Sunday, October 24, 2010

Places @ KK, Sabah

What first comes into your mind when I talk about Kota Kinabalu? Well, I would say Mount Kinabalu!
When I first agreed to go KK with Deardo's family, one of the plans was to climb the mighty Mount Kinabalu. Even my dad did it at his 50s' so why can't I??? But ah well, not everyone is as adventurous as us, thus, my trip in KK was done without the climb... Big sigh... *shake head~*

Without the amazing Mount Kinabalu climb, the best place we've visited in KK was The Tip of Borneo, which we only decided to go on the last day of our trip in KK.Yeas, we've made it to the tip of Borneo, right at the tip of the cat's ear on the map!
It was a long and exhausting three hours drive from KK to The Tip of Borneo. Mind you, the three hours drive aren't even highways, it's like rocky and narrow kampung roads! But I gotta say, all the traveling was definitely paid off once we reached the place!Need I say anything more??? The pictures themselves tell you how breath-taking the view is at The Tip of Borneo!
Unlike other beaches or islands we went before that, over here the sea is blue and extremely clean. Perhaps because not many people are willing to drive so far just to visit a place, this place is free of pollution! The beach doesn't have many people too due to the lack of trees so yea that is why I got so sun burned... :S
All I can say is, The Tip of Borneo is like the only place we think is worthy of a visit in KK! And!!! It's totally F.O.C!!!

We also went to...
Kinabalu ParkWelcome to Kinabalu Park... Pay first before you go in!
This is actually somewhere that will lead you to the place where you start your climb to Mount Kinabalu. As you enter, you have to pay entrance fee, then somewhere there you can go into some botanical garden, which is basically just some trees but you need to pay for entrance fee too.Next time if we are to go to KK again, it must include the Mount Kinabalu climb! I don't care!!!
We also went to the hot spring spa which is about one hour drive away. Also very lousy but you need to pay too.. The hanging bridge or whatever you call it was lousy as well. You need to even pay for your camera or video camera!!! Like around RM10-RM50!!! Bloody hell, the view aren't even nice! Who want to take picture of video of that lar? Ish...On the way back to KK town, we managed to snap some gorgeous Mount KK and sun set pics.
IN KK, YOU NEED TO PAY FOR EVERY SINGLE PLACE YOU GO! EVEN CAR PARK FEE HAS SOME BLOODY TAX INCLUDED!

Manukan Island
From KK, we paid for a speed boat ride to two islands nearby. I cannot even remember the name of the first island, but the Manukan Island is the famous one. Again, we had to pay for both island we've visited. Happily taking pic before finding out we actually need to pay to enter the bloody island! Grrrrhhhh...
When you have to pay you definitely don't expect to be welcomed by this...Right at the jetty as we arrived in Manukan Island, we had an early lunch of a mixture of Nescafe, Mee Sedap, Roller Coaster, etc...
Sea water is badly polluted. Beach aren't very beautiful too. Snorkeling aren't very fun when halfway through you will find yourself stuck with some black plastic bags... For the first time I swam in the sea, the snorkeling experience was cool yet the corals and fishes aren't very special in Manukan Island. Big disappointment for both Deardo and I actually... Haih...Without me knowing, a short swim in the sea got me very badly sun burned...
Tourism in Sabah already sucks big time because of all the entrance fees. Yet they didn't give people the right impression that people are expecting... Sigh...

The Green Connection
The Green Connection is quite a new eco-park kinda place set up by a group of Australians animal lovers. They are very passionate about saving living animals, especially fishes, corals and reptiles.Deardo Wong was very excited to have a chance to play around with the python! I was like aiyer don't you come near me~~~~!!!
There is this huge aquarium with daily presentation during the feeding period.
Because they are surviving on the RM15 entrance fee without much help from the government and because they are doing something good to the earth, it's actually the only place in KK that I think I paid willingly to enter.
Nice place to visit if you love animals a lot and don't mind it being very simple yet educational!

I didn't have high expectation before the trip so yea it was actually pretty much up to the low expectation. In fact, there were more disappointment than amazement in KK! From food to places, only a few made me go 'wow~'. The most disturbing thing is all the entrance fees which make no sense to me at all! It's just like you go to Sungei Wang and pay to enter their toilet which is old, dirty and smelly! In KK most of the places that you need to pay to enter offer you some shitty stuff...
If there is a next time, Deardo and I are soooooo going to climb the Mount Kinabalu! Time to challenge ourselves!
Bring it on man~~~!!!

More photos go to my FB album 1 and album 2.

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