Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

February 18.
Today’s port was a short visit to a city on the northeast coast of Borneo Island in Malaysia that faces the South China Sea. The start of the Chinese New Year was last night so there was a certain energy about the city. We visited the market here and it made the markets in French Polynesia look like Wegman’s. It is a jumble of some of the most unusual looking (and smelling) foods we have ever seen! Aside from all the wonderful vegetables, there are exotic bottled items, brightly colored baked goods and butchered meats that I don’t even want to know about! I drew the line when it came to walking down a meat aisle that had more blood on the floor than I cared to subject my shoes to.
We walked through a mall and discovered that electronics, hair salons and “Hello Kitty” stores seemed to be the most popular. It was crowded and we thought that we might start feeling prepared for Hong Kong, which we will be visiting in 4 days.
We are impressed that almost every port has local singers and dancers awaiting us. There is a period of time after we dock that local officials come on board and clear us through customs before we can disembark. The music is always interesting and puts us in the mood of the local flavor. It is nice that we are a small ship in that we don’t overwhelm any port we are docked at and we rarely see another cruise ship in the same port.
The first photo is of some interesting items in the market and the second is the shopping mall – can you guess what the lucky color is for the Chinese New Year? The third photo is showing a little catching up with the news!Read more