Goddess, I Am.

This morning, I woke up determined to write about our trip to Malaysian Borneo, as promised. But then I couldn’t figure out where to start, so I decided to just write a post for each of the three districts of Malaysia’s Sabah province that we were able to visit.

First Stop, Kota Kinabalu!

As always, we booked our Cebu Pacific tickets to KK on a seat sale months before the actual trip. Ironically, CEBU Pacific does not fly to Kota Kinabalu from – you guessed it! – CEBU. It’s annoying, I know, especially since KK is quite geographically close to Cebu! But for the love of travel, we decided to just go via Manila.

Incidentally, Malaysian Airlines flies from Cebu to KK direct, but it costs an arm and a leg. It might be worth looking in to, though, if you think it’s too tedious to have to go to Manila and deal with their more expensive (P200 more!) terminal fee.

Getting Around

Getting to KK ended up being a whole day affair because we had a layover in Manille for a few hours (it was worse coming back). We arrived in the capital of Sabah at about 8 in the evening, and we took a taxi straight to our guest house in the city center for RM30 (about P400), which we paid at the airport taxi counter.

FYI, KK taxis have meters but apparently, they never use them. Instead, they charge per zone. When I was in Pulau Penang in 2007, they had the same system. So it’s always best to negotiate with the driver before you even set foot in the cab.

There are, of course, buses that ply the city routes, and I’m sure they’re a cheaper way to get around. But if you ask me, Malaysian names are just too long and too confusing, so it’s definitely easier to either walk or take a taxi. We weren’t exactly penny-pinching, so we figured, if we can’t walk it, we’ll cab it. Thankfully, we did more walking than cabbing.

But I digress. The taxi ride to the guest house was rather pleasant. Before we knew it, we were already pulling up in front of our guest house.

The Lavender Lodge

Weeks before the trip, I was already looking for places to stay. Considering that the last couple of overseas trips that I took were to Singapore and Hong Kong where even the grubbiest hostels cost upwards of $20, I was quite delighted to find that KK hotels and guest houses do not go crazy on rates. There were plenty of options, but I finally decided on The Lavender Lodge because of all the great things I read about it. It did not disappoint.

I made a reservation for 3 nights (the 25th, 28th, and 29th of May) in a private room with en suite bathroom for RM75 (about P1,100) a night. We ended up staying in a different room for each of the 3 nights that we were there because they were rather overbooked. For our first night, we stayed in a room that had an en suite toilet but no shower, so we had to use the shared showers down the hall.

Now, if you know me, you probably have a good idea of how freaked out I am by bathrooms, especially shared ones. Well, I had absolutely no problem with the shared bathrooms of Lavender Lodge. They were huge and spotlessly clean, so to me, they were perfect. It also didn’t hurt that they provided rubber slippers for the guests, unlike the hostel in Singapore that my sister and I stayed in in March where we had to go barefoot, even in the bathroom. Ick. But that’s another story.

Moving on, for our second night in Lavender Lodge (which was our fourth night in Sabah, but more on that in the next post), we finally got our private room with the en suite bathroom. We had 2 more nights with them and we really would’ve preferred to stay in that room until we left, but unfortunately for us, someone already paid for the room for the next day. We had to move to another room the next morning – this time, the family room. It was absolutely massive and we had a surplus of 3 beds. However, it was back to the shared bathrooms for us by then, but hey, no biggie.

Normally, I would’ve gone ape-shit because I did specify that we wanted the private room with en suite bathroom for all 3 nights and I suppose they screwed that up somewhat by overbooking. But the staff was fantastic and the facilities were wonderfully clean (and I suppose I was quite in love with the place), so I really didn’t mind, not one bit. In fact, The Husband and I have already decided that we will stay there again when we go back to KK. But I’ll make sure to pre-pay our reservations then, for good measure.

The Lavender Lodge has free wifi and free breakfast. There’s a common room in the second floor with a pool table and a TV, which is usually overrun by backpackers. At least two of the receptionists were Filipinos – Bisaya, pa jud. They were really sweet, even when I bombarded them with questions every time I saw them. They can also book tours for you, if you don’t feel like DIY-ing.

The Food

We were starving by the time we finished checking in. Right across Lavender Lodge, there was a big food court type place that served fresh seafood. You know, the kind that keeps live lobsters and prawns and crabs in tanks, so you can pick and choose and be a party to murder. I don’t eat seafood, so that really didn’t do anything for me.

We walked to the east of our guest house that night to look for grub, but only found a KFC and some local restaurants that seemed to serve the same things – duck, chicken, and seafood in various kinds of curry and noodle combinations.

We ended up having a late dinner in the coffee shop right beside Lavender Lodge.

The Husband had lemon chicken and some sort of duck noodle thing:

I had roast chicken (which was a bit icky) and a very blah egg tart:

Even my favorite cold milo was bland:

To be honest, I was quite disappointed with the food in Sabah. It was always either curry this or curry that, and by the time we got back to KK after 3 days in a jungle camp (next post!), I only wanted a cheeseburger. I am embarrassed to say that I ate nothing but double cheeseburgers and chocolate milkshakes from McDonald’s the last couple of days we were there.

We also discovered fairly late in the trip that going west towards the harbor would take us to the, umm, happening part of town. On our last night, we ended up in an Irish pub where my date had a proper – and expensive! – Irish stew. Yep, we were definitely in tourist central.

Activities

As far as I know, there really isn’t a whole lot of things to do and see in KK. Well, obviously, you can shop and eat and enjoy the nightlife like in any city. There’s also the Tanjung Aru Beach, but if you’ve been to a lot of great beaches, this is nothing to write home about.

There’s a group of 5 islands within the Tunku Abdul Rahman National Park that’s just a stone’s throw away from the KK harbor where you can go snorkeling and stuff, but we decided to skip this. We heard that though it was okay for beginning snorkelers, it can be quite disappointing for those who have snorkeled in richer reefs in the past.

There are, of course, day trips to parks, wetlands, rivers, etc., but it takes several hours to get to most of these places. Suffice to say, you will really have to leave KK to make the most out of your trip (which we did).

Kota Kinabalu, In A Nutshell

KK is pretty diverse – quite modern in some areas, old-fashioned in some. It’s clean and quite orderly, so I couldn’t help but be pleased, especially coming from grubby, stressful Cebu.

The people are quite lovely, too. Just by looking at them, you already know that they all come from different backgrounds and religions, but they get along okay. It’s tolerance, at its best, and it kind of makes you wonder why people in other areas of the world can’t do the same.

There’s also a lot of Filipinos working not just in KK, but the whole of Sabah. It seemed to me that our countrymen have taken over most of the local jobs. There wasn’t a single establishment that we went to in KK alone that did not have one or two Filipinos working in it. Convenience stores even carried this:

Considering the island’s proximity to the Philippines, I suppose it’s completely logical. I just hope they’re legal. Although I did hear tell that most of the inhabitants of Pulau Gaya (one of the islands of the Tunku Abdul Rahman National Park) were illegal Filipinos. Sigh.

Tomorrow, I’ll be writing about the highlight of our whole trip! Stick around.

As far as life experiences go, this is definitely somewhere at the top of my list – probably somewhere between traveling for a week in Malaysia and Thailand with only about $80 in my purse and watching Lea Salonga play Kim in Miss Saigon back in 2000. It’s powerful, intense, and completely surreal.

The Husband, he knows a lot about wildlife, and it was he who told me about the whale sharks that migrate through the waters somewhere east of the Philippines. After a bit of research, I found out that we can actually swim and interact with this fantastic fish off the coast of Donsol, Sorsogon, about an hour’s drive from Legazpi City in Albay. Not only that, we can fly straight to Legazpi City from Cebu via Cebu Pacific, so the moment there was a seat sale, I booked our tickets without even batting an eyelash. Yes, I’m a sucker for seat sales.

But I digress. Being the ‘organized’ traveler that I am, I spent months reading through travel blogs and trawling forums to get ready for the trip. I read that although the whale sharks (or butanding, as they are locally called) travel through the Donsol sound between November and June, they are best seen during the dry months of March to May because rain makes the water murky otherwise – quite similar to a pond without a garden pond filter. And since I was celebrating my birthday on the 13th of March, anyway, I figured it’ll make for a great birthday holiday. I also found out that it was a good idea to book accommodation months in advance as guest houses in Donsol are quite few and far between and can get pretty crowded during the peak months, so I had that sorted out as early as November.

Day One

We left around lunchtime on the 11th to catch our 1310 flight. Yes, I know we should’ve left at least an hour before that, but The Husband forgot to sync movies to his iPhone, so we had to wait for that. Thankfully, we found a cab driver who drove like a maniac and got us to the airport in about 15 minutes, so we were able to check in with a few minutes to spare. It was a bit embarrassing, though, because while I lined up at the airport Dunkin’ Donuts, our names got called over the loudspeaker to board the plane, and when we did, all the other passengers glared at us. We took off about 10 minutes early, so really, that was unnecessary.

We would’ve landed early, too, if it wasn’t for the really thick and really scary fog that had the pilot circling around Albay for a full 40 minutes. It was strange because it really was quite sunny and pretty on the way over.

I was told that another 20 minutes and we would’ve had to turn back to Cebu. Thank heavens the fog cleared up long enough for the pilot to land! That really was quite a harrowing experience. I wasn’t sure whether I was more scared of crashing or having to turn back!

It was drizzling when we landed in Legazpi City. Just our luck. We planned a trip for high summer when it was highly unlikely to rain (there’s a drought, after all!), and that’s exactly what happens!

The airport was really small and quite functional. I spoke to the lady at the tourist desk to ask her where we can get the tricycle to the public terminal where the vans to Donsol are, and she suggested taking one of the private vans right outside the airport because of the rain. A van to Donsol costs about P1,500, but she told me we could share with other tourists who were heading our way, so that’s exactly what we did. We ended up with 3 other people, and we were off!

Normally, the drive to Donsol is meant to be quite scenic, thanks to the Mayon Volcano. The mountain was a complete no-show that day, however. The fog was THAT bad. Still, Albay is quite pretty. We passed rice fields aplenty and some of the prettiest cemeteries I’ve ever seen. Now, I’m deathly afraid of cemeteries, no pun intended, but these ones were so pretty, I couldn’t help taking a little peek.

Donsol was a lot larger than I expected. We got to drive around the town somewhat to drop off the other passengers in the van, and it really is quite a pretty town. The locals seemed friendly enough, and I’ve never seen so many foreign backpackers since Thailand.

Our driver drove us straight to the Amor Farm Beach Resort, where we would be staying for the next couple of days. Apparently, this family-owned resort was the first resort ever to be established in Donsol. One of the Amor daughters checked us in and showed us our pretty little bungalow. Now, being staunch budget travelers, The Husband and I have been in some real shitholes in our time, and this was definitely NOT one of those. In fact, our bungalow was one of the nicest places we’ve ever stayed in. I was very impressed by the room and was even more impressed by the bathroom with its faux Greco-Roman tile design. Yes, it was definitely worth the price of P1,800 per night.

After we settled in, one of the resort staff directed us to where we could sign up for the next morning’s butanding interaction tour. It was about a 5-minute walk from the resort, but it took us about half an hour to get there. There were just so many pretty things to photograph! The new 35mm was on a roll! I took photos of everything from cows to flowers to boats, while The Husband did what he does best: bird-watch.

There was a small crowd of travelers when we got to the Butanding Interaction Center. Everyone has to register for the trip, and no one will ever get scammed here when all trips are regulated. The registration fee is P100 for Filipino citizens and P300 for foreign nationals. Each boat costs P3,500, which is divided amongst its passengers.

Everyone’s encouraged to register early because they only allow 30 boats to go out to sea each morning. Each boat carries a maximum of 6 people, and the staff usually groups people together to make up those 6. When we got there that afternoon, everyone else already had their groups, so we were told to come back at 7:30 the next morning, and they’ll find us a group then.

It was already near sunset when we got back to the resort. We walked to the beach and watched the beautiful Donsol sunset. The water was so calm that you can almost ignore the fact that it was raining just a few kilometers away across the sound.

We realized that we haven’t eaten anything since we left, so The Husband and I then had dinner at the resort’s restaurant. The food was mostly Filipino, so he settled on the safest thing on the menu – fried chicken and fried potatoes – while I had pork sinigang with rice.

Unfortunately, the food wasn’t all that good. His fried chicken was bland, while my sinigang was quite dismal. We ended up feeding most of our dinner to the resident puppy, instead (who we decided to name ‘Patch’, for obvious reasons).

After dinner, we went back to the bungalow and ate almost all the sweets and chips we brought with us to make up for the disappointing dinner. Beat after a long day of traveling, we decided to turn in early.

To be continued…

More photos of the trip can be found on Flickr.

I’ve said this once, and I’ll say it again: I love my job. And by extension, this means I really do enjoy working; hence, why I do little else.

These days, however, my focus has been quite off. Case in point – a task that would normally take me an hour to do now takes me about a couple at best, half a day at worst. I can’t help it. I’m now on vacation mode! The slightest reminder of the trips that I’m going to be taking within the next few months is enough to get me Googling like mad and planning our itineraries like a woman possessed.

Although Branson vacations are not part of the agenda right now, I am still heading to parts made of awesome.

Next week, The Husband and I are off to Donsol, Sorsogon for a couple of days. In case you’re wondering what could possibly be in Donsol that’s worth the excitement, I’ll give it to you in two words: whale sharks.

Oh, and we’re not just off to watch whale sharks, we’re actually going to SWIM with whale sharks. How cool is that? I’m absolutely DYING with excitement! So much so, in fact, that I’ve had my sister make me a special swimsuit that will guarantee that I don’t get mistaken for plankton. And yes, I’m serious.

I’m also looking forward to the firefly river cruise. I love fireflies, really I do, and I’m looking forward to seeing so many in such a romantic setting.

Next, we’re off to Singapore in April with The Family. I’ve never gotten around to visiting Singapore, even back in the days I spent gallivanting around the Southern Thailand and Malaysia, so I’m very much looking forward to this trip. Oh, I hope they finally open up the new Universal Studios by then!

In May, The Family and I will be going on a beach trip – probably to Bantayan again. If so, that would be my sixth time on the island, but hey, we all know that a trip to the beach is always something to look forward to, no matter what!

At the end of June, The Husband and I are going back to my favorite city (so far): Hongkong! I. CAN’T. WAIT!

I’ve been looking forward to going back since our first trip in 2007, so we’ve decided to stay a bit longer than we did the last time. We’re very much looking forward to exploring Macau some more and going birdwatching in the wetlands near Mai Po and, of course, getting back on The Abyss (THE mother of all rides, baby!) in Ocean Park.

Pardon the video. I was nearly 3 years younger, 3 years more stupid, and 3 years more O.A. The potty mouth hasn’t changed, though.

We’re yet to plan more trips for the second half of the year, but right now, I’m thinking of Coron (Palawan), Kota Kinabalu (Malaysia), and Jakarta/Bali (Indonesia).

Yes, it still amazes me how happy and giddy the prospect of traveling makes me. After staying put in Cebu for so long, I’ve almost forgotten how good it feels to be someplace new. Oh yes, I’ve missed being Wander Girl, I tell you! And the prospect of taking hundreds upon hundreds of potentially gorgeous photographs is absolutely exciting!

So how about you? Where are you off to this year?

Owning a Mac is like raising a child. It requires expense after expense, not necessarily because it demands it, but because you always want what’s best for it. I thought my darling Gaius was a handful, but really, it had absolutely nothing on Octavian.

Octavian, by the way, is the Macbook Pro that I upgraded to a month after I got Gaius. Yes, I managed to work up the courage to tell The Husband, and yes, I really couldn’t help myself. Octavian is, without a doubt, the best laptop I’ve ever owned, and I’m completely in love with him, almost to the point of altar-worship.

But I digress. In the 4 weeks that I’ve had Octavian, I’ve bought accessory after accessory. And because Octavian IS a fabulous 13.3-inch Macbook Pro – the first of his kind – most of them do not come cheap.

Here’s the rundown of, umm, ‘damages’ . . . so far:

1. A pretty pink Sumdex laptop bag – P1,850 (approximate $38).

Now, I had a perfectly good laptop bag that I bought for Gaius. I couldn’t bear the thought of Octavian getting a hand-me-down bag from Gaius, however, so I convinced myself that it was not padded enough for skinny, little Octavian (which it really was), and sold it to Chin, who I am hoping is perfectly happy with it.

2. A scarlet CaseLogic laptop sleeve with a fantastic flower detail – P1499 (approximately $30).

I wanted to give Octavian in all his aluminum glory extra protection; hence, the sleeve. Now, I am completely aware that one can buy a perfectly functional sleeve somewhere between P100 (CDR-King) and P899 (the plain CaseLogic ones – no pretty flowers!), and I really was all set to go for the latter. However, I took one look at the red one with the flower in SM, and my self-control ran off, never to be seen again.

From time to time, in the dead of night when it behooves me to take stock of my life, I find myself wondering whatever possessed me at that very moment. But then I take one look at the beautiful scarlet sleeve and how good Octavian looks in it, and all is right with the world once again. Oh, and did I mention it was reversible?

3. A screen protector – P950.

I know, I know. One can get a screen protector for P100 (again) from CDR-King. In fact, I did get one for Gaius. The problem was that it was a DIY install, and it was so badly done that I didn’t want to risk it again.

So off I went to Digital Walker (Digital Hub in some places) in SM Cyberzone where I get a cool 10% discount, simply because I’m a member of the PhilMUG (Philippine Mac Users Group) forums. (I also bought Octavian from them, and Charlie, the owner, gave me discount of almost P11,000, which was a lot more than the usual 10%!) The guy in charge of the Cebu store personally installed my screen protector, and he did it so well that you won’t even know it’s there! There isn’t a single bubble or speck of dust trapped between the protector and the screen itself. I’ve never seen such a stellar screen protector installation in my life!

4. A silicon keyboard protector – P500 (about $10).

My life revolves around my laptop since I work 16 to 20-hour days with nary a weekend free. I even take meals with Octavian on my lap, which makes a keyboard protector an absolute necessity, myself being a scatterbrained klutz.

Thankfully, I found a keyboard protector from China on eBay that’s been made especially for aluminum unibody Macbook Pros. It features black keys on see-through silicon, so Octavian’s keyboard still gets to glow in all its prettiness. Plus, I don’t have to worry about spills and crumbs anymore!

5. A trackpad protector ($9.99) and a pretty logo ($4.99).

It has always been my intention to keep Octavian as bare as the day he was born (or at least, the day he was bought), but when I discovered SkinStyler, my resolve literally flew out the window. After all, how can I resist the oh-so pretty Apple logo of old on Octavian, instead of the newer and oh-so generic white one?

The trackpad protector was a bit of an afterthought. I figured if I was getting something shipped all the way from Malaysia, I might as well make the most of it. I’m very happy how it turned out, though. I didn’t go for the more colorful designs, even when I was sorely tempted to do so, because I figured it’ll look all wrong on Octavian’s original color scheme. The logo is ostentatious enough as it is.

6. A cooling pad – P280.

Because I have so much to do all the time, poor Octavian has to work almost non-stop every day. If he was a Windows-running laptop, he probably would’ve died of sheer exhaustion by now!

But again, I digress. Octavian does tend to get really hot when I run OS X and Windows on VMWare Fusion simultaneously, and I figured he needed a bit of help. I was initially all set to get me a Belkin cooler (P1500), but I’ve been assured that any cooling pad will work just fine. And because I’ve already spent quite a lot in less than a month, I figured it can’t hurt to get a cheap one.

I got a nice, compact, foldable one from Global Village, and so far, I’m very happy with it – at least, until I saw the same cooler in pink at CDR-King. I can’t justify getting another one right now, though, especially with a reason as trivial as color, so I’m sticking to this boring black one for the moment.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like Octavian’s expenses are coming to an end. Since I bought the cooling fan, I now need a flat surface to put it on when I’m working on the couch. I have my eyes set on something called the iLap, but I’ve been told there’s a P600 CDR-King version, so I’m going to check that out. Right now, I’m just using Octavian’s box, and it’s so unfashionable, not to mention uncomfortable.

I also want to upgrade Octavian’s measly 160GB hard drive to 500 GB because I’m downloading so many movies and it’s filling up fast. And oh, I want to upgrade my DDR3 RAM from 2GB to 4GB for no particular reason other than I can and it sounds like a good idea. And I will also want another bag or two down the line because one can’t have too many laptop bags, after all.

I swear, if Octavian can go horseback riding, I’ll gladly buy him breeches. Heck, I’ll even send him to college, if he wasn’t so smart already.

Really, with a Mac, who needs children?