when in Kuching.....

....self-snap a picture of you and your family by the beach at sunset when the red flag is up, indicating that the beach is a very dangerous place to be at that time of the day.

....shop till you drop, for things that you never know when you will actually use. you are basically just shopping on impulse. really, we came with just ONE luggage, which is the far left one, and look how we made our way back home with a gazillion luggages!!

....take a scenic picture even with the use of a camera phone, and then send it in for photo competition.

.....get tattoed?? :D hehehehe (how i wish la kan... tapi mana boleh).

never torn between two men

aku baru balik daripada kuching semalam. aku tau, dah berapa hari aku tak hapdate ni kan. rasa macam tertunggak byk kerja lak. semalam asal sampai aja, dah start kemas barang. biasa la gi sana, beli bakul la, hamper la, menda la. mama soh aku kemas photo albums yang dah lama tak berkemas tu. jadi aku pun start la kemas. sambil2 kemas tu, usha2 la sket gambar2 lama.....

and then aku ternampak....


...gambar ni, just a few days after i was born. aku bukan emo ke apa, but i actually cried after tgk gambar ni. to the left is arwah atok aku, tok brahim. he is my everything, really. aku cuma sempat hidup ngan dia 3 tahun aja, and then he left us. tapi amazingly, dengan kuasa tuhan, aku ingat most of the time spent with him. and only i can see the sweet memories playing on rewind in my head.

to the right, is my Abah, my grandad on mama's side. he is in new zealand sekarang tgh visiting his cicit. he has the most sabar with me and i love him endlessly. sekarang he is so weak due to old age. i haven't been spending time with him and i feel really guilty. i miss him badly....

between these 2 men, there is no such thing as who do i love more. i love them equally, and i love them more than anyone else.
"marlyne rindu sangat kat atok ngan abah"

please sedekah your Al-Fatihah to my Arwah Atok Ibrahim bin Ismail and doakan kesihatan my Abah, Haji Shaari Md Dom. Amin....

haaa... yang terselit kat bawah nyibuk stealing my limelight tu, tu la dia Pott @ my elder brother. kepoh seyy....

tak semenggah, tapi SEMENGGOH

the last i came here, i think about 10years back, i don't remember the place being like this. it was more fun and if i am not mistaken, we can actually play with the orang utans. now that the place is already very commercialised and tagged as one of the tourists attractions, it has become different than the last that i experienced.

i was hoping very much that i could play with the orang utan. while we were in the car, on the way to the sanctuary, the guide was telling us that there are already about 25 orang utans in the sanctuary as compared to the initial number of just 11. i was really excited, more orang utans to play with.

as we arrived, the reserve was somehow under construction, some parts of it. i was like: "sayangnya they kacau the natural set up of the place lidis..." but no time to think about it, my mind was racing with the anticipation to play with the orang utans and feed it as we came at the feeding time.

we arrived about 20mins before the feeding time. so, we walked around and had a looksee of the newly furbished reserve. now, they even have a board that has the pictures of the orang utans. to me, they all look the same, but to those in the know, they are unique, each and every one of them. there is also a board that posts the D.O.Bs of the orang utans. the eldest there is 38 years old!! at 38, SEDUKU has already have a litter of grandchildren, sugoi!! and the youngest is turning 2 this december 2008.

the feeding time has finally come. i was already very ecstastic. we were briefed, were told to keep any food items safely in our beags or to leave them at the briefing station, to be very quiet, and to stay calm at all times (sounds like we were about to go through a landmine area!).

and then we waited......


....sekali tengok, SEEKOR aja menatang tu yang datang. tunggu sampai 40mins, takde pun yang lain nak turun,hampeh (-_-").

last2 yang paling banyak datang melantak makanan yang diberi tu are the squirrels. ni bukan orang utan watching, ni squirrel watching!! kalau setakat squirrel tu, kat garden umah aku ada banyak, selalu mencuri my sweet round peppers.

haiz...

SAtu aTOK (SATOK)

today, we went to the satok day market with hope to find the sago worms which is the larvae of the capricorn beetle. why am i looking for them? heheheh you wouldn't guess it!! :P

i want to try them as part of my culinary experience!! why else? yeah, i know i am crazy. but i beg to differ, i am more like, ADVENTUROUS.

anyway, there weren't any that were sold there today. we asked around and sad to say, they could only be found during the weekends.

so, what else to do? look for photo ops la. thank God the sceneries were something to look out for. and of course, we were worse than jakuns when we say the super duper fresh produce.


and also the prices of the produce, they are selling cheap!! but of course not all of the things there are cheap la, MOST of them. especially the produce that are taken from the jungles that are very abundant here.

we also found the famous ikan terubuk masin. i remembered eating this when i was younger. it was very delicious then. they ferment the fish with tonnes of salt, and to cook it, you'd have to wash off the salt and soak it in water for a while, then deep fry it or cook it with coconut milk. haiyaa... meleleh air liur, i tell you :P

then we walked some more after shopping for produce in the day market. mama wanted to try the must have MEE KOLOK. it looked to me like how'd they serve dried wantan mee. i didn't try it as i was still very full from breakfast. so, i looked around and something really caught my eyes....


....AIR ULAR?? what in God's name is that???!!?

mama asked the waitress what is the ingreds of that particular drink. is it really snake immersed in water and the essence is made into a drink or what. and the answer was, the drink is made using the powder that is extracted from drying a whole snake. like yewwwww.....Xp no. i am not gonna try that (actually i want, but i can't cause of my religion kan.)

so, tomorrow we moving nearer to the gunung santubong area. hopefully, i'll get hold of some of the sago worms. now, that'd be something really cool to blog about, eh?

thirt33n

27-10-95: she was born, my little sister amal ain asha'ari.

27-10-08: my little sister has finally turned 13, but she is oftenly known as Nana.

weird no? want to know why??? haaa... lemme story mory you.

lidis, she very the manja one. super duper spoilt la same same like her elder sister (hey, not me arr), yah (this one at least her name amira arr, so ppl call her yah lorr). then arr, when she small small arr, she went to the babysitter same like yah. the babysitter have cucu arr, name farhana. and then, this farhana named herself 'nana' lorr. so, amal arr, after hearing 'nana', 'nana', she tot to herself: "walauweii!!! so nice arr the name, i want la lidis!!"

so arr, amal pon named herself as 'nana'. haiyaa.... since small arr, we told her: "little sister, your name arr, is amal. not nana. we call you amal ok"

amal: "dowan! dowan! i am nana"

haiyaa... since everyone loves her to bits arr, kenot argue la lidis. so, what to do, listen to her la. then we call her nana, until now ley...

sometimes arr, people in the family oso don't know her name amal leyy, because we call her nana maa... like my problem oso la, my name alia, people call me marlyne. sometimes, they ask, eh, alia? who is alia? haiyaa.... *sweat sweat*

anyway arr, yesterday arr, it is AMAL/NANA's 13th birthday. i hope she likes the pressies i got her and i hope, eh wrong, wrong, i KNOW she will become a beautiful, smart Lady one day....

I LOVE YOU nana...

meow.... (yeah, what a cliche...haiz...)

WHAT? : kucings

WHERE?: Kuching, Sarawak

WHY?: peminat kucing (nana) punya birthday present

WHEN?: birthday nana (27-10-08) to bila-bila kami suka la... hehehhe

HOW?: naik belon Air Asia tu le. tak kan mau dayung sampan. tak sampai de....

in the A-Yer

i have always been curious on how the low cost carrier system works. like sometimes, i see they advertise the tickets starting from rm0, like WTH?? if it was rm0 in the first place, why not just give the tickets out for free right? then it hit me, it did say "STARTING" from rm0, it didn't say ending at rm what right? so it could wvwn go up to rm gazillion and we wouldn't know unless we ask, eh?

to put all our curiosity at rest, we decided to take a ride on the Air Asia carrier, which i am sure is the first low cost carrier that is available in Malaysia. from what i heard, it is a no fuss carrier which means everyone travels in the same class, you don't have to eat what they serve on air, if you are hungry, go buy on your own. there were also rumours that the price is sky high (of course la weii, you are in the air what?!?), but when we checked it out, it is rather feasible la cause judging that you can't make a pitstop anyway in the sky, whatever they serve you should cost that much. as much as rm5 for a pop of 250ml box of juice. of course, we didn't buy any, we brought it all from ground level, smart!!


this was our carrier. i like the REDness of it all. very the sesuai with me, no?

the mad dash: since you are not assigned to any seats prior, then you'll have to make a dash to get good seats. but it does not make any difference though because the seats are all of the same size only. but try not to seat near the emergency exit as we have been warned by the air hostess that the seats can't recline, so sweet of her. since our flight was not full, we could have had the whole row to ourselves, so no worries. we were practically seat hopping.

getting used to the seats: although it is a low cost carrier, the size of the seats are the same as the economy seats on the Austrian Air. so what difference, eh?

the whole carrier has no division of first class, business, or economy. you pay the same, you seat the same. word of caution, try to sit as far away from families with children. all throughout the flight, nana and i were contemplating the ways of how to rid the children on board. i even felt like chucking those screaming kids out the emergency shaft!!

all in all, the staffs were very pleasant, from ground level up to the ones in the air. they are very accomodating and friendly as well. the flight was rather bumpy, not because of the pilot but because of the clouds that were traversing the skies. the landing however was made smoothly by the skillfull handling of the pilots.

Air Asia, kira ok la tu.... 4/5 maybe??

50 cents that make no sense

i was in JAYA 33 to do some fish shopping. yes, my ma says that she has tested the monger there and the seafood there are of good quality albeit it being a little pricey. as soon as i arrived, my very weak bladder wanted to give way already, so i ran to the nearest loo there. the last i went, i remembered that there was no entrance fee (sounds like getting to a club eh?) to the loo. i was surprised to see a lady waiting there to be paid. so, fine, i paid 50cents to use the loo. whatever.....

the lady quickly followed me into the loo. i was thinking that she's gonna stand there and wait on me. give me paper when i need, hand me the soap, spray some eu de toilett. but no, she came in with me to flush the toilet before i went in. WTF???


for 50cents, i don't actually know what i am paying for. look at the keep of the toilet. literally like CRAP!! mop not stored properly.....

the wipe cloth is just placed on the sink.....

the sink top is wet (i hope with pipe water!!)....

and the toilet is not even made up properly?!!??!

gimme a break!!

the ONLY plus point is that, it does not smell.... thank God!

how much would you pay to crap??