Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

I’m a big fan of mountains but Mount. Kinabalu in Borneo, Malaysia, hasn’t really caught my eye until I stumbled across an old brochure in a drawer. That’s how it all began and I recently made a trip down to the grand mountain earlier this year.

But to get there, you got to fly into Kota Kinabalu first. That’s the nearest city, 90min away from the foot of Mt. Kinabalu (or known locally as Gunung Kinabalu in Bahasa Malaysia). Here’s how you can get to the city on the cheap from Singapore (somewhat the aviation center for region):

1) Air Asia

You can fly in from Singapore for as low as SGD40 one way. You can also fly in from Kuala Lumpur for about the same price. Flights are daily, or almost daily so it shouldn’t be an issue there. The flight timings are pretty good.

2135 – 2350 (Singapore – Kota Kinabalu)
1840 – 2055 (Kota Kinabalu – Singapore)

2) Jetstar

You can also fly in from Singapore via Jetstar. Prices are usually compatible with Air Asia. I’m not loving the 7am morning flight though. As a nocturnal creature, I’m always grumpy if I have to wake up before 7am.

0740 – 0955 (Singapore – Kota Kinabalu)
1335- 1555 (Kota Kinabalu – Singapore)

3) Tiger Airways

At the time of writing, the route map on Tiger Airways’ website shows that it flies from (*surprise!*), Singapore to Kota Kinabalu. But, I wasn’t able to retrieve any flights or timings to Kota Kinabalu beyond Oct 09. The flight may have been suspended. I guess not many people are choosing to fly with them.  I wouldn’t go with Tiger Airways if I have a choice either. Here’s why.

a) From my experiences with them,  their flights are often the most costly among the three competitors.

b) If that’s not enough to put you off, the Tiger flights are always delayed. For the record, out of my 4 flights with them, 3 were delayed close to an hour. That’s a whooping 75%, folks.

c) They fly out from the cheap and nasty Budget Terminal in Singapore. Air Asia and Jetstar flies you out, in class, from Changi Airport Terminal 1.

The Tiger Airways flight might resume but I won’t take the bait. Will you?

**********
How to get to Mt Kinabalu from Kota Kinabalu and what you need to do/bring, next.

In case you are wondering about the info-posts about Japan, they would still continue but I’ve decided to put it up in piece-meal. I’m more eager about the recent experience gallivanting around the world.

I am caught up by lots of work lately and I haven’t been able to write something proper here. Spare time don’t come easy and I can’t really justify stealing some time to release the pent up travel writing urge… which,  I’m going to do now anyway.