Roadtrip 2015 : Brunei - Kota Kinabalu (Part 2)

15 Oct 2015

We had breakfast at the hotel, we could eat anything and everything because they only served vegetarian food. Our boy enjoyed himself as he got chocolate cupcake with icing for breakfast for the first time. Seriously, cupcake for breakfast? *facepalm*

Now that our tummies are full, we are happy to start off our day ;)

Our first stop was the Rumah Terbalik and 3D Wonders Museum. These were not opened in our last visit to Sabah in 2011 so this is the must-go place in our itinerary.

The entrance fees

GST included ;p

We went to 3D Museum first as the parks's staff just let the previous batch entered 'The Upside Down House of Borneo' and we would need to queue. We arrived there around 11.00am and there were not many visitors.

- 3D Museum

Some of my favourite shots :

- The Upside Down House

There was a staff who guided visitors into the house. Apparently, there are a few upside down houses constructed around the world, complete with inverted furnishings and decorations and this is one of them. By the way, visitors are not allowed to take pictures in the upside down house.

- Tamparuli Suspension Bridge

After that, we continued our journey to Kundasang. It was very cloudy, almost drizzling. We stopped a bit for snapping pictures at the Tamparuli Suspension Bridge, following our route back in KK Trip in 2011 *read here*.

- Kundasang : Desa Dairy Farm

We continued on with our journey to Kundasang, had lunch at KFC in Kundasang town and went to Desa Dairy Farm. The place has changed a bit, more systematic and they opened a souvenir shop as well as kiosks that sell gelato, yoghurt and other desserts made from dairy goods by that farm.

Entrance fee. Sekarang nak buat pre-wedding photoshoot kat sini pun dah boleh haa

Gelap sangat kan.....masa ni pukul 4 petang

Harga boleh tahan mahal gak sebenarnya ... tapi pikir balik, apa yang tak mahal zaman pak jibby nih

Dah lain sikit tempat perah susu dan lagi ramai boleh tengok proses tu tanpa bersesak-sesak mcm dulu

Baby tido tak dapat nak bergambar dgn moo moo

It was drizzling, so windy and dark clouds were everywhere. We were not able to snap more pictures as we planned to and quickly got into the car as we were afraid the kids would catch cold. Furthermore, our girl was wearing onesie as we did not fathom it would be that cold and raining all day long. But we still make a dash stop at the Kinabalu Pine Resort before heading back.

 - Kundasang : Kinabalu Pine Resort

- Salut Seafood Restaurant

On our way back to KK, it was raining heavily and very dark .... alhamdulillah nothing happened and we got back safely. We reached KK around 6.00 pm and were very hungry. We decided to have dinner straightaway so that we can rest once we reached the hotel. This time, we resolved for Salut as we still thought we had the best seafood dinner in KK 2011 trip at Salut. 

Once we reached the place, it was very different from the image we had in our minds ... it was opened, but deserted and not many choices of seafood. It was quite pricey too. Still, we ordered ... but the food served was not to our satisfaction. Even the cashier charged us different price from what we agreed when we chose the seafood by the aquarium. I looked back at my KK trip in 2011 blog entry to find out where we had the seafood dinner and it turned out to be Gayang, not Salut. Am not going back here :(

That's it for Day 2 in KK-Kundasang ... come follow our Day 3 ramblings!

Roadtrip 2015 : Brunei - Kota Kinabalu (Part 1)

Roadtrip 2015 : Brunei - Kota Kinabalu (Part 3)

Roadtrip 2015 : Brunei - Kota Kinabalu (Part 1)

14 Oct 2015

Our second roadtrip for the year .... this time from Brunei to Kota Kinabalu (KK) with a pre-schooler and a baby. This was kinda of a last minute trip, since 14 Oct was a public holiday (Awal Muharam) and Encik Mon thought we would be bored with nothing to do/where to go so ... the rest is history.

We started our journey at 9.00am and drove to Kuala Lurah. After 1.5 hours of driving, we reached the 1st immigration (Immigration Control Post Kuala Lurah, Brunei) and got our 1st passport stamp and entered Limbang, Sarawak (Pos Kawalan Imigresen Pandaruan Limbang, Sarawak). Actually, 2 stamps to be precise. 1 stamp exit from Kuala Lurah and 1 stamp to enter Limbang.

Colourful hotel - made a mental note this could be a potential place to stay if in Limbang

Limbang town

Tamu Limbang

Exiting from Limbang

Then we entered the other part of Brunei - Temburong ....

Town

It was almost deserted, not sure whether it was always like this or because of public holiday

Tamu Muhibbah Temburong

And then exit from Temburong through Labu temporary control post

picture taken during our journey back as forgotten to snap before

.....  and enter into Lawas, Malaysia through Pos Imigresen Malaysia Mengkalap Lawas  

.... and the journey continues...

Immigration to enter into Malaysia - Lawas

Lawas

Then ... arrived at the final immigration stop ... Pos Kawalan Imigresen Sindumin, Sabah

Perasan tak ... walaupun sama satu negara Malaysia, tapi kena cop keluar dari Sarawak dan cop masuk ke Sabah ... sweet ~

And YES! We are now finally on Sabah Land! About 4 hours' journey with 1 stop to change diapers

at the first roundabout after the immigration

about 20 minutes later, we reached Sipitang. We were told that Sipitang is known for its Sayap panggang and satay .... so we stopped and had lunch at the Esplanade.

Satay and chix wings were not bad :)

Next to the esplanade is a Mosque

We continued on with our journey .... the road to KK is actually not bad if compare to the road Miri-Bintulu. There were more things to see/developed areas along the way whereas the other road was more of tanah gersang with nothing to see. 50 minutes later, we reached Beaufort and another half an hour later, we reached Papar. There were many stalls selling dried anchovies and shrimps by the roadside. We did not anticipate this so we stopped at one stall and bought a bit of dried anchovies. The big sized anchovies were sold at RM17/kg and smaller sized anchovies RM18/kg. Very cheap, I would say. 

Gerai ikan bilis di Papar

After Papar, we made a pit stop at Putatan to refresh ourselves and continued on with our journey. Finally we reached Sky Hotel, Kota Kinabalu around 5pm ..... hmmm anyone can do the calculation the total hours of driving? :)

By the way, the room costs us RM770 for 4 days and 3 nights and free vegetarian breakfast.

The TV area

We took Superior room which comes with 2 rooms - this is the master bedroom

That night we went out for dinner despite the rain falling. We went to Salut, we already memorized the route to that restaurant although we last went there back in 2011.... but upon reaching there, we saw the Gayang signboard. *scratch head*

 

Some of the dish we ordered that night.

Kam Heong shellfish

Sotong celup tepung

We requested Sabah vege, having fond memories of the specific vege but got this dish ... definitely did not taste like Sabah vege, more like Cangkuk Manis grown on Sabah soil hence they call it Sabah vege, I supposed.

There were a few more pictures, but I am getting really annoyed with this blogger.com ..... frankly, this one post has taken me more than a week to finish it not because of my problem, but because of the difficulty to upload pictures and alignment, also because of google chrome arghhhhhh ........ really thought of stop blogging

Anyway, the food at Gayang were tasty but burnt a hole in Encik Mon's pocket. We decided that we didn't go to Gayang back in 2011. More likely it was Salut restaurant. So we resolute to have a go at Salut the next day. That's it for Day 1, back to the hotel and slept like a baby. zzzzZZZZZ~

There are 3 parts of this Roadtrip : Brunei - KK, here are the links to other 2:

Roadtrip 2015 : Brunei - Kota Kinabalu (Part 2)

Roadtrip 2015 : Brunei - Kota Kinabalu (Part 3)

Laksa Sarawak

Baru buat blog post pasal roadtrip Sarawak 2015, can read here Part 1 and Part 2, kali ni kita post pulak  pasal laksa Sarawak. Actually we have cooked the dish several times before this tapi tak penah lak nak memblog pasal dia kan. 

Memang selalu kalau nak masak Laksa Sarawak, selalu refer pada resipi DayangJack....penah gak nak cuba resipi di belakang pack rempah Haji Manan, tapi last-last mesti change plan guna resipi dayangjack ni ... hihi setia betul eh.

Nofilter ... hehehe

Laksa Sarawak (copy paste from Dayang Jack)

bahan-bahan : 6-8 orang makan

• 200 g pes atau perencah laksa (DJ guna pes laksa HJ Manan)
• isi ayam secukupnya (direbus dan dicarik halus)
• 1/2 kilo  udang basah 
• 1 bungkus mihun (direndam dan dicelur)
• 4 biji telur (didadarkan dan dihiris halus)
• 2 batang serai (diketuk)
• 200-250 ml santan pekat
• garam dan gula secukup rasa
• taugeh (dicelur)
• sedikit daun ketumbar (diracik)
• limau kasturi secukupnya (dibelah dua)

Cara-cara :

1. Sediakan 2 liter air dalam periuk. Jerangkan. Kemudian masukkan udang yang sudah dibersihkan bersama serai. Rebus hingga udang masak. Kemudian toskan udang. Air rebusan tadi jangan dibuang. Sebaliknya masukkan pes laksa dan kacau menggunakan api perlahan. 
2. Masukkan santan dan perasakan dengan garam dan sedikit gula.
3. Masukkan mihun ke dalam mangkuk, letakkan bahan-bahan seperti taugeh, telur, daun ketumbar, isi ayam dan telur. Tuangkan kuahnya dan perahkan dengan limau kasturi. Hidangkan panas-panas. Untuk menyedapkan lagi rasanya, masukkan sedikit sambal udang kering. 

Resepi Sambal Udang Kering 

bahan-bahan :

• 6 biji bawang merah (dikisar)
• 2 ulas bawang putih (dikisar)
• sedikit belacan bakar (dikisar)
• segenggam udang kering (dikisar/ditumbuk halus)
• 4-5 sudu makan cili kisar/cili giling secukupnya 
• sedikit air asam jawa
• garam dan gula

Cara-cara :

Tumiskan bahan-bahan kisar dan cili kisar tadi hingga pecah minyak. Perasakan dengan garam dan gula dan masukkan air asam jawa. Kacau hingga pekat.

Sekarang pes Hj Manan berwajah baru

Pada sesiapa nak cuba buat sendiri atau tiada pes Haji Manan, Kak DJ ada bagi resipi pes homemade:

Pes Laksa Sarawak

Bahan-bahan : anggaran 200 gm

• 8 biji bawang merah*
• 4 ulas bawang putih*
• 10-12 tangkai cili kering*
• 1 inci lengkuas*
• 1 sk ketumbar
• 1 sk jintan manis
• 1 sk jintan putih
• 3 biji buah keras*
• 2-3 batang serai*
• 1 inci belacan bakar*
• 1/4 cawan kacang tanah (digoreng)
• 1/4 cawan bijan (digoreng tanpa minyak)
• sedikit garam
• sedikit minyak utk menumis

Cara-cara :

1. Kisar lumat bahan-bahan yang bertanda *.
2. Bahan-bahan seperti jintan manis/putih, ketumbar, kacang tanah dan bijan dikisar/ditumbuk halus terlebih dahulu sebelum disatukan dengan baha-bahan bertanda *.
3. Panaskan minyak. Tumis bahan-bahan tadi sehingga keperangan. Tambah garam dan sedikit gula. Kacau rata-rata.
4. Simpan di dalam bekas yang bertutup dan masukkan ke dalam peti sejuk sekiranya ingin menyimpan lama.