The flight from Kuching to Kota Kinabalu took about an hour and
half. Kota Kinabalu International Airport is breathtaking when the
plane starts its landing sequence – it goes over the magnificent
islands and austere seas and it almost seems like the plane is going to
land into the sea…
…but it touched down perfectly on the runaway built right beside the open seas. It certainly is a novel experience…
We took a taxi into KK and after walking around a bit, decided to check into Promenade Hotel Apartments at Api Api Center. Api-Api is the word the locals call Kota Kinabalu…interesting snippet here.
Promenade Hotel Apartments is located in a nook of Api-Api Center
right in the middle of Kota Kinabalu – it’s all to easy to miss the
place if not for the plethora of signs advertising the low rates of RM
68++ per night.
Our hotel room is situated a little down from the actual reception
block. This modular hotel apartment design is unique – we had to walk
one block down and take a separate escalator up to the second floor.
The room looks a little dodgy at first sight…
…especially when the corridor seems to be a mix of hotel apartments and business establishments and residential units.
The room itself was alright though. There are two beds and a sofa
for the three of us and the room comes equipped with a TV, a fridge and
air conditioning. It also has a kitchen in addition to the bathroom and
toilet unit.
I can’t say much about the view…
…and it looks like some drug crazed tenant has previously taken a hot iron to the carpets…
…but we’ll only be staying the night.
The journey to conquer Mt. Kinabalu starts at 0700 hours tomorrow. 🙂
