Kota Kinabalu or bust?

Flew Air Asia from Kuala Lumpur to Kota Kinabalu--one of the three major Malaysian domestic trunk routes (others being Kuala Lumpur to Penang and KL to Kuching). Aircraft was 9MAFS for those of you who care (Clifford).

Kuala Lumpur Airport is essentially two airports: the nice, new marble floored international/full service facility that is nicer than any US airport that I have been (and easily rivals Singapore's airport)--and the LCCT, or Low Cost Carrier Terminal, created mainly because Air Asia, the Southwest/Ryanair of SE Asia is hubbed there. The two terminals share runways, but otherwise couldn't be more dissimilar. The LCCT is little more than a glorified shed--and the two terminals are disconnected from each other. To save money (and therefore the price of the airfare) all boarding is done from airstairs. Great in Vail Colorado where the weather is cool, but in an equatorial country, it's downright miserable, especially when you have to walk about a hundred yards to the plane.

I thought about booking Malaysia Airlines (the nice international carrier), but I wanted to leave at 4 to give myself time at Batu. Their price at 4 was double that of Air Asia, so I went with Air Asia instead. Knowing what I know now (how quickly I was able to get through Batu), I should have booked MAS at 2pm--an A330 and a full service carrier for the same price as Air Asia.

Bad things are said to come in threes, and on this flight I managed to score a hat trick. My seat back wouldn't recline, and I was absolutely exhausted. The guy in the seat next to me, the middle seat, dug his elbows into my side and played with the clicking seat belt buckle the entire 2.5 hour flight. There was also the cliched screaming baby who wouldn't calm down. I can't blame the kid, since she looked to be less than six months old, but I am now of the firm belief that if your child cries and screams for more than half the flight, you should be arrested or fined for cruel and unusual punishment (both to the kid and to the other passengers). The only redeeming quality about this flight was that I got a nice view of the sunset as we came in for a landing.

Once we landed, we had to go through passport control again--just merely a formality, since it was a domestic flight, but all three states on borneo control their own customs and immigration. Because I was on Air Asia, we went to a bare-bones terminal. Lonely Planet mentions there was an airport bus, but the bus didn't serve the Air Asia terminal, so I had to take a cab that probably cost more than it should.

The place that I am staying was recommended by LP--but they probably need to update it. I'm in a six bed dorm that is about half the size of my freshman dorm, with no security lockers. This means that all my valuables are with me at all times. My mom would probably cry at the sight of the bathrooms-but considering I'm only there for two nights, and will be leaving at the crack of dawn tmw, it could be a lot worse (though I'm not sure how much). I ate at a place across the street, which is the main area of budget hotels, and watched the replay of Texas Stadium going boom. I think its a tossup as to what will replace it--either a strip mall or a car dealership.

As the thread title implies, Kota Kinabalu has somewhat been a bust, although I could have done a lot worse. What I should have done was fly directly from Kuala Lumpur into Brunei and started working west to Kuching from there. I considered looking into climbing Mt Kinabalu, but after my experience in Melaka, and the fact that the government mandated rest house that is controlled by a private monopoly has no vacancy until April 20, I decided to pass. Climbing Kinabalu is arguably the premier attraction in Sabah, and because the scarcity of rooms in the mandated rest house, plus mandated porter and mandated government guide, it also costs an arm and a leg (similar to a roundtrip ticket from DFW-LGA, and about triple my airfare from KUL to KK). I'd rather save that money to arrange climbs (hikes) that are both quicker and cheaper--meaning that I will wait to do that in Indonesia. To be honest, unless you are interested in sunbathing/diving, you are better off waiting to go to Sabah (KK's state) until you are older and can afford to arrange a private guided tour, or something like that. I also should have taken an earlier flight from KL to get to KK in the daytime, where I could have taken care of certain arrangements. LP should also note that you need to spend at least a day/half a day in KK to get everything sorted out.

My general plan was to take a day trip to Kinabalu national park, about a three hour drive, but the manager of my hostel recommended that I make reservations for the Brunei ferry in advance, since the ticket office would likely be closed before I would return from the national park, and then I would have to risk waking up at the crack of dawn (ferry boards at 730), being all packed, and not getting on the ferry. So, I booked the tickets (first class was only about 2 bucks more expensive, so I did that instead), and went down to a tourist office to see about arranging onward travel through Brunei and Borneo. While I didn't actually book anything, I was able to get the name of an agency in Miri in Sarawak Malaysia (on the opposite side of Brunei) that could help me make onward arrangements for the rest of Borneo. By the time I was finished sorting out various possible options, it was realistically too late for me to do a day trip to Kinabalu, so instead, I am just wandering around this humid town whose main source of income is tourism, being the "gateway to Sabah," and looking into possible onward arrangements, including visiting the Tourism Malaysia office, which strangely wasn't that helpful.

I am, however, able to give you my itinerary for the next two days:
Tmw morning (4/14) board the ferry to Brunei that stops in Labuan (a malaysian federal state that also allows for offshore bank accounts!), where you connect to the waiting boat to Brunei. I get into Brunei at around 130 pm, and then will spend the rest of the day exploring the home of the richest man in the world--the Sultan of Brunei.
4/15, I will get up early and take the five hour bus ride from Brunei to Miri, Malaysia, getting in the early afternoon, and where I will be able to make onward arrangements for the rest of Sarawak.

What I will probably plan on doing is taking a day trip out to Niah National Park on 4/16, then either fly from Miri to Kuching to Miri to Sibu--either way I will be hitting up both those towns, as the best (cheapest) way to get to Penang back on the Malaysian peninsula is flying from Kuching.

Its too bad I'm not into sunbathing/diving, cause KK would definitely be worth it, and it does have a pretty harbor, surrounded by several forested islands. That said, it is kind of nice to have a day to relax and to take it easy as my body still adjusts to the humidity.