Sunday Market & Island Hopping (Day 2)
It's Sunday and our hotel is right on the street where the action happens. It's the Jalan Gaya Sunday Market!
But first order of business is food. VL cam across this place when we were heading to Tong's yesterday and thought it would be interesting to try. After last night's heavy seafood dinner and nasty squid, this was a welcome change.
The shop is Kedai Kopi Melanian 3 with its famous 生肉面(Shang Yuk Mee). Shang Yuk Mee is lean meat noodles. You can have it in soup or dry. The dry version will be tossed in oyster sauce and black sauce and comes with a bowl of soup on the side. I chose soup because I needed something bland in my system. We were wondering about the tofu sumbat listed in the menu. We thought it would be like the "yong tau fu"in KL, with the fish paste stuffed into a fired beancurd. It was a surprise to see that it was minced meat and soft boeancurd instead. Oilyness factor went down by 50%. The tofu is RM0.70 a piece and the noodles should not be more than RM4 per bowl.
With filled bellies, it is time for morning shopping. We were planning to head out to the islands later in the day but I left my sunnies and cap at home in my flurry of packing. I was more worried about the climbing gear.
The market has a certain vibe to it, where both locals and tourists come to get their shopping done. Huge shells were being sold and I bought a couple for a pretty good price. Mine were palm-sized shells so they could fit into my bag without the risk of breaking. Pets, potted plants, handicrafts were at every corner. This place is cheaper than the Filipino Handicraft Market if you are looking for bags, keychains, table runners or barios. The puppies were so adorable! I wished I could have taken more pictures of baby animals but I was worried about pissing off the shopkeepers.
The Sunday Market starts at 7am until a little past noon. It is a great place to slowly walk and explore the interesting wares. Local artists set up stalls here to sell their art. There is a store with an antique tobacco pipe which I really wanted but it was out of my budget :(
We made a quick pitstop back at the hotel before heading to the jetty to lighten our load. I told myself that I only wanted sunnies and a cap but ended up with more stuff than I bargained for. Ling Ling told us to look for Counter 8 at the ticketing office at Jesselton Point Waterfront to get a discount as they had a tie-in with HotelEden54.
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| Gateway to the boats |
We paid around RM50 for our snorkeling gear and transportation to 2 islands, Pulau Manukan and Pulau Mamutik. Boat transfer fees are around RM33 for 2 islands. The tour operator told us that entrance fee for the islands are paid at the first island you land on. They will try to sell you a bunch of other stuff like banana boat rides and para-sailing but you have to be firm and tell them no, if it was not part of your plan.
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| Heading out to open waters |
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| Skimming over the waves |
When we reached Pulau Manukan, we had to go to the visitor centre to settle our dues. Since the islands are part of the Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park, the entrance fees (RM3) goes towards maintaining the parks. We all know governmental budgets are a bitch. The ticket issued has to be kept with us at all times and show it to any island's visitor centre which we will go to next. Losing it will mean paying the fee again. RM3 fee is for Malaysians and foreigners are charged RM10.
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| Us on the Pulau Manukan jetty. |
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| A little slice of heaven in our own backyard |
Luckily we wore our swimsuits beneath our outer wear as we have no idea where the changing room or toilets were! We found a shady place on the beach, rolled out our mats, stripped and strapped on our gear. The corals were sparse on this island mainly because of the human traffic. We could see that it is one of the more heavily visited islands and it may be taking a toll on the ecosystem. We swam on the right side of the jetty and were not impressed with the dead sea bed. An went to the left side and later informed us that the corals looked better there with more fishes as well. I was too lazy to go all the way over there so I enjoyed swimming for 2 hours before we packed up, and headed to the next island.
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| Fishes you can see with the naked eye even without going into the water |
Our next stop was Pulau Mamutik. It did not seem as commercialised as Pulau Manukan although the human traffic was high as well. Pulau Manukan had a resort on it, so it would probably explain the upset seabed. We went to the nearest warung for a quick lunch. The prices were tourist prices but portions are huge. I would advise anyone looking to eat maggi goreng, not to. There is only so much Maggi Mee that one can eat before getting sick of it.
Pulau Mamutik definately had a more active coral life going on. We saw many pointy mature sea urchins, garfish, parrot fish, colonies of clown fish around anemones, and other kinds of fishes which I do am not able to name. Thank our lucky stars that no jellyfish were around. The fishes here are quite bold. One of them took a bite of P's finger when she wiggled it at them. They swim head on the collision path with you, and verve off the last minute, in a David vs Goliath chicken game.
By 5pm we were ready to head off. Thunderclouds seemed to be rolling in. Now getting back to KK is a little tricky. The boat operators will group you into boats which have seats left after picking other passengers from the adjecent islands. It's a first-come-first-serve basis so be expected to wait a bit until you get a boat.
We went back to the hotel and took a quick shower. Tonight we go Italiano!
Little Italy is a name we have been hearing for good Italian food in KK. The group has travelled quite a bit so we were cautiously optimistic about this place. What we did not expect was professional service, ravioli and great coffee.
We ran into the dinner crowd so had to wait for 20 minutes before we were able to get a table for 5. The experience started once we sat down. The retaurant smelled great, with the wood oven pizzas baking and the chatter of happy diners. I know some reviews out there gave them a thumbs down for service and price but for us, it was dinner time and servers are limited so expectations have to be reasonable based on circumstances. As for price, we thought it was comparable to that in KL with better service. I can name a few places in Bangsar with horrible service where waiters ignore you even though there are no other customers waiting to be served and they charge a bomb for your efforts in trying to get their attention to take your order.
If you go to an Italian restaurant, tiramisu has to make it onto the dessert list. Unfortunately we found the fudge to be wayyy better than the tiramisu. The warm thick fudge cake went very well with the ice cream and coffee I had. The tiramisu will not be missed.
Pulau Mamutik definately had a more active coral life going on. We saw many pointy mature sea urchins, garfish, parrot fish, colonies of clown fish around anemones, and other kinds of fishes which I do am not able to name. Thank our lucky stars that no jellyfish were around. The fishes here are quite bold. One of them took a bite of P's finger when she wiggled it at them. They swim head on the collision path with you, and verve off the last minute, in a David vs Goliath chicken game.
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| Pulau Mamutik |
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| The visitor centre |
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| The girls taking an afternoon siesta after lunch. We used life vests as pillows |
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| See how clear the water is? Totally amazing |
We went back to the hotel and took a quick shower. Tonight we go Italiano!
Little Italy is a name we have been hearing for good Italian food in KK. The group has travelled quite a bit so we were cautiously optimistic about this place. What we did not expect was professional service, ravioli and great coffee.
We ran into the dinner crowd so had to wait for 20 minutes before we were able to get a table for 5. The experience started once we sat down. The retaurant smelled great, with the wood oven pizzas baking and the chatter of happy diners. I know some reviews out there gave them a thumbs down for service and price but for us, it was dinner time and servers are limited so expectations have to be reasonable based on circumstances. As for price, we thought it was comparable to that in KL with better service. I can name a few places in Bangsar with horrible service where waiters ignore you even though there are no other customers waiting to be served and they charge a bomb for your efforts in trying to get their attention to take your order.
Seeing that we were spoiled for choice, the maître d' suggested a few popular items to feed out hungry bunch. We started off with a salad with feta cheese, vinaigrette and baby tomato, followed by bruschetta
. These were the okay items. I mean if you can go wrong on a
bruschetta at an Italian restaurant, it is a sign that you should leave.
Following that was a wood oven thin crust pizza with lots of cheese and beef. A must try in this joint is the ravioli combo. Granted the plate for the ravioli could look a little nicer, the fillings in the ravioli were fresh and not overcooked. We tried this dish twice during our stay in KK with different fillings each time. No matter what we chose, the spinach ravioli with 4 cheese is a winner in our tummies.
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| Ravioli combo~ freshly made |
We were appreciative of the service rendered. The dishes came out one by one and not all at one time. This way, we had warm food and hot dripping cheese. Cold cheese spoils everything. Water was refilled without being asked and the
maître d' came around asking how were we enjoying the food. You can see that they know patrons are important and they strive to keep it that way. Compared to some so-called "upscale' restaurant you see in the big cities where the staff couldn't care less as they don't own the place.
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| Zuppe di mare and dessert |
We called it a night and went back to the hotel to pack up for tomorrow. It's off to the hills!
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