Api-Api

Do you know what is api api?

Apparently that is the original name of Kota Kinabalu, or in chinese Ya Bi. I never knew that! One of my colleague told me that even Chinese tourist knows about it, what a shame, being a Malaysian and not knowing about it.

So I looked it up in Wikipedia, and true enough it was there. I also found out that KK has a couple of other names besides Kota Kinabalu, Jesselton and Api Api. Let me extract that info and share with you here:

From Wikipedia:

Kota Kinabalu

Original names
Besides Jesselton, there has been a number of other claims as to the original name for Kota Kinabalu. The most popular, as mentioned above, is Api-Api, or sometimes simply Api, which is a Malay word meaning 'Fire'. It was apparently named as such by the mainly Bajau locals to denote the blazing of the British administrative office in Pulau Gaya instigated by Mat Salleh,[11] as well as other blazing incidents normally perpetrated by pirates. There were claims however that it was actually named after a nearby river called Sungai Api-Api. Another theory states that "Api-Api" is the local name of the common Avicennia tree found in abundance around the area.[12] Transliterated into the formal Chinese name of Ya Bi (亚庇 yà bì), the Hakkas here too adopted this name and some still use this name to this day.[13] Besides Api-Api, another suggested historical name was Deasoka, which roughly means "below the coconut tree" in the Bajau language.[12] The Bajau locals purportedly used this name to refer to a village on the southern part of the city which was filled with coconut trees. Another name was Singgah Mata which literally mean "transit eye", but can be loosely translated as meaning "pleasing to the eye". It is a name purportedly given by fishermen from Pulau Gaya referring to the strip of land of what is today Kota Kinabalu city center.[14] Today, all these names have been immortalised into names of streets or buildings around the city. Some examples are: Lintasan Deasoka, Api-Api Centre, Jalan Singgah Mata, and Jesselton Point.

Ah-so-neh... now I know.. You learn something new everyday!

Mood: Good!

Tai Ping Ho Chiak? Not...

Went to this restaurant in Sea Park yesterday night with 3 friends for dinner. It is located opposite the old Ruby Cinema, ame row as the KFC. Restaurant name is Taiping Ho Chiak, literally means Taiping Delicious, or so we thought.


Our unpleasant experience begun with 2 of us arriving first and choosing a 4 person table. The waitress came over and asked if we were ordering rice and dishes, and suggested we move to a much bigger table (enough for 6-8) as it would be more spacious. We were apprehensive about it first, but she said that it's ok since it was a rainy night and there were not many customers around. So we shifted table, and while waiting for our 02 friends to turn up, more patrons turned up. The lady captain came over and asked how many of us and wanted us to shift to a smaller table, I told her in an unfriendly manner that her colleague recommended this table to us. To cut the long story short, we changed to a smaller round table later (which was bigger than the one we first picked out). We got down to ordering our food after settling this issue.


We ordered a set menu for 3, comprising of the brinjal, soya pork and sambal prawn, and added acar and popiah. We also ordered herbal drinks. By this time, the restaurant was full, and crowded. Obviously shortage of manpower, the service level became unbearably slow. Our food took about 40 minutes to arrive, with no cutleries nor rice to go with the dishes. We had to ask for it. Half way through our meal, I thought something was amiss and asked for the menu, true enough, our set was supposed to come with soups but they have forgotten all about it. We highlighted it to them, only then did they bring the soup. Were the food delicious? It's alright, to the point of being so-so only, I mean I wouldn't drive all the way there just to have dinner. When we were almost done with dinner, we realised that our popiah has not arrived and again, had to tell the waiter about it. We wouldn't have missed anything great even if it didn't come because the popiah skin was too thick, and it was kinda bland.



My friends and I decided that we probably wouldn't patronage this restaurant again, not because it was that bad an experience, rather we just felt that we could be treated better elsewhere.

Clockwise from top left: Brinjal, Acar, Soya Pork and Sambal Prawn

Popiah

Taiping Ho Chiak?

Mood: :-)

0 KM to Kuala Lipis??

Have you ever seen something like this?

I was told that the location of Kuala Lipis is at the center point of Peninsular Malaysia, all measurements of distance start from here, hence there is the 0km signage, which is unique to this place. I mean, where else in this world would you find this?

I tried to upload a map of Peninsular Malaysia with Kula Lipis marked, but it was too small, doubt you will be able to see it. You just have to take my word for it, or google it.

Conteng..

I am still trying to decide whether I have mispelled this in Malay. Can't believe my Malay language has deteriorated so much..

Anyway I drooled this last night in the lab when I was bored.. I know it looks like a 3 year old's drawing.. but what the heck? We can have a good laugh at my lack of talent in this area.. if I can draw well, I would have become an artist.. haha..

p/s: Yes, that is Donald Duck on the right there.

Mood: Lousy, too many hands in the pot, spoiling the broth

Outrageous price for a packet of chips

I was at Starbucks today, and I had a frappuccino and a chicken sausage puff for lunch.
I wanted something to munch after having my lunch, and walked over to the counter to browse for items.

I saw some potato chips and grabbed one packet without asking for the price, thinking that it couldn't be more than MYR2-3 (or maybe even MYR4), I got a shock when the cashier told me that it costs MYR6.20 inclusive of tax! Turned out that the Kettle chips costs MYR5.90 per packet and with tax it's MYR6.20. I cancelled my order immediately, there is no way I am paying MYR6.20 for a packet of chips (unless it is Walker's Chips, read earlier blog on " My Favourite Potato Chips" if you are puzzled), I mean, my chicken sausage puff only costs MYR4.80 before tax. Would anybody pay that much to buy Kettle potato chips?

I wouldn't, period.

New Sakura - well worth it

Over the weekend, Abi and I went down to Singapore. We went out to New Sakura with his sister and family to New Sakura for dinner. New Sakura is like Saisaki in Malaysia, or Sakae Sushi but buffet style.


For SGD24.00++ (additional SGD2 for public holidays and weekends), you can eat all you can! The variety is good, and the sashimi is so fresh!


We had a really good time enjoying the food, it was simply fantastic! I highly recommend the place for dinner. Try the durian puffs and the cheese cakes while you are there, fabulous. I can go on and on about the delicious food but I shall not, instead I will post the photos here, you can judge if the food looks nice enough for you to try out the place.


I will definitely go back there the next time I am in Singapore.

Cheese Baked Oyster

Mussels

Herbal Prawn

Durian Puffs

Cheese cake, Layer cake, mango cake, moichi and chocolate

New Sakura restaurant

Mood: Waiting to go home.. tired already..

Turkish Delight 2

If you were reading my previous blog, and thought that 11.30pm was late for leaving the lab, I left at 2.00am and 1.30 am for the next two days. The good news is that that lab has ended, the bad news is that the other lab was extended so it's never over until it's over (will it ever be over?) And there are still more labs to come till early May.. someone help me.. the hours are insane, and the labs are intense.



Oops, I am way off topic, anyway I just wanted to post the photos of more Turkish Delight given to me by my colleague based in Turkey. Yes, the same one who let us tried the earlier Turkish Delight. This one is slightly sweeter, so I like the first one more. Heard that there are many flavours, and pistachio and chocolates are nice! When I do visit Istanbul, I will make it a point to try them.

Someone actually commented that it looks like something which has gone bad.. haha.. think it does look like that in a way, but I assure you that it tasted good and I didn't have any stomach upset. Apparently if you keep it in the fridge, you can store it for 1 year!

Mood: Can't wait to go home..

Turkish Delight

Lab is half way through, last night was the latest where I left work at 11.30pm while my lab members were still hard at work. I felt bad for leaving earlier but I need my sleep, and I saw no reason for me to stay at the lab further since they were basically documenting items into spreadsheets and powerpoint. (ok fine it's just my excuse for wanting to leave..)

Anyway one lab member from Istanbul brought with her some Turkish Delight, and I was pleasantly surprised as we didn't expect it. My cousin was telling me so much about it that I felt privileged to be able to try it in Malaysia. If I do visit Turkey, I would be trying it again because it tasted really nice, not too sweet, just nice. Perfect for a tea time snack or for coffee breaks.

I told my cousin I took a photo of the Turkish Delight and will be posting it on my blog, and she almost wanted to kill me over the phone. I am still doing it.. hehe..

Well, here it is, Turkish Delight.

p/s: cousin, please don't kill me.. hehe.. and thanks to abi who corrected the typo error..

Mood: So sleepy...

Escaping from the 8x5

What's an 8x5 you ask?

It's the small little cubicle which you head to, normally 5 times a week and officially 8 hours a day. Yes, it's your work station, work area, work place, whatever you call it. Why do I call it 8x5? I don't really know the exact measurement of the cubicle, but I just made up the length and width and call it an 8x5. Well, currently I do not favour my 8x5. Actually I don't think it is the cubicle, it's probably more of the nature of work that I am currently handling.

I very nearly ran away from work today, to avoid the task at hand. But I didn't in the end, I stayed put and instead bought a big packet of potato chips to munch while trying to absorb what all my datas are trying to tell me. This diagnosis and prognosis thingy is not easy man...!

Countdown to lab session, 5 days and I've got 4 routes to do. Man this is going to be difficult, and tough.. This is the time to ask for divine intervention and reinforcement.. Help!

Lord, please help me with my data analysis and prognosis and super reading power and microsoft office skills and stamina and.. and.. and...... could you just make the labs disappear instead? Amen...

:-)

Look at those cars!

I was on my way to work this morning, and I was coming to a cross junction with traffic lights. Like a law abiding citizen, I stopped at my junction while waiting for the traffic lights to turn green, before the yellow box. I know I caused some traffic congestion at the back because I didn't move into the yellow box, but hey, I wasn't committing the crime, I was merely following the traffic laws!



Then along came a few cars, which overtook me from my right hand side and went straight into the yellow box! I was quite pissed actually, for one they have cut my queue, and they are now in my way. And it is definitely not fair for all of us who were waiting in line. Luckily I had the camera with me, and I snapped photos of them traffic offenders. I wonder whether these photos are enough to penalise them?

This was the traffic condition at the cross junction. Notice all the cars in the yellow box?

This car cut right in front of me, notice how he is very much in the yellow box? Can you read the number plate? Good....

There were more cars wanting to cut queue (notice the car to my right?) while other more civilised drivers were patiently waiting outside the yellow box (sort of outside lah..)

If you are the car owner featured here, you should be ashamed of yourself. Let's try to be civilised drivers out there shall we?

Mood: Bad.. lab session starting next week, and hearing nothing but bad news..