia for 3 times before), I'm always the lucky one. All the flights departed on time. Hopefully my next flight in August would be on-time as well.

Arrived at Krabi airport around 12.30pm and there was a guy already waited for us when we arrived as we booked for airport transfer from the hotel. This pick-up guy didn't know his way back to the hotel though he is a worker there. We spent more than an hour to arrive at the hotel when in actual, the hotel is only 45 minutes away from the airport.
Anyway, we checked-in to Krabi La Playa Resort located nearby Ao Nang beach. We booked the hotel via Asia Web Direct website which they were having promotion of "buy 2 nights free 1 night". We checked-in to a Superior room. The room was quite big but there was no bath tub in the bathroom though the bathroom was big too.

Towels folded into elephant shape...so cute

After unpacking our luggage and changing, we went to walk around to look for food. We took the "tuk tuk" ride to the Krabi town and the charge for the ride was 50 baht per person. Krabi town is a very small town with just few main roads. Most of the shops were selling similar products like food and clothes.

On the tuk tuk ride

At the Krabi town

We walked around the town to look for food but as it was around 3-4pm most of the shops had already closed. We just stopped at a restaurant and ordered the following dishes.

Outside the restaurant

Seafood tom yam

Fried squid

Fried kai lan with salted fish

We were not sure if this restaurant was a famous one or not, but the quality of the food was superb. The seafood tom yam was sourly and spicy enough and generous amount of seafood like squids, fish, crabs and prawns. The fried squid was something different from the one we have in Malaysia and it was something very special and tasty. The fried kai lan with salted fish was not something very special but it was great as well. The total bill cost less than 500 baht, i.e less than RM50. Considering the generous amount of seafood in the tom yam soup and the quality of the food, the meal was definitely worth the price. You can't find this kind of taste in any of the famous Thai restaurants like Good Evening Bangkok, Amarin Thai and etc.
After our late lunch, we walked around the Krabi town. When I go travelling, I like to visit their local 7-Eleven store to check out the local specialties. We bought lots of Lays potato chips and Rocky chocolate sticks. Lays potato chips is always selling very expensive in Malaysia, at least RM7 and above while in Thailand, it was selling for less than 50 baht, moreover they have their own local flavours like tom yam and spicy lime flavour. Super yummylicious.
There was nothing much to do in the Krabi town, we headed back to Ao Nang by the tuk-tuk again. Please bear in my mind that the tuk-tuk rate will be increased after 6pm. The ride costs 50 baht per person before 6pm, it will cost 60 baht per person after 6pm.
Once we reached Ao Nang, we went to a store nearby our hotel to book for the day trip for the next day. It was one of the store we found that provide Phi Phi Island day tour at the cheapest price. On average, the Phi Phi Island day tour will cost around 1300 - 1400 baht per person. We were lucky enough as we paid 900 baht only.

The Ao Nang beach was around 5 minutes walk from our hotel. There was a stretch of shops along the Ao Nang beach. The shops mostly are selling clothes, souvenirs, massage parlours and restaurants.

Sunset



Restaurants by the seaside

LKC and LPC @ Ao Nang Beach, Krabi (please don't look at LKC's big tummy)

We had our dinner at one of the seafood restaurant by the seaside. We ordered a set of seafood which consisted of clams, mussels, flower crab and fish, and had it barbecued. This set of seafood cost around 350 baht (I think). Additionally, we ordered another 2 big prawns for around 300baht, a plate of mixed vegetables for 70 baht and a bowl of cream of mushroom soup for 50 baht. The price of the seafood didn't seem to be very cheap but the freshness of the seafood was worth the price that we were paying.

Cream of mushroom soup

Seafood platter (crab, clams, mussels and fish)


Stir-fry mixed vegetables

If I were to have to drink beer, Heineken would be my choice of beers (exclude the Hoegarden and etc). A bottle of large Heineken beer cost less than 100 baht (if I'm correct). It's a heaven for the "kaki botol" like LKC.

After dinner, we walked back to the hotel and stopped by at a convenient store to buy more beers and snacks to munch in the hotel before calling it off for the day. LKC even "ta pau"ed the pork burger from Mc'Donalds as he had never tried pork burger before.

Krabi Part I

Nope, I'm not back from Krabi. I haven't even go there in the first place. This post is just meant for the preparation I did so far for this Krabi trip, which I'll be going in the Wednesday. Can't hardly wait for Wednesday to arrive. It has been a year since my last holiday to Bali. I need more holidays *hint**hint*. More things need to be prepared but no time to take photos. But these are the necessities that I can't leave without.

- Flight tickets - Checked
Departing: Wed 22 Apr 2009, 1205 hrs
Arriving: Wed 22 Apr 2009, 1225 hrs

- Cab - Checked
LKC has called the uncle and booked for 9am pick-up.

- Hotel - Checked
Hotel: Krabi La Playa Resort, Ao Nang, Krabi
Arrival: Wed 22 Apr 2009
Departure: Sat 25th 2009
Reservation status: Confirmed

- A nice pair of walking shoes - Checked

Got myself a pair of Patra from Crocs. I guess this pair of shoes will not give me any foot pain problem (I wish!)

- Sunblock for face and body - Checked

Sunplay Super Block Sun Block Lotion with SPF 130

This sun block should give me the longest protection from the sun with SPF 130. Hopefully I do not come back with sun burn or become a charcoal after applying this sunblock.

Biore UV Perfect Face Milk with SPF 50 +

Though the Sunplay sunblock is suitable for face as well, but I have the habit of not trusting it. Would still prefer something which is really meant for the face instead.

- Facial mask - Checked

Sunplay double whitening mask

Pampering myself with masks after the long day exposure to the sun would be the best thing to do in the hotel room.

- Wet tissues - Checked

This is very important as April is the hottest month of the year in Thailand. We experienced this hot weather in Bali last year and wet tissues really saved our day. The sticky feeling left on your skin after sweating wasn't something good to experience.

- Evian Spray - Checked

Though this spray does not give you a long lasting cooling, at least it refreshes your face for a moment. Good for the hot sunny days too.

Renovation Day 5

Cornices in the living room fixed

Renovation Day 4

Tiles on the work top fixed.


The small "divider" in Toilet 1 fixed.


The small "divider" in Toilet 2 fixed

Renovation Day 3

Wall tiles in the kitchen completed


The small "divider" in the Toilet 1 was removed as it was blocking the door.


The small "divider" in the Toilet 2 was removed as well.


All the wiring in the house completed and the holes were patched up.

Renovation Day 2

The wall tiles on the kitchen was 70% completed


Work top in the kitchen


New floor tiles in Toilet 1


New floor tiles 1n Toilet 2

Renovation Day 1

Renovation work started on 02.04.2009.
This is how the house looks like after Day 1.

Living + dining hall

Master bedroom

Second room

Dry kitchen

Wet kitchen

Dry + wet kitchen

Toilet 1

Our Humble Little Home

We have finally decided to move in to our new home after discussing and considering the bad economy crisis that had hit us badly...well at least for that 1 week that I worried. Refer here.
Renovation work started on 02-04-2009 between 7am - 12noon as mum said it was an auspicious day to start renovation work which did not clash with the Chinese zodiacs of Rooster (LKC) and Dog (me!).
Before the renovation work started, the pre-renovation tasks were not as simple. So many preparations to do. Looking for contractor was the very first thing to do and bargaining on the price was one of the most tedious part. One has to be smart in getting as much information as possible from the contractor, especially on the tiles if you're having big renovation in the kitchen.
Next up was the cooking hod and hob. We are planning to install the cooking hob on the kiten work top and hence it has to be ready before the renovation work starts. There are so many brands to choose, from Electrolux to Pacifica to Elba to Rinnai to some China brands. We were so lucky that there is a shop at Dataran Sunway, Kota Damansara was having a big promotion on 2 weeks ago. We managed to get quite a good deal of the set of cooking hod and hob from Rubine for less than RM1.5k with free installation and free hose and cap.
As there is a Lorenzo furniture shop next to the shop we got the cooking hod and hob, we stopped by there JUST to have a look. Never thought we would afford to buy anything from Lorenzo since it's famous for the expensive furniture. I would say we were lucky too to find a sofa set from Lorenzo that is not too big (yours truly's house is only 900 sqt ft) and is still within our budget of less than RM2k.
Next thing in line was the tiles for the kitchen and toilets. They are so many sizes to choose. After selecting the size of the tiles, next thing is to decide on the colour and the surface. OMG, it was so difficult to make the decision.
Here is how the house looked like before the renovation work started:-

The living + dining hall

Master Bedroom

Second room

Third room

Dry kitchen

Wet kitchen

Toilet 1

Toilet 2

Night view from second room

Night view from master bedroom

6 degrees of separation

I feel that the world is really small at times. The contractor that we hire for our house renovation is my old schoolmate's (Pooi Sze) future father-in-law, well if she and his son tie the knot. I didn't know that until the contractor came and took the house keys from us the other day. Pooi Sze followed him along and only we knew it.
And it's so happened that LKC is Pooi Sze's hmmm "bau-bau bacang" relative. LKC's cousin is Pooi Sze's cousin as well.
If I were to link more, then LKC's is Michelle's "bau-bau bacang" relative too. LKC's cousin is Michelle's cousin as well. So in other words, Pooi Sze is Michelle's "bau-bau bacang" (X2) relative as well.
So the equation is something like this now:-

Pooi Sze <-> Gavin (LKC's and Pooi Sze's cousin) <-> LKC <-> Christopher ( LKC's and Michelle's cousin) <-> Michelle

And on my side, Popo is my cousin's cousin as well. We didn't know it either until one of our relative passed away.

So the equation is something like this now:-

Popo <-> my cousin <-> Me

If I were to marry LKC, so indirectly Pooi Sze, Michelle, Popo and I become relative.

This is really what we call 6 degrees of separation (Human Web)?

It's already March!

OMG, it's already March. I didn't know that I've left out this blog for so many days. The last time I blogged was on the last day of February. Time flies so fast. I'm really busy with my online business lately. Till no time to go window shopping, no time to watch TVB drama, no time to talk with LKC. The first thing I'll do when I arrive at home is to turn on the laptop, check and reply all the emails and messages, look for supplier and chat with Pei, my partner, on how we can improve our business.
When he used to be very busy with his own tasks, I was so free. I disturbed him while he worked. I complaint when I had nothing to do. It's the other way round now. He complaint that I missed him out. He complaint that I look at the monitor screen more than him. I guess Soo also complains the same things to Pei lately.
LKC, Soo and Meng are three of our backup bosses. They always go to SG8 (night club with china dolls) together, but always need to get approval from us. The reason that they gave when they required to apply the "permit" from us is "need to talk businesssarghh!!". Since Handy (another partner), Pei and I are still using our other half's money, we got no choice but to approve their "permit".
These 3 guys are so funny. They said our business is so good lately, they will wait for us to expand our business and they'll stop working. They will become our dispatch boys and we will buy a truck for each of them to deliver the products to our customers, with the condition only one day trip. No staying over night at any place.
They'll have to ask money from us to go to SG8 in future. Then we told them back that they got no more excuse to go to SG8 since they do not need to talk about business anymore. It will be the ladies' turn to go out to talk about business. The guys have to stay at home to do all the houseworks...muahaha!!
Oh by the way, we just had our first "company trip" to Kek Lok Cave...hahaha, just kidding. Just went there for a walk after a sinful lunch at Brewster.

New Items Added

New items have been added to Pink Flower Closet. We're selling beauty products as well as bags. For beauty products, we are selling Germany Sensual Ampoules at a very low price of RM50 per box of 10 3.8ml bottles. Click here for more information on this product.
Apart from that, we have just opened a pre-order for bags. These bags are not ready stock. You'll have to wait 4-6 weeks for the bags to arrive. Click here for more details.

I can feel it now

I can now feel the economy crisis. It's scary and I feel kinda regret now for the action that I took 2 weeks ago. It happened too fast, just within a week everything changed.
We have just collected the keys to our new home a moment ago. We're not excited about it at all. The agent brought us to a unit which her husband helped on the renovation. The renovation was simple and nice. We like it very much and plan to follow the design as well. The whole renovation cost was around RM10K, with kitchen cabinet + new tiles + wiring, which is a very good deal indeed. The moment we stepped out from the unit, we started to think about the money.
Do we want to renovate and move in to the house now? We'll need to prepare at RM1.5K for the house installment, maintenance fees and the utilities bills. All these were in our plan when we paid for the deposit of the house. But the economy crisis changed everything. We're now thinking of renting out the house first. At least someone could help us on paying the house installment. Sigh...what can we do now?
It's scary how things changed in the last few days...

In dilemma now...

To reconsider or not to reconsider?

Please help!

P/s: I'm still in office at this hour!! Arrghhh...I wanna get out from here.

Pink Flower Closet

Yup...that's the name of our online store. Currently we have just started out by selling clothes from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan and Korea. You may go to Pink Flower Closet site for the latest stock. We are trying to bring in more clothes in the coming future and will also try to introduce more products like facial and beauty products and etc.
The clothes that are posted on Pink Flower Closet are all ready stock and real photos of the clothes are posted along with the catalog photos. Do check it out and please help to spread the words around ya! Thanks a lot.

More stocks will be coming in...please remember to bookmark Pink Flower Closet.

Forever Yours Package @ Shangri-La Hotel, Putrajaya on Valentine's Day

As I mentioned on my previous post that LKC planned a surprise for me for our Valentine's Day celebration. It was a last minute plan, as he only made the reservation on Friday morning. I slept extremely early on Thursday night after taking the flu + cough medicines and had to woke up early for morning shift on Friday. This gave the chance to LKC to do research on the Valentine's Day packages being offered in various hotels.
LKC took the Forever Yours Package offered by Shangri-La Hotel @ Putrajaya. The package included:-

• Accomodation upgrade to Deluxe Parkview Room

Super comfy king size bed + extra long pillows. I wanna get this type of bed for my home.

Very big restroom with bathtub + extra big mirror

Lavender toiletries set

• Buffet breakfast
• Romantic room setting (rose petals in bathtub, tealight candles, room aromatherapy scented) - they didn't set this up for us. I'm going to make a complain and hopefully they give us a complimentary room as a compensation...yeah, dream on!
• One small hand bouquet of roses

• Assorted pralines

Chocolates and strawberries are my favourite

• One small cakes

Yummylicious mango cake

• One hour Sunset Cocktail

A glass of beer for LKC and a glass of wine for LPC while witnessing the sunset...romantic!

• Complimentary broadband internet access

The package cost RM375 (exclusive of 10% service charge and 5% government tax).

Apart from the above, there are 24-hours gym facilities, 24-hours Business Centre and ...

Jacuzzi...it's free! Besides that they also provide steam room and sauna room. I didn't spend my time in the steam and sauna rooms as I can always go to the one at Celebrity Fitness.


Wonderful swimming pool with magnificent sunset view

Happy Valentine's Day

This is what LKC has planned for me for our Valentine's Day celebration tomorrow. I've no idea where is this place. All I know is a hotel. All I need to do is to pack my stuff as we will be spending our Valentine's day there. All I need to bring are my clothes, my camera with spare battery and charger, and most important MYSELF!! Wohoooo...I'll blog more about this when I come back from my sweet escape. Till then, Happy Valentine's Day to all.

p/s: This is the first surprise that LKC ever planned after being together for 7 years. I'm very excited about it. Thanks LKC!

Happy Belated 7th Year Anniversary

08.02.2009 was supposed to be the day we celebrated our 7th year anniversary, but sigh...tragedy happened again. If you have been following my blog for the past few years, I mentioned before that tragedy always happened on our anniversary day. There was no exceptional for this year. I had food poisoning that day. Vomit and diarrhea till I had to get injection from the doctor.

Is 8th Feb a bad date?

Happy Moo Moo Year

Finally a night at home on the whole CNY. Oh my, I feel sick when I'm at home wtf! Having running nose and cough now. The germs came earlier this year, I started to get voiceless even before CNY, which shouldn't be this way in the past few years. Anyway, how was your CNY so far? Mine was a blast! I have not been at home almost every night (except Chor 1). Here's some recap:-

CNY's Eve - Rum Jungle
Chor 1 - @ home having Open House
Chor 2 - @ Soo's place gambling
Chor 3 - @ Soo's place gambling
Chor 4 - Dinner at Unique Seafood, yum char at Oliven's Cafe then having champagne at La Amour
Chor 5 - @ Soo's place gambling
Chor 6 - @ home resting
My luck has been quite good in the year of Ox. I won RM40 + on Chor 2 and Chor 3, and won RM150+ on Chor 5. Wohoho...
Sigh...it's already Chor 6, another 3 days left only from the reality. Need to go back to KL on Chor 9 and start work on Chor 10. How I wish I could have a longer holiday, or better still a limitless holiday.
Shall enjoy my last few days of holidays to the max! I only go to sleep at around 5am daily. I like this kind of life style!! Please give me more.

Gong Hei Fatt Choy to all!

CNY coming soon

Another 5 days to go after waited for so long. Tomorrow will be my last day of work..weee! Will be celebrating my Chinese New Year in Ipoh from 23rd Jan - 3rd Feb, the longest Chinese New Year holiday I ever had since started to work.

Gong Xi Fatt Chai everyone!

Taiping Lang Restaurant

Taiping Lang Restaurant @ Bandar Puchong Jaya serves home-style nothern Malaysia-Hokkien cuisine. There are three different set of menus, namely "T", "P" and "L" and are rotated every 2 days. We did not order the set as there were some dishes that we are not a big fan of. We ordered from the ala carte menu instead.

Fried Chicken @ RM8

This is the daily special of the day. Unlike the Nyonya style fried chicken which is dry, the chicken was still juicy and tendered after frying.

Bangkuang Cha @ RM8

This is the shredded turnip with cuttlefish or better known as Ju Hu Char. This dish goes perfectly with lettuce leaves and a bit of sambal .

Kiam Chai Buey @ RM8

This is the mixed vegetable stew, which is spicy and sour in taste. It's also better known as "choi keuk" in Cantonese term. This dish was just so-so only as it wasn't spicy and sour-y enough.

Hu Pau @ RM5

This is the fish mousse steamed (otak-otak). Very nice and worth the price.

Chinese tea to wash down the oil.

Actually, I was more interested on the ambiance than the food as the decoration here was more like olden time, with antiques of all sort placed everywhere in the shop.

Taiping Lang Restaurant
No. 19-01, Jalan Kenari 18B,
Bandar Puchong Jaya,
47100 Puchong,
Selangor.
+603-80762686
info@taipinglang.com
www.taipinglang.com