Kota Kinabalu trip – 16 Jul 10

We had our breakfast at 7am since breakfast is only served from 7am. Breakfast is simple as only toasted bread with jam and butter, coffee or tea are served.

Dining area

Breakfast for the day

Shops are not open so early at 7plus

Today our itinerary is island hopping. I choose today instead of tomorrow to avoid the crowd as locals normally flock to these islands on weekend. We got a bit lost while finding our way to Jesselton ferry terminal as it was indicated on the map that the it is opposite Wisma Sabah but we could only see constructions here. We asked around and we were told that we had to walk further down. Hmm... I discovered that actually the map which I printed online is a bit outdated because after I came back to Singapore, I found that the map which I took at Sabah Tourism building shows that Jesslton ferry terminal is actually futher down from Suria Sabah. I should have relied on the new map instead. =@

I like the glass facade at Suria Sabah

Reaching Jesselton Ferry Terminal 

Finally we reached Jesselton Ferry Terminal

Famous red telephone booth

There are 5 islands in Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park, namely Gaya, Sapi, Manukan, Mamutik and Sulug. Out of these 5 islands, Gaya has been privatised and Sulug does not have any facilties such as washrooms and restaurant for visitors.

We decided to buy ferry ticket to these 3 islands - Mamutik, Manukan and Sapi. The ferry ticket cost RM37 for 3 islands and the pier tax RM6 is payable here which is the same as what I have researched. We bought our tickets at counter 3 (Summer Cruise Holiday) and bargain to RM40 per pax. I guessed almost every counter sell the same package at roughly the same price. We also rented 3 set of snorkelling equipment and life jackets which cost RM10 for each set. It is cheaper to rent the equipment here than on the islands.

We were told to wait until 9am for the ferry which is something a bit annoying. According to my research, the ferry depart about every 15 min in the morning and every half hour in the afternoon.

So many counters selling the same package

Shops inside the ferry terminal

Foods stall along the way to the pier

Walking to board our speedboat

Leaving Jesselton pier

A plane taking off

Endless horizon

The weather is good for island hopping today with clear blue sky  and hopefully it stay this throughout the day. We went to Mamutik first and then we will leave for Manukan at 11am and then Sapi at 2pm. I arranged the islands in this order so that we can have our lunch at Manukan where it has a small canteen selling food at reasonable price. It is a bit rush as we had to take turns to snorkel too.

On the speedboat

Reaching Mamutik island

Upon reaching Mamutik, foreigners had to pay Park entrance fee of RM10. This is only payable at the first island. The person in-charge from the Company which we purchased tickets from help us to speak to the person at the booth and told me just to pay RM3, the rate for Malaysians. When I was making payment, the person spoke to me in Malay and I dun even understand a single work. @_@" Hence we had no choice but to pay RM10.

Park entrance fee

Pay the park entrance fee here

Different types of fish

Fishes fighting for bread

Washroom facilities

Getting ready for snorkelling

So many people

Waiting for the speedboat to Manukan

Banana boat

Manukan is the 2nd largest and most developed tourist facilities island among the 5 islands. There are facilities such as chalets, diving centre, restaurants here.

Fish therapy at Manukan jetty

Chalets

Good idea to dry the life jacket

Manukan island

When doing my research, I discovered tha Scuba-doo is available at Manukan but it's expensive, costing RM250 for half an hour.

Scuba doo

I wondered if these are real remnants?

Some travel agency sell those island hopping package which comes with BBQ lunch at around RM100+ which is expensive. Hence normally locals would buy from the mainland and bring it here. The food at the restaurant here are hotel price like. However I have done my research and found that there is a stall selling food at reasonable price. It's the "Fast food service" shop beside the Souvenir shop. I bought mee goreng which cost RM6.50 while YQ had fried rice for RM7.

Restaurants

Shops at Manukan

Variety of food

Our lunch

Sun-tanning

Waiting for our turn to snorkel

YQ and I had our lunch first while waiting for our turn to snorkel. Chew Hiang, Chew Yen and Ricky went to snorkel first and they told us that there are sea urchins near the Scuba-doo area there but we dun seems to find any. We snorkelled quite far from the beach and still couldnt find any so we swim back near the shore. We decided to swim to the jetty where we saw a lot of fish when we first reached Manukan.

Clear blue sky & Crystal clear turquoise sea

Some people performing water ballet stunts

Must be envying Luxiang right?

Saw the lady with pink hat in full gear?

Our last island hopping is Sapi island. Among the 3 islands, YQ and I agreed that this is the island with the most fishes and beautiful corals. This is also the island where the monitor lizards roam.

Sapi island

Happy moment @ Sapi island

No new pose already huh?

Jetstar trademark jump

Monitor lizard

Bye bye Sapi island

Mini crab

Everyone waiting for the last boat at 4pm

Are u afraid of getting wet?

The round tower is Yayasan Sabah Tower, tallest building in Borneo

By the time we reached Jesselton pier, it's only 4.45pm and we decided to walk back to Lavender Lodge to wash up before heading to Waterfront for sunset.

Kota Kinabalu has one of the most beautiful sunset around the region and waterfront is a good place to catch the sunset. Waterfront is just a few minutes walk from Lavender Lodge.

The waterfront is in infront of Le Meridien Hotel

When we reached the waterfront, there were quite a lot of people standing there waiting for the sunset. There are also restaurants along the stretch.  We just stand at the waterfront and wait for the sunset. We were a bit disappointed when the sun was first blocked by the clouds. Luckily, the clouds shifted and we saw a very beautiful sunset.

Waterfront

So many bumboats docking here

The sun is covered by the clouds again

Beautiful sunset

The sun has set

After the sunset, we walked to Sedco Square/Kampung Ayer Seafood Court for dinner.

Is it green or red light?

Sedco Square/Kampung Ayer Seafood

There are only 4 seafood stalls inside, namely Old Village 古村, Hua Hing 华兴, Twinsky 双天 and Sri Mutiara 珍珠海鲜酒家。In my research, Hua Hing and Twinsky are recommended. In the end we chose Twinsky since Jenny from Lavender Lodge told us that Twinsky is cheaper.

Old village which is near the entrance

Hua Hing Seafood restaurant

Sri Mutiara and Twinsky

斑马螳螂虾 Literally translate is Zebra mantis prawn

花螺(luo2)

象鼻螺

Black fish

Crabs

原只七星班

We ordered butter prawn, abalone, crabs, stingray and 原只七星班。The butter prawn and the fish is nice. we commented that the butter sauce here is comparable to Ang Mo Kio Melben butter crab sauce. The boss of Twinsky told us that 原只七星班 can only be found in Sabah. We ordered 4 crabs which are cooked into 2 separate sauce. Both taste mediocre, probably because the crabs we ordered are small and not much meat inside. The abalone dun taste like abalone, I wondered what exactly it is. I wouldnt recommend the stingray, not nice at all. The total damage is only RM323.50 ~ S$140 for 6 pax which is quite cheap.

Yummy butter prawn

That's how big the prawn is!!!

Abalone

金香菇肉蚧

Salted egg crab

Stingray

原只七星班

It's only 7.30pm after our dinner and we went to a convenience store next door to buy water. The mineral water here is much more expensive than the one we bought at KK Plaza yesterday. We just bought it here as we didnt want to walk to KK Plaza just to buy mineral water.

YQ bought poker cards so we had card games in his room. I also went to take a look at the shared bathrooms and toilets. There are 2 common bathrooms and 2 common toilets each floor and they are pretty clean. I guess this is one of the reason why most people booked a bedroom with no ensuite toilet.

Long staircase to 2nd floor

YQ & Luxiang's room

Common bathroom

Common toilet

>>Day 3: 17 Jul 10