We stayed at Lavender Lodge for the remainder of our trip - mainly to save money. The place received really good reviews from http://www.hostelworld.com/ and so, we decided to go ahead with the place. Their family room, which had enough beds for 5pax, only cost us RM87.40 per night! Thats RM21.85 per person/night! The room was clean - though a little cramped. It had its own bathroom - to which we were eternally grateful. It was probably my fault for not clearing up the air about the place - I should have clarified what they meant by shared bathroom. Anyhow, they even had fresh bath towels for us everyday!
We went down for breakfast at the local mamak - and ordered the uniquely KK's Roti Cobra. Basically, it was roti canai with a bullseye on top and drenched with chicken curry. Surprisingly, it was quite nice! The bullseye gave the roti canai and the curry and added flavour. Must try!
Since I was, for lack of better term, burnt to crisp, ZW wasn't up for sand and sea, and Zul woke up with a splitting headache - we decided to just slack about in the car and go sightseeing instead. Our first 2 stops - the Atkinson Clock Tower and the Observation Platform at Signal Hill.
Stop 3 and 4 were the Sacred Heart Cathedral and the State Mosque. The cathedral had a garden trail with life-sized plaster model of The Stations of the Cross. I went on a photography rampage... snapping away at all the "stations". The most interesting thing happened on the walk back to the car - where I came face to face with a snake! I'm not sure if it was of the poisonous kind, but it sure scared the hell out of me! The only time i've seen snakes are when their caged in their pretty glass boxes! That thing was big and roamed free!!!
I practically ran back to the car, lol! We went to Sabah's very own State Mosque next. Zul heard the call to prayers - so we thought he could go do his thing while we explored the mosque. Famous for probably the bomb they spent on it, a.k.a. the gold inlays on the minarets and domes, the mosque had, to me, a very interestng feature. The main minaret was designed to pierce through the entrance foyer of the mosque, through an over-structurally designed glass roof. Seriously, the architect should have done away with the steal frame. Anyhow, the foot of that minaret features a body of water, of which Zul later found out to be where the believers performed ablution. It was quite impressive - except the dandelion-looking things that surrounded the pool (to which I still don't know what they're for).
After driving about Sutera Harbour, we visited the State Museum and Heritage Village. The State Museum was totally B.O.R.I.N.G. and stuffy! Don't think those people who work there ever heard of ventilation! The Heritage Village had about a dozen life-sized Rumah Panjang we could photograph with - which made the RM2 we paid for the ticket slightly less grumble-worthy (the same ticket could be used for both places). Lucky for us, the guards didn't check all our identities - hence, I paid the "Malaysian" price for ZhiWei (RM2 for Malaysians, and RM15 for foreigners). Thank God for that!
A quick photo stop at Jesselton Point, and we were off to the City Mosque. Built in year 2000 to commemorate Kota Kinabalu's new state as a city, the mosque was designed to "float" over the "sea". The water that wraps around the mosque, channeled through a water-gate into a lake-like structure, originates from the South China Sea. We later revisited the Tun Mustapha's Foundation building, or rather, just me and ZhiWei revisited.
Following that, curiosity got the better of us - we went snooping around Universiti Malaysia Sabah, or more commonly known as UMS. If anything, it was 100x better looking than Universiti Malaya - though, most of the students there were wrapped from head to toe! I'd take NUS any day!
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