MULU

Asked ML to blog about the Mulu trip but she has been dragging her feet and came up with all kind of excuses.

It was ages ago since our last family vacation and to have 17 members of the family on board was indeed a rare and memorable occasion. As almost everyone were there a field report will be redundant so just a few personal observations and comments on the trip.

1. The happiest person on the trip was Ah Mah. She was very pleased that so many of us could take the time off our busy schedule to go a trip together. She loved the Royal Mulu Resort, the idyllic hotel and the clean fresh air in the middle of the forest. The most poignant moment was when she broke into a song after a long 9km trek along the jungle trial to Lang and Deer cave. A physical endurance feat that any 80+ year old lady would be proud of and putting some much younger people to shame.

2. Angela, ML and I had been talking about going to the Mulu Caves for years. The trip requires tedious planning, booking and getting the right connecting flights. The distance and logistic involved kind of put us off. Also with just the three of us visiting the caves wouldn’t be half the fun. Going with the whole big family offers a totally different perspective and get us going for a more comprehensive itinerary.

3. A family trip besides being fun offers opportunities for family bonding. We should seriously consider making this family trip thing an annual event. If we intend to go overseas, it requires early planning and coordination and the cost involved could be considerably lower and more affordable for everyone. It is never too early the start planning. So can we have the suggestions coming?

4. Finally, a big thank you to Angela for all the hard work, meticulous planning and coordination to ensure that the trip went without a hitch. Judging from the feedbacks, this trip was both successful and enjoyable.

The only mishap in the whole trip was the lost I.C. Fortunately, someone found it and the friendly and helpful local policeman called to tell us the good news. By the way the l.C. was found at the Mulu Park HQ’s bus stop. And no, unfortunately the I.C. numbers did not come out in the Sports Toto or Empat Ekor.

We have seen the slide shows and pictures, so I will only post a few selected photos and a short clip of the bats in flight at dusk (taken with a small digital camera and the quality is not that great).

A KLUANG WEDDING

Last weekend a delegation of 10 from KL went down to Kluang to attend cousin Max’s (Ah Mah’s Eldest Brother’s 2nd wife adopted son) Wedding Lunch. Besides attending the function, it was also an opportunity to be introduced and meet up with some relatives that we are hardly acquainted with. Some photographs are produced below for posterity.

People generally go to the big city to shop but to us Kluang has become an attractive shopping haven. 24 hours in Kluang wasn’t quite sufficient to shop, eat and do other things, so we had to extend our stay by another night. The prices of things there seem so cheap compared to KL. A pair of prescription glasses goes for RM95. We ended up buying a total of 7 pairs of glasses, 8 pairs of shoes, 3 dozen rolls of toilet papers, pails, plates, cups, sweet potatoes, T-shirts, nail polish and a few hundred other items. Looks like we might have to make another trip there soon.
simon

晚餐聚会

九月十一日晚上七时半在团圆


月圆人圆事事团圆

Baby Jie Ying

Congratulations to Leong Seng and Shin Yi for their little bundle of Joy – Quay Jie Ying.

SMK SEAFIELD'S NEW TOILET

Did a pro bono design for the new toilet block in ML's school. Toilet was officially opened last Sunday during the School's Carnival Day. Was invited and given a letter of appreciation by the Parents & Teachers Association.

Mulu Caves Trip - Update 4

The Mulu Caves 3D2N tour package has been confirmed by the tour operator and will be posted at a later date. Enclosed below is the proposed Miri City tour offered by the same operator. We have requested that the tour starts at the airport at 10:45AM upon arrival and are awaiting his reply. At the meantime please confirm if you interested so that we can inform the operator as to how many are going for the Miri City tour.


Miri City Tour ( RM 38 nett per person )
Duration : 3 hours
Depart Time : 9:00 am & 2:00 pm
Meet at hotel lobby and depart for Miri City Tours.
Tour features Malaysia 1 st
Oil Well or The grand Old Lady located at Canada Hill. The well has an important
place in Miri’s history, as it was here that oil was first struck by Sarawak Shell in 1910. The largest Taoist
Temple in South East Asia, Miri City Fan, Miri Heritage Centre (handicraft & souvenir) & visit Tamun
Muhibbah ~ the local farmers market-you can find various tropical fruits & vegetable. finally enjoy yours
shopping in Modern and Trendy Shopping Malls.
Transfer back to hotel.

Mulu Caves Trip - Update 3

After a lot of telephone calls and frantic internet checking and booking over the past 3 days, all the air tickets were finally purchased. The trouble with the much advertised low air fares was the very limited quotas available. Fares kept going up as more booking were made. Booking for 3 person is easy but with 17 it gets very tricky esp. when we try to secure the best price. In the end some ticket bought were comparatively quite expensive but averaging them out the fares are still quite reasonable. Anyway the confirmed (MAS) flight schedule is as follows:-

Thu 20/10 KL-Miri 8:30AM
Fri 21/10 Miri-Mulu 9:30AM
Sun 23/10 Mulu-Miri 12:20PM
Miri-KL 4:10PM (13 passengers)
Mon 24/10 Miri-KL 4:10PM (Sam & family)

We were informed that the Niah Cave day trip will take 7-8 hours. So that side trip is out. We are now looking at other possibility like a city tour, etc.