Still missing Sabah 💔 Life must go on though, so let’s get crackin’ with the travel update from our Part 1 post on Amazing Borneo!
Day 4
We had a dim sum breakfast with our friend which didn’t feature anything local, so it was standard fare like what we would get in Peninsula Malaysia or Singapore. We headed over to Gaya Market thereafter, which is yet another recommended must do in KK on Tripadvisor. It’s a long street full of pop up stalls. Typical Malaysian street market that had lots of souvenirs, clothes, pets (!), toys, plants and fruits. It was alright for us as the market didn’t offer very much to us as we weren’t looking to buy any crafts or pets or plants!
Coco#1 is quite the browser, stopping at every shop to touch the toys and talk about it. Since we were there and the seeds were cheap, we picked up Okra seeds! The highlight of Gaya Market for us was the fruits as we finally managed to eat the famed Durian Merah of Sabah. It was delicious, very creamy and not too strong with a slight nutty flavour. Very unlike any other durian we have had! Along with this, we also had a Tarap fruit.
Now with dimsum and fruits in our tummy, we should be full right? Nay, we went to Yee Fung laksa. How much food can our tummies hold? Plenty, evidently.
The drinks were so delicious (Sabah knows how to make drinks!) and the Laksa was worth the RM8.50 each. It reminded me of the Sarawak Laksa somewhat although Mr.C says it’s Thai-ish. Regardless, it was most flavourful! The restaurant was immensely busy but they sure know how to run their operations. Seated in 2 minutes, food served in 3 minutes, drinks served in another minute and baby chair provided in 2 minutes and payment done in just a minute. Wham-bam!
Now that we’ve eaten for a week within the short few hours, we got our rental ride and headed towards Kundasang which was 100km away and a 2 to 3 hour drive, depending on who is behind the wheel. I was driving whilst Mr.C was on duty with the kids in the backseat and it turns out, I have a bit of a racer in me. Mr.C said I was channeling my inner Schumacher and no one has driven these mountain roads in as much of a rush as I did. Towards Kundasang, the mountain view was now coming in sight. Breathtaking!
We had dinner at the hotel’s restaurant that night to take things easy and rest early. Surprisingly the food was good! They had a section on local food so we ordered everything that was available on that section!
Day 5
We moved rooms on Day 5 morning (more details in 8 Amazing Days in Sabah Cost Us $1,600) as we wanted to be able to wake up to this view!
I can’t even articulate how I felt waking up to this view of nature. I felt small, I felt abundantly fortunate to be able to connect to nature in this way, I felt gratitude to be alive, I felt the magnificence of the mountain, I felt peace all at the same time. Staying at this place also gave us the opportunity to star gaze a little. When I was awake at 3am to feed the baby, I would wake Mr.C and we would step out into the balcony and look up the the blanket of gorgeous midnight blue that was specked with stars. Some have said they have seen the Milky Way however we didn’t venture out further to try to spot it as we had kids sleeping and that is much more precious, the peace 😉
Today was Desa Dairy Farm day. The views were just so gorgeous and we were smitten. The farm itself was well-maintained and was we didn’t join in on any of the tours of the feeding times. There were lots of tourists so we very quickly bought some of their produce (gelatos and milk and cheese, glorious cheese such a mozzarella balls, brie and toma!) and had a walk around the barn.
The highlight of Desa Dairy for us was really the lunch that we had at leisure with the most gorgeous view of Mount Kinabalu. The food was great and as we are convinced of, Sabah really makes great drinks!
We drove to Kinabalu Park after that long lunch and it was getting to be very dark and cloudy, not to mention cold! Abort mission! Instead we headed for an early dinner at Station 89 Restaurant, Tripadvisor’s #1 restaurant at Kundasang. A very unassuming place with seriously delicious grub. The meal was even more satisfying given the weather outside was so very cold and windy!
Day 6
Once again, this was a view for the soul to wake up to. This picture was taken at 6am and both kids were up and wrecking some havoc to the quiet peace I was hoping to enjoy with Mr.C!
Nevertheless, seize the day! Off we went for breakfast at the hotel which was standard fare everyday – fried rice, fried noodles, papaya and watermelon, sausages, either scrambled or hard boiled eggs, stir fry vegetables, purple sweet potatoes and toast bread. Decent I would say, standard and basic but very decent. If we wanted to be all healthy, just having eggs and sweet potato with some fruit would have cut it however we do like our carbs!
Once we were all decent, we made our way to Kinabalu Park but we got distracted along the way.
An hour an a half later, our stomachs were full! We had just had the most amazing fruit experience ever. Having fresh local durian, tarap and fruit we’ve not even heard before called Avocado Cheese by the roadside in the cool mountain weather with a view of Mount Kinabalu! (Google tells me Avocado Cheese is actually called Buah Lemak Manis of Buah Kungkurad. I hope the actual name prevails instead of the westernized name! About RM109 down from the lil pit stop, we forged on!
We still managed to make it Kinabalu Park, albeit a bit sluggish from the heavy ‘lunch’ of fruits. We drove around for a bit and had a very enjoyable walk around the Botanical Gardens. We even did a bit of a trail but I’m not outdoorsy person, I was fearful of leeches and snakes and all kinds of creepy crawlies. A total wet blanket for the adventurous Coco#1 and his kampung boy dad.
Fun new discovery, did you know there’s a fruit in which the liquid is readily flammable? Ladies and Gents, the Kerosene Tree!
Once again, we headed to the hotel’s restaurant for dinner. It was delicious, convenient and reasonably priced! We were quite tired with the early start!
Day 7
Flight day! Our flight was at 1:20pm. We have a 2.5 hour drive to the airport. Sounds like we should have left as soon as we had breakfast but nope, not our household! We were up at 6am once again (thanks kids) and after enjoying the morning view (can’t get enough of it!), we decided to head out to do a relatively easy hill hike at Sosodikon Hill (check out the post!). I zoomed through the mountain streets at amazing speed at 650am creating new personal records. It was Hari Raya Haji so we did see a few folks out and about early and all decked in their Raya outfits!
The hike was easy. Mr.C carried the baby in the carrier whilst I held Coco#1’s hand as we went up steadily. The view was well worth the morning exercise! The baby decided he wanted to have some milk with the gorgeous view as well. Sure Baby Boss, whenever you want.
We stayed for a good 30 minutes before realizing it’s 8am and we have a flight in 4 hours. Cutting it close! Rushed back to the hotel and had our breakfast before packing up our stuff in the hotel – the packing method we applied was “chuck everything in the bag” and it was wildly effective!
We bid farewell to Mount Kinabalu and left our hearts in Kundasang as Mr.C told me to take every opportunity to step on the pedal, safely. Did I need any more encouragement? 2 hours later, we were at the airport and our buddy from colleague was there to bid us farewell and with a bottle of pickled bambangan her mum had made. So kind of her! That bottle of deliciousness is in our fridge now, being consumed daily in restricted quantities. Prized possession!
Our flight was great, this time we were seated together and no delays whatsoever. The baby eventually slept so I even managed to catch a movie on the flight, yeay me!
All in all, Sabah was so amazing to us and we can’t wait to go back (quarterly, says Mr.C). We’re sorely missing everything about the trip which surprised us. We didn’t expect to have so much fun every day! Right in our backyard. Spontaneous escape, done right!
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