Highlands and Deep Sea Holiday at Kota Kinabalu

Kota Kinabalu is the perfect holiday destination if you are looking for water sport e.g. snorkelling, scuba diving or just swimming in crystal clear waters and playing with the fishes.

There are plenty of beautiful islands off the shores of Kota Kinabalu, one just needs to enquire at any tourist information center and they will be more than happy to help out.

If water based activities are not your thing, there's the Mount Kinabalu. The 3rd highest mountain in South East Asia. Relatively easy to climb for the physically fit, one doesn't exactly need mountain climbing experiences or the equipment to make this trip which is why climbing the Mt. Kinabalu so popular.

For fresh seafood lovers, this is the place to be. Basically, almost everywhere around the city, good and fresh seafood at a reasonable price (of course it is depending on the type of fish you are ordering) is available.

And if you are the adventurous type, there are a few other types of shell fish to try out. Remember the big shell cones which you put to your ear to hear the sound of the ocean? You can basically hear the ocean and eat the innards of the shell fish itself here.

Good seafood or food is not just available at fancy restaurants. A lot of shops and markets also sells a large variety of food at a even cheaper price.

Quick Tips:

There are plenty of budget up to luxury type of hotels and inns in the city or out of the city. No need to rush into booking for rooms during the non-peak season.

Good travelling information can be retrieved from the net right up to the taxi driver who is driving you around.

This place is a hot tourist spot so most of the people you meet speaks a little English.

The weather there can be quite hot and humid since it is next to the ocean, light clothing and some sun block might be a good idea.

Try to carry some local currency (RINGGIT) as some tourist places not near town example the islands might not have money changers and the exchange rate with hotels are probably not so good.

The currency has coins from 1,5,10,20 and 50 cents. Notes will be 1,5,10,50 and 100. Best to carry mostly 5.00 and 10.00 and maybe a few 50.00. Stuff that can be bought on the street will usually use that kind of demonination. Anything above RM100 usually has a credit card facility.

If you are a night person, this place wouldn't be the best place in the world because shops here close early and the pubs / disco are only so-so.

There is basically not much life at night. But I didn't totally explore this area. For those with better suggestions, please let me know.

Best Way To Get Around:

Taxi's are plentiful around the city but they usually don't use the fare meter. Give them a destination and they give you the cost. Nevertheless, a taxi would be the most convinient method of getting around.

Taxi's range from sedans up to 4 wheel drives. Roads in certain parts of Sabah are quite steep, hence the 4 wheel drive.

If you are right in the middle of the city, you can basically walk around. The shops are linked quite close to each other. I basically walked from town to the Jesselton Jetty for my island trip. It took 20 minutes though.

There are no trains or subways in KK due to the terrain or some geographical reasons.

It is a beautiful island resort located not far from the mainland (about 30 - 40 minutes ) by speed boat. In fact, getting there by boat is the only method to get there. There are no air fields there.

On the island, that resort is the one and only one resort. There are no other shops or anything. The sea water there is crystal clear and there are plenty of fishes swimming around the jetty area waiting for bits of food from the hotel guests.

A good tip would be bringing some bread along to feed the fishes. If you don't have any bread, you can buy some from the people at the jetty. A short walk from the jetty will bring you to the reception. Only thing is, there is no reception. All payments are made in advance.

Just get there and collect your keys. There are two types of rooms there. Sea view and Hill View. We stayed in the Hill view rooms. The Sea View rooms are next to the beach (thus it costs more). The Hill View rooms are little further away and it takes a few minutes and leg muscle as you need to walk up a slope and onto bridge ways. The whole complex of rooms are connected with bridges and staircases.

The rooms are connected. Two rooms in one small apartment. Each apartment has a living room with satellite TV, one single bathroom with hot water, one small pantry with a fridge. That's all. The rooms are very simple. A cupboard, a dressing table, the bed (of course) and the air-conditioning. Personally, I found the bed pretty hard and uncomfortable. My friend's bed was OK.

There are plenty of activities to be enjoyed there. Swimming, snorkeling, jet skies...mostly water activities. There's a restaurant there which caters to the guests. Food there is not bad. RM 20 - RM 40 can get you a decent meal. After dinner we went to the jetty. The weather is windy which makes it very nice to sit there and enjoy the nice fresh ocean air and feed the fishes.

In the morning, one can go down to the sea and have a swim/snorkeling. The water is warm and nice. Other than spending all your time on this island, one can travel to the nearby islands like Pulau Mamutik or Pulau Sapi. Pulau Sapi is very popular for snorkeling and scuba diving. Of the three islands, Pulau Sapi has the best snorkeling sites and it is a very popular tourist spot.

One last thing, "Pulau" means Island in Malay (a local language here).

I don't exactly remember the name of the restaurant but I know for sure that it is located right next to the fishing jetty and a very big night market.

This restaurant caters for the middle and upper class of customers looking for good and special seafood cuisine which Sabah is famous for. The restaurant itself is a very spacious and comfortable. Seating isn't a problem. This place can cater for a romantic couple right up to a large tour group.

The food this place serves is seafood, seafood and more seafood. Of course, other kinds of food e.g. meat and vege is available but the real specialty is fresh seafood. Fresh is because you can basically walk over to the huge water tanks located at the side of the restaurant near the entrance and pick your choice of seafood. The choices are numerous. They have all sorts of crab, fishes, prawns, lobster, shellfish.... Just too many to mention here.

Other than just fresh and good food, this restaurant also has a live local tribe performance that last for 15-20 minutes. Applicable only on Friday and Saturday nights (if I am not mistaken).

Now, this is something we don't get to see everyday in our lives. The show is very interesting and at the end of the show, you get to take a photo with the performers.

The food is very good. It isn't easy and cheap to get good quality seafood from where I come from. So, if you are willing to pay a little more for a nice dinner and experience, this would be a very good place to drop by.