Kota Kinabalu

Last weekend I had to leave Thailand to get my visa stamped. This time I was on my own, Nuch was up in the north of Thailand with her work. On the map it is on the right hand side level with the South China Sea title.

I chose Kota Kinabalu, before last Friday I had never heard of it. KK belongs to Malaysia and is in what we used to call Borneo. The fight is around 2-1/2 hours. I flew with Air Asia which is very similar to Easy Jet.

I arrived at around 21.00 Malay time; this is eight hours in front of the UK. After a very bumpy landing I looked out of the window and it was pissing it down! Great!!! By the time I got to my Hotel it had stopped raining. My Hotel was the Barjaya Palace Hotel. It was a very nice Hotel, a little bit too far out of town, but my room was very good and at only £18 per night including breakfast, not a bad deal. When I went down for dinner I was greeted with the sight of the bar. AND NO ALCOHOL! After a few minutes of shocked disbelief and the thought of the mistake I had made coming to Muslim country, I asked the waiter if there was any chance of a beer. Luckily the alcohol is kept out of site and is for foreigners only. Carlsberg too, things were looking up.

The next morning I took a taxi to the main beach, the beach was superb, clean and empty. The South China Sea is clear and warm, with loads of Islands just a short boat trip away. I walked round the Peninsula and was greeted by someone tried to sell me a deep sea fishing trip. I had a few hours to kill before I had another trip to go on, so off I went. We went all the way out past the Islands. We dropped anchor and got the fishing rods out and got fishing. Two hours later, not even a bite, the Skipper had caught three big snapper fish. Bastard! I returned to the Hotel and got ready for my Jungle Safari trip, which I will tell you more about in my next post.

Kota Kinabalu is a perfect holiday destination for anyone wanting sun and sand, but if you want anything more than a few drinks, the nightlife is a little sparse. It does however have lots of ideas for day trips;

Orang gutan Sanctuary
Mt Kinabalu
Diving
Island Hopping
Jungle Treks
Hot Spring Waterfalls

One more thing, the Airport as you can see from the picture is very, very small. The facilities are shite, no Duty Free, no working toilets and no proper security. (Very Worrying).