Kota Kinabalu

Kota Kinabalu, or 'KK' as it's referred to by those who live there, is the capital of the Malaysian state of Sabah, which occupies the northern portion of the island of Borneo, which is a large island just west of the Phillipines (my understanding of SE Asian geography has improved significantly during my time in Korea).

I went there because I was looking for somewhere to go during the week we had off for the Lunar (or 'Chinese') New Year holiday and it was one of the places mentioned when I asked a couple of Malaysians I met in Thailand where I should go in their country, explaining that I liked outdoor activity.  Since it met my criteria for low cost (I was able to get a direct flight, 5.5 hrs each way, for about $400 RT, and I stayed at a very inexpensive hostel for about $45 total for 6 nights), warm weather and beaches, and I've already been to Thailand twice I decided to investigate.

The place I stayed, Ganang Village Rest House, was very near the airport, so I walked the 3-4 km there after my early morning arrival (about 1:00 am) on Sunday morning.  It was a balmy tropical night and once I was away from the airport the road was generally not lit but luckily I had my trusty offline map application Maps.Me to guide me.  There were several dogs both behind fences and in the road who barked and/or snarled at me as I passed by and I was somewhat concerned about a confrontation but happily they turned out to be all bark and no bite.

I had to wake up the proprietor when I arrived but he turned out to be a very nice guy who lived there with his family.  There were many other long-term tenant families on the sprawling premises as well, as this was a place not solely for tourists.  In fact, it wasn't particularly applicable for tourists at all apart from its proximity to the airport because it was rather far from downtown KK (about 10 km) and there weren't any attractions nor much in the way of dining nearby.

After a shower and a few hours of sleep I woke up and planned to get into town to the scooter rental shop, figuring I'd offset the cost of the scooter rental with my low-priced accomodation and thereby have the freedom to explore at will as I am accustomed, rather than staying in a more expensive place downtown and being stuck there or having to figure out how to use the buses or whatever, which in general don't allow me the flexibility of timing and destination I enjoy anyway.

I could have taken a bus to town but it was a sunny day so I decided to walk because I like to get the lay of the land, literally (yes, literally literally!), that way.  For example, if I was on a bus I couldn't have made the decision, as I did, to cross a stinking sewage canal (of which there are a great many) on a footbridge and walk on the far side of that on a trail instead of on the road, which immediately veered away from the canal and left me, after about a half a kilometer, on the wrong side of said canal, and increasingly far from the road, with no sure way, other than turning around, to get back to it.  As I am wont to do, I continued on to see what would happen.  What happened was that the canal took a turn toward the road and I thought all was going to be well until my path came to an end.  Happily at this point there was a fallen log on which I was able to cross over the canal, being very careful not to fall in because I was sure that would lead to infection with some nasty flesh-eating bacteria for sure, which then left me on the correct side of the canal but still separated from the road by several hundred meters of fairly dense jungly undergrowth, through which there was nothing to do but propel myself with the hope and expectation of eventually rejoining the road.  This I did, and eventually emerged out of breath, hot, sweaty, and scratched, but otherwise uninjured, back on the road.  Try doing that on a bus!

At this point I was still only about half way to town and the road was just a commuting road with no real businesses on it so while I would have liked to stop for some breakfast I continued on.  By the time I got to town it was still early Sunday morning so not a lot of businesses were open but I had heard there was a 'Sunday Market' on the main commercial street, 'Gaya', at the far end of town and that was near the one and only scooter rental place (in contrast to Thailand, where everybody and their brother rents scooters) so I headed there.  I passed through the market briefly (typical market: you've seen one you've pretty much seen them all) on my way to the scooter place wanting to make sure I could get that taken care of before sightseeing, however, just at the last moment I caught my first sight of the ocean and that always draws me like a magnet so I went to check out the view from the boardwalk and walked a little way along that before returning to the scooter place where I was slightly dismayed to find out it was closed on Sundays.  D'oh!  Across the hall from the scooter place (this is inside a commercial building, or 'Wisma') was a dive shop so I stopped in there to investigate snorkeling opportunities (and because it was airconditioned).  The manager was a nice Australian guy named Mark who had been living in KK 17 years so I was able to get a lot of valuable information from him and I booked a snorkeling trip for the following day for 145 Ringgit (about $36) for an all day trip with 3 snorkeling opportunities plus lunch, which I thought was pretty reasonable.  I told Mark my only concern was how to get into town the next day in time to meet at 8:45 am since I had hoped to rent a scooter but they were closed and I didn't know how often the buses ran.  Mark suggested I just use Uber and I had to admit to him I had never done that so I connected to his wifi and downloaded the app and he showed me how easy it was to request a ride, which was a cheaper way to go than using taxis.  When it came time to return to my hostel that night I took my first Uber ride which indeed was quite easy as convenient.  I don't think that particular ride was all that inexpensive, however, because according to the Uber app it was a 'busy time' so cost about 50% more than otherwise, or in this case 15 Ringgit instead of 10 ($3.75 instead of $2.50).  I think that was the price of a normal taxi but either way it beat making the return trip on foot or trying to figure out which bus would take me there.

But I'm getting ahead of myself: I still have plenty of foot travel ahead of me this first day.  I had also asked Mark for suggestions about where to eat and he got me one of those handy tourist maps and pointed out the best places for various kinds of foods, and which places sold beer or not (the locals are primarily Muslim, so many places don't sell alchohol, but there are other foreigners there, expescially Chinese, who do).  At least the convenience stores sell beer like they do in Thailand so I just got in the habit of buying a couple of cans there and toting them around with me, which reminds me of something else I learned: If you buy Guinness cold, then carry it around all day in your backpack, when you open it it will spurt out all over you and about 60% will be lost that way so it's not as good a deal as it originally appears.

I found one of the places Mark had recommended for lunch, and they sold Carlsberg in cans, so I had some beef curry there (no pork!) and a couple beers and then, since I had no scooter I decided to explore downtown KK pretty thoroughly this first day so I wouldn't have to come back again (traffic was congested, and it was very commercial and full of tourists) and the tourist map showed a 'walking heritage trail' so despite the fact that I'd already walked into town I decided to walk some more and see what I could see.  The walking trail partially traversed a hillside overlooking the town and coastal areas and islands just offshore so it had some nice views.  Back downtown again after that I walked along the wharf checking out the fishing boats and more markets and the touristy row of restaurants Mark had told me about, including a nice Irish place, "The Shamrock" where I had a Guiness and read my book for awhile.  Eventually it was time for dinner so I went to the outdoor food market where all the local fisher-people ate and had a fried fish and some stir-fried vegetables in oyster sauce.  Afterward I found a convenience store, bought a couple large bottles of water and other 'supplies' (beer) and successfully Ubered home for the first time.

Here are some pictures from my first day:

My first view of the ocean.  Those are islands where I will be snorkeling the next day.  Along the near coast of the closer (and larger) island, called 'Gaya' just like the main street with the Sunday Market, you can barely see the structures of a floating village where a lot of (mostly Filipino) migrants live, apparently.

A panorama from approximately the same spot.

And another panorama from a little ways to the right (north) of the last one.

Looking in the same direction, but out across the downtown area from an observation area on the walking tour path partway up the hill behind the city.

From the same spot, but looking more toward the south, back toward the airport and where my hostel is.

A couple of panoramas from that spot.

Part of the walking path consisted of a series of stairs through forest.  It kind of reminded me of the path Alan and I had walked down in Japan on our way to our onsen in Hakone.  I especially liked this large tree with its striking root sculpture.

On the way down the stairs.

Checking out the waterfront, this is where the boat taxis came and went taking locals to the nearby islands.

Looking north along the waterfront: fishing boats and one of many markets, this one specializing in fish.

Some of the fish for sale.

More fish!

This is an accidental picture of my tourist map and a bag of oranges I bought in the market.

I stayed in town to see the sunset from the waterfront before heading home for the night.

Monday was my snorkeling day and the timing was great because it was a sunny day (the last one until Friday, my final day).  Luckily I had picked up some sunscreen the day before at a Watson's (reminded me of Australia, because that was the name of drugstore/supermarket chain there as well).  I don't have a lot of pictures of that because I was in the water and/or wet most of the time so I wasn't using my camera.  It was really beautiful though.  So many different fish and (some living) coral.  Lots of the coral was in bad shape though.  I really just can't begin to describe all the different shapes, sizes, and colors of fish and other sights however.  You just have to use your imagination and pretty much anything you could imagine I probably saw.  I was on a boat with two other snorkelers (Kevin and Linda from Scottland) and two separate groups of SCUBA divers.  Each group had a guide.  Our (the snorkeler's) guide was Jude, who was very nice.  He generally just told us the approximate direction we would head to meet the the boat again and let us mosey around in the water at will.  He was wearing a wetsuit as he said the water was quite cold for Malaysians.  I thought it was wonderful and the folks from Scotland seemed to find it fine too.  Other than the fantastic variety of fish and coral the only really noticeable event was that on the third and final excursion we had to circle up and go aboard early because Kevin had spotted a shark.  This was after Jude telling us there were no sharks in these waters!  But he said he thought the 'cold' water was bringing different fish than usual to the area as the other day he had seen some manta rays which they don't usually have either.  All in all though a great outing!

Heading out for the snorkeling trip.  The city is in the distance on the right and Gaya island (with the floating Filipino village along the shoreling) is on the left.

This is looking out from the beach on Gaya island where we had lunch.

When we got back from the snorkeling trip on Monday afternoon I went to the scooter rental place and rented a scooter.  I was disappointed that they were about twice the price or more I was used to paying in Thailand (about $10/day) but as I said, I figured with what I was saving in accomodation I could justify this.  According to Mark (from the dive shop) the reason there's only one rental place in all KK is that there's not a lot of demand for scooters there.  I would have to agree that most of the traffic I saw was automobiles and buses.  Quite different from Thailand, though again almost no bicycles.  So anyway, I couldn't be choosy about my scooter rental and I wanted to get one for four days (returing it Friday afternoon, just before I would have to leave around Friday midnight) but because of the New Year holiday this shop was closing early on Thursday afternoon so I had to settle for 3 days rental.

Now that I had a scooter I decided to explore a little wider area around town for the rest of the afternoon since I didn't expect to be back in that vicinity again until I returned the bike.  So I did some local exploring and practiced my Malaysian scootering skills.  Unlike in Thailand, where the scooters use the outside lane (road shoulder) and pass cars, here the scooters pass cars which are stuck in traffic by going down the center of the two lanes.  So I copied some locals to get used to this and it was very effective as traffic was terrible there and I was able to make much better time bypassing the jams and rows of cars waiting for lights by riding a scooter rather than being in a car.  I eventually ended up at a huge market/festival celebrating the new year holiday.  It was held on an outdoor sports or entertainment venue and had a central stage where dragon dances and other performances were going on while people wandered around the perimeter eating from open air food stalls.  This made a nice dinner as dusk turned to night.  Eventually I was full (or beyond) and I scooted on home, tired from another big adventurous outdoor day.

Tuesday I decided to head south along the coast to a place Jude (my snorkeling guide from the day before) had told me about called "Seaside Traveller's Inn" where he said they had a nice beach and I could rent a kayak, both of which turned out to be true.  I saw, when I got there (after having stopped along the way for brunch) that there was an island 'close' to shore and I determined to kayak out to it and maybe around it, figuring that would give me a nice quiet secluded spot to enjoy one of the cans of beer I had along.  At first I was pleased to see that the kayak they rented me was not one of those giant plastic open-top affairs but a closed-top fiberglass model more like what I'm used to.  That is, until I was launching and a couple small waves broked over the bow and sloshed into the cockpit with me and I realized that I had no sprayskirt to keep the water out and no flotation bags to keep the boat from sinking if it capsized and I came out and 'went for a swim' (the canoe was solid fiberglass, so quite heavy) and no paddle float to allow me to get back in even if it didn't sink, and no pump to pump out the water even if all the above weren't enough somehow.  In other words, if I tipped over the boat would sink and I would have to swim to shore.  At least I had a lifejacket!  Nonetheless, the island was quite a way offshore (now that I was on the water: about 1.2 km as I look at Google maps) and there were some breakers about halfway out (I remembered Jude had said you could walk to the island at low tide, though I'm not sure he was correct about that).  It would have been prudent to stay near the shore.  So out to sea I went.

By carefully observing the breakers I was able to plot a course that took me around them only going a little out of my way.  Swells were no trouble, and there was enough beam on this boat that I wasn't worried about tipping over accidentally.  By the time I got to the island I saw there was another island beyond it, so I decided to go on to that one.  At the time it seemed like it was probably only the same distance between the two islands as it was from the mainland to the first island but again, with the benefit of Google maps, I now see that's not the case.  It's more like 2 km between the islands.  Between the islands there were more breakers but again I managed to avoid them with a little zigging and zagging.  Eventually I arrived at a beach on the second island where I got out to stretch my legs and explore by land a little and find a place to drink one of my beers.  I was a little stressed about the time, though, because originally I had rented the kayak for 2 hours and about 1.25 hrs were gone.  I knew I would be late returning and didn't want the rental people worrying about me.  On the other hand I had come all this way so I wanted to see what I could see.

Here's what I saw:

Looking back toward land.  The first Island I'd passed is in the center.  These are not the kayaks I had rented.  There was a resort on this island and these belonged to that.

This island had two endpoints connected by a strip of sand.  I had landed on this strip of sand on the mainland (east) side and I walked across it to the ocean (west) side and found this lagoon.

Looking west.  I'm eventually heading to the spit of rocks behind me.

Looking east (back toward the mainland and the first island I'd paddled past).

Parts of the resort on the little strip of sand connecting the two ends of the island.

Looking south from my private perch on the rocks.

Leaving that place I paddled back toward the mainland and decided to stop at a small beach on the first island I'd passed (which I hadn't landed on yet).  I was overdue to return the kayak but by now I was visible from shore so I didn't think they'd be worried about me and I figured I wasn't going to be back here again anytime soon so I might as well make the most of it and just pay for an extra hour when I got back.

View of the little beach on the first island.

Looking west out to sea from the little spit of beach on the first (closer) island.  In the distance you can see the second island with the two higher parts at either end connected by a beach, where I'd just been.

Here's the canoe I was using.  Happily I had thought to bring one of the dry bags I'd bought in Thailand along.  It was useful on this trip and later when the weather turned rainy.

When I finally got back I realized no one was looking for me.  I went into the main office and told them I was back and they said 'fine.'  I told them I thought I owed them for an extra hour and they said 'forget about it.'  Good thing I didn't capsize!

Wednesday I woke up to rain.  Having rented the scooter in advance I wanted to take advantage of it and I wanted to check out some of the hiking opportunities I'd been researching online (to complement my water-based adventures of the previous two days).  I spent the morning drinking a couple cups of coffee in the communal room of the hostel (I had purchased some coffee 'bags' at a shop in KK a couple days earlier for just this purpose) and chatting with the only other downstairs (temporary) hostel resident I had so far encountered, a guy from Poland who had just arrived the night before.  He had rented the bicycle which was advertised and which I had tried to rent the first day from the hostel people when I was heading to KK by foot but they wouldn't rent it to me, saying it was too small and just intended for local trips to the convenience store.  But for some reason they had rented it to this guy and he was setting out all day but like me he was waiting for the rain to stop.  He gave me a suggestion of a nice place to visit in the Phillipines but I'm still not sure I want to go to the Phillipines because even though everyone rants about how nice it is there I don't like their president, Duterte, at all and feel like I should boycott on account of him.  If he hadn't come to power first I'd call him the Trump of the Phillipines.  But instead I guess I have to say Trump is the Duterte of America.  Anyway, I'm still debating visiting there.  I've recently realized I could make the same argument about boycotting China.

Eventually, with the rain still falling, I went for brunch to a place I'd only recently noticed which was actually adjacent to where I was staying.  In fact, my wifi from the guest house still worked there!  They only served one thing, though, so when I asked for 'food' they didn't ask me what I wanted, they just brought me chicken and rice.  Anyway, it was delicious and a nice place to sit and have a bite and a cup of tea and read my book and smoke a cigarette while listening to the rain hit the tin roof (yes, I've been avoiding mentioning that I bought a pack of cigarettes on this trip and smoked them, usually while having a beer or a cup of coffee.  Don't worry, family, I only smoke in Asia outside of Korea!  It's really just for something to do on vacation as I actually don't care for the effect.  How silly is that?)

Eventually the rain stopped and off I went on my scooter, wearing my swimsuit and a black plastic trash bag I had brought with me, just to be prepared, and converted into a raincoat that morning (how satisfying!) and keeping my purple crazy scrub shirt (that's all I wore the whole time I was there: swimsuit and purple scrub when I was out and wet and getting dirty, cotton shorts and regular scrub when I was home and clean and dry.  All the other t-shirts and shorts and sweats were unnecessary, just something to lug along to and from the airports and on the plane) dry in my dry bag which I was using as a backpack in case it started raining again.

I was finding my way to one of the hiking spots up north of the city when I passed a row of food stalls on the side of the road.  I stopped for a fresh coconut and got to talking with the guy who ran the place and he talked me into a plate of grilled clams as well.  Very nice.  He also told me how to find the trailhead for where I wanted to go and I changed out of my trash bag top and into my purple scrub since it hadn't started raining again.  Then I did that hike (which was pretty steep, and strenuous from the standpoint that it was a hot and humid day) and from the top I was able to see a lot of coastline and I identified a region of shore that Maps.Me showed me I could get near by road so after I descended again I headed off to that strip of beach.  I eventually came to a security gate for a private resort but when I asked about going to the beach they let me in and I was able to walk along the beach and enjoy a swim.

Eventually I headed back to town and as I was going along I noticed the bike was getting a little wobbly, and I really noticed it when I was going around a roundabout at one intersection.  Looking at the front tire I saw that it was low and I was concerned about that so I took it easy until I got to the next filling station where I tried to put some air in it.  It seemed okay at first but by the time I had ridden almost all the way home and found a place for dinner and had dinner and stopped in a bar for another Guinness (they really like Guinness in KK!) it was pretty much flat again.  In fact, I think it was flat and only the stiffness of the tire itself was giving it any shape.  I was keeping an eye out for another filling station on the way home but I didn't find one.  By now I had switched from my black plastic bag top to my scrub top (remember, back at the coconut and clam place?) because it hadn't rained again all day since I'd left the hostel.  Of course, on the short drive back home when I wasn't wearing my carefully prepared trash bag it suddenly started pouring and drenched me.  So much for careful planning.  So I gave up looking for a filling station and decided to just head home and deal with the tire the next day.

Waiting out the rain at the chicken and rice place.

My view.  Can't complain about that!

Heading up my Wednesday hike.

This may be another accidental shot, but it shows what the vegetation and trail were like.

From Wednesday's summit, looking north.

From Wednesday's summit (actually called Nuluh Lapai Jungle Trail) looking south.  I think that island on the right side of the horizon is Gaya, where I snorkeled two days earlier.

Some neat variant of the bird-of-paradise

Looking west, out to sea.

Right in the center of this shot is the beach I'll be at the next day, though I didn't know that, of course, at the time.

Wednesday's beach.

Thursday's events mimicked Wednesday's with the difference that I had to ride gingerly to the nearest filling station in the morning (it wasn't raining, happily) and fill the tire, then by the time I got up north to where I wanted to hike that day I noticed the tire had gone flat again so I decided to find a place to get it repaired, which turned out to be easy and cheap (15 Ringgit, about $3.75) and I was so happy I just gave the guy 20 Ringgit and told him to keep the change: it was New Year's Eve day, after all!  With that done I stopped for brunch, during which time it rained a bit (perfect timing!) and I was able to find a local who could tell me how to find the trailhead for the summit I wanted to climb that day.  That hike turned out to be a little more strenuous than the previous day, partly because it was longer, and partly because the rain had turned the clay path to mud, which was tricky to negotiate in my flip flops.  I was also a bit pressed for time because I had to return the bike by 3:00 pm to get my security deposit back.  As I mentioned earlier, the rental place was closing early for the holiday and wouldn't be open again until the following Monday by which time I'd be back in Korea.

After achieving my goal and spotting a beach I wanted to cool off at I hurried back down the hill and went to the beach and had a brief swim (and smoke and beer) and hightailed it back to town and was able to return the scooter with about 20 minutes to spare.  It was a good thing I'd learned all those scootering techniques for passing up lines of cars on the road otherwise I would have been late.

After returning the scooter I went to The Shamrock (the Irish pub I'd been to at Mark's recommendation the first day) because I'd noticed that on Thursdays they had a happy hour special which was a half pint of Guinness and a Beef and Guinness pie.  So I enjoyed that while reading my book, then went to a Chinese place for a plate of stir-fried veggies and a large Carleton, then Ubered home and was watching some downloaded Netflix shows on my tablet while listening to the fireworks being set off.

View from Thursday's summit, Bukit Gundal @ Botak, looking southwest.  That farthest island is definitely Gaya, just offshore from downtown KK.

Looking due south.

Looking North.  The nearer ridge on the left, just across the water, is where I'd hiked the day before.

There, dead center, on the far side of the water, but not the tall thing in the far distance, is yesterday's hike.

Drying my sweat-soaked shirt on the summit sign.

On the way down.  I'm trying to document how flushed I am, even though I'm headed down now!  I was pretty fried at the top because I was pushing myself due to the time limitations, and you can't really tell from these pictures but somehow it seemed sunny.  Maybe I was delerious.

Thursday's beach.  This time when I got to the private resort security checkpoint (a different private resort) they told me it was for residents only but told me I could use the public beach I had passed a little way back.

My resting spot.  Letting my shirt dry out after wearing it into the water to wash the sweat out of it.

Back downtown, having successfully returned the scooter, I'm at the Shamrock as the sun is getting lower.  This is a view of some fishing boats.

Friday, my final day, I was scooter-less.  My flight was scheduled to leave at 1:00 am Saturday morning and check-out time was 12:00 noon.  I was too cheap to pay for an extra night if I wasn't going to get to sleep there (even though it would only be about $8, I figure) so I devised a plan to ask to rent the bike (the Polish guy had departed by now) so I could go to the local beach (Tanjung Aru) for the day, leaving most of my stuff in the office, then come back and take a shower (and change and repack) in the guest house before walking back to the airport.  That deal done (they charged me 15 Ringgit, about $3.75) I set off.  Indeed the bike was too small, as they had originally predicted, my knees coming up to the handlebars, and it was a clear and sunny day (counter to the weather forecast which called for rain) so I was hot and tired when I finally reached the beach, after stopping for lunch, about 2:00 pm.  I had said I wouldn't be back until about 7:00 pm so I had 5 hrs to kill and one orange, 3 beers and 3 cigarettes remaining to kill them (and myself) with.  Time passed slowly.  I walked, I read, I swam (once, without submerging my head as I had read somewhere that the water at this beach was possibly contaminated with sewage runoff from the nearby city) and I watched the beach fill up dramatically with sunset-watchers as the afternoon wore on.  At sunset I was having a few noshes at the open air food court and afterward I pedalled home, showered, charged my devices, repacked my bags, listened to the rain outside, decided to use that as an excuse to Uber to the airport (about $0.80) rather than walk, even though the rain had stopped by the time it was time for me to depart.  I didn't want to work up a sweat, though, before boarding the plane and who knew if it was going to start raining again anyway.  Besides, I was lazy!

After that everything was nominal.  Wow, I finished a whole trip in one blog post.  At least I don't have to leave this one hanging like I have the last couple.

This was a nice private place for a beer and a cigarette!

My last sunset in KK.

Sunset, from inside the food court, looking out past the gathered crowds.