11 of us - 7 TFT staff and 4 family members at Changi Airport Terminal 1 for waiting to board our Air Asia flight to Kota Kinabalu...
Finally reached after a 2.5hr flight!~
It was closed to 8pm when we touched down and our 1st meal in KK was at the Dowish Restaurant..
They gave us a VIP room which by the way was quite disgusting. The room smelled real musty and there were mosquitoes beneath the table. I would rather have one of the tables outside.
The food just kept coming and I think we had around 9 dishes.. the crabs and the fish weren't fresh enough.. best dish of the night has got to be the plate of chye sim... crunchy and sweet.
See (frm this picture) we finished the chye sim faster than the crabs. Pardon the greasy face of mine...
Our hotel for 2 out of 3 nights in KK.
3 colleagues who were brave enough to opt for the mountain trekking itinerray.
Rest of us who opted for the more relaxing itinerary...
I love this picture... very ang mo feel to it... like it's been taken in ang mo country....
Breakfast was kolo noodles at their local kopitam...
This plate of noodles may looked plain but the seasoning is really tasty... I'm hungry as I type...
After 2 hours of drive, we reached Mt Kota Kinabalu... The air was much cooler than in town and the view was nice. I used nice, not beautiful because I wasn't impressed... I have seen nicer places and honestly, their standard of hygience sucks big time.
Us trying to smile naturally while under the glaring sun...
I remembered it started raining at this point....
Following are pictures of flowers and trees taken at Botanic Garden...
Flowers with leaves as wings!
Our room at the Pine Resort - sorry, but I hated the room too... again stale smell of wood... lousy water heater system... you have got to on the shower heater for at least 30min to have lukewarm water for your bath. We were in the mountains so the temperature dropped quite drastically during the night and early morning. There was no heater in the room and the blankets weren't thick enough... yes, it is cold even with all the windows closed. So imagine my shock when I stood in the shower expecting warm water in the nest morning as I turned on the heater beforehand... only to have me jumping around when the ice cold water hit me! Turned out that Melvin and my neighbours have used up the warm water!! Bloody cold and barbarian way of living!
Introducing the worst dish of our lunch at the resort. Fish slices were deep fried and then stirred-fried in tomato sauce.. the fish was tough and fishy... guess the cook was aware of this and that's the reason for the tomato sauce..
Best dish of our lunch - Stirred fried mushrooms (3 to 4 types) in oyster sauce...Yummy!
After lunch we went to Kundasang war Memorial Park... this park is located in the middle of a very dirty market... Sort of like a paradise in the middle of nowhere...
It recorded the history of the locals, British and Australia soldiers long march to death as prisoners of war... starvation, sickness and the weaks being thrown to rivers that were infested with crocodiles.
Well maintained plants in this beautiful garden...
I was trying the "colour accent" feature in my camera... like it?
Love the vivid colours of the beautiful flowers...
Toad lusting after the "Terrapinn"...Interesting!
One of my favourite places in KK... we took so many pictures in it! It is also a popular dating haunt as we spotted several young couple at strategic spots... we were too noisy and disturbing them loh!
We moved on to the Poring Hot Spring next... We, espeically me, were real excited with hot spring plan and really looking forward to it.. flashback to my visit to hot spring while in taiwan a few years ago awwwww...
Before we went for our hot spring session... we bought tickets for the canopy walk.. yes, you need to pay to walk in their rainforest... you need to pay for your camera if you plan to take pictures while on the canopy. Forgot to mention that we need to pay to go visit their botanic garden and war memorial park too... Not just their commando mosquitoes, but their authority is determined to suck you dry too.
Introducing THE HOT SPRING OF GERMS...
The young and the old, most of them in T-shirts and pants/ jeans simply just jumped in... yes, they don't even bother to change to swim suits or singlets/ shorts combo....
Being grossed out by the scene at the common pool, we decided to pay a little more $$ to rent their private rooms.. 2 couples will share the 2 tubs in each of these huts... only to be further disgusted with their low standard of hygience!!!!! I was so grossed out by the interiors that I forgot to take pictures! Basically, it is a dark little room with 2 small windows , 2 blue bathing tubs side by side, 1 cubicle with a shit-splattered toilet bowl!!! There was not even a single hook for us to hang out clothes as we changed in and out of our swim suits!!! Imagine us trying to hold on to our towel with our teeth and our dry clothes under our arm.... trying very very hard to balance ourselves and not drop our clothes near to the toilet bowl! That's not all, we had to clean the tubs and filled them with hot spring and cold mountain water by the taps ourselves..
I was disappointed big time loh!!... I was hoping for a nice cozy pool, with scented candles and soothing music... they could have done so much more with their nature resources... If I am the designer of Poring Hot Spring, I would have built cozy huts made of bamboos... who needs bricks in the wild anyway?... THINK wooden tubs to replace the ugly plastic tubs... staff should light some candles/ aromatic oils before hand... Music will be a bonus... Clothes racks should be available in the bathroom... most importantly, staff should tidy up the place before renting our to unsuspecting customers! Invest more $$ and get it all back from the customers including good reviews! They should enforce some rules for acceptable attire for common pools as well!
Stopping by a supermarket to get some snacks and drinks... I don't mean to complain non-stop in this post... but their ppl totally lack initiatives... most items were covered in dust... and I spotted some sweets that were well past their expiry dates... instead the staff gathered at the cashiers... doing... nothing... efficiency is definitely not their priority.
Frozen chicken parts left in the open...
Our tour guide bought us this delicious local version of vegetarian roti prata... I had about half of it ( he bought 6 pieces) but went back to my room to threw it all up due to a bad headache...
A local fruit (forgot the name)... texture & taste is pretty similar to custard apple... go wiki-read up if you don't know what is a custard apple...
I skipped steamboat dinner because the headache was literally killing me... joined the group for breakfast only after a good night rest and a very very cold shower in the morning (refer to earlier part of this post)...
Stopping by this lovers' bridge to take a picture while on the way to river rafting on Day 3.
Can you spot me? Hahaha! I am almost fully covered head to toe just to avoid having a tan by the time I finish the 1hr canoeing... I got teased relentlessly by my colleagues in the name of beauty!
Us after the river rafting... totally wet through and through as we did back float and some of us were thrown off the boat by our raft instructor!
Went to their Philipinos Market to shop for souvenirs...
The outdoor area was the food section, selling wide range of raw vege, meats to cooked food...
After a quick visit to the supermarket, we rushed to a 5-star sountry club and resort to catch the sunset...
The trio who went for the climb on Mt KK aborted their quest with less than a kilometer to the summit... fatigue was the main reason and also their fear of height... they took another 6 hrs to walk back to the starting point and was totally exhausted when they joined us back at the hotel in the evening... only Chandra joined us for the dinner...
Best meal that we had in KK! This place is crowded with tourists and the seafood was fresh and portions were huge! The fried rice with just browned garlic and eggs was divine! To entertain the tourists, this restaurant even has a cultural dance segment which was interesting by a fussy Singaporean's standard.
DAY 4 - half day of sigh seeing before we had to board our flight back to SG...
I had Yong Tau Foo noodles for breakfast... taste so-so.. can't you imagine a bowl of noodles in this run-down kopitam costed RM$5?!... Exp leh...
A few of them were too tired to join us at the half day tour so they slept in late... those in the pictures (plus me taking the photo) were the survivors who joined... after breakfast, at their Sunday flea market.
Last stop on our itinerary... Wildlife Park...
Magnificent White-Bellied Sea Eagle...
Mynas who could mimic human speech... like we said Hello and other sentences.. they took 1 minute to digest and repeat the same words to us... but I think they got tired of us and tried to hint us to move on by saying Bye-Bye repeatedly to us...
It was warm and there was a thousand mosquitoes around! They picked on me purposely and I was scratching myself crazy through the time in the park. I detest all insects especially mosquitoes! Suckers!
Tried to get a response from this lazy big cat by calling it "Pussycat"!
Make a guess.. what is this creature??
After spending some time online, finally found the ang mo name of this animal and it's... Pere David's Deer!! Chinese name is Mi Lu...
"Besides the Chinese official name Milu (麋鹿), a Chinese nickname name (Traditional Chinese:四不像, pinyin: sì bú xiàng), and in Japanese: 四不像 (shifuzou): translated as "four unlikes," because the animal has been described as having "the hoofs of a cow but not a cow, the neck of a camel but not a camel,antlers of a deer but not a deer, the tail of a donkey but not a donkey."[2] Several other sources claim "sibuxiang" to have different meanings: "the nose of a cow but not a cow, the antlers of a deer but not a deer, the body of a donkey but not a donkey, tail of a horse but not a horse"[3] ; "the tail of a donkey, the head of a horse, the hoofs of a cow, the antlers of a deer";[4] "the neck of a camel, the hoofs of a cow, the tail of a donkey, the antlers of a deer";[5] "the antlers of a deer, the head of a horse and the body of a cow"[6].
By this name, this undomesticated animal entered Chinese mythology as the mount of Jiang Ziya in Fengshen Yanyi (translated as Investiture of the Gods), a Chinese classical fiction written during the Ming Dynasty." - Taken from Wikipedia...
My colleague's husband initially told me that it was the mount of 太上老君... but wrong info leh... 太上老君's pet is buffalo... after much research, found that the Pere David's Deer is the mount of 姜太公.
By this name, this undomesticated animal entered Chinese mythology as the mount of Jiang Ziya in Fengshen Yanyi (translated as Investiture of the Gods), a Chinese classical fiction written during the Ming Dynasty." - Taken from Wikipedia...
My colleague's husband initially told me that it was the mount of 太上老君... but wrong info leh... 太上老君's pet is buffalo... after much research, found that the Pere David's Deer is the mount of 姜太公.
This is the end... hope you like the pictures... me??... enjoyed the trip but will never visit KK again.
