When I last visited the city twelve weeks ago, I did wonder if I’d be visiting it again and if yes, when my next visit would be. But of course I didn’t expect or anticipate that there would be developments so rapid as to make me return to this city so soon after the last visit. The return visit was confirmed just before Ramadan and I spent some time frantically searched for the best airfare deals and am happy to say that I managed to get MAS airfares at very reasonable rates (in fact way better than AirAsia) despite this return visit occurring just after Eid and the week following Eid.
25 September 2009
Thank God It’s Friday
A very early start to the day. I left the house before 6.30 am and waited for the bus to KL Sentral. Managed to arrive in time to use the check-in facility at the KL City Air Terminal (KL CAT) and took the KL Transit train to KLIA (there was a buy-one-free-one KLIA Transit ticket deal during the recent MATTA Fair and I took advantage of the deal seeing as I’d be making some early morning trips in the next few months) and this was when I discovered that you could take this train and stop at the Salak South station for the shuttle to the LCCT without paying extra for the shuttle (wonder how long it would take from that station to LCCT though). And thank God I checked in at KL Sentral for there were a lot of people and long queues at KLIA. Even the self-check in kiosks had considerable queues. I quickly went in to browse at the duty-free.
When I checked the screen again, I was puzzled to note that the flight to Kota Kinabalu (for yes, that was my destination) was at a different gate, A8 instead of A3 that was printed on my boarding card. Oh well, I thought, this would not be the first time gates are changed after checking in. Imagine my confusion when I later discovered that there were actually two 9 am MAS flights bound for KK – but one would transit at Labuan. And yes, as it turned out, the flight I was on would make a stopover in Labuan. This was not printed on the electronic ticket and in any case, I could not check the arrival time at KK on the ticket as there was instead a fast-food advertisement that appeared and obscured that information.
So yes, we landed at Labuan Airport at 1110. Those wishing to stay on board could do so and those interested to shake off their sleepy feet could do so too. I decided to get down, hey after all, who knows when I would land there again anyway.
The stopover was supposed to take 40 minutes but we only re-boarded the plane about 45 minutes later and only air-borne about an hour later. The announcement that came on informed that this was due to some technical faults that happened en route to Labuan and thankfully, the technicians at Labuan managed to rectify them. We were in the air long enough for the cabin crew to offer some drinks and collect the glasses before we landed at KK International Airport. So a journey that I thought would take me 150 minutes turned out to take four hours. Oh well, at least I got to see a bit of Labuan (and even managed to use my plastic on something. Oh dearie me!).
Delia was already waiting for me when I emerged from the airport. We’d earlier joked that I’d be waiting for her but as things turned out, it was she had to wait for me. After checking out her office, I set off first for the nearby city market (where vegetables, fruits and dry food were sold) before making my way to the dry seafood produce market and the handicraft market (more popularly known as the Filipino Market) where I spent considerable time walking back and forth and back and forth again.
Then I walked out past the markets again to Wisma Merdeka, where I surprised myself with some purchases of DVDs. Next was a brief pit-stop at the neighbouring Hyatt Hotel for prayers before I retraced my steps back, this time past Le Meridien Hotel to Warisan Square. It was shortly after 5 when I returned to Delia’s office with aching feet. We left after 5.40 pm and went to her apartment in Likas. Dinner was had at Tanjung Lipat.
26 September 2009
Little Bit Of Everything
We went to Delia’s office at 11 am and stayed until 3 pm to do some personal work. Then we drove the short distance to Warisan Square and met up AudMraz. After some late lunch, we walked about and after checking out the best shop to get DVD supplies in the city, we spotted a moneychanger. I was surprised to note that this moneychanger charged different rates for USD – different notes had different charges. Smaller notes (USD1 and USD5) attracted the best rate and Delia and I got a bit excited; she because the GBP and Euro rates were slightly better than in KL (then), me because of the different USD exchange rates. We ended up checking a number of other moneychangers within the vicinity (and all had the same differing rates) - and I now have a thick pouch full of USD1 notes. I had come across this concept before but can’t for the life of me recall where.
I was asking AudMraz whether she had ever had cupping treatment (bekam) and she said yes; turned out the centre she went to was nearby and we decided to check it out (sans Delia who wanted to perform prayers. I had already performed both Zuhor and Asar prayers earlier). I have always wanted to try this cupping treatment because I know my body has a lot of ‘wind’. We were lucky as we managed to do it without prior appointment. We requested a private room just for the two of us.
Now if you’ve never done cupping and/or don’t know what it’s like, this is how it’s like. You lay face-down on a bed (and yes, you need to undress first). Then someone (a lady from mainland China in our case) will proceed to first massage your body briefly with some massage oil. Next, she will heat up some glasses and place them on your body (haphazardly in my case, symmetrically in AudMraz’s case) –and somehow, presto, your skin within the glass bulb will rise and turn any range of colour from pale red, dark red to purple, dark blue and maybe black. For every glass placed on my back, I felt as if I was given a big pinch which pain lasted the whole twenty odd minutes or so (our total treatment was thirty minutes). And when she had put a number of glasses on my back, I felt like a piece of leather stretched out in every possible way. She put the glasses on me first before she did them on AudMraz and it was an effort for me to lift my head to look at AudMraz to see how the process was done. Not exactly the most comfortable half an hour I’ve ever spent in my life but I have no regrets. After the treatment, you’ll be sporting some round marks on your back which can last for days or weeks. I must admit that I’m still feeling the pain and I must be careful even now when I lean on my back (I’ve been sleeping on my side the past couple of nights) and the angry-looking marks on my body will make anyone believe I have been battered and abused. Anyway, like I said, no regrets. It was a good experience and I may do it again.
Delia and I parted ways with AudMraz after 8 pm and we then drove over to some shop-lots near the sprawling 1Borneo shopping mall for dinner. Delia finally went to a clinic on our way back to her pad as she was feeling a tad under the weather. She slept considerably early but I stayed up to watch my sweetie play against Fool ‘Em Fulham (I brought my Astro card over for the sole purpose of catching the match); man, man-of-the-match Vito Mannone was brilliant! ;’’) And who would have thought that Wigan (which we beat just the week before) disposed off Chelshit and that Titus Bramble of all people would score for the home side (!) and that Blackburn would beat the Villains? Well, that’s football for you.
25 September 2009
Thank God It’s Friday
A very early start to the day. I left the house before 6.30 am and waited for the bus to KL Sentral. Managed to arrive in time to use the check-in facility at the KL City Air Terminal (KL CAT) and took the KL Transit train to KLIA (there was a buy-one-free-one KLIA Transit ticket deal during the recent MATTA Fair and I took advantage of the deal seeing as I’d be making some early morning trips in the next few months) and this was when I discovered that you could take this train and stop at the Salak South station for the shuttle to the LCCT without paying extra for the shuttle (wonder how long it would take from that station to LCCT though). And thank God I checked in at KL Sentral for there were a lot of people and long queues at KLIA. Even the self-check in kiosks had considerable queues. I quickly went in to browse at the duty-free.
When I checked the screen again, I was puzzled to note that the flight to Kota Kinabalu (for yes, that was my destination) was at a different gate, A8 instead of A3 that was printed on my boarding card. Oh well, I thought, this would not be the first time gates are changed after checking in. Imagine my confusion when I later discovered that there were actually two 9 am MAS flights bound for KK – but one would transit at Labuan. And yes, as it turned out, the flight I was on would make a stopover in Labuan. This was not printed on the electronic ticket and in any case, I could not check the arrival time at KK on the ticket as there was instead a fast-food advertisement that appeared and obscured that information.
So yes, we landed at Labuan Airport at 1110. Those wishing to stay on board could do so and those interested to shake off their sleepy feet could do so too. I decided to get down, hey after all, who knows when I would land there again anyway.
The stopover was supposed to take 40 minutes but we only re-boarded the plane about 45 minutes later and only air-borne about an hour later. The announcement that came on informed that this was due to some technical faults that happened en route to Labuan and thankfully, the technicians at Labuan managed to rectify them. We were in the air long enough for the cabin crew to offer some drinks and collect the glasses before we landed at KK International Airport. So a journey that I thought would take me 150 minutes turned out to take four hours. Oh well, at least I got to see a bit of Labuan (and even managed to use my plastic on something. Oh dearie me!).
Delia was already waiting for me when I emerged from the airport. We’d earlier joked that I’d be waiting for her but as things turned out, it was she had to wait for me. After checking out her office, I set off first for the nearby city market (where vegetables, fruits and dry food were sold) before making my way to the dry seafood produce market and the handicraft market (more popularly known as the Filipino Market) where I spent considerable time walking back and forth and back and forth again.
Then I walked out past the markets again to Wisma Merdeka, where I surprised myself with some purchases of DVDs. Next was a brief pit-stop at the neighbouring Hyatt Hotel for prayers before I retraced my steps back, this time past Le Meridien Hotel to Warisan Square. It was shortly after 5 when I returned to Delia’s office with aching feet. We left after 5.40 pm and went to her apartment in Likas. Dinner was had at Tanjung Lipat.
26 September 2009
Little Bit Of Everything
We went to Delia’s office at 11 am and stayed until 3 pm to do some personal work. Then we drove the short distance to Warisan Square and met up AudMraz. After some late lunch, we walked about and after checking out the best shop to get DVD supplies in the city, we spotted a moneychanger. I was surprised to note that this moneychanger charged different rates for USD – different notes had different charges. Smaller notes (USD1 and USD5) attracted the best rate and Delia and I got a bit excited; she because the GBP and Euro rates were slightly better than in KL (then), me because of the different USD exchange rates. We ended up checking a number of other moneychangers within the vicinity (and all had the same differing rates) - and I now have a thick pouch full of USD1 notes. I had come across this concept before but can’t for the life of me recall where.
I was asking AudMraz whether she had ever had cupping treatment (bekam) and she said yes; turned out the centre she went to was nearby and we decided to check it out (sans Delia who wanted to perform prayers. I had already performed both Zuhor and Asar prayers earlier). I have always wanted to try this cupping treatment because I know my body has a lot of ‘wind’. We were lucky as we managed to do it without prior appointment. We requested a private room just for the two of us.
Now if you’ve never done cupping and/or don’t know what it’s like, this is how it’s like. You lay face-down on a bed (and yes, you need to undress first). Then someone (a lady from mainland China in our case) will proceed to first massage your body briefly with some massage oil. Next, she will heat up some glasses and place them on your body (haphazardly in my case, symmetrically in AudMraz’s case) –and somehow, presto, your skin within the glass bulb will rise and turn any range of colour from pale red, dark red to purple, dark blue and maybe black. For every glass placed on my back, I felt as if I was given a big pinch which pain lasted the whole twenty odd minutes or so (our total treatment was thirty minutes). And when she had put a number of glasses on my back, I felt like a piece of leather stretched out in every possible way. She put the glasses on me first before she did them on AudMraz and it was an effort for me to lift my head to look at AudMraz to see how the process was done. Not exactly the most comfortable half an hour I’ve ever spent in my life but I have no regrets. After the treatment, you’ll be sporting some round marks on your back which can last for days or weeks. I must admit that I’m still feeling the pain and I must be careful even now when I lean on my back (I’ve been sleeping on my side the past couple of nights) and the angry-looking marks on my body will make anyone believe I have been battered and abused. Anyway, like I said, no regrets. It was a good experience and I may do it again.
Delia and I parted ways with AudMraz after 8 pm and we then drove over to some shop-lots near the sprawling 1Borneo shopping mall for dinner. Delia finally went to a clinic on our way back to her pad as she was feeling a tad under the weather. She slept considerably early but I stayed up to watch my sweetie play against Fool ‘Em Fulham (I brought my Astro card over for the sole purpose of catching the match); man, man-of-the-match Vito Mannone was brilliant! ;’’) And who would have thought that Wigan (which we beat just the week before) disposed off Chelshit and that Titus Bramble of all people would score for the home side (!) and that Blackburn would beat the Villains? Well, that’s football for you.
27 September 2009
My Good Friend’s Wedding
After an hour-dose of footie thanks to Football Extra, we got ready to got to my good friend’s wedding at the nearby Dewan MAKSAK. Yes, SK was getting married! ;’) We didn’t have the benefit of a proper card (SK was soo busy with the wedding preparations, bless her) and we thought that it’d be a buffet reception but it turned out even the TYT and Chief Minister of the state were in attendance (and we were royally late, ho ho). Everyone had finished his/her main course. Anyway, we managed to find an empty table and were still served clean cutleries, plates and napkins. There were some cultural performances in between the speeches and then the couple went on stage for the cake-cutting ceremony. SK looked sooo radiantly beautiful and gorgeous, I just felt my heart swell with pride when I saw her ;’)
Shortly after, the VVIPs took their leave and the couple went out ahead of them to send them off and thank them for coming. Most other guests took their leave too but we lingered on as we loathed having to join the long queue and meet the afternoon heat so soon. Anyway, a friend of SK told us that the couple would come back in again and so we waited. There were some guests who also went on stage to karaoke (not the usual karaoke songs, mind you, but of course).
At last, the couple came back in again. They made their way slowly to the guests who were still in the hall and finally SK came over to our table. I think she looked touched with my attendance - well at least I like to think so ;) – and I hugged her twice (for Fifi too you see) and congratulated her. After the seemingly endless hugging and hand-shakings, the couple went on stage and the photo-taking session commenced. We waited patiently before going on stage ourselves.
Delia and I left shortly after we took pictures with the couple and emerged out into the hot afternoon sun. We went back to change and half an hour later, we left for Karambunai. We spent some time there walking around the Nexus Karambunai resort and strolling briefly on the beach. Then we headed back and stopped at 1Borneo where we had our dinner and my long-awaited foot massage. We opted for the hour-long session (it was only a few RM top-up from the half-hour session). Man, it hurt but it hurt good. And all these beauty treatments (pedicure, manicure, massage, cupping, foot reflexology etc) cost less in KK than in KL.
It was raining pretty heavily when we finally emerged from 1Borneo. In fact, there were tree branches strewn on the roads on the way back.
28 September 2009
Monday Moan
Another early start to the day as my flight back to KL was the first one out. Made it to the airport in time to check in and perform prayers. It was a pretty uneventful flight (thankfully smooth take-off and landing unlike on Friday) and we landed on time at 0840. My bag came out early too and I was already on the coach back to KL by 0855 (saving my return train ticket for another trip and besides was in no great hurry).
And that was my fourth trip to KK. Guess I should not ask when and if I’ll be back.
My Good Friend’s Wedding
After an hour-dose of footie thanks to Football Extra, we got ready to got to my good friend’s wedding at the nearby Dewan MAKSAK. Yes, SK was getting married! ;’) We didn’t have the benefit of a proper card (SK was soo busy with the wedding preparations, bless her) and we thought that it’d be a buffet reception but it turned out even the TYT and Chief Minister of the state were in attendance (and we were royally late, ho ho). Everyone had finished his/her main course. Anyway, we managed to find an empty table and were still served clean cutleries, plates and napkins. There were some cultural performances in between the speeches and then the couple went on stage for the cake-cutting ceremony. SK looked sooo radiantly beautiful and gorgeous, I just felt my heart swell with pride when I saw her ;’)
Shortly after, the VVIPs took their leave and the couple went out ahead of them to send them off and thank them for coming. Most other guests took their leave too but we lingered on as we loathed having to join the long queue and meet the afternoon heat so soon. Anyway, a friend of SK told us that the couple would come back in again and so we waited. There were some guests who also went on stage to karaoke (not the usual karaoke songs, mind you, but of course).
At last, the couple came back in again. They made their way slowly to the guests who were still in the hall and finally SK came over to our table. I think she looked touched with my attendance - well at least I like to think so ;) – and I hugged her twice (for Fifi too you see) and congratulated her. After the seemingly endless hugging and hand-shakings, the couple went on stage and the photo-taking session commenced. We waited patiently before going on stage ourselves.
Delia and I left shortly after we took pictures with the couple and emerged out into the hot afternoon sun. We went back to change and half an hour later, we left for Karambunai. We spent some time there walking around the Nexus Karambunai resort and strolling briefly on the beach. Then we headed back and stopped at 1Borneo where we had our dinner and my long-awaited foot massage. We opted for the hour-long session (it was only a few RM top-up from the half-hour session). Man, it hurt but it hurt good. And all these beauty treatments (pedicure, manicure, massage, cupping, foot reflexology etc) cost less in KK than in KL.
It was raining pretty heavily when we finally emerged from 1Borneo. In fact, there were tree branches strewn on the roads on the way back.
28 September 2009
Monday Moan
Another early start to the day as my flight back to KL was the first one out. Made it to the airport in time to check in and perform prayers. It was a pretty uneventful flight (thankfully smooth take-off and landing unlike on Friday) and we landed on time at 0840. My bag came out early too and I was already on the coach back to KL by 0855 (saving my return train ticket for another trip and besides was in no great hurry).
And that was my fourth trip to KK. Guess I should not ask when and if I’ll be back.
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