i went to kuching again!

it was on the same day last week at stampark hall, i attended the line dance workshop by simon ward, an aussie choregrapher! it was a full day event, where by a dinner & dance themed swingin' 70's was held at night.

pic courtesy of lee chiang hong

and as you know, when we talked about theme parties, i likeeeee... i got my auntie to sew my dress again!

maybe i shall blog more about the trip soon... as i arrived kuching two days ealier to have some time on my own. this blog post was meant to be a quick one anyway. i am out shortly for a bloggers' event i missed for quite some time...

i will leave you all with a performance video at the dinner and dance, performed by my jakarta line dancing friends. enjoy!

"pasar minggu" in kuale...

this entry is specially dedicated for lina. she posted about her 'pasar malam' (night market) trip nearby her place somewhere in klang valley about 1+ weeks ago. i told her that 'pasar minggu' (sunday market) in kuale is the best mainly because its located by the 'tepi sungei' (river side)... ahhh!... so blissful... besides that i guess its the huge one i have ever know. it has lotsa stalls selling many things like fabs, ready-made clothes, food stuff, ready-made food and many more.

pasar minggu won't be an excuse for me at all to skip my weekend mornings routine— 6 rounds walk up and down the hill of 'bukit residen' (resident's hill) for about an hour non-stop. the only thing is we will normally go for it a bit late on sunday if we wanna go to the pasar minggu because if we were there too early then we won't join the crowd to feel the environment hehee... owh... you know what i mean? so since we wanted to go to the pasar minggu right after our walks, we just parked the car there, by the tepi sungei. its easier then. if not by the time we finished our walks it would not be easy to get one.

caution: this post is with lots of pictures. its somehow or rather just like a show and tell kind of thingy, so enjoy!...

'pasar minggu' in the making...

this is one of the old shop houses lot in town, still stands as its original. if i am not mistaken an artist painted this one for a postcard. nonetheless some of them have been renovated to modern types of shop houses.

so since we have already parked the car at the pasar minggu area, we walked thru this bridge to get to the other side.

we had to pass along the children's playground...

and walked on to the other side of the road for us to start our usual walk at the 'bukit residen' (resident's hill).

this pic has been taken on my 6th rounds, at around 8.15 am. owh... how can i resist of not taking at least one or two pics of my beloved school.

well if you could see clearly from the above pic, there are 4 dates written on some of the steps. its to show the dates of the most critical flood levels that happened to kuale then. i am afraid that i am not sure of the levels. maybe i can find out for you, and for my general knowledge too :~)

fyi these were the dates, from number 1 being the highest—
1) 30 december 1926
2) 28 december 1897
3) 7 december 1931
4) 15 december 1947

so after we completed the walk, this time we walked thru 'laman budaya' to go back to the pasar minggu area.

we used the other bridge instead...

see people... i told you... if we don't park here in the first place, i am sure it was hard to find a parking space then.

i think 'pasar minggu' in kuale is the best than any other place *winks*
actually people its not really a matter for us whether we go there to buy something or not. its a pleasure for us to just stroll and have a wonderful time there... i like!

sometimes we dropped by this shop for a good breakfast yummyyy!!!... i wallop everything in my curry mee bowl lol... :) its located at the tepi sungei along the pasar minggu road.

like i said earlier since the pasar minggu is huge, we make it a practice that only three or four stalls are a must for us. if we are to cover all of them, i guess it will take hours i tell you...

one of the stalls that we must drop-by is this indian lady' who sells antique stuff, old coins and anything old. we didn't buy anything here though, just browsing the stuff that she has and chit-chatting with her ;)

we also buy sunday papers (lots of them, except chinese and indian papers of course). take note that we don't buy any on other days.

this apam balik stall is a must too. we won't buy apam balik at any other place, except for this one as its THE best i tell you...

take note that i snapped the above pic when we were already at the 'jam besor' (big clock tower) on our way back home.

"ma... you are driving but still can take pictures!", megat was mumbling at me hehee...

so i told him, "ya... this last bit is to complete my pasar minggu picture album, specially for my online friends hehee... to show them of how really big kuale's pasar minggu is *winks*"

nama berita? and selamat lemai!

[translation for the title: hi... and good evening!]

i am now blogging from the coffee bean & tea leaf, kuching international airport outlet, waiting for my flight back to kl in about an hour time. it was such a great pleasure to be here, although it was for a short stay only. what with the great hospitality by Pretty Mommies and her other half. thank you so much to both of you from the bottom of our heart mwahhh...

i would also like to take this opportunity to thank the staff and management of singgahsana lodge for their nice and grateful service for us. they are sooooo friendly i tell you. i would definitely recommend the place to everyone i know. besides that, i would be back there also insya allah if happened that i will have another trip to kuching in the future.

we didn't waste our time at all while we were still there. after checking out before 9.30 am, we walked about to the row of souvenir shops for some last minute shopping while waiting for Pretty Mommies to pick us up. we waited for her at one of the shops along the main road. she brought us to the cat museum (right pic) then followed by the other three sarawak museums (below pics) i.e. art museum, ethiology museum and dewan tun abdul razak; there after we had our lunch in a malay restaurant.

we then stopped-by at a pottery shops. i did buy a ceramic vase though, to be given to a SKDK teacher as a wedding present on mid december if i am not mistaken.

alright then people, i guess that's all the time that i have now in kuching.

mupuk aku. aku lelenggau ka nuan sarawak...
[translation: good bye. i miss you sarawak...]

p/s i hope that i got the local language right ;)

of our third day in kuching—

our day at sarawak cultural village (SCV) that we explored in half a day was full of fun fun fun! we booked a round trip shuttle service last night for this morning. we left here about 10.15 am. the journey there was about 45 minutes drive. the charges were RM50 in total (RM10/way for adult and RM5/way for children).

we had a very well welcomed by the SCV staff at the entrance. the fees were RM60 for adult and RM30 for children. there are giving special discounts for students no matter where you are from around the globe provided you show them your student id card. we were given a passport each for us to stamp at all the houses that we visited—

	bidayuh longhouse
	iban longhouse
	penan hut
	orang ulu long house
	melanau tall house
	malay house
	chinese farmhouse

we watched their cultural show at 11.30 am first, before we visited all the sarawak type houses there. their second show for the day is at 4.30 pm.

if you people have been to mini malaysia in malacca, ya i could say that its similar to that. but i think SCV is better in terms that they have some people waiting in the respective houses wearing their appropriate clothes welcoming their guest. at the same time, their jobs are to entertain their guest' questionnaires and such. they were all very friendly and helpful. well i find that sarawakians are very nice. in fact a cleaner who was sweeping the floor i bumped into the other day also smiled at us. how lovely!

we had our lunch of nasi campur at restoran budaya, located in the SCV itself. then we walked to damai puri resort & spa which is not far from SCV, before we waited for the evening shuttle service back to the city at about 3.15 pm. the place looks wonderful, what with the lobby facing the beach wahhh... SPEECHLESS man! i have just checked out the rate— min RM620 for deluxe rainforest view *phew* the rates are higher for sea view rooms fuhhh... but to those who do not bother about the $ and wanna some quiet moment, i really recommend that place. i really wished that i could go there someday myself weee...

Pretty Mommies and her hubby fetch us around 6.45 pm. we had dinner at the other side of sarawak river, via a bridge. i tried sarawak' mee kolok for the first time! its good i tell you.

so maybe i will blog more tomorrow for the last time from here, before we leave kuching for kl in the evening. ciao!

kuE' note:
go here to view more great pics of us at sarawak culrural village :)

our second day in kuching

Pretty Mommies was busy, so i managed my day with kiddos with our utmost simple way ourselves. i think we walked like 100s of kilometers today! *phew* anyway it was really fun you know.

we started our day by having a simple breakfast of great toast with coffee/tea and orange juice, plus watermelon courtesy of singgahsana lodge, located at its rooftop called "the sadau". sadau is an iban word for attic. i dunno that it also has a bar there, very nice place and ambiance to lepak. and as usual, they have a very nice deco of sarawak's culture. pool and foosball tables are also available there.

so basically we spent most of our times by walking around the sarawak river waterfront area, especially when a row of shops selling sarawak souveniers are just located around the corner. we walked from one shops to another, admiring sarawak's arts and culture. we were lucky to find out that artrageously, the art gallery by ramsay ong is actually a well known local artist. in fact he has also opened a new gallery in kl as well, at changkat bukit bintang. you people should drop by there someday, as ramsay ong's artworks were truly amazing indeed i tell you.

holiday trips ain't that good if we don't think of our loved ones back home. correct me if i am wrong. so i bought about five sarawak batik fabs for mama, grandmother and three very closed aunties; while for father and my lil' bro, i got them a batik shirt from sarawak each. i also bought a sarawak batik shirt for rizal. and guess what people? i put it to mail right away via pos ekspress' cardboard box (RM7.00) during our walks. i was lucky to find out that they do have such box. what i needed to do was just to unflatten the box. great! that i didn't have to wrap the shirt with brown paper first like i usually did for me to mail a package by poslaju. now rizal should get it by tomorrow. i just hoped that he will like it! :)

so for me, i bought two sarawak batik fabs too plus a set of orang ulu's patterned silk fabs. i ought that it should make a very nice set of baju kurung. i will definitely post some pics of it when its ready hehee...

we dropped by textile museum and chinese history museum, but we missed the sarawak state museum. i guess probably that time kids including myself were already hungry like crazy. we had our lunch at little lebanon, located at sarawak tourism complex. this restaurant offers a selection of intercontinental cuisines from arab to western and locals. i will make a special blog post on this as my f&b reviews.

we continued our walks back this time through the river waterfront. they have a ferry cruise and bot penambang service, but we do not intend to try it at all. as the evening past, kiddos were so excited to see mcD somewhere. we had some mcflurry and tapau-ed burgers for our dinner.

so i guess that's about it, our second day' kuching trip. as for tomorrow, i have booked a roundtrip shuttle service for us to damai/sarawak cultural village. we are so excited now, can't wait to go there. till then... mwahh!!! from me in cat city :D

selamat datai!...

view larger map

kamek is now in kuching! hi hie... ada orang sarawak sik sitok? saja ja mo tanya... hahaa... kamek is staying at singgahsana lodge.
[translation: i am now in kuching! hi hie... are there any sarawakian here? i juz wanna know... hahaa... i am staying at singgahsana lodge.]

although we were not recommended by the locals at all, but i feel that singgahsana lodge is a great place to stay. i especially lurve their simple sarawakian decos, i like... i wished i could bring them all back :) besides that, just imagine... we are not even staying a night here, yet we have been treated as families! no wonder 'mat salleh' prefer this place, especially to those whose on a budget holiday. the prices are very affordable plus with their staff' 5-star' class services i.e. smiles!!! that's very important when you are in the hospitality industry ya... anyhow not all the rooms here are with attached bathroom. and the guest are all welcomed to lepak at the lobby area for reading (there are lotsa books on the book racks) and/(or) online. there's also a huge 'pangkin' (day bed) fulled of sarawak style cushions. i envy those cushions ler... wonder of where i can get them :)

we arrived here in the cat city safely this morning, around 10.19 am via MH2054. the flight was +/- 15 minutes delayed as the engineers were still having a thorough last minute checked on the tyres! thank god that everything is ok...

we have been greeted by Pretty Mommies upon our arrival. since we were way too early from the check-in time, we just drop-off our luggage at the hostel and went out to have our lunch. i was not sure of where exactly the place. according to Pretty Mommies, the demand there are rather good. i had buttered rice with chicken if i am not mistaken hmm... not bad!

we went out again with Pretty Mommies in the evening. this time her hubby joined us as well. we have been told that most of the places i.e. souvenirs shops, closed on sundays. so they brought us to the spring, the newest and largest shopping mall in sarawak. right as said, its even have charles & keith boutique!

we then headed to tun jugah shopping complex for our dinner at its food court on fourth floor. and wow... i had my first laksa sarawak, here in kuching itself on our very first night hmm... yummy!!!...

o yes... i am so grateful to find out that i have an assignment (here) waiting for me from PPP even though i am on my vacation... yes! kachinggg!!!... luckily i checked my emails ya... and looks like i have to ensure to read my emails as often as possible :)

well that's it for now, have a lovely week ahead people, cuz i know i will...

kuE' related post:
kuE's flying for RM0.00 fare

kuE's flying for RM0.00 fare

that's true! i had booked mine last night, for travel in december (psttt... guess where i'm going). its absolutely RM0 cost for flying, just paying the tax fee... ahahaha... looking forward for my holiday trip... wooohoooo...

its all thanks to PrettyMommie for informing me about the great news via sms yesterday. she even warned me that MAS site was rather jammed during the day and asked me to try at night instead. booking period from 5 to 19 may 2008 ONLY... so act fast people!!! while the traveling date is from 10 june to 14 december 2008. go here to read more about this great promotion.

damai laut here i come...

i am gonna deliver this later with megat. puteri is in kl since wednesday, enjoying her raya holidays. megat has to stay cuz his school started on wednesday. take note that megat is studying in a chinese school. whatever it is, no harm what, cuz school is more important.

about raya this time, i guess its a bit different from the past as i was busy baking cupcakes that people been ordering. its all started from wednesday, few days before raya till last night! anyhow i enjoyed doing it. thats why you didn't see any raya updates here hehe... check-out my baking blog for more on my raya cupcakes ;)

guess what people. since i have been invited to kechik's engagement too (well, i thought that my job is to just deliver the cupcakes hehe...), i will take the chance to take a quick break here -- didn't had the chance to enjoy it the last time though. hope that you people will have a great weekend with your loved ones too.

a memorable unplan trip

i attended a meeting at shaidi's place yesterday. the original plan for the community programme today has been postponed to tomorrow. ok that's fine (wahhh... definitely i can't attend the penang bloggers' hike). the best thing yesterday was that shaidi brought us to gunung lang recreational park, off jalan (road) kuala kangsar, that is located very near to his place. exit from north ipoh. we were all surprised with what the park got to offer. even some of my colleagues from ipoh also dunno about that place.

yes many local people still do not aware of this recreational place due to lack of publicity. however, i don't think this place is meant for tourists and there is little to offer. it's more of a place for the local people to hang out. if you don't have much time to spare in ipoh, i suggest you to skip this place and focus your time for looking out delicious food in ipoh. you will see a calm lake surrounded by limestone hills. at the far end of the lake is a recreational park and children's playground. in order to reach there, one must pay RM3 (adult) / RM1.50 (senior citizen) for a boat ride from the jetty. at the jetty, i can see the lake is teemed with large fish hungry for food but i don't see any eagles flying around here. at the entrance of the park, you can see a chinese temple built inside the limestone cave. note that in ipoh there are many chinese temples built around or inside limestone caves i.e. perak cave and sam poh cave. we like the place so much that we told albin, our tour guide that we gonna come again to organize a company's bbq. o yes, since albin knows shaidi very well, our trip including the boat ride there were f-o-c!

btw enjoy the pics. wished i could take more ;)

a story of our one-day-trip to penang

i have promised kids to go out for an outing quite some time ago. what when we were busy with my lil' brother's wedding etc. luckily they were so understanding towards me. actually i still have some problems to be settled at work, but like i said earlier, promised was still a promised. to escape myself from all those stressful thingy, i decided to drive over to penang. well penang is one of the best local place that i love to be, anyway. my sister followed us this time.

once reached penang, we had our breakfast at nasi kandar subaidah (it was unbelievable that i found the restaurant's own site via google. i was like, "wahh... nasi kandar restaurant also got website already lol...") in tanjung tokong if i'm not mistaken. then we headed straight to gurney plaza. i wanna get myself to an easy-way of parking, that's why it was my choice for us to go in the morning. i normally did the same for our trips to ipoh too, especially during the weekends. my sister met her friend during her half-way with us. kids and me really shopped till we dropped lol... we met again with my sister and her friend almost 6pm. her friend brought us to sup hameed stall via some rows of f&b outlets, which reminded me of jalan telawi in bangsar environment kewl...

just when we wanted to walk back to our car, we saw some trishaws. after inquiring and negotiating here and there, we hopped-on two trishaws. it cost us RM15/trishaw for 1/2 an hour. but since megat was excited enough to have more ride, we continued for another 1/2 an hour. it was really fun going around penang town with trishaw. it was proven to be an interesting experience as these trishawmen knows just where to bring us for a quick look of the streets and historical points in there. they even brought us to chew jetty village. we really love to view the other side of penang from the village. all-in-all we plan to spend more time in penang in the future maybe for some sight-seeing instead of shopping! tehee... more over visit malaysia year 2007 campaign will begin soon!

kuE's note:
pic 1 - penangites should know this place.
pic 2 - my chicken soup with plain bread-nice eaten while still hot ;)
pic 3 - self-taken pic of us on the trishaw.
pic 4 - pic taken by my sister who was riding the trishaw with her friend, behind us.
pic 5 - ahh!!... we were shouting when crossing the road lol...
pic 6 - chew jetty

i love and wanna do it again

what i would like to say here is that i really faced my monday blues today. i went back to bed after i send the kids to school. i thought maybe i could recover a quick nap. unfortunately i dunno what had happened, when suddenly i heard mother's voice from outside of my room, telling me that it was already 10. i was like, "haa?!!...". oh gosh... i took my fon to look at the time. yes, it was already past 10am. i unlocked the room door. mama wanted to see what i bought. i was not in the mood, just awoke. i have the book that i am currently reads, marrying buddha in my left hand. i must be trying to read it earlier but i slept instead. since mama saw that i was not in the mood yet, she walked-out. i pushed back my body down. i have no mood to get up. i managed to continue reading.

again, i dunno what had happened when my sister came-in. argghhh... i slept again! it was around 11.15 am. my parents went to kl for a day trip yesterday. maybe she followed them back here. as usual, she would asked any of us who drive to bring her to places that she wanna go. looks like she has to wait for me to get ready. i continued reading after she left. i only got up for shower at about 12 noon.

you must be wondered of why i was kind of so lazy today. well i took some time off during the weekend for a break in penang. we stayed in one of the studio suites in the gurney hotel for two nights. just look at the wonderful pictures below, a view from my hotel room on the 17th floor. the one on the left showed a sea view, covered with haze. while the other one was a city view, from behind the hotel.



on my previous post, i typed about my break fast outing with my staff at the same hotel's coffee house on last thursday. the hotel's ramadhan buffet is available during the weekdays only. the food were so good, delicious... on friday, i went there again with another group. i guess it's already like a yearly event for us. i started to do these two years ago. the best thing was that i didn't tell any of them of where i wanna bring them. it would be a surprised for them. i brought kids and grandmother with me. while my staff would just follow me wherever i go. i believed that that was a great way for me to strengthen my realtionship with my staff.



those staff that went on friday was so surprised when i told them that they will go back alone that night, without me. there are guys anyway, not to worry. they should know how to find their way back without any hassle. one of them helped me with the luggage. i checked-in earlier, as soon as we reached the hotel. so we parted. kids were very happy enough as they seems will be with me the whole weekend. they understood that i would be normally busy. one of the tv programmes that we watched that night was mtv cribs, featured mariah carey's pent-house. her place is so beautiful. then i remembered kc. she posted about this some time ago. i quickly send a text message to her, hoping that she will watch the programme too.

the next day, saturday, we left the hotel about 10.30 am for metrojaya in island plaza. we really shopped like nobody's business. besides, i really love to do my raya shopping there from my younger years, starting from their first outlet in bb plaza. for me, metrojaya is still my first choice. after almost more than six hours there, we went back to the hotel. at first we thought of having our break fast elsewhere. but since grandmother looks tired, we decided to order from room service. it was very good indeed. a nice and relaxing meal for all of us.

at about 9.30pm, i took the chance to pamper myself with a balinese massage at the hotel's suite spa. puteri accompanied me. at the same time also she wanted to know of how is it like. the spa has 17 individual suites. i was lucky that mine faced the sea. i love that environment so much more than the one that i frequent at syuen hotel in ipoh. i hope that i could go back there again some day. if only i remember to take pics of the spa suites, then you would know how nice it was. we didn't go up to the room immediately. but puteri and i had a mother-daughter saturday night-out at the CB outlet in beach hut gurney, located at the hotel itself. just look at the pics, its a great environment there right, facing the beach.



we checked-out yesterday at about 10.15 am. and guess what people. we didn't go straight back home as yet. we headed to gurney plaza instead. more shopping there, until we left the place only after 5pm. earlier in the morning, i received a sms from mama saying that she went to kl with dad and will be back on the same day. that was fine. we dropped-by bukit merah laketown resort after 6pm, just nice for us to relax and have our break fast there on time. food was great. they had a kampung-style buffet. one of the male staff asked me of how i knew about their ramadhan buffet. hmm... you asked me how huh?!! just figure it out yourself— what a stupid Q, don't you think? lol...

so how about all you muslims out there. would you like to share with me your raya preparations?