Grace's Birthday at Kota

Our second whole day (technically, third day) in Kota Kinabalu was Grace's birthday - 9th March. I was the first one to wake up so I was able to greet her immediately when she opened her eyes. We again hit the buffet at Cafe Tatu for breakfast and had pansit for for long life.

After breakfast we tried hitting the beach but there's a huge sign that there might be jellyfish plus the water's a bit too deep for us so we went back to the pool.

We met this little boy who is so talkative and so adorable. He'd tell his father, "Papi please help me, I can't do that because I'm so small." We later found out he was only 3 and a half years old but he swam cautiously by himself.

We had our lunch in our room, Grace and I split an order of duck curry because we didn't want to eat too much. The original plan was to eat dinner buffet at Cafe Tatu so we didn't want to be too full for that hehehe - preparing our stomach for the really big meal ahead of us. Then it was "lazying around" time again. We took a nap and then headed out to take photos in the resort.

This is at the courtyard on our wing.

This is where we whiled away the afternoon waiting for sunset.

The view from where we were seated...the Chi Spa on the right...

and the sunset on our left.

When we got back to our room a birthday cake was waiting for Grace. And soon after we arrived I heard a knock on our door - a hotel staff brining in more gifts for Grace, bath therapy from the Chi Spa with instructions on how to use them. The Spa also offered a 20% discount but unfortunately, there wasn't enough time to make the appointment and actually go there for the massage.

For dinner we changed our minds, so instead of pigging out at the buffet we tried fine dining at Peppino. I don't think I'll get used to this kind of eating..everything's so formal. I'm pretty sure they didn't get those lights in some sale lighting.

We again went to Happy Hour but this time at the Borneo Lounge which is just outside Peppino. It was totally a coincidence that our clothes were matching that night.

We ordered mai thais but after three rounds we were both tipsy ahaha. I wasn't even able to finish my third glass, Grace had to finish it for me.


Happy birthday, Gracia! I wish you all the best beacuse you deserve it! I hope next time we can have our dream cruise with our respective partners *wink, wink*

Spending the Nights (and Day) in KK

On our first night at Kota Kinabalu, after checking-in, we immediately had to take a bath because it was so humid and we just had to freshen up. We just ordered room service.


After eating, we decided to go down to the beach and Grace ordered us a bottle of Chardonnay.


The plan was to to drink by the beach but the mosquitos were killing us so we took the bottle up to our room and continued drinking there while watching Australia. I love Hugh but Australia is such a bore. Just when I thought it was ending, the movie just continues on and on....Let's just say that Grace fell asleep while watching it, here she is still with her eyeglasses on but already asleep haha! She will definitely kill me if she knew I posted this one.


After a few more minutes I decided to sleep as well. Okay, we can blame that one on the wine and not on Hugh. The next day, we had buffet breakfast at Shang's Café Tatu.


We then went for a swim. Do you see that lone person in the pool? That's Grace who missed the waters in NY. It's her first swim after almost two years.


But I was feeling a bit woozy, still because of the wine the night before, so I just decided to sit back and relax by the pool. It was only then that I realized how fun it was to just sit by the pool haha. I always thought of why other people just lounge by the pool and don't take a swim, but that time I found it so fun and at the same time peaceful just sitting there, listening to my Ipod and watching people. Grace went up to our room to wash up but I decided to stay. And then I saw this..



The hotel provides different activities for their guests, and on our first day they had water exercise in the morning. Grace and I signed up for the cooking demonstration in the afternoon but we weren't able to come back for that since we went to the city center (but I'm getting ahead of my story). Anyway, after I washed up, Grace and I decided to go to the city center because I told her we can eat in Sedco Complex where they serve fresh seafood, the one where we ate in the last time I went there. The cab from Shangrila to the city center is fixed at RM15. Unfortunately, the place was closed during lunch hours. So we rode another cab to the Waterfront (good thing I still remember some of the places in KK) and had our lunch there.


Shout out to Anna, I wore the gift that you gave me. :)

As in my first trip there, we met a lot of Filipinos. One of them is the server in the restaurant at the Waterfront Esplanade. Funny 'cause when he found out we were Filipinos he gave us that kind of "Why am I trying so hard to speak in English when you are Pinoys" face haha. Most of the other patrons that were eating were Caucasians and they all ordered beers in the middle of a hot day. I can't imagine drinking beer and then feeling hot because of the alcohol in that humid weather. After eating, we crossed the street to Warisan Mall and did a little bit of shopping. I scored a pair of Vincci shoes for just RM42 so that's just less than 600 pesos! Test rode it yesterday at work and got a lot of compliments.

We got back to the hotel a little after 4pm, so late for the 3pm cooking demo we signed for. So we tried to take a nap before heading out for happy hour at the hotel's Sunset Bar. We watched the sunset during happy hour and ordered a bucket of Stella Artois (4 cans) and some chicken wings.




It was already dark when we left Sunset Bar. We had a long conversation about work and career choices. I must have blabbed on and on to Grace about my frustrations while she also blabbed on and on about her frustrations. This vacation was really about us reconnecting again and be able to rant and rant about everything haha.

Shangri-La Tanjung Aru Resort

And I'm back! Went to Kota Kinabalu on a 4 day/3 night vacation with my friend, Grace. On her insistence, we stayed at Shangri-La Tanjung Aru resort. At first, I didn't want to stay there although I was the one who suggested the resort. It's just that I found the price a bit too steep for my budget. But she convinced me since we haven't travelled for a few years now and I really need this vacation away from work, I thought I deserved it. And I'm so glad I relented because the hotel was fabulous!


We were picked up from the aiport by a hotel staff. Here's Grace posing outside the airport.



Check-in was a breeze! When we went out of the aiport car, the staff directed us to the lobby and we were asked to seat and wait for a couple of minutes. Then I was asked to fill-in some forms, while they gave us cold towels and welcome drinks.





I originally booked us a superior Kinabalu mountain view room but upon check-in we were upgraded to a deluxe room at the Tanjung wing. Look at those beds! They're so soft and comfy, although I didn't get to sleep that well because I missed the husband.




And the view from the balcony of our room. We had a view of the swimming pools and the beach. It was always so tempting to go for a swim when we look out our balcony.



Our balcony has its own seating area. It can get a little hot outside but there's a ceiling fan in the balcony so it's still a nice place to hang out.


But we also have a seating area inside the room.


The bathroom is very nice as well, the countertop is full with toiletries.





Up next, more photos of our trip. I wish I could have eaten low carb bars before the trip so that I looked more fit. Grace and I were always taking a couple of photos of each other before we got the perfect one (the one where we don't look so fat hahaha).

Kota Kinabalu 2007

So yeah it was just the six of us who finally were able to go on with the trip. Out first day/night was like a series of unfortunate events. First, Janice and Al weren’t able to come because Janice was sick. Then Allan was held back in line on the check-in counter because of his passport. After Immigrations and the final x-ray thing, Penny and I had to go back to the check-in counter to check-in our umbrellas because we had them in our carry-on bags (umbrellas were not allowed because of the long metals). Pao and Joema were joking that they were the only ones left and be together the whole trip haha! But things did not end here in the Philippines. At the airport at Kota Kinabalu, after I got my passport stamped and was already waiting for our luggages, Joema called me back and said the Immigration officer was asking for me. I was like “Huh? WTF?!?!?” It turned out he stamped 90 days in my passport and had it revised to 30 days. Then when I left the counter for the second time, he called me back again because he did not give me back the portion of the disembarkation card that I had to keep for my departure. I was telling them later on that the officer was so entranced by my beauty (or the lack of it) that he gave me 90 days to stay on the island. =P After we all got our luggages, we searched for our sundo but as luck would have it, the hostel forgot to arrange our airport pick-up. Ugh! Good thing there were Filipinas there who were picking up other people, they help us talk to the guy manning the Tourist Information desk. He called the hostel and we asked them to pick us up. We had to wait for 30 minutes before we were picked up. After that, everything went smoothly na. I think the taxi drivers of our cabs (as in 3 cabs because there were nine of us originally, kaya ayun isang cab isang couple ang nakasakay), were expecting us to give them tips. Oh so sorry because we still didn’t have ringgits then. We planned to have our money exchanged when we reach the city. So that’s the first things we did after checking in our things at the hostel. We went to Centerpoint Mall, it’s like Tutuban Mall (but I think that was only one part of the mall, the other part was more sosy), to have our pesos exchanged to ringgits.

We had dinner the nearby Sedco Complex. And when I say nearby, it was just next door. The complex was sort of our dampa here in Metro Manila. Pili ka ng fish, prawns, crabs or any other seafood then they will cook it for you. There was another Filipina there, the waitress who took our beverage orders. I tell you there were a lot of Pinoys in Kota Kinabalu which was really good because it made things easier for us. We ordered seafood fried rice, prawns and fish. Ang sarap!


After dinner we went to the night market. But only a few stalls were open because it was raining. Parati na lang ata umuulan pag bumabiyahe kami kaya natuto na kami lahat..lahat kami may dala ng umbrella. We went back to the hostel feeling a bit tired and disappointed because we didn’t get to do much on our first night.

Day 2

Since we didn’t have our tour guides (Janice and Al) we had a sort of hard time deciding what to do on our first whole day in Kota Kinabalu. Whole day island hopping in Tunku Adbul Rahman Park? City tour? Will we be able to squeeze in Klias Wetlands? Where do we arrange the package tour? How do we got to the jetty – taxi or arrange with the hostel? After talking to the reception lady at the hostel (she can’t understand or speak that much English) and talking to someone over the cellphone (I think it was their manager) we decided to just arrange the pick-up and ferry to Manukan island (part of TAR park) at the hostel. We shelled out RM40 per pax for that. We didn’t have time to eat breakfast because after a few minutes the van was already there. They took us to the Shangri-la Tanjung Aru Resort where the Beach Bums Jetty was located. And the travel gods was looking down on us that day because from the resort we made arrangements for the Klias Wetlands later that after plus they gave us 10% off from the original price of RM190 because we were a big group. Yey! They told us to leave Manukan island at 130pm and the van will pick us up at 2pm at the resort lobby. Weeeee!!!!

The beach sand in Manukan island is not powdery. Actually it's not recommended for swimming dahil puro bato talaga yung beach. There were a lot of fish to feed though. As in super dami.



We had lunch at the island where we met another Pinoy, Mang Justine, who gave us free chicken bbq. =) Actually, Pao made a mistake of ordeing the bbq instead of the chicken satay. Nung cinorrect namin binigay pa rin nya sa min yung bbq compliments of him. Trivia pala, yung ibang Pinoy don actually dun na pinanganak so they understant Tagalog pero they don't speak. Katuwa nga e kasi when you ask them if they're Pinoy they will say yes pero technically hindi na because they were born and raised in Sabah, like Mang Justine.



After lunch we rode the ferry back to Shangri-la. Ganda don! Wish we could have stayed there. Mga kurips kasi sa board and lodging haha. This was were we were picked up the van that will take us to Klias Wetlands for a river cruise. We rode for two hours before arriving at Gamana River. Ready na for the cruise!



There we saw different kinds of monkeys - proboscis monkey, long tail macaques and silver langurs. Then after dinner we were able to see thousands of fireflies glow like Christmas lights. Sayang lang dahil we only saw that for a few minutes. Then it was time to head back to Kota Kinabalu.

Day 3

We intended to go to Kinabalu Park and Poring Hot Springs. We originally decided to take the public bus going to Kinabalu Park but after eating breakfast and walking to the bus stop, as you may have noticed our original plans don’t really happen, a Pinoy sweet talked us into hiring their van going to Kinabalu Park. We paid them RM120 for the whole van which is okay because the bus fare to the park would cost us around RM15-20 per person. They just told us to take the bus going back to the city proper and make sure that we don’t go home later than 5pm because that’s the last ride back to the city. As you would have guessed that didn’t push through as well. We rented out a van going to Poring Hot Spring and commissioned the driver to bring us back to Kota Kinabalu. I think he asked for RM220 for it. But I’m getting ahead of the story.



We're no mountain climbers so we followed a few trails at the Kinabalu Park. Sayang it was cloudy so we did not see the peak of Mt. Kinabalu. Anyways, we first followed the Bukit Tupai Trail where we went to see their botanical garden. Then we went to Padanus Trail hoping to get a peek of the mountain. Argh! Akyat ng akyat na wala naman palang patutunguhan. Sabi ni Joema "We're beach loving people, bat ba tayo napunta dito?".



After the 500m mark we went down the Kiau View trail. Super pagod after that. We had lunch at the cafe at the foot of the mountain.

Poring Hot Spring naman after that. We were a bit disappointed with the place. We didn't get to soak in the hot spring dahil hindi namin ma-take ang itsura. The hot spring in Camiguin was much better (or was that because it was already dark when we got there?) Anyways, we just soaked our feet in the tub for feet only haha! Then we waited for our van na. We asked him to pick us up at 5pm but since wala nga kaming ginawa sa hot spring we were already at the rendezvous before 5pm. We were so bored waiting...


In fairness naman he arrived exactly on time. Super speed driver namin before 7pm we were at the waterfront of Kota Kinabalu na. Natuwa kami sa nakita naming malll at dun na kami nag-dinner. Sarap dinner namin and super mura. By the time we were full, we're ready to explore the city again. We went back to the night market and were able to buy a few more things. Including some glow-in-the-dark shirt na hindi naman nagglow. Hayop! Penny and Joema bought the same shirt...different times lang dahil we separated while browsing through the market..pero they got it different prices. Mas mura ng RM5 yung kay Penny...tapos yung kay Joema kulang pa ng logo sa likod ng shirt. Laugh trip talaga!

Day 4

Since it was a Sunday, our schedule well me and Joema squeezed in our schedule to hear mass at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Karamunsing. While the others went to the Handicraft store at the waterfront and bought pasalubong. Anyways, after the mass Joema and I had a hard time finding a taxi that will take us to Warisan Mall. We were two lost tourists walking around. We had to go back to the church and ride a bus. There was a friendly passenger who told us that we had to get off the bus at the same stop he got off and that we had to walk going to the mall. Argh! Walk again?!?!?! But since this story has an ending, we were finally able to reach the mall and meet up with the others. We were so hungry! Buti na lang the store where they bought the pasalubong was just a block away. I asked Joema to buy our pasalubong first before we eat para makapahinga kami ng dire-diretso. After eating (whil the others went around the mall), we all headed back towards the hostel for check-out. Then it was bye-bye time.

Math Problem

Nine friends planned to go to Kota Kinabalu as early as April. They booked the free flights offered by Air Asia. Two days before the scheduled flight out from Clark, one friend declined to come. Let’s call him friend A. He and his two sisters were supposed to go home to Nueva Ecija on the 30th of October but one sister cannot go home until the 1st of November. So he opted to stay and wait for both his sisters instead of going out of the country. Phew! Lame excuse.

On the 1st of November, friend Mrs. B, texted friend C that she was sick and she cannot come. Oh shit shit shit! She and her husband already went to KK so they were indirectly in charge of the trip – where to go, what to do. But she’s such a sweetheart she texted friend C all the info that she has about KK. As in panic texting!

When the remaining group of friends arrived at Clark for check-in another friend found only found out that his passport was about to expire come February 2008. Good people at Clark only asked him to sign a waiver.

Q: How many friends were able to go to Kota Kinabalu?
A: Six friends. (Those who did not come - friend A, friend Mrs. B and husband Mr. B, so that’s three friends hehe )