I said my goodbyes and final thank yous to the Chin family I had been staying with in Sandakan and caught the bus early to Kota Kinabalu, it was sad to go but making and leaving friends I make on the road is something every traveller has to get used to.
The bus journey took 6 hours with 1 stop on the way. I was watching the back of my eyelids for half of it, but when awake the scenery was quite nice, half the price of a plane, time to sleep, and better views so can’t complain really!
Hill view in Sabah
After arriving, and not knowing anything about where I was going I walked about a bit and wasn’t sure what to do, I mentioned ‘Jalan Gaya’ (the most famous road in Kota Kinabalu near where I’m staying) to a few passer by’s to see if they could help but no-one had a clue what I was on about, I couldn’t work out where I was on the map either so just carried on walking in what I thought was the right direction.
A bus pulled over and again, no idea what Jalan Gaya was and when starting to pull away he said ‘you mean city centre?’ Well I guess that sounds correct, so I got on. Turns out I was going in the right direction, but it was 1.5 hours drive away! Would have taken me ages to walk in the heat of the day. So tip to anyone arriving in KK via bus: get to the main road and get on a bus quick, it’s not walkable!
On arrival I found my hostel quick enough (using map), had a quick shower, left my towel out to dry and went for a wonder.
Kota Kinabalu seems like a small city and I got through half of it without much direction on where I was going I sat by the sea and watched the boats about in the low sun and made conversation with some local girls, it seems like a nice place to live here, not too hot either.
Sunset overlooking Kota Kinabalu
I got back to my hostel and walking by looked up and noticed my towel had gone from the drying line. Inside I could not find it anywhere, not sure if it had blown away or been stolen, but I am thinking the latter now as it was an expensive microfibre towel (folds up small) so suitable for travelling. Feels like a car chamois when in use though so not sure why someone would want it. I guess there is a lesson to be learnt here.
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Fantastic sunset brother! I can not wait to travel across Indonesia with you! Again another great post!
.-= Alex´s last blog – chinese temple =-.