Day 4

The usually quiet Gaya street in the middle of the city transforms into a colourful avenue with local people selling their wares. You can find everything here from beautifully crafted batik made by the locals to fake Louis Vuitton bags from China. We got several dusters for grandmas, moms, and aunts; t-shirts for dads and some friends; white Borneo coffee; a nice shirt for hny and nothing for me. I was so tempted to buy an exquisite batik which would be great as a bed cover or wall hanging but it's quite expensive. Very much like the Kashmir-made bed cover I so covet at the Rosebank Sunday market in Johannesburg. I hope there'd be a next time.



We had a quick lunch in a dodgy Chinese restaurant. I told hny if we eat there I'd be signing my death warrant. My tummy hasn't fully recovered from my terrible ordeal the other day. I feel like my body took a lot of beating from the rafting we did on top of the grueling train , but every ache and sore was totally worth it.



In markets like these, you should be armed with good haggling skills. I got five "dasters" (long, comfy dresses worn inside the house) for RM55 while I chatted with the sales ladies about our soap operas, apparently these and our actors are widely known in Malaysia. While other Asian countries are exporting computer chips and cars, we are exporting soap operas haha They even asked if I'm an actress back here jeje I said no but hny later told me that I should've said yes maybe I could have gotten a better deal. But I was worried it might cause a stampede :D

We took a cab to Warisan Square to check out what their malls look like. It's nothing compared to the giant malls we have in Manila. It looks like it's quite new and still needs a lot of locators. Coincidentally, there was an ongoing sale that day, which further dented my credit card. We also saw a stall named La Manila and we thought it serves Pinoy food, hny took a closer look and saw that they're serving Vietnamese food instead. After a looong day, we had a 'healthy' merienda at Yogur Berry. It's frozen yogurt with your choice of 6 toppings plus an assortment of rotis. Looks nice and tastes good too. I hope they'll have a franchise here in Manila.



We headed home early as hny was already complaining with the weight of our shopping bags and also we need to prepare for the Kinabalu National Park trip tomorrow. Had dinner at Sinario cafe which is conveniently located behind our lodge and serves really good naan with tomato and kari dip.