Kota Kinabalu

A quaint little town by the sea - that's Kota Kinabalu.

Just came back from a short trip to KK with Zaharim. It was my first time in East Malaysia & how I wish we had stayed longer. 

KK town is quiet and unassuming. No one seems to be in a hurry. Very laid back, with drivers driving their cars well within the speed limit. No traffic jams. No blaring horns. No stress. What a perfect place to wind down!

Fortunately, from where we stayed, all the places we wanted to go to in town was within easy walking distance. Across the small road is the Waterfront with a boardwalk lined with restaurants. Next to it is the Fruit market which transforms into a night market in the evening, selling hundreds of local produce & seashells of every size. 

The Philippine Market adjacent to it is filled with little stalls offering every souvenir imaginable from pearl bracelets and crystal brooches to batik sarongs and beaded bags. Most things were unbelievably cheap bearing in mind the work that went into the crafts.

 Imperial Hotel is well placed. It is built within the Warisan Square Shopping Mall which means that we just needed to walk downstairs to Starbucks, Secret Recipe & Times Bookstore. We spent some time at the Big Apple for donut & peppermint tea too :-) Coffee Bean is just across the street. There is a pasar malam on the sidewalk in front of Times Bookstore in the evening selling all sorts of interesting things (including rabbits & hamsters!). 

On Friday, we took a boat from Jesselton Point to Manukan Island. This is a perfect one day excursion & a must-do when in KK. It's a short 20-minute boat ride. The island is so beautiful and very well maintained. Clean white beaches and crystal clear water. 

 Even at the small jetty we could see hundreds of colourful fish waiting for food to be thrown in! We then went snorkeling  for the very first time ever. What an amazing experience, swimming with schools of fish of every size & colour. We saw sea cucumbers & a fish camouflaging inside a coral. It was great!

We soon realize that there were many tourists from both East & West. Europeans, Australians, Japanese & Koreans mainly. Most of them carrying their own Lonely Planet guidebook or information printed from the internet. There were not enough tourist information brochures in the Hotel nor anywhere else which was unfortunate.

There are more than 60 different ethnic tribes or bumiputra in Sabah, each having their own language. I never knew this until we went to the Museum. The State of Sabah is just so vast! The people of Sabah that we met during our trip were kind. Even the cab drivers (who were driving cabs without any meters, all smartly wearing uniforms) charged reasonable fees. It's quite refreshing. Another feature of KK which must be mentioned is the kampung air: wooden stilt houses built on the water along the coast of both the mainland & Gaya island. Most of these villages are quite extensive, built by squatters illegally. We could even see a wooden surau with a small dome built within the village. It's quite amazing.

We couldn't make the trip to Mount Kinabalu as we needed a full day to do that. Must do that for our next trip to KK & must bring the kids along to experience nature at its best. 

(^_^) Kota Kinabalu, we'll be back!