(This is part of an ongoing travelogue. To start from the beginning, click here) This marks the final full day in Lombok. Nothing beats a morning swim just before breakfast. This is an awesome view, an altar facing Gunung Agung in Bali. At night they light up the fire like a sacrifice. Lady going for a morning walk on the beach along our hotel. Breakfast was something i looked forward to. They had a la carte brekkie, all with servings of fruit, juice and coffee or tea. Today we planned to go to one of the waterfalls on the island. There two places to see spectacular waterfalls, all emanating from…

(This is part of an ongoing travelogue. To start from the beginning, click here) Day 4 starts as the second day on Gili Trawangan. Beach looks calm and beautiful in the morning. The night before we had tried to find a cheap snorkeling transport to Gili Meno, where there was supposed to be some awesome dive spots. But they were all quite expensive (at least IDR 1mil), especially for the few hours we wanted to go. We were checking out at 12pm, so we decided snorkel off the beach. So we started walking along the beach going down south. There didn’t seem to be any nice beaches comparable to the…

(This is part of an ongoing travelogue. To start from the beginning, click here) After two days in Kebun Villas & Resort on Lombok, on the third day we packed up after breakfast. Next destination – the Gili Islands! All the while doing research for Lombok, I read about the 3 Gili Islands. Some posters said they were the most beautiful islands in the world (pinch of salt included) and any trip to Lombok would not be complete without at least a few nights here. I wasn’t against the idea of staying here, but the thought of packing up and moving hotels 3 times in 6 days wasn’t what I…

(This is part of an ongoing travelogue. To start from the beginning, click here) Day 2 started very early at 6.30am. Don’t know why I always wake up really early while on holiday. But the 6.30am is bright like our 7.30am in Malaysia. Breakfast only starts at 7.30am at the hotel restaurant, so the kids had time for a morning swim in the pool. After the swim, you can just walk up and have breakfast poolside. So convenient. For a small hotel, I’d say Kebun Villas & Resort has quite a good breakfast spread. I like that even though its fully booked, its not packed at all and I don’t…

For Valentine’s Day, I bought my wife a surprise trip she’d never expect in a million years – 6 days in Lombok! Why Lombok? Why not Bali? Where’s Lombok?! Those were the questions I was asked by my friends and colleagues. Well, we did a few mainstream tourist destinations recently in the past few years, like Bali, Gold Coast and Bangkok. I thought it would be a good change to do one a little less ‘touristy’ – a bit off the beaten path. Ever since we’ve been doing annual family holidays since 2006 (I think), the ones we enjoyed the most were the more obscure destinations, like Ko Lipe (when…

Over the years working in the property development industry, I’ve often asked our land surveyors to do a title search. What’s a title search? Basically, if you are interested in a piece of land, doing a title search at the local land office will tell you who the owner is, and other stuff like his address and and land details. If you are the owner and want build a house or sell the land, a title search is the official confirmation from the Land Office that you are the owner of the land. Law firms also commonly do title searches whenever there is a legal procedure tied to the land…

Signal brand cigarettes. That’s the brand of cigarettes my grandmother smoked. Not the grandmother in Melaka, the other on that stayed with us at home and took care of me. No one else I knew smoked this brand of cigarettes, not then, not now. She smoked it when she stayed in Batu Gajah, and when she stayed with us, my mom bought it for her from the sundry shop near my house. I’m not sure if its a coincidence, or if my mom requested for the sundry shop to stock the brand, but i’ve never seen any other shop sell this particular brand. It came in a simple pale orange…

Ever since I could recall, every Chinese New Year was spent in my paternal grandmother’s house. The entire clan converged there, so all my CNY memories are interminably linked to the happy times in that little house in Malacca. *** My grandmother was a respected matriach in the extended family clan, every year the relatives, both close and distant, would come to pay their respects to her. *** We had a tradition of hanging a red cloth around the door, like at some weddings. Except the cloth was measured for the door on the old wooden house my grandmother stayed in many years ago. The newer house had a bigger…

Today is the last day of 2013, and it is time again to review my past year in 9 points. To understand why only 9 (and not 10) you have to go back to the first of this yearly tradition to find out why. The past editions can be read here (2012, 2011, 2010, 2009 and 2008). New Year, New Job Began the new year on Jan 21 with a new job with one the fastest growing Property developers in the country. Getting in the company was tough, keeping up with the job was tougher. But I’m thankful to God for the opportunity, and in a way, my previous short-stint…

I remember watching the cute ad for Toys R Us on Singapore TV. You know that catchy one that goes “I don’t wanna grow up…” Showing adorable mat Salleh kids hugging the giraffe and caterpillar plush toys and assorted colourful and expensive looking toys. I remember going to Toys R Us in Marine Parade (i think?) in Singapore although I don’t think i have much memories of it. Some years later Toys R Us came to Malaysia, in The then new Subang Parade. They ran the same series of ads on local TV, except with local (equally adorable) kids. I remember it giving me kind of a hallowed view of…