Singapore-Brunei-Kota Kinabalu Day I

Woke up rather groggy. Had a rather late night. Spent the morning for a last minute check that everything's packed. Then cleared personal mails as much as possible.

Set out for the Airport 1/2hr before I arranged to meet MD. Just the exact journey time needed if traffic's not bad and the cab-waiting. Daddy said he might be on his way back from JB. But apparently not quickly enough.

MD called just as the cab was entering airport grounds. Got a bit confused with the renovations about Terminal 2 so went off the wrong direction trying to find a departure info board. Called MD to save myself just in time.

MD came with parents, sisters, plus a very helpful personal butler. Hehe. Her fiance RM who's another old friend of mine, now working with SATS, took over and did all the check-in procedures for us, cutting the Business Class queue and doing a Miss-Congeniality wave-hi-smiles all around. LOL.

It made me think of one ultra-friendly Barney. Wonder why. Hmmm. ;)

We walked around while waiting to check in. When we re-met MD's parents, I found why her dad accepted RM so well. They are apparently 2 of a kind. MD's dad's have also been running into acquaintances left right and centre.

RM the off-duty SATS officer still brought his security card along and thus went in with us. More waiting til boarding. RM, bored, periodically burst out with Madagascar's catchy tune "I want to move it, move it". Making us periodically burst out with laughter.

SIGH. How again did I manage to becomes friends with such funny (not haha) people??

RM periodically also tuned into abang-abang mode and reminded me again not to lose the Flight Transit Card, to remember to reconfirm the flight, to remember to tell the staff to tag our luggage only halfway for the stopover flight.

I pretended to be listening intently and periodically nodded agreeably. LOL.

MD and I finally decided to clear the security check. More waiting at the gate.

Then finally, call for boarding. RM sitting just outside the gate separated by a glass panel looked pretty serious. MD looked alternately serious as well and excited too.

SIGH.

Went on board the plane. As RM predicted, our seat was among the last few rows. Flight was ok. A group of students from YTSS would apparently be travelling with us seems their shirts stated that they were on a Kinabalu Expedition.

They made me reminise of my own Sarawak Expedition back when I was in secondary school. That seemed so so long ago. But such trips are such an interesting way to get to know people. :)

Flight was rather uneventful. We found it rather interesting that Royal Brunei starts off each flight with a doa. Neither MAS or Garuda does that although both are Muslim nations too.

Soon enough, the plane touched down at Bandar Seri Begawan. Wasn't too sure where the Transit Desk was. Decided to follow the crowd and voila.

This time we did get seats at the very last row. Just as RM had predicted too.

The flight from Brunei to Sabah was short but very turbulent. Could see the dark clouds outside.

I suspect some of the YTSS kids were first time flyers. Or maybe they were just being kids.

Some of the girls started screaming shrilly as the plane hit turbulence. *rolls eyes*

So we had to remain belted the whole flight. And try our darnest to write neatly without a table and with the blane bumping around.

Hardly felt the hour when the captain announced we were landing. It hadn' started raining in Kota Kinabalu yet, though.

Customs was not too slow. The officer thought MD and I were sisters though and made small-talk.

Then had to wait forever for my luggage. Was beginning to think RM had sabotaged mine during check-in when it finally made its appearance. Hehe.

The driver from the hotel was already waiting for us. Started drizzling as we waited for her to drive over the van.

The hotel wasn't too near nor too far from the airport. There's a shopping centre just across. Whoopee!

If poeple like to say I'm soft-spoken, they should try conversing with the gals at reception! So difficult to hear them, or maybe it's their local accents.

Got confused when she began telling me about macaroni. Was wondering whether it was some welcome dish instead of the typical welcome drink when she said something about 6.30pm instead. THAT I could guess. Must be regarding the Cultural Dinner Tour.

Quickly went up and freshened ourselves for a while before proceeding back down. A guy rushed into the lobby just as we came out of the escalator. Had a feeling he was our guide and turned out I was right.

The other enlightenment came when he introduced himself as Macaroni. (Makaroni? Mekaroni? Mecaroni?) So THAT was what the girl at reception was on about!

Macaroni was a pretty chatty guy. Brought us for an express tour about town. Wanted to stop at the Filipina market at the seaside which seemed to have lotsa local handicrafts, but we were pressed for time for our dinner.

He instead brought us for a short stop at Signal Hill, where we could see a fantastic aerial view of Kota Kinabalu. Couldn't get very good pics though as the area was partly closed for renovations, plus darkness had descended upon the night.



Next stop, Kampung Nelayan restaurant. We got a table with a pretty good view of the stage all to ourselves. But was salivating looking at the fresh, fleshy fresh seafood around in the tanks!

Had to wait forever to get served though. Then MD concluded that they must need our soup serving bowl real bad coz they kept serving us soup!

The food was pretty ok, except that they were only two of us and we were served 7 dishes covering the whole table! (The HUGEEE lobster we saw at the tank near the entrance of the restaurant wasn't part of our menu, though)



Halfway through the meal, we found that the cultural performance had not started yet because the dancers apparently were just strutting in with their costumes on hangers.

Performance wasn't too bad. But seemed too short as opposed to the intervals between when the dancers had to change into yet another ethnic costume.

I was just joking to MD that I'd bet dancers with blowpipes would soon appear to burst the balloons near the front of the stage. Turned out I was right!



I loved the bamboo dance. Made me wonder from which part of Southeast Asia exactly it originated from (I've always thought Philippines!). Also made me go back to primary school days when we did that dance for one of the year-end concerts.







We decided to take some pics with the dancers at the end of the performance. Macaroni apparently lost track of us then and was wondering where we disapeared. Teehee!

Made him take another pic of us at the front of the restaurant. He was surprisingly silent on the drive back. Maybe he sensed that we were tired too.

Waved goodbye at the foyer and he reminded us to be punctual for the train tour the next morn.

Unpacked some stuff, then as MD was trying to take a shower, found we couldn't work it. Twist all the possible knobs this way and that to no avail, so finally had to call housekeeping.

Felt so bimbotic when the guy came and easily turned the one knob that we didn't try to turn that certain position!

The tiredness of travelling all around got the better of us and rendered us pretty silent. Sleep didn't come easily, plus the book I was reading was at an exciting point. Thus only went to sleep sometime after midnight.