~ first impressions ~
“Before independence Sabah was known as North Borneo and controlled by the British North Borneo Company. Before that, it was part of Brunei's empire and renowned for it's pirates. Kota Kinabalu was at one time known as Api Api [Fire Fire] because of the pirates' tiresome habit of repeatedly putting it to the torch...Kota Kinabalu [KK], known as Jesselton until 1963 was razed during WW2 to prevent the Japanese using it as a base. Today it's a modern, functional city of wide avenues and tall buildings, with little in the way of historical charm or attractions, but it's not unpleasant” [Attribution: South-East Asia On A Shoestring Lonely Planet Publications 2001:521]. Agreed!
Wednesday, April 07. First impressions on arrival from Tawau. Our bus finally arrives at 1am. We have to take an expensive taxi in to the town, to Sinsuran. It's now 2 am. After a late night feed and tired we find a nearby lodging, the Pamol-Swiss. It's run by a Filipino woman and her children. A share bathroom room overlooking an evening market costs RM30 per night for two people. Our routine for the ensuing days is determined on the first. It goes something like; breakfast at the Indian roti restaurant then a wander. A siesta in the middle of the afternoon is followed by another outing. Then it's down to the night market for dinner. The tasty favorite is terambulan...a pancake with nuts on top. Not too nutritious but cheap, delicious and filling when hot.
After rising understandably later than usual it's out to find a 'water machine'. They're usually scattered around most Malaysian towns. They provide a very cheap supply of cool clear water. At ten Malaysian cents per litre it's worth knowing where the nearest one is! In Kota Kinabalu they're not in obvious places. Even the locals deny knowledge of their location. Eventually we locate one by the taxi parking place nearby.
Great! We fill up a couple of one and a half litre plastic bottles and head on foot out to a 'suburb' called Sembulan. It's beyond the modern centre of town and the bus station from our room. Ms.Noni wants to visit some family. It's a very hot day. Most of the houses at Sembulan front onto a stagnant swamp. The whole scene brings back memories of squatter settlements in Port Moresby! The families that live here are poor but very friendly. We meet an uncle and his son. An hour later we leave and decide to go out to Tanjung Aru beach. There are buses that run there. But the family won't hear to it. Some young neighbors are going into town. They happily go out of their way to take us the seven or eight kilometres.
Tanjung Aru is Kota Kinabalu's beach. The airport KKIA is at it's far end. We paid a visit because in six weeks of traveling I hadn't been to one. It's OK...clean and sandy! We buried Noni's bird.
There are pleasant enough pavilions to picnic under provided free. A local bus goes right to the entrance. On this occasion we took it back into town, and headed straight to the Filipino night market. I couldn't wait to get stuck into one of those delicious terambulans!