Day 2 in Kota Kinabalu on 1 Jan 2010 (Freshwater Fishing Competition in Sabah)

Despite sleeping past midnight, we got up at 6am the next morning for the freshwater fishing competition I had signed up for. Cititel Express's breakfast (buffet) cost RM12 but we decided to explore the hotel's surroundings for grub instead. We came across this coffeeshop on the left side of the hotel (the side where the bak kut teh coffeeshop is).

The stall owner was from Sarawak. I decided to have the Wantun Mee (yes, spelt this way) for breakfast. The Slog Reviews: 8/10. For such a cheap dish (RM 6), the noodles are springy with just the right amount of seasoning (wasn't thirsty after eating) and the wantun's skin were thin and smooth. The meat inside was fresh too and the soup was delightfully warm and sweet.

We reached the freshwater pond at Parpar after an hour's drive out of KK city center. My tag was 38 which meant that I had to stand at the spot marked with the number 38. The cost of entering this yearly competition was RM100.

The competition was supposed to start at 8am. The prizes were a chainsaw (1st place), grass-cutters (2nd and 3rd place) and a bicycle even (5th place). The winner would be the one with the largest fish caught so this was a competition purely on luck....or so I thought. Anyway, that's me in my usual fishing attire standing at the marker.

If you note the time-stamp on the picture above and the next picture below, there is a time-difference of 3 hours odd. I'd been fishing from 9am to 12.10pm without a single bite at all. I started off with bottom fishing but after one and a half hours and not catching anything, I decided to change to float fishing instead. Bait remained the same - chicken guts. For another one and a half hour, despite some frantic activity around the float each time when I cast after re-baiting, no fish actually took the bait. And THEN, at 12.15 or so, the float went down and stayed down. After 3 hours of no bite, I figured it would probably pop back up but when it didn't and I testedthe line slightly, I realised that I had a fish eating the bait. I jerked to set the hook but stupid me, I had too much slack line out. Mistake No 1. And I thought I had set the hook well because the fish started to run and the line peeled off the reel. Normally, I wouldn't bring a fish in so quickly to the bank (as in the case of Sawai Lake in Phuket where I had just fished in late Nov) but this was a competition and there were like 40 over lines in that pond and I was terrified of losing my fish and crossing lines so I brought the fish in to the side without letting it tire. Mistake No 2. The picture below is the only picture I have of how close the fish was brought to shore and ALMOST netted. The person next to me was about to net the fish but when the fish saw the net, it spooked (of course) and went for a second run...I was fighting to bring it back again without letting it tangle lines when.....SNAP, the line went slack...I lost the fish. Everyone said sayang, sayang, which meant, what a damn pity, because it was the largest fish, if not at least the second largest fish (1st or at least 2nd prize).

I have to confess that when I lost the fish, I wanted to weep. The whole crowd at the pond had been clapping, cheering and watching me fight it. And everyone saw how close I had come to winning. I don't blame the guy for failing to net the fish, I've been fishing enough to know that fishes spook and run when they see the net, I only blame myself for the mistakes I made above. This competition is going to be one that haunts me a long long long time....Anyway, right after the fish got away, there was this awful silence at the pond while everyone watched me to see what I would do. Well, I turned away (feeling really sick and in disbelief) and watched my fingers go through the motions of picking through chicken guts and re-baiting. The competition was supposed to end at 12.30am so there wasn't much time left but some datuk (a minister or some sorts) came and made grand speeches and they extended the competition time to 1pm. I figured that I might as well just do my best - after not having a single fish for 3 hours, I lose the biggest one, and well, if I didn't try I would end up with zero, so what's the harm in trying...I casted out again and waited...10 mins later, the float went down, and mother, did I strike damn hard to set the hook this time. Everyone stopped talking and watched me bring in this fish....which put up absolutely no fight cos it was just a tilapia...I gave it to some other dude who helped me unhook it. The fish I lost was a patin and I was in no mood to keep the cheapest kinda fish.

I reached the hotel by 2pm, tired, heart-sore and feeling really lousy. Nothing anyone says or does can ease that awful feeling of having lost a competition, I guess. I tried to console myself that it was an experience and lesson for me despite not winning but my emotions would not be soothed with self-talk. So I went for the only thing that could give me comfort...Yes, durians. This is the first durian I had this KK trip, a 3kg bitter-sweet durian. Despite the appearance, the meat was good. By the way, the durian stall is underneath the overhead bridge at the Segamat area next to KK Plaza and is open from 5pm (not sure, if it's daily but it should be)

The durian seller had some kampong durians which were quickly snapped up. My companion managed to get 1 (RM 12 each) though which we fell upon, attracted to the unique red color of the fruit...And to our utter dismay, the meat was absolutely horrible. And I mean, horrible. The Slog Reviews: -1/10. Talk about an extremely tasteless bland sticky mash. Ugh. I took one bite and spat it out. We gave the rest to a Korean couple next to us.

We were too stuffed from the durians to go for dinner so my companion suggested going to 1Borneo. I'd been there before the last trip but I didn't remember the way there cos we had used the shuttle bus so we got rather lost on our bike. Luckily, my companion could speak Malay v well so he managed to get us there from KK City Center. 1Borneo is located near UMS, as any local there will tell you. This is a picture I took en route there.

Christmas decorations were still up at 1Borneo as you can see from the picture below. We walked around the shops without buying anything...the closest they have to anything branded would be Mont Blanc...and left about 8pm.

It was raining that night so thankfully we managed to reach Sedco Square before the rain started up again. We decided to try a different restaurant and after deliberating between Hua Hing Seafood restaurant below and Sri Mutiara, we decided on Hua Hing Seafood. The lady boss (do ask for the lao ban niang), a youngish attractive lady provided superb excellent service when it came to picking the seafood.

The Slog Reviews: 9/10. If you go Sedco Square, I strongly recommend you eat at Hua Hing Restaurant and ask for the female young lady boss to assist you in choosing the seafood. Not only is she friendly, able to speak English (and Chinese), but also honest (she weighs the seafood in front of you). She makes great recommendation and doesn't hard-sell any of the more expensive seafood to you. As per the picture below, I had a crayfish (mini-lobster) unlike any other sea creature I've seen before, a plate of two female crabs with roe (the lady boss picked them upon my request for crabs with eggs), a plate of veg and hotplate beancurd AND all that for only RM 114. Unbelievably cheap!!! That's only SGD 40+ for fresh live seafood...unbeatable price, service, taste and value.

The lady picked this little fella out for me from the tank - it stood out from the rest of its bros because of its color - the rest were black and white spotted. Cost was RM 10/100gm and this fellow cost RM 53 (SGD 21). This is the last pic of it alive on the weighing scale.

And yes, this is a picture of the little guy above split in half and cooked in the restaurant's recommended style of buttery cream-like sauce. The sauce was slightly oily but combined with the firm whitish sweet meat of the crayfish;....can you say heaven...

This is a close-up picture of the meat removed from the shell. Sigh, what wouldn't I give to be able to go back to KK right now and have more of this?

And finally, these 2 small female crabs steamed in egg white and some wine sauce. The cost was only RM 36 (less than SGD 20) for the 2 crabs which were cooked to perfection. The egg roe (the orange bits) were very tasty and I have to confess, I polished off this entire dish on my own without a pause, glad secretly that my companion did not enjoy crabs - yes, it was that good.

Day 1 in Kota Kinabalu on 31 Dec 09 (Stompin Sabah 09, Fireworks and Countdown in Kota Kinabalu)

I'd booked my ticket to KK for the yearend countdown as early as August during 1 of Airasia's free tickets promotion. The flight out to KK was delayed by about half an hour or so which meant that we reached KK after 8pm. It was really crowded at the arrival hall (many pp going back to their hometowns from SG, I suppose) and we were lucky enough to catch the one and only cab waiting at the arrival hall using the taxi coupon (RM 30) we had bought at the arrival hall.

By the time we got to Cititel Express, it was about 9+pm. The reason for choosing Cititel for my second visit to KK was that the hotel was new (newly opened in 2009), within walking distance to Sedco Square (for great cheap seafood), we wouldn't be in the hotel room most of the time and that it was extremely reasonably priced. Here is a picture of the hotel in the night which I took. The Slog Reviews:6/10. Only for pp who are not claustrophobic and do not have large/many bags. Horribly tiny rooms (the superior ones, at least) with no chairs and not within short walking distance to the Waterfront, Jesselton Wharf or the nicer shopping centers. However, the furnishing is new, there is a LCD TV in the room with a number of Eng Channels and the staff are polite and can speak English reasonably well.

As we were starving after the flight in, the first priority after picking up the motorbike was to fill our bellies before going for the countdown. I had wanted to have a quick meal and go straight to the jetty at Jesselton Point for the countdown but my companion wanted a seafood dinner and he who rides/drives prevails I guess. This is the pic of the front of Sedco Sq located at Kampong Air which I took after the countdown on the way back to the hotel.

After we parked, the first sight that greeted us when we walked into Sedco Square was this. The Slog Reviews: 6/10 - Not worth the space in your belly esp if you are in KK to eat. The chicken wings were well-done (not raw) but the sauce it was marinated in was just blah. However, when one is starving and waiting for the seafood dishes to be prepared, they are in fact, quite edible.

There are four live seafood restaurants at Sedco Square. As I'd eaten at TwinSky last month, we decided to try out the seafood at this restaurant, Gu Chun (old village) which apparently, cooks its food "cantonese style".

I decided that I would have what I'd spotted at Sai Kung, Hong Kong couple of months back (but which was too horrifically expensive there to try) - the prawn mantis. Like in Hong Kong, each prawn mantis is seperated and put in a waterbottle, apparently because it is unable to be a peace-loving community-like creature. Here is the last picture of the prawn mantis I'd selected alive.

And here is a picture of it chopped into several bite-sized pieces and cooked in the restaurant's recommended style (fried with salt, chilli etc).

This is a close-up picture of the cross-section of the prawn mantis after it has been cooked. I am not sure if the yellow portion is egg but whatever it is, it tasted good. The Slog Reviews: 8/10 - however, you are advised to have it steamed to taste its full flavor instead of fried, even if this is the restaurant's recommendation. The cost is about RM 50 (SGD 20) for one. I am not sure if it is considered expensive but in Hong Kong, it would have cost way more.

We also had a tiger grouper for dinner. The cost was RM10/100gm and we chose the smallest they had which weighed 800gm. The Slog Reviews: 8/10. A tad expensive at SGD 32 for one fish to be shared by 2pp only. The style the fish was prepared - steamed- is best for bringing out its flavor (as is the case for all fresh seafood)! And yeah, that's me digging into the fish.

After dinner, we headed for Jesselton Point where Stompin Sabah was happening.

The place was packed with people, cars, bikes and security vehicles. This is the closest pic of the stage I could get (an ordinary ticket cost RM30/person) where there were live bands performing and the emcees counting down to the new year.

Right after midnight, on the first day and first minute of 2010, the fireworks went off with a bang to mark the start of the new year.

All around us, people were ooohing and aaahing for the entire 7 minutes the fireworks lasted - some pics of the fireworks on the 1st and last min below :) Welcome 2010!

If you could see me now by Cecelia Ahern

I've finished the book finally. The main character, 34 yr old single Elizabeth is responsible for bringing up her irresponsible sister's 6yr old son, Luke. Luke develops a friendship with a make-belief friend, Ivan whom Elizabeth cannot see at first. Somehow or other, Ivan becomes visible to Elizabeth who appears to suffer from OCD, Insomnia and the trauma of a broken home (her mother is an alcoholic who abandons the family after giving them hopes and dreams). Elizabeth mistakenly believes that Ivan is Luke's friend, Sam's father. Ivan and Elizabeth fall in love after spending time together and Ivan is about to declare his permanent love for her when his mentor, Opal brings him to his sense. She leads him to the house of a man who is now eighty and pining for her (he stopped seeing her after 20 years). Make-belief friends don't get old. Ivan makes a decision then to leave Elizabeth because he doesn't want her to be a lonely old woman growing old pining for him. However, just by his touching her life, she is no longer the same woman she was before she met him and dares to reach out for a new life.

The Slog Reviews: 7/10. I'm a jaded slog afterall and this book is too happy-ever-after for my liking :)

Parts of the book I liked

1) (Ivan) "There's no sense of fun with them (adults). They stick rigidly to schedules and time, they focus on the most unimportant things imaginable, like mortgages and bank statements, when everyione knows that the majority of the time it's the people around them that put the smiles on their faces...People forget they have options. And they forget that those things really don't matter. They should concentrate on what they have and not what they don't have. "

2) (Ivan) "The most important thing is not what we (as a friend) look like but the role we play in our best friend's life. Friends choose certain friends because that's the kind of company they are looking for at that specific time, not the correct height, age or have the right hair color."

3) (Ivan) "Life's kind of like a painting. A really bizarre abstract painting. You could look at it and think that all it is is a blur...but if you really look at it, focus on it and use your imagination, life can become so much more. That painting could be of the sea, the sky, people...or anything except the blur you were once convinced it was.

4) (Ivan) "Don't ever take for granted when people look in your eyes - you've no idea how lucky you are. Actually, forget about luck, you've no idea how important it is to be acknowledged, even with an angry glare. It's when they ignore you, when they look right through you, that you should start worrying.

5) (Ivan) "But as for your heart, when that breaks, it's completely silent. You would think it's so important it would make the loudest noise in the world...But it's silent and you almost wish there was a noise to distract you from the pain."

6) (Ivan) "Life is made up of meetings and partings. People come into your life everday...some stay a few minutes, some stay for a few months, some a year, others a whole lifetime. No matter who it is, you meet and then you part. I'm so glad I met you...I think I wished for you all of my life but now it's time for us to part."

MPH renovation sale (till 31 Jan 2010)

MPH at Raffles City is having a renovation sale - 30% off regular-priced books, 20% off stationary and 10% off mags.

SGD82 poorer and 6 books "richer" now, I am :D. 5 of the books I bought were not regular-priced books. The only regular-priced item I bought was this book: What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell (SGD 22 after the 30% discount). 1 of my best friends had lent me 2 of Malcom Gladwell's books, Outliers and Blink, and yes, I am a fan. I would have bought all his books but they were out of stock. I still am holding on to "Blink" and will probably do a book review of the book which I finished a week or so ago.

The other 5 books I bought at SGD12 each were:
1. Act like a lady, Think like a man (the soft-cover version only had a 30% discount compared!)
2. If you want closure in your relationships, start with your legs (attention-grabbing title)
3. Better single than sorry (oooo, how applicable haha)
4. Dating from the inside out (looked interesting)
5. The Getting Rich Trilogy

There were other books which I wanted to buy such as
1. Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult, my favourite author which was selling at SGD 12 only BUT I had just finished the lib book
2. Being Beautiful by Drs Michael F. Roizen and Mehmet C.Oz (may go back and buy)

I'm still reading "If you could see me now", a light-hearted fiction book by Cecilia Ahern and I have a couple more library books that I need to read before the due date. However, I think I'll probably bring one of my purchases to read on the flight out tomorrow because it would be more expensive to lose a library book.

The Manhattan Fish Market at Jusco Tebrau City and Durians

My petrol was at the 3/4 mark (anything lower than that, one risks a fine of SGD 500 if caught at the Singapore custom going into Msia) so I decided to go into JB to pump petrol and to make the journey worth-while, have dinner and do some grocery shopping there as well. Thankfully, at 6.30pm, there wasn't the usual jam (that is usually from 7pm to 9.30pm) and I cleared both countries' customs in about half an hour only. There was a jam going to Jusco though, with all the reckless malaysian motorcyclists squeezing and speeding between cars. If one isn't used to driving in Msia, it can be quite intimidating because of these motorcyclists whizzing past noisily on both sides of your car.

I got to Jusco, Tebrau City around 7.15pm...I was so hungry by then (I don't think I had a proper lunch cos I went to the gym at the office) that I went for the tried and tested - The Manhattan Fish Market restaurant. While waiting for the main course, I went to BreadTalk next to the restaurant which was having a happy hour sale (4 pcs of bread at RM 10 only which works out to SGD 1 per pc). I bought 8pcs of bread, most of which the original price was RM 3.90. I'm not sure how the nacho cheese one will taste though but it looks mighty good!


When I got back to the restaurant, our appetiser, Crispy Whitebait, had been served. The cost of the appetiser was RM9.90 only (SGD 4 only!). The Slog Reviews: 3/10. Yeah, it was that bad. Although the whitebait was crispy and not burnt in anyway, there was hardly any taste to the whitebait. The coleslaw at the bottom of the pan was equally bland or sour (if one added the lemon). I would suggest having the fried country mushrooms which is priced at RM9.90 too.


We shared the Manhattan Seafood Platter as our main course. The seafood platter consists of one large slice of deep fried fish fillet (on the left), oysters (4pcs at the bottom), flaming prawns (4pcs), chips, garlic rice and because we didn't want calamari, they gave us more deep fried fish fillet chunks instead (4pcs on the right). The Slog Reviews: 8/10. The cost of this dish was RM42.90 (less than SGD 20 only!) and there was more than enough food for 2 hungry pp. The large pc of fish fillet on the left was soft and fresh on the inside, nicely crisp on the outside and the sauce on top added flavour to the fish. The cream on the prawns was as delicious as ever (they cooked the prawns in front of us), esp when mixed in with the garlic rice at the bottom and the fries firm and not too oily. I don't take oysters so I can't comment on that but my companion had no problem finishing all 4 pcs. The total cost of the appetiser, the main course, a mango juice drink and another drink was only RM 84 which works out to be slightly less than SGD 40. There is absolutely no way one can eat so much for that price in Singapore.


After dinner, we did some grocery shopping at Jusco supermarket and walked around a bit. I forgot where I parked my car at the massive carpark so we wasted about 15mins walking up and down looking for it. Parking at Jusco Tebrau City is only RM1 for the whole day - its just unbelievably cheap compared to Singapore. The durians were going at half-price after 9pm at the supermarket so I bought back these 2 packets of XO durians at RM27.90 (about SGD 12). The Slog Reviews: 7/10 - The durians were fresh and quite tasty but the seed was very large and meat little. SGD 6 per packet for 3-4 XO durians is a tad pricy.


Customs check on the Singapore side was very strict tonight, all the cars with Msian numberplates were stopped twice and even for my car, the officer rummaged through the groceries, maggi mee, durians and all.

Prawn Mee at Chomp Chomp and 717 durians

Yesterday, I had dinner at Chomp Chomp Food Center located at 20 Kensington Park Road near Serangoon Gardens. 99% of all the hawker stalls there have posters/prints of favourable newspaper reviews on their stalls and as testimony to the truth of these posters/prints, 99% of the seats were filled even as late as 8.30pm on a Tuesday night. After walking two rounds of the hawker center, we managed to find seats (had to share a table with couple of other gals) and ordered the usual sugarcane juice (SGD 2 for a small cup which wasn't really small) from the drink stall in the middle of the center (the juice was fresh and there wasn't too much ice).

After much deliberation and in consideration of our dessert later, we settled on having the large prawn noodles (SGD 5) from the only prawn noodle stall. The Slog Reviews: 5.5/10. While the prawns were indeed much larger than the usual tiger prawns, the meat was rather tasteless and a tad over-cooked. The chilli powder (in the spoon) and the great customer service from the aunty made up for it in some way but having prawn noodles shouldn't be a first choice at Chomp Chomp.

My food-fussy companion did not eat most of her prawn noodles and ordered not only porridge (sorry no picture as she dug in too quickly) and also a plate of 10 mutton satay sticks to share. The Slog Reviews: 8/10. The mutton was marinated very well and bursting with juices. The pandan leaf used to wrap the rice (ketupat) was fresh and gave the firmly packed rice a nice fragrance. I have had better peanut sauce (this one had a dash of limey stuff at the side) elsewhere but this one was fine.


After dinner, she had room in her little belly for durians so we went to 717 trading at Highland Center on Yio Chu Kang Road for durians. The last time I'd been to this place for durians was early 2008 and it was a remarkably bad and expensive experience then. It was so bad that we drove down to Geylang right after that and had a S$20 durian there which was a million times better. However, I'm all about second chances and this was the closest so 717 it was. This time, the durian seller ( a Malaysian youngish really thin and friendly chappie) and the two D24 durians we had left us with a really good "I-want-to-return" feeling for both of us.

This is the first durian that we had. I wasn't keen on D24 durians which the durian seller was pushing and wanted the Mao Shan Wang ones instead. However,at my insistence, the durian seller opened one of the MSW durians and he was right in that the durian meat of the MSW durians was soggy (overripe). He put it aside and opened this D24 durian which to me looked yummlicious. And it was. Every single bite. Thoughts of weight, figure, self-control flew right out of my companion's head when she started eating...I swear, her eyes were closed at some points in pure ecstasy. The Slog Reviews: 9.5/10. :)

The cost of the MSW durian would have been SGD 15/kg - I am not sure how much the cost of the two durians were but they came up to a total of SGD 26 with a SGD 2 discount. Definitely very pricy for about 6 seeds per fruit but ahhhh,nothing beats the taste of really good durians like this. Here's a picture of the second durian which tasted almost identitical to the first one. If you look closely, fellow durian lovers, you can see the little wrinkles in the skin of the durian seed - and yes, biting into and spliiting open the thin chewy skin and having the rich meat underneath spill into one's mouth is an experience that we can relive over and over again :)

Lunch at Hooters

Clarke Quay presently has free parking at the multi-story carpark from 12noon to 3pm to assist the many restaurants situated along the quay, Liang Court and Central. My friend loves eating at Hooters out of all the restaurants there - he says that it is because the set lunch is so cheap at SGD10 only (the fairly extensive set lunch menu can be found here). I think however, that he prefers eating at Hooters instead of the other restaurants which also offer set lunches because of the very sexily clad girls there in their body-hugging white tanktops and small tight-fitting short (just covers their butt!) orange bottoms.

I have no problem having lunch with a friend with wandering eyes (every man in the restaurant oogled at the waitresses), and even less problem when the food is absolutely value for money. For SGD10 (exclusive of tax and svc charge), one gets the soup of the day with a pc of garlic bread, a large soft drink (diet pepsi would be 1 of the choices), the main course, one scoop of ice-cream and tea/coffee. The set lunch is filling but not overly so as most of the main courses do not come with rice but with curly fries and salad instead.

I ordered the Seafood Platter which is not on the set lunch menu, but a lunch option offered at SGD15 (exclusive of tax and service charge) by the restaurant. The Seafood Platter comes with the soup, soft drink, ice cream and tea/coffee too and consists of a piece of grilled fish, two grilled tiger prawns, mashed potato and salad.

The Slog Reviews: 8/10. The mashed potato is melts in your mouth and the light cream sauce over the grilled fish and prawns is mouthwateringly good. However. how well the fish and prawns are done depends on the cook of the day or even the cook's mood that day - sometimes, it's cooked a tad too well and sometimes, just right. The veg making up the salad is clean and fresh. Enjoy Hooters, yo.

Cirque du freak: the vampire's assistant (Movie) 2010

Nothing beats indulging in a make-belief world, esp one populated by vampires and freaks. I found a plot summary of the movie here but it doesn't seem to be very accurate.

The Slog Reviews: 8.5/10. Definitely worth the price of your movie ticket. The graphics are quirky fantastic and the illusions wonderfully real even though the storyline is a tad trite - good versus evil and of course, the good guys winning most of the time. Only one memorable quote from the movie in my opinion, "It's not what you are, it's WHO you are that matters". However, the story is well told and the plot develops at a nice slow pace.

Fishing in Pekan

Malaysia has thirteen states. It is my intention to visit all 13 of them at least once. The ones in bold are those which I have yet to visit.
1) Perlis
2) Kedah (Feb 2010 - Airasia to Langkawi)
3) Penang
4) Perak
5) Kelantan
6) Pahang (Jan 2010 - self-drive to Pekan)
7) Terengganu (Aug 2009 - Airasia to Kuala Terengganu)
8) Selangor (many times)
9) Negeri Sembilan (Aug 2009 - self-drive to Port Dickson)
10) Malacca (Nov 2009 - self-drive to Melaka Town)
11) Sabah (Nov & Dec 2009 - Airasia to Kota Kinabalu)
12) Sarawak (Dec 2008 - MAS to Kuching, Sawarak)
13) Johor (many times - JB, Pontian, Muar, Segamat, Tangkat, Mersing, Rompin)

On Friday evening, I drove 5 straight hours to Pekan (driving time from SG to Pekan is 4-5hours), located in the state of Pahang for a light jigging trip. I used the coastal road straight through Mersing and Rompin and I think this is the furthest that I have driven my car (unless Port Dickson in the state of Negri Sembilan was further) in Malaysia. Many stretches of the road were dark, unlit and visibility was very limited unless with the high beam switched on. However, one cannot drive with high beam switched on all the time as it is blinding for drivers of cars coming from the opposite direction. Along the way, at the Mersing stretch, I was driving along concentrating on my side of the road and the edge (in case of stray animals wandering out on the road) when a car came around the bend at a very high speed and BANG, the next thing I saw was something white and black flying past my windscreen. The car did not stop after the collision and sped off in the night. The cow standing in the middle of its path died upon impact. I was shaken by the accident and reduced my speed driving to Pekan after that.

Reached Pekan about 1am and after a very simple shower at the boatman's 2 storey house, fell asleep until 6am the next morning. Had a simple and unremarkable breakfast of wanton mee (fried wantan) at the only coffeeshop opened at that hour and went straight to the jetty. After some engine trouble, we headed out to sea.

This offshore fishing trip was worth remembering because (a) I got sea-sick for the first time. I didn't throw up, thankfully but the sour bitter bile kept rising up at the back of my throat (b) I lost a sailfish which took my SGD 18.90 Pintail Lure. All because I never expected to get a fish THAT size and had used the usual small snap swivel I use for luring for groupers... I was letting the lure sink, feeling the line run out when I felt Tug Tug and I struck hard - the others on the boat saw the sailfish jump twice sideways awkwardly and then I felt the line go slack and knew it was gone. After I reeled in the line, I saw that only the swivel was left and part of the leader was abraded where it had contact with the sailfish. Damn. I used another pin-tail and I had a few bites on it by some sharp-toothed critter but that critter didn't take in the whole lure.

At the end of the fishing trip, I was the only one who was "fishless" the whole trip. That really sucked, in addition to losing the relatively expensive lure and the total of 12 hours on the road just to get to and fro Pekan. There was a newbie on board and he caught two fishes (the most number by any angler) and the largest one amongst all the fishes caught. Where's my fishing luck?!!!

Oh well, there are lessons to be learnt every fishing trip. This trip, I learnt (a) that I CAN drive up to Pekan. :) (b) to use a freaking split ring instead of a snap swivel when using the freaking pintail lure (c) to jig (variation of speed, imagine the jig's movement in the waters) and to strike hard 2 or times (ahhhh, that cost me a fishing competition in Sabah). And I also got to see the beauty of the sea - the brown, the green, the blue, the almost black blue of the waters blending into each other. If my camera was water-proof (yes, I definitely am going to upgrade my camera), I would have taken pictures of the incredibly beautiful waters and rainbow that we saw.

On the way back, we stopped for dinner at Restoran Lei Huat in Mersing which was next to a fairly large and well-stocked tackle shop which we visited. The restaurant is open until 11pm on a Fri night and is opposite the Shell petrol station near the roundabout We had their speciality pork ribs (so-so), sambal kangkong and prawns cooked in their special-sauce (some chilli mix). The Slog Reviews: 6.5/10. The cost of RM 38 for the 3 dishes, drinks and rice is rather reasonable. There were quite a number of local customers so the food mustn't have been too bad and it wasn't. However, it was just that - edible.

California Pizza Kitchen

Dinner today was at California Pizza Kitchen. After having 1 of the most fabulous thin crust pizzas ever in Little Italy, Kota Kinabalu, I have been wanting to have more of that in SG. California Pizza Kitchen has been around since early 2000s, if not earlier. The pizzas there are different from the norm (peking duck pizza!) but are delectably innovative and the service is good in that it doesn't take long for the food to be served and the waiters are polite and attentive.

We started with their famous appetisers - the Singapore Shrimp Rolls. According to the official website, this is described as "Shrimp, baby broccoli, soy-glazed Shiitake mushrooms, spinach, carrots, rice noodles, bean sprouts, green onion and cilantro wrapped in rice paper. Served chilled with a sesame-ginger dipping sauce and Szechuan slaw." The Slog Reviews: 6.5/10. This dish cost S$11.80, isn't filling and seems to be a poor imitation of the Vietnamese rice roll with shrimps which you could get a Vietnamese restaurant. The sauce is also cloyingly sweet and the clump of slaw or whatever that is, is pretty tasteless.


According to their website, the pizzas have honey-wheat with whole grain crust. No wonder I found myself finishing the crust of each slice I took. :D I let my friend decide on the pizza and he chose the Chipotle Chicken pizza which is supposed to be hot and spicy. It wasn't in any way hot and spicy and despite its appearance, it is very good. The Slog Reviews:8/10. The grilled chipotle chicken blended nicely with the Mozzarella and Enchilado cheeses and the toppings of roasted corn & black bean salsa, cilantro and lime cream sauce made a mouth-watering combo!

Curry Favor

The last meal I had in Singapore on the last day of 2009 was lunch at Curry Favor which is reputedly the first Japanese curry speciality restaurant in Singapore. Curry Favor located at Stamford House is one of my favourite restaurants to go to for lunch on a weekday because they have a great lunch-time set-meal promotion. For S$13.90/S$14.90 (both exclusive of tax), one gets a choice of a main course with curry, a soft drink/coffee/tea, a choice of miso soup or salad and dessert (a scoop of ice-cream). There are two choices for the curries - normal or spicy. I recommend trying both.


The Slog Reviews: 8/10. The warm curry over the sticky Japanese rice and fish was fabulous. The curry's texture was just right, not too thin and not too thick and I would have asked for more if not for the cost (S$3 for more curry). The fish was also very nicely down, crispy on the outside and fresh, firm and white on the inside. The prawns and scallops curry dish as well as all the stews are also very good. Well worth a visit to this restaurant if you are a curry fan but be warned that the spicy isn't very spicy.

Bodyguards and Assassins (2009) movie

Bodyguards and Assassins was the last movie I watched in 2009.

The Slog Reviews: 8.5/10. The plot of the movie (if you click the hyperlink above) is very simple. To give the founder of modern China, Sun Yat-Sen sufficient time to meet with the 13 leaders in China to plan an uprising to overthrow the Qing dynasty, a group of men risk, or rather, give their lifes to protect him. The story centers around a wealthy businessman with an only son, both of whom support Sun in their own ways. The businessman's involvement is only monetary and he objects vehemently when his son gets involved in the revolution (pamplet distribution etc) because of the son's tutor. He makes the tutor promise to keep his son safe. Unfortunately, the son has a will of his own. When it comes to choosing a decoy for Sun, the son participates and draws the short straw. The tutor refuses to let him be the decoy but the son challenges the tutor on the reasons for not letting him participate - merely because he is the son of this wealthy businessman? Then wouldn't this be against what the revolutionaries were trying to achieve which was democracy and equal rights? The tutor gives in and of course, the son is killed at the very end by the leader of the assassins (sent by the Qing dynasty) just as he was about to get away in the rickshaw. There are a lot of other sub-stories in the show too - the wealthy businessman's rickshaw driver who is the son's friend falls in love and is engaged to get married but gets killed protecting the son, the corrupt policeman who learns that he has a daughter by the fourth mistress of the wealthy businessman and also sacrifices his life to delay the leader of the assassins, the daughter of one of the revolutionaries who was killed by the assassins who gives up her life for the cause....you get the idea. Still, a pretty good movie all in all.

On the last day of the year and Sibu 2008

Where will you be on the last day of 2009 to countdown to the new year?

I know what I will be doing on the last day of 2009 - a half day of work in the morning and a flight to catch in the evening to countdown to 2010 in KK.

I flew in on an evening flight from Kuching to Sibu, Sarawak on the last day of 2008 to countdown to 2009. After checking in to Kingwood hotel, we went straight to the city center where the fireworks would be. It was really crowded and this was the closest I could get to the big screen with the words of the new year 2009.

The fireworks went off at midnight for about 5-10mins.

After the fireworks display at the city center, we went off to enjoy some "private" fireworks which are very common in Sibu apparently, especially during the Chinese New Year. Private fireworks are banned in Singapore and I have heard that they are banned in Sibu too but enforcement and the penalty in Sibu for breaking such laws are far less severe

I took a quick city tour of Sibu later on in the night. There wasn't very much to see in the night except, perhaps for this statue of a large swan in the city center. The word "Sibu" apparently translates to Swan. In the background, you can see pics of the shophouses in Sibu - most of the older buildings are that height as land is plenty there.

The next morning, I got a view of their famous Rejang River and the hotel's swimming pool from my hotel's room window. Now a word about Kingwood Hotel in Sibu which was during that time, the only 4 star hotel in Sibu and probably still is. The Slog Reviews: 7.5/10. The rooms are spacious and clean but very far from luxurious. Only the bare essentials are provided in the toilet. However, the alternatives out there are far worse so if you ever go to Sibu, do book a room at Kingwood Hotel.

Rejang River in Sibu is the largest river in land-locked Sibu. I went to the pier for a look-about and was impressed by the level of activity around the pier which operates as a ferry terminal for the nearby islands. The "ferries" are very long, made of wood and not air-conditioned as seen from the picture below. However, these are the only means of reaching some places in Sarawak.

I also visited one of the more popular roman catholic churches in Sibu - the Sacred Heart Cathedral. There was a huge statue of the Jesus in the garden - it was taller than the buildings around even.

Within walking distance to the pier is the central market. It is very much like any other wet market in Singapore, except forthe sight of these live chickens wrapped in newspaper. No chicken can hop or fly away when it is trussled up like this. Managed to get a picture of one of the stalls with rows of newspaper wrapped chickens .

I also went to a farm in the nearby town of Bintangor and saw a black pig for the first and last time. I learnt that this particular noisy old hairy beast would have only have 2 more months to live. Its date of death: Chinese New Year. The purpose of its death: For a family feast. So this probably is the last pic of it alive.

The farm had rows of pepper plants. Each plant grows up to 2m in height. Here is a close up picture of the pepper fruit/seed which I took. Sarawak is famous for its pepper and these are sold everywhere, even at Sibu's and Kuching's airports.

I left Sibu for Kuching the following day as my flight back to Singapore was from Kuching. I'll write about Kuching in another post. In the meantime, here's wishing all of you A Happy 2010!

Ikea Restaurant and its famous meatballs

I was on leave today and decided to go to Ikea after sending my car for some minor repair and a polish-and-wax for the new year. I went to the Tampines outlet as parking is free the entire day and there is a giant Courts store next to Ikea and a giant Giant (pardon the pun) just opposite.

After wandering around the very decently priced home furnishing items (they sell potted plants, candle light holders, photo-frames, assorted lamps, posters, cushions, beds, tables, mirrors - truely worth a visit), I ended up at the Ikea Restaurant. I have the OCBC-Ikea credit card so I used the card at the yellow machine on the third floor to redeem a discounted meal and free drink coupon for 2 pax. They really should put the machine nearer the restaurant though.

No one goes to Ikea and not eat their famous swedish meatballs at least once. I ordered a plate of 15 meatballs for SGD8. It came with potatoes, gravy (I asked for an extra helping FOC) and jam at the side.


The Slog Reviews: 8/10. Worth a try at least once. However, do not that at the shop outside the checkout counters in Ikea, the same meatballs are sold in a frozen packet for less than SGD20 at 1kg.

I also had their fresh water prawns at SGD4.20. I had to ask the staff to prepare the dish as there were none left from the self-help refrigerator. I'm glad I did because it tasted so incredibly sweet. If you love eggs, prawn eggs. you will find that these shrimps are choked full of orange-colored eyes between their many legs. U can suck on these as well as the shrimp's head (after plucking the head off and sucking at the end opposite the eyes ie the opening).


The Slog Reviews: 9/10. This sweet and light-tasting seafood can only be found at Ikea restaurant and nowhere else in Singapore to the best of my knowledge so seafood lovers, do give this a go! If you like it, you can go to the shop which sells the frozen meatballs and buy 1 kg of the fresh water prawns at SGD 12.90 only.

Pepper Lunch in Singapore

I LOVE Pepper Lunch. Nevermind if the smell of cooking food gets into your hair and clothes after a meal there (yes, it really does and it can be awful!). The food is simply delicious and I would eat it every single day if I could. In fact I can because there is a Pepper Lunch Express opposite my office building.

My favourite dish is the Curry Beef Pepper Rice with Cheese (and lots of pepper which I added to the mix) at SGD9.50. For SGD2 more, I got a diet coke and the black sesame (Goma) ice cream as well.

The Slog Reviews: 9/10. More beef would be preferred but overall, it's still delectable grub...the cheese just melts into the beef and rice, and I assure you, adding more pepper in instead of honey sauce will cause a nice pleasant fire in your tummy. Do check out the video on how to sizzle the mix at Pepper Lunch's website, it's really simple though - just flip the meat about and make sure it gets cooked well - and no, u can't just leave it as it is to cook without flipping it because one side of the meat will get quite burnt.