Category: Going Places

My travelogue.

Borneo Highlands – Swan Lake

March 9, 2007March 21, 2007 sweet surrender 7 Comments

Bye bye pretty flowers and hello to the swans! This is my first time see real swans. Very excited 😛 Up… Up… Up we went. Have to walk up the hill to reach the lake. There’s a Chinese Temple up there somewhere. It’s in charge by the Taiwanese however only those that want to pray and worship are welcome. If you just want to visit it without the heart, then they do not welcome you. It’s not recommeded to go according to our guide unless you really have the heart to pray and worship there.

Views from the top.

Up we went to the lake. You can opt for this way or the concrete road. The view of the hut makes you feel like you’re in fairy tale land.

The swans!!! YES! YES!! Finally!! Don’t feed them if you don’t want them to chase you hahaha… Someone got chased, you know who you are 😛 Of course, there are ducks too. They are so ADORABLE!!!

A small hut where to can rest and get nice view the lake and the surrounding. Here’s where the 18-hole situated. Further up, you will reach the swan sanctuary but we didn’t have time to walk up.

This is our last destination. There are still a lot to discover, 2 days 1 night is not enough. By the way, I forgot to mention that there isn’t any mobile phone signal deep into Padawan until Borneo Highlands. You will not be living with mobile phone for as long that you are there, so no one can contact you, a great place to escape hahaha… There isn’t any phone in the room too. The only place with phone is the reception counter hahaha… If you can’t live without your mobile phone, then you need to get a satelite phone hahaha 😛

We went back to the resort via air-conditioned Land Cruiser instead of “Tut-tut”. It took us quite a while to wait for our transport becuase according to them, there will be an opening ceremony by some politicians that’s why the “Tut-tut” was delayed. Since there are children waiting with us and they are getting restless, the guide got a Land Cruiser to send the children and parents back but when the Land Cruiser reached the Flower Garden, the children didn’t want to go up because they wanted to sit on the “Tut-tut” hahahha… So the 4 of us took that ride and left behind another 2 friends of us with “Tut-tut”. Besides, the “Tut-tut” was on the way to the Flower Garden too, it reached there not long after the Land Cruiser.

Back to the resort, we went to our room to pack up and waited for lunch. Will be blogging about our lunch after this. By the way, there will be an offer awaiting you so that you can pay a visit to Borneo Highlands too. Watch this blog!

Going Places, Uniquely Kuching

Borneo Highlands – Flower Garden

March 8, 2007March 21, 2007 sweet surrender 8 Comments

Pretty flowers!! The Chinese Tea House is actually situated in the flower graden. We had our breakfast first then we strolled the garden. Love that pink flowers. So pwetty…*drool*

The fountain that you can see when you are on the way to the Rose Garden. Too bad it’s not rose season, so not much roses to see. Still those bloomed were very nice.

The staircase to the big lush green field. There are places to sit there and creeping plants creep all the way over the frame. See the right picture, where you can see two “frame” like structures, it’s for you to sit but there were lots of ants, becareful. Better don’t sit there. 😛

The rabbit park. It’s not opened when we were there. The feeding time had passed. If you want to visit it, then be there at 8.30am or 3.30pm. Inside the cage, there are peacocks and peahens too.

More views of the garden…

Next up… Swan Lake!

Going Places, Uniquely Kuching

Borneo Highlands – Breakfast @ Chinese Tea House

March 8, 2007March 21, 2007 sweet surrender 6 Comments

Breakfast time! Nothing much, just usual breakfast stuffs. Eggs, breads, pastries, porridge, potatoes, tomatoes, juices, coffee, tea, fruits, bake beans, salty eggs, salted tofu, fried kueh tiaw… No meat.

The inside of tea house. Finally stomach filled after hours of starvation :P.

After breakfast, we strolled the flower garden.

Food Porn, Going Places, Uniquely Kuching

Borneo Highlands – Kalimantan View Point

March 7, 2007March 21, 2007 sweet surrender 8 Comments

Left: The morning view, 6 something in the morning from our room.
Right: “Tut-Tut” that was supposed to send us up to the Kalimantan View Point but there were too many people, so we(the youngsters and young parents) were asked to walk up to the lookout point. The “Tut-Tut” was occupied by young children and old people.

The views that we saw when we walked up to the lookout point.

Goshh… the slope was high. I’m exhausted. I almost fainted twice because I didn’t eat anything and didn’t drink any water. I stopped to rest for a while and drank some water then I felt better. We were the last to arrive because we stopped to take photos and video many times. The group in front kept looking back at us because we were so young but we were so slow. They thought we didn’t have the energy to go up *LOL* I shouldn’t have run that time because of the running I was drained.

Finally reached the view point. Actually everyone was supposed to walk to the lookout point not with “Tut-Tut” but because of many young children and old people, “Tut-Tut” was used.

The view is spectacular! It lookes nicer in real life than in photos.
It’s time to camwhore again!!! 😛 Hehehe…
By the way, reach your hand or a foot out, you are in Kalimantan, Indonesia already!!! Yes! I went to Indonesia that day without passport 😛

Left: Strange insect. Even the guide had never seen it before. This is the first time she encountered it. Their tails were joined together. The guide discovered it first on the ground.
Right: Further up, there’s a hut. It’s higher there.

Left: The guide explaining to us about Batu Pangah on top of the mountain. She told us about legend of it. Two lovers escaped from the village and when it rained, they had no place to hide, so they went into a place where women were not supposed to go in but they had no choice, they went in and they turned into a rock. You can see the rock with the shape of human there now.
Right: More view from the hut.

Left: More view.
Right: This is the highest peak of Kuching, Mount. Penrissen. To reach the peak, you need to climb the mountain. The shortest time to reach there is 3 hours but depends on the stamina of the climbers.

Last but not least, camwhore time again! 😛 This time is from the hill where the hut is. We have another photo taken with the guide but it’s in another camera. Will show it to you when I got it.

After that, we went down via “Tut-Tut” to breakfast at the Chinese Tea House and Flower Garden.

Going Places, Uniquely Kuching

Borneo Highlands – Dinner @ Annah Rais Cafe

March 6, 2007March 21, 2007 sweet surrender 8 Comments

We had our dinner at Annah Rais Cafe. It’s buffet style and the dress code of the night was smart casual or chinese costume. Borneo Highlands does not provide any meat for meals and even tea breaks. They are 100% meatless, only vegetarian(artificial) meats are use. The vegetables and fruits are mostly or all planted in Borneo Highlands itself and they are organic ones. The tastes are not that empowering. Quite bland but it’s acceptable. I had never tasted vegetarian food with such bland taste, it’s a good thing. Usually food in vegetarian restaurants taste too empowering, too much sugar, too much salt and too much MSG.

Left: Our table.
Right: Steamboat. Not exactly :p Hahaha… You just need to pick your choice and hand it over to the staff standing there and they will put them into the boiling soup to cook it for you. Then, handed them back to you in a bowl. There were chicken soup and tomyam soup to choose from.

Left: Salad bar.
Right: Cakes. Just nice, not too sweet.

Left: Mandarin oranges an sarsi jellies.
Right: Coffee and tea.

The main course. Rice, beehoon, various versions of mixed veggies, fried eggs.

Left: The environment.
Right: Entertainement of the night, karaoke. Hahaha… Jimmy and Jason represented our table to sing. It was supposed to be another friend but he escaped. *LOL*

Our group photo. One person missing hahaha… He’s in hiding mode to avoid being ask to sing by the staff.

After the dinner, we went to the spa to use the massage chairs while waiting for the fireworks. At about 10pm++, it started. The fireworks weren’t consistent. Twice we thought that they already ended it but who knows there were still more. The best was left to the end but too bad… We thought they ended it, we went back to our room. Then heard the fireworks again but didn’t care about it as they kept repeating. Suddenly I saw flashes of light outside our window and thought that they had switched location but too bad, I had removed my contact lense and without glasses hahaha… So, I opened the window and manage to see some blurry fireworks. Hahahah… Rainbow colour summore!! Too bad, battery had died earlier on. When I found my glasses, the fireworks display ended. Bummer! Then we realised that they didn’t change the location, they were let off at the same place all those while. We were the one that kept changing viewing locations. Hehehe…

After everything ended at aboout 11pm. We went to bed because we would be going for Highland Tour at 6.30am the next day.

Food Porn, Going Places, Uniquely Kuching

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