Lembing Escape 林明 : Rainbow Waterfall & Panorama Hill

When we arrived at Lembing from Terengganu, it was time to go to bed. Below photo was our lodging for the trip.

Just kidding, someone else got the privilege, with a toddler in tow it was just not practical to stay in a tree house.

First destination : Rainbow Waterfall. Breakfast at 6am then we were transported in two 4 wheels. The journey lasted around one hour and I certainly do not miss the jumpy bumpy trip. I literally had to prevent myself from falling down.

As usual, no pain no gain. After the one hour bumpy ride + 45 minutes trekking, we were welcome with a peaceful waterfall.

We were told that when the sun arises, we would see the rainbow.

Well, there was no rainbow that day, but it didn't prevent us from having fun.

Showering under the waterfall.

Enjoying the waterfall.

One of the tour guides prepared hot milo (hot chocolate) and instant noodles for us. Hubby found it weird to have instant noodles in this location, but the kids were happy to have them.

The second morning, we went to Panorama Hill for its famous sunrise scenery. This was what we aimed to see.

We had to climb many stairs before arriving. Well, hubby went wandering around the day before and did the hiking within 19 minutes. As for us, it took us around 45 minutes.

And we saw this. It was below expectation but we did have fun. I especially enjoyed the morning market and the breakfast after.

Kuala Terengganu

We didn't have much time in Kuala Terengganu. All I remembered was the delicious dinner in the China Town, yellow sandy beaches along the coast and the comfortable jacuzzi in our hotel room.

Source
On the way to Lembing we vaguely saw this animal crossing the road. What a surprise! A Tapir in the wild.

Belum-Temenggor Escape - The special moments

The satisfying moment : arrived after half an hour hiking to a hill

The rewarding moment : enjoying the scenic views

The bonding moment: connecting with the cousins

The catching moment: he caught them with elastics, they were supposed to serve as bait for fishing

The flying moment: at one point the boat was flying

The encountering moment :Aelig first encounter with a Orang Asli (indigenous)

The tropical moment: the tropical rain visited the island after 5 minutes of strong wind

The sharing moment: not sure if it tasted better this way

The babysitting moment : shuttering around the kids

The mouthwatering moment : steamboat!

The napping moment : please do not disturb

The lonely moment : surrounded with islands without inhabitants, she is all by herself

A dialog

Hubby and Aelig were going down the stairs. Hubby wanted to make sure that he didn't forget the car key so he was searching in every pocket.

Aelig: Le fone?
Daddy: Quoi (what)?
Aelig: *incomprehensible baby garble* .. le fone?
Daddy: Je ne comprends pas (I don't understand).
Aelig: *A bit annoyed* Dian Hua Lah (telephone + lah in mandarin)
Daddy: Ah, je cherche mon téléphone (ah I'm looking for my cellphone)?
Aelig: Oui *thinking finally he understood me*
Daddy: Non, je cherche ma clé de voiture (no I'm looking for my car key)
Aelig: Ah

She is speaking Malaysian mandarin with the "lah" at the end. :-)

2 years 9 months

Beside traveling in Malaysia, this month's highlight is the beginning of school life for Aelig. She has been in school since last week. Grandma was with us to help her slowly integrate into the school schedule.

Today is the first day we start the her going to school and us going to work life without help. So how did it go? Around 6pm, I received a call from the school.

School: Hi madam, your daughter is still at school, is it normal?
Me: Yes, she is supposed to stay till 6.30pm.
School: Well, the teacher didn't tell me that she would stay after school finishes. And your daughter didn't get to have snack since I didn't have anything from you. And, all she does is crying.
Me: Ok, I'm coming.

I met up with hubby and hurried to the school. Aelig was the last kid to be picked up. We have subscribed to the yearly after-school nursery class but since the teacher was busy this morning, hubby didn't tell her that it would start today. The snack box was placed beside Aelig's bag but the teacher didn't notice it. The after-school baby sitter advised us to pick up Aelig earlier as going to school 10 hours a day is just too much for a young kid like her. She encouraged us to find someone to bring her home when school finishes at around 5pm.

All these kids get picked at 5.30pm at the latest except Aelig. Our sitter doesn't provide after-school pick-up service like some do. Either one of us leave work at 5pm or hire someone to pick her up at 5pm then stay with her till we come home. Headache.

Company activities

We had a week of Wellbeing@work activities at work, and one of the events was a cocktail lunch held in our future new building. Here are some common French cocktail serving "Canapé" (couch), a type of finger food.

We started with some appetizers. These were pieces of bread with foam toppings.

Some vegetables with dipping sauce. I had seen these being served in US too.

Sandwiches. Sardine sandwiches are quite popular when having party in Malaysia but uncommon in France.

Sweet breads stuffed with crabmeats.

Ciders and softdrinks.

Some were served in a spoon so that you can put it directly in your mouth.

Ham with cheese.

These should be considered a serving in the main course. I was busy chatting so I'm not sure if I took all the servings in photos.

Scallops in cream sauce, my favorite.

Desserts. Noticed that there was only one macaron left. I took the last one, too sweet.

Another activities was family visiting to the company. It is not a common activity in France so I invited Aelig to go to "work" with me. She was intrigued and had been waiting for the day to come.

There were some snacks and she ate a lot. She even complained when the other kid finished a type of chips.

Raclette with family

Before leaving to Malaysia I asked my sister what she would like to have from France. To my surprise, she told me if I could bring the raclette set, as she loved the dish the last time she tasted it in my place. I didn't even remember that I had prepared this dish for them, as my parents are not keen on cheese based food.


We went to Carrefour and managed to get most of the ingredients. My sister found cornichon (gherkin, a type of pickled cucumber) in a local store.


Everyone seemed to love it, even my parents tried. Hubby said the ham, the bacon and the sausages were quite authentic to those in France. I smuggled in the raclette cheese from France, but they could find it in Cold Storage in Malaysia. All the ingredients are quite pricey though.


At one point we wonder if we could cook an egg with this raclette set.


Yes we could, it just takes longer time to cook.


Hubby joined in the conversation without my help. He has blended in and I'm very proud of him. :-)

We are home

We are back in France after passing more than three weeks in Malaysia.

The flight was smooth, I managed to sleep most of the time. Aelig was sick, she threw up several times the night before departure. We were worried that she would vomit in the flight, but she slept through the flight and train.

Hubby was down too with upset stomach. We suspected that it was the nasi lemak in the flight. I'm glad I didn't choose it.

As for me, I have heavy jet lag this time. I feel sleepy most of the time and didn't have appetite to eat.

So, Aelig didn't go to school as planned, Hubby was on sick leave, I went to work but spent the afternoon having teleconference, at home.

The adjustment was very tough this time for Aelig. She speaks mandarin most of the time now and refuse to switch back to French.

Krabi Escape - Centara Anda Dhevi Hotel Pool Access Room

We are enjoying our vacation in Krabi Thailand.

I had a hard time deciding on the accommodation. I read lots of reviews on hotels in Krabi but non of them caught my eyes. Hubby took over the task and narrowed down to two hotels and the first one met most of my criteria. So, I reserved the hotel only the night before departure. So here we go staying in Centara Anda Dhevi and we are very happy about it.


Initially we chose a pool view room, then hubby discovered that the hotel has some pool access rooms. How nice to be able to go to the swimming pool from your own balcony!


The angel was so eager to go to the pool. I decided that we should try to upgrade to the pool access room. With a little bit of luck, there was one room available but only for two nights for USD17 more per night, we jumped immediately to the offer.


We are glad we did. Aelig was all excited.


We were so happy with this room that we didn't go for island hopping tour as planned. We visited the Railey Island nearby then went back straight to the hotel and jumped into the pool for several hours.

I strongly recommend this hotel to family with children. Beside the pool, they also have a safari room to welcome kids from 9am to 6pm.

Applying the Malaysian Citizenship for child born abroad at Putrajaya

Update on 04 Aug 2017: My brother in laws went to pick up the certificate in July 2017. We finally got to see it during our last trip to Malaysia. This is how it looks like! And we managed to get a MyKid for her too.

Her Malaysia Citizenship Certificate

We applied for MyKid while we were in Malaysia in July 2017, normally it only takes two hours, but for some reason they needed to call Putrajaya to verify something so we only got it the day after.

Update on 15 Feb 2016 : Went to Putrajaya then JPN Selangor, we finally got the letter stating that the application was approved! The letter was issued on May 2014 but for some reason my family had not received it. We submitted the required documents, JPN will issue us a certificate of nationality between 3 to 6 months. Yeah, she got it!

Ever since I knew that child born abroad to Malaysian mothers could apply for Malaysian citizenship, I have been preparing the documents to apply Malaysian citizenship for Aelig the next time I go back to Malaysia. Finally, mission accomplished and now fingers crossed for the application result.

We arrived at Putrajaya around 2pm. We wasted some times looking for the Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara (JPN) as I forgot that Putrajaya was divided into many Precincts. JPN is located in Precinct 3, not far from the pink Putra Mosque.


The main entrance to JPN at Putrajaya.


The citizenship department is located in level 1.
Once arrived, I went towards the receptionist stating my purpose of visit. She checked some of the documents:
1. Malaysian marriage certificate (I'm so glad I took the hassle to apply for this cert even though my civil wedding was carried out in France)
2. Aelig's birth certificate (They accepted the French-issued multi-lingual birth certificate without problem)
3. Aelig's passport
I sensed that the whole purpose was to make sure that we got married before having Aelig. This was one of the conditions that we have to meet before handling in our application.
She then proceeded by giving me the application form (Borang B).



And she asked me a question that costed me RM70.
"Did you wear long pants?"
"No". I showed her my blue short pants.
"Well, you will not be allowed to go through the process with this pants. Please come back tomorrow."
I was a bit surprised. I do not remember this attire request when I came to JPN last time for the "Certificat de célibataire".
Well, I decided to respect the requirement and asked for direction towards the closest shopping mall and bought myself a pair of jeans. Problem solved.

I took some times to carefully filled out the application form. Here are the required documents (original + 1 photocopy):
1. Child's birth certificate
2. Child's passport
3. Child's photos (3 pieces)
4. Child's first time entering Malaysia (photocopy of the page in the passport)
5. Applicant's birth certificate (I'm the applicant in this case)
6. Applicant's IC
7. Applicant's passport
8. Father's birth certificate (translated in English or Malay)
9. Father's passport
10. Parents' marriage certificate

At that time we were the only applicant at the Citizen department. We were handed a number and moved to another counter. The officer checked through the application form and I had to modify two information:
1. Aelig's race.
In the application form there was Malay, Chinese, Indian and Others. I checked "Others" and put a side note that she was a mixed between Malaysian and French.
Well, the officer insisted that I had to choose between Chinese or French. I hesitated. For me she is Malaysian French. Eventually I chose Chinese, now I regretted. She would probably have more chance if she is grouped in "Others".

2. Aelig's religion
I entered no religion for Aelig. It was apparently not an acceptable answer. Again, we needed to choose. We explained that she has no religion but the officer did not seem to understand. To move on I kindly asked him to check "Christian".

I would say that the whole process was very pleasant and the officers were polite and professional. They verified the photocopies from the original one and chatted with us from time to time. At one point Aelig heard us saying "Terima Kasih" (Thank you in Malay) so she repeated it. The officer was interested in knowing if she knows other Malay words, but she didn't want to corporate. She did sing part of "Chan Mali Chan" in front of them though. I hope this would win their heart and eventually grant her the citizenship. Fingers crossed!

Side note: Hubby was very impressed by the courtesy shown by the government servants he dealed with in Putrajaya. He felt that they are way better than the French civil servants in terms of attitude and service.