International Greasy Rice

This event happened quite some time back, before the month of Ramadhan. A few bachelors and a married man went to New Village (Kampung Baru) in Kuala Lumpur in search of International Greasy Rice (Nasi lemak antarabangsa). They considered lucky because they went there quite early and the crowd was not that heavy.

These two guys Arel and Hairie were late, because someone wanted to balik mandi wangi-wangi before meeting us. :-D

Since Yaz had just shifted to KL and had been quite lonely (ye ker?), we decided to bring him out for dinner.

While having our nasi lemak dinner, we exchanged updates. We had chosen this place to be our meeting point as someone among us mengidam (craving) for the nasi lemak. Kaaaan Danial?

The nasi lemak was rather expensive. A scoop of coconut milk rice with a chunk of rendang, some ikan bilis and sambals may cost u RM8 easily. I chose sambal sotong instead. They charged me RM8.50. Right after we're done with our nasi lemak, Hairie gave us a treat by buying us grilled sweet corn. Believe me, it's ssoooooooo yummy!!
Yaz makan macam harimau, mengaum dia makan.

Budlee makan sambil jeling-jeling.

Errr.... Wawa in his usual wacky style, taught us a better way to eat jagung. Angkat-jilat-genggam kuat-gigit. The jilating thingy was actually to lick off the sweet juices which would eventually flow onto our hand if we didn't lick it.

The gathering was short but fun. I don't know about the ladies, but for guys, having a hearty meal with friends is one of the best way to spend time together. Not so much of gossiping like the ladies (psssst, but lot's of hu-ha).

Kota Kinabalu (Part 2) - Sweat, sweat, sweat!

Managed to set foot on two cultural places in Kota Kinabalu during my short stay. KK is rather hot during this dry season. Visiting these two places really requires good toleration of heat. To counter to the problem, one should visit these places either early in the morning or late afternoon. However, the fun and excitements were way surplus the hot weather.

Cultural Experience (1) ~ Kampung Warisan (Heritage Village)

This fascinating cultural village is only two stone-throws away from Dr. Shah's place. RM2 per entrance. The place is beautiful and I love the lily pond very much!

Houses of various ethnics are on display here. Many of them are very similar to those of Iban longhouse and others found in Sarawak.

We particularly love this house, the Murut Longhouse. Lots of handicraft were on sales in the longhouse. And behold, a huge wooden 'trampoline' was found within the longhouse. The 'trampoline' was made of wooden planks joint together and placed on top of three very long tree trunks serve as spring.

One would have to jump on the board and try to touch the decor above. Hairie tried, can't reach. Saya yang lagi rendah lagi lah tak dapat cecah. Instead, I gedik for the camera. hahahaha.

Some of the handicrafts were made on the spot. They're so beautiful, i bought a few.

The Sabah Muzium and the Heritage Village were situated side-by-side. But since we ran out of time, I resolved to snap a shot in front of the Muzium entrance, just to 'prove' that I was there :-P


Cultural Experience (2) ~ Monsopiad Cultural Village

Monsopiad is the name of a famous warrior and head hunter of the Kadazandusun tribe. This cultural village housed a spacious performance stage, a few huts with artifacts and crafts, the House of The Skulls, and some fun traditional games. First of all, we were welcomed with various traditional dances performed by the in-house troop.


Abg bear was invited on-stage to perform the sumpit blowing.

While Hairie and I volunteered to try the bamboo dance. It was FUN!!!

And we got the privilege to take photos with the performers. I love this photo very much!

We moved on to the House of the Skulls. Creepy.


The guide lead us to a play ground and showed us various traditional games. Dr. Shah and I tried walking on stilts. FAILED. (ooops).


Abg Bear tried his 'lastik' skill. Not bad!

Everyone tried the sumpit. Again, I was proven unskilful. Gaya je ada.

Oooo... this one is interesting. Sago worm race! The two sago worms were actually racing, swirling through the spaces between the nails. Abg Bear was gelified. hahahhaa.

Finally, we crossed the river via this suspension bridge. Kinda fun as it sway left to right as we walked across.

More info about this cultural village is available in their official website.

From this cultural village we headed straight to the airport so that i can catch my flight at 6.00pm. Tired and sweaty, i was praying hard that the person seated beside me during the flight would not complain or be disgusted. Both slept soundly throughout the flight. I guess I wasn't smelly..... or too smelly until they fainted??

Kota Kinabalu (Part 1) - Eat, eat, eat!

After spending a night at Keningau, I travelled to Kota Kinabalu the next day. My stay in Kota Kinabalu was short too, 26 hours to be exact. But the short stay was packed with various activities. To start with, FOOD!

Makan-makan 1: Afternoon snacks ~ Lokan Panggang
The stall was just situated by the roadside. Nothing fancy about the stall. No clear signage or what so ever and one would easily missed it. But behold, interesting (and yummy) food awaits. The lokan panggang. The kakak grilled the fresh lokans until the shell split open. Then she removed the upper shell and continued grilling.

I don't know about the rest, but i was anxious and eager to taste the much-talked-about lokan panggang. While waiting, we ordered young coconut drinks. The BBQed coconut drink was specifically fragrant.

Generous amount of chili paste (sambal) was garnished on top of the grilled lokans and tadaaaaaaaaa.....

Slurps, i would love to have more. Just a reminder if you wanna taste this seafood, do choose the medium or smaller size as the bigger ones were a bit tough.

Makan-makan 2: Heavy Dinner ~ Gayang Seafood Restaurant
Right after having lokan panggang, we headed to Gayang Seafood Restaurant for dinner. It's situated at the estuary of a river.

Kononnya dah kenyang dan tanak order banyak-banyak, tapi sekali order..... Mak Aiiii.......we ordered eight dishes in all. Here's the list: Steam prawn with chili sauce, stir-fried pucuk manis, crispy fried chicken, fu-yong egg, ginger onion scallops, mixed seasonal vegetables, steam fish nonya style, and spicy crabs.


This dish was my favourite, the ginger onion scallops. So tender and sweet!!

Two local friends joined in a bit later: Mail and Jiji (if I got their name correctly).

Boy, the dinner was heavy. We headed to Dr. Shah and Beruang Madu's apartment and had some rest before ronggenging to a karaoke nearby for some lalaking activity.

We sang, err.. they sang and i listened till 2am. Pengsan terus bila sampai rumah.

Makan-makan 3: Breakfast ~ local noodles
My local friend cum ex-church member Mr. Lau called early in the morning. i dragged myself up at 7.15am and went for a sumptuous breakfast with him. We ordered TomYam Kung KK style: they added some curry into the tomyam. Tasted unique and very appetizing.

The Tuaran noodle, only known for the local Chinese, were hand made, boiled, decanted and mixed with fragrant sauce. Yummy!

Oh yah, I joined Dr. Shah, Hairie and his mum and Arnabgumuk for another round of breakfast, nasi lemak.

Buurrrps...

P/S. Too much of makan-makan, so the reduce the accumulated fat, more fun activities in my next entry ~ sweat sweat sweat!

Keningau and Satay Buntut Ayam

From Tenom I travelled to Keningau, another small town in the inland of Sabah. On the way to Keningau, the taxi driver brought me to this place:

The Murut Cultural Center of Tenom is situated just by the roadside of Tenom-Keningau road. The place was huge and the architecture of the building was magnificent! With all the pillars made from single tree trunks, one can imagine how difficult the construction can be and finding enough huge and straight tree trunks to be used as pillars.


Sadly, due to low number of visitors, the artifacts and displays of the center had been reduced to minimal and the buildings were basically way under-utilised. I was the only visitor at the centre that morning, yet they welcomed me with gong beating and traditional musics. After spending an hour there, we continued our journey to Keningau. First stop: Keningau Restaurant, for lunch.

It's just like any other nasi campur restaurant with vast choices of dishes to choose from. I was compelled to taste these two vegetables:
The petai. Not as any petai but sprouted petai. Interestingly, the owner said its the way the local take the petai. The petai will have to be sprouted for about a week before cooking them into various dishes. Erm... i think it's a bit to chewy but still love the taste.

And the pucuk labu. Can be found in Cameron Highland but it's kinda common here. Nice too, sweet.

Keningau is just like Kajang but a bit smaller. I stayed at the tallest hotel, which is also the tallest building in town. Standing at 11 storeys, the Hotel Juta was clearly visible from any direction.

I was lucky to have stayed there as the night food stalls were just beside the hotel. At 5.30pm, as the sky was just about to turn dark (Keningau is completely dark at around 7pm), i strolled through the place and found a few irresistible food.

Beside beef noodles, bakso, and some local delicacies, I favoured this stall: the BBQ stall.

They got the famous Satay Sayap or BBQ chicken wing!!! The sweet aroma was so strong that you can smell it at the other end of the stall stretches. I bought 4. Ooops.

And these cute looking love-shaped 'satay' was not just any 'satay', but the famous satay buntut ayam (literally translated as BBQed skewed chicken butt, hahaha). I bought one only. Too fatty for me. The taste? MARVELOUS!

Since i don't think it's appropriate to eat my food while 'cangkung' at the roadside, I enjoyed them in my hotel room.

Simply delicious!! My stay at Keningau was short too, and I continued my journey to KK the next day.

Coming up next... KK, eat-eat-eat.