Taxi in Phuket and Sugar Palm Resort

Posted on Sat, Sep 8 2012 by sawleng

FY told me that they paid THB750 for airport taxi from airport to Kata Beach. Hubby read on Internet that taxi is quite expensive in Phuket. It is cheaper to take metered taxi from airport to hotel. As we walked out from the arrival hall, there were lots of taxis offering their service. We walked towards the metered taxi counter and they quoted us THB600 for the same destination ie from airport to our hotel at Kata Beach.

We got into the cab and the journey took about an hour from airport to our hotel, Sugar Palm Resort. We felt so relief that the taxi driver could speak decent English. During the journey, Hubby enquired about car for rent, city tour, taxi for hire, etc as we’ve planned for Phuket city tour the following day. The taxi driver offered his service to take us to visit Phuket attraction places at THB1,000 from 10am to 4pm.

At the airport, there was counter distributing free sim card. They told us that we may purchase the phone reload at 7 Eleven. On the way to hotel, we stopped at 7 Eleven and purchased THB50 reload value. This was more than sufficient for us to contact the taxi driver on the services required during our stay in Phuket.

Deluxe Pool View room

We checked in to Sugar Palm Resort and the first impression of the hotel was good. I liked the location of the hotel which is located near Kata Beach and the tangerine colours of our bedroom. The colours gave a refreshing and cheerful mood.

There were free wifi in the room and hotel areas. There were also 4 computers with internet access for complimentary use.

As we walked out from the hotel, there was this seafood restaurant, Mali Seafood & Restaurant owned by the same hotel. Since it was already late, we decided to have our dinner at the restaurant.

Dinner at Mali Seafood & Restaurant

Seafood for selection for BBQ.

Seafood and Mixed Meat Kebab

We ordered seafood kebab (THB180) and mixed meat kebab (THB160) and coconut juice (THB180 for 2) for cooling. Jaden wanted carbonara pasta (THB160). There were counters for soup, salad and fruits which were complimentary with our dinner.

After dinner, Hubby checked out the hotel vicinity while I freshened up the 2 boys and get them ready for bed. When Hubby came back, it was my turn to check out the hotel vicinity.

The manual way of drying my nail polish

My goals in Phuket were to have massage and mani/pedi sessions. FY recommended me to try Oriental Massage which was about 5 minutes walk from the hotel.However, I did not feel comfortable walking around alone in Phuket at 10pm+ and decided to have my mani/pedi at a shop next to our hotel. The manicure and pedicure cost THB200 each.

We did not swim in the hotel as the pool did not look great. The breakfast was average. I did not like the idea of having birds flying around and rest on those cutleries arranged on tables. We paid RM285 for the 2 nights stay (booked via Agoda) in the hotel and additional THB175 (~RM18) per day for Jared’s breakfast. They allowed Jaden to have free breakfast.

Overall, the hotel was the right choice for us for the first 2 nights stay in Phuket. We wanted a hotel at reasonable price, at a good location ie near Kata Beach and close to those attractions that we’ve planned for city tour. Sugar Palm Resort was the right hotel, at the right price and right location for us.

Sugar Palm Resort
20/10 Kata Road, Kata Beach, Muang, Phuket 83100, Thailand
Tel: (66 76) 284-404,
Fax: (66 76) 284-438
E-mail : info@sugarpalmphuket.com
Website : sugarpalmphuket.com

5D4N Family Holiday in Phuket

Posted on Sat, Sep 8 2012 by sawleng

Ever since Jared started schooling, we can only have our holiday during school holiday. We do not like it as it is peak period for travel and everything will be more expensive and have lots of people. Since it’s UPSR school holiday in the 2nd week of Sep 12, we decided to have our family holiday during this period but Jaden has to miss his kindergarten classes.

FY has just came back from attending her friend’s wedding at Phuket. She had a great holiday there and has been promoting Phuket since then.

Initially, we were looking at 4D3N trip to Phuket. While we were browsing through MAS flights, there were promotion for cheap flights for travel in the evening (5.10 pm flight for RM2 airfare) and flight back in the morning (10.25am flight for RM1 airfare). It may not be the best travel time but for the 4 of us, it saves us RM532 (RM133 x 4 persons) per flight!

I suggested to Hubby to take the evening flight as it’s so much cheaper (Airfare RM8 + taxes and surcharges RM892 for the 4 of us) and with the savings we can fly in to Phuket a day earlier (reach Phuket 5.25pm), settle in the hotel and have the whole day for the following day. We also do not need to wake up early for the early flight at 9.30am.

For the return flight, we did not take advantage of the promotional air fare as we did not fancy waking up in the early morning, do last minute packing and rush to the airport. We used Enrich to redeem our return flight at 21,000 miles and paid taxes and surcharges of THB8,720 for the 4 of us. In total, we paid about RM2,000 inclusive of taxes for return flights to Phuket for the four of us.

The following day, we booked our hotel, Sugar Palm Resort via Agoda and paid RM285 for 2 nights with 2 breakfast. We decided to stay 2 nights near Kata beach (Sugar Palm Resort) and another 2 nights near Phuket town (Westin Siray Bay). As my cousin is working with Starwood Hotels and Resorts Group, we may enjoy the hotel’s StarFriend rate for Westin Siray Bay Hotel at Thai Baht 3,500 nett per night for Superior Sea View Room with daily buffet breakfast for two persons.

We did not have much time to plan for this holiday to Phuket. There was only a week from our planning to travel time. We were so happy that flights and hotel accommodations had been arranged.

After we’ve booked our flight and hotel, only we remembered it was Chinese Hungry Ghost Festival, which was not a good period to travel. Both of our parents did not like the idea, coupled with travel to Phuket which was hit by Tsunami and asked if we may change the travel date. Hubby and I were contemplating about it but we decided to move ahead with our plan and reminded ourselves to be careful ie no wandering around Phuket at night, no sea activities, etc.

In the morning of our travel day, Jared and Jaden were having flu and complained sore throat. Hubby brought them to clinic and get medication for them.

This time round, Jaden had the chance to ride KLIA’s aerotrain. It was also good that I remembered to bring our CIMB vouchers for the complimentary access to Plaza Premium Lounge.

KLIA Plaza Premium Lounge

Jared and Jaden were surprise and did not expect that they were able to play computer games before depart for Phuket.

Do, Re, Mi … at boarding gate

Despite the promotional fare, the aircraft was less than half full.

My First ACCA Exam

Posted on Fri, Sep 7 2012 by sawleng

I reserved all my 1st year of annual leave entitlement with C&L for my ACCA exam in Dec 1989. In addition to annual leave, we were granted study leave of 5 days per paper. We could choose to use up all the 5 days for the first attempt or to reserve some days of study leave in case we fail the paper at the first sitting. On top of that, we were also allowed exam leave on the exam day.

To top it up, we could claim our tuition fee and exam fee upon completion of the course level. That was quite generous of C&L, considering that we were not on any bond with the firm.

I was on paid leave for about a month. That was good. I could break off from work and concentrate on my study. And yet, I had my salary on month end.

During study leave, I didn’t study the whole day. I studied better at night, when everybody was asleep and the house was quiet. After dinner, I watched HK series with my family. Then, I would make myself a cup of Nescafe so that I could stay awake, usually till 3am, sometime till 5am, depending on how engrossed I was. Of course, I only woke up in the late morning. I couldn’t study much during day time, I chatted on the phone, had nap in the afternoon, did study planning for the day or week, etc.

After exam period, it was a very good atmosphere at work when everybody went back to work. There would be no classes for the rest of the month as new term only started the following month. That was the only period that I could join my colleagues for any gathering after work.

After 2 months i.e. in Feb 1990, ACCA would post the results docket to our house. During those few days, we would call home to see if the result docket arrived home. The most intense moment was when I tore the sealed docket to see the results.

For my first sitting of ACCA exam in Dec 1989, I passed 4 out of the 5 papers that I sat. I failed Law paper. I never like theory, reading subject. That was my weakness. Even during secondary school time, I would either fail or pass marginally the History and Geography papers.

The seniors and my boss were impressed with my results. And I thought, I did ok only. I’ve forgotten that I sat for ACCA professional course on part time basis, and not normal study on full time basis. That should be quite tough. After all these reasoning and those compliments from the office, my feeling changed! I was happy with my results and my confidence level towards studying ACCA on part time basis increased.

The Journey towards ACCA

Posted on Fri, Sep 7 2012 by sawleng

10 April 1989 was a BIG day for me. I joined C&L as an accounts assistant and on the same day I attended my first day of studying accountancy professional course on part time basis at Systematic Business Training Centre in Jalan Sultan. It was the beginning of an exciting journey for me.

Why I chose to study ACCA on a part time basis

My family was not financially able to put me through a private university here or overseas. I started working right after my STPM. My parents believed that we should be independent at the age of 20.

I was so happy to learn that while studying ACCA on a part time basis and work with C&L, once I finish my study, with the relevant working experience, I could apply and admitted to become a qualified accountant. This will be sooner than those who study full time and need to work after their graduation to gain the relevant working experience before they could be admitted as a qualified accountant.

Why I chose ACCA and its challenges

Initially, I signed up for CIMA course. In my discussions with my seniors at C&L, I discovered most of them studied ACCA part time.

I had a long chat with a senior staff, Alex Chan. Alex explained to me the difference between ACCA and CIMA. The general impression was that ACCA was geared towards service industries whereas CIMA was oriented towards manufacturing with its emphasis on cost accounting. I changed my mind and decided to switch to ACCA. I did not like to work in a factory. I always liked the idea of working in a nice office environment.

When I signed up for 5 subjects of Level 1 ACCA, I had to attend 3 days of evening classes every week from 6pm to 9pm.

Official working hours at C&L was from 8.30am till 5.30pm. It’s always a marathon for me as I had to wait for the lift, walk out from IGB building to Jalan Ipoh bus station, catch a bus and then walked to Systematic Business Training Centre in Jalan Sultan, waited for the centre’s lift or walked up the stair case. It was extremely challenging for me to do all these in 30 minutes in order for me to be on time in the classroom by 6pm and not to sit at the last row of the class. Often I would sit on the very first row of the class because nobody liked to sit in front.

Chris Wong was a very supportive boss. He asked me to leave work half an hour earlier (5pm) so that I did not have to rush and could catch a small bite before class started. I would replace the half hour by cutting down on my lunch break. After classes, I had to catch another bus, which was very infrequent after 9pm and I usually reached home at 10pm. Dinner was normally after 10pm.

During the other 2 weekdays where I did not have to attend evening classes, I worked extra hours to catch up on my work and learned as much as I could. On those days where I had deadlines to meet, I would miss my evening classes. I did not want to disappoint Chris who entrusted me with audit work.

Why I wanted to be an Accountant

Posted on Fri, Sep 7 2012 by sawleng

I remembered that during my primary school, most of my classmates didn’t know what to write when our teacher asked us to write an essay with the title “My Ambition”. As for me, I always wanted to be an accountant ever since I learnt Mathematics. Mathematics is so fun and amazing!

I recalled my early childhood where my older sisters were always playing at being teachers. I was curious about the numbers that they used to put on the board and pretended to teach others. As a kid of pre-school age, I wondered why 1 + 1 = 2, why 2 -1 = 1, etc. I remembered asking my sisters about the numbers but they brushed me off, saying I was too young to understand. I was frustrated and curious at the same time.

I still remember the day I went to school, I looked forward to Mathematics class. I needed to know the magic behind all this addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, etc and I would pay all the attention to the teacher’s teaching.

When I study Mathematics, I did not memorise formulas. Instead, I learnt to understand the formulas. As a result, I did very well in Mathematics. I always finished the Mathematics test before the time allocated and got A grade for the paper.

And I also remember me asking my teacher what I should do when I grew up especially with my love of numbers. “If I like Math and good in it, what occupation should I do?” They told me I should be an accountant of sorts. Ever since then, I knew my ambition was to be an accountant.

After the dismal results in my Sixth Form, I was disappointed in not getting good enough results for a place in a local university. My family was not financially able to put me through a private university here or overseas.

Without many options, I decided to get a job. I applied and got a job as an assistant with a small insurance company to help out in their paperwork. It was not the job to what I would have liked to do but it helped to ease my disappointment while I considered my next move. I was still determined to be an accountant but I thought then that the door was slammed shut in my face.

A few months after starting work, I bumped into an old school mate from Victoria Institution, Siew Quen. We chatted and it was during this meeting that she suggested that I could study part time towards a professional qualification in accounting. Suddenly, I saw that my ambition of being an accountant being resurrected. During that same meeting, Siew Quen told me that there were openings at Coopers & Lybrand (C&L, now known as PricewaterhouseCoopers) for the position of accounts assistant and suggested that I write in for a job.

I went for a few interviews and finally, I received offers to work with an established bank and C&L. The bank offered me a cashier position with salary of RM420 per month, whereas, C&L offered me an Accounts Assistant position with salary of RM350 per month.

I was considering both options. As my ambition was to be an accountant, I felt that C&L should be able to provide me with all the relevant training and experiences. In addition, C&L also subsidised my ACCA course fee. Of course, the working hours with C&L will be long too.

At the end of the day, I decided to take up the position with C&L. My parents were surprise with the decision as they thought, I would choose the job that offers me the higher pay. I rationalise my reasoning with them and I was glad that my dad supported me fully. My mom could not understand the reason truly as to her and the market economy then, working in a bank was a glamour job (not now for sure after so many banks collapse in US).

I asked my seniors at work about this. They told me it was extremely challenging to work as well as study professional accounting course on part time. One of the senior told me “A lot of people struggled professional accounting course on full time basis and you want to do it on part time?”. Then, as a naïve girl, I asked “Is it impossible to study professional accounting course on part time basis?”. The senior said “No, but …”. If the answer is No, means it’s possible. Since it’s possible, I was going to study professional accounting course on part time basis. They were definitely not encouraging me towards this path. However, this made me more determined than ever.

Those were the decision making process on auditing life and professional accounting course and I was two steps closer to my Accountant profession.

To this day I am very grateful to my friend, Siew Quen, for opening my eyes and keeping my dream alive.

Panna Cotta

Posted on Sat, Sep 1 2012 by sawleng

After tasted the Panna Cotta from Le Midi, I like what I saw and tasted. I wanted to learn to make it and googled on internet.

Panna cotta is an Italian dessert which means “cooked cream”.

Ingredients

180 ml low fat milk
7 g unflavored gelatin
500 ml heavy cream
100 g white sugar
8 ml vanilla extract
The simple ingredients and simple steps to make Panna Cotta

Directions

Pour milk into a small bowl and stir in gelatin powder. Set aside.
In a saucepan, stir together the heavy cream and sugar and set over medium heat. Stirring constantly.
Bring to a full boil, watching carefully, as the cream will quickly rise to the top of pan.
Pour the gelatin and milk into the cream, stirring until completely dissolved.
Cook for one minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.
Stir in the vanilla
Pour into individual ramekin dishes.
Cool the ramekins uncovered at room temperature.
When cool, cover with plastic wrap.
Refrigerate for at least 4 hours to let it set, but preferably overnight before serving.
To remove panna cotta from the glass ramekins, dipped them into warm water for a few seconds. Ran a knife around the edge and turn them upside down on the plate.
Panna Cotta with Passion Fruit Coulis

Recommend to serve with warm hot fudge or caramel sauce. Alternatively, goes very well with fruit coulis i.e. passion fruit or berry to balance the sweetness.

Decorate with Mint leaves

Top with fresh berries i.e. strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, etc. Decorate with mint leaves.

You may replace the vanilla extract with lemon, orange, almond extract, etc. If having difficulty to get the Panna Cotta out of the dishes, try a silicone muffin pan. Keeps well for several days in the refrigerator.

It tastes just like the panna cotta that we had at Le Midi. So were Hubby and Jared. This will be a good alternative to Tiramisu if the boys requested for it … much simple resipe and easier to make.

Mee Siam

Posted on Mon, Aug 27 2012 by sawleng

It’s my birthday! It is also “treasure memories” 4th birthday! I declare for myself a day off from work today.

My birthday wish was to have Mee Siam for lunch. Mee Siam which means “Siamese noodle” is a dish of thin rice noodles (vermicelli) in spicy, sweet and sour light gravy. Have not had a good Mee Siam for a long, long time. My very first maid learnt from my Mother in-law and she cooked very good Mee Siam. We used to have family members and friends over just for the Mee Siam.

This time round, while Mother in-law (MIL) was staying with us, I told her my birthday wish and she immediately agreed to cook for me! Love her so much for this!

Mee Siam cooked by my Mother in-law for my Birthday

I asked MIL to teach Moch to cook Mee Siam and this is what I had for my Birthday lunch. It was so yummy and satisfying. Moch asked me to let her know whenever I feel like eating it again.

Ingredients

1/4 cup oil
6 shallots
3 cloves garlic
Chili boh / paste
1 tbsp preserved soya beans (tau cheong)
250g medium-size prawns, shelled
1 cup stock or water
250g rice vermicelli or meehoon, soaked for five minutes and drained
200g beansprouts, remove root tips
2 pieces fried beancurd (tau kwa), sliced
2 pieces of fish cake, sliced
100g chives, cut into 4cm-5cm lengths
1 tsp sugar or to taste
1 tbsp Nampla (fish sauce)
Lime juice

Garnishing:

Chopped spring onions
2 limes or tamarind, cut into wedges
2 hard-boiled eggs, quartered or thinly sliced egg omelet
1 red chilli, sliced
Shallot crisps

Method

Heat oil in a wok
Stir-fry shallot and garlic until fragrant.
Add Chili boh / paste and preserved soya beans (tau cheong)
Add prawns and stock, then bring to a boil and simmer for five minutes.
Add meehoon and beansprouts. Stir-fry.
Mix in beancurd slices and chives and toss the meehoon well.
Add sugar and fish sauce for seasoning and a squeeze of lime juice and toss again.
Dish mee siam onto platter. Garnish before serving.

After the satisfying lunch, I went to Beaubelle to have my birthday pampering session ie body scrub, jacuzzi and aromatherapy body massage.

Genting Strawberry Park and Lavender Farm

Posted on Sun, Aug 26 2012 by sawleng

On the way down from Genting Highland, we stopped at Genting Strawberry Park and Lavender Farm. We wanted to have our afternoon tea at the Strawberry Cafe.

At the entrance of Genting Strawberry Park

It was drizzling then. Luckily, the Strawberry Park is a covered park. The admission to the park is free.

It was a nice feeling in the park with cool weather, greenery and lots of red strawberries.

Genting Lavender Farm

The last time that we visited this park, there was no Lavender Farm. This time round, we visited the Lavender Farm. The lavenders look so pretty in different purple shades. The whole farm smells very nice too.

In Lavender Shop

Comparing to the Lavender Garden that I visited in Seoul, the only disappointment is the Lavender Shop sells fake lavenders, rather than the real or dried lavenders. The shop looked quite empty look, probably it was still new.

Fresh vegetables were on sales there too. As it was drizzling, the man decided to sell these vegetables at lower price (four packet of vegetables at RM10) as there was not many visitors to the park. I bought 12 packets of vegetables for RM30, enough for our family to consume for a week. Some of the vegetables were cling wrap to protect the freshness of the vegetables.

Genting Strawberry Cafe

At the Genting Strawberry Cafe, there were coffee in strawberry flavour for sale too. Personally, I prefer the normal and original coffee taste.

For our afternoon tea, we had strawberry coffee (2 cups for RM9.80), strawberry milk shake (RM10.90), french fries (RM7) and waffle (RM4). The kids love eating french fries in raining and cold weather. The waffle was undercooked as the texture was not crispy. We provided our feedback to the lady owner and suggested how to present the waffle in a nicer and more presentable manner.

I was hoping to see strawberry cakes and more varieties of pastries in the cafe. Hopefully, more visitors will frequent the cafe and the cafe can have more varieties of food for selection.

Ming Ren Restaurant, Resort World Genting

Posted on Sun, Aug 26 2012 by sawleng

Hubby and I enjoyed the food at Ming Ren Restaurant which is famous for its Lamb Specialty Cuisine. The last time that we were in Genting Highland with my parents, we brought them there for dinner. Unfortunately, we were refused entry as we did not make any dinner reservation.

The restaurant entrance

This time round, Hubby made a reservation a day earlier. The staff adviced Hubby to be punctual at the restaurant as they will only hold on for our reservation for 15 minutes.

Quiet corner with nice view

We were ushered to this quiet corner with nice view of Genting.

Mini Yellow Rice (RM3++ per bowl)

This yellow rice were cooked with shallots and have a nice aroma and taste. Ever since we’ve tasted this rice, we’ll always order this yellow rice and not the normal white rice.

HK Kailan (RM18++)

HK Kailan vegetables

Yam Papaya Soup (RM12++ per bowl)

Soup for Jaden. We ordered one portion which came in bigger bowl. I’ve divided the soup into smaller bowl for Jared too.

Beancurd Hot Plate (RM16++ for small)

Beancurd for the 2 boys.

Lamb Chunk (RM32++ for small pot)

The last time that we dined at Ming Ren, we ordered 2 types of lamb, Roasted Lamb Ribs and Roast Lamb Skewer. This time round, we ordered Lamb Chunk and Roast Lamb Skewer.

Roast Lamb Skewer (RM8++ each)

The Lamb Skewer in Xinjiang’s traditional spices and seasonings make Ming Ren’s “Lamb Specialty Cuisine” undoubtedly some of the most tantalising, tender and succulent lamb dishes around!

The service at Ming Ren was good. The staff were very attentive.

Jasmine Tea

As we walked out from the restaurant, the staff greeted Hubby and wished him Happy Birthday. The service was so personalised.

Ming Ren Restaurant

Level 2, Highlands Hotel

Things to do in Genting Highland

Posted on Sun, Aug 26 2012 by sawleng

Mother in-law must have been very tired from all the travels by public transports during the Hari Raya festive holiday. She travelled from Segamat to KL by train, took Jared to Penang by train and ferry, came back to KL by bus and going back to Segamat by train. Hubby asked her to stay with us for a few more days to break the travels.

After 2 days of rest at home, we went up to Genting Highland for 2D1N short holiday. We drove up on late Saturday afternoon and checked in to Resorts World Hotel. After settling down in the hotel, we took a walk to First World Hotel. As I was walking and talking to my mother in-law, I realised it was my first holiday with her.

My mother in-law is a very strong lady. She does lots of charity work, especially for the Breast Cancer society in Segamat. She’s the one who suggested to Hubby and I to have annual holiday by ourselves without our kids and encouraged me to have “Me Time”. During the walk, I started to miss my late father in-law whom I didn’t spend much time with and to get to know him better ever since I married to Hubby.

Magic show at First World Hotel

Genting Highland was having Genting International Magic Festival 2012 during that period. There were magic shows on stage at First World Hotel. Hubby took mother in-law to check out the new wing of casino at First World Hotel.

The Visitors’ Galleria

We also went to the The Visitors’ Galleria.

Hubby sharing information on Genting Highland with his mother

At the galleria, there were lots of photos, information and history about the late Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong and Genting Highland. There was also video presentation about their stories and histories.

More to see in The Visitors’ Galleria

Awards, certificates, gifts, etc on display.

Ming Ren Restaurant

We had our dinner at Ming Ren Restaurant.

Superstars of Magic 2

We had earlier bought 5 tickets to watch this Superstars of Magic 2 show at Genting International Showroom.

Genting International Showroom hall … photo taken from our seats

We had very good seats, at the centre and close to the stage.

The magic show was excellent! Really excellent that we wanted to watch it again. There were so many awesome and international standard of magic acts. Two of the acts, World’s Greatest Escape Artist by Dean Gunnarson and World’s Best Quick Change Act by Sos and Victoria Petrosyan were in Guinness World Records. Unfortunately, we couldn’t take photos inside the hall.

The next morning, we watched more street magic shows and there were stalls selling magic tricks things. They were quite entertaining.

Magic Colour Book for the 2 boys

There were so many magic tricks things on sales. Jared chosen this Magic Colour Book (RM25). Not bad, with this book, Jared and Jaden can show a magic act.

Restaurant Hainan Kitchen

We had our lunch, the Hainan Chicken Rice at Restaurant Hainan Kitchen. We particularly like its white chicken with its chili sauce.

More performances at First World Hotel

On the way down from Genting Highland, we stopped at Strawberry and Lavendar Park for tea.