Oakwood Cameron Highlands by Ascott staycation

 Hey fellas,

First quarter of 2026 has officially ended. We brought Gabby for a short spontaneous cooling trip to Cameron Highlands during Raya. I wanted to stay elsewhere like Copthorne but happened to to see a newly opened hotel. Oakwood is situated in an excellent location away from the hustle and bustle of the town but only 5 minutes away. Best of all is the golf course view. Modern and clean interior with good buffet breakfast. Cook your own noodles at the noodle station. Each room is equipped with the usuals like drinking water, fridge, tv, hairdryer, bathrobe, bidet and toiletries like shampoo, shaving kit, dental kit, shower cap. Most hotels we stayed don't provide dental kit. Some room like ours comes with pantry and coffee machine. 

Pulau Perhentian: Itinerary and Budget

It's been a while fellow travelers!

Lockdown after lockdown has restrained us not only from traveling but daily chores as well. Frontliners, small businesses, parents, students and more are suffering this never ending battle. Just as the entire world is vaccinated along with booster, comes another concerning variant. Malaysia had another lockdown from June till about September this year. Freedom privileges are given to those who completed their vaccination so my reckless travel bug gotto take the chance while still can. I predict we might have another lockdown in 2022 but we'll see how. Usually my predictions come true. 

The Banjaran Hotspring Retreat Staycation

Hello fellow explorers!

As you all know by now there's a Covid-19 pandemic happening worldwide. We were under lockdown for about 3 months plus. I have gotten so tired of cooking daily. At times I feel depressed and questioned our existence. Don't we all? Finally grace upon God's blessing Malaysia have overcome the pandemic. Not to say 100% but we are in a safe zone for now. You can't imagine how happy we were when our borders reopened and we could dine and shop like before. You still gotto mask on, register before entering any business premise and sanitize frequently. That's our new norm.

The Banjaran Hotspring Retreat is one of the super exclusive resort in Malaysia. Phenomenal experience here! Bear in mind this is an all adult resort. Children below 12 not allowed, not even at the restaurant. Peaceful indeed =)

CuboPark @ Chusan Penang

One word: Horrible

Venue: Cubopark is an open air concept park with containers served as stalls and food outlets perceived as a very instagramable place.

Long story short: Photography not allowed. Anyone holding DSLR will get screwed. Person in charge (a bit tanned, short and plump lady) holding walkie talkie spied on us even after we had dinner. Scared us from behind when hubby took out camera again. She said she has been watching us. Surrounding people thought we are criminals.
Got humiliated af.
Bad management.
No signboard saying dos and don'ts.

The Long Story:

She said we should have written letter to the management but we kept telling her we are not here for commercial photography. We are just a couple taking pics of eachother like everyone else. C'mon la we are doing free publicity for you. Our friends have been asking about the place but now we can just tell them not to go. Waste time.

We never experienced such humiliation before. Even when we brought DSLR to Queensbay Mall, Gurney plaza, Gurney Paragon, premium outlet, KLCC cos u know there are events at concourse area to shoot but we were never questioned about our DSLR. We don't bring tripod or take photos in the shops or bring into cinema cos we know the rules well enough.

As you can see from our travel photos in this blog, famous malls like Harrods, Lafayette, Grand bazaar and several more did not chase us out either. We also entered without hassle into numerous museums, mosques, churches, temples, castles, palaces (without tripod of course).

We were always welcomed with open arms and friendly smiles and some caretakers/guards/management even gave tips for the best view. They told us they were happy we are promoting them. But Cubopark being open space PARK (obviously) ambushed and made us feel so unwelcomed we had to run to the doors. So immediate that I forgot to try the marshmallow dessert at Haru Hari cos we just had dinner at SYST and teabreak at Mango B. See, I'm not those kids who came just to take pics for their Ig. My purpose here was to try your food and take pics to review here....for FREE!

The reason why we brought a DSLR was we saw so many people taking pics with DSLR in Cubopark on Facebook and Instagram. My friend also brought her camera as well. So we thought since its a well decorated outdoor space that encourages phototaking there's nothing wrong with what I am doing. Why did I edit this post by putting the long version? Because I hope the management might one day stumble upon this lowly humble blog and see my clarification.


Contact me via Facebook: http://facebook.com/aliciaboey

Update: Around mid 2020 it has been closed down for good. It has been getting less and less patrons even without the pandemic and lockdown just acts as a catalyst to shut it down.

Road trip to Danok

Hey readers!

Yay, it's been ages since we had a roadtrip across the border to Thailand. For foreign readers, it's like a roadtrip from the states to Mexico. But I didn't just go there to have some fun and a dose of Vitamin D since I'm an indoor person. I had a mission on my mind.

Bright sunny Saturday.

Trong Leisure Farm 自农休闲农庄

Hey there loyal readers!

Last week was a long raya holiday so hubby and I decided to pay Trong Leisure Farm a visit since we love being around farms and zoos. We spent around 2 hours there strolling around the lakeside and visiting larger ponds that has hundreds of ducks.

My hand can barely touch the railing. It's like BBQ out there.

Pulau Redang: Day 3

A very good early morning yo!

I ain't got much to share for the last day as we spent the whole day traveling back home. I remembered we woke up around 5am in the morning and breakfast was specially prepared for those checking out early. We had ours at 6am.

Here's my simple breakfast.

Pulau Redang: Day 2

Good morning readers!

It's 7am as we strolled along the beach with a beautiful sunrise.Then we had our breakfast at 8am and enjoyed the rest of the day. You can read about Day 1 here.

We love the sunrise.

Pulau Redang: Day 1

Before I start, allow me to credit my hubby's colleagues for some of the pictures below. I'm sure they understand what happened to our DSLR and wouldn't mind me stealing some pictures tee hee... Anyway, it's all for info-sharing purposes only.

Around mid July this year, hubby unexpectedly took me on a vacation again. He kept complaining he was broke after Taiwan and Korea which was just a few months gap but surprisingly he said we are going on a getaway again. It was just a local trip to Pulau Redang which is located at East Malaysia, Terengganu to be exact but I was quite happy. This was my 2nd time to this island. First time was when I was about 14 years old with my parents and dad's diving group (besides a Taekwando master, dad is a diver too).