Road Trip: Sabah Part 1

Salamun alaik...

During the last holiday, my friends and I decided to go and tour Sabah for five days. Of course, we cant tour Sabah in just five days. We just managed to go to few popular places like Kundasang, Kota Kinabalu, Tamparuli, Tuaran and Beaufort. However, it was a great getaway for us. We really enjoyed our stay even though we had gone through bad experiences with hotel services. But overall, the trip was enjoyable and we always wanted to go back there! InsyaAllah.

On 27th Nov, I touched down Kota Kinabalu airport with my friend, Nani. Nadia and her husband, Edy arrived a day later as Nadia got things to handle before leaving. I got my rented car at the airport. Akbar, the service provider came to the airport and handed me the car. It was pleasant deal until i got into the car and found  out that it is a manual car! I was shaking and called Akbar. Unlucky me, he said i never mentioned anything about wanting an auto car. So i had to drive the manual car by myself! Nani cant be rely on as she cant drive manual. And I so long since my last manual drive!

However we managed to reach I Borneo Mall. My first day with Nani was only walking down to memory lane as we stayed at Grand Borneo hotel for Rm230.00 per night. We watched a movie in GSC, ate our lunch at Nandos and we had big dinner at Apple Cafe (this cafe was our most frequent visit cafe during our time as UMS student!).  On the way back to Grand Borneo, i bought a kimchi and Nani bought some dulkbolki and Big Apple donuts. We were just spending our time by talking and dancing in our hotel room.

The next day, i had to pick up Nadia and her husband at the airport. When I arrived at the airport, Nadia asked me to send a pregnant woman that she met in the flight. So yeah, how can I let a pregnant woman alone? We took her in and sent her to Wisma Dang Bandang. There we continue our journey to Kundasang. It was pleasant journey as Edy took over my place as driver and I was the co-pilot. We arrived at Seri Kinabalu Resort around 4pm. I already booked and paid the hotel before our visit. But, the hotel was not nice at all! It was dusty, stray dogs around, and the facilities is not convenient at all! And we paid RM120.00 per room. Unlucky us, we booked for two nights!

It was said 3 stars hotel, but definitely no star at all!

Forgetting the dusty and dirty hotel, we continued our plan by going to Ranau. Ranau is around 25 kilometres from the hotel and took us half an hour as the road is not quite in good condition. We reached Ranau Poring and it was a great place to spend time. The water was warm and comfortable. I tried before, years before this and asked the fellas to try it out but they refused and we spent our time strolling around before I accidentally met "tedung selar"! Yeah, it was nearly death experience! The snake was quite fast and it nearly approached me! Lucky me, Edy warned me and I jumped ahead running for my life!

It was an experience but a terrible one! So, we decided to dash out from the place and go back to Seri Kinabalu Resort. On the way back, we stopped at Ranau town and had our dinner. We spent our night quietly as we all tired because of the journey and quite shock. Thanks to Mr "tedung selar". 

Ranau Poring: Look!  it was full with people enjoying the warm water

sometimes, you can stalk on people too! hehe

smokingly hot!

before "tedung selar"

after "tedung selar". Nadia helped a family taking family pictures!

P/s: I will write more about this journey in my next entry as we had more days in Sabah!