Trip to Sabah (Day 2)

The sun was already blazing furiously in the sky when I woke up. I chose to sleep in the bed near to the window because there’s a table there where I can put all my stuff on it. I was still blurry from lack of sleep as I looked out of the window and saw that the streets were already bustling with activities. Huh? Did I overslept again? I usually sleep until 9am on weekends, but I remembered double checking my handphone alarm and I don’t think I heard it rang. I looked at my watch placed on the table next to my bed and it was showing 6:30am! Of all the times for it to run out of battery, it had to do it when I need it most. Thus, I looked at my handphone and it showed 6:33am! Huh?

It has been a long time since I woke up at 6:30am, but I don’t remember a sun in the sky at this hour last time. Apparently, Sabah’s sun rises earlier than West Malaysia… well, that is not really the correct term… but surely you don’t want me to go into a long and winding road explaining about time zones and geography positions, do you? Not wanting to get a worm (the early bird gets the worm, get it? :P) I resumed to my sleeping until my handphone rang at 7am. Drunkedly, I made my way to the extremely huge bathroom and do what’s normal…

Picture taken at 6:35am...

At 7:30am, I met up with my other trip mates (only three of us, the other two went ot someplace else) and went exploring Gaya Street. As luck has it, today was Sunday and there is a Sunday Market at Gaya Street (found it out through my research online). Enthusiastically, we made our way to the Sunday Market… and we were welcomed by a sight of a very busy market. The Sunday Market sells a variety of stuff. There were the normal edible stuff like vegetables, fruits, coffee beans, kuih, pau and tid bits. Strangely though, there’re no meat in sight. Also, they sell clothes, handicrafts and animals. Yup, you read that right… animals. Apparently the guinea pigs (or mice, rat… I don’t know the difference) are quite popular around here. There’s this woman who was selecting the mice as if she planned to eat them… yuck. Since we were on a tight schedule today, we just browsed through the things they sell, bought several strange looking kuih and looked for a coffee shop to have our breakfast. For today, we had dim sum for breakfast!

Turtles and eels for sale...

Sigh... poor doggies...

Mice, rats, rodents... whatever...

Really lots of mangoes...

We were trying to see if Sabah dim sum is different from West Malaysia style or not. Thus, we ordered the dim sum that one must try to see if the dim sum is nice or not. They include prawn dumplings and meat dumplings (har kau & siu mai). If the prawns inside the prawn dumplings are nice and fresh, one can almost be sure that the rest of the dim sum are good. Thus, it was a big disappointment when we found out that the prawns are not fresh at all. However, I am pleased to announce that the dim sum in Sabah is the same as the dim sum in West Malaysia… except for the BBQ pork bun. I’m not sure if the waiter heard it wrongly or the word pork actually meant something else in Sabah, but meat of the bun served to me was 100% not BBQ style and I am 99% sure that the meat was not pork. Chicken floss bun was more like it, but then again it isn’t because the meat in the “not BBQ not pork” bun has some gravy which is not found in chicken floss bun. Luckily, we bought some “kuih” from the market and I thought that at least I’ll have something good for breakfast… how can anything go wrong with “kuih”?

Once again, I was proven wrong. First, there’s this green cone shaped thingy which I assumed that it would have coconut filling… nothing could go wrong with coconut filling. However, after taking several bites, I finally found out that the green thingy is all there is. Sigh… next, we have this white thingy with what I assumed to be maize filling… well, I don’t really like maize (except the cinema types :P) and this time, it didn’t disappoint… meaning that it really was NOT good! Bracing for the inevitable, I clamp my teeth down onto the third “kuih” and I was not surprised that it was not better than the earlier two… the filling of the rice was groundnuts, but somehow, the person who made it can actually turn something that is tasty into a horrid, gooey stuff. Human’s creativity never ceased to amaze me. By now, I am sure that some of you would be saying, “Would nothing satisfy this a******?” Well, I am a difficult person to satisfy… it is not my fault that you do not set high standards for yourself :P

Prawn dumplings... (looks nice because of my super camera)

Meat dumplings...

Another type of meat dumplings...

Erm... meat rolls?...

Not BBQ pork, BBQ pork bun...

Green thing...

Rice with nuts...

White thing...

After the particularly unsettling breakfast, it’s time to be on our way to the first activity since our arrival to Sabah... white water rafting! For your information, we did not go to the famed Padas River for our water rafting. Instead, we went to Kiulu River, which is rated as level 1 to 2. I know… I know… Kiulu River is for children… but hey, being someone who don’t know how to swim, I’m not complaining… but my advice is if you’re going for water rafting, choose Padas River loh (it's rated level 3 to 4). Anyhow, we were whisked away in a van and I think it took around 45 minutes before we reached the ending point of Kiulu river… yes… the ending point. First, we are supposed to put all our stuff in a hut at the ending point. So, we put our bags, cameras, phone, and wallet into the hut, and no, there’re no lockers but the guide assured us that it is quite safe. I would recommend to you all not to wear any shoes onto the raft… although sandals are allowed. Wearing sandals onto the raft would only impede you if you fall into the river. Then, we were given a piece of paper to sign which says that we will release them of any liabilities should any accidents happen during the activity… sigh… businessmen. After putting on sun blocks and my eye glass holder, I went back to the van and we travelled to the starting point. There were already several busses at the starting point, but the guide took us to another more secluded starting point. There were only two rafts since there are only 9 people going for white water rafting in our group.

We were given an extremely short briefing about safety, how to row the raft and what to do if we fall into the river, but basically the most important thing is not to panic if you fall in. I mean, this is a level 1 river… really, the only way you could die in there is if you keep on screaming in the water :P. We were given a life jacket and a helmet. The life jacket was really frightening… it has tears all over the places, not to mention molds and tonnes of other stuff too horrible to describe. The guide assured us that the life jacket is still functioning and so I put it on and prayed that it really works.

The five of us were hoarded into a small raft pumped full with air and we were given an oar each. I was unfortunate enough to be seated at the front. Those who seat at the front are sort of like power motors. It is one of the more crucial positions that determine whether the boat will overturn or not. Not to mention that I was being told several times… not just once, but several times that I did not row hard enough! Duh, it’s not as if I have any training before that and I rowed as fast as others… so how do you define hard? And I did not see the raft overturning the whole journey… all thanks to me :P.

The correct word to describe the river was… mild. Really, you can just sit there and chat all day without doing anything except when you are nearing a rapid which was quite few and far between. Of course, that does not mean that our almost 1 hour journey was with no incidents. Up until now, I still cannot figure out how can someone fall out of the raft in such a mild river. If I remembered correctly, two person fell a total of three times out of the raft when we were passing through rapids. Of course, when it happened the first time, I was like “OMG… what are we supposed to do? Is she alive? Will we be in the newspapers?”… but when someone fell out of the raft the third time, I was like “Again?” :P.

Pretty soon, we reached the middle part of our journey. We were told to get out of the boat and the guide led us to a secluded place barefooted! I was “ouching” all the way stepping on those really small stones… guess I have a pretty unhealthy body, huh? Well, the guide stopped at the side of the river and asked one of us to come. Suspecting some kind of a trap, I of course took a step back loh :P. But this one guy in our group was really enthusiastic and he was the first to go to the guide. I saw the guide murmuring something to his ear and my friend’s face was beaming while he nodded. Suddenly, the guide grabbed him and threw him into the middle of the river and he was splashing, trying to keep afloat as the river swept him away. I could only stare with a hanging mouth… what the… and the guide pointed to me and make some sort of weird gesture which I assumed to be “Come here.” The rest of the people were pretty much huddling together and I was the one standing in front. Sighing, I decided to give myself unto fate. Slowly, I approached the guide, and he told me that he will throw me into the river and that I should not panic… duh… it’s like someone telling me that he’s going to kill me and there’s nothing to be afraid of! Nodding but not really understanding, I felt a sudden tug and found myself underwater. Fighting the urge to scream out, I kept myself calm and let my life jacket do its work… I waited, waited and waited and nothing happened! I was still underwater! Panic rose and I was clawing frantically at the water. My head did break the water surface for a while but I was underwater again. I forced myself to be calm again and assumed a sleeping position… and I floated!!! However, I found myself unable to breathe. I have swallowed several gallons of water and some of it remained stuck in my wind pipe. I tried to cough the water out, and had to do it several times before I managed to taste the sweetness of air. However, that is not the end of my ordeal. I was being swept downriver and there’s this assistant guide who was signaling to me to swim to the bank… great… now if only I know how to swim. I don’t know why, but people generally assumed that guys know how to swim… sigh, will the gender discrimination ever stop? There were quite some people watching me from the bank and so I don’t want them to see me panic. Calmly, I made some swimming signs and then shrug my shoulder to tell him that I don’t know how to swim and the assistant guide was still signaling to me to go to him… more urgent this time. Sighing, I just assumed back my sleeping position and let the water bring me to the ending point… of course not. The assistant guide finally realized that I did not know how to swim and he jumped into the river and pulled me back to the riverside. Just as he reached the back, another floating body swept by (it’s one of my travelling mates) and he jumped right back into the river to save her. See? If it’s a girl, they’ll all go and save them regardless of whether they know how to swim or not.

When everyone had been thrown into the river, we got back onto our rafts and continued our journey. It was pretty calm afterwards except for the one time when the guide purposely toppled our raft. It was quite frightening. I was not afraid of drowning because I had the lifejacket. I was afraid of being smothered to death. When I tried to float up, my head hit the raft… I was under the raft!!! It took me some time before I could feel the rim of the raft and get out from under it. I saw that the others were still under the boat but safe. Actually, the raft was designed in such a way that when it overturned, one can still breathe while under the raft. There’s a space in between for you to stick your head inside and breathe in the air. Seeing that the guide had everything under control, I proceeded to collect our oars… yes, I actually became the oar collector… because no one seemed to be bothered by the oars floating downstream. Well, after an hour of… sitting, we reached the ending point and our stomachs were already grumbling. First, however, no matter how hungry I am, I must get rid of the dirty water that is soaking my skin and clothes. Another reason to not visit Kiulu River is due to the state of their bathroom. The actual bathrooms were doorless! How do they expect me to bathe in there? Thus, I went to the toilet to take a quick bath and change my clothes, all the while taking care not to accidentally drop my clothes into the toilet bowl.

I hereby declare that it is okay to kill me in the river...

Iceberg! Iceberg!...

The amazing team...

Well, since I was very hungry at that time, the food I had for lunch tasted quite good. It was a buffet style lunch… and there were vegetables, sausages, chicken and best of all, lamb chops! Well, it’s a home style cooking so there’s nothing much to comment on… everything served was quite nice, none of the food were over or undercooked. After stuffing ourselves with food, we were on our way back to the lodge again.

My lunch...

We reached the lodge at around 3pm and everyone was tired… all except me! So, as everyone went up to their beds, I strolled around KK. I wanted to know how far was the Filipino market from our place and so I started to walk in the general direction towards the place… and it was really near… took me around 15 minutes to reach there. Along the way, I stuffed myself with food again. There’s this so-called Jawi Sate… and I thought that it might be something new. So, I sat down and ordered it and it looked and tasted the same as anywhere. Even the gravy is the same. The only thing that might be a little bit uncommon is that they serve the intestines of a cow as sate too… and no, I didn’t eat that… I don’t eat beef, remember? Also, the “Jawi Sate” was not really that nice too, the chicken meat was bland and at RM0.50 per stick, I think it’s too expensive loh. After that, I walked around again, and saw that there’s a stall outside Milimewah that sells “Apam Balik”… don’t know how to translate it, you just take a look at the pictures lah… and it was sold at RM1 per piece! Not that there’s anything special anyway, and the person selling it had a really terrible attitude. When I ordered it, she did not give any sign of hearing me at all. Anyway, this “Apam Balik” is also same as West Malaysia one loh, and WM sells “Apam Balik” at RM0.50 per piece and sometimes, RM1 for three pieces!

Jawi sate = sate...

Very expensive, normal apam balik...

Sigh, what a waste of my time, stomach and money. But fear not… I have found a place which was recommended by everyone who has been there. There’s this place near Hotel Capitol called Little Italy. Yup, as the name suggests, it serves Italian food… authentic Italian food! So, when the rest of the sleeping pigs woke up :P, I ushered them to this restaurant which was only several blocks away and to my horror, it was full house! However, there’s this quite friendly man which I assumed to be a manager of the restaurant who told us to come back at around 8pm. It was around 7pm at that time, and so we walked around KK and visited a very small night market at the other side of the town. I’m sorry but I did not take any pictures of the place because there was nothing special. Luckily I had something to eat earlier and so I was the only one who did not have a gnawing stomach.

We reached Little Italy exactly at 8pm but we still need to wait for another 15 minutes before we had a table. The price was, as expected, extravagant, but we were really spoilt for choices… there were almost 20 different types of pastas and also the same amount of variety of sauces for the pasta! There were three categories of pasta and three categories of sauces. I did not remember the categories for pastas but the three categories of sauces were tomato based, cheese based and seafood based. Thus, we ordered three pastas with three different category of sauces. Also, we ordered a small pizza and a mixed platter (we thought it was a salad) for appetizer. Strangely, though, the appetizer was the last dish that came out. We were first served the pasta (well, they served the drinks first lah) and it was Ravioli Chicken with Amatriciana sauce (tomato based). It was quite tasty and I never had ravioli before, so it was something new, but it falls short of expectation loh. The tomato based sauce although tangy and sour, did not really perk up my appetite. But the raviolli itself was nice. However, the next dish came and it renewed my hopes for dinner. The second dish was Fetuchinne all novo (please note the spelling might be wrong as I recalled them from pure memory :P) with Salsa Primavera sauce (cheese based)… and I would say that it is a must try! The cheese based sauce was very nice… with some tomato flavour, bursting cheese flavour and very delicious minced meat. Even the pasta was nice and they were the perfect match. Oh, by the way, this second dish was ordered by me while the others ordered other dishes. I guess we all now know who has the best taste, huh? :P. Next, came the third pasta, Trenette all novo with Marinara Vorde sauce (seafood based). While this third dish is not as good as the second dish (reminder: ordered by me :P), it was still much better than the first dish. The seafood was light, cheesy and sweet… and there were lots of seafood too. Next, came the Magherita Pizza, with additional toppings of pepperoni, turkey ham and prawns. I have to admit that this pizza is waaaay better than the other famous restaurant which sells pizzas (you know which), not to mention that the variety is mind boggling too. The crust was thin and cruncy and the ingredients filled the pizza to bursting and this is the first time that I actually see the “cheese strings” while taking a piece of pizza from the plate!

By now, we were wondering, where is the appetizer, and just then, a server came and asked us if the dish that he was holding was what we ordered. We stared at the huge plate with lots and lots of meat on it and we say no. There’s no way an appetizer looks like that. It looks more like a main dish. However, the manager then came to us with the menu and pointing to the dish, asked us again if that’s what we ordered and we said yes, which he then set the very same plate onto our table. We could only stare at it. We did not really know that it was a mixed platter when we ordered, and so huge too. Oh, by the way, it’s called Friturra Mista… who would know that it’s a mixed platter? From the description in the menu, we thought that it was a salad with meat. Well, there’re lots of vegetables at the bottom of the plate… so I guess the description was correct afterall. Due to my rather limited vocabulary, I am unable to tell you all the stuff that was in the mixed platter. There were prawns, squid, clams, eggplant and some other stuff which I can’t identify… you identify from the picture loh… Once again, it met our expectations. The meat were fried until golden brown, and I swear I tasted a slight butter taste in the meat as well.

In conclusion, it was the most satisfying dinner that I had in Sabah. True, the price was a little bit steep, but it was well worth it… oh, by the way, the price of all the food above (including five drinks of lemon tea, peach tea and chocolate) was RM164.60 (inclusive of gov and service tax, of course). I think that this price is acceptable for such a tasty meal, with food that is not normally found everywhere.

Little Italy...

Can you believe that this is actually called large?...

Ravioli chicken with Amatriciana sauce...

Fetuchinne all novo with Salsa Primavera sauce

Trenette all novo with Marinara Vorde sauce...

Magherita Pizza with three extra toppings...

Friturra Mista...

It was around 10pm when we finished our dinner and we went straight back to our lodge. We played some cards and ate the tid-bits that we bought yesterday and pretty soon we were all snoring away on our beds…