KK, Gaya Street and the Sunday Morning Market

A family trip to Kota Kinabalu recently let me witness the beauty of the land below the wind.... Sabah, negeri di bawah bayu.

We stayed over at a nice little hotel on Jalan Gaya proved to be a very good experience at a price what I can call a bargain. Hotel 63 is one hotel that I would really recommend to anyone who is visiting this city, with a great location, clean, free internet, and really I may say spacious room and comfortable beds.

Here is a picture of the hotel room.

Around the hotel there are plenty to see as this is one of the places where lots of food, malls, and its also walking distance to the beach. 

This picture is taken just behind a nearby mall. 

And this is a scene during the morning where boatsman looking for passengers for island hopping. One of them approached me and asked me to go on a boat ride to the nearby island for sight seeing. The boat ride will take around 2 hours and cost only RM 50. I guess that's the price for locals. 

Lucky me I stumble upon a nice little pub called Party Play. We hung out here with some friends at night and I had a few Paulaner from their draught. That was the highlight for me :))) 

Taste like haven. 

On Sunday morning the street transform itself into a totally different look. Welcome to the Jalan Gaya Sunday market. 

Some animal skin with the Quran versus on it. Wonder whether it is legal. 

Some cheap pearl jewelry. Made we wonder again on its authenticity.   

This is something I have not seen for a long time. Any idea what it is? These are wooden back scratchers. It works wonders when you don't have someone to scratch your back for you.  

Some colorful food. 

Fruits. 

Cloths. I think getting them here should be a bargain compare to other tourists spots. 

Plants for sale... yes they do have nearly everything here. But there is something even more interesting that I could not believe my eyes when I saw it. Wait for it.... 

Some statues for the Catholics. 

And more of them. 

Road side aquariums. Impressive, isn't it? Remember non of these were here last night.  

When I walked until the end of the street, I saw some bees flying around. And guess what I see next? 

What the....!!!???

Upon closer inspection, I couldn't believe my eyes... they are selling honey from the beehives? Together with the bees!

Street musicians? They are selling gongs. How can that fit in my luggage?  

Again I see some wild life from the ocean. Again I wonder whether this is legal. 

Well, a trip to KK really opened my eyes. One thing that I am really glad is that the ocean there is really clean with crystal clear water. It is not a busy port where I see large vessels like when I see off Port Klang or Penang Island where the beaches here are as dirty as the sewerage. 

The people here are friendly, the food is good, although I hear grouses from the locals and my taxi driver complaining about inflation and how lucky are we from the peninsular where everything is 5-10% cheaper. They are the one of the largest contributor of petroleum in Malaysia but they do not even have access to natural gas at the petrol station. 

KK is a really beautiful place. I hope the next time I come for visit is when I have the purpose of climbing the mighty mount KK. 

All pics taken with my Nikon D7000.

Location of Hotel 63.


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Tauhu Fishing Pond Oct 2012

Last Thursday afternoon, captain called me up describing to me in detail the itch that he was suffering and we would go all length to get it cured. After debating for long, crossing out lists of places that we would not be interested in i.e. ditches, snake infested waters and blood suckering pay ponds that charges an arm and leg for fishing for few hours.... we finally made a decision to visit a place that I have not been for a long time... Tofu Pond.

I am not a big fan of this place. As the first and also the last time I visited this place was like 2 years back, it was known to be a place where people came and went home empty handed. Captain get to convince me otherwise by giving me the latest update about Tofu pond. He is confident that we, or at least one of us would not go home empty handed.

This nice little fishing pond is now situated beside a highway linking Kuala Lumpur to Kuala Selangor, the Latar highway. Strangely enough, the place existed way earlier than the highway and oddly, you cannot use the highway to get here. The place was also covered by a local chinese daily some years back.

Well, we arrived there around 8 pm and another friend of ours Clarence joined us. Bait we use was the local favourite buns and smelly tofu.

An hour or so, Clarence saw his rod started to bend and it seemed that a Mekong cat fish took the bait. Here's the video of the scene at the last 3 minutes when we landed the fish. Don't be surprised as I was unhooking the fish at the tail as somehow this poor fella snagged his own tail on Clarence's hooks and it took him nearly 20 minutes to get the fish landed.

Shortly after, captain got a visitor at the other end of his line which fancied his stinky tofu. All hail the Pacu King. This must be his 1,000th Pacu.

Well... as for me. I guess there is a reason why I don't like the pond. And I am pretty sure the pond feels the same way. Fishing at the same spot, with the same rig and same bait, somehow my luck just doesn't cut it here. I will be back.

For sure.

And here's the location of the place.
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Video recorded with Samsung Galaxy S2 and still image taken using an iphone 4 I think.