从我爱上戈壁开始⋯⋯

戈壁沙漠，是我蒙古之旅差点被放弃的地方。还好，后来我还是去了。

然后，我爱上了这个苍凉的戈壁沙漠。这个恶劣的环境里，生命很少，很安静。

爱上他，从这一刻开始。


太阳从地平线出现的那一刹那，我是多么希望四下没有人。我是多么希望那一刻是宁静的。然后，眼泪不由自主的在眼里打转。我担心通行的朋友们看见，悄悄地躲在人群后。（现在回想起来多可笑，我其实可以说沙子飞进眼睛。反正沙漠嘛，到处都是沙！）



不知是否心理作用，觉得沙漠的日出特别快。心里的感动尚未结束，太阳已经整个蛋黄似的出来了。



蒙古人的生活，和大自然惺惺相惜。他们相信，在日出的那一刻，把双手举起可以吸取太阳的能量。

我就这样，一面吸取，一面流泪⋯⋯

我就这样爱上戈壁。

Sungai Lembing for The Sunrise!

Sungai Lembing in Pahang state had becoming more and more popular over the years. To the extent, we had a real shock when we finally reached there.

Sungai Lembing town is really just a small town. So small that it couldn't contain the thousands of visitors that rushed to its town over the long weekend during Malaysia holiday. At night, there were only two restaurants that were opened to serve dinner. And one small little Malay food stall, and another smaller noodle stall. That's about it! And that particular weekend, there are more than 5000 tourists!

Sungai Lembing is popular for 3 things, sunrise at the cloud forest, rainbow waterfall, and the noodles. We only spent 2D1N there. Both sunrise and rainbow waterfall are morning activities, you can't achieve two things in a day, so we only saw the sunrise.

We have to wake up at 4.45am, and depart from our room at 5.15am. It's really a mistake that we forgot to bring torch lights. Lucky enough we were holding iPhone, so we use the flashlights. At the same time, thanks to so many other tourists, we "tumpang" the lights.

The staircase to the top was really tiring. Especially to the senior citizens. So if you're bringing any, please take good care of them.

Below are all the pictures, from before to after the sunrise. The luck was not on us that day, there were thick clouds over the sun, it's definitely not the perfect sunrise you saw on Sungai Lembing posters.

With the rush of tourists to this place, if you're planning to go, do plan off the peak season.

Racial Harmony

True racial harmony 

On our second day in Kelantan, we set off to visit a lot of Thai influence Buddhist temples. In particularly one, which I forgot completely what's the name of the temple, I saw something truly remarkable for Malaysia standard. And a scene that I've never seen before in any other states.

=)

Pasir Belanda in Kota Bahru

During our Cuti-Cuti Malaysia at East Coast, in our first stop in Kelantan, we stayed in a kampung stay called Pasir Belanda. It was such a nice experience!

Entrance of Pasir Belanda

Pasir Belanda owner is actually from Holland. He came to Malaysia few years ago for training in Penang, Kuala Lumpur and Kota Bahru. And fell in love with Kota Bahru immediately! (I wonder why not Penang...) Then, he bought this land in the kampung in Kota Bahru, and ran a kampung stay of his own. And staying here for good.

To my surprise, the place is fully booked for the 3D2N when we were there! I never expected Kota Bahru to be so popular!

The rooms are individual kampung huts

My parents and my aunts stayed in this hut which consists of two separate double room

My sister, my cousin and I shared a triple room

Our clean triple room

The only problem you may face when you book this place for a stay is to locate it. When we were searching for this place using Waze, we got into a point where there's no road shown on the map. Just a whole screen with grey and a blue dot showing our destination. We were stressed! And my Google map pointed me back to the town centre! But lucky enough, my sister took faith in her Waze and found it! It's such a relief when we saw the sign! :)

It's a wonderful place for relaxation. There's a small hut where my sister and I enjoyed sitting there with her yoga mat, using the Wifi (that couldn't be accessible to our room), reading, drinking coffee and chit chatting.  There's also a small swimming pool too.

The staffs are friendly and helpful. The owner is friendly too.

If you were to visit Kota Bahru, this is a place you want to stay! :)

For us who have been staying in the city for so many years, it's simply divine to wake up with birds chirping in the morning. And also the jet lag cocks... that never stops.

The Legendary Kedai Kopi White House

Long long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, my dad used to work in Kelantan. And during our recent Cuti-Cuti Malaysia trip to East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia, my sister made sure we went to this "legen-wait for it-dary!" White House in Kota Bahru.

My dad kept telling us how much he missed the Nasi Dagang and the very nice kopi! We can't wait to have breakfast there on our second day in Kota Bahru.

Kedai Kopi White House

Mark the address please

There were 7 of us in the entourage. And here is the list of what we had:
1. 7 sets of toast with half boiled eggs
2. 1x Nasi Dagang
3. 1x Nasi Lemak
4. 2x unknown nasi (forgotten the name, but it's a big pointy banana leaf packed rice)
5. 1x kopi for each of us, that made 7x

They were all nice! The most unforgettable items will be kopi and the home made kaya that came with the toasts. My mom and aunts were so tempted to buy the kaya, but we still have a few days to go on the road before going back to Penang. So, we ended up empty handed. And missing all the delicious food.

Nasi Lemak

Nasi Dagang

To my dad's disappointment, the Nasi Dagang is no longer the Nasi Dagang he remembered. According to him, it's supposed to use different type of rice, a red one. We all liked it, but my dad didn't fancy this at all.

Delicious half boiled eggs

I know it sounds crazy to say this half boiled eggs are really nice. But it IS! And what's amazing was they didn't use any timer or kitchen tool, simply hot water and their skills. Every half boiled eggs came out perfectly cooked! Wonderful!

My fave!

I can really eat this everyday for breakfast!

I really wish I can have this. The roti is toasted the traditional way, charcoal. I love it but it's not going to happen in the Lion City where everything needs to be fast.

The "war" we've all created

Look at the "war" we've created on our table! It's a mess!

We've missed the kopi so much we actually went back to "da bao" the coffee after dinner on the same day. White House is opened morning (I forgot what time) and 9pm-1am daily. And full house all the time!

When I was waiting for our packed kopi, I was told to wait for at least 15minutes. Yes, that's how busy they are. I sat there observing the business. It's amazing how things worked out so well in the shop. There's no paper, no computer, nothing to jot down the order! Orders were shouted one to another in and out the kitchen. But food delivered perfectly onto the tables. How did they do it? I am simply clueless and amazed at the same time!

However, one point to be minus off will be the price. The breakfast didn't come cheap at all. But according to my dad, it has been one of the expensive place for breakfast even back then. But it's still "people mountain people sea" everyday.

If you're a coffee lover, I would tell you this is a MUST to pay a visit :)

Flinck Apartment

When we booked the air tickets, we forgot that weekend was Easter weekend. And for a busy city like Amsterdam, it's already packed with tourists on normal day, Easter weekend was crazy!

I have the hardest time to book accommodation for 4D3N in Amsterdam. And for two weeks before our travelling date, I was frantically searching for decent and affordable accommodation. I wanted to get a house boat, I couldn't get one at all :(

At the end, we settled with Flinck Apartment.

The bed and the small little counter at the left

The other side of the room

I'll just go straight to the point. It's not recommended unless you're running out of choices.

It's not a B&B, therefore there's no breakfast included. It's a small room with a small bathroom. But they are reasonably clean and neat. The reason I would not recommend this place is because the owners were not as friendly as I thought they should be. We weren't given any directions or map or recommendations of what's nearby. We hadn't seen any of them for 4D3N that we stayed there, except for the point we checked in and out.

For all the years I've stayed in home stay/hostel/B&B, this is definitely not something I want.

However, to be fair to them, it's still a reasonable clean and comfy room.

We've got the rate at 95Euro/night. You might be able to get cheaper rate during off peak season.