1Borneo Free Cinema Tickets

For those who don't know yet, Golden Screen Cinemas is celebrating their opening by offering free tickets from May 31st till June 4th. Before you rush off to 1Borneo to claim your free show, make sure you grab a newspaper and cut out the coupon first. One coupon entitles you to 2 complimentary tickets. Be quick before the seats run out!

Tasty Food Court, 1Borneo 2nd take

1Borneo or One Borneo (I still prefer the later) is suppose to have a soft openning on the 8th of June. Today I popped in to have a look at the progress. The construction is going very rapidly at the moment, cleanup and major shop renovations are on the way. Since the shops are not ready for business, might as well have lunch there.

So walked over to Tasty Food Village and was surprised a small crowd over there. The patrons I assume are mainly workers, contracters and curious onlookers like me that decided to venture into this unopened mall. Being a public holiday today, I saw a lot of families with kids roaming around the mall and eventually dining in the only food outlet that is open in the mall.


Well I can say that the signs remind me of Singapore food courts. Guess most of the investors are probably from Singapore anyway. The furniture is fantastic. Nothing like i've ever seen before in food courts. When compared with Wisma Merdeka or Karamunsing.. well.. there is no comparison. Its a little classier here and I guess we'll be paying for it an extra premium for our food because of that. Well I can say seats and tables are very comfortable to dine on and I absolutely love the design.

Upon first stepping into the food court, you will need to approach the coupon counter and buy coupons in bundles of RM5. Yes, RM5 is the minimum you must purchase in order to buy anything.. even if it means RM1 kuih. Don't worry but you're able to get a refund if you return the coupon on the same day. Its a bit troublesome when you want to make small purchases.

Anyway, the front part of the food court consists of a few snack stores. You're able to buy kuih, Curry puffs, Chinese doughs, pizza's and crepes.
The only store that was open was Yummy Bites. I tried some of this on my previous visit and found the kuih to be of average taste. My favourite is the green one with rice on top (I forgot the name) has a nice balance pandan sweetness n ricey saltiness.


Well enough bout the atmosphere.. after all looks can be deceiving. So, how's the food?First up on the list was the mini steamboat. The presentation is quite nice and fiery. Notice the flame firing up on top. I was worried it was going to melt the plastic. Impressive. Unfortunately I didn't have a taste, but the portion looks like it would fit well for two people. Just add two bowls of rice and share. I think this cost around RM13. Have to give it a go next time.

Flaming steamboat

Next to this there is a Roasted BBQ store. Since they don't serve pork in the food court, meaning no charsiu is available. So the next best thing is the duck. For RM9 your able to get roast duck with noodle. The presentation is nice and the portion is decent. Taste wise its a little on the salty side, but i'd give it a good 4/5 stars. Having said that, I wouldn't eat this very often as it would burn a deep hole in my wallet.

yumm.. mouth waterring

Another stall we tried was the beef noodle store. I've been hearing great things about this new store, unfortunately it was a bit hyped up. The presentation is boring and very unappealing. Tastewise is ok.. but its nothing when compared with our local ngau cap stores. It has a very mild beefy flavor. This might appeal to some but not to me, after all this is Tasty food village and i'd expect some pretty tasty food. I'd give it a 2.5/5 stars since it cost RM6.50 and looked like it was prepared by a real mainland chinese. I guess things just aren't as tasty over there.
Having a few coupons left, we tried "The Toast" shop. A slice of bread will set you back RM2. We tried one peanut butter and one kaya. The verdict, disappointed. The bread was stale and lack any fluffiness that it should have had. Once the bread is bad, nothing more can be said. 1/5 stars for having the nerve to serve stale bread to people. I gave 1 star because it was edible. Definately wouldn't be going back to this store.

The "Stale" Toast

There is also a Dimsum shop selling chicken pau's. They taste just like char siu pau's but with chicken and I must say they were very nice. Just RM2 for a small pau is a bit pricey for me. It was gobbled up before i could take any pictures. 3.5/5 stars.

If your thirsty be prepared to pay around RM1.50 - RM2.00 for a drink. Its a reasonable price for an airconditioned food court.

The cheapest lunch you probably can get is at the mixed rice store where you're able to get 2Veg + Rice for RM4 or 1Veg + 1Meat + 1Rice for RM4.50. They have 28 different varieties of dishes to choose from and the aroma really got my mouth watering.

I have to comment that the place is very clean. Yes.. I know this is new and it hasn't really been tested with a big crowd. They have quite a number of staff standby to pick up your plates though. Since they weren't many people around, my plates were scooped up the moment I finished. They were polite though, asking me first before picking it up, just like in a restaurant.

Eyes scanning for empty plates

Looks like Tasty Food Village is in a league of its on when compared to any food court in Sabah, let alone Malaysia itself. Modern furnishing, efficient staff and a wide variety of food will surely make this a popular spot for hungry shoppers.

New Tasty Food Court in KK

Got a sneak peak of the new food court in One Borneo today. Unfortunately the electricity supply to the food court today was switched off, probably due to the ongoing construction there.


Tasty Food Court works on a coupon system. You buy coupons at the front counter and if you have any left over coupons you can refund it at the end of the food court. The tables and seating are made locally and are beautiful. I will drop a picture next time. Looks like they are all finger jointed. Nothing that I've seen before here in KK.

Managed to try one shops were open. Yummy Bites a shop selling kuih and cupcakes. All kuih is RM1 and cupcakes RM1.30 at time of writing. There are a couple other shops there but it was dark so all the pictures didn't come out well. Will make another trip there when the lighting is up.

No water in Taman Sutera

Since morning no water today. Dun remember the last time that happened. I wonder what happened.. can hear some digging sounds nearby, wonder if the water pipe got any problems. Hope the water comes back soon..

Budget photocopy on the go

Recently there was a need to photocopy documents while entering kampung areas. And well.. not all kampung have access to a photocopy machine. So whats the plan? Off to Karamunsing (KK version of Malaysia's Low Yat or Singapore's Sim Lim) to look for a printer. I was recommended an HP model printer. Since I was on a budget and printer in a car plus vibrations I don't know how long it will last, I bought the HP F4185 model. It has all the things that I need. Scanner and printer = photocopy machine.


Now I'm left with one problem.. Power.. That's where the power inverter comes in. I came across a 150Watt inverter which should be more than enough for powering a printer.


Rushed back home to give it a try.. well it works :) not only that. there is some spare wattage for me to plug in my handphone charger and my laptop if needed. Well its nothing new.. just a bit exciting to be more mobile now :)

Total Damage: RM239 (Printer) + RM78 (Inverter) = RM317
Bought from Boulevard IT.

Earthquake in Tawau, Sabah

Just heard from a friend that there was an earthquake North West of Tawau this afternoon around 3pm. This is the first time I've heard of an actual earthquake here. It registered 4.3 on the ritcher scale. This is considered a minor one, but anything about 5 could cause damage to property. Let's hope it ends there.

Check out the earthquake list at the Meteorological Department for more info

Wii in Kota Kinabalu?

I wonder if there are many shops selling Wii accessories here in KK. So far I've been looking around and I cant find any. The closest think is some sort of Wii clone in Karamunsing :(

IKEA in Kota Kinabalu

Well, not quite, but close. Other than a shop in Karamunsing I found that does sell some IKEA furniture, there is now a shop called Living Concepts selling almost 100% IKEA products.

You know you got hypermarkets and supermarkets, well this is the supermarket version, they have a much smaller range of IKEA products. As an IKEA fan, I am very happy that someone has decided to bring in IKEA here. Previously whenever I was in KL i would use up 15kg of my baggage allowance just to ship IKEA stuff over here. The showroom is similar to IKEA's layout, of course to a smaller scale.

Hope they do well and expand the product range :)

Streamyx is down :( well.. sort off

Around mid day today streamyx started to go haywire.. I could connect but what do u know.. I cant do anything.. Surfing the internet has random success, getting the google page to show is such a luxury. emails can't be sent via streamyx but i'm able to send using my jaring account. Well.. What happened?

I decided to call customer service (even though I've had almost no service from them). The moment I called, there was an automated voice saying that there are service disruptions in Sandakan, Tawau from Sabah and some other states. KK should be ok, so I proceeded to speak to technical support. I spoke to a lady and as usual, they go through the script, please check your modem lights, please off and on the modem, please use adsl without filter, bla bla bla it went on like this for 10minutes. I guess by that time their script ran out. After wasting 10 minutes of my life( plus time on hold), they told me they would lodge a technical report. Well.. doesn't solve my problem, but hey, at least i can add to their statistics. Oh well, no internet for tonite..

A few hours later I got a call from a 2nd level technical support guy who explained to me why I am paying for internet that doesn't work. Seems they have problems with remote access to the servers in KL. I'm not sure how that affects the internet here, but at least they called. Unfortunately, they do not know how long this problem will take to fix, so I have to bear with it..

Since I trade US, I need the internet at night.. Well.. DiGi comes to the rescue.. RM6 I can surf all I want at err.. well.. some sort of speed. At least I can use MSN and blog now hehe.. Hope the net comes back

Lunch at Gunter's Gasthaus

Been hearing good things about this place. So finally decided to give this place a try. Took my mother there for a late mother's day lunch :p Had trouble finding the turn though, luckily there was a sign at the front of the junction. We parked in front of the kindergarten, didn't really know where the place was, could have parked closer. 


My first impressions? Looks like a home style restaurant, these are plentiful in Jakarta, although the interior is much nicer here. 

 

What's different bout this place? Well for one thing, you can eat up to three dishes and all you pay is for the most expensive meal you ordered and of course this only applies if your not sharing :p

We ordered the sausages and the boneless chicken (no 7 and 8 on the menu)

They also have an buffet salad bar. When we went, there was only 3 choices. a typical green salad, shredded carrots and a potato onion salad which i've never tried before. Overall its decent. Very home style of presentation. 

Salad Bar

I had a bite of the Masthuhn Hawaii, it was pretty good.  Accompanying it was a bowl of rice,  but i think it went better by itself. 

Masthun Hawaii (Boneless Chicken)

The sausages to me were the best as i'm a big fan of gourmet sausages (not those factory manufactured frozen stuff in Giant). The sausages went well with the mash potatos, onions and bacon. Fantastic combination. I wished there was more of the mash potato's though, it was just so soft and flavorful, sort of a melting feeling when it touches your tongue, absolutely lovely.  

Nurnberg Sausages

As sausages aren't the most tummy filling meals, I ordered a second dish called the chicken cordon bleu.  This unfortunately was quite disappointing, the chicken was dry and i expected cheese to be oozing out when i cut the chicken. Instead I got a some watery cheese. Maybe this is the way its supposed to be, but I've tried this before elsewhere and it was way different. 

Chicken Cordon Bleu

Overall, it was a very pleasant experience and the food is priced reasonably and if your able to eat more than one dish, i'd consider this place a cheap eat. The bad side is I'd probably won't order the Cordon Bleu anymore though, just not to my taste. The atmosphere is very family like and warm. I'd go there again in a flash.  

Looks like another blogger Elsa has written a review about Gunter's and she did mention about the cordon bleu and the cheese :p  

Pizza Hut 2 thin crust = 1 thick crust?

Recently ordered a pan crust pizza from Pizza hut. There is currently a promotion going on. If you order online you can get one pan pizza and one thin crust for RM19.70. Great deal!
Well I got online and registered my account and proceeded with the order. 40minutes later, beep beep, pizza man is here. Unfortunately for him its raining cats and dogs tonight. After opening the box and smelling the mouth watering aroma, i picked a slice and took a bite.. Hmm.. something's different. Well.. what do you know.. the dough is different.. its just two slices of thin crust stuck together. Well nowander it isn't as puffy. Its more chewy and rather undercooked. Disappointed.. Having worked in Pizza Hut before, I know what can happen in the kitchen behind the scenes.. Maybe they ran out of pan crust dough (which i doubt) or not many people are ordering thin crusts, so they reuse the dough for pan pizzas.. What ever it is. It just doesn't taste the same. Made a complaint to pizza hut. Let's see what happens.

Got a visit from the aircond man

Aircond went bust recently so had to call in the aircond man. End up its a crummy capacitor that blew. Cost RM160 just for this thing. then add RM60 for labour. Pretty expensive to me. Oh well.. no aircond can be problematic during warm nights.
The crew were pretty nice anyway to explain what went wrong and go into details.

Police summons system down

Today when I went to see the police to pay a traffic summons, well what do you know, the system is down, and there isn't any backup. So after travelling all the way to the police station and knowing that parking is a real pain over there, I find out I can even make a manual payment. This e-government thing is suppose to simplify things. Instead, it looks like it is making it more difficult to use.

Ok, back home, I heard that you could pay traffic summons and renew road tax online. Lets give it a try.. So I headed over to www.speed.com.my and registered an account. well as expected, the main page loads fine, but when it comes to accessing summons information, it breaks down. How can a government system behave like this. Isn't there any redundancy in the system? backup or fall over to a manual mode?

A busy MAS website

Looks like MAS booking website is pretty busy. Can't even get in at the moment.

Malaysia Airlines RM0 fares

Another AirAsia promo?


Or not?

Recently most of us have heard or read about the offers by Malaysia airlines offering RM0 fares for domestic flights. While competition is great for us consumers, I find the way of promotion is shameless. No originality, first glance, you would think that it is an AirAsia advertisement. I guess one could argue that MAS is trying to say something with the advertisement. MAS is back, RIIPPP bye bye airasia, well thats a friend's exact words.

Let's take a look at the differences

Airport tax
Kota Kinabalu to Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia Airlines: RM120
AirAsia: RM71.50

Online Booking lead time
Malaysia Airlines: 2 days before flight
AirAsia: 4 hours before flight

Most people would probably consider that with Malaysia Airlines you get the following:

• No panic rushing to queue up


• Numbered Seating


• Food on board


• No luggage handling fee and greater luggage allowances

Well, I guess if your really need the benefits with Malaysia Airlines then this is great news for you. As for me, I'm still an AirAsia supporter. I respect originality and dislike the way a large airline is unable to think of innovative ways to promote and market their services. I hope that the airline industry here becomes more liberalised allowing AirAsia to take on more routes.