Sincerely, Alison: 2016

Homestay at Kampung Telok Melano, Sarawak

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//edit// Post was written in 2016. You can now drive to Telok Melano as opposed to using a speedboat like we did.

Ever heard of this place before? No? I don't blame you. To be honest, I'm Sarawakian and I myself have never been to nor heard of this place before.

So when dad suggested we head there for Gawai holidays we were like where?

To get there from Kuching, you need to go to Palm Beach Resorts (1 hour + by car/bus) then a around 40 minute speed boat ride to reach the Kampung.
Telok Melano is actually a homestay programme.

Here's a video snippet of our trip.
I initially wanted to film the whole trip but I forgot to bring an extra memory card and there was only an hour left of filming. So we ended filming just the start of the journey.

We woke up quite early that morning and headed out at 6am because they told us the boats would be waiting for us at 8am at Palm Beach Resorts, Sematan.

But when we got there, the boats were not able to run yet because of low tide and we had to wait it out for just a while.
I was the only person with sports shoes on on the beach :/ because my dad told us that we might go jungle trekking and I thought might as well wear to the village and directly go trekking. But I ended up taking my shoes off half way to the boats because I knew they were going to get wet and I couldn't find my sandals.

The journey from Sematan to Telok Melano took us around 40 minutes and we had three speed boats take us there. I was so afraid that I might drop my phone and camera into the ocean and I'll never ever see them ever again.

Halfway to Telok Melano we passed by a sea turtle but we were going too fast to see it and too far to turn back.

No words can describe how beautiful the place is. White sandy beaches and clean clear ocean water. A hidden gem in Sarawak.

This was our homestay for the night. The hosts stayed on the ground floor and we stayed at the 1st floor. The management of Palm Beach Resorts helped arranged lunch and dinner to be provided for us.

Phone services are very restricted and in some location you'll have very low signal and some places totally no signal at all. Something we didn't expect was power restriction. You'll only have electricity from 6pm till 2am and at a certain time in the morning which means that we'll only have wi-fi at that certain times.

Lunch by our gracious hosts.

After lunch we all headed jungle trekking from the fishing village to Tanjung Aru. We had a guide lead the way since there was no trail and you would likely get lost without one.

The trial is around 4km but it literally took us almost 3 hours to reach our destination.

Tanjung Aru visitor centre

We had two speed boats to pick us up back to Telok Melano because it was the quickest way back and also we did not want to trek back.

Our hosts preparing dinner

We stayed in the next day since it was raining until our boats came to pick us up. And boy are we so eager to get back to civilization.

Lunch at Palm Beach Resorts

Korea

Korean Language Course & Experience Culture Programme - Part 1

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I was in Korea (Gimhae, Busan to be exact) for two weeks in March last year for a culture program organized by Gimhae Women Welfare Center.

The organizer was a ex-lecturer from MMU and she saw an opportunity for students to experience Korean culture through this program.

Michelle asked me to join her and her friends on this trip and I was like why not. It was a long semester break and I had nothing better to do.

Prior to this trip, I had no knowledge of anything about Korea. It wasn't even on my bucket list of places to visit. I wasn't into the whole K craze that everyone was in. I wasn't into K dramas or Kpop. I was in my own lil comfortable bubble. But after this program, it totally change my whole perspective. I'm still not into the whole K craze but I'm totally coming back to Korea (but to Seoul or maybe Jeju next time)!

Arriving at Busan airport after a long 7 hour flight.
The lady in the red jacket on the top left is the organizer of this trip, Kim EuNa.

For anyone who plans to buys a prepaid sim. Damn expensive but me and Michelle both bought and shared one tho.

Here's an article someone shared with us regarding WiFi and Prepaid sims in Korea (click me).
But in my personal opinion, don't buy. There's free open almost everywhere.

Mandatory welfie with Michelle and her friends

We used the train to get to Gimhae Women Welfare Center while our luggages were transported by lorry.

It's fairly easy to navigate once you know where you are and where you wanna go.

Our destination was Bonghwang which was only a few stations away from the airport.

Dinner was prepared by people at the welfare center. Home-cooked Korean dinner.

It doesn't look much but I had second servings of dumplings and strawberries.

Itinerary for the next two weeks
I think I'll just skip the boring parts about classes and get into the more interesting parts.

This is where we stayed for the next two weeks; Gimhae Hanok.

Since it was late and not familiar with the place, we dare not wander far.
We stumbled upon a convenience place quite near where we stayed and tried some of the local popular foods that people rave about.

This was the most delicious out of the foods we tried that night. Two thumbs up!

Day 1 of Program

I admit the first class was quite boring. I almost fell asleep in class. Thank goodness there was free flow of coffee, tea, and fruits.
It stared getting fun when they asked us to change into their traditional Hanbok for a traditional tea ceremony.

The lady on the right was the one that taught us how to wear Hanbok and how to behave and what to do in a traditional Korean tea ceremony.

Tidbits to go with the tea

After that they brought us out to our next class which was a makeup class.

Instead of watching how they makeup, some of us went shopping inside. Maybe because the place was small and not all of us could see what she was doing.

When they said that it was a lot cheaper to buy beauty products in Korea they were not kidding. We got crazy shopping inside. Masks were like 1,000won a piece and plus if you buy 10 you get another 10 FREE!