Moths in Kota Kinabalu

We went for lunch at this place at Bundu Tuhan. Apart from our group, there was no other customer. But there were a lot and seriously a lot of moth. None of those gigantic moth that we are seeing now in Singapore but small one, medium size one, plain one and colorful one and one odd shape one. Too bad I only had a compact camera with me and with the poor lighting indoor these was the best that I could manage.

This was on a door frame. It would have blend well if it was on a tree trunk

One of the smaller one but so beautiful

The biggest moth that we seen

Another one on a door frame. What with moth and door frame?

This small one looks like ready to take off soon.

The odd shaped moth. Very difficult to get it fully in focus with the compact camera

Another beauty

And this one is the brightest looking of the lot

I love the pattern on this one

This one looks like the same species as the first one but is more white

Can anybody name all the moths?

The Journey to Mt Kinabalu - the Boring part

The first thing after we landed was to get food and for the 3rd successive time that I been here, we went to this place Selara Kg Air for seafood dinner. We first discovered this place during our first visit way back in 2008 and thought the food was pretty good but now, I think it is overpriced and pure mediocre. And I cannot stand the way they stuff the still alive mantis prawn in plastic bottles and leave them in the tank. But still there were a few seafood outlet to choose from and we didn't have to be too concerned with who don't eat what and it was near enough to our hotel for us to walk to.

Talking about hotel, we stayed at the Best Western Kinabalu Daya hotel. It was cheap enough but my advice to those going there to stay - don't. Firstly, they put us in rooms that had no windows and I really detest that. And worse, our friend Tony was trapped in the lift after we returned from our climb and the hotel actually called the police for help with the result that a fire engine, an ambulance and a police car came - all just to rescue poor Tony. So don't stay there not even if it is near to town.

The only advantage in staying here is that it is right opposite this place where Tony bought us to shop for trekking stuff. The shop turned out to be a department store but it had no brand trekking pole for sale at RM15 and all sort of hiking gears at dirt cheap prices. 

After checkout, we proceeded to our first destination but en route we stopped at this place which overlooks the Kinabalu range for a group photo and some shopping.

At Pekan Nabaru

Lunch was at this place which had more moths than customers. More about the moths in another post later but the food was cheap and it kept us full. And best of all, there was another magnificent view of the mountain range

Our next call was this place called the Don Bosco Children's Home.

Part of our fees for the climb went to the benefits of the children of Don Bosco Children's Home. The lovely children performed some songs for us before the warden asked us to distribute our gifts to them. Tony had also used part of the proceeds to buy some food stuff for the home while we had bought some stationery items from Singapore as well as some candy from the local supermarket.

Our last place was our home for the night before our climb the next day, the Mesilau Nature Centre. 

It was a beautiful place surrounded by trees and plants. We stayed in chalets which had 3 rooms all of which come with ensuite toilets and heater. The only blight was the food they served. Every thing was so oily, from the curry to the vegetables to the pasta. Maybe they think the climbers need fuel to climb the mountain and so they decided to lend a helping hand by providing us with oil for fuel! But this was our start point for our attack on the summit and so we had no choice but to endure.......

Food in Kota Kinabalu

Was in Kota Kinabalu a few weeks back and had a great time eating the local street food. We stayed in the Gaya area and there was absolutely the best food around. We went with the flow and ate mostly at the crowded shops although we did dine at some of the not so crowded and we immediately knew why they were not crowded!

Our first stop was dinner at this Bak Kut Teh place. The place was absolutely swamped with people from the minute it opened in the afternoon till it close at night.

This is the typical Malaysia style bak kut teh and comes with all sort of side dishes like pork ball, intestines, livers, stomach etc

Next up was breakfast at this place just across the road from the Bak Ku Teh store. There were 2 stalls inside the coffee shop, one selling Sarawak kolo mee and the other Sarawak style laksa. The kolo mee was the more popular stall. But I thought the laksa was not too bad too.

Kolo mee

Laksa

On the way back from race pack collection, we had lunch at this place that one of the guys recommended. The place was crowded and hot. There were many people ordering the noodles from one of the stall within but we went for the fried noodle stall and sadly the food were so so. Dinner was zhi char food at a shop next to our hotel but it was just passable and so all these shall not get a mention here. 

Breakfast on Sunday was at a dim sum shop. We had dim sum and noodle but these were normal and nothing to rave about. 

The only reason the dim sum shop get a mention and a picture here is that they used those 3-in-1 packet for the teh tarik that we ordered! Either they must be darned proud of their Sabah produced 3-in-1 tea or that is the way tea and coffee are made in the country but I don't really fancy those commercially produce tea.

For lunch we went to what must be the most famous Western food outlet in town, Little Italy! See we are kinda  weird, we do our carbo loading after the race and not before! Our party had pizza, pasta, salad the usual Italian stuff. Was the food really that good? I guess if there is a scarcity of such food in the country, it will be considered good and of course we wolfed down the food but frankly I think there are better pizza and pasta back home.

Kota Kinabalu

Touched down in Kota Kinabalu on Friday morning. We made all the bookings of air travel and rooms through the internet so didn't know what we were getting ourselves into. Checked into our hotel in the city, the Le Meridien and realised we had unwittingly booked into a five star hotel. Our room was enormous. Even the bathroom was huge. And we even had sea view and city view. And they stilled wanted us to upgrade.

Breakfast was a very tasty tom yum noodle at one of the coffee shop behind the hotel. Although we were staying in the city, there wasn't really much to see or shop. We walked along the waterfront pretty much and went to the fish port, the markets, the handicraft centres and practically all the malls near the hotel.

Dinner that night was at Seri Selera, a seafood place where there were a few seafood stalls. We had fresh prawns, squid and noodles.
Yummy! Other than that, we didn't know what else was good to eat in KK unlike say Penang which is famous for its CKT, laksa, etc... Nevertheless, we managed to spot another gem at breakfast the next day.

Breakfast the next morning was at this quaint little coffee shop selling fish meat noodle with yong tau hoo. The noodles are actually fully made of fish meat. Later, after collecting the race kits, went over to 1Borneo, the first hypermall in KK. Unfortunately, the place was new and a number of shops were still not open. Had a so so bak kut teh lunch before going back to the hotel. It rained after that so stayed in the hotel until nearly 8pm before going for dinner at the Chicken Rice Shop. This being the eve of the marathon, didn't dare to try any street food and we could only look lovingly at the barbecue seafood along the waterfront.

After the marathon, we checked out and went up north to Nexus Resort, another five star hotel. 5-star hotel but no 5-star food. The buffet dinner was expensive but horrible. Unfortunately, while the spirit was keen to explore Mt Kinabalu and the nature reserve, the body was not too willing so we spent the rest of the day lazing around the resort. But other than the beautiful sea and scenery, there wasn't really much things to do there. Tried to get M to go down to the spa but she baulked at the prices so we went back to the room after dinner for an early night.

After breakfast, wanted to book a day tour but got lazy to arrange and decided again to just explore the expansive hotel grounds. While exploring the beach, both of us got a foot massage and was lucky enough to have it finished off before it started to pour. On the recommendation of the massuer, we went to this seafood restaurant, Gayang, where we had the biggest lobster in our life.We also had a veg, a crab, noodle and another crab but somehow the restuarant got the bill mixed up and we ended up paying for a veg, lobster, crab and shellfish(which we didn't order). Tried explaining to the cashier but nobody seem to understand what the fuss was about so in the end just paid up and left.

Kota Kinabalu can be quite a boring place with nothing much to do or eat and shop. But it has its charm. The place is clean, the people are friendly and polite and there is a dearth of beggars and touts which are ever present in JB and KL And so I will probably return but this time to scale Mt K:) Complete photo here:

Kota Kinabalu 2008