Walkabout

Wife said to wake up early today, so went to bed at 10 pm last night (that's quite early for me). This morning, we went to the weekly Gaya Street Sunday Market. Wife said she wanted to take Adelle to look at animals there. So, we all woke up at just before seven, starting with my wife, then me (woken up by my wife), and lastly, Adelle who woke up by herself. We all got cleaned up and dressed and had a leisurely drive to the Sunday fair.

Adelle has a thing about water, especially water falls and water fountains, so we spent a bit of time at the water fountain. Initially, my wife asked me to take a photo of her and Adelle with the water fountain in the background but Adelle refused. She was contented just standing there looking at the water spouting out from the fountain. After that, we went on our way round the fair.

For those who don't know, the Gaya Sunday Market (or Gaya Fair as the locals know it) is a weekly event, held only on Sundays. Stalls start setting up as early as 5 am and there are hundreds of them. The fair is held at the Kota Kinabalu's oldest, and also most important stretch of road. This is where all the main banks are situated. The two parallel roads leading up and down the stretch of the street are closed to traffic for the fair. So, you have two sides to the fair to explore. Walk down one way, and then turn back and head up the other side. There are lots of things to see, and eat, and buy, from antiques to foodstuff,to flowers, herbs, and yes, animals - all sorts of them. You can get chicken (and their chicks), rabbits, hamsters, white mice, fish, puppies, cats, tortoises, terapins - the lot. So, it's a great place to just bring the family and walk around even if you have no intention of buying anything.

So that's what we did this morning. We stopped at each stall that sold some kind of animal and mummy would point out the animal to Adelle, who'd show great interest in whatever animal was pointed out to her. We stopped by my grandma's and uncle's stall on the way just to say hi before heading back home. So, it was a pleasant morning. But surprising enough, there were not a lot of people at the fair. It's not like there was no one, just not the usual numbers that we see whenever we visit. By the time we got there, it would be considered peak (that's about 7.30am) and the place would usually be crawling with people. But, not today. Wonder why...

Adelle getting the best view of the water fountain.

Let's count how many tortoises there are...

Chicks galore!

See you again next time!

p.s. Oh, went to the PC Fair just now and my computer's performance just got boosted by another 2 gigs of RAM. That should help a bit in the photo-editing department. Yay!