2D1N Hatyai, Thailand: Songkran Festival.

with Alvin, Jayne, Jennifer, Tyler and the lover.
on the 11-12 April 2015.

The reason for this trip: Jayne and Jennifer tendered their resignation to pursue their passion. Looks like tourism isn't for everyone. I'm happy for them really but sad because both of them have been great colleagues. 

We have always discussed the idea of us and a few more who couldn't make it for this trip to spend few days elsewhere. The only problem is we can't take more than 1 day annual leave together since Jayne, Alvin and I are all in the same department. The rest also same case. So, the best we could do is over the weekend.

The nearest place we could go to that's not part of Malaysia is Hatyai, Thailand. So land of tomyam it is. It's been quite a while since I've been to Hatyai. Actually not that long also lah. Probably like last year only. Heh.

If not mistaken, Songkran festival in Thailand always happens on 13-15 April, however few days before and after, the locals and tourists will start the water festival already. So, expect to get really wet if you plan to go on a holiday to Thailand anytime near these dates. 

END OF MARCH

We compared prices of a few hotels and I remembered wanting to book Centara at RM220 per night but when I checked online at Agoda and Expedia, all rooms are fully booked for that date. So now, we are kind back to square one, or maybe it's just me because right now I have no idea where we staying or how we are going. Heh.

SIXTH OF APRIL

We confirmed our hotel booking today with Lee Garden Plaza Hotel today. We've booked two rooms for six people, means we'll have 3 single beds in a room and hopefully we will be able to get connecting rooms lagi syiok. For our transportation, most likely the 6 of us will squeeze into her CRV. 

TENTH OF APRIL

It didn't feel like work today. All of us in office were feeling the holiday mood already. What work? Hah. I have not packed for the weekend yet so the real feel hasn't really kicked in. Not until when I rushed my packing when I got back home from work. I wanted to change money at Queensbay Mall but was told that the rate in Hatyai is a lot better so in the end, we headed home and rested early.

ELEVENTH OF APRIL

I woke up at 530am and met with the rest at 630am for a quick breakfast. Then, it was all the way to Hatyai with no rest stop at all. No time to waste since we're only spending a night there. It took us like 1 hour and half. Crazy right? Jayne's a fast driver and her car can take it lah honestly. It didn't feel like she was speeding at all.

We reached Bukit Kayu Hitam and was stuck in a jam for a good 30 minutes before we decided to make a quick left turn into the traffic light junction, park the car there, and started walking. That was within a walking distance from the Malaysian Immigration Point and Duty Free Zone. If we have waited in the car with the traffic, I think it's going to take much longer.

The passing of Malaysian Immigration was quite a fast one. To those passport holders of recently renewed ones, you don't have to queue up so long because now you can go for the Auto-Gate Kiosk. Oh and at this point if you only realize that you forgot to bring your passport, you can just make a u-turn and go back home. Heh.

At the auto-gate kiosk, you just got to place your passport facing up (there's instructions on the system) and wait till they verify your identity and scan your right thumb print and you're good to go. Easy as ABC.

 

Then, we need to walk some more to the Duty Free Zone, where we all desperately searched for the washroom. Speaking of that, I did a travel test on LOTD Clothing's t-shirt during this trip so the walking gives me the chance to test this t-shirt out. Anyways, from there, we hired a van to take us in from the Thailand Immigration Point to Lee Garden Plaza, Hatyai. 

From a distance, we could see lines and lines of human, waiting to clear through the immigration and boy, all the lines were so long. We chose one line that seemed to be the shortest. Turns out, the officer at the kiosk that we were waiting at was like the slowest and also, many locals just walked to him with like RM20 as bribe to clear immigration for their customers. Haih. 

It took us about 1 hour before our passport gets the stamp and approval to go into the land of tomyam. Oh and we have to pay RM1 to the Immigration Officer. WHAT IS THIS. OBVIOUSLY BRIBE. SAD CASE. I don't do bribe lah but this one I don't know how to say no to him eh. Anyways, the van costs us RM80 (for the 6 of us) which isn't quite bad I guess. Jayne said that she used to got them for about RM70. From Thailand Immigration Point, the van took us direct to Lee Garden Plaza, which took about 45 minutes. 

We checked into Lee Garden Plaza and dropped all our luggages. We didn't even sit on the bed and rested a while because seriously we need all the time we can get. There were so many people there okay. 90% Malaysians because I could understand them and hear them from a distance. Hah. 

Lee Garden Plaza's hotel lobby at Level 10.

Standard room. We added another extra bed.

View from our room at 20th floor.

With 20 Thai Baht per person, our tuk-tuk took us straight to our lunch place called Kan Eng Restaurant. The place is filled with people who seemed Malaysian to me actually. The food was served so quick we couldn't believe it eh. Too fast. Not only that, the food tasted good some more. We wanted to do a food review but we were too hungry so just walloped everything. No time to take individual photos. Heh. Here's the address if you would like to visit this place.

Kan Eng Restaurant : 50/3 Kimpradit Road, Hatyai, 90110 Songkhla, Thailand : 074-246138

You're welcome! :)

Back to this. After lunch, we went to Robinson Mall which isn't quite far from where lunch place. We shopped there a while and got back to the hotel to prepare for our next itinerary. MASSAGE TIME!

This was when we were ambushed by the locals and non-locals with water guns. Apparently, Songkran Festival has already started. We thought they were just setting up. 

Songkran Festival is celebrated by the Thai people as New Year's Day on the 13-15 April. So with that, we thought the water event will only start on Monday itself. Manatau, it's actually few days prior to the New Year. Crazy okay. I didn't pack any extra clothes leh. 

We were walking from our tuk-tuk to the hotel and got cornered with all the water guns. I think most of them were Malaysians. They didn't look Thai at all. Oh such good fun. 

We quickly ran into the hotel and with our clothes wet, we went to the Massage Place at Level 7 in Lee Garden Plaza. This was my first time trying out the body massage in the hotel. Usually, we would go to the by-the-street-vendor but never did I know that for the same price, 300 baht we got better body massage in the hotel. 

It was one of my best massage sessions that I've ever experienced. Everything was more proper and clean. So, this will be the place where I will go to from now on. Level 7, Lee Garden Plaza.

Mine was amazing. She didn't use too much of her energy so that was really a relaxing session.

After massage, we were all pumped up to join in the wet mess downstairs, but then we were feeling quite hungry already. We wanted to eat local Thai food but there is no way that we will go out and to the eating place without getting ourselves soaked in water. So, we decided to eat indoor, at the Shabu Shi, a Japanese Restaurant where we had all-you-can-eat steamboat and sushi style within 1 hour and 15 minutes. 

After that, we got our guns loaded and ready to join the madness outside.

Along the street, there were humans waiting for people like us to walk past so that they could aim and shoot at us. Some even used bucket and splash water on us like ice bucket challenge. Heh. It was crazy okay. 

We played around for a while and walked the street, most of the time focusing on finding those humans with water guns. Hah. They even set up a fighting ring right in the middle of a junction and we witnessed my very first time of Muay Thai experience. 

I was quite scared to watch to be honest. I didn't know what to expect. All that's in my head was gory and brutal images. Even worse when a young boy, prolly aged 15 walks up and waited for his opponent, also about 15 years old. Wahh, how to watch wei.

It's like so pitiful you know. Everyone gathered around the ring and cheered on when either one made a good move, which I don't know how it's judged. There were 5 rounds and we watched till the end. I think the only reason why the boy in blue won was because he managed to 'tricked' the red boy and made him fall on his bum-bum twice. 

This puts a tick on my travel checklist, which I obviously don't really have. Hah. It comes when it comes.

The four of them bought a huge water gun at about RM25 each.

Boys will like this shooting very much. 

Ohh! One more thing that I like about this Songkran Festival is no alcohol is allowed so means no risk of people doing crazy things. People really don't need alcohol to enjoy the moment, seriously. This was proven during this festival. 

I have to say that Airasia did a really wonderful work. They set up a stage by the street and did like a mini-rave party. It was crazy! It was super fun. It was very crowded also but that made it quite fun actually. I don't know how to describe it but it was fabulous!

After all that madness, we went back to the room and changed into a 'real' clothes. We didn't want to call it a night just yet so we sneaked through the back of the hotel to enter the quieter street behind the plaza. We went to a bar place where I thought was one of my best experience yet. The live band music and the company, best. 

It was a great night out and we collapsed on our bed at about 1am (2am in Malaysia!). I remembered going to bed purposely not switching on my alarm clock. I wanted to wake up whatever time I wake up. Heh. 

TWELFTH OF APRIL

Turns out I woke up at 7am. That's 8am in Malaysia, which also means my usual waking time for work. I was the first one to wake up and got ready for the rest of the day. 

We had quite a lovely spread of breakfast I must say. 

Today, it's a ll about shopping because we only got few hours left in this land. The Pasar Pagi it is. It was super crowded inside and outside of the market. It seems like all the humans decided to shop that morning too. We were quite focused I have to say.

We went in, searched for the things that we need, and out we go. It's like in and out kind of mission. Ain't nobody gonna stay in there for so long. 

We hunt down stalls that sell roasted coconut and boy, the joy on our faces when we found one. It was a needed drink after all that shopping. Then, we took the tuk-tuk back to the hotel. 

The thing was we knew that if our tuk-tuk pass by or stop at the 'shooting zone', we're all going to be so wet. Tuk-tuk all no wall okay so we sure kena left right center. 

We tried looking out for possible routes but no point also lah. Every street that leads to Lee Garden Plaza for sure got an army or two ready to shoot. We passed one street and we saw them right in front so that's the worse because we knew there's no escaping and WE WERE ALL ALREADY IN OUR LAST SET OF CLOTHES! Okay, not for the rest lah but for me it was. No more change seriously.

Then, it comes. The water from the guns, straight to our body, face and legs. It wasn't that bad until Koay started shouting, "THIS ONE GOT COLOR! COLORED WATER WEIII!"

We were all still covering our faces and shouting, "Ahhhhh! STOP!!" 

And our smart tuk-tuk driver even stopped, don't know for them to shoot more water on us or really got traffic in front. After not very far ahead, the tuk-tuk finally stopped and then we realized that the colored water got to all of us and the worse was on Koay. His whole left side of the face was stained with pink water. The crazier thing was that the color won't come off after washing with soap. 

We got back to the hotel and changed. I obviously have nothing left to wear so I blew dry my undergarments and wore my pajamas. Heh. Talk about spontaneous trip. This has got to be the winner.

We took shelter in the mall while waiting for our van. Even when we were in the van, they still try their best to 'make us get wet'. I don't know what they were thinking. They prolly think that their water power could break the van's windows or something. Hah. Free car wash for the van!

We left Hatyai at the Immigration Border at about 430pm and got home at 630pm. 

Then, I collapsed on my bed because I have got no voice left. 

Great weekend escape with this people. This is just temporary goodbye, Jayne and Jennifer. Both has decided to pursue their dreams elsewhere. I'm gonna miss you both! :)

THIRTEENTH OF APRIL

Pergi kerja lah what else.

TOTAL MONEY SPENT

For 2 days and 1 night at Hatyai, Thailand

PENANG-HATYAI-PENANG via van : Sponsored by Jayne
MALAYSIA IMMIGRATION-LEE GARDEN PLAZA via Toyota Innova : RM14
LEE GARDEN PLAZA-MALAYSIA IMMIGRATION via Toyota Innova : RM17
Compulsory 'payment' bribe to the Thai Immigration Officer (for two ways) : RM2

Hotel with buffet breakfast : RM84

Tuk-tuk ride everywhere : RM11

2 hours of full body massage: RM42

Thailand Baht used for shopping & others : RM314

[Note: RM10 = 87.6 Thai Baht (as of 11th April 2015)]

RM484

LOTD Clothing - Travel Test.

Recently, a very good friend of mine started a clothing line called LOTD Clothing and they started selling their very first designed t-shirts. Since I'm such a good friend, I shall tell you guys more on this goodness. Of course, even though we are really good buds, I still have to make sure that whatever I promote must be true and I must believe in the product itself, right.

So, I decided to do a travel test on the t-shirt. 

A travel test is a test where this t-shirt will go through a few things/situation and see if it can tick off a few things on the list. 

Something like that. I just made that up. Hah. Anyways, I wanna see if this t-shirt is worth the RM49 or not. 

Let me first start by saying that I almost immediately fell in love with the material when I first receive the t-shirt. Somehow, cannot believe that it's so soft eh. I tried it on to see if S fits me and loved it even more because not only it's soft, it's also super comfortable on my skin.

Sorry hah photo a bit blur. The photographer not so good. Heh.

Then, I was even more keen to test them out when I travel because I want to see whether it's going to be sticky when I start sweating since it's summer all year long in Malaysia and neighboring countries.

So here is how it goes.

I went to Hatyai, Thailand on Saturday morning and because it was so jammed up at the border crossing, we decided to park our car at a traffic light turn, even before the Malaysian Border Point. Then, we started walking while carrying our bags on a sunny afternoon. 

At this point, it feels like there is no weight on my body. It almost feels like I'm not wearing anything. Okay, maybe a lil too exaggerated, but it was seriously very smooth on the skin and light. 

We waited for a good 1 hour plus at the Thailand's Border Point and then, I was already sweating a little. The weather wasn't too hot thank God. 

It didn't feel sticky and it still feels good. Another thing that I like about this t-shirt is that the S size isn't too small or too big for me. Sometimes, good t-shirt can either be very body-hugging or too baggy style. So, this one is just in between. 

Do you know that it's very important to feel good and comfortable at the same time when you go travel? It makes a whole lot of difference to the start of your holiday. 

So, basically I was risking my holiday to test this LOTD Clothing's product out. Turns out, it was a great start! 

After checking into hotel, the rest of the gang changed and I wanted to but I didn't because the t-shirt that I was wearing was still very 'fresh'. We went to do all the touristy stuff (not really lah! Just a lot of walking) and when we went back to the hotel to shower, again I didn't change!

This is why.

Below our hotel, the Songkran Festival has already started and we were already half wet, kena ambushed from nowhere. Then, I thought to myself that this is another situation where I can test it out and also partly because I did not bring enough clothes to spare. Heh.

So, with LOTD Clothing's t-shirt, iPhone 5s in a resealable bag and 4 huge water guns, we marched out of the hotel and shoot everyone on the street. IT WAS A WET MESS EVERYWHERE! I was wet from head to toe. Not a single place dry. 

My t-shirt was soaked in iced cold water and surprisingly, I DIDN'T FEEL THE WEIGHT AT ALL.

This turns out to be a huge shocker for me. No kidding.

If I were to put on another t-shirt, sure it will feel super heavy on my body. This one was like, wet or not wet, also same only. Crazy right?

Ohh and it feels stretchable. I usually struggle taking wet t-shirt out because they tend to stick to your body all right? But this one I took them out so easily. No struggle. It feels like very stretchy maybe that's why so easy to take out.

This is one t-shirt that is worth having for sure. 

One for RM49 only!

I'm already planning to get another one, the other color. 

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! 

Go check them out here :)

Hello April.

April has started out smooth but getting rough lately. 

With so many things on my plate now, it feels like I have millions of decisions to make. Good thing there are some where I don't have to decide by this month. Can drag for another 2 months. That one is a major part of life already. So can take longer time.

I've also noticed that I have been getting really minor 'earthquakes-feeling' in my head for the past few days. I can be eating, watching TV, walking to my car, taking a shower, talking on the phone or waiting in the elevator. When it comes, it feels like the entire world was spinning for that 2 seconds. If I wasn't careful, I could just fall flat because the weight is just too heavy at times. 

I don't even know if it's possible to describe how it actually feels like. 

I guess it's time to do another blood check. One thing that I never look forward to. Bleh.

Other than that, I'm just counting down to the days where I can get out of this island to breathe. 

That would be 3 more working days to Hatyai and 10 days to Pulau Redang. As much as I want to get out of the island, I'm missing youth service, so badly. Never a win-win situation. Urghh.

Okaylah. Enough of complains. Time to be thankful of all the little things I still can do, like errm.. having home cooked dinner every night, a clean office table to work on and friends to hang out with. Got a lot more but for now, I can't think of any already. The brain is exhausted.

Earlier, I tweeted, "Sales is not for lazy people and I'm the laziest person I know!"

THIS IS SO TRUE.

I don't know what I'm doing in sales. I love it yet at times (most of the time!) I feel so lazy to go out. Not to mention everytime I go out, sure sweat like a mad dog. Wait, I'm complaining again! Ahh. No. Stop. Enough.

Thank You Jesus for a functioning car.

I should sign out now. 

2D1N Capri by Fraser, Kuala Lumpur.

with the Khoo family and 1 Sha baby.
on the 29-30 March 2015.

No idea why when we go for holidays, its always only 2 days and 1 night. We are taking forever to plan for a longer family vacation to go out of the country. It will happen soon, I hope! Heh.

We drove down on Sunday morning and stopped at Ipoh for a quick snack-shopping and guess what greeted us! LONG LINES OF PEOPLE BEHIND THE COUNTERS BECAUSE THEY WANT TO AVOID GST. Obviously we waited forever just to pay for mom's mixed nuts with dried cranberries and out chocolates for the road. Oh wellz.

We had a heavy breakfast in Penang so we only had our chilly pan mee when we arrived in KL. It was really yummy years ago but this time, we were kinda like, "Let's not have pan mee for the next 10 years!" feel. Haha. 

The sister booked a hotel next to a quite-happening-place so that's really convenient. I thought it was expensive to pay RM319.86 for a night, but since it's closest and its' once in a while, why not right. I don't want to know what the real price is since this one is under the "LIMITED TIME OFFER SUPER HOT DEAL" category in Agoda.

Anyways, we checked in and I was beyond excited to check this place out because from the outside it looked superb! 

Let me show you the photos. I try my best to capture the beauty of this hotel and the room that we stayed in. 

The hotel is called Capri by Fraser, KL at Bangsar South. Our room is Studio Deluxe and total humans staying in the room is 5 adults and 1 almost-two-years-old baby girl. 

Hotel lobby.

From the center of the entire room. 

View from the main door. This is the kitchen area with all kitchen utensils provided. Knifes, pots, microwave oven, stove and other utensils. I'm impressed already.

The second part of the room, the bathroom. Love the wide mirrors on the walls. 

Third part of the room, the bedroom. Heh. 

The view from the balcony. FABULOUS!

Obviously some of us actually slept on the floor but still quite comfortable because it was only for a night. Heh. Okay, next I should show you the top floor where the swimming pool, private jet pool, soak suites are at. 

Infinity pool is the best kind of pool, especially those at top floor overlooking the entire world. BEST!

Private jacuzzi/jet pool on top of the swimming pool floor. This one seriously lagi best!

Another one of my favorite area on top of Capri by Fraser. IT'S JUST AMAZING OKAY!

We rested a while in the room and then put on our swimsuit and ready to jump into the pool. We went to the infinity pool but it was pretty crowded. Not really lah but still got so many people we didn't want to just jump in right. 

So, we went upstairs and tried the jet pool. 

The baby girl was super reluctant to come into the pool. We suspect that it must be because of those crazy bubbles in the water. We spent so long trying to distract her and unknowingly bring her in. Then, when she was finally in the water, the dark cloud came and we went back to the room. Heh.

The view from the 33rd floor was beyond amazing seriously. I could spend many minutes standing and just looking out. It was quiet and peaceful.

At night, we went to Paradigm Mall or how I would call it, Pa-ra-di-gem Mall. Successful radio ads. Hah. By the time we got to the mall, it was close to 9pm. Traffic in KL is madness okay. No debates needed for that.

We ended up at Daorae Express Restaurant because we really couldn't decide what to eat and we were kinda in a rush to get some grocery items for our breakfast in the morning. It was quite yummy to be honest. Maybe because dinner was on me! Heh. Tak tau malu.

We rushed down to Tesco and got some of the basic stuff and headed home. Gary came over to the hotel and we went to the top floor and chilled. Jer ppk-ed me so sad but then again it is a Sunday night and he has to work the next day so next time lah. 



The whole family zonked out by 1 am. 

By 7 am, I was awake and went to changed into my swimsuit and woke Vanessa up. She wanted to see the sunrise and I wanted to soak in the infinity pool so have to sacrifice sleep. 

We saw the sunrise alright. 



We stayed in the pool for some time until it got brighter and then we both slept on the pool lounge chairs for a good 30 minutes. The whole entire time facing the pool and the world. Love that feel.



I think swimming at night is probably my favorite compared to early morning swim. First, water is way too cold in the morning. Second, sleep has to be sacrificed which obviously is quite a big thing since I really treasure my sleep. Third, there are almost no humans around when you swim at night. So yeah. Too bad, most hotels close their pool area by 9pm, latest. 
My body was inside the water but my hands were outside and immediately, all the bulu stood up. Mad cold.

Although it was Capri's rule that the pool is close at 9pm and no one is supposed to be in the pool from that time onwards, there were still a bunch of people who came up at about 1030pm to swim, with cocktails on the side. 

I was there with Gary at the garden area. Pffft. Got CCTV also but no one seems to bother to come up and make sure this rule is being followed. If only I knew, sure I also will come up and swim. Heh. 

After the morning swim, we went up and showered. By that time, mom came back from her yummy hot breakfast and we cooked our own breakfast in hotel. We had to pay RM38++ if we want to eat the hotel's breakfast so we decided just cook on our own lah. It's no longer a secret that I'm currently obsessed with tomatoes. Everything also must have fresh tomatoes in them it's insane.

After breakfast and packing, while waiting for the sister to come back, we went upstairs to the top floor again and hung around with the baby girl. She is obviously not afraid of heights. Seriously for a kid this age. 

The hotel room so comfortable that we didn't want to leave okay but then IKEA awaits so goodbye for now, Capri by Fraser. Till next time.

Our last stop at KL before heading back was IKEA. Duhhh. Mom has been waiting forever to come IKEA again and feast. 

First, let's feed these hungry stomach and then we shop. 

I think we all think that IKEA last time was a lot nicer to explore in compared to now. Yet we can't seem to tell why. Hmm. We got a few household items and some snacks for the road.

Left the carpark and was stuck outside of IKEA for a good 1 hour. OH GOODNESS! THIS IS THE REASON WHY I CAN NEVER SURVIVE LIVING IN KL!

THIS IS TOO CRAZY!
The white one is Vanessa's and the green one is mom's. Sha Lynn saw them both and decided to give the white a good squeezing, RIGHT BEFORE VANESSA WANTS TO TAKE PHOTO OF IT! Good job, Shanini! :)



Even though it was a really short trip, it was a needed one. Vacation with family is always nice and always not enough. 

Till next time.