Kota Kinabalu Day II

Woke up but refused to be awake. Drifted in and out of consciousness. I think I gave MD a minor scare when I finally spoke up. Hehee.

We showered, dressed and proceeded for breakfast. The cafe was so so full, though. So decided to have a seat by the lounge sofas. MD was a bit worried whether we were really allowed to eat there, I was too groggy and hungry to really care.

Lounging around waiting for MD to take her food first, thought I saw a senior from uni. Wasn't too sure though. Plus can't remember her name for the life of me! Felt too embarassed to say hi without remembering her name when she had always been so nice and friendly to me thens!

We got a table after we polished off our food and were only nursing our drinks. I remembered belatedly that I had taken pills for my sinus while finishing up my second cup of coffee.

Since it was still early, we decided to go back up to our room first.

THEN I felt the effects of my pills reacting with the caffeine! Felt so darn groggy I was asleep in no time. Luckily got jolted awake just as we were due downstairs. Was still feeling rather bleary though.

Today's guide was cuter, younger and flirtier. His name escaped me though. If Macaroni yesterday had thought we were from Brunei, he thought we were from KL. *rolls eyes*...

The drive to the train station was pretty short, but already they were quite a few tourists around.



We sat with Firda on the North Borneo Railway classic locomotive. Originally hailing form Indonesia, she was currently working with an offshore MNC in Sandakan and was on a short vacation at KK.




Has been a long time since I took such a slow train ambling about. The train made a few stops a small towns, and the train stewards stamped our "passport" with the various destinations.





I'm not sure who was more amusing to whom. The locals who kept waving to us. Or us typical tourists who'd wanna take an old train. ;D



Pit stop was at Papar, one of the larger towns. We were given more time to explore the markets. But nothing much to explore unless you haven't seen vegetables before. We roamed about aimlessly until Firda decided to buy a scarf for her sis.



We the made our way back to the station and climbed a short overpass to get an aerial view of the surroundings.



Then saw how the head of the train shifted nearer to our end to make the journey back. Was interesting to see all the soots from the charcoal-burning for fuel.



We were served tiffin lunch on the journey back. Finally ordered drinks. Hope we made the train steward, who had kept asking us if we had wanted drinks on the journey before, happy. LOL.

Teased Firda, reminded her that she had thought the train stewards were cute in their uniform of shorts an long socks and had wanted to take pictures earlier. She said she'd changed her mind. LOL.

Lunch was pretty sumptous. But was really tricky to eat rice when you are only provided with a knife and a fork!



We parted company with Firda at the station. She had to make her way back to Sandakan late that afternoon. She recommended we try visiting the museum or Kinabalu Park.

The train journey, though was faster on the way back was still a bit off schedule, so was alrady late in the afternoon. Decided to just bum around in the hotel room for a while.

Took the last hotel shuttle out to Centrepoint, the largest shopping centre at KK. It wasn't THAT interesting. Got a new book at a bookshop since I've finished mine. Walked around a lot but nothing really inspiring. Only got a shirt and a earpiece for my hp which I've been meaning to get in SG.

We decided to have our dinner at Pizza Hut. The prices were surprisingly low. I've always thought franchises would be about the same price no matter in which country.

We then proceeded wait for the hotel shuttle to bring us back. After a while, rethought whether it was really the correct exit. MD seemed leery, but made her wait there while I checked out whether it was the correct exit.

Apparently not. And we must have missed the shuttle. Decided to take a cab back instead. There were only non-metered cabs availabe there, though. So was forced to take one although we had rejected the cab earlier.

RM$7 was way too exorbitant for the short ride back, but was too tired to argue again with the driver and try to find another cab when it's already so dark out. Was pretty cheesed at the driver, and at myself for missing the shuttle because I was waiting at the wrong place.