Yours Sincerely..nc: July 2008

On a recent trip to the rumbia@sago festival in Kuala Penyu..a worthwhile visit, I would say – at least I got away from city life for a while.

A first timer to the festival, my mind was filled with butods, butods and more butodsss on display and for sale (a friend of mine was on butod – mode and was really hungry for the milky creatures) – well..ta..pun ja la a..my dear..for not one was for sale. A colleague told me that butod is not a favourite delicacy in the Kuala Penyu district.
A lot of people may have been blogging on their own experiences at the festival – count me in.
Kuala Penyu - a small town with quite a number of folks. The trade mark for the place would of course be the turtles. There’s a story behind the name of this district. Read on below if you want to know J
The festival was more of a TV3 Jom Heboh plus big tamu kind of thing. With lots of stalls selling foods, drinks, vegetables, clothes,,and even cute animals. One thing for sure was the visitors of the festival had been entertained with lots of water sports activities and dangdut music filling the air.

The great thing on the Kuala Penyu visit was crossing the big hanging bridge from the main town to the stalls and display booths area. One can find the rumbia and sago booth and try the traditional sago – making tool themselves. It’s the only booth as well where you can get your hands on live butod@vutods!!

Anyway, my favourite booth had to be the Pulau Tiga Survivor Resort and Sabah Parks. Bought myself a nice RM2 Pulau Tiga postcard that I have never seen in KK. Hmm..next destination..Pulau Tiga!!! J

After a few hours in Kuala Penyu, we head on to the Rumbia Information Centre which was located about 700m from the Kuala Penyu roundabout – only to find that it was closed. It’s a Saturday. The government does not work on Saturdays. BUT!! We made ourselves at home anyway,,the entrance was opened (more like abandoned..). It’s a nice big place with lots of rumbia trees planted surrounding the area. Really fell in love with the wooden walkways that surround the building – reminded me of my hometown in Kg Tanjung Aru Lama.

Yep, got myself a remembrance there too – got too close with a little caterpillar@ulat beluncas. I didn’t realize it – was busy taking pictures of the walkway..and OUCH! I thought I was bitten by the big red ants. The students were busy touching my hand and looking at the beluncas bite@sting@bulu.

“call the ambulance” one of them joked. Aikkss..sia tampar la ko ni gaman.

“ada racun tu miss..bahaya tu”, another girl student said, which made me a bit worried.
..but,,,I think its going to be fine la. Just a beluncas ba,, but the pain was quite stingy.

My hand had turned red that time. Luckily one of the student offered me to pour some minyak kapak@cap kapak onto it. I was doubtful that it was effective, but it did work. The pain and redness gone. Thank you dear, and THANKKK you minyak cap kapak. Now I know another useful benefit of this longtime oil. Lesson learned – macam promosi iklan pla!

(^_^) Enjoy the pictures.

welcome to Kuala Penyu everyone..so,, how about this picture. Hmm..blh tahan pose a..kiddo (^_^)

sasat di roundabout kuala penyu tp masih blh senyum juga a..- kunun

How kuala penyu got its name..

the muara..

where u can park ur boat in the river,,n park ur car..beside the river :)

the big hanging bridge (pictures: courtesy of ms Grace)

ni pn gmbr dari si grace - one of my colleague that went with us on the trip. nice view a..ada ferris wheel ba..

the crowd..

display everywhere..dont ask me where's the other half of the mannequines

one of the traditional tools to get sago from rumbia

ok, demo. this is i think how they do it..hehe

happy dorang sya snap time dorang ber demo2..hehe

i wish i could say that..thats my hand!! holding the butod..nahhh..

my favourite booth - the SURVIVOR booth

mesti la posing dlu..

booth of one of the school. cantik the drawings..remind me of myself when i was primary school..cehhh..

aha!! thats MY hand..holding the rabbits..auwwww..too cute

Ayu kn this rabbit

some landscape view of the river where water sports activities were done

lumba perahu..

trails of disaster..UNnatural disaster - man made kn, shame shame on u

the Rumbia Information Centre

the nice wooden walkway. cantik leh..I got my beluncas sting here juga la,,can..tikk..

Yum yum!
Eating out has been my little life’s pleasure nowadays..(^_^) it’s a great way to taste life and ..not to mentioned, a fast way indeed to burn a big hole in your pocket.
Thank God its Friday – and that means another day to spoil my taste buds – for lunch time that is! Penat wat..working all week,, so give urself a break n have a good meal at least for the job well done along the week ( a pat on the back doesn’t really work any more these days)

Well, a choice out of the blue.. and here we were at the Buffet Restaurant, 5th floor Fun Square, Centre Point. It’s a very cool, modern, comfy, and spacious.. restaurant , for a buffet meal. And the great thing was, everything cost at RM15 nett for all the food you can savour within 2 hours. Yes, 2 hours only. So, that means less chit chat.. and more munching J PLUS, be careful not to over indulge your self in taking TOO MUCH food in your plate(s),,if u r unable to finish it, pay for it then.

Hmm..a too – traditional buffet restaurant? Perhaps. But business operators have to be very smart these days – it’s a survival thing.

Lets rate the food on the menu,,ok.. - chicken soup, chicken craw, chicken wings, fried chicken, chicken ear..oops...hehe,, no chicken ear la, of course. But it was mainly chicken. The choices for salad are also not as much as what u can imagine at Pizza Hut. But I love the fried rice..yum yum yum..really reminds me of the Shangri –La’s trade mark fried rice that I used to serve to guests when I was working as a waitress (with little fresh prawn n colorful vege)..alala..n u thought it was when I used to be SERVED as a guest..hahaha.. (^_^) I guess I will give the choices of food a 3 star. OK la..it’s worth the price that u pay. Considering the atmosphere provided..so, BOLEH la..

On the customer service side..hmm. I’l give it a two star. For a theme and buffet restaurant such as this, customer service should be more than just opening the door or clearing ur table (hey, im a great complainer..) Service from the hostess counter was a mere sleepy afternoon smile (n u can even catch a glimpse of that eye- thing that they do most of the time – rolling eye ba..). But it’s the supervisor@ captain’s eye – thing that I could never forget. He was looking at our table so many time,, with a Ripley’s – Believe – It – Or – Not – these – people – can – finish – the – food – on – the – table!! Not even a smile or cared to ask us whether we were enjoying our meals or not. Gestures like this make people feel unwelcome la..for your information Mr Supervisor.

We didn’t take too much food anyway,,mau rugi meh..kena bayar if u cant finish everything??

Despite all this, I guess its still a pleasureable day,, because of the environment..and because we managed to take quite a number of pictures while eating,, haha..maybe that’s one of the reason the supervisor made that eye – thing. Anyway, I was quite disappointed because I didn’t get to try all the food,, especially the ice cream n sweet bun. A call came from the office reminding me of a forgotten appointment at 2pm. It was 2pm.

Wow, was he on time!!

All aboardddddd!!!

Welcome to the buffet restaurant..where u will get a cinema - ticket like entrance coupon and dazzle ur eyes for the next two hours with the OK LAH choice of food and posters of blockbusters movies – wish I can have all the posters..hahaha.

Enjoy your meal, sir.

Nicely arranged chairs and tables make the place cozy and cool.