Holiday in Borneo: Day 1 -- Kota Kinabalu

Arrived in Kota Kinabalu in June 2009. Checked into the 1Novotel in 1Borneo in 1Sabah in 1Malaysia.

This particular hotel was good for us as it was located within a huge shopping mall, and had a kids stay (sort of) free policy. In our case, what was best was that our room, which was basically a 1 King bed configuration, was allowed to request for an extra single bed for 1 kid under 16 free. Not too bad a deal.

The 1Novotel's pool was on the 7th floor. Small, and the water was freezing despite the blazing sun (more later...)

So one thing good about staying within a mall is to have all the amenities nearby. For example, we had lunch at NYNY, and the items were more or less half the price (compared to Singapore). Note the large plate of ribs? Well, on the menu it said: "Serving portion for 2 diners." Well, Ambrose finished it by himself.



After lunch, we took a short drive north towards the (Shangri La) Rasa Ria Resort. Nice pool.



Ainsley loved the beach.



Later that afternoon, we went to downtown Kota Kinabalu. This pic is Ambrose on the "Waterfront," a row of restaurants by the sea.




Dinner was at the Meridien, which is across from the Waterfront. Very high class food.



After dinner, we took a walk back along the waterfront, and found a huge pasar malam. That's not a badly taken photo...it's SMOKE! Ambrose said he wanted a pic OF the bbq/satay section...crazy.



Regarding downtown Kinabalu, there's not an awful lot to see or do, beyond some shopping malls. The big adventure was the Mountain.