Borneo Babymoon Day 4

Forgive me for the looooooooooong hiatus. I got lazy over ramadhan and it just dragged on from there. I wasn't too keen on having people drool over food pictures while fasting. Then i realized I didnt even finish blogging about our baby moon trip. Sorrreeeee!!! Lets see if I still remember what went down...

I dragged hubs outta bed the next morning at 545am to catch the sunrise coz morning comes pretty early there. He was eager to get back to the warm bed but I stayed and watched for a while. It was beautiful. It fogged the day before but come morning- the skies parted and made for perfect viewing of the mount kinabalu. It actually looks like a big ass rock. But i found it to be just so beautiful.

After a pathetic breakfast at the hotel we went looking for the natural fish spa place which was recommended by foursquare. We arrived pretty early at 830am and were the only people there. The staff manning the river were really nice and friendly and laughed at our crazy screams piercing the early morning air. I had never been to a fish spa before- despite klang valley being overrun by fish spa places of late. And it had to be that the first time i went- the fishes were on steroids. They were HUGEEEE!!!  like the kind u would steam whole and eat. I KID YOU NOT! They came really close to shore when they saw us coming, to the point that the top of their body was above water. Like they were waiting to pounce on us. It took me a good 20  mins before i found the courage to dip my feet in. The man kept telling us to go in deeper and deeper then conveniently told me that there was also a HUGE African catfish somewhere in the mix of giant fishes. Of course the deepest i went after that was just enough to submerge my ankles.

Hubs' screams n girly squeals did nothing to empower me. I dont blame him. At one point I was busy counting my toes to make sure they were all still there. It starts off being ticklish then the fishies will get excited and start sucking real hard that it starts to hurt- at which point ill begin looking  for bloody water and missing toes. Thank god we left the place with all toes intact.

Dead skin-less and high from being mauled by giant fishes, we made our way to a dairy farm that hubs was eager to visit. The Desa Dairy Farm is located on the Mesilau Plateau, about 30 mins from the Kinabalu National Park. The road leading up the place was really bad. It didnt help that we were driving a proton saga which bumped on the road like doggy on a dashboard. But it was worth having our bones rattled coz it was the most beatiful farm i had ever seen in Malaysia. The smell of the farm leaves much to be desired- but it was really beautiful. The cool climate and high altitude made it feel like we were in another country. We wanted to buy some milk but they only had the 1 litre packs on hand and i didn't think I'd be able to down a entire litre in one go.

We made our way down the mountain after that back to KK town to return our rented car and to catch our flight home. We stopped by the Phillipine Market to buy some cheap avocadoes and some dried sotong.

Then we went back to Sutera Harbour where i had the best cheesecake in the world!! n i dont even like cheesecake. But i was so bored waiting at the lounge and the name- fresh cream cheesecake just called out to me. I love fresh cream anything! and boy was it good! It was crazy good. That was the last thing we ate in kk. Well save for the ice cream i had at the airport. We flew home shortly after that- and that was the end of our babymoon. This will be our last holiday with just the both of us for a long time to come. We had a wonderful time and i look forward to returning to Sabah again in the future.

Yeay finished blogging about Sabah!! FINALLYY!!

Borneo Babymoon Day 3

On our third day in Sabah, we rented a car and made our way up to Kundasang for a nights stay at The Pine Resort which is halfway up Mount Kinabalu. I was super excited coz i have baby pictures of me up here at the same resort when i was barely learning to walk!! The wonderful concierge at Sutera Harbour drew us a simple map to help us get there with some pit stops along the way. We hadn't intended to rent a car so we didn't bring along the gps. Our initial plan to get there by bus was scraped when Sabri the Super-concierge explained that it would be majorly difficult to get around if we didn't have our own transport- boy were we glad we listened to him!! More on that later.

After another huge breakfast we went up for a short nap before checking out and going on our way. I love the Sabah coastal roads. They're so picturesque!! But i imagine it would look rather scary when a storm is brewing- coz the sea looks to be really close to the road!

We swung by McDonalds for a quick bite and ate while we drove to save time and made it to the Borneo Upside Down House at about 1pm- with the sun right over our heads. It was super super suuuuuuuuuuuuper hot. Sabri had insisted we make this pit stop as he himself has not visited it before. This attraction is new- having only been in operation since September last year. The name is self explanatory- the house was literally upside down, furniture, car and all!! It was interesting but it got old quickly as it was rather small and the heat did nothing to help.

Our next stop was the Jambatan Gantung Tamparuli or the Hanging Bridge of Tamparuli. Lagend has it that a virgin was sacrificed in the making of this bridge. Apparently the bridge was washed away many times as the spirit of the river wasn't happy about it. The girl was sacrificed as an offering to appease the spirit. Must have worked coz its still standing! It seems that if you were to swim underneath the bridge, u would see the name 'Solungkoi' engraved on a plaque underneath it. Solungkoi was the sacrificed virgin's name. I'd take the historians word for it. No way am i going swimming in that river!

After leaving Tamparuli town, we begin our climb up the mountain. The road leading up was in pretty good condition- think Simpang Pulai Cameron Higlands Road. We took a slow drive up and savoured the beautiful sceneries we saw along the way, stopping occasionally to snap a pic. Before checking in, we stopped by Kinabalu National Park. Hubs was under the impression that i wanted to go for hike. I don't know where he got this idea coz with my backache from the long drive and aching feet- i wasn't gonna walk 3 metres let alone 3 kilometres. So we drove around inside the park with d windows down then headed straight for the hotel. This turned out to be a blessing coz it started raining soon after.

We got a room facing Mount Kinabalu!! I was so happy!! Even tho the room was a far cry from the one we had at Sutera Harbour, the scenery more then made up it. It fogged when we arrived so we couldnt really see the peak, save for some peekaboo's here and there when the clouds broke.

We drove around a lil later in search of dinner and omg- ranau and kundasang just dies at night. Like seriously the town just dies!! We drove quite far out looking for restaurants before stumbling across Ranau town n saw a couple of restaurants which looked barely promising. After going around for a bit we settled at a malay eatery where i had the meehun soup n hubs had the chicken fried rice. Both turned out to be yucky! It seems that there are no good eateries up there- you're lucky enough to be able to eat at all!!

We took a walk later that night coz hubs had trouble sleeping and it was dead silent- well cept for the annoying karaoke going on next door and i looked up to the sky and it was dotted with millions of stars- it was really beautiful. I hardly even see stars in the city and to be able to look up and see so many was just breath taking.

Tune in for our next and last edition of our Borneo Babymoon coming up soon!!

Borneo Babymoon- Day 2

I hardly slept a wink on our 1st night there for some reason i cannot fanthom. The bed was comfy, pillows were plush, aircond was jut nice. But i could not fall asleep. This resulted in me jumping up at 6am to have a nice long hot soak in the tub and bugging hubs to lets go down for breakfast nowww!!

The hotel breakfast was really good with a good balance of local and international cuisine. I stuffed myself silly with so much food that i could hardly move afterwards. The pancakes with cinnamon sugar and maple syrup was out of this world!! i went to sleep that night dreaming about it and could not wait to get up the next morning to have it- only to be told they didnt have it that day. Im gonna make it myself this week.

 Coming to Sabah, I had wanted so badly to see some live orangutans at Sepilok Orang Utan Sanctuary, but after learning that it was 230kms away, I settled for the Lok Kawi Wildlife Park. Sadly, the orang utan enclosure was closed when we got there :( We did see some pygmy elephants and probiscis monkeys which Borneo is famed for but for the RM120 cab fair (30 min journey)- i felt really dissppointed. Hubs almost got muzzled by this playfull baby elephant and actually fell trying to get away from it. I laughed so hard I was practically falling off my seat!

The Wildlife park was really just a small zoo. I saw the closed place where the orang utans were being kept while their enclosure was being renovated and stood outside the window and called out to them. I heard a distinctive sound of it sticking its tongue out at me and going "pbhttttttt!!". That made my day eventhough i didnt get to see them.

After leaving the wildlife park we tapau-ed some lunch to eat at the hotel and to get some shut eye before going out again when it was cooler. It was superbly hot while we were there as it was the dry season and they werent getting much rain just like us over here in the peninsula.

After our siesta, we headed to Tanjung Aru to catch the world famous sunset which everyone raved about. We walked along the stretch of restaurants but decided to reserve our tummy for dinner at this little italian place a friend had recommended. The beach was dotted with tiny crab holes. Hubs held on tight to my hand so i would not go running around like a mad fat women trying to catch the baby crabs.

We settled at this foodcourt and ordered some chicken wings and avocado juice to while away our time while waiting for the sun to set. The sunset was really beautiful. I dont think ive ever seen the sun looking so round and big n orange. But then again we never really pay much attention to sunsets over here.

After sunset we headed back to town to visit a local market recomended by our cab drive and to have dinner. The market turned out to be a disappointment with used clothing and other equally non interesting things on sale. Hubs talked me into walking to the italian eatery we were having dinner at instead of calling Jeffry our trusted driver. He pointed out it was only 600m to get there. I relented and we walked. We walked past huge billboards and crossed 3 laned roads. We cut thru roundabouts (I have never walked on foot at a roundabout b4. EVER!) and past giant hotels- and still not italian watevers.

At one point i just stopped walking and gave him the death glare. I was not going to walk another step. He fiddled with his phone and nonchalantly said- "ohhh mann!! we missed a turn!!". I gave his phone a glance and saw that it was going to be another 2km walk to get to dinner. I sat my butt down n waited for him to hail a cab. He was still fiddling with his phone then and proudly announced- "Eh yang! Its not 2km's laaa!! its 1.9!". I swear if it wasnt for my religion forbiding it- he would have had my foot for dinner.

But all was well when we got a cab who despite being clueless about the place- got us there in 4 mins flat. After all drama in getting there, I have to say, the food hardly made up for it. It wasnt bad- it just wasnt that good. We ordered a pizza, a lasagna with a side of garlic bread to share. The pizza was okay but the lasagna somehow tasted strangely like sambal to me. Our bill which included 2 iced lemon tea's came up to about RM70.

Jeffry was plenty surprised to find us there when we called him to pick us up. Even he said it was far!!! grrrr!!!

Safe to say i slept like a baby that night. All that walking drained me of all the life i had in me that night.

Borneo Babymoon - Day 1

Hey all!! Sorry for the long hiatus. I wanted to post updates many times then i just got lazy much to hubs' dismay. He tried coaxing me into updating a couple of times but it didnt work so he gave up after a while. Anyhooo!! We came back from our awesome babymoon trip to Sabah lastnight. Most people dont know that i was born there, we moved back here when i was a year old and ive never been back since. So this trip was sort of like a bittersweet homecoming for me. Being hormonal, i actually teared up as we landed.

We stayed 2 nights at KK town and another night at Kundasang. I am eternally in love with Sutera Harbour Hotel where we stayed. We seriously want to go there again just to stay at the hotel- it is THAT awesome. Ill split this post into 3 parts as it's going to be quite lengthy.

Our hotel has its own marina and was super beautiful. We got a room facing the marina and the sea and i could just stare out the window for hours and hours on end. Our only gripe was the tv channels they provided. It didnt even have TV3 and no football channel. Considering its the football season i thought this was unjustified. Hubs was gonna leave me sleeping alone or drag me down (depending on my preference) and go catch the game at the sports bar downstairs. Thankfully, he was too sleepy to get up at 230 in the morning. Of course, me 'dodoi-ing' him back to slumber didnt help.

To fully explore the beauty of Sabah, one would need to be there about 2- 3 weeks as most attractions are spread far and wide. Of course we did not have the luxury of that. So in the 3 days that we had- we only managed to see the tip of the iceberg.

On the day we arrived, we took the hotel shuttle to Sabah Centre Point which is and old old mall (think Sg Wang/ Pertama Complex old) to grab lunch. The food court was under renovation and was sans floor. The tiles had been ripped off so it looks like ur eating at a construction site. I was famished by then so I didnt really care much for the ambiance. I was surprised to see that the chicken rice costs RM2.80 after hearing so much talk about how food costs a bomb here. I ordered the rice and a beef noodle for RM5. The rice turned out to be ordinary tasting but at RM2.80 it tasted above its price tag. The noodles however were awesome!! I have an obsession with noodles and this one made me really happy. The beef that it came with was perfectly cooked for hours till it was flaky and practically melted in my mouth. And hello?? Its 5 bucksss!! We went back for this on our last day and this morning i kicked myself for not 'tapau-ing' some home. The noodles are called kon lau mee daging or Tuaran mee.

We went to the waterfront to catch the sunset which is spose to be awesomely beautiful and swung by the Phillipine Market afterwards. The sunset, while gorgeous, could have done with better seating. We didnt go to the short strip of restaurants as they consisted of mainly bars and chinese eateries so we sat on some abandoned pipes and watched some local kids play on the dirty beach while the sun set. The restaurants claimed to be halal but i lost confidence after i saw 'buddha jumps over the wall' on the menu.

We had some fresh big prawns and huge squids at the market and it wasnt very good. The only saving grace was that the seafood was fresh but I got turned off by how dirty the place was. I did have a great time trying a bit of everything tho. However i gotta say, people here arent very friendly towards us Peninsula people (orang semenanjung). Their smiles turn into frowns when they hear our accent.

For some reason chicken wings are a big deal here. We tried some and it tasted nothing out of the ordinary. Hubs bought a chicken murtabak in case he got hungry later and it was quite good. It was deep fried as opposed to pan fried and was filled with fresh vegetables and eggs with mediocre amount of chicken meat instead of our normal meat and eggs filling.

I also filled up on avocado juice- my fav! Avocadoes here are really cheap as it is grown locally. In KL they normally cost me 5-6 ringgit each. I bought 2 kg's to bring home at only 13 ringgit.

We ended our 1st night in Borneo lounging by the hotel beach (hubs) and running around burning dinner by catching baby crabs (me). The beach was pretty small and private just how i like it. The picture above is of my footprints in the sand running zig zag trying to catch them crabs.

Ive got so much more to tell!! Will do so in the coming week! Toodloo!!

Free Mori Uptown

I know i promised to blog about Sushi Zanmai but i HAVE to write about this before i forget- Hubs was out with d boys lastnight and since i didnt like being home alone, I asked him to send me over to mum's before he left. My sister n i went out n i found the most amazing bakery ever!! Ive always been a fan of bread- esp steaming hot ones and desserts make me go bonkers. Which explained my squeal of delight when i spotted this pretty new thang in damansara uptown. Ignoring na's deafening demands for ice cream (baskin robins is just nx door), I walked into Free Mori like an excited fat kid.

The bakery is so purdeyyyyyy!!! There werent too many choices since it was past 9pm when we walked in so I guess they had sold out of most stuff but my eyes was glued to the chilled dessert display. They all looked so tempting!! I had a hard time choosing but I finally settled for the Leite mousse (pronounced Light mousse i assume) and the oh so cute tiramisu. the tiramisu looked more like an entremet then something that is normally made in a casserole.

Na HAD to have a sugar donut (RM 2.30 i think?). I dont get this girls obsession with donuts. And we got a golden bar or was it golden bread for free. Popped by next door coz the fat girl would not quit with her demands for ice cream and headed home straight after but our 3 minute ride felt so long coz my sister drives like a 90 year old.

The Leite mousse (RM 7.50)- was gorgeous! It was nicely creamy without much or any gelatine. I hate mousse that uses gelatine. But i couldnt detect any hints of almond tho. The sponge was cottony soft but was a tad too sweet from being over brushed with syrup stock. I scraped most of the mousse off coz they were just so good. This is def something i would buy again.

The tiramisu (RM9.90) had a bit too much gelatine. The coffee flavour was also really subdued which would normally be fine by me coz i hate coffee but even i felt that this could do with a bit more bitterness to it. The sponge fingers was also abit too drenched in syrup (this tiramisu is rum free) making it too sweet. But look at it! Isnt it just the prettiest dessert??

Na's donut was nothing to shout about. I found it to be too dense for my liking having been spoiled with fluffy hollow donuts like J.co and Big apple. Same goes for the golden bar/ bread. Was too dense and a tad dry.

The cakes and bread here are a bit pricier then most run of the mill bakery but i would def come again to try their creme catalana and other desserts next time. The staff was really nice and friendly which is a plus point. They also have cookies and some gourmet coffee i think? Their bread loaves also looked pretty tempting. In fact i may just go again tonight. We'll see :)

Free Mori is located between Baskin Robins and Chatime in Uptown. It sits next to the alley that separates it from Baskins. Its got a side entrance which makes it really unique.

Free Mori Bakery Cafe Damansara Utama
48 Jalan SS21/58
Damansara Utama (Uptown)
47400 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia
Tel: 03-7722 4157
Toll free: 1 800 22 9288