Spending Eid Fitri in East Coast

In our recent balik kampung journey to Bachok, Kelantan for Eid Fitri, we took the route via Pantai Timur highway and Jalan Pantai, Terengganu. The main reason was of course to avoid the traffic jam we used to suffer when we took the Gua Musang route. Besides that is of course to enjoy the breathtaking scenic view of the coastlines throughout the journey. From Kuala Lumpur to Kuala Terengganu, driving at a constant speed of 100 km/h, it took us about 6 hours to arrive there. 

 We stayed for one night at Sumai Hotel; in Kuala Terengganu. Since it was in the fasting month of Ramadan; the hotel gave discounts for their rooms. We took a Studio Room for only MYR170. The sahur time was from 3am to 5am in replacement for free breakfast.

The next day, we continue our journey from Kuala Terengganu to Bachok, going through Seberang Takir, Merang, Kampung Raja, Besut and Tok Bali. With the same speed, the journey was approximately 3 hours. We arrived at Bachok on Saturday afternoon a day before Eid Fitri. Celebrating EidFitri in a countryside or kampung we called it, is very satisfying for me. The air is clean, cool and gently windy (our kampung just merely 500m from the beach). No haze!! No acid rain!! No more inhaling carbon monoxide (CO). I think my lungs are rejuvenated each time I’m here. My children are happy running around with their cousins, playing their little games and fireworks.

On the 3rd day of Eid Fitri, we hit to the town! Kota Bahru, what else! shopping la! We went to Pasar Siti Khadijah (wet market) for fish chips, (keropok kering), beef/chicken floss (serunding daging/ayam) and others titbits that we rarely seen in the city. 

At Kompleks Bazaar Tok Guru we go for the batiks, caftans and sarongs. The prices here are much cheaper, moreover you could also bargain to get better deals.

After spending a few days of Eid Fitri in Bachok, it was time to head home. On the way back; this time around we stayed at Merang Sutra Resort. It is approximately 2 hours’ drive from Bachok.

                                                                                 Here the beach is absolutely stunning and clean! the hotel is well-positioned facing the beach with such a picturesque view. We could catch the glowing sun rises slowly over the pool, bringing a gleaming light to the beautiful sand and sea. Whoaa! It was really spectacular! The café here serve a variety of local delicacies as well as western food. 

We spent the one night there, the next afternoon we checked out and headed home, however as we passed Dungun, we heard from our stereo that there was a congestion at Karak & Gombak tolls. Hence; since it was almost dark and it rained that evening so we decided to stay for the night at Cherating. Most of the hotels there were fully booked, luckily there was one motel called Mercu Beach Resort, had some vacant rooms. 

The next morning, it took us less than 3 hours to reach home. It is nice to be home again and it was absolutely fantastic to spend the Eid Fitri holiday back at our hometown with all of our loved ones.

Special school for children with autism

This is one of the best news ever! On 18th June 2012, The Prime Minister’s wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor suggested that a special school be set up for autistic children to help provide them with proper education so that they could receive proper learning and education. The Ivymount School in Rockville in the United States is to be used as a model for the set-up of Malaysian version of the school. She mentioned that she is willing to pave wave for setting up such school and the Social Welfare Dept. to advise on the implementation side.


Autism is a disorder of neural development, whereby the person with autism, or we called autistic person is characterized by severe deficits in social interaction and communication. They have very limited social life and activities in comparison with a normal person. Some of the behaviour such as; they avoid making eye contact with others, have difficulty communicating with speech or with gesture, tend to play or hold the same object such as ball, pencil or balloon, like to spin objects, indicates needs by gesture and resist change in their routine. Based on the statistic, the rate of autistic has increased. In 1990, the rate was for every 10,000 children, 4 are diagnosed with autism. However in 2008, for every 150 children, one child is diagnosed with autism. In 2011, there are about 47,000 people with autism in the country.



I believe the number could be more, taking into consideration on the rural areas and the lack of awareness of our society on the symptoms/characteristics of autism. As a parent of a child with autism, I shared the difficulties in getting my son to a proper school that specialized in special education for autistic children. I recalled 10 years ago, when the doctor told us that he is autistic. It was such an alien word to us; we have zero knowledge about it. Back then, information on autism was very limited. The hospital did provide a list of personal therapists and a handful of centres that provide early intervention programmes for children with autism. So we went through the list, notably



I was quite saddened with the fact that these centres operates separately and do not share collaboration with other centres as well. Each centre has different structure of administration and educational programmes. Moreover, these centres do not have proper building like our school buildings. We were given limited options of which centres to choose from, we do not know which one is better than the others, there are not such ratings; it is just word of mouth from other parents, we are not sure how will our child develop and what to achieve given the years ahead. So it was very frustrating as we do not have a proper standard guide on the best way possible to set our child for his development path. I'm sure many parents like me shared quite the same experience. Hence after years of trials and errors, currently I think NASOM is the best school in Malaysia that provide programme for autistic children; I found their trainers/teachers are very well experience and caring towards their students. They operate as a non-profit organization; they have good administrative structure and their programmes/trainings that cover from children to adulthood.


With the announcement from our first lady, I am hoping the plan to set up a school similar to the famous Ivymount School concept will become a reality. This is the hope for every parent like me and also the hope for the people suffering from autism. With that, I am sure the standard of education programme of autism would be also increased, the methods and trainings would be improved and diversified, more resources and information would be shared and provided to the related parties. Hence this would able to equip our children and young adults to achieve their highest level of development, potential and independence to live life to the fullest and play their role in the society.

Happy Mother's day & Happy 72nd Birthday Mak!!

13th May 2012 is Mother's Day, and 25th May 2012 is my mom's birthday, her 72nd!!.  My mom had gone through a lot in caring for us, and I am sure she is proud of all her children have become today,  I know there is no way we could repay her for all the sacrifices she did in raising us, but we should remind ourselves to show our appreciation to our mother and prayers for her well-being.

I wished I could do more for her in making her life more comfortable and happier. I know buying a cheapo cake definitely would  make the cut, hope she understands..my finance stat is not pretty good these few years hihihi...  My prayers may my mom will always be happy and in a serene mood as always.  Thanks Mak for being there for us..and always support and love us through tick and thin..I know in the past, I'm such a "basket" and hurt your feelings a lot..yep! I know a LOTTT of times..forgive me, I'm truly sorry. All my love and prayers for you Mak.  

My Diet Revolution : my belly, my own way la..

Today is the first day of my own version of Diet Revolution! My simple diet plan is a) Eat more greens b) Eat more fruits c) Eat more fish (boy! this is a tough one) d) Eat less rice e) Eat less oily food/fried food/spicy food (even more tough) f) Eat less ice cream (so unfair!) g) Drink more plain water h) Avoid soft drinks/milk shakes i) Eat more fibre foods like cereal/high fibre bread j) To add further, but subject upon a) to i) are consistent This morning, I had breakfast, of which consists of freshly cut of Taro Shrimp Fritters (Cucur Udang) served with sweet chili sauce and mineral water.

It tasted very nice indeed. As for lunch, I had salads, viands (ulam), mixed fried beansprouts with carrots and a scoop of fried spicy cut potatoes, and then washed down with a glass of warm lime tea.

Prior to that, a quirky thing happened at the cashier counter in our cafeteria, the cashier asked me, where is the rice? I said I didn’t take, she gave me a peculiar look, I think she thought I might have hidden the rice under the salads hahaha!

Anyway, it certainly tasted quite bitter when I consumed it with just the greenish stuff, but then when I mixed with the fried potatoes..ahh!, it tasted so much nicer. This is the first time I ate my lunch differently, certainly no regrets there! I hope, I will be able to maintain the momentum and the consistency. Most important, I hope I have enough strength to avoid the temptation. Well, I got to start somewhere right? So I better start it off today, after so many years of intoxicating this body with so much garbage! On the same agenda, I hope I would be able to start with some light exercises, anything just to get the sweats out. Hopefully in a couple of months or so I would shed some pounds and my belly would tone down from a 6 months pregnant woman to a 4 months pregnant woman. Bonne continuation!! Bon courage!

French class - gettin' started!

Salut! Bonjour! Yesterday, 24th April 2012. Officially I'm in French Class. I'm very excited and thrilled to learn this language. Though the first impression, I would say this is a difficult language to learn, but hey! I'm going to make all effort to learn it. Learning is part of our life, it keeps our brains active. When the brain is active, hence our body is strong. At least that what I think. Well I hope I could speak French in 6 months time. Very very exiciting!! Bonne journee!! Merci beau coup!

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