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I feel like blogging about Orang Utans today!!

The real kind by the way, not the ones we call our husband’s people behind their backs, tee hee The husband was pretty keen on visting the Semenggoh Wildlife Centre when we were in Kuching. Of course it was too good to resist telling him it’s nice of him to think and visit his people even on a trip. To which that smart ass said if they are my relative, they are yours too……..then the smart alec in me responded by saying………only by virtue of marrying you!!

Story of our married life.

Anyhos, getting there took us a little longer as we started our journey after buying those sweet sweet delicious layer cake. It was a 40km drive, approx 40 minutes drive or so. Can’t say the drive here was a scenic one, I was just  glad the little terror was fast asleep allowing me to continously taunt the husband about visiting his people

We got there around 3pm. I had no intentions of following the trail coz I heard it can get very hot and after our experience of being drenched in sweat at the Cultural Village, I was bent on not going through the same again! Besides this place actually closes at 4pm.

We had just got down from the car when all of a sudden, people were gathering near the car park when I turned to see this gorgeous sight.

A real up-close and personal photo :D  Can officially say I saw Orang Utans without following the stupid trail and sweating like a pig. God must love me sometime.

Excuse the I just got out of bed face and hair.

Nen nen time…

Eww ma, someone’s breastfeeding openly in public! I can see titties….the horror…

Wait mom, if the orang utan can have nen nen in public, can I have the same too?? We’re just about the same species aren’t we?

I’m coming to get those titties, har har

All of a sudden she breaks out in a little dance, in the middle of the car park with the orang utans behind her.

One little two little three macarena…

Starting to look like a chicken dance already! Btw super heart her outfit, makes her look like a big girl, that is until she breaks out in a dance in public!

Piggie back ride, a familiar scene at home sometimes with the husband acting as the horsey. But now that I know Orang Utans carry their youngs that way, I’m going to call him that in the future. This trip was indeed educational

A closer look

Try to spot the Orang Utans in this photo…and no am not refering to those two on the left.

No nen nen in public but she finally got her milk in bottle form

Duck face in Kuching Speaking of which, there are no ducks in Kuching, not even in the river.

Now that we’ve got to see these Orang Utans, am thinking of shelving our Sandakan trip in October. Coz there’s only so much Orang Utans you can surround yourself with Besides, would you believe I only paid RM30 for two for flight? Heh. Wonder when is the next BIG Air Asia sale.

Today children, we shall learn about the various cultures in Sarawak! Its one of the things that intrigues us wherever we go……we are always keen to know what’s the culture like in that particular city, how people live,  what they do for money, what they eat and the list goes on.

Sarawak Cultural Village or SCV is located about 30-40 minutes drive from Kuching city.

First, we start the day by giving the little one lots and lots of kisses!

Then we feed her with a yummy Mee Kolok meal for lunch. Baby approved. So now we can start our journey…

Ah yes, then MOMMY entertained the naughty toddler for a good 40 minutes in the car. The car didn’t come with a car seat so…..

I am SOOO naughty today! She kept throwing herself backwards like that. Things I have to put up with.

The drive was quite scenic, though not as scenic as our drive to Mount Kinabalu in KK. We finally arrived and then realized this is where the annual Rainforest World Music Festival usually takes place. Cool! Entrance is RM60 a pop, which is VERY pricey in my opinion. Half the price of our airflight tickets yo! It breaks down to RM10 per house that you will visit in there. When the guy asked if we were Malaysians, I really thought we’d be given a discount but NOPE. Guess I should stop being  a typical Malaysian who always expects discounts? Heh

Ah yes hence the hubby’s look, lol. Would have been a waste to turn back after that long drive so we pressed on.

Lo and behold, the gorgeous Mount Santubong which kinda looks like uneven titties to me

We had justtt started to commence our tour when a bunch of kids came up to Sairah and hugged her. The little one of course got excited and kept turning back to get more hugs. Such a hippie this one.

First stop the Chinese house.

Fun Fact: The chinese farm house are built on  ground level with floors made of trodden earth and walls made of sawn timber. The roofs are built high up as it’s much cooler. Most of the Chinese people here are likely to be of Hakka or Foochow descent. One third of the state’s population is actually Chinese.

And based on my own experience here, the chinese people were the most friendliest to us during our trip here.

Second stop, The Malay house

Fun Fact: Like all local houses, it is built of wood. Malay houses are generally also built on stilts.  A visitor approaching from the front comes up a staircase. He announces his presence before he reaches the verandah. This may be quite small, or lead along the front of the house; it permits a stranger to wait until somebody welcomes him in. 

Geez this reminds me of some Indian relatives who like to pop by without calling first, grrr.

They were also making malay cookies in that house which were up for sale. Fattie in me bought a few packets

I love how spacious this house is.

My favorite pastime back in school.

Third house was the Melanau house, which was my favorite house.

Fun Fact: Melanau people make up 5.8% of Sarawak’s population now mostly living in the central coastal region. Melanaus differ from most because they eat sago in preference to rice. Sago palms originally grew wild in the coastal swamps, and they are cultivated. They traditionally lived near the sea within reach of the pirates. The Melanaus built massive houses forty feet above the ground.

Now how awesome is that? The house is so massive and regal looking, like a mean ass monster truck.

Ready for our Melanau exploration…

The Bomoh area….should have requested for the bomoh to ‘pukau’ my husband into buying me more bags and loving me longgg time

Said awesome unique stairs.

They is also a much longer one which was kinda fun and dangerous to walk on. Big feet you see.

One family usually occupies one room. And the lady explained to us while some Melanaus are muslims now, they still can live in harmony with the Christians in the long house. They just cook separately, for obvious reasons.

But seriously, I can’t imagine one whole family occupying ONE room! They also offer home-stay in each house, just incase you might be keen. Think I would most definitely pass on that.

Sago goodies for sale.

Melanau folks. Pretty good lookers eh? I’m guessing they stay so slim coz of the sago they eat. New diet plan!

Next up, Orang Ulu house. Never knew they existed.

Fun Fact: Orang Ulu, or ‘up-river dwellers’ is a useful if vague term to describe the Central Borneo people living in Sarawak. They comprise of the Penan, the Kayan and Kenyah living in the middle and upper reaches of Sarawak’s rivers. Orang Ulu were famous in the region as sword-smiths.  Each longhouse was built to last.

And yes only one photo coz we didn’t really go in to check out coz I saw the amount of stairs to climb and freaked out. The weather was SUPER hot and we were sweating like a rain shower at this point I just wanted to end the tour. Stupid crappy weather!

Walked along and found a Penan House, if one could even call it a house.

Fun Fact: The shy nomadic people of the jungle live in the dense jungles of Central Boreno, among some of the State’s most valuable timber resources. Penan shelters are constructed to last for a few weeks of months. They are sitted near a good stand of wild sago trees, their staple food and after this has been used up, the family moves on. They are also fond of using blow pipes.

I seriously doubt the ’shy’ part coz do check out their outfits yo. Just a loin cloth to cover those modest bits. Wonder why the cloth is so long though, hmmm

5th stop was the Iban house. Weather was getting unbearable at this point I might add.

Fun fact: The Iban house is built to last 15-20 years or until the farm land in the surrounding area was exhausted. About 1/3 of all Sarawakians are Ibans; while some of them live in towns or houses, a large number still prefer longhouses.

Getting our ‘passport’ stamped. It’s a little book with information in it. That’s how I got the ‘fun facts’ for this post, LOL.

The traditional costume. Little one was afraid of the dude.

Last and final stop, woot – The Bidayuh House

Fun Fact: Bidayuhs account for 8.4% of the population and live within the catchment of the Sarawak and Sadong rivers. They built their houses in mountain fastnesses, tacked to a steep hillside like a gigantic staircase. This was to protect them against enemies and also for access to pure fresh water.

I think this shot is pretty awesome but that’s just me

Sweaty sweaty smelly people. And yes we actually drove back all the way to hotel after that just to shower again before heading to the mall.

The end of our tour. Class dismissed!

Oh, and here’s a photo of the far far away Damai Beach which we didn’t get to go closer coz of the stinky weather.

The end of our Sarawak Cultural Village tour. Despite the weather, we still enjoyed every bit of our education. So hope you enjoyed the little tour, you better…..coz I just saved you RM60, heh Thank me by commenting, ciao!

Last year I managed to score tickets to Kuching for a mere RM231 inclusive of infant, baggage and meals! I wanted to cover East Malaysia and can officially say that I have. So that’s where we were for the Easter holiday, although technically Easter holiday is not an official public holiday in West Malaysia. It is in East Malaysia though :D  I did a quick check a few days before our trip and noticed the flight cost RM1k  minus the additional add ons! Talk about major savings if you book during the sale eh?

Hey hey gfs, am travelling again with my old folks, they seem to be taking me everywhere they go thesedays, how boring! Text ya when I’m back biatches :D

We stayed in 360 Kuching which was a 5 minute drive from the Waterfront.  The room only cost me RM130 (yea I got the room and flight this time around to balance off the free Perth trip A woman doesn’t just take, if you know what I mean, lol) per night and it was pretty decent. Small but very cozy.

We also rented a Viva to take us around for only RM90 a day. It was the cheapest rate I could find so I highly recommend this site. Taking a cab within Kuching is very expensive that is why we opted to drive ourselves…..makes it a whole lot more fun exploring too!

First stop on Friday when we arrived was to check out the Waterfront area. We sat by the River and ate some Goreng Pisang for snack. Their version seems to be very different and they eat it with chilli sauce! Turned out to be pretty good that we ordered another plate.

The view of the Astana from the Waterfront

Kuching River

There are choices of taking a cruise too to check out the area. We didn’t go coz it was such a hot day (I seriously dont want to go to another hot place next!) plus I didn’t know how Sairah would react to being on a boat so no thank you, hate the idea of being puked at.

Squatting down like a lil illegal immigrant worker.  She’s been doing that alot lately, guess she finally realized her knees are capable of supporting her weight doing that

Manja time! I LOVE going on lil holidays like this because it gives me a whole lot of bonding/manja time with the little one. She loves doing what I call the Koala Bear where she’ll come and plonk herself on top of me and not move!

I’m a little baby Koala Bear clingy as can be, har har!

One of the things I made sure to properly research was where to eat. Kuching may not be the most exciting city we’ve been to but at least the food was DELICIOUS and more importantly CHEAP! Now I understand why those who are from Kuching are totally proud of their food.

Here’s the Black Bean Coffee & Tea Company……..yea not to be mistaken for Coffee Bean for sure! Prices are cheap with most coffees being less than RM5! And best of all, it’s local coffee made with lots of love. Starbucks is indeed a luxury here…..which is why there is a few coffeeshop chain ala starbucks called Bing! Which we didn’t get to check out unfortunately.

Gimme that chocolate peanut cookie woman!

We checked out a few malls around Kuching (though I have to admit, there really is nothing to see here) with the exception of The Spring mall which was pretty huge and nice.

Decided to dress her up in a gender neutral outfit……..is it a boy, or is that a girl? I can’t tell!!

You can actually get to the Astana with a sampan ride. But we opted to drive, which wasn’t very far, perhaps 10 minutes with the help of the GPS to arrive. So basically we drove to the other side of the river

Little one was being all cheeky….

By sticking her tongue out and all!

Ah yes, just next to our hotel was actually a pathetic looking mall which had a small amusement park. So Sairah’s retarded parents decided to chill out for a bit by forcing her to go on rides such as this:

She wasn’t exactly too happy to be on it but who cares, mommy had fun It’s been a while since I went on a bumper car!

Of course, Sairah’s daddy had a blast whacking the mole but in this case were a bunch of bulldogs.

The wannabe sniper. He claims this is his third time playing a game like this at an arcade. He was a nerd back then in school, you can tell!

Back in our hotel…….little one prefers BOOKS rather than hang out in the arcade with her parents, hmpf.

Just one of the MUST-EAT when you’re in Kuching…..I present you Kolok Mee! This was the halal version

And my absolute favorite – Teh C Special! Of course you can find this in our local mamaks in KL too, but nothing like savouring it from its original ‘birth’ place I say :D

Chong Choon Cafe came highly recommended on a few forums for its Kolok Mee and Sarawak Laksa. We went there early during lunch and was told they were CLOSING coz they actually open at 7a.m and are usually done by 11ish. So the next morning, while Sairah and I slept comfortably, the husband took on the task to pack back the yummy Kolok Mee and Sarawak Laksa for breakfast!!! And yes try looking out for Gardenia/Massimo bread in Kuching, you will find it a tough task. Coz why eat boring bread when you have such yummy food like these for breakfast eh.

That’s what I call breakfast in bed…don’t know what’s up with their similiar outfit, haha.

What, no bread & cheese today?!

Another round of Teh C Special……..one of the best one I”ve had was in Madam Tangs, a little cafe famous for its Teh C Special and Nasi lemak. Again we went in the evening for dinner and found it close…….turns up they open for lunch usually.

With another must-try drink, White Lady. Except it got gobbled up by a not so white-ish guy

If you’re driving to the Astana, make sure you drop by the most famous Kek Lapis shop in Kuching called Dayang Salhah. Alot of people actually take the boat across just to get here. They also deliver to those in KL – joy! I highly recommend the Cadbury, Cadbury Cheese, Cappucino Cheese and Azura layer cake…….to die for, literally! I bought back close to 10 packets and they nicely wrapped it up for me. It price ranges from RM10-13 for a small packet. Didn’t help that my bag was 2 kgs over-weight despite packing minimum items into my main luggage.

Very generous with their samples………the more you try the more you’ll want to buy. True story

Some of the cakes I bought.

This was in The Spring, a pretty decent mall (or should I say the ONLY decent mall) with a good food court.

Okay more on Kuching in the next post.

So far with all trips with Sairah, our flights have ALWAYS been at the early wee hours of the morning! I think she has become accustomed to it. Here she is having her milk feed at 5a.m in the morning. I think early flights like this might be a little cruel on a toddler but at least, by the time we board and the plane takes off she’ll be asleep! Infact she was asleep right until we arrived LCCT making the ride easy as ABC for mommy But the no 1 reason why our flights are this early is because its much cheaper to travel that way. And as you might know already we’re such cheapos

That said, there are no other trips scheduled until June perhaps, boo! Hope the next few months whizz by quickly coz the OCDC in me actually loves packing for trips

11/3/2012-18/3/2012

Perth is definitely an extremely child friendly destination for a holiday. If you take a close look at things you can do there, it always includes kiddie like activities. They are a very family oriented bunch! Everywhere you go, you can see the whole jing bang together in tow. They really are the epitome of people who believe in work-life balance

Besides the park visits (which was FREE), we made our way to the Perth Zoo and Aquarium. Though a little pricey for us Malaysians (each entry cost close to AUD50 for two of us), it was worth every AUD/RM I reckon.

This was the Perth Zoo. I should add that the zoo is located IN the city and took us less than 10 minutes to arrive. One can easily take an entire day here but we took a few hours because we were heading off that afternoon to Burns Beach. The weather was thankfully good to us.

African Painted Dog – never knew they existed! One can easily mistake them for a pack of hyennas.

Rhino, incase you didn’t know already.

Lion.

Father and daughter on the prowl…

This cutie pie was constantly posing for me!

BATS! Nanananana bat maaann.

Monkey checking out her species

Mmm iced coffee extra large size mmm….

BIG ASS TURTLE!

My brave brave lil girl…..

Visiting daddy’s side

Can you spot the orang utan up and above?

Snack time for the little one….

As we watch the honeybear have water melon for snack too. Both bears having their snack, LOL.

Off to meet some Oz animals.

A lazy kangaroo..

Yup this is how slowwwww these two walked in the zoo.

Little Red Indian Girl

Gen-2 spotted in Perth.

This was our rented car for 5 days. It was about AUD35 per day if I”m not mistaken. Couldn’t take a smaller cheaper car because we needed the boot space.

Just a rough idea how packed our boot was!! Her little potty made it from Malaysia to Perth. We naturally dumped it there on our last day.

We made a pit stop for a quick lunch before heading off to Burns Beach. Of course, the little one made a BIG poo in the restaurant. But one thing I love about OZ is the CLEAN toilets. They are hardly ever wet or smell bad which makes changing a soiled diaper not quite a chore

Poo done, let’s EAT!

This is Aqwa, which was a 20 minutes car ride from Burns Beach.  Just think of it as our Aquarium in KLCC, only better, but of course

And now for the blue photos….

Meh, our ONLY family photo of the trip. Hubby kept asking me if he should get someone to help take a photo of us but I’m very very possesive over my new camera *my preciousssss*

The little one enjoyed herself so much and was all eager to check em all out.

I would hate to fall into this tank, ouch.

Stone fish!! How gross looking is that?

Loving the gorgeous blue sky and ocean.

Aaah the beach…..my ultimate dream is to really live by the beach and raise a child there.

Oh mom me not digging having the sun on my face!

Lunch was at this cafe that served really good pizza and spaghetti. Mmm…..

The restaurant was located by the dock. Only thing missing was my own damn boat parked at the dock.

Another free place to visit is Fremantle. It’s about a 30 minute drive from Perth city.

It was a pretty hot day!

I was expecting the market to be HUGE, alas it was just a small one and we didn’t buy much. Shopping isn’t really a past time in Perth. I didn’t even shop much for myself!

Brunch time.

French style crepe with nutella, yummy to the core. I’m going to try to make this one day at home.

No one captures shitty photos of me like my husband does. I think the fork was about to fall off hence the look. Why do I even bother about things that aren’t mine.

Some crepe for the chocolate loving monster toddler.

Naturally when in Freemantle, fish and chips comes to mind. There are a few restaurants around here serving the same thing. So we stopped in an Indian store (of all places!!) to get some local suggestion and the indian dude behind the counter suggested us a restaurant. We were trying to find it when I told my hubby if he was damn sure it was a fish & chips shop and not an Indian restaurant Because you know how indians are…..always recommending Indian food only, esp to another Indian, LOL.

We finally found it and this is actually a single serve for ONE! Came with four slices of fish with lots of chips. How does ONE person gobble it all to themselves??? Good thing we shared. This meal alone came up to AUD30.

So that’s lunch for me? For the record, this baby doesn’t even like fish and I didn’t know what else to feed her so I got her a bowl of cereal. I suspect the milk we got from the cafe nearby probably caused her to have diarrhea…..more on that later.

Great, we’re in Dome for the hundred time again!!

Only because her mom had a super crush on their chai chiller, yummy to the core. Dome Malaysia, how come we don’t have this??!

The end of our trip! And I should also thank my hubby since this was an all expense paid trip. He was kind enough to pay for everything and right up until I boarded the plane I didnt have a single AUD with me!!  He gave me some cash once we landed there because his plan was an easy one…..to make me fall in love with Perth so this will be the chosen place we would move to and guess what? Freaking plan worked. I do have a soft spot for Perth, esp the way of family life here. And helps  that schooling is free for the brat.

What can I say, I’ m a sucker for free holidays And a sucker for a chilled out lifestyle.  But more on that later

Nestled 30 mins away from the city lies Burns Beach, which is close to Joondalup!  This is a high end beautiful neighborhood that has a beautiful beach right next to it. The best word to describe it is of course BEAUTIFUL

To be honest, this is where we’d like to set up our home when we move to OZ. But it doesn’t come with an affordable price tag, naturally.

My husband was the one who researched this place and booked us into Burns Beach B&B. Now B&Bs to me doesn’t strike as being fancy. But this place proved me wrong!

We arrived to a huge looking house that was literally a 5 mins walk to the beach.

Prue, the owner (she lives upstairs) and her grand-daughter invited us in and what followed next was a series of ooooh this place is sooo beautiful!

We were ushered into our room and it looked EXACTLY like pictured on their website. I LOVE the black-grey color combination of the room, makes it look so comfie and posh. It felt like a 5 star hotel but at an affordable rate :D

Hallelujah – this bed is SO comfie!

My baby is such a drama queen But she’s right, the bed in the previous hotel we stayed in (Perth Ambassador) in the city gave me a BAD back!! Avoid at all cost! Only good thing about that hotel was the central location but still….

She hardly ever used the playpen at home but here, she was in it willingly. Wonder why?

Explains alot eh? Check out the HUGE tv in front. Sadly it was playing alot of cartoons only.

After staying in the shit hole hotel in the city (hubby paid AUD160 per night), paying an extra AUD10 per night to stay in this place was a total bargain!! I wish we could have stayed here the entire week and travel into Perth. It was worth every penny.

 OMG ma this is luxury!

Staying here felt like we were staying in a rich’s aunt’s house, heh. The owner Prue was very accommodating. She and her partner had worked so hard at doing up this place and all their hard work has certainly paid off.

 Bathroom

Dining area (3 tables coz there are only 3 rooms to be rented here, and to be honest, though the other rooms were booked I never once saw any of them, the house felt like it belonged to us!). B’fast is also included. Just let Prue know what time you’d like to have it, roll out of bed and wala b-fast is served! There’s a coffee machine among other drinks at your disposable. How thoughtful is that?

The anneh helping himself out to the freebie

The gorgeous outdoor that comes with a spa! Never got to use it thanks to some third wheel, lol.

Grocery time! One thing I LOVE about Perth is, all suburbs come equipped with their own supermarkets for convinience.

The beach nearby our B&B.

Sunset oh sunset, how I’d kill to own a property here.

It was really windy too.

Little one was all eager to walk and run around. She loved their huge park.

We sat down, ate a yogurt while watching the sunset.

 I LOVE this shot of her, she looks like a lil chuckina here, hehe. Wonder what she was plotting in her lil head.

Okay do I run to the left or right? Decisions decisions

This was the day we moved out to head back to the city again. Her sad face says it all. Even mommy and daddy were sad too

Do dolly and I reallyyyy have to move from here?

Don’t worry baby girl we’ll be back there one day, hopefully. Meanwhile, anyone wants to buy us a property here? Will be eternal grateful.

And if you’re ever looking for a place to stay in Perth, then I HIGLY HIGHLY recommend this. Do check out reviews on tripadvisor here.