Day 4: Gaya Market, KK, Sabah

Our Inn was very near to Gaya street thus we walked to Gaya Market at 6.15 am. This Gaya Market is only opened on Sunday as early as 5 am till noon. You will find a lot of Sabah's products, crafts, fruits and food here. It is a must visit place when you are in KK if you want to buy local products and try local food.

Corals:

Sea shells
Paper art:




Crafts

I love these butterflies. They are made from feathers. I bought 6 of them for RM 10. The seller is dumb and deaf so need some sign language.

Plants



Fruits:
sabah famous pomelo:
Peeled version. We bought 2 of these to bring to the island .


Chinese dumplings. My favourite but so sad cannot eat because of my present state of health.

Pets:

There were so much to see and buy but we were running short of time cos we were going to the island at 9 am .

While at the market actually we wanted to try those dim sum in the coffee shops at Gaya Strret but the cofee shops are all packed with people. We tried a few but all packed so in the end we ate dim sum at a coffee shop that was near to our inn.

Fish&Co.

Sabah really has some unique food that we Kuching people don't get to enjoy in Kuching. While in KK, we went to Warisan Square ( an upmarket with lots of branded goods) to try Fish&Co..

Nice ambiance and lighting.

We ordered Mushroom salad ( RM 10.90). Taste nice and refreshing.

New York Fish and chips ( RM 16.90) . Very big portion with lots of chips.

The chips go very well with this white creamy sauce. Love it!


My friend ordered this seafood pizza ( RM 16.90). Not very nice because the base is made from flaky pastry and does not look like the real pizza. Oily too. Not recommended.


I ordered this seafood platter for 2( RM 42.90) super huge portion with mussels, cuttlefish, prawns, fish, savoury rice and chips. Really filling for 2, so much so that we cannot finish the chips and need to "tapau" home. Highly recommended because the seafood are so fresh and juicy.


By adding RM 6.50 I get a complete meal which comes with this super rich and super creamy mushroom soup plus a passion fruit drink.


At Fish&Co drinks are expensive:
Rooibos tea -RM 4.50
Ginger Ale _ RM 5.00
Passion fruit + sprite - RM 5.50
Lime Juice - Rm 5.50

Excluding service charge (10%) and GST(5%) but overall Fish&Co is as good , if not better than Manhattan Fish Market.

Little Italy

Everybody on the net says Little Italy is a must place to go while in KK. Hence we look high and low for it and found that is is just behind the Inn that I stayed.

Little Italy” is reputed to be Sabah’s most famous, and arguably the only true Italian restaurant. It is very well established and business was good. Little italy was situated right opposite the Wisma Merdeka, Ground Floor, Hotel Capital (opposite Wisma Merdeka Shopping Mall)

We ordered pasta with lamb chop - Agnello Griglia ( RM 32.90)


Chicken with rice for my chinaman friend - Pollo Cacciatora ( Rm 28.90)


beef and salmon - Carpaccio ( RM 24.00)


The food was ok only as compared to the seafood platter @ Fish and Co. that I will show in my next post.

LadyBamboo Villa , Ubud

An interlude post between my posts about our Sabah trip.... I really meh-tahan liao when I received this email:

Actually we have booked our air ticket, Kuching direct to Bali during the super long Hari Raya break this September as we have all in all 11 days of holiday . As travellers obviously we search to look for nice and comfortable accommodation. As I was surfing the internet I found this villa in Ubud called LadyBamboo Villa which looks nice and cosy and got me interested hence I click on the reservation form to enquire about the charges. There are 17 of us going there and that villa is one of the very small hotel in Ubud. And in the reservation form it is stated that one villa costs USD250 per night which my countrymen can easily afford.

_____________________________________________________

My comment in the reservation form was exactly like this:

All in all we have 17 of us travelling together. May I know if we book the whole villa how many rooms and beds are available to us and how much is the total charge ?

Thanks

Regards

______________________________________________________

Then I get this reply from the owner (cut and pasted below):

Dear Christina

Excuse me, that I ask before answering: To how many places you have send your enquiry?

We maybe could make the whole villa available to you, but it would need some effort and therefore have to check first, whether it is worthwhile to change reservations for your enquiry. Unfortunately most of our enquiries from Malaysia are just a lot of work for us, but rarely something comes out of it. Sorry, if this sceptic against your countrymen is not applicable to you. Looking forward to your favourable response.

Kind regards

XXX

Ladybamboo Villa

____________________________________________________

And this is the reply we give her

XXXX

Looks like there is no need for further communication between us.

I apologise on behalf of my countrymen who seem to have given you a lot of headache with their enquiries over accommodation. However, its all part and parcel of the pre-planning for trips outside one's own country to shop for suitable accommodations. People usually have to be discerning in their shopping. It is hoped that you will understand and be more accommodating about this. Similarly when you travel, you will also do the same.

Thank you for your time.

Christina

_______________________________________________________

Will you still stay in a hotel like that for your holiday???..I for sure will definitely NOT since she is so prejudice against our countrymen!! ...dealing with people who are supposed to be hospitable but are not, will surely spoil my holiday mood.....real celaka

Sunset in Sutera Harbour and Tanjung Aru

Sunset Over the Horizon

Oh sunset so far away,

over the sea horizon

speaking so gently to me.

Colours you throw at my soul.

A sunset so beautiful ,

on that warm evening so grand,

such comfort you send my way,

slowly descending into the horizon.

Goodbye charming sunset,

goodbye twilight,

goodbye until another

glorious captivating encounter.



Saw these beautiful, sensational sunset at Sutera Harbour, KK and at Tanjong Aru, KK.

Sutera Harbour

Sutera Harbour

Sutera Harbour

Tanjung Aru

Tanjung Aru

Tanjung Aru

Day 3 - Poring hot spring and canopy walk

After viewing Mount Kinabalu, we had a nice breakfast of Xtra delicious Maggi Mee and boiled eggs plus fresh veggies and grapes !! ( imported lar) of Kundasang.

We drove to the National Park for the canopy walk and Poring Hot Spring near Ranau.Again entrance to the main park was RM 3 per person and the canopy walk cost another RM 3 per person.

Surau in the park.

Got this fast flowing stream after the entrance

We jungle tracked through here to get to the canopy walk which is around 45 minutes walk.

Wow...but not scary lar since there is netting at the sides, but some of my friends had nightmare the night before, thinking of - to walk across or not to walk across!!


All in all there are 5 parts for this canopy walk.


What an achievement for these "town pumpkins"


Poring hot spring- open tub is RM 2 per person. for us we booked 2 rooms to ourselves at RM 15 per room for an hour. One hour of soaking is more than enough!!After 30 minutes some of us already felt giddy and dehydrated. Sorry cannot show you all the photos of the private room cos it is private.



After all those walking and shouting while crossing the canopy, the soaking in those very mild sulphur smell bath tub it is " food and technology " time so we headed onto Ranau town to have our super late lunch at 2 pm .

Fish with ginger
Sabah famous "Su jai chai"
Yummy buttered prawn
plus bak kut teh which I didn't manage to take the photos cos too hungry liao!

Reach our inn at 8 pm after detour to Pine Resort. Sutera Harbour, Tanjong Aru and Promenade Hotel. Will show you all the wonderful sunset scene at Sutera Harbour and Tg Aru in the next post

Kinabalu Park

On Day 2 just before our dinner at Zen's restaurant which was very nicely decorated and with its super clean toilet and nice Chinese paintings:

We went to Kinabalu park .



All national park entrance in Sabah is RM3 per person which is known as conservation fees. It was drizzling and foggy at that time so not much to see around the park itself.

Our driver decided to drive all the way to the starting point where climbers climbed Mount Kinabalu. It was a very steep drive and visibility was very very poor at that time.

My 2 friends in the other car were praying real hard for our safety. At the end of the day it was very worth to visit since we saw happy people , an group of old Japanese , the one with the blue raincoat was 70+ years old, returning from the summit.

Notice at the checkpoint before the climb:

Saw a nice spider web:

After dinner we all retired to bed early ( At midnight) after a few session of black jack with bets of 10 sen per bet. We all slept with the hope of waking up early the next morning to see Mount Kinabalu before and after sunrise.

View of Mount Kinabalu from our resort ( Zen Resort) at 5 am

View at 5.30 am
View at 6 am

View at 7 am

View at 8 am taken by my artistic friend: