BODYJAM ROCKS KOTA KINABALU

Uniq invited Kevin, Nik and I as guest instructors for the Bodyjam 62 relaunch in Kota Kinabalu. After she got the approval from Ken, BodyJam's Head Teacher in KK, we were all set to go. Then I had to fall down the stairs and sublocated my toe finger a week before the event. And they printed the poster and everything..!!*cries* However, I had a great time there. Made new friends and had a huge blast. We're definitely coming again..!!

 

24th September 2012 (Monday)

 

I was supposed to fly to Kota Kinabalu the night before but due to circumstances I had to delay my flight and had most of the day free. So I did what any normal girl would do on her day off. Go to the doctor..!! Haha.. No la.. Since I'd be travelling, I thought it would be a good idea to get my toe checked out and see whether there have been any improvements since the last week. I went to Kelinik Suren with Mama and we had to wait a while because there was quite a queue for the X-Ray. The good doctor told me the bone has moved back to its original place but only slightly and then he plastered the fingers back together.

 

I finished my packing and then Zaim sent me to KLCC. Took the Skybus from KL Central to LCCT and I was already in the plane by 8pm. I was awefully hungry but didn't feel like spending in the plane and only managed to get about an hour of sleep during the entire 3 hour flight. The turbulence didn't really help. Thankfully, I didn't get airsick and we safely landed by 11pm.

 

Uniq and Kevin came to pick me up. Along with Bobo, our driver for the trip. Best part is, he doesn't have a licence..!! Haha. We stopped by a foodcourt in Tanjung Ara beach for some satay and drinks. Then I checked in De Galleria near Kampung Air. Saw Nik and the guys' room , unpacked a bit and off to Zzz Land.

25th September 2012 (Tuesday)

 

We woke up early because Ken wanted to preview the new release in his morning class. Originally I was just supposed to sit there and enjoy the music. As if... As soon as the first track played I already took off my sandals and was happily dancing. Hee. Then, we had a practice session for tonight's event. Since we did all that without a morsel of food in our bellies, the first thing we did was to find breakfast. I can't remember what I ate but I had two drinks..!! Haha..

 

The three of us were left on our own after that so we practiced a bit and even laid down on the studio floor to rest. We had to go down to the lobby when some guys came to install the new spotlights. Yes, they even brought in SPOTLIGHTS for us. And then we fell asleep waiting for Liana and Ken.

 

 

About an hour before the event, we got ready. We went to Guardian and Giant to get some plaster and drinks. By 6.30 we were all ready to rawck! Ken introduced all of us and the BodyJam party begins. I didn't really get much stage time, just shadowed the groove downs and taught the Fantasy track. But boy did everyone had fun that night. The studio was packed and the spotlights really helped all of us get in the party mode. The two hours just flew by and no one wanted to leave.

Sam, the big boss of Core Fitness was so impressed he wanted to buy us dinner. So we got ready and got into Christine's car. Our dinner at Sailor's was super yummy and surrounded by friends it was definitely memorable. The food was awesome. We were the last to leave the restaurant. Bobo kinda took us around the town looking for 'girls' to pickup. Ehhe. But then as soon as I reached my room, lights out. Figuratively of course.

 

26th September 2012 (Wednesday)

 

We checked out at ten that morning. Then went to pick Ken and Liana up. Seven of us in that one car. Ohoho..!! We went to get breakfast and then proceeded to the jetty for our island trip. We're going to Pulau Sapi..!! The boat ride there was nice. I got my hand out and felt the waves. Then we put down our bags and got ready for the beach. I walked along the shore, careful not to let my other foot wet. Then the others were having fun in the water. Hehe. There were not many people by the time we came so we mostly enjoyed the waters for ourselves. Because of the clear waters we could actually see the fishes swimming. Nice.

 

 

We were already changed and waiting for our boat ride back by 5pm. There was an unpleasant experience with the handlers that we had to bring up to their superiors. We freshened up in Uniq's in-laws and had a brief down time. They brought us to a seafood place for dinner. The siput and freshly boiled prawns were amazing.

 

It was time for us to say goodbye and we made our way to the airport. For some reason we thought our flight would be later but thankfully we managed to check our luggages in on time. Not surprisingly, the flight was delayed and only took off a little before midnight from the scheduled 11.20pm. The three of us sat in a row and was quickly sleeping when the plane left the ground. Goodbye Kota Kinabalu..!! Thank you for the memories..!! They were LEGENDARY.. :)

 

BANGKOK - TILL DEATH DO WE PARTY

I mentioned about a surprise trip a few posts back and OMG it was totally life-changing. Me and a very good friend Nik went to Bangkok for BodyJam instructor workshop and it was an experience like I have never had in my life. And for me one of the challenges was we didn't have one single clue what we got ourselves into. We had no idea where the training was and that our hotel though fairly comfortable was a bit out of the way and quite difficult to find. And our total ignorance of the Thai language made things harder.

The taxidrivers were a bit cekik darah, especially the hotel ones. Other than that the Thai people are really friendly and sweet. I especially love how they greet each other, it really reflected how much respect they have for everyone. But I think they must've thought that we were also Thai because almost everyone would talk to us in Thai and we would correct them and ask them to speak in English. LOL.

Fitness First

Let me just say this. The Fitness First where we trained were soooo frikking HUGE. You can throw a party at the lounge. They even have a juice bar. And the changing rooms have two entrances each. And get this, TV in the changing room!!! How cool is that. The cycling studio has like 4 rows and the Mind Body studio is like three times as big as the one in KL. And my favourite is they have TWO GX studios. TWO!! And both were the size of two studios here. When we first saw them we were totally in jakun mode it was not even funny. And the gym was the THIRD biggest in Thailand. It boggles the mind how big the BIGGEST would be.

Anyway, we spent a good three days in the gym and the people there definitely made us feel welcome and for the both of us it definitely will hold a special place in our hearts. Its where we had our first taste of what it feels like to be an instructor. Where we had our Masterclass with the coolest trainer, Arnold Warren from Phillipines. BTW, the Masterclass was mind-blowing. I had soo much fun. The FF there was also where we met a few incredible friends. Most of them don't speak in English but they were still awesome. And most importantly that was where we received the official recognition of being a BodyJam instructor trainee.

Fashion Island
Fashion Island is literally located in the middle of nowhere, yet the stores in there are largely recognized brands. I guess Thais don't really mind the travel because on weekends there seem to be much activities going on in the open areas, especially for children. Arnold even showed us a space used by kids to practice dancing.
-Starbucks
We spent some time in Starbucks, even sat for a good two hours there talking and finishing up our pizza. I tried the Peppermint Mocha (not available in Malaysia) but no drink can ever top Toffee Nut in my book and both of us got the Happy Birthday Starbucks card.

-Pizza
On our first and last day at the mall we ate at this Pizza Place. You wanna know why. They have Cheese Garlic Bread. We bought one each the second time. At first we ordered the Tom Yum Kung Pizza. It was OK. Our waitress was soo cute, she didn't understand English, so we ended up pointing our orders on the menu. And she would write down our orders giggling.

-Movie

We had some time to kill on the first day, so we thought why not catch a movie and it turned out Sherlock Holmes was on as we were buying the tickets. As we took our seats, we were surprised when suddenly everyone stood up. It was to sing their national anthem, which I thought was a good practice to instill a bit of patrioticism in their citizens. Anyway, the movie was nice. The Thai subtitle were a bit distracting but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
Thong Ta Resort and Spa
The hotel that we stayed in was near the airport but was bit far from Fashion Island. But our room was quite spacious (Queen beds for each) which made it easier for us to practice for our presentations. I would however like to apologize to the people below us (as we were jumping quite a lot) if somehow we annoyed you. Haha. We met a nice staff whose name is Earth. Very original. And I love how they folded our towels after we checked in.

So that's about it. Our very first step in our journey towards becoming an inspiring BodyJam instructor. We couldn't get over how lucky we were to be training in Bangkok with Arnold, doing BJ 59. It was like fated. Can't wait to see and face our challenges ahead. Dear God, please give us strength, courage and determination in our new endeavour.

HELLO HOLLAND..!!

According to the label, this post is about Jalan-Jalan.. It's not actually.. Unless you count the walk to and from the course venue back to the hotel as Jalan-Jalan.. But luckily the course organizers gave us one (and a half) day break to explore more of Holland.. And boy did we explore..

Oops, I forgot to give some intro.. Hee.. It was declared by the upper management of my company to attend a 2-week course in Delft, The Netherlands a mere 3 weeks before the said course. Alhamdulillah, me and my fellow colleague managed to make our preparations accordingly and were on the 12 hour flight to Schipol Airport on the 13th June..

The city we stayed in, Delft is in South Holland, an hour away from Amsterdam and is located between Rotterdam and The Hague. It's a quaint and quiet city and everybody mostly got by on foot or with bicycles. I read somewhere that it is one of the prettiest cities in Holland and I have to say the article did not exaggerate. With its winding canals and wonderfully preserved buildings it has a certain charm big cities are so lacking these days. It's nearing summer there so it's not really cold. We even had to take off our jackets in the last few days there. But the rain is not so predictable. Thankfully, I learnt my lesson from Kelana Convoy last year and brought an umbrella with me. And also, the days are quite long. Sunrise is at 3am and dusk were around 10pm. This may be why our course is from 9am to 7pm everyday. Long, huh.. And the shops here close at 6pm.. Great..

On days where we finished class early, or skipped class (just once!!) we would walk around the city and do this thing we call SHOPPING.. Heh.. We mostly went to souvenir shops (duh..!), supermarkets, clothing store and our favourite spot: a Turkish cafe which serves up heavenly kapsalon (french fries and shredded chicken with melted cheese).. Yum..

When we got the time, we took the tram to The Hague and the first place we went there is Madurodam. Madurodam is a miniature city where most of Holland's landmark buildings are scaled down to a 25th of its original size. It has castles, churches, and even the Schipol airport. Trains and trams all run their course and stopping at their stations. Being there literally makes you feel like a giant. And being our first time there we initially ooohed and aaahed at almost every structure, which stopped after a while. They even had these little human statues sort of froze in motion and when you take a picture, you wouldn't know that thay are miniatures.

We went to a friends' house not far from Madurodam. Mun lives with her two children, Amni and Amar. Both soo adorable I regret spending soo little time with them.

Mun brought us to Zaanse Schans where we could be a bit closer to the windmills, and even go inside one. The stairs were so steep that the safest way to go down is facing the ladder. We saw how they made cheese and clogs and even got to taste some of the cheese with yummy dips. On our way out I bought the collectible calendar with our faces on for a frikkin 10euros... Expensive much?

Then, we took off for Volendam. And as usual when in Volendam, it's Dutch costume time! Mun treated us to fried seafood for lunch, which is like super tasty. Especially after almost everyday of bread and butter. The shopping here was fantastic, almost everything is cheaper so in order not to fel too cheated, we bought a few souvenirs.

Mun dropped us at a bus station heading to Amsterdam and after a while spent wondering around finding the canal ride, we gave up and just took the tram to Museumplein for a picture with I amsterdam. When we were queueing up for tickets back to Delft, a kind lady gave us two daycards, which meant we got a ride home for free..!!

The last few days were spent looking for things to bring back home. We bought loads of stroopwafels and I got myself a few shirts (All of them black.. Blegh..) But I especially loved the "Good Girls Go To Heaven; Bad Girls Go To Amsterdam" one.. We went to the same souvenir shop five times (even went in twicw in ONE day!!) at went out with different things in hand.. LOL..

I truly thank Allah for giving me the opportunity (again) to be in this part of world.. It seems surreal now that I'm back in Malaysia.. Like it all happened in a dream.. With His permission a dream I will get to live again, Insya Allah..