Kota Kinabalu – Pre KK

My flight to KK was a short but eventful journey.

I got my bro in law, who drives a taxi on a part time basis, to send us to Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT). It’s great t have someone you know to send you to the airport, especially when you know you can easily retrieve valuables you left in the taxi. If you need a taxi to the airport, call or text 0192252575 for Alex. Tell him Boy recommended.

The LCCT has changed a lot. It has expanded. Domestic flight and international flight check in counters are separated. It’s no longer the pasar malam I once knew.

Unlike my usual flights with Air Asia, we were given a seat number. It was no 31. We tried changing our seats but the chap at the counter was too lazy to do so.

After checking in, I dropped by the toilet. The toilet is on par with KLIA’s toilet. Nothing unusual about the toilet except one topless guy washing his armpits by the basin :()


Live fishes @ Bali Airport

We had dinner at Old Town Coffeeshop in LCCT. The waiter forgot to key in our order. No free food this round though.

When we got on our plane, we discovered that our seats were the last seats on the plane. We couldn’t recline our seats. I couldn’t sleep at all!

Our flight took around 3 hours. Imagine sitting down straight for 3 hours. I tried to sleep but a lady in front of me kept talking.

But I’m quite to used to traveling in an uncomfortable manner. If you’ve read my older travel entries, you’ll probably read some of my minor calamities, most recent being the 8 hours grueling boat ride to Pulau Tioman.


Boat ride to Tioman

But bahger why all these things happen to me oneeeeee!!11

I felt so relieved when we arrive in KK. My luggage bag came out shortly. It came out with a hole on the side, a missing tag and a broken zip. O_o

Bahger why all these things happen to me oneeeeee!!1

ps: went to check out new luggage bags at 1 Borneo. Bloody Samsonite luggage bag costs rm3000. Wtfff not made of gold also!

Bought a rm279 cabin sized luggage bag which came with a free larger luggage bag! Value maximum!

pps: Went to Giant and found out that luggage bags are around rm50. -__- tunasing!!

Kota Kinabalu, Sabah 2009

I am making another trip down to Kota Kinabalu again this year. This would be my third time. When ever I think of Kota Kinabalu, I think of the good food! I can’t wait to have


Roti Kahwin @ Fook Yuen


Teh Madras!


Tuaran Mee fried with Chinese Wine @ Kedai Kopi City!

Will be back next Wednesday..updates will be scarce but will update my Twitter frequently!

Related Link
xes.cx – Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, 2008

Cameron Highlands: Strawberry View @ Kea Farm

One of my fondest memories of Cameron Highland is the time when my parents and I were having steamboat at a restaurant in Brinchang. It was a restaurant located in a shophouse. It was during the older days when we didn’t have internet booking. Dad decided to screw booking a hotel and went straight up to Cameron Highlands without an accommodation in place. We eventually found a room upstairs of a shop house. It was just few doors away from our restaurant.


Strawberry View @ Kea Farm was recommended by PY’s friend, who is a local in Cameron Highlands. Although named strawberry view, it has nothing to do with strawberries but maybe you get to see a strawberry farm in the day time.


We got ourselves a pot with chicken broth and tom yam divided equally. Tom yam came in a bowl of paste which we had to mix it up to make the soup. I am not a big fan of tom yam but my friends were crazy over it. They threw all the good stuff into the tomyam section 🙁


I must say the food is not bad. We even get to exchange our unwanted eggs with mushrooms.

But after all those food especially tom yam..all I wanted to do is head to the toilet..

Cameron Highlands: Big Red Strawberry Farm

We stumbled upon this place by chance after having tea at Strawberry Moment.

It’s a farm whereby members of the public are invited to visit it.

Sifat (Butt) shaped strawberry

Sitohbehli with Spora

Mutated Sitohbehli
Other than strawberries, it has also various vegetables and cactus.


Vegetables are sold at a very cheap rate. A friend of mine bought their vegetable in Cameron Highlands and had steamboat at their rented apartment at Cameron Highlands! One of the vendors offered us raw corn. Its unlike our normal corn. It was juicy and sweet!


Clean your shoes here!
Perhaps the most unique bit of this farm is that they have a shop selling everything relating to strawberry. It ranges from food to your air freshners.





Their handwash was strawberry favoured as well.

They even have Doraemon strawberry yogurt! zomggg!!

Cameron Highlands: Boh Tea Plantation @ Sungei Palas

Our first destination in Cameron Highlands was the Boh Tea Plantation @ Sungei Palas.
The Boh Tea plantation was first established in 1929 by a British businessman, J.A. Russell. It survived the war and Boh Tea is now a well known brand for tea.
Our intention to visit the Boh Tea Plantation @ Sungei Palas was to visit the cafe located inside the tea plantation. However, the drive to the plantation wasn’t easy. We had to go through a small lane just enough to fit two cars. There was only one way in and one way out from the plantation and hence cars had to squeeze through the tight lanes. Since its a peak period for Cameron Highlands, many cars were trying to get into the plantation. There were a few times we were stuck for a long time because buses were trying to get out from the plantation. There was also once were we were diverted into another road because the roads were too congested. It resulted in two of our cars (Kiang and Eric’s cars) being diverted out from the plantation. After all the hard work in waiting and squeezing through lanes, they had to return to the hotel. I was on the other hand lucky and managed to get into the plantation.

Blood Bustard!!

Finally! Cafe on top of the hill!

Apparently this dog is one of the fixtures around this place

We had to hike around 200m to get to the cafe

The Cafe..after all the bloody hard work.
We ordered loads of pastries and of course tea. Prices are reasonable, tea served by teapot is around RM3.30 while BOH “Teh Tarik” is around RM2.80.


The scones are just so-so. Perhaps dont bother getting your scones here

Boh Tea Tarik

Old skoool!
Other than the cafe, there’s even a shop, a museum and even a guided tour on Boh tea!

Part of the museum 😀
We left the place around 2pm and we got out from the plantation easily. I was told by Kiang and Eric that they took a long time to get out. What made it worst was that everyone’s handphone didnt have signal except for mine which ran on Celcom. The poor chaps have to settle for lunch at the hotel.

Cameron Highlands: Strawberry Moment

As the name suggests, everything is about strawberry here. This coffee shop consist of two sections, one being the dining area and the other side being a shop selling all sorts of strawberry products.



Most of the stuff here are pastries and desserts. We ordered…

Strawberry Juice! Yummmyy! Reminds me of the Ice Blended Strawberry that I had in Bandung!

Strudels. Not bad


Strawberry Tiramisu. So-so only.

Crepes and Strawberry. Good!

Kena cheated..I thought they will fill up the entire bowl with strawberry. Instead, we got cherry tomatoes, marshmallows and even cucumber!


Chocoberry. Fresh strawberry dipped with chocolate 😀
The shop sells, among others, preserved strawberries, strawberry jam and strawberry chocolate. Each product has a tester on the side. Some tasted great but some tasted weird.


My personal favourite would be their strawberry chocolate! The funny thing is that the tester can only be obtain through request. I think its so good that people keep finishing the tester.
Related Link
Strawberry Moment Website
~ Labyrinth ~: Strawberry Moment

Cameron Highlands: Overview

One of my earliest memories of Cameron Highlands is an image of a huge fly perching on my Dad’s car.

Despite this unpleasant image, I decided to head to Cameron Highlands on 7 March 2009. I had the company of A, Sharon Dilirius, Eric, Jeff, Kiang, Katrina and the Yam sisters. The 9 of us drove in three cars in this 3 hours journey.


Ipoh ala ‘Hollywood’ signboard

Cameron Highlands is a highland region located around 200km from Kuala Lumpur. It is well known for its agriculture and also cool weather which is very popular among tourist. Due to its weather, tea and strawberries, which are rarities in the places under the Equator, are substantially planted here.

Our research on the internet indicated that the fastest way to Cameron Highlands is through the Simpang Pulai toll. The other way namely through Tapah takes a long time notwithstanding the exit to Tapah comes first.

We took the Simpang Pulai way and I must say it was indeed a pleasant drive. The roads weren’t too windy and we were not caught in any traffic congestion. However, there was one part before the road up to Cameron Highland was flooded. Fortunately there was a pile of uneven mud for us to drive through. Eric’s car was too low and ended up scrapping mud from the path.

We booked three room at the Equitorial Hotel. One of our rooms was free due to some membership thingie with Berjaya. The other two rooms i.e. a two bed room apartment came with a good rate through a website. When we arrived, we were informed that the two bed room apartment was not available because its water supply got cut off. In return, we were given two Superior hotel rooms at the same rate as the two bed room apartment!

The meteorologist department forecast that it will be sunny in the morning and rain in the evening on our first day. It was quite accurate. It rained the whole day on the next day as well. I remember Cameron Highlands being cold at night. It didn’t change much, it was still cold at night. In fact, it felt like Autumn!


Ye Olde Smokehouse

Our trip was primarily focus on eating (!!!). A set out an itinerary of the places that we should visit. Many of the places in the itinerary came from blogs. We manage to cover the usual stuff namely strawberries, tea, steamboat, sweet potato balls and sweet corn!
Speaking about strawberries, its a heavily commercialized item in Cameron Highlands. Many shops sells merchandises relating to strawberries. There were pillows, keychains, fridge magnets and umbrellas with a picture of a strawberry or in the shape of a strawberry.


Self plucking Strawberry…keke


All red!


Unfortunately, strawberries doesn’t last long. My strawberries had some white foam growing on it after 3 days.Euw..

It was quite unfortunate that we spent a lot of our time on the roads. Since Monday is a public holiday, many KL-lites came up to Cameron Highlands to clog up the road. But things are much better than last time. The roads now are wider. I remember when I was still a young boy, the road up to Cameron Highland was small and tight. Some parts even had only one lane!


Bloody Bustard…

After eating non stop for a day, we headed home with a full stomach. Eric, Sharon and Jeff continued their journey to Penang and Hatyai for another food fiesta. The rest of us headed home to face reality again. I wish I had more time in Cameron Highlands!

Related Link
joyloh.com » Pahang – Cameron Highlands – Very comprehensive travel guide on Cameron Highlands. Highly recommended!

Tioman Island: Misc Photos

Just like my Krabi Trip, I will end my entry on Tioman Island with some miscellaneous photos.


While we were having breakfast in Kuchai Lama, an elderly lady came up to us asking us for donation for a ‘charity home’. Most of us ignored her thinking that she’s a fraud. But Umeng, in his usual kind hearted way, gave the elderly lady 10 Ringgit as donation. She issued a receipt to him with his name written as “Hou Sam Yan”…that means Kind Hearted Person..


While driving around Melaka, we saw this van belonging to UMNO Bahagian Tanjong Karang. On the right, you will see a person’s face, probably the Division chief’s face, with a mobile phone on his hand. Can’t they find a better picture?


Picture of an ‘open air’ toilet taken in a petrol station @ Mersing. As you can see, there’s no roof. It was hot so hot that everything in the toilet was dry. I could literally see salt in the drain. Also, it was probably the driest smelling toilet I’ve even been.. Another photo for my throne series!


Kid on the bike..
few minutes later..


Vrooomm.. Underage and no helmet.. perfect recipe for fatal accident!


Picture of an unique postbox taken @ Kluang. It looks like a postbox converted from one of the Chinese altars!

Kluang Rail Coffee @ Kluang, Johor

On our way back to Kuala Lumpur, we stopped by the famous Kluang Rail Coffee at Kluang Station.

Those living in the Klang Valley would have definitely heard of Kluang Station Coffee. However, Kluang Station Coffee is not a branch of Kluang Rail Coffee but its history can be traced back to Kluang Rail Coffee.

Kluang Rail Coffee operates at Kluang train station and has been in business since 1938. The first thing that came into my mind when arriving at Kluang Rail Coffee is their coffee. It was commendable. I even bought 3 packets of their coffee home 😀

Immediately after sitting down, we grabbed packets of nasi lemak and mee siam which were placed on the table. I was told that their nasi lemak is excellent. It was indeed excellent but its so small until I could finish it in 3 spoons! The sambal was wrapped with a piece of banana leaf and it wasn’t too spicy. I whacked 3 packets of it!

Feeling dissatisfied, I ordered their toasted Polo Bun and toasted bread. They came with a thick slice of frozen butter together with loads of kaya. My personal favourite is the toasted bread. It was much softer and taste so much nicer!

Perhaps the only drawback about this coffeeshop is the level of service. The waiters were not that friendly and one of the waiters, a Chinese chap, looked as if he wanted to beat us up for ordering too much. -_-

Kluang Rail Coffee
Kluang KTM Station,
Jalan Station,
Kluang, Johor.

Open 7am -12pm, 2:30 – 6pm. Closed Thursdays.

Related Links
Kluang Rail Coffee, Kluang. « she, the epicuriousgirl.
The Original Kluang Station Coffee – One Stop Malaysia

Tioman Island: Tioman Island: Part II

We had lunch at Tioman town. We hired a van from one Indian chap to ferry us to Tioman town. The Indian chap offered to take us to town at a very low rate so we took up his offer.


Indian Chap on the left

But unknown to us, his van was an old, old van.. Just enough to fit 14 of us – with one fellow sitting on the floor.


Me on the floor


Deflated tyre – the van was too heavy..

Tioman Town also has numerous duty free shops. We bought two cartons of beer for the night and loads of snacks. I also bought a bottle of Greygoose for Melvin at RM110.


After filling our beer into our hotel fridge, we hung out at our hotel’s challenger’s park.


We got Ping to do some stunts. Ong Bak!!!

After that we played futsal but it ended abruptly after Umeng twisted his toe (we were all playing barefoot). It was Sunday and the inhouse doctor has left. All Umeng had was a bag of ice to minimize the swelling. We continued playing futsal again after that – with Umeng on the bench.


Futsal infront of our rooms

At night, we tried to finish up our beer but failed. We had to tahpao some back home.

On the next day, everyone got up extremely early to pack up. We didn’t want to miss our boat ride again!

The trip back to Mersing was a breeze. We had comfortable seats – with air con on full blast. It took only 1 1/2 hours, just nice for a short nap…


Zzzzzzz