A Trip to Kuching, Sarawak

As the saying goes "Taking a break is for accomplishing a longer journey."  In conjunction with the promotion of 2 ways ticket offered by Airasia at only RM100++, we decided to have a week of holiday to Sarawak after working hard for several months. This MUST-WATCH-VIDEO summarizes 80% of our Sarawak journey (done by my boyfie so of course you can't see his face inside haiya!...but because of this video, I'm so surprise, motivated & exciting to update my blog without further ado. Please watch at the best quality 720HD if possible :)

Seriously, please take a tour package if you want to be introduced or recommended to the highlighted foods and places there. You wouldn't get to find some nice foods if you don't find Sarawakian. We enjoyed the trip arranged by Kuching Tour Buddy very much. Thanks to our very nice homestay, Planet Borneo Lodge too!

At the opposite of old street Kuching, Riverside is considered a place bustling with the noise of visitors and local people. We took one-hour-journey-boat to see the sunset and the scenery there. To be honest, Melaka river has more things to see as compared to this riverside but overall it is not a bad choice though since we, or perhaps you have not much time to visit ALL the places when you step there for trip.

At a point of Riverside, there is a Chinese History Museum. All the Sarawak museums are free entrance. This Museum is well invested and maintained, I would say it is the best Chinese museum so far. You shall pay a visit there, it wouldn't take you a long time. The popular and the most Chinese dialect there is Teochew (潮州), followed by Hokkien (福建) & Hakka (客家). Other small groups are Hokchew (福州), Hinghwa (兴化), Chaoan/Hainan (海南), Cantonese (广东), etc. 

Most of the Teochew-ian are engaged in mini market and spices business; most Hakka-ian are in traditional/chinese medication business; most Chaoan/Hainan-ian are in kopitiam business, most Hinghwa are in repair service line such as bicycle, motor vehicle and ship; (Hokkien I forget already); Cantonese is consider a very small group in Sarawak, most of them are teachers or engaged in cookies or baking business line.

Thanks to 万豪 brother & his wife, 世林 sister for bringing us around the old street and telling us the stories behind. It was indeed a rare opportunities to have people like them introducing the old street to us. For our knowledge, the size of the shops there are different even though they're attached side by side. You may find a shop very long in size however the shop beside is few feet long only! As you can see at the photo below, the white square building is actually a government general hospital. The old people there don't say "hospital", instead they call it "square building" (四房楼). If they mention that they want to go square building, you should know where you need to bring them to! :)

For your information, we can hardly find Indian there. Their population does not exceed 5,000 people in the whole Sarawak. Can you imagine how little is that (since Sarawak is the biggest state in Malaysia)? India street (印度街) is where you can see most of the Indian.

I know what most of us concern the most is the must-eat-food-there haha! We ate 85% of the food recommended by the Sarawak Food Guide brochure. Let me introduce to you some of the foods that you must try if you visit Sawarak:

1. Kueh Chap. It looks like the kuey-teow here but it is thinner and bigger. The stall selling Kueh Chap that you must try is located at the Carpenter Street (亚达街). It is the most popular Kueh Chap stall that people would go.

2. Kolok Mee. Kolok Mee is originally from Cantonese people, kon-lou-mee (干捞面). It looks like the white wantan mee. The kolok mee stall that you must visit is Kim Joo (裕锦) situated at old street. Please do not go at around the lunch time as you would find a lot of people queuing for the kolok mee.

3. The Sarawak layer cake, aka kek lapis Sarawak. There are a lot of patterns of layer cake you can get over there. We bought our layer cake at the famous Mira House (also the layer cake supplier of many small businesses) @ RM10 each. If you are interested, this is the address : No 44A, Kampung Boyan, 93050, Petra Jaya, Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia.

4. Manok Pansoh. In other words, chicken in bamboo. It is the Iban dish. I do not know where else you can find this dish but we ate the Manok Pansoh inside the Sarawak Cultural Village.

5. Some other recommended foods include : Kampua (I like it better than kolok mee), belacan meehoon (strong in belacan, we don't quite like it), sio-bi (shaomai 烧卖, quite different taste from here), tomato kuey teow (recommended but we couldn't find), mee Jawa (taste like mee rebus here), gubak mee (beef noodles, we didn't try), Sarawak laksa (not bad).

6. Lastly, the biscuit that you MUST try is the Kompyang (光饼) at Song Kheng Hai hawker centre. Sorry to the Muslims, the fillings inside is the char-siew. Noooooo mann finger licking!! I would have taken at least two pieces if I weren't full at that time.

Just a little reminder, if you like the oyster omelette (蚝煎) here, try not to order the oyster omelette there. Very different taste, thick in corn starch (粟粉) with little egg. All of us don't like it.

Usually the tour package wouldn't bring you to the Fairy Cave, instead they introduce the visitors to Gunung Mulu National Park, a UNESCO world heritage site. Due to the very long distance, we didn't pay a visit there. Fairy Cave is named due to the fairy stone found inside the cave. Bring your partner to climb any cave or hill if you want to know whether he can take care of you or whether he minds about the dirty he gets or you get after exploring. This is true trust me haha.

Sarawak Cultural Village (aka Kampung Budaya Sarawak) is my most favourite visit place in Sarawak. It is situated at Damai, near the Santubong hill. The entrance fee is quite pricey but very worth (I don't know how much because I didn't pay haha!), but please bring along your student ID card if you are still a student as it costs only half of the adult price. All of the visitors will be introduced to the 7 nations of Sarawak with the real life demonstration of houses as well as the performances shown in the theatre room. The 7 nations are : Bidayuh, Iban, Melanau, Ulu, Penan, Malay and Chinese.

Like what you can see on the wood board, Rainforest World Music Festival is a 3-day musical festival that celebrates the diversity of world music in the rainforest of Sarawak Cultural Village. The performers and the fans flock around the world to participate in this musical workshops and evening concerts. It will be held in August every year and the ticket is fast selling. So, August is the bustle month of Sarawak.

In front of the theatre attaching a poster showing the greeting language of the 7 nations :

Bidayuh — Anih Agah?

Iban — Nama Berita?

Melanau — Inou Dengah?

Ulu — Nu Denge?

Penan — Enou Rengeh?

Malay — Apa Khabar?

Chinese — Ni Hao Ma?

The cultural performance is the first spot of the cultural village. There are only 2 showtimes daily, ie. 10.30am and 4.00pm (or 4.30pm I forget). The timing is just so nice as by the time we reached there, the show was about to start. At the right hand side of the photo, the dancer is an Ulu nation (aka Orang Ulu) who is also a real professional performer. We kept looking at his bottom part, it is not about pervert or what but all of the audiences were wondering whether or not he wore any pant! To our findings, the Ulu nation in the early years doesn't wear underwear but the cloth can just cover the part so perfectly (only front and back) that we couldn't see his private part. Claps!! :)

The performance is about 40mins long. This is the show that you must not miss out before visiting around the village. At the end of the show, we were invited up to the stage dancing together with the performers.

Most of the long houses are built in high level. 

Among the 7 nations, Ulu nation is the smallest group while Iban nation claims the largest population. Just for your extra knowledge, there is a cloth of Iban nation called Pua Kumbu. It is a traditional patterned cotton cloth woven by the Iban women. The Iban girls have to learn to weave the Pua Kumbu from their mother since small. Until the time when they are able to weave the Pua Kumbu completely & successfully without any guide from the mother, it means that they are ready to marry. The mother will only then find a partner for their daughter.

However, same for the Iban men. Before they can marry, they must go out to hunt & chop a head of other nation and bring back the head. This signifies that they have grown up and be a hero. This is also a way to reduce the population of other nations in the early years. The Pua Kumbu will then be used to wrap the head chopped by the Iban men. Also, Pua Kumbu is considered as a sacred object of Iban, it will be used for life-cycle rituals and special events including the birth of a child and the coming of age celebrations. Not to terrify you, but this is the real skull after few centuries (the head chopped by the Ibans).

Back to the Ulu nations, they are well known for its detailed art (including music and the musical instruments). The background music in the video above is played by Sape, a traditional musical instrument of Ulu nation (as illustrated on the left side of the photo, costs around RM500 each). The music is very different from the Bali style. Very peaceful :)

I'm very satisfy with this trip and I would recommend people to visit Sarawak if they wish to travel in Malaysia. With this, I end my post with the photos of us.

My all time guardian ❤

Life as an Intern

It has been 1½ months since my practical training ended, now only I talk about it due to never ending busy (busy work, busy trip and busy rest) haha! Like always.

I am grateful that I've made a correct decision between two choices. I learnt many things which is what I really want for my practical training from this firm and eventually my efforts paid off when I receive the recognitions from both inside and outside the company.

Our intern gang made up from 1 Malaysia. The life at O.L.Yeo & Co. is challenging especially during the peak season yet relax when all kinds of entertainment came.

The thing I'm afraid the most is the room temperature. It can be very cool until our upper class cute Indian friend covered himself with girl's scarf. Sometimes, you know, not all accounts are in proper manner, they can be very messy. So, you will end up going mad. Haha!

One of the entertainments we had is having a luncheon to celebrate our big boss' birthday at Restaurant New Lagoon. We're required to do performance based on our creativities and ideas for all his kindness and opportunities given to us.

Wonder what is this? The guys were all drunk! I'm still awake :) Anywhere this is not the office.

There's nothing to talk about peak season, it's none other than rushing the audit for clients. In conjunction with the end of peak season, O.L.Yeo Group of Companies organized a charity show like every year they did. The purpose is to raise fund and send to any charity organization the donors wish to donate their monies to. This year, the venue is at Equatorial Hotel and the performers are from the Malaysia Popular Dama Orchestra team.

Yes! It is about Teresa Teng. The main singer, Tan Soo Suan sings like Teresa Teng!! It is a good orchestra and everything just went well and perfect that night. Anywhere, the song I like the best is the "Careless Whisper" sang by Chang Fang Chyi (1st from right). Too bad I can't manage to get the song copy :(

Before the show started, all the guests were free to have a buffet. Our job is to serve as an usher and direct them to their tables or offer them service whenever they need help. We were required to dress up ourselves with elegant look.

 

#Dress# from Simple and Beauty @ 012-3626211 Serien Chia / 012-3626222 Wong Yit Fong

#Hairdo# from Chia Chia @ 100001315638309@facebook.com

#Make up# from M Nicole Make Up @ 016-6655737

#Dinner purse# from Summer (Dataran Pahlawan) @ 06-2867898

The thing that all the girls will never miss is to have a shoot! Do we look nice? =）

And the guys (interns only).

Next, a farewell luncheon is held specially for us the interns at the roof top of Bamboo Hut Bistro.

 Felt so wonderful (end of practical training!) yet heavy hearted to leave the company.

 All in all still a happy memory (if you don't disturb me in class!)

For me, I don't choose Big 4 as a place to undergo industrial training is because you will be focusing on a particular area only for few months, or even learn a little. In small and medium sized company, instead, you can see the whole picture of audit and have the opportunity to explore more as in O.L.Yeo & Co., we are given individual cases whereby we need to responsible on the clients' audit from beginning to the end. As the cases go, you will encounter different situations. From there, I learnt :)

Thanks O.L.Yeo & Co : Mr.Willie Yeo & Mr.Jerry Wong. Not to forget, all the colleagues and intern friends.

A Travel to Cameron Highlands, Pahang

Since my anniversary falls during my holidays and my bf is so flexible, so we went for a local trip as a way of celebration (because we are going overseas next year! Save money). To add on, I actually wanted to have a short travel before new semester starts. This time, we choose Cameron Highlands because I never go before =）

 

The moment that I have been waiting over 4 months! What an awesome morning I have with him, we departed to Cameron after having our breakfast yeay :D

We checked in to our Hotel, Snooze right after arriving. The hotel location isn't hard to get, you can see as you passed by Brinchang town area :) The weather was windy and started to rain when we reached our first destination, Big Red Strawberry Farm.

Left : Strawberry waffle                                  Right : Strawberry lassi

There are over 30 types of Strawberry foods/drinks for you to choose and the prices quoted are also reasonable. The service is good and satisfactory. From the survey I'd done, I found that strawberry float and strawberry lassi are recommended drinks. However, for both my bf & me, strawberry lassi is okay only, nothing special. The strawberry waffle tasted nice but we are too full because we took our lunch before coming here. So, I wasted 2 bites @@ I leave the strawberry float for next visit then :) You may try strawberry fondue too (look nice!) at RM16++.

The reason why I chose Big Red Strawberry Farm is because it is the recommended strawberry farm among all. The entrance is free too. Raining somehow did not cause us headache because the farm is cover by the transparent roof top.

Our next station is Time Tunnel Museum. 

I realise that many people around me who went Cameron before have never been to this museum. It is a must visit museum if you go Cameron. The entrance fee is RM5 per adult. I would say that the visit worth the price =）Like the name itself, the old stuffs there bring you to several years back and remind you of those times.

The old cash register. I wonder how and where the owner got this from.

Have you ever wonder why the Darlie toothpaste called 黑人牙膏 (Black man toothpaste) in Chinese while the face is not black at all but white? I was wrong! The old Darlie toothpaste image is actually black in face.

Originally we planned to visit Boh Tea Plantation next but due to the rain issue, it's okay we moved to Lavender Farm. We are lucky that we can experience a full growing of lavender because it is a seasonal plant.

By the time we arrived at the farm, the rain was only drizzle. This is again not an issue because the farm is covered by the roof top as well. The entrance fee to the farm is RM5 per adult. Worth! The farm is located at Tringkap and is beautiful.

Apart from that, there are other flowers too, examples are daisy and morning glory.

 

The night was very very cool due to raining. We didn't feel to visit the pasar malam after bathing but to enjoy steamboat at the shop downstairs of our hotel. The portion just fit us so well and the price is also normal.

A picture early in the morning yeay!! ^.^

God always keeps the best for us. At first, we planned to stay overnight at Gerard's Place, backup plan Father's Guest House because of the good reviews, views and rate. Both are at Tanah Rata. However, it was full house! So, we moved to Snooze Hotel at Brinchang (as what I spotted at first and he asked me to kiv). Brinchang is cooler than Tanah Rata (more like in Cameron, that's the reason we go Cameron ma! because Tanah Rata isn't cool at all). We are very very satisfy with Snooze Hotel and we decide to stay there again if we go Cameron. Then, originally we wanted to visit Boh Tea Plantation on the 1st day but it was raining so we planned to go before we left Cameron the next day. The weather is just niceeeee and not hot at all. For every place we went, we didn't need to grab parking with anyone and we didn't need to wait long when he drove.

Boh Tea Plantation is a must visit place in Cameron! The entrance is free and you'll be guided by the staffs there to see the process of making until packaging the Boh Tea.

He was forced by me, to take a picture, at Boh Tea Plantation Cafe, HAHA.

Look! The cafe view is so nice! The location is perfect to view the whole Boh Tea plantation.

Thanks baby for all the pictures you took for me, Love you!

What a pretty nice memory I have with him in Cameron ❤

Snooze, Cameron Highlands

I prefer relax and quiet life, same to my partner, Dave. Hence, for the anniversary trip to Cameron, we rather travel our own than following the tour. Both us like the "home away from home" concept of accommodation, so I made a survey and eventually Snooze caught my attention. Both my partner and I are pretty satisfy with the stay at there with the nett price of RM88 per night on off-peak weekday. So, I decide to write a review for them :)

We are required to take off our shoes beforehand. After we checked in, we were directed to our room by the staff in charge. ZaZu, our room located at the 3rd floor. I'm truly impressed by the cleanliness of this Boutique Hotel, this is what we concern the most in selecting the accommodation. Frankly, it is hard to find a Hotel as clean as Snooze.

We got a double room with a very comfortable and clean Japan style bed. "Simple is the best". 

Then, in front of our bed, there's a small section for us to enjoy our drinks. The owners are so caring, they prepare some Cameron Tea Packs and sugar for the guests. Bottles and cups are also available inside every room. On top of that, there's a simple rack decoration with a local channel TV beside.

As we came out from room, there is a small stool which is an added point to the block level designs. 

Living room is one of the shared common areas between the guests of Snooze. However, they have a rule whereby the guests are required to slow down the voice after 10pm. Thus, you need not to worry about the noise. 

There's also an iron stand provided for the guests. We are free to use it. There is a small kitchen area for us whereby variety of tableware are prepared too. To the info, cooking is not allowed :)

Snooze is located at Brinchang area, which is a city cooler than Tanah Rata. Having a steamboat is definitely a correct choice especially on a raining night during our stay. There are so many steamboat shops available downstairs of Snooze, which is a perfect location for us. Their security is good as well because only guests with access card can enter the Snooze building.

Before we left on the next morning, we had a sneak peek on unlocked "The Lion King" room opposite of my room. This is the room that made me stun once I arrived there the day before.

One of the rooms with two queen sized beds. As you can see, all Snooze areas are so clean! *thumbs*

 Do you have a home feeling? I can feel how sincere and patient the owner is in managing this boutique hotel.

For those who enjoy reading, this is the section you will surely like it. Different kind of seats are ready for you. After staying a night, I wish to extend my stay at Snooze. Very very comfortable. However, the accommodation at KL is booked and paid. Hence, we couldn't but to leave Cameron Highlands.

Not to forget, I left a small note for Snooze before checking out as my appreciation and encouragement.

They have many colorful notes from their guests and I'm one of them ^^ 

Goodbye Cameron Highlands and Snooze. I will definitely come back to stay if I come Cameron again or to recommend to the people around me who are planning to go Cameron. Gambateh! :)



Facebook : Snooze Cameron Highlands
Location : 4 Jalan Besar, 39100 Brinchang, 39100 Cameron Highlands, Pahang, Malaysia.
Contact : 014-6690108
Email : chsnooze@gmail.com