KK, Sabah

As everybody knows Kota Kinabalu or KK famous for its seafood and mount kinabalu. So we plan to have seafood lunch and do island hopping once we land. 

But first lets talk about food. Me and Nico love seafood so much and we also know that people from west Malaysia came here specially for that. We didn't expect it to be this good and cheap. Sayur sabah are highly recommended and all seafood here are fresh and giant size. Basically you can find seafood restaurant everywhere and we only can hope we will find a good one. We went to kampung air seafood village for lunch and dinner where we took lobster, sayur sabah tumis belacan, bbq squid, kangkung belacan and chilli crab. It was weekend when we was there and the area full with people 

 (love sayur sabah, must try)

 (Chilli Crab)

 (BBQ squid)

 (Lobster in butter sauce)

(kangkung belacan)

We also stop at pasar malam which nico and me agreed to be one of must return place if we go to KK. The pasar malam called pasar filipina. Typical pasar malam selling fresh vegetables, seafood, meat but the main attraction here is their grill seafood. It was extremely cheap and taste good. You can have your dinner here since its open starting from 5pm till late. There's zillion of place to choose from and your grill seafood will be accompanied with sambal belacan or air asam. We already had our dinner before we found this place. Since we still full but cannot resist the temptation we decide to try few and we definitely love it. 

 (One piece of grill fish for RM7)

 (one stack of grill squid for RM8)

(RM8, XL size prawn)

Sabah also have a nice island, since we are staying in city centre we can walk almost everywhere. Jesselton ferry terminal for island hopping and ferry to labuan is only 10min away. We took tour to Manukan Island & Sapi Island. Weather wasnt so good on that day, when we left jetty the sky already dark. Since we didn't chartered a boat and join other tourist for that visit they only stop at Sapi island for 30mins and an hour at Manukan island. If im not mistaken it cost us RM40 each to go to both island. Its so frustrating since our waterproof camera still in workshop for repair and we cant take picture because of rain.

Sapi island are more crowded with tourist since it small. Unlike Manukan the island are bigger with wide beach. We have to pay RM10 for Malaysian once we enter any of this island and with the same ticket we didn't have to pay for the next island. Snorkeling equipment, life jacket can be rent at each island if you don't any with you with reasonable price. The best part is you can do snorkeling right from the beach, there's no coral to see but all the colorful fish and sea creature are enough to entertain you and keep you in the water even on raining day. If it wasn't raining we definitely going to have blast swimming here. Well, better luck next time. 

 (Sapi Island)

(Manukan Island)

The next day weather are so much better and its bright and sunny when we start our trip to see Mount Kinabalu. We rent a car for a day, fill in the tank and headed to Kota Belud. It was scenic view along the way, we cant resist to stop few times for taking picture. I thought its going to be cold like Genting Highland or Cameron Highland but surprisingly not. We are so lucky because of sunny day and we are able to see the peak of mount kinabalu. 

(enjoying the view)

 (almost flew, very windy)

(Glorious day)

Kinabalu Park is the starting point for all climber. If you didn't intend to climb mount kinabalu hiking at its many trails can be entertaining also. We did try one trail, unfortunately i didn't wear proper shoes and the track is slightly slippery for my slipper. It feel so fresh in there, everything seems moist, fresh and alive. 

We drove further up to Ranau since i wanted to see tea plantation called Sabah Tea, We make a stop at kundasang where the place also famous for its mountain and scenery view. This area can be very cold after sunset and its really weird how the temperature drop from hot to cold. 

Unfortunately Sabah Tea plantation wasn't as good as Cameron Highland tea plantation. Nothing much to see and not so many choice of flavored tea. But they have flavor that cameron highlang didnt have such as misai kucing and ginger which i found interesting and a unique souvenir for my parents. 

 (sabah tea)

Since we have to turned, to go back to KK we make a final stop at Poring hot spring. Honestly the place is boring, it just an area where people seat and dip their feet into the hot water. Thankfully, poring hot spring have more to offer. They also have canopy walk and waterfall further up in the forest. We reach there at almost 4pm and the canopy walk already closed for visitors, so i guess we are not so lucky. We continue to kipungit waterfall and happy that it was nice. 

 

 (Kipungit waterfall)

Its a short weekend visit and there's still a lot more we want to see but cannot make it. So on our last morning in KK, we make an effort to go to Kok Lawi Wildlife Park. Its a zoo, a small one but really make you feel connect with the animals. They seems to live in their own habitat  their cage is big and close enough for people to see them. Unfortunately there's no orang utan, since their place been renovated at that time. Their animal shows is a must see shows, it was so entertaining and the staff really interact well with audience. 

I really hope we will get a chance to go to Kk again this year since we haven't check their cultural village, didn't spend so much time on sunday market and definitely want to come back for its seafood. We both agreed that Sabahan are so lucky to stay in KK and enjoy all these. Envy you Sabahan!!!

Mabul Island

Island life, crystal clear water, cheap seafood, zillion star fish, memorable sunset and definitely gorgeous coral. That is what i can summarize about Mabul Island. The journey was unfortunately long, we took an hour car ride to LCCT airport, 3 hours flight to Tawau airport, another hour by car to Semporna and finally one hour boat ride to Mabul Island. Every minute was worth it after we arrived in Mabul Island and everybody was so excited to jump from chalet deck into the sea. 

We stay at http://scubajeffsipadan.com/ which is located in between so many other budget chalet in Mabul Island. What is good about this chalet is not only you can jump into the sea from it deck but you can also watch beautiful sunset from this side of the island. If you are a morning person, wake up between 6am to 7am and you will get a chance to see turtle which just under your deck every morning. We didn't see any because we woke up at 10. aahahahahha

(isnt that gorgeous?)

 (snorkeling right in front chalet)

 (they spend all afternoon in the water)

(waiting for our snorkeling trip)

Mabul and Sipadan Island famous for diving but if you are not a diver alternatively you can do snorkeling as we did. This is also the place where we all get excited for starfish, there are zillion of them, varies size and color all over the place.

We went snorkeling to 2 area, which is one near to Sipadan water bungalow and another one was called lobster wall. Since our waterproof camera have problem we didn't get a chance to take any underwater picture. Coral here was definitely gorgeous, lot of fish, you also can see eel and turtle if you lucky. 

Bajau laut kids like to come to this chalet, you can ask them to take you in their small boat around for as cheap as RM10. You have to negotiate with them for the price. These kids also like to ask you for money. If you see everyday life, RM1 to each kid already make them extremely happy. 

If you not here for diving, nothing much you can do except swimming and snorkeling. Alternatively, you also can pay a visit to Sea Gypsy Village which is accommodate bajau laut people. There's a lot of kids here and its fun to see how they go on their everyday life. Me and my girlfriend was so addicted to goreng pisang aka banana fritters here, first of all it was cheap, RM1 for 10 pieces and it was so good to eat after all those swim we did. Sadly, when you visit the village you can see rubbish everywhere. There's few villagers who try to have clean and nice environment but most of them simply didn't care. Plastic bag was everywhere and at some small beach there's even broken glass and bottles. 

 (they have fun jumping and i have fun taking picture, priceless)

(they don't have tablet to play games so they invent their own game)

 (kids clothes, seriously a lot of kids here :D )

(gov. should help and educate this people)

Sipadan water bungalow was at the other side of the island. We stay at scuba jeff so its mean we have to crossed the village to get there. It wasn't far, maybe 10 mins walk. If you not a guest at this resort, its not a problem, you still can come and visit for free. This resort built and surrounded by beautiful corals. Its nice that you can simply go down and already can find nice and unique sea creatures there. 

 (Observation deck view)

 (during low tide)

(Sipadan water village)

(small blue color fish)

Our vacation been blessed with a fresh seafood, right after bajau laut people back from fishing. They usually come to our chalet around 10am taking live crab, lobster and udang selipar(really dun know what this called in english) with them. We really regret for not taking blue lobster for RM180, when we went to Kota Kinabalu normal lobster already cost us RM200. Udang selipar however taste a bit like lobster and they sell it for RM10 each, RM20 in KK. We love crab so much and for 2 days during lunch we had crab. They sell crab RM20 for 6 nos. We then asked chalet cooker to cook for us and we simply love "ketam masak pedas" or crab in spicy sauce. 

(Bought it right from the boat)

 (otw to kitchen) 

(thats was udang selipar)

(masak pedas...nyummmmyyyy)

We are lucky to be able to see such gorgeous sunset on our second day in Mabul Island. Every body just sit by the deck, with drinks in hand and friends to hangout with and looking at the sun finish its duty for that day.  Mabul island is a place to relax, to forget everything and a place to have a humble life even for a short weekend.