We have just arrived at Strawberry Park Hotel in Cameron Highlands. The bus trip from Kuala Lumpur was scheduled to take 3.5 hours, but because of heavy traffic it took us almost 5 hours to get here. It seems like it's not just we that want to spend the new year up here, hehe... The bus journey was not that bad. We travelled with a bus company called Unititi. The seats were wide and comfortable, we had plenty of leg room and we even had foot rests to put our feet on.

Along the road we saw beautiful tea plantations spreading out over the hills. Tomorrow we are going on a half day tour in the area and then we will visit one of the plantations and also a strawberry farm. 

Now it's time to relax on our balcony with a cup of Cameron Valley Tea. :-)

I'm on my way to Peninsular Malaysia with my friend. We are going to take a buss to Cameron Highlands tomorrow morning and spend the weekend there. In other words, we are going up in the mountains where the climate is a bit cooler. They have a lot of tea plantations in that area. The region is also famous for their strawberry farms.

Happy Chinese New Year! / Gong Xi Fa Cai! 

On Sunday I went on a day trip to Kuala Gandah Elephant Conservation Centre. The centre is located about two hours drive from Kuala Lumpur and takes care of elephants that have been relocated from other places in Southeast Asia. Many of the elephants are from Myanmar and Thailand.

 

Some of the elephants were previously used as working elephants and when they are no longer needed they are relocated to the centre. Other reasons for relocation can be that the elephants are trapped in an area that is too small for them to live in, or that they are destroying plantations and their survival are therfore threatened by plantation owners.

 

At the centre I got the opportunity to feed elephants with sugar cane and papaya. I was also bathing a baby elephant in the nearby river. It was a very nice experience! Definitely worth the two hours drive from KL. I travelled to the elephant centre with the tour operator Big Tree Tours, which I can highly recommend.

 

The weather is nice here so I'm having outdoor lunch in KLCC Park. This is a very nice park in central KL and the view of Petronas Towers that the park offers is hard to beat!

I took a morning flight to Kuala Lumpur this morning. I'm going to the Swedish Embassy on Monday to pick up my new passport and decided to spend the weekend in KL. 

I spent the afternoon at Suria KLCC shopping mall and had a wonderful lunch at Harrods. Today is my brother's birthday so I had to celebrate him by having a three course lunch. ;-) Or maybe I was missing Europe a little bit and wanted to have European food. My lunch was delicious anyway!

Harrods seems to be a success here, because now they are building the first Harrods hotel in the world here in KL!

Creamy Tomato Soup

Raspberry Creme Brûlée 

After the helicopter ride we visited Atlantis which is located on the Palm Island. There we went to the Lost Chambers Aquarium. I have been to many aquariums all over the world, but this one was by far the best aquarium I have ever visited! The aquariums were clean and well maintained. The diplays were amazing!

 

 

Last year I got the best Christmas gift ever from my parents. A helicopter sightseeing in Dubai! We took off in the morning from the helipad next to Atlantis hotel and saw all the famous Dubai landmarks from above. We flew by the Palm, Burj Al Arab, Jumeirah Beach, Burj Khalifa and the World Islands. It was so cool to see everything from above! :-)

 

Thank you so much mum and dad! This was an amazing experience!

 

 

Our second day in Dubai started on top of the world! We went up in Burj Khalifa which is the tallest building in the world. It's 829.8 meters tall! The view up there was excellent! A good thing was that they have an outdoor viewing balcony. The air was really nice and fresh up there! :-)

  

 

Dubai is a crazy city with a lof of amazing architecture, but it is also an oasis in the desert. To see what most of the area looked like before the construction boom we went out on an afternoon desert tour. The tour included a 4WD drive through the desert, camel riding and a visit to a Beduin camp where we had a buffe dinner and watched a dance show, which also included belly dancing. It was a very nice tour! When we came back to the hotel and took off our shoes we found out that we had brought a piece of the desert home. :-)

 

Now I have finally had time to organize the photos from my vacation in Dubai, so it's time to show some of them to you.

 

We started our Dubai sightseeing by exploring Bur Dubai, the neighbourhood where the old town is located. We had a morning walk in the historical Bastakia Quarter before we visited Dubai museum to learn a little about the history of Dubai.

 

After a walk in the city, where I also met one of my colleagues in a coffee shop, I had a local dish for lunch today; Sarawak Laksa. That is by far the best local dish I have tried here in Sarawak. It's a kind of noodle soup with a very tasteful sauce. Together with my Laksa I had fresh lime juice, which is another thing that is popular here. Sometimes they mix it with honey to make it a little bit sweeter.

Before the lunch I went to a tailor shop and delivered some clothes that I have decided to make some adjustments on. It's cheap to deliver things to the tailor here and my previous experiences with the quality of their works are very good.

Soon I'm going to start to prepare the dinner for tonight. Spaghetti bolognese with salad and bruschetta are on the menu. :-)

It was very quiet at work. I only saw three other persons there, if I don't count the guards. The best thing was that it was almost no traffic today. It took me just 10 minutes to drive to work! Normally it takes about 30 minutes.

Last year my friend's sister got married and I was invited to the wedding. Both she and her husband belong to the Bidayuh tribe, but the wedding was very modern. It's always interesting to participate in this kind of events in foreign countries and compare the traditions with what I'm used to from Scandinavia.

 

The bride was wearing a nice blue dress and the restaurant where the wedding reception was held was decorated in similar colours. Something that I have noted here is that people seems to prefer fake flowers before real ones. So was the case also during the wedding. I wonder why, because if you ask me nothing can beat real fresh flowers.

 

We were served a lot of food. I think I counted to seven different dishes! We had for example duck, sweet and sour fish, rice, vegetables and of course wedding cake.

 

I brought my camera to the wedding and helped the couple to document their wedding day. Below are some of the photos that I took.

I also went to the gym today. The gym is not air conditioned so it's a challenge just to be there! :-) I was jogging on the treadmill for a while and finished my gym session with some exercises for the back. 

I have found a run in June that I'm planning to sign up for; Live Active Run. I'm planning to sign up for the 10 km class. It's inspiring to have goals for my running!

On Tuesday I started to work again after the holiday. As expected, I have been very tired this week, so now I'm enjoying a relaxing weekend at home here in Kuching. 

Today I have been to a massage place where I had a 70 minutes long body massage. That was nice! :-) I had dinner at an Italian restaurant nearby. They have a new menu and I tried a vegetarian pasta dish which was very good!

Now it's time for a glass of French Chablis, one of my favorite white wines, that I managed to find in a Tax Free shop in Dubai. I have not seen it here in Malaysia. Together with the wine I'm going to taste my chocolate camel, a souvenir from Dubai. :-) 

I also have a copy of my favorite Norwegian home decorating magazine. Maybe not the latest issue, but it's new to me!

From Marina Towers we had a very nice view over Djurgården and all the fireworks that were sent up over Stockholm. Here are some photos.