Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. A running holiday !

At the Jesselton Point Jetty.

This holiday was planned due to the Borneo International Marathon. I have not been to Sabah. A lot of people staying in West Malaysia has never visited East Malaysia. Due to the expensive flights previously to visit East Malaysia. And we even need a passport to visit East Malaysia. Now we can visit East Malaysia thanks to the cheaper flights and just with a MyKad, i.e. our identity card. We also have direct flight from Penang to Kota Kinabalu. How convenient !

My impression of my first visit to Sabah is I have should visited her earlier. But the place would not have been more organised and developed then. The main attraction of Sabah seems to be its tourism especially eco-tourism and with the famous Mount Kinabalu. Mount Kinabalu is Southest Asia's highest peak. It is 4,095.02 metres tall above the sea level. She has been attracting visitors far and near. You can find out more about Sabah at this link, sabahtourism.com.

The group of tourists I discovered most is from Hong Kong where I found out that it is only a short flight from Hong Kong to Kota Kinabalu. But generally, Kota Kinabalu (KK) is more expensive place as compared to Penang. And the food is as expensive as Kuala Lumpur. Kota Kinabalu is also famous for fresh seafood. But it is place with much relaxed pace and KK is famous for it's fiery sunset. An attractive place for photographers. The main area of the city centre is not big which you can visit on foot. Unless you intend to visit Suteera Harbour or Tanjung Aru which is further away. Unfortunately, we didn't visit Tanjung Aru during the sunset. Tanjung Aru is said to have one of the best sunset.

Photo taken when she was trying to do a yoga pose. But I was too slow. But the photo still turns out to be awesome.

Absolutely amazing sunset photos

I could not go for island hopping before the race so as not to affect the performance of the race. So I went for island hopping at Tunku Abdul Rahman Park the next day after the race. I have only chosen two islands, ie Pulau Manukan and Mamutik due to time constraint.  The other two islands are Pulau Sapi and Pulau Sulug. It is convenient to visit Tunku Abdul Rahman Park as the jetty is in the city centre itself. Compared to Pulau Redang and Pulau Perhentian in Trengganu, I feel the Trengganu islands are more attractive due to the corals. But it is still worthwhile visiting. And of course, Sabah is famous for Sipadan island, one of top ten diving locations in the world. One of my diving friend once told me, if you dive, you have to dive Sipadan last. Because once you been to Sipadan for diving, you may not like the other diving locations. It seems that Sipadan's diving is that attractive !

Holiday mood photo at Pulau Mamutik

Pulau Manukan

My final conclusion on Kota Kinabalu is that I will travel again to Kota Kinabalu to visit the Kinabalu Park at Kundasang and more nature places near Kota Kinabalu. Kinabalu Park was gazetted as the first State Park in Sabah in 1964 and declared Malaysia’s first World Heritage Site by UNESCO in the year 2000 for its outstanding biological attributes. So it will be a first of many trips to come. And of course, a hike up Mount Kinabalu.


My next post will be on the Race Recap of the Borneo International Marathon (BIM).