1 January 2017
First time flying with Malaysian Airlines, and survived the flight. When the plane took off it was shaking so much that someone screamed multiple times coz she was so scared! First time to enter into Malaysia, to go to Sabah! The first thing we saw on landing was a poster warning about the Zika virus. First we ate in a Chinese area. Then we went to the shopping center next to the hotel, and saw that lots of women wear hijabs. Drank some great Durian juice! But we saw many pieces of rotten fruits in the supermarket! When we shopped for sunscreen we saw that the SPF goes up to 130! There is an elephant brand of slippers called fipper, which is quite famous locally, so we bought some which felt very comfy. We also bought some long sleeved blouses for sun protection.
2 January 2017
In the morning we went to Borneo Mangrove Bay, did canoeing, rode the banana boat, painted colors onto a pre-drawn fabric, etc. The banana boat driver was pretty ferocious. Out of the 7 people on the ride, only my mom and I didn’t get thrown out into the waters! The water painting was hard to control because the color spreads out after a few minutes so I had to repaint it many times. In the afternoon we went to the Proboscis Monkey River Cruise, but only spotted some Macaque and Beckham monkeys (after all, Proboscis monkeys are an endangered species). In the evening we went on a firefly river cruise, and the scenery was beautiful and dreamy. I caught two or three in my hands and they were tiny, <1cm. However, they couldn’t turn up on iPhone photos.
3 January 2017
We went to Sapi Island, which is one of the Tunku Abdul Rahman Park Islands, for snorkeling and parasailing! The boat going to the island went so fast that I was worried about the boat capsizing and ruining my iPhone! Saw many fishes during snorkeling but became sea sick because the wave made my head bob up and down as I watched the fishes. The boat taking us for the parasailing also shook up and down pretty violently which made me more sea sick. Good thing I didn’t vomit into the ocean! When we got to the middle of the sea, the boat drivers said there’s a shark, and we didn’t know if they were serious or joking. My aunt was scared for her life during parasailing while my mom and I didn’t find it scary at all. However, we declined to have the parachute dipped into the water because of the fear of being devoured by sharks as I did have a bleeding point. In the afternoon we went to Harbour Mall Sandakan, had Beans N Beans for afternoon tea, and my grandma started scrolling her smartphone like someone who’s an advanced user of smartphones! We had seafood for dinner and drank Teh Tarik.
4 January 2017
A slow day, left at 11am. The tour guided didn’t warn us that we were going straight for lunch at 11 though, so we ate breakfast until 10am and were still pretty full. In the afternoon, we visited some of the landmarks in the city: Sabah Foundation Building, Kota Kinabalu Sabah Mosque, Pu Tuo Si Temple, Merdeka Square, and Atkinson Clock Tower. We had Malaysia afternoon tea: Teh Tarik and toast. Then we had massage. We visited a local specialty shop called “Jaya Store” across from the hotel and bought things like dried Durian, Durian coffee, Bak Kut Teh, Tongkat Ali, etc. The shop owner was friendly, gave us black coffee, a durian ice block, and added our Facebook!
5 January 2017
The last day in Malaysia was a slow day. It was raining and the tour guide took us to specialty shops, which costed 3-4x more than the specialty shop we visited the previous day, so we didn’t end up buying anything. The tour guide kept telling us about how miraculous Tongkat Ali is. There was one chocolate shop we visited that allowed us to make our own chocolate! Our outgoing Malaysian Airlines flight was even shakier than our incoming flight, and at some points it felt as though the plane will just plunge down! Luckily we survived! Don’t wanna be on another Malaysian Airlines flight ever again! Nevertheless, everyone’s face color looked very healthy by the end of the trip and we had fun. God bless Malaysia!
