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.

I was killing time in the mall yesterday, waiting to meet up with Chin for dessert, so I decided to window-shop some. I was browsing through the racks in Topshop when it suddenly hit me: I’ve been going about my shopping the wrong way for the past, what, 15 years or so.

Here’s why. On principle, I wouldn’t mind buying an expensive dress that I really like, yet I wouldn’t pay over a certain amount for small separates like tops and skirts and shorts. I’m not entirely sure why. Perhaps on some subconscious level, I believe that more effort and material are used in the making of a dress; therefore, it should cost more. That’s the most logical reason I could think of.

At that moment, though, I realized that if I really, really, REALLY wanted to make the most out of any purchase I make, such reasoning was completely invalid. I simply can’t get as much mileage out of a dress than, say, a pair of denim shorts. I probably wear my most favorite frocks once or twice a month, whereas I wear most of my shorts and tops to death. So if I am to consider the cost-per-use for each dress that I own and compare that with the cost-per-use of separates, I can safely say that I am – pardon mon Francais – royally fucked. It’s a shocking discovery akin to realizing that you’ve paid for Smilebox.com invitations when they’re really FREE. A dismal ROI (return on investment) might as well be zero ROI for all the good it’ll do you.

Do you see what I’m getting at here?

But yeah, it’s amazing what one can think of when one is crushing over a pair of $50 shorts that one really does need (because one’s mother took one’s favorite old pair to Canada) and will probably wear five times a week till one is 40. Damn this self-imposed shopping ban.

- Posted using BlogPress on Agrippa, the iPad

So it seems that I may have spoken too soon about my recovery. I had a relapse some time during the week, and I am now worse off than I was before. It sucks hairy Arab balls, I tell you.

I’ve already gone to two specialists and both of them agree on one thing: I need about $100 worth of drugs to get better. One even stuck a camera up my nose, all the while chatting to The Husband about how Camilla Parker-Bowles looks like Rottweiler and the price of oranges. It was quite bizarre.

And that’s not the worst of it – yet. As if the actual act of coughing is not bad enough, my entire right ribcage decided to stage its own protest. The Husband reckons I pulled a muscle from all the coughing, or it may be a bit of bruising. But honestly, it hurts so much, I actually want to get an X-ray just to make sure I didn’t crack any ribs. I can barely move, and whenever I feel a coughing fit coming, I have to maneuver my entire torso into a strange, twisty angle where it hurts the least.

Seriously, what should I expect next? An ecg machine hook-up, heaven forbid? A lung transplant? Can I just have a new body instead, preferably Anna Paquin’s?

Ahhhhh . . . This December just isn’t going very well. And to think I had such high hopes this year.

It’s ridiculous to lust over a pair of shoes for months, yet that’s exactly what I’ve been doing. The culprit? These gorgeous swallow and cat Mary Janes from Miu Miu’s SS’10 collection.

Then, out of the blue, Forever 21 released their own versions of these Mary Janes back in September (I think). No cats or swallows there, but they were apparently sold out within hours in Manila. We gals in Cebu never stood a chance.

But you know how they say that when you think about something long and hard enough, it’ll come to you? Well, I never stopped thinking about it, and one day, a Forever 21 pair was just there on eBay – brand new and in my size (which is miracle enough, mind you, with my midget feet) with no other bidders. Never mind that it was going for $70; I didn’t even give it a second thought.

Purrteeeee…

That’s the best I could do with the F21 label, sorry.

So I am now the proud owner of one of the most elusive and most coveted shoes EVER. They may not have cats or swallows, but they do have pretty little polka dots. My shoe-buying year is complete.

Now to learn to walk in ‘em nearly-6-inchers. Tee hee.

I’m on a high…

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?