Went downstairs and just next door on the left was a coffee shop, the first stall had all it’s various dishes laid out and the owner was already asking us what we wanted. Since we had not ate at this shop before, we decided to give it a try. CS had kway teow & noodle with egg and hot dog, I had beehoon with egg and ngoh hiang, Angie had nasi lemak and da bao.
There was this old uncle that came by asking what we wanted to drink, Angie had kopi-O while both of us had Milk in water, what we wanted was condensed milk mixed with water but they gave us milk powder mixed with water instead…and the uncle can still say very good very healthy see even the baby on the next table is drinking it…duh…
Finishing up breakfast, we walked heading NNE direction, passed by a book store and went in to have a look. As all 3 of us like to read, we were staying longer and longer in there…deciding it was time to move on.
We went to the beach side but being 10.30am, the sun was already very strong akin to Singapore’s mid day sun…
Nothing much to see as all the boats were out ferrying passengers or fishing and it was too bright to take nice photos. We left after a couple of minutes after feeling the sun rays really burning on our skin.
Signal Hill Observatory was our next destination, perched on the side of a hill just behind the town, CS quickly marked out the place on the GPS and had it lead us to it. From the roads, it seems it’s just a stone’s throw away to it, but actually walking there is a long way about 1.5km away up winding roads in the hill. 3 of us just walked slowly, we walked through the ‘ Australian Place ‘ and although the Atkinson Clock Tower was suppose to be a destination after the Observatory, we had to pass by the clock tower before reaching the road leading to the Observatory.
A few shots and read up on the history, we continued the walk to the observatory. Took us about 15mins to reach the place.
No idea why it was given the label of Observatory as it look more like a viewing or lookout station. Rested a while here and we moved off again further up hill, the rest of the way till the end of this hill road was another 1.4km away leading into another part of Kota Kinabalu town but where it was less popular. We walked up till it was turning down hill but as the roads were just wide enough for 2 cars on different directions, we decided not to go on and just turn back. There is this fenced up Government Flat…looks nothing like what our HDB flats are then again Government flats…are they for public or government servants?
On our way up we spotted a path leading up to the road, and this time while returning we decided to try out the path and see where it leads to. It was less than 5minutes and we were back in ‘ Australian Place ‘! a really short short cut! but it is not noticable if you have not been there before as the entrance to this cut is behind Borneo Backpacker Lodge. For easier identification, if you see a sports wear/goods shop, face Atkinson tower so that the shop is on ur left and turn left into the lane and continue walking in , once pass the building , the path is visible already.
On our way back to Jalan Tun Rakaz road, we passed by this rustic kopitiam named ” Museum Kopitiam “
Angie wanted to go in and take a look at the photos hanging at the back of the restaurant so we waited for her outside until she popped out again asking if we wanted to have a drink inside. All went in and Angie ordered their charcoal bread, while the 2 of us had supposely variations of lime juice, but it turns out the same visually as well as taste wise…wonder what’s the variation in that…still it was refreshingly sweet and hint of salty due to the preserved plums inside.
Angie & me went round looking at the photos and spotted our MM Lee in a couple of the photos!
Other than that, looked around at the antiques in the shop there was nothing much already…
Slowly we wandered around towards the general direction of our hotel and we came by this goreng pisang stall, both Angie and me wanted to try but seems to be held by by unknown reasons.
Looking at the time it was way past our normal lunch time and we are starting to feel hungry now…decided to try out their KFC we headed towards it. Ordered 2 sets of 3pcs chicken and slowly ate them while waiting for time to pass so that we can head back to the beach to take sunset photos.
This fella was sleeping when we arrived, was still sleeping when we left KFC…and just woke up when we finished our sunset shots… that’s 1.5hrs and only he knows how long before we arrived he started sleeping, but seems like it’s very comfortable and had a nice nap!
That was it, after shooting sunsets already we headed back to hotel room to rest and prepare for our climb the next day!
Emptied out our bags and replaced the contents with sweaters, windbreakers, goretex etc…sorting out water rations and energy giving foods to eat along the way up last check on our headlights etc…we had to ensure all that we needed was packed and those not needed was stowed in the large check in bag to be kept in the hotel’s storeroom while we are away.
Finally all packed and showered, it’s time to hit the sacks as we had to get up at 5am the next morning!
