Appreciation over Expectation

After spending about a week in Kota Kinabalu, we got into quite a good rhythm of work, exercise, eat, sleep, repeat.  I taught mornings, and Kolja would go for long runs outside (preparing for his 100km race that was quickly approaching) and I would go to the pool and relax in the afternoon when he would work.  Then, we’d finish our evenings more often than not at Nando’s or being adventurous and switching to the sushi place very close by, depending on our mood.

The days started to all blur together and we had forgotten that we were given this once in a lifetime opportunity to yes work nomadically, but also a chance to explore and experience a new place yet again. So, we concluded that there was no more time left to waste, it was our privilege and duty to explore some of what Kota Kinabalu had to offer.  This city is in the north on the island of Borneo and is known by the locals as Sabah (lots of names, I know, but all in Malaysia nonetheless). We had heard that most people came for the easy access to beautiful islands, so we wanted to see for ourselves.

We planned for our next free day to be spent at one of the many islands close by.  At first we were pretty unsure of which one to choose, but after some research we decided that Manukan Island was where we wanted to check out first.  So on a Tuesday morning, we set off early (okay maybe not that early, around 10 am) to the Jetty Port, which should’ve been only 5 minutes away from our apartment, but again the horrible city design led to having to go a mile in the wrong direction, in order to switch lanes, and then head back on the other side of the road.  However, after about 10 minutes, we arrived and were immediately greeted by a flock of tourist salespeople.  We had read ahead of time that we would be bombarded with choices but that ultimately they all were the same, so we quickly chose one without much thought and followed the tour guide into his shop. Inside, we explained where we intended to go and were told in order to do so we just had to simply purchase a boat ticket, entrance ticket, island ticket, tourist ticket (you get the point, there were tickets on tickets).  From there we waited for about 30 minutes for our boat to arrive (the waiting game in Malaysia goes without being said), and were told by some locals that we’d be blessed with a rather empty island, because normally the islands are chaotic and overly crowded with tourists (this emptiness due to the fact that COVID cases were ramping up worldwide and the number of tourists in Malaysia were decreasing rapidly). 

So off we headed toward the island of Manukan, dropping off other passengers to other islands along the way, and finally arriving at our little slice of heaven. Blessed is an understatement, we were absolutely stunned by the fact that there were hardly any people on the island, and at how beautiful the hues of blue looked from the dock. Upon entry we were again forced to buy some kind of island entry ticket (thought we already bought it, but didn’t feel like arguing), and went in search of our own little place to camp out for the day.  

Walking around the entire island took a whopping 10 minutes, and during this little adventure we learned very quickly that we were definitely not going to be alone. Instead, some very large prehistoric lizard/crocodiles were clearly going to be intruding, as they were often seen slowly crawling around in search of food and shade.  They clearly were used to tourists though, not being spooked at all by the old white couple who were having a blast taking photo shoots with them. We chose to keep our distance though, just in case!

           

           

The day was absolutely wonderful. We spent hours on the beach, taking dips in the water when we were hot, and even getting to enjoy our own little canopy set up, with some shade to lay under.  For lunch we ate at the only restaurant on the island and enjoyed massive coconuts to hydrate. Unfortunately, time flew and 3:30 pm came way too soon which was when we were told to be back at the jetty to meet our boat driver. So reluctantly we packed up and headed back to the dock to join other passengers journeying back to the city.

Pardon my French, but what a shitshow that was. Luckily for us, at that point in our trip we had been in Malaysia long enough to drop all expectations that anything would be happening on time.  Malaysia and everyone living here are on permanent island time, and it was absolutely hilarious for us to hear other foreigners openly and loudly complaining about the lack of organization and punctuality (as if complaining would help). It seemed they had expected their boat to arrive at 3:30 sharp to whisk them away safely back to their 5 star hotels, but the boat drivers simply had other plans for them. One British family in particular really gave Kolja and I quite a laugh.

             

With a little bit of drama but none to write home about, we made it back safe and sound. But for some reason, we decided we hadn’t had enough adventure for one day, and chose to walk home (3+ miles). Needless to say after spending over 6 hours outside in the sun, feeling sandy, crispy, and a bit overheated, we did not actually make it home.  We did however, stumble upon a massive fresh market where we FINALLY found a place to buy fresh fruits and vegetables. I’ll be the first to admit though that I wasn’t the cheerful, energetic human I usually am and after trudging behind Kolja as he made several purchases, and grunting a few times yes and no to an array of foods, we exited and immediately ordered a Grab taxi.  

By the time we got home we were completely exhausted, and after showering we debated just eating downstairs at a very small store that sold a few simple meals and local dishes. But HOW could we betray our beloved Nando’s?? So in the end yep, you guessed it, we had ourselves a delicious chicken dinner AND a large side of sweet potato fries.


Kota Kinabalu February 21- March 4, 2020

Winner Winner (many) Chicken Dinners

Kota Kinabalu.... where to begin with this little gem of an inconvenient place.  For starters, let me add, that we chose to stay here for a much longer time than any place previously. We made some false assumptions that this was a city with beaches close by, so therefore it would make an ideal place to work and enjoy both quality grocery stores and beach life relaxation.  However, our expectations were way, way off and 12 days deemed to be far too long.

Again, I feel it necessary to add that although it seems as though we were gallivanting around Malaysia and enjoying spending the days at the pools and beaches, this was only a small snippet of our day to day lives, especially here in KK.  A typical day started around 9 and finished around 3, and was spent either teaching, preparing for classes, or checking homework (not so luxurious, I know).  We just lucked out in the sense that every single place we stayed at had an amazing pool (this time on our same floor) and was almost always empty!!

This pic for my dad who doesn’t believe I work 😂

The apartment itself on the other hand, was very spacious, but we hadn’t anticipated the massive kitchen to be so ill equipped for cooking. They had provided us only one very small pan, a massive pot, one tiny electric stove top that had to be plugged in and heated up very slowly, and a microwave.  Now the first day we tried our best to be optimistic by ignoring the lack of utensils and equipment and went grocery shopping (I guess in hopes that the whole kitchen situation would magically sort itself out).  There we ran into problem numero dos.... lack of fresh ingredients. SO WEIRD.  Never in my life have I been to a place in which every single grocery store had such tiny fresh fruit sections and even less fresh meat. Again though, optimism got the best of us and we were able to purchase some frozen chicken and ingredients to make Thai chicken curry.

Needless to say the optimism didn’t get us very far and after almost catching the kitchen on fire (no I wasn’t the one cooking) we admitted defeat and decided cooking just wouldn’t be optimal in that apartment. So, we trashed the major dinner fail and quickly changed as we would be dining out that night (and every night that followed for that matter).

Now for the fun part.... we came across one of the many super inconvenient aspects of KK.... their city layout.  The urban design was done SO poorly and unfortunately due to the city’s lack of money they hadn’t really fixed it.  Our apartment was located directly across the street from a massive mall with tons of restaurants, but in order to get across we faced 2 large 3 lane highways.  It was 8 pm at this point and very dark outside, so we timidly stared at the never ending headlights coming at us.  I wish I would’ve taken a picture or video to capture the chaos, but it was always such a frantic dash to get across that I never managed to get one. At that point we were starving and after seeing a very brave Malaysian man walk across so effortlessly, we couldn’t handle waiting any longer.  So, we plunged across the road pretty recklessly and hoped for the best (as the nights continued on I’d say we reached expert levels for dodging cars).







 This first night took a surprising twist as I was introduced to our now go-to restaurant while in Malaysia, NANDO’S.  Apparently they have these all over the world, but I’d never been to one, and now I can’t imagine my life without it! They have so many varieties of chicken made on the grill to perfection and to top it off they have their own homemade “Perri Perri” sauces for even more flavor, my mouth is watering just thinking about it. And alas without any need for further explanation, you have just discovered how we spent 8 of our 11 evenings in KK.................






Kota Kinabalu February 21- March 4, 2020

Teaching, Tiger Moms, and Tatto*

*Want to begin this blog post by clarifying that no, dad I did not get another tattoo, take a deep breath, Tatto is a restaurant*

We arrived back at the KL International Airport yet again.  Now much more familiar with the layout and city, we opted to take a “Grab”(Malaysian version of Uber), so it was another one hour drive and finally we made it to our new Airbnb apartment at 1 in the morning.  Like zombies, we took to our now very familiar arrival routine.... showers, throwing clothing in the washing machine (excess amounts this time because of hotel living), and jumped into bed.

This next week was spent doing a lot of work indoors.  My schedule started to really fill up as Chinese parents started to lose their minds, trying to entertain their children for 16 hours a day. To their parents’ surprise, the students welcomed a sense of structure and really desired to learn and even do some homework.  It was now a month since they had a proper routine, going to school and doing homework, so they really struggled to focus in the beginning, and teaching mostly younger students (age 4, 5, 6) the whole use of computers and iPads for class was a bit of a challenge (even for me).  Thankfully, most parents were still not working, as many places were not yet reopened for business, and they were able to sit in the room and help with any internet issues or if students needed any in- person support.

Thank you moms for sitting in!!!

As a teacher, this whole online learning is a complete blessing, as it keeps the students from falling behind, and of course supports my cost of living while allowing me to continue doing what I love. However, having Chinese tiger moms sitting in on all of the classes led to a bit of tension and “class management” situations completely taken over by the moms (which I didn’t always agree with but had little say in).

Some particularly funny situations that occurred were during my group classes that I teach on Sundays.  In the morning I have 7 super young students (Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd graders), and my god, what a circus.  These students often forgot they were “in class” because their whole family was walking around in the background, so they’d insist on having full fledged conversations with parents, or screaming “MOM, I’M HUNGRY!” to which I had to constantly but gently remind them “Allen, everyone can hear you, please wait until break time to get a snack”. The all time funniest moment came when a student decided to take the iPad to the bathroom with him.... NO, Jerry you do not need to take us with you to use the toilet..... his response “Oh, I didn’t want to miss anything”.

Needless to say the entertainment was endless, and to this day, I continue loving the unexpected challenges and humorous experiences with my students.

To finish off this week, Kolja decided to surprise me not once but twice! The first surprise went a little like this “Hey, I just signed up for a 100 kilometer ultra marathon in 3 weeks in Kuching, so let’s make sure we can make our way down to the island of Borneo”. Now to some this might sound like a foreign language, or an early April Fool’s joke, but having been together for over 2 years I knew better and am somewhat accustomed to these types of conversations.  However, signing up for something so crazy in such short of notice was insane, even for him. Never having heard of “Kuching” and also wondering at this point if I should get his head checked, I didn’t necessarily agree that signing up for this marathon was a smart idea. However, upon doing some research and heavy persuasion, I gave up the idea of trying to change my stubbornly wonderful boyfriend’s mind and we booked tickets to our next destination, Kota Kinabalu, on the Malaysian island of Borneo.

The second surprise was a little more up my alley.  On Wednesday of that week Kolja told me that he had planned a surprise evening for us on Thursday (our last full day in Kuala Lumpur) and that I should be ready by 4 pm.  He’s not always the best secret keeper (and I’ll admit I always find a way to force surprises out of him), but he didn’t give me any hints about this one.  First, we took a Grab to the biggest mall in the city center, where we taste tested some yummy snacks and Malaysian desserts in the food court. Then, we proceeded to walk to a tall building close by (Kolja having no sense of direction may have made a few wrong turns leading to us both sweating profusely and becoming a bit irritable) but we made it and went up to the 38 floor.  Now we aren’t big drinkers or fancy people, so I was very surprised that he was bringing me to a rooftop bar, but it turned out to be a helipad!! We both had never been to one before and it was very cool to see how they turned it into a bar in the evenings.  The sunset views were stunning and we enjoyed a few cheeky cocktails on the roof.

Finally, after cooking our own meals all week, I was wined and dined at an AMAZING Italian restaurant called Tatto (see dad, told ya).  From red wine and a cheese platter, to pizza and dessert.  The night was just what we needed to remain positive, appreciate some quality time together, and forget about all the drama and chaos of our current situation.

Kuala Lumpur Round 2 February 15-21, 2020

Here Comes the Sun

Now if you’re thinking these blog posts are going to continue to be super stressful and anxiety ridden, you’re in for a sunny TREAT! Because for the next month we were absolutely blessed to be able to move around pretty easily in Malaysia, exploring the different areas and islands while still working and making a living.

After a week in Kuala Lumper, gathering our bearings and sorting out our short term plan, we decided to appreciate the situation rather than get worked up about things out of our control, and planned to explore all that Malaysia had to offer.

Our first stop was Langkawi, which is an absolute dream island with sunsets that are absolutely unreal.  Our friend who arrived in Malaysia a day before us, Sauda, is engaged to a man named Loay, who lives on the island and owns a restaurant with his brother (shout out Arang BBQ and Grill for the best food on the island), and invited us to come spend some time with them. Uncertainty was also creeping up into the lives of even those who lived in Malaysia, so we all felt a need for a distraction.  The virus at this time hadn’t really spread throughout Malaysia yet, however tourism is one of the biggest sources of income for the people in Langkawi. So although we were blessed with far less visitors on the island, we could sense the fear looming as hotels, restaurants and other businesses were already taking a giant hit because of the lack of Chinese tourists.























Airbnb’s were sparse and somewhat off the beaten track so we decided to stay in a hotel centrally located, so we could be close to our friends and the beach. This meant daily cleaning, which is always a plus especially when you’re tracking sand in the room everyday, but it also meant eating out for every meal. And although it was only one week, we decided hotel living could not be our long term plan because we spent way too much money and actually enjoy regularly cooking our own meals.  Our hotel was right on the beach though which was amazing to be able to walk right outside and have the ocean greet us. Kolja was able to run in the mornings as I taught my classes and overall we were really releasing the stress and anxiety that the last few weeks had brought into our lives. I think this week was probably the only week we actually felt like we were on a proper holiday, because our friends planned some touristy activities for us, they took us to all of the best places to eat and hangout, AND we were able to relax and really enjoy ourselves.

One evening that really stood out was my friend Sauda’s birthday celebration.  Her fiancé, Loay, had planned an epic surprise picnic on the beach.  It was so adorable and romantic.  The ironic hilarity happened about an hour in, we were chatting about how the island hadn’t had rain in months and that the waterfall they wanted to take us to was completely dried up. AND WHAT DO YOU KNOW, the weather gods decided that night was going to be the first night in months that the rain would pour down on us.  We laughed it off though, luckily having already finished most of the food, and were able to continue the celebration indoors at a delicious sushi restaurant.

I think this trip really helped us to embrace the present moment and lack of control, especially as we were able to temporarily get out of the stressful city life.  It couldn’t have come at a better time, and on our final day (just so happened to be Valentine’s Day), we spent an awesome afternoon by the pool sipping cocktails, watching the sunset and concluded the evening by polishing off a feast at the BEST restaurant on the island, ARANG BBQ and GRILL! I’m telling you if you ever have the chance to visit Langkawi you can’t miss it!!! From the insanely delicious flavour of the food straight from the grill, the passion that goes into each dish, AND the epic brownies and apple crumble desserts, you simply must try for yourself. I may be a little biased as the chefs are some of the most gracious and amazing friends we were grateful to have met, but regardless of that the food is outstanding.

 


As dinner came to an end on that last night and we were completely stuffed to the brim, Sauda offered to drive us to the airport.  The drive felt strange... we could feel the ending of the holiday and sense of stress free living come to an abrupt halt, as we were all discussing how uncertain things were in our home (Shanghai) and that we hadn’t before experienced this feeling of not knowing when it would be safe to return. The drive itself was short though and after bidding our farewells we were off into yet another airport (not to mention this time running super late and having to pay extra money because the gate had already close).  Masks on, covered head to toe in jeans and sweat shirts, and that trusty yellow suitcase in tow, we were whisked away on yet another flight back to Kuala Lumpur for another week (hoping all too optimistically that it would be our final week in Malaysia, before we could head home)....... oh Natalie, how wrong you were.


Langkawi February 7-14, 2020