I've always wanted to travel to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah in East Malaysia. Now I may have that chance with my family! In doing so, I have to plan ahead for this journey especially with kids! Thankfully, with the help of other parents in my support group, some are even locals themselves who has shared tips and even places that me and my whole family will enjoy together. That being said, let's begin my journey plans and save it down here for future reference!

Firstly, to check flights from Kuala Lumpur to Kota Kinabalu. 

It's pretty easy to use Traveloka as you get to choose the best flight rates available with various airlines and schedules. If you're lucky, you may even get to find really cheap air tickets!

These are my summary of the itinerary that I will be planning for my journey to Kota Kinabalu with my family. Am also including all the other amazing recommendations and tips from my friends!

STAY : Shangri-La’s Tanjung Aru Resort and Spa, Kota Kinabalu

💟Provides room views of both the ocean, Mount Kinabalu or South China Sea

💟5-10 minutes from the airport and 10 minutes away from the city

💟Kids activity area like water play area, pool, play area for toddlers or younger kids with padded walls and soft gentle toys catered for them. There's even a babysitting option provided by the resort at a small fee of RM30 per hour. There's also a kids club with more activities and schedules of fun-filled excitement for the kids

Other venue's worth staying at, recommended by my friends are;

1. Sutera Harbour Resort (They have their own jetty too and also 5-10 minute from airport)

2. Kinabalu Pine Resort, Kundasang (Stay for 1 night to enjoy stunning Mesilau views)

3. Little Hut, Kundasang (It's in the middle of a local village, best to bring your own food as there's nothing much to eat here at night but the Mesilau view is beyond words and the kids will love the hut. Best to stay for 1 night)

4. Gaya Centre Hotel, is opposite Suria Sabah Shopping Centre

5. Mandarin Hotel, Gaya Street. On Sundays the Gaya Market starts just outside the hotel.

6. KK Suites Hotel, Gaya Street. The street food at Gaya Street is amazing according to reviews!

7. Marina Condo, a service apartment in town.

8. Guest houses if you are adventurous!

ISLAND ADVENTURE :

🏝 Island Hopping! It would be nice to go on island hopping with my family to visit the true beauty of nature and breakaway from the city lifestyle. There are 5 islands for island hopping such as Pulau Sapi, Pulau Manukan, Pulau Gaya and small islands of Pulau Mamutik and Pulau Sulug.

🏝 Borneo Kellybays, approximately 30km from Kota Kinabalu, in Tuaran. A beautiful place that is suitable for kids and it is special because it is the only Sabah nature attraction that lays between the sea and river.

🏝 Sepanggar island, a 12 minutes boat ride from KK. Only accepts maximum of 40 pax tourists per day. It's price range is from RM120 onwards per pax inclusive of return boat trip and lunch. They also have water activities too.

BEACHES :
🏖 Tip of Borneo, if you love beautiful beaches.

🏖 Beach at Karambunai is beautiful and clean; Lots of Korean tourists there too.

OTHER AMAZING ACTIVITIES :
♨ Poring Hot Springs, bring extra clothes to change.
🏠 Rumah Terbalik/Upside Down House, this is quite common now. Also available in other parts of Malaysia.

🐟 Fish massage, great way to relax while the fish nibble those dead skin away from your feet. It's ticklish too!

🏞 Memorial Park, Kundasang for sights & see. The Kundasang War Memorial is a memorial located in Kundasang in the Malaysian state of Sabah, which is dedicated to the British and Australian soldiers who died in the Sandakan POW camp during their death marches to Ranau.

🏞 Perdana park is a good place for kids. The Musical fountain at night starts from 8pm.

🏔 Kokoi Hill, the kids will enjoy the cool weather.

🏞 Lok Kawi Wildlife Park is another great place for families with kids, a really nice park to enjoy nature with.

🐇 Rabbit farm for the kids, they will enjoy it!

Shopping : 

🛍 Centre Point Sabah Shopping Mall

🛍 IMAGO Shopping Mall

🛍 Suria Sabah Shopping Centre

🛒 Gaya Market at Gaya Street

🛒 Pekan Nabalu, Kota Belud. consists of several rows of open-air markets selling fruits, vegetables and flowers, as well as a longhouse market where vendors sell merchandise such as Sabah souvenir t-shirts, beaded handicrafts, musical instruments and many more.

F&B :

Most of them said the seafood here is the best! And Tuaran Noodle, Sang Nyuk Noodle, Beef noodle and Seafood tom yum noodle are a MUST TRY delicacy!

🍽 Salut Seafood Restaurant

🍽 Nancy Kitchen, provides good food and there’s a playground for kids to play and it’s by the beach.

🥛 Desa Cattle Farm in Kundasang, enjoy fresh delicious milk and yummy yogurt ice creams.

🍓 Strawberry Garden Kundasang, you get to pick strawberries here.

🐝 Gombizau Honey Bee Farm, because "Honey add to everything it will sweeten up your life"

TRAVELLING TIPS : 

Don't go during end of the year as it's raining season; It will be super cold and wet. Best to go during mid school holiday season.

OPTIONAL : DAY TOURS 

If you are looking for day tours, my friend recommended "Amazing Borneo" for their top rated services. 

The "North Borneo" cruise is alaso great, the food is also tasty.

With all these useful information, this will make my journey to Kota Kinabalu much more ease! Hopefully it will also assist you on your journey too! Until next time.

Life can sometimes be unpredictable. Just when things were going great, all of a sudden it can change 360° and when you least expect it!

So my sharing today is purely about me. What happened to me?

I had a great time at food reviews etc. I remember my last review was eating Durians, and my mom reminded me to take more cooling drinks before and after because of fear of being too heaty.

Well prior to that, I had some breastfeeding issues as my youngest was teething and bit me a few times, and my eldest refuse to wean off and his latch started to hurt because of his full set of teeth. So this cost me my left breast having a milk bleb. An extra skin tissue grew over the milk duct and blocked it causing discomfort. I either had to poke it with a needle, try and scrub it off or something... I blamed my itchy hands for trying to pry it off. It made a hole and then right after having Durians, I got my body too heaty till the hole will not recover. I stopped breastfeeding on my left side. I only pumped on the left.

1-2 weeks : 29th Jan 2018 onwards

That's when I started to feel weak and tired and aching from my head to toes. And with a hole in the breast that I had to pump on schedule to avoid blocked ducts, engorgements or even worst mastitis; I was worn out and tired!

3rd week :

Then I suddenly had 6 ulcers, 3 big ones in my mouth and 3 small ones on my lips. It was excruciating... I put salt, tried honey, vinegar, it was not helping. Went to see the GP at the Clinic and the GP just gave me medication for my ulcers.

My first visit to the doctor I already showed them this and they thought it's just acne.

Then I fell ill, I had on and off fever for a couple of days. I assumed it was due to the change in my Breastfeeding cos of the engorgements and blocked ducts. I had to massage, hot & cold compress until it started to soften again. Then I suddenly had high fever for 2 days and felt chills! Finished two packets of Panadol Actifast during the times I had fever. Went to see GP again, and gave me another ulcer medication and pills to make me go to the toilet.

4th week :

I was prepared to get my blood checked for dengue but my fever stopped. Then every evening I felt chills at my hands and feet, I would shiver but no fever. My body felt so weak and tired. I called my urut lady to come twice. Manage to get some wind out of my body, manage to reduce the shivers and chills I had during the evenings. But she told me to get a blood check because my body is cold, not hot and in 2 days gap she noticed my back started to have new acnes with pus inside and in batches/clusters, which is odd.

Went to my GP again and this time she said from the first day she saw me I have lost too much weight, I look pale, she said best to get immediate check-up at the hospital and she gave me a letter to a private hospital in Puchong. Went there to the A&E at night (it was a rainy night), the hospital was so freaking cold, your fish would freeze right off the floors!! Had to get extra blanket in the Emergency ward because it was freezing!

They put me on drips, took my blood which they had to squeeze it out (till my hands turned blue) because it was flowing too slow and they also took my urine sample. Waited for an hour plus and they came to tell me that they thought I had chicken pox but it's not, it's like pimples only.


Then said I had urine infection, low blood pressure, my red blood cells were low and my white cells were high. But they said I can stay if I want to, then they can run more tests on me. Or I can go back and if I want to follow up, I can come back after a week. Charged me rm700+! Gave me so many Panadols & Gastric pills which was useless to me. Some sachets to drink for my urine infection and Antibiotics for a week. I finished the sachets and antibiotics but no difference. My urine infection probably gone.

Can't believe the hospital won't give iron pills or something to boost my blood pressure. So I had to get it from the pharmacy, iron supplements. 

So my diet now revolves around pork liver soup, black chicken soup and beetroot juice.

End of 5th week : 3rd March 2018

Finally decided on a weekend to see a Chinese sinsei that my mom frequents. He saw my back and immediately said I had Shingles (in chinese is "sang se" aka Snake disease) gave me Chinese powder herbs for consuming and another mixture for mixing with rice wine and applying all over where there are Shingles on me. He said he has never seen anyone with Shingles this much before. It's going to take 10+ days for recovery.

I'm on the 4th day of my Chinese medication and it seems to be helping so far atleast better than the GP and hospital I went too who failed to diagnose this! They thought it was chicken pox and then corrected themselves saying it's acne. What the hell!

I am thankful for having really high pain-tolerence level! It's not painful for me, I just can feel what's going on and all and it's still bearable for me but for any ordinary people it will be excruciating! Even giving birth without any pain killer etc is painless to me. My gynae stitching me up without any medical intervention right after birth, I can still talk to her asking questions. That's how high my pain-tolerence level is.

So that's how I spent my Chinese New Year 2018!

I am Grateful & Thankful my mom & husband helped around alot and were a great support in my wellbeing! I could literally have bed rest but it was not the kind of rest I am asking for. This is not pleasant at all. Also my Mother-In-Law for helping to get black chicken from the morning market in KL for me, we had been searching around Subang for weeks to no avail!

UPDATED EARLY APRIL 2018
Finally recovered on 1st week of April 2018. The scars dried up. Skin peels and flaking off all those dried shingles. Had to find a good skin and hair product after recovery and was able to find some really good natural ones that soothe my skin and helped in recovery too. Will share in new posts soon.

UPDATED 15th October 2019
My shingles scar finally lightened and back to skin colour thanks to the Ultimate Duo Pack! And this is just 38 days progress! Still have 5 months for the complete repair and overhaul of my entire health. And it is natural.