Kota Kinabalu welcomes you

---

Day One - Saturday 22nd August 2009

When does your trip begin for you? When you finish the last day at work? When you leave home for the bus / plane / train / boat? When the plane leaves the ground? When you arrive at wherever you are going?

For us, our trip begins when we leave home. The excitement begins when we leave work for the last time though! So technically, day one was yesterday, when we left home and drove down to Auckland. But as day one then would only include the drive through multiple sets of roadworks, dinner out with Judith and a few hours hanging around at the airport, we decided to start day two as day one as it is the first one that we did much. Not wanting to take anything away from driving SH1 and dinner with Judith, but what comes later is much me exciting! Mind you though, a flight is a flight when you are stuck in cattle class trying to sleep.

So I'll skip all that and move on to the wonder that is Singapore Changi airport. Its possibly the only airport we've been to where we ran out of time to do what we wanted to, and didnt spend any time impatiently checking watches waiting for the connecting flight! And apart from the coffee / hot chocolate we had, it was all free ;o) Free foot massage (assault?!) machines, free movies (not enough time), free big screen tv (watched the end of a game), free internet (hundreds of terminals, plus places to connect laptops and free wifi throughout the terminals), free activity areas for kids, small history / culture areas (very mini museums), koi ponds, a butterfly park plus other bits we never had time to discover. And more than the usual shops and cafes and bars. Oh yeah, and a pool. Left the togs in the packs though - bugger! 6am and it was already 25C.

Sabah was even hotter. 11am and 30-something C, real humid too. Going to take a bit of getting used to, especially when coming from winter. We had directions from our CS host, Kuni, for getting to his place from the airport. Take #17 bus towards the city and get out at the State Mosque, then ask for directions. Simple! And it was, apart from us having a couple of hours to kill before he got home from work. Things were on our side. We were in the very last row on the plane (great views of Borneo as we flew past) and it emptied from the front. The immigration procedure, while not the slowest we've been through, it wasnt the fastest either. We had health forms to complete as well as immigration forms, bigger worries about swine flu that at home. For those trying to avoid catching anything - its all very well wearing a mask, but they are not chin cups, they should cover not only your mouth but also your nose, else they are a little useless!

Finding Kuni's apartment was easy enough, only a short walk from the State Mosque (which sounds way fancier than it actually is). He seems a really nice guy, very quiet, well travelled, and knowledgeable about Sabah despite only being here a few years. He's moving on to Singapore in 4 weeks, another work move, arriving a week after we go back through.

There is only 4 hours difference between here and home, so jet lag isnt much of an issue really, but we got right into the local time zone to avoid it, so no nana nap for us, just a trek into the city for some early exploring.

KK isnt a very pretty city, its all new (post WWII) and functional. Its also not all that big; long, squeezed between some hills and the South China Sea, bustling and varied. There are a lot of cultures living here, and by all accounts, getting along really well. We more or less walked along the waterfront from the short-distance bus station almost to Jesselton docks. That's about all the city waterfront that is walkable. Great views out to the marine park, the islands of Mamukan, Mamutik and Gaya . We found (easily!) some markets and got some lunch and sat on the waterfront by a large marlin statue.

That night, Kuni had organised a small CS meeting at a food hall by his apartment complex. There is another couch surfer staying with Kuni, an Austrian called Michael, and we met three other local hosts, plus three other guests. Despite being really tired and leaving early for bed, it was a good night out.

Sunday 23rd August 2009

We must have walked miles today! We got a ride into KK centre from Kuni, then walked and walked and walked. Then caught a bus.

First up was the Sunday Market in China town. Busy, locals and tourists, stalls of everything - clothes, household goods, food, souvenirs, pirate cds's and football shirts, plants and pets. Cages full of hot and distressed looking rabbits, kittens, puppies,chicks, ducklings, hamsters... Few had any water, there were plenty of dead chicks and ducklings, the others had a bit more space. We met a very indignant american complaining loudly to their tour guide and taking photos.

We went to the Atkinson Clock tower then further up the Signal Hill to the observation platform. Its exactly as the LP describes - like some concrete UFOs! The view isnt too bad, sure there are a lot of buildings blocking the waterfront and the sea, but it is a decent view of the city. You can still see out to the marine park. Further along that road we got some good views the other direction towards Mt Kinabalu (pr. Kina-baloo). Well, the rocky top of the mountain above the tree clad hills with parts of the city in the foreground.

Still walking (hot and tired though!), we went further down the road looking for some bird park Kuni had talked about. What we found was the KK Wetland Centre (formally the bird park). There was a nice enough board walk round some of the wetlands, but little wildlife to be seen Bad timing?

KK Wetland Centre critter count: squirrel (type unknown), Little and Intermediate Egrets, kingfishers (type unk.), Swamp Skinks, Fiddler Crabs, some other crabs (red and blue ones!), none very close or for very long.

The bus ride back to KK took the long way, round a town called Likas several times. But at least we werent walking any more!!

Last up was the Sabah Museum, a brief intro to the history and various cultures here, from pre-historic to the union with Malaysia. The displays were all old, but most were in Malay and English, making it a bit easier! The entrance ticket also included the small Islamic Culture Museum and the Heritage Village. The Heritage Village was a bunch of very similar huts (long houses) from the different cultures in Sabah round a lily pond with a large fibreglass water buffalo.

Tomorrows trip to the Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park, with more swimming than walking, is sounding better and better ;o) Sore feet!

---

Photos

Foot massage machine
One of Singapore Airports wonderful freebies!

Comments

[Ferdi and Talita]

Back atcha!
Hey! First blog of your Sabah trip! See you're not wasting time getting your feet working. They better get use to it. We're sure there's plenty more walking in the coming weeks!

[Ginger nuts]

Very very jealous!
Sooo good to read about your visit to Borneo / Malaysia :) Please write more - it brightens my day in England where the weather can't decide if the summer has now passed or not. Hold on, did we actually have a summer? ;)

[Bert J A Geldenhuys]

KK
I am amazed, where do you find the time to do all this writing and how do you keep record whilst walking about. Very well written.