Gong Xi Fa Chai Steemians,

Everyone loves it when it comes to Lunar New Year Celebration. Family members from near and far gather together to celebrate this auspicious day to welcome the "Ong" to the family. As we celebrate the Lunar New Year in 2018, most of us were busy preparing for the reunion dinner, family gatherings, busy giving “angpows” to the young kids and unmarried sons and daughters. Everyone will stay up to watch fireworks display and burning of firecrackers when the clock strikes 12 midnight on Lunar Day.

Reunion Dinner

Family Photo with the Lion Dance on 1st Day Lunar New Year

On the 1st day, I was busy preparing for our CNY Open House and invited some of our family and friends to the gathering. Thanks @dilresh, @connie1018, @veenang, @gelfire, @matthewdaoughty and @danieldoughty for coming. While and on the 2nd Day, I was down with fever, but still manage to visit @papanog open house. 😆. I didn’t have the time to post anything on steemit.

Photo courtesy of @connie1018

Photo courtesy of @papanog

This year Lunar New Year, our family organized a getaway holiday to Kota Belud Sabah @ Ambong Bay Resthouse. This happens on the 3rd day of CNY. Our trip started from Menggatal (Mom’s house) at about 930hrs. We proceed to go for our breakfast at Tamparuli town to eat the famous Tamparuli fried noodles. On our way to Tamparuli, my mom's car suddenly stops in the middle of the road while driving. Some of us have to push the car to kick start it. We managed to restart the car and continue moving towards Tamparuli.

My sis-in-law @jfloke became the mandur while the rest was pushing the car 😆

My brother @davidnigelkoh fixing in the new battery. Photo courtesy of @cathmot

After breakfast, we wanted to go to Borneo Ant House, since we were going to past through the same road to Ambong Bay Resthouse. However, my mom's car suddenly stop again!!. After checking what causes it, we found out it was due to the car battery was loose and weak. Luckily we were still in Tamparuli Town and bought a brand new battery to replace it. After wasting about 45 minutes trying to fix my mom's car, we decided to proceed straight to Ambong Bay without stopping at the Borneo Ant House. We reached Ambong Bay at about 1245hrs and begun unpacking our stuff to check in to the resthouse.

The plan was to do snorkeling in the afternoon. Old and young were excited to climb up the boat and go to the snorkeling spot which was about 15 mins ride to the snorkeling spots. We spend about 2.5 hours snorkeling around the area. After snorkeling, we went back to the resthouse to have our dinner.

Snorkeling time

After dinner, it was gambling time. We gambled until 12 midnight.

On the next day we were supposed to go Hiking up the hill, however, everyone was still fast asleep and got up at about 0900hrs only. We enjoyed breakfast and enjoyed our time lingering around the area to enjoy the seaside breeze. We finally check out of Ambong Bay Resthouse at about 1500hrs and proceed to go home.

What is there at Ambong Bay Resthouse?

You can actually go hiking up the hill, go snorkeling, camping, play volleyball by the beach, barbecue, cook, chill-out, relaxing, enjoy the sunset and spend time with your family. It is a nice place to relax and enjoy the sea breeze. All for only RM999 per night with 6 Bedrooms fully airconditioned, very spacious living and dining area. Probably next time if you want to go for a holiday, do consider Ambong Bay Resthouse as your go to holiday destination. This is my second time here, and for me, I enjoyed it. The setup is like AirBnB. You bring your own food and cook there.

Below are pics from my previous outting at Ambong Bay with my friends somewhere in 2017.

Getting ready for snorkeling