City Tour

Masjid Bandaraya Cit.y Mosque

A new convert.

I succumbed.

The Atkinson Clock Tower.

The view from Signal Hill.

Puh Toh Sze Temple.

Shopping at the market.

Tuesday, June 19^th.

I met up with the Clavijo family of four from Canberra that is travelling with our group as I had booked a city tour with them. I tried to book it last time I was here but there was only me, so I would have had to pay double. We headed off in a van at 9:00. We visited the Masjid Bandaraya City Mosque first. The building is quite impressive. It is called the floating mosque as it is built over water and on reclaimed land. We had to rent robes to wear to be attired properly inside. The inside was fairly simple as mosques go but was still very spacious with two large rooms.

Next we visited the Atkinson Clock Tower which was built in 1903 in remembrance of the city’s first District Officer who died here of malaria at age 28. We stopped at Signal Hill for a panoramic view of Kota Kinabalu. The skyline is much more modern than I had presumed before I came to Borneo. After that was the Puh Toh Sze Chinese Buddhist Temple. Like most areas of the world this country has a large Chinese population. The complex was quite extensive and ornate in the Buddhist tradition. The final stop was at the Filipino Market where they sold all manner of junk and souvenirs in very cramped little shops. Suzana and her daughter bought some jewellery.

Then we headed back to the hotel to meet up with the rest of the remaining group to catch a shuttle to the airport. The driver was the nice man who helped me at the airport when my bag didn’t arrive. The nine of us took an hour and half flight at 3:30 to Kuching in Sarawak. Although Kota Kinabalu and Kuching are two areas of the same country we had to go through customs at both airports. I don’t understand why. At the airport I saw a shop that was called the Bird Nest Shop and I found package of freeze dried bird’s nest soup.

We were picked up by our new guide, Louis, and driven into town to the Lime Hotel, where we had a short break to put our stuff in our rooms (I have my own) and then had a briefing meeting. There are two new members, a grandmother and granddaughter from Victoria, Australia. Louis is very animated and quite funny and talked to us for almost an hour telling us about our itinerary before we walked around the corner to a restaurant for dinner. I had a great meal of chicken and pineapple served in half a pineapple. Then we walked back to the hotel for the night.