Mama(n)datory

We pushed off to Sarawak Cultural Village on the very next morning after we've had our breakfast and a quick yoga session at the yoga studio (yes, Nanga Damai has a yoga studio with a breathtaking view! I love the fact that I'm able to still have a little bit of proper yoga practice during my trip, so thank you for booking this place, Mun)

Yoga studio in Nanga Damai. Image taken off it's website

We paid RM60~ for the entrance fee into Sarawak Cultural Village each. The fee is a little expensive to our agreement, for foreign tourists and even for us Malaysians. We were given a small (passport-like) book that has a map of the area and some information of each tribe in Sarawak.

Beautiful landscape overlooking mount Santubong in the beackground.

Bidayuh crossing

Entering the Iban longhouse

"Dulu bunuh orang, tengkoraknya dibawa balik, diraikan dan dipuja. Sekarang, bunuh orang terus masuk lokap!"

Sape done by the Penan tribe

Soothing sape music at the orang Ulu longhouse

Melanau Tallhouse

We ended our tour trough the Sarawak Cultural Village with a 40minutes cultural show in the amphitheater. All in all, it was definitely an amazing educational visit to get to know a little if not more about the backgrounds and history of Sarawak tribes and cultures. I used to always get confused with the tribes in Sarawak and Sabah back in high school so this is kind of a refresher on my poor knowledge of Malaysian history.

We decided to walk back to our homestay after spending the whole morning in the cultural village and a quick stop for lunch at the food court in Damai beach central. Somewhere in the midst of our journey, we stumbled upon a group of local boys enjoying their weekend off by the river. We decided to stop by for a little while to get some shade off the scorching hot sun and at the same time cringing ourselves watching the boys jumping off the cliff into a small lagoon-like in the middle of the river bathing pool - Pandalela's style. Salah terjun sikit memang flat jatuh atas batu!

Damai beach central right opposite the Cultural village where we had our lunch and dinner the previous night.

Walking towards Santubong National Park's entrance from the main road

We continued our journey towards our homestay but not forgetting to stop over at Santubong National Park for a little trekking adventure. Not that we're up to doing the difficult trails, nor that we're capable to do the advanced Santubong hiking; we decided to only do the shortest (15minutes) trail towards a small waterfall with a clear bathing pool. That'll do.

At the registration canteen.

Not in the best pair of shoes to go trekking. It wasn't even in our itinerary in the first place.

The clear bathing pool at the lowest part of the waterfall

We did not regret a single bit having to walk back to our homestay even in the middle of the sunny afternoon. We wouldn't even stumble upon these findings if we were to just take the car to and fro the cultural village and our homestay. Sometimes you just have to let loose a little and go off track from your plans to experience such things that you least expected. It was undeniably the most memorable and amazing experience we've had during our trip to Sarawak.Experiencing nature at its best.  No doubt.

When I think of Sarawak, I think of it's mix culture, kuih lapis, and laksa Sarawak. Oh and definitely midin. Midin's my top favorite.

Little did I know that there's more than that to Sarawak.

The museums, cat statues, the untouched nature, gula apong ice cream, mee kolok, beautiful mosques, the toll-free streets, the friendliness even those with full-on tattoo (I mean tbh yes, I'm always scared of people with big inks all over their skin, I just have the feeling that they're bad people. Sorry) etc.

Who would have thought, I fell in love with Sarawak unlike what (almost) everyone has been telling me "there's nothing much in Sarawak. You'll get bored of it pretty much soon."

Barely made it!

We barely made it for our 940am flight that Saturday morning. My friend, Mun accidentally overslept - what supposed to be a 7am pick-up was dragged to 8.15am, which led us to only arrive at the airport at almost 9 in the morning. Dropped our luggage at the counter and rushed straight towards the boarding gate (5minutes in, we were already being called to board). But still, sempat lah juga duduk kedai kopi opposite boarding gate tu for a shared cup of coffee and sandwiches. Suka hati.

Yes, squeezed in minutes for quick coffee and sandwich before boarding.

We were lucky that once we arrived in Kuching, we found out that there was Regatta being held in town. Not that we're a big fan of it, but we would not want to miss experiencing it either.

My first mee kolok. It was ok I guess. Not to my interest.

It was a scorching hot afternoon in Kuching. We stopped over at Kampung Gersik to have lunch whilst enjoying the dragon boat race. We also went to Mira Cake House for kek lapis and I was surprised to see the variety of layer cakes they have, like ati parek and even kek lapis belacan!

I'm not a big fan of layer cakes or even fruit cakes to begin with so I only tasted a few and did not buy any to bring home unlike Mun who immediately bought I don't know, 3 types of cakes?

It was then time to leave for Santubong. Yes, our main destination here in Sarawak is actually to escape the hustling city towards the nature in Santubong. And I kid you not, it was the best decision ever! Santubong is definitely a gem, a good change of environment to be in every once in a while.

Santubong - such a beauty!

We checked into Nanga Damai Homestay in Santubong located just minutes away from Damai beach. The room we stayed in was like a small cottage, with a small balcony overlooking the stream coming direct from the mountain. A perfect two-nights stay to be close to nature!

Nanga Damai Homestay

The stream next to our room

More on Santubong in the next post!

My second born - Sofia has some funky looking scales on the top of her head ever since she came out of me. Cradle cap it was, and still having it now at almost 2 years of age.

It never really went away since then. I thought it was partly due to her minor eczema when she was an infant, where she suffered burnt-like rashes and dry-peeling skin over her cheeks and chin (which I then initially assumed it was just milk rash). Eczema could possible be one of the cause and some says it could be a fungal condition related to dairy intolerance. I've mentioned it to the doctor a number of times, but she didn't seem to be worried and asked me to not bother about it too much. Apparently, toddlers with cradle cap is normal. 0_o

The top part of her head kind of look a little like this - dry flaky scalp Source : Google / Snotty-noses

Toddler cradle cap is a type of seborrhoeic dermatitis where the sebaceous glands in the skin makes greasy substance called as sebum, which helps make the skin waterproof. Kind of like wax spread on over shoes to make it waterproof (I watched this on Nifty Craft).

But the overproduced sebum traps the skin that constantly flakes. This is why it tends to look scaly. It looks similar to crusting patches of dry and flaky dandruff.

It usually goes away on its own over time although I am not sure when will it finally be gone from (only) the top part of her head. For the time being the measures I take in treating her flaky scalp is by  gaping her hairwash to  every 3 days, and making sure there's no shampoo residue left on her after each wash. I sometimes do gently peel off the flakes while stroking her to sleep. Itchy hands, excuse me.

Those having prolong cradle cap may go on to have other rashes such as eczema, and even dandruff because the sebaceous glands makes more sebum than is needed. There's no exact treatment to it I guess, because one can only remove the scaly flakes, but is not able to control to stop the glands from making excessive oil.

Or maybe a good diet may help?
I am going to google more on it and bring up the matter on my next visit to the doctor.

I made myself jog around the neighborhood last Sunday evening. It was just a little less than 1km to complete a full round (yes, my neighborhood is such a small community) so I pushed myself to try doing at least two rounds.

I managed to do only one and a half round (that's about 1.5km on my first jog ever this year) before hopping into the car with my husband and kids to the playground in the next housing area.

I did another (I assumed) 200m run at the playground before calling it quits. Not bad for a first jog, eh? Some quality time with the kids seemed to be more interesting there and then so I did just that.

I am currently itching to go for another run in this gloomy weather but I got to sit my kids at home, so yoga is the only option I have at the moment.

I can say that I am stretching better now. I am more balanced physically and mentally too, although still far from perfect. Kind of getting more and more addicted to yoga each day to be honest - a session in the morning and another session in the evening in between my daily chores and activities.

Practice. Practice. Practice.
Well, it surely gets better with constant practice, yes?

I now need to get myself a sport arm band soon so I could track my run and monitor my heart rate and whatnots. Garmin is just out of my budget right now, just apps on my phone will do.

Source : Google

True confessions..

• I used to think of yoga just as a stretching exercise along with a little meditation.
• I also thought that people who does yoga are flexible, and I am far (with a capital F.A.R) from it.

Not very yogic of me, I know.

Since I've bought some new workout gears the other day and have yet to use it (because I have been procrastinating to start any kinds of exercises), I finally decided to make a commitment to practice yoga daily (if permits) starting just a few days ago. Keyword : discipline. I feel like I need to do something good for my soul - which I don’t nurture as often as I’d like - so I decided to challenge myself to become a yogini and hoping I could really fit it into my life forever. In shaa Allah.

Source : Google/Home of Yoga New Farm

Many people think that they need to be flexible to begin yoga (so I thought too). As I've mentioned, I am far from flexible. I can barely straighten my legs up in the air nor to touch down my toes. I don't balance well too, both physically and mentally.

It was definitely hard and uncomfortable for the first few tries as I was also clueless about the whole yoga terms and poses. I even had difficulties to really clear off my mind to just focus on connecting my mental, physical and emotional being. Kids screaming around and going underneath me whilst I do my plank is of no great help either. I mean I know now I really should prepare a proper yoga space at home and find myself the perfect peaceful time to really get myself be in the zone. But whatever and however it is that I do yoga now will suffice for the moment. At least I've started doing and committing to it for a start.

Yoga is not a destination. It's a journey, a long one to be honest. I still find it hard at the beginning of each session and my body is still stiff as a log but once I started to feel the whole aura, the enthusiasm is there for me to not stop practicing it. I find that yoga actually helps me to connect my body and mind to the rhythm of my breath. It makes me feel good and more at peace (even while sweating buckets). I sure need a whole load of practice to master it!

Truthfully speaking, yoga has definitely changed my perception. So here's a promise to continue challenging myself to commit to this practice. I hope yoga will soon bring a great sense of peace to my life, along with the physical benefits of muscle strength, respiratory health, and improved flexibility - both body and mind.

Now on to the yoga mat!