With an area of 5,765 sq.km, Brunei is indeed a small country. Some said that you can explore the whole country in a day and because I completed a 100km trail run there, I could say that I already explored more than 50km of it. Haha. After the race, we put on hold exploring Brunei and decided to visit Kota Kinabalu instead. KK is just 5-6 hours away from Brunei via ferry (through Labuan). We scheduled touring around Brunei (Bandar specifically) on the last day of our trip.
Brunei to Kota Kinabalu via Ferry:
From the bus terminal in Bandar, we took a bus going to Muara ferry terminal. Fare is just 1 BND. From Muara, there are ferries bound to Labuan. From Labuan, you have to transfer to another ferry going to Kota Kinabalu. I'm not sure if there are direct trips from Muara to Kota Kinabalu but I have not seen such trips in ticketing booths inside Muara port. Based on my research, the schedule of ferry going to Labuan is only limited (one in the morning and another in the afternoon). Because we're tired from the race, it's unlikely that we'd get up early in the morning of the following day to catch the 9am trip. So we had to settle for the afternoon trip, 3 or 4pm. However, based on online research, if you reach Labuan in late afternoon, there's no ferry going to Kota Kinabalu anymore. Since we already settled for the more feasible afternoon trip, we decided to stay for one night in Labuan and just leave the following day for Kota Kinabalu.
Departure started at 4pm but we recommend going to Muara terminal an hour before the departure time to have sufficient time to buy ticket and queue for immigration. Yes, there's an immigration procedure because you're leaving for another country. Labuan is part of Malaysia.
Some photos of the terminal and the ferry to Labuan
The ferry left at 4:30pm and arrived in Labuan, Malaysia at 5:50. Less than two hours travel time.
Welcome to Labuan!
Labuan port
Labuan
Labuan is a federal territory of Malaysia. I've read that it's a duty free state; I'm not sure but it's evident with the numerous duty free shops in Labuan where you can buy branded chocolates, perfumes, and clothes for a lower price.
We booked at Premierz Hotel through booking.com. Rate that time was 89RM or around 1,200PHP per night. Here's the link for more info on Premierz Hotel. But there are a lot of hotels around Labuan.
The following morning, we prepared for our trip to Kota Kinabalu. Again, we woke up late, but we're able to catch the 1pm trip to KK. Travel time from Labuan to KK is more than 3 hours; we arrived in KK at 4:20.
Unlike the modest state of Labuan, KK is a bustling tourist area and you can see a lot of foreigners.
Our hotel, Oyo Storytel, was 2kilometers away from Jesselton Point (ferry terminal). we decided to just walk to explore the city proper. here are some photos:
Oyo Storytel is located in Star City North Complex, Asia City. It's like a mixed used building with shopping complex and hotels. Back then the rate was 60 RM or 800PHP per night.
Since it's in a shopping complex it's not difficult to find a place to eat! The street leading to the Star City North Complex is converted every night to a food park. We had our dinner here on our first night.
Before leaving for KK, we planned going to Mt. Kinabalu park but we decided to ditch that plan and just visit it when we really intend to summit the Mt. Kinabalu. So for this trip, we looked for a nearby park that we can explore. We decided to visit Tan Fuad Stephen's Park because of its good reviews and it'w only 5 kilometers away from the hotel. But before heading to the park, we took our lunch first.
The concept of this restaurant is you can get as much as you want and you will be charged according to the amount and kind of food that you got:
Also, before leaving for the park, we saw a store inside the mall where our hotel is located - it's an outdoor shop that sells gears for mountaineering and trail running. We're able to buy hydration bags. Mine was this green aonijie bag that I got for a discounted price of 50RM or 650 pesos!
The timing of our purchase was perfect because we can test our new bags when we explore Stephens Park. We left the hotel at 2pm and though it was very sunny, we decided to run from the hotel to the park. After that long road run, we arrived at the beautiful Stephens Park. It's really a place for fitness enthusiasts because we saw a lot of runners and cyclists in the park. There's also a nice trail inside the park.
