Tanzania trip 30 May – 4 Jun 2009 (Part 2)

Zanzibar looked gloomy coz it looked like it was about to rain. The rooms were not available and so we rested at the restaurant for breakfast. Flight took only 20 mins so there was basically no service except the air stewardess greeting you good morning.

Looked very threatening. But didn’t even rain. But the view from the restaurant was fantastic, overlooking the Zanzibar Channel.

Fishing boat

Dhow

They got plenty of fresh passion fruit juice everywhere in Zanzibar. Yummy.

I tried out their local foods, rice cake and doughnut. The rice cake was dry, hard and tasteless. The doughnut was much too sweet but still not bad.

Tanzania trip 30 May – 4 Jun 2009 (Part 1)

I finally did the photos of the trip I had to Tanzania, but those on my facebook will be able to see the full range.

Here are some of those which I took. I think I like Zanzibar Stonetown better than Dar-es-salaam. Maybe Stonetown is more ancient looking and not so busy like Dar. And I can walk around the place coz Stonetown is very small.

Was upgraded to the club room in Dubai. It’s very low occupancy rate I guessed, coz it was 43 deg C when I was there.

Hot, but not humid.

The nite view from the hotel room

My room. Very small actually, despite it’s a club room

They even sell USB light and ports

I wanna make coffee but can’t find the beans.

A sight of Deira

The infamous Dubai Creek

In Dar-es-salaam

Just reached Dar-es-salaam. Somehow dun really like the hotel. Guessed it’s the level of soundproof-ness which is pretty low. So the sudden noises scared me.

Had another minor scare just now. My luggage was forgotten to tag “priority”, so it came out as ‘normal’. Then it took like about an hour before I see my pink luggage coming out. I thought my luggage was targeted coz it’s pink. Crap. Moreover I was reading the Business Traveller mag earlier on and the subject of ‘missing luggage’ was discussed about. I started thinking about what to do if I really lost my stuff.

Dubai was ok, but I miss back home. Will blog more later. Coz a customer is coming to pick us for dinner soon. Brb.

Off tomorrow!

Will be flying off tomorrow nite to Southern Leyte in Philippines. Or rightfully, to Cebu first before catching a transfer to the dive resort.

The little bugger will turn one on the 2nd, which we will miss it by a day because we’ll only land on the 3rd May.

Right now, there’s a lot of things to rush for me. I’ve yet to send the car for inspection, the processing of the car insurance is undergoing, and the road tax of coz is yet to be paid.

I can do it when I come back since it’s due for renewal on 9th (last day), but I think I’ll prefer to do it fast.

Actually I’m not on top form now. A flu seems to be due to come, and my throat is slightly hurting and I’m coughing now. But I’m popping lots of flu med and Diflam, because I can’t eat the flu med anymore when I start to dive. And hopefully I’m not going to have blocked nose or something because that’s going to make me have a hard time equalising.

Gotta prepare and bring the little bugger out. If you dun see me logging in, will be back next week. Till then!

Day 5 – chilling out

Sunday. The day which we had to return home.

Did some cleaning up, grocery shopping for Ju (we consumed quite a bit of bottled water and snacks and instant coffee), played with Wii, and waited for brunch that Ju made. Yummy.

He makes the bacon so crispy, that it’s so nice to munch on it. And the fried smell. I can feel myself salivating upon thinking about it.

Then we sat there chatting, while the guys talked about the parties they had organised, work stuff, anything and everything. I had a good laugh at some of the wild things they did when they were younger.

After that it was some resting time, before we did the last bit of cleaning up. Then off we went to the airport to have dinner before boarding time.

Day 4 – Chatuchak, MBK, last min wrap up

Today was meant to do some last minute shopping and wrap up for the trip, coz we intend to laze around and chill out on Sunday before we catch the evening flight back to Singapore. So the plan was to go to Chatuchak early in the morning and walk around.

Unfortunately, we needed the daily dose of Wii gaming and some nua-ing around, so we got off at only about 11 plus in the morning.

Day 3 – Patphong, fake goods and eating non stop

G and I woke up quite early for a holiday, but guess what we did?

Yea, we polished off the pack of durians leftover. With a guest which tried to eat the durians too…

From this:

to this:

Day 2 – MBK & Nana

Ju had to work since it was a Thursday, so it was left to us to walk around until Ju finishes work.

We decided that this would be a relaxing trip, so no rushing out to do mad shopping and rushing.

Day 1 – Touchdown at Suvarnabhumi airport

We got to the place about 7, where Ju was waiting for us at the airport. He had to miss a preview of Simpsons (I think) because he had to fetch us.

Anyway, we got to his place which was minutes from the airport, and we have a fruit basket prepared in our honour! Heh~

Where I went?

Well, the place where I’ve been to for the first time, is Bangkok.

Ok, laugh all you want.

As quoted by G’s fren Ju, where G & I are staying with right now, I belong to the 2% of Singaporeans who have not been to Bangkok. Haha.

Anyway, we took Jetstar to BKK. Went to the boarding gate quite late, after I drew some money and changed baht, while G went to buy stuff for Ju. 3.55pm. We were supposed to depart then but when it came, we were still sitting at the boarding gate.

So we went to ask the staff what time will it be ready before we can go off, after they made the announcement that the plane was delayed due to late arrival. And guess what? We went out of the boarding gate for some walk around since there’s still plenty of time. But they retained our boarding passes.

Just as we walked past the gate, a few more people wanted to follow us. The staff asked if they were with us, and stopped them from going out because he can only limit a number of people out. Otherwise they will get problems when it was nearly time to go off.

What luck!

Anyway, we got back at the time they told us to, and the passengers with kids were just going in, while the others were waiting. Minutes later, time to board the plane! Nearly an hour late…but nevertheless…

…off we went flying to the capital of the Land of 1000 Smiles…

Away

Will be flying off to somewhere soon for the weekend. In the next 5 hours.

My first time to this place. Such a joke but it’s true.

Hope everything turns out ok. *crosses fingers*

Day at Tawau & Semporna

Well, this is long overdue, but better late than never…

We were received at Tawau by J’s frens, I & JF at the airport. The main town of Tawau, or 斗湖 in Mandarin, is about 20 mins from their international airport.

First we went to Sabindo, one of their towns there, before going off to Fajar town. Because J needed to send something out by email, we had to go to somewhere where they’ve got WiFi.

And guess what? They’ve got WiFi at COFFEESHOPS. For free somemore. Though of coz it is a bit slow. Since J needed some time to upload his big file, I went to the shops 2 doors away with his friends to take a look at the clothes and bags they have there.

Most of the fashion stuff in Tawau, according to I, are ‘imported’ from KL and so the new fashion pieces often come slower than what you can get in KL. And because of this fact, they are also more expensive.

I didn’t really feel like buying anything because I have baggages with me and it meant that it will be a bit difficult to bring extra things around.

Many things they sell are quite the ‘bling bling’ type, especially the bags.

Because Tawau is so small, people there know each other either by person or by face. So it meant that if tourists (like us) goes to Tawau, the locals there will know it.

And because of this, whatever the locals do will be known to others very fast. Who you go out with, what you do, can easily be the topic of discussion for that day.

There is only a theatre in the whole of Tawau, plus a lot of cafes only open till about 6pm during the weekends. What the locals usually do during the weekends is to drive around, hang around at coffeeshops or cafes to talk and talk about anything under the sun. So the roads are very busy (to the extend of having jams) at various junctions and the most significant thing about Tawau is they have alot of roundabouts everywhere! Instead of just turning junctions, vehicles have to go around these roundabouts to get to the other road. And the roundabouts come in various sizes too, the smallest being one where only a single person can stand on that roundabout coz it’s only a piece of rock. Yeah, it’s that small.

We went around eating their mee soto, where pieces of lime were squeezed into the soup to give the sour taste, when we usually eat it salty in Singapore. I also had ice, because it was such a hot day then. Then we went around to places and supermarkets and private housing areas (where the upper class stays) to try and while the time away while waiting for the dive centre to call us to pick us to Semporna.

Also went to the navy club area, where it’s a very quiet place to chat a bit. Here the 2 ladies (frens of J) finally agreed to take pictures. They were apprehensive about taking pictures in town because they didn’t want the locals to see and end up gossiping about them.

Then we went to this cafe with I (JF had to go off a while) to relax and chat, until JF finished her stuff and came around to pick us up again.

Before we got the call from the dive resort, we went to the supermarket (the biggest there) to look for red wine and shop around, because there was nowhere else to go. We went for something to eat and drink (again) before the driver finally came to pick us up.

An hour later, we finally got reunited with the rest of the gang at Semporna.

The rooms at Seafest were quite big and we 4 gals actually managed to stay in one room while the 3 guys in another.

Went for a seafood dinner nearby, before getting back to the hotel to prepare some of our dive stuff, check out if we got all the things we wanted, chatted and watched VCDs, before we retired for the nite.

Off to diving soon!

From KL to Tawau

J & I were supposed to leave on the 7pm coach, but due to his unfinished work, we postponed to a later coach at 10pm. So I could have dinner with the parents and then went to his place to pick him and our luggages up. My gawd, he was still not ready by the time we were supposed to meet.

After a lot of rush and my dad’s ferrari skills, we finally arrived at the boarding place and got on the coach, being the last 2 pax on board the bus.

Slept almost all the way on the coach, a bit delayed here and there coz there was a jam upon nearing the drop off point. So J had to call S several times to reconfirm the timing coz she was picking us up.

After all the happenings, we finally reach J’s place and went off to sleep past 5am.

Woke up at 12 noon, and our plans to have tim sum breakfast was cancelled. So the 3 of us went for yong tau foo before going to PWTC (Putra World Trade Centre) for the MIDE exhibition.

Saw some people I knew at the fairly small exhibition. Basically more on photography and dive destinations than equipment/gear.

3pm. Went to this place called Sai Mai Lou (西米露) where according to S a lot of people like to go there for desserts and munchies.

Look at what we ate…

 

And we just had lunch at nearly 1pm…

We left the place and were deciding whether to go to J’s grandma’s place or do somemore walking around. Decided the latter coz being there too early also meant that the 3 of us can only chat or help out a bit. S took us to her newly acquired apartment for a look and for the first time I did not step into KL city but hung around Damansura area, where a totally different crowd is there.

I quite like the atmosphere there coz people there seemed more laidback and relaxed. We passed by the flea market and the somewhere called the Curve (I think).

Then we decided to go to 1 Utama coz I couldn’t find the Cellnique at the Watsons at the Curve. Finally got it! We had some godawful green tea ice cream which was too…I couldn’t really describe the taste, so I had to trash it in the bin.

I bought my pointer at one of the dive shops that S frequent, and then S wanted to buy wine. We went to this quaint looking wine shop at the supermarket, tried some funny tasting Merlot before she finally decided on 2 different bottles of Shiraz.

Then we went off to J’s grandma’s place for dinner. J’s cousin got married and this was the reception for the relatives of her side. It was a so-so buffet dinner, and it had been a long time since I see the manual machine for making ice kachang. But S and I were so full of water (the weather was pretty hot and we drank more than a bottle of water) so we kinda ate less.

The nite was spent playing 3-player mj and S was pretty cute coz she had no inkling on how to play mj and J’s auntie was helping her out with the grouping of the tiles. She was so fast that S didn’t know what exactly was happening too.

Then we proceeded to playing rummy, my first try at the game. 3 of us took RM10 out to play and ended up losing a bit. No beginners luck.

We left the place at nearly 11pm coz we had an early flight to catch the next day and had to be at the L.C.C.T (Low Cost Carrier Terminal) at about 5am. J’s sis followed our car and we were ’supposed’ to go home, but the 4 of us ended up at the eateries for tim sum, bah kut teh, satay and nearly for prata but decided not coz J’s sis was tired out.

On the way back, we purposely paid toll to pass by the ‘renowed’ SMART tunnel to let me have the feel of how ’smart’ it is. Errmm…alright la.

I went off to sleep at 3am only coz I didn’t feel tired and I had to dry my hair. S and J had already fallen asleep and I went off to bed after J’s mum told me to rest early.

After about an hour later, we set off to the airport. J drove us to the airport and S and J’s sis were to drive back the car. It was a long long hour ride to the LCCT and it was located in some awkward place beside the main KLIA and once we miss it it would mean a super long turnaround. Managed to get there just right though.

My impression of the LCCT: messy. At such an early hour of the day, the place was full of people, all crowding around and difficult to move around. We were a bit lost on whether to scan all the bags or not, and the 2 queues past the scanner was merged into one coz people were just coming from all different directions.

We behaved like kiasu Singaporeans when it was soon to board, so that we could get better seats. The flight to Tawau was not really full though it was a bit long for it was a nearly 3 hours flight. Anyway, fell asleep on the plane.

Arrived at Tawau finally with J’s frens waiting for us at the airport entrance…

Countdown to Sipadan

By 10.30 Sunday morning I would be in Tawau.

And by tomorrow at this time of 2.30am I would be in KL.

I can finally feel my holiday mood!

I just realised that 3 of my buddies are also travelling up north tomorrow. Haiyaaa….why never tell me la? Then I can still save on my coach tix. They are going up to Genting though.

This morning I was still quite disturbed by my BCD issue, and some other childish stuff that one of my colleagues did. Anyway, I just kept quiet. And the whole morning I was trying very hard to control my anger and I was kinda rude to J while on MSN but I apologised to him soon after.

Then something happened during noon that made me real upset.

Anyway I finally managed to borrow one BCD. And all other issues settled.

Had lunch today at Kiseki @ Pan Pacific hotel. I did something which is no good. That is, to have teppanyaki when I am still coughing. Tsk tsk.

Anyway, the meal was not bad. I like the seafood best coz they were all tender to the bite and pretty fresh. The lobster was still struggling even though it had been cut into half and ‘baking’ on the cooking plate.

My chicken was quite tough when it turned cool. Thank god for mayonnaise which made it more palatable.

Fried rice was a disappointment coz the seasoning was not enough to taste it well. Anyway, teppanyaki is more a matter of having food at it’s most natural taste as possible, yeah?

Left the place with a slight cooked smell on me. But we consoled ourselves with the fact that it smelt better than us being in our canteen.

Went to collect my BCD, then got lost. Or rather didn’t manage to locate the dive shop. It was a weird arrangement. 7-9 and 11-17 were on the left side of the road. Blk 10 was missing, which was the exact block I was looking for.

Asked someone but he didn’t know exactly where. Then saw the newspaper vendor. So I asked him.

Guess what? It’s at the other side of the road.

Why so weird har? One lonesome block 10 surrounded by other blocks of number 400++.

My bad again.

Dinner was McDees.

Por bee tomorrow no sore throat, coz I kinda like…..feel it in my throat.

Tsk.

Anyway, will be bringing my Macbook over to Sipadan. So will update when I can!