October's Love!

Seems like I haven’t update this blog for ages! Well, not that it was anything new :P

October has always been my favorite month of the year. It has been incredibly hectic month for me and many fabulous things happen in between. I have lots to share today with y’all today. So, this gonna be yet another choppy entry of the things that I’ve done in these last few weeks. 

Let's kick this post off with another fun field trip I had at the beginning of the month!

It was the last field trip for this year and we spend exactly a week in Sipitang, Sabah. And because this will be the last time here (since there were almost no malaria case found during our ACD previously) we went to the farthest camps we could. Most of the journey took us around one and half or two hours but Camp Basio took us more than 3 hours to reach there! Thanks God the camps are well build and very clean, so no problem with the toilet at all haha!  

Oh, just let me share a few photos from the trip!

Cooking curry Maggi. We couldn't resist having a slurp even just after having Nasi Goreng Kampung :DDD

Surrounding by the thick fog up the hill.
Hot curry Maggi + full stomach + cool breeze = happiness.

And of course, it was my birthday month! Yes, totally the main reason why I love October XD.

It might not be the best one, nevertheless still a great one for me. This year, I didn’t expect to get a surprise birthday cake from my officemates. Either I’m a total idiot or my officemates learn how to moves like ninja because I was completely clueless they were planning something on! It was just a small celebration with just a few peoples in our department (half of department were going to Port Dickson for a seminar on that day) but it still makes me VERY happy. I'm not the expressive type so they probably wouldn't know how happy I was at that time. Honestly, I almost cry because I was so touched. But it would be so embarrassing if I really cry, so I had to force myself to keep calm, hehe. In my mind, I was already jumping up and down when I see the cake and do the Gangnam style dance when they sing me Happy Birthday, haha. Oh, how I love thee!

And it has become a tradition to have family dinner to celebrate birthday - no matter how late, heh. So this year, me having my birthday dinner at MeatWorks, Solaris. Incredibly happy!

And last but not least, we were celebrating Aidiladha in Kelantan this year. One of my uncle live in Kota Bharu, so we’ve decided to spend a few days there.

And that's all for now. I hope you all had a great October too! Till then, bye~

Here We Go Again!

We’ve been planning a thorough field work schedule for months ahead with more places in Sabah to cover. But for this year first trip, from 7^th to 14^th April, we’ve gone to the same place again. I thought this time it will be more adventurous since in the plan, we were supposed to go to a hot malaria spot, Sonsogon Magandai –  a very remote area that cannot be assessed by car and will took you an hour or more walking to the villages. The kind of place that you have to stay overnight there with no electricity and water. Sounds like I'm going to a camping trip. Interesting huh? 

Do I look like a scientist? No?

But! (lol, what an anti-climax)

But it was raining every evening in Kota Marudu. For safety reason, we had to postpone our trip to Sonsogon and proceed with a normal routine, visiting the villages with recent malaria cases nearby. And God, this is the most tiring field work I’ve ever been! The rain is no joke! Our land rover got stuck in the mud on the first day when we went to Lembiding. And we were not able to go to the village down the hill because of the flood. 

Raining oh so heavily!

Waiting for the rain to stop in the unfinished house. We were so lucky to not have to get ourselves drenched.

Our land rover got stuck in the mud

To avoid dying of a heart attack (because of the thrill in the land rover), we decided to walk the slippery road.

Half an hour later, the driver managed to get our land rover back on track :DDD

Working till night.

And I’ve met with Kelly, a student from California. She joined the trip for four days. Super friendly Kelly!

On the fifth day, we decided to go back to Lembiding. The flood have runoff but the road was really bad, so we had to walk to the village. Going down the hill is easy but I almost couldn’t make it back up where we parked our land rover. I was physically exhausted when we reach the unfinished house that we used for shelter from the rain the other day. We rested for about 10 minutes before continue our journey. The Sabah staff told me that going to Sonsongon is twice harder than this! I told my team that I would rather got fired than going to Sonsogon! (Of course I'm kidding!)

Happy faces because at this moment, I really thought that I am prepared mentally and physically for the challenge.

And the journey starts. 

Already drenched in sweat but still maintain for camera.

Almost an hour later: Do not care about camera anymore.

Had to cross the river (and cool off a bit)

Finally arrived at the village. Catching up my breathe before the screening started. Phew!

Had trouble standing straight during the interview :P

We didn't get many positive case. Reason could be the weather. It was raining almost everyday, so villagers movement were limited, thus reduced the chances for mosquito biting. We only got one positive for P. malariae from hospital and one P. vivax from active case detection. And because of that, we went to do screening until the last day we were in Kota Marudu. 

And I really couldn't get myself into the mood of photography. I don't know why. The only interesting shot I got with Sam is this shot of beetle. If that could even spark an interest.

Poor beetle got a splash of color.

But at the end of the day, this trip is still fun. Even though I often have this dreadful feeling about not wanting to go to field work anymore – throwing tantrum a week before and while packing my bag – I actually felt the opposite when I’m there. At least, that’s how I feel with Kota Marudu so far. Yeah. Till the next update, be good people!

Back And Forth Part 2

First of all, would love to wish Salam Maal Hijrah to all my fellow muslim. Hope you have a blessing year ahead.

And a continuation of my earlier post... the fun part of the trips :DDDDDD

Normally, we spend the last day going to interesting places after we already pack everything. For the first trip, we went to Ranau Poring Hot Spring to experience their canopy walk. Remember this entry when me and my friends went to FRIM for their canopy walk but they were under construction? So I was truly happy that I be able to walk the canopy here! Though it was really tiring to climb those little-uneven steps to reach the top (where the canopy walk start). My knees were really shaking! Maybe it was sign of old age because I haven’t exercise for a while (I made a mental note to start exercise when I get back but it has been what, almost a week and I haven’t even step on that treadmill).

RIP my  Kungfu shoes~ You have been good to me all these while T_T

On the way back, we drop by at this place (somewhere in Kundasang) where we can see the Kinabalu mountain.

Mount Kinabalu

For the second trip, we decided to spend the last day in the city. So we went to One Borneo, the biggest shopping mall in Kota Kinabalu to play bowling. Although the scoring system were giving us some headache at first, the game was really enjoyable. I can say that I have improved? I have at least one strike in each game. And… I used to only use the 8 and 9 kg balls but now I can bowl with the 10 kg ball, lol. 

And now is my favorite random shots throughout the trips, which I have shamelessly edit using these cool apps on my iPad.

This shot was actually taken by En Rahim
using my camera :D

It's raining at the other side~

God never promise us a good life on earth; 

but He gave the assurance that there will
always be a rainbow after the rain - Maple

Kids are adorable :DD

New shoes bought at Pesta Jagung.

Well, pretty much that's all I have to share. See you on the next post~

Back and Forth Part 1

Been going back and forth to the same place all these while and I already feels familiar with Kota Marudu. I had three field trips altogether. The first trip was without my boss, so I have to lead the team (which was driving me crazy!). The second trip was before Raya Haji and we continue on the third trip shortly after holiday. I must say, for the last two trips, it was the most hectic phase of my life. Got back to KL on Friday, then balik kampong Kuala Kangsar and Kuala Pilah for Raya Haji until Monday, spend two days in the lab packing and preparing reagent for the next trip and fly back to Kota Marudu on Thursday.

For the first time, we flew with Firefly during the first trip. I guess it was okay for a short trip but spending two hours and a half was really troublesome. The flight was shaking more vigorously compared to MAS which caused our BFMP slides broken. And of course the food is hella expensive, so I pretend to sleep while they serve food, lol. We flew with MAS for second and third trip and I hope for the next trip too~

Anyway, same old routine work at different/new kampong. Bla bla bla…. Let me just share a few random shots of what we did at the Kampongs.

Meeting to discuss our schedules for the whole trip.
We usually went to village with recent/most malaria cases

Crossed the river to get to the village.

Changing the tyre. We didn't realize our tyre has flatten until
a villager told us about it. No wonder we were
shaking like mad (-__-);;

On the last trip, we were more organized that we take turns to do the works (registration, finger pricking and BFMP, rapid-test) so everyone can learn everything. But everyone's favorite will always be doing the rapid-test because it's a cool job, kekekek. The hardest would be the registration because of the language barrier, and sometimes we got scold from the children for writing their name in the wrong way, hehe.

I'm doing the 'coolest' job: taking blood for rapid-test.

Listening diligently to my boss instruction.

Then play behind her back, kekekek. (just joking)

With Pitas team.

The best part was to chat with the children :P
Some of them were really curious about our work.

Me: Dah besar nanti nak jadi apa?
Kids: Polis. Sebab saya nak tangkap orang main mercun.
Me: Oh, cutenye reason, kekekek.

When I should lose weight for working hard, I actually gained a few kgs because we have some sort of food festival almost every day! There’s this café right beside our hotel which cooked pretty much everything we ask them to. When we visit Pitas, we went to Kanibongan to buy crabs and brought them to the café for them to cook.

At Kanibongan to buy some crabs

Happy face, probably because they know what's for dinner!

Went to Tamu (a weekly market) and my boss bought local fruits like cempedak, jackfruit, rambutan and banana. Send the cempedak to the café to fry them and we got a tray full of cempedak goreng and we couldn’t stop eating the whole day! We also tried Sabah’s local fruit called Tarap which not available at peninsular. It looks like cempedak with soft outer skin, you can just peal it with your hands. I love the taste but it smells like after-fogging? Sorry, couldn’t find the word to describe it but the smell is not so pleasant but not as stink as durian (oh durian, I still love you even though you stink :DDD).

Aaannddd.... I'll continue on the next post the fun part of the trip, which is more exciting than the foooooddd~