KotaKinabalu

Kota Kinabalu in Sabah, Malaysia and Bandar Seri Begawan in Brunei are two of the major cities in the island of Borneo. Travel between these two is easy and convenient, since there are a lot of options available. There are flights between Kota Kinabalu and Bandar Seri Begawan served by different airlines; there are ferries you can take from Kota Kinabalu to Labuan and onwards from Labuan to Brunei; and there is also an option for a long land journey, if you have enough time and you’re not in a rush. During my tour in Borneo, I only had a short time of vacation but I took the last option, because of one reason: PASSPORT STAMPS! In case you’re not aware of it, choosing this route will let you earn EIGHT (8) passport stamps, and this is a good way to fill up your passport if you’re fond of collecting them.

Taman Haji Sir Muda Omar Ali Saiffudien, Bandar Seri Begawan

The only bus that caters this route is Continue reading →

I love short escapes from the mundane life. It just relaxes my mind and free myself from stress for a while. It was another eid holiday season this September, so it was meant for me to go out again for a long weekend. On the earlier part of the year, I booked a cheap flight from Manila to Kota Kinabalu, knowing that tentatively, the work-free day would fall on a Monday, September 12, as listed by some of the sources I checked online. Good news, the holiday was announced to be on that date.

Gaya Island, Tunku Abdul Rahman National Park

Kota Kinabalu, the city where I would land, is the capital of East Malaysia’s Sabah in the island of Borneo, the third largest non-continental island in the world after Greenland and New Guinea. This island offers a lot of natural sights and is famous for its diverse wildlife, white sand beaches, excellent diving spots, and huge national parks. Borneo is shared by three countries: Malaysia (Sabah and Sarawak), Brunei, and Indonesia (Kalimantan). Kota Kinabalu is the main gateway to East Malaysia that’s why it is the second busiest airport in the country. The main sight I was planning to visit there is the well-known Tunku Abdul Rahman National Park, a group of five islands some kilometers away from the city.

I planned to have a four-day vacation there. This would be my itinerary, supposedly: Continue reading →