Jesselton Misty Tales Day 1

The land under the breeze.Sabah…what started out as Jesselton town is now known as Kota Kinabalu and this is a place where history runs deep, and can be witnessed by the actions of the people here. Ask anyone and they will tell you their town is Jesselton and you can find many shops still using this name in their business signages.

This is my first trip to Sabah with the diplodocus, Deviljoe and Tonti Chee, to which I must say, the furthest state of Malaysia has proven to be one of the most interesting and beautiful places.

Day 1

We decided to spend our first night at KK Town before heading out to Kundasang the next day. Having our 90 day pass to Sabah and securing our Myvi for the drive around town, we headed to Gaya Street to find our accommodation at the Asian Adventure Lodge.

Part of the Gaya Street decorated for CNY 2014

The view from the Lodge Pantry

It wasn’t very hard to find our hotel, but the parking was a pain in the ass. As the street is pretty much as famous as KL’s Petaling Street,  you can imagine the kind of parking space they had. Most of the shops entrances are actually behind the main street, so if you see a signboard for a restaurant along Gaya, don’t be surprised to find no entrance to the shop.

Though we reached 3 hours later than our check in time, we were a little surprised to find the room not ready. Hungry and excited, we decided to dump our bags at the reception and skipped off to the nearby restaurant Fong Ip for some chow.Whatever you do, do not ask for roti canai or nasi lemak around here. Pretty much sucks.

The shared pantry. Breakfast is provided but is a simple toast and jam

After jalan jalan for a bit, we headed back to the tiny lodge to shower and change. The owner, I found, was a little too talkative and wasn’t too subtle in hiding her political views. So if you decide to stay here, be prepared to hear her many interesting views and life stories + do not book on Agoda as she blatantly informed me that she does not check the bookings made on this site..sigh, no wonder la our room wasn’t ready when we arrived. But she is very helpful in giving ideas on the dos and donts around KK and offers good prices if one is interested on tours. But since we had rented a Myvi, its much cheaper to get around compared to taking tours to the sites.

The temperature dropped to about 21 deg at night and winds can get pretty chilly. It was a cool welcome from the heatwave that is Kuala Lumpur. This first night, we decided to have some local Chinese food and  coconut pudding from Restoran masakan sedap@ Hilltop, Jalan Lintas, Luyang. The pudding is served in the coconut itself and looks like tau foo fa but it’s very cooling and fresh.

The Pudding comes in the coconut, 1 coconut is plenty to be shared by 4 pax

One dish down on my list of to-eats..45 more to go. Some how I have doubt that I can completely try everything that’s on my list..but hey, when on holiday, whats reasonable right?