If I can't go to Africa...

... then Africa will come to me! Well, at least that's what they always say.

Madagascar forms a part of the BIG Africa and is the fourth largest island in the world! *Gasps* bet you didn't know that! I didn't too, until Wikipedia told me, of course. Hehe. But if not for the DreamWorks animation, I bet most of us will not even ever bother to find out where Madagascar is (I know got Madagascar cockroach, cos they ate that in Fear Factor, yucks).



Madagascar, the animated movie is raved, loved, criticized, talked about by many but believe it or not I have never ever been a fan/loyal follower of movies with sequels or double-o-gies/trilogies. Shameless to say, I've never watched Madagascar 1. I've never watched any of the Star Wars movies. I've never watched any James Bond (but I know I like Pierce Brosnan, he is so 'man' lo). Nope I did not finish Harry Potter 1,2,3,4,5,6. Nor Lord of the Rings (couldn't stand all the ugly creatures and gory parts though I did forward to the final scene of ROTK where Frodo lost his finger hehe). What about Shrek? All I know he's a green monster, that's all. Austin Powers? Nope. Rush Hour? Nope. Fast and Furious? Nope.

I know. Shuddup.



The only movies with sequels I have probably followed are Princess Diaries (hehe! I love the PD series, believe me I read every single book), Batman, Spiderman, errrr... that's all? And High School Musical!! Yes! (though I didn't watch the 2nd one, I bought the book and read)



So, my point is... I want to watch Madagascar 2 lo. If not when people start talking about it I feel so left out. And because it is free somemore, you know la early/middle/end of the month also no money, it would be great if movie tickets drop from the sky or grow on trees for me. Believe me, the first ever time I scored a pair of free tickets from Nuffnang, I was overjoyed! I finally understood why Jen does things like this to get 'free swags' :p Aiyoh Jen, I am becoming like you already la how.



Just when I thought free things don't come easy and easy things don't come free (similar to 'cheap no good, good no cheap theory'), KYspeaks/clubs/gives/parties/drives etc gave me a chance to erase my thoughts. So pleasepleasepleaseplsplsplsplspls give me the free tickets ok? Help me to start knowing what Madagascar is about (though I roughly know it's a movie about some elephant, penguin, giraffe, zebra. Btw, I never knew penguins can live on dry humid land??) Help me embark on this journey of watching double-o-gies and trilogies. Hehe so kua cheong.

Okla, time to punch card and escape 2 Africa home.

Bread & Olive @ KL Lookout Point

Image taken from lowyat.net

If the pictures above failed to mesmerize you, I don't know what will. Maybe perhaps a diamond? Or Josh Duhamel? Hehe he is quite charming lo.

KL Lookout Point is very popular among photography enthusiasts and those who have never ever seen the whole of KL night scene before... like me. Eh don't lie, I know most of you have never seen it before too, photos in magazines and internet don't count. And I can proudly brag that I have been there, done that TWICE in 2 days. Yea crazy people like us take an hour drive to the same place in 2 consecutive nights.

This is of course a very long forgotten post, almost a month plus because I am so wonderful at digging things that happened long long ago to blog about :D


Colorful drink for your dull life!

On the first visit, we ended up getting a seat at Bread & Olive, a cafe that majors in Mediterranean cuisines. The name reminds me of Fig & Olive and I wonder if it's related. The menu is rather limited and since we had our dinner before heading to the Lookout Point, we ordered something to share.

For the lack of a better name, the juice shall be named 'Colourful Lava'. It has 4 layers of different colors (in other words, pewarna yang dibenarkan) and I suppose it represents and is made up of 4 different fruits. Mango, orange, kiwi, watermelon??? It is ice blended and not exactly a genius choice as it can be pretty chilling up there.


Mediterranean naans

Again, I'm particularly bad with names of food I had more than a month ago. If I remember correctly, it has a name along the lines of 'Pizza'... perhaps Mediterranean Pizza or something. In actuality, it is a mediterranean style pizza as the dough is topped/enveloped with meat (chicken, lamb, beef i think?) and some herbs and spices and baked in a fire oven. The outcome is a plate of crispy and fluffy Mediterranean pizza. We didn't like the ones in the middle of the picture though. It is some herbs and spices flavour.

We did make a second trip the following night because some of our friends have never been up there too. On the second visit, we managed to get a table at the famous Gasoline Cafe but food was just okay (along the lines of Station One, Halo Cafe etc). The joint is managed by typical lala chais and patronized by typical mui mui chais too which makes us very lala that night too :p


With the people from college- Jimmy, Alex, Jen, Calvin and I


KLCC is so small that I can flip it with a flick of my fingers, bwahahahahahaa!


The sky was much orange-ier on the first night, but still as spectacular

When I first saw this view, my jaw literally dropped and I was dumbfounded, unable to believe there is such a place in KL/Malaysia/Earth that is so beautiful. The lights, the lights and the lights! Now I know why it is important to switch on lights at night, be it your car when you're driving, your house, appartment, streetlights etc because if whole of KL decides to be on an environment friendly and energy saving mode (which we all know will never happen), then you won't get to see this breathtaking view for yourself!

To see the very awesome pictures of the night scene, please visit Calvin's flickr. See it to believe it!

3 meals at Kota Kinabalu

No trip will be complete without an obligatory post on the food savoured. Just too bad that the food we had on the 3 days do not truly reflect the gastronomic scene of Kota Kinabalu. We did not have a car and neither do we know our roads there, so it was hard for us to venture out of the airport and hotel area for our meals.

Upon touching down at Kota Kinabalu Low Cost Carrier Terminal 2 airport, we headed to Asian Delights Cafe (the only option we had apart from KFC), the same when we headed to the Kota Kinabalu International Airport Terminal 1 (new airport) for work on the 2nd day, we ended up having our lunch at this cafe as well (they have outlets in both airports), and on the final day before taking off, we had our lunch here too. Eating here means we have an extra 10% off our meals upon producing the MAB pass.


Beef rendang rice- RM6


Nasi Lemak special- RM5.50


Kampung fried rice- RM12.90


Honey chicken rice- RM12.90


Singapore fried meehoon- RM5.50


Curry chicken rice set with a drink- RM9.90
Normal curry chicken, no complains and no praises

One thing I noticed is that although Asian Delights operates at both airports, prices at the Terminal 1 airport is more expensive and the beverages selection are limited.


Imperial Hotel Rooftop

As I have mentioned in my earlier post, our hotel stay is inclusive of breakfast, and so this is where we had our breakfast for 2 mornings. No fuss to where we should go for breakfast ;D


My picks


The best thing on the buffet table- BEEF BACON!!!


Toasted bread with melting butter, mini doughnut and banana cake


Porridge with fried shalots and prawns


Lychee, honeydew and papaya for good digestion


BEEF BACON!!! Yumz!


How do you want your eggs to be? Sunny side up and mushroom omelet


Porridge with fried shallots, prawns and shredded chicken

I suppose you can tell beef bacon was my absolute favourite that two mornings, I stuffed myself silly with them. It was soooooooooooo sinful but I felt good. *burps* The coffee and tea tasted blehhhh, no matter how much sugar you add, it still taste the same -__- with a weird aftertaste.


Macau iced coffee- RM3.90
Too sweet for my liking


French toast- RM4.90
Nothing special but was really good to satisfy a hungry appetite


French fries- RM4.50
McDonald's still beats them hands down!


White fungus lotus dessert- RM5.90


Korean pork chop spicy noodles in wooden bowl- RM12.90
Nothing fantastic but credits for the unique presentation



Pan fried woh tip (dumplings)
This was made by an ex-colleague who now has a stall selling woh tip at a neighborhood kopitiam. I think it's in Penampang (??)

On second night, we had our dinner at La Manila Cafe @ Warisan Square. There wasn't much options and we wanted to be within the allowance budget given by the company (which isn't much, really).


Wat tan hor- RM8.50


Marmite chicken rice- RM8.50
This is pretty delicious as the chicken are very tender and the gravy goes very well with the rice!



Eggtarts from Dotts @ Warisan Square- RM1.10 per piece
It was pretty yummy and best thing is the egg center is still watery and it is pastry type instead of solid biscuit


Famous Taluwang ice cream potong from Sabah!
Durian (yellow) and cempedak (orange) flavours at RM1.60 per stick


Handmade Chocolates from Simply Delicious @ Warisan Square
- ranging from 60¢ to RM1+ a piece.
My verdict? Bullshit chocolates. Give me Fidani anytime!

And so I left KK with nothing much worth remembering (the food). On the last trip, my boss took us out for dinner at Ocean Village Seafood Restaurant and I had a jolly good time eating but was too shy to take pics :(

About 2 more weeks before I leave for KK again on another 'working' trip! Meanwhile, it is back to office tomorrow :(((((

A 'work-cation' to the Land Below The Wind

Cloudy skies

I am back from the Land Down Under Below The Wind (aka Sabah)!! It was my 2nd time to Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah. My first and also virgin visit to the East Coast was somewhere in August where I had the 'opportunity' to see and experience what it is like to open shops in the airport. Anyway, this time around, somewhere last week, my lady boss told me that my colleague and I should make a trip to KK to have a check on the shops there. And so we booked our tickets and headed to the Land Below The Wind!

What's better than NOT sitting in the office for 3 days is that we're on our own with no superiors following us! Doesn't that already spell F-R-E-E-D-O-M? As the title suggests, it was more like a work-cation (work + vacation).


A bird's eye view of the murky river water

We booked a darn early flight on Wednesday, I had to wake up at an ungodly hour of 4am! Our flight was at 6.50am, got delayed about 20 mins and reached KK's LCCT airport at 9.20am. Knowing Air Asia, you can tell my whole body was aching upon touching down. Anyway, after collecting our luggages, we headed for breakfast (food pictures in the next post), did our 'work' although there's nothing much to do. Since we didn't have a car, we took a cab to the Imperial Hotel where we'll be staying for the next 3 days of our little 'working' trip.


Imperial International Hotel @ Warisan Square, KK Waterfront

The Imperial Hotel has a whole block by themselves and is located within Warisan Square at the KK Waterfront. In other words, our hotel faces the sea, ~woot! We were staying at the much cheaper Radius Hotel during the first visit and I must say our decision to move to Imperial this time around was an excellent decision (albeit more expensive lalalala). At about RM205++ per night, it is pretty good value as there is buffet breakfast provided too.


Spacious and comfy beds


I love the shower!

What distincts the Imperial from Radius is the bathroom. Like many of you out there, the first thing I always do is to check out the bathroom and Imperial did not disappoint. Minimalistic, clean and the shower head totally rocks. The water pressure is excellent and makes you want to stay in the shower for hours, it makes me (one who doesn't have the habit of showering in the cold early mornings) want to shower in the morning. My colleague and I were so frustrated with the shower in our last trip as the water pressure at Radius is as good as the dog peeing.


Bars, clubs, bistros, cafes, water and night breeze @ KK Waterfront

From the rooftop of the hotel, one can see the lovely scenery of the KK water. The row of shops by the waterfront are clubs and cafes which is open at night, so yes, KK does have a night life. On my first visit, my operations manager brought us to one of the bars 'Cock and Bull Bistro' which I found out they have an outlet at The Merchant Square, Tropicana.


Too sunny for a drink

At night, it is very therapeutic and relaxing to have a sit outside, having a drink and chatting while enjoying the night breeze. Other bars and cafes I know of are Bed (a club), The Shamrock Irish Pub, Bar Su, Euro Cafe, and a seafood restaurant, Port View.


Fishermen's rides

Located in the vicinity is a fleet of boats for fishing and it makes quite a picturesque view.


See the island?

Notice the 'island' with houses on it? Well, it isn't exactly an island as we later realized that that whole land is the famous Sutera Habour- a resort only for the rich. As we were having our breakfast overlooking that particular house, can't help but to dream "if only that house was mine... I'll be having a garage for my boats instead of cars and waking up to the sea breeze every day!"


The sea is my neighbour

... well, if only!

Food pictures up next :D