Tong Pak Fu

There are a lot of dessert shops launched in Penang in recent time, it first from Taiwan like Black Ball and Meet Fresh, then Hongkies comes such as Xu Liu Shan and Tong Pak Fu. Comparing between Taiwanese and Hongkies style, I prefer HongKong dessert more because their products look like less processed and fresher than Taiwanese.

Between Xu Liu Shan and Tong Pak Fu, then I like Tong Pak Fu more because they got more options on hot dessert, well I don't really like to have cold drink or dessert. So far, I found there are three Tong Pak Fu outlets in Penang Island, one on Burma Road, one in Gurney Plaza and another one in Queesbay Mall, I still haven't visited to the Burma Road outlet, but I have been to Gurney Plaza and Queensbay Mall once each.

My first visit to Tong Pak Fu was the Gurney Plaza outlet and we ordered Black Seasame Cream and Glutinous Cream, I am fan of black seasame so that black seasame is my first order from Tong Pak Fu and SL took the Glutinous Cream, and we exchanged our portion with each other. After having Glutinous, I think I prefer taste of Glutinous and SL also the same, black seasame cream is tasted a bit sweeter and we found hard to finish the whole bowl by one person, while glutinous cream's taste is just right. After all, our visit in Gurney Plaza was pleasure.

Then we visited to Queensbay Mall Tong Pak Fu outlet about a week later, and we expected they will have same standard of taste, we ordered Walnut Cream and Peanut Cream this time, but their portion seems like less than bowl that we had in Gurney Plaza outlet, the bad part is their cream wasn't warm enough for taste, the even worst part is creams wasn't as thick as the Gurney Plaza and we every can feel corn stratch was inside their cream, this made us felt they didn't use fully ingredient in their creams. Honestly, we found dissapointed with the shop and we were doubt whether Gurney Plaza outlet is actually used corn stratch in their creams as well but they are more professional to hide them in the cream.

After walking out from the Queensbay Mall Tong Pak Fu outlet, we discussed this is a way to save more money to boost their profit, but the thing is whether corn stratch is the ingredient from Tong Pak Fu factory but the outlet failed to hide it properly, or this is added by outlet itself to gain more profit margin by themselves. Anyways, we are no keen to visit the outlet in Queensbay Mall anymore and hesitated to visit the other Tong Pak Fu outlets as well.

My Black Seasame Cream


SL's Glutinous Cream

Pant pattern





Last week was long weekend and I took a week plus leaves going back to my hometown, for spending some time with my mother and attending my brother-in-law's wedding.

 

Finally, I could meet with my mother after seperated for so long, my mother is a tailor and of course I learn some pattern drafting skill from her as I always felt that I couldn't draft a perfect pant pattern.

 

After taking course with my mum, I think next time I should be able to sew a perfect fitted pant :)

 

Here is my drafted pant.

 

tissue box cover



That day, I saw my tissue box was quite ugly, therefore I decided to make a cover for it, here is it.

 

My own made curtain

That day, we washed our curtain with too high temperature and the whole set of curtain was damaged, therefore I decided to make my own curtain. So, we bought our curtain fabric from shop last weekend and I spent the whole of my weekend sewing this pair of curtain.

At very first, I thought sewing curtain was simple job as all are straight line but it actually not, especially if sewing for a sliding door curtain. Because we need to have the perfect measurement and well handling for such a huge piece of fabric, it actually is risk if you cut it too long or too short.

Anyways, I finally completed my curtain project, well this is not a perfect piece but at least is usable piece :)

However, I am not too satisfied with the fabric quality, therefore we need to do more fabric survey if we really plan to sew the curtain for our house next time.

The raw material


The finished product

my smocked top

Finally, I had successfully made my smocked top before my Maldives trip and I took it to the Maldives, it really is a suitable beach wear.

Though it is a top, it still quite long for legging purpose, but I didn't wear short or pant, I was wearing swimming suit instead.

Actually, I like how it look because it just properly covered the part that I needed to cover and still look casual.

I think this photo with a little boat behind on the clear sea, it is just so beautiful like a painting.

I miss the Maldives so much, it was the best vacation ever I had.

Maldives heat

After coming back from vacation, SL said that I have became happier than before, and I also feel the same, I am more enegerstic on doing thing and use my time more productively. Unlike before, I was always complaining and thinking negatively, but I got less of this type of feeling now. Even though SL would temporary blacken his face, I also can pretend that I didn't see it and just let it go.

After the vacation, we both feel more love with each other because there is another memory storage in our brain, which recorded another experience that we went through together. Actually, SL also become happier but he denied it and said he happy because of seeing me happy :) Anyways, he is still happier, right? No matter what makes him happier.

We are back from Maldives for about a week plus, and I have done organising my Maldives Trip blogs by yesterday, their actually were written during we were on vacation and I only spent sometime on reread and edited them after back to put in more my personal view. This type of vacations is really nice because I can update my blog anytime during my vacation, it will be more detail because my memory was still fresh. Actually, I wished to complete a lot of blogs on my other trips, like Europe, New York, Olympic National Park, but they were long gone from my memory and everything weren't as fresh as our recent trip anymore, so I think I might finally give up to put them in my blog and only will recall those old memory when we viewing our photoes.

Recently, "Maldives" always be the keyword between SL and I when we were talking about things, and I always teased him that I wish to revisit Vilamendhoo Island in Maldives again next few years. Then he asked me if I am sure for that because we might not have pictures to take because it is still the same place and we have taken every good photoes that we can take. And he suggested why not we just go to somewhere else, he doesn't mind if trip is not as relaxing as Maldives.

After taking second thought, I really need to reconsider if I want to revisit the same island next time. Yes, then I am still kicking the sea, jumping on beach, kissing at sunrise and sunset, repeating the same pose at the same location, then why don't I just review my photoes for another time? Then, I suddenly change my mind, perhaps we might need to try out something new, right?

Yes, I think I might revisit to Maldives but it maybe not Vilamendhoo Island next time, but I still wish the island have their own house reef, so that we can easy access for snorkeling, still Maldives might not be our next vacation destination, it might be few years later, but it might not be within five years.

For Vilamendhoo Island, it might be the only visit in our lifetime, unless we really affordable enough in further that we can plan a real honeymoon (a month one) that time, then it might not bad to transfer between different islands that we like and Vilamendhoo sure will be one of them :) Haha... daydreaming doesn't cost anything, right?

Ending of Maldives trip

3rd of October, we were waiting for our transit flight to Penang in KL airport, this also marked the end of our vacation, we need to back to reality now and start working hard for our next Maldives trip :)

Overall, I love my trip, it was relaxing and enjoyable. Originally, I thought we would be bored as I read quite some travel journal on Maldives trip, therefore I brought three books with me for killing some spare time, however I didn't even finish reading a book after back because I spent lot of my time to writing my blog and sea viewing, it was great for just seeing this beautiful sea by doing nothing.

Four nights stay in island is a bit too short for me, I would plan a longer stay if I really travel next time. Also, I would do more evaluation on different price of half board, full board and all inclusive package because we are not alcohol drinker, as I think more portion of price comes from alcohol, cruise and lessons, which I might not need them for next trip. But, I probably would allocte some budget for snorkeling excursion as Maldives underwater world is really beautiful, especially I like their clean sea and sea will even be crystal clear when strong sunshine.

Another thing to take in mind, sun is really burning there, so we might need to bring more high index sunblocks next time, in case it was not enough. When trip almost ended, we worried if our sunblock was enough for the rest of trip that we saved some when we applying it, so our skin was brunt a bit at last two days.

Besides, I recommend Maldives Traveller website (https://www.maldivestraveller.mv) because their play an important role on promoting Maldives tourism, they even gave out goodies bag to traveller who register and provide travel detail to their website. They change policy lately, that traveller needed to leave comment on their forum before departure from Maldives, I thought I won't get the goodies as I didn't want to online during stay but I still received a goodies package from them, it was a surprise and now I know that is because I registered to the website before 17 September 2012.

No matter what, people should travel to Maldives once in their life, especially for those who love sea a lot, it is really a paradise. I even made joke with SL, said that we want to search if any resort in Maldives hire old people, then we can apply to work in the resort after we retire, haha... I have planned ahead for our retirement :P

Our souvenir from Maldives Traveller

Seaplane transfer in Maldives

For getting to nearby resort from Male International Airport, resort will arrange speedboat transfer for visitor, speedboat transfer can be arrange anytime in a day, therefore you still can check in to your hotel even if you arrive at night.

However, for getting those further resorts, tourists will need to take seaplane to transfer to their resort, resort will help you to arrange this and seaplane transfer cost will be charged to your payment once you made reservation. However, seaplane transfer can only be arranged during daytime, so you might need to book a hotel in Male if your flight arrive late or depart early.

Our resort is Vilamendhoo, it is located at South Ari Atoll in Maldives, it is about 25 minutes travel time by seaplane. Actually, it was a good experience to travel with seaplane as we can view the atoll of Maldives from bird view through seaplane's glass.

Seaplane in Maldives is operated by Trans Maldivian (tma - www.tam.com.mv) and Maldivian Air Taxi (http://www.maldivianairtaxi.com) while we were arranged with Trans Maldivian, which is another domestic flight terminal from Maldives International Airport, they also provide transport between these two terminals by bus. Currently, I think domestic flight area is more attractive than international flight area, it might be different after 2014.

At seaplane transfer area, some resorts will provide lounge area for their customers, like our resort, else tourists will need to wait at waiting area but there is well equipped if compared with waiting area of international terminal. I pretty like the lounge from Vilamendhoo Island Resort it is comfortable and we can have a good view of seaplane parking area.

If you come to Maldives, you might consider to find a resort which need to access by seaplane so that you can view the atoll from plane, this is really a good experience though seaplane transfer cost is high, the ticket is more than our international flight from Penang to Maldives.

On the day when we go to our resort, seaplane people will distribute a pair of earplug for every passenger to isolate noise going into ear. And, we need to retain those earplug on your returning trip, so that it can be reused on the returning trip, else you won't get another pairs.
Before I came to Maldives, I kept asking my resort about my seaplane schedule but they told me it's only will be available on the day before departure, I didn't know why they only provided it at the last minute, isn't seaplane schedule are constant everyday? And after I was in Maldives, I realized that seaplane schedule is really not constant everyday, it keeps changing according to tourist's need, if there is no tourist check in or check out from certain resort, then there will no seaplane arrange to that area. Therefore, TMA will only arrange their schedule according to resort's booking a day before, in case if there is any last minute cancellation from resort's customer.

This really needs a good planner to fully utilize every seat in seaplane, therefore sometime a seaplane will stop at different stops to pick up or drop off passenger to/from different resorts. However, from what I observe during research for a resort, seaplane fare is not too much different for different traveling time. For example, a resort needs a 45 minutes to reach and a resort needs a 25 minutes to reach actually asking a similar seaplane fare.

View from seaplane - a resort near to our island

Our seaplane

View from seaplane 

Our seaplane for back to Male :(

View from seaplane - Atoll in Maldives

View from seaplane - Atoll in Maldives

View from seaplane - beautiful Male

Sixth day in Maldives

2nd of October, this day is our last day in Maldives, I felt a bit upset, why happy moment always ended that fast? I really don't wish to leave this beautiful place, sitting in front of my room, watching the calm sea and listening to melody of sea wave, it was just an enjoyable life. Maldives, I would need to say goodbye to you soon, I hope that I will be back again.

Well, we when to Bali last time for honeymoon and brought back a lot of good memories, we also wished to be back to Bali sometime, but we found Maldives finally and now Maldives has replaced Bali as my wish list, who knows there will be another place replace Maldives later? But not for now.

We didn't plan for any activities on the last day, but only resting at our room and seeing the beautiful sea view, because we are too tired with lot of activities in past few days.

We would need to check out our room at 12pm, then checked in to our seaplane at 2:15pm and seaplane departure time would be 3pm.

Our flight back to Malaysia would only depart at 11pm, but the last seaplane from island was 3pm, that means we needed to spend about seven hours at Male International Airport, this doesn't sound good, I think Malaysia Airline might need to improve their flight schedule between Kuala Lumpur and Male, to make it more travel friendly.

While we were waiting for seaplane check in time, I walked around Reception area and saw a school of small fish chasing by baby shark, and there are another school of bigger fish under the right side of jetty with another school of much bigger fish at left side of jetty, these three schools of fish look like same species, but different in size. This seems that the smallest size fish is growing up by chasing with baby shark, until when they are grow bigger and bigger to stop this game, or turn to be chased by real shark, this is what ecosystem formed.

After few days stayed in Vilamendhoo, I think it is quite normal to find baby shark around this island, especially at south side, the more in Sunset bar and water villas area, but I still could see some at reception area. However, manta ray is a bit rare to see unless we need to go to deep sea, I was only abled to see them twice when we were kayaking and they are not in big size.

On the seaplane back to Male International Airport, I felt upset as I really was leaving Maldives soon, I don't wish to left this beautiful place but the happiest moment always gone fastest. Goodbye, Maldives.

The whole trip was perfect, good weather with all sunny days though it assumed to be raining season, I think I was lucky for having this good weather accompanied me. However, my skin goes dark now after baptized by sun for five days, perhaps with a bit of skin got sunburnt.

The imperfect part of the trip is waiting time for our returning flight to Malaysia, it was miserable long as we need to spend about six to seven hours at waiting area of Male International Airport, where doesn't have air-conditioner embedded in waiting area and noisy due to renovation. For current situation, there is nowhere to see or shop outside of airport so that we only could sit idle and counting for time past, I think this might be improved after 2014 when Maldives have their new terminal build that time.

Anyways, airport condition considered good after checked in and went through custom, there also have some shops and even had TV program, we watched T20 Cricket game that time, we really enjoyed the program though we didn't understand what commandator spoke (maybe it was in Maldivian language), I didn't have chance to watch cricket game after back from the UK, I miss the game so much, SL also likes the game.

Goodby, Maldives, I will miss you.

Our last sunrise at Vilamendhoo Island Resort

Dawn Rising Sun

Our sandwork on the beach

bird seeing sea

Waiting seaplane at jetty

Goodbye, Vilamendhoo... Goodbye, Maldives....



Restaurant in Vilamendhoo Island Resort

There are four restaurants in Vilamendhoo Island Resort, Funama and Ahima are served buffet dinner while Hot Rock and Asian Wok serve ala carte meal. We were taking All Inclusive Package, so we only had meal with Funama Restaurant and Ahima is for those stay at Water villas and Jacuzzi beach villas.

On the first visit to restaurant, waiter would lead us to our dedicated dining table and the table will be our table for the rest of stay. However, our waiter, Kazir seems like knew I like a sea view table, so he helped us to change table on our third day, thanks to him.

After the first visit, we were served by the same waiter as well for the rest of our stay, I like our waiter as he can remember our dining style and he would collect plate and cutlery on the right time, he even remembered SL ordered for Coca Cola on the night before and asked if he'd like to have it on the next day. However, SL prefers to have distance, anyways he is particular person that makes me feel strange why we can be together :)

Among three meals provided in Funama Restaurant, I like breakfast the most, breakfast there is variety and delicious, I like their pan cake and mixing yogurt is enjoyable to me, their pan cake comes with different favor different days, we had tried vanilla, strawberry, orange and plain pancake. Also, their breads are nice as well, but too bad I found out too late that I only could enjoyed it for two morning. Though their breakfast's dishes are similar everyday, but favors are different.

For lunch and dinner, they are still fine but I still like breakfast the most, because I don't have special favorite dish for lunch and dinner, they had different types of curry everyday but unfortunately I don't eat too spicy, but their desserts are very nice.

With signed up the All Inclusive Package, we actually enjoy with it because we didn't need to worry how much we need to spend on foods and drinks as they come with package.

the seaview that from our dining table, I even asked SL to paint it at our dining room :P

Having meal at restaurant

our table

Restaurant Environment

Snorkeling in Vilamendhoo Island Resort

The activity that I enjoyed the most in Maldives is snorkeling, I could see a lot of corals and fish in this ocean, the fish and coral I found here is more than anywhere that I have ever been.

Vilamendhoo has 10 reef exits for visitor snoerkilng, visitors should follow the channel to reef exit to the reef for viewing sea creatures at deep sea, then visitors should follow the edge of reef and swim back to resort by the same reef exit or to the next exit.

These reef exits were created to avoid visitors accidentally touch those corals, as corals are very fragile and they will get damaged once been touched.

From my snorkeling experience in Vilamendhoo, I think south of island is more beautiful and safer, we see a lot different types of coral over there because reef isn't too steep. Especially, reef near to water sport center.

On the other hand, I felt stronger current at north of island, it will be more difficult to swim. Also, slope of reef at north side is more steep, therefore we couldn't see too much coral over this area, but there are a lot of fish there, with different size, different colour and different species.

Vilamendhoo doesn't include snorkeling equipment for room reservation, but equipments can be rented from dive center, current rate is USD8 a day for mask, snorkel and fins, there is promotion for five days rental with a day free, I think this rate is fair if you are in short trip but it might be worth if trip is long or you like snorkeling a lot and plan for returning trip. If you don't confident to swim without life jacket, then life jacket rental is USD13 a day, I think it is worthier to bring it from home country because I bought my life jacket with RM35, it is about a day rental.

Overall, I think Vilamendhoo is a nice snorkeling island, it is easy access to reef just a few minutes of swimming.

Fifth day in Maldives

1st of October, this will be our last night in Vilamendhoo Island Resort and we will be back home on next day, I kept pretending crying in this day as I didn't wish the holidays end.

Since two days ago, we moved our dining table to somewhere closer to an opened door, there we could view the sea clearly, there is a tree with a small emergency boat in the screen as well, I like this view and I will remember this view. Human's eyes is really the best camera lense ever, it can capture every view with the most beautiful way, but human's brain is the worst memory card ever to keep these views forever, I really worry if I would forget this nice scene when I am getting old.

During breakfast, I told SL now I know what does a Chinese poem means, 曾经沧海难为水，除去巫山不是云，sea of other sea cannot be considered as sea after coming to Maldives, because the sea in Maldives is too beautiful and I won't even take a second glance on other sea, unless I can find another sea which is more beautiful than Maldives.

We went to diver center after breakfast, it is just near to Funama Restaureant, for renting fins for our snorkeling usage because we found snorkeling with fins will be easier after we attended the snorkeling lesson. Then, we went back to Water Sport Center for snorkeling but we didn't have camera to capture pictures for us this time because my camera damaged during our last snorkeling because of getting water :-(, haha... It might be time for me to change my camera, SL said we may try to get a waterproof camera instead.

Well, snorkeling with fins is really helpful, we were sped up and save more paddling energy, we really saw a lot of beautiful corals and sea creatures, I felt excited to see a lot of fish swam together, blue, yellow, green, purple, white and every creature is so colorful, it was sad that we couldn't take picture for them, but it gained us the first time that we can swim hand in hand together :)

After completed snorkeling around Water Sport Center, we were back to our room and I continued snorkeling at beach in front of our room but SL was resting. This time, I decided to snorkeling without life jacket because I like that feeling, I felt free to swim in sea and I only consider that I can swim when I swim in sea. However, SL prefer to swim with life jacket because he likes to feel be protected, this is different between SL and I, I like to be with sea and he likes to be at land.

We had wind surfing lesson at 3pm at Water Sport Center, instructor introduced us concept of wind and how to play around with wind and how to handle the equipment, then I found it might be hard for me to handle it, in term of balancing and energy according to my skiing experience, so I decided not to try. When I saw SL were windsurfing, I just felt that needs a lot of strength to keep the equipment works with what we want it to direct, fortunately I didn't join them else I would spend most of my time to pull the sail back to my direction.

During this Maldives trip, thing that i enjoy the most is swimming freely in clear and beautiful sea, I will really miss Maldives, I even felt down on the last night of stay, we even said that we want to revisit 5 years later, I really like life here with relaxing and enjoyable vacation.

That night, we lied on our beach chair to graze stars and starring at full moon, this is hard to do in city life as stars are sheltered by strong light from city.

The weather was always sunny without a drop of rain, I feel lucky that my stay during raining season companied by such a good weather, now I think every visit really depends on luck but not decide by weather forecast.

Sunrise view

My owned made cloth :)

SL was winsurfed

I just backed from snorkeling

snorkeling and kayaking all together

Sun was set soon

Waiting for sunset at "sunset beach"

Sunset - a little person at huge ocean

Waiting sunset at sunset bar

A romantic sunset kiss

Billing system in Vilamendhoo Island Resort

I quite like billing system in Vilamendhoo Island Resort, I think most resorts in Maldives apply this billing system as well.

During our stay in Vilamendhoo Island Resort, we actually only needed to sign bill when we purchased anything in any store in the resort, like bars for food and drink, gift shop, equipment rental from Water sport center or wherever rent things, all amount will be charged to our room with the room number that you provided to cashier.

After that, on the day before checkout, the hotel will send us the bill that listed all transaction happened during our stay, then we only needed to pay everything at Reception. Actually, I like this type of postpay system because it is convenience and we didn't need to bring cash to everywhere we went. The most convenience part is they accept credit card during payment, so that I don't really need to carry a lot of cash for my trip.

However, if you decided to pay by cash, they will round your amount to higher integer amount because they don't have small change and the smallest change is USD1. Like SL insisted wanted to pay by cash but our amount is about USD17.55, then reception rounded it be USD18, so SL felt very sad because he was losing USD0.45 =.="

Maldives is really a place works a lot to improve their tourism, they wanted to make sure their visitor always convenience and enjoyable during their stay.

Beach Villa in Vilamendhoo Island Resort

There are four types of room provided in Vilamendhoo Island Resort, jacuzzi water villa, jacuzzi beach villa, beach villa and garden villa. Due to we booked our holiday about a month plus before our departure, therefore only beach villa and garden vila left. Actually, I felt lucky because all rooms are gone before three weeks of departure.

Jacuzzi water villa is the most expensive with ocean view, jacuzzi beach villa and beach villa are having beach view, and garden villa is located at inner part of island with garden view.

Firstly, I thought beach villa might not that good and wished for a water villa, but i like beach villa after staying in it because their beach view is so beautiful, sea is clear and combination between light and dark blue, capture in eyeball is much more beautiful than picture taken by camera. Maldives beach view is just perfect that nobody would feel bored to keep looking at it forever.

We stayed at room 152 and it is a semi-detached villa, detached villa was not available though we made request for that.

In front of our beach villa, there are two beach chairs dedicated to our room, that we can rest or sunbathing when we are viewing the beach and sea, for sure it is a relax way for vacation. There are another two chairs with a desk at front yard of the villa which is sheltered, it is another resting area for sea viewing, I usually apply sunblock at this area before we went out.

After entering to room, it's a huge bedroom with a king size bed at the middle and resting sofa at the corner of room facing to see, where you can view the sea in room without hurting by sun if you open the curtain of your room's sliding door. Besides bed and resting sofa, the room also comes with a full body mirror, bedside table, makeup table with mirror, mini bar, well partitioned wardrobe, TV (I even found some TV program comes with Malay language subtitle, I was curious if it was for us only or every room is the same) and DVD player, they also provided umbrella, hair dryer, bathrobes for two, torch light and safety deposit box.

There is another door opposite of entrance, which is toward bathroom, it is an opened air area, with two basins and mirrors, shower head which can switch between two modes, WC and hanging area for you to let your dress dry after back from beach. Bathroom area might be a bit noisy for semi-detached villa because you might hear your neighboor conversation if you both are using bathroom at the same time, it might feel a bit lack of privacy but your neighboor most likely won't understand you unless you both talking in same language.

The beach villa is well decorated, we are really satisfied with the room, this is another good stay for us after villa stay of Bali, Bali's room is more equipped, with private swimming pool and hot spring but Vilamendhoo's with a great sea view. Therefore, we vote Vilamendhoo as the best villa we ever stayed.

After the holidays ended, I think I will really miss my live in this island.

Movie "Green Hornet", which have Malay language as subtitle

View from our room, I like to sit there for blogging and apply sunblock. Further out, there are two beach chairs provided

Mini bar

our beautiful bed and sofa at back

shower place

double basin

drying area