Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

Overview

Let me give you a quick overview of the place.

Kota Kinabalu, also known as KK, is the capital of the Sabah state in Malaysia. It's located on the northwest coast of the island of Borneo and is the gateway to many of Sabah's tourist destinations, including Mount Kinabalu, the Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park, and the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre.

Kota Kinabalu was formerly known as Jesselton, named after Sir Charles Jessel, the Vice-Chairman of the British North Borneo Company in the late 1800s. The city was heavily bombed during World War II and was subsequently rebuilt in the 1950s. In 1967, it was renamed Kota Kinabalu, after Mount Kinabalu, which is located about 90 kilometers northeast of the city.

The Sabah region is located in the northern part of Borneo and is known for its diverse wildlife and natural attractions. It is home to Mount Kinabalu, which is the highest peak in Southeast Asia, as well as the Kinabalu Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

In addition to its natural attractions, Sabah is also known for its cultural diversity. The region is home to over 30 ethnic groups, each with their own unique traditions and customs. Some of the major ethnic groups in Sabah include the Kadazan-Dusun, Bajau, and Murut.

My trip

Hope you enjoyed the introduction. Now let's go for my experience in the city.

As soon as I arrived at the airport, I connected my phone to the airport's WiFi in order to book a Grab to the city. If you want to save some ringgits, wait for the public bus. I honestly didn't know there were buses to the city from the airport until some days after.

The airport is very close to the city, so the ride only takes about 10 minutes to the city center. I booked my accomodation at TOOJOU, a very nice hostel with excellent location and facilities, and very cheap for its value. I also experienced there the most comfortable bed throughout my stay in SEA.

While leaving my stuff inside the room I met two lovely people with whom I would end up spending the rest of the day. Shweta and Khailesh, two Malay students from KL, were having a few days off from their exchange year in Kuching.

After a few minutes of acclimatizing to the place, we were ready to go and explore the city. It was already 4pm, so we didn't have time to explore too far. During what was left of that day, we were able to have a look at some street markets. The Filipino street market, which is only open Saturdays and Sundays, and sells mostly food. And the Night Food Market, were you can find lots of stalls with a great variety of fish and other sea creatures. 

The way it works if you want to have dinner in the Night Food Market is that you have to tell them which exact fish you want and in which way you want them to cook it. You can even tell them to split the fish in half and have it cooked in two different ways, which is what we did. And make sure that, before you leave the place, you tell the workers in the market "So long, and thanks for all the fish".

Street Markets, KK Wetlands and the Floating Mosque 

The next day, I got up early in the morning to make the most out of the day. The Handicraft market was very close to my hostel, so I headed in that direction. This market is very close to the shore line. They sell souvenirs, Sabahan costumes, handmade jeweleries, and orangutan and proboscis monkey teddies, among others. It's called handicraft market because you get to see how the jewelries are being handmade.

Be careful with hitting your head with the products of the market, as they hang them from the ceiling at the perfect distance to hit you right in the face.

After doing the little loop around the market, I continued moving to the north of the city. I passed through the Night Food Market where I had dinner just the day before. It seems that in the mornings, they dismantle the whole thing and turn it into a place for the fisherman to organize their goods, as it was full of cars, trucks and boats.

Just next to it, you can find Pasar Besar market, the central market. The ground floor is where the actual market is located and where they sell all kinds of fresh food, fruits, meat, vegetables,... The upper floor is used as a food court. 

After that, my day plan was to go to the wetlands and finish it with the floating mosque.

On my way there I just bumped into Gaya street sunday market. This market is only open during Sunday mornings, so I was quite lucky to find it without knowing of it's existence. And they sell all kinds of stuff. I was impressed to see how many different animals they sold there. Dogs, rabbits, fish, hamsters, geckos, porcupines, turtles,...

I finished walking along the market and moved further north, where I saw an entrance to the hill (Signal Hill, there's a big antenna at the top) in between some jungle trees. It started with pretty steep stairs. Be careful with the wooden tables, some of them are loose.

And finally, after an hour of walking, I found myself in the wetlands of KK. You need to pay an entrance fee of 15RM if you're a student, 20RM if you're not. I said I was a student and they believed me without having to show any document proving it.

The wetlands tour is an elevated wooden pathway in the form of a loop, so you end up where you start. From the beginning of the loop, you can tell that the wetlands are quite dirty, full of plastic trash. I don't know the last time they cleaned but it wasn't recently, cause I don't think the trash can easily get inside there. It was a bit sad to see all that trash stuck there.

In terms of flora, it's all mangrove biome. About the fauna, there are lots of crabs. If you listen to any sound coming from the water, most probably it was a crab jumping into it because of you. There aren't too many birds by looking with the naked eye, but you can hear them all the time.

I could also find a really weird creature I hadn't seen before. It was kind of a water centipede, that was able to swim by doing snake movements and rotating it's whole body along it's spine. Apparently it must be the most efficient way of swimming it has found.

There's a section parallel to the loop that you can only do if you rent boots, you can do it for 5RM. The staff was quite friendly to me and I was curious about how that would be, so I went for it. The path was very muddy, I had to unstuck my boots every time I took a step. You also need to be careful of where you step, there are invisible holes in the mangrove floor. 

While doing this path, you can find many mudskippers, smaller than in west Malaysia, and not as many crabs as in the main loop.

There are many holes in the mangrove floor, I don't know why. Maybe for the small crabs to live in.

The only time I was able to see monitor lizzards was because the noises of me walking alerted them, so they jumped to the water away from me. They are very good at not being seen, as the well developed predator that they are.

I gave the boots back and proceeded with my trip.

My next stop was Masjid Bandaraya, the Floating Mosque of Kota Kinabalu. It's about 30 minutes walking from the wetlands. Before entering the mosque enclosure, you need to wear proper clothes as a sign of respect. You can rent them at the ticket office for 5RM. The entrance fee is 5RM aswell.

You're only allowed to stay inside the mosque for 15 min. But, to be honest, that was more than enough. I enjoyed much more the time outside of the mosque, where you can have a beautiful view of the building "suspended" above the water.

While speaking with one of the guards, he told me that back in 2018, it was free to enter the mosque, even without the proper religious attire. But that year, a group of 7 Chinese people took pictures of themselves dancing in underwear in front of the mosque. After that, the mosque closed for 4-5 months, and reopened with new rules: 5MYR entry fee, 5MYR cloth rental; foreigners not allowed inside the mosque after 5pm, foreigners not allowed outside the mosque after 6:30. Maybe this was also the reason why the mosque entry keeper insisted in not taking pictures while making religious gestures other than Islamic ones.

After visiting the mosque, I decided to go to the beach and rest while waiting for the night to come. I wanted to see if they illuminated the mosque after sunset.

I found this small beach bar with beautiful views of Kota Kinabalu's shore, and together with the refreshing breeze from the sea makes the bar a very nice place to chill and have a rest from an intense walking day. The beach bar only had bakso dagin at that moment. Bakso dagin is a traditional meat soup (meatballs and beef). Very tasteful, as the young lady who owned the bar kept repeating. 

When the night came, I headed back to the mosque, which they had lighted on with green lights at the top of every minaret, leaving a very nice picture.

Gaya island and Sembulan floating villages, Sabah State Mosque and Museum, and Tanjung Aru beach 

There are two reasons for going to Gaya island. Either you're a tourist or a hotel worker and want go to the resort, which is at the opposing coast to the city, or you're a local and want to go to the village, which is in front of the city. There are two ways to get to the village. First you need to go to the jetty behind pasar besar market, and ask the fisherman to take you. And then, either you're or look Malay, so they make you pay 10MYR two ways (I'm not too sure about this price, it's probably less than that); or, you look like a foreigner, in which case they start trying to scam you with 50MYR or more. I could bargain til 20MYR, point in which more fisherman gathered around me, indicating that was the limit. This is the kind of situations in which I wish I knew how to speak Malay.

After paying, one of the fishermans offered himself to take me into his speedboat. Gaya island is only 5 minutes away from the mainland. Once you get there you can see the poor conditions of the houses. 

The level of wellbeing is the bare minimum. The water is highly polluted and full of plastic trash floating around. The houses are connected to each other by very unsafe and thin wooden bridges. But it's very normal for the people living there to cross the bridges, they have no fear of falling. Going through the "streets" of the village is very easy to see locals doing their daily labours, and kids playing around. 

After some minutes exploring the village, the fisherman went to one of the houses and we picked 3 locals from the village that wanted to go to the town and headed our way back to the dock.

After the village, on my way to the Sabah state mosque, I passed through IMAGO, named, KK Times Square. It was impossible not to think about the extreme contrast between a third world floating village and a western-like mall with marble floor, perfect AC temperature, and expensive clothing shops everywhere.

These two places no more than 2-3 km away from each other.

Walking a little bit further in my route I found Sembulan's village, a floating village inside the city. 

There I met a lovely lady with her grandson up in her arms just at the entrance of the village. We started chatting for a bit with the help of my phone's translator, as neither of us knew the other's language. She then proceeded to take me to her house, where we found her four children. The mother of the little kid knew how to speak English, so we started a more fluid conversation about how was the life there and their origins. A few minutes later we said goodbye to each other.

Finally I arrived at Sabah State Mosque. Very beautiful mosque due to its golden and white colours as well as the single minaret keeping it company. Be sure to have long pants to enter the mosque. I didn't have so they wouldn't let me in. There's a special room for cleaning your feet, never saw this in any other mosque.

My next stop was Sabah museum. Very close to the mosque. The first thing you see when entering the main building is the biggest bryde's whale skeleton in Malaysia, reaching 18.6 meters. Different explanatory posters tell you the story of how the whale was stranded in the shore during low tide, and died. The government decided to conserve the bones inside the museum for future generations to see. 

You can also take a look at the story of Tam, the Sumatran Rhinoceros.

In the same building they show mannequins with traditional clothing. They look soooo creepy, and even more if you're the only visitor. Additionally, some of the exposition rooms, for whatever reason, aren't lighted on, adding more and more to the creep.

They also show antique musical instruments, war weapons such as swords and shields, and talismans. Furthermore, they have some interactive activities.

Next to the main building, there's a smaller one showing a railway expo. It tells the history of how a British engineer, William Clark Cowie, founded the railway in north Borneo (1896). As well as showcasing some train pieces, the restored original wagons and locomotive.

In order to get to the heritage village, you need to cross a very sketchy rope bridge. Very bouncy, metal squeaking with every step, it didn't feel too safe.

Traditional houses, made out of wooden poles and bamboo, were elevated probably to have protection from animals. You could tell the class of the family by looking at the engravings on the roof.

It was a good tour around the museum, but I wouldn't say it's a must-visit.

Trick: if you want to see the museum, not including the main building, you can enter through the two car gates located in the east and north of the museum. No one checks those places, so there's no need to pay the 20RM entrance fee. I don't know if this is legal or not, cause it seemed so obvious that people could enter through those gates.

After the museum visit, I wanted to rest for some time. My feet were hurting from not having stopped walking during the past days. So, I found a sit under the shade of the museum's roof and slept for and hour. There are some pretty comfy massage chairs next to the ticket counter you can use without paying.

Side note: If you want to save money on mouth anesthesia when you go to the dentist, make sure you go order Tomyam soup at Cili Padi Cafe.

The perfect way to call it a day was to go to Tanjung Aru beach. It is famous for how the sun sets in between Sulug and Manukan islands. Great for having a relaxing walk along it as it's quite long, or just lay down and chill. The sand has some horizontal patterns. The darker stripes are due to millions and millions of small crabs which create little vertical holes for protection and stack the sand in amounts of little sandballs around the holes.

Island Hopping

The next day I wanted to go for island hopping, and for that you need to go to Jesselton Point. Once there, you can approach the counter.

They ask you how many islands you want to visit and they give you the option to do many water activities. I picked snorkelling. Then you can separately rent a snorkelling mask and fins. I only took the mask and that was more than enough. They also give you the opportunity of renting a life jacket, don't do that. The companies are forced by the government to ensure everyone has a life jacket, so wait til someone gives you one.

Sapi Island

Beautiful white sand beach. While snorkelling, I was able to see lots of fish of all kinds and sizes, blowfish, clownfish, parrot fish (rainbow), angel fish, giant clams... Be careful with the jellyfish (tomato jellyfish), there are a few floating around. During daytime tentacles are not that long, but during night they get to 3-4 meters, dangerous sting. I almost bump into one, as it was floating very close to the surface and I was looking downwards. I didn't know that they were dangerous and luckily a lifeguard with his kayak came to tell me to be aware of them. 

The coral reef is awesome, lost of colourful coral formations and anemones. However, some parts of the coral are dead because of people stepping on it and also because of a big strong storm that happened in 2016.

In terms of cleanliness, you can easily find pieces of trash floating on the sea floor or on the surface. The lifeguards go clean it everyday, but it never stops coming. The trash mainly comes from the floating village in Gaya island and from the mainland. 

I obtained all this information from speaking with a lovely lifeguard called Deltan. He hopes this ends one day, but if the government doesn't take measures (who probably won't) trash will keep coming forever.

I finished picking up all the trash I could from the coral. Three trash picking rounds in total I did.

Nevertheless, it was a truly different world under water. So much life. All fish of the most amazing colours gathered curious around me. It was funny to see the giant clams contract when I passed over them. I felt like a kid, it was the same kind of feeling, amazed and with the eyes wide open. The coral reef was full of other life forms I couldn't describe with words.

Also, it was so nice to explore all the coral reef alone. Maybe because I went during a weekday there weren't that many people.

They close the reef at 14:30, or when the water level reaches 1.4-1.5 meters, due to low tide. So make sure you go Sapi island first so that you aren't affected by this.

Manukan Island

Much bigger than Sapi. There are even homestays for tourists who want to spend the night in the island. I could even find a decent football field as well as a volleyball court.

I asked the lifeguards which was the best place for snorkelling and followed their indications. Another white sand, turquoise water beach. The beach was almost lonely. I left all my belongings next to a big log, and placed my head on it for a good rest. 

About half an hour after, the beach surprised me with an unusual encounter. A 2m long monitor lizzard came out of the tropical vegetation, just a few meters away from me. He calmly walked over the sand, checking what was around. I guess the bigger and older they get, the less they care about life and survival. My past encounters with monitor lizards, which were young and still not that big, run away as soon as they heard me walk by.

Anyway, he stayed at the beach for a few more minutes and decided to climb back to the jungle.

After the quick little meet with my old fat friend, I decided to give Manukan's coral reef a look. I geared up with my snorkelling mask and jumped into the clear waters of the island. Manukan's coral reef is slightly larger than Sapi's, but very similar in the wild life living in it. When it comes to trash, Manukan was cleaner than Sapi, although I still saw and picked a few plastic bags and bottles.

The clownfish is by far the most curious, he stares at you from the anemone like saying who the fuck is this octopus looking creature waving his hand. And if he feels confident, he approaches you to check you out a little more.

In my dive I was able to see a larger number of angel fish, which seems to be characteristic of the island. I also could find some sea cucumber.

Right when I was thinking about going back to the beach, a huge school with hundreds and hundreds of decently sized fish came to say goodbye. As in the shark documentaries, they came to me, diverged, passed around me, and merged again into a colourful, shiny and beautiful cloud. I was so unused to that feeling that it felt like I was in an alien planet, a whole other world. Perfect finish for my experience in KK.

Pro tip: don't be dumb as me, and put sunscreen on your back if you want to do snorkelling. When I got to the hostel and looked at the mirror I pretty much looked like a sausage only cooked at one side.