10 months ago, on a random search on the internet, a computer screen made us stare in disbelief. What was that? A website. What website? Air ticket booking. Which airline? AirAsia. Which destination? Kota Kinabalu. How much? RM32 inclusive of tickets and taxes, to and fro. WOW, that was way too cheap, man. How can we miss the chance on this crazily worthy tickets. Perhaps the tickets were undervalued. Well, not a very big surprise indeed since the tickets are from AirAsia, the low cost air carrier in Malaysia.
And so among the coursemates, 7 people of us booked the tickets as we were planning to have a trip to KK, Sabah. In the end, the air tickets just cost us RM37.50 per person, to and fro inclusive. Since we booked the tickets, we had to wait 10 long months to pass before embarking on the trip. The discussion of the trip basically came to a standstill until around May and June. We did not actually go for a group discussion, but then some plan was still needed especially when no people joining the trip is from Sabah, let alone KK.
Thanks to our ‘treasurer’, Ms Susan, I got a contact number of an uncle in KK, a person that does travelling business (car renting, driver, tourist guide) in Sabah. I never met such a nice person. I enquired about the telephone number of a hotel in KK and the uncle told me that he would plan everything for us, including transportation, accommodation, and places to go. I only can say that we are very lucky indeed to have this uncle.
And so begin the journey to the East. 6 East Malaysians, 6 West Malaysians. The good news is that we were joined force by 6 East Malaysians, who booked their tickets at a much expensive price. The sad news is that the West Malaysian contingents were reduced to 6 people as 1 of us, Melvin cited personal reason to reject the trip. Well, I was just narrating the trip on my part only. The trip took only 8 days but due to the plane time, my journey extended to 10 days, 1 day before and 1 day after, both spent on travelling.
21th
I woke up at 7.30am in the morning, feeling very tired as I slept late the previous day. I quickly prepared myself as I was going to go on an 8th day trip. The trip was not due today and my journey today basically only sent me to LCCT airport. Together with one of my old pal (primary school, secondary school, university), Mr Ng Yin Sim, we took a 9.15am bus down to KL. The journey went on smoothly with only a single stop for resting.
Finally, at around 1.45pm, we arrived safely at KL Pudu bus station, the first time I stepped into the station since it underwent renovation. Wow…Wow!!! What an overhaul the KL Pudu bus station underwent. Almost unrecognizable from the last time I stepped into it. From such a pathetic scene last time to the current new look. Shiny, sophisticated, bright, comfortable. We went to the food court to have our lunch first as we waited for another friend to arrive at the bus station from Perak.
After the lunch, we went for a simple walk around the bus station. And I quickly discovered the pathway to LRT station. Then, we went for a look at the ticket selling area. Completely different from last time. Organized, air-conditioned, no people shouting around grabbing for business like last time round, ample space, comfortable. We waited for our friend there as time was on our side. As long as we reached the LCCT that night then it would be fine.
Finally, at around 4pm, our friend, Ms Tan Peng Chee, arrived in bus station. We welcomed her to the ticket selling area and then she and I bought the ticket for going back home after back from the trip. Yin Sim did not buy any ticket as he decided to take a plane home. After buying the tickets, it’s time to move on. We decided to hang out at Times Square since the time was still early. So we took multiple rail system to reach there.
Carrying bags would always be a problem whenever we wanted to walk anywhere. So, we ended up in the Borders bookstore while I guarded all the bags outside the bookstore on a bench. By around 7pm, we went for dinner in Kim Gary restaurant before we started our journey to LCCT. After some rail system and a bus journey, we finally took a 9pm bus to LCCT. The journey took 1 hour and we reached LCCT later than we expected. One of our friend, Ms Chew Jia Ying, was already there waiting to welcome us.
The first thing we did was to chat with each other while waiting for everyone to reach LCCT since we did not meet for 2 months already. Eventually, the other 2 West Malaysians, Ms Eng Yi Wen and Ms Lim Sin Yen, joined the 4 of us at LCCT, one being fetched by cousins, another arriving by a late plane from Penang. We decided to spend our night at Mcd and the time passed very slowly, seriously. Due to the loud environment, we slept and talked through the whole night.
22th
Sleeping without a bed was never a comfort, worse still when it was in a loud enivironment. We did not have a nice sleep and in the end we woke up around 4am in the dawn. We decided to have Mcd breakfast. After the breakfast, we gathered up again at 5am in the seats around airport. Time passed even more slowly now as we waited for the moment we could enter the waiting hall. At last, the time sounded 7am and the long wait was finally over.
We had actually checked in our flight through internet so all left for us was the simple security check. We passed that smoothly and we were in the departure hall, finally, after a long long night. Our flight was at 7.50am so we did not wait for a long time before the gate opened for us to enter. And in just a moment, we were all inside the airplane. The 6 of us sit in the same row, exactly 6 places for each of us. The plane was not that comfortable, nevertheless the air stewards were quite professional. At last, the plane departed without any further delay. KK, here we come.
As estimated, the plane touched down at KK at 10.30am. We went past the counters and at last stepped into the Terminal 2 of KK international airport. As prearranged, the uncle I contacted was there to fetch us up though he was a bit late as there was some traffic congestion. Finally, I got to see his face after so many times of contacting him through the phone. The uncle first fetched us to the hotel, where we would check in first while waiting for the East Malaysians to arrive.
After checked in at hotel, everyone got the chance to wash up, take a bath and a rest. And here came a guest, Mr Edwin, a friend from USM Electronic Engineering course. He stayed near KK and decided to join us for the day as he would be the tour guide for us. Without transport, we would never go far and we ended up in a small shopping mall near our hotel, Central Point. There, we had a very cheap lunch (CHEAP in KK), nasi ayam for RM2.80.
After the lunch, we hanged around Central Point and Warisan Square, another shopping mall just beside Central Point. Hell lot of shopping malls eh…Since we had nothing to do in Central Point, we decided to watch a horror ghost movie in the cinema - Laddaland. What a laughter when we discovered that the movie was a Thai movie and not as we thought as an English movie. The laughter quickly turned into horror as the movie presented us with the kind of fear we might not ever experienced. Combined with amazing sound effect, the movie was scary enough to be considered as a still worth watching movie.
By the time we finished the movie, the East Malaysians had touched down at KK from Miri, Sarawak. So we went back to the hotel to meet them up first. It’s been 2 months since we last saw each other. And so we had lots to talk about. We just let the time flew by till the dinner time was up. We did not have any idea where to have the dinner and Edwin managed to bring us walk around a large part of KK town without entering any café or restaurant due to indecision.
In the end, we had our dinner at Upperstar, a restaurant with dim lights and glowing candles on the table. The price was OK, standard restaurant price, a plate costing around RM1X.XX. But I regretted ordering my drink, RM10 dry gin heat. The taste was way out of my handling ability and just by smelling at it, I felt heat all over my body. I wondered was that alcoholic drink. In fact, I felt that was worse than alcoholic drink I ever drank. Whatever, it was over. After the dinner, we just walked back to our hotel as we prepared ourselves for the trip tomorrow.
23th
A day I believed that most of us were waiting for. A day specially for island, a day where excitement and joy promised to unveil. That day, we had our breakfast at Fu Yuan of Asia City, a place within walking distance from our hotel. After that, the uncle fetched us yet again to Jesselton Point, the jetty of KK. And from there, we were once again joined force by Mr Edwin. We made our decision on what activity to go for when in the island. While not every activity was followed by everyone, some of the activities we decided include snorkelling, parachuting and banana boat.
After settling on the cost, we departed to the island. We decided to go for 2 islands, Pulau Manukan and Pulau Sapi. Both of the islands are part of Taman Negara Tunku Abdul Rahman. Pulau Manukan was our first destination. It took around a 15 minutes boat ride to reach there. After putting all the things down, 9 of us, including Edwin as cameraman, went for the parachuting. We took a boat ride out to the middle of sea, where we were to be released from the boat for parachute. We went pair by pair. Well, not very fun as we were controlled by the person in the boat and it was not natural enough sometimes when we were purposely pushed down into the sea to get ourselves wet. Nevertheless, it was still a new experience and there was also ‘experience’ for Edwin as he went seasick while trying to focus on taking photos of us with the boat shaking wildly. Kesian.
After back to the island, it’s time for snorkelling. Snorkelling should be the activity that we hoped for the most. With the lifejacket and snorkelling equipment, we went down to the sea in search of beautiful scenery. The idea was simple. Moving from shallow places to deeper areas, with those who know how to swim guiding those who do not know how to swim. With a bit of luck, most of us managed to get the scenes of many fish swimming around in the water.
At around 1pm, the time for banana boat was up. This time, 10 of us went for it. We distributed ourselves into 2 groups. I was in the second group, together with Mr Ng Yin Sim, Ms Tan Peng Chee, Ms Ting Mei Shiek and Ms Lim Sin Yen. Somehow, our group had the chance to play on the banana boat twice as the first fall into the sea was deemed not the real fall by the boatman. Walao, the fall was real lah, we were hit by wave and we just fell into the sea helplessly. Whatever, 2 times experience was just as fun. Seriously, the feeling of falling into the dark, unknown depth was a bit scary though enjoyable.
Once back from banana boat, we continued on snorkelling until around 2 something. Then, we decided to move on to Pulau Sapi. Another short boat ride was what it took for us to reach Pulau Sapi, a much smaller island compared to Pulau Manukan. There we only went for snorkelling but the scenery was much nicer than in Pulau Manukan. More fish and even there were beautiful coral reefs. Some of us even managed to go far away from the shore to see even nicer scenery with the assist of a Malay who know how to swim pretty well.
Before we ended our islands moment for the day, we took hell lot of photos in Pulau Sapi. Beach, sea, rocks, anywhere. All kinds of poses could be seen. In short, varieties of photos were taken. Before we went back to KK, everyone of us washed up ourselves. Luckily, we managed to take the last boat trip back to KK town. Since we all were so wet, we went back to hotel to get ourselves a total clean up first. As expected, it would take a very long time.
By the time we were ready for dinner, it was almost 8pm. Once again, we were undecided on where to have dinner again. 2 times in 2 days. We just walked on down the street and settled ourselves in Sugarbun, a food outlet similar to fast food but only available in East Malaysia (this one in KK seemed more like café than fast food outlet). We sit as if there were 2 gangs, the humorous gang and the family gang. When the dinner was done, we walked to the Waterfront Esplanade, a place where there were restaurants and bars, but with some sea scenery too though we saw none of it as it was night time. We did not stay long however as we returned to the hotel early to sum up our day since we would travel far the next day.
24th
This was the day where we were going to leave the KK town. Where to? Kundasang, a highland somewhere in the middle of Sabah. That day, we did not have to ponder on where to have our breakfast as we had booked the uncle for the whole day. All we needed to do is to get some recommendation from the uncle and he fetched us for the breakfast. The place was 国民 and we had the famous noodles together with some dishes such as pork, wan tan and beef.
After breakfast we began the 2 hours long journey to Kundasang. From the sea level KK, we started travelling uphill. Halfway through the journey, the Mount Kinabalu came into our eyesight, finally. Quite a nice sight, the mountain being the highest peak in South East Asia. According to the uncle, we had a couple of destinations and we travelled to the furthest place and then tracked our way back until we dropped in the hotel. Along the way, we passed the Tamparuli suspension bridge and also some stalls along the roadsides where we managed to buy pineapples, bananas and some key chains.
Our first destination was the Poring hot spring, a place that was way past Kundasang. Once we reached there, we went for lunch in a café just outside the hot spring. Then we managed to sneak into the park with 4 adult tickets and 8 children tickets, thanks to the uncle. Since none of us was in the mood of entering the hot spring, we directly went for the canopy walk. We took a slope trail that lead us into the thin forest. After some time, the canopy bridge finally unveiled in front of us. There were 4 canopy bridges. We passes through the shaky bridges then took another slope trail down before we moved on to the waterfall.
Another 300m walk, and we arrived at the waterfall. We took off our shoes and stepped into the cold water. Our feet felt itchy in the water. Well, it turned out that there was a type of fish in the water that fed on the dead skin and the itchy feel was caused by the sexy touch of the fish on the skin. Some of us had so much of the dead skin that so many fish stuck to their feet. There was another pleasant surprise installed for us as we met our second year seniors there. They went for their own KK trip almost the same time with us and we just met coincidentally in such a big state. Amazing.
The waterfall turned out to be the last attraction in the Poring hot spring. By around 3.30pm, we exited the Poring hot spring. Then, the uncle drove us again. This time we went to a cow farm near Mesilau. We purposely went during that time as all the cows were brought in during 3pm to 5pm to collect their milk. Otherwise we would only see the cows all over the place. By the time we reached there, the cows were already brought in. We managed to see how they collect the cows’ milk by using machine. Then, it’s time for photo session. We took hell lots of photos there. The wind was fairly strong and the weather was extremely cooling. We took photos everywhere, the cow farm, the rock at the entrance, the hillside with the Mount Kinabalu as background. We also bought the chocolate milk for drinking. Overall, it was a pleasant experience.
From the cow farm, we travelled once again, this time to our hotel, Fairy Garden Hotel in Kundasang. On the way, we took some photos of sunsets. It was just a short journey to the hotel. We took our time to wash up ourselves and got a rest. The uncle stayed with us as well. The hotel turned out to be our last destination of the day as we had our dinner at the hotel. It was a steamboat dinner. It was not considered expensive and we ate quite full. After that we just walked back to our rooms to have free activities. Some played poker cards, some drank milk without being noticed, some went for private talk. That summed up our first day at Kundasang.
25th
We woke up quite early in the morning, around 7am, as we went for an early journey today. We purposely had an early journey so that we could meet the people going to climb Mount Kinabalu. By 8am, we already checked out of the hotel and the uncle was already in the van waiting for us. We went for a simple breakfast at a roadside café first. It was just a short journey from the hotel. After finished the breakfast, we took another short journey and we reached the entrance of the Kinabalu Park.
Once again, we got some cheap entrance fees thanks to the uncle. None of us fancied walking and so the uncle drove us around the park again. The park was very big and we took the winding road up and down the park. Our first stop was a small platform by the roadside, known as Timpohon View. From there, we could get a clear view of the hilltop of Mount Kinabalu as the weather was clear that day. The scenery was beautiful and we took some nice photos there.
Then we moved on to the entrance of the trail to the hilltop of Mount Kinabalu. We saw over hundreds of excited people, eagerly waiting for the chance to create their own history. We went into another platform there to take photos. But we did not climb Mount Kinabalu as we felt the cost was not quite affordable for us. Nevertheless, we still managed to listen to the talk given by the experienced guide for the climbers as we had chosen the correct timing to be there.
From there, we traced back our road down to a restaurant in the park. We went for the small exhibition at the upstairs and took some photos again. We did not eat there as we exited the park. We stopped just outside the park as we encountered a change of driver, from the uncle to his daughter. She drove us downhill back to KK again. Along the way, we stopped to buy the coconut pudding, 2 persons sharing one. Then, we went back to hotel before the activities continued in the evening. In between, we managed to visit the dobby near the hotel to wash some of our clothes.
We had our lunch at the restaurant just beside our hotel. The day was well ahead of our schedule as we went downhill earlier than expected. So we shifted our schedule forward and our next stop was the Suria Sabah, one of the newest shopping mall in KK. We did not even know what to do there. We stopped to buy yoyo drink, we went to ding ding shop, we went for movie Green Lantern. OMG, what a shit movie. I did not how to comment on the movie. I simply thought that it did not qualify as a proper super hero movie at all.
After the movie, we hanged out around the environment of Suria Sabah. The sunset was over and the sky started to darken. Yet again we took photos there. We heard about a very nice Takoyaki in Wisma Merdeka which was within walking distance. So we walked there though not everyone bought the Takoyaki, I being one of them. Then we walked on again, this time around the KK Plaza where we finally sit down in KFC, settling on some food after buying lots of mineral water for the remaining days of trips. From there we walked back to the hotel and signalled the end of the day.
26th
Early in the morning, one of the East Malaysian, Adeline left us early as she headed back to Miri. I sent her down before the uncle fetched her to the airport at 7 something. By around 9am we only went for breakfast. We were starved of ideas of where to go for breakfast but somehow managed to walk to a café for noodles with simple pork or beef as side dishes. Then the uncle fetched us again, this time to the KK outskirt. Our target-Universiti Malaysia Sabah, UMS and One Borneo shopping mall. Lol, holiday also wanted to visit university, sweat, what to do? We did not have much plan for the remaining days and we were ahead of our schedule already.
UMS was about 15 minutes from KK town. UMS was known to be the most beautiful and most pleasant university in Malaysia with its nice nature scenery. We went into the university smoothly as the uncle gave us a tour around the campus. We stopped eventually at the aquarium centre of UMS, the smallest I had ever seen. We went in for free, thanks to the uncle. We did not spend very long time there since there was nothing much to be seen. The tour was not long as we travelled to One Borneo.
One Borneo was known as the largest shopping mall in the East Malaysia. And it was directly opposite UMS and it was hardly surprising One Borneo was the favourite hang out place for UMS student. We did not know why we went there. Maybe just to have a look. We walked around the mall and shopped in a few shops including a Japanese shop that sells every item at RM5. For the first time, our lunch was separated into 2 groups, Mcd and Chicken Rice Shop. We got bored eventually and finally decided to take the shuttle bus back to KK town at 4pm.
The journey was not as smooth as we thought as the bus was not of high quality especially the seats and we were stuck with traffic congestion. A 15 minutes journey became 45 minutes journey as we set our feet down at Warisan Square. From there we walked back to the hotel to get a rest. You do not hear wrongly, a rest. It had been a few times we went back to the hotel just to get a rest since everyone of us had nothing to do. We also got back our clothes from the dobby.
We rested until almost dinner time before we went out again. Today, we decided to go for a seafood dinner. There was a big food court which has a few seafood retailers and restaurants there. There, all the seafood-to-be, fish, prawns, cockerels, crabs, etc. were on display just like the aquarium. We ordered the seafood by the weight and then settled ourselves in our seat while waiting patiently for the dinner. It took almost an hour for the dinner to be served and we almost starved to death as the time ticked 9pm.
We had lots of funny conversations during the dinner as we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. After we finished our dinner, we went to the bakery on the backside of the road to buy some buns and breads. Those were meant to be the breakfast for the next day as we went for Labuan. According to some of them, there would be a tough boat ride to Labuan and we need to eat in order to prevent seasick and vomiting, and so we bought the buns. We rested early that day due to the early journey the next day.
27th
Everyone woke up at 5 something. Hell, that was early. We had to go according to plan as we travelled once again away from KK town. We booked the uncle for the whole day again. By 6am, the uncle was ready and we all were set as well. We stepped into the van and hence began the long 2 hours journey to Labuan. Along the way, most of us slept since we did not have enough sleep having to wake up early in the morning.
Well, the journey did not take us to Labuan as it was an island. We only reached a place called Menumbok, the nearest jetty to Labuan. As we reached there, we had our breakfast in the van already. We managed to bargain the charter of 1 speedboat at RM380. Then, we took the bumpy ride to Labuan. We had such nice experience as our speedboat was stopped by the Malaysia Marine Police. We did nothing wrong and as expected we reached Labuan safely without being arrested. All the police did was just to check the driving license of the boatman and our I/C.
The weather was crazily hot and we fully felt that once we stepped out of the jetty of Labuan. We actually did not have any plans on the island so we decided to go for breakfast. In Labuan, definitely the East Malaysians took charge as they studied one year in Labuan Matriculation College before. They brought us to the place they once used to go during outing, a place called ‘Lover’. We were not that hungry however and I did not manage to finish my plate of noodles. From what I looked, it looked like 3 plates of normal size noodles.
After we finished the breakfast, we moved on to UK, the shopping mall in Labuan. Walao, yet another shopping mall in KK trip. We walked under the hot weather, some with umbrella, sweat flowing like river. At last we reached UK. We were exposed to the environment the East Malaysian used to be in. We went into a few shops including one selling chocolates and perfumes. Next up was the bowling centre. Only the guys went for bowling while the girls sat there watching us. I did not touch bowling for a long time already that I managed to score 3 successive 0. Things went better for me later as I managed to notch a few strikes and spares to finally end up 2nd among the 5 guys.
After that we walked to the shops near the jetty to buy chocolates and some buying wines. We were not the only one buying as the uncle bought wines for his friends too. And we fully used up our quotas, 12 bottles of wines. That was the last memory in Labuan as we headed back to Menumbok by another boat ride, this time costing only RM360. Then, we began a 1 hour plus journey for the monkeys and the fireflies. The area was called Weston, a very outskirt area of Sabah, in fact a small village. From there we took a short boat ride to a restaurant by the side of river.
We arrived at the right moment as the evening tea was being served. As we enjoyed our evening tea, the rain started to pour down heavily. However, there was blessing in disguise, as according the guide there, we can get a better view of the monkeys during the rain or after the rain as they will not simply move here and there due to the rain. We went for a boat ride again, slicing through the river, sometimes stopping besides the forest, getting a nice view of many monkeys. Our ride was about 1 hour plus and at last we reached back at the restaurant by the side of river.
The dinner was ready by the time we went up to the restaurant. We quickly had our dinner and the sky darkened in such a quick pace that by the time we were done with dinner, we barely could see anything outside the restaurant already, including the boat. Our last boat ride took us from the restaurant back to the side of forest, where we could clearly see the fireflies flashing in the dark night together with hundreds of shiny stars illuminating the dark sky. Then, we were back to Weston and we began another 2 hours journey back to KK town as we ended our tired day.
28th
We finally ran out of plans on the last day of KK trip, well, not the last day for West Malaysians. So we went for some suggestions from Edwin again. What a good news, he was free and he would be following us again, just like the first 2 days of trips. However, that was different from his previous presence as the East Malaysians were not that interested with his suggestions, one of them being the long houses, which they cited seen too much in Sarawak already. So today, we were separated into 2 gangs, the West Malaysians following Edwin and the East Malaysians going to One Borneo, yet again. The last thing we did together was to have breakfast before going back to hotel to wait for Edwin.
Edwin appeared at our hotel in the morning as we set onto a 15 minutes walk to Api-api centre. From there we took the public bus to the Sabah state museum. From the bus stop, there was still a short walk to the museum. Things certainly did not seem right as 2 of us, Peng Chee and I were left behind. It turned out that she had started to fall sick under the unpredictable weather. She could only reach the slope leading to the museum. So we stopped there as she took Panadol. Then we only slowly walked up to the museum.
The entrance was free as we used students’ cards. Since Peng Chee was not able to continue the visit, I accompanied her by the bench inside the museum while the others went for a tour around the museum. The only thing I saw was the huge skeleton of a whale that was once stranded in Sabah beach. After that we went outside, took a long but low canopy walk to the other side of the museum. There were many traditional houses especially the long houses of different ethnics. We almost went into every of those and took countless photos again.
From the museum we took another short bus trip to Edwin’s house as we needed a rest from the crazy weather. We waited for the rain to stop before we took yet another bus trip to Donggongon town. We went to a small shopping centre there to have our lunch, as suggested by Edwin. We ended up in Pizza Hut, the third fast food outlet I went to in the trip. Our lunch was at 4pm. We were starving already. After the lunch, we took the bus back to Api-api centre, Edwin dropping at his house.
We started to walk back towards the hotel. On the way back, they decided to visit the handicraft market. As expected, Peng Chee would not be able to make the visit so I accompanied her back to the hotel. Her sickness seemed to grow worse so I stayed to take care of her. By the time, the fever already struck and she could only lie down but doing nothing. Things did not look good as one of the East Malaysian, Mr Wong Teck Kai also fell sick on that day and he had stayed in the hotel for the whole day already. We 3 stayed in the hotel while waiting the others to come back from One Borneo and handicraft market.
Most of us decided to go for dinner but 2 of us, Ming Ming and I went to the nearby store to buy the cooling head pad for the sick. I brought the head pad to Peng Chee while Ming Ming brought it to Teck Kai. Seeing the condition, I decided not to go for dinner as Sin Yen, Peng Chee, Teck Kai and I stayed back in the hotel. Later, Jia Ying and Yi Wen joined us as they went back from the night market. We finally managed to persuade the sick to visit the doctor.
Once again we asked the uncle to fetch us to the nearby clinic. Sin Yen and I accompanied the sick to the clinic. From the consultation, one of them had slight fever of 37 while the other had a high fever of 40. Antibiotics were not avoidable and I found out that it was not cheap to visit a doctor in Sabah. We were back to the hotel as we summed up our rather blank day. Nevertheless, that was good as the sick really needed the rest.
29th
Time was up. The trip almost ended. The feelings dropped. The climax was over. The last day in KK town. Early in the morning, the remaining 5 East Malaysians left us as they took the flight at 8 something back to Miri. The uncle fetched them again. I went down to send them again before I continued sleeping. By around 9, all of us had already wake up and were ready to go for breakfast, except Peng Chee, who was still sick. This time, we took the recommendation of uncle to a nearby café to have the famous Tuaran noodles.
After breakfast, we went to the bakery we went before a few days ago to buy some breads and buns as our lunch and dinner. Then we were back to hotel again. The mood had come to a standstill. It was very hard to explain. It might be we had been tired after these few days. The trip was not that fun after the East Malaysians left. We missed the laughter from Mr Wong Toh Ping. Neither we had any plan for the day nor we wanted any plan for the day. We just wanted to have a good rest in the hotel as we waited for our flight back.
So it’s time to pack our things after the mess we managed to create in the hotel room during the whole week. The remaining 2 guys, Yin Sim and I packed our things and moved to the other room as we checked out one of the room at 12pm. Since we were not going anywhere and Peng Chee was still sick, we decided to extend the remaining room to 4pm as the extra charges were not expensive. Then, we just kind of wasted our time in hotel, playing cards, watching TVs, sleeping.
By around 4pm, we checked out from our room and waited at the lobby for the uncle. Due to traffic congestion, the uncle only reached us at 5 something. Nevertheless, the time was good enough for the sick to have further rest. Once we went into the van, we were stuck in traffic congestion again. We did not travel to the airport immediately as we went for a short tour to Sutera Harbour, a very nice place with classy hotel. After that, we went to Tanjung Aru, a place just beside the airport.
We went there for our dinner first. It’s a simple small café and we only ate simple meal, the last meal in Sabah before we went back. Then, we went to the Tanjung Aru beach. We reached at the right moment as the sunset prevailed in front of us. The sunset was so fast that in a couple of minutes it was over. Some of us then bought avocado drinks. That was the last turn of event as we finally entered the airport. A very memorable but sad goodbye to the uncle who had helped us so much, bargaining for entrance fees, bringing us for nice food, providing us the transportation throughout the whole week, even helping us when we urgently needed a trip to clinic.
Back in the airport terminal, we were almost 1 hour before our flight time. I went for the kiosk check in for AirAsia airline. Then, we waited patiently for the air flight. We went through the similar security check and stepped into the waiting hall. The air flight was not delayed but somehow the gate was opened a bit late. By the time the airplane took off, the time ticked 8.30pm, 25 minutes later from the schedule. We took a very uncomfortable but faster flight back. Along the way back, we saw Genting Highlands, KL, Putrajaya before we touched down in the familiar LCCT again at 10.45pm.
Not everyone stayed overnight this time as Ms Chew Jia Ying took an 11pm bus back home and Ms Eng Yi Wen took the sky bus to the KL Sentral, also that night. The remaining 4 of us stayed in the airport as Yin Sim and Sin Yen would take an early morning flight back to Penang the next day and Peng Chee and I would take the bus home. It was unlucky that LCCT was closed down for the spraying of pesticides. So we needed to move outside temporarily before we entered the building again at around 3am. The outcome, we had such uncomfortable sleep again the whole night.
30th
The KK trip had just ended. We were back to Peninsula Malaysia. I woke up around 6am, Peng Chee still sleeping beside me. From the message I only knew that Yin Sim and Sin Yen had checked in their flight and were waiting for the airplane. So left only 2 of us. We were to catch the bus at noon time so there was lots of time to travel to the bus station. The previous night I had bought the sky bus ticket. We took the sky bus back to KL Sentral at 7.30am.
After around 1 hour, we were inside the terminal of KL Sentral. By only a few rail system switches, we were back in Pudu bus station. We went for breakfast in the food court. What a coincidence. One of my busiest coursemate, Chin Jin Wei, happened to be in KL for some activities and he was travelling back to Penang on that day as well. We almost met in the railway station but in the end we managed to see each other in the bus station.
He took a 10am bus back and we 2 welcomed him down to the platform. By the time his bus took off, there was not much time left either for both of us. We went to confirm our tickets, hers at 12pm, mine at 12.30pm. Then, we just stayed in the cool ticket selling area, waiting for the time to pass. We went back to the food court to get our luggage and down we were to the bus platform. I sent her down first before I waited for my bus to come. And in just a moment, my bus arrived as her bus took off.
My bus delayed for almost half an hour. A weird kind of feeling for me. It’s been a while since I travelled completely on my own. Without any companion, all I could do in the bus was to sleep. I almost slept through the whole bus journey and by the time I reached Penang it was evening. At last I breathed the air I was so familiar with. I stepped on the familiar ground again after 9 and half days of outside life.
And hence, that’s the end of my memory rebuilding of KK trip. There might be lots of details that were left out due to short term memory of mine. And though this would be the longest post I ever written, I cannot hide the fact that this post definitely lacks of photos since so many things happened during the trip. The photos were not taken by me and I do not have the copies of the photos so I cannot post it here. For those who want to have a look of what we had been gone through, kindly visit my profile page on facebook to have a glance through. Till then…
