From Saga to Paradise


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Asia » Malaysia » Sabah » Kota Kinabalu
April 12th 2009
Published: April 13th 2009
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Day 1: The Breakfast Saga



Yesterday was a roller coastal ride at the hotel reception as we went back and forth in requesting for our missing breakfast vouchers. We booked 2 rooms over the internet and only to find one room was ready when we arrived at 12.30pm.

This was quite normal I supposed. Afterall, we arrived earlier than the standard check-in time. Though I was quite surprised that check-in for the other room took more than 20 minutes even though there was only one guest ahead of us.

The saga started at 2pm when the second set of room keys was issued. The reception had claimed that they had already issued those vouchers earlier but I had to repeat myself that they had not given them to us. I had to show them the set of breakfast coupons already issued. There was nothing for room 2. The gentleman who attended to us earlier was missing in action and there was no way they could verfiy our claims.

"We will get back to you sir."

I heard it countless of times over the past 2 days. Help was there but it was always late or never. When the toilet flush finally broke down on the last day, I had grown tired of asking for help. We decided to create a make shift flush out of our in-room dustbin.

When the reception finally sorted out the confusion at nightfall, the concierge came by and delivered two breakfast coupons to our rooms.

"But boy, we have 3 persons in the second room!"
Do they understood the meaning of a "triple room" aka a "twin room with extra bed"?

The poor concierge had to run back to the reception and 5 minutes later, he finally came back with the correct number of breakfast coupons.

I'm not hard up for the complimentary breakfast and certainly not creating a mountain out of the molehill. But it was unbecoming of them to take hours to resolve the confusion. The attitude of the service folks at the Imperial International Hotel leave much to be desired.

This aside, our holiday in Sabah was generally pleasant.


Day 2: From Saga to Paradise



The "hard-fought breakfast" that greeted us this morning was a mixed bag.

At its best, the roof top restaurant commanded an excellent view of the Sutera Harbour and the South China Sea. However, the selection was relatively miserable. This was not the worst breakfast I ever encountered but certainly, the hotel could fare better.

We decided way back in December 2008 that no trip to KK would be complete without snorkeling at one of the islands at the Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park. At RM185 (SGD77) per person, the price did not come cheap. But it took care of the details ~ transportation, admission, guides, snorkeling gears and meals. After some research in the internet, this was the market rate that most visitors paid.

The weather was fine when we set out this morning to the beautiful Sapi Island. Fine sands and loads of fishes, it made an ideal snorkeling day excursion. I never got accustomed to the use of the snorkeling gear. Every so often, I needed to get out of the water, remove my gear and breathe normally. Generally, the experience was good as our snorkeling expert, HQ tried to explain the breathing techniques to the group of us.

Our trip to Manukan Island was cancelled in the afternoon due to rainy weather. Instead, we headed back to the massage parlour at our hotel to idle our time away while praying for the heavy rain to stop.

If there's one gem we discovered in KK, it has to be the Ocean Seafood Village. This restaurant have yet to find its way to the Lonely Planet Malaysia listings but I believe it should pass the mark in the next edition. Basically, we selected the live seafood from the numerous tanks in the restaurant which they will clean and cook based on our preferences. 5 of us certainly enjoyed the curry crabs and the butter prawns.

With affordable prices and great service, this was certainly one of the highlights of our KK trip. Our final bill came close to SGD18 per person for 5 dishes, rice and noodles. We have to agree that this was a comfortable margin to part our ringgits.

As we bade goodbye to our long weekend in Kota Kinabalu, we certainly welcomed the new experience. It was partly attributed to the travel kakis which made things easier for everybody. Certainly, all of us are looking forward for another trip in the near future to relive the experience.

Time to flip through the likes of Jetstar and Tiger Airways for new destination wishlists, folks.



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