As you can see from the map of Kota Kinabalu (click here for a larger image), the city is quite small actually. It's less than 2 km stretching from one end to the other, and only half a kilometer in its width! So why it isn't called a town? Well, quite a number of tall structures here than u'll only see it commonly in cities, not to mention lots of high-end restaurants and lots and lots of world-renowned chain stores: Coffee Bean, Burger King, KFC etc, and not juz one each in the city mind u, there's many of them! And there's also the airport, the jetty, the state library and all kinds of infrastracture. So ya, it qualifies as a city, eventhough its tiny size may say otherwise!
As for the population, there's mainly Chinese, Malays and Kadazan. Throughout my 2 weeks stay in KK, I've only seen less than 5 Indians, and I've only seen them in a mamak store, and they're all the workers there! As for the Kadazan, I have problems recognizing them. They look like a cross between Chinese and Malays, so it's pretty hard to tell sometimes whether are they Chinese, Malays, or Kadazan! Lol. The general culture around here is pretty similar to my hometown Klang, therefore I have little problem adapting there!
Around 5-10 km away from the shores of KK, there's not 1, but 5 small islands: Pulau Gaya, Pulau Manukan, Pulau Mamutik, Pulau Sapi and Pulau Sulug, all of them under the umbrella of Tunku Abdul Rahman Park. Although I've only been to Pulau Manukan, i can safely say that there's plenty of fun things to do around the beaches here, from snorkeling to paragliding to kayaking to even sea-walking (a helmet-like thingie which u can walk literally under the sea after wearing it, even wearing ur specs while preventing ur hair from getting wet)! The locals are pretty lucky I must say, living so close to these wonderful islands while at the same time can enjoy the infrastructures of a city. I still remember how surprise I was when I saw the sea immediately after I past by a more-than-10-storey-high building! Lol. KK is truly a coastal city!
One last thingie. I juz found out that the Chinese locals called KK "ya bi", which, according to my "tour guide" Keat =P, is directly derived from the Malay word "Api" (fire). Apparently there was a great fire once in the city, and the locals have been calling it Api ever since... Well, I dunno how true is that story, but I juz realize that recently, all Chinese textbooks have officially called KK "ya bi". Well, juz another interesting trivia that I'm so into... Hahaha...
Gonna post about the fun stuff I've been doing in KK and Sabah next. Watch out! >=)
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