Sunday, February 25, 2007

Hari ke-19-21: Langkawi Island

Day 1: Telaga Tujuh waterfall. The waterfall is not that interesting, but the French wanted to do the jungle trekking. Initially we planned for 1 hour of trekking, but eventually they went all the way up to the peak to the Gunung Mat Cincang to view the whole Island. On the way back to the hotel, they stopped for swimming in the sea, and we managed to damage the rental car.


The fishing village on the way to the Telaga Tujuh waterfall.


A bunch of monkey were greeting us on the way.


Telaga Tujuh waterfall



Some of the magnific views they saw on the peak of Gunung Mat Cincang.

Day 2: Pulau Payar snorkelling. Japanese restaurant at night.


The area where we did the snorkelling.


Baby shark


This is the view from our hotel.


Sunset from the hotel.

Day 3: Mangrove tour and Langkawi cable car.


The monkeys were waiting along the island to get peanuts. This monkey is getting peanut with her baby and then swim back.

Friday, February 16, 2007

Hari ke-18: Kuala Lumpur

Places visited:
Chinatown
Central market
Railway station
National mosque
Sultan Abdul Samad building
Merdeka square
Masjid Jamek
KLCC

They were not dared to buy anything in KLCC, seeing the price in those chic boutiques, but at the end they spent a lot in Isetan, a Japanese department store. Fabien managed to find his Mao's collar suit, a Chinese traditional cloth and a pair of shoes. Everybody was happy. I realised that they really enjoy shopping due to their powerful currency.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Hari ke-17: Wedding photo session

We managed to have the marriage registration done in the morning. The photo session begun around 12pm, after 1 hour of makeup. We had 1 wedding gown, 1 night gown and 5 traditional costumes. The family managed to come to see the shooting for the last traditional gown. We selected 21 photos out of 91 that were taken. It wasn't as tiresome as I thought, but I was quite disappointed with the outcome of the photos.

The family went for the massage and each of them really enjoyed it. They spent 2 hours 30 minutes doing massage, body scrupt and facial. My sister had them tried Leong Tao Fu and she felt that they don't really like it.

During the night, we visited the Chinese new year market in Klang town center. The French were given the status as VIP, as the organisers offered them some Carlsberg and first row seat for the concert.

Hari ke-16: Visited Melaka

We left at 6.15am and had roti canai as our breakfast. We arrived in Melaka around 9am. It was a good idea to leave early, as the weather was still nice in the morning. Our first stop was the red house, then the St'Paul church. Some of the French were interested in looking at the architechure and history, so we spent more time in these two places.

We had the famous chicken ball rice as lunch. I don't think they liked it that much. It must be hard to have to eat something so different for them for every meals.

In the afternoon it was so hot. We went to the Sam Pao Temple and Hang Li Poh well. We continued our journey to A Farmosi for the safari, but it costs RM38 for me and RM62 for foreigners. They felt that it's too expensive so we left.

The highlight today was that they tried durian. It would be fun to see their face expression when they had the durian in the mouth. The result? I had to eat most of the durian.

At night my neighbore treated us the bah kut teh. We wanted to visit the Indian street, but the French were stucked in the first Indian shop and spent around 2 hours choosing clothes and buying stuffs. It seems that they are more interested in shopping then visiting. :-)

Monday, February 12, 2007

Hari ke-15: They arrived

My French family finally arrived. They were impressed by Emirates Airlines, eventhough the departure was 2 hours late and one of the members' luggage will only arrive two days later.

So, the introduction session begun. People were hestitating between shaking hands or kissing. Then gifts offering. The French has problem remembering who's who as my family is so big.

Headed to shopping. They bought some stuffs. They feel the stuffs here are cheap.

During the night, they joined my siblings' year end company dinner. They were shocked when I told them it was going to have 9 dishes. Some of them dared to try each of the dishes and insisted on using only the chopsticks. My FIL was disgusted when he saw my family put the wine in the ice box and one of my sister was drinking wine with ice in it.


There were so tired but they have to wake up at 5.30am the second day for a day trip to Melaka. Poor thing.

Friday, February 09, 2007

Hari ke-14: Preparing the red envelope (ang pao)

Preparing the red envelope (envelope stuff with money) is an art. You need to know how much to give to people by the level: close family, distance family, friends, neighbores. Then you need to remember the envelopes: Which one has how much inside. Some people distribute to everyboy who say "kong xi fa chai" (happy new year) to them, so just give to close family. Then, if someone offers your kid certain amount, you need to give back to their kids equal or more.

Today's task was to figure out who need to get the angpao. The wedding car driver, the others driver who will fetch the bridesmaids, the woman who accompanies the groom to fetch the bride, the people who are designated to open the wedding car door, the bridesmaids, the cameramen, and then during the tea ceremony. It must be fun for the French to distribute out the angpao and receive the angpaos.

Tonight went out for gathering with highschool friends. We have upgraded the meeting place, from mamak store consuming RM3 to a highend restaurant consuming RM20.

And my French family are on the way to Malaysia.

My busy days will begin soon.

Breakfast & Lunch: Curry chicken
Dinner: Korean mee

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Hari ke-13: Facial

Went to pick up the wedding bouquet flower, additional invitation cards, travel agent then 2 hours of facial. After lunch, went to the post office, shopping mall then headed home. A jewelry seller came later and we spent sometimes going through her jewelries. I do not fancy any kind of jewelry so it was pretty boring for me. It's just that people prefer to offer me jewelry than plein money.

Breakfast: Porridge
Lunch: Pan Mee
Dinner: Curry chicken
Supper: Meesua soup

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Hari ke-12: Meeting the hair dresser and makeup artist

She's so beautiful. My friends recommended her. RM488 a package, include hair dressing and makeup.

Breakfast: Roti Canai


Lunch: Hokkien mee
Dinner: Porridge

Hari ke-11: Car deco

Went to look for the wedding car decoration materials. The price differences was huge between one shop to another. I hate to do the bargaining so it was all up to my mother and sister. I managed to buy 88 gift cover with a Chinese character meaning "happiness". I'm thinking about giving it out for the guests who attend our wedding in France.



Breakfast: bah kut teh
Lunch: fried rice
Snack: sugar can
Dinner: fried long beans, fish, white lotus soup

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Hari ke-10: Eating the whole day

I continued my power point presentations and the dialogues for the hosts, while my mother and aunt busy preparing foods for me. During the day I ate fried sweet potatoes, taro cake, lotus soup, guava, fried fish, fried vege and corn soup. There's no clear line between the 3 meals.

Fried sweet potatoes


My father made some Chinese peanut cookies.

First pan fried the peanuts.


Then spread the sesame seeds on a flat table.


Melt the sugar and mixed it with the peanuts. Fried till the combo become sticky, put the combo flat on the table and use a roller to roll it.


Cut the cookies into square shape.

Monday, February 05, 2007

Hari ke-9: Stayed at home

I was so tired of the shopping yesterday that I decided to stay at home, preparing some power point presentations. But of course the food tour will not stop.

Breakfast: Fried noddle with curry sauce + popiah


Lunch: Sweet potatoes soup

Dinner: Red wine chicken, lotus soup and sweet potato's leaves


My mother put some of this in the soup. Yummy.

Sunday, February 04, 2007

Hari ke-8: Shopping in KLCC

We went to Suria KLCC for shopping. It was full of peope. I was so tired. Some of the clothes are so expensive that I don't know who can afford to buy them. One Chinese collar red top selling RM6500???

Breakfast: Ubi kayu
Lunch: Mixed rice in KLCC. So expensive RM9.25


Dinner: Pan Mee

Saturday, February 03, 2007

Hari ke-7: Dealing with the government agencies

I went to the marriage services office again, and this time she finally accepted the translation made in France. I don't know why she was so strict last time, this time she was easy with me, even agree to process our registration everyday after 3pm, not what she initially said only on Thursday. Anyway, that just made my day! No more hassle between embassies to ask for endorsement.

In the afternoon we went to the transportation department to declare that I have lost my license. I need one more so that I can surround the old one to the French prefecture in exchange of a French driver license. It was full of people and I was really scared when people were pushing each other.

The newspaper talked about that in Malaysia, we can process our passport within a day. Why does France take at least 2 weeks to issue a passport? My sisters were shaking their head, couldn't believe that a first world country will lose to a third world country, as we complaint all the times that our government services are so slow that we will never catch up with the first world countries. We didn't realise that in certain areas we are more efficient.

Breakfast: Dry wantan mee


Lunch: Fried noodles
Dinner: Vegetarian porriage (it's the 15th of lunar calendar so my parents eat only vegetarian foods).

Fruits between meals: Durian, rambutan, jambu air

Friday, February 02, 2007

Day 6: Distributing the invitation cards

It was a public holiday in Malaysia. My family went to distribute the invitation cards. My mother is still hestating whether or not to invite some of the guess. We expect a total of 320 people for the wedding bouquet, which is considered a moderate amount among the Chinese community here.

My nieces came over and together we prepared the powerpoint presentation to be shown during the dinner. They had so many crazy ideas that we were laughing so hard the whole day.

Breakfast: Yee mee

Lunch: pohpia and yam cake, bubble tea


Dinner: Chicken rice