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.

If you follow me on Twitter, then you’re probably one of the many people I’ve bored senseless with details and updates of our trip to Malaysian Borneo. Sorry about that. Some things just cannot be helped! I’ve been back in the Philippines for 6 days now, and I’m still reeling from the experience. It was that GOOD!

The Husband and I have been talking about taking a trip to the Borneo jungles for as long as we’ve known each other, but it was only this year that we really went for it. I always plan our trips, but never as carefully as this one. I suppose I was a bit apprehensive about going ‘into the wild’ that I just couldn’t leave anything to chance. So I planned everything from the obvious (accommodation, transfers, etc.) to the not-so-obvious (travel insurance, including Medicare part D plans). It didn’t help that there really wasn’t a lot of real information online on the places we wanted to go to.

All my hard work paid off, though. (If I may say so myself.) We had an epic holiday, we saw almost everything we set out to see, and we had some really priceless close encounters. I just wish we could’ve stayed longer because there were some things that we wanted to do that we just didn’t have enough time for. But, at least, we now know that we’re going to need a minimum of 15 days in Sabah if we’re going to go the whole hog.

We’re not done with you yet, Borneo! Not by a long shot.

I’ll blog some more about the trip once I muster the energy to edit my photos.

- Posted using BlogPress on Agrippa, the iPad

I think one of the best – and worst – things about growing up and living in the Philippines is the inevitable tendency to rely on household helpers. I am 28 years old and married for over a year, yet I still don’t know how to cook, clean, do the laundry, or iron. Or more accurately, I simply don’t want to – not when we can hire a woman to do all these once a week for about $5.

And I’m not alone, too. The Sister is an absolute mess whenever The Nephew has no nanny, which is probably why most of the family dramas can be blamed on the crazy women she’s had the misfortune of hiring over the past 2 years. Aaahhhh . . . The horror stories I could tell you about thieving nannies and ex-stripper nannies and nannies with STDs – it’ll take me all day! My poor sister and brother-in-law had to constantly keep an eye on these loonies, which really defeats the whole point of having a nanny, doesn’t it?

Thankfully, they seem to have found a real gem in the current nanny, so here’s hoping the days of scary ex-strippers are behind them. Still, I can’t help but wonder whether a hidden camera or two would help matters. I have very ambivalent feelings about spying on the help, which is why I let The Husband supervise the cleaning woman whenever she comes in. Besides, he’s so anal about his tv stands and the floors and the laundry that he’s perfect for the job. He’s a natural tyrant.

What about you? Would you spy on the help?

Halloween was virtually unheard of while I was growing up here in the Philippines. Well, we did know of it, thanks to being exposed to all things American, but nobody really went around dressed up as ghouls. Trick-or-treating was just something enviable, much like Ferrari parts, but it really wasn’t a bit deal back then.

Those days are long gone, of course. Everyone seems to be dressing up for one reason, or another. Everyone, including myself and The Sister. We rather valiantly braved the mad crowd of screaming kids and overbreeding parents on the pretense of taking The Nephew trick-or-treating in Ayala when really, our nearly 2-year-old looked like he could care less if we took him tranny-spotting.

Bored.

We were attempting to recapture our deprived Halloween-less childhood, you see. Hence, why we were garbed as such:

The Dead Cereal Killer

Erica Northman (tee hee), Viking.

Tomorrow, The Nephew has another Halloween party to go through, this time in Gymboree.

Chin once told me that she envied my portable life. That was back in 2007 when I packed up and left for Thailand.

Everything I owned could fit in a single suitcase. I was free to come and go whenever I pleased. Those were among the best days of my life, and like Chin then, I envy my portable life now.

These days, I’m feeling that all too familiar restlessness again, that itch go someplace far and exotic – not for a few days’ holiday, but to stay for a while, to stay indefinitely. And in theory, I could. After all, that’s the beauty of working online. I don’t have to worry about how I’m going to feed and shelter myself in some exciting foreign land.

But a theory is all it is for me now, now that I’m married and can never think solely for myself ever again. My life is still fairly portable (or I can make it so in a heartbeat because I don’t exactly go crazy on wholesale appliances). Why, I can give away most of my clothing and my shoes and my books and I won’t even bat an eyelash. All I need are a few t-shirts, some underwear, a few pairs of pants, my laptop, my iPad, and my camera, and I’m a happy camper. The Husband, however, is another story.

You see, he gets very attached to things, like his huge-ass TV and home theater system, his hundreds of Blu-Ray movies, his electric couch, and even the goddamned refrigerator. Most of these things traveled all the way from England to Thailand when he moved to Bangkok in 2006, and again from Thailand to the Philippines in 2008. When we do move again, he’s going to insist on taking all of these with us, plus everything else we’ve bought since.

And if you’ve ever had to go through the ordeal of moving furniture and appliances from one country to another, you’ll know it’s not a walk in the park. So it goes without saying that moving from one country to another on a whim is out of the question, and when we do move again, it’ll have to be a big one (read: for good) to make the most out of the time, money, and gargantuan effort that transporting his stuff will demand.

Heavens, why do material things have to make life so complicated?

- Posted using BlogPress on Agrippa, the iPad