I had visited Kota Kinabalu ( KK ) many times in the past but none can compare to my latest trip to this capital city of Sabah aka "land below the wind". This time I spent 3 free and easy days with no meetings and appointments. The waterfront has changed quite a bit. Its cleaner, more organised with multi-stories apartment buildings inter-spaced with shopping complexes facing the sea and nearby islands. Very pleasant indeed. Amongst the shop that my other half and I spent some time was Starbucks and the Times bookshop. ( In fact between us, we bought 3 books altogether and gobbled them up before our flight to Kuala Lumpur and home) Immediately by the sea are the normal neat row of eating shops and stalls being active in the late afternoons and evenings. Seafood dishes are the norm and there are some decent outlets here. The waterfront has indeed been transformed since I last visited, to give KK that special place for cities in Malaysia which has an excellent waterfront ! ( unlike Malacca which used to have a cool waterfront in the sixties but gave it all up in the name of progress in the mid-eighties onwards. They called it progress ! I called it sad)
