Tag Archives: sabah

Malaysia, Travelinds

Kota Kinabalu Islands

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28 January 2014

Huddled together off the coast of Kota Kinabalu, the group of five islands, which makes up the Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park, serves as a popular tourist zone for those visiting Sabah’s capital city.  There are hundreds of boat operators to choose from that offer standard or special tours, as well as diving or snorkelling.  It is a wonderful place to go if you need a day at the beach where the only thing to do is enjoy the scenery and breathe in the fresh sea air (once you’ve dodged the busy tourist gatherings).

The five islands – Gaya Island (big), Sulug Island (Sulu people), Manukan Island (fish), Mamutik Island (shell collection) and Sapi Island (mowing buffalo), lie about three kilometers off shore.  The Park was founded in 1974 as a national reserve to protect the marine life in the area.

After reading reviews on TripAdvisor, we decided to visit Manukan and Mamutik on one day trip, with snorkelling.  The islands were pretty much the same in terms of natural scenery except that Mamutik had amazing shells (as it name suggests) and was a lot quieter without the groups of Chinese tourists that thronged the open spaces on Manukan’s beaches and park areas.

Manukan

Manukan Island was our afternoon destination and we spent a lot of time eating lunch in the shade of the trees, sun-tanning and resting.  We saw a lot of monitor lizards here but were feeling too lazy to do the jungle walks where you can explore the rest of the island. There are a few places to eat here but not enough to keep prices competitive. We also saw a couple of people camping here (tents) and barbecuing, which looked like it might be a fun thing to do; especially since most of the tourists go home after 4 pm.  This leaves you ample time to enjoy the sunset and then the sunrise too, without the hoards of foreigners blocking the view.

Mamutik

Mamutik

Mamutik Island was our first stop and we spent the morning here snorkelling, sun-tanning, reading and admiring the birdlife around the island. It was a lot of quieter than Manukan and had good snorkelling around the far end of the beach (furthest from where the pier is) which was less damaged and had a quiet part of the beach to enjoy.  There are also lockers available for a day at the Borneo Divers offices (on the far side of the beach) if you need to lock up your things, for a small fee.

Mamutik

Getting here:

We found a boatman somewhere along the way to the Jessleton Point (just after the market, but before the main piers) who hustled us into buying a trip from him for MYR 100 (for two people, snorkelling equipment, boat trip return).   We then also had to pay a further MYR 10 for a conservation fee when we arrived at the island.  Based on some of the other tour packages we’d looked at this didn’t seem like a bad deal.

A few days afterwards, we did see a flyer somewhere for a package deal, including the above, plus KFC lunch and INCLUDING conservation fee, for only MYR 50 per person.  So I guess we could have saved about MYR 20 plus lunch costs had we found a deal like this earlier.  But it was not too much difference considering our busy schedule.

*Some information was taken from Sabah Parks website.*

Malaysia, Travelinds

Likas Floating Mosque

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27 January 2014

An afternoon outing in Kota Kinabalu took us to the Likas Mosque (better known as the ‘Floating mosque’ in KK).  Being our first visit to a mosque, we read up a bit on dress code/etiquette required and figured long sleeves, long pants and a headscarf for H would suffice.

Upon arrival, we were directed to the small shop/reception office outside where a kind lady helped us to dress appropriately.  There were kaftans, scarfs and head gear available there (for free) so that non-Muslim visitors would be allowed in to the mosque.

Outside the mosque, you are required to remove shoes and a guide then takes you through the mosque giving information about its construction, use and history.  We were informed that the mosque was built over 11 years (1989 – 2000), construction cost MYR 40 million and the building can comfortably fit between 9,000 to 12,000 worshipers.

The fifteen-minute tour concludes and visitors can take a couple of pictures inside and outside the mosque, provided no worshipers are disturbed.

At the same reception office, you can pay MYR 5 each and go on the peddle-boats in the water around the mosque. This is great for some fun and for getting a different angle on photos of the mosque. There is no time limit on using the peddle boat as far as we could tell.

Read the reviews on TripAdvisor. Be aware that some travellers have confused the floating mosque (Likas) with the Kota Kinabalu State Mosque, which are two different locations.

Likas Floating Mosque

Getting here:

Take a (big) bus from in front of the Shangri-la Motel (NOT the same as the fancy hotel complex far out of town). Ask for the Likas bus (it has a purple stripe) and ask the driver to drop you at the Likas Mosque. MYR 1 each.

Favourite memory:

We finished a nice afternoon exploring the mosque and riding the peddle boat and decided to catch a bus to the next stop, the Kota Kinabalu Wetland Centre.  We were told that it was an hour’s walk from the mosque, so thought the bus would be best.  First, the bus drivers told us ‘no bus, no bus’ (of the three busses standing there), then after some deliberation they decided it would be best to do a bus trip after all.  The few tourists and locals were herded on to the one bus and, after a push start, the wonky old bus started going, in the wrong direction from where we needed to go… In fact, it did a full circle and came back past the mosque bus stop before finally continuing on to the route we needed to go. The delay was only about 40 minutes, no big deal.

 

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: