Janda Baik, Pahang - Danau Daun With The Family!

Musim jerebu masih lagi ada sipi-sipinya. Cuti sekolah tempoh hari buat saya rasa macam nak escape dari Kuala Lumpur. Malang sekali, rata-rata kami pergi jerebu pun ikut jua. Pilihan kali ini ialah Janda Baik, Bentong, Pahang. Tidak seteruk kalau di tengah kota, bila dikelilingi dengan hutan rimba dan deruan bunyi air sungai, bukan budak-budak jea seronok, kami yang dewasa pun terasa kemeriahannya.

Ikuti 'short break' kami selma 2 hair 1 malam di Chalet Danau Daun, Janda Baik, Pahang.
Jangan lupa komen supaya kami boleh baik pulih kandungan dimasa hadapan. Take care !

Sedondon di Hari Raya - What's our Theme Colour for 2015 ?

Day 11 of Ramadan. Every time Ramadan comes, it hit us like lighting, fast and impactful. I always wish that it didn't go by so quickly. Terawikh and Sahur are amongst the activities that we don't usually do on other months plus breaking fast with the family, a common old tradition that is lacking in the modern family house hold now. Cakes and dishes that you usually won't find on normal months too due to Bazaar Ramadan and for me that extra time i get between Sahur and Sun rise, time spent on reciting the Quran, checking emails and finishing up some paper work before the kids wake up.

Soon, Eid will be approaching. Simple but yet complicated question pops up - Warna baju Raya kita apa ? (What's our Raya theme colour this year ?).  Every single year ever since we had children, we try to coordinate the colour of our Baju Raya. Corny as it sounds, but this practise actually makes the Baju Raya hunting a much memorable and fun experience.

Let's recall, the pass year's theme colour.

This was taken in 2011 Raya. Both of us wore light green and it was so difficult to find baby baju kurung in the same colour. Kaseh wore Peach, but ok la still look in sync with both of us .

Raya 2013, I was heavily pregnant with Kefli. In this photo , i was due anytime during the Raya month. Of course, I didn't feel like "bergaya di hari Raya" (fashionable), with almost 20 kg additional weight gain due to the pregnancy. Thus, I opted for a cotton Peach based Kurung Pesak which I bought at Kompleks Karangkraf, Jalan Conlay to match Sol's Peach Baju Melayu Johor. I bought Kaseh's Kurung at Amcorp Mall. Photo taken at my mother's house in Bandar Utama, PJ.

2014 our theme was Grey. This is by far my favourite Raya family photograph. Classic ! Any parents would know that taking a perfect family photo is impossible with kids. It was the morning of Raya and Kaseh was not in a very good mood! Taken at Kaseh's Moyang's house in Seksyen 16, PJ. I opted for a blause from @surisara and paired it with a batik sarong, Sol's and the children's traditional attire are from Omar Ali, TTDI. 

So what will our theme colour be this year? I guess we shall wait and see on the morning of this coming Raya. For you who are still thinking about your colour, here's some guidelines to what certain colour means to the wearer. Taken from a seminar i attended with @theimagecreator. 

Green - Hope

Blue - Productivity

Red -Powerful

Orange - Energetic

White - Organised

Black - Convincing

Yellow - Cheerful

Purple - Royal

Grey - Intelligent 

Good luck with your Raya shopping ! 

Shopping in Hua Hin - Market Style !

What s travelling without shopping. Shopping is probably the most loved activities by all traveller. The only difference is that you banyak duit lagi best lah kan . But most of the time a traveller would already put some money aside for this purpose , even if shopping is not your fav thing to do , you would still be curious to browse and window shop at the local shopping area.

Shopping gives you an indication of the type of culture a place embraces , the type of economy they depend on , in the case of Thailand - imitation products are abundant , crafts , painting, textile , food, sex trade to name a few.

Since this is a young parent travelling with a toddler blog , i will not go into the last item mentioned above. However from my observation , Hua Hin unlike Phuket and Samui is a lot more popular with the local and very family oriented . The night activities are meant for families and focuses more on arts and music. Cicada Market and Chatsila Market is a great example of a market unlike those in Patong beach (Phuket) or Chaweng beach ( Samui), where musicians and artists are given a space to perform and have an artsy feel.

Personally for the three of us we would rate Cicada Market as the #1 night market in Hua Hin.

Sound check going on at one of the stage in Cicada Market, Hua Hin.

Another stage , where a Jazz concert will take place.

Dining elfresco style with Jazz music on the back ground really makes you want to dance away in this market.

Hua Hin is also famous for it s vine yard , thus dining such as this gives them the opportunity to promote their local wine. The food are sold over a stall like set up and sells a mixture of international and local cuisine such as pad thai, bbq seafood , mango sticky rice and loads more. Generally , halal food is not such an easy find in Hua Hin , that is why i brought my rice cooker and canned curry chicken along .They proved to be useful. Will write in a different entry about eating in Hua Hin.

Cicada market offers you items that are unique and rare , most unlikely you will find the stuffs else where.

What we bought here - Sol bought a t-shirt, leather card holders, embroidery t-shirt for Amyra ( Kaseh s cousin) and my mini ipad and iphone casings.

Opens fri - sun , 4pm to 11pm.
Tuk tuk about 120 baht from #theseacrethuahin

#2 - Chat Chai Market

Situated in the middle of town, a wet market by day and night market by night. The day market is also known as Chat Chai , we came here on our 2nd day and glad that we did Cause we went crazy with the fresh produce . As mentioned, halal food is a bit difficult to get , prior to coming here , i have done my research and found. Great blog by lynn

http://zlynn17.blogspot.com/2010/04/halal-food-in-hua-hin-prachuabkhirikhan.html?m=1

However since we are YPWT ( young parent with toddler) , it was very chllenging to find all the places mentioned by her , Kaseh s stroller have limited access to the smaller lanes , so since i brought my good old rice cooker , i decided to cook ! My mother did this you know n we always complained that she brings too much stuffs on our holiday , but now i am a mom , i can so relate ! /a>br />

Kaseh in her stroller and Sol buying fresh prawns . 1/2 a kilo for rm 10.80 , omg so cheap , so fresh , so yummy.

Sol requested for masak lemak , amboi banyak cantik , you ingat ni kat rumah ke ? On second thought , its not that difficult , so i bought serai , lengkuas, daun limau purut, lime, cili padi and santan tin.

The next day we came again to buy ikan merah ( red snapper) and tiger prawns. Red snapper only rm 9.60 . Would normally cause me rm 17 at pasar ttdi.

Recipe , nanti this blog is about shopping , will share in the dining blog kay :).

Banana bakar (roasted) at Chat Chai market .

Overall , you can find some things to buy here , like clothes and groceries . If you are looking for souvenirs , then the night market has better variety but bit more expensive by about rm 7.
Contoh i beli thai pants for rm 10 at Chat Chai and the same thing cost rm 17 at the night market .

Opening time : early morning to about 1pm, everyday.

#3 Hua Hin Night Market and Chatsila

Two markets combined into one , situated right smack in town , land mark dia ialah opposite Swensen and Starbucks , very lively and impressive , this market where you come to eat and shop . It s similar to Jonker Street Market in Malacca. Very touristy too but this is one of the places you must visit in Hua Hin.

Seafood restaurants like these memang bersepah kat Hua Hin market .

Fridge magnets, key chains and the usual sourvenirs can be found here.

Roti stalls , ala ala roti canai are a popular snack amongst shoppers. Our fav are rotee banana and roti nutella.

We enjoyed ourselves just strolling the night market , we bought more thai pants , fridge magnets and the yummies mango sticky rice here .

We also finally found the halal stall mentioned in lynn's blog, just opposite the railway restaurant. But since we already bought some fresh fish and prawns , Sol said he would prefer if i cook :).

Opens , Fri,Sat and Sun only 5pm to 11pm.

#4 Grand Night Market

Ok , this is our least fav market here in Hua Hin, seriously tak pergi pun tak pe ( you can give it a missed). Initially we wanted to go to this one first , we were decieved by he word "grand", thnking that it is the biggest night market in Hua Hin. But it acctually got it s name because it is situated just opposite The Grand Hotel, tapi tak lah grand mana.

Plenty of fashion and street wear , not much sourvenirs to be found , there s only two stall selling Hua Hin t-shirts. But i found a stall that sells these bags at rm2.90 and i bought 10 to give away as sourvenirs , what a great bargain !

More to come about Hua Hin in my blog, so watch out for it . Thanks for reading ,XOXO.

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