A Monday supposition

Monday, 24^th February. 9.35am

I look up to the blue sky, the sun is out, blaring its brightness. I wonder if it would rain today or if we are going to go through another day of heat wave. I sent up a silent prayer for a drizzle.

Monday, 24^th February. 10.00am

Noticed there aren't many people at the Province. Probably a case of the Monday Blues. Seems to be more and more people being affected these days. Reks came by, her new green blouse swishing with each step she takes, she tells me she needs a coffee and something to eat before she could face the day. Another case of the blues, I thought to myself.  I grab my pouch and go down the escalator. Isn't much left at the godforsaken-cafeteria, but hey, when you gotta eat. You gotta eat.

Monday, 24^th February. 10.40am

There is tense in the air as we walk in the Province. Even the AC seems to have slowed to keep pace with our heartbeats. I throw my pouch onto the table, swinging my chair around,  as I screen my counterparts faces. The Minz looks terrified. She starts rambling on about a woman screaming on the other side of the Province. Giggles joins her, confirming her story that they all heard a woman screaming, like she had been possessed. This sounded too weird. Even on my standards.

Monday, 24^th February. 10.42am

I pick up my pen as I move about the clutter of head in the province. Woman 1 claims the scream was a long one. Woman 2 says it was short. Woman 3 says it emitted from the right of the building and Woman 4 says it was from the left. One person thinks it sounded like screeching tyres and another just thought it was the cleaner lady’s trolley grazing along the floor. I marvel at the human mind. The same sound, and yet everyone heard it differently.

Monday, 24^th February. 11.00am

I walk to the WC situated just outside the province. The probable scene of the crime. I stand by the walls for about 5 minutes and let Aunty Jo investigate inside the stalls. She comes out, head shaking. Nothing to report.Someone comes up to me and says they went out the doors when they heard the scream but found no person or persons at the scene.

I gaze out to the rolling clouds, a dead end. Whoever it was, she seems to have disappeared into thin air.

Jesselton Misty Tales Day 2

Day 2

The skies had really opened up the next morning and we were advised against driving up to Kundasang in the weather. As we sat broodily looking out from the lodge pantry, the rain slowly reduced to a light drizzle.

We spotted a chicken rice shop nearby and having has our fill on steamed chicken( funnily we couldn’t find any restaurants that sold Roasted Chicken rice), we happily bertolak to Kundasang to stay closer to the majestic and very shy Mount KK. Along the way, we made a pit stop at the Puh Toh Tze temple in Tuaran, where they have a large statue of Kuan Yin greeting visitors.

We then proceeded to get some snacks and drinks at the Giant along Tuaran. This is very advisable, as Kundasang really doesn’t have much save for a couple of simple stores. Will probably need to drive all the way down to Ranau for a decent drink or a Guardian store..so we decided  to get our stash before heading up

Mummy, how do i get to school, my cycle is stuck on the roof

Dorothy's house landed on a witch..and here?

We then made a pitstop at the Rumah Terbalik at Tamparuli. We Paid an entrance fee of RM5(for Mycard holders) and got to take some pictures outside the house and were told no photo taking inside the house. To be honest, the story the tour guide gave us of the background of the house made no sense and this visit was not really worth the time. Basically we were walking on the “ceiling”, with fans, lamp and even lizard toys next to our feet. All the furniture is arranged above our head, so it was sort of like we were ghost hovering along the celing like spidermen. Probably would have been cooler if someone got some motion sickness or something and everyone would have gone nuts trying to get out, but it was would have been too confusing, motion sick and all..and then..well you get the point, it just would have made the trip more interesting. But my companions are all made of steel and were happily skipping room to room terbalik-ly.

Rumah Tembikai also got

The road to Kundasang was winding and the rain and fog did not make the journey any easier but lucky for us, Tonti is a great driver and nothing could distract her from the long drive up. We missed the turning to our hotel, not our fault, the Kinabalu Mountain Lodge is situated away from the main road and if you miss the sign, you are pretty much screwed, like we were. GPS doesn’t really work way up here, so it was just us and our instincts, which just made matters worse cause everyone’s instincts was pointing to a different direction. So we drove up the Kinabalu Park which was actually 2km away from our lodge to ask for directions. The lady at the counter asked for entrance fee before realizing we were only asking directions. We then headed down and got lost again and went back to the Park for better instructions and the lady asked for entrance fees again!

This was actually taken at 6.30am on Day 3 when the mist cleared for like half an hour, but this is the view from our room at the lodge

Drive up to the lodge

After getting more accurate directions from the very helpful staff at the Park, we headed onto the road that leads to our lodge. The lodge is situated 1KM off from the main road. It’s a steep drive up to the lodge and can get quite muddy heading up and we had to drive on the lowest gear. It is advisable to get to the lodge before 6pm as it gets dark fairly quickly and there is no lights along the road heading up to the lodge.

The weather was very cold, and were all freezing, except for Deviljoe, whose shorts was still too warm for her. The rooms have no heater nor AC and trust me, none is needed. The bathrooms are shared and dinner is RM8 per pax, prepared upon request by the caretakers. We had brought some instant noodles and the warm soup was more than comforting.

Couldn’t see much of the view, which was all mist anyway, once it got darker and we got down and ready for a cold night

Jesselton Misty Tales Day 1

The land under the breeze.Sabah…what started out as Jesselton town is now known as Kota Kinabalu and this is a place where history runs deep, and can be witnessed by the actions of the people here. Ask anyone and they will tell you their town is Jesselton and you can find many shops still using this name in their business signages.

This is my first trip to Sabah with the diplodocus, Deviljoe and Tonti Chee, to which I must say, the furthest state of Malaysia has proven to be one of the most interesting and beautiful places.

Day 1

We decided to spend our first night at KK Town before heading out to Kundasang the next day. Having our 90 day pass to Sabah and securing our Myvi for the drive around town, we headed to Gaya Street to find our accommodation at the Asian Adventure Lodge.

Part of the Gaya Street decorated for CNY 2014

The view from the Lodge Pantry

It wasn’t very hard to find our hotel, but the parking was a pain in the ass. As the street is pretty much as famous as KL’s Petaling Street,  you can imagine the kind of parking space they had. Most of the shops entrances are actually behind the main street, so if you see a signboard for a restaurant along Gaya, don’t be surprised to find no entrance to the shop.

Though we reached 3 hours later than our check in time, we were a little surprised to find the room not ready. Hungry and excited, we decided to dump our bags at the reception and skipped off to the nearby restaurant Fong Ip for some chow.Whatever you do, do not ask for roti canai or nasi lemak around here. Pretty much sucks.

The shared pantry. Breakfast is provided but is a simple toast and jam

After jalan jalan for a bit, we headed back to the tiny lodge to shower and change. The owner, I found, was a little too talkative and wasn’t too subtle in hiding her political views. So if you decide to stay here, be prepared to hear her many interesting views and life stories + do not book on Agoda as she blatantly informed me that she does not check the bookings made on this site..sigh, no wonder la our room wasn’t ready when we arrived. But she is very helpful in giving ideas on the dos and donts around KK and offers good prices if one is interested on tours. But since we had rented a Myvi, its much cheaper to get around compared to taking tours to the sites.

The temperature dropped to about 21 deg at night and winds can get pretty chilly. It was a cool welcome from the heatwave that is Kuala Lumpur. This first night, we decided to have some local Chinese food and  coconut pudding from Restoran masakan sedap@ Hilltop, Jalan Lintas, Luyang. The pudding is served in the coconut itself and looks like tau foo fa but it’s very cooling and fresh.

The Pudding comes in the coconut, 1 coconut is plenty to be shared by 4 pax

One dish down on my list of to-eats..45 more to go. Some how I have doubt that I can completely try everything that’s on my list..but hey, when on holiday, whats reasonable right?