Let's Pretend We're Kids Again

Last Friday, I had a small gathering with my uni’s friends held at Seoul Garden, Plaza Pantai. It was my third time eating here, be twice at One Utama branch but first time having a dinner. Have to say that there was less choice to have as many serving were already finished – the lettuce, the korean sauce. I’m not sure that was the case in other branch but it was quite disappointing for me cause I cannot have my lettuce wrap!

But despite the food, meet up with old friends never fail to make me happy. It’s been a while since I last had to laugh hysterically throughout a meal. So many inside jokes that sometimes left me clueless. It's okay to say non-sensical things (like having serious confusion over inner and legging - yes seriously!) and argue childishly at this age. My other side (the dark side?) came out only when I’m with them, lol. I swear we laughed more than catching up with each other's life. It’s a bad habit I know and luckily, we only have this kind of gathering once a year.

Right to left: Bangla (age 3), Kudud (age 6), me (age 10), Lindan (age 11),
Kakak (age 12) and Gajah (age: urm, hard to tell, high possibility a mental retarded)

And again, I forgot to bring Sam's external flash. So we got so many blurred pics. It's not practical anymore, I want a new camera~  (padahal hutang beli Sam pun belum habis bayar, hehe).

But, whatever. It was nice to see them again. Hey guys, don't ever change, okay? :DDD

Right Across the Riverbend, There Are Trees With Yellow Leaves

What could be more refreshing than having a nice chit chat with friends with your legs soaking in the cool flowing water, surrounded by nature on the lovely Sunday morning? 

Okay, maybe lazy-ing around in bed is likely how I would spend my Sunday morning (lol, membuka pekung di dada), but it was nice to relax your heart and mind once in a while, and went for a picnic! That’s right, I was indeed, had a picnic session with my friends at Sungai Tengkala last Sunday. Some of the girls couldn’t make it the last minute, so in the end it was us (the same team from my last Pangkor getaway + Jue-a’s husband) again. But we had fun nevertheless~ It was supposed to be a potluck picnic but we end up buying 8 + 6 packs of nasi lemak for 4 people! So nasi lemak for breakfast, nasi lemak for lunch…  nasi lemak FTW!

Like a boss!

Oh, there was a little funny incident. There was a group of monkeys around – on the trees, on the ground, inside the trash bin. They were waiting/looking/digging for foods and quite fearless to come near human in order to snatch anything they can. Well, I forgot to keep our plastic bag of Cheezels inside my bag, so while we were at our berendam session, I saw a monkey hopping from where we keep our bags to a nearby tree and with him was my plastic bag of cheezels. I was like, Oi, our cheeezels! They got our cheezels! Furiously, I speed all the way from the river to the said tree and fortunately the monkey dropped the cheezels to the ground.  I think he had trouble to open the plastic bag. I was scared that the monkey would pounce on me and he probably thought the same, heh (ape ke gile aku nak pounce die pulak kan?). It was intense, how we had a quick look at the cheezels and then had like 5 seconds staring contest before I quickly bend down to pick up the cheezels. The monkey actually hissed at me, showing his not-so-pretty un-brushed teeth. But, I won anyway. 

Bangga~

Let Your Feet Wet, Get Your Toes Sandy

Have a getaway with my besties to Pangkor (again!) last week. Yes, I know it hasn’t been a year since I last went to Pangkor, but going with family and friends bring a different kind of fun! Plus, I need a break so badly~

The trip went well, despite just the three of us. It really was a santai one with no specific activities in plan because urm, this is really a last minute decision. But I think I’ve heard this somewhere, that the best plan is actually not having a plan at all! (okay, maybe I make that up :DD) So we went, gambling our way to Pangkor island in hoping to have the best getaway a girl like me could possibly have~

Riding the famous pink taxi-van!

We had lunch, play UNO on tablet, sightseeing, took pictures, watching the sunset, window shopping, had a perfect dinner, counting the stars, mandi at at our private beach in the morning, lunch, check out at noon and off to tanah besar (as what Jue-a likes to put it)~  And above all that, we practically having girl talk that I've been missing so much all the time~

A Hornbill! They were everywhere!

I always wonder how great it would be to have a private beach, so we could shamelessly act like a retarded kid at this age would feel comfortable to play in the water. Aaanddd, guess what? Wish granted! We took a boat ride to go sightseeing and feeding the fish at snorkeling area and then the beach boy leave us at the small island nearby and promised to comeback for us after 30 minutes. And we were the only people there and it does feel like we own the island for 30 minutes! And a private beach!  

Playing with Mia's camera~ So cool! Can go inside water one!

We dropped by Kellie’s castle at Batu Gajah on the way back. It was an unfinished and ruined mansion built by William Kellie Smith, a Scottish planter in 1915. He was the owner of Kinta Kellas Estate and the Kinta Kellas Tin Dredging Company. He brought his wife, Agnes over to Malaysia in 1903. The couple was blessed with a daughter whom they named Helen but he wants a son to take over his empire.  One of his workers from Madras told him that by praying to Amman (a Hindu Goddess), his wish will come true. So Smith prayed and after a few years, Agnes delivered a baby boy names Anthony. As a token of appreciation, Smith built a Hindu Temple for the Goddess. He went back to Britain for a short trip with his daughter to visit his wife and son, but unfortunately never made it back to Malaya. Smith was caught with pneumonia and passed away in Lisbon in December 1926. His wife then sold her interest in the Kellas Estate and Smith's distraught family never returned to Malaya.

Remind me so much of a Taj Mahal as this castle was built as a symbol of love. Saya sayu di situ. And we went to Helen’s room and it was written there that a couple of visitors saw Helen’s ghost walking along the corridor. Oh spooky!  Do they really have to state it there like that? You could admire the building for RM4 per person. I just wished they would replaced the faded history-tale (which they placed on the first floor) with a bigger font because it was really hard to read off the wall. 

Mesti ade gambar gedik satu~

And that's how my weekend end. How was yours?

p/s: Jue-a point out that this is the AZ trip cause our names all starts with AZ – Azrina, Azurah and Azmilia. Cool fact huh? :DDD

I Missed June!

Hello,

It’s been while since I last update this blog (I have a feeling that I’ll be using this sentence a lot in the future :P)  So how about sharing what I’ve done last month in one post? Anyone complaining? Nope? Yeay!

In the beginning of June, I went for another field trip to Kota Marudu (2 hours away from Kota Kinabalu) for 10 days. Again, been doing the same work routine but this time, we were lucky to get a few malaria samples. My boss was so happy that she let us have a half day off on Sunday. So we took the chance to go to the Tip of Borneo to see the sunset.

It was around 5pm when we reach the place and the sun was still way up high in the sky. We had to wait for about 1 hour before the sun set. We practically grill ourselves. And oh, this time, we have an additional team member from UK, Dr Robert Moon, who is an expert in monkey malaria.

While waiting for the sun to set...

Unfortunately, there were too many clouds,
so it's just me without the sun >.<

This time, there even a study site that couldn’t be reach by our four wheel drive, so we have to walk up and down the hill to get to them. Though it was tiring, it was a really fun and memorable one~

With Umi

My Kungfu shoes...

Also, we went to screen a Rungus village. Rungus is one of the ethnic in Sabah famous for their traditional clothes. They are pretty modern nowadays, but there was this old lady who's still wearing their traditional bangles and necklace. So we couldn’t missed the chance to take picture with her~

Dah macam celebrity makcik ni... :P

Speaking of Rungus, I had an experience wearing the traditional clothes when I was young. I was chosen to be a representative of Sabah’s ethnic in 1996 Flora Festival – had to sit on the car and waves to people like a miss world, heheh. I was just a kid and I had no idea about all this ethnicity in Sabah at that time.  So I got hyper up when I can actually met Rungus people in person after err….  15 years? Gosh, what a big number….

On the last day, we had a chance to go to the dairy farm in Kundasang on the way back to Kota Kinabalu. It was the highest land in Sabah (well, need to confirm this info :P) so the weather was cold and windy. And the scenery was great too, with beautiful meadow green grass scenery and the sound of the cow mooo-ing, I guess pretty much like in New Zealand, eh? Kekekekek…. 

The following weekend, me busy with all the experiment, processing the samples, writing my thesis, blablabla….

Fast forward to last weekend, I went to jungle tracking with Prem, Sarah, Robert and his fiancé at FRIM. I’m so excited for the canopy walk but it was under construction. So we just went through the normal track and I decided that we have to find the waterfall which supposed to be at the picnic site. We have the map and  we still got lost somewhere. I dunno... one moment we were in the jungle, then suddenly we were already on the main road. I didn't have breakfast and it was past through the lunch time already and my stomach just couldn't take it anymore, so we had to abort the waterfall mission and looking for cafe instead!  

First time meeting Dr Maria~

Stop to watch monkeys eating durians~

Managed to find a small river~

The kids were trying to catch fish for lunch :P

After lunch, Robert asked us to suggest places to go. Since he already been to all the places nearby, we decided to take him and Maria to Putrajaya for the cruise. I'm really excited cause it was my first time too. But I think the fee is a bit expensive, no? 

Nampak tak muka excited tu? :P

My little sister with Sarah

And that was all I did last months apart from movie marathon on Saturday nights and my weekly window shopping. And, I've been really into internet shopping nowadays since there were so many awesome blogshops with tempting goods and I just can't control myself~

Goody Two-Shoes

Yesterday, I went to 2011 Shoes Festival @ PWTC with Linda~

As I was determined to get myself at least two pair of shoes, it ends up quite disappointing for me. I don’t know, never been to the first one but I expect to see all kind of shoes cause well, it was a shoes festival. But I must say that those shoes collections on blog offers way better choices and prices compared to what I see here. Of course there were a 50 up to 70% sales for those high branded shoes but the design was outdated and the condition of the shoes was pretty bad, it’s not even worth it. Lucky that they have this shoes history exhibition, at least I can educate myself~

Ancient shoes

In front of the fashion shoes runaway

Mirror, yay!

Beaded nyonya shoes made of chocolate, yummy!

Happy face cos duit tak habis~

We decided to have  lunch at Mid Valley cause I haven't been there in ages. We had a Korean food at Ko Hyang stall @ The Garden. So that was where the shoes festival turns into the food festival. Our small table was full with foods! 

Been there twice before and I ordered Ojinguh Bokkeum (stir fried squid in spicy sauce) again because I love the taste so much. Linda ordered Ramyeon (kind of maggi, like what you often seen in Korean drama) which I think it was quite delicious. I decided that I should try something else too, so we also ordered the pajeon, a pancake with squid and onion spring. It's a popular street food in Korea that serves with the salty sauce on the side. Well, taste exactly like our local cucur bawang :D Out of curiosity, I also tried the Patbingsu, a shaved ice-based dessert loaded with nata de coco and sweet red beans as topping. It turns out not my taste as the red beans are way too sweet for me. 

We had this talk about how much we have gained weight and how we couldn't fit into some jeans anymore and how we should really start to exercise. And having those conversation while eating is so not appropriate, lol. What is worst was that none of us were actually really care and keep on munching like eating THAT much wasn't going to make the matter worst, heh.

Anyway, I think the place seriously needs a bigger space as the customer keeps on coming, waiting at your side for the table. It’s not endearing to eat (or even to chat) when the waiters keep on looking at you with that  can-you-just-finish-that-dish-already-so-I-can-clear-the-table face.

If you’re an adventurous eater, I’ll totally recommend this place for the food but not so much for the place itself. The service is okay and the price is reasonable too. But of course, this is just my opinion :D 

Go try it out!