My ASEAN Free GPS Map Project

Hello eberyone … good morning….. I have not written for a long time… .. I’ll see if I still remember how to write a travel story….jaguar style..

Here is me and my neighbors’ short 3 day trip (first for all of us) to Kota Kinabalu….. none of the pictures are as good as brother Naim’s as I use only a simple point and shoot…. But who cares…

I know you will swallow whatever I tell you (base on hear say) lock stock and barrel….

13th Nov 2008 (Thursday)
7:30pm. We were at Changi Terminal Airport Terminal 1 queuing at the Air Asia counter. There were 2 queues, but when we reached the counter, a ‘Counter Closed’ sign was suddenly placed for our queue. The pretty wawa just walked away. Whoa ! We kept our cool but everyone at the back was getting ‘heated’ as we have queued for more than 1 hour. Anyway, we got through. Rushed to the gate and boarded. Now, the fun part. I was sheepish when the AirAsia wawa shook her head upon my request for a beer. They no sell beer on this airline !!! Huh !!! how to survive the next 2 hours !!!

14th Nov 2008 (Friday) : Day 1 in Kota Kinabalu
12:30am. We arrived at Kota Kinabalu airport, collected our bags and were ferried to Hotel Le Meridien. We called a number (given by Bro Berngps) and there was a van and a mpv waiting to pick up 15 adults and 2 kids. RM80 cash…



After checking in, some of us went downstairs to a kopi shop for roti prata. Taste damm good… something in the flour or their sweat .. they slapped the prata with both hands piping hot. Slept around 2:30am. :rock:


9:00am. I was sleeping soundly, but my neighbor came into my room and placed 12 cans of bery cold tiger beer (which he just bought from Chinese kopi shop for RM4 per can) on my tummy !!! Bloody murder !! Grrr……. He said “WAKE UP ! unless you don’t wanna go island hopping”

I looked out my window and snapped this scene from my 9th floor. Ooooo… so inviting…


10:00am. Left hotel in 4 taxis for Jesselton Point.
Look at the beautiful gate….. and who is peeing besides it…


I didn’t ask, but I am sure he stayed focus

Ee booked a boat to ferry us to 2 islands from this counter. Sapi and Manukan.


The rest of us browsed and played outside the few shops


Each of us (including the baby) donned a life jacket. They said we have to pay additional RM5 each if we intend to take the jacket into the water….. I couldn’t understand what that meant at this point…. I thought a life jacket is meant for the water….


This is the single engine boat we were assigned…. I didn’t ask if it has a capacity limit… act blur… but took a risk….


Nearing Sapi island… so beckoning.. so blue… The sea was calm and sky was bright... my skin burnt a little bit…


Oh cheese... the first thing I felt is : this place is also PAP. pay to enter, pay to bring life jacket to shore (which they say is recommended for snorkeling), pay for this, pay for that… lucky no need to pay for public toilet



Beautiful setting ya ?


Detail Map of Sapi island


Oh… they so smart… Looks like they glued 3 banana boats side-by-side and called it ‘flyfisher’ or something like that… basically, they drive fast until your boat’s fore angle up at about 30 to 40 deg C.. then they make a sharp turn… and you cling on for dear life while your float slaps on the sea….. boatman comes around to check that you are ok… then he say “now level 2” “now level 3”

Some of us did not go for ‘flyfisher’ rides. We changed quickly and joined fun on the beach and snorkeled near the shore……


You can feel the fine sand and great smell of the breeze… superb !


Hey wawa… please dont block me la… I want to capture a nice pic of the jetty…


That’s better… yes… move more to the left… thank you…


Who is he ? No.. he not a lifeguard.. Just a normal hunk waiting for bait…


I have no time for you la… me and my baby go dipping….


By the way, you can actually see (even without snorkels) yellow tail fishes swimming around your body. About 25cm long. Am told they are called ‘lai man you’ in Cantonese.. a rabbit fish series… Am also told these fishes are smart enough not to bite the wee wee You can buy a bottle of stuffed bread at RM3 at the jetty to feed the fishes.


About 100 metres behind our bench, there is a cage and 2 baby komodo dragons (about 1 metre long) wandered about slowly. I carried my little boy quickly…. And walked slowly away… don’t excite them…


1:00pm. Around this time, we left for Manukan. Sky was getting cloudy.


We walked past the entrance and saw these beautiful chalets.


Beautifully landscaped gardens…

Beatiful walkway….


Shady area… wow… you will love to sleep and laze here…. Feel it yet ?


Hmm.. saw a few of these battered trunks… don’t’ know if it were due to the years of pounding by the waves or just ‘burnt’….


At this point, we were looking for a place to lunch. We came to these yummy looking pots and chose a table to get seated….




But, when found out the boufet costs RM90.00 a person. We settled for a la carte next door. It was an easy decision.


We asked him to hurry, but he took his time asking her to describe each dish….


She single handed arranged the tables , but since it was beginning to rain, we moved inside….


Simple Manukan Cha Kuay Teow..


These chicky wings … shiok ah !!! doesn’t look like kampong chickens


Chicken rice … local style…

Giant chicken burger


After lunch, we snorkelled a bit. Who poured sea water into my breathing apparatus ? Grrr…. Visibility under water was no good as the sky was very cloudy with the rain.. We left the island around 4pm.

Arriving at Jesselton Point again, you can see how tired this bugger is…..


Took 4 taxis (RM10 per taxi) back to our hotel. Mind you… no meters in the taxis….

7:30pm. We walked about 600 metres to Ocean Seafood Restaurant. Brother Berngps , my buddy, had reserved 2 tables for us. Food was great, but a bit pricey… about RM750 in all…




Memorable dish was the large size 'lai liew har' and clams.



They kept all the live seafood here..



That is the end of Day 1….. very satisfying…. Enjoying… and shiok… eat full full…. See you tomolo !!

Wao, RM750 for 2 table sea foods, Dem expensive man.

Berngps and Tecrc then tells me KK is most expensive town in all of Malaysia....

15th Nov 2008 (Saturday) : Day 2 in Kota Kinabalu
8:00am. Ee managed to book a 25 seater van for the day (RM750) through the concierge. Beautiful van from OIB ( http://www.onlyinborneo.com.my ).We left for Kinabalu park and Poring Hot Spring. First stop at Pekan Nabalu.


Many small stalls selling local instruments, fruits, dried stuff and souvenir t-shirts….


Naturally captured honey…


Being tru blu Singapoeans, we could not resist a durian..



And of course the trusted banana….. to help clear our heavy bowels (some of us has yet to putt putt after the heavy of last nite)


The friendly mountain dog….


Weather is very good today…. Can see the top of Mt Kinabalu … got no spirit to climb it today…


Ee and our OIB guide, Jackson yakking by the road..


The road less travelled…

Oh my baby… we share a cracker all the time…


On the way, our guide explained it will take 2 days and 1 night to climb to the top of Mount Kinabalu. Kina stands for grandfather. Nabalu is something like 'people believe that their spirits will go to the mountain after death'. The first part of the climb is about 6 hours. Then a rest for the night. Start climbing again at 3am to reach peak at 6am and watch sunrise. After a rest of another 2 hours, you will descend. Each year, there is a competition. The record is held by a local boy. He climbed up and down in 2 hours 38 minutes, so claimed our guide. He advised us to start out training now to participate in the ‘climb challenge’ next year….. I say ‘my foot’…

We soon arrived at Kinabalu Park.


The Guide took us on a guided tour at the Botanical Garden @ Kinabalu Park.


I checked this out. They do have a very clean toilet.


Here is a pic of a tiny pitcher flower plant. Am told it can grow very large and it ‘eats live insects’


Now, this story is interesting. Jackson showed us the female umbrella tree. Said, if the women drink juice made from this root everyday, she can avoid pregnancy…..


Another 50 metres away, he pointed out a male umbrella tree. For the men, they will take the juice from the male root for a year.. and if he has luck, he will be able to produce an offspring. I asked if we can drink in higher concoctions to produce a male… ka boom !!!…


Soon, he pointed out a larger pitcher plant…

Ah, here are some green young bananas…. He said not to eat too much, or else you will really have tummy upset and cannot putt putt…


Here are some ferns that the orang utangs love to eat… why ? I don’t know…


I then pointed out that this must be a male banana tree… hee hee … look closer….


After a short tour of the Botanical Garden, our bus took us to the next destination, Poring Hot Spring. Along the way, I captured these shots of the country side…

A crowded small town…



Traditional hawker….


Somebody’s ole house… don’t look so old to me…


Small padi field…


A large pond beside the padi field.. probably used for irrigation… or to feed water to the field…


Soon, we reached a junction. Right is a long way to Sandakan… Left is to Poring Hot Spring.

1:00pm. Arrived at Poring Hot spring. There is this hut at the end of the road where you can pay to go see the blooming rafflesia …


We had lunch at this place…


This waiter… he is wearing a very seductive t-shirt…