I arrived at Kota Kinabalu airport around 5.30pm on Saturday 10th January 2015. It took about 20 minutes to get through passport control so this meant when I got through to baggage reclaim my bike was sat waiting for me.
Eager to eat durian I wanted to get out of the airport as soon as I could, so I rushed to find the ATM machine and waited patiently for the man to finish using it. This took at least 5 minutes and at the end of his multiple transactions the machine just shut down. He cleaned it out.
"I have no money" was my first thought. Panic struck and I was wondering how the heck I'd get a taxi with no money! A young couple were in the same boat and then they mentioned the exchange booth (so silly of me to forget about that!) and I remembered I had £25 in my purse, so I quickly changed my money, paid for a large taxi and made my way outside.
The taxi was pimped out to the max. It was covered in (hopefully faux) leather with diamontes and had 2 chandeliers hanging in the back. Awesome! I tried to have a conversation about durian with the driver but his English wasn't very good so most of the journey was silent with the barely audible radio playing in the background. (Animals by Maroon 5 was the song I mainly remember)
When I arrived I left the bike in the box, put my bags in the locker and set off on my durian hunt. I found it quite easily, but was disappointed with the price. It's more than I was spending in Bali and more than what I've paid in Thailand. Still cheaper than getting it in the UK though! The seed to flesh ratio was against me and I was left day dreaming about the Bali-Bangkok durian I had in Ubud. Nowadays I daydream about Monthong. That durian has an awesome flesh to seed ratio and is so sweet and creamy. It has to be my favourite durian variety so far.
On the way back to the hostel I found a shopping centre and bought a 7kg watermelon for 5 ringgit. Unfortunately this was a 1 time deal. Watermelon goes for 2 ringgit/kg and the girls who sold it to me were inexperienced!
In the morning I woke up feeling awful because I ate too much and it didn't sit well in my stomach. But after half of the watermelon I felt refreshed.
Sunday is a market day on Gaya Street, right outside my hostel so I had a brilliant morning looking at the fruits and vegetables. I had been doing some research and was able to spot tarap and champedak so I bought one each. Both are awesome fruits, tarap is less messy because there's no latex on the skin or fruit.
Check out my YouTube videos of me eating tarap and champedak.
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