Saturday, Day 63 - Mar 10 - 8am to 7pm changed to 1:30pm to 9:30pm, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Borneo Island, Malaysia

Kota Kinabalu is the state capital of Sabah, which is the second largest state in Malaysia and is located on the northern tip of Borneo Island.  It is one of Southeast Asia's greatest surprises. Kota Kinabalu has an alluring blend of Malay and Chinese culture. Largely destroyed during World War II, Kota Kinabalu has since developed into one of Malaysia's most exciting cities. Enjoy the sights in this bustling, ethnically diverse city by seeing the gold domed mosque, unique high-rise architecture, and the Heritage Village. Or, venture into the interior to astonishing Kinabalu Park, seeing rare plants along a nature trail and a garden of rare orchids, visiting Mount Kinabalu, towering 13,431 feet above the verdant tropical jungles and the magnificent centerpiece of Kinabalu Park, a UNESCO  World Heritage Site and one of the highest mountains in Southeast Asia. This is our first time to this port. Since the park is a UNESCO site our plan was to do the ships full day free tour to see it.

Mt. Kinabalu has four climate vegetation zones from rich lowland tropical rainforest trees through the montane or sub alpine forest with pine, fir and rhododendron, to the coniferous forests, to the alpine meadow plants, and to the stunted bushes of summit zone and is home to an incredibly diverse range of flora, including over 1,200 species of orchids, 25 species of rhododendrons and nine species of carnivorous nepenthes plants. Walk along the Silau Silau Nature Trail, the easiest and one of the most beautiful trails in the park. Stroll through the Mountain Garden, to view its extraordinary collection of rare plants including native orchids and unique pitcher plants.

However the sea gods have a different plan for the Navigator! After our 32 hour delay in Bali due to a careless fisherman we don’t get to Kota Kinabalu until 1:30PM so that tour is canceled. We had pretty much decided a hike on a wet mountain trail was probably not the best idea for us so we had already switched to the Kota Kinabalu City Highlights tour which is a basic bus tour. We meet in the theater at 1:40PM and get started on the tour about 2:15PM as it took some time to get clearance to go ashore. The buses are the nicest yet...cold A/C, lots of leg room, clean windows and, the real plus, a guide who gives us interesting information but doesn’t drone on and on! She tells about the tribal Malay’s who were cannibalistic until the 1930s and how customs changed over time to adapt to modern ways and the different groups who have had influence on modern Malaysia.

The most impressive thing about Kota Kinabalu to us is that it is a clean Asian city (in our experience a rarity) with a lot of modern buildings like the Tun Mustapha tower and the beautiful building next to it. We drive around passing by the Museum and the Sabah Golf and Country Club. Then we drive by the city Mosque and the Puh Toh Tze Chinese Temple. These two places of worship represent the faiths of nearly 80% in this part of Malaysia. From there we drive by the university, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (so named in honor of her visit). We drive to the beach and stop for refreshments at Shangri-La Aru Resort. On the way back to the ship we see several shopping malls and many interesting shopping streets not to far from the port. It is a short tour but we enjoyed it and saw a good bit of the city.

Before we go to our suite we grab a drink at the Navigator Lounge conveniently located down the hall from us. We watch sail away from the room and get cleaned up for dinner.

For some reason we are very tired and have a light dinner before heading to bed. We have to be in the theater by 7:30AM tomorrow...ugh!