Anugerah! Anugerah!

(Ilin) First in class and best English - Standard 2.

(Yaya) Third in class and best in cheeky face - Standard 1.

(Anis) Best in Gigit Kuku!

Thank you ALlah!

Jet Ski in Penang

Wheeee!! This is fun!!!

Yaya the Architect

Umi is busy planning for a renovation.

Babah sometimes creates the drawings on his computer.

Out of the blue, Yaya came up with this!

Complete with taman and swimming pool! She says that she wants this house!!

Kundasang War Memorial

During World War Two, there were British and Australian Soldiers taken as Prisoners of War (POW) in Sandakan. They were tasked to construct a military airfield. Later on the Japanese decided to transfer the fittest 455 of them to Kota Kinabalu to serve as coolie labourers. The journey from Sandakan to Kota Kinabalu is about 250km and these POWs were asked to WALK all the way!!! The track was really tough and they face challenges throughout the journey.

Most of them did not make it all the way and many did not survive.

Now near the town of Ranau, a memorial was built to honour the sufferings by these POWs.

There are some images of the memorial here.

Journey to Mount Kinabalu

Early Sunday morning, I started in a quest to search for the highest peak in South East Asia. Standing at 4095 meters, it is ranked 20th tallest peak in the world. We started off from Kota Kinabalu and about 30 minutes later, we reached a place called Tamparuli.

Here, we had to cross a river without going through a proper bridge. It is very narrow and only one vehicle can pass at a time.

Next to it is a hanging bridge called Jambatan Tamparuli. It is famous and was even mentioned in one of Sabah's popular folk song. This hanging bridge allows people from Tamparuli town to cross the river to Kota Kinabalu city. This bridge has actually been upgraded to make it stronger and safer.

After a quick breakfast in the small town of Tamparuli, we continued our journey. The weather was fair but there were a few clouds hanging low. Before long, the majestic Mount Kinabalu starts to appear.

I can see its peak appearing between clouds. I was so happy to finally be able to see one of World Heritage Site with my own eyes.

Eventhough I can already see the mountain, it is not the end of the journey. We still have to go though another 2 hours drive on a long and windy road. Sometimes we are stuck behind heavy trucks so we have to slow down and wait for the road to clear before we can overtake and zoom away.

Finally we reached the entrance to the Kinabalu National Park. This is official entrance to Mount Kinabalu. We had to pay a RM3 ticket for each person. After entering the site, we parked at the information center where we can learna little bit more about the mountain and its surrounding. Outside the information center, there is a map to show you the trail up the mountain.

Next to it is a board to display the latest time taken by participants who enter the annual climbathon. In the last race, the winner in the men's event took less than 3 hours to run up and down the mountain!!

That's very quick!!! The ladies did it in about 4 hours... That's quick too! We are talking about going up and down and not just one way. According to my friends, the normal leisure climb takes about half a day to reach 3/4 of the way before you continue the next day right to the top to watch the sunrise.

You can watch a video of the peak here.

There are a few peaks of Mount Kinabalu. One is called Donkey's Peak because there are some rocks that looks like donkey's ears.

The main peak is called Low's Peak. I thought that this is quite funny... shouldn't it be called High Peak since the mountain is not that low?

They say that it is quite 'easy' to climb the mountain. There is a track for you to walk on and you need not use any proper climbing gears. Higher up at the peak, there is a super long rope for you to hold on to so that you can pull and guide yourself up. This sounded quite easy provided that you are fit and have enough energy to face the challenge. So start exercising if you plan to climb the mountain!

Izlin's Composition

After a break of about 3 months in the new school term, Izlin and Ilya went back to school. This time a slightly different approach and a whole new uniform... more about this later.


While at school, these girls are slightly 'behind' since other started 3 months earlier. I think the teachers are leaving them at one side to allow them to be familiar with the new environment. It is at one of these sessions that Izlin went to fetch a piece of rough paper and scribbled this all on her own... It is no Shakespear but, it may have been written in old English.






Translation for those literature challenged people...

"Trying a new school is fun.

There was a swimming pool and also a piano.

You know what, trying a new school is fun... (notice this ... pause)

Do you know what the new school name is?

Yes! The school is CEC!"

.

.

.

..... Unbelieveable? Believe it ....

Ready for School.......

in TWO YEAR's time!





Earlier today, babah took us to our future school. We had to register two years in advance just to make sure that we get to go to the school near Tok Ayah's house.





This is the school









and that is babah at the registration counter...









I'm a little nervous but eager to go!





Yaya can afford to smile coz it's not her turn to go yet...

Happy Birthday Mama Lun!

sorry for the bad lighting.....
Happy Birthday anyway!!

Glimpse of La Istana D'mangga

Desaru Part 2: A different view

After one night in Tanjung Balau, we thought that we should be a bit more adventurous, check-out and go out for a night in a different resort. We’ve not made any reservation anywhere else, just daring ourselves to look for a better beach and hopefully a better resort too.

All packed up, we headed for the other side of town. This time, it looks a bit more promising. We kinda like this place called The Pulai. The entrance, reception and lobby looks more ‘professional’.

At the reception, we were hoping that there is a vacancy for us for a room facing either the beach or the pool (preferably on the ground floor so that we could easily jump out the door and straight onto the beach or the in the pool). Come to think of it, had we thought of tsunami back then, we would have opted for a different room. Anyway, we were sort of lucky that there was a room being vacated which is facing the beach. But it is on the first floor and located right at the end of the resort….. a fair bit of walking to do.

We walked into the room and whoaaaaaaaaaa it is soooo much different than Balau Room. This one is bigger and definitely facing the beach. Outside our balcony is actually a futsal pitch. There were some people playing there (both men and women) with skimpy clothing… Mat Saleh… what do you expect? Opah was not comfortable of this, but what to do? Buat selamber ajelah… luckily we were on the first floor so tak berapa nampak sangat.



The beach was sooooo inviting that we could not hold our excitement any longer. Immediately gear up for another excursion. This time it’s for real!!



Siapkan barang, letak bedak sikit….. ok dah!

Here we are!!! Barulah betul… Notice the background, it’s our room on the first floor leftmost side. Pssst don’t be naughty, opah could be watching!





One last pose before we get all covered with sand…



Kejaaaaaaaaaaar!! bola masuk dalam lauuuut…



Laying the foundation… macam orang buat kat rumah tok ayah tu…



Heeeeeeelpppp!! My sister lost her leg!!!



Oh no!!! Now my feet turn into some sort of a fish tail with slippers…



Le Chateu de la sands…



Umi lapar…



Opah couldn’t resist joining in the fun!



Wash up before we head back to the room.

Bandar Penggaram Local Delight

Nightfall and suddenly our tummy cried out for food. Pak Cik Amil took us to one of the (few) local restaurant available. The one that we went to had some cool gimmick. Apart from the many live fish tanks displayed there, there were also this "wall of fame" and "feedback from customers".





Looking closely at the feedback, most of them were satisfied with the food offered there (obviously). Praises on steamed patin, sotong goreng tepung and kangkung belacan were in abundance. We decided to check it out ourselves. There were also plenty of praises on the warm hospitality.

The cook came out and personally net the fish in front of us. IlinYaya shrieked in horror with the act. He quickly pop the fish in a pail and took it to the kitchen.

Legend has it that the cook is the grandchild of "Wong Ah Jang", a big taiko, long long time ago. They were in the construction business, but later on this guy embraced islam, separated from the family and specialised in gas piping (or something like that). He was doing plenty of maintenance work in big hotels. Mostly done in the kitchen. That was where he picked up the tricks on cooking from the many chefs he met. Now he ends up with a restaurant of his own, running the show with his wife.

And these are what we ordered.

The infamous steamed patin.



That's the cook in the middle and the wife next to him. The restaurant couple were really really friendly and sat down with us chit chatting with the grown ups.

After a quick piranha attack on the food, we were left sitting back on our chair licking our fingers and wiping our mouth. Opah got carried away and decided to make her own drink behind the drink counter.

And we decided to mark our visit as well with our own posting.


By the way, the restaurant next to where we were had a different gimmick of their own. They have a karaoke stage for anyone to sing their heart out. This is a really funny little cowboy town.

Master Pieces

Somehow our master pieces did not appear in the post below.

Here they are again...



Yaya with the finishing touches.



siap dengan gambar sekali...



Super Art Attack Style!

Trip to Desaru

We were invited for a wedding at Tok Lang's house in Felda Adela. It's quite a distance and we were not sure whether we are up to making the trip. However, we tend to look for opportunity to get away from the busy city. One time ago, Desaru (which is about 20km from Felda Adela), use to be famous for it's beaches. We are hoping that the beaches are still preserved, safe from any kind of polutions. Besides, Ilin & Yaya have already been to the highlands, now it's time to check out the beach...... imagine white sandy beaches and calm waves.

The journey down was really a long one. The highway was smooth. We took about 4 hours from Shah Alam down to Senai exit. After the exit, we started to travel along a narrower road, dual carriageway with a more scenic view of kelapa sawit, kelapa sawit and more kelapa sawit. All 2.5 hours of them.


Finally we reach the place. Pakcik Amil was there to greet us. He took us to a resort called Tanjung Balau Beach Resort.... (not the most glamorous name we thought). But the place was quite OK la... babah thinks that it is run by a government body Kejora or something. Can't expect too much.

We quickly settle down and after a quick wash, we were geared up to hit the beach. Ready or not here we come....


We ran and ran and ran all the way to where the beach is (penat lari 20 meter) ......... when we got there, this is what we saw:

teng teng teeeeng..... (to the tune of P Ramlee's horror sound effect).

We did not expect to see so much mud and stone beach. There was this loooong jetty though. We must be at the wrong part of the beach. I suppose this might be the place where the fishermen park their boats, safe from the strong tides and waves.

Alamaaaaak... there were plenty of 'belacak' too! Nope we're not going anywhere near them...


Luckily there were some sand. Not much of a 'beach' but enough to have some 'activities'. Babah immediately went to scout for some stuff... not sure what they were for until he came back. There was this blue thingy, of which he calls a 'shaker'. He puts some mixture of sand and stone and shells in it and shakes it. Out comes the smaller stuff and we were reminded of our glitter activity.

Umi, opah and babah, drew on the sand and we went on decorating them. Here are our master pieces....



p/s we learn the word t.o.m. y.a.m. along the journey. Immediately put it to practice and wrote on the sand.

Happy Birthday Sarah!!

This little fairy gives you cuteness,

This little fairy gives you kindness,

This little fairy gives you cleverness,

This little fairy gives you cheekiness,

But mama......... I just want a bicycle!!

a long journey south

It's a long journey and therefore it takes a while too to compose the posting. As a teaser, here is a clip of the kids singing away in the car to the tune of Siti's - Siti Situ Sana Sini.

Ramadhan Mubarak

Closer to Nature

... See my Tabblo>

Nak pegi kat baby sarah!!!

It all started when ilinyaya repeatedly ask when is the next trip to see sarah and amar. Despite all the reasons given for not being able to go, they kept on asking after a few days.

As an alternative, last school holidays, we took a quick trip to Austria... or is it Germany, or France, or Belgium.......... or the never never land... ehhh tak sure lah... see for yourself.

This is the entrance to the 'kingdom'.

The Main Street
(err there's only one street in the entire area)

The view from our room.
(Doesn't look so European though)

The so-called Drawbridge...

Well, sorry no princess sarah or sir amar here but the kids enjoyed the time off at a cooler place. A few interesting 'happenings' to be shared in next posts (tak tau bila).

p/s To those who might want to take a trip here, may want to pack some food/instant food. Shops/restaurants closes as early as 7:30 pm!! Macam kat Europe gak... and the prices pun mak datooooooooookk...

Addition to the team

Last Saturday, we received a new member to our club... a boy! Now there are five of us... boley buat volleyball team. We are proud to be the guardian cousins.


Congratulations to Pak Ngah and Chik Eila.

Look at the worn out faces of the parents who have been in labour the whole day.