vkeong loves good food, travel and photography!
Posts tagged Travel
Kota Kinabalu Trip Day 2 Part 1 – Whitewater Rafting at Padas River
Apr 19th
On the second day of our trip to Kota Kinabalu, we went for Whitewater Rafting at Padas River (Sungai Padas). This adventurous activity involves a team of people utilizing a raft to navigate a river, usually on whitewater.
Yeah the word whitewater seems to denote that the river should be crystal clear. Well that’s certainly not true for the Padas River, which was no where close to white but mud brown in color lol. For your information the term whitewater refers to the formation of a turbulence and increase of water velocity (bubbly and frothy white appearance) caused by certain sections of a river known as rapids.
Actually, whitewater rafting didn’t even cross my mind as one of the things to do in Sabah. Two reasons: I can’t swim and I won’t be able to bring my camera along, which means we will have nothing to take back but memories. After long consideration especially on the safety factor, we thought “what the heck, there’s lifejackets provided and so many people done it before. So, it’s probably safe” and decided that to take up the challenge after all.
The whitewater rafting package (organized by Riverbug) we took cost RM210 a person including return transfer from hotel, rafting equipment, guide, breakfast and BBQ lunch. This was our itinerary that day:
1. 0800 hrs: Riverbug guides picked us up from Lavender Lodge by van and we rendezvoused with the other participants at Promenade Hotel (next to Ocean Seafood Restaurant) Then we took a bus to Tenom, a town famous for its coffee products.
Boxes of breakfast were distributed and each consisted of fried chicken (damn weird, who eats fried chicken for breakfast lol), some wafer biscuits, sandwich, banana and mineral water.
During the 3 hours bus ride, we watched a video of people rafting in Padas River and I don’t know if it was done on purpose, it kept showing clips of the rafts capsizing. That didn’t make me feel good at all lol. We also stopped at a hill (looked and felt like Cameron Highlands, very cooling!) for a break and passed by Murut Cultural Centre, where Kalimaran Festival was held. Here are the photos we took at the stop.
vkeong’s Trip to Kota Kinabalu Day 1
Apr 14th
If you didn’t know, I went on a 3 days 2 nights trip to Kota Kinabalu the last weekend courtesy of MAS. My companions were none other than SL and the lovely couple of Kampungboycitygal.
For your information, the fare to Kota Kinabalu from KLIA via MAS starts from as low as RM124! And it’s possible to get such low fares if you plan your trip early. Considering there’s two public holidays coming soon in May, I did a search just now for flights to KK from KL and I was pleased with what was offered:
The total price (round trip) including tax is only RM444 for Economy class, very affordable. If you feel like visiting Kota Kinabalu after reading my experience, be quick and book a flight now while the seats and fares are still available! Better still, head on to MAS Facebook page, become a fan and enter the ongoing contests to win cool prizes like flight tickets.
Our flight was at 9am, and check in was fast and easy using the kiosk check in at the airport. If you have any doubts while using the kiosk, feel free to ask the MAS staff around. I am sure they would be glad to assist you just like how they helped me. Oh, this was the plane we boarded – flight number MH80.
Knowing that I will be going for white water rafting and island hopping, I brought extra clothing. It’s a good thing we are allowed up to 20 kg baggage allowance, more than enough for me to store my clothes, tripod and battery chargers for phone and camera. Yeah I know I bring a lot of stuff when I go traveling, even if it’s a short trip lol.
LCD screens displaying the flight route can be used to watch movies too. Our seats were comfortable with good leg space and MAS was courteous enough to provide each passenger a blanket and neck pillow. Although the journey took more than two hours, time flied when I chatted with Kampungboycitygal.
Shortly after take off, we were served breakfast with the options of nasi lemak or Western breakfast consisting of omelet, hash brown and sausage. I picked nasi lemak because I knew it’d be great based on my previous food tasting session. Glad to say it didn’t disappoint.
Citygal’s breakfast meal. It had bun, butter, fruits, yogurt drink and some Ferrero Rocher chocolates just like mine. Thanks for letting me snap a photo lol.
vkeong’s Trip to Kota Kinabalu – Sabah
Apr 6th
Yeah I just returned from a 3 days 2 nights trip to Kota Kinabalu! It was my first visit to Sabah and what a fun and gastronomic experience it was! Had some pretty new and unforgettable experiences that I will never forget for the rest of my life.
The lovely food blogger couple of KampungBoyCityGal.com went on the trip with us too and man did we eat a lot of seafood lol. Like always, this is only a summary of our trip and more detailed posts will be done later.
We flew to Kota Kinabalu from KLIA with MAS, the journey took about two and a half hours.
Reached Kota Kinabalu at 11.30am and took a cab to our budget hotel – Lavender Lodge at Kampung Ayer. I didn’t expect traveling by taxi in KK to be so expensive, with flat rates of at least RM20 per trip (even it’s a short one!) And if you’re wondering, this place is called Warisan Square Segama Waterfront behind Hyatt hotel.
Doing what food bloggers would do first, hunt for food! First stop Wiya Chicken Rice, where the rice is served in a pyramid shape lol.
Second stop, Yee Fung Ngau Chap (which tasted like Bak Kut Teh more) and Laksa.
Third stop, Roti Kahwin at Fook Yuen Kopitiam, which is basically just fluffy white bread with butter and kaya. Fook Yuen is like the Sabah’s version of Old Town Kopitiam, serving all sorts of toasts and drinks.
Expect to find lotsa marriage drinks in this coffee shop, from Kopi Kahwin Teh C to Susu Kahwin.
Visited the Filipino wet market, where all sorts of seafood is sold here BBQ style. There are also many, and I mean REALLY many BBQ chicken wing stalls around.
Then it was dinner time, seafood! We took a long walk from our hotel to Ocean Seafood Restaurant, a famous restaurant for tourists. Here you get to see A LOT of live seafood in tanks, it was a real eye opener!
Had 1kg of Kim Hiong Crabs (Kam Heong Crabs) and some other seafood that cost us… RM250! After that we went to stroll in Sutera Harbour Resort and along Tanjung Aru Beach. That ended our first day in Kota Kinabalu.
Sarawak Cultural Village Visit @ Santubong Part 2
Jan 2nd
As mentioned earlier, the cultural show (mostly traditional dances) is the nicest among all attractions in Sarawak Cultural Village. There are only two shows daily from 11.30am – 12.15pm and from 4.00pm to 4.45pm.
So, watch your time and plan your visit within the village carefully if you want to enjoy the performance. The village is not too huge but moving from a place to another may take up ten to fifteen minutes. It is recommended to reach the theater earlier if you notice there are plenty of tourists in order to get nice seats near to the stage.
The show starts with the Iban’s Ngajat Lesong, where the Iban warrior demonstrates his extraordinary strength of lifting a mortar weighing around 20kg. If you look at the photo, the white colored thing about to be carried by the warrior is the mortar mentioned earlier. At first, he would dance with the mortar held on his arms and waving it around.
