Anyway, so I'm here to write how my road trip to Kota Kinabalu with both my parents and little brother went. Alhamdulillah, we arrived safely at Kota Kinabalu on 17th December 2011 around 4pm. You have to know, it's our first looong-faaar road trip together. Remember, the last time I went to KK, I actually only went with my older sister and couple of my cousins. As for my parents, the last time my father and mother went to KK was probably in 1995-1997 with their two daughters using the airplane. So, it's officially our very first long and far road trip together. We were obviously very nervous with yes, a lot of worries. But Alhamdulillah, we went and came back safely.
So, the above picture is taken while we were queuing at Kuala Lurah. It was approximately 6.35am when this picture was taken. We actually spent one hour here before reaching Limbang. Yeah, we went through one hour of queuing at the Immigration office but you know, I don't think there is anything we can do about it. It is that time of year where everyone is going to KK. So yeah guys, the only way to overcome this is patience and if you went to Kota Kinabalu recently or during December 2011, I think everyone know how long it took for everyone to get on that ferry at Limbang to Temburong.
Well, to explain that in numbers, we checked out from the Immigration in Limbang and started queuing at 8.30am and finally got on the ferry at 10.48am. Yes, we took two hours just to get on the Deli Ferry at Puni (if I am right). It cost BND$ 4 or RM8. Pay them using any currency you like. Honestly the two (Kuala Lurah and the Ferry) is the only thing which took a while because the rest went smoothly including all the other immigration counters (e.g Merapok)
Oh yeah, since we had no experience at all, going to Kota Kinabalu by car, this map really came in handy. However there are a lot of things which had changed. For one, there's no more ferry at Trusan and no more immigration office at Lawas. Then there are tonnes of changes with the road, new round-a-bouts are build but, the map still get it's point and it did help us go to Kota Kinabalu safely. Anyway, after the long drive, we finally arrived in Kota Kinabalu City Centre at around 3.55pm. However the traffic was so bad, we finally checked-in our apartment at 4.30pm. But thankfully, the apartment staff and place welcomed us with smiles and we were really happy with the place we were staying at.
During the three nights trip, we stayed at Borneo Holiday Homes which was situated at 1Borneo Shopping Mall at Tower B. There is a lot of plus sides staying at this apartment. One of them is they provide safe parking space. Yes, you need to have an access / parking card to park at the designated park space. You also need the access card to enter Tower B. In other words, safety is a real concern with the owners / staff of Borneo Holiday Homes and Tower B itself. There is actually a lot of company providing services to stay at Tower B and Borneo Holiday Homes is one of them. However, I would recommend you to stay over with them because one, the safety reasons, two, if you need them or any help, you could just go to Room 21-16 and they are there. Yes, their office was right next door.
Another reason why you should stay over Tower B is because once you go down the elevator, you arrive at 1Borneo, well not exactly. You have to go out using the access card, go through the reception then yeah, shop! Haha. Yes, you go out and there is 1Borneo Shopping Mall and I believe you can find everything here from food, shoes, bags, books to obviously everything. My family and I spent almost two days trying to cover the whole mall and seriously, there was a lot of things to look at! Obviously.
However that night, around 7.10, we took a taxi over to the city centre because we wanted to go and look / shop at Pasar Malam. What do people usually say about Pasar Malam? Well, it goes something like this
"If you can find it at the shopping mall, you can definitely find them at a cheaper price at Pasar Malam!"So, from 1Borneo to Pasar Malam, it will cost you, well it cost us RM30. We didn't want to drive around because it was night and we still didn't really quite figure out the roads from 1Borneo to the city centre. I think we all know it actually cost around RM25 if you were a local but we just were not in the mood to argue so, from 1Borneo and to 1Borneo back, it may cost you RM60. We didn't buy anything much at Pasar Malam because everyone was selling practically the same thing. Just a couple of souvenirs, cheap shoes and that was pretty much it.
We went back to 1Borneo for dinner at The Chicken Rice Shop. Thankfully service was good and fast even though there was a lot of people dining in. I recommend you to order the family set. Lots of thing to eat plus that one jug of revive seriously helped us with our thirst! It was a tiring day and night, so after dinner, we went off to the apartment. Basically, that was our first day! Anyway, will be writing more soon, Insya-Allah. Just pray that I will have the time and words to use for the next three days. Haha.
till then
-wai
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