Sunday, February 20, 2011

Sabah- Kota Kinabalu part 2

Philippines market is on the list of places to go on the 2nd day of a super hot Saturday which made us all settled down for a cooling huge coconut drink later on. Lots of dried seafood can be found from the fish to abalones, mussels, intestines, and harmless sea horses! 

dried abalones

dried fish skins, dried fishes, dried squids, dried intestines, etc.

poor harmless sea horses being sold for RM45 for two

And there's the usual sea shells and bobbling heads of hand crafts, various lengths and types of wooden face mask hanging all over... 

bobbling head hand crafts

hear no monkey, see no monkey and speechless monkey

wooden face masks

and
hand swearing monkeys too! =)
*bravo!* 

The view at waterfront just calms me down and if it hadn't been for the drops of rain pelting down on us, we would have stayed for beautiful view of sunset soon to come. 


see those rain clouds chasing us away?

Went to church as is was Sunday the next day, and me expecting a usual cross in the church got this instead. This was st Sacred Heart Cathedral in KK.


very creative indeed.

And the church grounds are huge, there's easily about three very big buildings and that's not even including the massive space allocated for cars. 
It could probably be a home to a new university.


given this view, it's just 1/3 of the church ground.
Imagine it in it's full view, massive! 
And as all Sundays, breakfast is always being served after the mass is over.


the hungry bro
There're lots of food to choose from, be it the soup mee that looks like it's bakso mee *lip-smacking goodness*. mee, kuey teow, bee hun, with toppings of sausages and fried eggs to the other corner of hot and steaming porridges, varieties of local cakes, pancakes, chinese breakfast style and drinks to choose from

and also this nutty yellow pancake!

Other places are Gaya Street and the Look out Point Tower. 
Headed off for lunch later on and we couldn't resist trying out their ABC's which came with this. Was told that it's actually very common for them to mix fruits with their ABC's.

with avocados

and fruits.

Sunset came to us when we're at the hotel and it's just beautiful. 
And yes the pictures are doing the talking.





breath taking indeed! 

For our last day, we all decided to have the yummylicious sabah seafood mee and their sabah laksa again. There's no way we can find their unique taste back home in KL. I'm so gonna miss it. 

Sabah seafood mee soup

Sabah laksa

And not forgetting that no trips are complete without 'ikan bakar'! 
Happy people we were after dinner, how are we not to be as it was delicious. 




really spicy kangkung belacan

white rice with asam pedas seafood.

the usual fried rice wrapped in egg omelet 

white rice and chicken 'paprik' 


taken on our way out in the morning as early as 7am

*hug*

Goodbye KK! I'll return again next for water activities. Who wants to join? =)

Sabah- Kota Kinabalu trip part 1

It's a week after Chinese New Year and as we took advantage of the holidays after that *well not really since we skip classes for the trip* off we are to the Land Below The Wind. We traveled late night so that we can have a fresh start on the following day. Imagine waking up and soaking in the fresh air from a totally different state, yes that's beautiful. I always have this crazy thing whenever I travel to another place where I always tend to stay in bed on the first day for a couple of minutes and just practically be under the comforter and look at the view from the window 
*and ignore the need to get ready to go out soon*

Since parents went out to collect our mpv that we rented for the trip, we well more like I basically took my time in getting ready while the tummy is rumbling away. But after like an hour or so, they came back with breakfast in tow and it's super delicious too. Something about the taste you just can't find in west Malaysia. Lucky us, breakfast is delish! 

We had Sabah Seafood Mee with extra helping of fresh prawns and fish slices. 


Next stop after breakfast is Mt Kota Kinabalu. 


On the way up we came some trinkets shop by the side of the road and I just couldn't resist having this!



Bro too couldn't resist!
How could we not? 


As soon as we came across this, 

The Guard House before we could go any further into Kundasang Park KK, 
we are on our way up, up and away! 





Traveling up, took a break for late lunch of Chinese snacks and cookies, mist were everywhere to the extend that we can only see a few meters in front of us. Imagine that. 

heading this way...

after 2 minutes.


And bro doing what he does best...



four square-ing! 


Then we traveled to Ranau and the view is simply to die for.


I was head over heels in love with this. *sigh*


somehow i was reminded of hobbits by this view.. *hmmph*


and the clouds... 


Came across the War Memorial of Kundasang.






Spotted the rainbow too! 


All this during our first trip, oh what a start! 



Saturday, February 5, 2011

It's Chinese New Year once again!

And when I thought it's going to be a rather quiet Chinese New Year this year, just as the clock struck 1am on the 1st of February, all my ears could hear was "..........." silence.. 
*I was very upset*
then
*ka-boom*
*ka-boom*
*pop*
*pop*
*boom*
*boom*
*ka-boom*
...
I was finally grinning from ear to ear as my neighbourhood is alive with the spirit of Chinese New Year. 

It goes on and on till I can't remember went as I fell asleep listening to them after running into the house to stop the thirsty mosquito from having a free meal so often. 

This year mum wanted to try out a different style of meal for our reunion dinner. So instead of the traditional meal we had, all the hard work that was put into preparing, cleaning, cutting, cooking, 
we had...

yee sang- of course!

with lots of 'keropok'

5 in 1 cold dish

grams yummy traditional made 'mo-yang'

and her home-made chilli *I'll perfer this anytime anywhere*

mum's version of shark's fin soup

braised broccoli with abalone and huge mushrooms cooked in oyster sauce 

steamed pomfret 

marinated yummy spicy prawns

our very own emperor's chicken

and dessert with a combo of sliced peaches and ice-cream

A very successful 8-course meal for our reunion dinner!
*super stuffed with food*