Sapi Island

On our second day, we took a day trip to Sapi Island. It was the "rainy" season so I was worried if we would be able to make it out to the beach, but luckily we were blessed with gorgeous weather!

We took these boats from the harbor, which was right next to our hotel.

That's the whole island! It's about a 15 minute boat ride.

Can you see the fish?

The "entrance" to the island.

Clear water.

We got there pretty early in the morning (we left around 9AM) and were one of the first to get there. We snorkeled...

and took naps with this view.

Roaming around were residents of this island, the Monitor Lizard. They were huge!

Lok Kawi Wildlife Park

Saw lots of exotic animals and birds at Lok Kawi Wildlife Park. It's a huge zoo and was our alternative to see Orangutans when our plan to visit the Orangutan Reserve failed. It was worth the visit though because they have so many different kinds of animals and most of the larger ones were SO close with no fence.

When we went to see the elephants, it was their feeding time. Yay! They open their mouths and anxiously wait for you to throw the carrots (that orange thing in the middle).

We also watched the Orangutan Show.

Night Markets

There are many night markets going on every night in downtown KK. It's always interesting to check out markets in the countries you visit.

Ocean Seafood Restaurant (海王城)

Our 2nd and last meal was at Ocean Seafood Restaurant (海王城). There are a lot of these types of seafood restaurants in the city where you choose your fish and how you want it prepared.

Entrance.

HUGE! This is probably only a tenth of the entire place.

Huge variety of seafood.

Sauteed Scallops with Baby Chinese Broccoli.

Black Pepper Crab.

Steamed Grouper Hong Kong style.

This dish was my favorite!

Aftermath.

*This is most likely where we both got food poisoning. Oh well, it was worth it!

Fatt Kee (Ang's Hotel Restaurant)

Our first dinner was at Fatt Kee in downtown KK. We walked around for a bit because we wanted a local place to try. We decided to come here because all the customers seemed local and it was constantly packed, always people standing around eyeing the next opening. Sorry, I forgot to take pictures of the place but here's a link.

Wintermelon Soup.

Prawns in Chili Sauce.

Oyster Sauce Chicken Wings.

(That seriously EVERYONE seemed to order)

Chinese Greens.

Local drinks.

The food was really good and I especially enjoyed the Wintermelon Soup & Wings!

Kedai Kopi Melanian 3

Our first meal in KK was breakfast at Kedai Kopi Melanian 3.

Our Malaysian tour guide took us here for a local dining experience before taking us to the zoo.

They are located in downtown KK and specialize in mixed pork noodles, popularly known to Chinese people as "Sang Nyuk Man".

Open kitchen.

People flowed in non-stop and the place was constantly full!

Pork Noodle Soup with Kon-Lou noodles (dry noodles).

This set was 5.5 RM, about $1.70 or 130 yen!

We also tried the Kui Teoy noodles which were kind of like thick Pho noodles. Personally, I liked this noodle more. The flavor isn't as strong as it looks and has a sweet, soy-sauce taste. Both the soup and noodles were actually very tasty!

Kota Kinabalu

Another perk of living in Japan is its proximity to other Asian countries. Growing up in CA, for a weekend trip, we would only really have the option to travel somewhere within the US, Canada or Mexico.

Last Wednesday was a public holiday in Japan and my boyfriend took a couple days off so we planned a quick 2 night trip to Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah, one of the 13 states in Malaysia. KK wasn't on our list of places to visit but after some research it seemed like a really interesting destination. They have beaches, jungles, animals, mountains, a city, and most importantly the food which is a mix of various Asian cuisines. What sealed the deal was a direct flight out of Haneda. SO convenient!

Will blog in detail but here is our trip in a nutshell...

Took a red eye and arrived around 6AM.

It's about a 5.5 hour flight there, 4.5 hour flight back. Not bad!

The city is about a 10-15 minute car ride from the airport, which is awesome.

Harbor adjacent to our hotel.

What we didn't know was that most of KK city is a landfill so they didn't have nice beaches that I'd envisioned. But, there are lots of islands nearby!

There is a large Muslim population so there were many mosques.

Went to Lok Kawi Wildlife Park.

Initially, we wanted to go to the Sepilok Orang Utan Sanctuary, and we knew it was on the Eastern side of Sabah but didn't realize that it was another flight or a 7.5 hour drive to get there. Definitely didn't have enough time for that but hopefully we can make another trip out to go there, Kinabalu National Park and Gomantong Caves.

Went to the Sabah State Museum & Heritage Village.

An enormous Bryde's Whale skeleton is displayed and it's impressive!

Day trip to Sapi Island.

Kota Kinabalu is famous for beautiful sunsets:

Day 1

This was after some rain so there were lots of clouds.

Day 2

Stunning!

We wrapped up our trip with food poisoning (both of us!) so although we had half a day before we flew out, we could barely move. Oh well, at least we were able to enjoy two full days there!