Welcome to Kota Kinabalu International Airport, Sabah.

Gateway to Sabah, the land below the wind.

The Kota Kinabalu International Airport is the main gateway to Sabah from the outside world. Kota Kinabalu International Airport is located 10 Km from the town centre. It is the second busiest airport in Malaysia. For those of you traveling from Europe, you have to go through Kuala Lumpur International Airport to get to Sabah. From Kuala Lumpur International Airport there are a lot of flights to Kota Kinabalu International Airport. Mostly the flights are by Malaysia Airlines System and Air Asia. Air Asia offer cheap airlines ticket but my advise go for Malaysia Airlines System. Air Asia tends to delay their flight sometimes up to 24 hours. You will end up paying for food, hotels etc.. more than what you save in the first place.

Due to its central location, the Kota Kinabalu International Airport is less than three hours flight from most of the ASEAN capitals. There are direct flights to Hong Kong, Tokyo, Seoul, Taipei, Kaohsiung, Singapore, Manila, Kuala Lumpur, Cebu, Davao, Brunei and Labuan linking Kota Kinabalu with the outside world, especially the BIMP-EAGA and the Asia-Pacific rim. The Kota Kinabalu International Airport is well equipped to take the B747, A330, MD11, etc. Airlines.

The airline operating within the major towns in Sabah is the national carrier, the Malaysia Airlines System or Malaysia Airlines. Other airlines which operate in and out of Kota Kinabalu are Air Asia, Australian Airlines, Dragonair, FAT, Malaysia Airlines, Northern Airlines Sanya, Royal Brunei, Transasia, Transmile Air Services, UNI Airways, Vision Air, Xiamen Airlines.Once you are in Kota Kinabalu International Airport, you have to go through the normal procedure of luggage, custom, passport etc you know the drill. Once you step out of the building, you are in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. For me the first time I step out of Kota Kinabalu International Airport I feel the airport is too small compared to the Kuala Lumpur International Airport that I step in. Kota Kinabalu International Airport is not very far from the Kota Kinabalu city, infact if you feel like it you can actually walk to the nearest hotel. The nearest hotel is Airport View Hotel. Very near to the airport (about 2 km J).
If you don’t feel like walking, then there is airport taxi service. The fares depend on your destination roughly about RM10++. Just tell the girls at the counter where you want to go and she will tell you how much then you just pay. If you don€™t know where to go then ask her for what ever information you need. Generally people in Sabah are very friendly. If u got the time ask her name and phone number, if you are lucky you got a partner for dinner that is if you are traveling alone or with male friends. If you don’t want to take airport taxi you can always take mini bus which is actually a van. Take a short walk to the main road and raise your hand when you see these mini buses. From airport to Kota Kinabalu town only RM1 last I check. My advice is, when you are in Kota Kinabalu find a local person to show you around. The taxi/bus driver would be a good start. Make a deal with him if he wants it or he can recommend you to another driver. There are a lot of freelance drivers, just hope you find a good one. I can even recommend you to some good drivers.

The reason why you need local tour guide is that people here tends to overcharge when they see foreigner / tourist. Don’t get offended, I go through the same thing when I was here the 1st time and my hair and skin is the same color as they are just that my dialect a bit different. Nowadays even the local people think I am local. If you don’t have local people to help you then everything will be more expensive. I mean everything such as the food, market item, local souvenir, shirt etc. The only place where you can get fair price is the hotels and supermarkets. No fun in shopping at supermarkets when you travel so far away. I got supermarket just across the street where I am from btw I’m from Kuala Lumpur.

Next time I will give you info about hotels. Lots of hotels here from high price with lots of stars to those cheap hotels. My style I prefer cheap hotels coz even though it’s a cheap hotels some of them have good clean room, good room service and situated near everything. Easier to dine and shop also easier on the pocket. Even better there are lots of small resorts located out of Kota Kinabalu. Most of them have their own private beaches. They are about 10 km away from Kota Kinabalu International Airport. Very quiet, peaceful and a chance for you to see the local people. You can rent a car but don’t go for those car rental services at the airport or hotels. They are way too expensive. Go for outside car rental. A small car usually cost RM 70 / day. If you rent longer the price can go down a bit more. With a car you can learn the roads in Kota Kinabalu in just one night. Trust me, Kota Kinabalu is not that big. It took me one night to drive around and remember places. Better drive during midnight. Less cars you can go anyway you want just watch the road signs and the police. If you are lost just turn back. Lots of place to do U turn.

For now its time for me to bring my baby turbo for a spin. I like to drive around at night. Sometimes at 2 am I just drive around at those night spot looking for leftovers or left behind. Just looking btw.

The Learning Process

About 5 years ago, I used to have a website. Its a small website in Bahasa Malaysia created to generate money on the internet. It does generate money eventhough not that much. Hey who was so lucky back then to generate $500 to $600 a month on their 1st website. Nowdays lots of people are selling ebooks and stuff claiming they can teach you how to get income from the internet of up to $5000 a month. It is possible if you know where and how to do it but I'm not going to talk about that here.

5 years ago I was in Kuala Lumpur, then I have to move to a place where internet connection is very hard to get and I have to leave the world of internet for a while. Now I am building this blog and suddenly I have to start all over again. The things that I have learned before suddenly become so difficult. Its so easy to forget yet so hard to learn. Now I have to learn new things and tricks of the internet. In 5 years lots of things have changed. The internet have grown so big, this page is virtually invisible.

That was 5 years ago, what happen to the things that we learn in school. How is it some people have good memory and some like me forget things easily. In the modern world we have to memorize a lot of passwords and username. How many passwords can we remember? How long before we all get lost in passwords? Oh .... I think I need new DDR2 RAM for my brain and also bigger harddisk so that I can store a lot more and never forget (wish it was that easy).

Enough bout me and my old harddisk. The picture above is Tanjung Aru beach before sunset. Why I like sunset? Coz its beautiful,the colors are different and soothing to the eyes and the girls normally go out during these times. Some are jogging, walking, eating (mostly) or just sitting there wearing short t-shirts and stuff exposing little part of their body making U want to look more. Why do they go to the beach? I dont know but I like looking at them just looking btw.

Tanjung Aru have very long beach. It is divided into 2 main public area and also not so public area ( where its dark and lots of cars park at night). The main beach have restaurants and hotels and the 2nd beach have a restaurant and some playground for kids and their moms. The beach is not very clean since lots of stuff push ashore by the wave. The sand is very smooth and I just love it walking bare footed on the beach. Its normally pack with people especially on weekends.

At night 2nd beach is better since less people, free parking and the restaurant there serve variety of foods eventhough the servis can sometimes be lousy but who cares. If the bill doesnt come after 5 minutes, I just walk away. If you want to go places in Kota Kinabalu, its better to have a car. This is because the city is divided into many small parts and walking to all of the places is a challenge with the hot weather. I dont know bout you but I prefer driving but then there is the headache of finding a place to park. Any problem must have a solution and I have come up with one for the parking. Go park inside big shopping complex. U pay as little as RM2, they have security guards, roof parking space etc and you know the rest. Sometimes I even park at hotel basement. Just pay RM2 and let the security guard watch over your car. End of story. See you later.

The Beginning

Everything must have a beginning. There is nothing that can magically appear out of nowhere. The world doesn't work that way unless of coz its god will but to think about it again, god doesn't interfere with human life. We are on our own to shape what we want and how we do it.

To tell you the truth, this is a beginning for me in terms of blogging and from what I understand I can write about anything I want. After giving it some thought, I most probably will write about my journey in life, what I see, what I think, where i go, U know the usual stuff when u go places. Hopefully some of U will find the information usefull just incase some of you decided to go to places I have been to and the best part is this I am giving this info for free. Think about all the money you could save just that remember to buy me a drink when you are here.

This is because from where I am, information about places is hard to find on the internet. I have been to Indonesia and I am lost. Very little information can be found on the internet since I am the type of person who like to prepare for my journey. Hopefully I can post enough details in here so that none of you will ever be lost like me again.

The picture above is Pulau Sipadan. Taken on the printed date. It was a year ago when tourist operators on the island is still operating. Now the island is closed to public. Government of Malaysia is trying to preserve the island from human activities since we human tend to destroy things. Its in our nature. The existing chalet will be demolish and new more enviromental friendly structure will be build. For the time being U cannot stay overnight on Sipadan Island but what U can do is dive around the Island and maybe take a rest on the Island although U are only allowed to stay on the beach.

I stayed there for 3 weeks. Its a small and beautifull island or should I say Island of Paradise. The thing that make Pulau Sipadan unique is the marine life. U can find all sort of marine life there and it is a heaven for divers. Unlike Pulau Mabul & Kapalai, Sipadan Island is cooler since its in open sea and cool breeze blowing all the time to the island so U can stay out in the sun longer and doesn't get sun burn. I was in Mabul once and most of the time I was trying to hide from the sun and was sweating like crazy. 1 hour on the island and I turned from brown to black. Its hot and I dont wish to go there anymore. As for Kapalai, its more like floating chalet. When the tide is high, all U can see is water so U just stay on wooden walkways or in your chalet. No sands = No fun.

Pulau Sipadan is going to be reopen soon. This time it will be under the supervision of Sabah Park I think. Hopefully I can go there again and stay there for a few more weeks. It is very relaxing since U are away from everywhere. No mobile phone coverage, no internet, no traffic jam, no annoying bosses and u know the rest but they have satelite phone and satelite tv there. Just that people cannot bother u with phone calls when U are there (I can call u but u cannot call me so dont bother me ok .. im on vacation).

I wish I could post more pictures but some genius technician decided to format my harddisk without 1st consulting me. Hopefully in my next blog I can tell you how to get to Pulau Sipadan since the journey is a bit challenging and require communication skills and of course money. See you later.