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  1. #76
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    I think we arrived at the zoo ~10. The zoo staff said there was an animal show at the ampitheatre at 11 or 11:30, so we made the rounds, then watched the show. First - bird show.






    Lots of ppl in the ampitheatre. Nearest person is a Chinese girl & is not katie's friend.

  2. #77
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    The highlight of the show for the day was the snake show.


    The staff spoke in English, with occasional Malay phrases.
    There were some farangs in the audience, but most were either Chinese or Malay.

    They asked the audience for volunteers. This Aussie lady took the bait.
    Since no guy volunteered, they picked the Malay guy from the audience.

  3. #78
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    Aussie lady & Malay guy getting familiar with the snakes


    You could tell that she's used to holding big snakes


    The partner/bf/husband of the lady was in the background, taking pics. The Malay guy turned out to be a "plant" in the audience, to give comic relief to the show. For her efforts, the lady was given 2 free tickets to Bali (flight + hotel). Not bad! If I had known that there was a prize, *maybe* I would have volunteered. But then, I wouldn't have these pics.

  4. #79
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    After the excitement of the snake show, this monkey got little notice. At least he got to eat afterwards.


    More zoo pics



  5. #80
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    After the animal show, bye bye Lok Kawi.


    On the way back to the KK centre, we passed by the state mosque.


    closer view of the mosque


    This mosque was a bit far off from the city centre, so we didn't explore it anymore. During the first day, on the way to the Sabah museum, we also passed by a Catholic Cathedral and a Methodist church. So there was freedom of religion in KK. In Brunei, I didn't see other churches. There was a Chinese temple, though. One of the reasons why I said that Brunei felt more "Muslim" than KK.

  6. #81
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    On the way back, we also passed by this office of Islamic affairs. Pic taken from the car.


    We asked to be dropped off at Centrepoint Mall so that we could have lunch.
    There's cheap food at the basement, so it was our fave eating place.

    This was my lunch. Fish, bokchoy (leafy veggies), loofa+tofu+mushroom (yes, the young loofa is edible)


    Guy-friend ate loofa too


    Girl-friend, no loofa

  7. #82
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    With our tummies full, we tackled the task of buying souvenirs from those kiosks at the ground floor.
    Then it was back to the hostel for a short rest (it was so hot).

    Late afternoon, we went out for a walk again.


    This is the roundabout. We turned left.


    We saw the crafts exhibit again, now during daytime.




    Some stuff about the crafts exhibit. Take note of the building on the far right.

  8. #83
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    This is the building on the far right. That's guy-friend.


    Police Station (Balai Polis) is behind that building. ^


    This was our main destination, the Atkinson Clock Tower.


    So that you get a sense of scale, here's guy friend doing a jump shot.

  9. #84
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    The Atkinson Clock Tower is one of the oldest buildings in KK (formerly Jesselton). It was named after Francis George Atkinson, the city's first district officer, who died at the age of 28 due to "Borneo fever" a.k.a. malaria.

    It is said that the original clock, a double-face clock that was a gift from his mother to Atkinson, was replaced in 1964. The tower once served as a lighthouse to sailors when it was nearer the coast.


    Stairs going up the tower


    This is the tower. Against the light, so not good pic.




    This was the view - not very good since it wasn't too high. Wasn't allowed to go inside the tower.

  10. #85
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    Went down the tower, walked around a bit, and saw this.


    Still part of the college, I think.


    We passed by a big supermarket, and bought some foodstuffs for souvenirs. We were finishing off our ringgits.

    For dinner, we saw some hawkers selling street food.
    Since there were locals buying, we decided it was good enough, so we had street food take-out/take-away for dinner.
    We ate later at the hostel.

    We shared this mi goreng (egg noodles), as well as the fried balls & rice.






    At the hostel, FB & social media again. I also had my share of email checking. Then it was packing stuff and early night, as we had to catch the early ferry to Labuan the next day.

  11. #86
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    Day 4 was ferry/travel day. We woke up bright and early, as the ferry to Labuan was 8am, I think. We bought our tickets the day before as we were travelling on a Sunday, and usually the ferry is fully booked. The lady agent told us to be there an hour before, so we were at the harbour by 7.

    Camera-ready by 7:09 am!


    The waiting area at the harbour.


    This was the ferry to Labuan, a small island between KK and Brunei.


    The ferry ride to Labuan took ~3 hours. Then ~2h stop-over in Labuan for lunch, then ~2h ferry from Labuan to Serasa, Brunei. We arrived in Brunei ~3:30pm. If we took a plane, it would've been 1h approx, but the ferry was cheaper. Besides, we also wanted to do the border crossing by seaport (first time for all of us) so it was all part of the adventure.

    Before doing this trip, I've read some bloggers who did the same route (Brunei-Labuan-KK or vice-versa), so I knew it was doable in a day. The Lavender Hostel in KK is where one blogger stayed, and it had good reviews on hostelbooker. Praises from us too!
    Last edited by katie23; 08-03-2014 at 10:47 AM.

  12. #87
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    Boarding of the ferry was around 7:30, then take-off (or ship-off?) at 8am.
    We were in 2nd class, towards the front (nose?) of the ferry.
    Movie shown on TV was "Hansel & Gretel" with Jeremy Renner. I watched a bit.


    Okay, I remembered - it's anchors away for ships.
    What do you call the "front" area of a ferry/ship? In a plane, it's called "nose". For ship?

    The high ups in first class


    The sheeple in 2nd class


    Bye bye KK

  13. #88
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    Safety instructions


    Entry to the ferry's "nose"


    During that 3h trip, I visited the loo, but didn't take a photo. It was a western toilet, thankfully. On my next holiday, I'll make sure to take pics of the loos that I visit.

  14. #89
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    Arrival in Labuan. Very nice & clean seaport, no trash floating in the water.





  15. #90
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    Malaysia Truly Asia...


    I was trying to get a nice pic of the map, when this woman photo-bombed it.


    Ferry Terminal in Labuan

  16. #91
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    Across the ferry terminal, there are shops and eateries. We had lunch at Ngee Hing.


    The menu


    These were our lunch mates


    This was our lunch, grilled nasi ayam (chicken rice).


    Lunch was a hurried affair, since we had to queue for the terminal fee and get our boarding passes for the ship. Took ~40 min, that queue. Very long queue (it was a weekend) and very hot. Plus there were some Aussies who were making noise because their ship was cancelled and they had to get to Temburong for work the next day. Their issue was settled, and they were able to get on a ferry (different from ours, I think).

  17. #92
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    In Labuan, you get stamped out of Malaysia.

    We didn't take pics of the ferry, since we were in a hurry (katie & friends were among the last passengers to board). The ferry left ~1:30pm. On the ferry to Brunei, a Malaysian comedy was shown on TV. At first, we didn't pay attention, but we got hooked later. This actress was petite and pretty.



    It had English subtitles so we could follow the story.


    This guy was very funny.


    The movie was about a love diamond (as opposed to a love triangle, since there were 4 protagonists). Those two ^ ended up together. At a mall in Brunei, we saw a poster of the 3rd film of the series. Kinda like the Fast & Furious franchise. The 2 female characters were pregnant already in the 3rd film. The sheeple must've liked them.

  18. #93
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    Finally, arrival in Brunei!


    The waiting area at the ferry terminal in Serasa, Brunei. Serasa is an industrial zone, lots of factories.

    The nearest town is Muara, which is ~15 min away by car.
    Then Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital city, is ~30 min away from Muara.




  19. #94
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    Because we were so enamored of the comedy film, we let the other passengers disembark first. Our group was the last to get out of the ferry. Immigration was a breeze, since we were visa-exempt. But due to the time that passed (we spent time writing on the entry cards, since they weren't given in the ferry), by the time that we had been stamped in, the bus fetching the passengers had already left!

    So we waited it out for >1h, thinking that there would be another bus. Turned out that our ferry was the last trip for the day, and there would be no bus coming soon! There were no taxis going to & from the ferry terminal (it's a bit isolated), so we were in a bit of a bind. The blogs didn't say that we should get off the ferry ASAP and get on the bus quickly! lol Goes to say that however much you plan & research, there are still some bumps in RL...

    So here's guy-friend while waiting at the ferry terminal

  20. #95
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    I don't know why we didn't think to call the hotel we had booked, and ask for pick-up from the seaport. The hotel provides free pick-up & drop-off, but we thought it only pertains to airport & not seaports. Turned out we could've asked for seaport pick-up too.

    So anyway, ~ 5:30 pm, a Bruneian seaport official approached us and made small talk. We asked if we could hitch a ride with him to Muara to take the bus to BSB, the capital. The last bus (Muara to BSB) leaves at 6, so it would be cutting it close to catch the bus. So we asked him if he could take us to BSB and offered to pay him in USD. We didn't have enough BND, as we had exchanged only a few Brunei dollars, supposedly for the bus. So he took us in his very nice car and dropped us off to our hotel in BSB! Whew!

    After checking in at the hotel and etc, we went for a short walk (~15 min) to Yayasan Mall to exchange money and have dinner. Here's a twilight photo from our walk. You can see the mosque in the distance.



    Dinner at the 3/F food court. (Btw, my 1/F is the ground floor). I had tom yum + rice.


    Guy friend had chicken in BBQ sauce.


    Girl friend had an omelet.


    The KK-Brunei trip was a huge learning experience for our group. Come to think of it, all of my trips have been learning experiences - that's why I love to travel. It wasn't the first trip abroad for me or girl-friend, we both were semi-seasoned travellers. For guy-friend, it was his 2nd trip only, so we kinda guided him re: airport & travel procedures. Despite reading, planning & preparing, Murphy's law still sometimes kicks in, so sometimes you just have to roll on.
    Last edited by katie23; 08-03-2014 at 11:39 AM.

  21. #96
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    The Omar Ali Saifudien mosque on the walk back to the hotel.



  22. #97
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    More night time shots.


    The clock tells the correct time. Take note of the building behind the clock.


    The street of the building ^


    A very posh house across our hotel. I wonder what these guys were talking about...


    My point&shoot cam doesn't take very good night-time pics, so there weren't many.

  23. #98
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    When I was posting pics Sat morning, I wasn't aware that there was another active thread in the Malaysian forum re: Malaysian Airlines flight MH730. I only read the that thread afterwards, since I took advantage of the good 'net that I had last Sat to post pics. RIP to the passengers, and I hope the relatives find closure...

    Anyway, on with the pics. This was the view from the hotel room.



  24. #99
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    Upon going down the street where the hotel was (Jalan Kianggeh), we saw the clock again.


    At the corner, there's this building/mausoleum



    Makam Raja Ayang is supposedly a mausoleum wherein two lovers, who happened to be brother and sister, were buried. There are conflicting stories, some say the two were buried alone, some say with their servants. Some say they were of royal birth. I think the main reason that it's there is to remind the people and prevent them from doing "immoral" activities.

  25. #100
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    Street shots. This is the daytime shot of the "sunset" shot earlier. Wasn't able to get the mosque in the pic, but you can see it behind the palm trees.


    It was around 10am (based on the time on the street clock), so there was morning traffic.




    Royal Brunei Hotel, very posh. Foreign dignitaries get housed here when they do state visits.

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