Random shots at Westin Langkawi Resort & Spa

Some random shots around Westin Langkawi, where I stayed during the two working weekends.

I also managed to have a session at the famous Heavenly Spa by Westin, supposedly among the best spa in the country.  I opted for the signature Heavenly Massage that releases tensions, improves circulation, and boosts energy.

The spa overlooks a private beach area

And fruit carvings decorating the tea-break area during our meeting.  Took these shots coz I found them to be irresistibly pretty.

Dolphins at Kilim Geoforest Park

I was in Langkawi again last weekend for the same event as the previous week, but this time for another group of customers.  I had planned on giving the Kilim tour a miss this round, since I went last week but since two of my invited speakers were keen to join, I decided to accompany them.

This time, I brought along my dSLR and managed to get better shots of the cave, fishes and eagles.

(L) The stalactite and stalagmite met to form the Twin Towers of the Bat Cave (R) This formation is 400 million years old 

The formation on the left looks like a frog head while the one on the right looks like a snake 

The mudskipper, a special kind of fish that live most of their life on land instead of water

This palm-like plant is called Cycad, a primitive plant that existed since 200 million years ago 

An eagle swooping down to the surface of the water to grab some chicken pieces

Once we were done with all the places we went last week, I thought we would be making our way back to the jetty.  Instead, our boatman decided that it was still early, and took us to a spot where we would be able to catch some animal action.  Soon after, someone spotted something swimming in the water and our guide told us that it could be an otter so the boat inched closer for a better view.  It turned out to be a giant monitor lizard.

We were keeping our eyes peeled for any movement in the water looking for otter when someone excitedly shouted, “Look!  Dolphins!”  To our delight, a school of about 3-4 dolphins were swimming past our boat, and cameras immediately started clicking away.  Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to get good shots of them L  Being the shy and gentle creatures that they are, the dolphins were not keen to show themselves too much so most of our shots were only of their fin appearing above the water.

After some time, the boatman started the boat engine as we prepared to leave and as if on cue, the dolphins reappeared and frolicked around us, as if asking us to stay longer, and we did.  We eventually moved to another spot and to our amazement, another school of dolphins appeared!  The lucky stars were definitely shining on us that day as we spotted a total of 3 schools of dolphins.

I’ve never seen a dolphin swimming in the wild but on that day, I saw easily 10 dolphins.  Boy, was I glad that my invited speakers decided to join the tour, otherwise I would have missed this magical moment.

Kilim Geoforest Park

I was in Langkawi over the weekend for an event that we organized for our customers. As this was a business trip, I didn’t need to find cheap local accommodation, or else I’d have turned to airbnb.com for help. Maybe I’ll look to them for Barcelona vacation rentals.

On Sunday, which was a free day, we organized a 3-hour trip to the Kilim Geoforest Park, a Unesco World Heritage site, in the northeastern part of the island.

 Sungai Kilim jetty

Our first stop was Gua Kelawar (Bat Cave), just across the river from the Sungai Kilim jetty. Walking to the cave will took us through a boardwalk fringed by mangrove forests before reaching the entrance of the cave.

Dating back to more than 400 million years, Gua Kelawar has spectacular limestone formations and ancient oyster shells attached to parts of the wall just above the sea level. This area was originally the sandy bottom of an ancient river that has been shoved upwards by powerful tectonic force millions of years ago.

Entrance of Gua Kelawar

 Look up and you’d see hundreds and hundreds of bats clinging on to the cave ceiling.

Next stop was small fish farm where we saw how Archer Fish (spitting fishes) shoots down their food with a jet of water, pet some friendly stingrays, and got a brief biology lesson of the horse shoe crab (belangkas).

The dorsal and ventral view of the horse shoe crab

 Yachts docked at the river mouth leading to the open Andaman sea

Our last stop was near the river estuary, home to the Brahminy Kite eagle, which is the most dominant bird species in the area. The majestic eagles circling overhead before gracefully swooping down to feed on the chicken parts thrown by the boatman was a sight to behold.

However, feeding the eagles isn’t an eco-friendly practice as the eagles may become dependent on tourist boats for food and unable to hunt for themselves. The steroids and hormones in the commercially farmed chicken may damage their hearts and lungs, and the eagles become susceptible to diseases such as avian flu and salmonella. Unfortunately, many boat operators still offer eagle feeding as an attraction.

Chitter chatter

Hubby sleeps on a mattress on the floor coz the girls share the family bed with me.  One weekend morning, when the girls were up, hubby lie down beside me and hugged me from behind.  Seeing that, Yiu Yiu said, “Papa, if you want to hug mummy, you better brush your teeth and make yourself handsome first.”  We burst out laughing!  This girl knows a thing or two about the art of courting J

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I was shooing the girls upstairs to get ready for bed when the little one refused to go up, but stood at the built-in cabinet that divides the living and dining areas where we keep the girls’ bags, accessories, some small toys, etc.  She kept saying what sounded to me like “Koo, koo”.  Typically when I couldn’t comprehend what she’s trying to say, I’ll turn to her jie-jie who normally could decipher her language.  However in this instance, even jie-jie didn’t know what she wanted.  And I went,

Mummy: What do you want mei-mei?

Yan Yan: My koo, my koo

Mummy (thinking that she wanted her jie-jie’s bedroom slippers): Your shoe?

Yan Yan: No, my koo!

Mummy: Is it your spoon? (she sometimes play with spoons)

Yan Yan (in an exasperated tone): No, my koo!

Mummy: Your phone? (she has a toy mobile phone)

Yan Yan (getting increasingly exasperated): No, my koo!

Jie-jie eventually managed to distract her with something else and she abandoned the cabinet and followed us up.  Once in the room, her eyes lit up when she spotted her “Koo” and promptly slung it over her back.  And this, ladies and gentlemen, is her precious “Koo”.

Her jie-jie's old school bag

Now do you think she said “School” or “Pooh”?

Angry Birds

These birds are everywhere, and though I've never lain a finger on the game, we couldn’t escape the commercialization of these birds:

Electronic lanterns that mum bought for the girls for the recent Mid-Autumn Festival.

Little soft toys that mum bought for the girls.

Stationeries given as party packs at the AnW birthday party.

The other day when I went over to sis’s house, I saw ‘em birds neatly arranged on the sofa, facing the TV.

I asked Yihao, “What are the Angry Birds doing?” He responded with a big chuckle, “They’re watching TV. Hahahaha.”

Of course they are! Silly 二姨姨!

Bento #226 - #230

Mini bak-chang with tulip rose apple.

Red bean pau, heart shaped cheesy cocktail sausages, edamame and orange slices.

Homemade fishballs, broccoli florets and tulip rose apple.

Slice of leftover butter cake (with some icing that held back the fondant decoration), bear shaped fish cakes and checkered apples.

Homemade nuggets and potato wedges, with plum cut into 3D leaves.

We’ve been Smurfed!

We bought tickets for the Sunday, 1pm show at Tropicana City Mall. Having gone to the mall straight after our late breakfast, we were already there by 11.30am. As we were wondering how the smurf to fill the 1.5 hours, Yiu Yiu caught a glimpse of someone distributing balloons. You know how it is with kids and balloons and so we smurfed over to get some. Turned out it was UOB promoting their savings plan with some Smurfs collectible items, and Smurfs mascots were due to make an appearance at the cinema area at 12noon so we smurfed around waiting for them to appear.

Yiu Yiu couldn’t stop taking photos with the three – Papa Smurf, Clumsy Smurf and Smurfette…

While the little one didn’t want to go near them at all

And only contented with taking a shot at a distance.

The mascots were only there for about 30 minutes, and we moved on to the small play area outside Toys”R”Us, where we met these two articulate young ladies. It was my first time meeting them, having followed their antics for some years now.

Back to the movie, I found it so-so only – hubby even fell asleep halfway through but Yiu Yiu and Yihao enjoyed it tremendously. And Yiu Yiu can’t seem to get the tune out from her head, so everyone, together now, La La La La La La La La La La La!

So have you been Smurfed?

School holidays

I was on leave the whole of last week during the school holidays. We had initially planned to go back to Kuantan but MIL advised against it since the house is in a mess as they are renovating the kitchen. I wanted to bring the girls somewhere for a short break and had wanted to go to Port Dickson, and while we could still get a room at few hotels, hubby wasn’t too keen so that got shelved as well. Bummer!

We ended up spending the whole week at home, it was a week well spent! For a start, we got to sleep in really late – we got out of bed after 10am most days :-)

We went to the neighourhood playground.

We attended a Hari Raya open house at Auntie Lijah’s (a close friend of the girls’ babysitter) house.

We went to the Popular Book Fest, and got “conned” into spending a fortune on these Grolier educational books.

Yiu Yiu’s BFF came over to play.

Enrolled Yiu Yiu in a hip-hop dance class. It isn’t really hip-hop in the real sense of the word, more like a class teaching children the basic dance steps and moves.

We attended Yiu Yiu’s classmate’s birthday party at A&W.

We went for an outing to TTDI park after a long hiatus. The stream was all dried up but that didn’t stop the girls from enjoying themselves with their cousins.

Having spent all day with the girls during the holidays, on Sunday night, Yiu Yiu said resignedly, “Mummy, tomorrow I can only see you for a short time only – once in the morning, once at night.” :-(

The trail of love

When I opened the door to the bedroom, I found a trail of “snowflakes”.

The prize waiting at the end of the trail was this…

It wasn’t from my other half, but from my precious 6-year old. She claimed to have learnt it from the Beauty and the Beast DVD, but when she described that particular part, I have no idea what she was talking about. LOL.