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Malaysia, Travelinds

Kota Kinabalu State Museum

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27 January 2014

The Kota Kinabalu State Museum complex is a most interesting place to visit if you want to learn more about the intriguing culture and history of Sabah. We spent an entire day here and still didn’t get to see all that the complex has on offer.

The first stop was the Main Museum building and this kept us busy for a very long time! Natural history, Sabah special ‘Then and Now’ display and the ‘Our culture’ sections were the most interesting and it took a lot of time to work through all that valuable information.  We also watched a video (about an hour) in the natural history section titled ‘Borneo’ (1937) – an old black and white movie travelogue shot by famous explorers Martin and Osa Johnson.

We found some local Malaysian lunch at the small cafe called Zureen’s cafe (located just outside the heritage village, in the parking lot). This included our favourite ‘Char Keow Teoy’(fried flat noodles with chicken or prawns), ‘Mee Goreng’ (fried yellow noodles) and Horlicks/Nestum (milky sweet drink, served hot or with ice cubes).  I think the total lunch came to only MYR 12 for both of us.

After lunch, we finished up at the main building and then headed to the Heritage Village.  Here you can see all the different kinds of houses/huts/structures/transport/machinery/equipment used by the different tribes that can be found in Sabah.  It was a very interesting experience to see the vast differences in lifestyles, building designs and practical day-to-day instruments employed in these different tribes.  There was everything from a Chinese farm house to a Rungus longhouse. The Murut longhouse was my favourite, with its huge porcelain jars, wooden rhinoceros hornbills hanging from the ceiling and a trampoline-like floor that is used for entertaining guests.

There were not enough hours in our day to see everything so unfortunately we had to leave before we had seen the science museum, islamic museum and the ethnobotanical garden.  Read more about the Sabah Museum here.

Malaysia, Travelinds

Marina Court Vacation Home – Kota Kinabalu

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26 January 2014

Wanting to spend a couple days in Kota Kinabalu, we found an amazing place to stay called Marina Courts.  It is a complex of high rise apartment buildings with a swimming pool, gym and a prime KK waterfront location.

The particular deal that we found was listed as the Marina Court Vacation Home (Kota Kinabalu).  It was a room for rent (not the whole apartment like some of the other options mentioned on TripAdvisor) and it was set up similar to a hostel where the guests shared the living area, kitchen, washing machine and dryer.  One of the rooms has an en-suite bathroom, the other three rooms share a common bathroom. You can book it on Agoda.com.

There are showers, air conditioners and basic kitchen facilities.There’s a big swimming pool downstairs for guests to use at their leisure and also a gym.

Marina Courts’ location is perfect for exploring Kota Kinabalu.  It is within walking distance of most major tourist points and has a local bus terminal right in front of the complex for catching buses to areas that are further away from the city center.

Walking distances from Marina Court:

  • 25 – 30 minutes: Jessleton point (the ferry and boat jetty), Museum, Signal Hill,
  • 15-20 minutes: Shangri-la Bus terminal, Express bus to Kudat,
  • 5-15 minutes: The Night market, Gaya street Sunday market
  • Right outside: Wawasan Bus Terminal (intracity busses), Centre Point shopping centre is across the road,
TIP: There is an Arabian restaurant across the road from Marina Courts (on Centre Point side) called ‘Al Andalus’ – visit it! It has delicious, well-priced food, excellent service and an authentic Arabian vibe to it.  The extra Arabic Set was enough for two of us and the Baba Ganoush was fantastic! We ate here for at least one meal every day, for eight days.
Malaysia, Travelinds

Kota Kinabalu

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Kota Kinabalu,

Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

This vibrant city is the largest city in the eastern Malaysian province of Sabah, on Borneo.  As in most other parts of Malaysia, Kota Kinabalu is home to a wide variety of cultural groups, including some special people groups specific to Borneo, like the Rungus. This province includes 33 indigenous groups speaking 50 different languages and up to 80 different ethnic dialects. Talk about an administrative nightmare for local government!

The province of Sabah has a wide range of attractions that make it a very alluring spot for tourists from all over the world. Beaches, islands, reefs, mountains, parks, nature reserves, museums, temples, mosques, markets, hot springs and rainforests – and Kota Kinabalu is the doorway to it all!

Named for its proximity to Mount Kinabalu, the city of Kota Kinabalu lies on the north-western coast of Sabah and boasts the largest port and population in Sabah. Kinabalu means ‘Chinese/China’ (kina), ‘Widow’ (balu), which perhaps explains why the mountain itself is held in such awe by the local inhabitants. It soars above the rest of the landscape, often swathed in a thick layer of white clouds and stands a lofty 4,101 metres above sea level.

With so much to see and not enough time to see it in, Sabah offers tourists a jam-packed holiday filled with endless activities and interesting places. You will need to take some time out to help it all sink in!

Read more about the following attractions in Kota Kinabalu (NOTE: these are just a few of them that we managed to see):

Travelinds also saw these interesting places in Sabah, Malaysia: