Well well well .... we've finally made it. I must say that its very VERY tiring having 3 stopovers. I would much rather have a direct flight but seeing as greedy Singapore Airline was going to charge us NZ$6500.00 per person for cattle class because they are very full, I was not prepared to pay that. I would much rather pay a whole lot more less, have NO alcohol but LOTS of food on the plane, get blessed every time we take off, get thrown on the ground by British pilots every time we land, have 3 stop overs and be very very tired LOL ... no, its not that bad at all. Let's face it, I got to see more places, I wasn't in a rush and Royal Brunei was actually quite nice.
The welcome to Kota Kinabalu was actually ... um..... not that nice LOL (airport wise). The whole airport was dug up, the once very green and pretty grass is now covered in mud and dirt, some dinosaur have come and ripped out all the air bridges and most of the outside of the airport is covered by blue corrugated iron LOL .... it was quite and unplesant sight but HEY, next time I come back, there will be a fantastic brand new airport next door! I'm sure some poor tourist that doesn't know this will be thinking where on earth have they gone for a holiday LOL ....
Today, we were woken up by the mosque in the village that is down the road from where we are staying at about 4:30am. They like to blast their prayers nice and loud so the whole village and people surrond the the village can hear it. Good job I bought my earplugs!! By about 06:30am, the freckin roosters were screaming off their cock heads anyway so I gave up and went and had a shower. It was getting too bright and too hot to sleep anyway.
While I was in New Zealand, I had trouble changing NZD to Malaysian currency so I started my holiday with RM$10.80 in my pocket. Enough for breakfast may be?!? LOL .... Unlike most western countries where credit cards are accepted at most places, even in small stores, most of the shops here still deals with cash. A vist to the curreny exchange teller in the shopping malls is a must!!! I was tempted to be lazy and just put my ATM card into a machine and the it should spit out what ever flavour that country uses but then I soon learned that my bank was going to charge me $8.00 per transaction and they have crappy exchange rates anyway. I gave that a pass.....
TIP: Bring your money over here and change it because they do not charge exchange fee, service charge and all the bull shit that the bank charges you. You'll find that currency exchange at the malls provide better rates than the bank and the exchange rates doesn't change everyday like banks do.
As we drove and walked around the central city area, nothing much have really changed.
Its the developments around the city that is SKY ROCKETING at the moment. There are over-bridges, aparments and shopping malls galore that made me think where are they going to find the people to fill them....hmmm...scary thought. Every corner there is an apartment going up and every few hundred metres there is a giant mall close to finishing....
After driving around and getting amazed at the developments around the city, we paid a visit to the grand daddy in a town called Papar, about 40kms south of Kota Kinabalu (KK). Driving around KK is really not as scary as I was told. I have never driven there in my life, partly because I was too young to drive when I lived there ..... but yes, the traffic is chaotic and people do not signal, don't really follow the speed limit, park where ever they can find a space, have to fight your way through the traffic and it was actually quite exciting to be driving there.
It was nice to see grandad again. He's 90 this year and he looked a lot older than the last time we saw him 4 years ago. It was quite sad really. He was of course VERY happy to see us again and enjoyed the presents that we bought him.
We walked around the little town where most people own a shop.
I rode a cow
Then I met some poor starving cats and dogs. I got my Purell ready. Thanks Kenny for the advise LOL
We also decided to get circumcised and become a muslim while we were there...NOT!
We all drove back to KK early today in time to attend my cousin's son's 7th birthday. Before we went to the party we went to the Giver's Mart of course because we are giving a present
But on the way we had to dodge a living copier that was about to zap and eat us
I didn't think that he was actually having a party with a house full of kids....YIKES! just picture the amount of screaming and time it by 10 not fun!
We sat at the sensible, well behaved adult table surrounded by food because people still think we do not have food in New Zealand
Plus I also got to meet Cher at the party .....
So I rang all my friends to come and see her by these two fabulous new phones that should probably be in the museum by now
and why would you want to drive this car ???!?
Perhaps I might buy them a box of gloves .... or is it tissues so that they can clean up the pee in it
Overall, it was a pretty good first day. We didn't shop! OMG! and we met lots of family at the party that was happy to see us. So far, no one have asked me when I am getting married and having babies yet .... its early days... there is still 15 more days to go LOL
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