The Wilds of Borneo (Well, not Quite)

I love Malaysia!  I'm here for a few days for a conference, which is being held in the beautiful, touristy town of Kota Kinabalu in the state of Sabah.  This part of Malaysia is located on the island of Borneo, along with a piece of Indonesia and the whole country of Brunei.  (The rest of Malaysia is a peninsula attached to the mainland in Southeast Asia.)  See the map below.  It's very different here from Kuala Lumpur, which I visited back in 2008.  You can click here to read my blog post about that experience.

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Floyd was able to accompany me; he works on his classwork on the computer in our hotel room while I attend the conference workshops, and then we go sightseeing together in the late afternoons and evenings.  This is the front of the beautiful Sutera Harbor Resort, where the conference is being held.  We're staying at a different (less fancy but quite a bit cheaper) hotel.  I usually walk to and from the conference each day; I haven't been timing it, but I think it's about 40 minutes each way.

Once when I walked through the loby of the Sutera, I came across a musician in traditional dress playing the musical instrument below, called a kulintangan.  The sound was beautiful and almost haunting, and I lingered quite awhile to listen.  Here's a link to a video (not one I took) where you can see how it's played and hear how it sounds.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKKqFm79rxQ

Among other noteworthy sites, Kota Kinabalu boasts two especially large and beautiful mosques.  Below, with the even more beautiful flower in the foreground, is the Kota Kinabalu City Mosque.

This one is the Sabah State Mosque.

We also visited the Atkinson Clock Tower up on a hill by the city.  This interesting structure was built in 1903 entirely out of wood.  No nails were used in its construction!

Want to see more of our adventures in Borneo?  Click on the links below to read my other blog posts from the trip:

Borneo: The Green Connection and Dinner on the Beach

Borneo: Tun Mustapha Tower, Sabah Museum and Cultural Village

Borneo: Lok Kawi Wildlife Park