Kota Kinabalu Walking Tour

Since I failed to catch my bus to Brunei, this left me explore the Kota Kinabalu or popularly known as KK. I started my day with a buffet breakfast although Rainforest Lodge has free breakfast that comprises of bread, coffee, tea and fresh fruit but it just wasnt for me that day, you have to pay extra RM6 (P90) for the chicken nuggets, rice, egg, beans and coffee. High calories is just what I need to jumpstart my day.

The city itself is small and can be toured by walking, everything is just within the city and not much can be seen around just a normal city. I appreciated its cleanliness and there was no traffic. The place is just peaceful, there were just few tourist that time. Its a bit different from Kuala Lumpur, its so calm here and I cant see many muslims. My friend told me that majority of people here at Chinese-malay. To my surprise, there were so many Filipino’s here and mostly were from Tawi Tawi. They have been living here since birth and they know how to speak Tagalog– the waiter from the restaurant, bus conductor and cashier.

KK has a beautiful harbor, just a 5 minute walk from Rainforest lodge.

Kota Kinabalu-Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei by bus

My original plan during my 1st day in Kota Kinabalu is to visit Bandar Seri Begawan (BSB), Brunei for a day. Many travellers use ferry via Labuan Island to head to Brunei but alternatively I found out another option for those who dont like ferries but wants to enjoy the countryside of Malaysia.

The Borneo Express Bus travels from Kota Kinabalu - Brunei daily for approximately 8 hours. They use airconditioned and comfortable for a pleasant journey to the small sultanate. The bus terminal is conveniently located infront of the City Hall. From my hostel, Rainforest Lodge, it can be walked for 2-3minutes. 

The trip costs RM100 one way. 

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P150 plane ride to Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

Kota Kinabalu is the capital of the state of Sabah in Eastern Malaysia in the tropical island of Borneo and it is closely located with the southern Philippine province to Tawi-tawi. Not much is known about this city unlike Hong Kong or Singapore for Pinoy tourists or maybe its not in their top destination lists. 

Thanks to Air Asia Seat sale, my ticket is just a Big Mac away at P150 (less than $5). Departing from Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA), Clark, Pampanga takes less than 3 hours to Kota Kinabalu Airport Terminal 2. The terminal is small, no aerobridges and really feels like low cost terminal. The immigration staff were friendly and once you pass, there are Pinoys offering hotel or transportation to the city center. The terminal has plenty of ATM machines, they also have KFC, money changers and other small shops.

To get to the city, you can ride limosine taxi or a regular metered taxi. I asked the officer from the Tourism Malaysia if there’s a bus to the city and he said yes but I’ve waited for hours to catch a bus so I took the metered taxi to the city. Be careful of the taxi drivers, they tend to run without a meter hoping they can charge more to tourist but I insisted to use the taxi meter while we were just about to leave the airport premises. Flag down rate was RM10 (P140) and it costs me a total of RM14 to get to my hostel, RAINFOREST LODGE. 

The room I got is a dorm type 4 bed mixed and shared bathroom. Since there are few tourist around that time, I have the room all by myself. Rainforest Lodge is one of the beautiful hostels I have been. The room is accessible by a card key, fully airconditioned, centrally located, clean bathrooms and wifi ready but the only bad downside is the noise thats coming from the bars downstairs.

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Dont tell my mother im in Agra, India

With much anticipation, I woke up early from my hostel to catch my bus going to Taj Mahal in Agra, Delhi which I booked from a popular website. At 5:00am, I was ready and waited for an auto rickshaw to pick me up and finally one came but the driver cant either speak or understand english but because I was waiting for long I had no choice. Although India has one of the biggest english speaking population in the world but still millions arent able to communicate the language. 

I told the driver to drop me at the bus stop at RED FORT, I kept on repeating him and he just keeps on nodding and repeatedly saying what I say and so I thought we had an understanding. We were still on the road and its almost 6AM, I told him again that Im going to RED FORT to catch my bus to TAJ MAHAL in AGRA and he just said AGRA, AGRA, OKAY. 

Finally, we reached at a bus terminal for AGRA but not exactly the RED FORT Terminal. I was so angry at the driver, the bus terminal where I landed was like a market and the bus to Agra is a filthy old, non airconditioned terminal which was totally different from the one I booked online which promises to be a VOLVO fully airconditioned coach. But then, I have no choice but to take that old bus which was very crowded and was full of boxes. I spent over 500 rupees online and I paid again 150 rupees for the bus I rode. 

 
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