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One month of research on the Internet has resulted in an 80-page New Zealand itinerary covering hotels, food and places to go.

Their tourism websites are amazing…chockful with travel routes, scenic highlights, things to do, dining, etc…planning the trip was such a breeze! Hotels? Check. Car? Check. Clothes…urmmm…we’re in the midst of packing so the house is in a mess…hehe…=P

Just two more days to go…!!!

Yeah right…I definitely had to eat my words come Saturday night! The water in the bungalow was icy cold and after my bath, I ended up wearing two layers AND wrapping myself in a blanket.

Hubby: “How to go New Zealand liddat?”

Grrr…or rather, brrrr…

My plans for a whole night mahjong session disappeared into thin air as I was so sleepy on Saturday night…blame it on the weather. Pooey…=P

And the house…my goodness, the house was like top-of-the-class dodgy!! It’s situated at the end of a long winding road through a hutan, the floors were ice cold and it creaked, the caretaker was this old lady that had the knack of appearing out of nowhere…I didn’t even dare to go to the toilet alone, made hubby wait right outside! Luckily we went with another three couples…else I’d have made hubby turn the car around and head right back to KL!! There was one incident where the caretaker came over to pass us a torchlight and to tell us that with the lightning, the electricity might trip and we might need the torch light…and as soon as she finished her sentence, the bl**dy electricity tripped and the whole house went dark. How freaky was that?!?

Eeek…0_o

And and and…when we were driving up, we first saw the sign pointing towards “Moonlight Cottage”. Then, “Moonlight Cottage for Rent”. Then, as we made the last turn into the compound…”Moonlight Cottage for Sale”.

Double eeek…0_o

Anyways, we did have a really nice steamboat dinner down at the town area, celebrated V’s birthday with a cheesecake from…get this…Secret Recipe! Yes, there’s a Secret Recipe branch there! We also took a walk around the night market where I bought a bottle of fresh honey. And earlier in the afternoon, we took a long and winding drive to the Boh Tea Plantation where we spent almost two hours there thanks to an unexpected downpour that prevented us from getting back to the car.

The next morning, the sun was out and it was bright and cheery, and coupled with the relief of surviving the night, I was energetic enough to join hubby for a photo taking session in the extensive garden. Had a quick mahjong session where I won RM25 (thanks, KK!), a great lunch of nasi lemak and chicken rice (thanks, I & SH for tapau-ing), and off we went to the marketplace to buy vegetables and strawberries (love those dried strawberries…yummylicious!) before taking an hour plus drive back to Ipoh.

Oh…and y’know what we found out about the house on Sunday morning before we left? According to the caretaker, this was the house Jim Thompson stayed in before he disappeared in Cameron Highlands on 26 March 1967. The mystery of his disappearance was never solved, but I found a couple of articles on the Internet that mentioned Moonlight Cottage! Don’t believe me? Check these articles out:

Journey Malaysia
Cameron Highlands Malaysia Tourism (do a search for the word Thompson)
Cameron Highlands Online
Princeton Alumni Weekly

Photos soon!

Oh oh…and New Zealand in 12 days time! We’re going to self-drive through the North and South islands from Auckland to Wellington, Christchurch to Queenstown, and fingers crossed…we’ll be able to take lots and lots of fab photos! Am having so much fun planning the itinerary right now…flight and hotels have been booked after super extensive research, and I’m now searching for places to eat, places to go and things to do…so if you guys have any tips, etc. on the above….do drop me an email or leave a message in the comment box…=))

Finally…uploaded all the pics at Photoblogum - Eric’s 30th Birthday @ Banyan Tree & Singapore! No time to edit though…=(

Boo hoo!! Our last day at Singapore…=(

One last look at our hotel…

The morning was spent packing, packing and packing. We checked out at about 11am and left our bags with the bellhop since our flight was only at 5pm and we wanted to do some last minute shopping! Ended back up at Orchard where we headed to Wisma Atria for lunch at Din Tai Fong. Surprisingly, it wasn’t packed (I’d read a review about the Paragon branch and apparently, it’s always full!) and we got a table immediately.

The food was pretty good…I particularly liked my noodles which was extremely tasty with the fried garlic and mushrooms. The Xiao Long Pau was a letdown though…or maybe I was having too high expectations? Again, the skin was abit too thick…sigh…what’s the diff whether it has 18 folds, 20 folds or 5 folds when the skin of the dumpling is so thick? Still can’t compare with the ones at Chef Loong @ SS2!

Food, glorious food!

After lunch, we walked over to Paragon where I went to take a last look at the wallets and purses at Gucci. Managed to find one that I liked, but the leather was in baby blue. The design is quite special though…instead of a clasp, there’s a zip all around (though I really wonder how I’m gonna zip it when it’s bursting full….with bills, not money!!). I kept asking the staff if there’ll be a pink one coming out, but she said she didn’t think so. I was contemplating between this baby blue design, and their new pink ones (the pink is really lovely and sweet, but I didn’t like the colour of the leather…off-white, and damn hard to maintain!)…hubby said the pink ones were more special, but my heart told me to go with the baby blue one (12 card slots…woohoo!!!). We went back to Gucci after taking a walk around Paragon (and buying more red bean/peanut pancakes from Jollibean in the basement…*grin*) and I finally purchased the wallet…yay!

Yay yay…my new wallet!

And a peek inside…

The cab driver of the cab we took to get back to Scarlet, and subsequently Changi, was a talkative fella! He was telling us of his experience when he visited Malaysia…he and his friend got robbed, and almost carjacked…and best of all (this is just so typical M’sia), when they went to make a police report, the police asked for more money from them!! Aiks…so embarassing lar, I tell you!

Anyways, we arrived at Changi a good two hours before our flight, and spent a long portion of it at McDs perusing the newspaper for jobs in Singapore…hehe….=) Went to do my GST refund (a measly SGD21), made another stop at Gucci and got dragged away by hubby who insisted that we were running late…=)

We arrived at KLIA at 6pm, made a quick stop at the Duty Free store, and then it was the usual stuff of getting a cab, unpacking, etc. Ohhh…and we polished off the Jollibean pancakes in the cab…yumyum!

And there you have it…five fun-filled days…! And my ‘great find’ (other than my Gucci wallet)…? This super-duper cute bunny eye cushion thingy from Banyan Tree. It’s lavender scented and oh-so-cute! Hubby has been stealing it from me every night…

Isn’t it adorable?!?