Monday 24 June Tour of KK

The local tourist office kindly showed us the highlights of Kota Kinabalu; the museum, mosques, chinese temple and the centre of KK. The museum is a showcase for the tribal diversity of Sabah with full size examples of the styles of long houses belonging to different tribes furnished and laid out as if people were living in them. Some are up the hill under trees and the remainder arranged around a pond. Inside the compact, and beautifully put together, modern main building we learned much about Sabah from the native wildlife through to the native head hunters. A well preserved head, either friend or foe, was / is held to be a valuable family heirloom – perhaps too dusty to be a good paperweight.

KK mosque

long houses at the museum

floating mosque

Later in the afternoon in the cinema auditorium in the marina building (Sutera is a posh marina) Mr Tengku Adlin, Head of Sabah tourism and some say a person of nobility, gave a presentation on the the national parks. Mt Kinabalu is known throughout the world, less well known are the marine parks which is has given us permission to take our boats and enjoy the waters. Closest to KK is Tunkul Abdul Rahman park – just 3 miles away. With the KK anchorage rolling we've decided to move there tomorrow.

Chinese temple