Bali Trip - Day 2

Our holiday only properly started on Day 2 of our trip. We hired a private van with a driver for 2 days which cost per day was 350,000 rupiah (not inclusive of parking fees, entrance fees and food). Our first stop was Nusa Dua beach where we took a boat out to Turtle Island, which was sort of an animal sanctuary for turtles and other type of reptiles.







Later on, we visited the Monkey Temple and there were lots of monkeys running around in the wild. We were cautioned that the monkeys would jump on us and in fact one of them did jump on Max.



For lunch, the driver took us to this restaurant with a really nice view of the rice terraces and fields. Here is what we saw from the restaurant window:



After lunch, we headed to Bedugul to visit the famous temple on the lake.



Funny picture of the 5 guys:



I suppose a trip to Bali wouldn't be complete without getting some of the "Kopi Luwak" or civet coffee. We did not buy any though, as we are not coffee drinkers. Some of our friends bought the coffee as gifts for people back home. It's not cheap, almost RM100.00 for just a small box.



For dinner, we had seafood on the beach. The restaurant gave us flowers to wear in our hair, even for the guys :)



There was a traditional dance performed during the dinner and we took a few pictures with the dancers.

Bali Trip - Day 1

Hubby and I and a few of our friends took a trip to Bali last week for 5 days. We had actually planned this trip almost a year ago and booked the tickets during one of the cheap flights promotion by Air Asia. Since it was that long ago, one of our friends even got pregnant and just delivered in early March so she couldn't come along (her husband came with us though). When we booked the tickets, she was not even pregnant yet. So in the end it was just the 6 of us.



There is no direct flight from Penang to Bali, so we had to transit in Kuala Lumpur. Quite troublesome as we had a long transit for almost 6 hours in LCCT.



It was a long day and we reached Bali at around 7.30 pm. There is no time difference but it gets dark very fast; 6 pm it is already dark. After a long day, we were tired but happy.



We checked in to our hotel - Bali Kuta Resort by Swiss-Belhotel. We booked it through the internet a few weeks before our trip. The rooms were pretty standard, but quite pleasant.



Our dinner on the first night recommended by the hotel - nasi pedas (spicy rice). It looks pretty normal but the chilli is really really spicy and our mouths literally felt like they were on fire.

Strike a pose

We recently discovered that Hannah is quite the "poser" when it comes to taking photos.

First pose:



Second pose:



I took her to a nearby playground on Saturday while waiting for Hubby to get his hair cut. Posing on the slide:



Excited pose - Mummy, I want to go slide again!

Hannah "working"

I have learnt a new word - "working". Everytime I am busy "writing" or "colouring", I will tell Mummy and Daddy that I am "working" :)

Here I am "working" with Daddy. Daddy is marking his exam scripts and I am colouring in my book. Mummy bought me new colour pencils so now I have both my washable markers as well as my colour pencils. Mummy and Daddy find that it can keep me occupied for a longer time compared to my other toys.



I am fully concentrating - Mummy and Daddy still cannot decide whether I am right-handed or left-handed.



Another form of me "working" is to answer the telephone at Ah Mah's house. I will pick up the phone and say "hello".



"Hold on, please".



"Ugh - prank call!" :)

Update: Good!

Remember in the last post I said that Hannah couldn't coordinate her thumb and index finger properly so her sign for "good" was pointing both fingers like a gun? Well, last night, she finally mastered it. She was twiddling her fingers and suddenly realised that she could do it. As usual, she was really excited and called out to us to see, "Daddy, Mummy, good, good!" We were also super proud of her. Funny how being parents make us beam with pride over the smallest things :)

Here was her "good" sign this morning - a little blurry cos she was excitedly waving her hand around.



Can see it clearer now, but she was not looking at the camera because she was distracted by the TV.



And again - once she discovers she can do something, she will do it over and over again :)



Blurry picture again - cheeky little girl who cannot sit still!

What has Hannah been up to?

I haven't really had time to blog these past couple of weeks, because work has been really busy and we haven't really been anywhere for me to take any nice pictures.

So, anyway, just to update everyone on Hannah's latest antics. Her speech is improving by leaps and bounds everyday and she can make simple sentences and communicate 2 or 3 words at a time. It is now possible to have a simple conversation with her and she can understand everything that is being said.

For example, the other day we were at the supermarket and she accidentally knocked down a few clothes which were hanging on display. She said "Put back, aunty meh-meh (scold)" and she actually bent down to pick them up and hung them back.

Also, I took her for ice-cream last Sunday afternoon as a treat. After looking at the menu for awhile, the waitress approached our table and asked for our order. I pointed to a sundae in the menu and asked Hannah if she wanted that. She very firmly said no. So I asked her if she wants just a single scoop and she said yes. I then asked her if she wanted strawberry flavour (my personal favourite) and she said "mai, mai" (no). I then asked her if she wanted chocolate and she said "ha" meaning "yes". The waitress sure had a good chuckle :) So small already know how to choose :p

Another funny incident was when we were in the car and she saw the Penang High Court. She can recognise it when we pass by and she will say "court!". By the way, she can also recognise places that she has been, not necessarily the exact place but the area around it. For example, her Ah Gong and Ah Mah go to close the door of an office every night and set the alarm system. Sometimes they bring her along for a ride. So the other day as we were approaching the office, she said "guan men" (close door). She can also recognise the place where her Ah Mah takes her to cut her hair, she said "jien tou fa" (cut hair).

So anyway, back to the court, I asked her "Who goes to court?" She said "Daddy". I then asked her "Does Mummy go to court?" She said "No, Hannah!". So I then said "What does Hannah do in court?" She answered me "Waiting". How true indeed, out of the mouths of babes. What else do we do in the court besides wait around? Wait for the judge, wait for the registrar, wait for our case to be called up, wait for documents - half the time is spent waiting. Indeed, Hannah, you have never said a truer word :)

Here are a few cheeky pictures of her which I took one morning before leaving the house.



Her sign for "good" used to be pointing her index finger up. The other day, she suddenly realised that she could point both her thumb and her index finger. She was so excited and she called me to look "Mummy, Mummy, good, good!" I sure had a good laugh as she was pointing her fingers like a gun. I tried to bend down her index finger so just leaving the thumb but it was not very succesful. Later, she got all confused as to which finger should be up and which finger should be down. So now her "good" is making a "gun" with her thumb and index finger, like this:



And this:



Favourite drink - Vitagen Less Sugar grape "purple" flavour. Even then, we usually drink half the bottle and she gets the other half.

Hannah likes to draw

There is this shop at Changi airport which I always like to stop by when I am in Singapore waiting for my flight home. Essentially it sells children's books and toys and the prices are reasonable too, compared to another shop at the airport. The last trip I was there I got these for Hannah - Crayola Beginnings washable markers.



She has recently begun to like drawing, so armed with her new markers and a sketch book, she set to work. We cannot really tell yet if she is right-handed or left-handed; as you can see, she likes to use both hands at the same time!



Daddy better help or else the marker ink will be all over everywhere else except the book :)

Fun at Esplanade

Mummy, Ah Mah and Da Ku brought me and my cousins to play at Esplanade playground, just next to Fort Cornwallis. I just love anywhere that has swings and slides for me to play on. Look at how I enjoy the wind in my hair :)



I also helped to push Baby Pei Zi. She was enjoying herself too!



Hmm..not very clean though - my hands had to be washed thoroughly after I finished playing.



Love the slides!



Pei Zi liked it as well, even though she doesn't know how to slide yet.



Mummy says that I am a brave girl now that I can slide on my own. Previously I needed Mummy to hold my hand, even on the little slide in the pediatrician's clinic. But now I can slide down the big slide all by myself!



Speaking of Fort Cornwallis, there is to be an event there tomorrow, 2nd April 2011, which is the launch of the final phase of the MyConsitution Campaign organised by the Constitutional Law Committee of the Bar Council. This campaign has spanned the last one and a half years across the country, educating the rakyat on the Federal Consitution.



Admission is free, so please come and support!