Walked back

After our breakfast, we walked back to the Filipino market.

As I knew what we wanted to buy so we only headed to that certain section of the market to buy our stuff.

The dried food section!!  More or less everyone is selling the same things. And your bargaining power must be put up to  a good use over here. Bargain and bargain till you get a good price for your stuff.

And our loot?? These 3 big packs of dried food. Anchovies, salted fish and mini squids.

A friend said the squid was very good. Something we don't find in Kuching. I will share this delicacy with you another day.

Eat like the locals

On our last day in KK, we had a walk from our apartment to the Filipino market. But before we did our shopping, we need to fill up our tummies first. It was after 9am so we were pretty hungry then. 

We walked to the back part of the shoplots and saw this old coffee shop. It didn't looked that old from the photo but it has a long history of serving food to the locals. 

Seng Hing Coffee Shop, has been around since 1978. Many choices of food but after much consideration, we settled for the local food. Something we don't get to enjoy in Kuching. Travelling is like that, live and eat like the locals. That is part of embracing the culture and wonderful parcel of travelling. 

So, our choice of food was laksa and mee tuaran. 

Our laksa came first. Ok, it looked like curry noodle to me. And it tasted like curry noodle!! With a slight of sweetness to it. 

Hubby had that whole bowl to himself while I settled for the mee tuaran. Don't ask me why the name as I have not google for its explanation but my guess maybe it is originated from Tuaran?? 

Enough wok hei which I like. Many ingredients in my noodle too. Different type of noodle that I have not tasted before. 

The 2 older kids went for fried mee hoon each. Nicely done and such a big portion that they having hard time finishing their breakfast. 

Our breakfast was RM49 plus drinks.

First time

Since we don't have a Hard Rock Cafe in Kuching, I did not hesitate to jump to the chance to visit one in my recent vacation.

The Hard Rock Cafe KK in Oceanus Waterfront Mall was not an unfamiliar place for my man as he had made few trips to KK and dine and drink here.

The ocean view from the Hard Rock Cafe KK was spectacular!

We visited the Rock Shop but no, we did not bought anything. 

I was more on the food and a little chill out in the cafe.  Would you believe it that this was my very first time dining in a Hard Rock cafe? Yes, you better believe it!!

I had been to few like in Malaysia, Thailand and Europe but never dine in them. 

We did not dare to order much as the portion is big. American size, as my man described them. Lol. 

We shared these 2 platters, fish n chips and the original legendary beef burger. 

We ordered medium cook for the beef patties and it was lovely and just nicely done. So juicy and well seasoned, I enjoyed the burger very much. Everyone shared the food around with a high glass of lemonade. Of course my man had a glass of beer to go with the dinner. 

After that, hubby suggested to burn some calories with a stroll at the waterfront. So we walked over and took some photos of the cafes and pubs there. 

There was even a 24 hours Korea pub there, everything in Korean. Amazing. I felt like I was oversea back then.

The weather was nice as it was after a heavy rain. We were lucky to enjoy the nice cooling breeze and beautiful ocean view. 

I wish I could stayed longer in KK but alas, why the time passed very fast when we were having a good time!! 

I could just stay and stare out at the sea and watch the sunset. Sigh! 

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.