I Know What You Did Last Christmas

Happy 2010 Everybody!!!

Ok before school re-opens soon, I better write, what we did last Christmas holiday.

Last Wednesday 23/12 we headed to Penang for a holiday. We bunked in my sis-in-law's house for 2 nights in Bukit Mertajam. The place was actually pretty small to fit us a family of seven but as hubby doesn't like the idea of checking in into the hotel when he has his siblings around, he prefers that we sleep in the sister's house. His idea of strengthening the bond among family members. So who's to argue? I pity Hilman though as he is allergic to heat and sweat and for the 2 nights we were there, he didn't actually sleep well and he had been tossing and turning to find a good, comfortable, airy spot and on top of that he was scratching all over as he was perspiring. Nonetheless the hostess were such hospitable people and the kids had fun goofing with the aunt and uncle (the newly wed).

The next day we made our way to Penang. As the children never had the experience of riding on the ferry, we opted for ferry of course over the famous Penang Bridge. Once inside, the kids became quite 'jakun' going up and down the stairs on the ferry and watching the ram going up and down with amazement.


Enjoying the sea breeze

Happy faces first time on a ferry (the kids I mean)

The kids were amazed with the ram

Once we reached the Penang Island, we straight away headed to the Toy Museum. The journey to the Toy Museum took quite sometime as we were unfamiliar with the roads and the places that the kids began to complain and the million dollar question of 'are we there yet?' blurted from their mouth. I always thought driving in KL is bad enough but Penang's traffic is even madness. The roads are narrow and the drivers were more aggressive.

We reached the Toy Museum at around noon, and they were already many people inside mainly tourists, once stepped in the children were awed with the toys put on display and they went 'hey hey look! look! or 'check this out' or 'wow' or 'come come look what I've found' running around and shouting when they found toys or statue that were interesting or that they were familiar with.

The largest Toy Museum in the world

The entrance

With the character Po from Kung Fu Panda

A character from Monsters Inc

Hilman was just fascinated with the numbers of Sesame Street miniatures in the showcase

Dhaniyah with the one of the statues at the exit

Once in Penang we would not want to miss to savour the delicious nasi kandar there, so we opted for Kassim Mustafa as we were told they serve really good nasi dalca and kandar. And we have to agree, the dishes were indeed succulent.

Once our tummies were filled up, hubby thought of driving around in Penang, however as driving in Penang was just crazy with the heavy traffic that Christmas eve, and the children grew tired and started whining we decided to head back to Bukit Mertajam. The kids wanted to ride the ferry again though we suggested that we should try going on the famous Penang Bridge, but they insisted ferry ride would be more fun. So we agreed, but funny thing happened, hubby suddenly took the wrong exit and suddenly we were on Penang bridge much to the dismay of the kids. We thought of doing a u turn and ride again on the ferry to Penang but our sanity told otherwise.

The very next day after lunch, we made our to Bukit Merah Laketown Resort. Hubby booked a 2 room apartment in Suria apartment and the number of people checking in that day was just too many that it took quite a while for us to get into the room. The kids were satisfied with the size of the swimming pool and once inside the room, they quickly changed into their swimming suits.

As everyone was tired on that day, we turned in early to get ready to go to the Ecopark on the next day.

The next day after breakfast at the apartment, we went to the Ecopark, again the queue was long that I decided to bring the munchkins into the cafe as it was air-conditioned. So rather sitting around not buying anything, I decided to order one kiddie set meal for Hilman, as he was asleep when we went down for breakfast that morning. The meal was good that Hilman managed to finish the whole set. So nothing was wasted.

Once inside the Ecopark, I'll let the photos do the talking;

At the entrance


Feeding the tiny monkeys


Another monkey (I mean the one in the cage) ahak ahak


Since everyone else was just scaredy cat, I took the challenge with the albino pyhton


Feeding the deers


Hilman feeding the fish


The sky cycle ride



The fun of the day. The kids had 3 rounds of this ride

The very next day, the Orang Utan Island

At the jetty


The boat ride

The king, he has 4 wives

The playful babies


So like any other holiday, I was stressful and became more tired and I need a longer holiday to recover from this holiday. Typical me!

It's first day of school tomorrow, Khairina will be Year One, and I am more nervous than she is. Hope everything goes well. I wish to witness the day, however I have other children to think about and to take care off. Hubby will look through everything for the first 3 days, it will be Dhaniyah first day at kindi too. So here's hoping to a great year ahead.

Take care everybody.