Although i was excited to start the walk through the weekend market along Gaya Street, Alex insisted on filling his tummy at Old Town Coffee, which was right opposite Jesselton Hotel.
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He wasn't satisfied with his food but it didn't matter to me as my intention was to have Yee Fung Laksa for breakfast. For review on the laksa, please click here.
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Anyway, you wouldn't believe that we spent close to three hours at Gaya Street Sunday Market! Okay, maybe a little bit lesser as that included at least two trips back to our hotel to dump our stuff and release my bowel. For elaborating postings on the weekend market, click here, there and that.
Strolled past two signature icons of Kota Kinabalu; the historical Atkinson Clock Tower and Signal Hill Observation Tower. No time to check them out on day four as we have limited time!
Reaching a crossroad facing both Wisma Merdeka and Wisma Sabah, my aim was to walk straight down where we would eventually meet the sea.
Made use of Wisma Merdeka's sheltered walkway!
Arrived at the promenade under the bloody hot sun and i can hear the murmurings of complaint by Alex; this ass would prefer shopping centres if he could have his way.
Obvious sign for no fishing.
I regretted not allocating any time for a sunset walk along the promenade during my trip as i thought its facing to the west would likely mean a spectacular sunset!
Close-up of the Marlin statue that every tourist to KK would take a photograph of. Be mindful of the motor vehicles travelling around the statue as the road was indeed a busy one!
Me doing the touristy thing.
Looked like a jetty on the far end; my guess is that the boats would likely be fishing vessels bringing in fresh seafood from the ocean to be sold at the central market.
Open air car park next to the central market; initially, i thought the management was so kind as to prevent canopies for the lots until it dawned on me that they were for the food stalls at night!
The boats berthed next to central market.
After checking out central market, i immediately proceeded to the handicraft centre. In actual fact, my objective was to check out the handicraft centre to compare the prices of souvenirs!
Things were quite expensive and i would have a better deal at Gaya Street Sunday Market! I had to act fast as the weekend market was said to end by 1pm! Well, i did manage to spare some time to take shots of warrior chickens and a playful feline.
From the map, it appeared shorter to cut through the little lanes. I personally like to get lost when i am overseas as there is a higher possibility of chancing upon the local way of life.
One aspect of KK life that i really envied a lot was their traffic condition; everyone drove /rode so slowly and it didn't take much effort to cut across major roads.
I did mention we need such trees in Singapore!
A memorial plaque that was located very close to the start of Gaya Street. We were lucky that most of the weekend stalls were still operating at 12.30 pm!
Shopping was partially completed and it's time to check out the air-conditioned shopping centres! Before then, let's check out the Tourist Information Centre which was housed in a building built in 1916 and was one of three buildings still standing after World War 2.
Compass on the pavement outside the centre. Anyway, i would encourage every new visitor to pay the Tourist Information Centre a visit as it did provide a ton of helpful information and brochures.
First shopping centre for the day; Suria Sabah! This photo was taken at Suria Sabah which showed its proximity to the graffiti building that i touched on before.
Suria Sabah was the biggest shopping centre in Kota Kinabalu until Imago KK Times Square opened its doors in April 2015.
For a Sunday, the crowd was quite thin and i assumed it could have been because of KK Times Square. As in Singapore, new malls always draw a lot of customers curious about them.
Turned out most customers were on the first floor where there were a trade fair. Granted the size of the crowd was not comparable to what we see in Singapore, we have to remember KK had a basic population of just over 400,000 and even then, i can count quite a few malls within the state capital.
This must be the longest pedestrian bridge in KK! Above Jalan Segama, it was at least two hundred meters long and connected to central market.
I heard from one local that this place would come alive at night with stalls along the street.
Walking along Jalan Tun Fuad Stephen which covered the promenade, the central market and the handicraft centre that we visited earlier in the morning.
Warisan Square - a complicated complex that had a number of massage parlours and food establishments. With competition coming from newer shopping malls, i can see quite a few shops that had rolled down their shutters, for good.
Not to mention that there was another shopping centre, Oceanus Waterfront Mall, that would likely be up and running within the year.
A rather clean canal - at this point, we still had Oceanus Mall sheltering us from the sun!
Not anymore! Whatever the case, this appeared to be a bus terminal except that its concept was to have an extremely long bus stop!
One of the routes for the city buses.
Unlike purpose built kiosks which sell newspapers, drinks and tidbits in bus interchanges and bus stops, the situation was a lot different in KK.
According to the map, the walk along Jalan Tun Fuad Stephen would bring me to Imago KK Times Square and i was hesitant as it did seem that the buildings right ahead were still undergoing construction!
Heng i was right! I can sense Alex's mood changing the longer we stayed in the sun and it was with apparent relief to see the words "Imago KK Times Square" branded across the building.
Like Oceanus Waterfront Mall, the building would be opening up in phases and many outdoor sections remained hoarded up. No matter what, we were just keen to explore the air-conditioned indoors!
The first thing we heard when we entered was "screaming"! There was a rat on the loose and poor rodent had a hard time finding a good spot to hide itself!
In relative to the other malls i have been to in KK, Imago KK Times Square would be like ION Orchard with its array of designer shops and modernistic, high class design.
We had a hard time finding food as there was limited choice! The one with the longest queue was a takeaway outlet for Chimney Cake! In my opinion, it was similar to the pretzels sold at Auntie Anne's but in a different shape.
Dinner was at Lucy's Kitchen. For my review, click here.
Took a cab back as there was no way we would compromise our calves by walking back!
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Given that dinner wasn't satisfactory, we decided to stuff ourselves with Bak Kut Teh at Sin Kee. Yet again another disappointment that made me depressed as it was a blatant waste of calories!
The last thing we did before retiring at Jesselton Hotel; booked a day package with Excellence Eco-Tours Services to Sapi and Manukan Islands for the next day!
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For the summarised itinerary of my 7 days, 6 nights Kota Kinabalu (Sabah) trip, please click here.
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