AIRPORT HACKS EVERY TRAVELLER NEEDS TO KNOW [Art by Mart Virkus]

Mart Virkus

brothers vs sisters

guys are always practical i think, and gals usually are more 'in tune' with the receiver...

food temptation

On one sweet day, i was watching cake boss on tv.. The cakes look so alluring, and it made my mouth waters.. The next thing i knew, i was in my car starting the engine and drove to the nearest bakery.. I almost bought the whole 1kg sponge cake and luckily i saw this much smaller and cheaper box of cakes (sort of cupcakes).. I bought it, drove home and continued watching cake boss.. Talk about the power of advertisment or in this case, tv shows.. Or maybe it just because of my weak-willed.. I think it is the combination of both..

[kota kinabalu] day 2: borneo upside down house, mount kinabalu, desa dairy cattle farm

13/09/2015 (sunday)

we started the day early on our second and also last day here. first, we had breakfast at the nearby mcD. done with breakfast, we went straight to one of the famous tourist spot here in kk, rumah terbalik @ the upside down house. we are not allowed to take any pictures while touring inside the house. but we surely took a tons of pictures at the 3D wonder museum which also part of the attraction here.

breakfast at mcD with yati and the rest (not in the picture, hehe..)

the infamous borneo upside down house

having a blast time posing with the 3D arts

amongst the last photos taken before proceeding the journey

our next destination of the day was really suggested by the worker at the upside down house. our original plan was once done with the upside down house, we wanted to go straight to tanjung aru park. she told us to go to mount kinabalu park and desa cattle dairy farm. we were very glad to do as she suggested. otherwise, we would be missing two beautiful and amazing places. the drive was a little bit uphill. thanks again to our experienced and skilled driver, fiza, we made it to the park. the view is breathtaking. you could see the top of mount kinabalu up close.

see see, mount kinabalu!

after enjoying the view and fresh air, we drove to desa cattle dairy farm. again, the view was simply spectacular but the air is not so fresh. despite the view, you will smell the animals' manure. you'll see many cows grazing the grass. sometimes, it made you feel like you are in new zealand. eventhough, i've never been to new zealand myself, i may have watch a documentary on it. you could also see how fresh milks are processed and you even feed baby animals. they are very cute and will feast (mostly milk and hay) what you give them greedily. i gave a bottle of milk to one of the kid, and it took him only maybe 15 seconds to finish it. do buy the milk here because it tastes so good, very fresh and all...

cows everywhere

then, we went back to our last destination of the day, before going back to peninsular, tanjung aru beach. we had our late lunch here while waiting for the sunset. they are a lot people around having fun. most of them are families. sunset finally came and we must be getting to the airport. we returned our rented car there and said goodbye to kk. maybe, someday we would come again and do the things we haven't got the chance to do.. i also left my sun hat in the rented car. may it be a momento to the car owner, haha...

tiles of memory

sayonara kk!

ps: finally, i am done with the kota kinabalu updates.. i think i'm left with putri's wedding and my most recent adventure in manila.. please be patient with me, i'm begging you.. hehe, i'll try my best to write the entries as soon as i can.. thank you for reading.. (if there are readers other than myself) but, i seem to realize i write this blog not because i want it to be read (and it would actually be nice when there's a reader). i just write it to store my memory and my moment of life.. when i had the chance to read my past entries, it really helps me recall things that i may have forgotten if not for this blog. well, every person is unique and special and will have own various reasons to do things, in this case 'blogging!' thanks again for reading!!! ^_^

[kota kinabalu] day 1: monsopiad cultural village, lok kawi wildlife park, bukit kokol & kampung nelayan

12/09/2015 (saturday)

finally i could find the time to write this entry. i'm not busy or something like that. i just have to find the mood to write, hehe.. honestly, i couldn't remember this trip well. i will just it according to my fragments of memories. you could find the flight and hotel details (as well as the itinerary) here.

our flight is at 7:50am. someone (i don't remember who, but i think it might be my parents or my sister or even my brother in law, haha..) send yati, aisyah and i to the airport. we met fiza there. we dropped our luggage (already self checked-in by web), had breakfast and boarded the plane.

the four of us are vacationing again, yay!

once we arrived, our rental car was already waiting (fiza made the arrangement). we drove or actually fiza drove to our hotel. since it was still early for us to check in, we just dropped our things and went straight to our first destination of the day, monsopiad cultural village. we watched a couple of traditional dances, sumazau and the bamboo one. we even given a chance to try the sumpit, a long wooden blowpipe, from which poison-tipped or barbed darts are blown, used primarily for hunting. surprising or more to coincidentally, i was good at it. i popped two balloons with only one dart.

after that, we were free to roam the village. we went on the 'hanging bridge/suspension bridge.' the funny thing is, we thought the village we saw after the bridge is included in the tour. it turned out that it was a real village. we were told (kindly) to turn around and get back to the tour side. we were then given a tour to the 'house of skulls.' that was the end of our visit here at the village. oh, we also stumbled upon a wedding here. seems this place could be rented as a wedding venue.

sumazau dance

some of the attractions here

house of skulls

sumazau, sumpit and suspension bridge

our next destination of the day is lok kawi wildlife park. it felt like a kid again, going to the zoo fro the very first time. the park is not as big as the national zoo, but it still has its own charm. my favourite part here is watching the elephants. the calves are very cute playing with one another. and the next is watching the otters swimming playfully.

aren't the animals cute?

we went back to the hotel afterwards to properly check in and freshen up. then, we resumed our plan of the day by going to bukit kokol to view the sunset. i knew of this from the tripadvisor. i always use tripadvisor in planning trips. the drive uphills is quite challenging. luckily fiza is on good driver. when we arrived at the top, there's a restaurant there. we received quite a strange look from the people that were already there. maybe, it was because we were the only muslims (wearing hijab and all). we ordered drinks and snacks while waiting. and the waiting was worth it. the sunset was very beautiful. we also got a view of some people doing 'parachuting', is this even a word? huhu..

WOW!

finally, the EVENT that we've been waiting for, the EVENT that really bring us to KK is here!!! and that's it the 'seafood feasting' event. this event took place at the famous kampung nelayan. once seated at our dining table, we went to choose the meals we want from the water tanks. for sure, we chose the lobster (it costs us around RM130++) and several other seafood. our meal was accompanied by several traditional performances. after dinner, we did a little bit of shopping and called it a day!

a bit of the performances

so many options to choose from

us with our chosen menus

pic with the performers

it's shopping time!!!

ps: day 2 coming soon...

job transfer

this is quite an old topic but still i want to post about it. early in january this year, i got transferred from my job in putrajaya to my hometown in segamat, johor. i still work as an immigration officer, only changing the workplace. the reason for this change are;

1. my parents especially my mom, worry about me working there. because if i haven't mentioned it before, than i would mention it here. i always skipped my job or easily said i always AWOL. my yearly leaves were finished and the extra days i AWOL will be deducted from my pay. eventhough i stayed with my sister, she's busy with her own job and family so she couldn't look after me tentatively. by working in segamat, my mom would be there be to force me to go to work, haha.. (she did it quite a few times now, really!)
2. cut cost; by living here, i would save a lot of money. i've mentioned earlier that i bought a house in cyberjaya. if the montly house loan should be deducted from my pay, i would only be left with only around RM200/month. that would not be enough if i live in putrajaya but when i live with my parents, it would be sufficient. anyway, i already cancelled buying the house after having discussed the pros and cons with my family. yay, more money for me!!!

well, those are the two obvious reasons. there would be several mini reasons that i don't think need to be mentioned. so, as i was leaving putrajaya, that means, i would be living my good friends. so, they held a couple of farewell parties for me and i received a few parting gifts from them as well. it was sad really, but with today means of communication, we could get in touch with each other easily.

office farewell party

HASYAR farewell party

FYS farewell party

the gifts

unwinding at gunung ledang [mount ophir]

there surely will be a time when you are at your limit and you need a time off of all your hectic routine. eventhough, my routine is not that hectic, i still need time to unwind. luckily enough, my hometown is only 30 minutes drive away from the infamous gunung ledang. there is a legend about this mountain and it's call 'lagenda puteri gunung ledang' or directly translated into 'the legend of the mount ophir princess.' i think the malay sound much more better than the english one though, huhu...

i drove early one morning and arrived there around 8am. there's a spot there that become our family officially spot. everytime we go there, we will always be at the spot. i got the spot all by myself until the time i left at around 12pm. actually gunung ledang has always been our family vacation favourite place since i was small. i even nearly drown here once. Alhamdulillah my sister was there to save me. i don't really know how to swim even until now, huhu.. but, i sort of know how to float.

things you need to bring (extra cloth, food and drink, book etc)

what a tranquil sight

see the clear waters

you could read a book in peace here

who could resist jumping in? i for one, couldn't!

stayed in until hand became like this, huhu..

[SONG] SNSD (Girls' Generation/소녀시대) One Afternoon (어떤 오후)