Kota Kinabalu, Sabah (Post 1)

I wanted to complete my Johor travel posts, but browsing through my pictures, I can't resist to share the beauty of Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.We spent 7 days 6 night in Sabah. A week of travelling in Sabah is worth and a week is enough to travel (unless you want to climb the Mount Kinabalu).

I will start off my post with my Day 1 & 2 in Sabah.

We took Airasia and flew from LCCT, Kuala Lumpur (KUL) directly to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah (BKI), with a cheap air ticket of RM 50 per trip.

We are more than excited, especially after my completion of my degree course.

We touch down at 10.30 am (Malaysia time), a 2 and half hours flight. Our friend came to pick us up from the airport. It is better to explore Kota kinabalu with a car. 

This is because it is quite a distance from one tourist attraction to another. Car rental booths are all well set up in the airport, just pick any booth and you may get to know more about Sabah. 

Don't forget to pick up a Kota Kinabalu map too once you've arrive.

The first thing we did was to take a short nap, headed to Pusat Kraftangan (handicraft market aka Filipino market), which is opposite the KK waterfront. I was quite impress with the market. They sell a variety of dried seafood and pearls with quite a low price. But frankly speaking, the sellers tend to quote higher prices for foreigners. They will know whether we are Malaysian with our ascent.

*Pasar Kraftangan,Jalan Tun Fuad Stephens,Kota Kinabalu*

Batik for the girls

Choosing pearls for our loved ones

After all the shopping, we headed to Tanjung Aru to watch sunset. There is a public beach along the way, but we went to Sun set bar to view sunset. (Google map the place you wont get wrong)

Free entrance because the bar is in a hotel (Shangri-La's Tanjung Aru Resort).

A man made beach as seen behind us, for tourist to enjoy the view.

There is a bar behind us, and they serve snacks and drinks, we are suppose to buy a drink for us to sit there to view the sunset.

But we did not, we went over to take pictures of the sunset and walkaway, we were quite full after tea break too. 

For dinner, we had it in our friend's house for local delicacies cooked by her mom.
Great food and great people to end our first day of the trip.

The 2nd day before we drove to Karabunai, We have breakfast in a nearby coffee shop for Kuching laksa, it is superb.
It have a different taste from our own peninsular Malaysia's laksa.

 map that shows the distance between KK and Karabunai.

Approximately half an hour to 45 mins drive from KK.

We headed to Nexus Resort & Spa Karambunai Tuaran Malaysia, my friend mention that there are water activities. Unfortunately it rain heavily, and we opt for batik painting instead. I can't remember how much it cost, but it's not free. 

It's was raining too heavily. But the sea was cleared and we could identify various of fishes from the sea.

Getting instructions from the trainer on how to paint the batik.

And, Tadaa! the artwork. I did not really get involved in this. (i'm not good in arts & craft)

Great teamwork.

After this, we headed the Crocodile farm, Tuaran The entrance fee is RM 10/person (Malaysian), RM 15/person (non-Malaysian).
There is also a crocodile show and feeding time, do check the time frame on their website.

There are also other animals in this farm, but I will rate this 3 over 5, as they have quite a number of crocodiles in this farm. But if there are more animals, it will be better.

The last stop of the day is the upside down house, everything in this area was terbalik.
"Rumah Terbalik" ,Locate rumah terbalik

at Miles 21, Kampung Telibong, Jalan Tamparuli-Ranau, Sabah, Malaysia

The entrance fee is RM 10/person (Malaysian), RM 15/person (non-Malaysian).

Add caption

I have no idea how I did this (*giggles*)

Before we headed back, we pick up some unique and good food near Tuaran. They are famous for their coconut pudding and prawn cracker. Thumbs up for this first try.

I will continue with my 2nd post soon ( 3rd & 4th day).

We went back to kota Kinabalu for dinner in a famous western restaurant recommended by the locals.

Upperstar lintas

I forgotten to capture food pictures, too tired I guess.

Continue to Post 2 of this trip here.