Kayrin's arm being beautifully painted by a very talented artiste at Aireen Hana's birthday party and Raya open house. After years of being uninvited, this year, we went to two Raya open houses in one day! Aireen's was big and beautiful, while Jacq's was warm and cosy, with lots of laughs discovered along the way.
The Sept. 10-11 Hari Raya break saw us making our way to Port Dickson for a short break, this time via Lukut to eat the massive chicken-curry-within-a-bun. Three other families -- the Tans, Wongs and Liews -- made for an entourage of eight kids and eight adults.
At Port Dickson, we stayed at the Avillion Admiral Cove. While the resort is without a beach that we can wade into, the pool was wonderful for the kids. The studio room, or is it apartment?, was new, with a large king-sized bed and a day bed big enough for SF. Yes, the poor fella who's been paying for our holidays never get to go on the main bed. Kayrin hogs her side of the bed and I get the other half. After PD (yes, we shorten all our places to acronyms in Malaysia: KL, KB, KK, JB), it was a very long drive home: We detoured to the boondocks of Banting, for one of the two famous beggar chicken dishes. The highlight there turned out to be pig maw pepper soup. Lashings of pepper corn made it a very tummy-warming slurp all the way through.
Together with the Wong and Tan families, we made our way to Pulau Lang Tengah off the coast of Terengganu on Malaysia's eastern shores. The amazing blue sea I've only eyed on television is here. Deep blue waters, clear blue skies, a rustic resort and great company made for one of our best holidays ever!
Kayrin made new friends, with Ee Llynn and Yu Shen, and Ee Theng and Yu How, and had a frolicking good time splashing in the pool. SF was relaxed, the food was decent and the beach and restaurant were right at our doorstep.
Perhaps what marred the trip a little was the water-supply disruption, reminding me of our Taman Negara trip. Then again, what can we expect when this is a little island far, far away from the maddening crowd.
My biggest achievement this trip was donning the mask, doing a refresher course that allowed me to finally clear the mask of flooded water convincingly and making my first Scuba dive in more than eight years! First shore dive too. And a `personal' divemaster to boot.
It's been four years since Woan left us. We went to Nilai to place flowers for her on July 4, remembering the love she spread when she was around. I guess the clouds over our hearts won't ever leave since she passed on, but at least we know that beyond the clouds, far away above, she's in a better place.
This cloud formation was what we saw while driving on the Kajang-Seremban expressway back to KL.
