Architectural Building in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

We didn't venture too far away so we just stuck to Gaya Street. After walking a few rounds, we discovered an old building named 'The Abundant Building'.

This building was abandoned since World War II. This building is unique because the design of the building has a mixture of modern and traditional culture. Although it has been left behind for decades, people are still taking initiative to conserve this historical building.

Instead of reconstructing the building, they decided to add some Graffiti not only on the walls but the pillars as well. Instead of making it in an old way, they modernized  it.  These are the creative works of professional artists, teachers and students as young as 6 years old.

Although this historical building is placed next to a modern building as in the picture, but it still blends in perfectly with the modern buildings as you can see in the picture. The colourful Graffiti on the pillars makes the place seems more lively. 

The Atkinson Clock has the distinction of being the oldest standing structure in the whole of Sabah that survived the destruction of Jesselton town during World War II. It is landmarked along Signal Hill Road adjacent to the old police station.

This court is probably the oldest court in Kota Kinabalu. The government are going to replace this court with a new one and this court will transform into a historical attraction. Basically for now, it contains High Court, Session Court, and the Magistrate Court.










The Sabah Tourism Board, also known as the 'Sabah Tourism', is an agency of the Sabah State Government operating under the control of Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Environment. This building was established in August 1976 and it literally expanded and defined to cater to the current needs of the global tourism market.

Food In Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

When it comes to food, we are not only experts in eating it but as well as taking pictures of it. First and foremost, we stopped by a shop named, Kedai Kopi Yee Fung, which is a shop that sells a variety of noodles . Since it's our first time, we decided to try the top sellers of the shops we visited. 

This is the shop special Yee Fung Laksa with vermicelli, chicken, shrimps and also shredded fried egg. While, the aroma of this laksa is very thrilling and contains a very strong hidden scent of spiciness behind it. Delicious.

Up next, we come with another bowl of Yee Fung Ngau Chap Bihun which have a mixed of beef ball, beef tripe and etc. It tastes more like water with herb, but it's also pretty good. 

There are also a variety of food other than the two top sellers but as much as we wanted to try the other dishes, we were already at our limit.














For the next meal, we paid a visit to a famous coffee shop named, Kedai Kopi Yung Hwa. While, this place is well known for it's fish noodles in Kota Kinabalu.

This is the shop famous Ko Lo Mee with Laksa. The Ko Lo Mee is strong in flavor but with the added taste of Laksa, it brings down the flavor by combining spiciness and sweetness together. Some of the regular customers call it a match make in heaven.

This is the fish noodles sold by the shop and it is ranked as the top seller for this shop. The fish noodles are springy and contains a hint sweetness inside it. Everything added in is very fresh and tasty. 

Of course, we did not only end our trip by eating traditional cuisine, but we did drop by one of the modern coffee shop named 'Party Play. Lifestyle Cafe. '. This shop is unique in the inside as it gives off a very lively environment in it.

Signature Dark Chocolate Fondant with Milk Ice Cream. What's inside it is seriously sweet and choco-ish. You better not missed this one when you visit there.

People In Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

Sabah, which is also a part from Malaysia contains 3 main ethnics which is: Malay, Chinese and Indian.

On the way walking in 'Gaya Street Market’, we found out that in this morning market, the 3 main ethnics gather in one in the market and starts their daily activity here. Although we have different mother tongue language, we can still communicate with other ethnics using Bahasa Melayu which is our national language. 










But on this land, there is also other ethnic which are staying on the same land. For example, which are Kadazan-Dusun, Murut, Bajau and etc. The people of Sabah are divided into 32 officially recognised ethnic groups, in which 28 are recognised as Bumiputera, or indigenous people.

So, I would like to introduce one which holds the most population among the ethnics in Sabah, which is Kadazan-Dusun.
We took this picture when we were walking on the streets where there was also performing arts on the streets. While their major religion supposedly are Christian. 

Why is their costume black in colour? Based on Internet results, during olden times, it was tough to find different kinds of colour textile and the black ones were the most common one to be found, so they used the black cloth and add-on some colourful accessories on the shirt instead. They usually wear these costumes when there are festivals like Kaamatan (harvest festivals as thanksgiving to the rice spirit for good harvest).

Here is a video of a traditional Kadazan-Dusun dance: The Sumazau and Magunatip (Bamboo Dance)

For the 3 main ethnics as you can see in the pictures, unlike the Kadazan-Dusun, they wear much more casual these days as in simple T-shirt  with short pants or trousers.
Since it's the weekend, the citizens of Sabah prefer to got for a casual look when going for an outing which is similar in Kuala Lumpur.















Kota Kinabalu is rich in tourism due to the famous Mount Kinabalu and also a variety of beautiful island surrounding it which attracts lots of tourist to visit here.

While, there were two tourists from overseas that we bumped into. Although they couldn't communicate well when purchasing goods, but by using some body language they are able to understand better.

Activity In Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

Before the sun rise, we are forced to pull ourselves off the bed, since morning is the time where everyone begins with their activity. As our mission is to explore the activity of people, it is a must to wake up early so that we can have more time to observe and investigate the bits and bits of the people who lives here.While, there is one saying that early birds catches the worm, we get to have the opportunity to visit one of the morning market in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah which is 'Gaya Street Market'. The only special thing of this market is that they only open every Sunday morning from 6.30 a.m to 1 p.m.

GAYA STREET MARKET

As the picture, you can already smell the atmosphere of the crowd in this morning market, all ages can be found in this market. While, the typical activities that occur in the market such as buying and selling activities ongoing. For an add-on, 3 activities that are related to human-human communication are:

1)  Bargaining prices between Hawker and Buyers.

2)  Gossiping similar topics between Aunties and Uncles.

3)  People shouting 'Excuse Me' to find spaces to pass through the market across the crowd.



Unlike the typical activities I mentioned above, there are few activities which are hardly found in normal market in Kuala Lumpur. From our observations, not only verbal communication takes a big role in the market, but non-verbal communication, too, are involved between human-human activities in the morning market.

Donation Activities 

Donation activities by singing, dancing and etc to attract people to donate money for 2 reasons: improving the facilities of the market and to gain an amount of money to raise fund for charity.

Calligraphy 

On the other hand, there was another activity can be found in the market which takes my attention, so I snapped a photo of this stall where a young lady was showing off her calligraphy abilities. Usually, people calligraph 'Han' words but this young lady was doing some impressive arts by using just ink and brushes with only black and white colour tone. The drawing was used for business purposes.

Begging For Money Through Traditional Instruments

While, we continue our journey exploring the market, suddenly a mysterious rhythm which can be heard a mile away from our location. The closer we walked, the louder the rhythm. Oh!! It was an old man playing an 'erhu' which is a two stringed bowed Chinese Traditional Musical Instrument. 

This picture shows two customers buying cloth from a hawker. While, the hawker is explaining the pricing and quality of the cloth to the customers.