Sabah trip [Part 2] - The Climb....

Our travel agent driver - Augustine arrived at the hotel at 7.30am to pick us up to the Kinabalu Park for the climb. of all things that I could forget, stupid me left my climbing stick, which I bought purposely for this trip, in the hotel room, despite Jo twice reminding me to stuff it into my backpack... -_____-'....

by the time I realized that, we were already halfway to Kinabalu Park... so I called the hotel and got the receptionist to safe keep my climbing stick until we check back in the hotel 2 days later... sigh~~~....


Augustine got us registered, and introduced us to our guide - Januarius


and for a fee of RM7 per kilo, we got Januarius to carry our two backpacks, which tipped the scale at a total 14 kgs...


hehehe... still can pose and smile before the climb... wait till you see my half-dead look later on...


we started off at 10.05am at the Timpohon Gate... bought a wooden walking stick for RM3 each... damn... the one that was left inside the hotel room cost like 15 times more wei... argghhh...!!!....


reached the KM1.0 mark in less than an hour... and I still felt pretty okay...


had lunch at the 3KM resting point, and the lady still got time to go feed them squirrels... surprisingly they were not afraid of people... probably because they charm most climbers for food with their cuteness...


my half-dead look at the KM3 pit stop... -____-
my legs were getting tired already... but the lady was still chirpy and stuff... wt...


my pace slowed down from being able to cover less than 1km per hour to a tortoise pace of 1km per 1.5 hour in the final 3km+ of the climb. plus, the fog/mist was getting heavier, and it also started raining, which made our climb even harder, with slippery rocks and muddy terrain... aduhh....


told Jo to go ahead and not wait for me as Januarius would be following my pace instead. she reached Labuan Rata in less than 7 hours, after wasted some time waiting for me at the 4th and 5th pit stops while I reached Labuan Rata at about 6pm, 5 minutes short of 8 freakin' hours... *faint*...


I literally could not feel my legs when I sat my butt down... stayed stationary for a good 30 minutes, enjoying the outside view through the glass panels and kept on drinking water before I proceeded with the buffet dinner...


dusk at Labuan Rata... simply indescribable...


after dinner, we headed towards our cabin in Gunting Lagadan Hut for the night's rest. That wasn't our first choice because there's no heater there... and it's gonna be cold during the night, but Labuan Rata was fully booked...

__to be continued__

Sabah trip [Part 1]

we reached Kota Kinabalu in the evening, and after checking into the hotel, off we went for dinner at this seafood restaurant (forgot name) next to Promenade...

all seafood served at this restaurant is fresh from the aquarium located beside it, and the range of live sea creatures is huge...


ranging from the typical more eye-soothing huge-ass lobsters...


fresh oysters...


weird looking prawns (yea, I remember the waiter telling me that those were some prawn species)...


to one hell of an ugly fish, which according to the waiter, it's poisonous, but quite tasty... -___-


we ordered this belacan fried authentic Sabah vege... yummy stuff!


err... I forgot what were these called... you need to use toothpicks to dig out the meat inside, then dip it with some chili sauce...


fresh oysters... but it was a total let down... they were pathetically small and juice-less... I've had better ones even back here in Kuching...
apparently, for big fat juicy oysters, another seafood restaurant at the other end would be a better choice instead of this one...


abalone... now these were good stuff, and cheap too... only RM40...


after racking up a bill of about RM180, we headed over to the waterfront, ordered a couple of beers, sat there and enjoyed the cool sea breeze...

next post: the Mount Kinabalu climb... I almost died... -_____-

have been busy after the Sabah trip, and still am... - . -

I have wanted to post an entry on the Sabah trip since last week, but work has been taking up most of the time I have, both in and out of the office... I'm still, and will be busy on my reports until somewhere end of next week, with the overtime period stretching until end of August... wtf!... -____-'

Like what hedo mentioned in her rants, it has been from 9am until 7 or 8pm (work plus overtime), then I have to attend to my other commitments until around 10pm, which at an average drains another 2+ hours of my brain juice after leaving the office during weekdays. That translates to about 13 freakin' hours of work, and THAT is excluding working overtime on Saturdays... :(


yea I know... I have no life... and I need more S.L.E.E.P.

of course I could look at the $$$ side of the whole situation, but I'm tired man, physically & mentally... and I'm seriously thinking of taking a long break by the end of the year, and I don't mean going for a 2 weeks leave kindda thing... I meant something like a 3 - 4 months break OFF work... totally...

assorted snapshots III

just got back from Sabah... dead tired now... and while I compile the tonnes of photos taken, below are some assorted snapshots prior to the Sabah trip...


view from Mount Singai...


sunlight through the canopy...


went for lunch at this Red Dragon Cafe after the Mount Singai climb...


ordered this frog soup (田雞湯), which was surprisingly good... especially the thick soup...


squirrel meat cooked with soy sauce & dried chili... looked impressive but it was a total let down... we weren't even charged for this dish as it was really lousy...


this huge bowl of laksa cost RM6, but I tell ya, it's worth every penny paid...


salmon sushi, salmon sashimi and caviar... I like!!


assorted seafood @ the Hilton Mediterranean Buffet...


and I bought this Camel Active belt before going to Sabah as my old one is almost spoilt...

the Nuffnang cheque finally arrived...

got home last Thursday to find out that the Nuffnang cheque had arrived... so it's somewhat abit of extra petrol money for the week... heh... Many Many Thanks to Nuffnang and Timothy!


RM2.70 per liter for RON97 means that I'm only getting a mere 18.52 liters for RM50 into the tank after the lau-yaa stiuupid G announced the new price increase... -____-

Sashimi Hana...

tried out this 3-piece Sashimi Hana set at Rakutei last night, and I'd say it's pretty worthy as each piece came wrapped with two huge slices of salmon sashimis...


the combination of sushi with salmon, tobiko and mayonnaise tasted brilliant...

by far the best I've tasted...

went to The Hilton Steak House for dinner a couple of days back, and I ordered the Steak Diane...


the dish was cooked at the table, with the chef playing these fire stunts to that piece of tenderloin... it was a trill to watch how the steak was being prepared...


presentation looked good eh?? the sauce was a mixture of mushroom, butter, wine and *I forgot*...


the taste was incredible... by far the best I've had there compared to the sirloin, rib-eye and t-bone steaks...
I asked for the meat to be medium done, and the texture of it was way tender and juicier compared with the rest I've mentioned before...
and I only paid RM29.50++ for it... :))

impulsive purchases...

it was initially more of a window shopping session, but I ended up with quite some purchases... damage to the wallet was pretty huge... and I'd probably have to work more overtime to heal the wallet...


this pair of Police shades is to replace the ZeroX, which has been around since late 2006...


and having 50% discount on Dockers Khakis is simply irresistible... so I left the shop 30 minutes later with 2 pairs of jeans and one pair of working khakis... -_______-"

Gawai Holiday Food & Drink Spree...

it was a long Gawai holiday (over the weekend till Tuesday) for us Sarawakians and Sabahans... and apart from going visiting (which I failed miserably on locating Niny's place despite being there before)... sleeping late, go swimming, eating out and having drinks at nights were pretty much the routine for the 4 days...

Suzuki Sashimi...


the Salmon Don I ordered... very generous amount of Salmon slices given...

ordered Nama Kani Karaage (soft shell crab), Yasai Salad as well as Komochi Shishamo (Grilled Smelt Fish), which I totally forgot to take a few snapshots of due to me busily digging into my Salmon Don... -_____-"


went to this place called MyHouse Steamboat & BBQ Seaffood along the road towards Pending on the weekend... the open garden concept was really soothing and relaxing... plus with the constant breeze... you won't even feel the heat from the steamboat...


waiting for the stuff to be cooked... and again I forgot to take a snapshot of the fried chicken wings served, which were seriously to-die-for...


opened up a Glenmorangie at Ipanema on Gawai night... and surprisingly, business was quite slow for the night, cos probably everyone got themselves hangovers on the Gawai Eve booze parties and having too much tuak during the day...

V-Card from Rakutei (楽亭)

we had a light dinner at Rakutei (楽亭), Crown Square the other night...


apart from ordering sushis, sashimis, makis and japanese salad, I added this generous piece of unagi to the lot...


raked up a bill of about RM90, and were given a V-Card each. the card allows the holder to enjoy 10% off the bill for future dinings, and according to the staff, there're gonna be Japanese Buffets offered soon, which the card holders will enjoy certain discounts when dining there...
hehehehe... we're so looking forward to it now...

new car in da house...

mum & dad decided to trade in the old Nissan and buy the Toyota Vios... took delivery of the new car last Friday. I test drove it with dad that night, and to me, it's a pretty okay buy lah... but for the same amount of money, I'd rather get myself a second hand Toyota Harrier or a Beemer E46...


but for them, they prefer new car... so what can I say??
-______-''


however, it's nice having a new drive in the house, not that I'm gonna go pestering for the keys as I prefer driving the Waja still...

and you think food served in pubs sucked...

was at Ipanema having beer with Daniel the other night when I felt like ordering some finger food because I didn't have dinner that night. ordered Lamb Bits and Mussels, and the dishes came out to be pretty impressive... especially the later...


chunks of deep-fried lamb... compliments well with the mayonnaise...


slightly cooked mussels with melted cheese... damn good stuff, add on more mayonnaise if you want to...

torrent for Under The Canopy of Love 《天幕下的戀人》

apparently Ashley left me a comment asking me for the torrent file of Under The Canopy of Love 《天幕下的戀人》. I've forgotten the URL where I downloaded the torrent, but I still keep the torrent file in the Document Folder. :)

For those who wish to download the series, do let me know of your email addresses so that I could attach the torrent file to you.

Note: the series is in RMVB. If you want, I could also burn you a DVD (4.3GB only) so you don't have to spend too much time waiting for the download.

It's FOC btw... cause good movies/series must share wad...
email me at dreckker@gmail.com and let me know how you want it to be... :)

never knew cheese+grapes could taste so damn good...

yea, went for another round of Japanese Buffet at Hilton again on the Saturday -______-'' , but this time, I was taught how to eat cheese mixed with fruits...

I'll spare you guys with all the typical japanese food shots we had, and just show the types of cheese made available that night...


Gouda Cheese, Camembert Cheese and Emmental Cheese...


apparently, the Camembert Cheese has the best of taste when mixed with fruits, especially grapes... you take a bite off the cheese first, let it somewhat melt in your mouth (the cheese tastes just normal... creamy and abit salty), then you pop in the grape... the taste after that, I assure you all, and I kid you not --- is H.E.A.V.E.N.L.Y....

fail @ gagal...

despite me stating in the previous post on wanting to cut down spending too much, especially on drinking... I failed miserably by opening up a bottle of Glenfiddich Single Malt with Jo last night at Piccadilly's...
-_____-"

pretty smooth stuff though... best mixed with soda or have it neat with ice... but we only drank about 20% of it, so the rest is kept for future nights... ;)

need to cut down splurging on food & drinks...

apart from being buffet overdosed, been spending quite some on drinking I have (though not much) for the past few nights... -_____-"


after failing to get Daniel to go for a typical yumcha session, I found myself downing Heineken with him at Soho instead... haihh~...


my bottle of Heineken and a Jim Bean Coke for her...


had Asahi Super Dry at Senso... pretty good stuff, albeit more bitter on the taste...


the usual Rib-Eye at The Steak House...


and lastly... for those who wish to celebrate Mother's Day at Hilton, there are promotions offered at all three restaurants - Toh Yuen, The Steak House and Waterfront Cafe...