Kota Kinabalu
I got a relatively cheap flight from Manilla to Kota, id been in the Philippines for over 3 weeks, extended due to the outbreak of Covid 19 in china, so instead of flying back on the 3rd of February I had refunded my ticket and stayed on, instead exploring more of the Philippines. however, one can only spend so much time not he beach and I wanted something new, so Kota Kinabalu was my choice. my friend who I had stayed with in Indonesia in Jakarta from couch surfing had recently done a trip from Kota to Brunei to Miri. (Kota and Miri being part of Malaysia Borneo) all doable via boat or bus and at a reasonable price too. I also had a student who had been to Kota and loved it, sharing suggestions and telling me how nice it was (its easy to get to from Shanghai and there's often cheap flights which id seen before on offer)
I didn't know much about Brunei but was still interested in going, a very small, but rich muslim country with a monarchy, one of which has some interesting stories (it's one of the top 10 richest in the world, however its very small) and so I decided id try a similar trip like my Couchsurfing friend had suggested
[brunei royals https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_dppjag06Q
pre boarding was strange though as the gate location was suddenly changed and not mentioned clearly, was a bit confusing, I had arrived early so there was plenty of time. at the departure gate I met upwith Andrew, a couch surfer (Peruvian who grew up in Canada and was living n the states) the flight wasn't too crowded and was quick and easy. when we arrived we called an uber to the hostel. it was really nice, capsule rooms. I also got the lend of a converter as the used the 3 prong U.K style plug heads and I only had the 2 head Asian ones. there was a kitchen with breakfast included, books to lend and a lounge area. Andrew didn't like it so he changed to a nearby hotel as they didn't have a safe box available to use.
we checked out the local night market. the seafood was huge!!!! the lobster was as big as and much thicker than my arm! they also did lots of fruit juice which was great. tried lime juice, not too sugary or sour and very refreshing. its quite expensive, as, like Brunei they often use dollars as currency.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY-NmUE9Nww
the next day we checked out the local sights and changed to another hostel, also with free breakfast included. the hostel's in Kota are quite cheap and often include breakfast and have tour options. the most popular. when checked out the mosque, but it was restricted entry to all but local muslims with temperature checks due to the outbreak of covid (though at that time it hadn't spread too much, but due to Chinese new year chinese had been travelling pre-lockdown) we walked around checking out the local sights. we decided to skip the beaches and island, both having just come from Palawan island (Puerto princess/el nido/etc)
Masjid Bandaraya Kota KinabaluAtkinson Clock Tower
after this we got an uber to the Mari Mari cultural village, (bit expensive but does include lunch/dinner and the guided tour) there was only a few of us in the tour, we had to choose a "leader" which Andrew offered to be. it was about 2-3 hours long not including the dinner. we were introduced to several different tribes. we were told about there cultural traits, habits, beliefs, and daily routine. each had a small house, some were long houses, some on stilts. some with a couple floors.
the first had 2 floors, the upper floor was for the women to sleep, the ladder was taken down at night so men couple go up to them ;) another was a long house, a room for the parents and small kids, a separate room for the girls and the boys would sleep in the common room.
Mari Mari Cultural Village Mari
the tribes made and used different things depending on which area they were from, some where fishes, hunters (they had an alligator like god and would often kill enemies another hunting tribe were sometimes cannalbalstic) some made honey and rice alcohol which had samples to try, we were told how it was made and stored, there was also food samples of the stuff they made. one tribe had a sort of trampoline in the centre as jumping was important, they also did tattoos, and we were all offered henna ones, mine smudged so they let me do a new one.
once we had looked around all the different areas, getting picture in costume and trying out the different foods and drinks we arrived at the theatre area for the show for a quick refreshment. probably one of the nicest Lime juices I've ever had (I drank a lot of lime juice in Borneo and Sri Lanka,yet none were perhaps as good as this though we keep trying to find one "following the lime juice dream" really should try to made some.)
Kota Kinabalu
The next day we visited the zoo, determined to see some of the famous monkeys with the weird noses - (Proboscis monkeys) and orangutans that are famous in this region - it's called Lok Kawi Wildlife park
it has a botanical park area too however on the day we went it was closed unfortunately. at certain times during the day they feed the animals and you can watch/ help, we watched them feed the Proboscis monkeys, the orang-utans and the otters while they did so they told us a bit about the monkeys and their personal history. for instance, the otters love fish and attention, they love to use off, nearby they have a silver langur who they received from a dealer who couldn't care for him, he was lonely, he had a habit of cradling his arm over his head and often sucked his thus as a comfort method. he stayed across the river in the trees and loved the bananas.
The proboscis monkeys live in troops. once old enough the male will start to fight with the boys if they get to old an question his authority, often around that time the males will go off to find their own families and start their own troops. the Orang-utans were mainly old ladies, donated to the zoo, the oldest was the fattest and most hairiest, the girl let us throw over some fruit to her on the island to eat. we walked around and checked out the other animals. emus, bison, giraffes, the double billed hornbill, parrots etc, they have lots of pygmy asian elephants, ostriches too which you can feed, be careful though, they can be powerful with their beaks and nip you when going for the food.
After the zoo we headed back to the city centre, as it was the weekend there was lots of people in the main downtown area as a night market was set up, there were singers and bands at each end, food and drink stall along with a few craft stalls. we then went to the airport having decided to get a flight rather than spend the day on a bus to get to Brunei. but the bus (along with boat) is a cheap convenient alternative
[There's only one bus per day from Kota Kinabalu to Brunei, and that is Sipitang Express that leaves daily every 8:00 AM and estimated arrival is 4:30 PM in Brunei. Travel time is 8.5 hours and bus fare is MYR 100 ($25.61 – ₱1,256). The Sipitang Express bus terminal located near the city park.]
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