Day 2 - Sabah, negeri di bawah bayu (morning)

Day two in Sabah is the highlight of the trip... in my opinion.


We woke up super early and to our surprise, it was super cold! As cold as the weather in Cameron Highlands/Genting Highlands. As I didnt expect the weather to be so cold, I didnt bring any jacket!! *teeth chattering*

After packing our bags and getting ready, we head downstairs for our free buffet breakfast.

breakfast at The Cottage Hotel

 After breakfast, we went out of the hotel and we were surprised by the beautiful view of Sabah that we didnt manage to see yesterday evening.

Fake Rafflesia with Mount Kinabalu

Countryside

The three travelers with Gunung Kinabalu

Absolutely love the view that we had in the morning. The cool wind, the peaceful countryside environment. It doesn't feel like I'm in Malaysia at all, because the Malaysia that I know is always hot and humid!

If I'm not wrong, our driver Wasli arrived at 7am and off we go to tour Sabah!

view of Mount Kinabalu along the way

The first destination for us was the Canopy Walk & Poring Hot Spring. After about 45 minutes drive, Wasli dropped us to get our admission tickets at the entrance. As the back of the entrance was having a renovation, we have to use another route to get the the attraction. It was about 5 minute walk from the entrance. Along the way, we saw a 4-wheel drive and I have my first hitchhike experience! It was like a 15 seconds ride at the back of the vehicle... but still, it's a first! HAHA

Thank you Mr Officers!

We walked straight the to Canopy Walk attraction. Bought our tickets for RM3/person.

We entered and we have to do some hiking first. Hmmm, makes sense as the canopy walk should be somewhere high right? 

Also spotted a super tall tree. Look at us in contrast!

This is us at the Canopy Walk!

Before entering, I thought there is only like one or two bridges but it turns out that there's actually quite a few 'bridges' and some of them is really long and high above the trees.

We were lucky as we reached before buses full of tourists arrived! We can to enjoy the quietness and peacefulness. No need to rush through the canopy walk and spoil the 'feel'!

After the canopy walk,  we saw a sign that says there's a waterfall nearby - only 400 meters away.

Since we're here, why not?
After a few steps, we saw this mini waterfall and took pictures with it. 

Then we continued our walk. Until we reached the ever-scary STAIRS! OH NOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Well...we did TRY!! We walked up quite a distance and then we decided to give up! Hahahahahhaa

Then we head over to the hot spring. This is one of the 'special' pool and the water contains sulfur. We are not allowed to touch the water as the water supposed to be very hot and might burn us.  

Spotted a super pitiful frog died inside. RIP

We didnt plan on spending the day in the hot spring so we decided to just soak our legs.We chose a mini pool as our choice.

When we switched on the tab, the water was COLD! We left the tab running and after about 5 minutes, the water was still cold!

So we headed to another pool where the water is already heated for soaking our legs.

And the water was extremely hot! Feels like almost boiling temperature.

Usually the first touch of water will be very hot but after leaving our skin inside for a 15-30 seconds then we will get used to the temperature. But this is not the case! We tried to keep our legs inside the water but it was wayyyyyy tooooooo warm!! 

This is a picture of our feet inside the water for the sake of photo-taking!

 This is our feet, 3 seconds later - UP AND AWAY FROM THE WATER! LOL

After many many attempts, we decided not to torture our feet and head off to try another pool. 

It was wayyyyyy much better. Still hot, but bearable!

After soaking for about 15 minutes or so, we decided to leave. Before we leave, we walked around the area and spotted a swimming pool with normal temperature. Guess this place is family friendly?

 

Spotted an almost dry river on the way back to find our driver and took a picture with it. 

 

Wasli recommended us to try out the 'fish massage'. We were in doubt at first because the fishes look big HUGE based on our research in the internet. But since we still have time, we thought we would just got to the destination, and decide there and then if we would like to try the 'fish massage'.

After about 30-45 minutes drive (i think!), we reached Sungai Moroli. If I'm not wrong, we paid RM5 or RM7 for the 15-30 minutes feet spa. 

When we reached the river, we got a bit shocked to see the fishes. CHECK IT OUT!

Quite scary to take the first step into the river! We sent the bravest of our group into the river - Miss Kee! =P

Then only me and Shing follows after a good feedback from Miss Kee. *chicken sound* LOL

After a while, it wasnt that scary anymore. Can take picture some more. =P

They are actually quite different from the fish spa that we see in Penang. This fish doesnt bit off dead skin. They are actually toothless fish! And the are just sucking your feet. Guess our feet taste like lollipop! :P

This is Lean with pieces of bread inside her fist. The fishes were trying to suck it out from her fist!

After the fish spa, we went to a nearby water tab and clean our feet. Not sure if it's the fish, or after soaking in water for quite some time, our feet does become a little smoother. I guess it shall remain a mystery forever!

There's also a hanging bridge across the river, so since we're there, why not?

Gangnam style was still an 'IN' thing at that moment, so......

After this, we headed back to Kundasang to continue our tour... which I will blog about it (hopefully) in the next post! :)

Part 1 of Sabah here.

Day 1 - Sabah, negeri di bawah bayu

Super back-dated post. Sorry!

Beginning of July, my friends and I took a trip to East Malaysia - Sabah! We actually bought the flight tickets almost 9 months back during the Air Asia sales. It only costs us RM109 for return tickets!

Shing, Lean and me met up in Penang International Airport and off we go.

The flight took us about 3 hours. Then we had a looooooooong queue in the immigration before we managed to meet up with our driver for the next two days. Thanks to Lean, we managed to get a taxi driver named Wasli, who would drive us around for two days for RM400.

We told Wasli the places that we would like to go for this two days and he helped us to decide the plan as we were unfamiliar on the roads.

Our first stop was for some snacks. We received advice from friends to try out the coconut jellies as they are delicious. We reached a road with a few wooden stalls/shops selling food. Many were selling jellies. There were many flavours like kiwi, strawberry, mango, etc. We shared one coconut and one mango jellies.

And true enough, they are delicious!

Then we headed off to first official tourist spot - Rumah Terbalik (Upside-down House) located in Tamparuli.

Trivia : Did you know that this is the only Upside-down House located in South East Asia? And there are only five Upside Down Houses in the world?

We paid RM10 each for the Entrance Fees (RM18 for non-MyKad holders) but because we have students cards, we are entitled for a free drink each at the cafeteria! Student cards FTW! =)

Absolutely beautiful house! Too bad it was drizzling at that time so we kept on finding a roof to cover ourselves as we do not want to get sick on our first day in Sabah!

We went inside the house, but sorry, no pictures of the interior because we could not take any photos inside. Basically everything inside the house is upside down - the bed, the sofas, table, antique sewing machine, etc..... Quite special!  

 

There was also an outdoor garden and toilet which we can take photos of.

Last picture of the beautiful house before we leave the place.

After this, we continue our journey to Ranau, which is located 2 hours away from Kota Kinabalu town.

Halfway towards the journey in the winding mountain roads, we were glad we actually hired a driver, because LOOK AT THE ROAD! It was so misty!! And it was only 4pm in the afternoon! 

According to Wasli, usually this area will rain at roughly this hour everyday. And yes, mist is just very normal! The air was really cooling too. Feels like Cameron Highlands weather!

At certain point of the journey, the mist was so thick that we can barely 10 feet in front of us! Instantly felt relieved again because we made the right decision! 

After two hours of drive (and super modern song from Wasli's sound system in his taxi), we managed to reach our budget hotel - The Cottage Hotel.

Oh, I forgot to mention that Wasli said our hotel is 'baik juga.. di tengah-tengah pekan' (not bad, it's located in the middle of town), and we were so relieved. When we arrived, we found out that our hotel does not really located in a town. Yes, there's civilisation, but really really small town. Guess Wasli forgot to mention the word 'small'. =S

Luckily the room wasnt really a disappointment. We had a double bed and a single bed for the three of us! And then it struck me, if the weather is cool in the afternoon, what about early morning? I did not bring any jacket. *smack forehead*  

It was roughly 6pm and we decided to go grab our dinner at the Night Market at the junction of the road. We also heard rumours that it gets dark early in Ranau. 

And to our horror, it started to rain heavily when we were walking! And non of us took umbrella out, in fact, we didnt bring umbrella to this trip. *double smack on forehead* No choice, but to brave through the rain!

 Not much food was for sale at that Night Market. Some raw/unprocessed food such as fresh vegetables & fruits, burgers, satays, noodles and crackers. We decided to try the local food and share a bowl of noodles (is it called Bakso Mee? Forgot already, sorry!).

 

The noodles came in a bowl, lined with plastic. *disappointment*  

Halfway through our noodles, it began to rain cats and dogs and dinosaurs! We tried to wait it out but it was getting dark (only 7pm at that time!) so we decided to tapau burgers and eat some instant noodles that we bought along to this trip.

This is us, superly wet just to get our dinner! 

And this was our dinner for the day!

 
 Well, the burger wasnt great, chicken wings are so-so...but we did have an adventure!

Stay tuned for Day 2! =)