Orang Utan's mind while going for food

Sepilok Orang Utan

Orang Utan making their way for food.....

Fruit / Vegetable in Sandakan

Lotus Flower in the Pond

Durian Tree that is full of durian

Apple Mango from Aunty's backyard

Winter Melon at Aunty's backyard

Tourist destination for Sandakan

This is three legged stone - I didn't get to visit but was told that there is nothing much - just a piece of stone just what they put in the roundabout. Apparently this stone was form by sea waves...who knows??

This is the sign near Crocodile farm - to my surprise, crocodile is not only keeping crocodile but it has a lot of other animals. Someone like me who is so scared to visit Crocodile farm actually enjoyed to trip. Having said that, it is quite scary especially reading about this old giant crocodile that have eaten 4 humans and just laying around there ---- what if the wooden bridge above the crocodile collapse. When the crocodile make their move into the water, I thought the bridge collapsed........Besides all these crocodile, we got to see peacock, chicken, tortoise, snake, monkey (they are the cutest), ostrich (he was funny too and very friendly) etc. Anyway, that was a worthwhile visit.

This is the sea turtle - apparently there is an island not too far from Sandakan is full of this turtle. Do you know that their eggs are quite unique - it looks like a 'soft' table tennis ball.

Sandakan....bull shit cake

4 days passed quite fast, I am back from Sandakan. To my surprise the town has not changed much since my last trip (10 years ago). The only difference is there are a few more roads, a lot more new shops being built but the town itself has not changed at all. It is quite sad because the town has so much potential - natural resources like timber, oil palm etc and fresh seafood. One of the good time about that town is cost of living is so cheap and there are a lot of eating places too. I am so glad that I get to eat the cream tart that was famous in Sandakan. The name that is known by everyone is "bull shit cake", don't know why there aren't any places selling that cake - it sounds easy to make but why??? Here is a picture of that...

Sandakan....Here we come

The last time that I was in Sandakan must be more than 10 years ago. I couldn't believe that in 2 weeks time, I will be going to Sandakan - also known as the little Hong Kong (in the past). They serve good food and good food. I wonder how different is Sandakan now ????

One thing that I know is still famous is Orang Utan Santuary in Sepilok, can't wait to visit that - the last time (or the only time) that I was there was when I was 5, I could go up to the monkey and hold their hand. 

Vinegar Pork Trotters

I just realised that it is quite easy to make "Black Vinegar Pork Trotters"......here is the recipe.

1 Pork Trotters (buy the front leg - sometimes they called it the hand of the Pork)
1 bottle of black vinegar
5 inches Old Ginger and smash it (if you don't want too spicy, replace some of the old ginger with young ginger)
2 pips Garlic
1 bowl of sugar (if you want nice fragrant, add some gula melaka)

Fry the Pork trotters that have been cut into bite size until the oil from the pork is sizzling. Pour in the black vinegar, ginger and garlic and bring to boil. After that just simmer for a while until the pork is soft and then add sugar to taste.

Isn't it easy???

You can also include some eggs in too. Make some hard boiled egg, peel off the shell and just aded to the pot.

MIA (missing in aciton)

I just realised that I have not visited this site for a long long time. Travelling did made a lot of distruption to life, I am glad that I can now stay at home for a while before I need to make some crazy lonely business trip. During these trips, I came to realised that the place you visited is not the same if you do not have the right company. Being in HK last month has a total different feel to my last year trip to HK with my hubby. Last month, I was sad and wish that I can leave and go back as soon as possible.

I was so glad that I can come home after 1 week....yes, it is only 1 week but tha feels like years......time flies so slowly when you are not enjoying yourself...hahah...after coming back, it took me a few weeks to get back to half of my routine and now this is more than a month later, I got to spend time on this site....sigh!!!!!!!

Farewell Sin Lok

For those that have been in KL or should I say Ampang (to be more specific Ampang Park) for a long time will know Restaurant Sin Lok - they serve the best suckling pig and at a very good price. Besides suckling pig, their dishes are all very good and very reasonable price.....the only down side for that restaurant is it is old fashioned and located in Ampang Park Shopping Complex where hardly anyone will go there (especially with all the competition around the area). Well, it has come to the time that we have to farewell Sin Lok....not too sure where to get a good suckling pig now....

Malaysia Airlines.....

I am so excited to hear that Malaysia Airlines is offering competitive airfares - zero airfares with 5 stars services.....not only that they are offering for flights within Malaysia and it has now opened up to the Asean countries. Not sure if there is problems with my internet or heavy load on the Mas website, I never have any success in booking a flight......sigh

I wish it will be easier....I would have bought quite a few tickets and planning my holiday. Well....maybe tomorrow will be give me a better chance?

Water Filter

I never realised how important is using water filter in Malaysia until last week. Our water supply stopped during middle of the day and what do I do. Thank God that water came back but well, not exactly. The water that came back are brown in colour - no different from the mud water after a heavy rain.

We have not decided to have water filter to safe guard this from happening again - the same incident happens the next day, I am wondering if that is water filter company trying to boost up their sales ;P

We have found Coway in Home Dec Exhibition at KLCC recently and might give a try and see if that is worth paying all the $$ in order to get some clean water.

Fear of death

Recently I have been talking to various people about their attitude towards death. It is a hard topic but yet everyone of us will be facing - the statistic said that 1 out of 1 people will face death. Instead of fearing  death and trying to avoid it or even avoid talking about it, I think we should prepare ourselves and talk about it.

Some people prepare themselves by getting a will done, getting land for graveyard...will that really take the fear of death away. It is really blessed to be a Christian when we have Jesus who is the resurrection and the life- with Jesus, we do not have to fear death but be confident as Jesus has been raised from death and he has taken our punishment for our sin. As Christian, we can now face death confidently as we are going back to our permanent home - spending eternity with God.

Cooking Duck??

I have never tried cooking duck until a month ago. Since duck is one of my favourite dish, normally I will just buy roast duck from the shop. As I am quite free now, I thought I will buy a raw duck and do an experiment on cooking duck.

I bought a bottle of sour plum sauce and thought I will make sour plum sauce duck.

I cleaned the duck and rubbed with salt and then wash it off.

Pour at least half a bottle of the sour plum sauce (I pour too little and it doesn't taste as nice)

3-4 tablespoons of dark soya sauce and rub all the ingredient over the duck.

I left that to marinate for half an hour - I think I will let it go for longer next time.

Preheat the wok, when it is hot, put in duck to seal all over (no oil), after that, pour the rest of the sauce and cover it. Stew in medium to low fire for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Turn the duck around every now and then.

That's it.....it is not as hard and it taste quite good. I also use the sour plum sauce from the bottle to be my dip for the duck.

Mushroom Chicken

1 whole chicken (chopped into pieces)

2 tablespoons light soya sauce

2 tablespoons dark soya sauce

2 tablespoons oyster sauce

1 teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1 large onion (cut into 4)

10 pieces dried mushroom (pre-soaked)

6-7 slices ginger

Marinate the chicken with all the ingredient above for at least 1/2 hour. Cook it in medium fire until it is boiling and then lower the fire to cook further until the chicken is cook and smell nice.

Recipe for Chicken Stew

Something that I tried last week, it was easy and yummy.

4 chicken drumsticks (wash and chopped into bite-size pieces)

4 tablespoon light soya sauce

1 piece thumb size ginger - cut into strips

4 pips garlic - chopped

2 tablespoons black soya sauce

Put all the ingregient into the pot and stew. Medium fire till everything is boiling and then lower the fire and cook until the chicken is cook (probably another 10- 15 minutes).

Peanut & Pork Soup Recipe

Here is the recipe for the soup that I made a few days ago:

300 g pork ribs (or soup bone)

200 g peanuts

10 pcs of red dates

6 pips garlic

some black hairy vegetable (fatt choy)

Boil all of them in a pot for an hour or so in slow fire.

Tuk Tuk experience in Bangkok

Wat Arun....

Something that I notice is Thais is very proud of their temples. Here are some of the pictures taken from Wat Arun - I think it is the name of this temple. The sand castle were built by the worshipper; as they came to worship in the temple, they will bring buckets of sand and build sand castle. This is ensure the temple has sufficient sand and have not need to buy more sands. 

Apparently the wall of the temple was built using crack chinas?? According to the tour guide, when the Thais was doing business with China, they will ship all their goods to China but on their way back, their ship will be quite empty and to ensure there are enough weight on the ship (to avoid overturn by the wave), they brought back all the chinas from China. Some of them might not have survive the wave, hence some have cracked etc, instead of throwing it away, they have used the cracked chinas to build their temple. What an idea, they are quite good with recycle in that era!!!!

More pictures from the river...

Organised Chaos??? Bangkok...

Indeed Bangkok can be known as a city with Organised Chaos. Before heading to Bangkok, a friend has warned me about how Bangkok is like, you either really like it or you hate it and it is a city with Organised Chaos. Here are some of the pictures taken from the Chao Phraya River to avoid the traffic.

Air Asia and Credit Card Payment...

If you are using credit card to make more than 1 payment for Air Asia Flight through the website....you need to make sure you have multiple credit cards or you can re-use the same one after 12 hours later.

I recently trying to purchase tickets for my parents on the Air Asia website, little did I know that I can only use my credit card once within the 12 hours. When I use the card consecutively, I receive a message that I have entered incorrect details for payment. That puzzle me until I rang the call centre of Air Asia - the respond that I have is ....our website is like that, but I can buy the ticket for you through the phone, $5 extra per ticket!!!! That is a shocking respond, not only they do not apologise for their website, they offer to charge me more for something that I could have done it myself IF their website is working properly.

Melaka or Malacca?

Do you know why there are 2 spellings for the historical town in Malaysia? Melaka or Malacca? Both are correct, one is in Malay and the other is in English. 

It is quite a beautiful town and indeed a historical town. You can still see trishaw on the street. Check out the cost for riding on one of them.....

Free Flight from Air Asia

This is my first time seeing free flights offer on the Air Asia website and that I am actually able to make a bookings. To fly from Kuala Lumpur to Kota Kinabalu, you only need to pay airport tax of MYR 70 one way. ( the trip from KL to airport by taxi cost more than that) sigh!

Check it out if you are planning to have a cheap holiday...

Another Day....

Today is another day which I can get up and look at all the greens outside my window, listen to all the birds singing their lungs out and all the squirrels having their exercise running around the ground. Isn't it a beautiful day that God has given to me? It is amazing to see how God sustain our nature. 

First Time Blogging

I didn't expect setting up a blog site is that simple and it is so great to be able just to type my thoughts away wherever I am without looking for my diary ;P