Biddy's Blog

Sunday 23^rd, we finished work and walked down to meet our taxi driver, Mr Chen, who was taking us to the airport to catch our flight to Kota Kinabalu.  

It was with excitement as this was a long weekend extended by and extra day as we had taken our long service leave.  Arriving at the airport we went through to domestic departures.  Kota Kinabalu is on Borneo but is part of Eastern Malaysia.  We arrived at our hotel around midnight and checked in.  Citidel Express is a new hotel.  The room was very small, only enough room to walk around the foot of the bed and sideways alongside the bed.  It was very clean and adequate as we were intending on being out all day and back only to sleep.

Monday and we were up early looking for breakfast and finding the Information Centre.  We found a great place to have a cold drink after walking along the waterfront.  The view out was of the islands.  From here we found Borneo Travel and booked a day island hopping for Tuesday.  The rest of Monday we wandered around and explored some of the city ending up at the Esplanade in an Irish Bar  overlooking the water and watching the sun go down.

As we were being picked up at 8.30 on Tuesday morning we decided to have breakfast at the hotel.  The taxi took us down to Jesselton Peir to catch a water taxi across to Mamutik Island.  

This is the third of three islands in the Tunku Abdul Rahman National Park.  This was said to be the least popular island as it was smaller than the others but still very good for snorkelling.  Wayne had hired a pair of flippers and a mask for this purpose.  I intended to paddle in the water and enjoy looking at the fish near the shore.  Some were swimming around but obviously Wayne was going to see more. 

We arranged with our hotel to hire a car for Wednesday and this turned out to be a great way to see another part of the area.  The car was a Proton Saga, brand new!  We left our hotel at around 8 am heading towards the Rafflesia Centre in the hope of being able to see a Rafflesia flower.  We used our GPS as we weren’t entirely sure of the way and only had a small map that was included in a Insight Pocket Guide of Sabah.  Luckily we did use the GPS as the signage in Malaysia leaves a lot to be desired.  Yes they do have signs but often they are on or past the intersections.  Even with the GPS we still managed to miss the turnoff and were often told “route recalculation”.  We drove through the Crocker Range which was very pretty.  Lots of greenery and flowers.  The Rafflesia Centre was open and when asked if there were any flowers blooming were told there was one 3 days old.  We paid for a guide to show us and followed him a short ride and then walked down a steep bank for around 10 minutes.

On the way he showed us the vine that the rafflesia takes over, buds that were growing and finally the flower.  I was not prepared for it to be so red.  For a parasite it was quite beautiful.

From here we drove onto Keningau thinking this would be a good place to stop for lunch.  Driving around we didn’t see anything that looked remotely apetising so decided to carryon to Tenom which proved to be a wise choice.  We had ginger beef and chicken cashew with rice for lunch at a kopitian.  We also bought some deep fried banana fritters were yummy.  We were hoping the Fat Choi Coffee Showroom would be open.  This was being optimistic as it was a public holiday.  We tried to take a different route back but couldn’t find the turn off so headed back to Keningau to take the coastal route back to Kota Kinabalu.  Dinner tonight was at a very local restoran – kwey teow and beef redang.  Having enjoyed the freedom of driving ourselves around we arranged to have the car an extra day.

Thursday we were up and ready to roll for a drive to Mt Kinabalu National Park where we could wander around and observe the flora and fauna. 

 We found many orchids; beautiful birds, amazing insects and butterflies while walking in cool temperatures.   The view of the mountain on the way was spectacular and we managed to get a photo of it without out its hat of clouds. 

We also decided to splurge and have lunch inside the park area.  Not cheap but very nice.  The drive back to Kota Kinabalu was again very pretty winding down the mountain through valleys and villages.  Not really sure of the way we followed a taxi that seemed to be going back but lost him as he buzzed off into the distance and had to rely on the signs.  We took a different route back into the city along the coast and past the floating mosque and pretty wetlands for fishing and bird watching.  Back to our room for a shower and freshen up before we went out looking for dinner.  One good thing about our small room was that we were not inclined to spend much time in there except for sleeping.  The Espanade has a number of choices for meals at varying prices and choices of restaurants offering a variety of foods.

Friday, we packed our bags and headed down to reception to check out.  We were flying back to Kuala Lumpur having had a refreshing and relaxing break but still managing to fit a lot into our time away. 

Back to work and looking forward to our next weekend away.