Kota Kinabalu Part 4

    Hopefully this would be the last part of Kinabalu as there are tons of others things I would love to blog but ended up forgetting what to blog about.. Hehe. But it's all good :) Due to multiply couldn't link our the pictures, you might want to go here and check them out. Seafood Pics.


    Anyway, the seafood cost a bomb considering that they are really near to the sea and all that. But anyway, we've tried the seafood so it's ok already. After that, that's when trouble appear, after dropping off both Deluxe, mom and Kien Tung. I head back to the place to pick up Kevin and Chung Ang. So as I was there, I turned one round hoping to find them. But apparently they weren't there where I saw them last. ok. From this point onwards, I will do it in a poem way as I just watched something and I can't seem to stop thinking this way.. Lol.. So here it goes...


As I tried to turn the very first round,
They were gone, not there, no where to be found,
So I tried another turn and to my dismay,
I never saw them so I went back on my way.


Back at the backpackers to get my phone,
I then start the car, it won't move or budge,
I tried the lights as well as the horn,
No sound, no lights, I think it is gone.


I call up Chung Ang and let him know,
The car is dead, there's no more hope,
Kien Tung came down to double check,
With 15 years experience, it's confirmed dead.


Once they came back and shared their story,
15 minutes of walking through the darkness in glory,
They sang carols and hymns along the lane,
People actually thought they were both insane.


The very next day, we tried again,
But alas the results was still the same,
We head out for breakfast at Kedai Kopi City,
But guess what, we were treated a dish for free.


After breakfast we went to the shopping malls,
To do last minute shopping as well before the rain falls,
Deluxe and I head back to the car,
While the other started to wander off far.


We took a break at the coffee shop nearby,
To wait for the mechanic to fix our ride,
It took a while before he came,
While waiting for him, we played a game.


Once he arrived, we went to the car,
He popped the hood open and look for a scar,
But what he did really amazed us both,
He knock on the connectors, and there it goes.


The car just sprang back into life,
With no second thought or even a strife,
We head up the hills to have a look,
The whole KK City like the one we saw from a book.


After we took pictures up there for a while,
It's time to head back and carried a smile,
To meet the others to have a quick snack,
Before we head to the airport to get back.


We had Roti kahwin and teh kahwin,
The bread was huge you will know what I mean,
After that we went to rest,
At Aunty's Stella house which is a really nice place.


From there, we rested a little bit while,
To have a look at her dogs gone wild,
We bid farewell to KK after that,
And off to the airport with all our bags.


Thus end our journey here in KK,
It was indeed a nice place to go and stay,
It wasn't too bad considering the fact,
That all of us spent RM600 max.


    Ok. That's pretty much about it on what we did the last day while we were in KK. And finally this post is long over due. But hey, at least I completed it.. Hehehe. Anyway, I've went and upgraded my flickr account, which considering the fact that now multiply very kiam siap don't allow linking back from their page. Oh well. You can't win them all. OK. Here are some links to the pictures which you might find interesting :) Have a nice week!


My Collection
Deluxe Collection - Mt.Kinabalu
Deluxe Collection - Poring Hot Spring
Deluxe Collection - Sunday Market @ Gaya Street
Deluxe Collection - Manukan Island
Deluxe Collection - Cats @ Manukan Island
Deluxe Collection - Sabah Sabah Seafood
Deluxe Collection - Sabah City Tour

Kota Kinabalu Part 3

Checkingout the pictures that I took @ Kedai Kopi City



    Mom wanted to find a place to drink so we ended up here, not too far from our place. So what happened was that, while waiting for the others to come back from their journey to the wet market. Mom went and asked to see if she can find EON Bank around. So she ended up asking the "Tau Keh Neo" of the shop, and apparently from there we started to chat. We found out that she was from Bau and got married to someone from Sandakan and started her business here. After having a nice pleasant chat with her, we were on out way. We went back to Borneo Backpackers and waited for Aunty Stella to come and pick up mom.


In front of the shop



    Kevin and Chung Ang went and collected the key from Deluxe earlier on, but apparently they some how lost it on their way back. Yup. Lesson number 1, don't bring the key out when you can drop it at the receptionist :P Anyway, while we were waiting back there they were still looking for it before they call it quits. So they ended up paying for the replacement key. After Aunty Stella came and picked up mom, we headed off to the Island but before that we had a pit stop back at Kedai Kopi City for our lunch. Anyway, we tried some of their food which is quite amazingly nice :)


RM7 Fish Head Bee Hoon


Kien Tung is loving it



    After lunch we head to Manukan. But before that, we had to go to Jesselton Point to reach boat that will carry us over to Manukan Island. We didn't plan to rent the snorkeling kit which cost RM15 at Jesselton, while RM25 at Manukan Island. Anyway, the boat ride there was about 15-20 mins from Jesselton to the island. We had a slight rough ride whereby the waves did managed to get in and got us wet. Upon arrival, we were greeted by a school of fish that were swimming around freely and so near to the beach. It was indeed a beautiful sight.






    Once here, everything seems to be so peaceful and calm. It was more less like a relaxation place. I guess, you can't really get this beach in Kuching because it's way too far from the town. Lol. Anyway, it is really well preserved here in Manukan and the beach here were very clean. Kien Tung said it was more beautiful compared to Phuket, which I think he might be over exaggerating again. But he still insist that it was better.. Anyway, we hang around the island moving around, while we saw a mermaid as well coming out from the sea and started walking around the beach.. Hehehe... Anyway, we took a few shots and also met a few cats where Deluxe started to snap away.


Deluxe having fun


    We ended up quite a while there, before we head back to Kota Kinabalu. And apparently on our way back, the sea wasn't being too friendly. So we sort of had a ride of our life. Apparently the driver went and speed like nothing, and boy was the boat flying. We had to detour to Sapi Island to pick up another 2 more passenger before heading back. By the time we reached back to Jesselton Point, Deluxe commented that the wind indeed made my hair looked nicer and said that it looks as if I just came out from the saloon to blow. But unfortunately for Kevin, well. He was soaked all over. Lol. Poor guy had a tough time sitting at the back. Hehehe. Anyway, after we headed back to get cleaned up. We went to have some seafood! Anyway, will finish up that part later... To be continue......

Budget Kota Kinabalu Trip

Paypal might be surprising Malaysia & a few more countries soon :D

    Ok. We're on a tight budget and tried to see how much we actually spent on our Kota Kinabalu Trip. Ok here's the breakdown price for each person.

Return Airplane Ticket	RM238.98
Accommodation for 4 nights	RM130
Misc ( Food, Taxi, Entrance fees, & boat ride )	RM150
Total Spent	518.98

    Not too bad considering that we've stayed there for 4 nights, and managed to almost covered most of the major spots like Kinabalu Park, Poring Hot Springs, Manukan Island & KK itself. We also ate some of their local food, as well as sea food which I think it's a bit pricey compared to Kuching. Anyway, it's all good. But we managed to borrowed a car from my cousin, so it's a more less give and take kinda thing :) Anyway, our accommodation was at Borneo BackPackers, which was comfortable and clean. At RM30 a night, with 5 ppl in it seems affordable :). So it's all good! Anyway for more details what we did, please head on over to my personal blog and check out the details there..

Budget Kota Kinabalu Trip

Paypal might be surprising Malaysia & a few more countries soon :D

    Ok. We're on a tight budget and tried to see how much we actually spent on our Kota Kinabalu Trip. Ok here's the breakdown price for each person.

Return Airplane Ticket	RM238.98
Accommodation for 4 nights	RM130
Misc ( Food, Taxi, Entrance fees, & boat ride )	RM150
Total Spent	518.98

    Not too bad considering that we've stayed there for 4 nights, and managed to almost covered most of the major spots like Kinabalu Park, Poring Hot Springs, Manukan Island & KK itself. We also ate some of their local food, as well as sea food which I think it's a bit pricey compared to Kuching. Anyway, it's all good. But we managed to borrowed a car from my cousin, so it's a more less give and take kinda thing :) Anyway, our accommodation was at Borneo BackPackers, which was comfortable and clean. At RM30 a night, with 5 ppl in it seems affordable :). So it's all good! Anyway for more details what we did, please head on over to my personal blog and check out the details there..

Kota Kinabalu Part 2

    It really has been a long week, been busy with tons of work. Will explain later.. Had problems with Multiply whereby it didn't allow me to link the pictures now.. So I had to turn to flickr as an alternative :) It's all good.. Ok.. Anyway, here's our epic adventure went..

Putting our feet in Hot Springs


    After we managed to meet up with the others, apparently they had their own epic adventure and so we packed up and headed into our kancil. So our next destination was Poring Hot Springs. It was about 30-45 mins drive from Kinabalu Park, and we managed to find our way there despite a few wrong turns. As we managed to see cows on the way, and also dogs every 5 meters. Lol. Then here we were, at the entrance of Poring Hot Spring. Yeap, we managed to soak our feet in there, but apparently it wasn't really like what we expected. Deluxe and I still suffered from the muscle pain due to the excessive if I may say work out from mountain climbing. But it was all good. After that, we had a small treat where we bought coconut to refreshen ourselves. And apparently Kien Tung seems to enjoyed it saying it was very sweet. I still think he was over exaggerating about the whole thing.


    So after all of us except for Kevin, drank finish our coconut. We headed back to Kota Kinabalu. As we headed back, there was a lot of big trucks heading back. So the time taken was quite a while, and this is when Kien Tung sort of "Lai Tien" asking Kevin to announce the speed and how long will it take to reach KK. So apparently he's still crazy over planes. Plus our "Ketua Pramugara Sebastian" had to do all the normal procedure which all of had a blast each time he uses his yeah so call "Sebastian" name.. By the way he's real name is Tay Chung Ang.


    As we were heading back, it got slightly difficult as it was getting dark and the mist began to evolve around us. So it was a little bit dangerous in a sense we can't really see much. Plus with so many heavy machinery in front of us, it was kinda of difficult to over take them. As we were driving half way, suddenly Deluxe heard a weird sound. It sounded as if the tires got busted and it was making that sort of sound. Then suddenly all of us got worried and tried to look for a place to pull over. Indeed the sound was getting louder and louder as we began to noticed it more, but Kevin said he doesn't feel a thing. We managed to pull over at one of the lane and checked out the tire, thank God nothing happened. So we inspect what in the world was that sound, so I asked Kevin to slowly drive forward and a piece of rubber came off from the tire. We wondered where it came from, but not long after that we quickly get into the car and started our way again as it was really starting to get dark.


Kevin & Kien Tung Looking @ The Menu


    But in the end we managed to find our way back to the Kota Kinabalu and apparently took slightly longer than expected due to the heavy vehicles moving around. But thank God that all of us arrived back at the backpackers safely. So after we showered and freshen up, we went and look for food. Apparently, there wasn't any much places to eat since it was about 9.30pm. So we parked at Center Point and started to look for food. Apparently the only place available was The Chicken Rice Shop. What to say about this place? No doubt the food was good, but the service was horrible. Yup you got it right. Apparently they either kept forgetting our order, or plate or something has to be missing. I guess it was late and they just want to go home.


Kien Tung trying to coax Chung Ang in getting the wallet


    Anyway, after dinner we headed to the Night Market. There wasn't really much left as most of them were closing. But apparently their items were identical and there weren't any much variety. Probably it was because most of the stores were closing. But like any other Night Market you get to see tons of imitation products, but not too sure how good is the quality though :P But the prices were ok, considering yeah they're imitation. After that, we all headed back and called it a night.


Rabbits Sold @ Sunday Market Gaya Street


    Mom called me up, about 8 in the morning. Said we'll meet up at Sunday market. But apparently most of us still tired from the trip. Especially both Deluxe and myself had a hard time moving. Anyway, while Kien Tung was the first to leave, followed by Kevin & Chung Ang. Deluxe and myself went and met up with mom, and followed her there since. So we did see quite a few interesting items that were sold there, and what surprised us even more was when we saw this.


Selling Turtles


    Mom had compassion over them so she went and clean house and bought all 5 of them. Said will get release them at Aunty's Stella place, so I had the privilege to carry all 5 of them around Sunday Market and take pictures at the same time. So you can imagine how much fun I was having. As I told her, just let it be there and we come and collect them later. But noooooo, she had to buy them now because she worried we can't find them anymore -_-" Anyway, after we made a huge turn in Sunday market we ended up resting at Kedai Kopi City. I'll stop here for now.. Will update more later tonight :)

Kota Kinabalu Part 1

    We left for KK on the 29th Nov, whereby Air Asia sms us telling us that our flight was rescheduled to 10.30PM. But few moments later, Air Asia resent an sms asking us to forget about the 1st SMS and depart as planned. We arrived KK about 10.30pm, and managed to get our luggage and we headed for the taxi counter to bring us to our first destination which is Borneo Backpackers where we we managed to check in and was greeted by the warm hospitality of the receptionist. After putting our bags, we head over to Burger King and get a late supper.



    After supper, Ketam went back to the backpackers while Deluxe, Kevin, Kien Tung & myself took a cab and head over to Dogongon to get our transport for the next day. We had a great time talking nonsense with our cab driver, and basically he brought us to Holan, as he himself didn't know where the area was. So we arrived Dogongon about close to 12 am, and met up with my cousin to borrow his car. Oh by the way, we got a Kancil instead :P Anyway, as we were heading back, we sort of got a little bit side track and ended up rounding around KK. But fortunately we had a map with us, and we were able to get back to the backpackers safe and sound. Thus ended day 1.



    We woke up pretty early the next day, got ready and head to Kinabalu Park. As Kevin was driving, while I read the map, apparently our passengers entertained themselves by simulating as if they were in an airplane trying to kill time :P Anyway, our journey took about close to 2 hours from where we were to Kinabalu Park. And as we started to ascended into the heavens, we wind down our windows to enjoy the cool fresh air. That was when we started to feel cold and began to really enjoy the weather. The view there was spectacular, and we thank God for giving us good weather to drive up to Kinabalu Park and enjoyed His beautiful creation.


    Upon arrival at Kinabalu Park, Deluxe and I went and register ourselves for the climb while the others went to the cafe and tried to look for something to eat. Once we've already paid for the park fees as well as the climbing permit, we headed to the cafe and met up with the others. Unfortunately for us, they were not able to cook breakfast for us because they are still having buffet which cost about RM25/person. So we bought some biscuits and took it as our breakfast. After we had finished the biscuits, we left Kinabalu Park and began our journey to Timpohan Gate where we know there will be no turning back for the both of us.


    We started out the journey not too bad. With both spirits were high we pressed on going for our journey. As most of it were steps, which was pretty easy for the 1st 3 KM. We noticed how the vegetation did changed as we climbed higher, as well as it was starting to get difficult to breathe. But never the less we pressed on and hope to reach Laban Rata before the sun set. As we were ascending the mountain we met up with lots of nice people who we had short talks with to help us forget that we were climbing the mountain. Things got worst after we passed the 3.5KM mark. That's when the steps became higher and harder to climb, and we weren't used to the high altitude which got us breathing even harder.


Our Guide - Lanting : For him it was a piece of cake to catch up with us


    Feeling very weak, tired and hungry. We both started to regret on this journey to climb Kinabalu. But we knew it was too late for us to turn back. So we pressed on. And as we started to get even higher, it took like ages for us to pass 500 meters, and after every 5-10 mins I had to stop and catch my breathe. Fortunately for us, we bought walking sticks from the driver who drove us to the Timpohan Gate as suggested by our guide. He was really helpful and good to us. He even offered to carry our bags to ease the journey up to Laban Rata. By that time I was pretty much struggling very hard to keep up and pushing myself to the limits, whereby Deluxe was still in good shape walking up the mountain slow and steady.



    We arrived Laban Rata about close to 6.30pm, where we were just in time for the sunset. Being able to reached there was a relief, while we took a few more pictures before we headed inside Laban Rata for our dinner. We were tired, hungry and couldn't think of what to eat. As we ate there, we seem to lost our appetite but rather loved to drink something warm while we were up there. By the time we finished our dinner, as we went out it was about 6-7 degrees celcius, and it was completely pitch black. We still need to travel again to our hut probably around 10-15 mins, and Deluxe quickly tried to reach the place hoping that we'll find the resting house. As it was total darkness, time passed as if it was very slow and we couldn't see any lights from the Gunting Lagadan. We were worried that we might have taken a wrong turn or something, even with our head lights we knew we were walking in a trail, but not sure if we will reach that place or not. Plus it was getting extremely cold, and after climbing a few more steps Deluxe finally saw the hut. As we quickly rushed to the house, one of the climbers opened the door and welcomed us in. We head straight into our rooms and tried to settle down. It was about 8pm then, and we tried our very best to sleep.
Inside Laban Rata

    We couldn't sleep at all that night, as we both tossed and turned while the cold air was like driving a sharp knife through our head not to mention that it was really freezing in there. Then we got up about 1 something in the morning, and start to have our breakfast. We brought Maggie hot cup along, and while Deluxe was still resting in the room I went and try to boil some water for our breakfast. As I reached the kitchen, there were already a few people who were boiling water and all of the stove was occupied. One of them, who was kind enough asked me to use his water first because his friends were still sleeping. I thanked him, and he was even kind enough to help me pour the hot water into the cup.


    After breakfast, we rested for a while before Lanting dropped by our room and asked us if we were ready to climb. It was about 2.30 already in the morning so here we go. Climbing up Kinabalu the second time, and this time is even more challenging because it was freezing, and we can hardly breathe due to the fact that the oxygen level is getting thinner. By taking longer deep breath, it easily made us very tired as I basically had to crawl a few places. So much for people who said it was easy :P Anyway, as we continued our journey we reached to a point where we had to climb up the mountain using ropes. From this point onwards, there will be no more trees nor vegetation. It was dark, we were tired and we moved on to climb Kinabalu. I believe this would be the hardest part in climbing Kinabalu as we were like scaling the face of the mountain, and we took quite a lot of stops here because it was indeed tiring, and difficult to breathe. Even with our thief mask on, it was still freezing and breathing through it was very difficult.


    Deluxe and myself ran out of water already at this point, and it was about another 1 KM before we reached Sayat-Sayat hut. It was already difficult for us to move on, especially someone like me who is a size of a cow get fatigue very easily. And to think that people really need to be physically fit as well to climb this mountain, where as I took the easy way out by not even training :P Anyway, we managed to reached Sayat-Sayat check point and replenish our drinking water. The sweet cool taste of mountain water, quenched our thirst immediately and we continue to climb Kinabalu. From that point onwards, it was starting to be very tough for me as I was getting extremely tired and sleepy. After walking for a few steps, we had to stop. The most 3-4 steps I had to stop already. With only 1.7KM to go, Deluxe and I throw in the towel. The guide suggested that we shouldn't go on because of my condition -_-" Yeah, basically I collapsed on the mountain and couldn't even move up anymore. Even though I asked Deluxe to go on without me, she said she wouldn't want to and also feel very sleepy already. At that point I felt very bad, so the guide suggested that we head back down to the Sayat-Sayat hut and rested there.


    As we descend down the mountain, I kept on apologizing to Deluxe for not being able to carry on the journey and she said it's ok. As she couldn't carry on either, and it would be meaningless to carry on without me to the top. One Lanting opened up the hut for us, we straight away fell onto the bed and slept there for a good 1 hour plus. As the sun was about to rise, we were awaken by Lanting to catch a good view of the rising sun.


    It was indeed a spectacular sight, and even though we never really made it to the top. It was pretty much good enough for us, as it wasn't too bad whereby with no training at all we can even reach to this high. As we stood there, greeted by the warm sun we felt contented and considering the fact there were few people who turned back at the early stage. It was good enough for us. We took a few more pictures there, and we began our descend to Laban Rata once again. After having a good rest, we felt more energized and was zooming our way down. Once we've reached Laban Rata, we had a good and heavy breakfast before we start our journey down to Kinabalu Park.


    Unlike this time, it didn't took us long to reach Kinabalu park. We went downhill, and quickly passing each stops by resting for like 5-10 mins. After going down for like 2-3 KM, my toes started to gave away.. What happened was that, I forgotten to cut my toe nails, and it was pressing against the shoe which made it very difficult to move from there. We basically slowed down a bit, but we still moved on. When we were at the last 1 KM from the Timpohan Gate, I asked Deluxe what will be the first thing I would buy once I reached there. She answered "100 Plus". She knows me well, so as we pushed ourselves faster to carry on trying not to rest too long at the last stop. I felt contented that, after going through 28 hours of putting our bodies to the limit is about to end. Once we saw the gate, we were like so happy that our Kinabalu journey has ended.


    Anyway, I guess the mistake that we made was that probably we didn't had breakfast or lunch before the beginning of the journey. Plus we started out very late, so it wasn't recommended. And also, we didn't get enough sleep whereby we slept about close to 2pm and woke up about 6am, and then on the 2nd nite we didn't get to sleep at all. But I believed that if we slept enough and ate enough. I could be certain that we'll both reach the peak.. But I guess, that didn't happened :P Anyway, will sum up on the next post.. As for now.. Stay tuned for Part 2