I'M BACK!!!

Hello to all who have missed me terribly and to those who haven't... well... I'm sure there aren't any...

So anyway, hmm... I'm wondering if I should condense 6 days' worth of travel stories in one entry. Oh well, I'll just write and see how far I get.

DAY ONE
Sabah was everything I expected it to be. I felt like I had stepped into Singapore in the 70s. Although how I know what Singapore was like in the 70s is beyond me since I wasn't born then. But Kota Kinabalu is devoid of fancy malls, upmarket restaurants, well-paved roads or clean toilets. The nicest shopping centre I was at is as fancy as Far East Plaza. But with toilets as groovy as those in People's Park or some Chinatown complex probably. Another assumption as I have never been to toilets in People's Park.. haha..

Met my 3 year-old niece for the first time and we bonded instantly. She's a precocious little girl who speaks such fluent Cantonese that I get tongue-tied trying to hold a conversation with her. I ended up feeling like quite the idiot. Needless to say, I spent much time playing with her, feeding her, and hugging her (more like squeezing her to bits). She's got the most adorable baby sister too. I think she's about 3 months old and looking very much like a doll. How do they make babies this cute???

Well there's not much of day one to talk about since it was very short. And I don't think I'll continue this DAY X thing either. It's too much work!! So here are somme funny moments I remember:

- Saw a coffeeshop banner that read "HATO HATO RAUM". I honestly thought it was some exotic East Malaysian food. Until I realised that the cloth banner was so thin that the ink had completely seeped through. It was, of course, "MUAR OTAH OTAH", which made a whole lot more sense.

- Got totally stumped by my niece who asked me at least 5 times why I wasn't married. And since it's hard to explain even in plain English, I didn't know how to tell her in Cantonese. In the end, I settled for "ngoh mm oi" (I don't want to).

- Went for a church service. In Mandarin. The people were really friendly and shook my hand so firmly. Pity I had no idea what they were saying to me.

- Every single shop I went to, the cashier/salesgirl would speak to me in Bahasa Melayu. What's up with that??? But I learnt a new phrase - "saya tak faham" (I don't understand).

So Kota Kinabalu's not exactly the cleanest or most modern city but it's certainly got charm and the best part is, it's got my wonderful relatives there :)

I'll update more when I think of more stuff.. will upload pix too. Watch out for them!