Boracay, PH : Beach house & self-select, fresh seafood!

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Our private balcony with welcome drinks

View from the beach house




If you want to travel to Boracay from Kuala Lumpur, do consider it's traveling time. We took ONE WHOLE DAY to reach Boracay!

4 hours flight to Manila (we left KL at 4AM)
3 hours of waiting
45 mins transit flight to Kalibo
2 hours bus ride (through the mountains!) to jetty
5 mins boat ride to Boracay (reached at 8PM, like finally!)

But once you reach Boracay, you kinda forget about the traveling :) This place is heavenly! Alright, I might be a little biased because I love the beach, but I'll let the pictures convince you :D

We booked ourselves to a wonderful 2-bedroom beach house on Bulabog beach. We ended up not staying in the famous White Beach, because with our budget, we can only live in very old hotel rooms which resembled my previous apartment in Hyderabad, India. -_-

So it was pretty obvious we were going to go with the beach house :P

My travel partners for Boracay - Bryan (can never leave him out, can I? :D), Sue May and Ching!






Sue May & Ching are so cute together, right? One's 5 feet and the other is 6 feet tall :D Not apparent in the pictures above, but you'll see in my next posts haha!

It was a rather relaxing holiday for us. We ate (a lot) and did a couple of beach activities like sunset sailing on a local paraw boat, and cliff diving!!! Will get to that in my next post ;) I reckon beach activities are cheaper here compared to Thailand. The rest went for skim boarding too, but I was too slack to do it (I ended up watching the sunset!)

Other times, we just lounged on bamboo sunbeds next to the beach house, drank lots of San Miguel while snacking on tapas, soaked in the water during sunset and basically, just do nothing :)






Windsurfers on Bulabog Beach

Enjoying a bottle of Mango fruit shake, at Jonah's.







The famous Willy's Rock, with a statue of Virgin Mary at the top

One of the nights, we found ourselves wandering to a local wet market. Apparently it was popular with the local Filipinos to purchase fresh seafood from markets, then bring it to the restaurants for it to be cooked. And that's exactly what we did!

Bryan haggled for them, and we ended up getting two lobsters, two crabs and a fish. All of them were giant-sized, and it left me wondering "How can four of us finish it?!" The lobsters were so huge, that its antennas have flesh in it -_-

The waiter suggested different ways to have our seafood cooked, and he thought since the lobsters were so huge, they'll take the heads and cook porridge with it. WOW!!! That was a brilliant idea! Can you imagine porridge with all that yummy, goooey Lobster roe? *salivates*

Bargaining in action!

Lobster roe porridge!



Bryan with lobster antennas!

Grilled crabs - the night's winner for me!



Every night at the beach house (after replying Whitesoot emails, and yes, I can still put food in my tummy after that huge meal) I enjoy a bottle of San Miguel while listening to songs played on Ching's portable speaker.

I remember thinking to myself "Life can't get any better than this..." :)

Next post - Cliff Diving in Boracay!

Boracay, PH : Most beautiful sunset

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Hello!

I just got back from Melbourne for the brother's graduation a couple of days ago (congratulations, Ming!), and already having Melbourne withdrawal symptoms. And as excited as I am to share about Melbourne, I realized I have not blogged about Boracay. Oops! Hehe =X

So, here are a couple of panaromic shots by my travel partner's iPhone #nofilter (thank you, Sue May!). This is my most beautiful sunset experience yet (coming in a close second is Tanah Lot in Bali). It definitely looks more amazing in real life, and I feel very privileged to be able to soak in the beautiful view for an hour, every day I was there. Very surreal!

We bargained and managed to experience the sunset cruise on the local paraw boats for only RM10 per person. One of the best experiences of my life! I promise you pictures very soon :)





A good night's sleep for RM2.30

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I'm typing this post after 38 hours of being awake with 2 hours of sleep.

Last night, my mom, Bryan and I decided to go to a neighbourhood kopitiam for drinks. It was 11PM by the time we got there, and I wanted to drink milk.

The menu stated that a cup of hot milk is RM5.80.

In my head, I thought 'Hmm, better not order milk, else Bryan will go on a mini lecture, asking why do I want to drink milk for RM5.80, when I can buy for much cheaper in the supermarket. Also, we have milk in the office' I can foresee this ahead, because to Bryan, it doesn't make sense and it's not justifiable to order a cup of milk for RM5.80. He's just like this for things he feels are not worth paying for.

So, to avoid any unnecessary bickering, I ended up looking at another page of drinks, and found milk tea for RM3.50. I thought 'Okay, this is more reasonable that RM5.80. Plus, I don't make milk tea in the office or at home :P I shall order this!'

OMG THAT RM3.50 MILK TEA COST ME MY ENTIRE NIGHT'S SLEEP!!!

I was in bed by 2AM, trying to sleep (Bryan was still awake reading something on the Tab), but ended up tossing and turning until 3AM when Bryan came to bed.

I was very sleepy as I could feel my eyes heavy and dry. But I just couldn't sleep. It was as if my brain was doing some running, jumping and somersaults....whole night long.

Bryan fell asleep before me, and he snored all the way -_-

Damn that RM3.50 tea. If I didn't have such thoughts and ordered the milk, I would have had a wonderful sleep, and got all recharged for the next busy day. All for the difference of RM2.30 only!

Next time, I won't bother Bryan and just order what I want :P

And for the record, I gave up trying to sleep at 7AM when the sun came up.

Guangzhou: Pearl River at night

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After a long day of walking around the city, it felt really good to take a short breather along the Pearl River :) I had a good hour just admiring the changing lights of the bridges and Canton Tower as well as the brightly lit cruises!

I love how the buildings in Guangzhou (and probably other big cities in China and Hong Kong) have amazing, bright lights and hence, decorating the entire city skyline too. Actually, I've see lights on Taiwan's and Singapore's buildings too. How come Malaysian buildings are not like that? :P (except for maybe KLCC and KL Tower)

More pictures along Pearl River :)




That's all about my Guangzhou trip! :)

I still have Boracay to blog about, and I'm mighty excited about that! Too many pictures, I don't even know which one to choose to appear on the blog yet :)

Guangzhou: Out & about

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Hey there, Mr Photographer!






Colonial Shamian Island // Streets off Chang Shou Lu // Police van on the lively Beijing Road // Cantonese street snacks


There is one thing I love about travelling, that is wandering around and savouring the sights, sounds and flavours of a foreign place!

Once, we got lost looking for a place, and I was pretty sure we walked a good 3km around the same place, over and over again. When I was just about to get grumpy and hungry (hey, it rhymes!) somehow, we stumbled upon a street littered with fruit peddlers. It must have been the season for grapes and cherries, because many of them were selling it! The cherries looked really big and juicy (and since they are my favourite!), we bought a couple of hundred grams. And they tasted as good as they look!!! Instant mood lifter ;)

The Cantonese are very entrepreneurial too. At any chance, they will sell something. Anything! There were many places with these 'pop-up' businesses (even along the underground walkway tunnels). However, I saw the local authority chasing them away too :P But the Cantonese are very fast. They always manage to pack up and leave before the authority comes by! I managed to capture two women selling sneakers on their car in a busy area with many locals and tourist around. Other than having sneakers on top of their car, they had many, many boxes of sneakers inside too!

So typical of Chinese, right? :D



A last picture of us fooling around in Shamian Island :) I like this quaint place!

Guangzhou: Tao Tao Ju & Guangzhou restaurant

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You must be wondering "WTH IS TAO TAO JU?"
Because I had the same thoughts hehe!

Such funny name this 100-year old restaurant in Guangzhou has. The Cantonese calls it Tao Tao Kui, but for some reason it appears everywhere in English as Tao Tao Ju.

I was really tired after the long walk at Chang Shou Lu, so I happily plonked myself at the table. Only to realize there were no waitresses serving us hot piping dim sum in push carts. It's self-service here! T____T



Here's the auntie at the food counter, distributing dim sum, and noting down it's price on customer's sheets. There were food counters at every floor. If I'm not mistaken, this place is 4-storey tall, and we were at the highest floor!


All the oldies (uncle & aunties) in the trip, were loving it, as it was very 'traditional' tasting, according to them! I don't know what traditional is, because I'm not that old yet, RIGHT? ;)

But to be honest, I was quite surprised by it's dim sum! It's not the usual Malaysian fusion style we have, with all the seaweed, mayonnaise and all, but the dim sum were fresh and tasty! Those prawns were succulent... and really juicy, I'm surprised!








That half-eaten Tau fu fah lookalike thingy, is called Siong Pei Lai or double steamed milk custard. I wasn't expecting it to taste really good.... but it was SO good, that I had to take a picture of it (although I've finished half a bowl!). I want to eat that again!

Another restaurant we went to try was Guangzhou restaurant (what a convenient name!). Apparently the best restaurant in Guangzhou, and was popular with both locals and tourist. But I didn't like it. Maybe I was too full from the previous meal.... or maybe there's really nothing special about the dishes we ordered.




However, the restaurant that I really like, was introduced by my uncle's local relative. This was the food that were on the table. Glorious! Outstanding dishes were Pak Cham Kai or steamed chicken (it came with some seriously awesome soya sauce and onions!) and meat balls.

I don't know the name of the restaurant, as everything is in Chinese! But it is very near the Peasant Movement Train Station (Line 1, Exit A).




But I have their name card tho ;) if you want some authentic Cantonese cuisine in Guangzhou the next time you're there!

Guangzhou: Posh airport hotel & Chen Clan Academy

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We checked into Pullman Guangzhou airport hotel, which was literally 10 minutes walk from Baiyun Airport! This is the view from our room, Pullman's garden and the airport terminal. We were that close!

 Since we were staying at the airport hotel, we took a many train rides into the city. Every day, we spent at about 3 hours travelling. Yes, very tiring!

There were so many people in the train (okay, I know it's China), but it's really quite mad. I took a quick shot of all of us train passengers, and this is non-peak hour. I really cannot imagine peak hour!

 I've been to Beijing a couple years back, so I was mentally prepared to face this amount of people at one time. But for first-timers to China like Bryan, he was completely thrown back hehe!


 I'd so rather chill in the room and eat breakfast all day :P

We don't really get to stay in fanciful hotels, like Pullman, during travels (budget, budget!), so I quite enjoyed our stay here ;)



The only historical building we checked out was Chen Clan Academy. Apparently it was a home of a very rich man of Guangzhou in the earlier days. There were many carvings, artworks, pottery and engraving preserved from the dynasties, around the house.



But what I most enjoyed about Chen Clan Academy were the corridors and courtyards. Very serene and quaint! How I wished they served some nice tea with yummy Chinese treats in the relaxing courtyards :)



That would be awesome, wouldn't it? :)

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