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Monday, January 18, 2010

"Kuching? Did the pilot say Kuching?!!!!"

Location: Kota Kinabalu, West Malaysia
Date: 17 - 21 Dec 2009
Zack's birthday and Megan's 1st holiday!

Leaving for the airport..

"Let's go mummy! Let's go!!"


don't you think Megan look smashing in her travelling outfit? ;)
sundress with leggings, topped with a crochet cardigan
she was warm and toasty! ;)


in the plane with her dummies (2 of them!) and a rattle..
good gal slept through most of the take-offs and landings.
This will be Megan's 3rd flight.. Zack says Megan's 1st holiday is to the Maldives.. when she was only a few week old seedling :P

A moment of our years of travel we'd never forget:
We were in the plane, all cosy and ready for take-off. The pilot made his usual introduction and suddenly, we heard something, "......will be landing in Kuching..."

"Did the pilot just said Kuching?!!!"

There was a moment of silence. We looked at each other.

Zack then took out our e-ticket to check.

No. of stops: 1

"Isaac Chan! There is a stopover!!"
We were flying to Kuching then on to Kota Kinabalu... hahahhahah!

Zack handled the arrangement for this trip while i took a backside. I had been handling all our trips so he had gotten rusty. He didnt realised that 1 stop means a stopover. He thought: Singapore - Kota Kinabalu = 1 stop. Hahahhaha! I too didnt check and noticed it's via Kuching. Usually at the airport, Zack handles everything: our passports, filling up our embarkment cards and all (i know i'm one lucky gal ;) ). All i gotta do is hold his hand and window shop at DFS.. hehe. Anyway.. we had a good laugh over this. Oh my... :)
For all trips, one essential item to pack along is a sense of humour. Things will screw up and don't always go as planned. Being able to laugh and go along is a small attribute that makes a big difference. It's our holiday and we sure are not gonna let little hiccups spoil our time together ;)

Arrived at our hotel in the evening..
Gosh.... Zack did an excellent job for our accomodation!
The hotel is lovely!
and he got us a seaview room :)
view is lovely as you will see later.

First thing first.... Megan gets her bath!
She fits perfectly in the basin... hahahaha










then Zack and I were off to fill our stomachs..
only cafe open then was Cafe Boleh.. 24hrs.







nearing midnight and looking fresh
must be the holiday air ;)

Our morning view...

the marina..


helicopter pad to the left..





Megan...... bright-eyed and bushy tail



she slept through the night!
only woke at 7.30am... good gal!

We went to town for shopping!
Hotel provides free shuttle service to all the shopping malls in town.
Centrepoint.. the largest in KK.
looked more like Lucky Plaza.. haha
found a FOS shop! and i bought 7 pieces for Megan.. hahaha!
the ralph lauren pieces i got were like RM30 only!
happily pick and pass it to Zack to pay...
later he was like, "Megan's clothes cost as much as my t-shirts!"
(and he'd only wear themfor 3 mths) hehe...

Zack got 4 tees, Megan got 7... and then i realised...
i got nothing for myself!!

Rained in the afternoon......



so it's time for a nap!

Seafood dinner!



crowded...
locals come here too!

There was another seafood place called Portview which was pricier.
thats where the tourists goes but we didnt bother.
came here instead and were really glad we did!


Zack had much fun going around picking the seafood and deciding how he wanted them cooked.


mantis prawns....
Mark and fu raved about this...
but somehow we didnt enjoy it much.


gosh.. the sambal kangkong was sooooooooooo good!!!
never tasted such great kangkong in spore!


this one... my fav!!


stingray too was good!


i can eat a whole plateful!




our good gal was asleep.. and i could enjoy my dinner thoroughly :)

Cocktails after dinner!



Long Isle Tea....
get me buzzed? takes more than 1 long isle sweetheart.. hahhaha!












:)

Breakfast spread was goooooood

"Daddy is taking so long at the breakfast line..."

After breakfast we took a stroll around the hotel grounds...
it's really huge!















clear waters!


men with strollers look particularly dashing! ;)






i wanna yacht like this!
1 probably cost a house in Spore.. haha


can see our room from the marina..


little gal asleep...



After a long walk.. we had smoothies at the pool bar.






More seafood dinner...

they put the mantis prawns in bottles :(
so poor thing.....
why can't they make their last days more enjoyable? :(


we're having some of you tonight!






Didnt enjoy our 2nd night of seafood..
wasnt as good as the night before..
and Megan was awake so eating crabs was quite a pain..
she did fall asleep but not too soundly.



The Sabah folks were really friendly!
they love babies and were all considerate..
we had our dinner indoor and there were 4 tables..
we occupied 1 and a family occupied another.
Megan was fussing and managed to get her to sleep in her stroller..
the family was quiet so as not to wake Megan up..
Shortly after.. a big group came in and the family was hushing them up to be quiet. They were all in fact family. 1 lady actually came over to push the stroller to lull Megan to sleep and i could have my dinner. Zack and I were touched and really impressed.. :)

Having said that...
Taxi-drivers are crooks! Zack say they are crooks everywhere in the world. So in Sabah, the taxi-drivers are supposed to run by meter. But many don't and will fix a price. RM10 is the usual rate for anywhere in town. The hotel staff told us the locals don't go above RM15. So on the few occasions where we had to take cabs back to the hotel from town, we fix it at RM10. It was a 15mins drive.

We were at this small shopping mall and wanted to go to Centrepoint. It was too far for a walk especially with Megan.. and was like less than 5mins drive. Hailed a cab and he said RM10. It's too steep for a 5mins drive! So Zack said to run by meter and he agreed readily. Kinda puzzled us. We went into the cab and he switched on the meter. Starting price: RM10!!! It didnt jump. When we came out, we confronted him.. and he said, "Yeah go by meter, starting price RM10." What a creep!!! I slammed the door.

Left a bad taste in our mouths....
but like Zack said... this group of crooks are everywhere, in every country.
Tsk tsk....

Our last full day in KK..
more eating!
we went back to Centrepoint and realised that the top floor had more shops! And the shops were like the ones back home! Levis.. Secret Recipes and what have you..
Of crse.. when in Msia, we dont ever pass up a chance to dine at Secret Recipe. The prices were the same but in ringgit. Thats more than half the price ;)

our favourite... Irish Lamb Stew



Didnt loiter much cos we had to be back at the hotel by 4pm.
Why?
Cos Zack put his name down for the fishing trip but he was the only one.. haha. Minimum is 2 so he was hoping there were other takers. Fishing trip was at 4pm so we had to be back before that to check if there were other takers. There weren't... hahaha. My poor baby... *hug hug* So no fishing for Zack in KK ;P

Went back to our room for some R&R..
with a nice room... we'd better spend more time in there!
had some fun with Megan in the bathtub ;)

Evening.... Sunset at Tanjong Aru Beach :)

nice chillout place.. with pubs along the beach.












we had the RM5 Mango juice at the hawker..
see how big the cup was

Next up... another seafood feast!



check out how humongous the oysters are!


live red garoupa...
it's soooo fresh.. the flesh just falls apart in your mouth.
when steaming a fresh fish, all it needs is a simple steam with just soy sauce and spring onions.

Zack ordered 5 tiger prawns cos it's my fav.. 3 for me and 2 for him.. hehe.
he said ppl are gonna be so jealous cos my hubby bought me 5 tiger prawns..

Huh????

*giggles*



oh and our dessert....
Coconut Pudding!!!





woooo...... soooo good!
i wanna learn to make this.
gosh.. and i'm supposed to be watching my diet!

Our last morning.....
some random shots..

I love soaking in the tub...
i can:
1) watch tv
2) keep an eye on Megan in the playpen
3) enjoy the seaview


as i sit here to nurse Megan every morning... :)
Darling, let's work hard now so we can buy a beachfront villa (Thailand will be great!) for retirement ok? :P


"wanna go home darling?"





On our flight home....

see that snoozy tubby :)
she's such a good gal!
praying she'll hold up well during the long flight to London :)


It's been a lovely relaxing holiday..
thanks sweetheart for such a great one.. Love you tons!! :)

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