Sat - Selesa Hillhomes

Since uncle Mark and auntie Julia were back in Seremban with baby Caris for the weekend, my daddy brought us back to Seremban too to celebrate Aden boy's birthday, and for a short holiday.


We drove up to KL to meet up with uncle Alvin and auntie Jenny. Then we had a little birthday party for Aden boy in Secret Recipe Restaurant Damansara (if I got the place correct). After that we drove up to Selesa Hillhomes to spend a night before going up to Bukit Tinggi Resort the following morning. Coz auntie Julia said to stay in Bukit Tinggi Resort is pretty expensive, so Selesa Hillhomes is a more affordable alternative nearby.

The place was very nice indeed. It is a cluster of apartments built along the Karak Highway, just after the Genting Highlands junction. It has a golf course right beside it.

Basically, the apartments here were mostly sold to rich Singaporeans and Malaysians, who use the units as their vacation homes and weekend retreats. Why not, since you can play golf nearby... and drive up to Genting Highlands to visit Uncle Lim in 20 minutes. And there's plenty of good Chinese restaurants nearby serving wonderful fresh seafood dishes. The management rents out unsold units to occasional visitors like us, and groups that drop by for seminars.

So spacious, so windy, so green. I like. But weather not cold la, unlike Genting Highlands.
So fun playing with my mummy.

Nothing much to do after dinner. Just hanging out in the apartment. The place is for people to relax, not go shopping. But going up to Genting is a rather attractive option too.

So I played crawling with baby Caris.

And a bit of kid mahjong with the rest of the gang.

Sun - Bukit Tinggi Resort

So we drove up to Bukit Tinggi Resort the next morning. It's about 20 minutes away from Selesa Hillhomes.

Bukit Tinggi Resort is better known as "French Village" to many. It's a Genting Highlands wannabe, but without the star attraction: the casino. So gotta make do with other attractions such as a rabbit farm, a Japanese garden, and some buildings that are supposed to look like those in France. And since they can't make much money from day visitors, they charge an entrance fee for everything.

We went to the rabbit farm first.


Rabbits....

... rabbits...

This time I shall try to photograph rabbits.

... more rabbits...

... yawn.

At least there are some deers too.

Then we went to see the main attraction of Bukit Tinggi Resort: the Colmar Tropicale, named after a village in France. Very colourfully painted architectures they've got there, with cobbled walkways, and a drawn bridge.

Entering the French Village...

I wasn't in my best behaviour that day...

Emm... nice buildings. And that's pretty much about it. I thought they would at least have some French girls, or French Toast baking shows, or French kiss demonstrations. All they had was a short acrobatic show by Chinese performers, and a couple of stalls selling stuffs that you can find easily in shopping malls. Boring.

Caris girl seems to like the place.

They had some beautiful spots for taking photos though. And the swan behind me was REAL. Unfortunately, the Japanese Garden was closed for maintenance. Otherwise you would see me in samurai costume.

And since meals were expensive in the French Village, we went back to the row of Chinese restaurants near Selesa Hillhomes for a very satisfying lunch. And then it's a long drive back to Seremban.

Sun - Ikano / Ikea

We were coming down from Bukit Tinggi, and my daddy decided to go for one of the shopping spots on the way back to Seremban. And since we passed 1Utama while driving up to Bukit Tinggi, we thought it was probably "along the way".

Anyway, we ended up in IKEA at Ikano nearby. Gosh the crowd there on a Sunday evening was crazy. People were buying furniture like buying groceries in a supermarket.

My daddy always enjoyed window shopping and real shopping in IKEA.

It's not just about the shopping. It's about soaking in all the creativity and ideas and colours that are in IKEA, that made the experience so rich and fulfilling, even somewhat spiritual. Gosh what on earth am I talking here. Sorry, little boy language there.

If you have run out of space in your home or room, you should make a visit to IKEA. You are sure to find new ideas to create more space for your little corner. It's all about fully utilizing available spaces, with smart ideas and designs.

You can use the space that's on your wall, you know. (How about a bed that sits above your sofa set in your little living room?). You can even use the space above your head. (That means having storage compartments hanging from the ceiling. Well at least in IKEA they make them look really good).

For example, this smart carrier trolley thingy is what every food court in Malaysia should have. You can push around 3 fully loaded trays without fear of stuffs falling over. Oh yes, they sell very delicious and cheap Swedish food too. We ate the meatballs, chips, chicken wings, pastas, hotdog, curry puffs (not so Swedish la).

Those guys in IKEA are not only into designing beautiful things. The whole concept is about simplicity and efficiency. Not forgetting also, environmental friendliness.

Which means, you don't get plastic bags to pack your purchases.

But they still give you old newspapers to tapau your stuffs if you want la. But you gotta do it yourself.

So if you are too stingy to buy wrapping paper to wrap your fren's birthday gift, just tapau it with some old newspaper and proudly say "I bought it from IKEA".

So many toys around, and they didn't buy me any.

Tues - KLCC / Aquarium

Grandma brought us to KLCC. Initially wanted to go to the Zoo or the Bird Park, but since the haze was quite bad, we settled for air-con comfort in KLCC (that's where the Petronas Twin Towers are, in case you dunno). Also my bad la, I woke up late, and the sun was up and hot already.

Waaa... I never seen so tall punya indoor space in Sabah la!

Done with a bit of shopping (so boring, they never bought me anything), we went for the more interesting stuff... the aquarium in KLCC! This was my first time going to an aquarium. I have always liked fish and sea creatures... they make my little boy porridge tastes so much better.

Guess what greeted us at the entrance?

Piranhas!!!

OK, whatever they are, I can't tell you whether they are delicious or not coz mummy never cooked those for me. But my daddy was quite excited coz those cute fishes were featured in a famous movie shown when my daddy was a little boy.

Hey, wake up, you lazy croc.

Don't you stare at me like that.

There's a little section on preserved insects like butterflies, moths, beetles, cicadas, ... I run out of vocabulary already. It's a bugs' world. No flash photography allowed, but well... daddy said his old camera got not enough high ISO performance, so terpaksa la.

The most interesting part of the aquarium was definitely the underwater glass tunnel. It was such an amazing experience standing on a conveyor (like a baggage in the airport) while watching big fishes and turtles swim around you and over you. Wow!

That fish with wings looked familiar. I think my daddy calls it ikan pari or something like that. He ordered it at the ikan bakar stall for dinner the night before.

Now this big fish got really bad teeth. Sure never brush teeth one. Naughty naughty.

I even met a little girlfriend there. She was quite impressed by my screaming skills.

I didn't have to go to Terengganu or Sipadan to see turtles.

And see this gigantic cylindrical aquarium behind me. Really cool isn't it?

So, do consider dropping by the Aquaria KLCC if you haven't done so. Just be prepared for the pinch on the wallet. (I overheard my daddy said it was quite potong kepala one). Anyway little boy like me didn't need to pay for anything.

Wed - Going home

We are waiting in KL LCCT now, after saying goodbye to grandpa and grandma.

The haze out there is pretty bad. Hope there'll be no flight delay.

The wait is so boring. My daddy is putting up my photos on the blog.

In the meantime, I'll just talk to my fren Pooh Pooh.