Trip to Koh Lipe, Thailand

Koh Lipe, widely regarded as the little Maldives, saw many posts on Facebook saying how beautiful it is, white beaches, the sea are all in turquoise colour, and not to forget, the well known Thai hospitality. And so my family decided to go after hearing all the good words about this place and we went there on the 27th, 28th & 29th March, 2015.

          We are from Kuala Lumpur, so we actually took a flight to Langkawi island on the 26th, spend a night there and the next morning, we took the ferry from Langkawi itself to Koh Lipe, it took about an hour for us to reach Koh Lipe. Haha, I won't focus much on the Langkawi because we, the Malaysian, know that Langkawi is good for the tax free, which mean the chocolate and any alcohol drinks and even tobacco, are cheaper compare to the other places in Malaysia. People who travel to Langkawi are usually come back with a bag full of chocolate, etc Ferrero Rocher, Pepero, or with a bottle or two of liquor and wine. The one day of me in Langkawi, are basically more about drink, drank, drunk. Haha. 

Us, at KLIA 2, ready to depart to Langkawi island on our first day :)

          From Langkawi to Koh Lipe, we need to board the ferry at the place where a lot of yacht park at, I don't know the name for that place, but if you ever been to the cable car thingy in Langkawi, you will pass by a jetty where a lot of yacht park there, hmm, there's a Petronas petrol station there. The Thai immigration is also there, so we actually have to get our passport stamp before we board the jetty. Bear in mind, as for now, the ferry from Langkawi to Koh Lipe has only two times for a day, it is either 10am or 2pm, so is kinda limited, expect them to add in more in the future.

Chilling at the jetty, waiting for the right time to board

          The ferry don't stop you at the beach straight or either do they stop at another jetty and you have a walkway to walk to the beach, without getting wet. No no no. The ferry will actually stop you at a so call platform that is near to the Koh Lipe's beach, and from there, we need to take a smaller boat that is made out from wood, to the beach. The small boat will bring you and your luggage from the water platform to the beach. Little suggestion is try not to wear shoe and long pants because when you get out from the boat, you will actually step into the sea, the water level is between your ankle and your knee, so yea, wear your flip flop and short pants to stay dry.

This is the water platform when you get out from the ferry
 and wait for the smaller boat

Welcome to Koh Lipe! 

          Owh! Your passport will be taken care by the immigration people when you board the ferry, and they will give it back to you once you reach Koh Lipe. Therefore, the first thing you need to do after your feet can feel the sand of the beach, you need to get back your passport from the immigration officer before you check in to your accommodation respectively. I stayed in Mali Resort, everything is fine except for my aircond, it's just not working, I guess is just the luck thing and the resort were running full house at that period so I guess they can't change the room for me. There's no swimming pool in Mali Resort, yes, I guess people will think since you have this nice sea right in front of you, why do you need a pool? Well, how about I wanted to swim safely and peacefully during night time? A swimming pool will make sense by then. Some of other resort actually do have swimming pool though haha.

          Is Thailand, and is an island, the weather can be really hot, you can get sunburn just by walking along the beaches, so my advice is to apply sunblock all the time especially you are a girl. There's this walking street in Koh Lipe, it can be really happening at night, not so in the day time because of the sun haha. Most of the tourist would dine in at the walking street area and not in their resort, and there too have a lot of massage parlour. There's even a 7-11, so it is really a great news for me as Thailand's 7-11 is so much better than the one we have in Malaysia, they offer more food! During my time at Koh Lipe, the best restaurant I had is actually a restaurant call Jayao Restaurant Koh, they serve good food, they are friendly and most importantly they speak English, so we don't need to play guessing game. I had 3 of my meals there, it's worth it. Jayao is located just few shop away from the 7-11. There's this restaurant in the walking street call "King Crab", their service is awfully bad, like really bad, they give you the face as if all of the customer owe them money, none of the employee has a smile on their face, they ignore you when you wanted to order, bill or you need something from them. The toilet has no light, so people have to use the torch light from their phone when they go in. I already feel sick for them even before the food has arrive my table. Even when I was writing this post, I google them on the internet, I saw all kinds of negative comment from the customer and I know, I am not the only one who had bad experience in this restaurant. 

This is Jayao Restaurant that I recommended :)

This is the restaurant that I think should have a NO ENTRY sign

          In Koh Lipe, there's nothing for you to do if you don't go for water activity, so we went for snorkeling. You can find a lot of snorkeling or diving agency along the beach or the walking street, just approach any one of them, compare their prices and you see which package suit you the most of course. Because they have too many snorkeling and diving spot to choose from and you are trying to fit everything into your schedule. There's really a lot of clown fish here in Koh Lipe, plenty of Nemo! and all the other fish that I can't name them. The type of boat that we take for snorkeling and the one who bring us from the water platform to the beaches are the same type, which look like this:

Tada!

This boat can only fit 8 passenger maximum
You will get wet even before you jump into the sea 

        Basically, it can be really fun in Koh Lipe, very relaxing as well especially you are looking for a getaway. The food are good, I will share some of them later in this post, their famous pancake that look like our very own roti canai in Malaysia, then they have coconut ice cream, mango sticky rice, pineapple fried rice, tomyamkung, and seafood that is really fresh.

Chocolate Banana Pancake that taste really good!

Coconut Ice Cream :)

Is really fun to travel to Koh Lipe, white beach and turquoise colour sea. But I think it can be better, they can improve further by providing better service and it is still a new place, resort are all newly build and clean. Is a good choice of travel just that if I have to make a choice between Koh Lipe and Redang island, then Redang island for sure. Im glad that Redang is in Malaysia haha. 

Here are some of the photo that we took during our time in Koh Lipe: 

That's all from me :)

My very 1st month in Resort World Genting as an Student Trainee

Yes, like I mention in  my previous post, I'm doing my last internship (if taking up Master is never a plan) in Resort World Genting. I'm based in Theme Park Marketing, yea, marketing. People has been asking me why I choose marketing department since what I'm major in is hospitality management, but somehow, I think it is related. Basically, in hospitality management, you get to study everything, such as food science, law, human resource, accounting, thinking skills, MARKETING & so on. We don't only learn how to make bed or serve coffee during our 4 years time in lakeside. 

My ID card as Student Trainee 

       
          Alright, speaking about my first day in Resort World Genting, big thanks to my dad who drive me up all the way, and I guess he will insist driving me back and forth when I have off days and so, I'm not allow to drive up myself, for safety reason, I appreciate his effort and time. The weather up here is much cooler than KL and I must admit, it take days for me to get used to it. Something I like about my first day up here is not about how interesting the orientation is or how cold the weather are but is more to we have a small ice breaking session. I must say this is a brilliant idea to have the previous batch of student interns having dinner with the new batch of interns (myself). From there, you know who's your fellow interns and some of them are in the same department with me. Who"s better to learn from right? Buddy system! I'm lucky to have two senior interns in the same department with me and I'm glad that they are being friendly and always patience enough to guide me as I can be really annoying at times for being too curious about how things done.

          Theme Park Marketing is where I'm gonna be until at least 6th December 2014. When I first join, I knew there's this big event coming in and I can't wait to get going, it is the Ice Age Adventure. It is more like a showcase or exhibition of Ice Age movie franchise, it comes with 4 different sessions: Theater Room (103" TV), Playground (More than 30 photo props), Workshop (Colouring & DIY mask) & Meet n Greet with 3 charming mascot from the movie itself. I'm not promoting it, even if you feel like I'm doing it, haha. I'm just explaining and I will show some pictures later on during the setting up process, the mise en place. We have a lot of photo props for visitor to take picture and somehow we thought of giving tips for them to capture the best moment during their visit, and out of nowhere, I become the model, haha. Not the first time but still hilarious. Oh, the Ice Age Adventure will be held from 1st of September until 26th of October. Still say is not promoting?!

This is the entrance for the Ice Age Adventure

This is the theater room I'm taking care during the event time :)

We are showing some popular Ice Age's short film in the theater room.
Every session there will have an Q&A session based on the short film itself.
Visitor can get Ice Age premium by answer the question correctly. 

The 3 much loved mascot. Diego, Scrat & Sid

Modeling time. Haha

Us with the Dino's eggs

Fighting for acorn with Scrat 

Groupfie! Familiar? Yes, we refer to the one that you think we are. Haha

       
           The Ice Age Adventure is one of the project that I'm working on and there are few more and we always have new project coming in and sometimes you will have no time to breathe, so busy! OT is not a must but there were times when situation force you to, even though you know the company don't pay OT for student trainee. It is cruel and is something I hope it can be improve in the future. Trainee work as hard as permanent staff too.

          In my department, uniform is not provided and I need to do my own laundry, I don't mind doing my own laundry but it can ages, sometimes might even need 2 hours, who has time for that? I don't. Haha. So, I will be the one who send my laundry to laundry shop and they help me wash, RM4.50 for the first 4.5kg and any subsequent kg exceed that is RM1.50 for every 1kg. I would say, it worth the price and it save me time.

          How about entertainment up here? After work, most probably I will have my dinner with colleagues after that I will stay in my room, turn on the tv for background sound and texting my love one. I do go for gym once in a while, in which I hope I can visit there more often as I'm desperately need to slim down and it also help to fill up my day. Beside that, my only hope is that Man Utd play as often as possible during my time up here, really really looking forward to watch them play every time especially now we have a better team than the previous year. I finished reading a book in 3 days, is another book about a footballer, Paul Scholes, it is his biography. I do enjoy books like these, about the footballer that I admire since young. Promise myself I will bring up some new books from home to read again. Finally the chance is here for all the books that I had bought using 1 Malaysia book voucher years ago that I haven't taken them out from the plastic. So long, brother!

This is it. The book that keep me busy for 3 days.
My favourite football player after Cristiano Ronaldo.
 Paul Scholes, you're the man!

          My time up there was great for now, I met good people, some of them are really nice and friendly but I do miss my time in Kepong. Homesick? Probably, haha, I know is not that far but everything changed. I don't get to play my favourite sport weekly, family and friends of course, I'm kinda miss the jam somehow, I don't know why. No worries, I know I'm surviving and will do well, little separation make you appreciate little things such as dinner with family, yumcha with bros even more. Heard from my mom that her friend's daughter has passed away recently due to an accident and the girl was a month younger than me, rest in peace. Life can be so fragile but what's we can do is at least appreciate every moment we spend with each other and be grateful that we are still breathing.

          I miss my time at Kepong, haha. But I know I shouldn't leave any regret when I finish my internship up here. I will do well, I have to do well. Let's put on a good fight :)      

20 Facts About Me :)

I was being tagged to do this #20factsaboutme and I did it on my Instagram and now I just copy and paste it to here, haha.

1. Family means everything.

2. I have a GF that I love a lot a lot.

3. I support ManUtd since I was 9, after I watched them play at Stadium Bukit Jalil live.

See! Im already on my Man Utd's jersey.
It was in 2005, our primary school gathering? 

4. Favourite football player is Cristiano Ronaldo, the one from Portugal. Always is.

5. I love traveling, especially the one that let me learn about their culture, food, fashion rather than spend my day in a shopping complex.

6. I'm proud be a Taylor's student, from Lakeside Campus, doing Hospitality Management and I'm graduating this year end.

7. I care about punctuality, remind myself not to be late for any gathering but I'm often late for class.

8. Before I die, I hope I can visit Santorini & Rome, not to forget watch a football game at ManUtd's stadium, Old Trafford.

9. I'm a scout since I was 9, I stopped ever since I turned 18, but still, once a scout, always a scout. It was a great time of my life.

10. I have a football/futsal team named Predator, we used to play everyday but now, not so often, people get busy :/

11. I love organize event and gathering but not anymore, because sometimes people just don't appreciate.

12. I prefer BBQ rather than doing Steamboat

13. I don't drink coffee. And yes, I either order chocolate drinks or green tea latte at Starbucks.

14. I think Coffee Bean has better drinks than Starbucks because they use powder and not syrup like Starbucks. Just that maybe they are not good in marketing, especially in Malaysia.

15. I always hope to marry young because I want to do sport especially football with my child. I want to play with them rather than watch them play.

16. I'm from Kepong, Kuala Lumpur and I always think that's the best place for me to grow up.

17. Both my parents are from Kuala Lumpur. Yes, I'm a city boy. Mind you, I'm also a boy scout, I know how to make fire out of wood.

18. My biggest achievement so far is I climbed Mount Kinabalu. It was tough, both physically and mentally and I'm glad I did it with the right people, people I care and they are important to me.

19. My favourite number is 23. It is my birthday date and I carry that on my football jersey.

20. I'm now an intern in Theme Park Marketing for Resort World Genting. Is cold up there but I'm doing fine.

I hope you enjoy reading this :)

Taylor's University, thank you :')

Yes, I am a student from Taylor's University Lakeside Campus. I had just finished writing my final exam paper for this semester. There goes my four years as a student in this beautiful campus, and it once being voted as the best university campus in Malaysia. Done with my degree, before I start my final internship, and eventually coming back for convocation on next May, I would like to spend some time, thank everyone of them who has help make this 4 years in Taylor's, an exciting journey.

          When I first join Taylor's, I was in batch 36 (Diploma) and Group 6. My first assignment group mates are friends who I still value them very much, Zhenhan, Teddy & Elaine. Thank you for kicking start my student life in Taylor's University, as people say, the first one is always the special one. I may forget who was in my group in which semester but never will I forget the 3 of you are my first assignment group mates, Geograpgy by Mr Anshul right? Haha.

          Let me start with the female lecturers that I would love to thanks. Ms BenLi, thank you for your patience with this hyper active student, as we always running around in Front Office Suite but you make sure before we leave the class, we learn what we are suppose to, thank you. Ms Vivian Wan, thank you for giving us a good insight on what should we expect from Housekeeping, your no nonsense teaching method do scare me but it is more to respect, thank you for being lenient to me during my diploma final exam, I was chosen to do trolley packing and that's subject has the highest score in my result and I do remember your son name is call Bryant, hehe. Ms Lay Bee, I heard juniors telling me about how fierce and strict to them but to me and my class, we really appreciate you, I enjoy your class for housekeeping and the professional activity whereby we need to organised a forum from scratch, and miss speaking French with you in which I have very duper limited vocab. Chef Massi, thank you for giving me a chance to work with you in Sunway Pyramid, on promoting a rice cooker by cooking a few dishes in the public. Chef Azura, it is also nice to be able to attend your cooking class especially the one that you teach us to cook beef tenderloin. Ms Jasmine Chen, thank you for the chance given to me to be the Master of Ceremony for the Wine Luncheon.

          Dr Catheryn Khoo-Lattimore, you are the one who make me understand what is marketing all about, and I'm trruly honour to be able to work with you on the 12th Asia Pacific Forum as the master of ceremony, thank you. Ms Jaya, I am sorry for not listening in your class but I appreciate your effort to still willing to help me when I have something to ask, thank you Ms. Ms Soo Sian, the Maori Haka dance that you did in your first class as a self intro make me understand more about New Zealand culture and the meaning behind the dance, and also your outgoing and unique teaching style. Ms Sumitha, thank you for bearing with us, the naughty batch in Ruemz training, I enjoy working for you in Housekeeping and thank you for creating a good working environment for everyone of us, that's my happiest internship to date. Dr Sushila Dev, I enjoy the class activity you give every week, this is the only subject that I don't mind to have class activity, and thank you for being my referral as well. Dr Smitha, thank you for helping me on my dissertation paper, and I know I needed that to be able to graduate.

          For the male lecturers, first of all, big thanks to Mr Adrian Yao, who was my lecturer in Thinking Skills subject and gave me a chance to be a mentor and work with my juniors, not one batch but 3 batches. Thank you for having faith with me and your never shy to tell me the truth instinct, thank you Sir, really. Mr Lim Tau Sian, aside from teaching us Plant & Premises, you gave my group and myself special class on French which is not in your duty to do so, as well as helping me on my dissertation and my time in Ruemz Hotel, thank you Mr Lim. Mr Patrick Daya, terima kasih Sir for giving me advices on public speaking, decision making and also the chances to compete in Monin, a bartender competition. Mr Gopi, you look like the guy in Despicable Me, haha, but you did well in teaching us about beverage studies and our restaurant service, thank you Sir. Mr Kenny was my first restaurant service lecturer, sometimes I find you nag too much but after that I found out, you are just trying to save us from trouble, I was wrong and I appreciate your hardwork Sir. Mr Zikir, aside from teaching me for Front Office, you are the one who interview and accept me as an intern in Ruemz Hotel, thank you for the chance and it turns out I had a great time there, thank you Sir. Mr TayBoon, I thought you were someone who is hard to approach but after working for you in Ruemz, the impression change, thank you for sharing so many knowledge with me, especially during the Open Day, and I will never forget Rum is made from sugar cane. Chef Rizal, thank you for always having faith in me and ask me to do the soft rolls alone, prepare for the service class, thank you for helping us to learn how to cook and your patience to bear with us, as before I join Taylor's, the best food I ever cook is Maggi.

          Not to forget, all of my classmate who has been with me, diploma time, degree time, friends from different course and faculty, seniors and juniors, thank you all. The Norwegian Sandwich kiosk aunty, thank you for smile that brighter up my day each time I go and buy food from you. I had make a lot of friends throughout this 4 years in Lakeside Campus, and I believe I too has made some enemy where people don't like me or hate me even though they din't let me know. For people who don't like me or don't enjoy my presence, thank you for squeezing the smile when you see me each time, it has been hard for you and I thank you for not pushing me down the stairs. For the people who really take me as friends, thank you and I do enjoy sitting in the same class with you all, noisy or not noisy, sleepy or not so sleepy.

Thank you Kukubirds :)

Thank you DH36, especially to Group 4, 5 & 6

Thank you BH 4, Group 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, & 11

and to the juniors and seniors that I know, lecturers that has taught me but I forget to mention your name above, thank you!

Thank you all for making this 4 years an exciting and unforgettable one, I had learn different things from each one of you, I hope you all will have a terrific career and life ahead. Let's meet again on next year May in our convocation :)

and here are some photo that I selected that I think it sum up my time in Taylor's University Lakeside Campus...

A trip to KK, thanks for the hospitality Ben & Yiling :)

Community Service to House of Joy

My 18th :)

Thank you for celebrate my 18th with me

Last day of Diploma 

Ruemz's Family picture for Batch Jan 2013

Monin cocktail competition 2012 

Superheroes theme dinner service 

Our first get together for degree program

Peiwern 21st Bday :) 

Bangkok trip with Mr Adrian 

Sawadekap 

Our study trip in Toulouse, France 

Spent 3 days in Universite de Toulouse, France 

The legendary Kukubirds

Our own version of Journey to The West. Can you tell who is who? 

<3

See you when I see you :)
Thank you~!