Hyatt Hotel at Kota Kinabalu and its Oxtail Assam Pedas

There was an airfare promo some months back and I'd booked a short weekend getaway to KK for us on the first weekend of August.

I'm really glad for it because this break from the stress factors of the past month has recharged our marriage even though (or maybe because!) we had a most unpleasant experience together on our first night at Hyatt Hotel.

We reached the hotel about 9pm after a RM30 airport ride from the hotel and the check-in was fuss-free at that hour. Unfortunately, our request for a complimentary upgrade to a seaview room was denied (though I had the Gold card) and this was the view from our room in the morning. I'd stayed in a seaview room before at the Hyatt and the view was awesome (click here) so I'll say that if you had to choose, just pay that little bit extra for the seaview room.It's worth it. The mountain/city view is hideous.

We had an hour's complimentary internet access (WIFI as well as wired) which came in quite useful. As the hotel's restaurant only served buffet dinner till 10pm, we decided to order room service for the hotel's famous oxtail assam pedas. We were delighted to find out when placing our order that there is no tray charge and the cost of the hotel's famous Oxtail Assam Pedas for room service is just RM35 (with taxes and svc charge it works out to RM40) compared to the cost of the dish at the restaurant which is RM42 (without tax and svc charge).

My CEB went to the shopping mall next door to see if the shops were still open and when he returned, dinner was served literally. The meals came with rice and a glass of ice-cold water.

Now, make no mistake about it - the oxtail assam pedas is delicious. No two ways about that. There is lots of succulent tender meat cooked to tasty perfection and the sauce is thick and flavorful without being too spicy or too "coconuty".

We enjoyed our meal very much and retired to bed shortly after....only to be awoken up by our tummies less than an hour later! Everything exploded out of my tummy with a huge gush the first time I rushed to the toilet bowl. As I sat on the bowl, my CEB called out to me that his tummy was not feeling too good and he needed the bowl. So I got off and he got on. I was tired from being awake the entire day and fell asleep without waiting for him to be done, only to be awoken up two more times in the next two hours by my rebelling stomach. Liquid from the wrong place! It was awful!

At 7am, I asked my CEB to call the hotel to ask for charcoal pills as my stomach felt shaky and the hotel suggested that we go to the clinic instead. Now, I was exhausted from all the trips to the toilet and definitely was not happy to get out of bed at 7am on a holiday to go to a clinic. So I decided to go back to rest and hope for the best. My CEB and I both fell asleep till 11am when he woke me up.

The first thing I did was call the guest services to complain. They had the assistant manager call me back . He explained that it was the hotel's policy not to dispense medicine and urged us to go to the clinic. I did not see the point of so doing since everything had been purged during the numerous trips to the toilet. He told me that this was the first time any hotel guests had complained about their famous oxtail assam pedas giving them diarrhoea. I told him that this was the first time I had ordered room service that I had such a stomach upset - not even room service in a South Africa hotel had given me an experience like I just had!

I even had to tell him specifically that I was not going to pay for the food that had given us diarrhoea. He did not offer to take it off the bill. And he definitely did not offer to compensate us in anyway to make us feel better. If this is all the Hyatt can offer, and to its Gold member, then I'm definitely glad that we have chosen to maintain our Hilton Gold and SPG Gold memberships instead.

PS: I gave Hyatt feedback by referring this post to them and what do you know? They took almost a week to respond and all the manager said was that they would take the cost of the meal off my hotel bill, something which they had already done. There is absolutely no way I'm going to support the Hyatt group of hotels ever.

Day 5 in Kota Kinabalu on 4 Jan 2010 (Coming home)

Airasia changed the timing of the flight back to SG from 6+pm in the evening to 2.45pm which meant that we only had the morning to do whatever we wanted to do. We decided to check out of the room early and leave our bags with the reception. This is the last picture I took of KK from our room (Rm *01) at Cititel Express before we checked out.

My companion's friend picked us up from the hotel and we went to have the famous beef noodle soup at some place 10mins away from KK. The coffeeshop has only one stall, this one, and amazingly at 9am, most of the tables were taken.

I love beef noodles but for some reason, I decided to have fish noodles instead for breakfast. The Slog Reviews: 7/10. The slices of fish were chunky enough without bones but despite the tomato and other veg in the soup, this bowl of fish soup couldn't hit the spot. My companion who had the beef noodles said it wasn't anything special either. Ah well. Maybe it's our tastebuds which are accustomed to Singapore flavors.

We went on a last spin around KK on the motorbike after breakfast. My camera was set to Program mode and my shot of the sailfish statue at the roundabout near Hyatt ended up looking like this, which surprisingly, I like very much despite the over-exposure of light.

We also dropped by the Waterfront for a stroll and a visit to the restaurants (such as coffeebean) located there. None of the restaurants were open for lunch so we just had a couple of drinks at Coffeebean which provides free Wifi.

We went to Sedco Square about 11.30am and to my utter dismay, none of the restaurants were opened for business. :( In the end, we settled for having KFC instead! The last trip to KK, we had KFC as the last meal there too. However, I must say, along with most friends I know, that KFC in Malaysia is infinitely nicer than KFC in Singapore. They also have chicken with rice which I had for lunch and which isn't available in Singapore. The Slog Reviews: 8/10. Finger licking good all the way! Then, it was off to KK's terminal 2 (for airasia flights only) with its really dismal shopping choices.

I found that my mum had cooked dinner when I got back home. Now, one thing about my mother is that she is a fabulous cook according to everyone who has eaten her food. My mum however, can be very competitive when it comes to food - we had a christmas party a few days b4 I left for KK and 1 of my aunts had cooked curry chicken wings which I took quite a bit of and raved about. My mother didn't say much on the way back in the car except that she would have used chicken parts and not chicken wings. Well, anyhow, I didnt know exactly how competitive she was until I came home to this huge pot of curry chicken. The Slog Reviews: 10/10. Mum's cooking is the best!

My mother also cooked the big head freshwater prawns which I had caught prawn fishing a couple of weeks ago at my regular hangout (which has unfortunately, closed down). Nothing beats eating what one has caught although I wish my mum hadn't waited so long before cooking the prawns and in sambal at that. I need to let her know that these prawns should be steamed with garlic the way I had them cooked in Kuching. Oh, that reminds me, I said in my earlier post on Sibu that I would write about Kuching in another post. I guess I'll do it before I start on my entries on Ho Chi Minh which I was at this weekend.

Day 4 in Kota Kinabalu on 3 Jan 2010 (Mangrove fishing and Little Italy Restaurant)

I'd decided to do a bit of luring (using lures ie fake baits) from 1pm to 5pm at the Papar area. The cost was about RM 200 for 4 hours on a simple boat with minimal shelter up and down the river (not Papar river).

Despite changing lures a couple of times and even resorting to the boatman's famous dead-fish bait to target Mangrove Jacks and estuary cods, it was a zero fighter trip - not even a bite or tug at the lures or baits. So it was just 4 hours of crusing up and down the river in the hot sun (ugh) which had quite a no of other people fishing in it too (maybe the river has been been overfished). Still, we got to see where the river meets the ocean - look at that picture below! That's one of the reasons why I feel that any fishing trip I go to (fishless or otherwise) is never a waste because of the beauty of nature that one is privileged to behold on such trips.

After fishing, we got back to the hotel about 5pm and set off to have some durians as usual. These are the last two durians that I polished off on this KK trip.

For dinner, we decided not to have seafood for a change and to go to the much advertised Little Italy Restaurant located at Hotel Capitol (near Gaya Street). This is a picture of the restaurant which I took on the first day. The restaurant was really crowded and one has to queue for a table. We waited about 10 mins before being ushered to a table and given the menus. The staff there are really friendly and speak good English. The restaurant was patronised by a mix of locals and foreigners (caucasians) and everyone seemed to be having a good time.

I ordered the Arrabbiatissima which is described on the menu as the hottest of the new spicy hot pasta (tomato base with hot chillis). This is how it looked when served. The Slog Reviews: 5/10. Yes, it was hot and spicy but surely, a dish should come with some ingredients, even a light sprinkling of minced meat? Well, this dish had no ingredients which meant it was just a carbo-dish with some veg (tomato and chili) and I did not finish most of it.

We also shared a Hawaiian thin-crust pizza. The Slog Reviews: 9/10. The pizza was fabulous - the crust was delicately thin and done just right (no burnt edges, no parts doughy) and the plentiful ingredients were spread out evenly with just the correct amount of cheese melted in to the mix. A must-try at the restaurant, I would say! Eating this left me craving for more pizza when I got back to Singapore.

My companion also ordered this dish to share - I thought it was squid/calamari (sotong) at first but I turned out to be wrong. I am not sure of the name of this dish but it is a mix of the most delightful ingredients comprising largely of cheese and cream. There were 6 pieces and I had only one because it was so sinfully rich. The Slog Reviews: 9/10. Cheese-lovers will enjoy this creamy concoction. "Yummilicious"!

After dinner, I was much too stuffed to move but my companion and his friends wanted to have coffee and supper and talk about old times so we adjourned to a corner coffeeshop at Gaya Street where my companion had reunited with a noodle-seller from Sibu in the morning. The store sells mostly specialities from Sibu.

I am not sure what the name of this dish is but it is particular to Sibu (the name is written on a yellow plague on the wall behind the store - the dishes are obstructing the view). The Slog Reviews: 7/10. A thick warm soupy combination much like Singapore's mee hoon kway but without the egg.

Day 3 in Kota Kinabalu on 2 Jan 2010 (Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park and Treasure Hunter (2009) Movie)

We decided to visit the Tunku Abdul Ahman Marine Park before another round of fishing the next day. I'm glad we did and found it a pity my family missed it last month. We had breakfast at the same coffeeshop as yesterday morning and I had the Sarawak Laksa this time. The Slog Reviews: 7/10. The soup isn't spicy or rich like Singapore Laksa but of a rather thin sourish strain. The prawns were fresh but tasteless and over-cooked. The wanton remained as good as ever though so I had a bowl of that on top of the laksa.

After checking around at various tour operators (including those operating out of Tune Hotel (which charged RM 100 for 2 islands tour and pick up and return from your hotel) and Cititel Express KK (which charged RM 140 for the same (extra RM 20 on weekends))), we concluded that it was best to go the Jesselton Point Ferry Terminal and buy the tickets/packages from the tour operators there. This is a picture of the ferry terminal which I took - parking for motorbikes the whole day is free of charge so we left ours at the entrance.

Inside the terminal, there were many ferry operators lined in one straight row and one can purchase ferry tickets to and fro Labuan from 1 of the operators here too. Like many other tourists, we were drawn to the tour operator nearest the entrance. Here is a picture of the three-island package (the park is made up of 5 islands) that we took for RM 67 each which included a life jacket and a snorkelling mask for each person. After purchasing the tickets, one has to line up at the counter next to the operator's counter to pay for taxes/some govt fees.

Here is a picture of the speedboats used to ferry tourists to the islands. It is apparently compulsory to be provided with a life jacket before boarding and it can be rather confusing if one doesn't speak Malay because there are hoardes of tourists and everyone has a different package (1 island, 2 islands (and the diff combis of islands) or 3 islands).

For those who want more information on the marine park, I thought this picture below might be helpful.

There are signs on the islands which says "No menancing" ie No Fishing. The sign below showing the various species of fish that one may chance across can be found at the jetties for the islands. It came in useful indeed when I was trying to identify the fishes that I came across while snorkelling on the first and third island we visited.

This is a picture of me at Pulau Mamutik, the first island which we visited. I have never edited any of the pictures I've posted (other than cropping the edges) because I don't know how and have no time to. So, you can be sure that this picture below is exactly how beautiful the waters of the marine park are.

We went to Pulua Manukan next - before leaving the boat on Pulau Manutik, the boatman informed us what time we had to be at the jetty (11am) and he was very punctual indeed. Pulua Manukan is the most popular of the three islands and the most commercialised too. There is a resort/hotel on the island but it isn't the 5star kind ( gaya resort and bunga raya resort are the high ends one). Just a note here too - there are plenty of fishes like these below around the jetty stilts (hoardes of them actually) which are visible due to the clarity of the water. If you are minded to feed them, you should bring bread from the hotel or purchase bread crumbs stuffed in a 200ml waterbottle at the jetties for RM3.

It was blazing hot from 11.30 to 1.30pm, the time we were on Pulau Manukan and I had absolutely no wish to do swim or snorkel in the sea without any sort of shade. So, I took some pictures instead - you can see the coastline of KK city center from Pulua Manukan.

Food on the island was also ridiculously priced (and more so if you elect to have the buffet lunch at RM 70/pax) so we had bread which we bought in the morning. Oh yes, and one more thing, bring your own towels from the hotel. There aren't any for loan on the islands. I found open-air fresh water showering facilities on Pulau Manutik and Pulau Sapi (the last island we visited) near the toilets to wash off the saltwater after snorkelling. Be warned though for Pulau Sapi, the toilets stink to high heaven and one should avoid a visit there if one can. The picture below is of someone reading a book on the beach at Pulau Sapi (various tourists were doing that) and is my favourite picture of the islands.

Spotted the sign below on Pulua Sapi which seems to be a really appropriate summation of our visit to the lovely marine park. The Slog Reviews: 9/10. Crystal clear unpollluted waters, beautiful scenary and a great place to go snorkelling - there are indeed many fishes in the reefs and corals near the shore.

The next picture is self-explanatory - that's me and the third (yes, 3rd) durian which I had after we had gotten back from the islands and showered in the hotel.

Because of our feasting on the durians (we overate cos we were starving after all that exercise - yes, snorkelling can be tiring), again we were too stuffed for dinner and so we headed for 1Borneo again. It isn't the only shopping center in KK (there is Centerpoint, Warisan Sq, Wisma Merdeka) but it certainly is the most modern and is the largest too. Along the way there, we passed by this mosque (KK is a muslim country overall) and I took a picture of it as it reminded me of the "floating" mosque I saw in Terengganu in April 2009 (haven't written about that).

Plenty of time to kill at 1Borneo so we decided to catch a movie at the cinema there. We caught the 7.05pm screening of the Chinese movie, Treasure Hunter. The cost of each person's ticket was only RM 9 (SGD 3.70 - where on earth can you watch a movie for that price in SG?!). The Slog Reviews: 0/10 - The movie was a waste of time and money (even SGD 3.60 haha) although the cinema was nice and new (see pic below I took of the entrance). The seats are a tad smaller than those plush seats we have at the Cineleisure though but there is sufficient leg room. Anyway, about the movie, it sucked sooooo absolutely bad and made absolutely nooooo sense that I can't even bring myself to waste 1 more minute reviewing it except to say that life is too short to be wasted on anything like that. Even my companion who is Chinese-movies biased went away saying that this movie had nothing to it.

We went for dinner at Hua Hing Seafood restaurant at Sedco Square again about 9.30pm. The lady boss was inside and we requested specifically for her help. As I wanted to try another type of seafood, I settled on having these two live prawns which cost RM18 (SGD 7.20) each. If you think that's expensive, I'll tell you that at Sai Kung, Hong Kong, I paid SGD 20 for 1 of these prawns. The lady boss reassured me that Sabah is the place to be have these critters for a decent price.

Here is a picture of one of them steamed and peeled (you have to peel the prawns yourself). The Slog Reviews: 8/10. Big, fat, fleshy and fresh. Could have been sweeter though.

What made my night though were the crabs. I ordered exactly the same crab dish as I had the night before (see my previous entry) but this time, the crabs had even more roe...here is a lcose up pic of the eggs which I relished each morsel of. The Slog Reviews: 9.5/10. Ahh..crab heaven!

We also ordered another dish which was served to us way after the rest of the dishes because I couldn't resist the promotion (RM 22 for 1kg) for these live prawns. They are supposed to be from the sea as opposed to being reared in a farm. The lady boss will explain the differences as she is showing you the prawns. The Slog Reviews: 4/10. The prawns were salty and tasteless. Not worth having.

The cost of the entire meal below and drinks (about 3 glasses of lime juice at RM4.50 each) including the prawns above was RM 130 (SGD 52).

Day 2 in Kota Kinabalu on 1 Jan 2010 (Freshwater Fishing Competition in Sabah)

Despite sleeping past midnight, we got up at 6am the next morning for the freshwater fishing competition I had signed up for. Cititel Express's breakfast (buffet) cost RM12 but we decided to explore the hotel's surroundings for grub instead. We came across this coffeeshop on the left side of the hotel (the side where the bak kut teh coffeeshop is).

The stall owner was from Sarawak. I decided to have the Wantun Mee (yes, spelt this way) for breakfast. The Slog Reviews: 8/10. For such a cheap dish (RM 6), the noodles are springy with just the right amount of seasoning (wasn't thirsty after eating) and the wantun's skin were thin and smooth. The meat inside was fresh too and the soup was delightfully warm and sweet.

We reached the freshwater pond at Parpar after an hour's drive out of KK city center. My tag was 38 which meant that I had to stand at the spot marked with the number 38. The cost of entering this yearly competition was RM100.

The competition was supposed to start at 8am. The prizes were a chainsaw (1st place), grass-cutters (2nd and 3rd place) and a bicycle even (5th place). The winner would be the one with the largest fish caught so this was a competition purely on luck....or so I thought. Anyway, that's me in my usual fishing attire standing at the marker.

If you note the time-stamp on the picture above and the next picture below, there is a time-difference of 3 hours odd. I'd been fishing from 9am to 12.10pm without a single bite at all. I started off with bottom fishing but after one and a half hours and not catching anything, I decided to change to float fishing instead. Bait remained the same - chicken guts. For another one and a half hour, despite some frantic activity around the float each time when I cast after re-baiting, no fish actually took the bait. And THEN, at 12.15 or so, the float went down and stayed down. After 3 hours of no bite, I figured it would probably pop back up but when it didn't and I testedthe line slightly, I realised that I had a fish eating the bait. I jerked to set the hook but stupid me, I had too much slack line out. Mistake No 1. And I thought I had set the hook well because the fish started to run and the line peeled off the reel. Normally, I wouldn't bring a fish in so quickly to the bank (as in the case of Sawai Lake in Phuket where I had just fished in late Nov) but this was a competition and there were like 40 over lines in that pond and I was terrified of losing my fish and crossing lines so I brought the fish in to the side without letting it tire. Mistake No 2. The picture below is the only picture I have of how close the fish was brought to shore and ALMOST netted. The person next to me was about to net the fish but when the fish saw the net, it spooked (of course) and went for a second run...I was fighting to bring it back again without letting it tangle lines when.....SNAP, the line went slack...I lost the fish. Everyone said sayang, sayang, which meant, what a damn pity, because it was the largest fish, if not at least the second largest fish (1st or at least 2nd prize).

I have to confess that when I lost the fish, I wanted to weep. The whole crowd at the pond had been clapping, cheering and watching me fight it. And everyone saw how close I had come to winning. I don't blame the guy for failing to net the fish, I've been fishing enough to know that fishes spook and run when they see the net, I only blame myself for the mistakes I made above. This competition is going to be one that haunts me a long long long time....Anyway, right after the fish got away, there was this awful silence at the pond while everyone watched me to see what I would do. Well, I turned away (feeling really sick and in disbelief) and watched my fingers go through the motions of picking through chicken guts and re-baiting. The competition was supposed to end at 12.30am so there wasn't much time left but some datuk (a minister or some sorts) came and made grand speeches and they extended the competition time to 1pm. I figured that I might as well just do my best - after not having a single fish for 3 hours, I lose the biggest one, and well, if I didn't try I would end up with zero, so what's the harm in trying...I casted out again and waited...10 mins later, the float went down, and mother, did I strike damn hard to set the hook this time. Everyone stopped talking and watched me bring in this fish....which put up absolutely no fight cos it was just a tilapia...I gave it to some other dude who helped me unhook it. The fish I lost was a patin and I was in no mood to keep the cheapest kinda fish.

I reached the hotel by 2pm, tired, heart-sore and feeling really lousy. Nothing anyone says or does can ease that awful feeling of having lost a competition, I guess. I tried to console myself that it was an experience and lesson for me despite not winning but my emotions would not be soothed with self-talk. So I went for the only thing that could give me comfort...Yes, durians. This is the first durian I had this KK trip, a 3kg bitter-sweet durian. Despite the appearance, the meat was good. By the way, the durian stall is underneath the overhead bridge at the Segamat area next to KK Plaza and is open from 5pm (not sure, if it's daily but it should be)

The durian seller had some kampong durians which were quickly snapped up. My companion managed to get 1 (RM 12 each) though which we fell upon, attracted to the unique red color of the fruit...And to our utter dismay, the meat was absolutely horrible. And I mean, horrible. The Slog Reviews: -1/10. Talk about an extremely tasteless bland sticky mash. Ugh. I took one bite and spat it out. We gave the rest to a Korean couple next to us.

We were too stuffed from the durians to go for dinner so my companion suggested going to 1Borneo. I'd been there before the last trip but I didn't remember the way there cos we had used the shuttle bus so we got rather lost on our bike. Luckily, my companion could speak Malay v well so he managed to get us there from KK City Center. 1Borneo is located near UMS, as any local there will tell you. This is a picture I took en route there.

Christmas decorations were still up at 1Borneo as you can see from the picture below. We walked around the shops without buying anything...the closest they have to anything branded would be Mont Blanc...and left about 8pm.

It was raining that night so thankfully we managed to reach Sedco Square before the rain started up again. We decided to try a different restaurant and after deliberating between Hua Hing Seafood restaurant below and Sri Mutiara, we decided on Hua Hing Seafood. The lady boss (do ask for the lao ban niang), a youngish attractive lady provided superb excellent service when it came to picking the seafood.

The Slog Reviews: 9/10. If you go Sedco Square, I strongly recommend you eat at Hua Hing Restaurant and ask for the female young lady boss to assist you in choosing the seafood. Not only is she friendly, able to speak English (and Chinese), but also honest (she weighs the seafood in front of you). She makes great recommendation and doesn't hard-sell any of the more expensive seafood to you. As per the picture below, I had a crayfish (mini-lobster) unlike any other sea creature I've seen before, a plate of two female crabs with roe (the lady boss picked them upon my request for crabs with eggs), a plate of veg and hotplate beancurd AND all that for only RM 114. Unbelievably cheap!!! That's only SGD 40+ for fresh live seafood...unbeatable price, service, taste and value.

The lady picked this little fella out for me from the tank - it stood out from the rest of its bros because of its color - the rest were black and white spotted. Cost was RM 10/100gm and this fellow cost RM 53 (SGD 21). This is the last pic of it alive on the weighing scale.

And yes, this is a picture of the little guy above split in half and cooked in the restaurant's recommended style of buttery cream-like sauce. The sauce was slightly oily but combined with the firm whitish sweet meat of the crayfish;....can you say heaven...

This is a close-up picture of the meat removed from the shell. Sigh, what wouldn't I give to be able to go back to KK right now and have more of this?

And finally, these 2 small female crabs steamed in egg white and some wine sauce. The cost was only RM 36 (less than SGD 20) for the 2 crabs which were cooked to perfection. The egg roe (the orange bits) were very tasty and I have to confess, I polished off this entire dish on my own without a pause, glad secretly that my companion did not enjoy crabs - yes, it was that good.