His and hers #black and #white #travel #daphywanders #kotakinabalu #sabah #borneo #malaysia
As seen on my previous post, I was in Kota Kinabalu two weeks ago to get my Open Water Divers’ license. The trip is an early-planned belatedly-used birthday present that’s half sponsored by Matt and possibly my favourite holiday in a long time!
This time, instead of staying with relatives there as I usually do, I stayed in Winner Hotel, a small 3 star hotel located in the city centre. To get there, we took a taxi ride that cost RM30. Seemed expensive for the distance, but I was pretty amused by the car itself so, didn’t really mind. I mean, check out the bling in our taxi!
Kota Kinabalu is a beautiful city. You get to see so much of the water and the sky. Picture above was taken while in the moving taxi, was quite lucky to get a guy walking in the picture!
The city had very pedestrian friendly streets which is a big plus compared to Kuching city. Matt and I walked to get everywhere except the airport. They had clean beautiful sidewalks with shades or buildings at most places.

I felt like I was able to appreciate the place a lot more compared to the many other times I was here as I walked and wandered around the city this time. There were fat pigeons! We saw one that was as big as a chicken on a roof of the building next to our hotel!
There was also street art. According to my dive master, this was a building that burnt down years before, and after the serious earthquake this year, some artists came and drew some memorial stuff here.
After my theory session on the first day we were there, we headed to the nearby waterfront for a stroll. The weather was lovely and the scenery was beautiful! I often brag about Kuching’s sunsets, but that day, KK won.


I just love sunsets!
Such a clean and lovely waterfront. Kuching’s is bigger, but ours is a river. They had the sea right there!
The airport was so nearby that we almost always see an airplane flying near us.

Another part of the waterfront where locals and tourists hung out, and kids practiced skateboarding. Lovely!

Fishermen boats? I actually see this in front of my office window everyday as my office is right beside the jetty.

Our hotel is clean, comfortable and has strong warm water. It’s really near a lot of malls, bars, restaurants, even a walkable distance from the jetty! They also offer us a free simple breakfast as shown in the picture above, making it a good place to stay if you’re on a budget. I’d probably only complain about the thin hard pillows.
It was raining a lot on the second day onwards. I even had a dive skill test session in the rain which wasn’t the most comfortable day as the waves were a little too strong. It also affected the visibility quite a bit.
One of the reasons I’m sick now is probably because we walked in the rain so much with a tiny cheap umbrella we got from one of the road side stalls.
This was the view from Oceanus Mall, outside Nandos. It made me feel like building a house by the sea so bad. I loved KK even more then, almost considered moving there!
Isn’t it lovely to wakeup to this everyday?!
Oooh, I made a friend.
We look quite alike, except I have more hair.

While waiting for the rain to stop on our last day there, I happened to meet an old friend from university in the mall! What a coincidence! Borneo felt a little smaller at that point in time. Such luck to have met him too! He gave us a ride to the newer mall nearby, Imago as Oceanus was quite dead and it was raining too heavily to walk over.
Imago was definitely a lot better. It was even larger and much more classier than the malls in Kuching. They carried brands like DC, Kate Spade and Michael Kors to name a few that Kuching doesn’t have yet.
We ended up watching Mission Imposible: Rogue Nation there as we weren’t in much of a shopping mood. MBO cinemas was in this mall and it was better than the one in the Spring somehow.
As we still had alot of time before our flight, we decided to walk all the way back to our hotel from the mall. More street art!
And beautiful, clean, pedestrian friendly streets! *heart*
Looking at this made me feel at peace.
I feel more and more like my father’s daughter.. Loving the sea, diving, fishes, blue…
Another part of our walk back. I don’t know why they chose to use this wood for the walkway. It was warping so badly. Sad waste of pretty wood.
I’m in love with the ocean. Will definitely buy my retirement home by the sea when I’m a billionaire. #kotakinabalu #sabah #borneo #travel #daphywanders
And that concludes my very enjoyable trip to our neighbouring state’s capital city. I really love KK and don’t mind to live there just to be near the sea, sand, and islands. It has a good balance of nature and city. Now I feel I must come back every year as it’s near and not expensive.
Till the next time, I miss you. D’:
 Next up, food we ate in KK! Ate pretty pricey seafood dinners but they were so fresh! Totally worth the try!
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