Reflection of Life...: Family Trip to Sabah (4th Day)

We spent our fourth day in Sabah visiting the places of attractions in Kota Kinabalu city centre and Lok Kawi Wildlife Park. We were supposed to go to Yung Hwa Restaurant to try their fish noodles for our breakfast but it was closed when we reached there. I was disappointed because I was so looking forward to try this special noodles. This is not any ordinary noodles. The noodles are made of fish paste. But I guess we can make it at home if we want. I don't know whether it is available anywhere else but there is a stall selling steamboat ingredients in Pandamaran morning market that sells fish paste in strands. I think we can use this and treat it as noodles....

Since Yung Hwa Restaurant is not open for business, we just drove around looking for other place to eat. In the end, we decided to try the food at around Kedai Kopi Fu Yuan. We ordered from 2 different kopitiams. Hubby had forgotten that the food portion in Sabah is bigger as compared to where we come from and he ordered 4 plates of noodles for all of us. We couldn't finished and have to ask the waitress to pack for us to take away.

After our heavy breakfast, we started our city tour. Our first stop was the Puh To Si also known as Puh Toh Tze Temple. There is a large statue of the Goddess of Mercy at the entrance of the temple. However, I have no picture to show as we didn't take any photo there.

Then we drove to Tun Mustapha Tower. This building is named after Tun Datu Mustapha, former Chief Minister of Sabah. It was built in 1977.

Then, we continued with our city tour to Signal Hill Observatory. Signal Hill is the highest point in the city, overlooking Kota Kinabalu town. We left after roughly 5 minutes as there is nothing else to see. It is just an observation platform where you can observe the city view as well as the South China Sea. I believe the view may extend up to the islands if the weather permits. The weather was gloomy and there was slight rain on that day, so there was nothing much for us to see.

The Atkinson clock tower is just nearby. This tower was built in 1905 in memory of Francis George Atkinson, the first district officer of Kota Kinabalu or formerly known as Jesselton who died of malaria at the age of 28. This clock tower was illuminated at night and was used as a shipping landmark up to the 1950s.

By now, we have completed our Kota Kinabalu City tour, way ahead of time. I had estimated our city tour to take half a day up to lunch time and we would then have to rush to have our lunch at Kuo Man Restaurant before driving to Lok Kawi. I was concerned whether or not we would have enough time. But my concern seems baseless now that we were ahead of our planned time. We were still full from our heavy breakfast that morning, so we decided to drive to Lok Kawi directly and maybe have our lunch around there. From the name of the park, I presumed that it is a very large park with many wild animals roaming around, sort of safari-like park. I was concerned whether the time I allocated for the visit to the park would be sufficient. But when we reached there, I was a bit disappointed as it is just a normal zoo. It is not worth the effort and travel to see those animals which we can easily see at any zoo in the peninsular. Maybe a visit to those cultural village would have been better. Luckily, it wasn't so far from the city. Only about 25 to 30 minutes drive from Kota Kinabalu.

We decided to travel back to the city and stick to our original plan to have lunch at Kuo Man since we were not hungry yet. But another disappointment ensued as Kuo Man was also not open for business on that day. We saw that many business premises were also closed. Unlike where we come from, the shops here close for business during festive holidays. In the end, we decided to go and have our lunch in a shopping centre since after driving around the place for a while, we still can't find any decent restaurant that was open for business. So, we went to Suria Sabah Shopping Mall. But then almost all the restaurants that we went to in the shopping mall was full or have long queue and some were closed. We then went to its food court. Thankfully we found a table as the whole place was fully occupied. After we found a table only we realised that almost all stalls for main meal were closed except for 2; the mixed rice stall where there were not much dishes left and the chicken rice stall with a very very long queue. The queue was so long at the chicken rice stall that we don't feel like queuing. So, we have to just make do with the mixed rice. It was a big plate of mixed rice, shared by me and all the 3 girls. Hubby ate the unfinished noodles that we bought for breakfast this morning. After lunch, we walked around for a while before leaving. We saw that there were many outlets which were not open. I feel weird as from what I know, all the outlets and shops in shopping malls have to open for business everyday including public holidays or they would be fined by the management of the shopping mall. Maybe the practice here is different....

Since it was still early, we decided to stop at some random places to take some photos instead of going back directly to the hotel.

For dinner, our plan was to go to a restaurant quite famous among the locals; Fatt Kee Coffee Shop which is located below Ang's Hotel. It is well known for its delicious yet affordable Chinese food. We had a hunch that the place would also be closed just like the other places that we went to that day. To our disappointment, it really closed. So, again we just drive around and see which place would catch our interest. In the end, we decided to have another round of seafood dinner at the same restaurant that we went to on our first day in Kota Kinabalu; the New Luyang Restaurant. When we reached there, it was closed. Argggh! Then we decided to travel further to Welcome Seafood Restaurant. When we reached there, it was also not open. By then, we were quite pissed off already. In the end, I told hubby "Let's have Thai food instead". I told him maybe we should try Nok Thai, a Thai restaurant in Damai which we have passed by few times during our stay there in Kota Kinabalu. I used my mobile to search for review of that particular restaurant and I found some pretty good reviews of the place. Luckily it was open when we reached there.

Chloe insisted to self-feed and she managed to finish up the whole plate with very minimal mess. Almost no mess, I would say. One of the couple in the restaurant, probably around their 50s kept looking at Chloe. Maybe they have never seen a child so young self-feed before...

The food here is authentically Thai as they are cooked and served by Thais. The interior decorations of the restaurant also mirrored Thai elements. We ordered pineapple fried rice, Tom Yum served in coconut shell, chicken served with mango salad and a type of tofu dishes. The pineapple fried rice is yummy and the Tom Yum Gung is one of the nicest that I have ever tried. They were very generous with the amount of seafood in the soup. The tofu is also very nice. It was deep-fried and gravy with crab meat was pour onto it. I am quite satisfied with the food that we ordered. Thumbs-up!!