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…

Trip to Sabah (Day 1)

I woke up with a start as my handphone alarm rang. It was already 7:30 in the morning. I would have missed my flight if my flight was 8:30 as originally planned. But then again, I would have set my alarm clock sooner, won’t I? Duh…
Anyway, about one week before my flight to Sabah, the Air Asia contacted my friend who booked the tickets that the flight has been delayed. Delayed? And they know it one week before? Are they clairvoyant or something? Cancelled was more like it. What to do? We chose a flight to Sabah in a strange month, at a wierd day and in an ungodly hour. So, our 8:30 flight was changed to 12:30pm. It really makes my blood boil that they just informed us that the flight was delayed (for 4 freaking hours!) and did not attempt to do anything to placate us at all. To them, it is okay to delay the flight. Why? Because it was mentioned in the terms and conditions (that no one reads) that it is okay if the flight is delayed no matter what repercussions it would have on the customer's well-laid plans. On the other hand, if I were to inform them that I want to take a later flight, I would most probably end up buying another ticket to get on that plane. We were initially planning to go to the Tip of Borneo to enjoy the stunning ocean sunset. Imagine standing on top of a cliff with caressing wind blowing into your face as you enjoy the view of a fiery orb setting the sea water aflame in orange fire. Imagine the seawater in hues of blue, green, orange, red and yellow. Imagine the sounds of the seagulls chiming along with the soothing, sighing wind, singing praises to the sun for another job well done. All of that lost… lost just because of one phone call. Heck, they should’ve at the very least give some discount vouchers for our next purchase of flight tickets (which I think is a good marketing strategy too). However, all things said, I would still take Air Asia flights next time I need it because it is still the cheapest airline around and someone as poor as me need airlines as cheap as them. However, I would never be a loyal customer to them. The first sign of its prices going up and I’ll be going to sit in another plane.
Of course, these kind of thoughts were non-existent on the day itself. I have already rant and raved for the whole week and thus my mood that day was still good. I woke up to a beautiful morning and enjoyed a beautiful and full breakfast. Then, I travelled to KL Sentral to meet up with my friend, and together we travelled to LCCT on the SkyBus. One thing that intrigues me is that while SkyBus is RM9 (which I think is quite cheap already), there’s another bus, AeroBus that takes its passengers from KL Sentral to LCCT too at a price of RM8. I never knew the difference. I guess if I have the opportunity, I’ll take the AeroBus and give it a try. Anyhow, after meeting up with another two people at LCCT, we were all on our way to the plane.

Since Air Asia put us in a 12:30 flight, I did not have any lunch. I mean, I need to be at the gate at 12 noon (or so they said)… so if I had lunch before that, it won’t be lunch (not to mention I was still full from my breakfast)... and I could not have lunch in Sabah which we were scheduled to arrive at around 3pm because by then I would be a mad cannibal, feasting on the passengers. So, I was forced to eat in the plane. Needless to say, everything was overpriced (even more than Genting). Air Asia had already said that they would gain revenue from the sales of food to cover the rising cost of fuel. Anyway, one of my friend claimed that their nasi lemak was top notch… well, it’s RM8… so it had better be… and I was disappointed. Although not the worst nasi lemak that I ever had, it came close. But then again, what choice did I have? After finishing my ‘lunch’, I took a small nap, and suddenly, the captain announced that we were going to touch down! Yay! Since I never listened to the announcement made during the flight, I didn’t know that we were not allowed to use electronic products in the air field. So, I flipped out my super camera and took pictures of us coming down from the plane. I was reprimanded, of course, but the result is a rare picture that no common mortal would possess!

Red Sky Bus


Getting onto the plane...


The really expensive and limited selection of food...


My lunch... RM10 for that???!!!


Us coming down from plane... illegal picture :P

Anyway, the owner of the lodge that we were going to stay in came and pick us up. Yeah, very good customer service! However, it started to rain :(... and the plane captain announced that the weather in Kota Kinabalu was fair… really, one cannot trust those weather forecasts nowadays. The Kota Kinabalu city center is actually located very near to the airport. I think it took us only about 15 minutes to reach our lodge… City Park Lodge. There were five people in our group. Three boys and two girls. The lodge owner offered us a four person bedroom to the three of us. Hmmm... I wonder if we will have unwanted visitors tonight. You know, there is a rumour that all hotels would keep a few rooms unoccupied for some of the... erm... not paying guests... and so one should neveer ever force them to give you the rooms when they tell you that there is no room available. And it was also rumoured that sleeping alone in a room with two beds will attratct some of these non-paying customers... well, I supposed they won't dare to come since there are already three people in the room :P. Continuing the story, it was rather unfortunate that I forgot to take the picture of the bathroom… it was really huge, not lavish, but extremely huge!

The place that we are staying in KK...

Four beds for three person...

Rain or not, we were soon in front of the lodge trying to decide where to explore first. Being the only one who actually bothered to do some research online in the group, I suggested to them to have our lunner (lunch + dinner) at a restaurant located at the street just behind the lodge. Actually, the City Park Lodge is in a very strategic location. The famed Gaya Street is just behind the lodge and other attractions like Filipino Market and shopping complexes are just a stone throw’s away (if the stone is thrown by the Incredible Hulk or Superman :P)… anyway, a lot of places are just within walking distance.

So, we went to this Gaya Street and found this restaurant called Yu Kee. I saw this restaurant’s name in Wikipedia listed as one of the must tries. So, I figured that if it is listed in Wikipedia, then it should not go wrong. Oh, by the way, Yu Kee is a restaurant that serves Bak Kut Teh (BKT)... don’t know how to describe it for those who do not know about this dish… it’s basically pork simmered in strong Chinese herbal soup.
Anyhow, this shop serves BKT in a slightly different style. The dishes were served separately instead in one big claypot as practiced by shops in Klang, Selangor. One thing that you should take note of is that this is not the Sabah serving style because I saw other shops serving this dish just like that in Klang. Since this is only a lunner, we ordered only a few types of meat just enough for us to last till dinner. Well, the soup they used is a little bit different from West Malaysia style. I am no expert in herbs, so I could not identify which different herbs they used but the resulting soup was something sharp. Yeah, that’s right, the taste was sharp. I think it has lots of 'dong guai' in it... said to be very good for females. Unfortunately, the BKT falls short of expectations. Heck, it could not even be called good. One of the reason that a lot of people eat this dish is because it stirs up one’s appetite. However, the BKT served in this shop was not very appetizing. Also, since they separate all the dishes into small bowls, the meat and soup became cold very fast. But we were silly and stupid enough to have thought that each bowl contains different kinds of soup... after numerous tries, we found out that it is the same soup :(. Moral of the story… never ever trust everything the internet says… or I suspect that the article in Wikipedia was written by a foreigner kua… so since they have not tried Klang BKT before, they thought that this BKT is very good already.

Remember the name... avoid at all costs


Small, cute, but unappetizing...

After a particularly unappetizing and dissatisfying lunner, we went to a nearby shopping complex called Milimewah (which is actually the Store) to purchase some tid-bits for our supper! Still haven't have dinner and we were thinking about supper. Fortunately for us, by this time, after a million tries, one of our group member finally managed to contact their friends in Sabah. The most important thing is that, they have transportation!!! Initially, I was suggesting another restaurant to have our seafood dinner, but since our rather unfortunate incident of following the internet’s advice for our lunner, we decided to follow the advice of a local. Thus, we were whisked away in a half an hour ride towards one of the various famous seafood restaurants near KK. The place that we had our seafood dinner was called Fisherman Village… it doesn’t sound very modern, but hey, we are having seafood in fisherman village… there’re no fresher seafood than that!
Since I am no expert (again) in seafood, so I left it to the locals to order the food while I enjoyed myself goggling at half naked men… yup, you heard it right… one of the Fisherman Village main attraction is live show/dance by the locals wearing in their traditional gear. I had not touch geography or history ever since I left secondary school so you must forgive me that I have no idea which tribe it is. And sorry, no pictures because it is unsuitable for children who might browse the net and accidentally stumble on my website :P. So, you have to settle with some brief description from me. There were half naked men dancing with FULLY CLOTHED women on the stage and then they would also show their skills in using blowpipes by bursting balloons placed high up and far away on stage. Customers are also allowed to try it though I gave it a pass.
After feasting our eyes, it’s time for the real feast! First, there’re prawns! Well, to be frank, I have never been a fan of prawns (though I really would like to try the legendary lobster!). Mainly it’s because I need to work before eating. I have to peel of its shell before consuming it and I hate that. I prefer food that I can immediately put into my gaping maw. As expected, the prawns were very fresh and the meat was actually sweet even though it is just steamed prawns. Next, we had a clam like stuff… well, my friend’s friend did tell me what it is, but I forgot already mah… these clam like thingy were also quite fresh and sweet and succulent (hey, I’m commenting on seafood mah… so there’re only a few words that can describe them loh… fresh, sweet, natural…). Please note that I am also not a fan of seafood. I prefer chicken, pork, lamb over seafood anytime of the day. Seafood must always be cooked in a way that one can taste its freshness… in other words, tasteless-style cooking loh… I really don’t know why people can eat seafood just so that they can taste its freshness. If you want fresh, go eat sushi lah… I have always preferred lots of spice, lots of sugar, lots of oil, lots of everything in my dishes.
Well, enough of my blabbering, the third dish that we had was the so called Sabah Vege. Seriously, I can’t tell the difference. Although I really did not eat anything like that before, a lot of other kinds of vegetables that are available in whole of Malaysia are better than it loh… but of course, it’s sweet, fresh and juicy. The fourth dish was actually a soup… although the meat and vegetables are more than the amount of water. It’s a sea cucumber soup… Again, sweet, fresh and natural :P. Then, the fifth dish came and it was the first proper food that night… here comes butter fried crabs!!! Imagine the salty butter mixed with the sweet pearl white meat of crabs… add in some spice, dip it in boiling wok of oil… and voila, golden brown heavenly crab nuggets are served. Since it was soft shell crab, I did not have to go through the hassle of peeling off the shell. I popped the crabs into my mouth as I would have KFC’s popcorn chicken… and it was amazing… the butter, the oil, the calories… aahhhh… this is what we called food my dearest all. Not just only the Fisherman Village, actually, this dish is famous throughout the whole of KK and you must order it if you ever find yourself in a seafood restaurant in Sabah.
After the crabs, the next dish was another Sabah only (or East Malaysia only) available dish. Again, I have not a whit on what it’s called, but it looks very similar to seashells. The most unique thing about this dish is not the taste (although it is an acquired taste), but rather the method to be used to eat it. First, one must locate a black tail that is peeking out of the shell. Then, one would need to stick a fork into its tail (ouch), and pull its whole body out. Then, we have to discard the black tail, dip the meat in a special sauce (special meaning different here, not tasty) and throw the whole thing into our mouths. If it’s not for the sauce, which is like chilli plus lime and plus other unknown stuff, the meat would be tasteless. So, why would anyone eat a meat that cannot be consumed without any additives? I have no idea. But it was an eye-opener.
As for the finale, it was a what I’d call thai style fish. Well, I don’t know if it’s thai style or sabah style, but the sauce placed on top of the fish was sour and spicy… and it was the best dish the whole evening… even better than my calorie-filled crabs! Yay! The fish, needless to mention, was fresh and sweet (again…) but it was the sauce that made it a winner. We were already at the end of our feast and yet, my appetite was suddenly perked while I eat the fish! It doesn’t look much, but it really was the best dish of the night. Finally, the bill came, and it was RM456.38 (inclusive of all those taxes, of course)… and as I said, I am no expert when it comes to seafood, so you be the judge whether it’s expensive or not… and oh, the meal was for 8 person loh… I apologize for the pretty uninformative dinner, but hey, when I eat, I eat loh, I don’t bother to remember names especially when they don’t have a menu to get the official English translation of the dishes and since I don't like seafood, I don't have many adjectives to describe them. However, in conclusion, it was quite a nice meal even if I don’t favour seafood. The seafood was fresh and it was not overcooked, I got to eat some special stuff and also some really good food. Thus, this restaurant’s food quality is acceptable and even recommended. The only glitch is that it is quite far away from the city center loh… and oh, by the way, there are several quite famous seafood restaurant in the city center too, but it is rumoured that they charge almost 40% higher than if one were to eat at the outskirts of the city.

Shouldn't it be Fishermen's Village?


Prawns... fresh and sweet...


Clams... fresh and sweet...


Sabah Vege... fresh and sweet :P


Sea cucumber soup...


The amazing butter fried crabs... must try!!!


Seashell like thingy... (not available in normal restaurants in West M'sia)


This is what's inside...


The most delicious dish of all... thai style fish


RM456.38 for the above dishes...

So, what do we do after we eat? Eat again, of course! One of my our Sabah friend offered to drive us around to have a peek at Kota Kinabalu and pretty soon, we were at one of the numerous beach in KK. If you don’t know, KK is near the seaside and most of KK are actually reclaimed land. However, as it was very dark and there are no streetlamps at the beach, we were unable to take any breathtaking pictures of the sea… and since it’s a public beach, so it wasn’t really that nice. Anyway, there is a food court near the beach and pretty soon, we were seated at one of the tables. Our Sabah friend once again introduced us to a drink that I have never encountered in West Malaysia… avocado. Huh? Isn’t avocado used in those facial washing products? Called ‘buah susu’ by the locals, the avocado juice was smooth and milky. Tasteless by itself, the avocado is supposed to be consumed with condensed milk. I must say that for anyone visiting Sabah, they really should try this avocado juice. It’s almost like yogurt… full-bodied and sweet… not to mention good for skin complexion (as if I need any help in that area).

Avocado juice... really must try it!!!

After recharging our youthful skins, we proceeded to one of the 5-star hotel available in Kota Kinabalu. There, we visited the toilet (sorry, no pictures), and also the famed seaport where rich people from all over the world parked their ships here. It was said that the rent here in one month is more than enough to cover for one year rent in a 5-star hotel! Well, I could not confirm this rumour since I don’t have any rich friends… well, you all should really work harder so that I can have some rich friends!

Rich people's ships... sigh when can I get one?

It was way past midnight when we finished taking our pictures of the ships. Since we are supposed to be taking part of some extreme sport the next day, we decided to retire for the day. We went back to the lodge and found that the door was locked! We were planning to scream “Fire! Fire!” when we noticed a bobbing head at the counter. So, we press the bell at the front door (what? Didn’t noticed it earlier mah) and we went to our respective rooms. It was around 1a.m. when darkness enclosed over me…

Movie review 2: Hancock... insurance anyone?

Title: Hancock

Running time: 1 hour 32 minutes

Director: Peter Berg

Genre: Action, Sci-fi, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy

Directed by Peter Berg with Will Smith leading the cast, Hancock falls short of my expectations. The preview of Hancock was beautifully edited, which led me to believe that there were numerous of clever jokes, superb visual effects and great storyline.
The movie is about a superhero with an attitude problem. It’s understandable since there are no “How to be a Superhero for Dummies” available in the market. Thus, Hancock (Will Smith) found himself being hated for each and every “good deed” he did for the residents of Los Angeles. While not exactly a bad person, he lacks control over his abilities and emotion. Imagine Hancock saving someone from being crushed by a train resulting in the whole train being smashed into bits. It’s the typical save one, kill a hundred situation. Anyway, in the movie, he saved someone (Ray Embrey by Jason Bateman) who actually appreciated the gesture. Being a public relation professional, Ray tried to repay Hancock by rebuilding his hero image.
The movie started off to be quite nice. Some of the jokes were actually quite nice. However, as the show dragged on, the jokes started to fall flat on its face and I started to fall out of the storyline. Many things were left unexplained. If the director would be so good as to add another 30 minutes to the movie, I’m sure that would have been able to fill the gaping holes that made a lot of audiences uneasy. (**Spoiler alert**) For example, the main villain of the movie said something about taking the power from Hancock, but I don’t see how he was going to do it. Also, he broke out of prison to have his revenge. However, as a normal human who has no idea about Hancock’s weakness, I am really curious as to how he expect himself to succeed.
Up until now I still don’t really understand why Charlize Theron left Hancock in the movie. I mean, you don’t really just leave your boyfriend sitting in the ER ward when you found out that he has amnesia, do you? In the end, the movie left so many unanswered questions that I could not enjoy the movie wholly. I was told that the character Hancock was based on a comic book but not the storyline. Well, I just hope that the comic book fares better than this movie…

Observation: Love kills... (You'll have to watch the movie to know what I'm saying)

Bottomline: If there’s any other movie that you would like to watch too, chances are that would be better than this one…

Bamboo Ranking: 3.0 / 5.0

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…