Kota Kinabalu trip Feb 2015

My 3 day trip to Kota Kinabalu was a prompt decision which serves the main purpose of clearing my residual annual leave of 2014. Picking a hotel took me several neurons and evenings for considerations and finally settled in a rolling eye situation when i saw the hotel confirmation. I overlooked that the price was actually listed in USD. Anyway, following my motto "everything happens for a reason", I deserve to indulge myself in the 4 star Ming Garden hotel.

I arrived in the city airport at 8.30 pm on 31st Jan 2015. After hotel checkin, I started exploring the city by roaming around the central point areas located along the sea. My first dinner was at Lobster King restaurant which I was pretty satisfied with cheap price, well seasoned crabs and fish, tasty apple juice and nice honest staff. I spent the rest of my first night chilling out at Lush bar which spills out on to Waterfront's promenade. A glass of red wine as usual helped me sleep tight that night

On the second day, I visited Mari Mari cultural village. Overall, it was such an awesome, informative and well organized tourist spot which showcased different ethic tribes' lifes, cultures, clothings and customs. Bamboo definitely played a vital role in their daily activities including making house, cooking kit etc. I was very intrigued in their demonstrations of making rice wine, food, "triangle" noodle cake, honey, ginger tea and especially I got a chance to taste their fresh sample. After visiting 5 houses, there was a dance performance which reminds me of some ethic tribes in the mountain areas of Vietnam. While watching them dancing, I was drawn a tattoo on my left hand by an acting ethic boy.

In the afternoon, I took a cab to visit several popular attractions in the town. I was travelling along costal roads which I observed the sea level was pretty high so there was no sea sand at all. The sight of the city mosque could be viewed from very far. I was impressive of the architecture and the structure of the mosque which sits on a lagoon. I paid MYR 3 to rent an appropriate attire to get inside. I felt a bit awkward to take numerous selfies while the muslims were praying so I got out after 5 minutes. 

My next spot was Chinese temple. The name was called by the cab driver. I would not call it Buddist temple as a Buddist temple only worships to Gautama Buddha.