In my recent business trip to Manila, I have observed a thriving work commute cycling community. Most of the cyclist wears shorts and carries a bag which I suspect a change of clothes when they reaches work. Most of the bikes were Mountain bikes, then Road bikes and I did not see a Single multi color Fixie. There was one guy cycling Strida, he was all suit up for work. Strida has Belt drive, so he needn’t worry about his pants getting greased.  I got to get a belt drive for my Fixie. In Penang, most of the cyclist who commute to work are foreign workers. There are only a handful of peddlers that cycle to work in FIZ. My hope for 2012 is to have more commuters cycle to work in FIZ, lessen the traffic and CO. 

The above collage house two Starbucks 2012 planners, one from Malaysia and the other from Philippines. The Malaysian planner comes in a black box and has cream leather feel cover. The Philippines on the other hand, came in a cloth bag and has a wood cover. Being a notebook addict, I could not resist myself not getting these planners. Though I don’t like the planner type pages, I love the cover, especially the Philippines wooden cover. Maybe this will nudge me to using it in 2012. Well, if I don’t use it, I can always hack it with blank pages or ruled pages. By the way, I have down loads of coffee for these planners, just part of the monthly coffee ration. 

It has been something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time and this long holiday weekend provided the opportunity for me to put the plans into action. Driving from Penang to Krabi/Ao Nang takes about 8 hours. We took 11.5 hours due to rain and heavy border traffic. That also we started from Penang at about 5am and arrived at the border at about 7am. We first have to go get the Car Insurance, and for that, we queue almost 45minutes, then when we arrived at the Malaysian Immigration, there was already a long queue. Clearing the Malaysian Immigration was easy, we just have to drive through, draw down the windows, give the passport to the immigration officer and he starts to process our documents. After almost an hour of queuing, our documents were processed within minutes. Next is Thailand Immigration. We first park at a large carpark next to Thailand Immigration. All of us got down to process our passports. Once done, I have to get import documents for the car done with the Thai Customs. The customs are located on the right with drive through booths. No money is needed, just need to hand over the copy of the car registration card and officer starts to process the import. The office refuse to process the import without first seeing our passport being processed. So, for anyone else who wants to drive into Thailand, remember to first queue to get your passport chop and then only proceed to queue for the custom import documents. Again, after almost an hour of queuing, the documents were processed within minutes. I went back to collect the car and family and drove through the customs where they gave me the import document. This document needs to be presented back to the customs upon exit, else, you will have trouble bringing in the car in the next visit. By the time we clear the border, it was already 10.30am.

The weather was good till after Phattalung where it started to rain. The Phattalung to Trang stretch is also the hilly and single lane stretch. From the border to Phattalung, the entire road way was double lane and was very pleasant to drive. Also, there was not that many cars. It was Sunday and it was not busy. There were a few Malaysian cars that zip through us, treating the road like the Malaysian Highway. Though the Thai road with double lane feels like a highway, it does not have the safety features of one and going in a high speed is risking it. We had some problems with our Garmin in Trang. I miss a turn and the map was not complete as there were roads that the GPS did not display. Trang to Ao Nang road is more Kampung with single lane going through rubber estate on the left and right. We arrive at Ao Nang at 4.30pm.

The drive back was faster as there were no rain, but we spent some time in Hatyai having lunch and the border held us up for another 2-3hrs, we took a good 12hrs on the road before arriving home. Driving to Thailand just need to remember to bring a few things. 1-Car Registration Card (Photocopy is sufficient), 2-Insurance (Purchase at the border), 3-GPS (Garmin MFM maps are quite complete, except for Trang)

I did very little to no research on my holiday in Kota Kinabalu. This resulted to my plea on facebook on what to eat and was answered with a single word, ‘Rice’. As my network of friends are of not much help, I turn to blogs, and through some of the local food bloggers, I manage to experience the best of Kota Kinabalu has to offer in food.

Yu Kee Bak Kut Teh

I found this place through Google Places and Bloggers. The Google Places coordinate on Google Map is a little off and we had a hard time finding the place the first day. As in all Malaysian Bak Kut Teh restaurants, all kinds of Bak Kut ingredients are available with sides of tofu and assorted vegetables. Sadly, the vegetables we ordered did not come. Each of the dishes are presented in small plates and the prices are based on how many plates you consume. The Bak Kut tea has a very strong medicinal taste with a pack of heat to it.  Its very different from those had in Peninsula Malaysia and its a must try for those who visits Kota Kinabalu. Even the Chinese Tea (Tie Guan Yin) was served on a tiny cup and the flavor was foreign to me.  It complements the Bak Kut Teh well. Yu Kee BKT Facebook.

Fook Yuen Cafe

I We took a cab to this restaurant for breakfast and the cab fare were more expensive than what we spent on the food.  This is the sad state of Malaysian Taxi where out of the capital of Kuala Lumpur, metered taxis are almost non-existence or the meter were never used. We later found out that Fook Yuen Cafe has a branch at Gaya Street and we had our subsequent breakfast there. This restaurant offers Bread, Pastries, Toast/Steam Bread with Kaya and Fried Noodle/Rice with assorted sides such as sausages, yong tou fu, etc.  We started with the recommended Butter Kaya toast and Milk Tea (Teh Si).  The Butter & Kaya Toast was better than the steam ones and was much more generous compare to Old Town Kopi Tiam. The Milk Tea need some getting used to. We later develop a liking to it and found that it goes well with oily food where it helps to wash away the oily after taste on some of the food offered.  Fook Yuen Cafe Facebook.

Five Star Chicken Rice

I stumble upon this place while searching for Yu Kee Bak Kut Teh on the first day. This was the brightest lit shop at Gaya Street and with a few patrons. We decided to try it out and was not disappointed. The chicken was very smooth and tasty.  We also had the soup with fish cakes, though it is not the best, it complements the Chicken rice Well. Five Star Chicken Rice Website.

SEDCO Complex Seafood

Can’t come to Kota Kinabalu without trying out the Seafood. We just had to try out one and found this Sedco Complex at Kampung Air, Kota Kinabalu. Coming from Penang (Andaman Sea), we were very interested to try out the local (South China Sea) catch. We tried the 4 dish above, RM50 for Tiger Prawns, RM50 for Sea Crab, RM50 for Rock Fish (with green bones) and Sabah Vegetables fried in Sambal. There were various types of seafood, and since there were two of us only, we couldn’t try all, plus, we were not that adventurous. At Sedco Complex, there were about 3-4 Seafood Restaurants there, with each concurring their end of the complex. Some bloggers said this place is cheap, we thought it was ok and definitely cheaper than the Chinese Seafood restaurants scattered around the city.

Tuaran Mee @ Seng Hing Coffee Shop

On our last day, we went to Seng Hing coffee shop which was famous for it’s Tuaran Mee and Laksa. Tuaran Mee was indeed unique and we have not come anything like it in Peninsular Malaysia. Its yellow egg noodle fried with sausages, roast pork and egg. The laksa or Curry Mee is also unique where it is sour, more like a fusion of curry powder, coconut milk and tom yam. Tuaran Mee comes in Fried or Soup version and it is the most ordered dish among the patrons there. Tuaran Mee from around the web.

We enjoyed our stay at Kota Kinabalu as much as we enjoy the food there. Mostly, the unforgettable Tuaran Mee and Bak Kut Teh marks Kota Kinabalu as one of the Food City of Malaysia.

I came across this little notebook in Tesco Malaysia and was intrigue to get one to try out. I have been using the Unicorn Colors notebook and found this to be a cheaper version of the Colors. Priced at RM12, it comes in Black and White. It has a hard cover and leathery feel and the size is smaller and thinner than Unicorn Colors A5. There is no back pocket to this Unicorn Privilege and it comes with Memoranda in the front and Telephone & Addresses in the back. The paper is cream in color and a little smooth to the touch. The right side of the notebook is ruled, while the left is blank.  My fountain pen ink sits well without smearing and writes smoothly. The smear through was also less than the Stabilo OHPen and Sharpie Permanent Pen. For the price, the book meets my cosmetic and functionality requirements. My only complaint is that the book is a little small compare to other A5 size books and was a little thinner, means less pages to write on. For RM12, what more can I expect.