Kota Kinabalu

Kota Kinabalu or JESSELTON as it was formerly known is the capital of the state of Sabah and situated at in the Northwest Coast of Borneo Islandfacing the South China Sea. One of the best tourist getaway. Location is in the East Coast of Malaysia.Flying here from Kuala Lumpur airport will take approximately 2.5hours by AirAsia or Malaysian Airlines.

Activities



As for my own experience being there twice for a 3D 2N  stay and if you want to compress your trip below would be my advice.3 main items to do for a short trip. Do not miss going to their sister islands nearby Gaya/ Sapi/ Manukan/ Sulug/ Mamutik.As for me I did't really get a chance to go to all the 5 islands but managed to go to Gaya/ Sapi/ Manukan. But it was more of a pleasure sight seeing boat trip and some snorkelling. They do have accomodation here and it seems really good but at that point of time I had already made my booking at the Magellan Sutera Harbour in Kota Kinabalu.

Recommendation (3d2n)

Start of by visiting the city of KK and most likely you will end up in the filipino market. Great place to shop but make sure you do some bargaining. Get yourself to the jetty and arrange yourself to the boat rides to the islands mentioned earlier on. This might take away your whole daylight. At night you can try out Shenanigan's Fun Pub where they play good club music and usually they will have some filipino live bands playing. Other places you could visit would be the White Room Bar Club Lounge, Shamrock's & Ice Bar.

2nd day- You can start of by arranging a trip to mount Kinabalu. Magnificient mountain beauty and nice weather. You have a heritage park here called the Kinabalu Park. Journey from KK to the mount will take you 2 hours by car. Well this mountain is famous for one of the world’s richest orchid flora with over 800 species and 600 species of ferns. This place will take most of the steam out of youand by the time you get back it most probably will be heading night time. You can start back at the clubs/pubs again just to quench your thirst.

3rd day - head back. :-(

Getting around KK is not difficult as they have a good bus system and taxi's are ample. For those who want to shop don’t worry I believe there is enough for you. Centrepoint, Karamunsing Complex, KK Plaza, Wawasan Plaza & Wisma Merdeka.On Sundays you have the flea market where you can find all sorts of stuff ranging from poultry, handicrafts, traditional music instruments and many many more.

Budget/recommendation

Wouldn't have wrote about this place if it was not good. Noticed many locals and expats really really like this place as you have the beauty of nature at the same time having it in a city like atmosphere where you won't be left out and it is rather slow here compared to KL. Fully recommended - Budget - can go as low RM 1000/ inclusive flight(if you manage to get a good deal) and budget hotels plus all the sightseeing + food etc etc As for me during the Magellan stay + Malaysian airlines = RM2000 + RM700-RM1000 for other expenses. Thumbs up for Magellan Sutera Harbour but it is a bit costly but I would say still worth the money. Best if you request a room facing the sea or pool as in the pictures I posted.

Magellan Sutera Harbour- picture shot from room balcony

 Islands are realtively beautiful much better than Penang/ Langkawi but still few classes below Redang Island.The good part about being in Kota Kinabalu is you have options. You want to be doing something in the city like atmosphere you can, you wanna laze around the beach you can & you have the highest mountain in Malaysia here and if you are some mountain climber or just someone who wants to enjoy some good views Mount Kinablau is there for you. 

Mount Kinabalu

 The nightlife scene in KK too I would say is rather good with good hotel lounges/ clubs and also some dodgy karaoke bars with many filipino girls that serve you drinks.

Johor Premium Outlets

Johor Premium outlets is basically located in the state of Johor the most southern state in Malaysia just neighboring Singapore.

The capital of this state is known as Johor Baharu and this state is basically surrounded by Malacca, Negeri Sembilan & Pahang.

There are like 10 districts in Johor - Johor Bahru, Batu Pahat, Muar, Kluang, Segamat, Kota Tinggi, Kulaijaya, Pontian, Mersing, Ledang.

But for today, I would actually love to write about the Johor Premium outlets.

How to get there?

Driving to JB ( Johor Bahru) as it mostly known as will take you around 4 hours approximately and by driving by speed limits.

This is from KL actually and if you are driving down from Penang it will take around 8hours plus minus. Well there are a lot of bus companies going to Johor to on a daily basis and some busses have a short pit stop in JB before shooting off to Singapore. If you are coming from Singapore, you will be able to drive your car over, take a bus or even cabs. Most likely a 40 minutes trip if you are from the centre of Singapore. For those who want to shop at the premier outlets you can exit at the Senai Utara toll exit at the North South Highway in Malaysia.

Activities

I've not really come to JB on a real holiday, but it is usually on a business trip/work agenda and usually I will end up staying in Zon hotel in Stulang.

I'm not going to write much about Zon hotel and Stulang but as for now if I ever go to JB, I would love to stay here. Good Food/ Shopping (duty free)/ Good Night Life.

Johor Premium outlets--I didn't plan to write about this place at first, but when I went there few days back, it just came across my mind to share my experience to the Johor Premium Outlets Shopping area. I believe this will be some sort of haven of the crazy shoppers as I noticed the sale/discounts for the goods were just too irresistible.

Reach there around 8pm and had limited time to really go check out all the stores but the 2 hours I spent there was satisfying.

Managed to get a pair of Adidas sneakers at 70% which cost me only RM135 after discount and I feel it really looks cool.

I've actually been to the Premier outlets on Tochigi-Japan couple of years back and this Johor Outlets reminded myself of being in Japan again only thing is

I feel this is slightly smaller than in Japan. You can really find all sorts of branded stuff here. Let me give some of the retail outlets I could remember.

Raoul, Armani Exchange, Burberry, Polo, Calvin Klein, Salvatorre Ferragamo, Tommy Hilfiger, Versace, Michael Korrs just to name a few.

One thing I noticed, especially on the Nike & Adidas outlet, the shoes were magnificent. It was like not the same quality that is being normally sold around Malaysia

but looks more of an outside of Malaysia quality I would say. I believe most of the goods here portray the same image and you have ample of choices to shop.

I would recommend at least a good 4 hours of intense scrutinising of the outlets. The bargains are really good, 10-85% discount. Not sure why they are offering such high discounts though.

Big question mark??? But my point of view, this place has real good/hot stuff.

Food

Went and eat in this Thai Restaurant called Absolute Thai and trust me it was absolutely nice. Cleaned up all my dishes like a good dishwasher

Recommended- Red curry chicken! And the desert was…ermmm I forgot the name but I'll put a photo of it in here.(just being me-ignorant)

Go try it. The restaurant did look a bit exclusive from the outside and I was bit worried to get an expensive bill but

I would say end of the day it was reasonable and worth the money. Waiter/waitresses were quite attentive and the service was fast.

Thumbs up to this place.

Noticed few more eateries here and there but I just wanted to try something different on that particular day. Noticed this place called

George & Dragon cafe. Not sure whether the same management with the one in Bangsar Shopping complex in KL. But it did stand out from the rest too.

If you noticed in the photos I put about the Thai restaurant, it looks rather empty. Well that's because I was the 2nd last table to leave. They were already near to closing time.

Recommendation- For sure. Something different from going to all the shopping complexes to buy stuff with a different feel of atmosphere. Much better discounts too I think,

and more varieties to choose from and last but not least I don’t think I would have found my pair of ADIDAS sneakers anywhere else in Malaysian stores.

Redang Island

This is one of the best islands that you can find in Peninsular Malaysia and one of the largest you can find in the east coast of Malaysia.

Water is magnificently clean and bluish with whitish sand on the beach. Hard to find on the west coast of Malaysia.

It compromises of 9 little islands- Lima Island, Paku besar island, Paku Kecil Island, Kerengga Kecil island, Kerengga besar island, , Ekor tebu island, Ling island & Pinang island and The main Redang Island.

How to get there?

It is accessible from Merang or Kuala Terenganu to Redang by small speed boats. Most of the speed boats are operated by the resorts themselves.

If you are coming from Kuala Lumpur, it is best if you could hook up with a travel agency from KL and make your trip there.

As for our experience we had taken a bus with our own arrangement to Kuala Terengganu but already made due arrangements with the tour agency to fetch us.

Ping Anchorage travel & tours Sdn. Bhd was our tour operator and frankly speaking there were no complains.

As soon as we arrived in Kuala Terengganu, there was already a tour operator waiting to pick us up and we were brought to Merang jetty.

Well, we had to wait like for an hour before the ferry departed to Redang Island and it took approximately like 45-50minutes to arrive at Redang.

You can also fly in directly as they have a small airport. You can look for Berjaya Tours to Redang.

Activities

Once you have set foot on the island, the tour operators will give you a briefing of what are the next items that will be done and also all the safety briefings too.

Our trip was a 3DAY/2 NIGHT thingy and they had us occupied with all sorts of activities.

You can have snorkeling activities at certain parts of the island decided by the tour operators and also on the marine park. Diving too can be arranged

but with some extra charge. You can actually join in all the activities provided by the operator or just inform them that you would like to laze around the beach within your own group.

So it is quite relaxing.

As for our own experience, Just by swimming at shore area there will be a group of baby sharks roaming around. Not to worry, so far they have been harmless to humans and the scene was just so

electrifying as seeing real baby sharks swim in front of your eyes.  The beach boys did mention that there was an area where the mother sharks are but we were just too afraid to go there.

But some people actually did and they came back alive. Hehe. Some people went diving but too bad we didn’t really get feedback from them so we are unable to comment.

If you just not want to do anything at all, it will also be great just to lie sunbathing in the beach. This island is still not so commercialised yet so it kinda relaxing.

Many tourist still do not know about this place as they are still being told about Langkawi, Penang and other very commercialised places.

Night

Night activities is not that much here but you sure could enjoy some of the beach bars on the sand and maybe get sloshed. We did but by bringing our own drinks as I would say alcohol could be quite

pricey there. It is great to actually chill out with your friends/ family/ gf/bf whatsoever under the moonlight and watching the stars at night. It does get rather quite by the time it is 10pm as I noticed that many

of the people at that point of time were honey mooning. So I guess, after dinner they just go do whatever couples like to after just getting married…cheers.

Food   

As for us since we had taken a package from Ping Anchorage, everything was provided. Breakfast, lunch & dinner. Well we enjoyed the seafood barbecue buffet on the 2nd night for sure. All this comes in the package.    

Please do check again if they still have this offerings in your packages. Nothing was really great about the food except for the barbecue but can't expect much for the very cheap price we paid for.   

So no complaints.        

Return 

Took a speed boat arranged by the tour operator back to Merang Jetty and a van send us back to the Kuala Terenganu bus station.

We arranged for our own tickets back for the bus and sadly back to KL.        

Best part was during our boat trip back from Redang, we managed to get few glimpses of dolphins following our boats. Managed to get some photos but it ain't that clear.        

But these dolphins were rather blackish in colour compared to what you see in national geographic (grayish)-maybe the Malaysian sun. - hehe   

We always wanted to return back to this island but still could not manage to do so with our busy work schedules. But for sure we will as we feel this is the best we have seen with our own eyes  

Recommendation         

Worth it- Budget around rm400-500/TOURS--- RM400/500 Personal.