Kota Kinabalu-lu lu lu lu.. You're so pretty!

this weekend, a few of my friends from work and i went to Kota Kinabalu. we didn't stay in the city, though. we stayed on the water front and spent most of the time chilling on the little islands off the shore.


there are speed boats that leave the shore of Kota every hour to ferry folks to these remote little gems of beauty. the main island near us was Manukan Island:


which has some civilization on it (a small resort, a food stall and a souvenir shop) but there are others, that just consist of nature, white sand beaches and a ton of fish! yes, it's quite a trip - swimming with a bazillion tropical fish!! snorkelers feed them bread, so the fish are extremely friendly - swim right along side of you, entire schools of them, and even nibble on you a bit.


another fact worth mentioning about Kota is Mount Kinabalu which is one of the tallest, if not the tallest mountain in SE Asia. we didn't have enough time to explore it on this trip, but it was still a beaut to gaze upon from afar. You can see it from the smaller islands, boat rides, and pretty much from almost everywhere in Kota.

one of the mornings, my friend DFL and i went for a long run along the shore. we stumbled up this housing development:


it's a bit hard to see on the iPhone pic, but these houses are actually on the water on stilts. on the way back, thinking we were taking a shortcut, we accidentally ended up running through them. the wooden boardwalks connecting these houses are super sketchy, and felt quite unsafe. the houses are more like shacks and the water below is filled with garbage. possibly the current happens to wash it up there, or maybe people just toss their junk out the windows? some people were burning it, right on the water, among wooden houses! crazies!! it was one of the most bizarre sights.. simultaneously beautiful and sad. beautiful because from afar it's incredibly gorgeous and people are beyond friendly. (we were joking that we were not sure if we were more tired from the run, or from saying "Hello, Good Morning" 1000 times.) sad because when you get close up and see how little these folks have to live on, and the conditions they live in. . . although i could not help but wonder whose life is more enjoyable. you know how that is - the less you have, the less you need, and life is much simpler.

a fun thing i wanted to share is that my roommate, a total sweetheart and an awesome gentle soul, snored like a tank! the first night i managed to toss and turn through most of it, but the second night, i called it a day and literally dragged my mattress onto the balcony.


and it turned out to be a wise decision. i fell asleep to the sound of waves and the sight of a full moon, and woke up to the songs of what sounded like 50 different birds and the most glorious view.

Hello World Lah!

Had this blog for a while and have been meaning to post to it, but you know how life is... this stuff always falls on the back burner. Well, it's time to share my life story, travels, and all things I think y'all may find interesting. Grandpa, Ma, Marik, Papa, Tanyuhsa - this is especially for you! Now you can't say you don't know what's going on with my life.

So for those of you who may have stumbled upon this randomly, I travel a lot, a whole lot, lately 80% of the time, and my family of course has some beef with not knowing where I am and what I'm doing. With time differences often being 12 or 13 hours, it's hard to keep in touch via phone. I can barely keep up with work email, so emailing everyone personalized updates, although in theory sounds responsible and wonderful, is not practical. So there.. I mean here.. that's how I got here.

Currently I am in the island, country and city of Singapore. Yup - it's all three. Pretty amazing, eh? It's an interesting city - a melting pot of a bunch of SE Asian folks, cultures, cuisines, styles and architecture.

It's also a major financial center, drawing tons of US, European and Australian companies and expats. It's one of the cleanest cities, if not the cleanest city in SE Asia and has interesting rules that most of you probably know. For those of you who don't - you cannot purchase or sell chewing gum in Singapore. You can read more about it here

Capital punishment is a legal form of punishment in Singapore, and in the mid to late 90's the city-state had the highest per-capita execution rate in the world. So you can imagine, the city is quite sterile. Possession of drugs above certain quantities yields to a mandatory death sentence.. Ouch!

Anyway, enough about stuff you can read on the wiki. I've been here quite a few times, and find this city fascinating. Singaporeans, and I fully agree with them on this point, are extremely proud of the food. The food here is amazing! In my opinion, the street food is here is especially stellar! Most of it can be found in what's called hawker centers which are basically giant outdoor food courts consisting of rows and rows of tiny stalls that sell street food. You can find almost any Asian dish - the stall options range from broad to quite specific. Some stalls sell Chinese, Indian, and broader cuisine options, while other specialize in specific dishes like fish soup, porridge, fruits, etc.. you name it - you can probably find it at a hawker center.

















After 7pm, some of the streets close down for Satay (BBQ on sticks- chicken, beef, prawns, etc etc.. ) The reason this is done after 7PM is simply because it's too hot to fire up the grills before dusk.

































Well, I don't want to make your mouth water too much... Plus I need to get moving on wrapping up my work for the day so I can head to Kota Kinabalu for the weekend.

Cheers!

P.S. for thos of your curios about the Lah in the title, it's what's called "Singlish"