Eins Hotel, Jeju-do, South Korea.

When we first decided that we were gonna extend the trip for me to head down and have a baby-moon, we immediately thought (very confidently even) that Jeju-do is a very small island, and therefore do not need to extend too many days.

I suggested to be there for 3-nights and of course, after getting the flight tickets and all, I realized (while planning briefly on the itinerary) that 3-nights stay there is not going to be enough. But what can I do?

I spent 3-nights in total at Jeju Island, but first night was not really counted as I bunked into one of the floorball girls' room. Thank you Elsa and Natalie for letting me sleep on your bed for a night.

At the end of my first night, I had zero energy left in me so I went into room and collapsed. Hah. I feel like I did such a great job holding up throughout the day with just 4-hours of sleep to be honest. I'm such a strong woman. Heh.

Anyways, so it was only on day two that we made our way to Seogwipo where Eins Hotel is at.

More details on the itinerary on next update.

I found Eins hotel on Trivago (I only use this app for hotel bookings because they compare the prices within other websites). Initially I found a few other nice hotels (with bathtub okay) at Seogwipo but it was way too over our budget so I had to re-search and found this one to be quite decent and strategically located.

For 2-nights stay at Eins Hotel, jeju-do, we only paid a total of RM363.80 for a Standard Double Mountain View Room on Agoda (lowest price offered according to Trivago) - with daily breakfast provided for. No bathtub though boo. Heh.

Eins Hotel is one of the hotels in Agoda that had received the highest guest star rating and after going through the reviews, I was pretty pleased to have booked it for our baby-moon.

Win like a boss.

By the time we checked in, it was pretty late already because we did so many other things before arriving at Seogwipo (not enough time seriously) and got ourselves a room upgrade!

Not because we arrived late please, but because they overbooked our room so we got to have an ocean view room with 2 king size bed. Heh. We really don't need to have the extra king size bed but the ocean view? BRING IT ON.

But the moment we got into our room, we were like, "Whattt?"

Our room was located at Level 3 - hami ocean view. People's house rooftop got la. Hah. Nevertheless, we were very happy with what we got.

Please excuse the messy room. We were too tired to take any photos on the night we checked in and it was a bit too dark also - probably the only thing that we didn't like about the room. Not enough lights!

Other than that, everything is superb. 

Everyday refill mineral water and changed the towels and made our beds and keep our socks in its place. Heh. 

And another best thing is their breakfast place is on the top floor - best view for breakfast okay. We made sure we woke up earlier so that we could enjoy the breakfast with that kind of view everyday - 2 days only actually. Hah.

Eins Hotel serves same kind of breakfast everyday (assumption only since we had the same kind of food the two mornings we were there), but they were yummy and Korean-ish. 

They have western food also like toast and butter and cereal. Heh. 

Would we recommend Eins Hotel to people?

Definitely yes. 

Not to forget the most helpful receptionist that we have ever met. 

Here's the story. 

So, on one of the mornings, we had wanted to go to Mount Hallasan because we found out that it was snowing there and we could take like really amazing snow-related Insta-worthy photos, but all the taxi drivers would not take us there. 

We then asked the receptionist (which I cannot remember what his name was anymore) and he did not only explain to us why it was not a good idea to go to Mouth Hallasan that day, he also showed us few CCTV views of the mountain at that point of time.

Very canggih please.

We saw how thick the snow was there through his CCTV view on his computer and decided not to go in the end.

I give him credits because for more receptionists, they would probably just keep telling us, 'No good idea!'. But this one really went for the extra mile in trying to get us to understand.

Plus, we didn't even have the proper winter-wears for Mount Hallasan. Apparently, the weather went crazy that week and the local Koreans have not seen such a temperature drop in Jeju-do.

Oh wells.

All in all, staying at Eins Hotel, Seogwipo was the right decision.

Eins Hotel 
432 Taeyeong-ro, Seogwi-dong, Seogwipo, Jeju-do, South Korea.

Till next time, bye now. 

Turning Thirty.

'Age doesn't matter, unless you are cheese'

'Live your life, and forget your age'

'Age is just a number'

Ever since I celebrated my twenty-two, I realized that I was no longer as excited to celebrate birthdays anymore, and it's really because I hate the idea of growing older - or growing up, depends how you want to see it.

Then, twenty-five came, and then before I knew it, I became twenty-eight and signed my life away to one man, for the rest of my living years.

Even before we reach or one-year of being sealed together, we got pregnant and I was twenty-nine.

Now, I celebrate being thirty because in about three months, my life is going to take another turn. I'm going to be giving my life to yet, another boy (for now) and I know for sure, I'm going to be a different Sarah Khoo.

I am already changing a little by little (mentally and emotionally) to prepare for his arrival. It's insane.

Growing up, I have this ideal idea of when would be the best time to do certain things - like getting married, have kids and earn beyond a certain amount et cetera. But we all know that reality is that MOST of the time, these things don't meet with the idealistic part of your idea.

I wanted to get married at 25, and have my first child by 27 and then every year after that or something.

But I got married at 28, pregnant at 29 and giving birth to a baby boy at 30.

So yes, if you ask me, the last few years have been nothing but exciting, and that could be a huge contribution to why I am starting to be more 'welcoming' of the three-zero - not that I have a choice also anyways.

Initially, I have wanted to throw myself a party at McDonalds (heh) and really it's because I have always wanted to have a birthday party at McDonalds since young okay. Who says adults cannot celebrate birthdays in McDonalds, right?

And I guess turning thirty would be the best time.

So, I started emailing the people at McDonalds but no one replied - and after a while, the 'passion' died down and I became lazy.

Then I came out with so many different party ideas that in the end, I decided that I am not going to do any of it. One of which (that got his vote even) was to have it at our humble small home - and I could just put up fairy lights in the garden outside and have barbecue sessions with close friends.

Then again, I canceled the idea and decided to spend it with just him and family.

This is me not being in the twenties anymore.

Heh.

It was the simplest way to usher in the three-zero, and I would not have it done it any other way if given another chance to change things.

Thank you guys for all your warm wishes on the social media and in person. Heard and appreciate all of them.

Here's what I'm going to leave you with:

'Never be afraid to trust 
an unknown future 

to a known God'

Till next time, bye now.

Koay's Love Language #35 - #37

#35
We went to Kapitan for lunch and ordered their famous must-eat-tandoori chicken and claypot chicken briyani. This man obviously used his hands to enjoy his tandoori chicken and washed it off afterwards.

Me: Oh mannn. Look at your fingers! So orange leh. All that coloring. G! Maybe our son becomes bit orange-y today.
Him: *smiles widely* Sure kena jaundice d like that.
Me: *secretly thinking inside my head that he doesn't really know what causes jaundice & secretly judging him* HAHAHA.

#36
He was saying our every-night-before-sleep-prayer.

Him: Lord, we want to thank you for this baby that's inside Sarah's stomach..
Me: *opens my eyes widely with eyebrows raised*
Him: *continues praying with eyes closed* God, we ask that You would protect and give great health to our baby boy inside this stomach.. *continues to pray for other people*
Me: *opens eyes widely again*
Him: In Jesus name we pray, amen.

After the prayer ended..

Me: You know that the baby is not inside my stomach, right? *judging eyes*
Him: I know la. It's in the womb okay.
Me: Oh phew. I thought you didn't know. PFS student ma, you never know HAHAHA.

#37
Him: From now onwards, you cannot take any red meat already ya. Only eat chicken and fish everyday.
Me: GG like that. 

Pregnancy Update: Week 24.

Finally hitting the final month of second trimester.

It is slowly creeping into the both of us that in about 3-months' time, we are going to be legit parents with a real physical baby in our care.

Whatever it is that we do in these three short months, we are making sure that we do it together (when we can) especially doing short date-nights here and there. Even if it means doing the littlest thing like sweeping the floor and him managing the 'store-room'. Our kind of in-house date nights. Hah.

It is highly likely because of the lack of baby items in our house that we have not felt the adrenaline rush yet. We haven't even move the baby cupboard into our room.

We've decided that we're going to hands-on everything after his Bali trip with the boys and our Malacca trip with the gang. Then, we gonna start doing baby-things.

I really don't know what to feel at this point.

CRAVINGS

This season's cravings are dangerous!

It's all the sweet things that I never even liked (so much) when I was not pregnant!

There was a week whereby I needed to have at least one ice-cream a day, and then I saw the weight increase and I told myself, nope. Control please.

So, now I only have ice cream once every few days, but on days I don't get to eat my ice cream, I opted for cakes instead. Or chocolates. OR ANYTHING SWEET.

I still do crave for Indian curry but it's not that bad anymore.

As for meal portions, I try not to add the amount of rice that I usually take, but there was this one time when the man gave me like a normal portion of rice that guys would usually have when they eat nasi kandar, and my normal self would immediately say to the man, "Boss, separuh cukup!".

BUT I DID NOT.

I was like taking it and I surprised myself by finishing the entire plate and didn't even feel like super full. I was feeling okay.

My appetite is definitely growing as tiny human grows so I guess that is normal.

I have gained about 8kg so far and I try not to let it go over 10kg - that's one of life goals now. Heh.

SLEEPING PATTERNS

I am a light-sleeper. I repeat, I am a very light-sleeper, so any kind of sound or movement will wake me up. Adrian is also a light sleeper so every time when I had to wake up to go to the loo, he wakes up too.

I feel a bit of pain on my lower womb and back bone when I sleep. When I turn from left to right or right to left, it's painful. When I sleep on my back, it becomes harder for me to breathe. So, I think I can safely say that in a night's sleep, I turn at least 10-times to try get a comfortable position but that never happens usually - unless I feel really worn out throughout the day, like for the past few nights. Heh.

I don't wake up so often anymore to the toilet because when it comes to night, I don't drink too much water. My bed is quite low so getting up is also a struggle. Hah. So, less toilet breaks while sleeping is good for me.

SKIN & HAIR

Surprisingly, the dry skin on my chin seems to be disappearing and I don't really have visits from pimples anymore. That or my stress level really very low heh.

My hair feels normal. Nothing unusually good or bad.

ENERGY

I don't feel as tired as I was before, which was surprising to be honest. I was preparing myself to feel as tired but turns out, I didn't need to take as much breaks as I did earlier.

I walked a lot this time, but also noticed that I am slowing down on that as the lower womb hurts every time I get up and walk, or move even. Dr Soon mentioned that this is all expected as the baby grows heavier.

EMOTIONS

I am less cranky now?

I don't know to be honest. You have to ask Koay on that, but I would like to think that I feel emotionally better now. Hah.

I do get sad or teary-feeling faster than normal - especially when I thought about the fact that some insurance company doesn't want to cover us due to a previous miscarriage. Boo-hoo. I did shed some tears thinking about it, but in the end, I was reassured to trust in God. He's my insurance. Heh.

I think Adrian managed to get one from Prudential - if I'm not mistaken.

Oh wells.

STORAGE UPGRADE

This is not really pregnancy related but I recently changed my 5-years old iPhone 5s to a brand new iPhone 8 with 256gb storage!

This only means that in 3-months time, my phone is gonna be filled with photos and videos of tiny human. Hah. Hopefully I won't be too obsessed with this human.

BABY MOVEMENT

Oh my oh my.

This was one of the weirdest thing ever, at first.

Now, I look forward to his kicks and turnarounds in there. Every time after I have a good hard laugh, he would move hard.

Sometimes, it gets really uncomfortable because he would be kicking or pushing ( I wouldn't know) my bladder area and I find myself going to the toilet every 2-minutes with no more pee whatsoever. It's insane.

1 month ago, you wouldn't be able to see his movement by looking at the bump. Now, you totally can. It's so strong and constant.

His favorite time to move and kick is when we are all asleep, after midnight.

I was telling Koay the other day that confirm this one is your baby because even in my sleep, he will move me, just like you. Cannot give me some peace. Heh.

I guess with all that's being said, I am ready for this one to come already to be honest and now I don't mean like now now cos he's way too small to see the world outside of belly.

But I am mentally prepared to love (unconditionally) another person till I meet my Maker. My prayer now is that my love and commitment to husband shall never decrease when our son comes, that I must always love my husband more than my son (and other children to come). This one I know very susah eh, because I'm already starting to be a bit obsessed with this child, and he's not even out of me yet.

Imagine when he's out, I'm never letting him out of my sight. Hah. Kidding.

A full pregnancy term is 40 weeks, and I'm at my 25 weeks now. So, that means about 15 more weeks to go. I am for sure going to be in the ALERT mode when 30 weeks come.

SO SCARY TO CARRY A LIVING THING INSIDE ME.

Okay, till then, bye now. 

3D2N Glamping at Sunway Lost World of Tambun, Ipoh.

Ahh, this is such a delayed post.

Can I blame it on the pregnancy because you know, how carrying another tiny human inside is really tiring, heh.

I have been feeling a little too lazy to blog or do anything related to the computer because it gets really uncomfortable sitting for a period of time, so when I have free time, I chose to do things that allow me to lie down instead. Hah.

Excuses right.

Anyways, here's a little something (not too much info so sorry) on a glamping trip with the clan. It was my dad who found this glamping thing at the Sunway Lost World of Tambun, so credits to him please.

He was also the one who planned the entire trip from beginning to the end.

Glamping comes from the two words - GLAM and CAMPING.

Camping the not so original way. Heh.

Still camping alright, except this one you don't have to set up your own tents or cook your own food. Win. AND YOU GET FIVE BILLION STARS' EXPERIENCE.

I cannot remember how much it costs us on this trip, but apparently this price is the revised-new-year-price so it's slightly higher than what we originally paid - not too much of difference I feel.

The price shown is for a night only okay. I repeat, A NIGHT ONLY. If you want 2 nights, then just multiply 2 (if I'm not wrong).

So, if there are 4 of you in a family (2 adults and 2 children), you can just take the 4-pax package at a total price of RM788.

But if there are 4 of you and all four of you are adults (no children), then you will have to take the 2-pax package, which is RM588 and add it with the Add-on package.

RM588 + RM140 + RM140 = RM868 (RM217 per adult)

Now before you say that it's expensive, let's see what is included in that price and maybe, just maybe you will feel that it's super worth going for.

You will get to enjoy buffet breakfast at Garden Terrace and limitless entrance to the Lost World theme park for 2-days (if you are staying for just a night). Well, you will be staying in the theme park itself so means you have 24-hours access inside. Heh.

The entrance ticket also means you get to enjoy their hot springs at night (which is okay-okay only if you ask me). I didn't get into the water because scared the water too hot for tiny human to handle, but apparently, it's really just warm.

And there were so many people that time - we went in December right after Christmas Day so that explains the crowd.

So, if you ask me if it's worth paying that amount to enjoy the things that you get to enjoy, my answer is definitely yes. You should give this a try. The glamping itself is really a very nice experience.

My family and I already made plans to do this glamping thing a yearly thing. Hah.

So, upon arrival at the Lost World Hotel (check-in is 3pm onwards by the way), a buggy will be arranged to transport you and your gang into the glamping area, which is located within the Sunway Lost World of Tambun's theme park. So, you are actually staying inside the theme park, like a boss - very close to where they keep the tigers and hippopotamus and the hyenas - just saying.

BUT SURPRISINGLY NO FUNNY SMELL WHATSOEVER. Another win.

The glamping area is huge and spacious and it's right next to a lake. It's very cooling even in the mid of noon because the place is surrounded by trees and nature stuff.

I know, the next thing you going to ask me is, if there were lots of blood-sucking-mosquitoes around since it's so quiet and out in the nature.

Well, not that I know of to be honest, and that's because the moment we got there, most of us quickly put on the mosquito-repellent patch on our clothes.

So, it's either there were no mozzies around or the repellent patch thing really worked.

There are only 8 tents available at this place so, maximum humans that can populate that entire area is up to 32 adults.

One tent can cater to 4 people and no, they don't have smaller tents, just in case you decided to go there for like a romantic getaway and only want 2 people in a tent.

But yes, a tent of 4 can still only cater to 2 people only. The price also different. Show you all later.

All tents come with a king sized bed and two single beds, WiFi to every tent (win again), basic amenities, towel and drinking water. 

No air-con inside please, but apparently you can request (and pay) for it if you want. 

We didn't need any of that because it gets pretty cold at night. Yes, there are 2 standing fans in the tents already so you really don't need the air-con. I mean after-all, you are here for the "camping" experience, right?

They also provide for you locks so when you are out, you can zip the door and lock it. Also, the glamping area is accessible to public when the theme park is open - so you may want to use the locks for security purpose.

We didn't lock our tents because we felt that it was pretty safe and we didn't bring anything valuable so we were not so paranoid, and nothing was stolen as far as we know of.

So, no need to worry so much? Just use the locks.

For your lunch and dinner, you can opt to eat outside of the theme park and travel to nearby place for food, or you can choose to eat inside the theme park.

We stayed in because ain't nobody got time to go out. Heh.

There are a few places that you can dine at inside the theme park:

Lost World Ipoh Street
Onsen Noodle House
Kukuntalu Hawkers
Dulang Tea House

My favorite would be the Kukuntalu Hawkers because other food stuffs at Lost World Ipoh Street is so horrible! Except for the curry mee. Seriously. I cannot even.

We spent the first night walking around the theme park and taking things at a slower pace because we had just arrived so it was pretty tiring.

Then, when we wlked to our glamping site, all tiredness disappeared! Because it was so prettty!

I don't even know how to explain it to you guys. The photos are just like 7 out of 10. You have to see it with your own eyes.

It was so dreamy and the only kind that you can see in Pinterest.

The one thing that we thought was a minus-point was the location of the toilets. It is not very near to the tents, which can be a good thing but in my case, it was not a very good thing.

With a tiny human growing inside, toilet is my constant go-to, even middle of the night. So, with it being quite a distance away, it was such a struggle to get up and pee. I was tempted in so many ways to just hold it but that would destroy my kidney so nope.

Toilet - 1, Sarah - 0

The view from the toilet. Our tents are on the left side where the fairy lights are at.

There is also a huge-hut-like place in the middle of the glamping site where you can boil your hot water or purchase can drinks et cetera. 

They have someone guarding the place throughout the night till morning so no worries. Pretty safe. 

The daily breakfast at Garden Terrace was pretty amazing if I may say that. I was shocked to see that they have quite variety of stations with food items like cereal bar, Indian corner (serving Puri set and capati), noodle station, eggs station, eastern station and western station.

And they tasted pretty good to be honest.

On our last night here, we decided to take the BBQ Set package. I forgot how much we paid for it per person, but now, the price is RM100 for every 2 pax.

All the food items you see are included. They will also prepare the BBQ pit for you and bring it to you wherever you would want to have it. Drinks also they provide.

For our case, we opt to do it right in front of our tents.

And the portion that was given was superb. We ate to our hearts' content please. Got leftover some more.

There were lambs, fish, chicken, sausages, fried rice, sweet potatoes, salad, nata de coco jelly et cetera. Worth the money okay.

So, conclusion is that if you get to try the glamping experience in Malaysia with a price like this, I don't see why you don't want to give it a try.

I can see why a lot of people are concerned about the hot weather here and the fact that mosquitoes are easily everywhere, but in all seriousness, this place is worth the money and your time - just get the repellent patch and if you're so afraid of the heat, you can opt to have the air-con with extra surcharge.

So, I would highly recommend this glamping thing at the Lost World of Tambun.

Try it and let me know if you will ever go back again for round two!

Click HERE to find out more on it or to contact the, directly if you want to do a group booking - they may give you discounts and stuff!

Till then, bye now.