Wednesday 29 January 2020

#Pregnancy : We Are Expecting!


3 years and 4 months into our marriage, this little miracle came into our lives. Indeed, the timing was perfect, Alhamdulillah.

The first few years of our marriage, I was very occupied with my ACCA exams. Then right after, both of us enrolled in the MBA program. And now, we're starting our final semester.  

I was very adamant from earlier on that I wanted to keep the news private. So the first 2 persons who got to know the news were N and my mom (both via Whatsapp) as I did the pregnancy test at my office. Hahaha 




Still a long way to go, may Allah ease.

So I'm sharing the news now, in my third trimester. I had documented my experience throughout and back-dated the posts. You can read all of em on the 'Motherhood' tab above. 
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Thursday 23 January 2020

Aceh Trip : Itinerary

Day 1
  • Arrived at the airport at 9am. The supir has already been waiting (We liaised with Freddies for the service)
  • We wanted to take the fast ferry to Pulau Weh and we would have missed the 9.30am trip so we spent some time in Banda Aceh while waiting for the next ferry trip at 4pm
  • Supir brought us to Pantai Lampuuk for lunch, then we stopped by Mie Bardi to 'tapau' the infamous fried noodle before stopping for authentic Aceh coffee. 
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  • Then we took the 4pm ferry to Pulau Weh. Another supir had been waiting at the port to bring us to Iboih Jetty (40 minutes drive)
  • Here, the staffs from Iboih Inn picked us at the jetty (you can hike to the accommodation or opt for the boat ride; of course we chose the latter!)
  • Familiar place but this time, we got an even better room!
  • At night we had dinner at Iboih Inn and spent the night free and easy; gazing at the stars etc.

Day 2
  • We went for the dolphin tour with Ijul (we first met him in 2017). He picked us up at 6.30am by boat
  • We were joined by other people as well, where Ijul brought us to look for dolphins. Oh it was so magnificent! Something you should never miss when you're in Pulau Weh. I don't have the pictures though, only videos.  
  • The dolphin trip cost Rp500,000 per person which includes breakfast, GoPro videos and pictures, snorkelling equipment, lunch and snorkelling at a few spots. The trip ended at 3pm. You can contact Ijul at +62 85260408660 or through his Instagram - zulkifli_ijull.
  • And I also got to eat the best banana fritters ever! Has been craving for it since the last time I visited Pulau Rubiah. Not to mention, the lunch spread was amazing!

  • We were pretty exhausted after the trip that we just chill at in our room and had dinner at Iboih Inn restaurant at night. 

Day 3
  • Early morning, we had breakfast at the restaurant and wanted to take a dip. But sadly, it's the jellyfish season! Even though we were told that this particular species of jellyfish is not dangerous, we were too much of a scaredy-cat to jump into the water. Haha.
  • We checked out at 11am and the supir is already waiting to bring us to Freddies, on the other side of the island. 
  • We loved Freddies so much!!! The view, everything was perfect!! 
  • After lounging in the room, we rent a scooter to explore the island. We went to Gua Sarang, a tourist attraction spot and Taman Wisata Putro Ijoe to have the amazing Ayam Tangkap we had last time we were here. 
  • Then at night, we had dinner buffet at Freddie's.

Day 4
  • Nothing much planned for the day, we had breakfast buffet at Freddie's
  • Then continue exploring the town
  • We had an in-house massage session in the room (so good!)
  • Just chill the whole day, looking at the amazing view.
  • Had a dip in the sea as well (you have direct access to the beach here, unlike at Iboih Inn).

Day 5
  • Breakfast buffet at Freddie's
  • Checkout
  • Supir brought us to the jetty to go back to Banda Aceh
  • We shop around the town for keropok malinja and had Mie Razali before we went back to KL


Based on the itinerary, you can tell that the theme for our trip this time around was 'chill and relax'.  😉
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Aceh Trip : Flight and Accommodation

This was our second visit to Aceh, after the trip in 2017. Y'all can read all about it here.


Flight
Air-Asia flight at 0740, 1 hour 30 minutes journey, RM170 per person for return tickets.

Accommodation
This time around, we spent 4 nights in Pulau Weh. 2 nights in Iboih Inn and 2 nights with  Freddie's Sumur Tiga. We didn't spend much time at Banda Aceh as we had pretty much covered the main attractions the last time we were there. 

Last time we stayed at Iboih Inn and we loved it, so here we are again!

We booked the waterfront room 6 months prior to our trip since last time we only managed to stay at the garden sea view room.


View from our room. Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures of the room interior. But there's a king-sized bed, water dispenser, attached bedroom with water heater, AC and mosquito net.

Sunrise view



*From their website*

To get here, you can opt to hike up a hill (20 minutes) or they'll fetch you at the jetty (obviously we chose the latter). 😅

They provided snorkelling gear for a fee but this time we didn't use it as it's the jellyfish season and we were scaredy pants (although they already told us that this particular species didn't sting at all). Hahaha

So in Iboih Inn, the breakfast is provided. For lunch and dinner, you can just order at their cafe. And the payment will be done during checkout. You can use credit card but there will be a 2% charge.

And oh their policy requires for full payment before arrival to book the room.
The rate was IDR750,000 per night (including breakfast) so we paid about RM450 for the room.

After 2 nights in Iboih, we went to the other side of the island at Pantai Sumur Tiga. And oh my God, the view was to die for. It was totally different from Iboih Inn. I immediately fell in love!!

We stayed at Freddies Santai Sumurtiga.


If you recall, I was contemplating to stay at Freddies during our 2017 trip but since they didn't have AC, it was kind of a deal-breaker. This time though, we thought to just gamble with it after so so many great reviews online and we didn't regret it a little bit.

It was so cold and windy at night! 

View from our bed
View from our balcony
The restaurant

The famed pizza; Freddie's Favourite Pizza. So good!
They also have in-house masseuse. And they did organised everything for us while we were there. Would definitely visit the place again!!

Although they offer a buffet option for dinner, I would suggest to just order ala-carte as we didn't like the food much. Some of it is a hit and miss but some; really good like fried rice and pizza.

The rate at Freddies is IDR375,000 per night excluding breakfast. So we spent about RM250 for the room there.

I'll share more on our itinerary soon!
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Wednesday 22 January 2020

Recipe : Sizzling Yee Mee

I've made this a few times before using multiple different recipes, but this particular recipe is the best!

So I thought I'll share it here just for reference.

Ingredients :

  • Few slices of ginger
  • 5 garlic cloves
  • 5 dried chillies (soaked in warm water)
  • Chicken breast
  • 4 tablespoon of oyster sauce
  • 3 tablespoon of dark soy sauce
  • 3 tablespoon of sweet soy sauce
  • Shitake mushroom
  • Green veges (sawi / bok choy)
  • Egg
  • Yee Mee
  • Corn starch
  • Chicken cube
  • Salt

Steps
  • Pound the garlic and ginger
  • Heat some cooking oil and add in the pounded ingredients plus the dried chillies
  • Once it becomes fragrant, add the chicken slices and stir continuously
  • When the chicken is almost cooked, add in 3 cups of water
  • Now add the sauces (oyster, dark sauce and sweet sauce) and chicken cube
  • Make sure the heat is on low
  • Add a tablespoon of cornstarch into a bowl with water and add em in
  • Finally, add the mushroom and vegas. And salt to taste
  • In another pot, boil water. Soak the yee mee until it's not crispy. Should not take longer than 1 minute. Toss it.
  • Time to assemble!
  • In a rather flat pan, put some yee mee. Add in the broth and crack an egg. Let it simmer for a while and it's ready to eat!



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