Tag Archives: Malaysia

Playing Tourist

30 Dec

I had a good night’s rest on Saturday night after we returned from our trip because it’s back to the familiar – my bed and pillows. And Sunday was a day to play tourist besides just eating to check off M1’s ‘to eat’ list.

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Glass noodles, crunchy honey bacon and crispy fried kailan. So good!

We started the day with a late lunch then we visited Batu Caves! The last time we were at this tourist spot was when M1 was just slightly a year old (but we didn’t bring her along). Now 21 years later, we revisited and with her this time.

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Crowded but not overly so at Batu Caves

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It’s so bright and we were all squinting!

Initially we all felt climbing the 272 steps wouldn’t be daunting even though it was hot and humid. But at mid-point I was sweating buckets and decided to check my heart rate; it spiked up to 144 bpm! Wow… a little more taxing than I thought. Even M1 and hubby had to stop every now and then for a breather. But we persevered and finally made our way up to see the shrines inside.

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Almost there!

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The main temple area

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The second temple, up the stairs from the main section

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Looking up at the limestones from the second temple

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View from the second temple down to the main temple

I think we stayed on a while longer to recover from the climb more than to take photos before making our way down the rainbow steps again. I must say, the going up and coming down stressed different parts of the body – up affecting the heart and thighs, and down, the knees.

When I reached the bottom, the legs were not so much jellied but instead the knees felt painful from the weighted grind of the bones as a result from the descend. We thought it was a good overall workout burning some calories especially when we have been eating so much.

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A well-deserved banana leaf rice, butter naan, paper thosai and condiments, complete with resam and lassi to drink

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Frozen mugs of beer and a mouth-watering molten lava cake

We ran some errands after the unplanned tourist stop and time passed by quickly. All in all, it was a good day and ended with a hearty banana leaf dinner, followed by a cold beer each and dessert at our favorite watering hole again! That night, my legs were so sore to the core, sleep evaded me. Sigh… I hope I can sleep better tonight.

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Unexpected Attack

28 Dec

I had a horrid unexpected endometriosis attack last night! I suspect it could be due to having the extra sips of the boba drink that triggered it. The Xin Fu Tang was all milk and cream and it was actually very nice – not too sweet as we thought. So a couple more sips was all it took and I suffered the consequences. Sigh…

The pain was building up before dinner and I took a painkiller before going out. We had Thai food which was actually very nice but the pain by dinner time overshadowed the food. When we got home, I had to take another painkiller and it didn’t help. Almost keeled over. What a spoiler. Hrmph.

This morning I am feeling slightly better despite a restless night. The worst is over. Phew.

We say goodbye to the (grand)parents today to continue on with the food trail to other parts of the country. I need to be more careful on my food intake to avoid another unexpected attack.

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Tough Act to Follow

23 Dec

So M1 is back, albeit a two-hour delay at Inchon Airport and losing some precious time, we take what we can and make the most of our time together. Starting with the food! We have been eating out constantly to check off her ‘To Eat’ list and it’s a long list for such a short trip.

Thosai Rawa and Roti Bomb, butter bun and Koi boba tea

French beans, tofu, steamed fish, coconut water and crabs galore (salted egg and buttered)!

Look at that happy face and the packet Nasi Lemak, breakfast of champions

It’s a tough act to follow for us especially because of what we have been doing all this while – the 16/8 IF diet. Suddenly we find ourselves eating all this variety of food and at odd hour intakes that we’re not used to, it’s too much for us. So we have to pace ourselves. As for M1, she’s in food heaven!

Hutong Village at Lot 10 in the city centre

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When Will I Recover

9 Jul

It’s been nine days since we returned from the US and both of us have not fully recovered from the jet lag! My goodness… it’s taking rather long.

Every night the whole of last week, we were waking up twice in the middle of the night at two hour intervals. The only one night I slept throughout until morning was last Friday when I went out for dinner with my golf buddies and I drank whiskey. I think it helped. The other nights were normal routines without any aids or meds to expedite the recovery.

So how long does one take to recover from jet lag?

From what I read online, it would take about a day to recover for each time zone crossed. Hmm… the time difference for us is 15 hours, so about two weeks to recover? Gosh…

Generally, jet lag is worse when traveling from West to East. We started out from Portland, and headed East to Salt Lake City, Amsterdam and finally Kuala Lumpur, that’s going East all the way. With the extra one stop (at SLC), long transit time and flying, maybe that’s why we are taking longer than a week to recover. Our 2012 trip to the US, we flew from East to West, San Francisco to Kuala Lumpur and that time, I took a week to recover from the jet lag.

Well, I woke up once at five this morning instead of twice before sunrise. Maybe a sign that I am recovering. Hopefully by the end of this week, the body would finally catch up with the time zone I am in and totally recover from the jet lag.

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Oops, The Bags are Not Here

1 Jul

It’s mind boggling when I look back now at the total time of the whole journey inclusive of the car rides. So from the time we left Corvallis for the airport, the flights, transits and our taxi ride home, it was 43.5 hours! Goodness gracious me.

The delay of the bags added to this and it could have been worse if the delayed flight departures were longer. But being under half an hour each time, the flying itself made up for it.

Yesterday when we touchdown at KLIA, all I was thinking of was a nice cold shower and a good sleep to start my recovery from the jet lag. But our checked-in bags never arrived. With this clouding our minds, how to sleep snugly?

We stood at the baggage conveyor belt for more than half an hour and our two checked-in bags never came. They are still in Amsterdam, along with the bags of several other travelers who transited at Schiphol Airport.

Some of them were connecting from Paris and Japan, and us from the US. Like them, we lodged a report and this took time too as the office was packed. Initially I thought we had to go to the airport this evening to get them but hubby said they will be delivered to us instead. I await anxiously for them.

This morning I woke up at 6.20am. I had a good eight hours sleep with four and a half of it being deep sleep. That’s good, maybe a faster recovery but the nagging headache is still there, I don’t know why. Hubby on the other hand, woke up every two hours. He said he was still in airplane sleep mode and each time, he was expecting to be served a meal or ice cream! Hahaha…

We jumped right into work this morning, not wasting any time to rest.

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Oh My Body

30 Jun

All that sitting and inability to find a snug position on the second leg had caused my backache to flare up. Throughout the journey, I had my painkiller on standby but I tried not to resort to them.

The last three hours of more sitting and waiting in Schiphol was just so arduous. And we didn’t want to walk too much too as we had the backpacks to carry and the cabin bags to pull along. We both knew it will just tire us and most likely we can’t sleep well on the third leg of the journey.

By 8.00pm, the announcement came on for boarding and in an orderly fashion, passengers boarded when their zones were called out. We sat in the aircraft for a good 40 minutes or so because of one late inconsiderate dude to come onboard. Eventually we were cleared for take off, 24 minutes passed the scheduled 8.50pm.

Within an hour, dinner was served! And after the meal, I tried to sleep again and it wasn’t easy. I just couldn’t get any comfortable positions. So I watched a movie and a couple of documentaries but not long enough to kill time. We still had over five hours to go. Felt like forever. Oh my body!

Eventually I forced myself to sleep. After all, I was wedged between two people this time, I couldn’t get up and the aisle passenger was asleep. Then I had to pee. Oh dear…

Do I wake her? It wouldn’t be polite because she was in deep slumber snoring away. Hubby too was sound asleep against the window. Hmm…I shouldn’t go pee and tried to sleep instead as my eyes were tired. I think I managed two hours at most and not more. And it made matters worse.

The legs were sore, the back hurt, the butt numb and the shoulders stiff and I still had to pee. As if these problems were not enough, a tiny nagging headache started developing. Oh my body…

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We are in Seattle

19 Jun

We got into Seattle late because it was hard to part with my old friend after lunch and also because traffic was heavy. The other reason being the car. Twice today we had to look for a gas station because one of the tires was losing air pressure and we didn’t want to end up with a flat unexpectedly.

And each time when we looked for a gas station with an air pump, we had to pay for air! We were like ‘What?!’ This thing is free back home in Malaysia and here, it cost a dollar fifty each time in Oregon (& 1.25 in Seattle) for about two minutes or so! Goodness gracious.

Approaching Seattle

So far we have pumped air into right rear passenger side, once each day and twice today over three days. Hrmph… Tomorrow we will have to call the car company to see if we can change the car in Seattle because everytime we do this, it changed our plans a bit.

As we have a packed itinerary tomorrow, this little issue needs to be resolved so that it won’t be a hassle and disrupts our plans.

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The Exploding Blundstone, Part 2

4 Jun

Last week I went to two different cobblers before making a decision to have my Blundstone Style 550 re-soled. I opted for the second cobbler, who happened to be the one who fixed my first pair when the boots had this Hydrolysis issue too. Even after all these years, the cobbler still have the same sole choice but I chose not to go with it this time.

Instead I picked something more rugged but heavier. It’s okay, I like it.

Also, I did write to Blundstone Australia to inform them that my boots experienced Hydrolysis. This time via Messenger privately and not publicly as a post on their Facebook wall.

They responded pretty quick and nicely too (best customer service, remember?), and directed me to Customer Service for Claims. So I filled in the necessary information, submitted my claims and within a short time, an acknowledgement email came stating a file was opened on my case. Super efficient!

I kept telling myself not to expect anything – after all this was already a replacement pair. Can’t expect another replacement for the replacement pair, right? What they did for me – replacing the first pair was already above and beyond, and to expect the same this time just does not seem right. Realistically, from the business perspective it would be bad for them as they just can’t go replacing every pair of boots with this known Hydrolysis problem.

The sole is a rubber/PU/TPU compound and over time, the material will disintegrate whether the boots are used or hardly used because moisture from the air is absorbed by the compound. If the boots are worn more often, Hydrolysis will still occur but possibly reduced.

After some back and forth emails to understand the mishap, the investigation concluded and Customer Service deemed there won’t be any compensation or warranty in this instance. The soles of my boots disintegrated due to Hydrolysis, a known common occurrence in humid environments and not because it’s a product, design or manufacturing fault.

I guess this is something one has to be aware of when buying shoes from overseas to bring back to your country. That being said, the humidity level in Malaysia is very high, so shoes purchased from overseas depending on material, may be prone to the humidity and disintegrate or explode upon pressure from our weight.

My only regret from this experience is that I didn’t wear this pair of Blundstone enough before this mishap. Oh well… Anyway, my boots are now fitted with new soles that I like and are still comfy. I should wear them more often and not just keep in the shoe closet. And I will happily go stomping in puddles when it rains because I know my toes will be dry.

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Brand new again and looking fierce but comfortable!

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Changing My Profession

24 May

It’s been an unusual week with more play than work. As many know, Malaysia has a lot of public holidays. In fact, too many. This week alone we had Monday and Wednesday off, so the masses took Tuesday off as well to maximize their long 5-days weekend to go out of town or abroad.

We did neither but just stayed put to play golf this whole week. So much golf, I think I should just change my profession to full-time golfer and part-time Graphic Designer instead of vice versa.

There were games on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and this Saturday as well. This morning I was supposed to have a game too but at the last minute, it was postponed to the coming Monday. With so many golf games, the 16/8 diet had to be temporarily halted because of timing. There’s simply no proper window to stick to a regime and regular menu.

But I figured it’s okay as there’s exercise and calories burnt during these outings, there won’t be any weight spike even after a hearty meal (after every game) to replenish the energy. In fact, today’s weigh-in more than recovered from last week’s minor setback as the numbers improved. And it’s even better than the target weight achievement two weeks ago. I am now 1.5lbs away from the new target weight. Yay!

Come Sunday, thank goodness I had scheduled ahead a full body massage knowing very well, the tired and battered body would need this deserving therapy to rejuvenate before going at this golf binge again next Monday, and possibly Wednesday and most definitely Saturday. Oh yeah, and sandwiched in between, I guess I should also work…

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The Beginning of a Long Break

1 Feb

Today is yet another public holiday (Federal Territory Day for selected states only) and the beginning of the long holiday break because Chinese New Year is just around the corner. I tell you, Malaysia has the most public holidays in a year! Just when things settle to a routine, bam, there’s a public holiday right there to tilt the balance.

The annual exodus of city dwellers leaving the city for their hometowns has begun. And we have decided not to join the crowd in the traffic snarl because I do not relish a ten-hour or thereabouts journey just to rush back to hubby’s hometown up North. To a certain extent, this long holiday stretch will see the exodus in staggered sessions which is good. I am pretty sure most travellers share the same sentiment as me, not wanting to be caught in a long slow drive.

Then again, today and Saturday will be the heaviest in traffic flow because the masses will want to maximize their time with family. For us, now that it’s just the two of us to be with hubby’s parents this year, we will only leave on Sunday morning. How long would our journey be? We will find out on Sunday itself. I will be prepared with lots of snacks, hot tea and plenty of music choices to make it a sheer driving pleasure. Gotta have a positive mindset here.

The Reunion Dinner is on Monday evening.

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