Anna´s nudibranch
Kota Kinabalu (KK) is the capital of the Sabah region, northeast of the island of Borneo, Malaysia. On the sea in front of the city is the Tunku Abdul Rahman marine park where you can dive and visit beaches. Kota Kinabalu is also a good base place to visit the Kinabalu National Park and other attractions.
Arriving at Kota Kinabalu
Mount Kinabalu and its 4096 meters. Eternal snows on the equator.
After visiting Sipadan, we took a short 45-minute flight from Tawau to Kota Kinabalu and stayed at Dreamtel KK, a very pleasant hotel, somewhat off the coast but with a very good view. KK is a large city with more than 400,000 thousand inhabitants and an important commercial movement. Its airport is international so it is a good point to connect with other countries in Asia.
Scuba Diving in Tunku Abdul Rahman National Park
Blue dragon nudibranch
I went diving one day with Scuba Junkie (they have an operator also in KK). We first went near the Mamutik and Sulug islands and dived at the Saluman Reef. After a break on the surface on a beautiful uninhabited beach, we went to Barracuda bonanza and Nemo’s playground, where visibility was poor. We could see some zebra snout seahorses, many nudibranchs, spotfin lionfish and some stingrays.
Two Spotfin lionfish showing off their spotted fins
Bluespotted ribbontail ray
Other thing to visit in Kota Kinabalu.
Mono proboscis (mono narigón)
Rafflesia, biggest flower in the world
Kota Kinabalu is a tourist center with many options. You can climb Mount Kinabalu (4096 meters high) and visit its national park, see the Rafflesia, the largest flower in the world (it grows to over a meter in size and stinks of rotten meat when it blooms), see the proboscis monkeys ( big-nosed monkeys) and firefly colonies. Another program is to also visit the islands of the Tunku Abdul Rahman park where you can spend the day visiting beaches on different islands (tickets to visit various islands are sold in the port of KK during the day).