Trip to Msia ~ cont. (7/26-8/5)

Bobby is in town!  In Malaysia that is.  We have already spent about a week in my hometown of Kota Kinabalu, visiting my dad in the hospital.

Hmmm, I was told that by the hotel Front Desk that I will be at the Kinabalu wing, with a mountain view. I'm not seeing Mt Kinabalu here!

Boys are already getting quite comfy in the room:

Oh boy, Charlie tucking into some yummy dessert:

I picked up some dinner so we didn't have to go out, as Daddy is suffering from some jetlag:

And oh, Bobby brought his cough all the way from the US too! Booo..!! Looks like he will be horizontal most of tonight:

Graham seems very happy with this egg custard dessert that I had picked up :-)

There's more stuff from the same bakery!  I couldn't resist.  He he...

Looks like Daddy is up and up for a chess match with Charlie.  I'm so glad we bought this travel set for this trip:

We are back to my aunt's dumpling restaurant for dinner.  My other uncle dropped off a "tarap" fruit.  It was a tad too ripe, so unfortunately, we had to toss it out.  Charlie was definitely curious:

Charlie managed to "magically" stack 3 cans of 100+ together.  Impressive!

This magnifier that Graham is using was actually for Lao Ye/Grandpa - so he can look at this phone a little bit better.  But looks like Graham is testing it out first:

Oh, here's my parking ticket!  I better pay it soon so it doesn't increase to RM50.  That will be a lot of bowls of noodles!!

More take out for the next day - this time it's rice with BBQ pork.  Yuummm!!

Looks like Daddy is up for some sun and pool time with the boys at the hotel:

Boys are splurging on ice cream while I'm not looking:

More 100+!  I'm glad the boys are hydrating:

And Bobby is actually listening when it comes to putting on sunscreen.  Ha!

There's a Kids Zone as well at the hotel:

Glad the boys are able to kill some time here:

Supposedly Charlie really wants these fish charts!!

There's a little "Nemo" center by the hotel.  Rather small space though:

Back in the room for some "phone time":

Another morning and Bobby is spending more time with the boys while I'm away.  Love this photo of Bobby and Graham :-)

Boys playing ping pong:

Charlie decides to join in on the watermelon contest:

He didn't win but definitely had some fun doing it!

There's a little spot for a water-balloon fight too.  Graham and Charlie give it a go:

This is too cute.  I guess it's more difficult than it seems!  Here is Graham's attempt.  Ha!

One of my dad's good friends is in town and so we all decide to meet up and have dinner together. My brother (next to Bobby) and his wife are able to join us as well:

The duck was superb at this restaurant. I think Graham had the most of it!

Even my dad's helper from the office is with us.  She's been running my dad's business since... forever! And my sister to her left:

Thanks for a great dinner, "uncle" Lee! Coincidentally a "Lee" as well :-)

We return to the hotel and awww, looks like Graham's Fluffy got tucked in:

No chess but Charlie is learning how to play Backgammon tonight :-D

A few mornings later, I finally get to try out the breakfast buffet at the hotel. I've been having to leave for the hospital every morning but somehow I got a break today.  Totally digging into the local flavors again - nasi lemak and roti with curry, and some fried noodles.  Yes, noodles for breakfast!

Charlie is having croissants and a donut, and lots of watermelon.  Seems that every time the watermelon comes out to the buffet table, it disappears right away!  So Charlie made sure he got enough for all of us.  Ha!

The lighting above the dining area is pretty cool!

More of the local flavors - this one is sort of a crispy bread with butter and peanuts on the inside. Delish!

The boys sure love the life in a hotel!

So there was also eFoiling at the hotel, which I will update in a separate post.  And also Charlie's birthday.  Can't believe he is turning 11 years old!

Okay, swapping shifts with my sister at the hospital.  Somehow she brought the chair back down with her (that's what she has been sleeping on overnight).  She is just hanging out near a construction zone within the inside of the lobby,  waiting for my younger brother to show up to pick her up!

Did I mention again how terrible the parking situation is around the hospital area?! Yikes!

After about 4 or 5 days at the hotel, it is finally time for us to move again. This time to an Airbnb that we had originally set up according to our original scheduling.  And it's right next to the mall, so boys are already busy roaming around becoming "mall rats".  Ha ha!

Graham can't get enough of this store that sells drone.  Bobby said he was in this store at least once a day, if not twice!

The jewelry here is something else! Woah!!!

The boys couldn't get enough of the sweets here and of course, all the popular fast food restaurants were also in the mall:

I'm glad Bobby didn't spoil the boys by going to the arcade.  And weirdly enough, they didn't push for it either:

Charlie and his milktea - he wanted to try one from every Boba store!

Here we go!

And gosh, when Mommy is not looking... Bobby spoiled the boys with even more sweets. Look at all these donuts!!

Uh huh.... Need I say more??!

Boys are styling their new shoes.  Okay, I have to admit - they looked good and the price was definitely more than right!

Laundry!  So glad the Airbnb has a washing machine.  So much sweating every single day. Yikes!

I've never seen Bobby this patient getting specialty bread from this spot.  Ha! But gosh, it did smell good.  Maybe that's why :-P

We splurged on some iced mango pudding.  The pudding wasn't so great but the mango was nice and sweet:

Dinner at my brother's.  I wonder where Bobby is? Hmmm.... must still be recovering from that cough!

And here are Graham and Charlie with auntie Lucy.  She's been working for our family ever since I was born.  That's 47 years now!!!

Graham finally finished up his little bulldozer:

Daddy managed to get a haircut in the mall as well:

I also managed to meet up with some more old friends from high school:

More Graham selfies when I'm not paying attention to where my phone is.  Little stinker!

We go swimming at the golf club and I make Graham try an "ABC" which stands for Air Batu Campur.  Except they were missing quite a few ingredients.  It's a shaved ice dessert with sweet syrup and brown sugar.  How could he not like it?!

Well, I know his daddy really struggled with this drink.  It's sort of like a sour plum hot drink.  Bobby said it taste just like the sea water.  LOL!!!

But it's suppose to be good for your cough!  And by the way, at this point, Mommy also has the cough and Charlie is also starting to catch something.  Boo Daddy!!! :-P

We try out another Italian place before Daddy heads home the next day.  Not as good as the first place but at least the view is pretty nice up here.  You can see the islands right off the coastline:

Graham always had this thing about stringing all his ice cubes on the straw.  I remembered he did this 7 years ago too, on that last trip.  Too funny!!

Here it is... and also in a red shirt, his favorite color. Ha ha!

Lovely this pic of Bobby and the boys:

I keep trying to get the boys to participate in this local dance, but nope! The crew dances 5x a day at this mall, almost every day of the week. Yikes!

I don't remember what we were eating here.  Oh, Nando's!  We really liked this chain restaurant when we lived in Abu Dhabi:

Boys are trying to imitate the rabbits.  Ha ha, too cute:

After dinner, Mommy skips out to join a few friends for dessert.  Yuummm, this is probably my favorite Malaysian dessert. It's called Cendol.  It has red beans and this green, worm-like "thing", and its in a coconut based milk with local brown sugar. I could eat this every night.  Ha ha!

More friends!  Also from high school:

Charlie says I have too many friends.  Ha ha!  What happened was I went to 2 different high schools, and a different school during elementary. And somehow, we have all managed to keep in touch :-)

Daddy leaves the next morning.  This is the first time we are really seeing Mt Kinabalu!  Used to be able to see this from my bedroom window almost every morning.  But it has been so cloudy and hazy lately, until today!

And funny enough, we actually got to see it quite a few times this very same morning because every time we went over the flyover, there it was.  So, ask Daddy how many time we had to turn around because he forgot something at the airbnb apartment?!  The first time, he forgot his meds/inhaler and then, second time he forgot his phone??!  Good thing the airport was not far from the apartment and we were quite early starting out.

We-fie after dropping daddy off but can't really see the mountain in the backdrop:

Here it is.  Love this!

I'm hoping someday we can all climb it as a family.  Perhaps on my 50th birthday??!

Somehow Charlie is all into showing muscles lately, so here we go:

Comparing muscles with Daddy who is now back in the US.  Ha ha!

And for whatever reason, Charlie tagged this photo of me as big muscles. LOL!!

Bobby unfortunately had to leave early back to the US because of his work.  He was suppose to stay another week and head home together with us.  He did however, leave his germs behind because my cough got worse and I couldn't actually visit my dad in the hospital.  I guess that meant being able to spend more time with Graham and Charlie instead!