Gold coast Queensland Australia 5 days trip 2016

5 days of holiday to gold Coast doesn't felt enough. 2 days has been spent on traveling on plane. It took 8 hours to fly from KL airport to gold Coast.

We stay at the Dorchester on the beach, with an amazing view of the ocean, most of the time we eat outside except for breakfast. We spent our first day at the Harbour town outlet store, the place is huge  you can spend hours shopping here. Had our first meal here at the nonna's Italian restaurant, it was just an ok meal.

Springbrook National Park is huge, we only managed to visit one of the lookout, the purling falls, the entire walk is about 10km, the fall wasn't too impressive. Burleigh national park is much better, right beside the beach, windy, with an amazing overview of the city. Palm Beach is my personal favorite of all the beaches we've visited, for its calm, crystal clear water. Had a really relaxed and great time at Palm Beach.

On the day our visit to cabarita beach was so windy, the view there was amazing! If only the wind is weaker the visit would have be much better.

Overall the food we had wasn't impressive, the best meal we had are ben's fish and chips and an Indian restaurant nearby tweed mall.

One day trip bicycle tour from Batu 18 Hulu Langat to Titi villege

On this fine Sunday, decided to join the bike ride from Hulu Langat 18 to Titi village, a small village in Negeri sembilan. We departed from our house around 5.30am and to meet up with others around 6am at Hulu Langat bt 15 for a quick breakfast, then drive and park the car in bt 18.

It was a cooling morning with thick fog, it started of with flat road which is nice and easy, this route has 2 huge ascending slopes and 2 huge descending then all the way flat until Titi village. I started to push the bike somewhere near the negeri sembilan border, during the last huge slope,  my right leg quad muscle cramp and had to stop.

cool ride in the morning

foggy weather

bamboo house

Welcome to Negeri Sembilan 

Two motorist stop by for a smoke and ask if I am ok as I look weird standing and not moving. It was only 10am-ish and my leg cramped from then, I am forced to travel on turtle speed,  the thoughts of giving up keeps kicking in and thinking how to go back with my leg cramp. But at the end I still manage to complete the planned route. I am proud of myself for being able to push to the limit!

Something that worth mentioning is that this duck ginger noodle at kampung muntoh, it was so good! It was the best thing in the bike tour. The shop is right opposite of the air pump station can be easily missed if you travel by car.

Duck ginger noodle, 10 thumbs up

Pork noodle

Arrived Titi village at around 12pm, first thing to do is to hunt for the famous kuih kuih as mentioned by alot other bloggers. Tasted and disappointed, not as great as what the others have said. The skin was so thick, hard and sticky. Then went to a coffee shop for coffee, crowded with people, we ordered coffee and roti bakar, the roti was good.

Wide selection of kuih

Chit chat with the local and get to know more about titi

After some exploring around Titi until around 2pm , we then headed back and made a stop at sg. Gabai waterfall to cool off the heat. The road back was suffering enough for me, I was all the time behind the 2 others, slopes and slopes with no end, the last 13km seems like a short distance but hell it was suffering, I was so happy to finally see the 'yellow signage'  the welcome sign to negeri sembilan as from then it is all the way down!

the famous wall art in titi

Arrived at the water fall at around 6 pm, managed to cool of the heat, feels so good to soak my leg in the cold water. We then headed back to bt 18, load our bike back to the car and then had dinner at bt15 before we head home.

Bugs that I came across while doing some gardening

Recently I've been into gardening, Sending about a hundreds in pots and soil planting okra , onions, garlics and some lemon grass for the start.

Came across my pandan and saw these insects that I've never seen in entire of my life even though they are always there. Oh well, they looks pretty photogenic and I guess I should say it is worth standing there for couple of minutes taking them photos while feeding the mosquito.

4 Days 3 Nights in Cambodia Siem Reap

Angkor wat is one of the well known unesco world heritage that was told a must visit before you die! Without hesitation, of course when flight ticket are on sales (bought it about at least 10 months ago before visiting.). Without much planning, all we did was hired a driver for 2 days bringing us around almost all the temples. You can also find tours, driver or tuktuk for hire in Siem reap they are available in almost every corner.

Wondering where to stay in Siem reap? We booked golden temple villa for 2 nights for about RM80+  per night, I must say, the services they provided are 5 star! and the food served from the kitchen are great too.

Once we arrived the airport, they've arranged a tuktuk to pick us up at the airport, FREE! (all you need to do is when you book through agoda by clicking this link and specific your flight arrival and request a pick up, when arrived at the villa, we were served with ice cold drinks tower and snacks, before showing us where's our room, we were told that we have an hour of Free massage!

Our tuktuk pick up from the airport.

Tuktuk equipped with rain gear.

Location wise? Golden temple villa is near to the night market about 5-10 minute walking distance 

and that is why we spent almost every night at the pub street enjoying the cheap 0.50$ per pint Angkor beer. Yum! Lets get started with what to do in Angkor wat siem reap!

Day 1

When we arrived and check into the villa, it is about 3-4 pm a little bit early to  visit the night market. We open up google map and look around (golden temple villa also provides free wifi).

We had our late lunch at the villa, the kitchen serves great food.

The famous amok with fish, prawn, chicken and beef.

Artisan Angkor

located just a few steps of where we stay, here you'll be given a short tour around the workshop the guide will approach you and you will need to obtain a pass from the counter. The short tour is free but you can also tip the tour guide if you think he is helpful.

Hand Carving bowl

Stages of the work being done, from left to right.

In process of coloring.

Painting a wall decoration, you can see these in the shop.

Sand stone carving the head.

A street behind of the villa.

The streets around the area are small and crowded with cars, bikes and human, good thing is most of the driver drive slowly.

Tourist enjoying local street food.

Night Market in Siem Reap
It is very easy to locate the night market from where we stay, we had our first dinner at the hottest, loudest club in pub street - temple club, we had Khmer style grill squid ( about 3-4$), steak (7.5$) oh man the steak was so good with the special sauce that they served! not to forget the 0.5$ per pint Angkor beer. Yum!

Pub street.

Pub street.

View from top of temple club.

It is easy to locate pub street.

Fried Ice cream for dessert YUM!

Night market selling meat/sausages.

More shopping after crossing the bridge.

Day 2 and 3

On Day 2 we woke up at 8am in the morning, had our breakfast at the villa's kitchen, had a rice with fried pork, tasted ok portion of the pork is a little bit small (not if you are not a big eater). 

On Day 3, we pre-ordered our breakfast at the kitchen on day 2, as we are going for the sun rise view of Angkor wat at 5 am so our breakfast has to be ready by 4 am. An advise if you are going for the sun raise and if you want to get the best of it, go earlier. Reach there by 4 - 4.30 am or earlier! by the time we arrived at 5 am it was packed with people! the good spot (by the pond) is all crowded!

The forever crowded entrance of Angkor Wat.

A closer shot of Angkor wat west entrance.

Angkor wat is huge, we spent about 1-2hours walking from the west entrance to the east where our driver is waiting for us. There are alot alot of people it is quite difficult to get a photo without people in it.

Sunrise shot.

To be honest this shot wasn't taken during the sun rise hour, this was taken pass the sun rise hour when I finally had a chance to get closer by the pond. This was taken in 'cloudy' mode and edited to look like I actually enjoyed the sun rise.

Entrance of Bayon temple.

The facade of Ta Prohm.

Angkor Thom gate

local children that can speaks in different languages.

Banteay Srei

Day 4

Pack our bags and home we go in the morning. 

This post will end here or it will go on and on, and on and on with photos of temples! If you need to know anything about the trip, leave a comment below!

Deciso concert kids clay workshop

The 2 year once deciso concert happened on 28 of June 2015 it was a great concert with talented young performers. We were invited to setup a booth there to have a small little clay workshop.