Cleffairy's Blog, page 115

Puteri Harbour Mid-Autumn Celebration

Famed as Johor’s unequalled world-class holiday destination, Puteri Harbour will host its first-ever Mid-Autumn Festival in tandem with its monthly Port of Call event. Scheduled from 26th to 27th September, the festivities include exciting acts from across Malaysia and promises something for everyone in the family.

Taking place at Little Red Cube, Puteri Harbour’s unique shopping and family entertainment destination, Port of Call is a signature outdoor pop-up music, arts and street market that takes place every last weekend of the month. At Port of Call, visitors can look forward to quality time with their family, loved ones, colleagues and friends as they browse through colourful and interesting street stalls, be entertained by various music and art performances, as well as stop by gathering of food trucks ready to delight tastebuds with their delectable offerings.

Specially this mid-autumn season, the Port of Call will also be accentuated with special performances ranging from 24 Season Drums, Diabolo, Chinese Traditional Dance, Wushu, Family Orchestra, and magic shows culminating in the Lantern Parade grand finale which takes place on 26th September. Take the opportunity to be a part of this spectacular lantern show by registering before the parade starts.

With activities that promises best time together, the Port of Call Mid-Autumn Celebration is set to be a fun-filled weekend. More information can be obtained at Little Red Cube’s website at http://www.littleredcube.com/ or log onto its official Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/littleredcube.

World Tourism Day 2015: 1 Billion Tourists, 1Billion Opportunities

Being one with the United Nation World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), Malaysia will be celebrating the World Tourism Day which announced on 27 September each year to show the importance of tourism in global economy.

This years celebration is themed 1Billion Tourists, 1Billion Opportunities aimed to foster awareness of the importance of tourism and its contribution to social, cultural, political and economic value.

The global World Tourism Day 2015 celebration will take place in Burkina Faso, West Africa.

Adding colours to the World Tourism Day 2015 celebration, Ministry of Tourism and Culture Malaysia through Malaysia Tourism Centre (MaTiC) is organising #Kolektif1 which is a photography exhibition consists of a total of 78 beautiful pictures taken by 28 professional local photographers starting from 26 September until 30 October 2015.

Other exciting activities during the celebration include the Fuji Global Photo Walk; Photography Talk; Hop on Hop off (HOHO) World Tourism Day 2015 Bus Launch and also the Media City Tour.

A lot is happening for this year World Tourism day 2015 celebration as the Ministry is also collaborating with Taylors University for an institutional level World Tourism Day celebration on 29 September 2015 through the National Blue Ocean Strategy (NBOS). More than 3,000 participants including students, lecturers, representatives from various tourism agencies as well as industry players such as Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) and Tourism Educators Association of Malaysia (TEAM) are expected to join the celebration.

Among the activities are the Cultural Stalls, Orang Asal Demonstration, Cultural Performances, 1Billion Tourists, 1Billion Opportunities Tourism Talk and many more. It is hoped that this collaboration will help to increase awareness, knowledge and opportunities especially among students about tourism diversification to national development and a key-driver to socio-economic progress.

It has also been an honour and another accolade to Malaysia especially in conjunction with World Tourism Day 2015 celebration as the Minister of Tourism and Culture Malaysia, YB Dato Seri Mohamed Nazri bin Abdul Aziz was elected as the Vice President of the 21st UNWTO General Assembly in Madellin, Colombia on 16 September 2015.

To support the local tourism industry as well as heighten up the celebration, public are encourage to upload photos of their visits to local tourist destinations with hashtag, #MYWorldTourismDay. Globally, UNWTO also invites everyone to join them showcasing the power of travel and tourism sector in global conversation using hashtags #1billiontourists and #WTD2015 in social media.

Tedmi Malaysia 2D1N Fun Retreat at Wave Rest House& Cafe

I recently scored myself a fun retreat with Tedmi Malaysia at Wave Rest House& Cafe. To find out more about Tedmi, click HERE.

Wave Rest House&Cafe is located somewhere in Jeram, Selangor. There’s loads of things for me to share but being me, I could never simplify things and stuff it into just one blog post, so here’s sharing a chronological summary with links to my in depth 2D1N retreat experience with Tedmi. You may click on the links to read more about my experience with Tedmi Malaysia at the rest house.

Arrival at the Wave Rest House & Cafe

Craftmaking session

Mangrove forest exploration tour

Seafood dinner

Killer in The Night Game

Bicycle ride to the beach

Boat Ride and Birdwatching

Chill out session, courtesy of Kindori and The Foodie Place

Happy reading.

Tedmi Malaysia Fun Retreat: Boat Ride and Birdwatching

The last time I went for birdwatching was a few months back, with friends from Tourism Malaysia Selangor . You may want to read my experience about it HERE, but back then, I did not manage to spot much birds in comparison with my retreat with Tedmi Malaysia at Wave Rest House &Cafe in early September 2015.

Boat ride and birdwatching at the sea is one of the planned activity by the Wave Rest House & Cafe, one that I enjoyed most besides the mangrove forest exploration tour. The boat ride with both my husband and son was an amazing experience to say the least.

We gathered at the back of the Wave Rest House&Cafe for briefing and chose our lifejacket.

As mentioned in my first post about the Wave Rest House & Cafe, they have lifejackets of all sizes prepared for the guests to use specifically during the boat ride and birdwatching activity.

One of the guest during the 2D1N trip, Darling and her puppy getting ready for the boat ride with us. Yes. Pets are welcomed at the rest house, so if you have a cat or dogs that is friendly towards people and is well trained for outdoor activities, you may want to bring them along. However, please be mindful and do take good care of them throughout the duration of the trip.

Heading to the boat that is waiting for us at the small jetty located behind the rest house.

Our captain that day

The boat have the capacity about 10-12 passengers per ride. So here’s the group during our ride, consisting of children, adults and one pet dog.

Little puppy, anxiously waiting for the boat to start moving.

Darling and her puppy on the boat.

Our boat ride to the sea. The weather was pretty much favourable on the second day of the retreat, and the sea was quite serene.

Puppy, enjoying the ride

 

Me, enjoying the salty sea water splashing.

Obviously, we are not the only one who enjoyed the ride immensely. Romantic drama was practically rolling in the boat too.

There was not really much things to see at the sea, but we did spot a fisherman pulling his net during the ride.

Fisherman pulling the net

Bird spotted perching on a branch

Another bird spotted

Passing through the fishermen’s village.

A closer look

This is the kind of boat used by fishermen to catch fishes at the sea.

Fishermen’s boat with fishermen in it spotted

They were heading to the sea

A closer look at the men of the sea

Magnificent view

Looks familiar? No?

Here’s a closer look. see the hanging windchime made from seashells? The building is part of the Wave Rest House&Cafe, the place where we had dinner and chill out sessions at.

Time was envious and the ride ended too soon. And so, we disembarked at the jetty, which is located just behind the rest house.

It was indeed an interesting experience that I won’t be forgetting anytime soon. Both my husband and son enjoyed the experience immensely too, which gives me a little pang in my heart as I took a trip down the memory lane. Unlike me, who is pretty much free spirited and adventurous, my parents are quite academic and exam oriented. Things that usually matters most to them was me and my younger sis doing well in school. While there was occasional picnics and holidays, I had not much memories of doing things like this when I was growing up. As an adult, I feel quite wistful, but glad nevertheless that my son had the opportunity to experience all these as time as a child is really short, and being able to give my son a great childhood memory such as this one to reminisce when he grows up is a blessing to me.

To experience all these and get away from the superficial world for awhile to explore the nature with your loved ones, you can hop over to Wave Rest House& Cafe. Their package starts from RM139 for adults and RM69 for kids on weekdays and from RM169 for adults and RM69 for kids on weekend and public holidays, inclusive of meals and planned activities. There are 9 available rooms and the entire rest house can cater up to 30 pax. The place is about 60km away from Kuala Lumpur. You may drive there using Waze: https://waze.to/lr/hw28413e6s.

Packages includes accommodation, seafood dinner, breakfast, bicycle riding to the beach, mangrove forest exploration tour, craft making and bird watching at the sea.

Details of the homestay is as below:

海•浪滔滔民宿(Wave Rest House & Cafe)

Facebook: facebook.com/wavehomestay

Address:

Jalan Bagan Sungai Janggut, Batu 15, Jeram,

45800 Kampong Sungai Janggut,

Selangor.

Tedmi Malaysia Fun Retreat:Killer in The Night Game

 

How long has it been you kept yourselves entertained with things either than the television, smartphones or tablet? How long has it been you played a card game or boardgames? Until I went to the retreat with Tedmi Malaysia in Wave Rest House & Cafe, I’d have to say it’s been awhile.

This is not a part of the planned activities by Wave Resthouse&Cafe, but something the people from Tedmi Malaysia cooked up after dinner for some good old times fun.

We played the ‘Killer in The Night Game’ or simply known as ‘The Killer Game’.

There are plenty of variants of the game but here’s sharing one of the variant of the game, the one we played that night.

Introduction

Killer in The Night Game is an 8 plus player game that takes about a half hour. It has no board so it’s perfect for a large party especially late at night.

The basic concept is that members of the dreaded murderer have infiltrated our community and we, as concerned citizens, need to root them out. So every day we hold a town meeting and lynch someone we suspect of being a member of the mafia (it’s not as bad as it seems: we vote first). Then, every “night” the murderer secretly meet and pick a townsperson to kill; the townspeople learn about it in the morning. There is a also an undercover cop and healer floating around somewhere who can help the townspeople.

At the end of the game when there are only murderer and two townspeople left, the remaining townspeople must shake hands. The problem is that they don’t know who is killer ks and who is innocent and the killer will try to appear as innocent as they can.

If “murderer vs. townspeople” doesn’t suit your taste, you can change the theme to be “werewolves vs. townspeople” where the undercover cop is a psychic. The rules work exactly the same either way.

Set Up

Take a deck of ordinary cards and pull out the two black queens, a red king and an ace. Add to this a as many non-face cards as are needed to equal the number of people playing. Shuffle the cards carefully so that no one has any hint which cards are which. For extra security, face up on the bottom of the deck to hide the value of the bottom card.

Give each person a card, being very careful that no one sees what anyone else gets. If someone sees, collect the cards, reshuffle and redeal; it’s important that it be secret.

The players with the queens are the killer, the player with the king is the police and the ace is healer (it doesn’t matter, anything works) while everyone else is a townsperson (also known as an innocent citizens). Be sure to explain this to everyone several times — there is nothing worse than having a killer ask in a loud voice “what does the queen mean again?”

General Rules

It’s important that no one reveal their cards until they are dead. The one exception to this is the police who may reveal his/her card at any time — this is an important power of the police (one of the few) and so should be emphasized. Dead people are allowed to open their eyes at night but must not participate in the game in any other way kno who the killers are and could easily ruin the game. Have people keep their cards face down in front of them and dramatically flip them up when they die.

First Night

Now that everyone has their identities it’s time for the killers to meet each other. Everyone must close their eyes. Then tell the killers to open their eyes and reveal themselves to each other. The two killer players will open their eyes and look around to see who the other killer is. When they’ve had enough time to do this, tell them to close their eyes and have everyone open their eyes. That’s the first night.

Days — The Lynching

During the first day, as on every other day, the townspeople including the killer and the police, since no one knows who they are have a meeting. The goal of the meeting is to lynch a killer member.

Nominations

First, anyone can nominate someone to be lynched. They should give a reason but the reason doesn’t have to make any sense.

The Defense

When there are three nominations each of the nominees, in the order of their nomination, gets to say why they should not be lynched. Their defense should be one or, if they are longwinded, two sentences — short and to the point, we haven’t got all day. “I’m innocent!”, is.a valid defenses. Common decency dictates that everyone should listen respectfully and not make rude comments during the defense statements but remember that the killer would really like to manipulate the townspeople into lynching other townspeople so you want to watch for that.

The Vote

In the order of their nomination, the nominees are voted on. For example, someone says “All in favor of getting rid of him, raise your hand,” counts the votes and moves on to the next person. Everyone who is still alive should vote for someone; no one may vote twice. In the case of a two way tie, re-vote but leave the third person out. In the case of three way tie (or a two way tie when you’ve already removed the third person) just keep voting until someone gets picked. Getting people to agree on someone to lynch is all part of the game.

Nights — Secret Deeds

The night turns after the first one require a moderator. And — what a coincidence — we now have someone who is dead (i.e. the guy just lynched)! He or she is the moderator. Note that only the moderator may talk during the night (or the killer and police will be revealed) and he or she must be careful not to talk “to” anyone — it’s pretty obvious even if you have your eyes closed when the moderator is talking to someone.

The Killer Kills

The moderator will have everyone close their eyes. Then they will have the killer open their eyes and kill someone. They must note who the killer is and who the killer kills.

The Healer Heals

Then the moderator will have to get the healer heal someone. The person they picked will not be killed. Healer can choose to save themselves.

The Cop Accuses

Now they have the police open his or her eyes and make an accusation. If the police is right, they silently indicate an affirmative otherwise they indicate a negative. There is an odd case in which the police is killed before he or she makes an accusation; it doesn’t matter what you do because they’re dead and can’t use the information anyway. Then the police closes his or her eyes and everyone opens their eyes. The moderator announces who was killed during the night and it’s now day again.

A Script

“Everyone close your eyes.” (Check that everyone’s eyes are closed.)

“Killer, open your eyes.” (Identify the killer and verify that there are two of them.)

“Killer, make your kill.” (Identify the victim, silently point to him/her and get it confirmed with a nod.) If the two killer don’t agree, this is not your problem; just wait until they decide (this can be quite entertaining, watching a silent argument).

“Killer, close your eyes.” (Verify that they have closed their eyes.)

“Healer open your eyes.”

“Healer choose someone to save” ( take note on the one chosen. That person can’t be killed)

“Police, open your eyes.” (Find the police)

“Police, make your accusation.” (Verify who the police is accusing and then indicate whether he/she is right.)

“Police, close your eyes.” (Verify that he/she has complied.)

“Everyone open your eyes.””So-and-so is dead.”

End of Game — The Showdown!

Night follows day which, in turn, is followed by another night. Every day and every night another person is dead. If we run out of killer then the townspeople win! Otherwise, even if only one killer survives, we get to the showdown when only two townspeople are left.

In the showdown, the two townspeople must shake hands to win while the mafia members would like to shake hands with a townsperson. This can take a while but, eventually, someone shakes hands with someone (the killers are not allowed to shake hands with each other) and the game is over. If the two people who shook hands are both townspeople, the town wins and the killer loses.

This is not exactly a card game, but a parlour game. Nice to play when you are having a huge party of people to entertain and expect a lot of snickering, groaning and giggles along the way. Try it soon when you have lotsa friends at your place and let me know if you like it.

Tedmi Malaysia Fun Retreat : Killer, A Parlour Game

After stuffing our face silly with the seafood dinner, it’s time for some ‘get to know’ Tedmi Malaysia and it’s staffs. I’ll skip that as I’ve written all about Tedmi HERE.

I’d like to share a much more interesting thing that we did with Tedmi Malaysia folks during the retreat, which is playing boardgames and parlour games.

One of the game that we played apart from the usual boardgames is ‘Murder in The Night’, or simply the ‘Killer Game’.

Playing cards are used to play Killer but Killer is not exactly a card game.  You cannot play this game if you do not know how to wink or point silently. 

A minimum of 6 players are required to play this game.  In a 6 player game, one will be a killer and one will be a policeman and a doctor. For an 8 player game, two policemen can be there and two killers. Similarly for a 12-player game, 3 cops and 3 killers and so on.

The main aim of the game, is for the policeman to find out who the thief or the killer is and for the killer to kill all regular players or civilians before the cop catches him while the doctor tries to save as much people as he can.

In this game, a killer is one who gets a jack and a cop is one who gets an ace.  The killer(s) has/have the role of winking with one eye and killing the civilians or the regular players and the cop(s) has/have the role of catching the killer either winking or at least figuring out who the killer is through calculated guess work.

In our example, we’ll consider a 10 player game with 2 cops/policemen and 2 killers.

How To Play

From the pack of cards, separate out ten cards. 2 of them should be aces (so there will be 2 cops) and 2 of them should be jacks (so there will be 2 killers).  The remaining six cards can be of any denomination.  For example, in our case these six cards are three of spades, clubs and hearts each and four of Diamonds, Hearts and clubs each.  The 2 Aces are the ace of spades and the ace of hearts and the 2 jacks are the jack of Diamonds and the jack of clubs. The person who gets the ace will be a cop and the person who gets the jack will be the killer.  So when the 10 cards are distributed, the two persons who get the two aces viz. ace of spades and the ace of hearts are the 2 cops and the two persons who get the two jacks viz. the jack of diamonds and the jack of clubs are the 2 killers and they have the role of winking.

Once the ten cards are distributed amongst the 10 players, the game begins.  The players will start looking at each other.  The two killers i.e. those who got the jacks will try and wink at each player individually looking at them and the cops i.e. those with the aces will try to catch the killers who are winking.  There are six other players in the fray other than the 2 cops and the 2 killers.  To each player who is neither a cop, nor a killer (i.e. a regular player) whenever he is winked at for the first time by one of the killers, he has to say “I am dead” and is out of the game.  That is to say, he can no longer participate in the current game.  Let’s say the player who gets the four of Clubs is winked (with one eye, of course) at by the player (killer) who gets the jack of Diamonds.  Then the player who gets who got the four of clubs will say, “I am dead” and he will be out of the game i.e. he has no further role in the game.  Now 9 players are remaining, the 2 cops, the 2 killers and 5 civilians or regular players.

If while winking, the cop catches the killer who is winking then that killer is out of the game.  In a 4-player game, the game is over when the killer is caught.  In our game of 10-players, there are 2 killers that have to be caught.  So if the 2nd killer is also caught winking by a cop before he kills all the regular players or civilians, the game is over and the cops win and some of the civilians are saved.

When in our game, it has reached the point where 9 players are remaining, one killer with the jack of clubs winks at the player (civilian) with the four of diamonds.  The player with the four of diamonds says, “I am dead”.  Now, while this was going on, one the cops, the player with the ace of spadessees this and says loudly in presence of the entire group, “You’re the one, you are the killer, pointing to or taking the name of the person with the Jack of diamonds.”  Then, whoever that player is, has to show his card face up to the entire group of ten players, or at least those players who are playing the game.  If this player actually has the Jack of Diamonds, then he has been caught by the cop and is out of the game.

If he does not have the jack of diamonds and has another card say a three of spades, that means that he is a civilian.  In that case, (i.e. if he is a civilian), he may decide to show the card only to the cop and not to anyone else, in which case the cop has to show his card as well to the civilian so that the civilian knows that the cop is not faking.  If the civilian shows the card to all the players, then he becomes a known civilian.  Then, all the players know that he is a civilian including the killers.  The game continues.

In a third scenario (say the player does not have the Jack of Diamonds and nor the three of spades and neither any of the other civilian cards), if he has the ace of hearts say, that means that the cop with the ace of spades doubts the cop with the ace of hearts to be the killer, then this doubt of the cop with the ace of spades can be cleared by both the cops showing their cards to each other and not to anyone else.  The game continues.

Tips

A rule can be made that a cop can make only 2 wrong guesses.  If he judges the civilians wrongly twice, then the cop is out of the game.  In our example, if both the cops are out the game would end and neither the civilians nor the killers and certainly not the cops win.  In this case there would be no clear winners.

Continuing

Let us assume that the person i.e. the killer has been caught.  So now in the game, seven players are remaining viz. the 2 cops with the 2 aces (ace of Spades and the ace of Hearts), the killer with the jack of clubs and four civilians with the three of spades, three of clubs, three of hearts and the four of hearts each.

If a killer winks at the cop and the cop sees the obvious and catches him winking, the killer is out.  Now say, that the killer with the jack of clubs winks at the cop with the ace of hearts without suspecting that he is the cop.  Then the cop, the one with the ace of hearts catches him and says, “You are the one, you are the killer pointing to the person or naming him”.  So the second killer has also been caught and the game is over.  Four civilians are saved from the killers.

If the 2 killers manage to kill all the civilians by winking, before the cops catch them, then the killers win the game.

So this is a very simple game that will leave many people smiling and laughing.

Tedmi Malaysia Fun Retreat: Bicycle Ride to The Beach

Let me tell you a secret. I’m not an early riser. Never was and never will be. If you asked me to describe myself, I’d pretty much tell you with conviction that I’m a vampire. I sleep late and I like to wake up late. Not many could understand, but as a writer, I feel that I’m much more relaxed and productive at night. Darkness is my friend, but during my previous trip with Tedmi Malaysia to Wave Rest House & Cafe, I was required to wake up as early as 6pm to get ready for a bicycle ride to the nearby beach.

Did I complain? Well…I’ll be honest. I did grumbled a little bit when they gave us a wake up call. And I was very cranky that morning but for what it’s worth, it was really worth all the troubles. I have forgotten when I actually see the sun slowly rises over the horizon, and it was such a beautiful thing.

Anyway, bicycle ride to the beach is a part of the planned activities by Wave Rest House&Cafe, and here’s us, before setting out for the beach, which is about 5km away. It may be quite far, but everyone was positively pumped up for it.

There’s plenty of landmarks to see along the way, but we didn’t stop at any of it for a selfie or two as the entire group was more than eager go be at the beach as soon as possible.

I got to admit, after more than 13 years of no riding bicycle, this particular activity is quite a feat and I got left behind quite often. Luckily for me though, I have my husband watching my back most of the time. And course, the Tedmi Malaysia team has assigned 4 personnels as security team to follow us from behind.

Breathtaking green views along the way to the beach, but I nearly cry here. There are so many snakes. I mean dead snakes on the road. I hate them. Dead or alive, they freak me out.

Fishermen village spotted while on the way to the beach.

After the long ride, we finally reached the nearby beach, Pantai Indah.

The view was worth a thousand words.

Soothing and healing, I must say. Definitely worth all the troubles.

The beach was rather murky and rocky, so it’s definitely not for swimming.

It is great for sightseeing and seashell collecting, however. Just check out the seashells.

See what I mean? There’s so much of them.

The children took the opportunity to collect them to bring home as souvenir and so did I.

Anyway, after awhile, our host asked if we want to walk to ‘the middle of the ocean’ via a rocky path since it was still low tide that morning. He promised us that it will be worth all the troubles and the view would be instagram worthy. Being an adventurous lot, we said yes, of course.

The rocky path is about 1km towards the sea, with breathtaking view. It’s actually fishing and mussels harvesting spot, but the locals have an interesting story about it. I was told that if you walked to the end of the path on a full moon, you will be able to reach the entrance to the Dragon King’s palace. Whether or not there is really a dragon kingdom at the end of the path, in the middle of the ocean, I will never find out as the tide is always high on a full moon night, but it was an interesting story nevertheless.

The rocky path is extremely slippery, so ladies, this is a place where you can act like a cute damsel in distress and guys, this is where you can play a macho hero.

Romantic movie in progress. okay, okay. I better stop teasing this lovely couple before they decided to get even and share my lovey dove pictures with my husband that’s probably bordering to the 18 above cinema rating

As I said, the path is really slippery and dangerous, but it is not impossible to walk on. All you need is good balance and supportive hands to help you along the way. If you are ever there, don’t be afraid to walk on this path. If my son can do it, so can you. Besides, the view is indescribable.

Reached as far as the path could allow us. No dragon king or dragon kingdom in sight, but here’s a passing fisherman’s boat before we quickly walked back as the tide started to rise. A humbling experience, I must say. If there is one thing I learned by walking on the rocky path is that the nature is not something you can mess with. There are places you can’t reach, even if you try, and how small human are against these forces of nature. The sea is not always calm and can’t go against the tide, but when the sea is serene, do enjoy whatever majestic things it has to offer and etch it into your memories forever.

To experience all these and get away from the superficial world for awhile to explore the nature, you can hop over to Wave Rest House& Cafe. Their package starts from RM139 for adults and RM69 for kids on weekdays and from RM169 for adults and RM69 for kids on weekend and public holidays, inclusive of meals and planned activities. There are 9 available rooms and the entire rest house can cater up to 30 pax. The place is about 60km away from Kuala Lumpur. You may drive there using Waze: https://waze.to/lr/hw28413e6s.

Packages includes accommodation, seafood dinner, breakfast, bicycle riding to the beach, mangrove forest exploration tour, craft making and bird watching at the sea.

Details of the homestay is as below:

海•浪滔滔民宿(Wave Rest House & Cafe) 

Facebook: facebook.com/wavehomestay

Address:

Jalan Bagan Sungai Janggut, Batu 15, Jeram,

45800 Kampong Sungai Janggut,

Selangor.

Tedmi Malaysia Fun Retreat: Seafood Dinner

We were practically famished after the mangrove exploration and so, we hopped over to the cafe in the vicinity of the rest house for dinner.

The cafe. It also doubled as activity centre. Most of our indoor activities or briefings are done here. It’s a pretty cool place, overlooking the river and you could see fishermen in their boats passing through every now and then.

The table was already set by the time we got there.

And food was already served. On the table for us to enjoy that night: Chilli crab, fried mantou, prawn omelet, stir fried water spinach, spicy shark slices, mussels with woldberries, seafood soup and last but not least, steamed freshwater prawns.

Not always a fan of crustaceans as they are usually a fuss to eat but the chilli crabs was irresistible. The crabs was fresh and naturally sweet while the sauce serves only to enhance the natural sweetness of the crabs.

Crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside, the mantou was adeptly fried and made quite a pair with the chilli crabs.

Mussels with cooked with wolf berries. Not a fan, but I had a taste of these lovelies and thought they’re quite a tummy warmer during the rainy night.

Prawn omelet. Humble and homey, it’s my son’s favourite that night after the chilli crab and mantou.

Steamed freshwater prawns. No additional flavours was added to the dish, but it was wonderfully sweet due to the prawn’s freshness. It was gone in a jiffy after being placed on the table.

Last but not least, the star sensation of the night; sliced shark fillets in sweet and spicy sauce. Yes. Shark. Taste wise, it was pretty good. The meat texture was much firmer than ordinary fish and yes, I’d have this again in the nearest future. Definitely won’t be the last shark I’ll have, I assure you that.

To experience all these exotic seafood and get away from the superficial world for awhile to explore the nature, you can hop over to Wave Rest House& Cafe. Their package starts from RM139 for adults and RM69 for kids on weekdays and from RM169 for adults and RM69 for kids on weekend and public holidays, inclusive of meals and planned activities. There are 9 available rooms and the entire rest house can cater up to 30 pax. The place is about 60km away from Kuala Lumpur. You may drive there using Waze: https://waze.to/lr/hw28413e6s.

Packages includes accommodation, seafood dinner, breakfast, bicycle riding to the beach, mangrove forest exploration tour, craft making and bird watching at the sea.

Details of the homestay is as below:

海•浪滔滔民宿(Wave Rest House & Cafe)

Facebook: facebook.com/wavehomestay

Address:

Jalan Bagan Sungai Janggut, Batu 15, Jeram,

45800 Kampong Sungai Janggut,

Selangor.

Tedmi Malaysia Fun Retreat: Mangrove Forest Exploration

My husband is so sexy when he is all slick and wet. :p Even more so when he pulled me into his embrace when we are both slick and wet. Okay. Sorry for the erotic description. I didn’t mean to send your head running to the gutter and beyond. I was feeling a bit naughty when I’m writing this post. My sincerest apology. I can’t help myself when I reminisce about our trip with Tedmi Malaysia at Wave Rest House & Cafe last week. :p

My husband and I, we enjoy getting wet together. I mean, bathing and showering together in the comfort of our own home, or hotel rooms for that matter whichever applicable, but we don’t usually do such things in public. During our trip with Tedmi Malaysia, we did, though. We got down, wet, and dirty in front of everyone else.

Okay, okay. I’ll stop the innuendoes. What I really want to share with you is part of the planned activities by Wave Rest House&Cafe, which is the mangrove forest exploration tour.

As mentioned, mangrove forest exploration is part of the planned activities that’s included in the iterinery, but it was raining and the owner of the rest house suggested us to chill instead. Unfortunately for the owner, we’re all adventurous lot, even the children, and we got bored hanging around with nothing to do after our craft making session and insists on exploring even when it’s raining. Our request was complied.

And so, we pick out boots to wear at the mangrove forest.

Choosing boots was a bit tricky. Most of it was either too big or too small, so if you have your own boots, please bring along should you come to stay over at Wave Rest House & Cafe and wants to go for the exploration.

So here’s a candid photo of us, getting ready to get wet and dirty. :p

Jane and her children, ready to explore.

The entrance to the mangrove forest. It was just about 15 minutes walk away from our rest house.

Making a beeline to the mangrove forest.

It’s dark, scary and mysterious.

The founder of Tedmi, Andrew Lim, posing and beckoning us towards him.

It was indeed scary, but we were given a mission to find a few types of snails in the mangrove forest. The mangrove forest is their natural habitat and they could easily be found scattered around in the mangrove forest, so hand in hand, my husband, my son and I braved through muddy and slippery ground together. This is a first for us but we’re determined to accomplish the mission given.

Walking in the mangrove forest while it was raining is practically like walking in the quicksand, where you can easily get stuck in the mud and slowly sink inside the soft ground. Thinking back, it’s pretty scary, with rain pouring heavily and the vision was somewhat clouded.

Here’s a video of all of us, trying to walk in the mangrove forest.

It takes a lot of assurance, motivation and teamwork to explore the forest during bad weather the way we did.

Scary and uncomfortable as it is, it doesn’t diminish our spirit or deter us from trying to find those elusive snails.

Young or old, everyone gave their all, without a single complain.

Meticulously looking for the snails.

And I could proudly say that these is what we managed to find. Quite a lot, don’t you think?

Jane and her children, singing, as they celebrated finding one more snail before throwing it into their container.

It was getting really dark after about one hour in the mangrove forest, so we wrapped it up and headed back to Wave Rest House&Cafe to get ourselves cleaned up.

I know I shouldn’t be saying this but everyone, me included, looks pretty much like ducks trying to walk in our soaking wet boots. :p The fun didn’t end there, though. When we reached the rest house, my husband and I decided to shower outdoor with the Tedmi Team.

Getting all cleaned up, together.

And then, after awhile, someone decided go be a tad naughty and things started to get very interesting. :p

The video says it all. :p

One for the album. That is my husband and I. Picture taken during our outdoor showering. Blurred on purpose to protect our innocence. :p

Pictures was taken with Nikon Coolpix S33; waterproof and shockproof.

To experience all these and get away from the superficial world for awhile to explore the nature, you can hop over to Wave Rest House& Cafe. Their package starts from RM139 for adults and RM69 for kids on weekdays and from RM169 for adults and RM69 for kids on weekend and public holidays, inclusive of meals and planned activities. There are 9 available rooms and the entire rest house can cater up to 30 pax. The place is about 60km away from Kuala Lumpur. You may drive there using Waze: https://waze.to/lr/hw28413e6s.

Packages includes accommodation, seafood dinner, breakfast, bicycle riding to the beach, mangrove forest exploration tour, craft making and bird watching at the sea.

Details of the homestay is as below:

海•浪滔滔民宿(Wave Rest House & Cafe) 

Facebook: facebook.com/wavehomestay

Address:

Jalan Bagan Sungai Janggut, Batu 15, Jeram,

45800 Kampong Sungai Janggut,

Selangor.

Tedmi Malaysia Fun Retreat: Craft Making at Wave Rest House& Cafe

When was the last time you really, really put away your gadget and spend quality time with your loved ones? You know, do things together as a couple or family? Do you do it often? Well, I’m ashamed to admit that I’m pretty much caught up with the rat race that I’m almost inseparable with my gadgets, especially my smartphone, and same goes with my husband. While smartphone has been a necessity in the modern world, it has also become an addiction that you can’t get rid off. I’ll be honest with you. Sometimes, using the smartphone is like peeking into the fridge. You know there’s not much update that could possibly happen in the cyber world within the span of 3-5 minutes, and yet, you still got to check it out.

Impossible as it is to put gadgets away while you are with your loved ones, it is still not impossible to actually disconnect to reconnect. All we need to do is, well…simply put away the gadgets and find something to really do together, something that’s totally not related to tech stuff and gadgets.

During my fun retreat with Tedmi Malaysia at Wave Resthouse&Cafe, Jeram Selangor, everyone who were there were somehow forced to do just that. The planned activities practically hurled you back in the 90s where you’ll need to put away all your gadgets in order actually do it. The first planned activity that renders all gadgets useless is Craft Making.

See all these hanging windchimes? They are all over the resthouse. Initially I thought they are mere deco to complement the homestay’s theme but I soon discovered that they are made from seashells that’s collected from the beach nearby and it is all made by guests during their stays here in Wave Resthouse&Cafe.

The windchimes were hung up all over the resthouse to commemorate guests presence there once done. Interesting concept, don’t you think? I certainly like the idea of writing messages or love notes on the seashells and leaving it there for us to look back during our future visits. Imagine going back there again after a year or two and still finding the windchime that you made with your loved ones, with sweet notes written on it still hanging there. It’s really a romantic idea. At least, to me it is very romantic.

Here’s Andrew Lim, the founder of Tedmi Malaysia, disconnecting to reconnect. He briefed all of us during the craft making session on how the windchime is made.

Pre-collected seashells were scattered on the table for us to choose.

Kids choosing the seashells for their windchime.

Strewing together the seashells with a string.

Happy couple Elana and her husband with their windchime.

Here’s the winchime that I made with my husband and son. We wrote our names and some messages on it for our future selves to read during our future visits.

Hanging up the windchime.

This will be there for quite some time. It was a small thing. And perhaps insignificant to many, but by the time we hung up our little masterpiece, I felt as if we have achieved something big as the three of us as during that short moment, we really did put away our gadgets and spent time with each other in every sense of the word. We talked to each other instead of texting or messaging. Well, don’t get me wrong. It’s not that we do not communicate with each other without gadgets, but this feels very different. It’s like going back to the good old times where smartphones and stuff does not exist.

It was indeed a labor or love and a gentle reminder that while we often covet for materialistic things, simple things like this could bring so much joy and happiness.

To experience all these and get away from the superficial world for awhile, you can hop over to Wave Rest House& Cafe. Their package starts from RM139 for adults and RM69 for kids on weekdays and from RM169 for adults and RM69 for kids on weekend and public holidays, inclusive of meals and planned activities. There are 9 available rooms and the entire resthouse can cater up to 30 pax. The place is about 60km away from Kuala Lumpur. You may drive there using Waze: https://waze.to/lr/hw28413e6s.

Packages includes accommodation, seafood dinner, breakfast, bicycle riding to the beach, mangrove forest exploration tour, craft making and bird watching at the sea.

Details of the homestay is as below:

海•浪滔滔民宿(Wave Rest House & Cafe) 

Facebook: facebook.com/wavehomestay

Address:

Jalan Bagan Sungai Janggut, Batu 15, Jeram,

45800 Kampong Sungai Janggut,

Selangor.