Kuching on 3th and 4th Jan 2008

Per my earlier post on being in Sibu for the countdown to 2009, I was in Kuching on the 3rd and 4th of January 2008 because there isn't a direct flight from Singapore to Sibu. The only other way to get to Sibu would be to take an airasia flight from Senai Airport and that can be very troublesome because one has to clear both Singapore and Malaysia immigrations by foot first before taking a taxi/bus in JB to Senai airport.

Kuching means Cat in the Malay language and the city seems to have taken great pride in its association with cats. I came across across this large statue of a white cat with its paw raised in a welcoming gesture. Apparently, it is the famous kucing (spelt without the "h" in the Malay language but when it comes to pronounciation, "c" is pronounced as "ch" still like in the Eng lang), the Kuching South City Council Cat Statue.

And also, this collection of cat statues right smack in the city center. The latter appears to be one of the more popular photo-spots for tourists visiting Kuching and I had to wait for my turn to take a picture with the cats.

As we had done absolutely no research on what one could do at Kuching, we spent most of the day wandering around the streets. We also went to the Sarawak Museum below and looked at the various exhibits. The entrance fee, if I remember rightly, is minimal and the exhibits, mildly interesting. There are of course sections in the museum tracing the history of the various towns in Sarawak like Mri and Bintulu (both of which I intend to visit) and documenting the original inhabitants of Borneo Island, the Ibans. There is even a minature longhouse (the type of dwelling that Ibans have) in the museum.

We also went to Kuching's Chinatown. The picture below shows the entrance to the main street. Talk about congestion but our own Chinatown is hardly any different with cars parked along both sides of the road.

Kuching Waterfront is apparently the main focal point of the city center with many little stalls selling touristy and local stuff. Most of the better hotels like Hilton, Holiday Inn etc are situated at the Waterfront area. For a fee, one can purchase a ferry ticket to cruise the Sarawak river. I've heard from a friend that the river has many river-prawns but I didn't see anyone prawn fishing at all - the riverfront was rather deserted in fact.

Ah, and these are some of the local delights that were for sale at the stores along the waterfront. Multi-colored kuey lapis with samples available (in the pink containers) for potential customers. These were really cheap (I think less than RM 15 but I can't remember after all this time) and I bought one back home. No recollection of eating it though - maybe my mother finished it all...

For dinner, we went to the Cat's Eye Place (Bukit Mata Seafood Center), at least, that's the English translation of the Chinese name of the place which you can see in the picture below (the words in blue). 25 is the stall we ate at. Cat's Eye Place is known in Kuching for seafood and indeed rightly so as one is spoilt for choices in terms of the stalls and the variety of seafood neatly arrayed at each stall.

The difference between this place and Sedco Square in KK is that almost all the seafood at Sedco Square is live and kept in the tanks. I don't remember having the choice of live prawns at all (which I would have taken for sure) so I ended up choosing the plate of red prawns (similar to what I had in KK) and 2 of the freshwater prawns with blue claws (these sell for RM10 per 100gm in KK!)

Here is a picture of the reddish prawns fried in the restaurant's special style. The Slog Reviews: 9/10 - the shells were crunchy, buttery and slightly oily which contrasted sharply with the soft sweet flesh within.

I had two of the freshwater prawns steamed with garlic. Each prawn was split length-wise in half with loads of garlic and other garnishing on top. The Slog reviews: 9/10. That's the way to be cooking 'em freshwater prawns instead of how my mum cooked it fried in sambal!

I also had two female crabs steamed with loads of roe (see the reddish-orange bits in the shell). The Slog Reviews: 10/10. Dastardly fresh and cooked in such a way that the sweet flavour of the crab was retained in the meat which filled in the shell nicely. Definitely returning for more!

And guess how much the bill was for the whole feast? Only RM 89 (EGD 36)....unbelievable isn't it? 2 female live crabs, 2 freshwater prawns, about 5 reddish big prawns, 1 plate of Kangkong (RM 6 = SGD 2.40) and 1 other veg dish similarly priced. I'm glad I have a ticket to Kuching already for March 2010!

The next morning before going to the airport, we went to have Kuching's kolo mee at some really crowded coffeeshop near our hotel. It was a nightmare waiting for the food to come because there were so many people ordering and waiting around. The Slog Reviews: 7/10. As you can see, the meat was very thinly sliced and fresh. The noodles were light and springy but overall, I can't bring myself to rave over this bowl of noodles which is particular to Kuching. It's just noodles and some meat to me, if you know what I mean.

I also shared a bowl of Sawarak Laksa with my companion. Again, I would stress that the gravy is far different from Singapore's laksa gravy. This is far less richer in terms of coconut and is thinner. It can't be described as sour (unless you add the lime) but in no way is it sweet either. The Slog Reviews: 7/10. Always worth trying local food when in a foreign place but I'll just say that I wouldn't go back for more.

Before we went to the airport, we went to Kuching Civic Center located at Jalan Taman Budaya. Admission was free. We took the lift to the top of the tower where the viewing platform allows one a 360degrees aerial view of the city of Kuching. Do note that the viewing platform is only available for public access during the daytime. We saw a restaurant there but it wasn't opened. Anyway, here's a pic of the lovely city of Kuching taken from the viewing platform.

Daybreaker (2009) movie

I don't like horror movies - I find it unnecessary to torment myself with images of twisted faces, long snaking black hair, eyes without pupil and blood when I shut my eyes. I had no idea what Daybreaker was about before I was in the theatre with my friend who had suggested this movie.

I can't find a decent plot summary on the web to link to this time (the movie has just opened in Singapore) so I'll give a go at it based on my recollection of the movie. The movie starts with a little girl with golden eyes (vampire eyes) writing in a journal dated 2019 about how she can't go on as a vampire, how she's tired of not being able to grow old etc. And then she sits at the driveway, watching the sun slowly rise and then she gets incinerated with a bone-chilling scream. The movie then goes on, using news broadcasts and shots of ordinary citizens with vampire eyes, to inform the viewer that the world comprising 95% vampires is running short on blood supply from humans. Ethan Hawke plays a haemotologist vampire named Edward, who refuses to drink human blood is shown going to work at a high-tech lab where a briefing about how vampires who are deprived of human blood turn into monstrous bat-like creatures who go about attacking other vampires. His boss, Charles pressures Edward to find a blood substitute for the starving population quickly and to test out the prototype Edward currently has developed on a subject. The subject appears to be fine when all the blood substitute is injected into him but suddenly has a violent reaction (vomit, skin bubbling up etc) right after. When the medical team inject him with something else, he appears to go back to normal (the hideous bubbles subside) but then unexpectedly bursts apart, splattering everyone with vampire blood. So, Ethan is driving back that night in a distracted mood when he runs a van off the road accidentally. The van has 3 humans which Edward hides in his car from the vampire cops that come along to investigate the accident although 1 of them named Lisa shot him in the arm with a an arrow from a cross-bow. She also sees Edward's identification and apparently remembers it. When Edward gets home, he gets a surprise visit from his younger brother, Frankie who has signed up with the military. It is Edward's bday so Frankie brings a bottle of blood as a gift but Edward refuses to drink it. They quarrel and Frankie hurls the bottle against the wall. Then, an absolutely frightening and hideous mutated winged vampire bursts into the room and starts lapping up the human blood along with the glass shads. After being knocked around a bit, the vampire brothers manage to kill and behead the mutated vampire. There is much screaming and blood and gore in this scene in addition to close-up shots of the nightmarish face of the mutated vampire. Anyway, after the police leave, Lisa turns up unexpectedly and gives Edward an address to go to. Edward does just that, and meets Elvis, a vampire turned human again. Unfortunately, Frankie must have been trailing Edward because Frankie turns up and calls for the rest of the military. The trio get into Edward's car and escape (by crossing a broken-down bridge) to a hideout belonging to Lisa. There, Edward learns how Elvis became human again - an accident really. He also meets the people there, 1 of whom is in charge of bringing humans together. This guy leaves and meet up with a group of humans, one of whom is Charle's daughter (he tells a story of how she left him after he turned vampire). However, along the way back, they are ambushed and all die except for the senator's daughter. The military also use the walkie-talkie to trace the location of the human's hideout. The rest of the humans there decide to leave for another hideout but Edward is determined to stay because he wants to try to turn human using the vats for fermentation located the hideout. Lisa and Elvis stay with him and Edward manages to turn human on the third try. The soldiers who come to the hideout missed finding them as they were hiding in the large vat. Back to Charles, Edward's boss/ex-boss, he asks Frankie to turn his daughter into a vampire after the daughter stabs him for killing her friends and capturing her. Frankie does so by biting the daughter but the daughter refuses to drink human blood, thereby mutating. She speeds up the mutation process deliberately by biting her own wrists and drinking her vampire blood. Meanwhile, the rest of the world deteriorates too with the lack of human blood available and there is much violence around. It is decided then that all the mutated vampires would be rounded up, chained to a tank and dragged out to be burnt in the sunlight. Frankie watches the execution and Charles' daughter is one of these mutated vampires and she looks at him as she is lead out to be burnt and as she turns to ashes. Regret is seen in Frankie's face. Back to Edward, Elvis and Lisa who go to the other hideout to meet up with the rest of the other humans only to find them all dead. Edward suggests seeking the help of one of his best friends of 6 years at the lab. They wait for him at his house and he pretends to be genuinely interested in how Edward turned human. However, he betrays them and the military arrive to kill them. They get Lisa but Edward and Elvis run into the subways and lose the military. Frankie catches up with them at an abandoned house and also appears to be willing to take their side but suddenly leaps upon Elvis and bite him. Edward is then shown to go to his office and is taken to Charles who is draining Lisa's blood and drinking it. Charles tell Edward he isn't interested in any cure but that a blood substitute has been made in 2 days (by Edward's traitorous friend) and what matters to him is to do return business by selling the blood sub. Edward then taunts Charles into making him a vampire again and incites him to do so by referring to Charles being unable to turn his daughter himself. Charles bite Edward hard and...falling onto the ground, is shown to be human. This is what apparently has happened to Frankie after biting Elvis. Edward ties the now human Charles in a chair and set up in an elevator. The vampire guards are unable to resist their thirst for blood and fall upon Charles when the lift door opens. Edward and Lisa try to escape the building but their route is blocked. Frankie shows up in a car and buy them some breathing space. Surrounded by vampire guards, he hisses at them to run. They remain frozen until Lisa is grabbed by a vampire guard into another room and Edward runs after her. Frankie on the other hand, has been fallen upon by the vampire guards and lies on the ground all bloodied. The guards who bite him turn human and the guards who remain vampires fall upon them and tear them up. At the end of the mass eating orgy, only 3 guards remain as humans. Edward who has killed the vampire guard that grabbed Lisa exits from the room with her and he falls to his knees next to Frankie, his dead brother. There is some gun fire and his traitorous partner shows up with a machine gun that mows down the remaining 3 guards. He is about to shoot the pair when he explodes with a dart sticking out of his chest. Elvis apparently is in time to save the day. All 3 make off in the car that Frankie drove into the building.

The Slog Reviews: 7/10. Lots of frighteningly awfully bloody and grosteque scenes. Unpredictable ending - I thought it would be happily ever each turn, when a cure was discovered to turn vampires back to humans, when frankie turned human, when charles turned human, but it was not to be. All in all, an entertaining enough movie for those with a healthy appreciation of violence and gore.

Day 5 in Kota Kinabalu on 4 Jan 2010 (Coming home)

Airasia changed the timing of the flight back to SG from 6+pm in the evening to 2.45pm which meant that we only had the morning to do whatever we wanted to do. We decided to check out of the room early and leave our bags with the reception. This is the last picture I took of KK from our room (Rm *01) at Cititel Express before we checked out.

My companion's friend picked us up from the hotel and we went to have the famous beef noodle soup at some place 10mins away from KK. The coffeeshop has only one stall, this one, and amazingly at 9am, most of the tables were taken.

I love beef noodles but for some reason, I decided to have fish noodles instead for breakfast. The Slog Reviews: 7/10. The slices of fish were chunky enough without bones but despite the tomato and other veg in the soup, this bowl of fish soup couldn't hit the spot. My companion who had the beef noodles said it wasn't anything special either. Ah well. Maybe it's our tastebuds which are accustomed to Singapore flavors.

We went on a last spin around KK on the motorbike after breakfast. My camera was set to Program mode and my shot of the sailfish statue at the roundabout near Hyatt ended up looking like this, which surprisingly, I like very much despite the over-exposure of light.

We also dropped by the Waterfront for a stroll and a visit to the restaurants (such as coffeebean) located there. None of the restaurants were open for lunch so we just had a couple of drinks at Coffeebean which provides free Wifi.

We went to Sedco Square about 11.30am and to my utter dismay, none of the restaurants were opened for business. :( In the end, we settled for having KFC instead! The last trip to KK, we had KFC as the last meal there too. However, I must say, along with most friends I know, that KFC in Malaysia is infinitely nicer than KFC in Singapore. They also have chicken with rice which I had for lunch and which isn't available in Singapore. The Slog Reviews: 8/10. Finger licking good all the way! Then, it was off to KK's terminal 2 (for airasia flights only) with its really dismal shopping choices.

I found that my mum had cooked dinner when I got back home. Now, one thing about my mother is that she is a fabulous cook according to everyone who has eaten her food. My mum however, can be very competitive when it comes to food - we had a christmas party a few days b4 I left for KK and 1 of my aunts had cooked curry chicken wings which I took quite a bit of and raved about. My mother didn't say much on the way back in the car except that she would have used chicken parts and not chicken wings. Well, anyhow, I didnt know exactly how competitive she was until I came home to this huge pot of curry chicken. The Slog Reviews: 10/10. Mum's cooking is the best!

My mother also cooked the big head freshwater prawns which I had caught prawn fishing a couple of weeks ago at my regular hangout (which has unfortunately, closed down). Nothing beats eating what one has caught although I wish my mum hadn't waited so long before cooking the prawns and in sambal at that. I need to let her know that these prawns should be steamed with garlic the way I had them cooked in Kuching. Oh, that reminds me, I said in my earlier post on Sibu that I would write about Kuching in another post. I guess I'll do it before I start on my entries on Ho Chi Minh which I was at this weekend.

Day 4 in Kota Kinabalu on 3 Jan 2010 (Mangrove fishing and Little Italy Restaurant)

I'd decided to do a bit of luring (using lures ie fake baits) from 1pm to 5pm at the Papar area. The cost was about RM 200 for 4 hours on a simple boat with minimal shelter up and down the river (not Papar river).

Despite changing lures a couple of times and even resorting to the boatman's famous dead-fish bait to target Mangrove Jacks and estuary cods, it was a zero fighter trip - not even a bite or tug at the lures or baits. So it was just 4 hours of crusing up and down the river in the hot sun (ugh) which had quite a no of other people fishing in it too (maybe the river has been been overfished). Still, we got to see where the river meets the ocean - look at that picture below! That's one of the reasons why I feel that any fishing trip I go to (fishless or otherwise) is never a waste because of the beauty of nature that one is privileged to behold on such trips.

After fishing, we got back to the hotel about 5pm and set off to have some durians as usual. These are the last two durians that I polished off on this KK trip.

For dinner, we decided not to have seafood for a change and to go to the much advertised Little Italy Restaurant located at Hotel Capitol (near Gaya Street). This is a picture of the restaurant which I took on the first day. The restaurant was really crowded and one has to queue for a table. We waited about 10 mins before being ushered to a table and given the menus. The staff there are really friendly and speak good English. The restaurant was patronised by a mix of locals and foreigners (caucasians) and everyone seemed to be having a good time.

I ordered the Arrabbiatissima which is described on the menu as the hottest of the new spicy hot pasta (tomato base with hot chillis). This is how it looked when served. The Slog Reviews: 5/10. Yes, it was hot and spicy but surely, a dish should come with some ingredients, even a light sprinkling of minced meat? Well, this dish had no ingredients which meant it was just a carbo-dish with some veg (tomato and chili) and I did not finish most of it.

We also shared a Hawaiian thin-crust pizza. The Slog Reviews: 9/10. The pizza was fabulous - the crust was delicately thin and done just right (no burnt edges, no parts doughy) and the plentiful ingredients were spread out evenly with just the correct amount of cheese melted in to the mix. A must-try at the restaurant, I would say! Eating this left me craving for more pizza when I got back to Singapore.

My companion also ordered this dish to share - I thought it was squid/calamari (sotong) at first but I turned out to be wrong. I am not sure of the name of this dish but it is a mix of the most delightful ingredients comprising largely of cheese and cream. There were 6 pieces and I had only one because it was so sinfully rich. The Slog Reviews: 9/10. Cheese-lovers will enjoy this creamy concoction. "Yummilicious"!

After dinner, I was much too stuffed to move but my companion and his friends wanted to have coffee and supper and talk about old times so we adjourned to a corner coffeeshop at Gaya Street where my companion had reunited with a noodle-seller from Sibu in the morning. The store sells mostly specialities from Sibu.

I am not sure what the name of this dish is but it is particular to Sibu (the name is written on a yellow plague on the wall behind the store - the dishes are obstructing the view). The Slog Reviews: 7/10. A thick warm soupy combination much like Singapore's mee hoon kway but without the egg.

Day 3 in Kota Kinabalu on 2 Jan 2010 (Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park and Treasure Hunter (2009) Movie)

We decided to visit the Tunku Abdul Ahman Marine Park before another round of fishing the next day. I'm glad we did and found it a pity my family missed it last month. We had breakfast at the same coffeeshop as yesterday morning and I had the Sarawak Laksa this time. The Slog Reviews: 7/10. The soup isn't spicy or rich like Singapore Laksa but of a rather thin sourish strain. The prawns were fresh but tasteless and over-cooked. The wanton remained as good as ever though so I had a bowl of that on top of the laksa.

After checking around at various tour operators (including those operating out of Tune Hotel (which charged RM 100 for 2 islands tour and pick up and return from your hotel) and Cititel Express KK (which charged RM 140 for the same (extra RM 20 on weekends))), we concluded that it was best to go the Jesselton Point Ferry Terminal and buy the tickets/packages from the tour operators there. This is a picture of the ferry terminal which I took - parking for motorbikes the whole day is free of charge so we left ours at the entrance.

Inside the terminal, there were many ferry operators lined in one straight row and one can purchase ferry tickets to and fro Labuan from 1 of the operators here too. Like many other tourists, we were drawn to the tour operator nearest the entrance. Here is a picture of the three-island package (the park is made up of 5 islands) that we took for RM 67 each which included a life jacket and a snorkelling mask for each person. After purchasing the tickets, one has to line up at the counter next to the operator's counter to pay for taxes/some govt fees.

Here is a picture of the speedboats used to ferry tourists to the islands. It is apparently compulsory to be provided with a life jacket before boarding and it can be rather confusing if one doesn't speak Malay because there are hoardes of tourists and everyone has a different package (1 island, 2 islands (and the diff combis of islands) or 3 islands).

For those who want more information on the marine park, I thought this picture below might be helpful.

There are signs on the islands which says "No menancing" ie No Fishing. The sign below showing the various species of fish that one may chance across can be found at the jetties for the islands. It came in useful indeed when I was trying to identify the fishes that I came across while snorkelling on the first and third island we visited.

This is a picture of me at Pulau Mamutik, the first island which we visited. I have never edited any of the pictures I've posted (other than cropping the edges) because I don't know how and have no time to. So, you can be sure that this picture below is exactly how beautiful the waters of the marine park are.

We went to Pulua Manukan next - before leaving the boat on Pulau Manutik, the boatman informed us what time we had to be at the jetty (11am) and he was very punctual indeed. Pulua Manukan is the most popular of the three islands and the most commercialised too. There is a resort/hotel on the island but it isn't the 5star kind ( gaya resort and bunga raya resort are the high ends one). Just a note here too - there are plenty of fishes like these below around the jetty stilts (hoardes of them actually) which are visible due to the clarity of the water. If you are minded to feed them, you should bring bread from the hotel or purchase bread crumbs stuffed in a 200ml waterbottle at the jetties for RM3.

It was blazing hot from 11.30 to 1.30pm, the time we were on Pulau Manukan and I had absolutely no wish to do swim or snorkel in the sea without any sort of shade. So, I took some pictures instead - you can see the coastline of KK city center from Pulua Manukan.

Food on the island was also ridiculously priced (and more so if you elect to have the buffet lunch at RM 70/pax) so we had bread which we bought in the morning. Oh yes, and one more thing, bring your own towels from the hotel. There aren't any for loan on the islands. I found open-air fresh water showering facilities on Pulau Manutik and Pulau Sapi (the last island we visited) near the toilets to wash off the saltwater after snorkelling. Be warned though for Pulau Sapi, the toilets stink to high heaven and one should avoid a visit there if one can. The picture below is of someone reading a book on the beach at Pulau Sapi (various tourists were doing that) and is my favourite picture of the islands.

Spotted the sign below on Pulua Sapi which seems to be a really appropriate summation of our visit to the lovely marine park. The Slog Reviews: 9/10. Crystal clear unpollluted waters, beautiful scenary and a great place to go snorkelling - there are indeed many fishes in the reefs and corals near the shore.

The next picture is self-explanatory - that's me and the third (yes, 3rd) durian which I had after we had gotten back from the islands and showered in the hotel.

Because of our feasting on the durians (we overate cos we were starving after all that exercise - yes, snorkelling can be tiring), again we were too stuffed for dinner and so we headed for 1Borneo again. It isn't the only shopping center in KK (there is Centerpoint, Warisan Sq, Wisma Merdeka) but it certainly is the most modern and is the largest too. Along the way there, we passed by this mosque (KK is a muslim country overall) and I took a picture of it as it reminded me of the "floating" mosque I saw in Terengganu in April 2009 (haven't written about that).

Plenty of time to kill at 1Borneo so we decided to catch a movie at the cinema there. We caught the 7.05pm screening of the Chinese movie, Treasure Hunter. The cost of each person's ticket was only RM 9 (SGD 3.70 - where on earth can you watch a movie for that price in SG?!). The Slog Reviews: 0/10 - The movie was a waste of time and money (even SGD 3.60 haha) although the cinema was nice and new (see pic below I took of the entrance). The seats are a tad smaller than those plush seats we have at the Cineleisure though but there is sufficient leg room. Anyway, about the movie, it sucked sooooo absolutely bad and made absolutely nooooo sense that I can't even bring myself to waste 1 more minute reviewing it except to say that life is too short to be wasted on anything like that. Even my companion who is Chinese-movies biased went away saying that this movie had nothing to it.

We went for dinner at Hua Hing Seafood restaurant at Sedco Square again about 9.30pm. The lady boss was inside and we requested specifically for her help. As I wanted to try another type of seafood, I settled on having these two live prawns which cost RM18 (SGD 7.20) each. If you think that's expensive, I'll tell you that at Sai Kung, Hong Kong, I paid SGD 20 for 1 of these prawns. The lady boss reassured me that Sabah is the place to be have these critters for a decent price.

Here is a picture of one of them steamed and peeled (you have to peel the prawns yourself). The Slog Reviews: 8/10. Big, fat, fleshy and fresh. Could have been sweeter though.

What made my night though were the crabs. I ordered exactly the same crab dish as I had the night before (see my previous entry) but this time, the crabs had even more roe...here is a lcose up pic of the eggs which I relished each morsel of. The Slog Reviews: 9.5/10. Ahh..crab heaven!

We also ordered another dish which was served to us way after the rest of the dishes because I couldn't resist the promotion (RM 22 for 1kg) for these live prawns. They are supposed to be from the sea as opposed to being reared in a farm. The lady boss will explain the differences as she is showing you the prawns. The Slog Reviews: 4/10. The prawns were salty and tasteless. Not worth having.

The cost of the entire meal below and drinks (about 3 glasses of lime juice at RM4.50 each) including the prawns above was RM 130 (SGD 52).