Kota Kinabalu, Sabah - Travel Diary Day 1

Sunset at Marina Bay, Kota Kinabalu

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On the weekend my three girlfriends and I made a trip to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. The flight was about two hours from Kuala Lumpur, and we were going to kill two birds with one stone – go snorkeling and do some light exploring at Mount Kinabalu. First lesson here is to never underestimate the power of pre-booking meals. The smell of a hotdog gets 10 times more intense in the plane.

We got there by noon, went food-hunting for lunch and Mimi brought us all to a small old bakery within the mall to get her favorite food as a child – it was called the Mexico Bun (Butter bun with crème filling). I think it’s wonderful the fact that most of us almost always associate the happiness of childhood to some kind of favorite food/junk/snacks that rot your teeth.

We went to see the sunset at Marina Bay, and of course, I ate some cookies and cream gelato (honestly, and I have the cheek to wish I have badass legs like Miranda Kerr?). It was pretty nice, sitting at the jetty, talking about nothing, enjoying the sea and sunset, checking out observe-worthy guys… it was all a very ’19 again’ evening hanging out with close girlfriends.

For dinner we were all pretty content on trying to have a laid back weekend holiday, so Mimi’s sister took us out to dinner at a pretty nice restaurant pub in the heart of Kinabalu. Mimi used to live in Kinabalu before she moved to KL, by the way. Which explains the Mexico bun and the sister. Anyway the food was lovely, I think we ordered enough to feed 10 starving girls from America’s Next Top Model. We spent the rest of the night playing pool at the pub, and by the end of it I think I have smartly converted myself from a zero to hero when it comes to snooker, thanks to Zaza my BFF who is the macho-est woman alive (I mean, she can play snooker so well it made those guys on ESPN gulp).

We got back to the hotel room to watch a silly movie nobody remembered about and played cards for the rest of the night. All set and geared up for snorkeling the next day! 

Api-api Centre Restaurant and Pub. Awesome Filipino food. And pool table.

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