Quick Update

Hey, everyone. It's been a crazy month. I joined a camp for 3 days at Manis Manis Nature Resort, became a facilitator, my team won The Best Team award, I got to meet new friends, got to know my students and other teachers closer and we had so much. It was awesome, despite the fact that I can't sleep at nights because I heard things..well, you know, the place's haunted. I came home with bruises all over my legs. Damn you, ghost. Lol. 

the winning team

Then I went to Kuala Lumpur and stayed there for a week. It's a sudden trip, so unplanned. I was actually sending my cousin off as he got a job at KLIA as an immigration officer, and at the same time being his companion to adapt in a new place, and looking for house/room to rent. We grew up together, we're like brother and sister, so I can't just let him do everything all by himself. Yes, he's grown-up, but he's always like a little brother to me and I care about him. Plus he'll be away for a long time and we can't see each other often, so it's the only chance for me to give what I can as a sister. 

with my cousin and his friend

And recently I had a brief catch up with my friends after a month. Ah I missed them so much. We went to beach, ate the newly trending ice cream in vase and watched a beautiful sunset. 

Wait, did I mention that I'm teaching again? Ah yes, but my previous contract has ended and for now I'm just staying at home, waiting for a call from school officer to renew my contract. I sound like a freelance teacher, huh. Well, it's fun somehow. Unlike regular teachers, up to this day I've taught more than 2 subjects; Maths, Science, English, Music, Visual Art, ICT, Technical Skills, and Geography. Lol. 

So that's all for now. Till next time. ^^

Like a Crescendo

Had a picnic at the beach with my friends yesterday on Labor Day. It's a simple picnic; KFC combo, mats, ukulele, volley ball, frisbee and  music. Simple yet sweet. :)

For whatever reason, I've always found the most clarity either while I'm at the beach or while I'm with my loved ones. Maybe it's something about the inevitable stillness in those situations, or maybe it's because they sometimes feel like movie moments. Like they deserve a soundtrack with indie songs and some kind of giant, fill-your-heart crescendo (found this phrase in a book I was reading..lol).

Either way, just a day at the beach and it became very clear: Life is good. 

(despite the fact that I'm having a flu now, life's still good)

So how's your day? ^^

Jingle Bell Rock

So how did we celebrate our 5th anniversary? Dinner at a romantic restaurant, stroll on the beach, movies.....nahh, those are typical. We did what we love to, we're just hanging out in bookshop (I just got myself John Green's Paper Towns ^^), having lunch at mamak stall and talking for hours. All those happened in the place where we had our 1st date and declared to be a couple. :p

Well it's not one-day celebration, and sometimes an anniversary isn't necessarily meant to be celebrated by 2 people. Being together for 5 years have brought us to get closer with everyone else, especially our friends, because most of our sweet moments were involving them and we wanted to share this happiness. So we cooked some simple meals, baked a cake and had dinner together at Ifo's house. Then we had karaoke til midnight while eating the cake we baked. It's really a fun night. Not to brag, but as I love cooking, I was glad to cook my recipe for my loved ones and they liked it. As the saying goes "the way to a man's heart is through his stomach", well honestly I kinda put that into practice to impress my man. Heeee... :D

On 25th, we went to Tuaran to meet Ifo's Dusun relatives as they had a little feast for Ifo's grandparents to celebrate christmas. And at night, we're invited to a christmas party at Ifo's cousins' house, and one of the cousin is Nelly's (my best friend) husband-to-be. ^^ What a small world, everyone can be related. It was a great party with beautiful decoration. Ifo and friends grabbed chance to join a game called Running Man. I never watch the show so I had no idea about it, but it's just apparently an eating competition. Each group consists of 6 persons, and every member must finish boiled egg, hot curry Maggie, ice cream, chocolate bar, a bottle of mineral water and coke as fast as possible. The foods were simple and finishing them seemed easy, the real challenge was the psycho cheers from the crowds as they shouted, "muntah..muntah..muntah!" One of our friends almost puked eating the egg, me who's watching also felt like throwing up. Their psycho really worked. Anyway, Ifo's group won 2nd place and we went home with 2 hampers and lots of treats. 

Such a nice way to end the year. ^^

cooked for the loved ones

me and Ifo with 2 beautiful christmas cakes

with my friend a.k.a biras-to-be, Nelly

enjoying meals with the hosts of the party

congrats guys!

Blissful Weekend

Last weekend was awesome. Me and family and Ifo went to Kundasang for a holiday trip, we stayed at Little Hut, Mesilau for a night. It's a nice place, with breathtaking view, surrounded by beautiful flowers, windy, cozy cold..such a sanctuary. And there's an onion field in front of the homestay house. 

After checking in to homestay, we went to Poring, it's for the kids. Then we headed to Tagal River to experience a fish massage, which was incredibly great. It's not the normal fish massage that you might get in spa, but this one is huge fish. I was amazed to see a group of big fish swimming around the feet of visitors who stood in the river. At first I was afraid to go down but it'd be waste if I didn't try, so I dipped my feet in the river while feeding the fishes. Oh gosh..I can feel them nibbling my skin. It didn't hurt, just itchy and slippery. Ifo showed us how to feed them right (he went there before); hold the food in your palm, dip your hand in the river and slowly release the food, the fishes would come rushing to your hand. I didn't try that one. :p

That night, we just stayed in homestay and cooked our dinner. Ifo helped us in the kitchen and he even made the grilled banana leaf wrapped fish. My sister said he passed the test. Lol. 

At 3.30 am, we all woke up for qiamullail, it's a practice in Islam to perform tahajjud and hajat prayers at the middle of night, followed by tazkirah and Subuh prayer. It's my dad's idea, which was very good to get much benefits from Allah. Honestly, I'm thankful for being born in the family. Bercuti sambil beramal, they say. 

In the morning, before going to Desa Cattle, we walked around our place and took pictures. Really, it's a very nice place for sightseeing and taking photo, I love how they design the houses with English vintage style. It inspired me to design my own house someday. ^^ So we went to Desa Cattle. We bought milk, met and greeted the calves and goats. The kids had so much fun feeding the tamed young goats. Before heading home, we stopped at Kundasang town to buy some fruits and vegetables. 

It's an awesome vacation. ^^

if only the peak of Mount Kinabalu wasn't covered by the clouds

look at those fishes

i wanna know what does the fox say about us

i can see Mount Kinabalu from my room

;)

brother and the cute house

me and the onion field

my lovelies are feeding the goats

cows might pooped the grass, but we don't care

awesome weekend

Most Memorable Photo

My favorite and most memorable photo that I've taken:

It was during a 5-day holiday trip to Manila, Philippines with my friends. We went to Manila Ocean Park on 2nd day and among all attractions, Jellies: The Dancing Sea Fairies was my favorite. Yes, they're real transparent jellyfishes that dance like fairies.

It's not like there's a lot of amazing stunts you can see. Their dancing was more like a slow waltz rather than hiphop dancing, for example. The changing colors of lights in the tanks made me feel magical as those jellies amazed me with their serene floating. I didn't even read the names of each jelly type because I was too mesmerized, it's like I was hypnotized by those sea fairies. I could spend a whole just watching them, honestly. And it's also one of the best times in my life. Travelling to a foreign country for the 1st time with my buddies was really great. We had so much fun. ^^

To be One with Nature

Me and The Baks were supposed to have a trip to Kundasang on last Tuesday. But something came up so we had to cancel it. Yet it didn't stop right there because we had another plan, like always. Well that's how we roll, we won't let the day goes by without any interesting stuff to do as we got our hopes up to have fun. So on that Tuesday, we were going on an awesome picnic at Kibambangan Water Park, just a small place in Penampang. As small as it is,  it's beautiful and such a joy to be one with nature, to listen to the sounds of flowing river, insects and birds chirping in the nearby woods and feel the cold, refreshing water to dip in. It's such a bliss and ideal way to escape concrete jungle. It's quite an adventure to get there actually as the place is located in deep rural area of Penampang, the road is hilly, and when we got there, we had to cross a swinging bridge. Much fun!

So we brought along some food and stuff; tuna sandwiches, marinated chicken wings, snacks, sausages, rice, drinks, BBQ set, mats, etc. Luckily it's a weekday and the place's empty, we easily found a perfect spot for our picnic, just right at the riverbank. While the guys were dipping in the river, other friends and I barbecued the marinated chicken wings and sausages. We really loved the chicken wings. Honestly it's the best BBQ chicken I ever ate. I don't know why, but maybe the marinating time was long enough for the chickens to absorb all ingredients. We never thought that a cheap BBQ sauce that I picked could do wonders. I can take credits, right? Lol. 

I didn't miss the chance to get down in the river, sit on rocks and soak my feet. It's cold but I liked it. I also helped out my friend, Jasper, to design a pool by rearranging the rocks and building dam. Then it started drizzling. When the sky's getting darker and the rain kept pouring, we moved our things into huts, except the grill as we can't move the burning charcoals. So they took a wooden table from the hut and made it as shelter for the grill. Despite the crazy weather, we still had so much fun munching away happily on our food, listening to music, singing and chatting while waiting for the rain to stop. But it didn't stop. As it rained heavily, the river flowed faster and water level got higher. It's frightening. You could die if you fell into it. 

It was still raining when we packed up things and went back. Crossing the wet swinging bridge while the stream ran fast beneath really scared the hell out of me. Well, it's a wonderful day and we're surely gonna do it again next time. ^^

Ifo and Naszreen were starting the charcoal fire

Bon appetit!

Teamwork

From left: Naszreen, Jasper and me

Rock pool.

Behind the scene

Me and Russel took the initial shift to burn the chickens

We had fun ^^

Conquering the Bald Hill

Bald Hill, Sepangar, Sabah

Me and The Baks went out as a team again yesterday to hike and conquer the Bald Hill Sepangar, which is also known by the locals as Bukit Botak or Bukit Gundul. All this time, I could only see the hill from car window, now I know that it's conquerable and we made it! It's a beautiful green hill with bald top (no trees) that you'd notice if you're in Sepangar area. As it's a unique hill, I was on cloud 9 when they set up a plan to hike there. 

There are 2 starting points to climb Bald Hill, one from UiTM, another from a construction site next to MARDI (the one that we used). We started hiking around 10 am which was quite late already as the scorching sun was rising high. To get to the peak of the hill, we had to go through deep jungle, climb and cross a valley. It's really challenging for a first-timer like me. Okay, to be more specific, we're all first-timers, none of us had ever climbed it before and we took the challenge without any guides. So we just followed the existing trail, that's almost covered by bushes and long grass, with our instincts. 

take 2

beautiful woods

feel like rangers :p

almost there

We reached the Bald Hill peak after an hour. Subhanallah, it's so beautiful! We're amazed by the mesmerizing view from up there and despite the hot sun, the breeze was soothing. We can see the UMS, sea of Sepangar Bay, islands, navy base, and the whole KK city! They could even see their houses! Lol. And yes, at the highest peak, it's really bald, no bushes or trees, except a lone bamboo tree, Sabah flag and long grass. We just sat there, took pictures, relaxed and ate some foods that we brought along to fuel up while enjoying our beautiful land of Sabah. 

The journey of going down was another story. I never thought that going down could be more challenging than going up. Because of tiredness and less focus (we talked a lot) while climbing, we got lost twice. Not leaving marks was a mistake, and we didn't see the trail clearly. The situation reminded me of "The Road Not Taken" but there's no time to joke about it. It took them quite a while to figure out the correct trail. I didn't help at all as I was too tired to think, but of course I was worried if we stuck there forever. It's gonna rain and we must go down before dark. Alhamdulillah, we found the trail anyway. But then, my legs were too tired to deal with the steepness. I made a wrong step, tripped and fell to the ground. Man, it hurt. My doctor-to-be friend checked my ankle if it's broken. Thank God it's fine. I fought the pain and forced myself to continue the journey. Going down was agony. 

Well, we returned safely. Despite the wrong turn, clumsy step and fatigue, we had so much fun. Honestly, it's worth our time. It's a great adventure and surely we'll climb again next time with complete preparation. Heeee.. 

we made it

at the summit

just resting

hey KK

another great day with them

A Perfect Closure

So here I am in my hostel apartment on the first night of final semester, reminiscing all the memories made in holiday. Heh. I miss home already. I miss my friends. We don't just say goodbye without having something memorable to share on the last day, you know. Just to make a sweet farewell. It's not like we wouldn't see each other again, but the next holiday is way ahead. So as a closure of semester break, last Friday me and The Baks went on a trip to Kundasang.

We rented a van and Ifo's cousin, Juan, was the driver. The best moments of this trip were when we're doing fun things together inside the van along the journey. We're telling stories and riddles, talking about politics (seriously), making fun of each other, playing ukulele, singing, taking pictures and enjoying the stunning scenery of natures. It's great. So we reached at our 1st destination, Desa Dairy Farm, around 11 am. We're too early and didn't get to see the milking process as it starts on 3 pm. But we got to meet and touch some adorable calves and goats, and even feed them. I wasn't into goats because they smell like.....you know, goats.

in Nissan Urvan

lets buy some milk

Ifo wants to adopt one

we are young

Then we went to the other side of Mesilau where we saw a beautiful golf court that looked like a garden. I think they better turn it into a garden instead. Besides, I didn't see anyone playing golf. And then there's a beautiful big house surrounded by pine trees (I'm not sure if they're really pine trees) that looked like the Cullens' house. So we called it as Twilight house. 

this is not sinetron

We dropped by for a little while at a river that flows from Mount Kinabalu. It was so beautiful but dude, I could be frozen even for 5 minutes. The water's ice cold. 

After having lunch at Ranau town, we headed to Poring Hot Spring. I didn't do more than feet dipping, because I didn't feel like jumping into the pool. But I was amazed by the beauty of Kipungit Waterfall, despite feeling tired of walking through the jungle trail to get there. Then we took off to Luanti to experience the fish massage at Tagal river, but unfortunately it's already closed by the time we arrived. I was actually relieved because their descriptions about the vacuum-like fishes were quite intimidating. 

Kipungit Waterfall.
pay no mind to those mermaids

these guys have been my brothers (except Ifo..well, he's more than that). awesome day.

It's already dark and we headed home. We stopped at Kundasang green stalls to buy some fruits and vegetables. I bought long cabbages and some mushrooms for mum and sister. My dear friend, Lan, bought 2 pieces of pomelo flesh (limau bali), but I was the one who ate them till finish. :p It's my favorite. Heeee..

I was half asleep on the way back. Actually I was trying hard to sleep because I didn't want to listen to their ghost stories, but I can't. Telling ghost stories at night on a long journey? Really? They're so mean. :p

We had dinner at a restaurant in Tuaran before saying goodbye to each other. 

Although it was only a day, the trip was awesome. ^^

Keep Coming Back to You

Manila Trip: Day 5

It was the last day of Manila Trip. To make the best of remaining hours that we had before taking off to airport, we went shopping at Robinson. That's the 1st time I shopped without thinking pros and cons because we only got an hour. So I just grabbed anything nice and fancy, until I didn't know what to buy anymore. And Ifo managed to shop more than I did, he even got a varsity jacket from Dickies. Impressive (because I've never seen him shopping like that before).

The hardest part was saying goodbye to everything; the hotel, cafe, the street, the city, etc. I didn't tell or show the guys that I cried a little before pulling my luggage out of the room. I can't wait to get home but honestly, I felt heavy-hearted and overwhelmed all at once, because those times won't repeat. So we took off to Clark by a cab. We're coming home with a lot of memories and missing every bit of them. I haven't really thank them yet for planning out the trip, for taking care of me and for everything. Surely we'll do this again. ^^

thank you guys ^^
(from left: Lan, Russel, Jasper, Selvin, Ifo)

goodbye Philippines

Oh I miss Manila! As the song Manila by Hotdog goes, "I keep coming back to Manila,", something I often find myself singing. Despite all seemingly unsolved problems - traffic, crowds, peace, order, etc - I can't just write the place off completely. 

One of the reasons is the smiles. I'm not saying that Malaysians can't smile. But the smiles are easy and natural in the faces of the people there. Even when they tell a problem, it's not uncommon to still see them smiling somewhat. Why? I don’t know for sure. Maybe they're naturally friendly and easy-going. But I do believe it could be part of their coping mechanism. Whoever it was who said that “we laugh because we do not want to cry”, might as well have explained correctly why they smile in the midst of chaotic life. Other reasons have been written in my previous posts I guess. 

To be fair, I could also make an entire reasons of why I love Malaysia. Heeee.. 

Hey, Malaysia will always be in my heart, no matter how far I go. 

 So this is the end of my Manila Trip posts and now I leave you with a song. ^^

Manila - Hotdog

The Moment I Could not Forget

Manila Trip: Day 4

It's not really surprising when the shop assistants spoke Tagalog to us, thought that we're Filipinos and said that we look like ones. We're typical Asians after all. I've learned some Tagalog words and basic phrases from my friend, Lan (the guide of our trip, it's his 2nd hometown), such as makgano (how much?), maraming salamat (thanks so much), magandang araw (have a nice day), magandang umaga (good morning), pagod ako (I'm tired), ingat (take care), counting numbers, and so on. It's really fun to learn new language. ^^

After brunch, we went to Robinson and shopping at some stores. Bench store was my favorite one and I bought a lot from there; dress, bags, fragrance. I really love the design, quality, fabric, and I only looked for Philippines' original brands. Despite being the only rose among the thorns, I had no problem shopping with the guys. Besides, sometimes they needed me to choose for them. Here I also found some bizarre foods like balut (fertilized egg with a fetus in it) and deep fried 1-day-old chick. Ugghh..

deep fried 1-day-old chicks

the last jeepney

By taking MRT, we went to Baclaran again and headed to MOA by a jeepney. That's the last time I rode a jeepney. I must say that jeepney's the coolest transport so far. I loved it and miss it already. In MOA, we watched Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters. The cinema's way awesome than GSC or any cinemas I've ever been. The hall and screen were larger and hey, no censored scenes. Needless to say, I had to close Ifo's eyes with my hand at one scene where Mina was completely naked with Hansel at rock pool. 

After the movie, we rushed out to catch the "moment". Yes, we made it this time. We saw the sunset of Philippines and embraced the moment. That I will never forget. ^^

so do you think this is romantic? :p

screw the camera

Then we went to Kultura Filipino to buy some souvenirs and OMG I really loved the shop. It's not an ordinary handicraft shop. Everything's beautiful and attractive. They resembled the cultures and traditions of Filipinos, which amazed me. I wanted to buy a very beautiful purse, but when I saw the price, I let it go and bought souvenirs for my family instead. 

Since it was the final night of the trip, we made it count by having fun at Star City, a theme park. So we played and rode all that we can. The funniest was when we entered the ghost house and mummy's tomb. I thought I was the only that'd be scared, but the guys were scared too. :p There's this kind of laser light in the ghost house that turned our faces into ghosts. Dude, it's damn scary. And then when the other people came to us, we thought they're ghosts because of the horrible faces. So we screamed and ran to exit gate. Lol. The rest of the games were as common as we have at Genting Highland. I felt regret riding the last game because it made me absolutely dizzy. Glad I didn't vomit in the air. 

we were up there

had so much fun ^^
(from left: Selvin, Lan, me, Ifo, Russel, Jasper)

The night's ended with the final hangout at hotel's cafe. I miss that so much. :)