Our first few days in Sabah had given us plenty of culture, delicious food, and a taste of their lush forests, but what we were craving now was a healthy dose of the sea! Kota Kinabalu itself is set on the coast, but if you’re serious about getting some beach time then you need to head out to Tunku Abdul Rahman Park.
This marine park is made up of a cluster of islands, but the most popular ones for beach-goers are Pulau Manukan and Pulau Sapi which were where we headed for the day!
From Sutera Harbour we set off to the islands in style on our private speedboat… in just twenty minutes we had gone from city to sea, and moments later we were enjoying the sand between our toes and the soothing sounds of the crashing waves.
Unfortunately, that calm and serenity did not last long. Remember how I mentioned that Pulau Manukan and Pulau Sapi are popular?
I hadn’t prepared myself for just how busy they would be; we literally watched boatload after boatload of enthusiastic day-trippers swarm the beach.
I quickly came to the conclusion that this is probably not the place to come if you want a relaxing, lazy day of doing not that much on the beach.
In fact, all those day-trippers come to these islands because they actually want to do stuff like diving, snorkelling and a couple of other unique activities so we thought if we couldn’t beat them, we’d join them!
We packed away the beach towels and any thoughts of sunbathing, and did some more interesting activities instead…
Conquering the Coral Flyer on Sapi Island
I was always a big fan of the flying fox when I was a child because I absolutely loved that little thrill I got whizzing from one side to the other.
Getting on the Coral Flyer brought all those happy childhood memories back… but this was definitely like no flying fox I had ever done before!
The Coral Flyer is the world’s longest island to island zipline, it’s 250m long and is between Pulau Sapi and Pulau Gaya.
A boat took us from Sapi to Gaya where we were helmeted and harnessed, before being hooked onto the line… it was at this point that I started to get just a tad nervous! It took a tiny bit of reassurance from a certain someone, a bit of laughing from the boys in the line after us, and a bit of a push from the guide and I was off!
It was over in a flash but we enjoyed the most incredible views from the Coral Flyer – definitely one of the most memorable experiences of our trip!
Continue reading (Incl. Pics & Vids) at: Connie Consumes: Tunku Abdul Rahman Park, Sabah – An Island-Hopping Guide
..
