Romantic Sabah

Sejak kami mendirikan rumah tangga...kami belum pernah berkunjung ke Sabah bersama-sama...biasanya berasingan, maklumlah bertugas kan.

Namun begitu, tiap-tiap tahun, kami cuba untuk pergi holiday berdua-duan...tanpa anak dan orang2 lain, just the 2 of us...and surprisingly it's not that easy to decide the time and the best place to go and kadang2 boleh bergaduh...ala gaduh sikit2 tu kira asam garam rumahtangga...biasa la tu!!

So for 2009, after much deliberation, we decided to go to Sabah...negeri di bawah Bayu, negeri Malaysia yg paling jauh skali. So in the early morning of 9 April 2009, we took a taxi to KL Sentral and then a bus to LCCT. Next we flew Air Asia from LCCT to Kota Kinabalu and arrived in KK at about 10am...we put up one night at the Le Meridien hotel, right in front of the waterfront and the Filipino market...and had a great view of the harbour. That night, we had local seafood dinner...varieties of cheap makanan laut / seafood bakar..berbagai2 jenis ikan, sotong, udang and yang paling interesting was the sea weed.

The next day, we rented a car (Pesona for RM 200 per day) and drove to one of the tamu in Penampang...very interesting to see various species of plants and animals (food), similar to what we have in Semenanjung but not the same...native to Borneo. We then continued the journey northwards before we stopped for makan and continued to Yayasan Sabah building, UNIMAS and Pantai Dalit near Tuaran. After dropping by at Shangri La Rasa Ria(nice location and very nice hotel too), we continued further to Tamparuli (via the old bridge - scary!!) before the engine rumbled on climbing the mountain ranges. We reached Kundasang and we love the place very much...nice cool weather and nice hilltop hotel at The Heritage Hotel.

The hotel is perfect and it has a wonderful view of Mount Kinabalu. But when we reached the hotel at around 5pm(and even during the drive), we could not see the mountain... covered with clouds. It hardly showed itself until the sun set and the clouds disappeared. So, it is good to know that Mount Kinabalu is best viewed early in the morning... say 5 - 6 AM. It's an awesome and magnificent sight...

The next day, we drove around Kundasang...visited the local kampongs, vegetable and flower farms, dropped by at Ranau tamu and visited the 2 gates to Mount Kinabalu ie the Mesilau Gate and the Kinabalu Park Gate. Kinabalu Park is a World Heritage Site... beautiful place, very well maintained and full of foreign tourists...and some of them I saw were enjoying hot Maggi cup!! That night we had dinner at one of the local restaurant... under the moon light and freezing cold!

While in Kundasang, we met an elderly Hong Kong couple who had just return from the summit of Mt Kinabalu...they've been here 3 times and the third time they reached the top, previous 2 trips were just for dreaming and planning. One hell of an attraction!

The next day, we left Kundasang and moved on to KK and stayed at Shangri La Tg Aru for one night before we left for KL the next day. At Tg Aru, we met a friend who work for Shangri La..another excellent hotel. This hotel had won many local and national environmental awards and that is part of the reason why we chose to experience the Shangri La's hospitality.

Overall it was an excellent short break for us and Sabah is really great for eco tourism...although sometimes I feel it is now being over commercialised. Great nature but not so good food...need to know more of this factor.

So..our next Sabah plan is to either to climb Mount Kinabalu or tour around Sabah by road. InsyaAllah...