Trip to Sabah (Day 0)

First, I would like to apologize to my avid readers :P for my long absence. For those who don’t know (means you didn’t read my earlier posts… don’t want to talk to you anymore :P), I was away on a trip to Sabah for one week. After that, I fell sick for several days and took again another few days to restructure my life due to moving to a new house and another few days to rearrange my pictures, settle my pile of office work and finally I got a breather and here I am. Due to the vast amount of pictures, information, reviews and suggestions, I shall break my 7 day trip to Sabah (21/06/2008) into 6~7 episodic thrillers. Also, it will make my blog to have more posts!
Anyway, this post shall mention in detail of the things I do, eat, see and experience a day before my trip to Sabah. I took an extra leave on Friday (20/06/2008) because I was supposed to take an 8am flight to Sabah from LCCT (the time was changed later which I shall comment in my next post). Anyway, apart from the frighteningly early departure time, I decided to come to KL a day earlier to do some light shopping and also meet up with some of my friends which I have not met for a very long time. Of course, it was a working day, which means the number of friends I can meet during the day is basically reduced to only one!
Well, this college friend of mine is in sales and since I was in sales some time ago, I knew about the ‘flexible’ working hours that they have in that field :P. However, my friend who takes her job and responsibility seriously, decided to take leave just to accompany me! I was so touched! Sob… sob…
The first place that we went was a shop that sells minced meat noodles. It’s located at Brickfields B. Sentral. The minced meat noodles were quite nice… almost on par with the shop that operated in SS15 (not anymore) and minus the 60 minute waiting time. So, if you are ever near there, you should pay it a visit. Unfortunately, I forgot to flip out my super camera and thus I am unable to let you gaze upon the steamy, aromatic noodles or the picture of the shop, but my friend assured me that it was quite famous… hey, I was still adjusting to being in KL mah…
Anyway, after filling our tummies, we went to the famed Mid-Valley Megamall (surely you don’t need a picture and location of that!). As planned, we went for fish spa! The name of the place is Kenko Fish Spa… it’s quite famous and there is also another branch in Pavillion and a few other locations that I don’t know of… but I do know that they are planning to open a new branch in Gurney Plaza, Penang… yippee for Penangites! Anyway, my friend and I went in there and it was beautifully decorated with soft yellow lights. We went towards the reception counter and were greeted by cheerful faces. My eyes however, went wide with astonishment when it stopped at the line “Fish Spa --- RM38 --- 30minutes” on the price list. So, I’m supposed to pay them RM38 to feed their fish with our own flesh and blood? They must think that we, the consumers, are simple-minded morons who follow the trend without thinking… fine, I still went in there despite that… but I went in there so that I can give you people an inside scoop mah… isn’t that terribly nice of me? We were given tags with numbers after we paid them. If our numbers appear on the screen in the hall, it means that it’s time to go. I supposed it’s better than announcing it all over the p.a. system kua.
We were led to a corner where we were supposed to wash our feet. Apparently, these fish eat only clean feet… hmpphhh… snobbish fish! Glumly, I took off my shoes and started to wash my feet. There were no handles and all and being somebody my size, it was really hard to find a balance… so, I just simply wet my feet and announced that I have finished cleaning my legs... I hoped that they won’t charge me extra when they found floating bodies of the fish in the pool :P
The attendant showed us into a larger section of the shop where there were two circular pools and three rectangular pools. One of the circular pools was already occupied. Being an extremely kiasu person, I chose the rectangular pool since it seemed to have more fish and I was prepared to stare away any other people who wanted to join us in the pool. Anyway, being an extremely cautious person (and a gentlemen, of course) I let my friend to try dipping her legs into the pool first :P. Realizing that her legs are still whole after dipping into the pool infested with phirana-like fish, I gingerly placed my perfect feet into the supposedly hot spring water. The effect was immediate. Like a big chunk of meat being thrown into a pond occupied by alligators, the fish diverted their attention from my friend to my legs. The water was practically bubbling with activity at the area around my legs. I kept my mind firmly on the amount of money I paid for it to prevent me from jumping out of the pool. The sensation that I felt was… poking. It was like the fish were trying to slam their tiny heads (or in this case, mouths) into my feet, hoping to smash through my skin wall. After the initial shock, the feeling was actually quite nice… it was even similar to a massaging machine. However, as the clock ticked by, the fish began to wander around and they have the affinity to finding the most sensitive places to bang their heads against. Very soon, my screams (and that of my friend’s too, of course :P) were the only sounds that could be heard in the shop. They really liked to go in between my toes and I had to keep them opened so that I don’t accidentally squash them in between my toes… and they also like to tickle my feet and I was laughing like a madman… really embarrassing.
In an attempt to divert my attention, I tried to read a catalogue which was handed to me and the words were only black mush through my tears and incessant screams/laughter. I tried to engage in a conversation with my friend and all that came out were garbled alien-like language that even I do not understand. My friend kept on looking at her watch wondering when the 30 minutes time would be up. Of course, being hard-core Malaysians, we would not leave until the 30 minutes time limit is up. As time crawled by we became more resistant to the attacks by the fish and soon, we were chatting happily away.
Seeing this, the attendant told us that there are actually two types of fish available and we should try the other type. So, we went to the round pools and placed our feet into the pool once again. This time, instead of banging their heads into my feet, the fish were trying to shred my skin! Okay, I was exaggerating… this type of fish, as explained by the attendant, smooth the skin, improve blood circulation and clear away impurities by sliding their bodies against our feet… and hence, the shredding feeling! To be frank, the body sliding ones feel less ticklish than the head banging ones. Noticing that we were not screaming anymore, the attendant once again tried to coax us to use another pool. Each pool is also divided into different stages for the two different fish. The rectangular pools have low, medium and high level while the round ones have low and medium.
Being a very curious person, I went over to the so-called high level rectangular pool… and staring back at me were thousands of hungry looking fish at least five times larger than ones we tried the first time. The attendant tried a very long time to entice us to the pool but we stood our ground. Malaysians or not, we will never put our feet into a pool where the mouth of the fish can swallow a toe entirely in one bite! Finally, we settled with the medium level pool. We were letting out a gasp of relief when our numbers finally showed on the screen. We hurriedly cleaned and dried our feet again and were rushing out of the shop. In truth, I think everyone should give this kind of fish spa a try… it’s erm… an unforgettable experience. On whether it really has any effect on improving skin condition or blood circulation… well, I let you decide.

Kenko Fish Spa... nice setting... a tv would be nice though


The pool that we are going to dip in


Help me!!! Fish!!! Help me!!! (Head banging ones)


Help me!!! Fish!!! Help me!!! (Flesh tearing ones)


The... erm... heavy duty ones

After being bitten alive by fish, my friend decided to go for a more traditional pampering method… pedicure. Initially, she wanted to do pedicure AND manicure… but I managed to convince her otherwise. Anyway, we went to this small shop that does pedicure and once again, I can feel my eyeballs popping out of their sockets. RM43 for pedicure!!! That is like the Chinese saying “Tiger opens big mouth!” And I was charged RM48 because men’s leg are large and thus more expensive! There is just no rationale in it. I mean the price list did not mention that it is for females only. This is gender discrimination! Not wanting to make a big scene, and giving face to my friend, I grudgingly allowed to be brought to massaging chair with a basin at the bottom of it.
However, this is not the end of the unending discomfort that I felt in the shop. First of all, they were all acting as if I should know what to do in the shop… eg. placing my feet at certain place and placing my legs into the basin without being told to do so in the middle of the pedicure. It was obvious that this is my first visit to this kind of shop and yet they were really impatient when I was slow to react to their instructions that are given through a surgical mask and they were speaking in really heavy accented Mandarin. I was also told by my friend that pedicure is a pampering activity. However, I found myself cringing everytime the girl managed my feet. No, it doesn’t hurt, but it was obvious she was using excessive force. There was this one instance where she use a metal stick and just jam it into the skin on the top of the toenails. It really does not hurt but it was really frightening loh. Also, to make things worse are their unsmiling and humorless faces. Really, even the government service people are friendlier than them and I am paying half a hundred for their services! I suspected it’s mostly due to the fact that she’s servicing a guy’s feet. I have seen guys treating a woman’s feet and if a guy can treat both men and women, I don’t see why a woman cannot give same treatment for both genders as well. To be fair, however, my feet did felt nice and soft after the pedicure… and there’s this inner glow when I looked at my feet… but then again, my feet have always been a sight to behold :P
Anyway, my friend assured me that other pedicure centers that she visited were not like that… this is the exceptional one. She herself was not very satisfied with the services given to her as well. After such unfortunate incident, the only way to placate my mood was to… eat!!!

Pedicure...

So, my friend introduced to me this Japanese restaurant called Sushi Zanmai in Gardens which she claimed is better and cheaper than S**** S**** (SS). Anyway, we were apparently too early as there were nothing on the kaiten belt when we stepped into the restaurant. However, like SS, it also specializes in cooking the food rather than just serving normal sushi. First, my friend ordered this edamame (boiled green soybean), which to me, looks rather unappetizing, but at my friend’s insistence, I caved and gave the green thingy a try. “One should not judge a book by its cover” correctly described the situation. I was expecting something wet and mushy. Instead, the beans inside were actually crunchy! It was also lightly salted… it’s just like eating fried peas, but with a healthier cooking method!
After the appetizer, we went on straight to main course. My friend had a beef sukiyaki while I had curry udon. The beef sukiyaki had a different serving style compared to SS. First, the ingredients were placed in a separate bowl instead of being cooked and put together into the bowl of teriyaki soup as done by SS. Thus, one is able to cook the meat up to the level that they wanted. I don’t eat beef, so I can’t tell you what it tasted like, but my friend was quite satisfied with it. My bowl of curry udon although is similar to SS in taste and smell, is of a lower price. Japanese curry is not a dish suitable to everyone. Malaysians are famous for their strong spices and flavour in food. Thus, the Japanese curry would seem to be watered down curry to some. However, Japanese curry is one of my favourite dishes and I finished the big bowl of udon in minutes. With my appetite, just one main course is of course not enough. Thus, we ordered saba teriyaki (mackerel grilled with teriyaki sauce), gyoza (fried dumplings) and hanasaki ika tempura (marinated squid tempura). The mackerel was finely grilled with sweet teriyaki sauce. The meat was soft yet tangy. It would have been perfect if they could find a way to remove all the bones before serving the dish… I guess it couldn’t be helped. Anyway, it was really tantalizing. Gyoza is also another one of my favourite dish while in SS. So I ordered this in order to have a direct comparison. Sushi Zanmai’s Gyoza is nicely done. The meat is still saucy, not overcooked and was flavourful. The dumpling skin however, is a tad little bit sticky and erm… elastic (not in a good way) as compared with SS. Still good, just not as good as SS… sorry. The squid tempura was however a little bit bland… but I supposed that the taste is supposed to be bland. The squid was quite fresh and it was jumping around in my mouth when I tried to bite it. By the time we finished these food, my friend and I were too full for dessert. We initially planned to have green tea ice cream, but looks like we have to leave it for next time!

Sushi Zanmai


A nice cold refreshing green tea


Edamame... do not judge a book by its cover


Beef sukiyaki... sorry, no beef for me


My bowl of curry udon... see the steam?


Hanasaki Ika Tempura


Gyoza... my all time favourite


Saba Teriyaki... not sure if the name is correct :P

It was already late evening when we exited the shop. I was generally satisfied with the restaurant. However, I would not say that all of its dishes are cheaper or better than SS. I’ll need to visit this restaurant a few more times before I can decide which one is better. However, one thing that is clearly better than SS is that they serve chilled green tea! In SS, the only way to get cold green tea is to ask for a glass of ice and there was one time when they retorted back to me that they don’t serve ice! Preposterous!
Anyway, my friend and I went our separate ways after that since she had is going on a trip later that night. Since everyone would have finished work by that time, I flipped out my handphone and browsed for my next potential victim. Apparently, I have a university coursemate who is still single and free almost all the time. So I called him out and he immediately responded with great enthusiasm. I tried to get some movie tickets to a comedy but to my horror, there were thousands of people already lining up for the tickets… don’t they have anything better to do after work? Humans!
Well, my friend ended up going to shopping with me. My friend was able to point out shops that has the best bargains and I was able to purchase some stuff less than what I budgeted (first time!) Anyway, we just sat at coffee bean and chatted until late night and we go our separate ways again after that. We caught up on the gossips and updates like where the others are working, status, politics, economy, astronomy, myths, legends, etc., etc.
In conclusion, it was a really good start for my long holiday. Catching up with old friends, doing things I like (shopping) and trying out new stuff that I would never have tried alone. I can’t wait to continue the second part of the post. What would it be like in Sabah? Would everything go well as planned? What about my travelling mates? Stay tuned…