This is the logo of one of the state universities in Malaysia, Universiti Malaysia Sabah. I am studying for my Masters now but no, this is not my graduate school. Last July (yes, I am that lazy to blog about it until now), I was accompanying my niece for her first year undergraduate program registration at this university. When I stepped into the university, I was blown away! This is definitely the most beautiful university campus in whole of Malaysia. Click here to check out its sprawling seaside campus view. How I wish I can study here. Unfortunately, I almost flung my public university entry exam so I am not qualified to study in any state universities :(
So, what is there to blog about my niece's university in this travel blog? You see, for me, "accompanying" most of the times also means "holidays" :) What is exciting about the trip is not the university but the location of the university. It is in Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah state. For my non-Malaysian friends who are not familiar with Malaysia, Sabah is situated in Borneo island (refer to map below).
Many Malaysians have not actually visited Sabah (one of the two states of East Malaysia) due to its far distance from West Malaysia. The state is inhabited largely by indigeneous tribes known as the Kadazan and Dusun. It would feel like visiting another country eventhough it is Malaysia. At a dinner, I snapped a cultural dance by these indigeneous people and this picture shows how exotic this place can be .... (I mean the cultural dance and not "Tiger beer" and the delicious seafood available)
Kota Kinabalu is a coastal town with the Tunku Abdul Rahman national park (refer map above) just minutes away by speedboat. You can do island-hopping as there are a couple of small beautiful islands that are very near to each other. So while my niece was busy with her university enrolment matters, I sneaked out with my brother to enjoy ourselves ;) Ha, ha, ha, what an uncle :)
The type of boat used to island-hop.
The upper flag is the Malaysian flag and the lower one is the Sabah state flag.
One of the islands.
The jetty of the island.
Waiting for my boat to proceed to the next island.
You haven't really been to Sabah if you have not visited the Mount Kinabalu, the highest peak in Malaysia and Borneo island. You can wiki more about Mount KK here. Unfortunately my visit was not arranged to scale all the way to the top, so I did not get the chance to see the beautiful snapshots featured on the wiki page. Visitors like me who turn up at the last minute can only hike up until a certain point.
Look at the hiking map below. we were only allowed to hike from Timpohon to Ubah, a total of 2km.
The trail looked like these:
With a waterfall along the way ....
The first checkpoint - Kandis
The second checkpoint - Ubah
We started at 11am and finished around 2pm. After lunch, we drove about 1.5 hours to the Poring hotsprings park to experience the canopy walk, which is a suspension bridge about 45meters above the forest floor.
Entrance to the park.
The canopy walk.
After a tiring day, finally met up with my niece for dinner. And I told her, I'd like to "accompany" your father to your graduation ceremony next time. Ha, ha, ha, what an uncle :)
