Beach Vacations

I was not a girl who fancy beach vacations when I was really young. It was due to my past history that I was black with lots of pimples scars on my face. My mum had wasted lots of money on my facial. Thus when I saw my facial had changed to normal with lesser pimples and fairer, I will always keep in my mind to stay away from sun and try to maintain it. I really had a hard time during my teenage years and even now, I still have massive breakouts and leaving scars on my face if I do not take good care enough.

In 2006, hubby suggested we celebrate our anniversary in Redang Island. At first, I was hesitated as I mentioned my facial history but we got a great deal that time and it was hard to turn down such a good offer as well. Finally, I agreed and gave it a try. I did not enjoyed much that time, as I restricted myself to go under the hot sun in the afternoon. The trip supposed to have twice snorkelling but I just went once and the other time, hubby went alone while I was putting on my whitening mask in the room. We only went out to the beach when the sun sets....

However, nowadays I just no longer retrict myself that much. I fall in love with beach once I moved to Jordan. Aqaba Movenpick resort and Dead Sea Movenpick resort really change my mind. I just had too much fun at the resorts and made me felt that grew10 pimples after the fun was really worth it!! I may sounds crazy but this is what I am gonna to face after fun at the beach.

For the coming September, we will be going to a beach vacation again. I am really looking foward to it and of course I need to do some preparation to avoid maximum exposure to the sun and in the same time, I can enjoy the vacation as much as I can. Here are the preparation:

Yes, the essential for beach vacation. Hope it helps!

Some old pictures..beach vacations!

Laguna Redang.

Kuta beach, Bali.

Aqaba Movenpick Resort.

 Dead Sea Movenpick Resort.

 Natural salt accumulated from the sea. Interesting!

If you have any skincare tips for me, please comment and I would love to read it. Have a great weekend ahead!

Republic of Turkey

Hubby and I went to Istanbul,Turkey few years ago before we got married. He was there for a small project under his company Atos Origin. Whenever people heard of Atos Origin, they will think that it is a car company but lala (means No in Arabic). It is a telecommunication company and hubby started a good career there. During his project in Istanbul, he got to fly home every three months as the duration of his project was about nine months. The company was kind enough to change hubby's ticket to my name so that both of us could meet in Istanbul!

To me, Turkey is the most advanced muslim country so far. The country is beautiful, people are nice and most important their transportation systems are very good. The three most important criteria are there, thus it was a joyful stayed in Istanbul to us. You will feel like you are in Europe once you stepped in Istanbul as the buildings and environmental does the magic.

I can't recall much of the places we went in Istanbul cause it was really long time ago but definitely a memorable one that both of us had too much fun staying there.
Warnings: We might be look a little different, that's show we are aging!

Taksim, the most happening place in downtown. Behind shows the MRT that we always travelled with.

 The most happening bazaar, Spice Bazaar that cannot be missed!

The famous, Turkish Coffee.

Magnificient view, but I forgot the name of this place. There were many couples in their wedding gowns and suits here for wedding shots.

The Malaysian's friends in Turkey.

The famous, Sultan Ahmet I Mosque, also known as Blue Mosque because of its interior tiles, mostly on the upper level and difficult to see unless you are right up there with them.

Hagia Sophia was a church of holy wisdom for 916 years and being converted into a mosque for 482 years.

And finally Antartuk, the founder of Turkish Republic, converted it to a museum in 1935.

 Weekend picnic at Buyukada. We need to take a ferry to this place.

Was celebrating hubby's birthday...

Satu orang satu basikal.

Once a upon a time....

The end. Have a great week ahead! :)

Fuji Onsenji Yumedono

Last May, we went to Japan for a holiday and we spent quite a lot on hotels. Hotels in Tokyo are expensive and even in the Kawaguchiko area(Near to Mount Fuji) as well. Of course, you can opt for a cheaper hotel like capsule type to save more.

This is what I was referring, "capsule hotel" which is very famous in Tokyo especially for backpackers. No twin sharing in the capsule, which means you will need to sleep alone!

I was too coward to experience it, so we went for normal hotel rooms. And for this post, I wanted to share my hotel stay in Kawaguchiko. It was comfortable and relaxing which I really highly recommend to those honeymooners. Well, though I am married, but I still prefer romantic stay every time I travel.

We picked Onsenji Yumedono for our only one night stay in Kawaguchiko. This hotel was quite pricey and we were worried that we didn't get what we had paid in return. Anyway, we were truly wrong, the service was good and the hotel was comfy and luxury. We should trust the website and gave full confidence to them.

Here is the official website http://www.onsenji.com/en/ . Fuji Onsenji Yumedono provides 3 types of accomodations which is Annex Shikibu which is a suite room, Hotel Yumedono which provides genuine Japanese style ryokan and Plaza Inn Yumedono for budget stay. We went for the Japanese style ryokan so that we could experienced the culture throughout the stay and the most important thing that the room has private open air onsen bathroom.

There are only 6 rooms available in Hotel Yumedono. Basically they are only 4 rooms for Japanese style ryokan and the other 2 rooms are western style so early booking is needed before it is fully booked. You will be served tea and mochi on arrival, and dinner and breakfast will be serve in the room as well. The price is range from  RM1260 to RM1548(35,000-43,000 yen) per person for a night and before tax as well. The website didn't mention that the rates is per person until you proceed to bookings. But good news is there will be 25% discount if the reservation is made 60 days in advance and that will help you to save a lot. The rates is including dinner and breakfast.

Now, let's move on to the pictures to show you the environment and the food they served!

 Free hotel pick up from the Kawaguchiko station.

Outside the room. The room is big enough for a family in Japan.

Each room has a unique name.

The main hall.

 The dining area with electric blanket to keep you warm.

 Open air Onsen!

 There is a window from dining area connect to the entrance.

Window from the dining area to have a peek outside.

After meal, they will prepare Futon bedding.

 Served tea and traditional mochi upon arrival.

The cherry was salmon sushi.

Its green tea beancurd with some jelly.

Sashimi.

Unagi and "octopus"..hehe

Vegetarian tempura.

Miso soup with little mushrooms.

For all the dishes, she served one by one. Going in and out from our room.

Unlimited rice for you. However, I can just eat their rice with seaweed in the morning as my breakfast. Their rice is just too yummy!

Dessert.

And here is the morning breakfast!

Woke up in the morning and the breakfast was ready on the table. I like the service very much!

Dimsum.

I forgot what is this, but the taste more to steam egg.

Miso soup with clams.

Yummy rice, my essential in the morning.

 Japanese sweet melon. My another favourite.

After the breakfast, we walked around the hotel.

There was Japanese Koi fish in the small pond.

Hotel lobby.

You can rent the automatic bicycle at 500 yen for 3 hours, not including tax to cycle around the Kawaguchiko lake. I really enjoyed throughout the stay :) Trust me, this hotel definitely worth the price!

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

This morning woke up feeling really unhappy. Something bad running in my mind that made me not having a good sleep. So I think will be a good time to bake so that my mind was concerntrate on something else. I tried my friend's recipe and feel blessed to have her guidiance through msn :)

So here we are, the ingredients:
Servings: 12 muffins
220g of multipurpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
50g brown sugar
2 large ripe bananas
1 tsp vanila essense
1 egg
115g unsalted butter (melt under slow fire)
80ml milk
Chocolate chips (Recommended 1/4 cup, depends how much chocolate chips you want) Warning: Too much chocolate chips could cause your muffin too sweet.

So here is the steps:
1) Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl.

You can see the flour still rough, thus this step is important to get a softer flour.

You can see the texture of the flour, before(left) and after(right) sifted.

2) Mash bananas using a fork.

3) Mix brown sugar, melted butter, vanila essense, egg, milk and mashed banana in a bowl. Mix well.

The mixture will look like this.

4) Stir in the banana mixture into the flour and stirring only until just blended (do not over mix).

5) Add in chocolate chips, into the final mixture.

6) Preheat oven at 240°F for 10-15 minutes. In the mean time, grease the muffin cups and spoon the batter into the muffin cups.

7) Bake at 240°F for 25 to 35 minutes or until golden brown and toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Let stand several minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool.

 My final muffins.

My only "white mouse" in Amman said it was good :)

Give it a try! Good luck~
P/S: The rest hubby brought it to the office, and luckily his colleagues love it too!