14-17 July: Land of the Hornbills Day 4

woke up really early coz we have to be at the airpot at 6.45am. did our last minute packing and did our fajr prayers and we were on our way out.

got a cab to send us to kuching international airport. checked in luggage and got our boarding passes. our luggage was overweight by 8kg so we had to pay RM30 extra. the kuching airport was quite laxed coz our hand-carries werent weighed. which is good coz my backpack was overweight by 0.4kg hehehehe...!!

sat around at starbucks to drink coffee and then the mum wanted to buy some more souveniours and we were on our way to boarding the plane. we were made to run to the boarding gate, coz a final call announcement was made for our flight. but when we sampai at the boarding area, other passengers were still sitting around. cheat my feelings betol.

boarded the flight and we were on our way home!

reached changi at 10.15am and took a cab to nenek's house to leave the souveniors for the dad's side, had breakfast of lontong, talked a while and left for home.

the bro-in-law and sister was waiting at home. passed them their souveniors and ate some kek lapis. and we come to the end of my 4 days 3 nights holiday cum work trip in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia.

Review:

hotel location

the location of four points by sheraton chosen by the congress committee wasnt really a good choice. although it is very near to the airport, it was very far from the city centre. to get to the city, we have to take a cab. and it didnt help that the cab metres start at RM10.

food

because of the location of the hotel, halal food was very difficult to get. kuching is divided into two areas, the chinese area and the malay area. we were in the chinese area. so the food available around the hotel area were more for the chinese. and they were non-halal. if not for that lone indian coffeeshop, we would have eaten maggi all along.

transportation

like i said, it's RM10 sure shot when you enter a cab in Sarawak. to cut costs, they have passenger vans, where they collect 10 passengers at one time for a fee of RM3 person. but the downside of this is that the van will not move till they get 10 passengers. buses were available but they were not reliable. they change timings as and when and you may get stuck at the bus stop for hours wondering whether your bus will arrive.

taxis are also not available on the roads. so flagging a taxi by the roadside is an epic failure. you will only get cabs at hotel lobbies. in the whole of sarawak, there are only a few hundred taxis, so do your maths.

future planning

in case, the family wants to get a taste of real sarawak in the near future, we will get a hotel nearer to the central area. where halal food is easy to obtain and transportation is accessible.

we didnt get to go to the Sarawak Cultural Village, coz it's far from where we were residing. and also because we didnt have time.

we shall go to the kek lapis factory by perahu/sampan the next time round. if the sis is not willing to risk her life, we shall just leave her in the hotel room hehehehehehe....!!

that's about it. because this was more of a work trip, i didnt get to go to a lot of places. but alhamdulillah for the experience. if not for this work trip, i wouldnt have reached Bumi Kenyalang.

inshallah, when i have the rezeki, i will go Sarawak again, but with better planning.

ok chows!! till my next write!

ilal liqaa'!

14-17 July: Land of the Hornbills Day 3

the whole night i was thinking about the fact that i didnt get to strike a pose with the cat statue. so told my parents, today die2 must ask cab driver to bring us to the cat statue. hehehehe...!!

had breakfast. discovered a new dish today. it's called laksa sarawak. and the noodle itself is called kolo mee. it a specialty in Sarawak. it was so nice!!! i love it. if only i wasnt full, i would have asked for another serving hehehehe...!! here it is!

left hotel around 10.30 and got into a cab. told cab driver we had a few places to go and he said he will drive us to all the places and be our personal driver hehehehe...!! yeay!

1st stop: CAT STATUE

yeayness!! got to strike a pose with it! i was told there were lots of cat statues in Kuching but the rest are not really easy to capture photos coz they are placed higher than ground. this one is just nice!

2nd stop: MASJID JAMEK

yesterday we saw the masjid from far while walking around the main bazaar. i like the fact that it's in pink. very nice right, pink masjid. and the domes are so shiny in gold. so told the cab driver that we wanna snap photos at the masjid.

3rd stop: PASAR SATOK

my auntie kirim-ed ikan terubuk masin and telur ikan terubuk masin. aku kat singapore jarang masuk pasar. kerana nak memenuhkan permintaan auntie aku, terpaksa masuk pasar dan menahan bau2an yang sungguh menusuk idong. ikan terubuk is another specialty in Sarawak. it's expensive - RM10 a piece. and the telur is more expensive! if you buy it alone, it's RM88. if you buy with the fish it's RM40. *faints*

4th stop: The Spring Shopping Centre

did a walkabout in this rather upbeat shopping centre. a bit like our shopping centres in Spore. this one is more modern with Starbucks, Secret Recipe, Mango, Esprit and a lot more shops in it.

we wanted to watch a new horror movie - MANTRA - in the cinema there. but the timing was quite late. we were expecting the delivery of the kek lapis-es that we ordered yesterday. so takut terlambat, we had to forego the plan. sayangnya, coz that night we watched the making of MANTRA on TV3 and it's an amazing story. upset!

and we also bought lunch. break rekod number 2: abba wanted to eat ARAB RICE! coz why? he saw a lamb shank in the pics and he is a huge fan of lamb. so our lunch was arab rice and we also bought chicken rice from the chicken rice shop. aton bought donuts.

rested and slept a bit. it was nearing 6 and the kek lapis is still not delivered. pretty scared coz we tot that the lady we ordered from might have run away with our RM200 deposit. lucky thing i got her phone number and i called her. she said her guy is sending down and he's on his way. i think it was at 6.30 that the doorbell rang and our kek lapis-es have arrived. ALHAMDULILLAH.

did a little packing up after that coz we had an early morning flight to catch. went down to the reception to do early check-out and pay whatever we had to pay. back to hotel room and slept.

see you all in day 4!

ilal liqaa'!

14-17 July: Land of the Hornbills Day 2

woke up for fajr prayers then golek2 on the bed for a while and then got ready to go for breakfast. we took room with breaky so tak yah lah nak gi luar carik breakfast. kedai mamak pun belum bukak aku rasa.

breakfast buffet was quite a spread. abba got his prata which is quite surprising coz i tot there's no such thing as roti canai in sarawak. and in the hotel buffet spread some more mwahahaha...!!

breaky done, we went to the main bazaar to get souveniors. the area of shops basically sold the same things. handicrafts and the works. got some buah tangan for some people.

i really wanted to get the kek lapis sarawak straight from the factory itself. but was told that we have to cross the sarawak river by boat. the sister has extreme fear of, well, a lot of things, so naik perahu/sampan atas air is of coz a big no-no! tried persuading her, but to no avail. she still tak nak berganjak.

no choice lor, had to buy from the street vendors. was told by dear friend Suhailah that it is not advisable to buy from them because of the lack of quality. but what to do. we approached a lady and she had her keks ready to be eaten and tested. we tested the keks, and i think, for me, the quality was acceptabale. since we wanted a lot of keks, she told us to leave our order with her and she will deliver the keks to our hotel the next day. tawakal je lah. handed her over the deposit and hope and pray she doesnt run away with the deposit.

after that, i wanted to take a pic with the big cat statue. we asked the kek lady and she said we had to walk a bit. but it was so freaking hot that i was halfway to becoming a madwoman, so we scrapped the idea. mission strike a pose with cat statue: status failed. upset!

went back by cab, had lunch. and oh, talking abt cabs, the cab metres in Sarawak starts at RM10. got a shock of my life the 1st time i entered a cab and the metre was showing RM10. but that's how they work. so don't say i never warn you hor. hehehehe...!!

slept a bit and woke up to prepare for my presentation. went down to congress floor and found my room. met the IT personnel to do some last minute fine-tuning. the 1st speaker done, then it was my turn to go up the stage. i started well. saw the boss down the ballroom, got a little nervous, actually blundered on 1 slide. but then, i was allright. even with two questions thrown to me, i was able to answer them properly. ALHAMDULILLAH.

finished my presentation and went back to my seat. after a while, i felt a tap on my shoulder. i turned and it was the boss. he pat me on my back and said, "you were very good!" ALHAMDULILLAH. and oh, no cameras were allowed, therefore i couldnt get myself snapped in action. upset!

done with my session, went up to hotel room and then went to get dinner. had dinner, watched a bit of tv, and was off to lalaland.

ok chiows. see you in day 3!

ilal liqaa'!

14 - 17 July: Land of the Hornbills Day 1

hello people!! i just came back from kuching, Sarawak. had to attend a work conference because i submitted a paper for oral presentation. because i am not fit to travel alone, i decided to make it a work cum holiday trip together with the parents and the sister.

so here we go! my travel-blog day one!

find my flight!

woke up early at 6 am. did the last minute packing and off we went out from the house at 7.15am. flagged a cab and reached airport nearly 8.15am. but we were very early because the check-in counter wasnt opened yet. so we just waited around and when the counter was opened, we checked in our luggage (only 1 actually) and got our boarding passes.

since it was very early and we had a whale of a time on hand, we decided to take the skytrain to T2 to get breakfast in Burger King. Break record number 1: Abba had BK breakfast. never ever have he said yes to having a breakfast which does not consist of prata mwahahahaha...!!

breaky done, we took the skytrain back to T1. while waiting for boarding, yours truly had this urge to visit the toilet for big business, mwahahahaha...!! so had to ask the family to give me some time while i rush to do my business. went in for security checks on hand luggage after that.

sat around the waiting area and boarded the plane at around 9.40am. the take-off was a bit delayed because there were apparently a lot of planes in queue for take off. while waiting, we joked around with the sis so that she wont be nervous. she was a wreck when she was told we were going by plane. well, she actually was scared when the plane was on take-off. muka pucat lesi, and she was grabbing to the armrests. but she was ok lah. no crying or anything like that. after a while, she forgot that she was in a plane. siap menjenguk luar tingkap lagik. chet, cheat my feelings betol budak nih!

because of the delayed take-off, we landed later than expected. reached Kuching at 12.25pm. did our check-out and luggage claim and we were stepping on Kuching soil already.

was driven in the hotel limousine to the Four Points by Sheraton hotel. This is where the congress was being held.

after checking-in to the room and settling down a bit, i went to the congress floor to register myself as a delegate and sent my presentation cd to the speaker preparation room. i love my name-tag. so pretty hor!

done with that, we went down for lunch. i donno why but the area was quite deserted. the hotel is near the airport but not in the city area. which is so not fun. so i asked the hotel staff, where is the tempat makan area around there. he said, there's one kedai india on the opposite. LUCKY! that one kedai mama is our frequent food provider throughout our stay there. what a strange place to hold an international congress!

so we went to have lunch at this kedai mama called Bombay Masala.

lunch done, back to hotel to take a rest and napped a bit. at 7pm made my way to the Opening Ceremony of the Congress. lucky thing i met an orthodontist i frequently work with so she was my dinner partner for that night. if not i would be this one selenger bacin girl from spore who will be sitting alone in a free-sitting buffet dinner.

opening ceremony was full of speeches. i expected some cultural dance for the opening welcome. but alas, we were given a stage full of young gerls wearing little somethings dancing to steps which reminded me of the 1990's rap group Feminin. then there was an orchestra with and opera singer. *faint!*

lucky thing the dinner was good. and it helped that i was sitted beside A REALLY GOOD-LOOKING MALAY MAN who shared the same phone as me! i think he could be well over 2metres tall. sayang betol he wasnt wearing his name-tag, if not i would have looked out for his name and attend his session if he was presenting. i didnt see him again after that. *sulk*

dinner done, back to hotel room, chatted a while with family and off to lalaland. ngantuk sey!

ok chiows. see you in day 2!

ilal liqaa...!!