NORTH BORNEO ADVENTURE

If you're in Kota Kinabalu on Sunday and you have no idea what to do, why don't you hop on the train going to Beaufort? Why Sunday? Because from monday to saturday, they use the newest train with aircond, due to the high amount of passengers commuting back and forth from works. So on sunday, but not on every sunday, on some lucky sunday, you will get to ride the old North Borneo train with open air window. Yayy ! No, I'm not talking about the expensive  North Borneo Railway  (I can't afford that). I'm talking about the old train, the cheapest one to sit on. Every sunday, the train will depart from Tanjung Aru station at 7.45 am. A return ticket from Tanjung Aru to Beaufort cost RM7.20 and takes about 2 hours. The best place to sit on the train? On the right side! On the left side is mostly jungle all the way, on the right side you will pass by the busy roadside, kampung (village) view, paddy fields, temple, school, the sea and...

Entrance to Mataking Island Reef Dive Resort Mataking is one of the islands located in Semporna. I have been lucky enough to get the opportunity to visit the island twice, first time on November 2015 for 3 days 2 nights, and we make another visit on 26th July 2017 for another 3 days 2 nights trip. If you book a package with the resort, their service will include return land and boat transfer. From Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA), the flight to Tawau will take approximately 50 minutes. The best seat on the plane? Of course on the left side, because the plane will fly by Mount Kinabalu and you can see how majestic and beautiful it is. For Mataking Resort, there are 3 boat transfer daily, the last one will be around 4.30 pm in the evening. There is no boat transfer later than that due to the ESSCOM dust-to-dawn curfew in order to curb cross-border kidnapping and other crimes. If you reach Tawau Airport before or by 2 pm, you can still catch the last boat transfe...

Lido Food Square is one of the most popular and  biggest hawker food centre in Kota Kinabalu. Open from early morning till late night, the scenery change from breakfast on the go and fresh market, to a busy and happening night food market. In the morning, people come to buy the fresh vegetables and fishes, fruits and other daily necessity, not forget to mention the mouth-watering breakfast that varies from traditional Sabahan and Malaysian cuisines, to local Chinese foods and buns. Nasi lemak, karipap, sandwich, kuih bulan and other local foods. Mouth-watering kuih muih made fresh daily. Chinese uncle buying mee goreng for breakfast.  So many foods to choose, aunty can't decide which one to eat. A fresh fruit stall. Apart from the kuih muih and breakfast for grabs, people from all walks of life come to the morning market to get their daily supply of fresh groceries. Eggs, vegetables, fishes, local herbs and spices are all readily availa...

The last day of 2017 are well spent by going to a 3 days 2 night camping trip to Polumpung Melangkap View Campsite from 30th December 2017 to 1st January 2018. The campsite were located in Melangkap, Kota Belud, though is it nearer to reach there via Jalan Ranau from Kota Kinabalu. Situated 76km away from the heart of Kota Kinabalu, it takes about 1 hours 31 minutes to reach the campsite. Upon reaching the place, you will need to register with the operator. After a short briefing, you are free to choose your own camping site within their perimeter. The best location is of course by the river side, facing the mighty Mount Kinabalu. The operator do provide tents, canopy, kitchen, cooking set, and other camping essential for rent in case you forget to bring your own. After registration, we proceed to our campsite and started setting up our tents. The ground are rocky, so make sure to have good layers beneath your teneath for a good night sleep. We choose to set our tent at ...