1st Stop

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Our first stop was in Kota Kinabalu, locally known as 'KK'. This is a popular city in the region, although it did not really have the feeling of a traditional city. We were docked in a nice marina at a big resort that was less than 10 mins from town by cab.

The local currency is the 'ringgit', and it has the feeling of Monopoly money. Many things were cheap in KK. A cab ride into town was $4. An hour massage was $15. You could get your hair cut by a trainee for $2.....I had an experienced one do it for $6.

We were in KK for couple of weeks, but did not have a lot of time off, except in the evenings. I made the most of it by check out the local shopping areas and markets. The mall was a crazy place--you could buy anything you wanted, and pretty much everything there was a knock-off. Fake everything.

Walking through the extremely busy mall was wild--in Malaysia, I'm a giant. In the mall, surrounded by hundreds of people, I was a head above everyone else, like someone who's over 6'6" in the states. You definitely stood out, being tall, and white.

The people in KK were very nice. Walking around as an outsider, you hear a lot of people say 'Hello my friend'. Street hawkers may try to sell you things, but they aren't rude or over the top. Everyone I met was very helpful and kind, and also intrigued at the fact that you were a Westerner. One night even a couple of us went to this club, that I realized once I walked in was kinda seedy, and the biggest gangster in the club befriended us and said to me 'nobody mess with you here, I thugs'd out'.

The weather was very hot and humid everyday. Walking the streets of KK was like something out of a travel documentary on Discovery, you know, the ones where the host is walking around, sweating his @#$!s off, trying to get a feel for the local culture. Well, that was me, without the camera crew.

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Photos

Market
Night Market

Market
Night Market

Ferry Terminal
Ferries the village across the channel

Mall
Center Point Mall

VIP
VIP

Fishing Boat
Fishing Boat anchored off of the market

Tower
Communications tower in KK

Club entrance
Most translations, even captions in movies, are in poor English, but usually it's kinda funny

Nikoah
Malaysian girls rep the Bean!