June Updates, Another First Experience And The Law of Attraction..

Hi all...

Sorry for the long hiatus.. I hadn't been well for the 1st week of June. Me and boo came down with diarrhea for 4 days when we ate kerang bakar in Salut road side. We also drank kelapa bandung where the bandung drink is made with coconut water and served in a coconut shell with it's flesh intact. Both the kerang bakar and bandung kelapa were sooooo delicious. I would go there again, only maybe next time armed with Chi-Kit Teck Aun pills. Hehe..

The next day after our drive to Salut, we went to Kudat once again. This time it was planned and we took the time to check out the Gambizau Honey Farm and the Rungus Long House. Best!! The floor of the long house freaked me out though. I felt as if it was not strong enough to support my body weight and the gaps on them made me paranoid that I would accidentally poke my toes through one of the gaps and fall.

 Admission is RM5 for local adults..

 The honey bee 'houses'..

 Our guide smoke the bees using dried coconut husks so that they won't attack sting us visitors..

 Freaking out inside...

 Unfortunately 'honey season' is in July and August so we weren't able to see how honey looks like in the comb.

 Rungus Long House..

 It's actually a lodge..

 Steps...

A few of the Rungus ladies selling beaded handicrafts 

 Correct me if i have the name or spelling wrong but this is a traditional game called Tonduo Dazai wich when translated means 'figure it out yourself' or 'fikirlah sendiri'.. The objective is to free the string from the interlocked ratan.. 

The door to the individual rooms of the lodge..

Boo..

Aum... Bahahaha... 

Inside the rooms..

The gaps on the floor had me walking gingerly across it to get to the other side of the house..

The common kitchen..

Our third destination was of course Simpang Mengayau. We were quite tired by this time and almost didn't go but decided to do so anyway because the first time we did it rained and to be honest, it was quite a miserable experienced. Boy am I glad that we went the second time around.

The weather was a total opposite from our first trip. I was soooooo hot? The blistering heat even prompted me to buy an ice cream Drumstick despite it being sold double the price. Despite all that, the scenery looked gorgeous. When the sun's rays reflect off the sea (something to be enjoyed only with a pair of sunglasses on), it looked like precious stones. 

The agonizing walk to the 'tip' from the parking lot. Actually, it's the walk BACK to the parking lot that's extra painful because of the blistering heat.

The light house in the distance..

 See how shimmery the water is?

 Macam iklan pula tau...

Sy pun mau buat iklan juga.. 

Aisehmen.. Jangan marah haa...

I wore the wrong type of footwear to Simpang Mengayau lah.. If I had worn sturdier shoes I would have been able to go down right to the water's edge.. Huhu.. After Simpang Mengayau we went back home, exhausted but very satisfied. Thank you boo...

On the 9th I had my first experience of being run over by a car.. Okay, that was embellished. Actually, my left foot got run over by none other than Crystal, boo's car. Boo asked me to warm up his car. It wasn't the first time for me and I usually check to see if Crystal's gear is free before starting her up because I was paranoid of starting her and her gear wasn't free that she would suddenly start moving by herself.

On that particular day I didn't check the gear and simply started Crystal. Guess what? She DID started to move on her own. I screamed for boo as I ran alongside her trying to get to the keys but I was caught in a bush and fell. My left foot then got run over by Crystal's right back tyre. 

Boo ran up to me and wanted to help me but I yelled as him to stop Crystal because she was moving towards a ditch. He caught up with her, dived in through the front passenger door My heart was truly in my mouth as I  watched both of them moving closer and closer towards the ditch before Crystal mercifully stopped literally 2 feet from it.  

It turned out that Crystal was in 1st gear and the handbrake wasn't pulled up. It never happened before and I guess boo was really tired or had his mind elsewhere when he switched off the engine. It really chilled me to think of what might have happened if boo hadn't managed to stop her in time not to mention the cost of repairing her.

As for my foot, it hurt like hell. I was lucky that none of the bones were broken even though my foot was in a slanted position when it got run over. I just had a limp for a few hours and after that could walk like normal. I only experienced a bit of swelling on the day of the incident. Although I must say, I still feel a bit of pain on my foot when I press the area that was injured now. Huhu...

So that's all for now. Stay tuned for more posts.. Cheers! 

Happy, Happy Day...

I went to 1Borneo yesterday (been going there quite frequently the past few days) just to enjoy a day out by myself. After having lunch at La Fuente Restaurant I decided to check out an event organized by the Alamesra Youth-PREP Center which is the Youth Art Festival with the theme Voice Out.

They had music performances by up and coming local bands, display, auctions and there were booths selling cupcakes (Cupcake Calendar), insurance (AIA) and a performing arts group which I unfortunately forgot the name of. Some of the bands were great, some were lousy and others were unique.

The painting that caught my attention. It retails for RM300

The brochure..

Their calling card, in case any of you are interested.

I did buy a chocolate cupcake from Cupcake Calendar but unfortunately I ate it before I remembered to take a picture of it. Hahaha... They cost RM5 each and thought they are pretty pricey (I've seen cupcakes sold for RM1 elsewhere) but it taste really good. I'd give them a 4/5 rating simply because I wish their chocolate chips were bigger. :)

 After that I went to MAC to buy a few things (More info on the products at phoebe-loves-makeup.blogspot.com) and to Queen Beauty Hair Saloon (Sorry if I got the name wrong) on the 3rd floor. This is my 2nd time to this saloon and so far I'm liking the service the hair stylist there provides. from the way she answers my questions, she certainly knows her craft.

If you're living or working near 1 Borneo, do give this saloon a try. I have yet to try any of their chemical treatments but I'm satisfied with my hair cut on both the occasions I've been there. It's a bit pricey and far from where I live and work but after experiencing so many disasters with my hair at random saloons I think I'd rather pay a bit more then have a disaster that takes me almost 2 years to grow out.

If you know any affordable saloons in Kota Kinabalu, do tell me about it.  :)

In a nutshell, yesterday was a happy, happy day. I got to go anywhere I wanted anytime I wanted and bought anything I wanted (and could afford obviously). How did your weekend went?

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!