The Weekend Break

CJ, JF & Hayley, waiting for their ride on the beach buggy



JF ready to go for the flying squirrel



The 3 girls at the UMS Aquarium



A giant grouper at the aquarium


My sister's birthday cake


My sister Ivy & her hubby XM, with another sister, Hazel & my niece, Hayley were in KK over the last weekend for a 4D3N visit. The last trip they came to KK was 5 years ago, took me quite a while to persuade them to come over.
Frankly, the price they paid for the tickets were not cheap, for the same price or even less, they could go to Hong Kong or Bangkok, where they can shop till they drop. I guess seafood is the only excuse I could think off. The last time they were here, they had a bad snorkelling trip, the water at manukan Island was so murky they couldn't see anything. So this time I didn't even think of the island, moreover the toilets on the island is so horrible. The last time I went with JF on her school trip, the toilet was damp & dark & smelly !

I ended up bringing them to KK Adventure Park at Kinarut. I was a little disappointed when we arrived at the park. It wasn't really what I've expected, from their website, the place looked so fun & exciting. It was a very hot day when we went on Monday, even though we arrived at 3pm. I packed a cooler bag filled with drinks, fruits & my durian swissroll, the only thing missing was a cup of coffee !! The kids had fun with the beach buggy. As Hayley was too small to try the other activities, both CJ & JF had all the time to themselves, the activities were based on 15 mins each. They tried the bungee trampoline, low ropes & flying squirrel. JF was so brave she went onto to try the flying squirrel even though she had to climb up the steps leading to almost the top of a tree ! It was tiring for both the adults & kids but I could tell the kids had a great time !

On Tuesday, I brought them to the Aquarium situated within the UMS campus. I was really happy that I managed to find places to bring them to since they didn't want to go to the island & Kinabalu Park is out as besides the cool weather, there's really nothing we can do up there, not a proper cafe where we can have a nice meal.
This is a very small aquarium but there's lots of corals & groupers. The tour of the aquarium was finished within 30mins. I was attracted by the mangrove walk when I looked at the brochure, there was a sign sticking on a glass door with direction to the walk. Happily, we went on the mangrove walk. It was just a flight of stairs leading up to the exterior of the aquarium, what they meant by mangrove walk was just viewing at a small patch of mangrove, that's all !
Oh dear, it was only 12 pm when we came out of the aquarium, not knowing where to go, I could only think of 1Borneo. I was right, everyone was comfortable in a shopping mall.
The mall was quiet & very cold. Some of the shops were giving good discounts so we ended up with few bags of clothing for everyone !
Lunch was at Penang Village, a restaurant which I heard is good. Some items that we ordered were not available & I think the price they charged for a tiny fragrant coconut was ridiculous. I ordered the Penang Prawn Mee which is highly recommended to try, there was no taste & aroma of prawn stock at all, just very gingery !
We left the mall at 5.30pm, dropped them back to the hotel for a shower before we go for dinner again. It was Ivy's birthday so we went to Ferdinands for dinner at night. My usual dinner time is at 6pm, it was already 8pm when we reached the restaurant & by the time we finished it was 11pm. I felt so bloated after such a late dinner but I was so tired that I had to sleep right after I got home.
The food portion at Ferdinands was big but my duck breast was a failure, I had the server send it back to the kitchen. The cook ( yes cook, there was no chef that night !) cooked me another portion but I didn't want it.
I was with them the whole day so I have to get up early in the morning to bake my sister a cake, it was a surprise for her. I baked a chocolate cake & drew a not-so-pretty picture of her favourite cartoon on it. Even though it was late but we did enjoy ourselves, finishing the meal with the cake & coffee.