Super back-dated post. Sorry!
Beginning of July, my friends and I took a trip to East Malaysia - Sabah! We actually bought the flight tickets almost 9 months back during the Air Asia sales. It only costs us RM109 for return tickets!
Shing, Lean and me met up in Penang International Airport and off we go.
The flight took us about 3 hours. Then we had a looooooooong queue in the immigration before we managed to meet up with our driver for the next two days. Thanks to Lean, we managed to get a taxi driver named Wasli, who would drive us around for two days for RM400.
We told Wasli the places that we would like to go for this two days and he helped us to decide the plan as we were unfamiliar on the roads.
Our first stop was for some snacks. We received advice from friends to try out the coconut jellies as they are delicious. We reached a road with a few wooden stalls/shops selling food. Many were selling jellies. There were many flavours like kiwi, strawberry, mango, etc. We shared one coconut and one mango jellies.
And true enough, they are delicious!
Then we headed off to first official tourist spot - Rumah Terbalik (Upside-down House) located in Tamparuli.
Trivia : Did you know that this is the only Upside-down House located in South East Asia? And there are only five Upside Down Houses in the world?
We paid RM10 each for the Entrance Fees (RM18 for non-MyKad holders) but because we have students cards, we are entitled for a free drink each at the cafeteria! Student cards FTW! =)
Absolutely beautiful house! Too bad it was drizzling at that time so we kept on finding a roof to cover ourselves as we do not want to get sick on our first day in Sabah!
We went inside the house, but sorry, no pictures of the interior because we could not take any photos inside. Basically everything inside the house is upside down - the bed, the sofas, table, antique sewing machine, etc..... Quite special!
There was also an outdoor garden and toilet which we can take photos of.
Last picture of the beautiful house before we leave the place.
After this, we continue our journey to Ranau, which is located 2 hours away from Kota Kinabalu town.
Halfway towards the journey in the winding mountain roads, we were glad we actually hired a driver, because LOOK AT THE ROAD! It was so misty!! And it was only 4pm in the afternoon!
According to Wasli, usually this area will rain at roughly this hour everyday. And yes, mist is just very normal! The air was really cooling too. Feels like Cameron Highlands weather!
At certain point of the journey, the mist was so thick that we can barely 10 feet in front of us! Instantly felt relieved again because we made the right decision!
After two hours of drive (and super modern song from Wasli's sound system in his taxi), we managed to reach our budget hotel - The Cottage Hotel.
Oh, I forgot to mention that Wasli said our hotel is 'baik juga.. di tengah-tengah pekan' (not bad, it's located in the middle of town), and we were so relieved. When we arrived, we found out that our hotel does not really located in a town. Yes, there's civilisation, but really really small town. Guess Wasli forgot to mention the word 'small'. =S
Luckily the room wasnt really a disappointment. We had a double bed and a single bed for the three of us! And then it struck me, if the weather is cool in the afternoon, what about early morning? I did not bring any jacket. *smack forehead*
It was roughly 6pm and we decided to go grab our dinner at the Night Market at the junction of the road. We also heard rumours that it gets dark early in Ranau.
And to our horror, it started to rain heavily when we were walking! And non of us took umbrella out, in fact, we didnt bring umbrella to this trip. *double smack on forehead* No choice, but to brave through the rain!
Not much food was for sale at that Night Market. Some raw/unprocessed food such as fresh vegetables & fruits, burgers, satays, noodles and crackers. We decided to try the local food and share a bowl of noodles (is it called Bakso Mee? Forgot already, sorry!).
The noodles came in a bowl, lined with plastic. *disappointment*
Halfway through our noodles, it began to rain cats and dogs and dinosaurs! We tried to wait it out but it was getting dark (only 7pm at that time!) so we decided to tapau burgers and eat some instant noodles that we bought along to this trip.
This is us, superly wet just to get our dinner!
And this was our dinner for the day!
Well, the burger wasnt great, chicken wings are so-so...but we did have an adventure!
Stay tuned for Day 2! =)
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