Kota Kinabalu
Sabah'S Capital, Bombed Almost Flat In 1945 With Three Buildings Left Standing, Rebuilt As The Gateway To Borneo And The Best Sunset On The South China Sea · Kota Kinabalu, Sabah
ALLIED BOMBING FLATTENED THIS CITY IN 1945 AND THREE BUILDINGS SURVIVED - one of them the ATKINSON CLOCK TOWER, a small wooden thing built in 1905 by a mother in memory of her son, the district officer, dead at twenty-eight of malaria. That it is the oldest structure in Sabah's capital tells you what happened here. WHAT WAS REBUILT IS FUNCTIONAL RATHER THAN BEAUTIFUL, AND NOBODY PRETENDS OTHERWISE: KK is where you fly into and out of, the base for Kinabalu, Sepilok, the Kinabatangan and the islands. BUT IT EARNS ITS ROW ON THREE THINGS. THE SUNDAY MARKET ON GAYA STREET, which is an institution. THE ISLANDS OF TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN PARK, fifteen minutes offshore by boat. AND THE SUNSETS, which are genuinely among the best anywhere and which the whole city turns out for along the waterfront. Gaya Street runs on Sunday mornings only, which is worth arranging an itinerary around, and Sabah keeps its own immigration control and its own public holidays - you are stamped in on arrival from the peninsula.
Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
KOTA KINABALU HAS SABAH'S MAIN INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT and is the arrival point for almost everyone visiting Borneo's north. THE GAYA STREET SUNDAY MARKET RUNS SUNDAY MORNINGS ONLY, roughly dawn to early afternoon - it is the best thing in the city and it happens one day a week. THE WATERFRONT AND THE NIGHT MARKETS run daily into the evening; the FILIPINO MARKET AND THE FISH MARKET are morning places. BOATS TO TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN PARK leave from JESSELTON POINT through the day and a MARINE PARK FEE applies. THE SABAH STATE MUSEUM keeps daytime hours. SIGNAL HILL OBSERVATORY is free and is the view over the city. SUNSET IS THE EVENT HERE and the waterfront fills for it. Sabah keeps some of its own public holidays.