Buah Salak

Buah Salak a.k.a. snake fruit (originally from Indonesia) is not a fruit I get to taste often.
It has a sweet and very mild bitter taste but a very unique taste. Love it!

Pulasan

A spiky rambutan ? A hybrid plant between rambutan (Rambutan means hairy fruit in Malay) and lychee?
Pulasan is a tropical fruit that looks like a rambutan. To me is a wild rambutan (which is not true) because of its look. It tastes much sweeter than the normal rambutan. It also has a thicker shell/skin... spiky but not hairy. Very interesting looking fruit.

The name pulasan comes from the Malay word pulas (twist). The fruit is opened through the act of twisting the fruit with both hands, thus the name pulasan.

Plasticine evening

While spending our holiday in Awana Kijal, my little cousins, niece and nephews requested us to join them for a plasticine evening. We started by creating our own creations (within 2 minutes) and let everyone in the group guessed. After a few rounds of guessing, we got bored, mostly because these little ones were really good at creating stuffs with plasticine. Impressive!

To make this more exciting, we've created our own angry birds and have a angry bird war instead.
It was really fun!

Starfish? No... snowflake... Ahhhh!

圆坟 - Completion of the grave

圆坟 - "completion of the grave" or "circling or go around the grave" (literately translated) is the last or round up ceremony in a Chinese funeral. My grandma passed away three months ago and I've basically missed every single ceremony held back home. We were honored to be there for this last ceremony, where I could finally see my grandparents grave, and got a chance to say my farewell in my own way. Very sad, but a great relief and closure for me.

This is the ceremony where all family members gather around at the grave, praying, and burning some joss sticks and paper money, as offerings by the family or descendants (i.e. sons, daughters, grandsons, granddaughters etc...) to the deceased. After paying our respects, we ensured everything was in placed and the grave looked well-taken care of, the funeral is finally over.

Geoduck

We have tasted geoduck... woo hoo!
The sashimi version was fresh and tasted like clams, except it was much bigger and slightly more chewy.
Another way of eating it was by dipping it into a warm bowl of soup. That's really nice!

Lata Cemerong

Cemerong/Chemerong waterfall - a beautiful waterfall in Pasir Raja, Dungun.
Too bad we were not in good shape to hike up to the top (10km - 3 days hike/camping), otherwise we would have been able to enjoy the magnificent view.
Well! For me, the lower/down stream is beautiful enough. :)

Beautiful hang bridge

View from the hang bridge

down stream

Ooo... a frog

Orchid

This is a very tall tree

Fisherman village and river front in Kemaman

This fish market (on the left) is my mom's favorite.
Every time when we were here, dad and kids would go straight to the sea and mom would shop till she dropped for seafood. She and my aunts did the same during this visit. :)
Sadly, this place does not look the same as it used to be.
Over the years, flooding and big waves have destroyed the beach and the nearby area/village.
To solve this problem, the easiest solution is to pile up lots of rocks infront of the beach to "try to" block the water. SAD! Is it working? I don't know...  SAD!

Something still remains the same - there are always goats and sometimes monkeys.

Flying kite is also one of our favorite beach activities.
This kite belongs to my nephew.

Kemaman river front

Kemaman river

One-eye cat.  Poor thing!

Kemasik Beach

Kemasik Beach (Pantai Kemasik in Malay) is one of the many beautiful beaches in Trengganu, Malaysia. It is  a serene place whereby there is no mud sediments in this beach due to the structure and formation of natural stones that stand out from the South China Sea.

This is my dad's childhood place where he spent a lot of time swimming and fishing when he was young... or even when I was young. I've also swum and fished here together with my dad, siblings and cousins every time we came to visit our grandparents.

"Careful now! On the right side of the rock, the water is very deep!"
"Come take a look! This corner here... lot's of parrot fishes!"
"Around the other end, you can find oysters, but do not jump in and swim ok!"
"Now let's start the sand digging composition... then see who can be the 1st one who reaches that rock at the end of the beach."
All my wonderful childhood memories started to appear infront of me. What a delightful feelings!

The beach looks a little different nowadays compared to what I used to remember. It was more beautiful then. Somehow, it was really nice just to be able to come back here... enjoy the sea, the sun, the breeze... and a whole lot of memories!
These are the only few pictures I managed to take due to my camera stopped working after my first 5 shots. Too humid here!
Took about about an hour before it worked again. Well! At least I get to enjoy the nature a little more this way.

Soft sandy beach... warm water... beautiful view... what can I ask for more?

Glad that I have my Powershot S95 with me too... :)

Awana Kijal

Lots of fun at this resort in Kijal, Trengganu (east coast of Malaysia)!

This resort hotel is huge

Ahhh... Vinegar! Not pee! Much better solution! :)

Found this dead one on the beach

Beautiful South China Sea and the Kijal jetty, not too far away from the hotel

Where should I begin?

Big and many pools with different depth

Personal favorite picture... like all the little water holes running down from this big mushroom pole

This hotel is famous for its golf course

Hmm.. what about chess? They are huge though. :)