Kinabalu Park & Poring Hot Spring

This is the main reason of our trip to KK. HB as some of you know loves mount climbing. He has somehow injected this peculiar dose to my elder girls with his stories & photos. They are thrilled with the natural habitat, flora, fauna & most of all the idea of hiking. (Camping we have done, you can read it here).

Their mama is not much of an outdoor person. Hence, they have to rely on their papa for that sort of fun. When HB informed me that he had gotten tickets for us to KK, I knew this was coming. The hike. But for the sake of family & my love for them I was able to force my lazy bum to play along.

We started off after breakfast at Restoran Rahmat which was quite nearby to the hotel we stayed. My girls were all excited about the hike. Yasmin & Wardah kept drilling Balqis to pronounce Kinabalu properly. That girl didn't know where we were taking her. Didn't even know what hiking meant. Nadeen, as always an easy baby to travel with.

The girls stuffing their stomach before the drive to Kundasang - foothill of Mount Kinabalu.

Nadeen was rather irritated for only watching her sisters eating. (She had hers in the hotel room - same old, boring baby food)

Wardah & Balqis had Soto.

No, not Yasmin. She doesn't eat soupy food. She had roti canai with HB & I tried this gado-gado.

We rented a car. Quite cheap. RM100 for a day. Here are the girls posing before seat-belts fastened.

Along the way, HB stopped at Tamparuli Bridge. There is a song about this bridge & Yasmin learned it in school. She was so telling her friends that she had been to the very bridge. She even sang the song. Had it taped but the file is too big to upload. Seriously, I did not understand a word of the song... must be in Kadazan dialect. But the melody was lovely. These are the photos of them at the bridge.

Continued the journey. Warned Wardah not to be too excited. She vomited the last time we drove up a snaky road. But the road was way better compared to our journey to Cameron Highlands (you can read here).

Our next stop was Nabalu. Famous for its juicy pineapple. I am no fan of this fruit but having tasted it I was addicted. The girls have always been crazy over fruits . The pineapple there, according to them was the best they ever had. I couldn't agree more.

The girls waiting for the lady expertly cutting the pineapple for them

Balqis lollipopping her share of pineapple.

We came across these bananas. According to the lady, it was the bronze banana. Quite rare for me though...

Back in the car. After about 15 minutes drive, we reached Bundu Tuhan. HB knew a spectacular place to snap photos with Mount Kinabalu in the background. Here are the pictures.

At last we reached Kinabalu Park. We headed straight away to Timpohon Gate. HB of course knew his whereabouts. It was his 4th time at the Park. The weather was extremely beautiful. We could see the many peaks of Mt. Kinabalu clearly, namely, the donkey ears, ugly sisters, saint john etc etc & of course we never missed the chance to stop for good photos. Frankly the girls were almost annoyed with us kept on stopping to snap photos... but hey, "Who's the Boss?!!"

Finally, the moment they had been waiting for. The elder girls were all ready for the hike. I frankly agreed merely to be part of the family. To make it more excited for them. But really, for those who are really couch potatoes (my case is different.. am stuck with the Net rather the TV) like me.. do give hiking a shot. You will love it. At least, I did. Especially after witnessing the inquiring & overwhelming joy looks of each one of those innocent faces. Even Nadeen was appreciating the nature. She was attracted to the waterfall & of course the cool breeze.

Yasmin & Wardah led the way. We bumped into quite a number of climbers who were on their way down after climbing up to the peak. Many were surprised with our troop. Of course, did not have the intention to climb all the way to the peak. We were simply doing leisure hiking. Hehehe...

The Timpohon Starting/Ending Point

Climbathon 2007 result

Yasmin registered for the hike on our behalf.

A squirrel welcomed us as we were stepping out of the starting point.

The starting trail was descending. What an irony motivation for climbers...However, this first 100 meters is the easiest part during the ascending but the worst vice versa.

The Carson Waterfall. Nadeen was indeed amazed. She refused to look in front.

We chose the summit trail

Among the 3 girls, I noticed that Balqis carried herself easily. Well, it was no surprise at all. She weighs only 13kg! I expected Wardah to complain. She in a way inherits her maternal puteri lilin gene...;-) I was wrong! Not a single whine... from her. Yasmin, she was the one so looking forward to the hike. A Brownie in school & loves the character George in Enid Blyton's Famous Five. The hike sort of opens a chapter to the many adventurous things she is to experience (hmm.. not very keen to the idea though!hehehe...) OK, this is a video of their climb at 0.2km.

After like 25 minutes climbing, my low stamina legs hinted to stop. HB was aware of his beloved poor potential in hiking. He knew the exact place for me to rest with Nadeen & Balqis. My... was I glad. By this time Nadeen was thirsty for milk. There I was (in the photo below) on that solid bench nursing my baby. Balqis refused to stay with me. She chose to join the torturing climb (well.. it was to me!) You should check out the steep trail that awaited right in front of me.

For the first 10 minutes, I was never alone. Lots of climbers were on the way down. My chirpy self was congratulating most of them. That was the best I could do... you should look at their exhausted expression. At least my words of praises brought smiles to their fatigued faces.

After like 15 minutes, suddenly it was silence, no more climbers. I was all alone with Nadeen napping. Turned left & right, up & down. Even tried to strain my neck & admired the nature behind me. Yes, I was indeed surrounded by nature! Fresh air. The Oxygen all to myself & Nadeen. Hmmm...

I somehow discovered something bulging from one of the pockets to my khaki cargo pants. My handphone! With full signal!!I just had to communicate with someone. I called my parents. After newscasting the morning event, I ended the conversation. Still no more climbers. OK, I had to be fair... Needed to make another report to my parent in laws & I did.

Still holding on to my phone & nobody around me but Nadeen, I checked my mail. Yes, my yahoo mailbox. a&a's mom, Waterlily, Wanshana & yatie_t, I actually read all your comments on my post - Babysitting at the foothill of Mount Kinabalu... ;-)

Done with my mails, a couple from KL stopped to chat. I safely secured my phone back in the pocket. HB & the girls returned after almost 45 minutes. They managed to climb up until 1.3 km which was like 10% of the climb to the peak. So proud of you girls! These are the photos shot.

During the climb down, they still had the stamina. Wardah was so excited telling me this & that. It was difficult for me to tell her to stop talking & kept her concentration on her steps. Told her to tell me everything from A-Z about the things I missed once we reached Timpohon Point. Nadeen was still asleep. Balqis behaved & Yasmin seemed to be quieter than usual. I could see she was tired.

Sleeping Nadeen

Alhamdulillah, we reached Timpohon Point safely. Here are the girls pointing out to the trail they succeeded.

HB still did not have enough of the mountain. Went up to a view point on top of Timpohon Point with Balqis. This is the video of our potential mount climber. Warming down after the climb ;-)

The time showed a few minutes past 1pm. Time for lunch. But before that, we stopped at the Kinabalu Park entrance for one last shot. Hehehe... none of the girls was happy with the idea. Only yours truly posed willingly for the camera ;-)

HB took us to Ranau, about 20 minutes drive from the park. This was our lunch, soto. Wardah's favourite & did not complain at all for having another one for lunch.

Yasmin ordered this Chinese fried rice. I tasted. Not bad at all....

Balqis was napping in the stroller. I did not wake her up. Instead, bought a take away KFC for her lunch.

After lunch we took the girls to Poring Hot Spring. This was Yasmin & Wardah's second time. But they couldn't remember a thing of course. Yasmin then was only 2 & Wardah was about 8 months.

Yasmin & Wardah with our tickets at the counter

Sungai Mamut hanging bridge

The girls were fascinated with this brook

The last time I was there we rented a private cabin for us to dip ourselves in the natural sulfur hot water. It was extremely hot & I was told that the water could boil an egg within 5 minutes! However, the private rooms were not available this time. They had problem with electricity power supply & could not pump the hot water to the cabin. The girls settled with the cold pool instead. HB somehow managed to get hold of an individual hot water pool. Perhaps it was the water supply but seriously filling up one small pool with hot water took us almost forever. We were not putting up the night somewhere nearby like we did last time. We had to drive back to KK. So, we were in a way catching after time. In fact, the girls were not thrilled with the hot spring. They preferred the cold pool a lot better. In the end, HB decided to call it a day.

The cold pool

The waiting was like forever. Just look at the slow flowing water!

All showered & fresher. Ready to start the drive back to KK.

I mentioned that this trip to Poring was our second time (not HB though... it was like his 6th or 7th). Look at these photos below. The 2 are the snaps of Yasmin, Wardah & I. One was quite recently & the other was in the year 2001, on the similar hanging bridge, at the same exact spot ;-)

And after 7 years, the party of 3 has turned to a merrier 5! Hahaha...!

Our ride, Proton Wira Aeroback. Hehehe... insisted on KL plat number.

From Poring, we had to go back to Ranau. Reaching Kundasang it started to get colder. HB made his final stop at the vegetable stalls along the road. I remained in the car with Nadeen who was napping again. I was too tired to purchase anything. I just wanted a bed to sleep on!

At a vegetable stall. HB searched for my favourite Sabah vege but didn't find any.

One last shot with Mount Kinabalu in the background.

The drive back to KK was very misty. Though how tired I was, I chose to be awake co-piloting HB. Not that he really needed one. Merely someone to talk to him. The girls enjoyed the mist. We unwound the window. But the minute the windows were closed, it was total silent at the back. They dosed off with seat-belts still fastened. So cute.... not sure whether they were comfortable though. HB prevented me to snap any photo. Afraid that the flash would wake them up. He was right.

We reached KK safely. Had a hearty supper at Garden Seafood Restaurant, very nearby to the airport. I was too tired & famished to even think of my camera! Sorry no picture of the inviting seafood...

*to be continued

1, 2 &...?

I know... I am supposed to continue with the KK Journal. In the process, yes. Lots of photos to upload. However, I hate leaving my blog static at 1 entry. So, here goes one before I publish the remaining of KK.

Remember Balqis & her m, a, ma.. t, a, ta..? (You can read it here). Well, now not only that she can recognise numbers but is also able to manipulate her counting. I couldn't believe my ears really but it was so attractively cunning of her....

OK, it was the other day when HB was distributing some vitamins supplementary for the girls. She loves those chewy vitamins, in fact almost all medicine mixture too. Never gave me headache with medicine, this one. Obediently would open her mouth to any medicine prescribed to her.

Well, as usual it is really her who will remind us about the vitamins. HB was chosen by her that day to play dispenser. He gave 3 to Wardah who happened to be there & arranged another 6 on his palm. He asked Balqis to take only 3 & this girl started pointing to each of the vitamins & began counting.

One... Two...Th... hesitated but continued with Four... Five... Six... THREE!

HB & I were stunned. Looked at each other & burst out laughing. Balqis was smiling away cheekily. It was so obvious that she purposely counted wrongly for wanting to have all 6 of the vitamins to herself. At that young age trying to confuse her parents with her shrewd counting... Did she get all 6? Of course no! We both then counted loudly to her 1, 2 , 3!!! & gave the remaining 3 of the vitamins to Yasmin instead. Hehehe...

Kota Kinabalu, Sabah - The Journey

HB is full of surprises. OK... need to rephrase that. He is full of spontaneities which make us surprised or sometimes panicked. Yes, that's more like him ;-) Like when he surprised us with a 2 meter tall pine tree. He was home alone for a weekend (technically was only for like 14 hrs, he was doing daily flights) & bored, visited a nursery & planted that huge tree at our front yard. I was in rage, the girls were thrilled. At that time the tree looked rather out of place. Being the tallest, mounting the other trees which I was familiar with. Now, I begin to enjoy the new make over of my garden by dear HB (hopefully have the time to blog about it). My garden table now is quite shady with the other 2 trees accompanying my surprised tree, a bamboo & a fir.

Right, back to what I was intended to write here. Last Wednesday, HB was supposed to operate a five days trip & scheduled to return on the coming Sunday. However, on Thursday he was informed that his flights on Saturday were all canceled & he was only to operate a single sector evening flight back to KL from Kota Kinabalu (KK). In other words, one & a half off day in KK! What do you reckon he did? Yes, he bought tickets for us to fly to KK.

Of course he did inform me over the phone but I was really not convinced. Such short notice & I doubted he was able to get hold of the tickets. So, when he rang me up on Thursday night telling me to pack things up I was speechless.

I hate packing. Don't mind selecting the attire & all but when it comes to packing itself... ergh! HB has been doing the packing all this while whenever we are holidaying. Glad that I found a big luggage which I could dump almost everything... Nothing at all like what HB stresses "space saving" & "travel light". I even packed myself 3 pairs of shoes! Hahaha!

My ma was concerned over me traveling with 3 girls & a baby. True that we were to join HB's flight at KLIA but from the house to the airport, we were on our own. She insisted to send us off but I refused. It is just a short drive from my house to Putrajaya Sentral. In fact, it is safe to leave the car there. At last, she gave in & there I was together with the girls starting off our journey to KK, first by car to the LRT Station.

Nadeen was in a good mood. Entertained by her sisters' excitement. Singing away & talking endlessly about the trip. I parked my MPV quite near to the elevator. Still we had to make about 50 meters walk. Luckily the weather was on our side. If it rained, it would be a major problem.

I instructed Yasmin to take charge of Nadeen in the stroller. Wardah volunteered with our huge luggage & I did not trust anyone to handle Balqis but me. That girl had a couple of disappearing stunts (you can read here) & I was not going to crack my head with another.

We had to cross a road. Even though it was not a busy road, I did not take a chance. I was the sergeant major controlling my troop. First Yasmin with Nadeen, I was in the middle with Balqis (being at the centre was easier to take control over either Yasmin or Wardah) & finally, Wardah struggling with our red & yellow luggage.

As approaching the elevator & Yasmin was already safe on the pavement, I allowed her to go ahead & wait for me in front of the lift. From far I saw a man (perhaps a security guard who was normally there but this one was not in uniform) leaning against a pillar very near to the elevator. I assumed he was in his dreamland. With one hand hanging on to Balqis, I helped Wardah. Once she was also secured on the pavement I headed towards Yasmin.

Wardah was enjoying herself maneuvering the wheeled luggage. Seeing her approaching I told Yasmin to press the lift button. It immediately opened. Yasmin with Nadeen & Balqis went inside. I was still outside holding on to the button for the lift to remain open. I didn't realise the broken cement right in front of the lift. That slowed down Wardah. She was using almost all her energy pushing the luggage which was really about her size. Remember the man I mentioned earlier? He was less a meter away from the luggage. I was wrong, he wasn't asleep. His wide awaken eyes were actually trailing us without any sense of attention to assist. Not that I couldn't manage but come on, the little girl was only a meter away struggling & he was sitting on his arse with legs stretched.

After Wardah's couple of tries failed, I instructed Yasmin to press the open door button & ran to drag the bag. I was too pissed off to even look at that self-centred thing. Good thing none of the girls realised or I had to start preaching about egocentrism!

We were early by 10 minutes. HB kept calling to check on us. I assured him things were under control. As usual traveling with them 4, I got the attention from the public. Am not sure... were they admiring my adorable girls, impressed with my single parenting or confused over me as the eldest of 5.... ;-O

The girls with our luggage waiting for the LRT to KLIA

While waiting I was sharing a bench with this young man. Looked like a college student to me. As the train approaching, I was again frustrated & disappointed with this Malaysian attitude. He grabbed his small bag which looked almost empty & rushed forward. He was standing right in front of us instead of offering a helping hand. A supermom had to do what she had to do. I secured the luggage first with Wardah helping, next the stroller with Yasmin assisting & of course holding Balqis's hand all the time. We did not have the chance to sit together. Yasmin & Wardah babysat Balqis (was eyeing them all the way) & I was guarding our luggage & stroller with Nadeen still in a joyous mood.

In the LRT

Nadeen seemed to understand & was happy all the time

KLIA was the last stop, so I did not have problem leading my troop out. Headed straight to an MAS counter to check in. That somehow took me about 15 - 20 minutes. The girls were occupied with Nadeen, taking turns pushing the stroller.

Once I was done, Nadeen was crying for me. I knew that she was sleepy. I carried her & let Balqis sit in the stroller instead. Since it was still early I offered them to snack at Burger King. At least with them busy eating I was able to nurse Nadeen. By then HB had touched down from Penang.

At Burger King

HB met us at the waiting hall. He brought the girls in first, leaving me with Nadeen who was sound asleep in the stroller. Wardah requested to sit with Yasmin. I allowed her, since my previous experience before, Balqis was not that difficult to handle.

The trick was to get her occupied. I brought along her activity book & colour pencils.

There was a problem though.... it was this girl.

She got bored. Nobody was playing with her. Sneaked to join the party... and

managed to grab a pencil. Good thing Balqis acted fast.

I fed her instead.

Yasmin & Wardah were seated at a different row. Still I could monitor them from my seat.

Balqis & her dinner. She finished off the pasta cheese all by herself. Big appetite for a small girl. Notice the sunset?

After meal, I found Yasmin & Wardah quietly doing the worksheets they brought along. Their test was in a week time.

This flight to KK was via Labuan. There was a transit of 25 minutes. Here are the girls with the engineer in Labuan, Iswadee who is our supplier to our duty free chocolates ;-) HB buys in bulk through him whenever he flies to Labuan.

Wardah was always in the cockpit whenever allowed. A photo with the co-pilot.

At last, we were in KK. Posing at Kota Kinabalu International Airport.

* to be continued

Nadeen's 8th Month

Hi everyone. I'm back with internet connection. Not that I had problem with Streamyx again but was away for the weekend with family (will blog about it soon). Seriously, now I've turned into one of those geeks. The net has become like the H2O. Fail to consume daily, I feel cyber-dehydrated. Knowledgeable no, obsessed... yes! Hahaha! After all don't some of my friends live in my laptop? ;-D

OK, back to my Nadeen who turned exactly 8 months two days back. She is doing incredibly active day by day. I mentioned she had started teething last month, didn't I? Well, here are her two budding front teeth. Took me 2 days to finally got this shot. Her hands were too fast compared to my auto focused lens. This photo might be good but the zooming out of how the photo was snapped does not really make a beautiful picture. My young assistant had to hold the subject's curious little hands which annoyed her & made her scream revealing the tiny white pearls. Breastfeeding now is sometimes a horrifying experience when she is in her playful mood!

She is also mastering the art of crawling. Able to sit from her from her crawl position & is rather witty with her own baby language. It won't be long, she will join her sisters making my life soundly colourful... ;-) Enjoy her latest video.