sarawak part III: a slice of sarawak culture

Tomorrow I will be leaving Taiwan...my first time going there. Hoping everything will run smoothly ;)

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I am going to fast forward one day to the day we visited Sarawak Cultural Village in Kuching. We took a lot of photos here especially since the 3 of us have never been here before. If you don't have transport getting here, you can take a shuttle at Grand Margherita Hotel that costs RM10 per way. The entrance fee to the village is also cheaper if you have student cards.

At the entrance

Replica of the entire village

The whole place kind of reminds me of Mini Malaysia in Melaka as well as the Chinese Folklore Village at Shenzhen, China. There were 7 types of village houses scattered over the area, each belonging to a different tribe in Sarawak.

The Bidayuh bamboo bridge

Really scary bridge, well at least for me because I keep imagining that I will fall down since I am such a clumsy person:( It leads to the Bidayuh village house.

sarawak part II: sibu (lunch, dinner and the sun)

@Sparklezane is in my house. Lol. She is staying at my house for 1 week and I am now coming up with plans on things to do and eat:) Hopefully she won't be bored since I am such a boring person at home hehe.

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** be warned, lots of photos **

Continuing from my last Sarawak post, we took the morning boat to Sibu and we were greeted by Jane's family, who were so generous to not only cook lunch for us but to also allow us to stay for one night in their house. Jane's family is so large, unlike mine. She lives in the same house with her parents, her 4 siblings plus her brother's wife and daughter. Yes, Jane has a young niece, QiQi, who is the cutest thing ever. She talks non-stop and is so hyperactive. I had so much fun laughing at her because the way she talks is soooooo adorable. She has plenty of "lo" and "oh", like typical Malaysian:) Sometimes her talk is incomprehensible, but nevertheless she is so much joy to have around. 

I miss Jane's niece

After lunch and playing around with her niece, Jane brought us to a local shopping mall to eat sushi. It was a place called, "Sushi Tie", kind of reminiscent of Sushi Tei anyone? Lol.

Our yummy sushi

Our lovely host cum guide in Sibu

Clara and me

sarawak part I: kapit

Since young, I have a dream of writing a book.. I guess it is a "normal" dream for every avid reader out there. But it is always so difficult. I may have a good idea but it is so hard to develop it. At the end of the day, I cannot finish writing it, going on and off. Since I have a long break this time, the longest I will ever have (I presumed), I really want to start writing again. But as of now, I have no inspiration whatsoever. Hopefully, somehow, I can bring myself to write again *fingers crossed*.

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After my farewell trip to Sg Lembing with my pharmacy coursemates, I had a one-week break before I started packing again. This time, destination is Sarawak, a place not really unknown to me as I have been there before in my 2nd year. The only difference this time is I will be heading to Kapit, Clara's hometown. I know, there is nothing much to see there, Kapit being a remote place. But I am curious of this unheard place (at least to me, before I knew her) and also of Clara's family. Lol.

This is going to be a long post, full of photos as I decided to crammed my 2 days in Kapit in one post. So beware >.<

-DAY 1-

Myself, Clara and Jane

We started our Sarawak journey in KLIA. Yay, we booked MAS promotion tickets so at least we were going to have a relatively more comfortable flight to Sibu.

Special service

Our flight was delayed due to unexpected circumstances. From the windows of the boarding room, we could see a HKL ambulance and what appears to be a special delivery truck helping to move a critically-ill patient onto our aeroplane. This is the first we have seen of anything of this kind and we said it is maybe because of Ys, as this is his first time flying.

Little white riding hoods

melaka bandar bersejarah (part 2)

I am on a roll here...Damn, miss blogging a lot. I have so much to blog about. Now, if only all my blogger friends feel the same way as I do because I also miss blog-stalking. Lol.

I am reading Dan Brown's "The Lost Symbol" right now and I am taking forever to finish it. My comprehension skills are slowly deteriorating already. I am aiming to at least read 3 books this holidays. After this is my favourite Agatha Christie and John Grisham.

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My final post on my 2 days 1 night weekend trip to Malacca. On the last day, our other 5 friends did not join us as they will be leaving back to KL that day, earlier than us. But luckily myself and Clara already had plans for the day, just strolling Malacca town for more attractions. Duh, what else were we going to do? Haha.

This is the hotel we stayed in. Love the vintage sketches.

We had small birthday celebration for Jia Ying, the last dwarf birthday

Anyway, sad case lor. Because we only booked 2 hotel rooms, so there were only 4 people who can have breakfast. But I totally forgot that the last time I went to Malacca with my Form 6 friends, that we can share breakfast among us. Meaning although they will serve 4 plates of breakfast, actually all of us can share. Thinking that we cannot share, myself, Clara and Ai Li went to Jonker Street for breakfast just to end up starving because there were no shops opened for breakfast. T___________T.

i return to malacca again (part 1)

Having the flu now...crap. Been feeling unwell since the last few days at Kuching and then after coming back to KL, continued my unhealthy lifestyle of going out and not drinking enough water as well as sleeping late. Hopefully I will get better before my trip to Taiwan next week...

P.S. Love that I have time to blog again. Yeah!

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This is a really long overdue post about my trip back to Malacca again. I have been there twice in my childhood (as long as I can remember), once with my BF Classmates, and this time with the 7 dwarves.

Because Clara is such a frequent visitor to Malacca, and myself has also been to Malacca before, we both did not join the others at A Famosa Theme Park. Both of us took the bus to Malacca the day after - spending 2 days and 1 night at Malacca town.

We all met up at Malacca Sentral, the bus terminal and took taxis to Aldy Hotel, our accommodation. Actually, we did not know which hotel to stay and since it was the Thaipusam weekend break, many hotels were already booked full. The previous time I went to Malacca, I stayed at Aldy with BF people, so we booked this hotel again. I like Aldy because it is really close to many tourist attractions, good for those of us who have no transport to bring us around.

Lunch of Malacca Rice Balls

We have 3 coursemates who reside in Malacca and we met up with 2 of them - Ganby and Ys. But we also have another 3 coursemates who also took the weekend trip to Malacca - May Yin, Gim Hui and Yong Xin. So we met up with the whole entourage at Stadhuys.

Christ Church with the fiery red flowers

The majestic fountain that one always take photos of in Malacca

rainbow waterfall is breathtaking

Omg, I am like evolving into a super lazy pig at home. Right after my trip to Lembing River, I had a few days break before my trip to Sarawak...I made a to-do list because I had so many things I wanted to do that previously I never found time to do (or make excuses or procrastinate over). Now, it seems that I only managed to cross one thing off that list. Sad, pathetic I know. All day I just eat, sleep, go online, sleep, watch tv, sleep >.<

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This is the second and last post on my 3 days 2 nights farewell trip to Sg Lembing, Pahang with my Chinese Pharmacy coursemates. As mentioned in previous post, it was a really tiring first day for me, what with the tough hike up the hill and the endless walking under the hot sun, I slept like a baby that night. Since our room was the outermost, I could hear few of my kaki mahjong coursemates playing mahjong all night. Lol~

The next day, we woke up before the break of dawn. After breakfast, we got into these pick-up trucks (sorry I have no idea what exactly are they called, I am not really well-versed in vehicle language). 

This was the truck I meant, exposed and have cushion seats

It was so cool riding in one of these. In the early morning, any speed will send a gush of cold freezing wind blowing across our faces or any exposed uncovered skin area. Haha. It was refreshing and at times, freezing, for me but I think some of my skinny coursemates were having goosebumps during the whole ride (really!). 

The trucks took us for a one-hour ride, near the jungle trail leading to the waterfall. Why trucks? For one thing, the trail there initially was alright but as we move into the jungle terrain, the trail became really bumpy and also muddy, the aftermath of yesterday's rain. Alone, I would be scared but when it comes to the combination of bumpy roads and a group of chatty loud talkative young girls, I had nothing but fun laughing at their jokes. To entertain ourselves for one hour on the road, we sang (haha) and talk and joke until I literally lost my voice.

In the early morning, we could see the mist clouding the mountains

when 33 pharmacy 4th years got together~

I realized it is not easy to plan any trips, especially for a large group of people. It has always been tradition that Pharmacy 4th year seniors go on a trip to commemorate our graduation and the separation from one another. But we all know that the reason we go on this trip is not because of tradition, but really to create fond memories and to bond with one another as it really is the last chance already. Getting everyone to agree on a location, date and time is a challenge, as we are dealing with 41 people's schedules and personal lives. But despite all odds, the trip finally came through and I am really grateful to all the people involved in planning, especially Suet Yin. 

The trip of choice is to Sg Lembing in Pahang. Initially, this trip was planned around Feb 2011 and we were supposed to go in March but due to rainy season, we postponed it. On 27th April, the day of our last paper, we rest for a short while at our respective homes before leaving on the bus departing from Setapak at 12 midnight.

All 33 of us made it to the trip

Thankfully, I was really exhausted due to the mishaps of the day (long story~!). So I slept very well in the bus on the 5 hours journey there. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of my travelling companion, Clara Sia, who had trouble sleeping. Seriously, I don't know how she will survive the 9 hours journey to Pulau Redang (which is another Pharmacy graduation trip that I declined to go since I have been to Pulau Lang Tengah before).

bidding adieu

I miss blogging. Period.

Now that a heavy burden has been lifted off my shoulders, i.e. the stress of studying Pharmacy, I am determined to start blogging properly with lots of pics and updates.

I am thinking of doing a special photo project. I read about it on Sweatlee a long time ago, the Project 365. I guess many avid blogger cum photography lovers will be familiar with it.

First thing on my holiday itinerary is to blog about my memories in my last semester in UKM. So much to blog, I hope I can finish it all. Starting from the latest, which are my 3 consecutive outings, my trip to Sungai Lembing (Ling Ming San) with my Pharmacy coursemates, both my course nights, my Malacca trip with 7 dwarves (finally!), and various other moments, including my clinical life in HUKM.

#DAY 1: THE ROOMMATE

Right after my exams, I had a brief 2D 1N trip to Sg Lembing with my Pharmacy coursemates, which left me exhausted and lots of bruises on my leg, like I kena abused or something. But more about it on another post.

The day after that, with much rest in the morning, Clara and I left in the afternoon to sort out our upcoming trip to Taiwan. After that, we joined the lovely 7 dwarves and Carrie at Pavilion. First off, we had some yummy dessert at Snowflake's courtesy of Jane Kong. Next it was movie time with the choice being "The Roommate". Clara and Carrie had to rush off for their buddy gathering so I remained with the rest for dinner at Pepper Lunch Express.

Being a huge Gossip Girl fan, Blair Waldorf is my favourite character on the show and Leighton Meester does a brilliant job projecting a snobbish yet shrewd Upper East Side elite girl. So, although I was not particularly interested in the storyline, I am a fan when it comes to Leighton. 

Sadly, the movie really disappoint me. So not scary at all. Watch it if you like 1. Pretty girls - Minka, Leighton, Aly, and even Nina Dobrev, good way to convince ur bf to watch this mv with you or 2. If you like fashion. The main actress is a fashion student and her style is really distinctive and chic. Love her illustrations too. Yup, I only like the fashion aspect of it all. Other than that, the whole movie feels like a modern remake of the movie, "Single White Female", which I feel, is way scarier than this one.

Snowflakes yummy ice

Have to admit it, Snowflakes is like becoming a cultural phenomenon. Everytime I go there, I see flocks of people. By the way, Coco Loco is still my favourite =)