Sunday, August 17, 2008

Sabah : Here I Come

I've bought the ticket to Kota Kinabalu since last May during Air Asia vs. MAS air fare war. With RM0 fare for MAS, the deal was too good to be true, so i bought. We were separated into a few flights whereby mine was the earliest at 4.00 am, Saturday. Others with Air Asia at 6.00 am, 12.30 pm and the last was at 9.00 pm with MAS. The flight went smoothly with MAS with a lot of empty seats.. which my Sabahan friends called it the 'mercy' flight :) But i had a different mission which was to conquer the Mount Kinabalu.. with my brother only.

This is the newly launch pre-pack hot food from MAS. I chose this mee siam with chicken which was marvelous. The flight was very smooth and for your information, one of my favourite if i fly is taking the sky & clouds photos which i find very unique. As we flew towards the sunrise, the scene from the above was so magical.


Kota Kinabalu beach lines started to visible from the darkness.




And finally the best sunrise of Sabah with the Mount Kinabalu background. . marvelous.



We touched down around 6.30 am with the beautiful sunrise.




This is the still under construction Kota Kinabalu Airport which MAS uses. Air Asia has other terminal at the other end of the airport.




As this is a backpacking trip, i stayed at this Akinabalu Youth Hostel which is situated at Jalan Gaya, in the middle of KK town. The location is perfect for budget travellers like me who treasure the authenticity of a place. Everything is in the walking distance which also allows us to explore the town intimately through people daily activities.

A glimpse of KK town from a stranger :)


The backpackers' area around Jalan Gaya, KK.


KK has an interesting pedestrian bridge networking which inter-connecting buildings while also shades people from shine or rain.


The place that we stay is only 5-10 minutes walking distance to the main market which is by the sea. My brother and i went around the town looking for extra climbing gears and also had our lunch. What i cannot stand with KK was the heat. It was so hot that Saturday without cloud and it was very hard for us to jalan-jalan. The only choice was keep ourselves shaded and air-conditioned inside the shopping malls.


At 3.00 pm, we managed to get a boat to the nearby Island of Mamutik for RM17.00 per person for a snorkeling escapade. Sadly, the corals are dying.. nothing much left.


After Mamutik & a short rest at the hostel, i joined Shah, Yazeed and their KK friend for a dinner at the back of the handicraft market which also known as 'Pasar Filipino'.

The bigger than palm size prawns ready to be purchased and grilled.

The all-time favourite of chicken wings.

Our dinner, 2 nos. of grill fishes plus other 2 nos. of big squids for RM100 with rice, that seaweed and some sort of pickled non-dried anchovies.

Unfortunately, i turned down our next activity with Shah, Yazeed, Ham & Hairi later for a late nite outing as i need to sleep early for my early checked out for the Mount Kinabalu climb. An uneasy feeling settled in me thinking about the climb.. emm..

14 comments:

Shah said...

Finally... ternanti2 aku nak tengok gambar2 trip Sabah version kau. That sunrise over Kinabalu is great. Lain kali nak booking flight awal2 pagi juga lah. It'll be worth it just for the sunrise. Tak sabar nak tunggu gambar2 memanjat kau.

Josh said...

Waaaaa Sayap ayam tu my favourite!!! memang sedap cara dia orang buat!

Tahniah berjaya mengupdatekan blog setelah sekian lama. hehehe

Keep it up bro.

SYUKS said...

I am actually love the outdoor and adventurous activities like the one you did in Sabah recently. Nice place to be and enjoy the beautiful serene surrounding.
But again i banned Sabah for 2 years since i could not get sponsorship for MEMS meeting ..he he
nanti tempoh ban habis..bolehlah tempat tiket ke Sabah..he he

Arel said...

Shah - 2nd chapter.. hopefully x busy sgt nak update lg he he

seriously mmg worth it fly kol 4 tuh.. very nice scenes

Josh - Suka sayap ayam rupanyer. Murah pulak tuh kat kk..

sorry josh take time sikit nak update. Hopefully boleh seminggu sekali lepas nih

Arel said...

Syukur - Tak tahu pulak minat adventure outdoor. lain kali ikut aku ler merayap... next plan bulan 3 tahun depan. Thinking of Bangkok & then Hanoi ikut train. Saper2 nak ikut jom ler

Gidong said...

Gambar d puncak kinabalu mana ? ke tak sampai ? mesti tak dapat sijil kan hahaha

Shah said...

Gambar gunung di mana bah? Hari2 ku buka blog nih tau. Hehe

Anonymous said...

Hi Arel, wahh... banyak gak photos ko amik ek.... Okey..bile next update? Aku dah tak sabar nk tgk photo2 gunung kinabalu... harap jgn sampai lepas raya udah le yer... salam dr Norway.

Arel said...

Gidong - Gambor puncak kinabalu ada, siap sijil sekali taruk :)

Dah sampai ke puncak berapa kali? Trail apa?

Hairi - Wah.. comment dr Norway. Jangan lupa beli sourvenir utk kawan2. I will update soon.. dont worry!

@xiM said...

very nice sunset pictures though!!!

SYUKS said...

memang suka outdoor yang penuh adventure... menyihatkan minda dan fizikal.. lagi baik dari memikirkan perkara yang membengangkan otak ... bulan 3 waktu tgh busy gila dengan write up thesis...aaa tak dapat join larrr

ArnabGumuk said...

AREL!!!update la blog ko cepatttttt..grrrrrr geram nih!!!hari2 bukak dok cam tu jugak!!

@xiM said...

arel

bila mau update??

:)

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