Langkawi: Ayer Hangat

Ayer Hangat (pronounced Ayaq Hangat) literally means hot water. Never heard about this place during my first visit to Langkawi so I thought we should have a look. I Googled the placed and I found out that there is a hot water spring. The water is actually salt water. Never been to one so, we made a plan. Mom loves to dip her leg in hot water. She had issues with her knee for ages.

The Ayer Hangat or Ayer Hangat village is just by the roadside. It is so easy to miss if you are driving fast. It was raining cats and dogs the day we decided to go there so we missed the stop. We were using Waze and it got confused as well.

This is the hot water village. Inside, there are two wells. Also, there are rooms where spa services are offered. I only remembered we were charged RM5 per entry. Since dad is considered 'warga emas' he was charged RM2.

The benefits of sitting in a hot spring well.

These are the minerals contained in the well.

This is the view from one of the well. The well is deep. It was built in a way that the water is distributed from the well to the plank areas you see in the picture above. However, the best place to enjoy the hot water is the well and the areas around it. As it flows away, the water became cooler.

Among the places we visited, the highlight was the hot water well. There were no crowd as we came right after it poured. You may want to bring extra clothes to change. There are some stalls after you buy the tickets if you want to buy pants or blouses (in case you forgot to bring extra).

Langkawi: Sky Cab and Sky Bridge

It has been a while since I went to Langkawi. I have never been to the same place twice for long holidays but this trip is for mom. She has been residing in Malaysia for 40 over years but she never made it there. So dad and I decided to take her there. Since was also on break, I thought it would be refreshing.

I can't remember how much we spent for the ride up and the sky bridge. All I could remember is we drove about half an hour from Cenang beach and reached at Sky Cab area around 5.45pm. Thankfully the place closes at 7pm so we didn't rush. As we had parked, we walked inside an area where there were Oriental Village, 3D Museum and souvenir shops. It was a huge area with a beautiful pond. We had to walk until we reached a water fountain to buy the tickets.

The ticket counter is right opposite this fountain. All I remember is Malaysian's ticket was cheaper than the foreigner's. They made us show our ID as a proof.

There were two stops. We didn't get down at the first stop because we want to spend some time at the Sky Bridge which was at the second stop. You can see the gondola that carried us all the way to the peak of Gunung Mat Chinchang. The background would be Pantai Kok if I am not mistaken.

As soon as we reached the second stop, we could see the Sky Bridge. One can choose to walk there via the stairs or take the cable car. There is also charges for the car.

You can feel the vibration as you walk along the bridge. The view was breathtaking. It was amazing to know that only one pylon holds the bridge and it was said you can view the Andaman Sea from here.

Mid-way at the Sky Bridge you can take a look of the jungles beneath through the glass panel.

After coming back from the Sky Bridge, we took the stairs that leads to the top most platform. There were hundreds of love shaped locks hanging. Probably of couples.

Love shaped locks.

View at the top most platform. There was a binocular where you have to insert RM1 for it to work.

The visit took us about 2 hours roughly. We wanted to stop by Telaga Tujuh but it started to get dark so we stopped by Kok Beach briefly before heading back to Cenang Beach.

Back view of Maharaja Restaurant.

Entrance to Maharaja Restaurant.

A picturesque view.

We were just thankful that it didn't rain on the first day. 

When You Don't Feel Like Doing Something

Have you ever had days when you just don't feel like doing any work at all?

Then, you realize your dateline is three days away or your exam is just next week.

I have come across those days when energy was down and I just want to watch youtube or browse on Instagram. I would always put my work second although it is my priority. I will tell myself there will be tomorrow when I feel energetic and I will do double the work. 

Truth is, there only so many tomorrows. Also, I always end up tired doing an hour of work.

I get distracted very easily. I have very short attention span too. If you are like myself here is one trick I learnt to get some work done.

10 minutes trick

I teach in the morning and you can imagine the energy level I have after coming back from work. I am also reading my PhD and I always do my work after coming back from school. So, I would tell myself, "Give only 10 minutes of your time to do the work and then you can relax."

That is it. I just give myself 10 minutes to do the work and then I go do something else. After a while I realized if I put more time into my wok I get it done quicker. 

So, if you have a shot attention span, try the 10 minutes technique and let me know how it works for you.

1 Tip to Save Time Early Morning

Although I set my alarm to wake up really early in the morning, there were days when I overslept. When this happens, I rush like crazy. Everything becomes haywire and you can be sure it affects the rest of the day.

Why?
Because I believe that the choice of the clothes and scarf sometimes affect my mood.

If I rush in the morning, I usually don't think much about the clothes and choice of colour I choose for the day. Usually I do the obvious. I will reach out for the clothes that doesn't need ironing. Even scarf. Sadly, most of my scarves need ironing and then I will reach work past the clock-in time.

However, when I discussed with friends, they gave me an interesting idea.

Time Saving Tip

A friend usually irons her clothes for the week ahead. She decides on the weekend and spend about close to 2 hours ironing her clothes and her children's clothes. So, I thought why not try.

I lay out clothes based on the dress code for each day in the week. On Thursdays, we have to wear Batik theme clothes, on Fridays, it's either jubah or baju kurung. On Mondays, it's baju kurung. On Wednesdays, it's the gray corporate shirt. On Tuesdays, any formal clothes will do.

I will lay out clothes based on the requirements and the matching scarves (on Saturdays or Sundays). Over the weekends I spend about 45 minutes to choose and iron everything out. By doing this, I save a lot of time in the morning whenever I overslept.

Try this out and let me know whether it works for you or not.

Try and Error

This was a try and error recipe but it turns out good. I put it in the office and that evening the bottle was empty. So what did I use to make this snack?

There are cashews and walnuts which I have always used to make this snack. This time around I used pumpkin seeds. I have read a lot on pumpkin seeds and one of the benefit is it promotes hair growth. The pumpkin seeds are very crunchy after toasting it. 

I toasted all the nuts and then add milk chocolate buttons while the nuts are still warm. The chocolates melt easily. Keep stirring in a baking tin until the chocolate and nuts are well mixed. The more the chocolate, the better.

Find small cups and scoop the nuts mixed with chocolate into it. Chill for 3 minutes and store in an airtight container. This snack could last for two weeks unless someone wants to finish it in a day. Enjoy trying.

Quick Easy Lasagna on a Sunday

Pretty easy lasagna

First of all you must remember it is the two sauces that makes lasagna. What sauces am I talking about? Well, it is what i call the red sauce and the white sauce.

Red sauce

What I meant by red sauce is the spaghetti sauce. Refer to my previous post on the ingredients and how to make one. http://fadzarahim.blogspot.my/2016/11/spaghetti-napolita-is-japanese.html

This is the white sauce

The white sauce is the creamy sauce where you start with melting butter in a saucepan. Stir flour (about 5 tablespoon) in the saucepan. Stir well and you have to watch out that the flour doesn't turn into lumps. Cook for 2 minutes over gentle heat. Remove from heat and stir in milk (I used  one tin of IDEAL Evaporated milk) and added water (use the same tin measurement from the IDEAL milk). 

Gordon Ramsay pours the milk three times. Every one third, he will stir and remove from heat if it starts to thicken and goes back to the heat.

So, return your saucepan to heat and keep stirring until the mixture is thick and smooth. Season the mixture with salt and pepper and add mozarella or cheddar cheese. My friend would add in the cheddar cheese slices (5 slices). Stir over low heat until cheese melt. 

The brown lumps you see in the picture is because I didn't keep stirring.

Start layering the sauces

Once the sauces are ready, prepare a baking tin. Pour in the red sauce first, Then layer it with lasagna. I used San Remo's Instant Lasagna.

Make sure the lasagna covers your red sauce. Then, pour in your white sauce.

Layer the white sauce with lasagna. Just make sure there is enough sauce to cover the layers.

Keep layering the sauces and lasagna until the white sauce is on top. Then, sprinkle a generous amount of cheese (mozarella or cheddar)

I POURED cheddar cheese

Before you bake, heat the oven at 180 degree for 40 minutes. Then, bake for 40 minutes.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy, your lasagne is ready

Try it out on a Sunday and let me know how yours turn out.

Spaghetti Napolita is Japanese?

I was watching Midnight Diner yesterday and so this main character called 'Master' in that movie was a chef. He has a diner where his regulars would come only at midnight and after. He opens from 12am to 7am.

So, in one scene he served Spaghetti Napolita to his customer and she was praising how tasty it was. It was mouth watering to me especially when it was served with scramble eggs. So today, I bought some ingredients and dashed to make my Napolita.

Of course I referred to my friend for the basic spaghetti sauce recipe. I added onions and garlics. Button mushroom, minced meat, red and green pepper, some tomatoes and a bottle of Prego Napolita sauce. I also added one bottle (the Napolita sauce bottle) of water. Then I added salt and sugar for seasoning. It seemed like it turned out well but it was watery. Perhaps I shouldn't use too much water, or perhaps I should just stick to tomato puree as advised by my friend.

Here is a picture of the Spaghetti Napolita. I used Angel Hair for the pasta.

After Isya' I decided to just find out how experts cook this dish only to find out this is a Japanese Dish. Well, that is a lesson for me. Perhaps tomorrow I will prepare some scramble eggs with the leftover Spaghetti Napolita.