[Planning to] Kota Kinabalu

[feiming]

If you notice my thread here,I'm flying to langkawi,penang and kk too...

I wish to take a trip on the North Borneo Railway and probably track it too.I not sure when it's operation day.

I'll also wish to know where should I stay (cheap and comfortable),rent a car (probably) and places I must not miss.

[sharkteef]

KK i can help you. just returned yesterday.

i still got tracklogs and poi's to submit which i'll do later tonite.
anyway here's my do's and donts during my 5 days in KK.


do :

Rent a car. taxi will kill you. GPS sufficient if in town. if go out of town use the other map.
Eat - halal or non halal ? quite a lot of pork free. but if u want pork, can ask me personally. if u like "yeh mei" aka exotic food, seek me ! i got 3 poi's for that.

dont :

get conned. everywhere also con job punya.


My not so summarised summary:

Car rental - KK leisure - Proton wira manual 1.5 - RM 120 per day. (24 hours is 1 day, so if u land 1pm at airport, take the car from airport till 1pm next day is considered 1 day = RM 120.) Must nego to get this price yah ! if u wan the number let me know. i stil have it.

GPS - bring 2 units. seriously no joke. i brought 4. but needed 2. freaking alot of trees and its cloudy and rainy when i went. no AGPs can suffer.

Hotels:

In town DONT stay in Kingpark hotel. i checked out within 20 minutes. Stay in imperial international. RM 200/night. good location, walking distance to my recommended seafood place (not in MfM or MsM). if u want budget hotels, got alot also.

if u want 1borneo, stay in tune hotel (but must book early). 1borneo is a shopping mall, like one utama that big. Inside got 4 hotels i think. Novotel, grand borneo, tunes and courtyard. Novotel and grand borneo very expensive. I stayed in courtyard which is RM 158/night. Tune is cheapest, next to my hotel, all within walking distance less than 1 minute from each other. No joke, really same row mah.

1 borneo to town less than 10 minutes drive so dont listen to anyone if they tell u its 30 minutes. i rented a car for 5 days from the time i landed till i left. Tons of roundabouts and got nice scenic roads. YOU DO NOT NEED A 4WD in town or even in kundasang/ranau. wira 1.5 cukup. myvi also cukup.

People of sabah drive damn slow. like sunday drive only. i dont drive slow and with GPs got more confidence. Dont worry too much bout parking, always got plenty.

DONT EAT ampang yong tau foo or seremban baked crab. Forget gayang and forget salut ! i will post my poi's later. got much nicer place and cheaper place. gayang and salut not cheap lemme tell you. ocean seafood and port village lagi cut throat.

Tuaran mee must try. some funky stuff. but like i say u have to tell me u wan halal or non halal. normally i eat non halal. i know where to get good place for fish noodles and pork noodles. (pork noodles can add alot of funky "chu yau char")

Despite all, their cili damn spicy. i take a lot of cili padi and theirs is like grade A punya. even their cili sos self made also spicy.
their famus steam butter bread must try. really soft.

Chinese tea is given everywhere. but if u like by the pots (like how they serve here in KL is quite difficult to find) cause i drink by pots of ti kuan yin or heong pin. theirs is free punya.

Mandarin is #1 language. Even alot of malays , kadazans and virtually everyone including filipinos here speak mandarin.

filipino market is like a conjob place. must go see but dont buy ! sell 10 diff types of pearls. got black la, sea water la, fresh water la this la that la, good to see but not to buy. in front of filipino market got wet market and makan market. makan market can go eat there as snack. they sell their seafood catch mostly barbequed. quite cheap quite ok la.

Avoid tg aru food court. nothign there taste good. again a reminder - AVOID GAYANG AVOID SALUT.

warisan, wawasan, all that place nothing special. like what we have here in KL. got G2000 la, coffee bean la, starbucks la, esprit la, giant la this la that la. all standard things. 1 night in town enough liao. and the seaside in town .....damn smelly.

If you have more than 4 people going, stay in marina court. nice place also. Around RM 250 per room. their 1 apartment room got 3 bedrooms. worth the price. clean and good location also.

From town to Kundasang not really far. But the windy roads and UNpowerful cars make the journey longer. GPS sez its about 80km from one borneo to kundasang. Journey with some speeding and mostly on 1st gear on my rented 1.5 wira manual took me ard an hour + abit. BRING JACKET ! bloody windy up there and cooling. colder than genting and cameron even in kundasang or ranau.

There are some things to do in kundasang. mostly it involves nature and sightseeing. nothing there is non-nature related. like vege market la, photo taking la, hiking la.

Ranau is a good town. i went poring hotsprings on a cold day. Place damn chapmak ! i rate this hotspring place 12/100 . go higher above the poring hotspring. got free fish spa.

Kinabalu park nice but i prefer mesilau. There are 2 entrance to mt kinabalu. one is from kinabalu park (before kundasang) the other is from mesilau in kundasang. the more challenging one is from mesilau. RM 1300 with guide to hike up mt kinabalu. i didnt go. mesilau is where i stayed at just for cold-ness. no joke, it really is cold here at the foothill. Saw some national geographic dudes here as well.

The only place for u to see rafflesia is at ranau poring area. Other than that u can forget it. Stupid flower takes 15 months to grow from bud and 7 days bloom. after that it dies. so i didnt get to see nothing. i enjoyed my fish spa and "yeh mei" instead. dont waste my time wait for one stupid flower to bloom. oh oh and the stench ........ its always there even after it dies.

Everywhere in kundasang and ranau is pay to enter. Your war memorial/english garden/australian garden is the same place. RM 2 to enter. MEsilau gate unless u stay, its RM 3 to enter. Kinabalu park is also RM 3 to enter i think. PER PERSON AH, not PER CAR.
Dairy farm also RM 3 to enter. Golfing fees here is like...... SUPER EXPENSIVE ! NOT JOKING. they make the fees at KLGCC look like peanuts.

UMS area got aquarium. nice to visit. also pay punya. perhaps if u want to go from one borneo then ok la. if u got nothing to do then ok la.
Lok kawi nature resort is nice. i saw a lot of orang utans. got alternative road instead which i tracked in.
RM 10 for m'sians.

All the pay places hve m'sian prices and tourist prices.

Pekan Nabalu is on the way from town to kundasang area. Do DROP by , there's a nice beautiful scenery there. will give tracks and poi of it when i compiled.

anything u need to know feel free to ask me. Plan your routes properly even with GPS. save alot of time cna see more.
i planned mine carefully with backups.

kudos ! enjoy your sabah trip.

[vash_h]

actually.. the more commonly used dialect is hakka in kk..

[sharkteef]

not many spoke hakka or teo chew to me oso. all pakai mandarin nia.
coz i was speaking to one friend in teo chew and another in hakka. i'm sure the shopowners can tell i super multi lingual but they chose mandarin and i was lost and relied on mah wife for that.

[caj_54]

Ranau is a good town. i went poring hotsprings on a cold day. Place damn chapmak ! i rate this hotspring place 12/100 . go higher above the poring hotspring. got free fish spa.

Is the 'fish spa' in the MFM map? (sorry haven't got my gps with me at the moment to check.) If it isn't can you post the coordinates for it? I'm bringing my kids to kundasang in Dec n they wanna go there. Is that advisable?

Thanks in advanced.

[sharkteef]

its inside poring hotsprings itself a small section. can bring your kids dun worry.

[caj_54]

Thanks, sharkteef. We were there at the hotsprings last year, but didn't know it was there . Is there a sign that points the direction to the 'fish spa'? This trip, we are going to climb up the mountain . So, we are planning to go to poring to rejuvenate those aching muscle .

[caj_54]

Did a google search and found this site for the 'fish therapy'. http://beautifulkk.com/2008/11/24/morol ... h-therapy/

Those are HUGE fishes

Thanks again sharkteef for pointing me in the right direction .

[musangking]

The fish spa is actually a bit further down the main road towards Sandakan from Poring. It is immediately after the Sabah Tea plantation. Look for the tea plantation signboard and it is just after that on the left. You will see a big fish signboard around N5 56.766 E116 46.155

It is quite a basic place and you are expected to pay an 'entrance fee' although the fish are plentiful and big. Quite geli according to the friends who went it. Best to go in the morning when it is still cool.

[caj_54]

The fish spa is actually a bit further down the main road towards Sandakan from Poring. It is immediately after the Sabah Tea plantation. Look for the tea plantation signboard and it is just after that on the left. You will see a big fish signboard around N5 56.766 E116 46.155

musangking. We went to the tea plantation last year before going back towards Poring. If only I had driven a bit further up the road . Will now definitely go there this time around.