Landed in Kota Kinabalu and there's sea, sun, defenitely a change of scenery!!! Happy days :)!! Took a bus to the hostel which wasn't far away but then I couldn't find it after being dropped off. It took me about 10minutes because it was in an appartment building. I then checked in and it was the first time since I left that I had my own private room(!!!), shared bathroom and no window but still woehoeee! I took a picture and send it to the collegues that chipped in money to use on Booking.com as a farewell present. I thanked them for the 6 nights I would have here in the next two weeks. You see, this isn't the only place I'm visiting in Malaysia. I've got about 48hrs in Langkawi to visit a local friend and 5 nights in Sandakan (incl. 2 near Kinabatangan river).
And as usual, I sat down with all my brochures and maps to plan my time there. But the relaxed vibes got to me and I couldn't be bothered. My only goal the next 3 days was to go to the Sunday market. I read about it before and made sure I had a Sunday here to go see it. I immediately came in contact with the other guest in the hostel. It was the first time on this trip to really socialize with others and it felt good, despite of the fact that most of them were Dutch or German (I hope you're reading this haha). And so a trip to the Sunday market became multiple trips to a pool nearby, of which the hostel had an access card to, the saturday night market (SATAY!!!) and eating together. I wasn't even in my room that much.
After 3 nights I left to go on my 48hour quick getaway to Langkawi. I totally forgot that I had a layover in Kuala Lumpur, darnit....this meant it would take 5,5 hours in total to get there. I arrived and my transfer flight was a few gates down. It was in the same area I was a few years ago when I had a super long layover (I mean really long). I thought I'd entertain myself with movie lounges and such, but because I was flying domestically, there was nothing. I passed by my 'old' hang out spot, where I wrote my blog and the bakery where I bought a chicken curry puff (I did again that day). Luckily I didn't have to wait that long today!
I landed in Langkawi, took a Grab to my accomodation. Oh yeah, the Grab is like Uber here and I bought a SIM card with data because it's about €5 for unlimited 4G data for a month (first time ever on any trip, just so I can use Grab)! We drove through the area I stayed in before and at night I went on a walk on the beach towards that same area. It was the same but also things changed! It was so weird to be back and not have the same people around me nor the same surroundings.
Auri, the friend I came here for on her only day off, picked me up the next morning to go for breakfast. We met a year and a half ago when I was here. She worked at the icecream shop in front of my hostel! The shop is still there and I passed it, but she wasn't so that was weird too. It was good seeing her again. We also went for dinner at night at the hotel she works at now and video chatted with another guy that was here when we first met (English), unfortunately the other girl (Dutch) was working (hard) so we weren't all there but it was fun!!
On the morning of my flight, I went for a final walk on the beach, had breakfast and headed to the airport. What a way to end my time here and even better, traveling on flipflops and carrying nothing but handlugagge :)!
Cheers,
T.
T.
KOTA KINABALU
1 comment:
What a stunning pool! Great picture ;)
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