We were first

Hubby and I woke up very early on one Saturday morning. Around 6am. Hubby suggested to go breakfast with him as he had his monthly fishing trip later that morning. 

So off we went to this coffee shop. Choo Choo cafe. We patronized this coffee shop quite frequently as it was nearer to our place and the noodle wasn't bad. 

They opened up not long ago and we were the very first customers there. 

While we waited for the boiling water to boil, we had our morning drink first. Mine was forever faithful teh-c. Lol. 

Soon my order came. Kolo mihun. Yup, did not feel like having kolo mee so I had kolo mihun. Not too hearty for me. 

Hubby and I shared this lovely mixed pork soup. Liver, pig's blood and minced meatballs in the soup. 

Hubby was on diet, so he tried to cut down on carbo. No noodle for him. 

More customers came when we left. It wasn't 7am yet. The haze was there that morning. Thank God that the PSI reading has dropped to less than 200 that day.

Pick him up

My man went to KL on the Malaysia's Day weekend. To meet up with friends and attend Andy Lau's concert. 

He flew over on Saturday afternoon and back on Monday evening. We went to the airport to pick him up that evening. Immediately after he got into the car, he shown us this lovely tin. Wow. Popcorn tin!! 

Garrett popcorn shop. A current craze I heard.

We opened up one tin in the car. A mixture of caramel and cheese popcorns. In a minute, half has gone!! That was how much we loved popcorns!! 

The popcorn shop had promotion, Buy 1 Free 1. So hubby only paid RM40 for 2 tins of popcorn. One tin of Chicago mix (caramel and cheese popcorn mix) and another tin of caramel crisp. Promotion or not, they sure did not come cheap!! 

It was time for dinner so we went to this coffee shop to have something. 

I had the claypot rice (RM8). First time tried the claypot stall, and the claypot rice was nice. Not as nice as our usual claypot rice in Rubber road though. 

Jay went for the fried noodle stall. He ordered fried kway teow (RM6). We also ordered stir fried mani chai with egg (RM5) to go with our dinner. 

The rest of the evening, we spent in front of the tv, munching on the other tin of popcorns.  Due to the haze and unhealthy air quality, schools were closed the next day. So we had extra one day school holiday. 

Starving

We took the boat back from Tanjung Datu to Telok Melano village around 1030am. After loaded my car with our stuff, we headed to Ah Nien Seafood in Medan Niaga, Sematan for an early lunch. 

I was starving as we had an early and light breakfast (luncheon meat and egg sandwiches) that morning in Tanjung Datu. The journey back to Kuching would take at least 2 hours and I did not think I could survived the road trip back on hungry stomach. 

So we stopped by in Sematan to have lunch in Ah Nien Seafood stall. 

As in the past, we left our lunch menu in the good hand of the stall operator. In no time, he produced his tasty and flavourful dishes on our table. Chicken soup, curry lamb and deep fried parrot fish. 

We loved his parrot fish. Lovely, sweet and fresh. I could had more than a plate of rice with this fish! 

And his specialty that day: cincaluk!! I did not touch it as I was not a big fan of cincaluk.

Plus 4 canned drink, our lunch cost us RM58. Feeling satisfied and full, we headed back to Kuching. Reached home slightly before 2pm.

Bake a cake

Jamie's 6th birthday fell on 11 September. After we found out that he is allergic to milk and egg white, we did not planned to order any birthday cake for him this year. Instead, this mummy got busy and creative to bake something special for his special day this year.

I found this no egg, no milk cake recipe and was inspired to try it out. So here was the cake that I baked. I added almonds on top.

On my first attempt, it did not turned out nice.

The top part had a valcano; a break in the middle. But it was well baked and dense from the side. Maybe I should place a tray of water at the bottom of the cake tray in my next bake to prevent the valcano. 

So, not that satisfied with the result, I tried again.

It turned out better. But hold on. Wait for it to cool down before I take it out.

Oh dear!! A line at one side. Oh well, I was not going to do it the 3rd time so I had to settle with this one.

In the evening, the unsuspicious boy had a surprise celebration. He knew he cannot take normal cakes sold at bakery but least did he knew that his mummy baked him a cake this year. 

Happy birthday, boy! He did liked his cake and ate a handful and brought some to school the next day in his snack box. 

Mummy will try to better her baking skill and bake a nicer one next year. :) 

The recipe of this no egg, no milk cake:

Ingredients:-

1 - 1/2 cups all purpose flour

3 tbsp cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 tsp kosher salt

Methods:

1. Mix all above dry ingredients well.

2. Made 3 holes in dry ingredients. In one hole, add 1 tsp white vinegar. 

3. Another hole, add in 1 tsp vanilla essence. Add 1 tbsp vegetable oil in the last hole. 

4. Add 1 cup of water all over and mix well. 

5. Grease the baking tray (8") with vegetable oil. Pour the mixture into the baking tray. Sprinkle some almond slices on top. 

6. Preheat oven for 15 minutes. Bake at 350F for 35 minutes. Allow cake to cool. 

Choices

This shop in Emart Hypermarket Batu Kawa opened for business not so long ago. We noticed that they served many choices of dishes and we could not helped not to patronise them. 

The noodles and rice cost RM3 each and seperate charges for add on of side dishes.

Yummy looking, don't you think?

The boys were having these for lunch. Not too spicy so no complaint from them. 

RM3 each

The rest of us went for nasi lemak. Jan and I had the add-on of ayam rempah.

Hubby's choices of sambal sotong and egg sambal. 

Even the normal nasi lemak(RM3) was good enough with salted fish, peanuts, hard-boiled egg, sambal and cucumber slice. 

The rice wasn't that lemak, but I detected ginger taste in it. Not the typical nasi lemak rice. The chicken was nice. Sambal wasn't bad.

Our lunch takeaway was RM22 in total. 

Add-on

The start of the 4+3 days this month. 4 working days and 3 long weekends. 

On this particular Monday, we went to Nanyang Food Court for breakfast. 

First time we ordered and tasted prawns and egg chee cheong fun. Normal prawn ccf cost RM5 but with add-on of egg, it costs RM6. Every bite of prawn and egg slice. Surprisingly it was good. We loved the CCF at this food court; one of best in our own opinion. 

With or without the dipping, it was equally nice. 

The kids had their normal breakfast, namely kolo mee. 

Yours truly did not feel like having noodle, so instead, I opted for vermicelli. 

The next night

In my previous post, I mentioned that I wish to see real sea turtles in action. Well, we did get to see some sea turtles. Baby turtles to be exact.

It was on the 2nd night, that we were fortunate enough to see baby turtles. They hatched and we get to see and hold them before releasing them to the sea. 

It was around 1130pm that night when the national park staff called us to inform us on the baby turtles. Everyone quickly got up from their beds and followed the staff to the hatching station.

The hatching station

9 turtles hatched that night

Hubby was holding this cute baby turtle

Mid Autumn festival is here and since we were at Tanjung Datu last weekend, we took the chance to release a couple of sky lanterns there. 

We were not allowed to venture to the beach after 6pm (due to turtle activity) so we can only let go of the sky lanterns at the camp site. 

First lantern was a success, flew straight to the sky under the yellow-coloured moon. Second lantern had a bit of disaster as it caught onto a tree. It burned on one side but somehow it got loose and managed to fly off to the sky. I guess our wishes were granted eventually. Lol. 

Let it heated up

When hot air developed, let it go!! 

Fly up and up!! 

Higher

One was the lantern and the other one was the moon. Guess which was which?? 

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival, guys! 

In the national park

We spent 3 days 2 nights in Tanjung Datu National Park. Our first family camping experience in the forest.

After a 2 hours drive from Kuching, we took a boat (return fare RM300) from Teluk Melano jetty to the national park on Saturday afternoon. About 10 minutes boat ride, we reached the beautiful, clean and untouched Tanjung Datu National Park after 1pm.

The beach and water were clean. Amazing and quiet place to relax and enjoy the Mother's Nature. No line, no wi-fi, no internet. Away from the outside world. 

There were 2 European couples other than us that stayed during the weekend. We made new friends with the German and French couples.

We spent mostly at the beach, had morning walks, swimming and snorkelling. The beach looked like belonging to us, totally peaceful and quiet.

If only there wasn't any haze, the view would be amazing. All we could see was hazy scenery but it didn't dampen our holiday mood.

On the first night, we set up our tents on the camping site. 

The kids learnt how to set up the tents with their dad.

The next night, we were offered 2 forest huts so we wouldnt need to squeeze in the uncomfortable tents. Lol.

Equipped with 5 beds plus mosquito netting.

It was nearer to the kitchen and bench and table. And also nearer to the beach. 

We were also allowed to use the stove in the kitchen but with charges. We brought our own utensil although they do provide with charge. 

We brought mineral water, dried food and canned food enough for 3 days and at the end of the holiday, we still have some instant noodles and canned food left.

We slept early at night as there would not be much to do at night. Lighted by kerosene oil lamps, it were uncomfortable and warm nights and the boys complained of heat. Luckily we survived the night through. The beach was closed after 6pm as to avoid disturbance to any sea turtle activities. So we slept pretty early on both nights.

We brought some touchlights and LED light and mosquito coils. Touchlights are useful when you need to go to the toilet at night as it was pitch-black with sounds of insects and wave from the ocean around you. 

There were few jungle trails for those who love hiking and enjoying the wild nature.

We had a 500m trail hike on the 2nd day. We took the shortest trail as not to tired ourselves out. The trail wasn't that easy though but we managed to finish it.

Everyone was sweaty and tired but a good hike in the forest.

We also had snorkelling on the other side of the beach in the evening. A few minutes jungle trail to this quieter beachline. Low tide in the evening and some corals on the rocks could be seen on the shore. We did not go too far to see some corals and fishes. However the water was muddy and not crystal clear near the shore.

A nice and different weekend getaway for us. Other than the kids complaining of heat and unable to sleep without fan or aircon at night, we had a wonderful holiday and enjoyable time there. We may be back next year, hopefully to catch real sea turtles in action. 

What and how much we spent at the national park:

                         RM

Entrance fee  26 (RM10- adult, RM3 - 6-18yo)

Camping site  20 (RM5/pax/night) 

Forest hut       40 (RM10/pax/night) 

Bedding          60 (RM15/pc/night) 

Gas & Stove    10 (RM5/day) 

If you look at the map of Borneo, Tanjung Datu is at the tip of the Borneo. The 'tail' part. For more information of this beautiful national park, click on to this site.