Couple Escapade to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Zach and I went on a couple's trip to Ho Chi Minh City recently. I must admit when we first made the decision to go, I was kinda hesitant and apprehensive about the place. I've never been to HCMC and guess it never featured as a go-to destination for me. I was however pleasantly surprised when I got there as the city was bustling, the architecture beautiful to the point that I felt I was in a mini Europe in Asia. I was definitely proven wrong and it really goes to show that every place has its own unique charm and should definitely still be explored and experienced.

Our day started quite tensed. We took up a morning Malaysian Airlines flight and given that it was a 4 day long weekend for us Selangor-ians, I was not surprised. But even then, the huge crowd was simply astounding and it can be attributed to poor crowd management at the airport. There were people missing flights etc and the line to simply drop our baggage was crazily long! KLIA should really do something about crowd management, particularly during peak periods, and a suggestion that I have would be to go back to the old system where a particular set of counters is dedicated to a flight rather than have everyone lining up at the same spot no matter their destination nor flight time.

The airport experience was certainly incredibly stressful for us, but Alhamdulillah we managed to make it (just in time) to board our flight. Up in the air, everything's just cozy schmozy and we were all ready and happy to begin our Viet adventure.

We arrived in HCMC to an incredibly crowded airport and luckily managed to secure a taxi to our hotel rather quickly. The journey to our hotel which is located at District 1 was long, but nice to see the surrounding street views. District 1 is probably a convenient place to stay at in HCMC as it's located near most of the tourist attractions. We settled into our beautiful, colonial-style hotel, Hotel Majestic, quite quickly and enjoyed a short rest before venturing out to the streets of HCMC. On our first day, we had covered the grounds of surrounding parks which were just beautifully maintained, the Notre Dame Cathedral and the Saigon Post Office.

Beautiful sights aside, one of the first things you'd notice as you step into HCMC is the crazy number of motorcycles on the road. It's truly a scary experience just to cross streets here and you'd sort of just have to resort to blind faith and go, otherwise, you'll never go anywhere! There are no pedestrian crossings and everyone in HCMC pretty much ignores traffic lights, so, crossing streets was definitely a terrifying experience for me. But, I survived! LOL!

After tons of pics at the Notre Dame Cathedral and the Saigon Post Office, we started to make our way to the Night Market near Ben Thanh Market area. Now, that's one heckuva bustling scene. We even uncovered the "Malaysian" street so to speak where we can find tons of halal eateries and sellers selling tudungs, telekungs and t-shirts etc. They even accept ringgit, which was a pleasant surprise to uncover.

We've never ever had Vietnamese food before so we made it a point to try the Vietnamese Rolls and Pho at one of the halal eatery there. The Vietnamese Rolls didn't bode well for us but the Pho was seriously good stuff.

The next 2 days in HCMC was basically spent going round the various streets of HCMC, discovering the malls that they have, the parks and of course the markets. Once we have discovered all there is to see in the city, we spent our days re-visiting our favourite spots and shopping up a storm at the markets. We didn't go to all the touristy spots outside the city like the river and tunnel etc as it was raining half the time we were there.

Though a short escapade, it was certainly an interesting one and I believe all couples should take up this kind of escapade at least once a year. It offers you the chance to reconnect as a couple, a connection which could so easily get lost with all the parental and work and other family responsibilities we all have. HCMC is definitely a recommended destination and I definitely don't want it to be my first and last time there. Will definitely come back in the future!

Hameediyah Kota Damansara – Restaurant Review

Ambience: Your typical air-conditioned nasi kandar restaurant. Hameediyah had branched out from its original George Town branch to set up shop here at Sunway Nexis, which is really just super close to my home. Awesome shmawsome.

What we ate:

What else? Briyani lah. J - incredibly comforting and tasty dish.

Verdict: Hearty ensemble of well loved nasi kandar favourites in a clean and comfortable environment.

Plan B Restaurant Review, Kuala Lumpur

Ambience: Rustic, industrial style interior which feels incredibly nostalgic. Another Instagram-worthy ambience.

What we ate:

Pan Mee Impasta – a beautiful creation of mildly spiced Shimeji mushrooms and fried anchovies with poached egg that oozes yummily over the spaghetti.

Asian Style Soft Shell Crab Spaghettini – Soft Shell Crab was crispy and there’s a mild spiciness to this superb dish.

Watermelon Lychee – my definite drink order at Plan B. Just so refreshing!

Verdict: You’d be hard pressed to find a Plan B outlet that isn’t full all the time as good food and lovely ambience always attracts a crowd. One of my go-to fusion restaurants.

2.5 Years Old and Counting

Imran’s 2.5 years old now, Alhamdullilah. His personality is ever changing by the day and now I truly know the meaning of “terrible twos”. OMG! The raucous that can come from such a tiny human being. Times like these makes me miss those times when he was crying his lungs out but cannot move or jump around yet as he was just sitting or lying down in one spot. Well, not anymore. Everything about him has grown, including the loudness of his voice and the depth of his emotional tantrums! LOL.

I remind myself to exercise tons and tons of patience and that it’s just a phase. Most of the times the #ilovemychild mantra and a little zikir works for me, but occasionally Zach would just blow it! LOL. When you rethink about it, it’s kinda hilarious. But when it’s actually happening, the stress and pressure can be overwhelming.

Imran can get pretty upset when things don’t go his way. There’s the tantrums on the floor, the whiny sounds, the screwed up face and of course, the screaming. Of all, it’s the screaming & crying combo that makes me super tense. Luckily, these are far and between but it does happen.

He can’t speak fully yet though he certainly knows many words. As I mentioned before, his knowledge on the animal kingdom is second to none. He knows them all complete with the sound that they makes. He’s begun stringing words to his animal like “big e-phant”, “big giraffe”, “I see cat. Meow”, “1 cat, 2 sheep” etc. He can also count pretty well up to 20…though admittedly, after 14, it all sounds like “orteen” to me and occasionally he’d skip some numbers and suddenly it’s 20. Haha….

For now, every red fruit is an apple. But he does know his transport too….tractor, aeroplane, truck, car. So whilst he cannot string too many sentences yet, I am proud and happy that he does have quite a large vocab of words for different things. Every day as he learns is also a learning experience for me. I love teaching him all sorts of things and am actually trying hard to get him to learn alif, ba, ta though he doesn’t seem to have much of an interest in that. If only, those nursery rhyme animation people were able to make interesting nursery rhymes that features alif, ba, ta to capture these kids’ attention.

He’s also started to watch cartoons, which I allow, so that he learns that words can be phrased into sentences. I think he develops a sense of role play from the cartoons that he watches coz occasionally you can see him roleplaying with all his toys, which is just awesome. We can’t yet understand the drama that’s unfolding, but it’s certainly happening. Most of the time it’s of course having something to do with farms.

One thing that irks my husband a bit is his taste for Asian food. LOL! Zach wanted him to be all western and have a love for pasta, but fortunately or unfortunately, he’s kinda like me, loving rice. I tried to get him to eat spaghetti yesterday and he just would not take it. So back to comforting rice for him. LOL!

He’s a wonder to be around and I’m constantly amazed at how much this little one has to offer. I often wish I can spend my every waking hour with him but unfortunately, the reality of a working mum is that I have to let go. So all I can do is maximize my time with him when I’m around him. *sob* *sob* 

Family Trip to Bangkok, Thailand

Bangkok is a favourite city of ours. The last time we went was well before Imran, back in 2012. We went around Christmas time and that was wonderful, experiencing Christmas in the lively city that is Bangkok. The energy, the vibrancy, the culture, everything’s just awesome here. I love it all!

This time, however, is a first for Imran and for us with Imran. LOL! We paced things out a lot and didn’t really do much to be honest as we didn’t want to tire Imran. It was a 3 days 2 nights trip and to make it convenient for us, we stayed at Pathumwan Princess Hotel, which is connected to MBK Centre. If you’re into tasteful hotels in an awesome location with fantastic facilities, you really cannot go wrong with Pathumwan Princess. A bit pricey, yes, but we love this hotel for all the boxes it ticks. Lovely pool, bed’s awesome to relax in, spacious rooms, nice bathrooms and just a really great hotel to stay at.

MBK Centre’s awesome and the place to go when in Bangkok. All kinds of knick knacks and stuff can be found here, hence why we made the decision to position ourselves right there.

Travelling with a child as compared to us travelling on our own is certainly different. A lot more challenging, for sure, but it also allows me some good relax time in the room whenever Imran needs a good nap. Good hotels come in handy and gives me an awesome excuse to fully utilize the room instead of just sleeping in it. When we last came, our daily schedules were packed to the brim with visits all over Bangkok and we even squeezed in a night in Pattaya.

Naturally, we cannot do that this time around. We took a 1 pm Air Asia flight out of KLIA2 and arrived at approximately 2 pm Bangkok time (which is an hour later than KL’s time). Upon arrival, we were warmly greeted by the airport transfer service we had booked and it took us approximately 45 minutes to get to our hotel. Once arrived, we settled into our beautiful room and only at about 6 pm, went out to MBK for a little shopping and dinner.

There are a few halal food counters at MBK which makes it easy for us Muslims. After a little bit of shopping at MBK, Zach left us at the hotel whilst he continued to explore Bangkok.

The next morning, we headed for breakfast at McDonalds (haha) then walked via the connecting pedestrian bridges to Siam Paragon to Ocean World! Bangkok’s Ocean World was amazing! Compared to the time when we took Imran to KLCC’s Aquaria, at Ocean World, we could see he was clearly engaged and interested to see and understand the sea creatures. It’s either he was disinterested in KLCC’s Aquaria or he’s older, hence, has better appreciation for these things. ;)

Tickets are about 1,000 baht for adults and it worked out to be around RM170 for the both of us. Imran was quite enthralled by the sea creatures he’s seeing before him hence it kinda took a while for us to fully explore the place, as compared to when we zipped through KLCC’s Aquaria. Again, this could also be because the Siam Ocean World is a lot bigger than the Aquaria. I probably shouldn’t compare, but, sorry cannot resist. Haha.

Even Zach and I enjoyed ourselves at Ocean World and we’ll definitely come again next time we’re in Bangkok and when Imran can really well and truly fully understand and appreciate everything. After having some fish burgers at Burger King, we made our way back to the hotel to rest for the afternoon, then took Imran for a little swim in the evening.

The pool at Pathumwan Princess Hotel was just beautiful. It’s large and the day was just breezy so I certainly had fun just relaxing by the pool whilst Zach entertains Imran in the pool. LOL! After the swim, Zach went out for more shopping and got us dinner, whilst Imran and I played around in the hotel room. Yea, Imran and I are two peas in a pod, preferring to dine in rather than explore the city.

Next morning, straight after our ritual McDonald’s breakfast, we went to the airport for our flight back at 1 pm.

The trip was actually in lieu of Zach’s 34^th Birthday and it’s kinda fun to explore another city as a family as a celebration vs. the usual family parties we host which takes too much time and effort to prepare for. Bangkok’s definitely the place to go with kids as they actually have tons of kids attractions which we have yet to explore and the people there are certainly very child friendly. J