from the land of the hornbills with love
greetings from bintulu. its not a typo as i truly am in bintulu in body and spirit. have a meeting tomorrow hence an overnight trip. will be back in kl by tuesday evening 9.30 pm. the departure at klia was quite something this morning. a bit of delay since there's a very long queue of aircraft waiting to take off. i mean i visually saw no less than ten aircraft queueing to take off. apparently, as the merdeka day celebration air show was taking place at nearby putrajaya, there wasnt any flight allowed to depart between 9 am and 11 am. hence, quite a number of flights were delayed. as mine was scheduled at 11.15 am, so there was about 40 minutes delay as we were queueing behind a bunch of other aircraft. flight was uneventful. saw the islands of ambas and natuna of indonesia. beautiful sight of blue green water and coral reefs from the air. i ventured to bintulu pasar malam. found the much coveted belacan bintulu as well as udang kering. unfortunately, didnt find any ulat mulok, so cant take on the dare by fahroe. hehehe... as if. nonetheless, i was amazed by the number of local fruits and vegetables never encountered in semenanjung. and they all look yummy. tapau some fried mee and fried chicken for dinner later at the hotel. this time i didnt dare to buy the umai tenggiri as i still remember the rejection my tummy made the last time i had it last year. i have to thank parkcity everly hotel bintulu for providing free wifi to its guests. only wish the speed is a lot faster. but then, shouldnt complain about free stuff, right?
Fraser's Hill is chilly... and lovely
greetings muggles. just got back from a weekend at fraser's hill, situated deep in the mountains of pahang. its about 2 hours to get to lower gap, the entry to fraser's hill. mind you, as the road up from lower gap is only one way traffic during the day, it would be good to plan the journey. traffic going uphill is during odd hours, and downhill on the even hours. we arrived at the lower gap at 5:10 pm which is just perfect.
the temperature up there is on the low twenties. in the morning its pleasantly warm but as noon approaches, mist and cloud will make the temperature drop. some of the activities we took part was jungle trekking along hemmant's trail, horseback riding for the kids and archery for moi. and a stop at the playground plus just mindless roaming around fraser's hill. we also drove to jeriau waterfall, where the water was too cold for a dip. the town square is by the roundabout actually, where you can find eateries, souvenirs and the golf club. i got myself some ASAM RONG, sold on lady guillemard road, across from shahzan inn.
we stayed at silverpark in a nice 2 room apartment. fraser's hill was discovered by mr fraser while he was searching for tin ore (what else?). he disappeared one day and a search by his friend, a mr bishop could not determine where or how fraser went missing. this reminds me a of james thomson disappearance in cameron highland. i think i'll look this story up some more.
if you care for a trip to fraser's hill, its a nice quiet town. if you enjoy outdoor activities or appreciate a place to immerse yourself in a good book, then fraser's hill is for you.
where are my marbles?
Tis been a while since I last wrote. a few things have taken place. i have moved to klcc where my internet connection is a bit limited. my blog updates has taken low in priority with additional tasks i shoulder. when i was in lumut last week, met a guy offering me use of his boat for fishing and recreation. all he requires is some money for fuel and food. aint that great? then i went to kertih for two days for a few meetings. other than the meetings, was bored there. my beloved cousing didnt renew his car road tax hence unable to meet up with me. hmm.. guess he has been driving illegally before he realised it. ahahaha.... earlier today i thought i'll have plenty to write. as now is 10pm and im in the office, my brain decides to go into stupor. i'll try to write more next time. in any case, it seems my visitors are spending more time here than me own self. boy, do i have to work harder to update this page.
Balik Kampung.... again
i went back to kuantan again last weekend.
but on friday i went to lumut and on the way back stopped by teluk intan for lunch at restoran ghulam rasul. delicious signature ayam goreng. brought back 10 pieces of ayam goreng and 2 large kepala ikan. heh heh... fahroe came over that night to belasah the ayam and kapla ikan. sendat perut kekenyangan.
left kl around 4 pm saturday, as xyl was still working in the morning. banks are starting the 5-day week only in august. so arrived kl uneventful at 7 pm.. as i slept most of the way. hahaha...
had dinner at parents place and a race to my sis for she has astro. i've missed two af concerts and would not want to miss the one before the final. but it's also fun to meet my sister and her family as havent seen her for a few months already. last trip back did not have a chance to visit. i also found out my niece (not ifos, mind you) is an "ardent" fan of kefli and elliza. tsk tsk tsk... kantoi. so her disappointment and disapproval of that nights result was, shall i say, conspicuous?
went to kebun sunday morning and harvested sacks of manggis, rambutan and cempedak. climbed the manggis tree all the way up until about 20 feet above ground. big tree about 30-35 feet tall. challenging but i proved i can still climb. yeayy...
collecting rambutans proved to be quite challenging and adventurous. my maid got swarmed by lebah lalat and i got stung too when i was removing the lebah lalat. boy, was painful but nothing that cannot be remedied by continuous application of minyak geliga. could have been avoided if she had recognized that sarang semut does not have "semuts" flying around it.
