Hongkong & Malaysia
 

Again I need help and maybe some good advice for our upcoming trip in May 2005 to HK and Malaysia.
The plan is to fly to HK(we are from Austria/Europe),stay there 4 nites then further on to Kuching - to take a 7 day tour through the jungle-we book that over a travelagent,made very good experience with them on our trip to Thailand.After that we want to stay the rest of our 3 weeks holiday somewhere at the beach- either in Borneo or somewhere else in M. We looked in to the Shangri La Tanjung Aru - we want a nice hotel at the beach, but it should also be close to a town, we love to try a different restaurant every nite. We also are in to diving, that's actually the main reason for our prefers for Borneo. But is it safe there - and how is Kota K.? Being there would also give us the chance to go up Mt.K.K.
Thx for advice and tips

ttt

hello,

thx for any help and advice

silvia

You may get some help if you start another thread with Borneo or Sabah in the topic. But maybe there just isn't anyone here that knows enough about Sabah or Kota Kinabalu to answer your specific questions.

I am a diver myself, and was never that thrilled with the west coast area around KK. If your principal object is to dive (after presumably having enough inland jungle time), my suggestion would be to go to Sipdan, which has spectacular diving. It is a bit of a hassle to get there, but as you are on Kalimantan already you will save a good bit of travel time. I can recco one hotel:

Sipidan Island Dive Resort
Tel: (60-89) 765200 | Fax:(60-89) 763575/763563
E-mail:[email protected]
http://www.sipadan-resort.com

I have stayed here. It is very basic but fine as you are in the water most of the time anyway.

A well-known dive tour operator for Sipidan is Borneo Divers at http://www.borneodivers.info

Sipidan has more rainfall in May than most other months, which will affect water clarity a bit, but they are not monsoon downfalls or winds so overall diving should still be good.

KK, Kalimantan, Malaysia and SE Asia are generally very safe, but I will note that some divers were kidnapped from Sipidan about 5 years ago. The area is patrolled much more frequently now by Malaysian coast guard and there have not been any subsequent incidents, but as you seem concerned, I though I should mention it.

Another suggestion would be the east coast of Malaysia, specifically islands like Rawa, or further north in Redang or the Perhentian Islands or even Koh Samui, a Thai island further north. Weather in May for all these places would be good and water clarity would be good as well as the monsoon leaves the area in early March.

A third possibility is Bali, which has very good diving off the central east coast, in the Candidasa/Manggis area, and further north at Menjangan Island which has excellent snorkeling and diving, probably the best in Bali. Weather in Bali in May is very good.

Run a search here for all of the above, as myself and others have posted. A good diving website is www.diveglobal.com

Kota Kinabalu isn't that much of an exciting city to write about, but the Tanjung Aru is a fantastic fun 5* hotel. There is plenty to do in the hotel and there are lots of day trips to while away the time.

I did plenty of diving around the National Park near to the hotel (A gold medal PADI centre is right next door to the hotel). I thought it was great and compared v well with diving in Fiji and a lot better than any diving done in Europe. The Quality of diving, as you know, can vary dramatically from one season to the next. Perhaps I was lucky.

It will undoubtly suffer in comparisons with Sipidan which is often considered the best diving in the world. The hotel in Sipidan is however no comparison to the Tanjung Aru. There is also a history of unrest in the North with pirates making the occaisional attack on islands such as Sipidan, although I do believe it is over 3 years since the last attack.

One word of warning, friends of mine visited a muslim market in KK about 2 years ago and there was some slight verbal hostility to them, until they realised they weren't American and then everything appeared to be OK.

silvia,

The Shangri La Tanjung Aru is a lovely resort and a perfect place to have a beach holiday. The city centre of Kota Kinabalu is just 10 mins away by taxi, but it isn't very exciting (as mentioned above). The more interesting attractions are in the surrounding nature, like climbing Mt Kinabalu or visiting the Mt Kinabalu National Park. You can do diving at the nearby Tunku Abdul Rahman marine park, but it's much nicer at Sipadan.

Food wise, Kota Kinabalu has several good seafood restaurants (mostly Chinese), where it's priced by weight. Try Portview or Ocean restaurant.

There are many Indonesian and Filipino migrants in Kota Kinabalu and you can see their influence at the night markets. Be careful with your possessions here (due to pick pockets).