Travel Sabah- Gaya Island Resort, KK & Kundasang!

Big thanks to our buddies- Ivan Tan and Bo Xing for touring us around ! We had a great time at the island of Borneo- Sabah. Our direct flight from Penang to Kota Kinabalu took about 3 hours. Our first station at KK was Fatt Kee Seafood Restaurant. 
I tried on 清汤米粉 and to my surprise the clear soup was very flavorful, it was cooked with lots and lots of fresh tomatoes. Hot tomato soup with 4 big pieces of fried fish. Yummy-licious. Bey tried on 干捞面 with tom yam soup. The tom yam is not so similar with the one that we usually have, it is more towards the curry side. We also had fried 鱼腐. It was so good that Bey can't resist to order another set.

Left: 清汤米粉; Centre: 干捞面 with tom yam soup; Right: 鱼腐

Our next stop was Jesselton Point. During last January, we held our wedding dinner at Vistana Hotel Penang, they offered us  a complimentary honeymoon stay. We chose Gaya Island Resort among 3 other YTL Hotels. Hence, we have FOC  3 days 2 nights stay at Gaya Island Resort!!  (if you are planning for your wedding, do read this post .) It took about 15 minutes speed boat ride from Jesselton Point towards Gaya Island Resort. Upon arrival, we were welcomed with a lush of greenery, beach and ocean.

Waiting room at Jesselton Point 

Greenery; Beach; Ocean

The staffs were super friendly and greeted us every time. We were guided to our room which was Bayu Villa. It was situated at a higher hillside, we needed to climb up stairs to get there. I love the surrounding of our villa, we were surrounded with leafy trees. Let's take a room tour!

This was our villa and we were lucky to stay at the upper floor.

Nice balcony view
But, I didn't like the outdoor sofa; it was full with mold because of the rainy + sunny weather.
I dared not to sit on it. It will be nice if it's a bamboo chair.
Hope the resort will take this into matter :p

Hallway towards the bathroom

 I am deeply in love with the spacious bathroom, it has a huge bath tub which can fits both of us in.
Hooray! (sounds like coming out from jungle :p)

These days, we just relaxed on the beach and spent some time in the pool. Beautiful time spent. :)

Beach towel provided 

Quiet pool when everyone is not awake yet. Sun rises very early at Sabah as early at 6am. 

I would say the only cons for my stay at GIR was food. There were 3 meals inclusive in our stay, which we can choose to dine in at either Feast Village or Pool Bar. The food at Feast Village were served in buffet style, there were a variety of food range from western, oriental, local. But only a few of them met my expectation. We were thinking of dining at the other 2 restaurants at the resort ; but the price per meal was RM195 per pax.... (highly over my budget). There was also no ala-carte menu... so sadly, we did not have great food at GIR .

When we were back to KK, our main aim was to look for good food.  * the only restaurant that we don't like was Fong Ip Cafe. (food not nice) * We had great seafood  at Welcome Seafood Restaurant Penampang. At the restaurant, we got to choose raw fresh seafood from the aquarium. The fish was really good; fresh, soft, silky. Thumbs up! We also had a local vegetable dish known as sayur manis; must try.

The next day, we had tuaran mee for breakfast at Kantin Bakut. In my opinion, tuaran mee tastes more or less like mee goreng texture which is springy. We ordered gan lao version tuaran mee which was served along with a bowl of seafood ingredients soup. I got to say that Sabah food portion is huge compared to Penang. The price range of noodle is around RM6- 8 but double the portion of RM4 Penang noodles. Kantin Bakut serves no pork so you can see a lot of different races eating together, they were also very generous with the portion of seafood such as fresh fish slices, fish cake and prawns .

Then, we continued our journey towards Kundasang. On the mid-way, we stopped by at Pekan Nabalu that has a good view of  Mount Kinabalu. We were lucky to have sunny day to be able to see the peak of it.

We arrived at noon. So I looked dark and with shadow in this photo. But who cares, look at all the peaks at  Mount Kinabalu that can be clearly seen from distance. 

After another 1 hour, we arrived at Desa Cattle Dairy Farm. The weather started to change cloudy, misty, and windy. There was a herd of cow mooing and eating grass at the beautiful green pastures which created the illusion of being at New Zealand . You can feed calves and goats in the farm, but I preferred not to. We tried on Gelato, milk, and also yogurt at the cafe. All of them were made from fresh and pasteurized milk; tasted good too.

Spot the cows on your right . 

The next day, we strolled around at the city area and visited shopping complex Suria. We took Grab car/ Uber to travel in the city area, which was so convenient (charges around RM3 to RM5).

Photo check point"I love KK" at Segama Waterfront. 

In the evening, we went to Jalan Sulaman for kelapa bakar and coconut pudding. There were a lot of stalls at the roadside, selling the exact same food. We chose on the stall that has a banner of 阿贤人情味. The kelapa bakar was worth trying, the coconut was grilled and served hot. It tasted more like soup instead of a drink. I preferred coconut pudding, it was so nice, creamy, sweet and refreshing; a perfect dessert on a sunny day. 

We then went to Shangrila's Rasa Ria Resort for sunset view. Although we did not stay at the resort, but I would love to introduce it to anyone of you. It has large spacious beach, great garden, and also huge swimming pool. It will be in my top selection for my second visit. (but i need to save money first)

Although we did not manage to see the "egg yolk" sun setting down into the sea;
 blocked by some clouds but the sunset view was still breathtaking. 

I am glad to have you  <3 

I truly enjoyed this relaxing trip. See you again, Sabah!

Love,
Yvonne