The Hotel where we stayed.

Its called Novotel Hotel. We stayed here after a brief stint at Le Meridien.

We are full of praises for this hotel. Afterall its still new (opened 6 months ago) so you could still smell the cements on the wall, and some parts of the hotel are still under construction. Only one type of room is available while the other still work in progress. The staff were friendly and helpful. The settings and furnishings are nice, modern and of course new. This was our deal, for now they offered free internet connections, as long as you have your own laptop. But they do have a computer at the lobby if you dont have a laptop with you. Breakfast is included for 2 and you're charged RM220++ per night, with free breakfast for children below the age of 16. Free extra bed or baby cot. All these came within 10 minutes after requesting for it. What else? Swimming pool is adequate. Oh the hotel is connected to 1Borneo so you definitely do not need transportation to get to 1Borneo. If you stayed at diferent hotels, there were ample parking spaces at the basement, also free of charge at the moment.

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This is the reception of Novotel Hotel where you checked in.

At the same time we checked in, the hotel had a VIP visitor, their Minister of Tourism. They greeted him with a lion dance.

The LCD tv in our room. That side table was unique. You got to be there to see it. Overall it was a very nice room with the wooden flooring. Very nice. Another unique feature of this hotel. The glass see-through wall between the bedroom and the washroom. At first we were awestruck with it, how would everyone do their business with a wall like that???? Anyway, there was a curtain to block the view of course.

Our beds. The 3rd one was free of charge, for now. You just had to request for it.

The scale in the built-in cabinet. Not so many hotel provided this facility. A reminder for everyone not to over indulge in our meals i think. Breakfast setting at level 5, a restaurant called 'The Square". Loved this place, its so calming and comfortable. And I love the culinary, i mean the plates. They came in different designs. And the food were not too bad either.

My girl making her choices. Eat all you can! We were in fact very full after breakfast that we skipped lunch altogether. And Ayang had her breakfast for free.

Our only setback, on the 2nd day at Novotel we were attacked by scores of red ants. We didnt know where they came from and we were on the 10th floor. As usual we complained to reception and they took care of it while we went out to shop.A quick check on hotels next door to Novotel. This is the lobby of Mercure Hotel. Not too bad too. And the rates were quite reasonable.

A different area of Mercure Hotel with the unique table.

This is Tune.com Hotel main lobby. What can I say, it didnt look so appealing, just like a small cafetaria. But who's complaining, this is a budget hotel.

Also a lobby at Tune.com hotel in a different area, its an open concept altogether.

Very blur but what it said was you can rent a towel, aircon and TV with a price! It didnt come with the rate of the hotel.
Well, thats it, folks. We still have a lot of pictures, maybe more next time.

1Borneo Kota Kinabalu

We somehow heard about this latest addition to Kota Kinabalu. Everyone said it was huge so we were here to see for ourselves. It was indeed big, with lots of shopping malls. We didnt really feel we were in KK but more in Kuala Lumpur or Singapore. Lots of people here too and some were Bruneians of course. This will be the biggest attractions to all Bruneians in no time.

This huge infrastructure also housed 4 hotels in its capacity. We stayed in one. The hotels are:

Novotel Hotel,

Mercure Hotel,

Courtyard Hotel, &

Tune.com Hotel belongs to Air Asia.

The mall is 90% completed, although some are still vacant. And the mall consisted of so many restaurants for fine dining, casual dining or fast food. There were also some good entertainment centre such as cinemas, arcade games, internet cafe, bowling and pool centre. It was everything you could hope for and you dont have to go anywhere else.

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Entrance to 1Borneo and all the hotels from the roadare here. It was situated about 15 - 20 minutes from city centre. You wont missed it.

Main entrance to the 1Borneo from the main door. We could enter from our Novotel Hotel from the side too.

Decorations for Christmas celebration in full swing. They were really all-out with the festivities.

Image from the centre atrium of 1Borneo. Christmas decorations again with beautiful castles and christmas trees. They were going to have fake snow falling from the ceiling too. They tested the snow when we were there.

Like in a fairy tale... So surreal.

Signs of some of the establishments in 1Borneo.

My girl enjoyed the stroll, so many things to see and buy!
Its becoming our tradition to watch a movie every time we went for holiday. This time we watched Madagascar at the movie theatre, Golden Screen Cinemas. We enjoyed the film and the cinema was huge so it was not that full. Below Ayang at the cinema.

Our days in KK

More images captured at the heart of Kota Kinabalu. We spent most days at the Philippines markets and absorbed the daily lives of KK people. Their uniqueness and friendliness. And the vast amount of delicacies and handicrafts on display. We planned to visit the mountain too but due to slight problem with the car we decided to ditch it.

Picture taken from the market with the hotel Le Meridien as the background. The contrast of this image is obvious. These people were waiting around to run their business. They could only start selling at 4.00pm sharp when the whistle was blown.

Our hotel room at Le Meridien.

Night lights from the market and its surrounding taken from the swimming pool area of Le Meridien.


Hubby was blending with the locals. Finding out what they were selling, i guess.

The local delicacies sold at the market.

It was hard to choose which one you want.

We couldnt help but noticed the Durian sold by the road side. We ought to buy them and ate them in the car. No way we would be able to bring it over to our hotel room.

The barbequed seafood at the market. One big prawn cost around RM15.00.

More pictures of the market, the eating area.

Along side of the road at the market, our hotel as the background.

A holiday closer to home...

A trip to Kota Kinabalu this time. Below are the events in chronological order.


0700hrs: Reached Kuala Lurah, a long queue already.
0800hrs: Arrived at the Brunei checkpoint.
0810hrs: Passed Brunei checkpoint.
0820hrs: Passed both checkpoints.
0830hrs: Reached Limbang Town and exchange some cash to Malaysian Ringgit.
0930hrs: Reached Kastam Pandaruan, went inside a ferry to Temburong.
0940hrs: Reached Pos Kawalan Immigresen Puni (the old blue wooden building). Service here was a bit slow especially when registering the vehicles.
1010hrs: Arrived at Pos Kawalan Labu.
1015hrs: Reached Lawas, about to go to the Ferry, here the constructions was evident.
1023hrs: Entered the Trusan Lawas ferry. Scary experience since the ferry was rather small.
1035hrs: Stamped our passports at Pos Kawalan Lawas (alongside the shop).
1045hrs: Left Lawas after a short toilet break.
1102hrs: Reached Merapuk junction and passed Lawas town.
1127hrs: Another checkpoint, our last, border between Sarawak (Merapuk) and Sabah (Sindumin). We came to know Malaysian passports holders do not need to stamp their passports here, quite obviously since they are on the same country!
11.46hrs: Reached Pekan Sipitang. Stopped alongside the kedai and had our packed and home cooked lunch. Enjoyed our lunch and it didnt cost us a thing.
12.20hrs: Departed Sipitang with a full stomachs.
1300hrs: Arrived at Beufort, it was raining but no worries we had good wipers!
1344hrs: Reached Simpang Ke Pekan Papar.
1415hrs: It was now double lane road leading up to Kota Kinabalu.
1450hrs: Reached destination! We checked in at Le Meridien Kota Kinabalu.


Total mileage clocked on our car from home in Sengkurong: 310km.


Below some of the pictures taken along the way.

The long queue at 0700hrs. We didnt expect it would be this long considering it was still early December but what do we know!

We reached Immigresen at 0800hrs after queueing for one hour.


Reached Pandaruan Ferry in Limbang, waiting to board the ferry to bring us over to Temburong on the other side of the river.

Welcoming sign board at Temburong District.

Sipitang town where we had our lunch.

One of the roundabout at Beaufort.

Another road sign at Kinarut.

We almost reached Papar and Kota Kinabalu

The double lane round leading up to Kota Kinabalu. Look at the street lights.

We passed Kota Kinabalu International Airport.

Reached Kota Kinabalu. These buildings are the famous Marina Apartments where most Brunei stayed in Kota Kinabalu. Beside it was Promenade Hotel. Infront of it was the used to be the gerai which no longer there (been demolished!)

Reached destination, our Hotel Le Meridien.

More updates coming soon!