Day 11: Kota Kinabalu

Matt's classy breakfast

Toady we had a day to explore the city of Kota Kinabalu.  It isn't the most beautiful of cities, and it is hot, hot, hot but the more you explore it, the more you find.

We had a lazy start to the day, we had yoghurts and then headed off in search of some 'proper' breakfast.  We read that the shopping mall next door to us, Centre Point has a basement food court with items for breakfast so we headed over.  Some of the eateries were open, but most were selling fried rice with a whole load of toppings most of which we didn't recognise and certainly couldn't stomach that early in the morning.

Whale (fish) rider?

We ended up in a Bornean rip off of KFC, 'Borenos' and had fried chicken with rice (me), fried chicken with cheesy sauce on top and rice with gravy (Matt - I tried it, it was revolting) and chicken burger with mash potato for Tom.  Not your average breakfast - but really all we could find before 10am when everything else opens up.

We then went for a wander up the coastline.  First stop was the Handicraft markets which were outside and full of loads and loads of stalls, all selling the same items.  The problem was the passage ways were very very narrow, and the items stacked up high, meaning you couldn't really see what was being sold.  Also if someone had stopped at a stall ahead of you, you couldn't get past them and would have to wind your way around them through other stalls. We saw a couple of things we liked:  Tom took a liking to a turtle, but we made him wait just in case he saw something else he liked, his holiday money is gradually running low.  Oh, I forgot to add, it was steaming hot in the markets, there was no air conditioning and no fans, the sweat was running down our backs again - lovely.

One of the many local fishing boats

Next we came to Central Markets - once again, no air conditioning, but this time there were fans and high ceilings which helps.  These were pretty much local markets for local people, so selling fruit, veggies, meat and other stuff in bags which we couldn't recognise.  There was then a separate room off which we walked through - it was the non-halal area - so pork in various forms.  This is normal, in fact we have discovered, and now think of as normal that beer and pork goods are always to be found in a separate room / fenced off area away from everything else so that they don't taint all the other goods in the shop.  With over 65% of the population being Muslim it is important.  Most restaurants are halal, the ones that aren't tend to be Chinese.

Pulau Gaya from KK waterfront

We then found ourselves back on a nice bit of promenade so continued to walk along that amongst fish statues to Suria the shopping mall at the end of the prom.  It is very picturesque: clear turquoise sea, fishing boats constantly coming in and out and cute islands in the bay covered in trees.  What's not to like?  We know you aren't supposed to walk around here, we are (as always) the exception to the rule and anyway, you find out the layout of a place much better if you walk it, but really you would expect an obvious pavement to an obvious entrance of a big mall from the promenade wouldn't you?  Oh no, we had to go past the service entrance and all the bins and cross the road and then enter through a side entrance.  Oh hum.  Anyway, we entered and found ourselves in glorious air conditioning, fantastic.  It took us quite a while to cool down, but we got there in the end.  We found a great shop selling Borneo souvenirs, including Tom's turtle at a much cheaper price than in the handicraft market! We pledged to go back on our way out as there were a few things Matt and I liked too.

Do people really do this?!

We had a good look round - mainly to try to get cool again, and found a huge Daiso - yay.  We got excited and somehow managed to buy half a basket of bits and pieces, it was much better than the one we found in KL.  By now we were flagging so headed to the food court for some lunch.  This time Tom went for fried chicken and chips, Matt went for Takoyaki and I went for veggie donburi all washed down with fancy fruit juices.  On the way out we went to the toilet.  Not a great event, but it confirmed a strange habit I wasn't sure about.  In lots of toilets in Malaysia there are notices saying no squatting with pictures of people standing on the toilet squatting.  I thought this must be an exaggeration, surely no-one would do that?   Well today I went to the toilet and had to wait ages. When I finally got a cubicle, the floor was very wet (they wash their bums with a water hose here which I still don't understand how to do without getting all your clothes soaked?).  So not a problem the floor was wet, but then when I looked at the seat of the toilet I noticed wet footprints.  I thought, maybe it is the patter of the seat, so touched them with my hand, they wiped away.  OMG, the person before me really did stand on the toilet seat and squat!  Great!  I didn't want to sit in their footprints, so then I had to squat over the toilet seat (feet on the floor) to use it as there was no toilet paper.  A funny Asian quirk I guess?

We then went to Jesselton Point, which is a ferry terminal for those staying in hotels on the surrounding islands. Next on the planner was to walk up the hill to Signal Hill Observatory Tower.  It took us a while to find it, but we got there in the end and had a well deserved ice cream.  We then got a taxi back to our apartment, we had walked a long way in the heat.  First on the agenda was a dip in the pool, we got ready, Tom went to get his snorkel, but couldn't find it!  We spent 30 minutes stripping the apartment upside down trying to find it, but it was nowhere to be found.  All we can think of is that he left it down by the pool yesterday and forgot to bring it back amongst the chaos of us trying to work out how to get back to our apartment.  We asked at reception and the security guards who went to find it for us, but no luck.  They found a pair of googles but no mask and snorkel, so we have assume that someone walked off with them.  Such a shame as they were quite expensive, and Tom loved them - he was really upset but knew it was his fault and there was no resolution, he hasn't enough money to buy anymore and he needs to learn a lesson on looking after his property.  I was hoping he would be able to snorkel in the sea at the resort hotel we are going to, but I guess that won't happen now!

Downtown KK from Signal Hill Observatory

We got back to the apartment, had showers, put the laundry on and had some downtime before heading out for sunset and tea.  The sunset didn't really happen today unfortunately so we walked south down the boardwalk to another huge shopping mall.  Once again, I know the culture here is to drive everywhere, but if you are going to build a huge shopping mall at the end of a boardwalk prom, surely you would put some sort of pedestrian crossing across the 6 lanes of busy road so you can access it?!  Apparently not!  There was a road tunnel to the mall for cars, so we walked down that and suffered the heat and fumes being spat out by the cars, but really!!!!!!!

We found a very cute shop in there called Kaison and somehow came out with a measuring elephant?!!!!  Then tea in a Malay restaurant (fried rice for me and Tom, and roti and chicken curry for Matt).  Then a walk back a different way (we still had to negotiate a huge, busy road with no pedestrian crossing) to take a very tired Tom home to bed (think we may have slightly overdone it today!)