MAS: Kota Kinabalu Downtown

Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

Kota Kinabalu, formerly known as Jesselton, is the capital of the state of Sabah, Malaysia. As one of the major and commercial centres of Malaysian Borneo, it's no surprise that Kota Kinabalu is one of the fastest growing cities in the country. All the pictures taken in this post, as well as those in the previous post on Signal Hill Observatory Platform, were taken within less than 24 hours.

As previously mentioned, Dreamtel Kota Kinabalu was our starting point. It's situated next to Padang Merdeka, which used to be the sole soccer field in town under British colonial rule. It's now used to hold various events nowadays.

Besides the country's flag, there were only 11 out of 13 state flags that afternoon.

The city isn't that big and is best explored by foot.

I believe that's the one and only UOB branch in Kota Kinabalu.

That looks like a nice place to relax and drink a cup of coffee or tea.

It was a sweltering day, but certainly better than raining cats and dogs that'd otherwise make walking around very difficult.

Tugu Peringatan Malaysia (lit. Malaysia Monument) was erected on 16 September 1963 to commemorate the inclusion of Sabah and Sarawak into Malaysia.

I wonder why is there a polar bear statue in front of the city hall building.

"In memory of those men of the Malaysian Armed Forces who gave their lives to the defence of Sabah during the Confrontation between 1963 and 1966. Presented by the Malaysian government."

There's also a monument dedicated to the Australian Armed Forces for the same cause.

It was kinda crazy, but my BFF and I decided to walk all the way under the blazing sun to Imago Shopping Mall across the river as a form of exercise. I think it's about 1.5 km away from the city hall building.

Crossing the river that looks pretty clean~

We couldn't wait to get into the shopping mall to escape the heat.

Honestly, we hadn't known beforehand that the region was celebrating the month-long Harvest Festival until we saw the banners and the 'huts' inside the shopping mall.

Scarecrow attracting doves... Hmm...

Hey, driving Pikachu! :D

Tavern Kitchen and Bar is a highly rated establishment. Don't miss it!

Cooling myself further with a cup of yam milkshake~

I secretly took a picture of it inside one of the sections Cool, right?

Before we left, a traditional dance performance accompanied by kulintangan (an ancient instrumental form of music composed on a row of horizontally laid small gongs, large suspended gongs and drums) ensemble.

Not wanting to walk back to the hotel, we took a cab from the shopping mall. I can't remember exactly how much it cost, but the taxi that we were on had its meter working. After taking a nap, we went to check out the waterfront, beginning with the Oceanus Waterfront Mall.