HELP WANTED: KOTA KINABALU

* Warning. This is a bitching post.

Well, no thanks to WY – she decided to FFK us last minute to plan for our next trip to Kota Kinabalu next Friday, I had to take things from here, thereon.

The internet website on hostels in Kota Kinabalu is driving me nuts. For instance, in the website of Trekker’s Lodge; which attracted good ratings – it was stated there – 4-bed mixed dorm. Any normal person would think that – this room would fit 4 beds. This is not the case, however. A phone call was made to Trekker’s Lodge and I was told that it was actually a room with 8 beds inside.

I enquired about the special promotion of RM9 per bed per night, and was told it was only for first come first serve basis. So I decided to place a booking on 3 beds for the 4 night stays that I am going to be there. They insisted that I pay up RM22 instead (actual price per bed). You expect me to pay RM22 per night and share the room with possibly 5 other strangers? I don’t think so. I opted for some other hostels instead.

I never find such ridiculous problem when I went to Cambodia– considering it is a much under developed country. Their e-mails replies were prompt despite broken English and they are very customer oriented. We don’t even need to pay a cent to secure booking and we only need to pay the said amount of money during the end of our stay in Cambodia. And yeah – Takeshi played an important role here for giving me very useful tips.

(this is for VJ)

Traveling in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap were a breeze and not to mention dirt cheap! For a small fee of USD12-USD15 per day, you can utilize your tuk tuk driver at your own expense. Since it is not a big place, it was easy to get around. Every hostel/ guesthouse/ hotels are well equipped with a Visitor’s Guide – and it comes free of charge!

It was a tad disappointment that our own country did not provide such thing, despite the mega promotion of Cuti Cuti Malaysia to lure both locals and foreigners to come visit our country. (Speaking of which – Cuti Cuti Malaysia has yet to revert with the tour packages since I e-mailed them last Saturday. It’s been MORE THAN A WEEK NOW! E-mail is real time mah – multi super corridor lah - kononnya!).

Instead of spending money on the useless Citra Warna, they should have spent the tax payors’ money on reliable Visitor’s Guide Book for tourists. Lonely Planet is obviously outdated and it is impossible to keep tracks with the change of bus routes in the country – you know, the mini buses, Intrakota, City Liners are gone – I have only seen Intrakota now being changed to Rapid KL. It is no surprise that Malaysians prefer to drive, rather than to depend on incompetent public transport.

I was embarrassed for the fact that, our country is not a travel-friendly country. Tourist information booths are usually empty. No one seems to know how to properly direct lost tourists/ lost people to where they wanted to go – everyone seems to be infected with the familiarity on how our government departments are run – they will point you to this person, that person, taking you around in circles. Heck – if you ask me how to go to Fraser’s Hill – I wouldn’t know as I haven’t been there before and probably if I were to go there, I would drive!

That is why I took the liberty to fetch my outstation friends around when they are here, even if they are very pai seh to bother me.

The prices charged to take tourists from one spot to another are downright exorbitant. Here are some of the prices offered if we were to take the packages in Kota Kinabalu:-

* Kudat Tip of Borneo (Ex-Kota Kinabalu)
PACKAGE RATE: RM220 per person

* Kinabalu National Park & Poring Hot Spring (Ex-Kota Kinabalu)
PACKAGE RATE: RM220 per person

* Mengkabong Water Village & Tamparuli (Ex-Kota Kinabalu)
PACKAGE RATE: RM180 per person

* Island Escape at Tunku Abdul Rahman Park (Ex-Kota Kinabalu)
PACKAGE RATE: RM170 per person

* Kota Kinabalu City (Ex-Kota Kinabalu)
PACKAGE RATE: RM110 per person

* White water rafting at Kiulu/Padas
PACKAGE RATE: RM170 per person

P.S. I am NOT going to climb the mountain – so, no climbing trip for me.

Think we all ang moh, meh?

The worst part is, when I asked some friends (those from KK) for some tips to travel to Kota Kinabalu, they all told me – why are you coming there? There is nothing much to see. Talking about promoting your own hometown, huh?

Ah well, I guess what we need to do now is to play it by the ear, and probably rent a car.

There won't be another CUTI CUTI MALAYSIA for me in a million years. Hah! How unpatriotic of me!