A Home Trip with Extras

Longjing Restaurant, Sunway Carnival Mall, Butterworth, Malaysia, Jul 2026. Hazel queued for 3 FRIGGIN HOURS to get a seat here! Malaysians are just bonkers about food. (But it was their grand opening, and they were giving out special offers!!! So, why not?) It serves Zhejiang cuisine (we no longer classify Chinese food, as just Chinese food. Now, it’s on which Chinese province they’re from…) By the way, it’s good. Go, give it a try!

Here it is. Our recent home trip photos… (I went thru 8000+ friggin photos for this, OK? You think this is easy?)

We’re back to our mini adventure mode! This time home to Malaysia, we ‘transited’ …Thailand! Krabi, to be exact. Why? Because, it was cheaper (than flying direct to Malaysia. Besides, there’re currently no direct flights from Dubai to Penang, unlike before the war); and it was with a Dubai-based airlines, FlyDubai (just in case the other airlines cancelled their flights due to that silly war that Donald Trump started).

On our way back, we transited Singapore which is, you guessed it, also cheaper. Yup, flying to and from Singapore back to Dubai is cheaper than via Kuala Lumpur, would you believe it? People just love Malaysia, I guess. That explains why the flights to Malaysia are so friggin expensive. Also, and more importantly, Justin and Jason’s family is there!

Anyway, here’s the recap in pictures.


We’ve reached Krabi! At the Tiger Cave Temple (Wat Tham Seua), Krabi, Thailand, Jul 2026. Our stop in Thailand was for only one night, because we had to get to Penang urgently, for a scholarship interview for Jayden (which, by the way, he PASSED!!! CONGRATULATIONS Jayden!)


The next day, sunrise over Phang Nga Bay, near Phuket, Thailand, from the Samet Nangshe Viewpoint. Phuket is the main aviation hub here in southern Thailand, but for some strange reasons, FlyDubai (which is the low-cost airlines arm of Emirates) flies to Krabi instead of Phuket (or Penang, for that matter). But never mind, we (or more like, I) don’t mind that at all. Let it come, those small, strange airports that nobody’s heard of. We’ll take them on (as long as it’s cheap, haha). Krabi is about 150km from Phuket, where our flight to Penang was from, so it’s another road trip, yoohoo!


We’re home! Fancy some cendol?? At the Kafe Empat Sekawan, Bayan Lepas in Penang, Malaysia


Malaysia’s all about food! Dimsum at our regular dimsum joint with the family at home, Thong Sum Restaurant, Butterworth, Malaysia


What’s a Malaysia visit without a trip to an island on the East Coast?? (Last year we didn’t visit one. So, we have to make up for that, right?) Swimming with the fish, Pulau Redang, Terengganu, Jul 2026


On the way back, we spent a night at a ummm… semi-hill station, Colmar Tropicale, modeled after the French town of the same name (Colmar) but with tropical features (as you can see, from the name, duh.) We actually visited Colmar Tropicale also last year… on a day trip! (OK, OK, I’ll make a post of that soon …er or later, ahem)


We’re in my hometown, Ipoh! Visiting the old folks. Tuapek (dad’s eldest brother), lu ho bo? Tuapek is 91 years old! At the Moonlight Old Folks Home, Canning Garden, Ipoh


Hello Tuakor (dad’s eldest sister), ciak pa boei? Tuakor is even older, 92 years old. This time, only Tuakor, and her grandson (my cousin’s son) were at home… Pasir Pinji, Ipoh


And this is my mother’s side, cousin sister Ah Yi and her family. Ah Yi’s father (second from left) is my mother’s youngest brother. We last met him in 2022. He still stays in his old home in Taman Merdeka (which we call the House of Dogs… The dogs have all died, by the way). The kids are all growing up. Ah Yi’s son, Eugene, (at the back, on the right) is now taller than both his parents! And Ginny (their daughter, middle) is not far behind. At the Kok Thai Restaurant, Tasek, Ipoh


This is the first time we visited Ah Yi’s home! (They usually visit our home in Canning Garden). In Taman Tawas Mewah, Ipoh


Another mini-adventure! Welcome to Lake Toba! At Bukit Holbung, Lake Toba, Sumatera, Indonesia, Jul 2026. Since we’ve done most of the stuff that we went home to do, we decided to skip over to Sumatera, Indonesia for a few days! Medan is a short (and affordable) flight away from Penang, and it opens up a whole new world of adventures, and it’s, …how do you say it, budget-friendly, really! Lake Toba brings back fond memories. It was the first ever overseas trip of my life! Dad brought me here in 1986 (40 years ago) when I was a teenager (it was only my dad and I; mom had passed away the year before…)


Back in Penang. Time to say goodbye to the family! Take care Dad. Take care Hazel. Thanks for everything! Penang International Airport


Next stop, Singapore! Hello Justin, Jason, Li Fang and Stacey! At Changi International Airport, Singapore


Jayden will soon be joining his koko, Justin and cousin, Stacey in Singapore! The three of them at Serangoon, Singapore – outside the Better Scoop Ice Cream Shop, Aug 2026. See ya!

The Submerged Rainforest

Lake Kenyir, Terengganu, Malaysia

A quick picture post again. Busy time at the office. Always seems to be the case here, towards the end of the year, for tendering work anyway. It’s like a punishment for those in Tenders. When everyone’s thinking of Christmas and New Year, you’re holed up in the office, at night, pounding away on the keyboard. Shite!

Still on Malaysia, this is Lake Kenyir, a lake made by damming up the Kenyir River to form a hydroelectric power station. That act effectively flooded 260 square km of rainforests, wiping out scores of trees (and I suspect not a few animals), making it the largest man-made lake in South East Asia. The trees are long gone now, but there was a time when the lake was an eerie maze of dead trees poking out of the lake surface. That was what one fellow visitor told us. I wouldn’t have known since this was our first visit to the lake.


View from the Lake Kenyir Resort


A boat chugging quietly on the lake


A fishing boat / lodge i.e. a house boat where visitors stay to fish, cook and eat – popular with fishing enthusiasts


This was where we stayed – chalets at the Lake Kenyir Resort, but don’t ask me which one


There’re as many as 340 islands in the lake which were once hilltops. Here’s the ‘Waterfall Island’! Dunno the real name, just know that it had a waterfall in it!


Waterfall at Lake Kenyir (see a picture of Justin bathing at the waterfall in my previous post)

Then there’s ‘Herbal’ Island, where you can get tongkat ali, …to boost your male libido! (This’ll be a favourite among some of the friends I know!!)


The Harmony Hut (Pondok Harmoni) (don’t ask me why they name it this) at ‘Herbal’ Island, where the tongkat ali, kacip fatimah, etc brews are prepared for sampling by tourists – bitter to the core, whatd’ya expect? These are …potions, OK?


A shelter on the lake at ‘Herbal’ Island


Another view of Lake Kenyir, with the Lake Kenyir Resort on the left


A view of the Lake Kenyir Resort main building, from the swimming pool, yes there’s a swimming pool there. Dunno why people don’t just swim in the lake. Didn’t see anyone do that, actually, strange!


The road there, from Ipoh – just past Gua Musang, Kelantan. We decided to take the never-before-travelled route to Terengganu this trip, across the spine of Malaya, through hills, forests and plantations. The route will take you from Ipoh, uphill to Cameron Highlands, then downwards to Gua Musang, Kelantan. From Kelantan, we drove across Felda estate roads (government planned palm oil plantations) straggling the boundary of Taman Negara (National Park) into Terengganu and Lake Kenyir.


Just past the Terengganu border, from Kelantan

The Best Holiday Ever

In Anu’s view that is.


Pulau Perhentian!


Crystal clear waters of Pulau Perhentian. There, you can snorkel from the beach itself

I’m in the midst of a holiday blues, …or more like a holiday deprivation blues. Not been to a new destination since last year, and will not be going for some time to come, due to the coming addition to our family. Summer in Dubai can be a real bore, everything’s hazy, sandy and burning hot, not that there’re lots of things to see in winter (since we’ve been almost everywhere already), but at least we can go outdoors for a nice walk in the park…

Leaving here some pictures of a holiday taken last year. Anu’s dubbed this the best holiday ever due to the bliss of having absolutely nothing planned but to sit around, swim and play on the sand. (I admit I tend to like to cramp quite a lot into holidays, see as much as possible in the shortest time ahem… which I don’t think sits very well with Anu, hee). This time we had 2 full days of absolutely nothing, but chilling out on the beach! Very glad that Anu’s happy, …her happiness, is my happiness! :) Kenalah pandai bodek sedikit kan?


Pulau Perhentian Besar, Terengganu, Malaysia – we spent the first night in Coral View Resort, and the second, in a smaller, slightly cheaper, but nicer chalet (as it was much closer to the sea, and all chalets come with its own little outdoor porch, see below), the …Reef (I think), just next door to Coral View.


The Reef chalets (if I’m not mistaken), Pulau Perhentian Besar, where we stayed for our second night in Perhentian, with Justin trying to give a helping hand to the cleaners.


Beach, in front of the Coral View Resort


Anu the Redeemer, Pulau Perhentian Besar, Malaysia


Anu and Justin busy building sand castles. On the left, Mordor, on the right, the Mines of Moria


Justin as a tomato. A little bit of sun and sand won’t hurt, right?






The beach front and jetty at the Perhentian Island Resort, Perhentian Besar




Pulau Perhentian Kecil (i.e. Small Perhentian) – We skipped over to the smaller island for a short visit on the way back to the mainland. Perhentian Kecil was supposed to be the more hip island for party-goers and backpackers, while Perhentian Besar (Big Perhentian) was more for families. I’ve been to Kecil before, mid to late 90’s but I somehow have no recollection at all about my last time here… Was it the parties? Did something which was not supposed to happen happen? Or was it just not memorable enough for the limited memory of my brain?? …I still remember the swell times I and my friends had in Tioman (another island in Malaysia) which we visited much earlier, ...strange huh?


A mosque on the mainland, in Jerteh, Terengganu – yeah, we roamed around Kuala Besut (the boat jetty to Perhentian) and the surrounding area for a while. Tried booking a hotel in Perhentian using the internet hotel booking sites before we reached the jetty in Kuala Besut, and it showed all rooms full (this turned out to be a load of crap, as I think in Perhentian, the hotel operators and tour agents don’t put up everything on the internet for bookings), so we booked a room near the jetty at Kuala Besut instead. Approached a tour operator in Kuala Besut when we got there, and voila! there ARE rooms available on Perhentian. But since we’ve already booked a night in Kuala Besut, we decided to stay and go around the mainland a bit.

Justin 4 Ers Old

Happy Birthday Justin! With Amy, daughter of our friends, Dong Weihong and Li Lei

Justin’s turned 4! And for a change, I’ve decided to upload something recent, instead of past old events. …OK, it happens that I actually have the camera in my work bag, so... that explains, hehe.

This year has been a year of high adventures. We’ve visited 7 countries, flew umpteen times, stayed in a host of different hotels, visited I dunno how many places, travelled thousands of kilometres on road… and snapped a gazillion photos with the trusty ol camera, and the phones, and the tab, whatever we could get our hands on basically. So here’re some photos of Justin’s adventures this year. Just a very random selection. Luckily he doesn’t like to keep still for photos or we’d have a gazillion more photos of him.

Just a quick update. Justin’s started schooling now. No pictures of him at school, yet. (Pretty impossible to make him stay still for a photo, as usual). He spent the first week at school in Kindergarten 1st year (KG1), drove the teachers’ crazy within that one week, changed his class to Pre-K (the year before KG1), and that’s where he is now. He loves school, coz there’re lots of play stuff and friends, and nobody forces him to eat at school. He has daily battles with his mom at home about eating.

He still loves cars and all types of vehicles. His favourite toy of the week now is a garbage truck. He can name most of the cars we see on the road – Toyota, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Peugeot, Renault, Honda, Mazda, Hyundai, Kia, Land Rover, BMW (his favourite), Audi, Volkswagen, Chevrolet, Ford, Mercedes…

He talks a lot now, but only on topics that he likes, …like cars, and drives us crazy. His own language has more or less died out in favour of Standard English now. He no longer calls himself Duntin, and will correct me if I call him that (which I still do sometimes, purposely, hehehe). Here’re some of the last traces of Justin’s language before it’s completely forgotten – Engain, Blathy, Plato, Thurken, Chicken, Dedi, Heva, Endader, Pepe, Ers Old, Compinter, Kiwi, Konhe, Dra-dra, Masala, Moodles (again, battery, petrol, curtain, kitchen, already, have to, another, paper, years old, computer, his wee-wee, his bump (because when he was young, every time he passes gas, his mom will ask him ‘kaun hai?’ meaning ‘who’s that?’ in Hindi), rumble strips on the road and anything rough, noodles, also noodles…) Also, previously, for any word starting with an S followed by another consonant, the S would be silent. For example Step, Stand, Stone, School and Spit will be Tep, Tand, Tone, Cool and Pit respectively.

OK, I’m leaving it at that for the time being. No time (and no more imagination) to come up with good writing ideas nowadays.


Justin, Kolhapur, Maharashtra, India, on New Year’s Eve, Dec 2012


Mihintale, Sri Lanka, Jan 2013


Dambulla, Sri Lanka, Jan 2013


Ayutthaya, Thailand, Mar 2013


Wat Arun, Bangkok, Thailand, Mar 2013


Ferry across to Penang, Malaysia, Mar 2013


Khoo Kongsi, Penang, Mar 2013


A waterfall at Lake Kenyir, Terengganu, Malaysia, Mar 2013


Feeding the deer, Lake Kenyir Resort, Terengganu


Perhentian Islands, Terengganu, Mar 2013


MacRitchie Reservoir, Singapore, Apr 2013


A small temple at Lalpani, between Fulertal and Jiribam, Assam, India, May 2013


Justin and mommy, Dubai, Sep 2013


A boat ride to a sea arch, Qantab, Muscat, Oman, Oct 2013


Bimmah Sinkhole, Oman, Oct 2013