In this final post about our recent trip to Borneo, we travel back to Kota Kinabalu on the west coast of the island. We added these three nights so that we could explore the city in our own time. Our first task on arriving back to the hotel was to recover and re-arrange our cases before a light meal and an early night.
Day 1
We had pre-booked a private city tour with an 8 o’clock departure, so we went for breakfast quite early, only to be met by utter chaos. The hotel was hosting a major three day conference – its delegates all descended on the restaurant simultaneously for the start of their day. Somehow, we managed to negotiate a reasonable breakfast that included scrambled egg and fresh fruit.
The first stop on our city tour was a drive past the waterfront market (which we had already visited) and the main government administration building on the opposite side of the bay. Adjacent to this is the circular 30 storey Tun Mustapha Tower, housing the Sabah Foundation that promotes education and economic development in the state. With all the floors suspended from a central core, its construction was quite unique at the time.
Our next stop was the floating mosque, with a capacity of up to 12,000 people it is the largest mosque in the city, if not in Malaysia. In order to enter the building, we had to get dressed appropriately, but we were only able to get photos of the main prayer hall by lending my phone to one of the guardians as we prohibited from entry. It is a spectacular building with many photographic angles inside and out.
Changing religions, our next visit was to the Chinese temple – another magnificently decorated building.
The final part of the tour was a walk along the shopping area where our guide pointed out key historical buildings with an explanation about how the area was established on reclaimed land over a century ago. Our included lunch was disappointing, made even worse by our guide focused on his phone rather than his guests. This tour was rather costly and definitely not value for money.
Following an afternoon at the roof top swimming pool, we ventured out to Tangun Aru beach, a popular spot to watch the sunset. While we waited for the sun to dip below the horizon, we were entertained by a married couple having their photos taken in a purpose built elaborate setting. The sunset did not disappoint.
Day 2
We decided to make our last full day on Borneo more relaxed. However, our breakfast was just as chaotic as the previous morning on account of the conference delegates. With that behind us, we caught a car to take us to the wetlands where we spent the morning on the boardwalks spotting birds, mud skippers and crabs in the smelly mud of the mangrove. The bird hide gave us an opportunity to watch the egrets and try to spot kingfishers (disappointingly, we only saw two fly past).
Back at the hotel, the afternoon was spent at the pool before dinner at the waterfront again.
Day 3
Thankfully, a relative sense of calm returned to breakfast. Outside it was raining, but by the time we walked down to the waterfront one more time, it had stopped. Not much was happening as it was still quite early, so we returned to the hotel to finalise our packing and wait for our transfer to the airport. And so ended a great, interesting and educational visit to Borneo.
On Reflection
A gauge of our trips is always the answer to the question: would be make a return visit? On this occasion the answer was yes. Key memories include:
It is a safe country to visit with friendly, welcoming people.
The menus predominately included chicken, although we never came across too many chicken ‘factories’.
Although not too hot (usually around 29), it was humid, so our clothes were constantly damp and sticky.
Toilet floors and seats were always wet, except in the hotels.
We were surprised at the limited range of tropical fruit
The Grab car hire service (similar to Uber) was great and cheap to get around
The wildlife, Borneo’s biggest attraction, was simply amazing
I end with an apology for the delay in posting the final stages of this trip – life has been rather hectic since our return, but I am pleased to be able to finish up before Christmas. With regard to that, I wish you all a safe and enjoyable festive season.