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February 27th, 2010 | Author: gabriel

It was Cameron Highlands Day! With the super warm and humid whether in the low-lands of Ipoh (actually, it’s the whole of Peninsular Malaysia), my family decided to head to Cameron’s for a dose of fresh air, tea/coffee in a cold environment! We were lucky, as it wasn’t very sunny at Cameron’s. Felt like it was going to rain, the weather was cool and nice..

We went up in 2 cars where the 2nd car consists of me and my bro. My brother drove up the hill while I slept. And I drove the rest of the Cameron’s trip. Our first stop was to buy ‘real pearl corns’. The corns there are really sweet and the corns itself has a mixture of white and yellow corn bits. We also went to Rose Gardens to look at beautiful roses and other flowers.

pink rose

Some flowers are very nice.. May varieties of rose in different colours. There’s the pink rose at the top, there’s yellow rose, red rose..

yellow rose  red rose

There’s even the black rose!

black-rose-sign

The black rose is actually from a red rose where it turns black when it grows older.

red-black-rose

Like from the picture above, the back of the red rose begins to turn black.. Or at least, that’s what my father told me..

There are also many nice flowers, like the giant hibiscus..

giant hibiscus The white rose (aka milk girl)

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Even the bees are enjoying themselves collecting nectar from the flowers. The flowers are really sweet smelling, by the way..

 bee flower Okay.. Enough with the flowers… We took some pictures around – my dad wanted to take a picture with this mermaid statue. The story is that the mermaid is a being longing for her lost love, awaiting for his return..

mermaid

We went to the “ye olde smokehouse” for some scones, tea and coffee.. My brother took me posing at the grand piano.. haha

gab-piano

The ‘adults’ are drinking tea while the kids were also having their own fun time..

children-tea We then ate lunch at Cafe Downtown at Tanah Rata. It was a 4pm lunch… Imagine.. haha.. The food there is very nice. Their chicken chop and char koay teow is very nice!

cafe downtown Right after that, we headed to the tea plantation for a cup of tea and cheese cake!

 

alice 

We came here before 2 years ago… And look how the kids have grown!

nieces Did I mention that my nieces are posers??

Marielle actually posed for the pictures! And she’s only like 2 yrs old.

marielle-1 marielle-2 Oh well.. maybe it runs in the family. My brother and my dad also same case…

 

brother  dad

Me? I only take with my niece…

gab-marielle

After that, we went to the Laban Rata Waterfall! It’s on the way down from Cameron’s towards Tapah.

waterfall The waterfall there is quite nice. Very refreshing… Had quite a long pit stop here for the kids to play… Too bad I didn’t bring any change of clothes… Otherwise, I’ll just dip right into the pool. What I did was just take a good walk around the waterfall.. hahah

 gab-with-nieces

For the Cameron Trip, had to thank my sis’s bf.. She wanted to bring him around and end up going to a lot of places. He paid for all our meals at Cameron’s.. How nice of him… =)

alice-gu

When we reached Ipoh, it’s already almost 9pm. We went straight for dinner at old town.

Then at 10pm, I met up with Jason Ling, Yee Weng and Kean Fatt at the Ramly Burger Stall. They had seats there and it’s not crowded at all over there. I was supposed to meet euwen also but in the end, he was out with his sam tet friends… Anyway, the 4 of us just sat there, and just chatted… Good to meet up with old school mates… =)

February 21st, 2010 | Author: gabriel

On the 2nd day of Chinese New Year, I woke up just in time for lunch where my eldest sister would then return to Ipoh from Penang.

lisa

And my brother also returned from Penang after picking up her girlfriend from Penang. I stayed at home during the daytime to spend time with my family and also to just laze around in my room…

The main ‘event’ for Chor 2 is the family dinner where we booked two tables at Sun Lee How Fook Restaurant. Too bad this year, grace and rosemary couldn’t join us. Grace is not around while Rosemary is still in ‘confinement’ mode.

family-lou-sang

There were also some new faces. Like my brother’s soon-to-be (hopefully) in laws.

brother-with-inlaws And some hopeful in-laws.. =)

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It wasn’t as ‘fun’ as previous years though.. but at least the food is quite good.. haha

Right after dinner, I headed towards Chee Lim’s house party. She normally organizes one whenever she’s in Ipoh for CNY. It has been there since form 4/5 already… I think she invited the whole Ipoh village there. The house eventually packs up with people, mainly her schoolmates and some of her non-schoolmates.

girls1 There are only the above people when I first arrived at around 10 smtg… Then it slowly growed and growed…

group-pic I think it’s the picture have most of her guests inside. Apart from some that left early..

There’s the smaller group of people outside

outside-group

Versus the many people inside… It’s quite fun actually to see so many people at once. Like meeting alot of people at one spot at the same time. No need to have so many separate sessions to meet up.. Hahah

inside-group Nah.. Just kidding. Meeting up is fun. Knowing what’s happening about the people that we used to know.. Like those who didn’t used to study well end up to be very successful people. Some that were very notorious in school has one of the better professions. Like some becoming pastors and lecturers.. Amazing how people change, especially those for the better.

Category: CNY, family, fun, holidays, ipoh gang  | Tags: , ,  | 2 Comments
February 21st, 2010 | Author: gabriel

This year’s ‘chor 1’ is a day where my dad did not need to remind us to be ready to travel to his hometown, Tapah because.. well, we were not allowed to go there. Haha.. And the reason for that was because my 3rd sister just gave birth to her 2nd son and she (and her family) is considered dirty and not allowed to go around visiting, believing that it will bring bad luck to others…

I never really understand such tradition/culture but that’s the believe and we just obliged. Better to be safe than sorry when something bad really happens and they blame it on my family. Hence, the first day of CNY was a very relaxing day. Of course, we did the usual ‘rituals’ to visit neighbours, bring gifts and exchange ang paus. And of course, the main event of the day – The tea ceremony and the family portrait taking.

IMG_0909 Each of us to pour tea to our parents in return to receive ang paus. Starting from youngest to oldest. And lastly, the exchange of angpaus between my parents. =)

IMG_0925 Then, the family portraiture taking… This year’, we’re short of Grace as she’s in UK for her studies and she just came back for Christmas.

IMG_0948Then, with the younger children – My nieces

IMG_0953 The three fat-mans (to resemble the Laughing Buddha) for the year.. We have a new champion this year..

IMG_0961The two brothers

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The kungfu-duo

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And the people who started it all…

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And it never fails to end with a loud entrance to the start of the new Lunar New Year by burning some firecrackers!

firecrackers

For lunch, we just ate a simple lunch at Mar Poh and didn’t do much later in the afternoon. Haha.. Just relaxed and enjoy the atmosphere at home with the kids playing and siblings chatting around.

——

At night, I met up with Jason Lee, Omega, Delicia and Chin Zwen… We wanted to try out this new place called Papa Rich but it was super crowded. Even the cafe next to it, Taste of Soup, was full house.

facebook_016 We ended up going to Delicia’s house. Chin Zwen left to go to her other friend’s place.

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February 13th, 2010 | Author: gabriel

It’s the last day of the Ox Year and we’re all prepared for THE Reunion Dinner!

Was looking forward to it as there are lots of food flown back from down under… Had a very sumptuous meal with a few highlights.. So many good food that I think I’m gonna rank them to my own judgment..

First place goes to… HUGE Tiger Prawns!

tiger-prawnsIt is really THAT huge and its diameter is like two of my fingers.

with-large-prawnsThen, the 2nd place goes to the 7-sing pan or Seven-Star Garoupa

A fresh fish and not even from the frozen kind.. So, it’s meat is smoother and fresh!

seven-star-garoupaAnd coming in 3rd place, my all-time favourite.. Steamed Kampung Chicken. haha It’s meat is tender and juicy… Yum Yum..

steamed-kampung-chickenAnd lastly, the must-have Lou Sang from Tuck Kee.. They still maintain their standard

lou-sang

Of course, apart from all these, there are still other stuff like roast pork, fried wanton, vegetables, and abalone soup…

A truly satisfying reunion dinner.. =D~

good-dinner

Category: CNY, family, food  | Leave a Comment
December 30th, 2009 | Author: gabriel

After spending Christmas in KL, the family initially wanted to have a getaway in Port Dickson or Genting, but we couldn’t book any rooms at those places.. Hence, we headed to the best location in Malaysia – Ipoh! We just hang out, chill out and eat lots of Ipoh food. I begin eating a lot again and now that I’m back in Singapore again, I’m constantly feeling hungry cause I kept eating when I was in Ipoh.

I didn’t meet any of my friends when I was back in Ipoh. Either they are not around or I didn’t really take the initiative to look for people. But it didn’t matter as all of my family members were around, and I meant all. Even my eldest sister and her kids came down. They have all grown up. My my…

Even annie’s and ashley’s dog, Maxie, is here… Very cute dog.. Only 4 months old and already likes to hump on people’s legs.

maxie

 

The house was very noisy with so many kids around… It probably is music to my parents’ ears as it’s not everyday you get to gather everyone in one place at the same time. I too enjoyed myself being at home, lazing on my bed… To be driving around Ipoh town, eating Ipoh food.. Ahh… Can’t wait for CNY…. nyek nyek

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