Miscellaneous Picture #90: July favourite

July has been a busy and warm month 

Sunflowers growing so well under such weather in my church compound

Coconut juice to cool ourselves down

My man went to Cambodia early this month

One of his destination was Angkor Wat in Siam Reap

Then a family's weekend holiday in KK, enjoying the beautiful sea and exploring some parts of KK

A short performance by Jamie and his school friends in a kids & parents expo middle of the month

Jan had a taekwondo poonsae competition last weekend. She got 5th placing. 

My little nephew is 3 months old and he looked so cute in this photo

This would do

We were still recovering from the exhaustion from our first day activity so everyone woke up pretty late the next day. No fixed itinerary on 2nd day, it was light and easy. However hubby had an exam that Sunday morning so he left the apartment before 9am.

That meant that I had the task to bring the kids out for breakfast that morning while he attended to his stuff.

Fortunately it was within walking distance to eateries to where we stayed. Hubby suggested to me to try the mamak shop at the back of the apartment. We did that. The kids did not mind roti telur for breakfast so we had that.

Then the four of us walked back to the apartment and spent some time in front of the tv.

After hubby done and reached the apartment it was 1pm. After he took his shower, we called for grabcar and went to this premium shopping mall which was few minutes drive from our place.

Imago! A premium mall with impressive brands, some we don't even have in Kuching. No, we didn't buy much, just shoes for me and Jan. Our main intention was to visit this mall and have lunch there.

We were lucky to see some cultural performances there. And the mall?? Impressive and lovely mall. 

I saw a familiar store from Sarawak!! Everrise! 

For lunch, this place would do the job. Noodle and rice, fit everyone well. Gam Tong Hong Kong Cafe. 

It was 2pm and yet the place was quite packed. It was Sunday so we expected crowds and the food took quite a long time to come to our table. 

Noodles for me and the kids. I had the twin duck drumstick noodle (RM18. 80), Jay had crispy roasted duck noodle (RM12.80) and Jan was having its roasted pork noodle (RM12.80). I also ordered a plain noodle (konlo) for Jamie at RM4. 

Hubby did not feel like having noodle so he ordered this steamed salted fish pork lotus rice (RM15. 80).

Ok, one big lotus leaf wrap in a bamboo steamer which took quite some time to be ready. 

Pretty comforting dish if you asked me. No complaint from my man so I guess he liked it.

After filling up our tummies, we had a walk around the mall before we made our trip to the next mall. 

Welcome seafood (to our tummies!)

It is a haven for seafood lovers in Sabah. The fresh catches are attractive to the eyes as well as to the tummies. 

We got recommendation and good review to have our dinner on our first night in this restaurant. 

Welcome Place (Asia City) at Jalan Asia City is one of the few seafood restaurants that serve good and fresh seafood and enjoying good business from locals and tourists alike. 

There were over 20 of us (hubby and his colleagues) so 2 tables for us. Hubby was in charge of the ordering so we left the surprise element to him. 

First to come was this stir-fried prawns with garlic and salt. Super fresh and sweet. 

The other half kg was to be steamed, which was equally nice and irresistible. 

We had stir fried sweet potato with garlic. 

The sweet and sour toufu with fish maw soup was nothing to shout about. I wasn't crazy about this soup since I had other dishes to wow me. 

This was what I have been waiting to taste in KK. Its freshwater snail (tong fung lo) with fermented beancurd dipping. Slurp!!  The last time I had this was in Sibu, few years ago. 

They served their crabs deep fried with salt which was equally nice but hardly much flesh. 

While I hardly touched the crabs, I ate a lot of this steamed grouper. It was so sweet, nice and flesh.  I love to eat fish!! 

The grilled squid wasn't a disappointment as everyone finished it in a quick time. 

Next we had the lala with special sauce and surprisingly they already took out the lala from the shells and cooked and pour all over the empty shells. Presentation purpose I think. 

The stir fried beef with onion was the last 2 dishes with their signature deep fried beancurd (which I did not take photo of). I took a bite of each as I was too full by then. 

Overall it cost us over RM600 per table inclusive of drinks. While the others had their next agenda (a visit to the pasar malam), hubby sent us home in grabcar before he joined his staff for few drinks.

It has been a tiring day as we woke up as early as 4am to catch the plane. I don't know about the kids, I was exhausted and slept around 9pm that night!! 

Sanctuary away

Manukan island is a sanctuary to many with beautiful beachline and it is just a 10 minutes boat ride from Kota Kinabalu (Jesselton Point).

A popular island for snorkelling and beach goers, its white sandy beach and crystal clear water were undeniably serene. You could see school of fish in the clear water. I was totally enamoured of its abundance of natural beauty.

We spent more than 2 hours on the beach. Many tourists especially Koreans vacationing or enjoying the beach activities here. 

Those were my kids, they could not wait to jump into the water, feel its cold and had a swim the minute we arrived at the island. Jan and Jay also snorkelling for the first time and were excited to see fishes up close swimming in the water.

Manukan was the first island we visited in our island hopping tour.

Next was Mamutik island. This island is smaller than Manukan but as beautiful as Manukan. The Borneo Divers Sabah was housed here and while we were there, a group of foreigners took diving lesson there.

We were supposed to go to the last island, Sapi island but by then everyone was tired and hungry. Take note, all food and drinks sold on the islands are super expensive. More than triple the normal price!!

So we forwent the last island and headed back to the Jesselton Point. After covering 2 islands for 4 hours, everyone had enough of the sun, water and breeze. It was rest time before we went for our dinner in the evening. 

We just came back!

Hi guys! I have been taking a short break from blogging. No posting since early last week. I wanted some time to recharge and get my writing mojo back.

So here I am and I have new posts to write. Why??  Because we just came back from our short weekend getaway this evening! 

Destination was Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. We flew in to Kota Kinabalu as early as 6am on Saturday morning! Though most of us were sleepy eyed but we were looking forward to our short holiday. After 1.5 hours flight, we reached KK. I caught the sunrise in the plane. I think the first light is always captivating, don't you agree?

Once we landed, we immediately headed to the our accommodation (Marina Court Resort) to check in. Nice, confortable serviced apartment to stay in and it was opposite to Oceanus Waterfront Mall, not too far from the city centre.

Our apartment is a 3-rooms with kitchen, balcony and 2 bathrooms. Pretty decent to stay in, no complaint from me except I didn't like the bedrooms to be carpeted.

Then we headed to Gaya street for breakfast. Everywhere is so accessible and convenient with Grabcar.

Initially we wanted to try the laksa in one famous shop but it was packed. So the Grabcar driver recommended this place which is a block away in Gaya street.

A taste of authentic Sabah sang nyuk mee. Nice noodle, I actually enjoyed it.

The pork slices were so tender and basically melt in my mouth!!

The others went for the soy sauce noodle.

But I prefer mine plain. I liked it as they added lots of fried shallots on top.

I had a few tastes of the chilli dipping. It was super spicy.

After settled our tummies, we took a walk and headed to the jetty (Jesselton Point) to catch boat for our islands hopping adventure. Beware, as you would be swarmed by tour guides that wanting to get your business.

After choosing one guide company and paying RM37 per person for return tickets to 3 islands, our holiday really began!!