Selong Belanak, Kuta beach and Tanjung Aan

It was the last day of our wonderful holiday at Lombok.

I had banana pancake for breakfast but could not finish it. By far not the best breakfast as the pancake was tasteless although the bananas were good.

Pak E took us luggage and all to Selong Belanak where the girls wanted to go for surfing lessons. All in it would cost us 500k per taxi for 4 people including a whole day charter to the airport.

Took us about 1 hour plus to reach this beautiful beach enclave. Today we saw a group of buffalos being herded across the beach - truly picture worthy. The same kind of relaxing and peaceful feeling washed over me while at this beach.

The girls negotiated 300k for an hour of surfing lessons. I had a lovely roast jagung on the beach.

Meantime T managed to talk Pak E into driving him to Kuta beach and Tanjung Aan. After an hour of talking and talking, Pak E agreed. I also went along.

Easily the most beautiful beach in the world. This waters on this beach is a  brilliant azure blue. It was so electrifying that I had to kept a distance to admire its beauty. However when I look at some pictures of the place I realized that most of them did not look as blue as I saw the waters that day.

Perhaps the day I was there it was so unusually blue, it was surreal. So few people were swimming. There were at least 3 ladies trying to sell me some materials. So hard trying to keep ignoring them.

I was glad there were no vendors at Selong Belanak. Apparently no vendors are allowed as Selong Belanak is a place to thoroughly relaxed. More like a ruling imposed to keep the Westerners coming.

Next we went to Kuta beach, not as beautiful as Tanjung Aan but still sandy and white beach were so soft to walk on.

Finally Pak E took us back to Selong Belanak. The girls asked to go to Ashtari for lunch (we were not too happy to eat with the flies swarming on our food).

Ashtari is a high-class restaurant built by a French owner. Yoga classes are held at the basement facing the ocean and mountains. Ashtari beautiful balconies gave us a wonderful view of the mountains and the sea.

The girls ordered chips and focaccia sandwich. T and I had soto ayam. Good food and good scenery.

 We ended the holidays so satisfied and happy.

Lombok is definitely a gem of an island but I am not sure that I will return again....

Thanks A for blessing mum and dad with the wonderful hotel stay. God bless you!

The plane ride back home was uneventful as the weather was superbly clear!

Monday at Lombok

I opted for a tour of the pottery and weaving factories in Lombok. Turned out to be too commercialized. We spent about half an hour at the pottery factory but did not see much of pottery making save for many finished products put out to sale.

We then made our way to the weaving factory. Elderly ladies sit for 8 hours a day earning 15k rupiah to weave beautiful materials using colorful threads. I really could not buy anything as I did not know what to with the materials. Gave the young man about 10 k rupiah for showing us around.

Still with time to spare we visited the Selong Belanak beach. This beautiful beach does not have seem to have an outstanding entrance but once we entered the enclave we saw a stunning bay with emerald green waters and gentle waves. In a half moon circular shape, cabanas were placed all over the beach. Many foreigners wait for the waves to surf. Out in the sea, we saw mountains jutting out. It was really one of the loveliest beaches I have ever been to. We had our lunch there although there were lots of flies sharing our lunch. I had roast chicken with maggi noodles while T had noodles and eggs. It rained and we stayed there for a while.  I had to pay 5k to use the toilet but I guess if I was signed up to surf, the usage would be free.

After the rain we left for the Sasak village in Lombok. The nicest places was the visit to the Sasak village. This is just not a display but an actual village of 800 of the Sasak people, a Lombok orang asal tribe. The guide could speak good English showed us around the houses. Closed together with narrow paths between them, we were able to immerse ourselves in the Sasak culture.

The orang Sasak do not have engagements but they kidnap their wives. To be engaged is an affront to their elders. If they want to marry a girl they kidnap her. Girls as young as 15 are kidnapped by their cousins and married off. Bride price is about 200k. Outsiders have to give 2 buffalos for the bride price.

Once married, they stay in a small house for their honeymoon period. Later they will build a Sasak traditional house with more space for their bride. All the internal structure of the Sasak house look the same. However there appears to be a space for women to give birth (not hospitals). The local midwife attend to the birthing.

What a quaint culture but really fascinating. We bought a bag, a t-shirt and a piece of beautifully woven Sasak cloth. The quality of it is unmistakable.

Pak E took us to Orchid near our Resort and we had another good massage. We had dinner at Happy Cafe.

The girls went their separate way the whole day hiking and also went up to the mountains for a good view of Lombok at night at a hillside cafe.

A great day but sadly my Samsung S7 still refused to charge.....praying...praying....

Gili islands

2nd day at Lombok and its a Sunday.

Almost felt like just going to church and Mataram Mall (biggest mall in Mataram, capital of Lombok) but decided to hang out and chill with family to the Gili islands. Although predominantly Muslim, Pak E told us that there are churches and temples and all religions can be worshipped freely on the island.

Coming back to the boat trip, it was priced at 850k rupiah (about RM65) for 4 on a private boat thus it is a steal and a bargain. 

Breakfast was lovely poached eggs and bread at Mama Bella and orange juice before the outing. There were also omelette, fried eggs, fruits and pancakes...

As for the boat trip, we certainly we did not expect a big boat or ferry but I was a bit disappointed as there were no drinking water or towels on board or even sea-sick pills. Now I know why it is so cheap. A boat ride in Phuket would have cost RM200 per person but with a lot more frills thrown in. And the boat to Phuket felt safer....although T assured me that the 2 sides of the boats with huge 'legs' kept the speedboat stable.

It was a private boat but I must admit that I got a bit scared. Firstly - I thought of pirates roaming the seas and coming to kidnap us - I prayed really hard against that.

Secondly - it rained heavily on the way to Gili and we were soaking wet. The waves were rough and tumble and I had on my life jacket. Although the family assured me that the boat would not overturn....I decided that it was better be safe than sorry as I could not swim.

One hour plus and the boatman's 10 minutes became like 30 minutes (I realized that this is how the locals estimate time as most do not wear a watch). The sea-sickness, tossing and turning made me sick. However lying down on the side of the open air boat helped relieved me of being sea-sick!

Finally Gili...but what I feared came to pass. I could not possibly jump from the boat to the beach as I had on my braces due to my knee pain. I spied a wooden ladder in the boat and asked the boatman to latch it to the side of the boat. Really wondered why he did not offer it to me in the first place? That was how I got off and on the boat with a wooden ladder but I could not avoid getting the feet wet. Thankfully the braces were intact.

Gili Trawangan is the biggest of the Gili islands. It has a main street with horse carts fetching tourists (so many white tourists that for a moment I thought I was in Australia or somewhere in Europe) and many shops selling tourist stuff. According to a young man manning a 1 million rupiah a night private villa, the local folks stay interland and there are more houses, schools and roads but all make use of motorbikes or horse carts to move around.

I bought a sunglass and an XL swimsuit from Billabong (the big size swimsuit is certainly not available in the shops I have been to in Malaysia or could it be that I do not have the time to shop back home). We opted to have lunch at Gili Meno (which I called Gili 2). Gili Trawangan is the biggest followed by Gili Meno and Gili Air.

The children saw a big turtle swimming underwater. He just could not be bothered with them.

Only mode of transport on Gili islands

Main street - many places party till dawn

According to the boatman, there are parties every night on Gili 1 (Gili Trawangan). Yes, I could smell the smell of cigarettes and wines and see the open bars with huge screens. Truly a party place for partying till dawn.

At Gili 2, we had a good lunch of bbq fish and curry creamy tofu and tempe. Sadly the bbq fish came raw inside but the nice waiters brought us a replacement dish. A had a lovely noodle soup for lunch and the other daughter had burgers and chips. No flies swarm the place.

We saw many tourists chilling out on cabanas. Hawkers were everywhere but you cannot blame us for not helping the industry as A bought a beautiful scarf from one of them. Remember to bargain though....

At Gili 2, the children and T went snorkelling. I tested my Samsung S7 and put it underwater using the selfie stick. Took some beautiful pictures of corals but my phone was wet. Would it be able to function after I have taken the pictures? Sadly it could not charge using the USB port when I got back to the resort. I borrowed a hair-dryer to dry, it still did not work. My staff asked me to let it rest a day or two so I switched it off as I was losing battery power.....I must complain to Samsung on this.

I just stayed on board and admired the corals. Waters were so clear and I could see right through it but quaintly no fishes....
We also went to Gili 3 and snorkel some more. Me....I stayed on board the safety of the boat and admired the pristine waters and the lovely corals. 

Got back to Lombok about 5 in the evening and went to Hallo massage. For 75k we had a one hour full body massage. The knee pain left me right after that. Hallelujah.

We took a horse cart back to Mama Bella and had take-out again from the same cafe. I just wondered whether they have other kind of noodles than maggi noodles....really miss Malaysian food...even the satay sauce here tastes different having being made with peanut butter! Really miss my teh tarik and assam laksa.

Lombok - October 22 - 25 - Saturday @ Mama Bella

Praise God for our eldest daughter. She offered to pay for our lodging in Lombok for our annual family holidays so we took up the offer!
 As a family we would normally plan a family holiday together to chill and hang out together.

We took off in the morning to a bumpy ride in the air (bad weather). T & I was praying all the way. Our experience of air turbulence whilst flying from Bario will forever be etched in our memory. It was so bad that people were screaming and we were shouting JESUS all the way - that flight would be difficult to forget.

We landed safely and met a really nice taxi driver at the airport named Pak Eman who told us about ayam taliwang (kampung chicken), beef and delicious beef soup. We agreed and made our first stop at the shop recommended by Pak E. A lovely lunch which cost us about 35k rupiah for the four of us! We also bought a packet of beef skin crackers and some fish crackers. Delicious.

We also made appointment with Pak E to fetch us around Lombok on Monday morning as he was really friendly and helpful.

Another 30 minutes and we were at Mama Bella, our lodging at Lombok for the next 4 days. It was a lovely place with about 8 chalets built in a squarish L-shape with a lovely swimming pool (the color of blue in the middle). Hammocks, cushion seats, cabanas, a small dining open air place blended into the picture. 

We felt at home immediately. 

Mama Bella is owned by an Italian lady who named it after her mother. She came to Lombok, loved it, bought the land and developed the place as an iconic boutique residence.

My only grouse is that it was rather deep inside and the stoney patch leading to the residence did not help my arthritis knees.

My daughter told us that Mama Bella has received rave reviews. That's why she chose it. 

So many guests and the place was full.

Well for RM800 for a 4 day 3 night stay for 4 people, I certainly agree! Breakfast thrown in to boot makes the deal absolutely worth it!

The rest of the evening was spent at a nearby beach about 10 minutes away. T bought a fridge magnet from one of the vendors hawking their wares on their hands - shawls, scarfs, bangles, magnets. Amazing what kind of things they can carry with them on two hands when hawking.

We ended our first night with a take-out dinner from one of the nearby cafe from which we would continue ordering food for the next night too!

Looking forward to a great holiday in Lombok! Thanks to my lovely daughters for making this holiday possible for us. We love you!

Mr Brown Avenue, Taitung, Taiwan

Rolling green fields without a pole, picture this....

This place seems to go on forever. Some people cycle on the tar roads, some people walk on it but due to my knee pain, I took shelter under a huge tree with some of my tour mates....I wonder what is so fascinating about this place....hmm...

Maybe it was this picture frame that slanted toward the sky. You could stand behind it and pose in so many different ways....it was a like a huge picture frame transpose against a blue sky...

Other that I did not find anything special about this place. Many we did not walk far enough to the cafe to drink the Mr Brown coffee that made this place got its name......

FIRST MARRIAGE IN THE FAMILY

It was the biggest and grandest wedding I have ever attended!

Sample wedding invitation sent via whatsapp for confidentiality purposes and to save postage costs....


After the dinner, Tim made touching thank you notes to send to our guests thanking them for their generous gifts .....never mind if the smallest ang pow was RM50 and the biggest was RM800...

The fact is that if we were to match the amount collected with the actual cost per table it would be definitely insufficient to cover the entire cost. In fact we would have to top up the cost per table!

Thank God for BS and KH, my son-in-law's parents who insisted that we keep all the ang pow collection that night. According to Chinese tradition, the boy's side will host the wedding with allocation of tables for the girl's side. 

The parents of the bride can invite their friends for the dinner and keep the entire collection! Thank God for daughters...but we have one son so this collection would have to be saved to fund his wedding....

The wedding of A and D will certainly be remembered for our generations to come. Held at Tropicana Golf & Country Club, we were given 18 out of 74 tables by the groom's family. All our tables were taken up leaving only one vacant seat.

We had prayed that all who were supposed to come will come and that all seats had to be taken up. God heard our prayers. Only one seat was vacant out of our 18 tables.

With guests from my company, solicitors and church friends, it was such a wondrous occasion. 

Even more meaningful was a reunion of sorts for us with old friends like the Yaps, the Lees & the Engs. My best friends like the two Karens & MS also attended the dinner. Although I had not seen them for a long time, it was only like yesterday!

It was great to see their children all so grown up. The Yaps came with 2 of their daughters. The Lees also had 2 young adults daughters. Equally delightful was to see my 2 Karens who are my best friends. I really do have a lot of good friends named Karen!

The wedding started about an hour late. Not the fault of the bride but the kitchen was not ready. First time sitting at the main table, we got our food individually served on small plates. However as we had to greet the guests we could not finish the last few courses of the mushroom, the rice and the desert. We did not get a chance to savor them as we had to wait at the entrance to shake the hands of departing guests!

I wore a very expensive azure blue evening dress with sequinned shoulder top. It fitted me to a tee. though I am not slim, I must say that the dress did not look frumpy on me. In fact I looked good.

I went with A to the beautician and hairdresser in the afternoon to do up our hair and makeup. First time in my life, I had so much hair! I don't know what the hairdresser did but my hair was so buffed up and sparkles were put in my hair!

The father in law gave a wonderful and touching speech welcoming A into the family. Tim's speech was super short. Tim said that he was glad to read out the poem I wrote for A and D. That made up 90% of his speech. 

God inspired me to write the poem for the couple and dedicated it to them. The poem has been printed out and given to eldest daughter and her husband. May they remember to apply the principles in the poem for ages to come!

I recalled the Lord's promise to me that He will bless me and bring increase to my family. I can see His faithfulness to me on May 21. My extended family has grown. I have a new son, a wonderful sister (D's mum is generous and love my daughter lavishly) and a wonderful brother in KH, D's father.

Also I was happy to see so many of my long-lost cousins attending the wedding dinner some of them giving big ang pows! 

My cousins, P, K, A and S & their families made the night so meaningful. It was great to see them happily greeting my 85 year old mother whom they had not seen for many years. Actually the reason for this was because my mother only kept in touch with her side of the family during CNY. All my cousins who came to visit my mum during CNY were from her side of the family. The cousins that came in full force for the wedding were from my late father's side. I also have at least 2 more cousins in Australia, O & J from my mother's side who sent us good wishes.

THANK YOU JESUS. YOU ARE AWESOME!

Pier-2 Art Center - Taitung, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Continuing our interesting journey in Taiwan...

One of the fascinating places that we visited was this Art Center in Taitung. At this place, we saw sculptures made of steel and looked misshapen yet they had a special meaning. 

We saw sculptures of anime characters and super-heroes like Spiderman and Ironman. People came in droves to take photos with these sculptures.

Many young people come here to show off their anime costumes and dress up as Disney characters. A pair of young ladies dressed as Elsa and her sister in the "Frozen" movie!

This place really jolts your eyes and your mind. Some sculptures like Transformers are larger than life. Some sculptures seem to stand out of nowhere...here are some pictures and you will see why.....

A great testimony - God hears our prayers

Is the government having financial problems? Why are they not calling the medical and pharmacy graduates to do their training at government hospitals? Why is the list of training companies for pharmacy graduates so limited?

Why are people who graduated last year still waiting for their placements at government hospitals? Some of these graduates have no choice but to work at retail pharmacists for only RM1k a month! How to survive in KL what with rental, transport and food!

This is the question on the lips of many of A's friends who graduated with her last year. There were about 80 pharmacy graduates and about another 200 odd medical graduates. 

Most if not all of her classmates are languishing at home waiting for the government to place them in hospitals to do their internship so that they can get their pharmacy licence. Much like a doctor, a pharmacist also needs a licence to practice. This seems to be ultimate goal of pharmacy graduates. Many will not settle for less.....

My daughter was getting frustrated. "Mum the longer I wait the more rusty I become. I will begin losing the knowledge I have of the drugs and medicine that I learnt in my course! A job with a pharmaceutical organisation will keep me on my toes and I will be continually learning new things!"

Say what you may, my youngest girl have always had a sense of mission in her chosen career path. She sees being a pharmacist as not just a job but a mission to help people.

Imagine how great it would be if she were to tag along with me to Sarawak for missions. She would be busy treating people with all kinds of sickness and prescribing the medicine to help them!

However her initial stint at Health Lane, Kepong was a failure as all the aunties and uncles communicated to her in Cantonese. She shed tears when she could not communicate with them or help them with their ailments. You see, A (like my other 2 children) are bananas - yellow on the outside, white on the inside! Chinese on the outside but English speaking!

She quit after about 2 weeks and became very depressed. She was a go-getter who was used to employers lining up to employ her and not the other way around. Also to be jobless is unthinkable for her. She was always do something - Uber or Grabcar or whatever part time job she could lay her hands on.

So I prayed and prayed and prayed. I asked my prayer partners to agree with me on this matter.

God heard our prayers and gave her a really good job at PayPal. Yet, it was not her heart's desire. She was solving customer's problems online and was excellent at her job. In fact she was so good at her job that she won several awards. At one time she was earning about RM5k a month!

She continued applying for a pharmaceutical company that would be able to provide the training for her to get her licence. Also the PayPal job required her to work on Sundays and also late night shifts. Sometimes she would be coming back so late that I really worried for her safety....

Once again, A asked me to pray for her to get a job at J & J. There was only one opening but there were 200 applicants lining up for that one job!

A said something to me that struck a chord in my heart - "Mum, if I get this job everything will fall into place for me. Pray that God will give me the job!"

That really moved me to pray for her. I got my pastor's wife, my life group members to pray for favor for the job.

A cleared the first interview easily. They said that she was passionate and had an excellent attitude.

At the second interview the MD asked why HR did not source for a first class graduate! 

Though A made it to the Dean's List twice in her final year semesters, she missed the first class by a few points!

She kept on asking me to pray for her as she really wanted the job! Once again I fasted and prayed for her and got people to agree with me!

God is great! He heard our prayers as A got the good news just 2 weeks ago! She got the job!

A may not be first class but our GOD IS FIRST CLASS!

Fengxia night market

Claimed to be the largest night market in Taiwan, Fengxia night market was established in 1963. Its location is near the Fengxia University. At weekends the place will be teeming packed with students and parents....

This place is just teeming with all kinds of Taiwan street food, the likes of which we will never get in Malaysia...the smells, the sights, the taste of the food all bring us to the uniquely Taiwan experience...

The variety of sausages, fried cuttlefish, fishball, chicken balls, innards, fish, meat balls are just mind-boggling....

The food sold is uniquely Taiwan...the bubble tea is simply yummy, the fried nuggets just scrumptious...

Fengxia entrance

Vendors call out to you to try their unique food....so much variety...

Stinky taufoo...I just love it....actually it was not as stinking as it should be...pop it in the mouth...

Gigantic fried squids, prawns, crabs...

It was at Fengxia that the father got 'lost'. The instructions were for us to wait opposite Watsons. However the father waited at Watsons. 

Slowly the tour group members returned from their shopping but we were wondering where the father was. After waiting almost 20 minutes, I started praying for his safe return. I tried calling him but could not get connected as he was using a different service provider that was not recognised in Taiwan....

Somehow he saw us opposite the road and came over. God is good!

A found some very nice stuff at this night market. I found some striped casual pants that I could wear without looking frumpy. Only about RM20 per pants....

Taiwan - Yehliu Geological Park

Another fascinating tourist attraction is the Yehliu Geological Park....

The famous Queen's head is only found in 2 places in the world and one of them is in the Yehliu Geological Park.

It is a natural rock formation that was formed as a result of the weather and the seawater coming up to land eroding and washing over the earth after many many years. Soon quaint rock sculptures with shapes and stories of their own were formed over the years. They look so sentinel and surreal from far.

From far they looked like mushroom-shaped rocks but if you look closer you will realize that each of these rocks have definite designs that were unique to them....nature is the best sculptor.

When going into the Yehliu Park, one has to be very careful especially when it came to posing with the rock formations. Henry told us that in the past some eager tourists hoping to get best shots would stand really close to the edge of the sea (there is no wall that separate the park from the rough seas) and be washed away by the thundering ocean...we were warned to keep a safe distance away when taking photos.

Just Sleep & Mioali Flying Cow Ranch

Small but neat and clean...breakfast is delicious with porridge, salads and Taiwanese delicacies....love it!

So unique is this hotel called Just Sleep....in this room for e.g. there are some mathematical equations written in something like permanent chalk on the walls....makes me feel like I was Einstein or something.....

Taiwan is an interesting place. I can only describe it as a cross between Hong Kong and China. I love the hotels especially the quaint boutique hotels known as Just Sleep. When Henry our tour guide told us the name, I thought he was joking!

I love Taiwan for its night market, the beautiful rough seas, the Geo park, Taiwan 101, the shopping, the street food and Sun Moon Lake!

My all time favorite must the the one night stay at the Flying Cow Ranch at Miaoli. The farm hotel was rustic yet comfortable. The bed was soft and downy and the the room look like home with its wooden floors and clean white sheets. However it was not a place to be cooped up in the room. There were lots of fun things to do here. 

The dinner was unique. How many of you have eaten steamboat with its soup base as cow's milk? Yes, Miaoli is a cow farm and what else do they serve with the steamboat ingredients but cow's milk!

The fun thing about this place was also the activities that they had planned for us.

Our tour group took part in a night activity. We were given a soft pencil case made of canvas and stickers of animals. The artwork was to glue the pictures onto the white canvas. It looked easy but when our stickers refused to stick it became rather frustrating for us to figure out what went wrong.

However it was all in good fun - even if some of us ended up with animal pictures that didn't quite stick!

We had a very restful sleep in the farm. Breakfast was in a small but charming farmhouse with farm fresh food. We had eggs, porridge, salads, fruits and vegetables that fresh and organic.

We felt sad to say goodbye to Miaoli because there were so many parts of this farm that were just begging to be explored. From our bus we could see an expanse of green rolling field that seem to go on forever.... 

Always buy travel insurance

The last time my daughter got dengue in Japan, we did not buy flight insurance for her. Now the wiser we bought insurance for all our children during our last trip to Taiwan. In any event it was a compulsory purchase.

I want to thank God that we did so!

The brother who was stopped at the departure lounge from boarding the flight to Taipei but who was eventually given a fit to fly letter was the subject of insurance claim. We filed the letter from the doctor and all the necessary papers through the tour agency.

One month after the unfortunate event, we received the good news that our claim for full refund has been approved. To God be the glory!

This is a lesson well learnt...always buy travel insurance. A small sum to pay for protection against any emergency or unexpected flight complications!

Best of Taiwan - 26 Nov to 2 Dec

Last year our family of 4 decided to make a trip to Taiwan with a tour company.

As we did not speak Mandarin we thought it would be good to sign up with a tour group that would take us from airport to Taiwan and back again. We have traveled with this tour company before and their services were satisfactory and reliable.

However it looked like the trip was dogged with problems from the start. A had to leave by 30 November as she had to start her new job with a month's training. We bought an extra return ticket for her as she had done very well in her finals making it to the Dean's list twice!

However the biggest shock was when our son was stopped at the Malaysian immigration. They said that he had infected eyes because of that he could not board the flight to Taiwan. They were afraid that whatever he was having was going to spread to the other passengers. Begging and pleading did not help. The plane was delayed because of him!

I had to rush to the departure lounge to give him money to take the cab back home. We were furious with the authorities who asked him to see a doctor to get clearance for his eye condition before he could fly. It was 30 minutes before departure - how could we possibly do this? All of us were already seated in the plane. 

In the end, I was stopped by the T and A from foregoing my trip as well otherwise it would have been a double loss of funds! The son later told us that he went to see the doctor at the airport who gave him a clearance letter to fly but there was no flight. I was wondering how could he possibly be cleared to fly when the doctor certified him as having conjunctivitis?

Anyway nothing was going to stop us from enjoying ourselves. Despite the initial disappointment we are ready for a good time in Taiwan. We flew to Taoyuan with 26 tour mates.