Day 3 - Journey to Kudat (July 16th, 2011)

At first we thought that we're not gonna make it to Kudat since we heard news that roads to Kudat were closed due to some international festival. I am not sure what the exact name of the festival was but when i google-d, it was an International Music Festival which were held in Tip of Borneo, Tg Simpang Mengayau.

Our journey started right after we had our breakfast. The journey took about 3 and half hours and you have to bear with the road condition along the road. Really test our patience especially when we were packed like sardine in Avanza, and there were 8 adults, 2 toddlers & 1 baby! Too bad since we couldn't get van at very last minute but glad that we still managed to get transport.

We are just based on Sabah map provided by the car rental to go to Kudat. From KK city, heading to Tuaran, upto Kota Belud and follow signboard to Matunggong. Before you reach Matunggong, there's a place where people are selling Jagung Bakar (Sweet Corn) but they burn it in whole corn without even removing the leaves, stalks, ears and silks. The un-peeled whole corn is put into fire until the skin turned black due to burning. Rest assured you will get "naked" sweet corn when you buy it coz they will surely remove the leaves, etc. I didn't get the photo now coz it's in Nasha's hp. I'll upload it once i got it. J

It was about 3PM when we reach Kg Gombizau with sizzling rain. The bee farm is closed due to rain and since we need to make a U-turn, we have to go further in the farm (trust me it doesn’t look like a farm at all). The boxes which accommodate the bees are just in the road side and it looks like postbox in white. we bought few bottles of honey and our expectation that buying honey from its farm will be cheaper than market is absolutely wrong. They are reluctant to offer a discount, not even a cent! I realized this is not our first time when dealing with Sabahan (sorry Sabahan) but this is for real. Maybe they received lots of tourists so they don't give a damn. Pissed off but we still buy the honey considering our long journey and we do not want to feel regret later on.

Our next journey is to the Tip of Borneo, Tg Simpang Mengayau. It is a most northern tip of Borneo, where South China Sea lingers and meets the Sulu Seas. You will go through a lot of "simpang" (junction) before u reached there (suits the name, huh?). I heard the sunsets and full moons are just beautiful and we can see the beautiful beach of Pantai Kalampunian on the left. Lots of people and suddenly a policeman gave a signal for us to stop. Been informed that there's a festival at the Tip and entry by car is prohibited at the moment. Since we were running out of time and it's getting dark (note that Sabah is about 1 hour ahead than us in Peninsular but the clock time has been standardized like we are in Peninsular), so their 5PM looks like 6PM already. We decided to go back to KK without even step our foot at the Tip of Borneo.. L

I asked the same police on the nearest petrol station and he said it is in Kudat town and we must hurry coz the petrol station is open until 7PM only. OMG.. we only have 1 and half hour before the petrol station closed. Everybody kept quite in the car and i know deep down inside everybody is worried sick since we couldn't find any petrol station to refill our fuel along the road. We were in rural areas, peeps! And we don't want to be stuck there in the middle of jungle, hills, whatever you called them. The road to Kudat town is scary man.. as if we taken the wrong route. At last we reached Kudat town and get to refuel our car in time. Alhamdulillah..

In conclusion, nothing special in Kudat especially if you don't get your step off at Tip of Borneo. Or maybe because we do not have much time to explore the areas. Didn't get a chance to try Kudat foods as most of their shops were closed early by 7PM. Imagining we have to go back to KK city and it took us about 3 and half hours more.. ** sigh **

Trip to Sabah Borneo – Day 1 & 2

It was about a week our family vacation to Sabah from 14^th July – 21^st July 2011.

Day 1

Our Air Asia’s flight from JB to KK is on14th July @1815hrs and we reached KK about 2 hours and 15 minutes later. There were big numbers of us (12 including the baby) and the airport transfer has been arranged earlier on, it costs us RM50 from KK Terminal 2 airport to Marina Court , Kota Kinabalu which is just about 7 minutes drive. Expensive? Maybe it’s worth considering our numbers.

Adik baby in the flight for the first time. Luckily she's well behaved.

oh and it was Adam's first time in flight as well. He was soooo excited and kept on telling us that he will become a pilot one day. amen..

We stayed at Marina Court Resort Condominium which located at the heart of Kota Kinabalu city and it just a walking distance to the shopping malls, markets, nightlife activities and it saves our transportation cost. It is a 3 bedroom apartment which is fully furnished and complete with kitchenette, fridge, fully air-conditioner, water heater, astro, washing machine, towels and we can even use condominium's facilities such as swimming pool, gym, etc. the rate is MYR260 per night and i booked it with agent named Jack. i think nobody else would offered such rate coz based on my survey, the rate is around rm300-380 per nite. And of course I would strongly recommend Jack to any other people who want to stay at Marina Court as well.

so this is the famous marina court. some says it's a place for the hooker as well. ewwwww~

Our unit is facing sea view for the first 4 nights and pool view for the balance 2 nights.

Since we reached KK on 8.30PM and after freshen up, some of us went down to Api-Api Centre which is just behind the Marina Court to buy some foods and drinks. At that hour, there were only Mamak shop (they opened 24 hours like what we have here), 7-eleven and Orange (rival for 7-11 i supposed – u can easily found 7-11 and Orange at city area, so no worries). Oh ya, every plastic bags being charged 20 cents EVERYDAY and not only on Saturday like we have in here. We went back to our apartment, had dinner and watching TV while out there we can see the road in front of Marina Court was full with cars parked along the road (there were a row of disco, pub, bar) at the waterfront and we were thinking to go there too some other night. Hihi. Oh and that's explained on the hooker thingy at Marina Court.. huhu.

Day 2

I woke up at 7AM and went to market with my MIL to buy veggies, seafood and any other thing for our breakfast and lunch while any other family members were still sleeping. I left Adam & baby Adriana a.k.a Adik Baby for hubby to take care while i went out. We walked along the waterfront where i can clearly see now the row of pub/disco/bar. After that we reached market where people are selling various types of veggies and we were rushed to buy it since everybody’s like want to close their business for the day already, even though we thought that it was still early. Everything is so fresh and bigger in sizes.

Went straight to SAFMA building in front of jetty which we can see from far. It is wet market and they’re selling fresh seafood for even double cheaper and even double or triple bigger from our market here!! Imagining a big blue fin tuna selling for MYR24/each (not kg), crabs for rm10-12 per kg, cuttlefish, prawns.. OMG!! OMG!! huhu

It was quite hard to get taxi in the morning so we decided to go back to Marina Court with our full hands carrying veggies, seafood, etc and we managed to reach Marina Court by walking after few stop to rest. Had scramble eggs for breakfast, fish n veggies for lunch before all of us went out sightseeing in KK city.

Our first (first? whatever..) destination is somewhere around market which myself n MIL went earlier this morning. Why market? Because we can see there’s an activity there. It was like a night market and i was like so “jakun” seeing lots of things they’re selling there. Huhu.

Stunned by big prawns, cuttlefish, etc, we stopped by at a stall selling grilled seafood in the Philippine's Market. it was like being “slaughtered” knowing the price. there's a few stall selling grill seafood and the price range is same. There’s no way to bargain (or maybe we didn’t have the bargain skills or they just don’t want to coz we are tourist?). So we ended up having a middle size fish for RM35 and a plate of medium size cuttlefish for RM12 shared among us. They served saucing dip as well (just don’t suite my taste bud at all, so i prefer having the seafood without any dipping sauce).

the cuttlefish is around MYR12-MYR25 each. and the fish is around MYR20-MYR40 depending on its size.

price for the lobster & prawn is around MYR8-MYR25 each depending on its size. expensive isn't it?

The conclusion is, raw seafood is cheap there but when it’s cooked by Sabahan, the prices would be high u can’t imagine and i can’t accept coz it was only a stall in the market and not restaurant. Cisss.. So we bought lots of raw seafood and rather cook it ourselves at our condo! Nyum!! too bad i forgot to snap photos on our seafood dinner.

After had our dinner at condo, me, hubby, nasha and massurie went out to nearby Centrepoint. Just want to survey what outlets they have in there and was surprised that lots of shops already closed despite the time is only 8.30PM! Went back to Marina Court and decided to sleep early since we have a long journey to Kudat on the next day!

** to be continued ** :p

Sometimes..

some things better left untold.

yeah.

Sakit bontot aku..

Adoiiiii tetibe bontot aku pun terasa ngilu. Ngeri sungguh. Yg si minah ni pun pegi panjat pagar apehal.. dah la saiz mcm tu (sorry la aku bkn nak mengutuk tp agak2 la klau nak panjat pagar sekalipun).

Cer citer cane nak settle kes pagar ni? Adakah bontotnye akan dibelah/toreh, kuarkan besi n jahit or potong hujung besi pagar yg runcing tu, pastu tarik besi tu dari bawah? Ohhhh by any means pun, betul2 menyeksakan.. I can’t imagine (sweating all over).

credit to blog buaya-merah.

Mood: Upload Pics

saje suke2 nak upload pics.

needless to say, photo can describe thousands word (cheeeewaahhhh)..

Hey, I'm Back!

Lama giler tak posting pape.. igtkan aku dah tak boleh log in blog ni lagi. kot2 psl tak active or lupe password.. huhu. ape khabar kengkawan lame? ;)

last posting masa aku in early stage of pregnancy. sekarang adriana dah 5 months pun.. gile lamer.. dek kebizian kat opis + rumah.. huhu

teruk btul pompuan ni tido... ;p

let me introduce a new member in our family. :)

Adriana Darina was born in 6th December 2010. 2.5kg jek, besar sket dari adam. syukur atas kurniaanNya. nnt ada masa ku upload pics. Adam Danial pulak dah 3 years pun. playful, catching & picking up sooo fast (pantang salah sebut).. both of them kept us very busy at home!

both were sent to childcare nearby our housing area. Adriana (known as Adik Baby - panggilan favourite Adam), selalu sgt batuk + flu. baru nak baik, stat balik.. biase la dok kat childcare.. kesian.. tp what to do? kat area umah aku ni susah giler nak cari babysitter. :(

tgk la cane.. still searching..