After 8 years ..

I went to the place which menjadikan aku yang sekarang. Tak payah poyo sgt boleh? Wakakaka.

Dejavu sgt aku rasa bila pergi balik tempat blaja dulu. Excited ko kemain tunjuk to MNI 'ni lah dulu syg kelas kat sini, ni library ada tpt Harry Porter dalam ni, ni la free bus syg naik hari-hari'...and yada yada yada..

Serious best. Tak caya cuba korang bawak anak-anak and laki pegi balik unibersity tempat korang study dulu. Lain macam excited dia okeh.

Nak tulis lagi detail on our trip to Adelaide last week. Hutang dulu okeh. And jugak entry Europe. Huitang jugak. Hopefully tak ilang ingatan to write a travelogue konon.

Now tgh Swot vac. Sangatt lah konon. Ala our annual technical assessment is currently ongoing. Mine would be next week. Gelabah itik lah aku skrang bukak buku notes apa bagai study. Duuh.

Laters.

Review : Grand Lexis PD

Cuaca adalah amat best kat luar tu. But I am stucked dalam bilik hotel ni, pertama sebab tuan kecik tengah tido. Kedua sebab tuan besar tgh attend workshop. And it's freaking Sunday. Apekah ?

Obviously we came to this hotel on a free vacation :) Whee ! Bagus jugak depa buat workshop on weekend. So I can tag along without having to waste my annual leave. Kena amik 1 hari je cuti on Monday since workshop yang MNi kena attend ni is from Saturday-Monday.

We arrived on Saturday night. And dah lambat pun around 830PM. See.. depa start on Saturday, tapi activity nya adalah check-in hotel sahaja. Murah hati kan? I know i know, the intention is so that all participants akan punctual untk start the program on Sunday at 830am. Kalau Sunday baru nak dtg, memang janji melayu pukul 11am pun masih akan ada participants yang baru dtg. 

We got to stay at the Deluxe Suite-Garden Living. Price around RM470 per night. Tapi kami dok sini 1 night only. The next day we upgraded ke Grand Pool Villa-Above the sea. Price around RM660 per night. Pandai-pandai nak upgrade, so kenalah baya sendiri. But its ok lah kan, daripada ko kena baya full price cenggitu memang jgn haraplah ;p Tapi ini adalah harga utk public. For corporat booking we got a cheaper price. Having the chance to stay at 2 different villas, boleh lah aku komplen bnyk.

Arriving on Saturday. Wah kemain excited kan sebab jakun tak pernah dok otel yang ada private pool. (Eh sebenarnya penah lah, kat Villa Samadhi. Tapi yg tu jakuzzi lagi best kan sebab heated). Aryan lagilah trus tarik nak bukak baju. Saba ye anak, malam ni kasik chance mommy n dedi je yg terjun. Aryan tido awal oke ! :p

The room is a bit sempit actually. Ada 2 king size bed. Tu mommy dah sebok pegang henfone, nak check-in check-in on FB lah tu ;p 

Yang menambah kesempitan ni adalah sebab dia letak squeeze letak meja tulis and mini-bar at one area. Dah le ada microwave tertongok atas meja tulis. Apekah? Weirdo.

The bathroom is ok. Spacious. Konsep dia macam toilet n bathroom dalam walk-in wardrobe. But i think the lighting system is poor. Tak cukup lampu aku nak cuci muka and pakai make-up. Bedak aku pakai mesti berbelak sebab lighting tak bagus. Eceh salahkan lighting pulak ;p

  
The overall view of the room. Sempit kan?

The pool private pool. Best ok ada private pool ni. It might not be significant utk org yang freehair. But bagi aku yg baru-baru berhijab ni rasa heaven ok ! Sebab boleh berenang renang di tepian without proper muslimah swimming suit and head cover. Macam bebas gitu nak tonggang tebalik dalam pool tu. And ala-ala romantika di amor gitu (padehal mlm tu tak sempat oun terjun pool).Seriously ! This is a strong justification to have a mini-swimming pool kat backyard tu. MNi pun berangan ok nak ada pool cenggini kat rumah. InshaAllah, murahkan rezeki keluarga kami.Amin.

Jiwang sgt anak bujang aku ni kan. Main rendam2 kaki sikittt je. Nak terjun takut. And mommy mls nak layan sebab dah siap mandi.Buatlah dia muka kesian kat situ. But last last terpaksa jugak terjun sebab of course kesian tgk si bujang ni rendam kaki je.

Brekkie time ! Masa ni MNi dah pergi worshop dia dah. So dia g bekfes dulu sebab tak kosa aku nak ikut bekfes kol 730pagi. S aku gi ngan Aryan je kol 930 pagi.Food - overall, out ! Hahha. Not many variation. Pastu dalam sejarah hidup jugak ni nak pegi bekfes kena beratur kat luar cafe sebab tak cukup tempat duduk ! Oh 5 star resort kah ini? AKu pun tak paham kenapalah ramai no manusia kat sini padahal bukannya cuti skolah pun.Haih!

After breakfast,MNi kata jommmm kita upgrade bilik ! Pegi water villa. Yeayyy !!!

 Taada !!. Fuh best gilo bilik ni. Boleh main bola sepak dia punya besar. Still ada 2 king size bed and private pool.

And ada menatang cermin ni so kita boleh nampak air laut kat bawah tu. Aryan jakun gila ok. Mommy pun sama.

Proper mini-kitchen/ mini-bar. Dia asingkan dari meja tulis tu hah. 

Whee the pool is so nice. Pandang luar nampak laut gitu.

And lagi yg bezakan bilik garden dgn water villa ni, the toiletries kat water villa ni Crabtree & Evelyn. Yang kat garden villa tu ntah ape tade brand. 

The overall view of the room.

Aku check out esok. So tak tau lah nak bagi overall rating. So far i think bilik bilik kat sini mmg ala-ala luxurious 5-Star resort seperti yang diorang claim. But in terms of service aku tak rasa pun mcm 5 star. Food dah tak menarik minat aku, pastu iron & iron board kena request and boleh pakai 30 mins je. After 30 mins pasti housekeeping dah ketuk pintu nak amik iron tu. Apekah? Kosa lah aku nak iron cepat-cepat in 30 mins kan. Pastu kalau nak begerak dari satu tempat ke tempat lain within hotel ni ada buggy. Buggy ni pun kekadang lambat. Wifi dapat free, tapi ptg ni baru ada. Sebab dari mlm tadi wifi down. Dan bermacma lagilah.

Maybe sebab ramai sangat org and diorang susah nak manage. Takpelah aku maafkan. Sebab bilik ko mmg best. And aku boleh berendam dalam private pool dalam ape keadaan skali pun, Eheeeeh :p

Gold Coast - Part 4 (last one ;p )

Hoh very gigih I posted up 4 entries on this trip khen. This is the last. Malas sudah.

The 5th day memang sudah di allocate for shopping and chill chill sahaja. Gold Coast is not for shopaholics definitely. Tak best sgt pun shopping. Anyways, we went to Harbour Town that is like a factory outlet la konsep dia. But no designers label and whatnots. And not really for fashion line lah. But somehow aku suka juga masuk balik kedai2 default beli baju masa student dulu mcm Supre', Jays Jays, Cotton On, Just Jeans etc. 

The price kat sama memang really cheap i tell you. I got 2 pieces of candy coloured jeans from Jeans West for only AUD30 ! Hoh ko gila nak dpt harga cenggini? Normal price is AUD80 per piece but time sale gitu jatuh sampai AUD15 per pice. Syok kan? Pastu MNi dapat Oakley sunnies ni harga asal dia AUD500 sekali dah la discount, dia pegi bargain lagi and dapat AUD100 je. Hoh? That is from RM 1600 jadik RM350 camtu okkkk. Pandai jugak laki aku tawar menawar ni. And I did not even think to bargain sebab memang semua dah discount and fixed price kan. Boleh tahan laki aku ni.

Letak gamba lah plak. Sebelum pegi Harbour Town, camwhoring dulu.That little bot always makes my heart melts mcm cheese dalam microwave.

Harbour Town 

Tgk tu kat COtton On baju murah as low as AUD5 ! 

Aryan met a new friend. Kemain ko, lelari memain dalam kedai sesama :)

Balik dari Harbour Town, went lepak at Surfers Paradise again. The weather was super nice on that last day. And we sempat tapau Nandos from harbour Town. Nandos kat situ je halal (dah check cert semua). Kat Surfers mereka kata halal but still ada serve alcohol bagai. So better dont take the risk ye anak-anak.

Ni kotak Nandos. Pelik kan. And the nasik tak sedap mcm kat Msia. Malaysia still is the food heaven kan.

Si kecik boleh plak merajuk rajuk takmo makan. Lepas pujuk, habes 1/2 nasik dia telan ok. kesian dia very the lapar agaknya.

My nyawa !

Malamnya kena packing sesiap because esok pick-up to the airport is at 7am. Hoh kemain pagi. But kat situ kol 5 pagi dah terang bederang. Subuh habes pukul 530 pagi.

Waiting for the pick-up.

Nyempat jek. 

At the airport, punyalah lapar. Tengok cash ada lagi AUD30, belasah lah habeskan makan pancake. Huaah sedap gile.

Pastu nak dijadikkan cerita, bila dah masuk dalam boarding hall, gi beli Nougat lagi coz rasa macam tak cukup je nak bagi-bagi orang. Boleh plak kira-kira cash (yg lebih makan pancake tadi), kurang 10 sen okkk nak bayar. Adoi laa, malas btul aku nak swipe credit card kan sebab nak habeskan cash in hands. Tapi sebab aku dah ngeluh ngeluh depan kaunter tak cukup 10 sen, cashier tu discount je 10 sen. Agaknya dia kesian tgk muka aku ni, dia banje je 10 sen tu. Wakaka.

Bye bye. Till we meet again (in another familymoon at another place of course )

Gold Coast -Part 3 (experience with Sri Sutera Travel)

We were supposed to tour Brisbane on the 4th day. It was included in the travel agent fee that we paid upfront in Malaysia. Read : Sri Sutera Travel & Tours.

The way this agency works is, you plan your tour, tell them, they will arrange your transport, tickets etc accordingly, you pay the fee and they will provide you the service vouchers. Finally you just show those vouchers to the driver and theme park entrance. ( We only used their service for transportation arrangement, airport transfers, and tickets to all theme parks. Flight ticket, hotel and meals semuanya kami dah book sendiri)

In the service voucher, it was written our pick-up was at 7am to Brisbane. So we terpacak-ed at the hotel lobby as early as 645am. Cewah macam lah awal bebeno. We waited there for more than an hour tapi bayangan van pun takde. Nak dijadikan cerita, it was on Sunday kemain susah nak call sini sana sebab semuanya tutup. Sri Sutera of course la dia outsource to travel agent kat Gold Coast kan. And this Gold Coast travel agent plak outsource the Brisbane tour to another travel agency. Huwah i felt like kicking their face pada ketika itu.And paling aku nak sumpah seranah is Sri Sutera of course. Sebab rupa-rupanya dia key-in our pick-up point at different hotel. Hoh kau tak buat kerja ke hape benda penting mcm ni pun kau tak double check? Serious I was so disapointed with their service. Sejak dari awal masa we decided to use their service pun dah buat hal ye dek non. Contoh yang terjadi pada kami :

1) Pick-up time utk airport transfer from hotel to the airport, dia pegi letak pukul 3pm. Padehal 3pm tu is our arrival time kat LCCT. Hoh crazy enough? Luckily MNi perasan heh ape kehal pick up time ni ptg, padehal our Goldcoast-KL flight was at 10am. 

2) All pick-up point dia pegi letak kat hotel seberang jalan that is The Crowne Hotel. Itu 5 star hotel hokei. Mampoo sgt kami nak dok situ ke? They claimed nama hotel kami tinggal takde dalam system so dia letak je nama hotel terdekat and expect us to walk to the nearest hotel itu. Lagi skali aku nak sumpah seranah, the reason aku amik travel agent was sebab malas nak fikir & jalan2 carik transport. Now u asked us to walk to another hotel utk amik transport. Biatch.

3) After MNi insist utk tukar pick-up point tu, baru dia tukar. Hoi kami bayar okei kau, bukan amik service kau free. Pastu utk Brisbane tour ni, dia boleh pegi letak pick-up point kat hotel lain lagi (not the one yg near to our hotel mcm memula tu). Ini mmg hotel yg super jauh and tak masuk akal kalau kata kau tersalah key-in dalam system and whatnots. And bila call kompeni yg dia outsource tu, they said that the driver waited for more than out at the hotel. Disebbakan kami takde, driver tu dah blah ! Boleh? Blah just like that without any effort to call us or cari ke hapa. Duhh no tipon semua ada okei. Hemph!! 

I guess that would be the first and last time we used Sri Sutera Travel & tours. Bad experience and I think that was enough to ruin our holiday. Disebabkan Brisbane tour to cancel just like that, we asked for full refund for that particular day. And worst among the worst, sampai hari ini pun tak dapat refund itu lagi.

So dipendekkan cerita, on the 4th day tu we had to travel on our own and plan sendiri mana nak pegi. We decided to visit the Paradise Country since MNi nak sgt merasa pegang koala and kangaroo (sepatutnya activity ini dilakukan di Brisbane , included dalam tour tu).

See dedua budak comel ni cool je. Walaupun rasa tertipu tak dapat pegi Brisbane ;(

At the Paradise Country tu, dia macam original Aussie farm la.Kangaroo biar lepas and we could freely feed them, boleh pegang itu koala...ada ternakan2 ladang yg lain, pertunjukan kuda, anjing, boomerang.. mencari batu jade, sheep shearing show etc. It's a small place really. We finished the tour in 2.5 hours sahaja.

Amik gamba pegang koala. Cost you AUD18. Kemain berat koala tu MNi kata. Range 9-13kg. Wah dah macam berat Aryan. Hohoh.

Ini sheep shearing show. Tgk dia gondolkan bulu sheep tinggal nampak tulang je sheep tu kesian.. 

Lunch berlatang belakangkan ladang yg nyaman & fresh ! Actually you can buy the Paradise Country ticket (AUD 29.90 per person) together with the lunch (additional AUD10). Sebab kat sana takde cafe yang jual food utk kau lunch. We did not buy the lunch dgn ticket sebab igtkan non-halal. Sekali sampai sana, ada chicken chop, rice, pasta and few more looking-delicious food. And semuanya halal ! MNi siap tanya kat kitchen and they showed the halal cert.Fine.... we were so lapar at that time. Tibai je lah beli buffet lunch on the spot. Kalau beli on the spot harga AUD20 per person. Argh kalau tau halal pasti lah aku beli dalam ticket kan. Save AUD10 per person. Cis cis cis.

 Aryan and MNi's first kangaroo experience ! Aryan memula takut nak dekat..

 Koala..

 Dah lelama tu, Aryan borak-borak lagi ngan kangaroo. Hee :)

Balik dari Paradise Country ni, trus kami melepak at Surfers Paradise. Had dinner and balik hotel terbongkang. Penat mental (sebab hangin gila dgn travel agent Brisbane tour tak menjadi).