4D3N @ Kota Kinabalu (8-11 Apr)

Just returned from a short holiday at Kota Kinabalu (KK), Sabah, East Malaysia. We stayed at Pacific Sutera, one of the resorts under the arm of Sutera Harbour http://www.suteraharbour.com/new/. It's a great place! Let me give some detailed account of our trip which we paid S$563 per person.

Transferring to Hotel
The free & easy tour we booked included transfer to and fro the Airport and hotel. Sutera Harbour is almost a stone's throw away so the smooth traffic journey only took 10min. Even on our return trip during weekday morning traffic hours, it didn't take us longer than 10mins to reach the airport.

On Sutera Harbour

We stayed at Pacific Sutera, commonly rated 4-star amongst the rest of the hotels in KK. It's other more high-class resort Magellan Sutera is rated 5-star, akin to Shangri-la Tanjong Aru. Sutera Harbour has its own marina situated right in front of both resorts. As such, it offers a very good, relaxing view just by the sea. I think the best thing about either of the resort is the fact that guests can share facilities in each other's premises including its Golf & Country Club. This means we can use pools at any of the resorts. Spotting some reviews we found on the web, we also confirmed that the breakfast voucher issued from Pacific Sutera can be used at Magellan Sutera, so it gave us a chance to try a slightly different breakfast range, and 5-star service

a) Complimentary City Shuttle
The next better thing we love is the complimentary City Shuttle the resort offers. Operating on an hourly basis beginning at 8am to 9pm (except 2pm & 7pm for breaks), the Shuttle brings guests to the major shopping centres in town. Though Sutera Harbour is not far from town, it's not advisable to walk cos the sun very hot lah.. The distance on the map looks like it's achieveable but who cares, the Shuttle is there to serve its purpose . Trust me, you wouldn't want to be walking out along the resort's own stretch of way out, then onto the City's Highway on rocky, uneven path.

b) Meals @ Sutera Harbour
Breakfast range at either Pacific or Magellan is quite good, I must say. Magellan offers just a few more. We also had buffet dinner at Magellan's Five Sails. Priced at RM$68+++ per person, it offered a great spread of Portugese Malaccan dishes from satay to BBQ and signature Portugese Assam Fish. BUT, hang on! The bestest of best was its delicious, sinful, slurpping range of DESSERTS!!! I only had a small spoonful sample of each of the buffet spread and left the remaining space in my stomach for desserts!! Think I've never had so much desserts in my lifetime! Oops.. or should I say, I've never had soooo much Creme Brulee!! Think I almost had half of their serving bowl (say a 20cm diameter) from my 4 trips to the dessert station This is despite the fact that I know I'll be putting on MORE weight! As it is, my hubby's calling me "Fat Fat" *faint* hahah!!

Shopping @ KK
Well.. fortunately I didn't go expecting much shopping, so I wasn't disappointed. Indeed, KK is not anywhere near being a shopping haven, unlike KL (my favourite!!). Nonetheless, developments for better architectural buildings are underway, and more renowned brands will be creeping into the under-developed City. I'll give it another 2 years. In any case, I'm surprised that Body Shop is available in many of its shopping centres. Did they rely solely on tourism dollars? Or perhaps I've under-estimated the spending power of the locals. Anyway, from our walking tour, we saw both local and international brands, and quite a good range including Nike, Adidas, Padini, Giordano, Mango, Charles & Keith, Secret Receipes... errr.. that's all I can recall for now.. So, you see, there isn't much to shop.. I only managed 2 t-shirts haha!! Anyway, I'd rather burn my pocket at KL.. waiting patiently for and looking forward to its Mega Sale (May-Aug!!!!).

Other activities in KK

KK is renowned for its Mount Kinabalu, of course. But, we weren't really planning to go hiking knowing how "unfit" I am, in case my hubby ends up carrying me instead haha! Anyway, there are still lots to do at KK - water rafting (level 2 & level 3), nature trails, hot spring and sea walking amongst many other sea sport activities. However, we had to give these a miss cos my hubby's foot was swollen. Though we didn't get to journey out to the nearby islands, we believe all of them have magnificient and crystal clear sea water.. Divers - a MUST-go place! Imagine we saw sea urchins (lots of them) and jellyfish near the dock of the marina!! In any case, we were prepared to just laze at KK without doing any of these.. well, we can always go back the next time! It's a family-friendly destination .

Meals in Town
The Hotel Concierge told us about this row of hawker operating by the seaside - a place called Anjung Senja (near Wawasan Shopping Centre, one of the stops where the City Shuttle drops guests at). So, we settled our first meal in KK there, and tried local foods. Price-wise: ranging from RM3 onwards.

We also read reviews (see, we did our homework everytime before our trip okie.. ) about its delicious seafood in KK. Apparently, there are 2 good seafood restaurants - Port View and Ocean View. We went to the latter. Variety of lobsters are priced at RM$14, RM$16 or RM$20 per 100g (not sure if this is the normal prices in Singapore). A whole lot of shell food is also available at reasonable prices. Generally, the food is quite fresh and good. We saw many patrons, both tourists and locals.

Ok.. think I'm taking too long on this.. my hubby said I'm too loh-soh (grrrrr...!!) hahaha!!