Holidays are about to come an end, in the other words, my new trimester is coming soon. My holidays were neutral, a week of spending in Sabah, another week of staying in Penang. Talking about Sabah, I went there for 5 days, excluding the days I taking the flight. The first 2 days were suffering (life without a machine a.k.a car), we have to walk all day long. The distance from our guesthouse to the bus station was far, the best part was when we visited UMS (Universiti Malaya Sabah), the campus was damn huge! Ten time bigger than UTAR I guess. For us to go UMS's aquarium and Marine museum, we have to walk for 10 plus kilometres. Once we reached, the design of the so-called aquarium was old and antique, the door like going to collapse. But, the fishes are unique I can say, due to limited space, there are not much big aquarium, so the quantity and quality of the fish is not up to standard. By the way, the entrance fee is RM5/pax.
UMS is freaking large and it located nearby the city area, a few minutes of walking you can reach a supermarket, named 'one Borneo'. I kinda like the environment, just dislike the distance between one block to another. And certainly I feel lucky as a utaria, cos the competition for taking bus there was terrific, it seems like everyone is going back by bus...IF placed me in that condition, I surely need to walk back my hostel everyday!
I liked the Manukan Island the most, the water is clear and for the first time I am able to search for fishes in the sea --..-- The Tunku Abdul Rahman Park is make up from 4 different sub-island, namely Sapi, Mamutik, Sulug and Manukan island. Different island has their own specialities. This trip to Manukan island cost us about RM 55/pax, including the fee of playing banana boating. The first attempt for snookering was pretty cool, the very first time I tasted the sea water, it is really salty, and it somehow irritate your eyes. With the simple snookering tools, a goggles with attached inhalation tube, and a safety coat, it makes our snookering wonderful. It was nice when the sea level is shallow and reachable, but it becomes scary when your legs unable to touch the ground, even you can, you might probably touching the coral reef, ouch!! So disgusting! The weather on that day was sunny, and luckily I sunblock-ed myself with SPF 50 lotion, thus, it doesn't cause any sun burns on me. And I wounded because of being attacked by those fishes, they thought I am the 'big fish' or 'predator' I guess. Playing banana boating also my first attempt, it was fun if u sit the front seat, sadly that I sit at the last, due to my body weight I guess, in order to balance the boat. A gentle reminder, once you are about to fall, right before u better cover your nose with your hand, or else 'salt water' will be entering your nose and causing choking non-stop.
Another place that caught my attention was the Hotspring which located at Poring, sound so matching for the name and place. It took us 5 hours to reach there, due to some misleading of roads. That day was windy and dark, it drizzles half way when we were on the canopy.The canopy walk was fun, I was scared for the existence of leech on all the way we climb to the top of the hill, cos they indirectly force me to donate my blood, and finally, my blood was preserved nicely, as for my friends. After climbing, reflexio-therapy come up next. The water there is either hot like boiling water or cold like ice water. I, myself socked my legs for about 15 minutes in the hot water, enduring the pain throughout the 15 mins, and just realised 'heat' also considers a kind of 'pain receptor'. What makes the hot spring special is the addition the sulphur, sulphur is excellent for our skin, according to the research, it has medication purposes like easing rashes, reduces acne formation and suppressing asthma. Never know that this mineral is so functional. After the hot, it comes to cold, I swim in the icy cold water, but if u kept swimming, u may neutralise the coldness with adjusted with your body temperature. And that is the only day I felt my skin has the best condition ever! The fee for canopy walk and hot spring is RM6/pax if I am not mistaken. Photo taking is prohibited, if u wish to, pay for RM5 and you can do so.
The other destination was the Mangrove wet land located at Likas, basically we did bird watching here, but there not much birds can be seen, and also animal searching, I'm searching for horseshoe crab for nearly half an hour, at the end I dint manage to see their existence. What I know is horseshoe crabs are usually appear in a pair, male carries a pouch, And I found cute animals, I call them as jumping fish, they are hopping instead if swimming, so cute when they hop from one place to another.
For your information, the actual entrance fee is RM5/pax, with present of student card, discounted RM2, which means RM3/pax.
For me to get souvenirs, the handicraft stalls are the best, it has a variety of memento which can symbolise Sabah. The things they sold are almost the same from one another, just we need to negotiate and get the lowest price we could. We are staying in this market for nearly an hour, just to search for quality and cheap things.. haha...For cheap food, we went Filipino market The food here really cheap and nice, chicken wings stall and seafood stall are occupying almost the whole market!
The dawn come very early, as early as 5pm, around 6pm, the sky is completely black. The food there is expensive, it is almost double the price compared to Penang. The food dominantly is mee, besides from mee, is chicken rice. Bumiputra dominants the entire population, and they usually speak Malay language. The whole trip, we spent more on food, the unforgettable taste of Tuaran mee, mee kahwin...etc
The best foods are all in this link! http://www.ahbing.com/43-must-not-miss-best-food-in-kota-kinabalu/ recommended by M'sia artist, Ah Beng. Very nice and informative link, we tried almost all the food he recommended.