Something to Share

Hi everyone..
I was watching Samantha Brown : Europe on TLC this afternoon. She's my favorite female travel host ever because she's so funny and has such a cheery personality. She was touring Edinburgh, Scotland and she mentioned something that kinda bowled me over and I felt that I just have to share it with you guys.

Samantha Brown

When people say Great Britain, I always thought of England, London, tea, scones etc. Basically, all things English. Britain is English and English is Britain. It turns out that Great Britain is comprised of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

Did you guys know that? I certainly didn't. The most interesting part is this means that a person who is born and raised in Scotland for example is a Scot, not English but they are British and this goes the same to the Welsh and Irish as well.

 London

Scotland

Ireland

I don't know why I'm so excited  over this fact but...  I just am. Nerdy huh? Hahaha... I've always wanted to travel to Scotland, Ireland and England *keeping my fingers crossed* but now I can just unclutter my goals by aiming to travel to Great Britain.. Hehehe...

It just hit me that maybe you've known about this all these while. Gee, that would be embarrassing although I must say those who knew this because they went to school overseas in the UK and Ireland doesn't count.. :)

That's all for now peeps. Cheers!

Chit Chat and Milky Teas...

Dear Readers..
So sorry for not having any entry for so long. I've been focusing more on my beauty blog this past two weeks (phoebe-loves-makeup.blogspot.com). Do check that out girls. And boys if you're interested. I won't judge you I promise.. Hehehe...

Anyway, I don't have anything specific really. I do want to wish all my Muslim friends Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri Maaf Zahir dan Batin. I spent my Raya at my kampung during the weekend. It didn't really feel like Raya. I feel like every celebration this year lacks the celebratory (is that a word?) feel to it. Feels just like any other day.. I did go shopping with my sister and mom on the 2nd day of Raya though and that was fun. I got myself a pair of fuchsia pink sandals and a black and white top (both of which I am wearing right now. Hehe..)

I feel a bit dizzy today. I don't know why. I mean I got in about 7 hours of sleep and I ate breakfast this morning so lack of sleep or food is not the factor. Could it be low blood pressure? Everything is so wobbly right now.

Oh! By the way, I don't know about West Malaysia or even Sarawak but in Sabah (more specifically, in KK) we have this milky tea shop named Yoyo and it sells the best milky tea ever! I'm obsessed with milky teas and I can tell you none of the other milky tea shops have beaten Yoyo yet.. I'm the kind of person who, when I like something like the pearls, I'd get obsessed with it and order that every single day for a couple of weeks. Then when I try something else like coconut cubes I'd get obsessed with that and order that for weeks and so on..

Recently I tried the mini pearls and I fell in love! It taste just like the original milky tea pearls but the difference is that since these mini pearls are smaller than the straw, you can sip it freely without experiencing any blockage. You know how annoying it is when you're happily sipping (read:slurping) on your cold, delicious milky tea and then suddenly you experience a blockage? You suck and suck on the straw, blow into it and such till you look silly but the straw still stays blocked? Yeah, that's what usually happens with coconut cubes and pearls.

But no more with the mini pearls! It's a smooth drink (slurp) to the last drop.. Ahh... Gee, I'm so bad when it comes to milky teas... So obsessed with it.. I'm trying to cut down on it cuz I have a nagging suspicion that it's adding inches to my waistline (Duh phy!). Is there like, a milky tea rehab that I can go to? Seriously, I need help.. :)

Well, that's all for now folks. Have a great weekend.. Cheers!

Road trip to Kundasang/Ranau...

Dear Readers,
I've been MIA for quite sometime and I do apologize. I haven't had the time to update my blog the pas 2 weeks.. Anyway....

Last weekend a couple of friends and I went for a road trip to Kundasang and Ranau... We started off at 9.30am from Tamparuli. There were 9 of us and we used two cars. 3 of our other friends would come later as they had commitments to attend to at that time.

We arrived at the Strawberry Garden Hotel at around 11am. For this trip we rented a bungalow with the rate of RM380 per night. We checked in but couldn't enter it yet as it wasn't cleaned up yet.. Why? The reason was quite funny... Turns out the house-keeping staff was not around at that time because they went to the Tamu.. Boleh pula...

The entrance..

Where we checked in...

  That's our bungalow on top of the hill..

The guy at Receptions told us that it would be quite a while before our crib for the night would be ready but we can unload our stuff on the balcony. We decided to do just that so we took the steep, winding road up the hill to the bungalow.

Concerned that our food and things might be tempered with while we're gone, we took pictures of our things to make sure it was exactly as we left it. Jai even took a pic of the knot of the rope used to tie our cool box. After that we all drove to Pekan Kundasang to visit the War Memorial there..

Oopppss... Careful with the Tomato sauce Kitol...

  L-R: Bb, Nanak, Bubu, me and Esther..

We arrived at the Memorial Park at around noon. Took lots of great pictures there as there were no shortage of cameras, memory space and willing models to pose.. Poor Jai had to run to join us every time we took group photos (the camera was on timer mode). Thanks Jai for being the designated cameraman.. Hehehe... I think a picture (or in this case, loads of them) say a 1,000 words.. So let the story unfold...

Me and Esther at the entrance...

Us girls again...

The Guys.. L-R: Abel, Jai, Kitol and Mike..

 

The POW Aussie soldiers walked this distance. Sure makes me think twice before complaining to walk long distances..

So beautiful.. Yet so sad at the same time for so many lives lost..

Naughty feet...

Strike a pose...

Capturing the Greek-like columns..

Aaahhhh... Fresh air and gorgeous view..

Uiseh...

We had planned to go to the Desa Dairy Farm after the War Memorial but it rained and our other friends haven't arrived yet so we decided to give the visit to Desa a rain check (no pun intended).. We went back to our bungalow and it was ready for us.. Yay! 

The view from the balcony..

I don't have any idea what this is but I love it...

Our fireplace... I was half expecting Santa to come down from the chimney despite it being only September... Hehehe...

It rained harder and so we spent the rest of the day watching a horror movie *wink* on Kitol's laptop, cooking and eating lunch, hanging out on the balcony and taking pictures.. The next day we checked out of Strawberry Garden at noon and went to Desa Dairy Farm but unfortunately we arrived at 12.30pm and the staff were on lunch break until 1pm. 

We didn't want to waste our time waiting around cuz honestly, who comes in from lunch break on the dot right? So all of us camera crazy wherever there is a view. After we got tired of doing that we went to Pekan Ranau for a loo break and to buy durians...

Me being vain on the way to Desa...

Was looking forward to drinking milk.. Oh well.... 

They look so cute! 

White fences.. So Western one... Hehehe...

This truck attracted my attention somehow...

Me, Esther and Vv.. One for the album... 

Breath-taking...

Last destination was Poring Hot Springs. We arrived at Poring and 'chupped' our respective tubs. I was a bit dissapointed that not all tubs have their own stopper so we had to resort to 'kidnapping' plugs from other tubs. The water flow from the hot spring was not consistent as well. Some tub took ages to fill while others fill up in record time. 

On top of that it rained again. Let me tell you, soaking in the warm water while it is raining made me not want to leave the tub at all even though I was as wrinkled as a prune. It was so cold out of it! Unfortunately all good things must come to and end and when it started to get dark we dragged our unwilling selves out of our deliciously warm tubs to the changing rooms to rinse off and, well, get changed.

Our hot tubs..

Waiting for my tub to fill up... 

Waiting for the rest...

Goodbye for now... We will be baaaccckkkk... ;)

This was my 1st road trip ever in a group and I'd like to thank all my friends on this trip for not making me feel like an outsider. I had a wonderful time and I hope you guys did too.. Let's do this again in the future.. Cheers!