Day 1 (12/8) - Senai, Kota Kinabalu, Park HQ
To save money we cabbed to Senai to take an AirAsia flight to Kota Kinabalu.
Since KFC in Malaysia was reputed to be better than KFC in Singapore, we wondered if this was the same with Marrybrown, since I knew it sucked in Singapore. It was not. And to add insult to injury there were a lot of flies swarming around us.
I was amazed that they sold Mills and Boon novels in the Senai bookshop. They have full colour photo-realistic covers. Someone asked if the text was redacted.
In the general airport area there was a shop selling palm oil coklat. After we'd cleared security and gone into the passengers-only area there was a shop selling duty-free goods - including high qualty chocolate with little or no palm oil. I bought some Hershey's, which was expensive (about twice as much as the palm oil coklat) but worth every cent. Never settle for anything less than Kualiti, with a capital K!
The one bright spot in Senai airport was the toilet. The urinal had users facing a giant wall of stone as water glided down, flushing the waste away. Meanwhile the sink was one big stone slab, slanted to channel the water into a drain. They'd certainly renovated it in the 2 years since I'd been there.
In other airlines, the stewardesses tie up their hair. On AirAsia they let it down.
The "no liquids" rule for carry-on baggage is a bonanza for low cost airlines since they charge for drinks, even water. This was especially since neither Senai nor Kota Kinabalu airport (nor probably any Malaysian airports except KLIA) had drinking water; the perils of traveling in Third World countries!
The standard of English in East Malaysia is higher than in West Malaysia. More signs are bilingual, more are solely in English and people are less befuddled when you speak to them in English.
I've always said that there're only 2 reasons to visit Malaysia - to eat and to laugh at Malaysians. After this trip I have added a third - enjoying nature.
My attempt to palm off my 2 x RM1 coins failed. Apparently the news has reached East Malaysia too (in KL I had learned that 1 Ringgit coins were no longer accepted due to forgery).
Someone bought Arnott's Tim Tams from a shop in Kota Kinabalu. At the side their motto - "There is no substitute for quality" - was displayed. Also printed were the words: "Developed especially for South East Asia market. Not for sale in Australia or New Zealand". It also had palm oil. So much for kualiti.
At the same shop, besides the Made-in-Malaysia coklat, there was a shelf of good quality chocolate (with little or no palm oil) strikingly marked out: 'Imported Chocolate'. Of course, it was also very expensive.
I was last in Sabah 4 1/2 years ago, but some of the areas where road construction/renovation was going on looked exactly the same as then.
The road to Mount Kinabalu had a helluva lot of Catholic Churches, and most of the natives staffing the Park HQ reception had Christian names.
When we reached the Park HQ, I found that even though it was cool, the humidity still rendered the air oppressive.
Partial map of World Heritage sites on restaurant wall
At the park restaurant we had lunch at there were a lot of flies swarming around the buffet, despite it being at 1500m. They really need to install one of those wall-mounted fly zapper racks.
A 12 ringgit slice of cake I had at the restaurant. Besides the small size, notice the Koko Krunch garnish. What a Malaysian idea.
The World Heritage logo had, around it, words in English, Malay, as well as "Patrimoine Mondial". Gah.
View from verrandah of restaurant
The restaurant was ridiculously expensive: besides the cake, fried rice was RM11.50 and a small portion of meat with rice was RM17. Later, we went to the cafe for dinner, and found the prices were 1/2 to 1/3 of the restaurant. This was probably because the restaurant was near the lodges where the rich (and presumably lazy) people stayed, while the cafe required much walking back to the entrance of the park.
Kids on the slope
3 of us then went for a briefing (Hum Sup Guy was sleeping away). The average wind speed at the peak of Kinabalu is 40-60km/h.
Map of the trail up to Low's Peak (4095.2m)
Hum Sup guy bought the New Sunday Times and inside there was a Jeremy Clarkson column in his typical inimitable style. I wonder if they replaced the column when he reviewed the Perodua Kelisa.
Quotes:
She was wearing a green, one-piece dress... [Someone else: I didn't notice the colour. But she was wearing a coloured bra.]
They're not just jailbait. They're rotan bait. Jail I can probably live with. Rotan I can't.
There's something about Catholic RGS girls. Can't stand it. I just wanna- [Me: You just wanna?] It's like 'There's Something about Mary'. That pinafore and come hither look. [Me: ...]