Category: Going Places

My travelogue.

Passport Renewed!

Posted on By sweet surrender 11 Comments on Passport Renewed!

Finally… I got my passport renewed! I’ve been talking about it since beginning of the year and finally got it done now. Renewal is RM300 for 5 years.

My passport expired in 2007 and I only used it once way back in 2003. ONCE! Don’t you think it’s such a waste?

My target now is to use it more than once within these 5 years! At least 5 times. *cross my fingers*

In case you don’t know what you need to bring to renew your passport, here’s the list:

  1. Your expired passport
  2. 2 passport-sized photos (you can just go there and there is people offering such service, RM10 for 4 pieces of photos using Polaroid, I did mine there coz back then I did it outside, it got rejected and had to take new one at the staircase there. There will be people there that will ask you whether you got your photos already or not before u go into the building. So now I don’t bother to go other place to take. At least if it’s rejected, you can go down and “shoot” the photographer hahaha… It didn’t turn out nice but I don’t care as long that I can proceed with my renewal)
  3. 1 Photocopied IC
  4. Your Original IC
  5. RM300 if you are going for the 32 pages passport (credit/debit card accepted)

The form will cost you RM1. All in all, I spent almost one hour there. Went at 3pm and left at almost 4pm.

Passport will be ready within 24 hours. I will go collect it tomorrow. The department is really efficient, service is fast and they are very helpful.

So? Why I renew my passport? I’m planning to go to Singapore this August with my sis else it will be this December. Someone has promised me to bring me around and hunt for food ;p

After Singapore, where next? I don’t know yet… Hopefully Australia? Hong Kong? Go on cruise? We’ll see by then. Make more money first.

Going Places

Sematan Palm Beach Resort 2 Days 1 Night – Part 4

Posted on By sweet surrender 6 Comments on Sematan Palm Beach Resort 2 Days 1 Night – Part 4

This is the last part of my Sematan trip. Actually this part is more about Lundu.

We went to lunch at the market at Lundu. The upstair is the eating place. Think of it as the mini Petanak market will do ;p

We had ours at Sing Hiang Hing Foodshop. Only planned to have simple and quick lunch. The lunch was really quick! It came out so fast. ;p We ordered food for 3 but with 4 plates of plain rice. The plain rice was quite a lot.

Here you see a plate of meat(pork, chicken and egg) for 3 people. Portion looked pretty small but it’s enough for us as earlier on my mom and dad ate a lot at the resort.


Ordered a bowl of vegetables soup for 3 people but the soup came with pork meatballs, prawns and livers in it.

The plate of prawn is RM18 for 3 people consumption. It’s called Salt Prawn(hehehe… not sure of the name in English ;p simply translate). It’s really tasty, love it! The prawn is fresh, tender and juicy. Not overcooked. The size is big enough too. Later we found out from my aunt that this dish is the shop’s specialty.

The total spent was RM32(exclude drinks) if I’m not mistaken.

After our lunch, we went to our aunt’s house before heading back to Kuching at around 3pm.

Before leaving Lundu, stopping here is a must! *LOL* It’s just under the bridge. Business was so good when the ferry was still in operation as people would go down to buy some snacks while waiting for ferry to arrive. As usual, the tapioca snack is something I will surely buy.

So that’s all about my short trip.

Food Porn, Going Places

Sematan Palm Beach Resort 2 Days 1 Night – Part 3

Posted on By sweet surrender 9 Comments on Sematan Palm Beach Resort 2 Days 1 Night – Part 3

After taking the sunset photos, finally it’s 6.30pm, time for dinner!


As you can see, these are the prices. I would say it’s not worth it for these prices. Since it’s included in the room rate, so you don’t need to care so much. If just paying for the food only then it’s really not worth it. I rather go to have lunch buffet at Four Points.


Rice, curry lamb, and fried fish.


Buttered chicken, brinjal with sambal, mixed vegetables, and spaghetti.

I only like the buttered chicken and spaghetti. The rest was just so-so.


Desserts and salad corner.


You can also make you own ais kacang and rojak.

Luckily we went there early, later towards the evening, more and more people coming. Full house! I ate so much, was so full! After that, we went back to our room to watch TV, nothing else to do.

It happened that it was Earth Hour that night, we were thinking whether should we switched off the lights or not but we didn’t ;p Took a peek outside, the lights surrounding the resort were switched off but it seemed like most of the rooms didn’t bother to off their lights.

Anyway, couldn’t sleep well that night. People were partying out there at the BBQ pits which was so near to our room. GOSH! These people sang like there’s no tomorrow, so damn noisy and loud! They practically shouted from on top of their lungs. I won’t mind if they do it before 12am but it started at 11pm and only ended until around 2am! Such inconsiderate brats!

The management should advise them to stop but there was no action taken at all. It’s common sense what?!?! The funny thing was that the resort was full that night and no one complaint. I tried to call to complain but all I got from the phone call was the number that I had dialed wasn’t in service *SWEAT*

Anyway, my dad woke up at around 6.30am and he went to the beach for the sunrise. Later my bro went at almost 7am. I was still sleeping. Actually I didn’t really sleep but just didn’t want to get up. I missed the sunrise!

Good thing my bro took photos of it using his phone. If he took my camera with him it would be nicer. Here you go… The sunrise.

My parents went for the breakfast buffet and when they’re back, my dad also said that it’s not worth the price if you are just going to pay for the food. Breakfast started at 7am.


Sematan doesn’t have nice sunset but the sunrise is really spectacular!

I only went out of the room at around 9.30am. Sat at there stared blankly to the sea again. Really can’t think at all. I sat there alone doing nothing for almost 2 hours!

We checked out at 11.30am and headed to Lundu for lunch and paid a visit to my aunt’s house.

To be continued…

Food Porn, Going Places

Sematan Palm Beach Resort 2 Days 1 Night – Part 2

Posted on By sweet surrender 4 Comments on Sematan Palm Beach Resort 2 Days 1 Night – Part 2

After our lunch, we had a walk at the jetty. Sematan town is very small, just few rows of shops.

Here are the views taken around the jetty.


I quite like this photo. What do you think? Love the colour of the sky and the mountain.

After that, we decided go back to the resort.

My parents stayed in the room to get some sleeps and my bro and I just walked around and took photos of the surrounding. The detached chalets that can fit 4 pax each and much more expensive. They’re facing the sea. Only these facing the sea, the rest all facing the land.

The photo on the right is the side of the restaurant.


Sat on the chair and watched the waves, enjoying the sea breeze and tried to think but I couldn’t think of anything! I was all BLANK! Just stared blankly to the sea and did nothing. How boring. My bro got so bored and we discussed whether to rent bicycle(I don’t know how to ride one ;p haven’t been cycling for more than 10 years) or kayak(I told him I don’t have the guts to kayak) or go to play with the water(didn’t bring any clothes for it).


Then, we sat there and didn’t do anything. So I decided to go online with my phone, went into this blog, went into facebook and basically that’s all. Then I decided to download MSN, just for the fun of it, since it’s free for 2 months, why not? TADA! I got it connected but no one to chat with. I mean don’t know what to chat about.


Then my bro said he wanted to go to the room for something, forgot what. After quite a while, he came back with my parents with a kayak! *LOL* By the way, the bicycle cannot be ridden on the beach but only outside the resort that’s why he didn’t rent it.

The kayak rental is one hour for RM15 for one seater or RM20 for two seaters.

There were many jellyfish washed to the shore. While my bro was kayaking, I strolled the beach and looking for some unique shells but nothing interesting.

Then I got so restless and decided to kayak also! I’ve never kayak before, now there’s a chance, why not? In fact I didn’t plan to get myself wet at all unless there’s swimming pool but there wasn’t so I didn’t bring any clothes for water play. Still couldn’t resist myself, I went in and played! Didn’t bother of getting my pants or my blouse wet, just let them be. If I’m going to ruin them, just be it! Finally I played with sea water! I kayak! I haven’t got myself wet in sea water for don’t-know-how-many years.

Didn’t have any stamina ;p Really tiring. Only kayak for a while only. No photo of me though, no one helped take any photo. After that, I just sat on the sand and let the waves hit me.


Sematan doesn’t have white sandy beaches. The sand is so dark in colour and the waves bring sand too unlike what you get in Damai or Santubong. It’s not a very nice beach and looks very “dirty” to me but that’s nature, it’s still a beach. We still have the responsibility to keep it clean.


The sunset pictures I took. The sunset wasn’t very spectacular, I got nicer sunset at home.

Can you see the two islands there? In the right picture. That’s Pulau Talang-Talang where turtles can be found there and if I’m not mistaken you need to have permit to go there and you can always arrange with the resort, they should be able to help you.

To be continued…

Going Places

Sematan Palm Beach Resort 2 Days 1 Night – Part 1

Posted on By sweet surrender 7 Comments on Sematan Palm Beach Resort 2 Days 1 Night – Part 1

Remember the prize I won? Luckily I made early reservation. There were only 2 rooms left when I booked. I decided on 28th-29th March because this is the only time I’m free in the weekend as I’m having my semester break.


Our plan was to start our journey at 9.30am but who knows my relatives decided to go to the graveyard for the annual Qing Ming ritual on that very morning even though the actual day is next week, so we went to the graveyard first before making our trip. We left home at almost 11am.


The views you see here are what greeted us on the way to Sematan. It’s about one and half hour drive from Kuching. It’s been a long long time not going to Lundu or Sematan with my family. We stopped by my aunt’s house at Lundu to use the toilet and to ask for direction coz we forgot how to go. The last time we went was in 2004 if not mistaken.


Finally, we reached. The security this time is stricter compare to the last time I went. The security guard will ask you the purpose of going there. If you are not staying there, you will need to pay RM2(adult) and RM1(child) to go in even if you only plan for a visit.


At almost 1pm, I checked in and the receptionist was surprised to see me because she just thought of me and I turned up in front of her after that. She was wondering whether I’ll be there or not as I was supposed to reach there earlier but reached there later.


Was surprised that there’s dinner and breakfast included. So our plan was my bro and I went for dinner and my parents went for the breakfast. Since my dad couldn’t eat any seafood for the moment so it’s easy to decide ;p Since we got lots of food supply from the graveyard visit that morning, my parents ate those for dinner. Will talk about the buffet in next post.


Our room. The room is spacious enough. Even though it’s only for 2 pax, it can fit in roughly 4-6 people(provided you don’t mind to sleep on hard surface) ;p So the four of us shared a room.

Was quite surprise with the TV programmes. Not only they have NTV7, there are also satelite channels! Cool…


The bathroom is big enough also. Water heater available, so you don’t have to take cold shower. Every room is equipped with air-con.

The room(quadruplex chalet) we stayed cost RM180(inclusive of dinner and breakfast and all the taxes) for weekends and eves of public holiday.

The view on the right is the terrace type accommodation. There are two types for this, either for 2 pax or for 6 pax.

You can see the rates by clicking here.

After we moved our things to the room, off we went for lunch at the town of Sematan.

Many eateries there and we decided to have ours at Sam Chai Seafood.


We ordered very simple dish, no seafood even though we were tempted by it ;p Actually dad suggested to order some for us but we declined as we were expecting that there will be seafood feast for the dinner buffet.

So we ended up ordering Taugeh Fried Kueh Tiaw and Noodle. Overall, we spent RM14 for lunch, the average would be RM2 per item including drinks(coconut and two tinned drinks). I was expecting the noodle to be the sweet type but it’s salty type. Taste wise for all the food, not so bad, it’s acceptable.

To be continued…

Food Porn, Going Places