Sunset at Marina Bay, Kota Kinabalu On the weekend my three girlfriends and I made a trip to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. The flight was about two hours from Kuala Lumpur, and we were going to kill two birds with one stone – go snorkeling and do some light exploring at Mount Kinabalu. First lesson here is to never underestimate the power of pre-booking meals. The smell of a hotdog gets 10 times more intense in the plane. We got there by noon, went food-hunting for lunch and Mimi brought us all to a small old bakery within the mall to get her favorite food as a child – it was called the Mexico Bun (Butter bun with crème filling). I think it’s wonderful the fact that most of us almost always associate the happiness of childhood to some kind of favorite food/junk/snacks that rot your teeth. We went to see the sunset at Marina Bay, and of course, I ate some cookies and cream gelato (honestly, and I have the cheek to wish I have badass legs like Miranda Kerr?). It was pretty nice, sitting at the jetty, talking about nothing, enjoying the sea and sunset, checking out observe-worthy guys… it was all a very ’19 again’ evening hanging out with close girlfriends. For dinner we were all pretty content on trying to have a laid back weekend holiday, so Mimi’s sister took us out to dinner at a pretty nice restaurant pub in the heart of Kinabalu. Mimi used to live in Kinabalu before she moved to KL, by the way. Which explains the Mexico bun and the sister. Anyway the food was lovely, I think we ordered enough to feed 10 starving girls from America’s Next Top Model. We spent the rest of the night playing pool at the pub, and by the end of it I think I have smartly converted myself from a zero to hero when it comes to snooker, thanks to Zaza my BFF who is the macho-est woman alive (I mean, she can play snooker so well it made those guys on ESPN gulp). We got back to the hotel room to watch a silly movie nobody remembered about and played cards for the rest of the night. All set and geared up for snorkeling the next day! Api-api Centre Restaurant and Pub. Awesome Filipino food. And pool table. The sister with a pile of deep fried crabs. I went back to my parents’ house during the Eid Holidays. I took two weeks off from work and went home. My parents live up North of Malaysia, some 5 hours’ drive from Kuala Lumpur. The Eid day was fine, and by fine I mean I must’ve gained two pounds from Eid breakfast alone. After the celebration settled down a bit, we decided to take a drive further up North to Kuala Perlis, in the state of Perlis. That would be another two hours’ drive from my parents’ home.
Why would one drive up to a city the size of a mining town for two bloody hours? Well, the answer, my friend, is because in Kuala Perlis there is a small eatery by the Harbor of Kuala Perlis that serves fried seafood in the best Malaysian way possible. I can’t remember the name of the place, but it’s right next to the market selling dried salted fish, right by the sea. You’ll immediately find it if you drive around in the area because of the commotion of people visiting it for seafood-calorie-piling purposes. You go to seafood restaurants and they serve you steamed this, poached that and stir fried those. But here everything is deep fried. Note to self and others: don’t bring Uncle Jack with the three clogged arteries, if you know what I mean. The shrimp is deep fried, the crab is deep fried, the squid, the seafood fritters, all dipped in good old Thai chili sauce. I especially adore the fried crabs. They pile it up high, ready for you bury your face into, and for the next hour or so you’ll be having an affair with them. Never mind the seriously hot weather (equip yourself with endless glasses of ice lemon tea), assume that it’s just the host’s way to get you into the seaside eating element. Definitely a must visit place if you’re ever in Kuala Perlis. Well, actually, to be honest, what else can a 23 year-old do there anyway? Final day on the ship. Tomorrow I’m headed back to land by chopper, and then a private plane back to KL. Yesterday the weather was pretty bad I wanted to throw up, but the say that throwing up is like unplugging a pipe – you do it once and it’ll keep streaming out of ya, so I held it back. But in all optimism, I’m going back to land tomorrow yay! I can literally picture myself already, running around kissing the ground, probably hugging a tree or two. Here’s a bit of a summary of the whole 3-week cruise adventure.
Days: 20 days Travelling: Plane, chase boat, chopper Number of cute guys noted: 2, one Filipino, another British Number of karaoke sessions: Definitely once every two days Number of movies seen: I stopped counting after the 20th movie The best part of the whole trip has got to be watching the sunset everyday at the sundeck. I’m telling you, if you’re in that place where life has gotten a little bit too overwhelming, prescribe yourself sunsets everyday for 3 weeks in the middle of the sea, and by the end of it you’ll feel a lot better about yourself. The picture shows me and the last sunset I watched today at the sundeck. You don’t have to do anything exactly, just get comfortable, sit quietly by yourself and watch the sun silently disappearing behind the clouds. In a strange way it kind of calms you down and makes everything a lot more…sensible, I guess. Anyway I weighed myself yesterday and I have successfully gained extra 3 kilos. Gosh, talk about eating yourself to death. When I get back I think I might go on a detox diet (yeah, yeah, I say that all the time, but really, when have I actually even done it?) I can literally feel my ass expanding. Suddenly the Biggest Loser doesn’t sound like such a bad idea… Week 1 on the Geowave Commander Vessel. Two days ago we were transported to the mothership from the smaller boat via a small jet ski-type boat. The small jet ski thing (otherwise called an FTB) looked like one of those orange rescue boats you see in National Geographic. You know, with a driver who looks like one of them Battleship Galactica characters with two other men standing on each side of him while holding on to iron bars, all very macho. We rode the FTB across the deep black ocean, and it was raining really hard with lighting everywhere, crazy waves and the heavy fog made me feel like I was in a Godzilla movie. The FTB was literally flying above the menacing waves, and everytime the FTB goes up I could feel my butt getting off the seat. ‘Banana boats are nothing close to this’, I remember thinking to myself. Here’s a picture of my friend on the FTB after I was safely transported and it was his turn. I know he’s like smiling all over, but actually he wanted to shit his pants. I think we all felt the same way. I was sent for a work assignment on a seismic vessel for three weeks starting the 23rd July. In order to go on the ship I had to first take an hour-long fight to Terengganu, West Peninsular Malaysia, and then take a small boat for 12 hours to reach the mother vessel. The small boat was due on Friday morning, so I took the flight on Wednesday so I could get a day of sight seeing in Terengganu.
The last time I visited Terengganu was when I was about 10. Last year I read ‘Growing Up in Trengganu’ by Awang Goneng, a book about the author’s childhood in the state, and I’ve been excited about visiting this place ever since. I arrived at Kerteh Airport at 6 p.m. and took a cab at the hotel which cost me bloody 40 bucks. 40 bucks? That has made me officially one of those dumb tourists who got tricked by the mean local taxi drivers. That night a few of my guy friends took me out for dinner at Kemaman, about 30 minutes drive from my hotel. The restaurant was called ‘Restaurant Terapung’ or simply translated as the Floating Restaurant. And it really was literally floating. It was right off the main street of Kemaman, but cleverly hidden so you couldn’t find it unless you’re a local and know your way around, and a guy friend of mine was from around so we found it easily. The food was great, local Malaysian dishes like Ikan Siakap Tiga Rasa (Deep Fried Barramundi in three-flavored sauce, which in case you’re wondering, is supposed to be all sweet, sour and hot), stir fried vegetables, calamari fritters, Tomyam soup and finished off with a tall glass of sour sop juice. The view was fabulous, because the restaurant was floating on a wide saltwater river overlooking the mangrove trees. We then proceeded to have an hour-long conversation of ‘If Animals Have a Facebook Account…’ which would’ve caused Einstein to cry in shame because of the amount of brain cells wasted here. The next day a good friend of mine who was a local decided to bring me around for a short tour. We went bowling, like a couple of losers with no other friends to socialize with. Then he took me to Kemasik beach, a pretty sandy white beach with small fishermen’s boats floating around the lagoon, bobbing up and down with the waves. We ordered coconut drinks, keropok lekor (local fish chips) and fresh fried fish, which I’ve never tried before. We sat beneath the trees by the beach and talked for hours. Talking to guys has never failed to astound me. They have the strangest perspective in life, don’t they? The ways they look at things are quite never the same as girls. It’s liberating and funny at the same time to hear the talks from their side of the planet. That late evening after he dropped me back at the hotel, I went to sit alone by the private beach of the hotel. Minus the beach fleas, the sunset was beautiful. In college I’ve always watched sunsets with good friends, but sitting there alone on the white sand of an empty beach is a different affair altogether. No humans in sight, just me, the beach, and the good old beach fleas. The city, the problems, the hyped life of shoes and bags, they all seemed like a million miles away. I felt kind of…happy. Maybe life is supposed to be this simple after all. |
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