Mount Batur and surfing in Bali

Climbing up Mount Batur and surfing were the highlights for the whole trip in Bali.We decided to climb Mount Batur when we arrived Kintamani. It was not in our plan.We were so in love with the amazing view of Kintamani and Mount Batur. Despite my painful and swollen right knee, I couldn't resist to climb that mountain. We got up at 3 o'clock in the morning and start to climb the volcano at 4 o'clock.Reached the peak after 2 hours of climb. The climb to the mountain was pretty easy. However, to climb down from the mountain was a suffering process.Painful yet satisfying.Anyway I made it!!

Bali is world renown place for surfing.Audrey(my best buddy) gave me the courage to learn surfing and told me to go to the same surfing school that she went before. Unfortunately, I went to the wrong surfing school. I've to confess that I forgot the name of the school.We went to another school called Big Kahuna-Hawaian Style Surf School. It said "guarantee can stand" for first 2 hours lesson. hehehe... I stood up maybe 2 to 3 times on the surf board, failed to stand most of the time. hehehe...glad that I made it also.

Mount Batur

Sunrise at the peak of Mount Batur

Another view of sunrise

Close-up of the sun

Monkeys are everywhere at the peak of Mount Batur, he is one of them.

My dear cousin,Lynn and me at the peak of Mount Batur.

The gases from the volcanic crater

Kuta Beach

The Surfboards for rent at Kuta Beach

This Balinese man was picking up seashells at the Kuta's seashore

The surfers of Big Kahuna-Hawaian Style Surf School :)

The only picture that I stood up

when I fell down....

Ozeki

I love Ozeki Japanese cuisine!!!I brought Joyce there when she was here in KL 3 weeks ago. She treated me a nice dinner. I love "Unagi"so much till I didnt realise that we ordered almost every dishes with "Unagi". From appetizer till main course except the dessert. hehehe....I like the appetizer the most-mango salad with Unagi.

Beside the delicious food, I like the ambience of the restaurant too.Perfect! Highly recommended place to go for Japanese cuisine. Anyone?

The Blessed 30th Birthday

What's this man?! hehehe....

I had an unforgettable and memorable 30th birthday.I was so blessed to have so many friends remembering my birthday and of course my family members also. Joyce came over again for holiday and also celebrated my birthday(thank you!).Heok Yit called me all the way from Brisbane. Wei Sam(Betty) and Leon woke me up early in the morning, sang a lovely birthday song to me.My elder brother's kids called me one day before my birthday and said " FAT GU GU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" LOL, I will try to lose weight from now onwards. My sister in law asked me to quickily find a boyfriend and get married. That's a bit tough :). My sister "Jinnie" called all the way from States also-thank you Ani. Not forgetting my cousin,Lynn and my dearest roomate,Sophia celebrated my birthday too.And also all the texts and messages.It was a really nice birthday! Thanks to everyone.Will never ever forget...yeah, I know that I am getting into 30's.

It was a bonus that I was off on my birthday. Went karaoke with Joyce in the afternoon and had dinner at Passage Thru India.

The delicious Indian food....



Group photo


My dearest cousin -thanks for the "special gifts"



Joyce and me - Thanks for being there with me


My dearest roomate, Sophia-thanks for everything

And also thanks to A-Teh for giving me a surprise birthday cake one day before my birthday :),blew my "1 year old" birthday candle at SPCA.

thought it was my birthday cake :)oopsy...

Gorgeous Taiwan!

Night view of Taipei City, taken from observatory desk in Taipei 101

Ilha Formosa means Beautiful Island. That's what a group of Portugese sailors uttered when they saw Taiwan for the first time. People are awesome, famous to be one of the warmest people in the world.

From Malaysia, we flew to Taiwan on 23 April 2009.We landed in Taipei from HK(transit), then took a high speed rail to Chia Yi as we wanted to catch the early old train to Alishan the next day. Spend one night in Chia Yi and went to the night market. I was amazed by the night market. The whole place was immersed with variety of food and clothes!!Mainly seafood though. The seafoods were just too enticing.Don't even dare to touch it after the anaphylactic shock incident in Bangkok. We managed to catch the early old train to Alishan the next morning. It was about 4 hours scenic ride. Spend one night in Alishan. Woke up 4am the next day,felt so fortunate that we would be able to see sunrise at the summit of Yu-Shan.

Chia Yi's night market

Avocado juice

The fancy helmets

This was the train that we took to go to Alishan National Scenic Area.At the halfway point we were asked to walk a distance to catch another train to Alishan.

The second train stopped at Fenchihu for a short break. Fenchihu is a tiny and old village.

The motel that we stayed in Alishan

Alishan's coffee

The misty weather in Alishan




We had hotpot at one of the restaurant in Alishan



The sunrise at Yu Shan


Another view of Yu Shan

From Alishan we took a bus to ChiaYi town and caught a train to KaohShiung. KaohShiung is the second largest city in Taiwan. Spend one night in that city.Went to the Love River and night market.

One of the locals main vehicles - scooters

KaohShiung Train Station

The night view of Love River,KaohShiung




KaohShiung night market




Various types of fruits juices

"The juicy pork"

The Super huge "sotong"!!

After KaohShiung, we spend the last 3 nights in Taipei. First of all I've to say that the accomodation in Taiwan is awesome, so cozy and comfortable. I guess this was the best accomodation that I've ever stay especially the one in Taipei. We stayed near Shilin night market which is known as the king of Taipei's night markets.Spend our first night in Taipei at Shilin night market hunting for food :). The next day, we took a bus to YangMing Shan National Park. We were so eager to see the flowers in YangMing Shan.The funniest part was we didnt actually spend our time in the national park. It happened that the information centre was closed on that day. We were kinda lost and dont know where to start from. Fortunately we met a few of taiwanese ladies and suggested us to follow them to see Alocasia(calla Lily) in ZhuZiHu. It was a long journey to see Alocasia.hehe....10 mins of bus drive and about 1 hour of walk.It was a nice trip though. However, we managed to drop by at the famous flower clock of YangMing Shan before we left. Next was Taipei 101, officially known as world's tallest building and has the fastest elevator in the world. We went to XiMenDing the next day, a place where youngsters hang around here and also with full of trendy shops, restaurants,sneakers and etc.The last day morning before we left Taipei, we managed to visit Sun Yat-Sen memorial hall and watched the changing of guards with extremely precise march and intricate spinning of rifles.

Taipei MTR

At Shilin Night Market

The famous fried chicken chop

Spicy and oily noodles(direct translation from mandarin)...hehehe...








The white bitter melon juice

My favourite taiwanese beef noodles

The calla lily plantation

The flower clock at Yang Min Shan

Taipei 101

The 90th floor in Taipei 101




The world fastest elevator. The lift travels at 1010 per minute and takes 40 seconds to get from ground level to the 89th floor. It took extremely long and lots of patience to take this photo.

XiMenDing

Joyce's favourite Taiwanese food



The famous Ah Zhong mee suan

Sun Yat- Sen Memorial Hall

This smart guard was performing the choreography of rifles spinning