We were heading to the bank, when I asked a kind gentleman for directions. Coincidentally, he was heading in the same direction and offered to take us there! How kind! Before we parted ways, again I asked him about getting to Times Square (where we are heading later). And to our surprise, he would be on the way back to his office and could drop us off along the way! Almost couldn't believe the luck, he's an angel! Thank you mister, you left me a very good impression of Sabah!
And so we managed to get to Times Square where we sorted out our snorkeling and water rafting tours. Both excellent. I am glad I read those reviews before we got there because what we got was quality service. We started water rafting the following day as we had a rough plan what we were going to do the next couple of days.
Sunset in Kota Kinabalu was spectacular, especially when you dined just by the coast!
Water rafting really gets me going... I was looking forward to it the whole time. With Exotic Adventure, it was genuine fun and I felt taken care of, especially when the currents swept me away, at least 2 of the instructors came to my aid... They also specifically asked if I was okay when I was down in the waters. They came up with some "evil plan" to make us capsized or at least get a few of us into the waters. Unfortunately I was too witty for them, I realised their master plan and avoided it at all costs, instead my friends fell into the waters! But it was still great fun... If I'm ever back for the Padas river water rafting, I would still go back to them! Thanks Ronald & Angelo.
Shopping is average in Kota Kinabalu, just like in other parts of Malaysia but they didn't have many malls and the only decent ones were Warisan Square (my favourite) and Centrepoint. Warisan Square is cool and hippy, it's divided into multiple blocks and you can walk through them on level 2, they also have many individualistic shops and bigger brands.
They have a couple of markets there. One of it is Central Market where you can get some dry food (and I think clothes, household stuff and a ready hawker upstairs). Another is Filipino Market for handicrafts which I felt is a tourist trap, overpriced and not original (they are imported anyway) - can't be bothered to bargain. Then there's the wet market beside the car park which gets all lively and busy when the sun goes down. Looks like they do their "marketing" during night time! Walk right through the fishmongers and fruit & vegetables stalls, you get to a sheltered area where you can get grilled seafood, BBQ wings and coconut drinks. We dined there once, even though they charged us a touristy price, it was still pretty affordable and still cheaper than Singapore.
I also visited this bakery, Multi-Bake, near our hostel and found their version of rum balls named chocolate balls because they are without the rum! I love them... could have them almost every single day ;)
Food. Waistline. Caution.
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