My Best of 2010

I couldn't believe and it is sad to know this great year of 2010 is coming to its end today. Alhamdulillah, syukur to whatever occurance happened in this year, all I believe have a blessing hidden behind it, sooner or later. As for my resolutions, some which not been realized in this year will still have their space in my 2011 list :) And of course I need to couple them with much better planning and execution!

To wrap up this year for more promising year in 2011, I present here 12 photos representing 12 months in 2010, of my best moment.


JANUARY 2010

Partial Lunar Eclipse on 1 January 2010

The eve of 2010's new year was celebrated out of the ordinary counting down and fireworks show. Instead me and some friends went hiking up in the dark with our headlights as the only source of light to help us making our way to Broga Hills top...to witness partial lunar eclipse. It was awesome!

Everything went well, the hike, the campsite, the food we had, the companion, the resolution making BUT we couldn't determine how EXACTLY the partial lunar should look like. It was said, the eclipse started from 1.17am to 5.28am. So, within that span of time we were moon gazing expecting to see something extravagant happening to the sky. With our little knowledge in space science, the moon just looked the same at all time haha... When we saw newspaper later that day, the images of the eclipse were not very prominent for a normal eyes like us to identify. After all, the picture above was captured in between the partial lunar eclipse, which I didn't know at what stage it was at.


FEBRUARY 2010

2nd Broga Hills climb

This climb was to bring Sayra after she missed the one on new year eve. Do u know we are such a great friends Sayra? We successfully climbed it and enjoyed beautiful sunrise on top. And it was also to celebrate the newly engaged Hana :)


MARCH 2010

Ayun's Solemnization

These beautiful young ladies are my bestest friends EVER! It was the happiest day to see another best friend officially became a wife to a man she much loved. And it was also a day we finally got to know her husband! Neither of us were allowed to meet Rosman before. Nevertheless, may Allah bless all of us and may our friendship last till eternity.


APRIL 2010

The best coffee at Kluang RailCoffee

After my 1st visit to Kluang and had a taste of Kluang coffee at the railway station, I fell in love with the taste. So, this year visit I tried the one at another branch somewhere in Kluang town as the railway one only open in the morning. Nothing beats an iced coffee and a toast for tea break after work assignment to the palm plantation. Please don't miss it when in Kluang ok.


MAY 2010

Botaq & Rozyana Wedding in Kuching

They were my great uni friends. None of their weddings I missed. How could I right? So, when Botaq married a Sarawakian girl from our same uni, we all flew all the way from KL for his big day and had our Kuching style vacation after that.

The best thing about Kuching are the food and the people :') For having a best friend from Kuching, I may sound a little unfair judging this city but how many of u didn't like your Kuching vacation after all? Sik ada nak. So, kamek sik bulak :)


JUNE 2010

My parents' 'housewarming'

Both my parents are retirees. After few years running their small business at dad's hometown, they decided to built a house there to ease their movement and activity. Commuting from Shah Alam everyday is tiring for them although for only 45 minutes.

The day we had a small kenduri at site was actually a good day to install the roofing of the house, according to dad. Only close relatives were invited for the ceremony. Those 2 kids are my cousins, they had fun playing around the under-construction house, a place any mum wouldn't allow her kids to play at. Exception only applied on that day.


JULY 2010

Uda & Dara Musical Theater

I only will watch theater I think worth the ticket price. My usual favourite are of course none other than old folk story, epic fantasy and literature masterpiece. The first theater I watched was Puteri Hang Li Po and I enjoyed it to bits *I still keep the ticket stub :p

I guess Nurul can read my mind for wanting to watch this beautiful story from Usman Awang. Soon after I decided to watch this with some other friend, she called to offer a FREE ticket. I must not be me to reject the offer. Gracefully we went in with escort from the production guy and after the show ended, miraculously my flu got better hehe...


AUGUST 2010

Private Screening of 'THE END OF THE LINE'

I got a pair of this private screening ticket besides handful of Open Water Diving course brochures from Malaysian International Dive Expo. This ticket was courtesy of WWF in promoting a cause on overfishing. 

It was screened with an objective to raise awareness on our unsustainable fishing practices that lead to tremendous decline in certain seafood species. Without we realizing it, some seafood species like bluefin tuna are battling their lives with unsatifying businessmen desire to make more profit out of them. It was very disturbing to know that over-fishing of this bluefin tuna for just few years made it endangered species. How u can help this from happening? Check http://www.saveourseafood.com.my/ for a start.


SEPTEMBER 2010

Aidilfitri

Who on earth don't like Aidilfitri? A month full of celebration and visiting relatives. This year's Aidilfitri was special as I had a chance to cook for them relatives and friends. I didn't know I can cook so well :p


OCTOBER 2010

Birth of TRAVELLER'S ANATOMY

I did tell that this blog existance is one of my resolution, for 2011 actually. But I managed to pull it much earlier than I thought, alhamdulillah. The planning to migrate from Travelpod to Blogspot was lingering in my mind for some time until one fine night I decided I shall not wait any longer, what's there to wait for anyway. Or maybe I was greatly inspired and influenced by Eat, Pray, Love movie I just watched during that time.

For everyone who is reading, thank you very much. For those travellers out there, it is my honour to know u guys and let's hope for some joint travel one day ok :')


NOVEMBER 2010

ALMARAI CRADLE Water Treatment Project

After so many months of torturing meetings and extended working hours, finally Almarai Cradle project completed its installation and fabrication. Although the system may be the same with other water treatment projects I involved previously, as Almarai is the largest integrated dairy foods company in Middle East, it just simply put extra pressure on everyone.

If you're wondering what's in the picture, it's a Reverse Osmosis (RO) System skid. It's part of the water treatment system for baby food manufacturer owned by Saudi King.


DECEMBER 2010

Sabah Getaway

A trip to Sabah was a perfect year end getaway. I very much enjoyed it. No detail will be provided, I have many entries in draft to publish on this trip :)



Well, that are all the past. We have a new year to start tomorrow. I wish everyone a great year ahead full of happiness, wealth, prosperity, great health, love and blessing. XOXO


 
@travelleranatomy.blogspot.com

Botanical Garden...little exploration

Kinabalu Park covers an area of 754 km2. Although the main feature is none other than Mount Kinabalu itself, visitors who do not wish to climb can drive 4km from Park Headquaters to its Botanical Garden and Kinabalu World Heritage Site Gallery.

Kinabalu Park area

Welcome to Botanical Garden

Botanical Garden is showcasing 800 species of unique plants in its 2 hectares garden. As one of world's nature heritage, I think Kinabalu Park management need to put more effort in maintaining this garden compound for it to stay as a place conserving rare and endangered plants species and also as a learning ground for those who come visiting. It looked like many plants were dying and had uninviting surrounding. We were the only visitors there trying to appreciate the nature and support their good cause.

Despite that, I did found some plants are attractive and being surrounded by nature was a true blessing. After all, we had this whole garden to our own :')

Ok, to know what else u can do in the vast Kinabalu Park, let's leave this Botanical Garden for now and follow me to my next destination...in next entry :)

Done with Botanical Garden

 

@travelleranatomy.blogspot.com

Weekly Travel Photo

Gold Coast, Australia

This is view of Gold Coast beach from Sky Point, Q1 Tower the tallest residential tower which stood at 322.5 metres. You'll get elevated to its observatory deck at level 77 & 78 via one of world's most faster elevator in 42.7 seconds! If elevator is not your thing, this spectacular view can be seen after climbing its 1331 steps from the ground. Any way, once at top, you'll never regret for this deck offers 360 degree view of Gold Coast up to even 80km on a clear day.



@travelleranatomy.blogspot.com

Kinabalu Park...the beginning

I got my itinerary checked by Berry the previous night, to make it more realistic. Some were shifted to another day, some were cancelled and got few added in too. Take the advice from local resident and be grateful forever :')

I wouldn't want to miss this place, on any given reason. Never. In fact it was the 1st one I put in my itinerary. My previous visit here didn't allow for such exploration around, went climbing from Timpohon and down straight to airport. Crazy! It's one of the not-so-many UNESCO heritage sites in Malaysia. If u haven't know, my travel objective is to visit and cover as many UNESCO sites as possible. Check where i've been here. I have one more site left to cover in Malaysia *it's scheduled for next year and gonna be my 1st solo trip and also a birthday treat from myself :D* 

Special thanks to Nik for letting us rent your car. We got MyVi SE, in black :) If I were in Peninsula, never I would let her disturb my sleep and send the car at 6.30 MORNING! Soon after that I realized I was in Sabah, where the sun rises and sets earlier than Peninsula hehe...so, it was about 7.30 morning when she called and handed over the car key.

We started the day already late, thanks to Kak Min aka Garmin for making us even more late by let us drive many kilometres just to get to under-renovation mcD for our breakfast. If we knew 1Borneo Mall that attached to Tune Hotel is a hypermall with EVERYTHING inside, we wouldn't use Garmin to locate mcD. There are actually many other hotels attached to 1Borneo Hypermall such as Novotel, Courtyard and Grand Borneo Hotel. So, it was a perfect and practical choice of hotel we made, we can walk down anytime if we run out of shampoo or need coffee break or even need a massage :) The only disadvantage that u would agree with me is, this place is set about 30 minutes drive from Kota Kinabalu town. Forget your walk around Gaya Street and whatnot. Since we rented a car, a trip to town wasn't a big problem to us...of course with Kak Min's help :p

Kak Min was given a task as a co-pilot, taking over my role to help navigate Sayra who was behind the wheel. She directed us to Kinabalu Park, Sabah proudest nature heritage. Me, sitting on a co-pilot seat Kak Min refused to share with, strictly ensuring our car followed Kak Min's direction to avoid her annoying 'recalculating' comment. Her voice is deadly to my ears.

When calculating in kilometer, the distance from KK to Kinabalu Park is only 85km and in about an hour u could reach the place. But that could be true when driving other federal road with speed of 90 km/h, not this one. With single lane for each direction, being the only road connecting each town including for heavy vehicles and sharp corners and curves at areas after Tamparuli, expect to drive in 40-60 km/h all the time. U might be swearing at the speed you're driving when tailing behind lorry and the ascending road. 

It was not really bad after all when at this point u could already see spectacular views.

Looking at the clouds covering the highland and mountain and the breezy wind made me envy Sabahan for they have less polluted air than what I had back home. Fly me again to Sabah now!


The curvy road drive lasted for about 30 minutes then we yelled in excitement after arriving at Kinabalu Park.

The park is dominates by Mount Kinabalu, stood at 4095m making it the highest mountain in Malaysia and Southeast Asia. According to UNESCO, it was justified for incription for having criteria of;

• to be outstanding examples representing significant on-going ecological and biological processes in the evolution and development of terrestrial, fresh water, coastal and marine ecosystems and communities of plants and animals;
• to contain the most important and significant natural habitats for in-situ conservation of biological diversity, including those containing threatened species of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science or conservation.

After paying RM3 as a conservation fee, we parked our car at the visitor centre. The fee valid for one day (or 3 days for overnight visitors) to all destinations within the same park.

Having to touch my foot again here, brought back the memory of climbing in 2008. At this visitor centre was where I got my climbing permit, introduced to my climbing guide...super woman Doina, weighted my backpack to see whether I need a porter or not, bought my climbing stick and chilled by the different altitude AND climbing adventures i was about to experience. The only same thing I could do now was taking a picture at this map...with absolutely different attire :')

in Dec 2010 - obviously not for climbing

in June 2008 - for climbing

Nothing much changed except I found Mountain Torq had set up an office down here, while it was all the way up at Panar Laban Hut last time *happy*

I was only thinking to get inside to say hello to Mountain Torq staffs, then when I found out that I can claim my via ferrata certicate for RM10, the simple hello extended to a long conversation and I stayed inside for more than 30 minutes :p While the staffs busily verifying my name and my climbing mates in the system, I browsed through the office and got to know they also sell souvenirs! Bought myself a t-shirt and car decal for my climbing mates. *double joy*

Our backdated Via Ferrata certificates

The park is HUGE. This area is only an introduction section where the main office of Kinabalu Park, souvenir shop, Sutera Harbour Resort office and Mountain Torq office are. The view of Mount Kinabalu can be admired at the vantage point opposite these offices. More breathtaking views are at the peak, of course :')

If u are interested in climbing the majestic Mount Kinabalu and need to be pushed to your limit, check Sutera Harbour Resort, the only authorized accomodation provider in Mount Kinabalu. For via ferrata activity, Mountain Torq website could help u much.

InsyaAllah I'll climb again in 2012...with different climbing mates or with you. Start training now and join me :)

With climbing mates in 2008 at Panar Laban Hut

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