farawaynowtravels.com On my quest to see wild Orangutans, I had to stay in a couple of different cities in Borneo before setting off for my wildlife adventure. We took an hour and a half long flight from Kuala Lumpur to the city of Kota Kinabalu, or KK. This was not like any other city in Malaysia that we had previously visited. We had gotten mixed reviews about it, but found it to be a delightful place to visit. Originally a fishing village dating back to the 1500s, this slow growing port city did not even receive “city” status until the year 2000. Now, with its two sea ports, it is the commercial and industrial capital of Borneo and the fastest growing city in all of Malaysia. KK has also become Borneo’s tourism capital and gateway to Borneo with pristine waters for diving and snorkeling, beautiful beaches, rainforests, Mount Kinabalu, and diverse wildlife, including Orangutans. They are the main reason I came here.
We had a nice room just a few blocks from the waterfront promenade, and we definitely took advantage of that. On our first night there we had fish and chips at an Irish Pub overlooking the water. The ocean front promenade here has a nice selection of local and international restaurants, bars, coffee shops, cafes, and nightclubs. We enjoyed ourselves here on several occasions, one being my birthday. We celebrated my birthday dinner on the waterfront at a nice little Italian restaurant called Gusto Food & Wine Cucina Italiana. They had a nice wine room where the owner recommended different bottles of wine to go with the food. It was a great birthday dinner sitting over the water and watching a glorious sunset.
Another place we liked to eat is the famous Waterfront Seafood Night Market. Open from 5:00 pm to midnight every night, you can find almost any type of seafood you’ve ever dreamed about here. Each vendors stall offers a wide variety of fresh seafood and hawkers actively try to get you to come to their stall. Displayed on ice, you choose the type of fresh raw seafood you want. The array of seafood offered was amazing, and it was caught that day. If it’s not still alive, they show you the signs for freshness like clear eyes, red inside the gills, firm flesh, no smell. Then they bring you their menu so you can choose side dishes to go with it and they also recommend the best way to cook the seafood you’ve chosen.
We were then seated at a table to await our seafood feast! I chose a good sized white snapper, some of the biggest prawns I had ever seen, and some squid for a starter. For the sides I kept it simple choosing rice and sautéed morning glory, which is a lot like spinach. You are expected to haggle with them on the prices, but none of the seafood seemed overpriced to me. I always compare prices to what it would cost me back home in the U.S. This place is packed every night, so we had to wait a little bit for our order, which was fine, since we were seated at a table overlooking the water. We sipped our fresh coconuts while watching a beautiful sunset. The first to arrive was the squid, which was tender, tasty, done to perfection and soon gone. Then came the prawns and the white snapper. The prawns were like eating lobster, firm, sweet, and juicy! The grilled white snapper was exceptionally delicious. The morning glory was sautéed with garlic and chilis and delicious. We never got the rice, but that’s okay, I would not have been able to fit it in. An excellent seafood feast in a great location.
As usual, we look for good, cheap, local places to eat and we found a great place we liked for breakfast called Sri Latha Curry House. Our usual became the Roti Telur which is a roti bread with an egg cooked inside, with a side of curry sauce and black coffee. We even found a decent burger here at a place called Damn Good Burger. Another fav was the Aachi Curry House where we had dinner on several occasions. Their Fish Curry on banana leaf and Nasi Goreng were delicious. We both love the food in Malaysia and it seems that no matter where we go, we have a good meal. Malaysia is not a good place to start a diet, there are just to many tasty dishes!
One of the most popular gathering spots here is Tanjung Aru Beach. Known for being the best place to watch the sunset here in Kota Kinabalu, we had to check it out. We had been told that people start gathering for sunset at around 5:00 pm and if we wanted to avoid the traffic jam we should go a little earlier. Were they ever right, I could not believe the traffic! Luckily our Grab (like Uber) driver knew a short cut, through the airport parking lot no less, and we arrived with time to spare. I was expecting a very small and crowded beach, but I could not have been more wrong. There definitely were a lot of people here, but the beach was huge, both wide and long. The setting sun silhouetted the para-sails, jet skis, and hydrofoil surfers.
There was beach volleyball and soccer games going on, and families building sand castles and just a lot of fun in general. Besides the beautiful beach, activities, and sunset, the Tanjung Aru Beach Night Market is here as well. There was live music and many people dressed as cartoon characters wandering around. These characters seem to be popular every where we visit. The market is open nightly from 5:00 pm to midnight and you can find a wide variety of foods, crafts, and souvenirs here. Unfortunately, most of it was what I would classify as junk food, not really dinner fare. Although we did sample a few things that were tasty. This place is so popular that when we booked a Grab to go back to our room, they had a designated pick-up spot, and a waiting line. It was a fun evening and I have to agree, it is a great place to see a breathtaking sunset.
Above, I mentioned my birthday dinner. For the day of my birthday, Aaron booked a boat tour to a private island called Dinawan Island. It was fantastic. We went down to a dock on the river and caught a boat that took us out to sea. It was a beautiful day for boating, snorkeling, and chilling on a tropical island. After boarding the boat, they took us to a snorkeling spot that was rich with corals and tropical fish. The temperature of the water was perfect. I hadn’t snorkeled for a couple of years and I was very excited to get into the water. The tour guide told us what types of fish lived here and to be looking for them. I spotted all but one, the Black Tipped Reef Shark. They are very shy, non-aggressive, and not dangerous, but I would have liked to see one. After snorkeling, we set off for Dinawan Island. You can do tours that will take you to multiple islands in a day, but we chose the tour with just one island so we could take advantage of more snorkeling and additional activities. Dinawan Island is a small, private island and limits visitors to 20 a day. There are a few rooms to rent if you want to stay a night or two, but you can’t see them and they can’t see the day visitors section.
The island itself is absolutely stunning. The varying shades of turquoise water, fine white sandy beach, lush green tropical plant life. There was a huge school of fish surrounding the dock as we were crossing the bridge to the island. After being greeted with a cold juice, we did more snorkeling from the shore, some beach combing, and just relaxed. They served up a great lunch here that was included with the tour. After lunch we relaxed in the shade a bit and then did a little trip around the lagoon in a double kayak. After that we tried out our paddle boarding skills. I have done SUP in Mexico and Hawaii and I really like it, and I’m not bad at it either. When you get tired you can just sit down and paddle, which is really nice. Next, we went hiking around the island a little ways so Aaron could fly the drone. He got some really nice footage of the island, but when bringing the drone in to land, he got to close to the overhanging branch of a tree and the drone hit it and crashed into the ocean. I saw it happen and went into the water to retrieve the drone. Aaron was able to save the footage from the SD card, but a few minutes after being pulled out of the water, the drone began to smoke. Accidents happen, sometimes you just have to go with the flow.
Another example of this is we wanted to take our own snorkels and masks on our snorkeling trip so we walked down to the Bazaar on the waterfront. Filled with all sorts of shops and stalls, we found two snorkeling sets and bought them. That night we went to take them out of the package and discovered they were “youth” sized. I don’t know why neither of us noticed that when we were looking at them. We kept the snorkels, but the masks were way to tight. The boat tour furnished us with masks so it was all good in the end, but we were a little disappointed as we had intended to keep these for upcoming trips.
On Sunday morning we walked over to the Gaya Street Sunday Market. We have visited many street markets and fairs in different countries, some of them are way to big and crowded, but this one was just the right size. Starting at 6:00 am and going until noon, two streets are closed to traffic in the Gaya neighborhood for the vendors. Set up like a farmers market, one street was all beautiful fresh flowers, potted plants, and locally grown produce. The colors and variety of fresh vegetables were amazing, I would be shopping here every Sunday if I lived here. The second street was clothing, handicrafts, antiques, souvenirs, and tasty treats. We did have to stop and take shelter at one point because a fast moving storm came through and dropped some rain. It was over quickly and we went on browsing. While we were in this area we found a great little Chinese restaurant and had some lunch. After finishing up at the street market and having lunch we checked out a few shops in the area and then headed back as the dark rain clouds were building up again.
KK has a great museum that we spent several hours in. We always check out the museum where ever we happen to be. It is one of the best ways to learn about a places social and natural history and culture. The Sabah State Museum complex was huge. It not only contained the museum proper, it also had an ethnobotanic garden, zoo, heritage village, and the Sabah Art Gallery. The museum was impressive as it takes you through archeological collections from native tribes, even headhunters, up through contact and trade with other countries, through colonization to independence. They also have a great collection of traditional dress and musical instruments displayed. They had a very interesting display of an old Chinese ship wreck that had been found off the coast in the area. They had set it up under glass exactly as it had been found with all the Chinese porcelain and pottery ware sitting in sand as if were still on the bottom of the ocean. It was fascinating. The museum was hosting an exhibition of ancient painted Chinese screens that were absolutely stunning. The ethnobotanic garden and heritage village showing how their original stilt houses in the jungle had been built were also interesting. I can wander around a good museum for hours!
When visiting a Muslim country, or any country, I dress appropriately and am respectful of local social and religious observances. KK is a beach destination and definitely feels more laid back than some other Malaysian cities but, if you’re not at the beach you should be fully dressed to walk around town. That can be shorts and a tank top, but not your bathing suit. Kota Kinabalu was a place I had not expected to be going to, but I’m glad we did. It is so much more than just the jumping off place for a wildlife, diving, or snorkeling adventure. With friendly and welcoming people, it is a great little city to visit and spend a few days in.
OUR KOTA KINABALU VIDEO
Our adventure with wild orangutans.