KK Trip

I don’t usually write about my trips as it would require a great effort from my part (This, for example is a 2000++ -word entry). However, Khalis and I really enjoyed our recent trip to Kota Kinabalu and I feel that the trip deserves an entry in our blog. Khalis has been in KK a few times before for work but I never had the chance to go with him.

 

It was a budget vacation – we only paid RM24 for the flight and stayed in cheap hotels. However I’m determined that it won’t be the next time. (yes, we love KK so much and will definitely return!)

We didnt bring our good camera so the quality of the photos is only so so.

Day 1

We arrived in KK at 330pm and had to wait for 30 minutes at the airport for our rented Saga FL. Our rental guy apologized for being late and gave us about half tank of fuel for free. Paid the full rental rate+deposit and off we went to our hotel – Zara Boutique Hotel. The hotel was alright I guess but a bit far from the attractions. We rested for a while and went out for dinner at 6pm at Salut. It’s a bit far from the city but the traffic was good so we got there in approx 30 mints. … This restaurant served fresh seafood. We picked our fish and prawns right from the tanks. They had good variety of seafood, fish not so much and but they had wide selection of clams and snails. Minimum order was however 500gm (which is a LOT for 2) so we really had to choose carefully. We had kerapu asam manis, butter prawn and softshell crab goreng tepung. I’ve always wanted to try ‘big’ softshell crab (instead of the small ones in sushi restaurants). We thought the food was so-so, but expensive nonetheless! And it really broke my heart seeing the leftover. There’s nothing we could do, we’re stuffed to the max! The view from the restaurant was good and we got ourselves a good table too.

On our way back to the hotel, we made a quick stop for kelapa bakar and kelapa pudding. Kelapa bakar’s basically grilled old coconut and kelapa pudding’s very similar to kelapa jelly in the east coast except that the flesh is blended together with the juice so theres a hint of santan. We couldn’t appreciate the kelapa bakar, we gave up after like 2 sips but we loved, loved loved kelapa pudding.

Day 2

We had sub-standard breakfast at the hotel before we started our journey to Kundasang. Weather was great – it wasn’t really hot as the entire KK was covered by clouds - thick clouds that blocked satellite signal from reaching my GPS. We’ve heard people talking about bringing 3-4 GPS to KK, now we knew why.

We stopped at Pekan Nabalu enroute for its famous pineapple. It was the best pineapple I’ve had - super sweet and there was no stinging aftertaste.

We arrived at Kundasang around 1130 and it was too early to check in so we continued driving to Poring Hot Springs which was located 400m above sea level. We opted for enclosed bath which cost only RM15/ Hour. There were limited no of enclosed baths around the area, maybe about 20? The bath was better than we expected, it was clean and could fit a small family comfortably. Plus there’s a toilet with shower inside too.

There’re lotsa other things to do in Poring Hot springs. They have butterfly farm, Orchid Conservation Centre, the tropical garden, the canopy walkway, the Rafflesia flower site and a few waterfalls but we didn’t go to any.

We had lunch after the bath (not worth mentioning) at a restaurant outside the Hot Springs. We went back to Kundasang afterwards and checked in at our Hotel – Kinabalu Pines Resort. It was a really gorgeous hotel and had probably the best landscape in Kundasang.

In the evening, we went to Ranau again, just driving around aimlessly. It was only when we’re back from Ranau that we saw Mount Kinabalu. You see, when we arrived in Kundasang we kept asking each other – where is this Mount Kinabalu??. We’re surrounded by the Crocker Range but the Mount Kinabalu itself was nowhere to be seen. But at around 5pm, the clouds were all blown away and suddenly Mount Kinabalu was right in front of us. I thank God for this wonderful opportunity. It lasted only 2 hours, but it was my best 2 hours in KK. Mount Kinabalu from where we’re standing looked like Mordor. I don’t think I could ever describe the feeling. We also found out later that, weather permitting, we could actually see Mount Kinabalu from our balcony.

When we’re back in Kundasang, we stopped at the vegetable/fruit market (by the roadside) and bought some fruits. Turned out none was good.

We went out again at night for dinner. There were not many choices available so we went to like one of 3 restaurants there and we ordered bihun sup. We drove around a bit after lunch and stopped for grilled chicken wing.

Its soo cold at night and I didn’t sleep well.

Day 3

We checked out from the hotel and our first destination for the day was Kinabalu National Park (the HQ). From the entrance the park looked really nice and it was a lot nicer inside. We couldnt find an empty parking lot so we drove up up up and up not knowing what to expect. The furthest a car could climb was up to Timpohon Gate, 1866m above sea level. The summit trail begins here. There are two summit trail options, Timpohon is the easier one, so its the most popular too. Adventurous climbers might prefer Mesilau trail which starts at Mesilau Nature Resort. Besides Timpohon summit trail, there are walking trails too at HQ. It was drizzling lightly so we didnt get out of our car. We didnt spend a lot of time here but its a really beautiful place and I really wish we could explore one of the not so challenging walking trails.

We bid farewell to Kundasang but promised to return. The fog’s too thick up there so we didn’t get to see Mount Kinabalu for one last time before we left. 

On our way to KK, we stopped in Tuaran solely for Mee Tuaran. Mee Tuaran is actually egg noodles but without the alkaline water, made only in Tuaran. Theres Mee Tuaran in KK too but it’s extremely difficult to find an outlet serving Halal one. So we thought we tried our luck in Tuaran, the birthplace of the dish itself. In Tuaran we actually went on foot from one restaurant to another checking out the menu and looked for halal sign. We had actually given up (tired!!) when we reached Nasi Ayam Juara and Khalis decided it’s the place we’re gonna have our lunch at coz it looked decent and had quite a number of patrons. And guess what, it was a nice surprise seeing Mee Tuaran in the menu! And that’s exactly what I ordered. Khalis ordered nasi ayam as the Mee didn’t look very appetizing. He was right. However, I must say that the mee itself was good and its something I can eat raw. Had it been fried like mee goreng mamak, it would be a hit in the Peninsular and mee kuning producers would all close shop. In other non-halal restaurants however, Mee Tuaran is actually fried and prepared with roasted pork and egg rolls.

Another dish that I really wanted to try was Roti kahwin. Fook Yuen’s roti kahwin’s the most famous in the KK so that’s our next target. We were told that there’re 4 branches in KK and we decided to go to the one in Luyang. It was a total waste of time as the shop was closed. Disappointed, we headed to straight to our hotel and checked in at around 130pm. This time we stayed at Promenade Hotel. We chose Promenade because its really near to the Filipino Market and that’s where we’re gonna have our dinner tonight. 

The weather was nice in the afternoon, so we decided to take a walk around the area. We went to Filipino Market, checking out the local products and pearls. But those were the last thing on my mind. I only had Fook Yuen’s roti kahwin in my head. I somehow managed to convince Khalis to walk to Gaya Street - where another Fook Yuen's located. It was quite far, and I wouldn’t walk the distance in KL weather. Finding Fook Yuen was a challenge. We went up and down Gaya street and we didnt see it anywhere! I asked for directions from a few people, including a group of policemen and nobody knew where it was. We googled for the location and other bloggers said that its near the Sabah Tourism building, which we had passed by a number of times. The whole time we were actually walking on the other side of the street (Gaya street is a narrow street) and for the last time, we decided to walk on Sabah Tourism's side and thats when we saw it. It was right there all along. But it was easy to miss. Next to Fook Yuen was Oldtown so we actually thought Fook Yuen was Oldtown - they had the same concept and ambiance. There was a sign, but it was covered by the awning.

The kopitiam was huge and they had an OK selection of food too. Dim sum was cheap and in good size too. We ordered our food - 2 sets of roti kahwin, madras tea and sugarcane juice. The bread was good - it was super soft and tasted great.

We only spent like 15 minutes in the shop. When we got to our hotel, it was already 4pm! I couldnt quite believe that we had spent 2 hours walking to and from Fook Yuen. I dont remember walking this far under the sun. Oh wait, we walked A LOT in Hanoi and it in late 2011 - so that wasnt too long ago. But lets not talk about Hanoi. Its not a trip I'd like to remember.

We went out again at 630pm for cheap seafood dinner at Filipino Market. Khalis and I didnt waste our time at other sections of the market, we went straight to the ikan bakar section. There really was no point trying to figure out which was the best stall, the food all looked the same. I was still feeling full from breakfast, mee tuaran and roti kahwin so I only ordered a medium sized plaice (ikan sebelah) and a set of squid for the two of us despite Khalis trying to make me add a super huge prawn/lobster (Khalis doesnt really like prawn, so it was only for me. I really appreciated the thought). The fish and squid only cost us RM20. Cheap! I thought the fish and squid tasted ok although they were overcooked. The fish particularly was a bit hard and dry. I think it’s a good place for not so fussy eaters wanting affordable seafood.

Day 4

Our final day in KK. We started the day with sumptuous buffet breakfast at the hotel. The nasi lemak was good which was a nice surprise as good nasi lemak is hard to find - even in KL. We checked out after breakfast and the first place we went to was 1Borneo Mall. It was still early and shops were not open yet. There was nothing to do there.

Our next destination was the Viewpoint. The view was quite nice from here.

The viewpoint’s very near to Fook Yuen so we went there again just to kill time. This time around we had roti kahwin (again) and dim sum and took more photos. We walked to Fook Yuen yesterday because we thought parking was impossible but we discovered that we could park our car inside the building Fook Yuen’s located.

We went to the airport after Fook Yuen and that’s the end of our vacation in KK.

Khalis and I are still talking, reminiscing about time in KK until today. He even suggested that we make KK our annual destination.