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.
The lodge we booked was called Nova Beach Resort (Nova Beach Club) and it is situated on Tawala beach. As H was sick with flu for a few days, it was the perfect place to relax, swim, read and sleep. There are hammocks overlooking the ocean, a deserted sandy beach, plenty of comfortable couch space with a view and air-conditioned rooms for muggy nights. We slept, ate and relaxed here (and recovered from flu) and by the end of the week were feeling more than ready to take on our forthcoming five week travelling vacation.
If you want a night out or a change of scenery, you can get to Alona beach by tuk-tuk, motorbike, the shuttle van or even walking (if you’re fit and don’t mind sweating A LOT). These charged anywhere between 40 pesos and 300 pesos depending on your bargaining skills. When we changed hotels at the end of the week, we took our bags (we usually only travel with hand luggage) and each hopped on to the back of a motorbike – it was cheaper, and faster than taking the trike.
