Kota Kinabalu

Setting out from Miri to Kota Kinabalu was a tedious bus journey taking near fourteen hours and requiring ten passport stamps.  The reason for this is the small matter of Brunei which more or less splits the Malaysian states of Sarawak and Sabah, not once, but twice.  This coupled with the fact you need to be stamped to change state in Malaysia had us on the following itinerary;  Sarawak - Brunei - Sarawak - Brunei - Sarawak - Sabah.  With exit and entry stamps completed ten times it was a welcome relief to arrive in Kota Kinabalu, known more commonly in these parts simply as KK.

In KK we set up in the heart of Chinatown, Jalan Gaya.  This gave us a great location to check out most of KK's attractions.  The promenade along the riverfront, the many markets, including the night market where you can choose your fish or seafood from the market and they cook it up right there in front of you.

 
KK also coincided with the start of Euro 2012 and the crunch game between England and France.  Luckily it was a midnight kick off (and not 2.45am) so we found a sports bar to watch it in.  Despite being relatively quiet, approximately ten people trying to watch the game the 'sports bar' proceeded with a Malaysian Cabaret act belting out the likes of 'Greece Lightning' and 'Mustang Sally' throughout the first half.  This must have proved distracting enough as 15 minutes into the game we realised we hadn't seen any football and the bar had FanCam on instead.  Luckily (or unluckily) they managed to find the right channel just in time for us to see Milner miss a sitter.  In the end though a favourable result for both of us so neither can hold any bragging rights over the other.

We left the stifling heat of the city for some R&R further along the coast near the small fishing town of Kinarut.  We didn't see anything of the town however.  We spent three days by the pool, overlooking the beach or watching the sunset behind the islands.

 
A great place to be when its 35c outside, at least for a couple of days to allow some recovery time after ten lines of immigration.