from Kuching to Telaga Air

The sole purpose of today's mini road trip was to find fresh cheap (cheaper than the ones sold in Pasar Satok at least) AND to eat fresh seafood, fresh prawns to be exact.

Telaga air is a fishing village some 45 minutes away from Kuching city centre.
Attractions include seafood, scenery (great for insta missions), seafood market, Jeti pelabuhan?? (Sungai Sibu) and of course a heaven for fishermen.

we started our journey at around 11.00 am, after we bought provisions for the road trip. and by provisions i mean, snacks. This is what i love about road trips, you buy snacks, chit chat along the way, look out for some more snacks (like the original Serapi Kelapa Shack -at which mum did not stop because the big ass speeding Pajero was following ever so closely form behind, Kerepek stalls, fruit stalls....)

Reached Telaga air at around 11.45 am, we decided to look for fishies first before feasting.

 

the turning to Telaga Air road, its hard to get lost in Kuching, you either follow the big SUVs carrying old people ( sons and daughters bringing their moms and dads to eat) or you follow trucks. yes. most of them are probably second men (buys fish in bulk and sells them back in the city at a higher price)

the road(s?) wind up down left right, just remember not to go above 80km/h (that's if your car is a small one) potholes are not uncommon.
just go along the whole stretch until you find the end of the road, like the picture below

you can see the river from here, there are loads of vendors selling food, most of them sell coconut water and jeruk asam. To the right, you will get to a fish market. for the freshest fish, come early in the morning. Or as a tip from my mum, watch the tides, if the tides are high, it means the fishermen can go back to land and vice versa.

ikan popot was available, a great fish if u want to make Umai out of it,
Ikan terubuk was also on offer, as well as bubuk (the micro shrimps-used to make cencaru(lu?), Rusip and belacan) a few other species of fish. and 4 rare yellow ikan Gelama, which my mum was quick to spot.

a few minutes walk down the road u may find multiple Jeti's, this was one of them, mum was scared we would fall off the concrete bridge hence we didnt go further










to be continued....
for more photos check out my Flickr

Do it for yourself

Comfort zones away!! Be gone

The past week, I had contemplated on contacting the person from a certain franchise, they were looking for team members. Its not about the money per se, I wanted some good experiences, meeting new people and make new connections. I want my faith in humanity restored, its not gonna happen if I just stay at home, do chores, the usual visit to grandmas and picking up my sisters form school. I feel that I am out of touch.

I contacted them anyways and hoped for the best.

So, I brought up this idea to my mum.
She offered me rm1000 (1000 freaking dollars) to do house chores and to help her around the house. I mean, is that not what I'm doing now, only for free, maybe she doesn't see what I do for her. ( I've decided whenever she comes home I will rush down to sweep the floors and lipat the kain and make sure she sees it, if not she'll just say I'm a lazy ass, spoilt girl.)
Mind you, the job I'm applying to makes nowhere near what my mum is offering.

She tried to talk me out of it, I don't see where she was going with her arguments, coz I do the houseworks anyways, if she pays me, that means I'm obliged, if i dont do the work, she can't scold me for not doing the work right? (She scold me anyway, thats what mothers are for, scold/teach). I told her my reason, I wanted to broaden my horizon, meet new people, try something new. She said "okay". Okayyyyy with no contest.

Today, was the interview, my first ever interview, I had with me my one page resume and my certificates, reached the interviewing place early by 15 mins, I dragged my 2 little sisters along. I repaid their kindness with chocolate eggs, chocolate creme eggs, and of course KFC.
I was really out of my comfort zone, I have never done this kind of thing before, half of the time I wanted to go home. Just go home. The other half of me, questioned myself, was there anything to loose if I waited and do the interview? The answer was No. My sis nagged, 'we came all the way here, just to see u quit even before the interviewer has arrived? What about parking tix?'

The interviewer came, he was a nice man, cheerful and non threatening, so I filled up some forms and waited for my turn. A friend from high school came, she too was going for the interview. Phewwwww..ada gang

My turn came, all he asked was, explain things about yourself, why u want to work, describe yourself in 5 words, what are your qualification...it wasn't formal at all, we were like friends 'poreting'. His partner at one time, saw my CV and said, I can't do the job (I was highly confused?). I bluntly said, dude what are you talking about? This juicing job? I need to work with the government first? The government is the reason I am in this situation, how posibble??? He cleared the air bybsaying he is from a private medical institution... I let out a long 'oooooo' yes aaa?

My interview lasted about half an hour. It was fun. I hope I get it.

The moral of this story is, just do it, if you have done your research and you are confident in your findings why not? Just jump into it. Right?

#doonethingyouareafraidtodoeachday and all will be well.

When you remember and they dont

This post is a break from the my summer adventures

I just need to say this out loud..

How do you..un- know a person? Because i dont..i just cant..all those seniors, juniors, batchmates faces in Kuching i know..some of them were my friends..i remember them all

Met one of then today..i clearly remember who she was..but clearly she has no clue about me. So i just pretended not to know..which was way easier than whoring myself ..and saying hi to a person who does not remember me.

Hahaha

How though? To un-know a person..please tell me

Day 1 - search for the hostel-

Ooooo Hostel na Kurskoi, where art thou?

I arrived at Kurskaia station at 12.09 noon..unloaded my big ass luggage and waited for a friend of mine and her companions near the entrance to the station, she like me has the same bookings at this particular hostel.

I was not about to drag my big ass luggage around Moscow city whilst looking for the elusive hostel, so i decided to place my luggage in the 24 hour luggage holding unit - one of the safest ones i have ever encountered, its open for 24 hours and per day it only costs 170 rubbles [it used to be 140 rubble]- this luggage storing unit is located on the minus 1 floor under KFC -if anyone needs any refference-

The adventure begins. We went out of the station and followed the map, according to the hostel it should be only 10 minutes away from the station -which i agree if we did not get lost or of we knew where we were going-

I sort of led the group as my friend has no idea where the hostel was..all she had was the adress - i had a picture in my mind from google earth..so i kind of knew where i was going -
However, google earth is not that accurate at all, i led the group further and further away from the hostel..im sorry for that.

Since my friend had the adress, we started to look for the hostel the old school way, by looking at street numbers and apartment numbers...and at one point we were sure that we had reached the place...BUT there was a massive locked gate, we could not enter, i tried  to call the hostest but failed because - my russian number would only work in kursk, though the day before i had activated roaming services..i felt cheated- my friends companion tried as well...but he too failed

Then came a stylish middle aged women, she was concerned about us..a group of foreigners in her hood..-i would to if it were to happen in my place- so we asked her and she knew what we were talking about  -Alhamdulillah-  we spoke russian, she spoke back in english... -yarabbi- she said we were in the right place and helped us call our hostel...

We got in finally to the hostel. But UNFORTUNATELY, the hostest said that we jad no bookings with them whatsoever! My heart sinked..i was thinking where would all 5 of us stay? The hostel was fully booked and it was a small hostel..we told her everything..we booked using booking.com, she said yes you did that but did you confirm your stay - when did we ever need to confirm our stay, ain't the credit card details enough for our confirmation on that site? - and so that is when we ended up homeless.

My best friend who was on his way in another train was unaware of this...as our internet connection was bad...i could only tell him when we were re-directed to another hostel

One thing good about this hostel was they took responsibility of our situation, the hostest called to another hostel near the station which had 3 empty female beds and 2 male beds for the same price as was offered to us. The bad thing was we had to go look for it..and she said it was a good 15 minutes walk..taking the metro was not an option - which was not the case, because later when we went to explore there was a nearer route via the metro-

We walked and walked and walked again for almost 30 minutes till we find the hostel...there they accepted us..-Alhamdulillah- we settled everything, our payments and bed sheets-

I had to leave my friend as i had to go pick up my friend who has arrived from kursk..with little to no internet connection  i just had to have faith that he was waiting in the station as i had told him to via old school short messaging system..i reached the station in less then 30 minutes..practically running

He was there Alhamdulillah..i told him everything from the vodka guy to the new hostel that we are going to be staying in that night..

Walked back to that hostel..settled everything..refreshed and went out to Marukame

Woot woot

And the story will continue....

Day 1 part 2

Please read day 1 before you continue..

And so..i could not sleep the night before the journey..i even tried to take small cat naps..but i failed miserably -derr neves kot-

Slept after iftar..woke up at 3 pack then slept again then woke up at 4 then took my shower..then it was 5 am..had a little breakfast and called the taxi -Limon, what would i do without you hahhah-

My best fren was there to send me off..his train was 2 hours later..i thanked him for that although he had his stomach pain he went anyway to see me off as this was my solo trip to Moscow..anything could happen right?- jatuh longkang ke..kasut tertanggal laa mcm2 lagi lah-

I got on the great Lastochka..and guess what?? It was empty..there was me, a family of 4 and their very chubby flat faced cat and a lady Gypsy {can i call her that..is that a racist remark? I am scared of them though}

I was really confused..if it were empty then why werent the tickets sold to my friend?

The answer was...3 stops later..people kept joining in our train..and finally i had a partner..a middle aged russian man with his vodka in his vodka can..he smelled like vodka..

Almost half way to Moscow..the cat from the family of four decided to escape his carrier -it was opened for the sake of the cat, panas konon...tuan die kene kipaskan kalau tak die mengiauw- it was quiet a commotion..the cat was cute as hell..huahuahua

We reached Moscow at around 12, and the vodka guy decided that he wanted to shake my hands...i gave him a high 5 instead..he was not satisfied, he kept on giving sign language blal bla bla..he gave out his hand again to shake..i shook it..then he mumbled something in Russian..it was barely audible but i understood what it meant -die ckp, kalau nak dtg russia kene laa pandai bertutur- i answered back..hey i understood you in russian..

Oh ya, my other friend was on the same train..i waited for her at the arrivals because she would be staying in the same hostel as me. I kept my large luggage in the storage below.-Kurskaya bokzal offers a lot of services..-

We went to look for the hostel..hostel na kurskoi -kecewa giler dgn hostel ni-

That will be in another blog hahah

Day 1 -Tuesday 070715-

Summer holiday rant
My summer holiday started 2 days ago when i began my journey from Kursk to Moscow via the great 'Lastochka' daily train.. -great lah sgt kan-

Weeks before this journey, i was counting on my bestest friend to come with me for my journey to Moscow..all expense paid..this year he was not going to go back home as per usual together with me..he decided to stay in Russia and spend 2 and a half weeks in London with his sister..which i myself is excited for, even though i am not going....huahuahua -i miss england-

Well too bad i got my hopes really high because turns out that his visa renewal has yet to be completed..i was devastated..he could not even take his passport..{in Russia, to book a train ticket you have to have your passport, it is mandatory!}

it took me days to recover from all those bad negative emotions..-anger, sad, dissapointed dan lain2-

I was happy again..at the thought of having my own adventure in Moscow..though honestly i was scared to death of it..have you seen how the russians treat little people? -not all the time but yeah-

Then came along another friend who was undecided about her ticket. Aigoh what a rollercoster

And then to some miracle, my bestfren. {Lets just have BF as abbreviation} was able to take his passport..i was soooo happy too happy i could not contain it..i started cleaning up my room..washing all my clothes..-pokoknya sy happy laa-

I went to check tiket prices for the same train as me..they were too damn high..so i waited..i told him it might decrease the day after tommorow like what had happened to my ticket..-i saved a bus trip to oblast, which was not much- {lain kali kalau beza 1000 baru lah..aigooh lokek punye pasal}

Then tomorow came..stupid Saturday..the tikets were finished FININISHED!!!!

Guess how i felt??!! I was damn ANGRY, i have just barely got over it...one we could not be in the same train, second; another oprion was 2 hours later which means 2 hours taken away from our precious time.

- to be continued hahah-

simple mushroom soup

Saturday 13.12.14
it's that time of the week where i get to cook and eat properly, after a hectic week of weirdness and a psychiatry exa, i had a craving for some warm mushroom soup
the recipe is as below

1. about 200 gram of roughly chopped button mushrooms
2. 1 medium sized onion diced
3. 4 cloves of garlic, minced (i like my soup to be garlicky, you can adjust the amount if you'd like)
4. 1 and 1/2 heaps tablespoon of flour
5. 1 table spoon of dried celery( fresh celery is too expensive here in Russia, so i opt for the dried ones)
6. 2 teaspoon of dried basil ( you can use the fresh ones, but i prefer the dried ones)
7. half a liter of chicken stock
8. 150 ml of cream ( i bought the 10% ones just because it was on sale..mehehe)
9. a pinch of salt and black pepper
10. a nob of butter

and a loaf of bread to mop up the soup.

the ingredients

chopped up and ready for the stove

once you have all the ingredients ready, on the stove place a frying pan and melt the butter along with the minced garlic, fry the garlic till slightly brown and then add the chopped onion and sweat them  down till they are a bit see through.

after that, put all the chopped mushrooms and cook them down for about 6 minutes and at the same time add the 1 and half table spoon of flour (this is to thicken the soup because i bought only 10% which is too watery)

once the mushrooms are cooked, put in all the herbs and cook for 2 minutes

then in another pot, warm up your stock ( i just got the cube stocks and diluted it into water) and into that pot pour in the mushrooms and lastly add in the cream, and let it simmer for another 5 minutes, add salt and pepper to taste aaand its ready to be eaten!

i like my mushroom soup to be chunky but you can use a hand-held whizzer to whizz the soup to make it smoother.

have fun trying