Kota Kinabalu - the big city

As we were sailing the last few days (and believe it or not, we were actually sailing, not motoring), I kept having these random thoughts… “I wish I could see something big like a whale,”  “Gosh it’s pretty out here,”  “I’m lonely, but am I really ready to go  home?,” “  I hope I can run here, I”ve gotten fat,”  “I wonder if there are any kid boats for Jake to play with,”  “ I wonder if there’s anyone for me to play with”…. And on and on….

We spent a week in the Kudat marina, acclimating ourselves to the friendly Malaysian people and stifling heat.  We were able to catch up with our friends on s/v Creola, unfortunately, now on the hard getting rebuilt after spending two weeks on a reef.  We were introduced to our best meal since who knows when and a swim in a really hot pool (the ocean temp here is 93 degrees).  While staying in Kudat was tempting (hee hee), we decided to move on (crocodiles, box jellies, etc).

The captain taking some selfies.

As we pulled into Kota Kinabalu (known as KK), one theme ran throughout all of us…. Jake put it best “Oh. My. Gosh.  This place is HUGE!”

It’s our first city since San Diego.  Complete with big buildings, 6 lane highways, red lights, and lots and lots of people.  We pulled in yesterday and decided to anchor outside the swanky, swanky marina.  Did I say swanky?  2, or is it 3? Resorts…4 pools, who knows how many restaurants, bowling ally, someone said theater???  Swanky. 

We anchored, took a shower and went in to check it out.  What did we find?  Our good friends Lee and Richard on s/v Before.  Love these people.  Unfortunately, they only had 5 minutes to talk before heading out on a tour for a few days, but enough time to surprise them and get some really good info (like how to catch the “swanky” bus with air conditioning to town for a $1/person).

So today we went downtown to check everything out.  You know we hit the mall…. We found the Japanese restaurant we want to try soon.  We walked through one of the largest markets I’ve seen to date…very cool.  Then we had ‘jugs’ of beer at an Irish pub.

No more itty bitty watermelons...finally, one fit for an American
(have you ever seen the size of a watermelon in Oklahoma?) 

This was just one row of over a dozen.

Dried fish is abundant here.  The smell is atrocious but the taste
is surprising good, especially in soups.

I’m sure we’ll get further into the Malaysian thing tomorrow, but if you’ve read us for very long, you’ll know we get our American on when we hit a place like this ( Can you say ‘Burger King?’  “Pizza Hut?”…actually we got there at 9:30 and nothing else was open…we were starving…Whopper sounded good.).  We need a day to soak it all in, then we’ll hit the streets.  We’re looking forward to the night market.  We here it’s the best in Borneo.  Street food, locals, market…all good things.

While we just arrived, it seems like this is the hub of all things happening….city life (restaurants, bars, people, lots and lots of hotels), jungle, orangutans, caves, rivers, long houses, white water rafting, giant mosques, scuba diving, literally everything. 

It’s also quite pricey in some aspects so we’re going to have to choose wisely (unlike last night when we spent a small bar of gold on our crappy dinner at one of the hotels here), but choose we will….this is the most exciting place yet.  The people are friendly, the food is good, and the possibilities are endless….

A local chain...Andy couldn't resist taking a picture. :)

Stay tuned…