Family travel

  • Family travel,  Johor,  TRAVEL/HOLIDAYS

    Southernmost Tip of Mainland Asia: Tanjung Piai National Park, Johor

    “Hey, do you know that the southernmost tip of Mainland Asia is not far from here?” My husband asked me after driving out from Nusajaya, Johor. “Really? Where? Show me,” I replied. And off we went to Pontian where the  the southernmost tip of Mainland Asia is at.

    Located within the district of Pontian, Johor, Tanjung Piai National Park covers an area of over 926ha — 526ha of which comprise of coastal mangroves. Entry into the Tanjung Piai park requires a minimal fee of just RM3 for adults (Malaysians) and RM5 for foreign visitors, payable at  at a small ticket counter just before entering the visitor’s complex.

    Tanjung Piai

    The above monument, made of eco-friendly-reinforced concrete, was erected in 2001 to mark Tanjung Piai’s unique geographical position as the “Southernmost Tip of Mainland Asia”. Measured at 20 metres high and 10 metres wide, the monument’s stark grey colour represents the rich mangroves and mudflats of Tanjung Piai. The monument is adorned by image of Paku Piai Raya (Acrostichum aureum) – the indigenous fern from which Tanjung Piai derives its name. Tanjung means ‘cape’ in Malay, and Piai is the name of the fern species.

    The monument is just a landmark but the real southernmost tip is actually situated some meters away from the visitor’s complex.

    Visitor's Complex

    534m

    We love the fact that there are many information boards provided along the trails to educate visitors.

    infoboard

    educational signboard

    Along the trail we also got to see monkey, kingfisher, mudskipper, telescopium and crab.

    mollusc

    After walking more than 500 meters, we reached the actual site of southernmost tip of mainland Asia. Yay! We made it!

    smt
    Southernmost tip of Mainland Asia.

    smt2
    A globe structure to mark the cape as 0ne of the Ramsar sites.

    piaisunset
    Sunset at Tanjung Piai.

    So how do you get here? From Kuala Lumpur, take the North-South Expressway (NSE) south past Machap, then take the Simpang Rengam exit (Interchange 247) onto the highway headed for Tanjung Piai, via the Benut – Pontian – Kukup highways (Highway 96, Highway 5 and Highway 95). Once near Kukup, follow signboards leading to Tanjung Piai.

    As for public transportation, currently there is no direct bus service to the Tanjung Piai Johor National Park. Take a bus from KL to Pontian and then take taxi from Pontian bus station to Tanjung Piai.

  • Family travel,  Johor,  TRAVEL/HOLIDAYS

    Legoland Malaysia

    When my husband and I told our son that we will be visiting LEGOLAND Malaysia, he jumped to joy. He is a fan of LEGO and surely to be able to visit the land is something to add to his life’s event. And so we departed KL to Johor Bahru (JB) the night before Dec 1, 2012. As LEGOLAND is big, we want to spend the whole day exploring it. We put up the night at a very cheap hotel in the city and checked out the next morning.

    The drive from JB city to LEGOLAND is about half an hour. We drove from JB to Danga Bay and then proceed straight via the Coastal Highway to Nusajaya.

    We went in LEGOLAND Malaysia at about 10am after having breakfast at Medini Lifestyle Mall situated just outside LEGOLAND. Ample parking space here at the mall.

    legoland

    LEGOLAND has lots to offer for families with children looking for adventure – enough for several days of fun and action. Opened in 15 September 2012, LEGOLAND Malaysia is the 1st LEGOLAND in Asia, the 6th in the world and 1st International park in Malaysia. Entrance fee is RM140 for adult and RM110 for children.

    As you can see below (screen-captured from the website), the place is huge, covering a total area of 76 acres!

    legolandmap

    LEGOLAND Malaysia boasts more than 40 interactive rides, shows and attractions; almost everything is hands-on, so you can push, pedal and program, or steer, squirt and splash, your way through a truly interactive experience – and of course there’s building too. LEGOLAND Malaysia has seven themed areas of attractions for all ages such as The Beginning, LEGO® Technic, LEGO Kingdoms, Imagination, LEGO City, Land of Adventure and MINILAND. It’s an inspirational land where the children are the heroes. The centrepiece is MINILAND, where Asian landmarks have been recreated using more than 30 million LEGO bricks. It’s an interactive world on a scale of 1:20, where people, trains and aeroplanes come to life at the touch of a button. From LEGO experiment centres to rollercoasters, the park is a day-long voyage of discovery for all the family. Of course if we were to cover and experience all, it’ll take us few days to finish.

    As we went during school holiday, the crowd was huge! The queue was quite long too. Yassin did not mind queuing for more than an hour to have his first driving session at LEGOLAND’s Driving School.

    yassin drives

    And later we walked and played at areas which doesn’t require queuing. We’ll come back to explore other interactive rides next year. Here are some pictures captured at LEGOLAND:

    happy-Yassin
    Playground area.

    Yassin and his dad
    Yassin and his dad posing at one of the many LEGO bricks structures on display.

    show
    LEGO show.

    LEGO giraffe
    Yassin under the LEGO giraffe structure.

    playing lego
    Yassin having fun playing with LEGO bricks.

    lego bricks
    I joined in the fun creating something too. 🙂

    what we built!
    What we built – From left; a house by Yassin, a boy character by me and an unidentified-structure by my husband.

    Einstein
    Yassin and his dad admiring Einstein.

    YAssin-and-Crocker
    Yassin and his travelling buddy toy, Crocker, posing with LEGO wolf.

    ninja-warrior

    Yassin doing his ninja-warrior thing at one of the playgrounds available here.

    We had great fun and definitely will return soon. If you don’t know where to take your kids during school holiday, take them here. You won’t regret it. If you need to bring food, you can have a picnic anywhere in here. But there are many food outlets here that your kids will love. Everything is Halal, no worries. For more information, Visit LEGOLAND Malaysia’s website.

    And oh, the most exciting part of the visit, to buy something from the Big LEGO Shop! Yassin is one happy boy to buy something here.

    LEGO shop

     

  • Family travel,  Malaysia,  Selangor,  TRAVEL/HOLIDAYS

    i-City, Shah Alam

    My son, Yassin, had been restless at home since school holiday started; he read books, played Lego, scaled the house like Spiderman and did everything to keep himself busy. He wanted to go somewhere for the holiday but as I was busy with work and travel assignment, I told him to wait. My husband was busy with work as well. So after I got back from Sarawak, I took him and his cousin sister to visit i-City in Shah Alam as we had never been here.

    i-City is a unique theme park where all the main attractions are made of plastic and millions of bright LED lights. It boasts a City of Digital Lights, Outdoor Fun Park and Snowalk. We visited the Snowalk first as Yassin could not wait to get his hands on the snow. After paying RM100 (RM35 for an adult; RM30 for a kid), we went inside the snow house. Yassin was thrilled to touch his first ‘snow’.

    Covering a total of 4645 square meters of Arctic environment below 5 degrees Celsius, attractions around Snowalk include 100 tons of ice sculptures that were shaped by a team of 30 ice sculptors from Harbin, China.

    We stayed for about half an hour before running out from the cold house to find something to warm us! We were only given free jackets to go in. Gloves, cap and earmuffs have to be rented. I was not keen to pay more for the extra stuff, so yeah, we were numbs all-over.

    After warming ourselves with hot drinks, we explore the City of Digital Lights and Outdoor Fun Park. There are LED-made trees, flamingos, giraffe, cherry blossoms surrounding the park. Other than that, there’s Ferris Wheel, pirate ship and also some kiddy rides like merry-go-round and slow car. There are also some stalls selling gifts, toys, drinks and food.

    Yassin had a great fun and hoping to come again soon. But to me, as I was discussing with my 17 year-old niece, the place did not turned out to be as what we expected. It could be better. Anyway, for photography enthusiasts, this is a good place to experiment and test knowledge about lightings.

    Here are some useful information about i-City:

    Location:
    D-1-G, Jalan Multimedia 7/AJ, CityPark, i-City (along Federal Highway), 40000 Shah Alam, Malaysia.
    (GPS: 3.064753, 101.485391)

    Operations Hours:
    City of Digital Lights: 7pm – 4am daily
    Outdoor Park Rides: 6pm – 12am daily
    Snowalk : 10am – 12am daily

    Price Guidelines:
    City of Digital Lights – Free
    Outdoor Park Rides: RM5 to RM10 per pax
    Snowalk: RM30 (kid) to RM35 (Adult)

    Parking:
    Mon – Sun (6pm – 6am): RM10/per entry

    How to get there:
    Bus: From KL take RapidKL U80 to Shah Alam bus station, then switch to U605 to get to i-City
    KTM Commuter: From KL take the KTM train to Padang Jawa station, then catch a taxi to i-City.

     

  • Family travel,  Malaysia,  Perak,  TRAVEL/HOLIDAYS

    Taiping Zoo

    It was just my boy and me during our trip to the north recently sending my mom, sis and her kids back home. The car was full and my husband could not tag along. Sis is living with her now and am happy that there will someone to take care of mom. I will drive up north again to visit her every now and then. Mom wants to be close to her elder sister.

    On the way back to KL, Yassin and me dropped by Taiping Zoo. He had been pestering me to drop by each time we travel up north. The brown signboards of Taiping Zoo along the expressway really caught his eyes. I made his wish came true and he is one happy young lad.

    Taiping Zoo is located in a lovely natural setting in Taiping Lake Gardens close to the foot of the Larut Hill (Maxwell Hill). The beautiful natural setting with streams, lakes and abundance of flora gives the zoo a unique advantage of being able to use nature to its best.

    Covering an area of 34 acres, the Taiping Zoo exhibits nearly 1,300 animals representing more than 180 different animal species. These include giraffe, tiger, bear, orang utan, chimpanzee, crocodile, elephant and others. Having an “Open Concept”, Taiping Zoo keeps animals landscaped in spacious enclosures that match natural habitat of animals. Like Singapore Zoo, Taiping Zoo also The Taiping Night Safari is a first of its kind in Malaysia.

    Ok. let’s take a look at the animals!


    Chimpanzee.


    Marmoset monkeys.


    Estuarine Crocodile -the largest living reptile! The head is large with a heavy snout. The crocodile’s back is covered with ridges that provide protective armour and act to conceal the crocodile’s movement below the surface of the water.


    Civet. Civet is a nocturnal mammal native to tropical Asia and Africa, especially the tropical forests.


    Yassin and Sambar deer.


    Sambar deer.


    Barred Eagle Owl. Also called the Malay Eagle Owl, this owl is recognisable by their prominent ear-tufts.


    African Lion.  Its most famous feature is the mane, which only male lion has The mane is yellow when the lion is young and darkens with age.


    Smooth Otter. This type otter is listed as a vulnerable species. Their range and population are shrinking due to loss of wetland habitat and contamination of waterways by pesticides.


    Giraffes.


    Bat.


    Heron.

    Taiping Zoo opens around the year of the year including Sundays & Public Holidays from 8.30am to 6.00pm. Admission fee is RM12.00 for adult and RM8.00 for children.

    Should you be interested in adopting animals, you can read the information >here<. Prospective “foster parents” are expected to bear the cost of maintaining the animals for ONE YEAR. For an annual contribution of RM50.00 – 499.00, you get 2 free passes to Taiping Zoo; each pass permits free entry for 2 adults and 4 children. Your contribution is tac deductable.

    Address:
    Jalan Taman Tasik Taiping, 34000 Taiping, Perak Darul Ridzuan, Malaysia.
    Tel: 605 – 8086577 Fax: 605 – 806 6025.
    E-mail : zootaiping@zootaiping.gov.my


    Can you guess what is Yassin looking at?

     

     

     

     

     

  • Family travel,  Travel Articles

    Planning for family holiday abroad

    All the three of us, my husband, son and me never been abroad (except Singapore) as a family. Last year, I went to Cape Town and Seoul with my husband but gotta leave my son behind because he had to go to school. His grandmother offered to look after him. I won the trips and was bound to go on normal days, not school holiday. If it were school holiday, I would’ve bought another ticket for my son. When I went to Italy and Germany, I had to leave my son and my husband behind because of the same reason. Lucky, I got a very supportive husband. He offered to look after our son while I was away.

    Anyway, we’re planning to go somewhere on next year during year-end school holiday. This will give us ample time to plan to book early flight tickets. The earlier, the cheaper.

    And…we plan to go backpacking, no big luggages. This means, my son got to carry his own backpack. We’re planing to go Europe; starting from UK and down to Greece.

    A cafe at Heidelberg. It’ll be great ifI can bring my husband and son here.


    We’re planning to take the cheapest accommodation as well as transportation. And so, I am doing my homework on how to get everything cheap. And oh, this also means I have to work harder to save some travelling money. ;P

  • Family travel,  Pahang,  Temerloh

    Temerloh Esplanade, Pahang

    I re-visited Temerloh town after such a long time. The last time was when I was a little girl visiting my sick Aki at Temerloh Hospital. Both my father and late grandfather was born in Kg Awah, Temerloh. I haven’t been here for such a long time mostly because my parents got divorced and my siblings and I were left in the custody of my mother.

    Temerloh has been going under a lot of development. One of it includes Esplanade Temerloh situated by the Pahang River, Temerloh. My family and I dropped by the waterfront to check out the longest river (459 km in length) in Peninsular Malaysia, Pahang River.

    The esplanade platform is nicely cemented and is equipped with orange-shaped seats for visitors to enjoy the river view. There is also a shaded area with seats. I think the platform floor looks quite interesting with Patin-shaped tiles. Patin is synonymous with Temerloh as Temerloh has been rebranded as Bandar Ikan Patin, which literally means Patin Fish Town. Patin ( Pangasius sp.) is a type of freshwater catfish found in the Pahang River. Patin is said to have juicy taste and is popular as local food; especially gulai tempoyak. I, however, do not like eating this fish. I tried but I just couldn’t get it down my throat.

    In the vicinity of esplanade, there is also a food court as well as food stalls along the road. There is also a suspension bridge across the river.

    The suspension bridge is named Kuala Semantan Suspension Bridge (Jambatan Gantung Kuala Semantan). Built in February 2011, this bridge connects the esplanade (Tower A) with Patin Square (Tower B) and 5 people are allowed at one go. The bridge measures at 86m in length and 40.22m above sea level.

    Here are some pictures from the bridge:

    Apart from the bridge, activities here include boating. I am not sure of the rate as we did not take the ride. We wanted to but the boat operator said he had wrapped for the day and was heading home.

    I love it here for the old big trees along the road. Yay tree!

    Here’s a Google map of Temerloh Esplanade.

     
    Click to enlarge. Or search Google maps Malaysia for Temerloh Esplanade.

     *Gulai tempoyak – a gravy made from fermented durian.

  • Family travel,  Selangor

    National Botanical Garden Shah Alam

    National Botanical Garden Shah Alam (Taman Botani Negara Shah Alam) or previously known as Taman Pertanian Bukit Cherakah is a place where you can take your family for the weekend or school holiday or public holiday. You must take more than a day or so to explore the place. I’ve been here twice (2008 and 2011) with my family and frankly, we haven’t done exploring the park. Covering an area of 817 hectares, this agro-forestry park boasts Animal Park, Ornamental Garden, 4 Seasons Temperate House, Spices & Beverages Garden, Cactus Garden, Tropical Fruit Garden not to mention dams and lakes as well as a village and chalets.

    On both visits, we got to cover animal park, paddy field, tropical fruit gardens, cactus garden, lakes, some trails and Kampung Idaman.

    Selected animals and birds are displayed here at this 72-hectare Animal Park.  We were allowed to touch and feed some of the animals and learn to care for them. When I showed this picture to my son Yassin, he could not really remember visiting the animals as he was 4 back then. A reason that I should take him again soon to see the animals.

    After visiting the animal park, we went on a hiking trail. It was great surrounded by trees, trees and more trees!

    Visiting lakes which is extremely rich with dragonflies and waterlilies was equally great! You know how I love these two subjects and taking pictures of both was exciting. Here are some selected pictures from my archive that I captured around Lake C, or Pool C.

    And these are some pictures taken near the Kayak Lake.

    I have hundreds of pictures taken around National Botanical Garden Shah Alam and if I were to show more, I am afraid that this blog will load very slowly. Furthermore, I want you to go and experience this botanical garden that has now become one of the nation’s most popular parks, with live demonstrations, dynamic permanent displays, cultural exhibits, recreational facilities, accommodation, picnic areas, open-air amphitheatres, nature trails, public amenities and numerous educational opportunities. So, if you are day-trippers, tourists, campers, anglers, naturalists, birders, families, excursion groups, hikers, school children, university students, research scientists, farmers, agriculturalists and nature-lovers, this is a place where you want to be.

    One exciting way to explore this botanical garden is to rent bicycle. My family and I did that during our 2nd visit here. We love it so much, even though I was catching my breath like crazy. If you are not into cycling, worry not. You can walk and also take the bus provided by the management to go from one area to another. But you must wait at dedicated bus-stops, else the bus won’t stop for you.

    I am planning my next trip to this place to visit the Four Seasons Temperate House. It is now ‘fall season’ there. Here are some useful information that I want to share with you if you are planning to visit National Botanical Garden Shah Alam too:

    Operating hours:
    8am – 5pm (Tuesday – Sunday) The park is closed every Monday except public and school holidays.

    Information and booking:
    603-5510 6922/5510 7048

    Entrance fee:
    Adult ticket (12 – 54 years) – RM 3.00
    Children ticket (6 – 11 years) – RM 1.00
    Senior citizens (55 years and above) – RM 1.00
    Visitors aged 6 years and below, orphanage and the Disabled – Free Entry

    Other fees:

    Bicycle rental
    RM3 for first hour, RM1 subsequently
    (available from 8.30am to 4.30pm)

    Four Seasons Temperate House
    Adult ticket (12 years and above) – RM 3.00
    Children ticket (4 – 11 years) – RM 1.00
    Visitors aged 4 years and below and the Disabled – Free entry

    Kg Idaman Accommodation (11 Unit)
    Weekdays – RM 80.00
    Weekends/holidays – RM 100.00

    A Frame Accommodation (20 Unit)
    Weekdays and weekends/holidays – RM 20.00

     Have fun planning your trip to National Botanical Garden Shah Alam. Peace!