Merdeka Trip - Manjung & Lumut

Trip Highlight: Frenzy Waterpark

Assalamualaikum peeps,

This was our very first trip for our Geng Memakans, we're very excited about this trip! We had planned it a few weeks before, but the plan was getting more serious a week before the trip. We just had to reconfirm how many people would join us. Since Merdeka day break fell on Wednesday (in the middle of the week), so I decided not to go back to Shah Alam but joined this trip to Manjung instead. From Sungai Besar, it took us around one and a half hour to reach Manjung. I went with Salim while Kak Emmy with her hubby. We checked-in the hotel first before going out again for dinner.

Dinner @Horizon Garden, Seri Manjung

We had an awesome dinner here. Kakmin had made reservation at Horizon Garden. She ordered a lot of yummy dishes such as nyonya steamed fish, butter prawn, battered cuttlefish, tomyam, veggies and tofu. The tomyam was a bit spicy but I loved it! All the food was nice, but the service was kinda awkward. The waitress collected our plates so soon, right after we finished our food on the plates. Did they not think about the remaining dishes? Takkan nak ratah pakai senduk? Tak sabar2 ok. =/

Kakmin brought her hubby (Abg Wan) and brother (Idey) as well. First time meeting them, initially we're quite quite, then it was fine.

Marina Island

We spent the rest of our night here until midnight. We had a little farewell party for Azira who will continue her study for a year. We sat on the grass near the jetty and had cakes barehanded. Forgot to bring any plates or spoons. We just came and brought a cake and some presents for her. Salim and I lured Abg Wan to play Pokemon Go together. We're quite happy that night. At least our Pokedex entry had increased by a few Pokemon. Lol.

Then we rode the bulat2 thingy, not sure what it is called. RM10 for 5 minutes. Worth a try. Then Kakmin bid goodbye as Abg Wan had oncall tomorrow morning. The rest remained here until 12am to watch fireworks. Exactly 12am, the fireworks burst in the air, colouring the dark sky with sparkles and lights. Then we proudly sang our national anthem, Negaraku. Then, we made a quick round around the stalls and booths, bought some drinks before headed back to our car.

Farewell to Rara

Bulat-bulat thingy

were actually busy playing Pokemon Go

Star Bay Hotel

A budget hotel, it was actually very nice and comfortable. We stayed in a twin bed room (RM88 per night) and I personally thought it was worth it. The location is very strategic, not far from Marina Island.

Breakfast @Warung Roti Canai Tepi Sungai, Kampung Sitiawan

In the morning, we had breakfast at Kampung Sitiawan. The place is called Warung Roti Canai Tepi Sungai. It is located around 10 minutes from our hotel. After we parked our cars, we had a walk along the riverside before reaching the roti canai place. We ordered 10 pieces of roti canai and then waited for Azira to arrived. Then, the makcik roti canai got a little bit emo after we ordered additional air kosong. She said "kenapa tadi tak order sekali tadi dik?"

Roti canai RM1.20

Frenzy Waterpark

After had the roti canai, we continued our journey to Marina Island. This time to Frenzy Waterpark. It's a waterpark very much like Wipe-out TV game show, only it was less extreme. It's a huge air-filled balloon walkways equipped with several obstacles and challenges. At first we thought that this place was quite small, but later after spending almost two hours in the park we started to feel the pain. Most of us had body ache and muscle sores. Muahahaha, rasakan lorrr~ The entrance fee is RM20 per adult and there is two session each day (8.30 am - 12.30 pm and 3.30 pm - 5.30 pm). It was definitely worth a try. I passed most of the obstacles except for two or three of them. I failed monkey bars and also the bridge. Biasalah gemuk sikit memang susah nak lepas. Not sure how many time I fell into the water and the rest had to help pulling me up. 😂

Lunch @Papparich 

We made a quick stop at Kakmin's house and bid farewell to Azira. After performing our prayer here, we drove to Papparich near Aeon Seri Manjung to have lunch. As usual, chicken and prawn hor fun (kway teow soup) was my choice for today. I managed to caught a few Pokemon here including Pikachu at the Shell petrol station.

Aeon Seri Manjung

Our initial plan was to play bowling or to watch movie here. However, after finishing our energy at the Frenzy Waterpark this morning, we had no mood to play bowling anymore. We surveyed some shows at TGV Cinema but the showtimes also weren't very suitable for us. At last, we just wandered around the mall, bought some stuff from Kaison and I bought a pair of Crocs for my niece, Zara. It was on sale, RM59 for each pair (all designs and sizes).

Kaison, probably the best and affordable shop that we love!

Wan's Coconut Shake

We continued our journey to Lumut Waterfront but since the weather was gloomy and rain started to pour down we just drove through the area only. After that, we drove back to Marina Island and dropped by Wan's Coconut Shake. This was our last stop before going back to Sungai Besar later. The coconut shake was okay, some of us ordered fresh coconut drink as well. After quenching our thirst, we said goodbye to Kakmin and Idey before we drove back to Sungai Besar.

Before reaching home, we had dinner at Medan Ikan Bakar Hutan Melintang. Not sure why the service was kinda slow tonight, we had our food served after almost one hour of waiting.

After I dropped Salim in Bagan Terap, I drove back to Sungai Besar and dropped by the police station to fetch a tray of brownies for Kakmin. 

I loved how we spent our quality time together. All this while we only spent time at work during the day and occasionally dined out together after work. This time, we had more activities that we actually could do together. We had laugh and joy and body aches. Lol

Good night~

Japan [Day 11 - Kansai International Airport]

It's time to go back to Malaysia.

We left our hotel at 7 o'clock in the morning. We took JR train from Shin-Imamiya station to Kansai International Airport. The fee was around 1,400 yen if I'm not mistaken. The journey took approximately 50 minutes.

Sayonara Japan! Gonna miss you!

Kansai International Airport (KIX)

We sorted our luggage and planned to wrap our small bags before checking-in. The staff at the wrapping service suggested us to buy box and put all our bags inside. It was actually a great idea, and cheaper too. So we bought two big boxes, one for Lukman and one for me. We rearranged our stuff so that our backpacks were in minimal weight of 7kg. At last, we managed to check-in our luggage without any problem.

Toilet selfie

Pokemon Store KIX

Yeay, another Pokemon shop here. It's just a small shop featuring Pikachu statue in pilot costume. Didn't buy anything here, I'm broke already. Haha..

Pikachu

We had some time to wandered inside the airport and dropped by a few shops. We bought Uniqlo t-shirts which costed 1,500 yen. We bought one each. After that, we walked towards the boarding area.

Couldn't wait to eat Malaysian food again. We had enough onigiri.. Haha

Thanks reader for following my 11-day journey to Japan. It was definitely a great and memorable experience. InsyaAllah will be going to Japan again next year, but this time with my family.

For any detailed inquiry, you can just pm me or leave comments here.

Thanks you! :)

Arigato~

Japan [Day 10 - Osaka]

The majestic Osaka Castle

Shitennoji

In the morning, we took the subway to Tennoji station. We're going to Shitennoji shrine which is located nearby. Tennoji is also famous for its zoo. We skipped the zoo and went to the shrine instead. Going to the zoo might consume us half day. After 10 minute walk from Tennoji station, we arrived at Shitennoji. Too bad it was under renovation. Thus, we didn't get chance to take photos with the tower structure of the shrine.

Shitennoji front entrance

shrine compound

Osaka Castle

We took the subway again, from Shitennoji-Mae station to Tanimachiyochome. Osaka Castle is located not far from this station. We walked around 1.5 km to reach the castle. In front of the castle, there were a few food trucks and vendors selling takoyaki, grilled squids and matcha ice cream. We took our time to relax a bit before entering the castle. The entrance fee is 600 yen (adult). The castle has a few floors. We headed to the topmost first and enjoyed the view above, then gradually stepped down towards the ground level. We're allowed to take photos on certain floors only. The castle itself has become some sort of museum, all the historical event about the castle were displayed here via videos. You can rent a costume as well. For women, they had prepared kimonos while for men, only warrior costumes were available.

Triple selfie

600 yen ticket

View from above

Osaka Masjid

From the castle, we walked about 20 minutes to Osakajokitazume station and the toook the JR train to Mitejima station. Osaka Masjid is located quite distance from the station which required us to walk 1.4 km. The weather was still gloomy today. It rained lightly along our walk to the mosque. As usual, we performed our prayer in the mosque and visited the shop under the mosque. The prayer hall is located upstairs. I bought a couple box of tandoori spices here. Then, we hunted for a halal restaurant nearby. There are quite a number of halal restaurant nearby. There's one restaurant who offered us a chicken briyani set with a drink for 1000 yen only. So we went there. The restaurant name is Sitara Halal Restaurant. 

Namba Parks

After lunch, we headed back to the city. Emie wanted to go to the onsen (Japanese bath) so he went alone. Lukman and I continued touring the city where we visited Namba Parks. Namba Parks is a large shopping mall with beautiful gardens on top of it. Actually, to get nice photos, we had to go to another building nearby so that we could view the garden from far. Since we're inside the garden, we couldn't get the photos like we wanted, the stacked gardens. However, we did spent our time there calmly, before we entered the mall. Inside the mall, we dropped by a book store and some other shops before leaving the place.

Layers of gardens

Happy face, happy moment

Dotonbori

Back in Dotonbori, we're supposed to meet Emie here but because it's still early we just roamed around the area taking more photos, We toured around Dotonbori area to find halal dinner, there are a few halal restaurant around Dotonbori. We just had to use Google map to locate them. First we headed to a ramen restaurant but it was closed. Later we found KennyAsia restaurant which is a Malaysia/Singapore food restaurant but it was also closed. What an unlucky night. Haha..

Giant dragon

Giant clam

Giant hand holding giant sushi

Giant kuih apa tah

Giant crab

Silk Road Muqam Restaurant

At last, we found another restauran, Silk Road Muqam which is located not very far. We had dinner here, quite a unique Uighur restaurant. It's our first time eating Uighur food. We tried egg  fried rice (600 yen) here. The fried rice is made from the sushi rice, thus giving it a texture like sushi. Since I was still full of briyani from lunch, I managed to ate half portion of it only. We asked the brother to packed the balance for me to bring back to the hotel.

Lukman tak sabar meneliti menu yang dipaparkan

Lupa ambil gambar nasi goreng.

Hojenzi

There's a small shrine located in the hectic crowd in Dotonbori. We made a quick stop here to take photos. The shrine was quite pretty with the glowing lanterns hanging above. We saw a few tourists here as well. Thanks to the uncle who showed us the direction to the shrine. He overheard us talking about Hozenji when we were talking at the bridge near the Glico signboard.

....

Back in our hotel room, it's time to pack our belongings up. Our flight back to Kuala Lumpur was at 11am tomorrow. Since I bought a lot of stuff, I had to pack and repacked a few times before I was okay with the bags. I had one backpack and 2 small bags (to be check-in), while Lukman had one backpack and one guni. Emie had one backpack and two paperbags.