Melbourne 2012 : The Preliminary

Persiapan kali ni adalah dalam kategori UNDER-PREPARED

Why ? 

- Hotel booking was only done 2,3 weeks before actual travel date and we have 5 hotels, yes FIVE to book. In the end we ended up with 2 motels, 1 townhouse, 1 motor inn and 1 backpacker. Memang best sbb anak-anak boleh experience mcm2 tajuk tempat tinggal especially backpacker walopon inche boipren sedikit wary on safety.

- Booked our car middle of Oct - we made the right choice. CAMRY. The only disappointment was the super bulky booster seat. I thought it would be a booster a la Graco yang ada seketul je kat bawah for her to sit on but we got yang mcm babyseat punya besar and reduced the space a bit, not to mention mudah terlungkup when the seat-belt off. 

- Itinerary was finalised on the travel day itself, but not the major one as we had already  decided on the major pit-stops earlier. CBD itinerary memang x buat until Friday morning, sib baik kerja opis dah siap so sempatla ku menggugel & belasah. Tapi in actual xde la follow sangat the sequence coz most of the CBD attractions dekat je even on foot. 

Di subuh hari nak bertolak, itinerary utk 3 hari kat town still x siap !!

- I didn't prepare the list of eating places, all based on my reading & bloghopping. I remembered names of restaurants but couldn't recall where the heck. Found out that 2 are along the same St as our motel. Tu pun sbb jalan kaki balik dari QVM huhu the rest we just have it on the go. Tapi food senang kacang jelah nak cari kat CBD, melambak.

- I only started packing on Wed night. 2 hari sebelum fly. Took out the luggage from storage and campak all the things that I need into 1 bakul. Pack small stuffs dalam zipper bag dulu - medication, toilettries and food. TIDO. Khamis malam sambung with baju and all tapi tak habis sebab penat giler. TERTIDO. SHOOOT. Terbangun pukul 4AM OMG OMG OMG sambung pack sbb aku still kerja 1/2 day pagi tu. Finished packing around 7am then terus gi opis !! Sampai rumah almost 2pm, zass zass itu ini kemas rumah *rumah musti tiptop bila pulang jalan2*. Pukul 5 gerak g airport. Gila, kalau travel dekat and just me & boipren oklah, ni nak pegi punyalah jauh dengan 3 kanak-kanak riang. Jangan dibuat lagi ye !! Baik boss !!

Apa2hal pun campak dulu baju & brg yg nak bawak dl bakul ni..thx bakul

Pemandangan pukul 6.30am, break jap..sakit pinggang + panic

By 7am : kesat peluh kat ketiak dahi. Am good to go..to work

- I forgot to print out our budget list which is the most important part of my travel kit, itinerary ada, packing list ada, waktu solat ada, sunset/sunrise time ada. Budget yg list all admission fees & how much cash to set aside for budgeting purposes aku bleh lupa. So, time nak belanja pakai cash ni dok congak2 la jugak based on apa yg aku boleh ingat, takut lari bajet sbb dah terpakai cashnya. Bila boipren tanya nak masuk tempat itu ini berapa tiket aku nganga *tp dlm aksi terkawal* dan terus selak brochure kot2 ada tulis, pantang ada wi-fi laju2 carik. Haaa kan dah menyusahkan diri dan membazirkan masa prepare tapi x bawak. In the end we have an extra about few hundred dollars. 

GugelMap utk our self-drive journey from point-to-point, coz we didn't use GPS

Downloaded map, flight itinerary & hotel bookings dlm travel folder. Tp missing budget list pffffftt !

Some of the must-have/must-bring gadgets or tools which I think you would need when travelling abroad, the list was longer when my kids were babies, now that they're toddler we can shrink our luggage quite considerably. Can't wait until all of them can carry their own backpack :P

• Segala mak nenek charger
• Kiblat locator |jgn lupo city location code
• Luggage scale |esp. trip yg melibatkan operasi shopping
• Vacuum bag besar } roll, bukan vacuum
• Vacuum bag aka zipper bag kecik |IKEA's good, double zipper
• Power adapter |AirAsia punya best, nicely packed @RM48
• External power for gadgets |saat-saat kecemasan, 10% power pn b'guna
• Mini tripod (untuk saat2 tiada pembantu)
• LipIce Sheer Color |lipbalm + lipcolor love love
• Puke bags (cilok flight pnya pn ok) + wrist accu-pressure
• Travel insurance (flight + medical) |mine was from HSBCAmanah, online easy peasy
• Pen | ol'skool but trust me it's useful

FOODSTUFFS untuk saat2 malas nak keluar bilik cari food

• Beras
• Kopi-O 2-in-1
• Maggi Tomyam + Kari + Ayam
• Ibumie
• Perencah Nasi Goreng
• Sos Cili

*Ni yang bekal dr KL, lain2 beli kat sana, pancake flour, telur,garlic bread, white bread etc even sugar. B'sepah tempat nak beli & properly-labelled so tanpa was2..

UBAT untuk saat2 yang tidak diingini. Alhamdulillah. NONE.

• Nurofen
• Adik-beradik Panadol - ActiFast, Extend, Soluble blabla
• Clarityne and Clarinase
• ENO Halia
• Charcoal Pill
• Gaviscon
• Hot cream / minyak angin
• Vicks
• Novomin
• Ubat tahan muntah
• Ubat luka & plaster gambor winnie the pooh
• Adan's medication

gedek gedek gedek...red yellow green. FULL !! we had 3 cameras w us :: OVER !! ::

Poncho yang langsung x sempat tgk dunia Melbourne. Last2 guna kat Legoland hehe

Our faithful kiblat locator, been with us for ages and still performing. 5-star !!

Last minute item sbb teringat jalan GOR. Reserve for Adan tp ms kat GOR x jumpa carik. Salah selit huhu 

Digital scale. Ada cerita lawak psl scale ni @ DFO Essendon parking lot

Our 2nd newly bought power adaptor

Mobile external power, can charge up iphone up to 50% (shud've bought bigger power)

The whole set with all kepala & the most important is the car adaptor yg lubang kosong kat tengah. Senang caj dlm keter jek

Sesuai kalau dalam M'sia compared to overseas esp Oz sbb tandas sana tulus mulus

This is how it looks like everytime I'm about to fly for a big trip, the checklist will be tempek-ed right before entrance-exit and everytime turun tangga I'll know what I need to find & sumbat. Even before locking the door ku go thru seround lagi, konpom xde tinggal then lock switch off lock switch off lock mana yang patut. 

Kalau tertinggal jugak, memang la..

Tick sana tick sini, jgn tick sesaje..barang lupa amik huhu

Tebiat aku klu time travel. Sblm b'lepas ke opis, siapkan segala sepentot sepender serkup tudung baju bajan yg nak pakai for the day *ekceli xmo depa kecahkan wardrobe hehe)  

Okeh. Done. Tetiba rajin nak buat preliminary bagai, memang kena pelempang la kalau cerita trip tu tak  up sampai sudah. Doakan kerajinan melanda diriku ye...ku karang pelan2. 

Pictures were uploaded in my FB in 3 parts but I'll put some extra for this space, this space should capture more and we do have more more and more than enuff pix to share. Ok ? Choww

Melbourne 2012 : The Prelude

Bila :: 9 - 19 Nov 2012

Mana :: Melbourne dan sekitarnya

Siapa :: Ibu + Babah + Along + Adan + Adik

Can you believe it ? Me, the mother of procrastinator started blogging about her trip just 10 days after the actual trip.

Hahaha don't get too excited, this is just the prelude, you may need to wait 6 months to read the real thing !! 6 months if you're lucky enuff, I have trips which haven't made into this blog even after 1 year. For now say amiiin coz you have seen the itinerary at least.

So, here I am laying down the itinerary for the trip, in general. List of towns that we passed by but not necessarily made a stop and some of the attractions that we managed to visit.

Compared to my original itinerary, there're a lot of changes and misses because we traveled with kids and we tweaked it according to their larat-ness and also the weather. Since this is another DIY trip, it's no fret, I can always change it. Places that we missed can always be in our next trip's itinerary  (???) hehe it's gonna be loooonnnnng before the next one *bankrap*

DAY 1 : 9 NOVEMBER 2012 |Travelday|

Take off LCCT (8 hrs)

DAY 2 to 5 : 10 - 13 NOVEMBER 2012

Melbourne CBD (on foot + city circle tram + tourist shuttle + yarra tram)

- Melbourne Zoo

- Queen Victoria Market

- Melbourne Museum + Royal Exhibition Building

- State Library

- Royal & Block Arcade

- Federation Square

- Flinders Station

- South Wharf DFO + Harbourtown

- Shrine of Remembrance + Royal Botanic Garden

- Fitzroy Garden + Cook's Cottage + Fairies Tree

- Parliament House

- Shot Tower 

- St Kilda Pier + Luna Park

- Yarra River

- Public Arts : Public Purse, 3 Businessman, Arch fragment, Wall art

- Countless walk around Swanston St coz that's where we stayed. Right smacked of the middle of town & attractions

* visited those places but not in that order

DAY 6 : 14 NOVEMBER 2012 |Roadtrip Day 1|

Belgrave 

- Puffing Billy

Phillip Island (overnight)

- Panny's Choc Factory

- The Noobies

- Penguin Parade

DAY 7 : 15 NOVEMBER 2012 |Roadtrip Day 2|

Mornington

Sorrento

- Ferry crossing to Queenscliff

Torquay

- Sundial

- Beachwear FO

Lorne (overnight)

DAY 8 : 16 NOVEMBER 2012 |Roadtrip Day 3|

Apollo Bay

- many many lookouts

Port Campbell (overnight)

- many many lookouts oso

DAY 9 : 17 NOVEMBER 2012 |Roadtrip Day 4|

Warnambool

Port Fairy

Penshurst

Dunkeld

Hall's Gap (overnight)

- few magnificient lookouts

DAY 10 : 18 NOVEMBER 2012 |Roadtrip Day 5|

Stawell

Ararat

Beaufort (err Sabah ??)

Ballarat

- Sovereign Hill

Melbourne Airport

DAY 11 : 19 NOVEMBER 2012 |Travel day|

Land LCCT

Untuk cerita dan gambar. Tungguuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu *konpom lambat lagi hahaha*

9 more days and it is still WIP

It all started like this...

Then later baru transfer sini, biar senonoh sikit... 

but as written on the title...1 week more and I am still looking at the blank spaces here and there. Sama blank dengan otak. Banyaknye benda tak buat lagiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii *tarik rambut*

But I shall complete this before the weekend as weekend would a tight one coz we have khatam quran, aqiqah & Hannah's concert on Sat (Nak jemput kawan2 tapi we wouldn't be around sbb acara clashed, next time eh). Sukan and swimming class on Sun morn till afternoon. In between I need to squeeze in the most dreaded part that is PACKING as well as shopping for last minute items (extra SD card and apa lagi ek...aiyoh die die like dis)

Jalan-Jalan Indonesia 2011 - Siri 1

Bila :: 5 - 10 Dec 2011
Mana :: Bali + Bandoeng + Djakarta
Siapa :: Mi familia

Bila melihat blog entry yang rongak2 maka aku pun menepuk kepala supaya sedar diri kenapa aku ada blog. Tapi kalau dah namanya pemalas, tak berupdate jugaklah akhirnya. Takpe, bukannya ada nuffnang bagai. Maka azam baru adalah update laju laju.

Kalau dulu I have the luxury of buying flights more than 6 months before actual departure date but now that IncikSoami is working in a new company with new responsibility, maka cutinya telah di catu. Oh sedihnya melihat promosi datang bertalu-talu tapi tak boleh beli lagi. Tapi dalam hati telah berkata-kata. Kalau zero fare akan ku pejam mata dan click 'Confirm' sahaja.

What happened was a deja vu. Trip to S'pore in June happened in the same manner. I was only given 1 week to plan our USS trip [entry belum upload ngeee]

The man just said 'Babah boleh cuti week 5th Dec, so nak pegi mana ?'. Aku kelu mata kelip-kelip tengok dia and pikir 'Bajet ??' penting woh soklan tu. Tapi biasanya bila dibagi bajet aku busted 100%. Bajet dalam paragraf ini didefinisikan sebagai 'jumlah perbelanjaan untuk kos penerbangan dan penginapan' *mode menderaf Akta sudah mari*

So we have 2 options

Option 1 : Round satu Semenanjung now that we have bigger ride.
Option 2 : Obersi dekat2

Option 1 was slashed when I recalled what happened in Kangar in 2005. Never in my life again will I expose myself & my kids to such scary experience. We will still be doing it but maybe sometime next year, bila cuaca macam ok sikit. So that left us with obersi dekat2. S'pore done in June, Thailand banjir, Manila no way jose, Indonesia sounds good. Djakarta was mentioned but Bali got the attention. Boleh tahan murah.

Ingat !! Saya tak boleh memilih sebab date dah fixed. Nangis.

Oleh kerana saya rasa saya seorang yang kreatif maka saya merajinkan diri menggugel lokasi sampingan dan telah berjaya mendapatkan harga tiket yang berbaloi baloi. Instead of getting AA for KL-Bali-KL, I managed to get MAS for KL- Bali & Djakarta-KL and proceed with AA for Bali-Bandoeng route. Total cost for my alternative route is almost the same as what AA offered for direct route KL-Bali-KL (without meal & luggage added yet) except that I need to pay extra IDR150k airport tax (for additional domestic flight in between (IDR30k/person). But it's totally worth it. We got 125kg worth of luggage and delicio meals on board for FREE.

Intro je dah boleh jadik 1 entry, so aku stop sini dululah sbb kalau nak tunggu aku mengarang cerita seterusnya sampai sudah tak upload entry ni kan ?

Off to The Land Where Everyone is a Millionaire

By now, 5 Dec 2011 12:25pm, we're onboard of MH851 flying out of country to our next door neighbor.

Last minute deal as inche Suami harus & misti bercuti pada tarikh yang ditetapkan. Sangat tidak menepati ciri2 pembeli tiket AA tau, cuti kena catu & carta..Nevertheless, it came at the most appropriate time for me as I need to getaway from office madness, it's pure madness when you have to drag your kids to the office during long weekend & work your *ss for other people's benefits.

Thanx Ayang for considering the detour to the cold shopping land hehe err I'll pay for my shopping thru the nose.

With that...aku kembali jutawan...








(Source : Google Images)

Jejak :: KLIA - DPS - BDO > CGK - KLIA. Miskin aku kena airport tax

Jom ke Lumut kiteee

Bila :: 30 Sep - 2 Oct 2011
Mana :: Mulut..eh Lumut :P
Siapa :: Satu pejabat + 5 beranak
Kenapa :: Membina pasukan + ambil kesempatan

Ni scheduled post, by now 9.00am, patutnya aku dah pelan2 kayuh masuk PLUS nak ke Utara. Acara mengambil kesempatan. Berteambuilding sambil bercuti. Ke DamaiLaut katanya.

Tu kalau ikut perancangan, kalau tak ikut pulak, rasanya by this time aku tengah jadik sarjan suh anak-anak mandi & breakfast sbb dah lambat nanti sampai TelukMakIntan tengahari rembang. Satu hal nak suruh kome posing tengah paneh, satu hal pulak bapak kome nak mencari masjid nak solat jemahat...macam-macam hal lah...

Kalau ikut perancangan yang lagi awal pulak, patutnya ikut jalan pantai ikut Tangjung Karang bagai. Katanya nak road trip tapi lepas Gugel, nan hado. Sumer yg menarik kau tertarik da boom sumer hanyalah sampai kat Kola Selangoq ja, lepas tu mcm takde pape sangat, mandom. Pastu teringat plak kat atas jalan nanti kena berjemaah dengan lori mori...elok ler aku skip sebelum inche supir sakit kepala. Jadi, Kuala Selangor bakal dijelajah on its own. Not this time.

Plan baru pulak :

P E G I >> ikut Teluk Intan/Teluk Anson/Diamond Bay/Teluk Mak Intan.

Kalo boleh pi malam, ishh cunnya tapi kang sesat barat la pulak

(Source : Wiki)

B A L I K >> ikut Batu Gajoh. Aci ? Aci kat India..kata Hanis

(Source: Wiki)

Sangat gembira mau berpergian walopon baca review hotel bernama DamaiLaut itu agak gampang. Monyet ? Lalat ? Apakah ? Tapi takpe sbb udah kat situ acaranya. Takkan tetiba aku nak duduk kat Fulau Fangkor pulak kan ? Ada yang kena sekeh ngan bos ni...

Jalan-jalan carik pasal

By now we should be on board of KL-M heading to macet-est city of Ind0nesia

Where :: CKG
When :: 3 -6 June 2011
Who :: 4 sekawan

Hope everything would be fine as all of us are Jakarta-virgins.

Will be back on Monday.

Daaaaa...

Disaster di Singa-pura

Kursus 2 hari

Baju kurung 2 pasang, kaler lebih kurang

Kasut cukuplah 1 sahaja, tapi boleh match kedua-duanya

Dalam kepala all beres !!

Unsangka-rably

At first, it was just the string, I tried to godek it by trying to insert it back only to accidentally pulling the stone, it came off and that spelled double disaster dem-u-kasut.

Dalam panik mode sebab dah lambat, bekpes pun belom (and I have not even started my day)...In my head, I went whatdoidowhatdoido and suddenly my butterly ring snapped !! Like..what a shitty day...can it get more worse ? I just throw it into the bin out of frustation. Now I sorta regret it..

I sat on the bed, mencari idea (contohnya pegi beli kasut kat Mustafa and masuk conf. pukul 9.30). Terpandang the saviour of the day, my hanalei the boya-wedges saved the day tho less formal, at least I have shoe to strut my way to the hall. Lucky lucky I've decided to wear it on the very last minute. Konon feeling diva sket masa kat airport walopon tetap lanyak flipflop bila ke sana sini.

I hope no one notice ke-tidak-match-an kasut kesayangan ku yang digandingkan dengan baju kurung kelabu.

Blue is the new kelabu.

Mother's Day with One Unhappy Mother

I gotta leave them kids for few days, leaving for Sing-ka-poh via KLIA around 4.30pm on official trip.

Since all of them was on long leave last month for KK trip, we decided that none will follow. We might be going down again during Nov school hols, so that's considered as justified.

Yesterday, we had an early birthday celebration for Adan coz I won't be around on Monday. I bought him the usual present. Another LEGOCity set, kali ni yang polis pulak. He wanted to complete his coast guard collection but there was none. Gotta check from other outlets as I would love to buy him the coast guard chopper and land transports, cool jeep with stretcher and all. Me likeyyy....(confession : i love lego, now & forever, TQ to my abah who introduced me to the blocks since I was a baby)

To all of you who deserved to be called 'Mother'..Happy Mother's Day from KLIA with tears love ...

Suka sangat pegi KK ye...

Bila :: 13-16 April 2011
Mana :: KotaKinabalu
Siapa :: Keluarga saya dan adik ipar saya dan mertua saya

Ye la, sape tak suka kalau tiket murah yang amat, hotel dah sah2 75% diskaun, tu pun potong gaji. Tinggal duit nak belanja je la, kan ?


Tengkiu ApiTerbang for the cheap tix !!

Beli awal gila tiket sampai mcm ingat-ingat lupa bila date nak pegi.


Before check-in Magellan, sapedek dulu, Hannah tumpang tido kat stroller Rayyan, so I gotta sling Rayyan on me

Tujuan asal beli tiket is nak jalan-jalan and bawak mak Man pi rumah adik dia kat KK sinun. But Allah has His own plan devised for us. Paksu passed away 2 weeks after we bought the ticket and on the day we landed in KK, Maksu is back in Taiping. My SIL's hubby plak kena outstation kat China.

Memang dah decide awal2 nak skip trip to Gunung sbb baru je pegi x sampai 1 year pun. Lagipun I don't think my in-laws are fit for that kind of journey. Berliku-liku bukit bukau.

1 day spent in town, lepak Magellan. Malam keluar makan dekat Tg Aru but we missed the musical fountain show sebab makan adalah lebih penting hahaha


Ready for wet agenda, the rest stay kat hotel sampai check-out. Aku lost kenapa Hannah x happy sbb tgh kontrol perut

The highlight of our KK trip this time around :

ISLAND HOPPING !!! (which was purposely cut-off from our earlier trip)

We opted for 2 islands only, sedar diri heret anak 3 org. Yang penting bleh berendam. Sempat hola cik Ikan tanya pendapat. So Sapi and Manukan on top of our list. We spent more time in Manukan which I think is more seshuai untuk piknik and lepak maybe because of its size and facilities. Banyak picnic benches provided.


Ada org excited naik speed boat, aku dah pening sbb boat melompat2 kena lambung


Jeti kat Pulau Sapi


See how far I was from the kids, mak tak tahan panas nyah, dah la mak memang spesis hitam manis...bg alasan pantai x lawa tapi betul apa.


Water baby, super happy super horray jumpa beach



Kejadian ngeri, our boat (yg kt belakang tu) mati enjin kat tgh2 laut & kena oleng2 dgn ombak for at least 10min in between Sapi & Manukan. Aku dah siap floatkan waterproof bag aku. Ketaq woi sebab bila boat senget dah nak cecah muka air dah.

Berendam sampai legam !! Kalau korang nak pegi make sure bawak bekal banyak2 sbb lepas berendam memang kelaparan yang amat and food sold on the island x best not to mention mahai nak mamfoss.



Manusia2 kelaparan balik dari pulau, g jumpa bestpren BIL yg jadi store manager NasikLemakAntarabangsa kat SuriaSabah. Apa yang unik kat sini ? Lauk dia ala2 restoran Thai bukan lagi franchise nasik lemak biasa. Sedap mamat Siam tu masak !!



Nexus is haven and the room is huuuuuuge but 1 thing which I don't like, they charged us for extra bed unlike Magellan. The bed cost me more than the room !! And the rooms were a bit to far from the beach and cafe so we end up wasted our time waiting for buggy to fetch us everytime. We can request it because we have senior citizen and baby in our group. Kalau takde pandai2 la kome menapak ye..xde nak layan fetch bagai...we spent 2 nights here.






Sape la awek gemok baju ijau tuh ?



Lepas solat Jumaat panjat ke View Point yang macam takde benda nak di view. Dunia..lihatlah lenganku setarap drumstick gayanya, lipatan perut tak b'jaya dicover sbb henbeg kurang besar. Maafkanlah aku yang masih tidak comfortable with my own body. Lepas ni aku dah berazam akan pose tanpa rasa mahu menyorokkan apa2.



Lepas tu turun dan menapak melihat clock tower, just to make sure we covered all historical places and must visit places. Adan insisted on going there after I told him about the tower. I made sure they read the history as well. Sama-sama belajar coz I oso donno what the heck it represented or signify.


Mat Rayyan si bam bam gebu, anak sedare aku


Bersama mummynya yang kuruih


Just before sunset, sempat lagi aku merayau menembak sorang-sorang


Aci tak tempah pasu cenggini utk umah sendirik ?


Santai-santai di Nexus, as planned



Bagi budak-budak join xtvt kat situ rm50/person for batik painting, bicycle and wet xtvt. I negotiated that I dont want to do wet xtvt coz we're checking out in few hours, managed to get extra frames for batik painting so Hannah and moi can paint as well. Yay!!




Menyorok di belakang anak menjadikan anda kelihatan sedikit kecil dan tiada lipatan perut dpt dikesan



While the kids round2 naik beskal, babah fought hard to win the game against an Aussie boy. Babah won..phew seb baik, kalau tak malu sbb segala mak pak pakcik makcik dia duk tengok. Yang paling celaka best ayat last sedare dia 'oh i thought you're 1 of the resort's staff'. Hello..ingat we can't afford to stay in Nexus ka ? Dah sah2 laki aku pakai casual, bukan uniform. Kesimpulan, harus dress up lagi atau pakai sahaja sepender seperti mereka, baru nampak umpama seorang hotel guest.

BTW, here 'something' captured hiding behind wall at Nexus, I almost fainted bila terzoom ke situ tapi tangan laju je snap. Di siang hari ? Mmmm Nexus oh Nexus..kesian jantung ai tauuu...

Next trip (biar betul korang ni..nak pegi lagi ??) either fully spent at Manukan Resort while hubby go for dive or maybe lazying around in Nexus. Bliss.