I woke up at 524am with a bad back ache, due to the walk and the soft mattress. Got dressed and left the room at 715am to go for breakfast. Found out breakfast was served at another hotel, Imperial, whichI thought was silly and the hotel should inform their guests by providing directions or briefing them.The restaurant was located on the rooftop and was quite nice, which cooled me down a lot. Had a nice egg omellette with toast but the coffee was weak.
After a hearty breakfast, set off for the tamu at 8am. Instead of going to the Jln Gaya tamu, we went to the seafront, where we found a small tamu right next to the Filipino Market. Discovered some weird things like green barnacles, edible brown corrals and live rock garoupa that didn't swim around. Just before we left the tamu, we saw a lady frying something in 3 little woks. It looked too oily so we didn't buy any.
When we reached the roadside, Azie hailed a bus which happened to be heading for Kampung Likas. It was a small mini bus, with loud Hindustani music blaring for its speakers. The bus followed a coconut tree-lined coastal road and entered the kampung area, which had an equal number of wooden and brick houses. I then understood why some Sabahans envied the development that is taken for granted by their countrymen on the Peninsular. Our driver and conducter then decided that it's time for their breakfast, and proceeded to pull over to buy some mee hoon at a roadside stall. At the end of the journey, we were told that the Yayasan Sabah building was only 'about' 1 km by foot,and it's 'just over the bridge'. So, we set off on foot, crossed the busy road and over the bridge,and then realised....oi, it's more than 1 km!! Anyhow, we reached the roundabout in front of theYayasan Sabah building (which was nothing to shout about), and then decided to go back to town on the first thing that we can get, which happened to be a van.
We got off near Kampung Ayer as we wanted to check out the tamu along Jalan Gaya. Well, we found out the hard way again that Jln Gaya was a very long road, and we joined the tamu somewhere in the middle.It's quite an interesting tamu, with a nice mixture of stalls selling pearls, wood carvings, freshorchids, different snacks, clothes, shoes etc. We got our stock of Sabahan snacks and made our wayback to the hotel. Azie got into a movie on TV, while I went over to the cafe to update my holiday pics.
After a much needed rest, we set off by taxi at 445pm to Tanjung Aru. We were dropped off at the main building, which housed a modern upmarket seafood restaurant. We then walked along the path fronting the sea, and got our first view of the Sabahan coastline. Wished I had my swimming trunks with me as the water really looked inviting. At the far end of the path we found a large complex that has close to100 small stalls selling all types of food. I saw an interesting way of displaying different types ofpickled fruits (jeruk), and fresh fruits. When we decided to sit down for a snack, I ordered an ABC while Azie ordered Satay Punggung Ayam. My ABC was interesting, the bottom part has a condensed milk base with black grass jelly (cincau), red cendol, sweetcorn, topped off with slices of watermelon and honeydew and 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream. After finishing off the pickled fruits, steamed groundnuts and corn on the cob, we continued our walk on the beach to catch the sunset.
Tanjung Aru (Bay of Pines), is a huge crescent shaped bay. At 6pm, the beaches had dots of people here and there. We headed for the far end of the beach but realised that it's about another km away, so we stopped at a boat carrier. While waiting for sunset, I chatted with Azie, and only later I realised that we haven't chatted like that since we had Adriana and Alyssa. Gradually the sky turned redder by the minute, and eventually the sun became a red circle, and then the sky transformed into this beautiful kaleidoscope of colours, with shades of red, orange, yellow. It was a spectacular scene, and I kept busy taking shots of the sunset, as well as sillhouetes of Azie.
By 6:55pm it was all over, so Azie suggested we eat a snack of sotong panggang (barbequed squid). The service was so slow that we walked off, and took a cab back to town to go to the pasar malam area. We found a huge seafood restaurant near Kampung Ayer,and decided to have our dinner there. We ordered BBQ squids and Cantonese noodlesw which was delicious, but the squids were a little salty. After dinner, we walked around the area and saw GSC, and simply walked in and bought tickets for Iron Man. It was an entertaining movie, but I thought they could have developed each character further. Anyhow, we enjoyed the movie, and had a nice walk back to the hotel, and reached our room at 11pm. All in all, today started off interestingly, and ended with a great movie. Boy, were we tired, and the sight of our made up room was a sight for sore butts...er I meant...sore eyes...LOL
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