hello! :)

Hi!

I'm back~ I safely arrived at around 9.20 last night at KLIA and right now, I am at home, on leave (again) hee hee.

The course was as usual, jam packed and intensive and my only form of entertainment was old shows on the TV. I'm not much of a night owl, and I am very cautious of roaming around a city which I am not familiar with, especially on my own, so, for the first 3 days, I just stayed in and watched the buzz at the Filipino and night markets below me before night classes began.

There were days when we quickly sneaked out after class to buy some stuff and I managed to get hold of these beauties after a while of bargaining at the market.

But on the last day, I was determined to get hold of anyone who would take me out, because I just needed to see beyond the Filipino market and Jamilah Jewelery store (which, by the way, is extremely famous for their crystals and pearls).

So, I called up Luke and Ieja just to see if they were around. Ieja was my saviour on Sunday afternoon, when I was already tired of hotel food. Since I'm not so big on seafood, we made a pass and went to one of the local foodcourts (which was supposed to sell ethnic Sabahan food, but was closed when we arrived and opened as we were leaving! much to my disappointment!)

Chepah drove from Beaufort after a wedding in record time to come and join us a little bit later and then, the both of them took me to Tanjung Aru (first beach) before sending me off at the airport. It was really sweet of them both to fuss about me being smaller than my luggage (which is true, actually. heehee) and insisting that they saw to it that I got to my gate safely.

I felt really sad that I didn't have more time to hang out with them and to play on the beach more (despite my fear of the sea) and so, I have resolved that when time and resources permit,

I'M SO GOING BACK THERE! THIS TIME FOR A REAL TRIP!

But anyways, the last part of my Sabah trip was really good and all in all, I enjoyed it there :). The people there are super friendly and of course, they can smell tourist blood. But worry not, no extortion took place and I even managed to bargain for all the ikan bilis, udang kering, biskut cincin and even got some free gifts from the pasar, causing my luggage to exceed 25kg. Woops ;).

And I'm so happy that I made new friends with some senior officers, who are so humble that I have the utmost respect for them for such humility! Salute!

Now, I have to go unpack and mentally prep myself for a work tomorrow (it feels like such a long time since I last went to the office *sigh*)