Photo Essay: Seafood Heaven at Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

Are you looking for some yummy delicious seafood heaven? If your up for some awesome gastronomic seafood experience, you have to fly down to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah  a.k.a Borneo to enjoy absolutely the best in variety, the freshest and probably the cheapest if not, really reasonable seafood galore of your life. Your trip down to Sabah isn't complete, if you don't go ahead and enjoy those delicious seafood.

Enjoy the pictures below to catch a glimpse of the seafood frenzy that I went gorging down during two of my past trips to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.

Eating a good variety of seafood at Gayang Seafood Restaurant, Tuaran which is about 30 minutes drive outside of Kota Kinabalu.

[caption id="attachment_2040" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Baby Lobster - Gayang Seafood Restaurant at Tuaran, Sabah"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2041" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Scallop - Gayang Seafood Restaurant at Tuaran,Sabah"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2042" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Fresh oysters top with wasabi - Gayang Seafood Restaurant"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2043" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Mangrove Crab - Gayang Seafood Restaurant"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2044" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Seafood madness for two person! Haha. The two of us ate all those yummy seafood with some rice and a plate of veg. Obviously, we don't bother much with the veg when you can have awesome seafood! Yum!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2045" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Fresh lokan ready to grill at roadside stall somewhere along Tuaran, Sabah"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2046" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Lokan Panggang - top with some sweet seasonings of garlic, chillie,ginger ( I think). Lokan tastes really rubbery if you overcook them like this one. Ouch!"][/caption]

Seafood dining at Filipino Market or Pasar Filipin right smack at the city center of Kota Kinabalu. This place is hot, jam packed with people, super cheap seafood and you will leave with a full stomach and charcoal smelled clothes. Haha.

[caption id="attachment_2048" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="The Filipino Market , Kota Kinabalu is an outdoor night market and yes, there sell super huge fish and seafood fresh from sea."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2049" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Rows of long table to dine at the Filipino Market Seafood Stalls"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2050" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="BBQ Seafood at the Filipino Market. Ranging from huge prawns, fish to squids"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2051" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The bbq fish varieties"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2052" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Last but not least, the fresh seaweed ... what? The style of eating here : eat BBQ seafood with rice, sambal belacan and uber salty seaweed. You might want to bite one small tiny 'ball' first. You may not like it as much. Haha."][/caption]

So there you go. More than enough reason for you to visit Sabah or narrowed down to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah not just for the beautiful beaches and islands at the Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park, the majestic Mount Kinabalu at Kundasang but also for the delicious arrays of fresh, cheap seafood heaven at Kota Kinabalu itself. On that note, probably I should just go to KK one of these days just to eat and by that I mean to eat really good seafood! :)

Where Would You Prefer to Travel In Malaysia?

If you are a Malaysian traveler or more like a Malaysian who likes to travel, one of the most common goal for us is to travel to all 14 states in Malaysia. Personally, I have 2  more states ( Terengganu and Sarawak) to complete my personal  'cuti-cuti' Malaysia travel. I spent most of my growing up and adult years roaming mostly in the Peninsular Malaysia. It didn't occur to me to check out on East Malaysia or Borneo or simply put it as Sarawak and Sabah not until two years ago that I made my first trip to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. So the question now is, after having traveled to almost all states in Malaysia, where would I prefer to travel in Malaysia?

The answer to that will be Sabah and Sarawak! Yes, if given a choice to travel and discover more things in Malaysia, I would prefer to explore more of  Sabah and Sarawak or the Malaysian part of Borneo. I am going to list down the reasons why you and I should travel more to Sabah and Sarawak:

- When I was about 12, I had this teacher by the name of Dr.Mayala of an African descent who asked me where I was from and I told him I am from Malaysia. Dr. Mayala replied," Oh, that's Borneo right!" and I was like, "No, I don't live in Borneo".  At 12 years old my Geography was not that good, not that it is any better now and if only back then I could explain to him that a part of Borneo which is Sabah and Sarawak is a part of Malaysia which is the East Malaysia and I am from West Malaysia. Just in case you are a bit confused myself included, Borneo consists of three different countries which are Sabah-Sarawak of Malaysia, Brunei and Kalimantan of Indonesia and it is the third  largest island in the world.

So, the I'm trying to get here is non-Malaysian usually associate Malaysia to Borneo and unfortunately, the bigger part of Malaysians (people from the Peninsular Malaysia) have little knowledge of the other part of us Malaysians - the Sabahan and the Sarawakians. Imagine yourself going abroad and meeting fellow travelers who are non-Malaysians and most of them should have traveled down to Sabah/Sarawak and you will be utterly clueless of what they are trying to share with you because you are a Malaysian that have never been to Sabah and Sarawak. Ouch, that will be absolutely pathetic, really. Haha.

- I have to admit that my knowledge about Sabahan and Sarawakian are really limited even after having traveled to Sabah twice by now. There are something about people from Borneo that are uniquely different from us Peninsular Malaysians and the only way for you to discover more about them is to visit them in their home ground of course.

I have to say that people in Borneo are more welcoming, very friendly, helpful, down to earth and polite. Yes, I have to highlight polite! Haha! I think they sound polite because of their close to "Bahasa Baku' accent. If you are looking for something of a change from the typical Malay, Chinese and Indian people that we have in the Peninsular, you really should make sometime to discover the other larger part of Malaysians - the ethnic people of Sabah and Sarawak on their way of life and believe me, you will love them. :)

- Sabah and Sarawak are really huge. Sarawak is the largest state in Malaysia followed by Sabah the second largest state in Malaysia. You don't ever dream to discover Sabah or Sarawak from just a week's travel over there. I believe you will need months to discover both Sabah and Sarawak in one shot. So there is more than enough reason to travel more to the East of Malaysia.

- Both Sabah and Sarawak is a haven for an outdoor adventurer. I love the outdoors and with these two states you get to explore the beautiful sea, the ancient old rain forests, the unique animals only found in Borneo like the Orang Utans, Proboscis Monkeys, Borneo Pygmy Elephants to name a few, the majestic mountains and caves and jungles waiting for you to discover and explore.

From the people to the places - this part of Borneo is something worth traveling to in Malaysia and it will always be the preferred travel place of my choice in Malaysia. If you are a Malaysian, do make a point to travel there will you. We have cheap airfare now thanks to AirAsia so there is just no excuse to not get out, travel and explore more of our lovely country, Malaysia. So where do you prefer to travel in Malaysia? By any chance, will it be Sabah and Sarawak?

Mount Kinabalu International Climbathon 2010

The Mount Kinabalu International Climbathon for this year 2010 begins today, 23th October 2010 kicking off in less than 7 hours from now for both Women Open and Men Veteran category. The Men Open will begin the next day on the 24th October 2010 at 7 am. Mount Kinabalu Climbathon is considered as the toughest mountain race in the world where competitors clocked on average of 3 hours on a 21 km race up and down the mountain.

It sounds unbelievable when compared to normal hikers who usually take about 3 to 5 hours only to reach from Timpohan Gate to Laban Rata rest point. That is yet another 2 hours or so from Laban Rata to Low's Peak. If you still can't believe that people actually do run in 3 hours in this climbathon, you really have to check out the video below and see these men run and bounce up the mountain in a breeze. And man, there really have super strong knees to hop down the mountain that quickly.

Video of Mius bin Balinting from Malaysia hopping down the mountain. He finishes third in the Mount Kinabalu Climbathon 2009.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdAajlwWN8M&feature=related

A visit down to Monsopiad Cultural Village, Penampang

I finally made it to Monsopiad Cultural Village at Penampang, Sabah last month despite being suggested by a fellow local friend last year that a visit down to this place is not worth the travel, it is expensive and boring. Well at least that's what local Sabahan will think off. It is a whole different view, culture and knowledge that I was really looking forward to at this cultural village. It was  something that most Peninsular Malaysian are unaware off that in another part of Malaysia which is Borneo ( Sabah and Sarawak) the people are different in their looks, lifestyle and even the spoken language. However, most importantly they form the large community of various tribes and ethnics, so diverse in culture from the Peninsular people and for the most obvious are more unique than the  melting pot of that typical blend of Malay, Chinese and Indian that we have in the Peninsular. All those reasoning combined, that made a pretty good reason why any Malaysian from the Peninsular will be so excited and eagerly anticipating a visit down at the Monsopiad Cultural Village. Oh well, at least I do!

Getting to Monsopiad Cultural Village was a bit of a challenge if you choose to drive down to Penampang on your own if you don't know where you are going of course, haha. In our case we simply head out to just Monsopiad in mind thinking all the while that it is marked somewhere in the tourist map that we have and of course the local people will most certainly know of this place.However, we later found out in the car that it was not mentioned in the map, even the lady behind our hotel reception desk said it will be difficult to look for the place if we choose to drive there on our own - joining their ridiculously priced tour package is much recommended while a stop at a particular Shell Station got the workers of the station mind boggle and clueless of the cultural village. The girl at the gas station mentioned it was the first time she ever heard of the cultural village. We simply have asked the wrong people at the wrong place then. A few phone calls later, we headed our for Penampang and stopped at a Petronas gas station around Donggongon and from there on it was pretty easy.



So to get to Monsopiad Cultural Village from Kota Kinabalu, simply head on to Penampang ( landmark Queen Elizabeth Hospital) then go straight on passing along the way Donggongon town and keep going until you see the Lok Kawi Wildlife signboard. Follow that sign and after sometime  you have to take a left turn to Penampang entering smaller village area  and be on the eye for Monsopiad signboard  on your left side and a few meters inside the smaller road you will see the cultural village. The address for this place is:

Jln Kg. Kuai Kandazon Penampang or call +6088774337 or visit their website www.monsopiad.com

Since the entrance fee is slightly pricey and will cost more if you are a foreigner, make sure you spend a lot of time at the village by really taking the time to learn and ask on Monsopiad's history and the Sabahan culture, enjoy locally made dishes provided, walk around the whole area, enjoy the rice wine or known as Lihing if you drink and of course the fun part - join in the Sumazau and bamboo dance. We did all that even the dancing even though our legs are killing us thanks to Mount Kinabalu but it sure was fun!

Do enjoy the photos and a video below and Monsopiad Cultural Village is a must visit destination at Sabah provided you are not a local Sabahan or probably Sarawakian.



[caption id="attachment_986" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Choice of rice wine(lihing) or non-alcoholic drinks served at the entrance. Lihing is in the bamboo shot."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_989" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="The headhunters will put all beheaded heads to dry and for public display on the bamboo"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_990" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The greatest warrior- Monsopiad's skulls collection"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_991" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Rice dish by the local -bambangan, ikan masin, some fish meat. Delicous!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_993" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Rice wine/ lihing"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_994" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Us and the cultural dancers at Monsopiad"][/caption]

The video of the dancers doing some cool, fast paced  bamboo dance and later on us struggling to dance along.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ERx1C-jLjU