I’ve always liked long drives. Something about spending all that time behind the wheel, with good music and if alone – nothing but my thoughts, that helps calm me down and sort of recharge some what. After itching about for a couple of weeks, I decided I needed to get out of KK for a bit. So with two stragglers in tow, off we went to Kudat & the tip of Borneo!
Most people do this trip in a day, and it is possible, but we had two nights to kill – so we stayed the at The North Borneo Biostation.
We left a little later than expected, so we stopped by Tuaran for some Tuaran Mee. (Heard so much about it, it only felt like the right thing to do.) After that, we essentially walked through all of town in a whopping 20 minutes – yes it’s not very big and continued on our way.
It took us a while to get to our Hotel and be warned it’s a bit far off from the main city and the tip of Borneo itself, but if you are looking for peace, calm and a little isolation – this is the place to be. The chalets were so cosy and I loved the fact that they had an outdoor shower.
The stretch of beach directly in front of the hotel, is mostly rocks, but when the tide is up, it is the perfect place to go snorkelling and you will see plenty of fish. However, a short trek further down and you will arrive at Bak Bak Beach where you will have a full stretch of pearly white sand ahead of you and clear waters perfect for swimming. The best bit – there’s absolutely no one else there!
After lazing around for the better part of the day, we decided to head in to town and take in the sunset at the Tip of Borneo. A little steep heading down, so my accident-prone self found this a little daunting- but worth it. While the sunset was good, we decided that it made more sense to go swimming (again) and lucky for us, Kalampunian Beach was just down the road.
We finally ended our night at La Playa Beach Bar. Now, we’d seen signs to this place during our drive in and out, but we were not quite sure where it was. It too was another trek and a half, but after walking down another stretch of beach – we arrived at this make shift bar and had a nice night chatting with the Australian couple helping run the place while they spend their Summers in Sabah. (Unfortunately no photos as it was kinda dark and they just did not work out!)
Kudat definitely has some of the better beaches in Sabah. The only problem is, there are too many beaches and not nearly enough time.