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A Trip to Sabah on Xmas Holiday 2011


This is my 3rd time visiting Kota Kinabalu but this is the 1st for holiday :-). Kota Kinabalu or also known as KK is the capital city for the state of Sabah. The flight duration between Kuala Lumpur to KK usually takes around 3 hours. Sabah is popular with nature related adventures and seafood. Seafood can be cheap if you know where to get them. The popular place for grilled seafood is at the heart of KK, just at the back of Philipine's Market. But be very carefully when choosing the stall, or else you will end up in the hospital for severe diarrhoea. The market can be very smokey, so not that great for asthmatic! Ermmmm.... you might also want to bring antihistamine too if in case you are allergy to the seafood.

Night market at the Philipine's Market at the heart of Kota Kinabalu
Grilled prawns.....yummilicious......sweet and hot
Grilled stingray and cuttlefish......
KK itself has nothing much to offer. The interesting places all are outside KK. When you visit Sabah, planning is everything because places to visit are far apart from each other. It is best to travel to one town and stay overnight there. Take example if you wanted to go to ‘The Tip of Borneo’ or the local name is ‘Tanjung Simpang Mengayau’, the journey from KK will take around 3 to 4 hour, nothing much to see along the way, except a long house at Kudat. If you do a return trip to KK, this can be a waste of time. You might want to plan from KK to Tanjung Simpang Mengayau then to Kundasang for example. Several budget chalets are available at most of the places.

The globe at Tanjung Simpang Mengayau......the Northern Tip of Borneo
The Tip of Borneo.......nothing much to do here.....but the scenery is breathtaking
Kundasang is interesting to visit. Although Kundasang is a very very small town, the scenery is breathtaking and the temperature is very pleasant too which is around 20 to 25ºC. Several touristic places are close by i.e. Moroli River at Ranau, Poring Hotspring, Kinabalu Park, Nabalu Town, and Desa Dairy Farm. What can you do in Kundasang itself? You may want to buy fruits and vegetables or else just look at the majestic Mount Kinabalu! 

Zillion types of vegetables to choose from
Mouth watering fruits to taste
The king of fruits....the durian can be quite expensive, the locals said the durian is just like gold the price is between RM8 to 25 per kg.
Kundasang in December.....wet, cold and misty

You can experience fish’s spa at Moroli River in Ranau. This spa is also known as ‘tagal’, this is what I think because on the sign post they stated "Tagal, Sungai Moroli", so I assumed the 'tagal' means fish's spa. The fishes will bite you gently (sometimes can be a bit painful too). It will cost you RM5 for 15 minutes per person and you will need to buy food for the fishes to attract the fishes to you. If you want to capture the fishes in action then you need to pay extra for each camera. Nice to try, what a different experience from the usual fish’s spa, as the fishes are quite BIG!

My legs being munched by the fishes......uhhh uhhh uhhh
Hanging bridge crossing the Moroli River
Poring Hotspring can be very busy at weekend or public holidays. Here you can boil you legs or the whole body by dipping into the sulphurous hot water. The management have built individual pools for small group, so it is very fun to soak yourself here. Entrance payment is RM2 per person.


A new pathway crossing the Poring river to the hotspring pools
Soaking my lower limbs.....in other words, boiling my legs.....
If you love milk and cow, then, do visit the Desa Dairy Farm. You can cut your trip to dairy farm in New Zealand by just visit this Desa Dairy Farm. The background of this farm is the great Mount Kinabalu. Nevertheless, on the day I visited this farm, we cannot see the mountain as the clouds run very low and very wet too. Don’t forget to pay before you enter this farm. Sorry, I can’t remember how much but they are cheap too. You can buy boxes of milk here….yummy!!!

With my parents and Aida, my younger sister.....who is now quite local to Sabah
Grazing land for the cows
With the backgound of Mount Kinabalu foot
Desa Dairy Farm, what a breathtaking scenery....very very green
Drink milk for healthier bone and growth........but don't be a cow
There are many more interesting places in Sabah to visit. Holiday of 4-day may not be sufficient to complete the visit, as I have mentioned earlier, most of the time will be wasted on travelling from one place to one place. Sabah is a unique place to unwind.
A scenery from Nabalu town......you can buy many types of souvenir here

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  1. AnonymousJanuary 24, 2012 at 6:52 PM

    wow really great photography skills.. I have never seen Sabah captured in this way.

    ReplyDelete

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