Kota Kinabalu

Kota Kinabalu has been my favorite part of the trip so far! The first (June 20) evening in KK, we visited the bustling night market which sets up every evening near the waterfront. It was fun to see all the edible goods that they had available: fresh fruits and veggies, nasi campur (Malaysian food buffet), deep fried snacks, and chunky, colorful drinks. Of overwhelming abundance was their seafood. First we walked through a market of dried seafood, which greeted us with a really pungent fishy aroma. Then we passed through the fresh seafood market. This was really cool - I have never seen that much seafood in one place at one time. There were over 50 vendors selling fish of all kinds, squid, octopus, crustacians, and even rays. We finally ended up in the cooked seafood market, where locals and non-locals were enjoying their dinner of fresh seafood that was grilled right when ordered. Leslie's mouth started watering, so we had stop and sample some of it. We first shared a skewer of grilled shrimp. It had a really satisfying aftertaste. Leslie was really craving squid, so we ended up ordering four squids. Once put on my plate, I was too grossed out by the tentacles and the insides, and was not able to eat any of it. So poor Leslie had to finish all four squid...at least he was able to satisfy his craving.


Yesterday (June 21) we went to the Sabah Museum, a museum which focuses on the the cultural heritage of the different indigenous people of the state of Sabah, Malaysia. It was quite a journey to get there, as we chose to walk the 3 miles during the hottest part of the day (which is very hot when you are in Malaysia). It was not the smartest move, but the museum was definitely worth it. They had lots of cool artifacts, tools, and traditional clothing of the various cultures from different times in history. They also had an interesting display on the harvesting of swallow nests for the Chinese delicacy, bird's nest soup. Although it can be very harmful ecologically, it plays an important role in the local economy. But by far my favorite part of the museum was the heritage village, where they had life sized replicas of all the different traditional homes built by the indigenous people. It is crazy that they can build a whole house just out of bamboo and straw! Inside the houses were some artifacts used in the natives' everyday lives, such as baskets, musical insturments, and weapons. To get to the heritage village we had to venture over a rickety suspended bridge...it was pretty exciting.




The rickety suspension bridge!

Today was actually my favorite day of the trip so far. We took a boat out to the nearby island, Pulau Manukan. In the morning we snorkelled in the the bay of the island. It was really cool because most tourists did not know that there was a reef a little further out in the water and they stayed very close to shore (where they attracted fish by feeding them, which really annoyed me!). But Leslie and I found the reef and spent an hour snorkelling around by ourselves. We saw some new fish species, hundreds of sea cucumbers, and spiny coral. But the most exciting part was the jellyfish. At first I thought that I kept swimming into small bits of plastic bags, but then Leslie realized that they were jellyfish. Lots of little jellyfish were floating all around us. Some were even luminescent. At first I was scared of getting stung, but then Leslie started touching them and discovered that their sting was painless. I was pretty creeped out, but tried overcome my fear by also touching them. It was weird because they looked so weightless, but then when I felt them they seemed quite heavy and jello-like.

In the afternoon we went on a walk through some of the island's rainforest. The path led us to a small trail which led us to a private beach! To get there, we had to cross some tide pools. The tide pools had really funny jumping creatures. The looked like small fish, but sun-bathed like lizards, and jumped about in the water like frogs...I don't know what kind of animals they were. There were also some really cute hermit crabs that scuttled around with shells on there backs. They were really fun to watch because they each had a unique shell and a unique personality. Some were very shy and others were very jittery and would not sit still. The beach was beautiful and very serene. Leslie and I lazed away the rest of the afternoon there. In the evening we treated ourselves to a somewhat pricy, but very delicious Italian dinner. I think Leslie and I are finally learning how to live it up!