Preparation for Gold Coast trip

I was so busy last week and I don.t have time to prepare for my trip to Gold coast which will be a week from now. Luckily I have prepared some of the things earlier. There are a lot of blog entry on the Gold Coast Entry, so most of the preparation was referred to the blog. In this entry, I just list down what are the things that need to prepare before the trip.

1) Air ticket, I manage to get cheap ticket for me and my family. However I paid more for my mum ticket due to last minute purchased. So altogether the air ticket from PEN-KL-Gold Coast, including meals, seat number, insurance, baggage about 6k for 3 Adults + 2 kids. Eirian is still below 2 years old, so he got infant price.

2) Apply leave. I just started work with new company about 5 months. So not many days leave available for me. But I just applied 1 month ahead. Not sure whether the company will consider this as unpaid leave or advance leave, but I don't have choice in this case. I would not fortified this air ticket due to not able to get leave.

3) Valid Passport. In order for you to travel, the trip should be 6 months before the expiry date of the passport. For this trip, I have to renew Luffy and my mum's passport and do Eirian passport. This is the first time Eirian travel oversea.

4) ETA visa. You can do online at this address

 http://malaysia.highcommission.gov.au/klpr/lodgement.html.

 It cost you $AUD20 if you do yourselves. I choose to do via travel agent, it cost me RM25 only. Way cheaper.. all you have to do is look for the travel agent.

 5) Travel insurance. I have never prepare this during my overseas trip before until my last visit to Medan with my friend. I found this is necessities when you go traveling. Just be insured, cause you never know what is going to happened. I bought the travel insurance online, just a few type and click, you are done. I bought the standard package, and it cost me RM126 for the family package.

https://www.aig.my/personal/travel/travel-insurance

6) Accommodation./ place to stay. There are a lot of affordable apartment in Surfers Paradise, just google and read the review of the apartment. Tips that I got, the price would be cheaper if you book early. For me I will stay at Waringga Surf. I will give my review after my stay there. When you do the booking, if you mentioned you have a baby, they will asked you to book for baby coat.. I have some hu-ha over this issue with Waringga Surf.

7) Transportation. You can either choose public transport or car rental. There are buses and train to get around. For families it is recommended to rent a car. There are a lot of website for car rental. I did the booking at this website, which I think I get the cheapest deal. I am still thinking should I buy the car insurance or not. Not forgotten, if you have kids below 7 years, you need extra gear; child seat/ booster seat. It is mandatory in Aussie to have you kids sit properly in the car. (Not sure how I can manage this with Eirian, he normally can get away when I put him in the car seat here). The charges  are varies with cars. You can rent GPS as well. But I think I would get cellular data and use google maps for the direction.

 https://www.vroomvroomvroom.com.au/

8) List for food and medicine. Its good to prepare a list of food and medicine that you carry along to Aussie. From what I heard, they are quite strict on this issue. You can get fine of $AUD400 for the offence, so better be prepared than broke..hahaha. I'm travelling with my mum, and she is very particular about food. So I guess, I will bring some per-processed food for her convenient. 

9) Suitable clothing. Check what is the weather like in Gold Coast, so that you can prepare you clothing. I'm traveling during srping to summer season, and the forecast said the temperature should be ranging about 17'C to 26'C. Not too cold or too hot. and hoping the weather would be pleasant during my stay there.

10) Online Purchase theme park ticket. It will be cheaper if you buy the ticket via online rather than buy at counter. I bought the combo theme park ticket at this website

http://myfun.com.au

11) Itinerary holiday. Read a lot and start planning

That's all on the preparation. I hope everything turns well next week. InsyaAllah.. 

Medan-Lake Toba Trip 13-18 Sept 2012

I got a cheap ticket for this trip. This was my second trip to Indonesia. I went to Jakarta and Bandung on my first trip. I hope I will be able to post in the blog about my trip to Jakarta and Bandung before. This time I went with my colleague from the same company that I worked. We took flight from Penang International Airport and about 15 minutes we reached Medan International Airport. This was the old airport and now the AirAsia will stop at Kualanamu International Airport.

 

Tak panas bontot pun sudah sampai :D

My friend and I took photos after we disembarked from the plane, however when we queued at the immigration counter, there were few guys were questioned because of taking photo around the airport. So please be aware, no photos around the airport. We just keep quiet and luckily they didn't catched us. Out from the immigration, we went out to look for transportation to the hotel. Since we reached Medan in the evening, its is recommended to stay overnight in Medan before departed to Lake Toba. We stayed in Hotel Polonia and the hotel provide free transport from the airport to hotel. The hotel was good but not so quiet since the location is along the busy street. We went to the near shopping complex to have our dinner. I found out that there is not so much variety on food in Medan compared to Bandung or maybe I do not know the place well. Luckily the hotel comes with the free breakfast buffet. I stuffed myself with lots of food before the start the journey to Lake Toba. I know the journey will take about 4-5 hours and its not going to be smooth journey. I met few people who just came back from their trip to Lake Toba. All of them give bad review, some said its like 4 hours riding on the horse..Can you imagine that? some even suggested me to cancel the trip. 

After the checkout from the hotel, we looked for our transportation to get us to Lake Toba. They have this private taxi using MPV like Innova (they call Kijal there), use mostly by local to get to lake Toba. After asked around we managed to get the seat. We mixed with local people in the Kijal and the fare is cheap. I cant remember how much was that but I think it was about RM20 or so. 

 

Inilah Kijal yang kami naiki

 

Ni lah rupa jalan yang dilalui, zig-zag all the way

We departed around 12 o'clock from Medan and about 4 o'clock we reached Parapat town. The last boat to Lake Toba was 6 o'clock, so if you reach later than that you will have to stay overnight in Parapat town. It took us about 1 hour and 30 minutes from the Perapat jetty to our chalet. On the way, we observed the beautiful scenery of Lake Toba and praise Allah the Almighty of his powerful event that created this beautiful lake. Its very huge and serene. 

 

 

At Parapat Jetty, all aboard now

 

Me on the boat, cruising over the Lake Toba

 

Beautiful Scenery

The boat will stopped at a few places around the Samosir Island. The Samosir island is the biggest island inside the Lake Toba.  Majority of the people who lived here are from Batak ethnic. There are a lot of Batak house around the island and you can tell then from their distinctive roof shape. The boat will stop right in front of the chalet that you stayed. We boat stopped directly in front of the Samosir cottage where we stayed.

 

Rumah biar buruk, tapi ada astro tau.

 

   I found out it is quite hard to find halal food here. There are few restaurants near the cottage but they serve pork and beer as well. For the dinner we tried this Popi' Original Batak Sauce Grill Fish. 

This restaurant is just a walking distance from the hotel that we stayed. We order the Grilled fish only, and we really need to wait to hours to get our fish. Oh my goodness! We enjoyed the evening view, sunset and after that we were accompanied by the mosquitoes and cat.

 

the 2 hours grilled fish.. pengsan

We take a rest that night before heading for our tomorrow's adventure. Since there are only me and my friend, we decided to rent a motobike only to get us around. If you have move company it is recommended to hire a car. You can go to many places with cars. And its good if you travels with guys too, to be safe. We don't dare to travel very far sue to worry about our safety.  

Our first destination was Stone Chair of King Sialagan. Before we reach this place I stopped at one of their village. The rear pig at the bottom of their house. Their wooden house is made of 2 layer. The top one is for them to stay and the bottom one where they rear animal. I can see piglets running around the house. I quickly move, scared the piglet might come to me.

 

Not in Malaysia

 

Traditional Batak house

 

Tempat untuk di pasung

 

Tempat di mana hukuman di beri dan di jalankan

I went to several places, but I can't remember the name of those place. Since I am running out of time, I just share the photos here and highlight anything from it. After visiting Lake Toba, we went to Berastagi for 1 day. We went to the fruit market and sightseeing only.

 

Merempit

 

Pergi sini

 

Beautiful view

 

Shopping for Souvenier

 

Shopping fruits in Berastagi

In overall, it was nice experience. It is recommended for people who love nature, but not suitable for the kids. Halal food is scarce. And I don't like cigarette smoke which you can inhale abundantly here. Ok, been to Jakarta, Bandung, Medan, Lake Toba and Berastagi.. Next destination maybe Bali?? :D

Aku masa kecil

It has been a few years I involve in blogging. My entry is not specific, it covers all the things that revolve around me. As long as I feel like writing, then I'll include in. I even make post on something that I dissatisfied (and remove it after I feel doesn't do me good, but I still keep that in my draft copy). I talked with my husband over my blog thingy. I said, it is like my personal diary, but I got it share over the net (but hoping I don't make it too personal though). The good things is that it refresh me on the thing that I have done before, which are some good and some are not. I do not know who still write on the diary these days? And who still can remember the thing that has passed few years before? I told my husband, when I read my blog it flashed back all the things that happened in the past, do you have something like that? Then this morning my husband trigger me on that. He said, he just realize, he got none... Well enough nagging, so I'll continue with my blog. My relatives share some of my childhood photo over the whatsapp. I decided to post it here.. Who knows 10 years from now, I lost those photo, so should keep it in the blog.

 Not sure how old I was, but definitely during primary school. My grandma was still alive. I think I were following my grandma to somewhere, Kedah I thnik.

 

This was at my uncle's house in Batu 17, Ayer Tawar

 

This was at Uda house in Kampung. I have resemblance of Luffy here. He got his handsome look from me. Definitely :)

 

 

I were in Alor Setar, Kedah attending my cousin's wedding.