We even had time to take a pic!

Firefly’s fleet is made up of the ATR-500s which are really tiny planes with propellers. I would say it was about the size of 2 buses in length, and the head space is quite limited. David, Josie and I knocked our heads onto the overhead compartment!! I’ve taken similar propeller jet planes before with Cebu Pacific when we flew to Boracay for our honeymoon, so I wasn’t really worried about the plane being all small and wobbly (as some people may say…small = unsafe). Oh and did I mention, we each get a muffin and a cup of juice?

David’s mobile office at our hotel hee hee… all he needs is coffee for fuel.

Very quickly our 1 hour flight got into Changi Airport’s Budget Terminal and immediately we took a cab and check into our hotel. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Atrium off Outram Road which is a pretty old hotel, though I must say very well maintained, extremely clean and relatively close to the city centre. After chucking our bags we had lunch, met up with my brother for 15 minutes and then off we went shopping! Wheeee! Josie met us up later at Orchard where she had a late lunch and I had my 2^nd lunch wtf. I was so hungry even though earlier we already ate prawn mee and carrot cake. It must be from all the walking *shifts blame*.

David got some sketch pads from Muji cos he’s artsy fartsy like that and I got myself a replacement Teva sandals cos my old one is like a piece of disintegrated rubber mat and I could like slip and fall if it was a slippery surface. Slipping and falling at this point in time is not an option. As much as I love shopping in Malaysia but I must admit our neighbour does have more variety when it comes to certain brands and labels. Just like how I got my Microplane zester in Tangs last year. Oh man, that is like my favourite baking tool!

One for the album! Hubba and I (omg my arms so big)

Josie followed us back to our hotel to chillax and get ready for Lye Keat and Mei Li’s wedding dinner at St. Regis. As soon as we stepped into St. Regis, it was like all posh and sparkly and gold and enchanting and…pretty. Awesome. I’ve been into the Burj but the St. Regis had a more personal feeling to it, less showy and grand (as in size) but more majestic in a way. As the ballroom doors opened we made our way to our seats. Mei Li then popped by to say hi and cam whore for a bit before dinner begun. Speaking of dinner—it was fab fab fab! Mainly Chinese inspired, we had a 6-course dinner presented ala-fine dining. Only thing missing was I was sipping water instead of wine wtf.

After dinner we said our bye byes and walked for a bit down Orchard to see the Christmas lights. They were quite pretty. Odd though, There’s so much emphasis on Christmas decorations but when it comes to Chinese New Year or Hari Raya, we seem to go stingy on making it look “boomz”.

With me and Josie in the pic

Without me and Josie in the pic

Next day we got up, had brekkie and went off to Orchard again to meet Mike, Dave’s Twitter friend for brunch. Ok, Josie and my Twitter friend too. Mike and his wife Kathie have 3 sons, sooper adorable and cheeky. When I was having a conversation with Kathie and Josie, Micah (the oldest one) interrupted me and said “excuse me, can you please whisper?” I think he couldn’t hear the sound of the game he was playing on his iPod. So polite, yet so cute!! After brunch we killed some time around Orchard before leaving to the airport and coming home!

All in all 30 hours in Singapore. T’was fun but tiring as we crashed at 9.30pm on Sunday night. Lye Keat and Mei Li, thanks for inviting us to your wedding dinner in Singapore!

Trip numero tres of 2009, we decided to bercuti-cuti in Malaysia. Now we have Muffin “with us” everywhere we go, we thought of somewhere a little more laid back, where we could just go with the flow without any frills. And without any frills did we go!

Malaysia Airlines had amazing low fares which I learnt didn’t come guaranteed that we’d be on time. Our flight was delayed for 1 hour, but we were accompanied by the Chong’s and their lovely daughter Eva. I was more occupied with playing at Eva; holding her hand and poking her cheeks; before we knew it, it was boarding time. I think being in the KLIA terminal made waiting more pleasant. I would have been sulking if we were stuck in LCCT. I really hate that place, it’s like Pudu bus station, so noisy and stuffy and yucky. Urgh.

Eva, isn’t she the cutest lil girl?

So on the way we were, flight wasn’t full at all, and Eva was at her best behaviour sitting 3 rows in front of us. I didn’t hear her cry one bit. I wonder if I could be as calm as Grace when I bring Muffin out on his/her first virgin flight. I’m beginning to see more clearly why being a mother can be such a life changing experience—just looking at the number of bags the Chong’s had with them…fuh *sweats*

Our in-flight meal was served not long after take off. I would like to say kudos to Malaysia Airlines for their green initiative. The meal boxes were served in a biodegradable container made of sugar cane pulp. I won’t comment about the food but I am a big fan of going green so I was quite pleased that just this little step that they are taking is making a huge difference to reduce the ever growing landfill in our country.

We arrived into Kuching International Airport and said our goodbyes to the Chong’s, picked up our luggage, and there right outside the arrival hall a big-bellied dark skinned man was holding up a piece of paper with my name on it. Ah, the tour agents I picked didn’t fail me! Antoni from CPH Travel greeted us with a big smile on his face and we quickly sorted out payments for the tours I chose plus the car rental during our time in Kuching. He gave us some tips on where to eat, what to do and gently “reminded” us about tipping his colleagues wtf.

Look, even manholes have LOL cat on it. Scho cute!

We picked up our rented Myvi, and took out my iPhone and went into navigator mode. First stop, we went to look for our friend Li Ann who just delivered her baby #2. Ok, Google maps of Kuching is SO outdated!! Where there’s supposed to be a roundy-bout, it’s now gone. And where there’s a roundy-bout, it doesn’t look like one! And you can’t say 3, 9 or 12 o’clock cos each roundy-bout is so unique; some have 5 – 6 exits. Gawd, I was almost losing my mind when giving Dave directions. We missed a couple of turns and thank God we finally made our way to chillax with Li Ann, #2 Ashton and superstar princess Arielle.

From Li Ann’s place we decided to get going and check in to our no-frills hotel, and getting there was more frustration! I was giving wrong directions to Dave, and we were missing our exits and making rounds around the many Kuching roundy-bouts and having to make numerous u-turns. The rain wasn’t helping either. At one point I just simply put my phone down and scrunched up my face. Finally, after almost 45 minutes we found Tune Hotel, parked our car and checked into our room. It’s a good thing that Kuching drivers are very patient. We didn’t get honked at or kena flash at all! And we made a lot of last minute turns, so if we were in KL, the situation wouldn’t have been so serene.

Ahhh….Tune Hotel. It is really great. Location is excellent, rooms are clean, there’s a safe in the room, very basic modern finishing, and price is perfect for the service you’re getting in return. I like how you can choose to rent your towels and buy air-conditioning credits, very green indeed! I wouldn’t say Tune Hotel is for everyone, particularly those who need the space, or those who’d like some facilities with the hotel such as swimming pool, gym, restaurants, in room TV. It is the right choice if you just need a bed to rest and have your own attached bathroom.

Sarawak Laksa and Kolo Mee

Now to the makan topic. Food in Kuching is in a world of its own. The Chong’s introduced us to typical Kuchingite breakfast on Friday morning. From there on we OD-ed on Kolo mee and Laksa in Chong Choon and Choon Hui cafe, had two seafood dinners at Top Spot (superb crabs, tek tang, prawns, midin but found the orr chien wayyy too weird) and ventured into Hui Sing open air food court for some local delicacies like kueh chap, satay and so called kuey teow with clams aka char kuey teow. I love the laksa OMG! I even bought some laksa paste home to make some for my family. Wonder if it’ll taste the same. Now I understand what the big fuss is with Sarawak Laksa. It is really tasty! The meehoon has a thicker texture and the prawns are so fresh speaking of which I’m craving for a bowl right this moment *hungry*. Of course I wouldn’t argue with Li Ann that Penang has the best hawker food in the world but I’d say Kuching has its specialty lah.

ABC Seafood @ Top Spot

Midin, tek tang, tomato mee and the world’s weirdest orr chien

The famous 3 layer teh C peng

Paying for parking in the public lots on the other hand was an experience I will never forget. I remember during my college days in Taylor’s Subang we had a coupon parking system that go by per hour and per day use. That system has since been replaced by the pay and display system which is of lesser pain to the a$$. Friday morning was our free and easy time around town. So we had to get parking coupons for our car right? The parking coupon system is mad! Just look at the amount of coupons we needed for 6 hours of parking! No wonder there are so many multi-level parking complexes in Kuching—easy way out from dealing with coupons. And mind you, for our 6 hours of parking, it came up to RM 10. My daily parking in Taipan is only RM 4 ok wtf!!!

Ok that went off tangent for a bit. Now back on track; what were our main highlights in Kuching? We saw orang utans at the Semmengoh Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre (30 mins drive from the city). Entrance was RM 3 per person and we made sure we got there during the feeding time so we could catch a glimpse of them. At about 3pm the rangers got us to walk towards the feeding area which was possibly 500 meters into the thick rainforest. We waited quietly for the orang utans to appear when BAM! This one heck of a BIG orang utan was there right in front of our eyes on this huge platform, taking in his buffet of fruits and vegetables. The rain didn’t stop us from leaving as 2 other orang utans slowly lowered themselves in, swinging from tree to tree. One was even with child! Being a city girl I’ve never been this close to orang utans ‘cept that time in the zoo. Worth every sen of the RM 6 we paid to see these furry creatures. As we headed back to the city, we dropped by the Kuching museum only to walk around for 15 minutes before being shoo-ed cos they were closing at 4.30 pm. Now I know what Grace means by Kuching people eat dinner early and sleep early. Look at what time they get off work wei.

Another highlight of our trip was our boat ride to try to spot the rare Irrawaddy Dolphins (30 mins drive from city to Santubong Boat Club to get onto the boat). I did a quick Google search and found out that CPH Travel is the only company which has dolphin watching tours. The cost is RM 130 per person (usual price RM 140 per person but we drove ourselves to the Boat Club so we didn’t get charged for pick up). We met our guide Chronicle at the jetty along with our boatman Jamadi who did an excellent job telling us stories about the wildlife in the area, the way of life of the people of Santubong, and the history of the developments along the river. We casually sped pass the river banks (saw some crocodiles too!) to the mouth of the Santubong river as we almost enter into the South China Sea. Our boatman made some rounds and killed the engine at a few spots as we try to look for the shy dolphins appearing above the water. I must say David and I got a bit discouraged as we didn’t see any within the 1^st hour in the sea. We kept turning our heads from left to right to left again looking out for that slightest “peek” from the almost still water. Then it happened! Jamadi gave almost a scream of excitement when he saw a dolphin pop up above the water! He immediately started the engine and we moved closer to the site where he first spotted it. And for the next 30 minutes with engines switched off we saw possibly 2 dolphins appearing and reappearing above the water for 2 seconds! It was breathtaking. Again I must remind you readers that I am a city girl. These kinda things I don’t see often besides being at an aquarium, at Sea World or on Animal Planet. It is a sight I won’t forget for a very long time. I definitely recommend CPH Travel to those who want to go on the dolphin watch cruise. The team was professional and extremely friendly. Visit their website for more information!

Our ride

Chronicle, our friendly tour guide

Two for the album

Crocodile…grrrrr

Our best shot of the Irrawaddy dolphin

After spending 2.5 hours on the cruise, we returned to the Boat Club to pick up our car, and we headed towards Damai where we took a 3 hour lunch break at the Damai Beach Resort (15 minutes drive from Santubong Boat Club, 45 minutes drive from city). The Sarawak Cultural Village is located 2 minutes away from the Damai Beach Resort, which is where we went to next. Entry is RM 60 per person. We were disappointed with the condition of the place, having paid so much we expected it to be well kept, sadly, it wasn’t. No doubt the concept is great; however we only spent an hour there visiting the 7 ethnic houses that sit on a 17 acre land in the foothill of Mount Santubong. It was so hot and with David worried about me getting a heat stroke, we decided to skip the cultural show and head back to the city.

Damai Beach Resort

One of the ethnic long houses in Sarawak Cultural Village

Beautiful weaved products

They are also obsessed with art

The steps are WAY too freaky for me

Not forgetting this bamboo bridge

Uncle hard at work making a handle for a weapon

More longhouses

Cute lil’ girl trying her hand at a traditional dance technique

Another uncle showing his skills at making a traditional musical instrument

Weird statues outside one of the long houses

All in all Kuching was enjoyable. There are so many places in Malaysia we’ve not been to and we’re looking forward to more opportunities to cuti-cuti in our beautiful country. More photos from our holiday can be viewed in our Flickr album

“Why is it so hard for women to find men that are sensitive, caring, and good-looking? Because those men already have boyfriends.”

Most often you find men who are sensitive, caring and good-looking are often gay. Then you have those who are sensitive, caring and good looking who are not aware that their gay, and they end up with a “blah” girl only to cover up their gay-ness. And then you have some who are sensitive, caring but ok-looking, a bit on the pondan side who refuse to admit their gay, and they find a “seriously cannot make it” girl to be with also as a cover up. Ok a bit random I know but I really can’t get over the fact that if you men are gay, just be gay lah! Don’t have to victimize women and use them as a cover up rite? Just have your Elton moment its ok! Seriously!

Ok back to Broga Hill. 2 weeks ago mom-in-law asked if I was up for hiking Broga hill, being preggers and all, I thought about it and did some research and found that it’s not a very “advanced” hill to climb so I decided ok let’s go. And so we did, leaving the house at 6.30 am we made it to the foot of the hill 30 minutes later. It seems this place is very popular with the locals, when we got there, the parking area was like filled! There’s even like 2 stalls selling drinks, fruits and fresh coconut. At 7 friggin’ a.m.!

Don’t play play, got signage at midway ok! Oh ya plus i look fat, not pregnant lor. sigh. i’m in the “in-between” phase now.

So the whole rombongan was made up of me, mom-in-law, dad-in-law, Dave, Aunt Julie and her daughter Ashley tagging along for the hike. MIL prepped a broken golf club for me to use to like cucuk wherever I needed extra support. I tell you, I felt like I was holding everyone back cos I was taking every step ever so carefully. And S-L-O-W-L-Y.

The terrain was dry and sandy, the perfect recipe for a slip. FIL was freaking out all the way, kept saying if I can’t go on I should stop and go back. But seriously the track was quite well defined, and like I could see where I was stepping, and every step wasn’t as dangerous as compared to my maiden hike of one of the smaller peaks in Grampians, Victoria National Park. There were some parts where ropes were tied to tree trunks to help us keep going.

We’re almost there! With MIL, Ashley and Aunt Julie

It wasn’t long till we reached the final stretch before the peak. It was really steep. FIL was going on and on like a broken record on how dangerous it was, and how I shouldn’t even be on this hike, but I die die also tried to make myself halfway up that final stretch. When I reached halfway, the broken record not only repeated at a fast forward speed, but the volume was also up. Dave and I decided to then start trekking down so he’d be less worried about me and Muffin. I knew I could do it lor. It wasn’t like that far to go lor.

Try to spot me. I’m that blue speck in the middle of this peekture. Sitting on a big rock.

So Ashley, Aunt Julie, MIL and FIL continued to the peak and there I was, shoo-ing mosquitos and sitting by the rock, watching people pass me. I even saw this really BIG guy making his way down. Like respect lor!

The view from the peak. Photo taken by MIL

As we re-grouped, we made our way down to the foot, this time I was telling myself “gosh, tomorrow the butt and thigh muscles would have woken up to say hi” cos seriously seldom work them lor. We managed Broga Hill in under 2 hours, and it was so satisfying! The feeling was like me scoring my only 2 A’s for SPM lor!

Random moment – saw some cempedak once we got to the foot of the hill. See my gaya-raya golf club huhuhuh

Oh, guess wot? The next day we got up and my body wasn’t aching at all! Means I work my butt and thigh muscles quite often uhuk uhuk. Broga Hill’s worth visiting, bring your cameras too!