My Kota Kinabalu Adventure

3-days-and-2-nights was quite short for my Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia stint.  It was not farly different from the Philippines aside from the discipline and cleanliness (still not that much, but better compared to ours) of its surroundings.  Malays resemble Filipinos a lot.  Probably they have just got a lot of combinations than us. 

 I actually didn’t feel like I was in another country. The first Malay I spoke with was the Immigration Officer in the Kota Kinabalu airport. Funny because he was trying to speak in tagalog. He defended that his mother was from Laguna making him half-Pinoy. Ok kuya, I get you.  He was also making bola during our converstaion:

Immigration Officer (IO)- Baket ikaw lang? Asan kasama mo?

Me: Wala e.  Im alone.

IO: Asan asawa mo?

Me: Wala pa akong asawa. Im still young.

And the IO looked at my passport and saw my birthyear.

 IO:Oh, 1982!?!(question mark on his face)

Was it just me who laughed hard here? 1982 is still young here! Hmph.

So there.  The airport transfers who fetched me in the airport is far better in Tagalog. I felt like I was just in Manila trying to be maarte in English cause I don’t know if he understands all tagalog I was uttering.  Anyway, the one that amazes me, though not my first time to see, is the right-hand drive car.  I know. Mababaw. But just to share, I travel to see things that I dont normally see. So there.

So, I dropped my things at the hotel. The receptionists were quite nice to me even though I know they were having a hard time communicating in English.  Water  was abundant, which is g-o-o-d for someone who loves gulping water.  Thenafter, my transfers toured me around the city, for free! Thanks to you, really. Appreciate all of those!

My second day was white water rafting day.  Before that, I enjoyed jumping on  and shaking hanging bridges.  There’s nothing like those in Manila!

Rafting: 12:00 NOON.  How can I become fair if this is whats going to make me happy?  Hehe. Vanity aside.  I went on with a Malay couple and a pair of Hongkong nationals.  The boatman kept on pushing me out in the water since he has no one to play with but me coz I was the only one who doesn’t have a partner.  At least I’m game.  Geesh, that was two hours!  He even had us jump from a 2-meter high big rock down to the water. First time! I thought it was easy at first but when its my turn to push myself down, the weakling in me kept pulling me back. But I did it anyway. Fun. Fun. Fun.

Water made my body all tired so I went back to the hotel to rest for a while. Just went out for dinner and looked at the Night market where a lot of Pinoy bangketa products are. Of course I didn’t buy any. It’s a lot cheaper here!

I didn’t do much on my last day. Just stormed the small mall in front of our hotel with the help of a Filipino I met in the hotel, paraded my Manny Pacquiao shirt (Yeah!) and shopped for some pasalubong. Thanks to you also, kuya. Sana jan mo makita ang asensong hindi mo makita sa Pilipinas. Good luck sayo.

So there. I waited for my flight back to Manila. Made friends with a Chinese/Hongkong national family who also waited in the hotel lobby for their flight to Kuala Lumpur.  Had a few smiles with some Malays and whoever. Ate Chippy and drank a mineral water for P100 during my 1.5 hours flight back to Manila.  Then booog, my Kota Kinabalu vacation is now a memory. 

It was fun traveling alone. It has got to be one of my best stories in my life. 

Will I do this again? Why not?