Sabah Weekend Getaway 2017 - Day 2: Kota Kinabalu Island Hopping Tour

2^nd Day – 18^th August 2017 (Friday)
Location: Kota Kinabalu

It’s island hopping day! From 5 am, I was already awake and about preparing for our island day in the sun. After Subuh prayer, we ladies were busy packing our necessities; towels, sunscreens, sunglasses, hats, dry clothes, etc. S arrived at 7.30 am at the hotel and took us to Jesselton Point for Kota Kinabalu Island hopping tour.

P/S: We didn’t use our Grab or Uber apps on the second day because S graciously used his car to bring us around.

Kota Kinabalu City is near to the sea, and surrounded by many small, beautiful islands and one of the many attractions of Kota Kinabalu. These islands are a part of Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park and it takes 15-20 minutes boat ride to reach the islands. Some of the islands in the Marine Park is; Manukan Island, Sapi Island, Mamutik Island, Sulug Island, and Gaya Island.

You can get return trip ticket at the ticketing counter at Jesselton Point depending on the number of islands you want to visit; RM 23.00 / adult – 1 island, RM 33.00 / adult – 2 islands, RM 43.00 / adult – 3 islands and so on. You have to pay for entrance fees when you get to the island too, that is RM 3.00 / adult for Malaysian and RM 10.00 / adult for non-Malaysians.

However, we already booked a private boat so we can easily enjoy our trip without having to keep on tab of the boat schedule. It’s a speeding boat suited for 8 people. We also booked for parasailing. Once we arrived at the Jesselton Point, we contacted our tour guide and planned to meet at 9 am. Since we were early, we had breakfast and bought our packed lunches to eat on the island. It is preferable to get your food there because it’s cheaper and you can choose a variety of food (Manukan Island and Mamutik Island do have food stalls, however the prices are a bit expensive and there is not many choices).

At the jetty, the tour guide gave us life jackets and goggles before departing. The sea wave is quite harsh since our speedboat is quite small, but I was enjoying the scenery and the sea breeze.

Private boat + snorkeling goggles + lifejacket = RM 100.00 / person

Parasailing = RM 90.00 / two persons

Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park entrance fees = RM 3.00 / person

For private boat reservation, contact: +60 17-862 1824

Sapi Island was our first destination, and we had to wait until 11 am to go parasailing (we arrived even before 10 am), so we went for a light snorkeling first (is there heavy snorkeling? Haha). I admit I was only in the water for about 15 minutes before I went back to the beach and rest. The waves were getting big and it became increasingly dangerous to swim so the lifeguards put on red flag and called the visitors to the beach. It is noted that the weather is fine and there is no rain.

Honestly I was quite excited to go for parasailing. Out of seven of us, only 5 went for the parasailing. A boat is prepared and about 12 people got into the boat before it sailed through the open sea behind Sapi Island and Gaya Island. It took about 15 minutes of boat ride before the boys went for the first parasailing.

And honestly, I was getting a bit seasick even before I ride the parasailing. The person-in-charge strapped us with a special jacket that can be hooked into the parasailing cable. They were polite enough to ask if it was okay to equip us ladies with the jacket and only do so after we give the okay.

All of the queasiness gone when I was in the air. I managed to get a video and a few pictures when I was up in the sky, and it felt amazing. They dumped Zie and I into the sea (so we could get wet) a few times but that was our fault for not telling them to not let us get wet before we went up, so before you go always tell the person-in-charge that you do not want to get into the water during parasailing if you prefer it. The ride took about 7-10 minutes before we were pulled back to the boat.

Though after a few minutes, my seasick was back and I was throwing up at the side of the boat all the way until we got back to Sapi Island. And it’s not just me; Zie, the boys and all of the other people in the boat with us were seasick as well. Well, aside from T who had accidentally swallowed a mouthful of sea water when he was snorkeling earlier. Our two friends who were waiting for us tell us to rest and we only got better after about 30 minutes sitting and doing nothing.

I normally never got seasick, but from our information, the sea behind Sapi Island is a ship route so the waves are bigger and harsher and that’s probably why I got sick. Tips to avoid seasickness: drink (accidentally or not) a bit of the sea water. Like T, he only got a bit of headache but not as bad as the rest of us.

After we recovered, we were back to being obnoxious and adventurous lol. Our private boat has been waiting for us so the tour guide took us to Manukan Island so we could have lunch. The beach is in a worse state than Sapi Island, but we were able to enjoy ourselves nonetheless. Of course, we went for a bit of snorkeling and shared our lunch until it’s time for the third island.

In Mamutik Island, I didn’t go for snorkeling because the sea along the beach was full of dead coral reefs. You have to get so far into the sea to be able to swim (and even so you can only got the water level up to your thighs). For more privacy, we walked quite far to the end of the beach and took pictures and rest. This is where I suddenly lost my sunglasses lol. At least, it’s RM 10.00 sunglasses so I don’t mind. Remember to always keep an eye on your belongings.

However they can try to improve the bathroom/toilet facilities of the island. I went for the toilet in Mamutik Island and quickly ran back out because it’s so dirty and smelly. There is not even enough clean water. I really hope they could provide a cleaner and more functional bathrooms in the islands in the future since the islands receive a lot of international tourists.

At 5 pm, we were back at the mainland. Saying thank you and goodbye to our tour-guide and boat driver, we went to get our dry clothes from the car and went to the changing room. It is situated right next to the parking lot—go into the futsal building and the changing room is right beside the futsal area. It is clean and quite private, I guess not many people know the existence of this changing room.

After the satisfying and tiring island hopping tour, we went to Kota Kinabalu City Mosque for jamak prayer, also known as "The Floating Mosque". It’s a beautiful mosque surrounded by a man-made lake and we stayed there until Maghrib.

There was a night food market near KK Waterfront, and on our way to get dinner, we stopped by to get a taste of the local Sabah fruit, buah tarap. On the outside, it looks like a durian, but inside, the fruit looks a bit like jackfruit-- if jackfruit is white. It tasted sweet, kind of like buah mata kucing, or longan.

For dinner, we went to Medan Selera Segama Waterfront (Kota Kinabalu Waterfront), but our main aim for the night is; LOBSTER!

It’s hard to find lobsters since it’s not in season (I don’t know much about seafood so…) and after going around and searching and negotiate, we managed to find a stall that sell us a cheap price for lobsters; RM 180 for 2 lobsters at Gerai Ummi & Family. And thus, our objective of the night was a success; we got two lobsters for dinner as well as other seafood.

Menu:
Ketam tomyam (tom yum soup crab)
Lobster telur masin (salted egg lobster)
Lobster masak cili (chilli lobster)
2 Sayur kailan ikan masin (salted fish kalian)
Kerang bakar (clam bake)
Ikan siakap bakar
Ikan batu masak 3 rasa (3 flavor fish – in which I’m not sure the name, the seller said it’s called ikan batu (rock fish) but I’m not sure; the fish is blue by the way)
7 plates of white rice
A big jug of ice syrup

Dinner for 7 people = RM 390.00

We had such a big dinner that some of the tourists stopped by just to take pictures!

Ended the night walking around Marlin Statue (Dataran Todak) before going back early to the hotel. Another adventure awaits for us tomorrow.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

See ya, lovelies!