Just a short distance sailing north during the night, and we arrived at Kota Kinabalu around 7am. Again we had organized a ship's tour for the afternoon so we wandered around the dock during the morning pottering in and out of the little markets, Colin got on the treadmill, we had a very early lunch, and then "joined the queue" at 12.30 to disembark – this time getting better seats, four from the front and in a lovely air-conditioned bus.
Our tour guide this afternoon was John - very cheery and spoke good English. Well he was very cheery until he began talking about the fact they were 'head hunters' – as opposed to cannibals – these guys don't eat you, they just cut your head off…..
Our first stop was at the Sabah Museum which has a heritage village and several galleries highlighting Sabah's history and culture, as well as traditional architecture including a Skull Hut (nice) and Murut Longhouse – all very interesting. We then went to another water village but not by boat - again blown away by the way these people live – think it is actually cleaner for these people rather than the poor people living on the land, as there was not much rubbish lying around, it conveniently just gets flushed away!!
Our next stop was at the night markets – well it was late afternoon and they were actually just setting up for these and it was totally extraordinary – hundreds and hundreds of stall holders selling everything you could possibly imagine. The outdoor fruit and veg market looked really good and it was piled high, the fish and meat looked good too – BUT!!! – so amazing that there were no flies. Apparently most of the white & blue collar workers living in Kota eat at the markets nightly so it must be bedlam when they all arrive. All of the craft, jewellery, materials etc., were 'packed to the brim' inside, in hundreds of corridors – sadly we were only given about 20 minutes here, so there was no time to linger – however, I did manage to find a really nice piece of batik material.
Kota Kinabalu is a really nice place, beautiful beachy harbour with many parks, lovely tree lined streets and lots of colourful tropical plants. Unlike many Asian cities and towns, there were hardly any motorbikes to be seen, mainly because of the torrential rain and heat – just lots of little cars.
After dinner we watched Patricio Rodriguez who is a comedy vocalist and Latin-American entertainer – from Sydney!! – and he was pretty good.
PHOTOS: Village leaf weaver; Inside the Scull Hut; Beautiful & colourful beaded jewellery; Would you like to buy this block of land?; Homes in the water village; Preparing for the Night Markets; A basket of White Bait; Any takers for a chilli or 'ten thousand'?; Good looking meat, but in this heat?; Two cute little boys; BBQ – what is that?; Like to buy a belt Mr. – can make to size!!; Many flags aflying with the Flag of Malaysia.
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