Malaysia is a Southeast Asian country occupying the Malaysian Peninsula and part of the island of Borneo. Sabah is one of its state that located on the Borneo island, the other is Kuching. The capital of Sabah State is Kota Kinabalu. Our destination of backpacking this time are Kota Kinabalu city (KK) and Kundasang village.
ARRIVAL
How to get to KK : Many flights come and go to Kota Kinabalu Airport. Just check schedules from your origin country.
How to get to Kundasang : No flights. Kundasang is a remote village that can only be reached by road transportation. But many homestays available if you’re planning to have a long vacation here. The weather is cool and many tourist attractions here.
You can ride a taxi from KK but quite expensive. Better rent a car (with or without a driver is your choice). We paid total RM 260 (RM 100 for car, RM 100 for driver, and RM 60 for full-tank gas). The car was Proton Viva, which actually quite difficult when going uphill. But we got skillful driver, Pak Nas, who can handle it well… so we’re good.
KOTA KINABALU TRIP
Being not-so-crowded city, Kota Kinabalu (KK) is a nice place to walk around. Taxi driver who chit-chat with us said that in his eyes KK is a city in a village and a village in a city. Why? Because old buildings and new buildings are located side-by-side with no distinguish separation.
Sometimes there is new apartment located on traditional housing complex. Sometimes there is old building surrounded by modern buildings. No specific area separation like this is the modern side, that is the old side. Kota Kinabalu just the whole thing, being old and modern at the same time.
We spend the first day to do city tour around KK. Rely on internet article and GPS, we visited interesting places there. Luckily our hotel is located in the heart of the city (Kampung Air), so we can go almost anywhere from there. Besides, the area is on 24 hours so coming late is not a problem.
Continue reading (Incl. Pic) at: PandaBearJourney: Kota Kinabalu and Kundasang
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