My Year 2021

Just like what most of us predicted, pandemic ain't over. This pandemic had caused us not being able to go back to celebrate Chinese New Year for the very first time. We were not able to take our tradition picture as well. That's when creativity comes into handy and our brilliant cousin managed to pull it off!

This also made us to be grateful for what we have around us. Even though all of us could not go back, we had our own celebration in Kuala Lumpur. It was mostly eating, drinking and playing cards.

Compared to the previous year, I was able to meet my friends this year. I had a friend who came back from Riyadh for vacation. I had checked that the last time we met was back in 2017, oh gosh! I have known her since kindergarten time. Hope we will have that girls trip to Bangkok one day with the other three ladies.

I was able to meet up with my favourite girls too. We had just met up over dinner recently. It felt so good to see familiar faces and also to see how much Rye Liv has grown. 

The very same year, we welcomed a new member into our family and this boy has grown so much in five months. The father was not able to recognise him in his newborn picture so, you could imagine how much this boy has changed.

We did another staycation in Mandarin Oriental Hotel again to celebrate my birthday but, we have more people joining us this round as my birthday present from the husband. We booked two rooms that included MO's Club Lounge benefits to have most of our meals covered. Did you think I was the happiest girl during this staycation? The answer is no. My niece was the happiest girl during this staycation. She was so excited that she did not take her nap the day we checked-in the hotel. 

We ended this pandemic year with a lovely Christmas celebration again. However, we had the celebration this round at another unit in our condominium and we had special guests joining us - my brother's parents-in-law. Food, drinks and of course, presents (mostly for the kids). I believed it was the happiest day for the kids as they opened so much more presents compared to the previous year. It was already a chaos with two kids opening their presents. Imagine having 4 next Christmas. 

And that was how I ended year 2021. Actually, thanks to this pandemic, I had a lot of family time and that was how I bonded with my niece too. You know what they said, the first 5 years are really important. Also, I managed to pick up a few games namely NieR: Automata and Dragon Age: Inquisition. I tried picking up Spiderman but I was really bad in it. Out of these games, my favourite is NeiR: Automata and I had not moved on! You will know what I mean if you had played the game.

Anyhow, here's to a better 2022 and wishing all of us can travel out of Malaysia soon!

My Year 2020

It has been more than a year since I last updated my blog - it's like year 2020 was totally wiped out in my life. Actually, if you take a closer look at my blog, 2019 was wiped out as well except for Hokkaido trip.

To be frank, 2020 had been an eventful year even though most of us stayed at home due to Covid-19 pandemic. I remember that things were really good in the beginning of the year. 

January was a busy month for me. I traveled out of Kuala Lumpur most of the time for work that one of my back-then colleagues commented that he had not seen me for a very long time. It was also the same month which I was really looking forward to as I was heading back to Sibu for family reunion, celebrating Chinese New Year - and little did I know it was the last time for me to be back home with my family.

Things were still good in February when we were still allowed to dine-in with a big group on the same table in a restaurant. Also, face mask was not compulsory back then since Covid-19 was not wildly spread in Malaysia back then. Glad that I was still able to have another reunion meal, celebrating Chap Goh Mei with my family in Kuala Lumpur.

The condition started to get worse in March and I was glad that I was able to have a makan-makan session with my back-then colleagues, apart from my farewell dinner. Our boss told us about this place that sells really good satays - Satay Zainah Ismail. Hope the business is still going strong in the midst of this pandemic. A week later, March 18th, Malaysia began its implementation of movement control order. That was when all of us started to stay at home, work from home and prepared our own meals most of the time. This went on in April as well. I somehow lost about 7kg even though I had 3 meals a day at home. It was definitely because I cut down a lot from eating out. Sadly, I gained it back in May when I started to venture into baking which I shall share soon as well. But hey, April was not that bad. We had Final Fantasy VII Remake to keep us busy at home. 

May was a fun month. Not only I started picking up baking, the husband and I also started to babysit our niece after her school. That was when we had seen her grown up so much. From speaking a few words here and there to be able to converse in a full sentence now. I am really blessed to be able to witness her growth. They really grow up really fast so we, as the adults, should treasure these moments with them.

We continued to babysit our niece after school until middle of the month. Why so? We had to change our house's internal piping. Hence, our place became really dirty and dusty so, it was not suitable to have her around. Fortunately, the project did not run long, so I was able to clean up the place to have her around again. It took me close to 2 days to clean up the whole house myself because an OCD like me could not trust a hired cleaner. And why did I have the leisure time to do all these? I had tendered my job in AML and joining the new company in the following month.

#HaLauFamily managed to do a little bit of Cuti-Cuti Malaysia during this pandemic too. We managed to go to Aquaria KLCC and Zoo Negara. 

I had never been to Aquaria so I was quite excited. My favourite part was the underwater tunnel where you could see turtles and sharks! I cannot swim well and I do not think I will ever dive underwater so, this experience is good enough for me. Unfortunate for my niece, she was shocked so she cried throughout the tunnel.

As for Zoo Negara, it was my third visit but my first visit with the husband. This place did not change much but it does have a few new exhibits - Giant Panda Conservation Centre and Savannah Walk. Without a doubt, Xing Xing's and Liang Liang's place was our favourite, with cool and clean air. This place was equipped with don't-know-how-many air-conditioners and don't-know-how-many Philips' air purifiers. Sadly you would not be able to stay long in this centre. Each batch of visitors have time limit inside.

In the year, we did meet an unfortunate event as well. The husband knocked into someone else's car. It was when we were supposed to go meet the family for dinner to celebrate his birthday. Through this incident, we did find a few blessings in our lives as well. One, no one is hurt. Two, our family is very close to us so they came to help and check on us real fast. 

Though we were not able to travel out of Malaysia, we did a staycation in Mandarin Oriental Hotel. We booked a room that includes MO's Club Lounge benefits - beakfast, afternoon tea and evening cocktails. Hence, it was a eat-drink-and-sleep days for us. We truly enjoyed our stay as the service and food provided satisfied us. 

We ended the pandemic year with a lovely Christmas celebration at our place. We had food, gifts and best of all, family members beside us. The children were the happiest ones though. Each of them received a present from all the adults. It was really fun to watch them unwrapping the presents. 

That was how we ended year 2020. It's funny to think that 2020 was not eventful when you first thought about it but when you really thought carefully, there were tons of things that happened. There could be more which I did not share in this post but one thing for sure is that the pandemic is not over yet and together, we strive for better in the years ahead to win this fight.

I want to travel out of Malaysia oh so dearly!

Japan Day 8: Sapporo

It was the second last day for us to be in Hokkaido. Unfortunately for my brother and my sister in law, it was the last day for them. Since it was an unfortunate turn of event, we had to push one of the activities forward so we could enjoy it together – kimono rental experience. We did not send in our request on this earlier so, we were trying our luck by heading straight to the shop. However, we were fortunate that the shop owner allowed this last minute request after considering our situation.

We had fun picking our kimonos and accessories to go with our kimono. I was a bit embarrassed to dress in kimono especially in this cold weather. However, since it was an activity that we are doing together, it was fun in another way. We tried our best to make ourselves warm ie. standing at a vent that let out warm air as well as stayed in a convenient store for a bit before we continued our sightseeing. We aimed to go to the clock tower but we gave up halfway because we were freezing. What’s best about this was, they gave me a surprise birthday celebration. It was a lovely thought from them. We headed back after we finished the cake. My brother and sister in law left for the airport after. Found out later on that they were doing a last minute shopping at the airport.

As for us? We went to Ippudo for lunch. It was the husband’s idea since he really loves ramen. The husband went back to hotel to rest whereas my mother and I went for shopping before we went back to hotel to rest. That night was a big night for us.

90 minutes of all-you-can-eat-and-drink at Sapporo Beer Garten! We spent a lot on this meal though. We even joked that we should not have any meal throughout the day for this when we were planning this trip. I whacked the crab most of the time while the husband whacked Gengkhis Khan lamb and beers. I did not think the amount we ate equals to the amount we paid but, we did our best. Actually, we planned to have this meal on our first night in Sapporo. It was fully booked and only 10th Nov was available for us. Unfortunately we were not able to get the refund for my brother and my sister in law. I was upset but I believe they were more frustrated than me.

Now that this trip had come to an end, it will not be the last family trip. It was not the perfect trip but I was really proud that it went well. We spent a lot of quality time together and know each other better. I learned something about our marriage during this trip. No worries, it was definitely for the better. We had our next family trip in mind that includes my older brother (+2) but due to Covid-19, we had to postpone this trip.

Will definitely post here when it happened!

Japan Day 7: Sapporo

The first destination we went in the morning was to explore Hokkaido University – Sapporo Campus. The campus is opened to public but there are some rules and regulations that we need to follow. I did not know about this until I came across a pamphlet in a convenience store inside the campus. The campus is huge and beautiful! I guess the students will need to have a bike to go around the campus.

We spent about an hour there before we left for lunch at Ganso Ramen Yokocho. The Sapporo’s Ramen Yokocho is a famous alley not just for its concentration delicious ramen but also for being the originator of the miso ramen! There are 17 ramen stalls. You could basically come here for every meal every single day. The stall we went to was Teshikaga which is extremely popular no only to the tourists but to the locals as well. You can have both types – miso and seafood ramen here for about ¥800. The husband bought one box of their instant ramen. He regretted not buying more so, if you are here for their ramen, do buy more boxes of their instant ramen!

For the next stop, we went to Kaitaku-no Mura, the Historical Village of Hokkaido. To get there, we took a bus as taking a cab will be costly. The entrance fee is ¥800 per person and this is where the history comes to life as it is an outdoor museum of relocated and restored buildings that represent life of Hokkaido from 1868 to the 1920s. This outdoor museum is huge and to cover it more quickly, hop on a horse with a cart ride. We went on foot though and since we were there late, we did not have ample time to visit all the buildings.

Once we were back in Sapporo JR Station, we went to Sapporo JR Tower Observatory T38. We got a good deal from Klook. We bought 2 tickets that came with afternoon tea. It was also when my brother received a bad news from FlyScoot. Their flight had been rescheduled to a later date and only bound to land Singapore +1 day. As they could not afford to not go back to work, the only choice they had is to change their rescheduled flight to an earlier flight which is the next day! All of us were of course upset about it.

We went to Chao Chao Gyoza for dinner before we went back to our hotel. The place was packed with diners. We thought of waiting outside the restaurant until there were seats for us. My brother went to the extent to stand at the door, pressuring either the restaurant staff or the diners. Fortunately it worked! We managed to get seats but had to be separated.  However, we met some nice diners there whereby they made a move to offer us their seats. The restaurant offers various types of gyoza flavours. They even serve chicken wings stuffed with gyoza fillings which we ordered as well. Apart from ChaoChao’s signature gyoza, we ordered curry and pork gyoza. My favourite was chicken wing gyoza. The dinner cost us ¥3,630 which is quite cheap.

Since it was the final night for my brother and sister in law, they went for a shopping spree at Tanukikoji Shopping Street whereas I went to the hotel’s hot bath with my mom so we could have a nice sleep that night.

Japan Day 6: Noboribetsu-Sapporo

We went to onsen first thing in the morning. It was snowing at that time and the sight was really beautiful. We spent about half an hour and had our breakfast before we checked out our resort.

We explored Jigokudani Hell Valley which is the source for hot springs in Noboribetsu. We hiked a bit before we bid the place farewell and continue our journey to our final destination – Sapporo. It was a 1.5 hours drive. Our last drive in Hokkaido as we were returning our car in Hokkaido.

Before we returned the car, we stopped by our hotel to drop all our luggage and bags. We stayed in Karaksa Hotel Sapporo and considered ourselves lucky to have stayed in the middle of Tanukikoji Shopping Street where you could get all your shopping spree done.

Being car-less, I thought we had to walk for about 15 minutes in this very cold weather from TIMES to board a train back to the city. Fortunately, the staff was helpful to tell us the nearest bus stop. While we were waiting for the bus, it was snowing again! Unfortunately, that was the last snow we experienced in Hokkaido.

The bus we took brought us to JR Sapporo station where we had our lunch at Nemuro Hanamaru. It is shared in the internet that this is one of the best places to start your trip in Hokkaido. This is a popular conveyor belt sushi place so, the queue can be really long. Since we arrived around 2.30pm which was past the peak meal time, we had to wait for about 10 minutes only. You can get really affordable and good quality sushi at ¥143. We ordered 15 ¥143-range plates and 2 ¥198-range plates.

Before we went back to our hotel to check-in and rest, we went to search for Kinotoya Bake to their famous tasty baked cheese tarts. It is located at the JR Station East Exit. There is a Kinotoya Cake shop located in Daimaru basement food hall but we were not able to find it. You can buy one cheese tart for ¥183 or six for ¥1080. We went for the latter deal.

Back in our hotel, our check-in process was really smooth. We had two inter-connecting rooms so, if you are looking for such place, look no further than Karaksa Hotel. During check-in, they would ask you if you would like to have some days to be an eco day – the days they will not change the towels, bedsheets, pillow and quilt covers. For one chosen day, they will give you 1 token per person and this token can be exchanged for a free drink from the vending machine in their common hall. They also have this activity going on whereby if you took a picture with one of their boards, they will give you a free selfie lens per pax in the picture. Pretty humble, right?

Where did we have for our dinner?

Suage Curry Soup and Dining! The meals are highly customisable. You can choose  the kind of curry, spiciness level, toppings and the amount of rice to go with your curry. We ordered three different types of curry dishes.

As it was getting really cold, we decided to head back to the hotel to rest after checking out the Tanukikoji Shopping Street.

Japan: Day 5 (Hakodate-Noboribetsu)

This was our last day in Hakodate and again, my baby brother made breakfast for us. Before we left Hakodate, we went to make our final stop at The World’s Second Best Ice Cream. I finally had my melon pan with ice cream which cost me ¥400.

Our next stop was Noboribetsu but we made a stop in Lake Toya for a short sightseeing and lunch. Unfortunately for us, it was raining so, we did not get the chance to explore Lake Toya. However, we were very lucky to witness snow during our ride. It was really beautiful! The temperature was 2 degree Celsius when it happened. Sadly, it did not last long. One thing I love about the highway in Japan is the public toilets are awesome and very clean! Some but not all the public toilets have this swallow origami which works like a good luck charm for those driving on the highway. Very thoughtful, right?

We had our lunch at Toya Marche whereby the food is not that great but the set meals are very reasonably priced. Beef dishes are their specialty so, we ordered 4 different dishes to share which cost us ¥4,370 in total.

It took us another 50 minutes for us to reach Noboribetsu. The hotel that we stayed was Noboribetsu Grand Hotel. Noboribetsu is famous for its many onsen resorts. The resorts offer either half or full board as well. We took full board whereby we had both dinner and breakfast. The resort that we stayed has both indoor and outdoor onsen. I suggest you to dip in the indoor onsen first before heading for the outdoor onsen because it was really cold outside unless you are visiting Noboribetsu during the warm seasons. We had a family tatam room, our most favourite type of room and the first thing we did after we settled down in our room was to get to onsen.

It was my very first onsen experience in my life with strangers. The last experience I had was I was lucky to be alone. No one was in the bath at that time. Hence, I had a cultural shock. There’s an etiquette that you need to adhere when using the hot spring. You are not allowed to bring your body towel into the onsen. However, you can bring a face towel with you. You had to bath first before dipping into the onsen but do not dip your face towel which is considered rude. We spent about 1 hour before we went for dinner.

We had a buffet style dinner. They offer various types of dishes. Everything is free except for beers. As it was really cold outside, we did not explore the town and spent our time in the resort until we hit the sack.

Japan: Day 4 (Hakodate)

Our morning in Hakodate was really simple but lovely. We had our homemade breakfast in our AirBnB. My younger brother prepared them for us. Lovely, right? It feels like we were really at home. We did our laundry before we had our breakfast so, when it was done, we would send them to the nearest laundry shop to use its dryer to dry our clothes. The place we found was Rico Smart Laundry. They have a cafe inside the shop so you could enjoy a cup of coffee while waiting.

After we finished our laundry, we started our adventure together! The first place we wanted to go was The Old Public Hall of Hakodate War. Unfortunately the place was closed for renovation so, we moved on. However, before we left the place, we came across this shop that sells really delicious soft serve ice-cream. The name of this shop is really interesting though. It’s called The World’s Second Best Ice Cream.

Later we walked all the way to Kanemori Red Brick Warehouse. It is located next to the sea so, you can imagine how strong the wind was. We had our lunch at Lucky Perriot. It looks like an expensive place but the food there were really affordable. We had 4 burgers and 2 fried noodles from the menu and it cost us ¥2,772.

Since we still had time, we took public transport to Goryokaku Tower and Goryokaku Park. I enjoyed the park the most as it was really beautiful. The star shaped fort surrounding the park is often the icon that comes to mind when we talk about Hakodate.

That night, we had our dinner at Ajisai Ramen. We ordered 5 bowls of ramen and 1 plate of dumplings. Out of all the ramen dishes we ordered, Miso ramen was the best! We ended the night by making a trip to a convenient store to replenish ingredients for our breakfast. During this tip, we bought Lawson’s neck warmers and gloves. Honestly, the quality is so much better than the ones that we bought in Uniqlo. I even tested it out by covering my whole face with it and I still felt warm in such a cold night. Hence, a tip for you, buy neck warmer and gloves in Japan’s Lawson next time.