Kota Kinabalu - Meeting up with Fri!

Landing in Kota Kinabalu (affectionately called KK)

Sometime in May got a whatsapp message from Fri (my first year uni roommate) asking me to meet up with her in Kota Kinabalu in the middle of June... as I've been wanting to meet up with her ever since she left Toronto, I jumped at the chance. Don't know if it's to do with growing older... hahaha... but always want to make sure I take the opportunities that come my way whenever I can (and try to maintain this blog of my travels so that I can go back through the photos and words again when I grow older and become forgetful :P ). If I didn't go on this trip I don't know when I'll ever meet up with her again as she's such a busy person!!!! (check our her soon-to-open bakery in Brunei if you visit, it's called VK Cafe.)

It was just a weekend trip so I'm not going to split it into the days as we didn't pack our trip with lots of stuff and just spent time catching up mostly and enjoying each others company.

I took the last flight of the night on a Friday evening and arrived in KK around midnight. Good thing I researched a bit about taking taxi and asked the flight attendants during the flight as I was traveling by myself and have never been to KK before. When we arrived at the airport and gone through immigration and customs I arrived in the arrivals hall and it looked like everything was closed.

No lights were on....  I found someone and asked them about taxis and there's a small counter (without lights) where you can let them know where you want to go and pay, and then a taxi driver will take you to your hotel. The taxi driver gets a voucher/ticket that they can claim for money later (I'm guessing).

KK is actually pretty small so it took me like 15 minutes to get to the hotel (and no traffic at midnight!) Fri found a new boutique hotel called Hotel Grandis. Checking in was quite simple and I quickly went up to my room to shower and sleep (so tired and had a slight headache on the plane). The room was really nice!!!!! I think we paid like USD 50 per night as it was new and there was a promotion.

Next morning I woke up early and went down for breakfast buffet in the hotel. It was very nice.... not crowded, the food was good and there was a view of the sea all around.

Fri joined me for breakfast and we caught up.... it's been 7 or 8 years or so since we've seen each other I think.... No awkward silences... we talked like we've always been living together :D

Later that morning Fri suggested we visit one of the cultural villages around KK (there's lots of stuff to do which she's been telling me for years about an orangutan zoo, steam trains, forests etc. but we didn't have enough time for all of this this time :( ..... )

We visited the Mari Mari Village, where we saw their traditional homes, tasted some of their traditional wine, saw some cultural performances and had a yummy lunch.

heating up wine in these bamboo holders (below right: CHEERS!)

Spot the pet monkey!

Weapon where poison darts are blown through the tube

Guess what this is.... it's a trampoline! all made of rattan

dazed from the heat

Then we were dropped off at our hotel in the afternoon and we decided to go walk around the the shopping mall next door. There wasn't much to buy, and in the end we decided to go get a massage at one of the spas in the mall.

For dinner, we went out and met up with her friends who were also visiting from Brunei.

The next day, we wanted to go to another island to do ziplining across the sea - Fri told me about this and I was SO EXCITED! I've never done it over water.

Our hotel is located just next to Jesselton Point - which is where all the boats and ferries depart from. When we got to Jesselton Point we asked one (of the many) tour company about going to the island to do ziplining but we need to be back before 2:00pm. However, they said that we won't be able to make it back before 2:00pm cuz you have to get to the island and then wait in line or hike up to the zip lining point.... Fri told me this and she said my look of disappointment was so extreme.... hahaha... like I was so excited and the moment I heard we couldn't make it back in time I guess all my upturn eyes/smile/face all just fell and turned down.....

Hahaha... I didn't even mean to show her I was disappointed, LOL!

So we ended up going to a local cafe where we had satay (yeah!!!!) and Malaysian milk tea and toast.... it was yummy... then we went for some shopping therapy, we went to one of the open markets and they sell pearl jewelry..... I ended up getting a pair of pearl earrings.

We then made our way to the airport and spent some time at the cafe while waiting for my time to board.

It was a short trip, but I'm so happy that I went and met up with Fri! I hope I will be able to visit her again when her cafe opens!!!

Fri! I'm holding you to your promise to show me around Brunei and to finish up all the stuff we didn't do in KK!

Stay Happy Fri!