Jackie Miao

I’m really excited to announce that I signed up Kota Kinabalu to get involved in the Twestival Global 2010 initiative. Check out the video!

Twestival to put it in the simplest terms is a Twitter festival that happens one day, once a year where people get together for a tweet-up party to raise money for charity. This year 200 cities will get together on 25th March 2010 to raise money for Concern Worldwide, who are helping the poorest kids in the world go to school.

We’re currently looking for volunteers and sponsors at the moment, and if you’d like to help follow @kktwestival @fooz @twestival @concern @twestivalasia and drop us a line here kktwestival@gmail.com with your name and contacts. In the coming days, we’ll have more information on how you can participate!

Visit our official blog here!  http://kotakinabalu.twestival.com

When my bike started to get really stiff on the pedal, I decided it was time to begin learning how to maintain my bicycle. Since I had no clue how to go about degreasing, oiling, and maintaining a bike I turned to The Complete Bike Book: Choosing, Riding, and Maintaining Your Bike, which I got a year before I bought my GT bike! The book has instructional photographs on how to maintain a bike, which made it easier for me to learn on my own. While it is quite a comprehensive guidebook it lacked recommendations on brands of chain lubes, so I posted a question on Facebook asking for some suggestions.

A few people came back with some ideas ranging from Singer oil to WD-40. Eventually I chose to heed the advice of Clement and headed to Spring Trading to get Pedro’s Lube! While I was there, I realized I needed a couple of more tools to make the maintenance process easier. I got a working stand (RM45), track pump (RM25), cleaning brushes (RM54), and Pedro’s lube (RM 32). The bike shop owner recommended that I use WD-40 (RM 14.90) as a degreaser so I stopped by at the supermarket to pick a can up.

I’m pretty proud to say that my first maintenance session was pretty successful. Pedro’s lube is really silky smooth; took the bike out for a 45 min spin and it rode smoothly and beautifully! Now the next step would be to learn how to maintain the other bike parts and change a flat tire. Wish me luck!!!

To get your bike supplies in K.K., you can head to Spring Trading at Kampung Air:-

Spring Trading Co.
No. 5, Ground Floor, Jln Sentosa,
88000 Kota Kinabalu,
Sabah, Malaysia.
Tel: 088-26 2201

This is the 6th and final part of my Hong Kong series.

Maybe this is really late, but it was supposed to be my very last post on my Hong Kong trip and life just kind of got in the way. People tell me that you don’t leave Hong Kong without having dim sum and so that’s exactly what Rachel and I did for my last day. We went to West Villa Restaurant in Causeway Bay, which is said to be a favorite for local celebrities.

Here’s what we ordered:-

Rachel was craving for some Char Siu Bao so we got some. The top of the bun is like a Mexico bun and the filling inside the bun is a Char Siu pork filling with sweet gravy. I really liked the texture of the bun as I could really taste the freshly baked goodness from the first bite.

We also got some steamed Pai Kuat which tasted classic, unpretentious and good. I was however most impressed with the Siu Mai. The pork meat and big prawns were really fresh, juicy, springy and delicious. I’ve never had Siu Mai quite like it; not in Malaysia, not in New York, not even in London. It was arguably the best Siu Mai I’ve ever had in my life (so far) so if you eat nothing else in Hong Kong, eat the Siu Mai at West Village Restaurant.

Perhaps what was the least familiar to me was this Dim Sum style frittata. The glutinous rice with meat is coated with egg and fried like a frittata, then sliced and eaten with a dipping sauce. Apart from the virginal visual sensation, it was not bad but something that will probably come in as the last choice if I had to order it again.

Since I was missing the ritual Sunday dim sum sessions at Yi Ban and The Laureate in London, seeing this Kuay Tow wrapped with Cheong Fun dish on the menu was a pleasant delight. I was glad we ordered it because it was crunchy, chewy and had the subtle flavors of five spice. Chewing through this made me think about  how incredibly well the British-Chinese have tried to retain the best of Cantonese food and offer it to Britain.

Finally, Rachel insisted that I have the Tau Foo Fah. OUT OF THIS WORLD, glad she suggested it! I’ll be sure to head over for some Tau Foo Fah on my next trip because it’s really so smooth, silky and absolutely beautiful with the shaved palm sugar topping.

Overall, the meal was beautiful. I’m really glad we had dim sum on my last day because now I know what the big deal is. Here’s how to get there:-

West Villa Restaurant
Room 101-102, 1/F., Lee Garden Phase 2, 28 Yan Ping Road
tel: 852 2882 2110

So I hope you’ve enjoyed my blog series on Hong Kong. I love it so much I will definitely be back for more munchies and partying!

Sometimes it takes a clear sky and a mountain to remind us of why in spite of many inconveniences, we still choose to come back to Sabah. Here’s a photo meme of Mt. Kinabalu from yesterday and today….

Taken from Tanjung Aru

It all started on Facebook when Phyllis woke up to this view from her bedroom.

Mount Kinabalu from Jalan Tuaran

Then I looked out my bedroom window, headed downstairs and took this shot. (I was actually closer than Phyllis to Mt. Kinabalu but my camera was crappier.)

Mt Kinabalu from where Bob is. Yea, with his toy heli.

Bob flew his toy heli in front of his view and took this one. The helicopter almost looks real doesn’t it?

Cornelius took this from Pekan Nabalu from his mobile

Last but not least, here’s a shot of Mt. Kinabalu this morning from Cornelius Chua. Isn’t that just breathtaking? Thank you for sharing your beautiful photos with me.

P/S: If you would like to share your Mt. Kinabalu shot with me, email your picture to me with the time, date and location of where it was taken to jackiemiao.my(at)gmail.com. Remember to let me know how to credit you.

People of Sabah, what do you think about when the word Penampang comes to mind? For me I think about Lido, Merdeka supermarket, a large Kadazan-Dusun population and lots of tapai to be had. Last Sunday, I had a very different experience of the Penampang area with some folks from the Borneo Bicycle Cyclists.

BBC at approximately 8km into the Donggongon ride

For one, the planned ride was to start at an ungodly hour; at 6:30am which would be my first dawn ride ever. For seconds I slept at 2:00am. With 3.5 hours sleep, I was leaning toward backing out of a planned 30km-ride but there was a fairy at my ear who kept saying, “Would you rather sleep or live Jackie?” Eyes still closed, torn between fatigue anxiety and a desire to live, I chose to live.

“Just show up and decide later,” the fairy said so I got up and loaded my bike into the car. It took about 40 minutes to drive from Likas to Donggongon, with a stopover at 7-eleven for some cash and Gatorade. After meeting Clement and company, we stopped by at a coffee shop for some breakfast before heading off for the ride at 7:30am.

The Ride

The first part of the ride was quite an effort. 1km into the ride I realized  just how tired my body was. Heading into village terrain for a 3-hour bike ride was just plain stupid I thought, but I was already there and it would be even dumber to bail after showing up! It was a real challenge trying to keep my eyes open and my brain awake, but I kept pedaling on Clement’s advice. He said that the beginning is always harder but that once I get the momentum going it will be fine.

10km into the ride at Kg. Kipouvo

I guess he was right because after a while the adrenaline took over, so I began to enjoy the scenery and forgot about the tiredness being an obstacle. Climbing the hills were by far the hardest part of the ride. In fact I got off mid-ascend in all the inclines and the boys were very understanding and took breaks after we got over each hill so that we could all catch our breaths.

Kg. Kipouvo sign reads "Maju menarik dan meguntungkan"

After about 12km in, Clement signaled that the only way back was to turn back, so we decided to head back toward Mee Sup Pipin. I have heard about the legendary mee sup, When we got there, unfortunately it was so crowded that the server served our food to another table.

Jackie at Mee Sup Pipin

By the time we realized (45 minutes later), we decided to cancel and left so I never got to try mee sup Pipin. Nevertheless, Mee Sup Pipin is a defining milestone for the ride so Mark and I (the two newbies) decide to pose outside the sign with our bikes for a photo op before cycling another 3-4km back to our cars…

Outside the Mee Sup Pipin sign

There were times during the ride I thought I’d fall asleep on the bike and fall off, but I fought on and am happy to be reminded once again that when you put your mind to it, your body is capable of a whole lot more. We logged 23km that morning over 3 hours. If you are interested to join, check out the Borneo Bicycle Cyclists on Facebook.