Day 1 - Sabah, negeri di bawah bayu

Super back-dated post. Sorry!

Beginning of July, my friends and I took a trip to East Malaysia - Sabah! We actually bought the flight tickets almost 9 months back during the Air Asia sales. It only costs us RM109 for return tickets!

Shing, Lean and me met up in Penang International Airport and off we go.

The flight took us about 3 hours. Then we had a looooooooong queue in the immigration before we managed to meet up with our driver for the next two days. Thanks to Lean, we managed to get a taxi driver named Wasli, who would drive us around for two days for RM400.

We told Wasli the places that we would like to go for this two days and he helped us to decide the plan as we were unfamiliar on the roads.

Our first stop was for some snacks. We received advice from friends to try out the coconut jellies as they are delicious. We reached a road with a few wooden stalls/shops selling food. Many were selling jellies. There were many flavours like kiwi, strawberry, mango, etc. We shared one coconut and one mango jellies.

And true enough, they are delicious!

Then we headed off to first official tourist spot - Rumah Terbalik (Upside-down House) located in Tamparuli.

Trivia : Did you know that this is the only Upside-down House located in South East Asia? And there are only five Upside Down Houses in the world?

We paid RM10 each for the Entrance Fees (RM18 for non-MyKad holders) but because we have students cards, we are entitled for a free drink each at the cafeteria! Student cards FTW! =)

Absolutely beautiful house! Too bad it was drizzling at that time so we kept on finding a roof to cover ourselves as we do not want to get sick on our first day in Sabah!

We went inside the house, but sorry, no pictures of the interior because we could not take any photos inside. Basically everything inside the house is upside down - the bed, the sofas, table, antique sewing machine, etc..... Quite special!  

 

There was also an outdoor garden and toilet which we can take photos of.

Last picture of the beautiful house before we leave the place.

After this, we continue our journey to Ranau, which is located 2 hours away from Kota Kinabalu town.

Halfway towards the journey in the winding mountain roads, we were glad we actually hired a driver, because LOOK AT THE ROAD! It was so misty!! And it was only 4pm in the afternoon! 

According to Wasli, usually this area will rain at roughly this hour everyday. And yes, mist is just very normal! The air was really cooling too. Feels like Cameron Highlands weather!

At certain point of the journey, the mist was so thick that we can barely 10 feet in front of us! Instantly felt relieved again because we made the right decision! 

After two hours of drive (and super modern song from Wasli's sound system in his taxi), we managed to reach our budget hotel - The Cottage Hotel.

Oh, I forgot to mention that Wasli said our hotel is 'baik juga.. di tengah-tengah pekan' (not bad, it's located in the middle of town), and we were so relieved. When we arrived, we found out that our hotel does not really located in a town. Yes, there's civilisation, but really really small town. Guess Wasli forgot to mention the word 'small'. =S

Luckily the room wasnt really a disappointment. We had a double bed and a single bed for the three of us! And then it struck me, if the weather is cool in the afternoon, what about early morning? I did not bring any jacket. *smack forehead*  

It was roughly 6pm and we decided to go grab our dinner at the Night Market at the junction of the road. We also heard rumours that it gets dark early in Ranau. 

And to our horror, it started to rain heavily when we were walking! And non of us took umbrella out, in fact, we didnt bring umbrella to this trip. *double smack on forehead* No choice, but to brave through the rain!

 Not much food was for sale at that Night Market. Some raw/unprocessed food such as fresh vegetables & fruits, burgers, satays, noodles and crackers. We decided to try the local food and share a bowl of noodles (is it called Bakso Mee? Forgot already, sorry!).

 

The noodles came in a bowl, lined with plastic. *disappointment*  

Halfway through our noodles, it began to rain cats and dogs and dinosaurs! We tried to wait it out but it was getting dark (only 7pm at that time!) so we decided to tapau burgers and eat some instant noodles that we bought along to this trip.

This is us, superly wet just to get our dinner! 

And this was our dinner for the day!

 
 Well, the burger wasnt great, chicken wings are so-so...but we did have an adventure!

Stay tuned for Day 2! =)

Updates on my life list

Feel that I should update my life list before I forget.

18. Win something from the radio station [13 May'13]
33. Go for a full body massage [16 Nov'12]

Below two, I've managed to get them started, but not enough for me to cancel them off! Oops!

16. Learn how to ski  [don't think i want to cancel this off as I've learn but don't think I can ski properly yet!]
50. Stop biting my nails [cant cancel this off too because there's still some occasional biting! =P]

South Korea - Day 2 - Mount Sorak National Park, Shinheung Temple

***Continuation from the previous blog post....

After an absolutely fun skiing session, we headed straight for lunch. Along the way, we spotted beautiful scenery which I can't resist and took pictures of them from the moving bus.

 When we arrived at the restaurant, it was slightly drizzling so we headed straight inside and had steamboat again, with different style and tasted different. 

Oh, I remember asking the tour guide David - "why does it rain when it's supposed to snow during winter?" He's also confused because he says it SHOULD snow instead of raining. Sigh.............

After the big bowl of steamboat for four of us, we headed to the breathtaking Mount Sorak National Park.

I was really really really cold when I came out from the tour bus. My teeth could not stop chattering and I felt the chills to my bones! This is Daddy hugging me to warm me up. Love this pic! 

 We also took a group photo at the entrance of Mount Sorak National Park together with the bear statue. 

Then we walk around the park and admire its nature.

 

The scenery was really breathtaking. I love this place alot. It's like a winter wonderland for me. It's like being in a dream!

If you realised the path is actually layered with ice, so it was really difficult to walk on it. Each step felt like I was going to fall flat on my bum-bum!

But I guess it's a good way that we have to walk slowly, so that we can fully enjoy the scenery and absorb the beauty and wonderful feeling of this place into our hearts and memories! 

Along the way, there are also a few shops cute looking shops selling souvenirs. 

We walked towards the Shin Heung Temple,

where the 18 meters bronze figure of the Unification for Peace Buddha is located.

 The view opposite the Buddha.

We headed back to the bus after this, and couldnt resist taking photos again because the place is too pretty!

After the s.l.o.w. walk back to our bus, we continued our journey to the next destination - dinner! It was actually quite a long way from Mount Sorak, we most of us ended up napping in the bus.

When we reached, we are being told that today we are going to have Seafood instead. We were so happy, as we were getting bored of their beef steamboat. However, when we arrived at the restaurant, we realised that even their seafood is steamboat style. LOL Guess because it's winter, everything comes in hot soup!

After our dinner, we headed to our next hotel - which has a Aqua World Hot Spring! Shall leave the hot spring experience on the next blogpost. And in the meantime, look at the pictures below, where me and my mum braved ourselves to fight against the cold night air to take photos of the fake Stonehenge outside the hotel.

 I wore 3 layers of jackets that I can't even zip up my last layer because it was too thick! Hahaha

Oh, and what is best to be eaten when you are in a cold winter places like South Korea? ICE CREAMS! =)

  

***to be continued......