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May 15, 2017

#MYTravelAdventure - Tenom, the road less travelled

As highlighted in my previous entry, we took a trip to Sabah sometime back in October last year. Before going to the usual tourist spots, we first headed to Tenom, a much less visited place in Sabah.

The journey started with taking a chartered taxi from Putatan all the way to Tenom. The taxi fare was RM350 for the whole taxi and Tenom is about 3 hours ride from Kota Kinabalu. Some part of the road is actually along the Crocker Range, hence the view was awesome with hills and mountains and winding roads.

The long winding road

We made one stop at the rest area. Had a toilet break and one round of coffee before continue our journey to Tenom.



Soon after, we reached Tenom. I was a bit excited because although I've been to Sabah many times before, this was my first time coming to this part of the state.


First, we headed to Yit Foh Kopi factory. By the time we arrived at the factory, it was quite late and the factory was already closed. However the shop was still open so we managed to grab some to bring back home. They sell quite a variety of coffee so we were a bit 'rambang mata'. I bought two packets of Tenom coffee and later regret not buying more because the taste is quite different from the normal supermarket brand.





Variety of coffee ... and cheap too


From Yit Foh Kopi, we made our way to Hotel Tenom where we stayed there for 1 night. It is a budget hotel and quite near to Tenom train station


The next day, we woke up early because our next agenda is to board the train from Tenom to Beaufort. This was actually one of the highlights in our trip. The train departs at 7:08am so we checked out around 6:15 am and went for breakfast at the nearby restaurant before proceed to Tenom train station to buy the train tickets.


The ticket price is so cheap, only RM2.75 per person. The journey to Beaufort is about 3 hours. There are only 2 train trips per day for Tenom - Beaufort route therefore you need to plan your travel time carefully. The schedule for this train can be found on Keretapi Sabah's website.
http://railway.sabah.gov.my/index.php/info-jkns/perkhidmatanoperasi-keretapi/jadual-perkhidmatan-keretapi/jadual-tenom-tg-aru_isnin-sabtu/



This is actually a classic and old train. There is no air-cond, no fan, the seat is a hard-seated type just like buses in the old days and you can sit anywhere you like. But the view along this journey is something you don't get to see every day. It becomes awesomely beautiful when the train travels along Padas river.


This is Padas river


We were greeted with lush green of the mountains and the 'teh-tarik' color of Padas river. The train made many stops along the way for passengers pick-up /drop-off.

Can you spot the car wreckage? 


On this part of Sabah, I could see that the local are still rely on this train service to commute between places.








Approaching one of the stops

This is practically out of nowhere but the train stopped anyway to pick up passengers


We had to change train at Saliwangan station. I wasn't sure whether it was due to train problem or it was just a normal train change but since everyone just got off the train and proceed to the next train on the platform, so we just follow the crowd. The next train we took was a bit older than the previous one and also a bit crowded.



We reached Beaufort around 10am and that was the end of our train trip in Sabah.
I obviously could never get enough of the scenery along this train route and I would recommend this train trip to anyone out there. Instead of going to those much visited places in Kota Kinabalu, why not heading down to Tenom and get the chance to experience this much less travelled place :)

*This entry is written in conjuction with Blogger Contest #TravelokaMY #MYTravelAdventure by Traveloka. You can find more info about this contest here at https://blog.traveloka.com/en/blogger-contest/. The due date is until the end of today so plenty more time to get creative and write your own local travel story. Feel free to visit Traveloka at https://www.traveloka.com/en-my for your flight and hotel bookings. They have some discounts for first time users and I'm about to make my first booking for my next local trip. Let's cuti-cuti Malaysia everyone! 

May 03, 2017

South Korea Autumn 2016 : Day 9 - Namsan Park & Goodbye SK!

6/11/2016

Last day kat Seoul ... flight kitorang petang kul 16:30 ... so ade masa sket pagi ni before amik bas ke Incheon ... lepas breakfast and kemas2 beg, kitorang terus check-out pastu tinggalkan luggage kat guesthouse kejap ... pastu menapak pegi Namsan Park yg kat depan cable car station






Kitorang tak naik sampai atas pun ... just jalan2 kat belah bawah jer sebab takut terlambat lak nak kejar bas ke airport







Lepas tu terus kitorang balik semula ke guesthouse ... amik bag and menapak ke bus stop untuk amik bas ke airport ... perjalanan ke airport amik masa sejam ... dapat la layan view Seoul one last time huhuhu

Sampai kat airport, queue untuk counter check-in sangat la panjang ... ni la padahnye tak buat web check-in awal2


Settle check-in, kitorang terus masuk dalam departure hall ... dah cop passport segala, kitorang pegi ke area food court Food Empire sebab kat situ ade satu restaurant halal nama Nimat ... ni dekat area gate 118...  kedai ni ade jual macam2 jenis kimbap ... aku beli bulgogi kimbap ... sedap jugak la ... harga less than 10k won and portion agak besar


Abis makan, aku singgah satu kedai convenience store kat area situ pastu beli 5 ketul susu pisang wat balik mesia ... hahaha sebelum ni mmg takde jumpe kedai yg jual susu pisang dalam departure hall ni ... tapi this time dah ade so ape lagik, terus aku rembat 5 ketul ... dalam check-in luggage dah ade a few more ... pastu sempat jugak masuk duty free shop ... one last round of shopping before balik


Finally, boarding around 4pm


Dengan ini tamatlah sudah percutian 9 hari kitorang ... ini adelah trip aku yang ke10 ke South Korea dalam masa 5 tahun ... serius negara ni sangat cantik untuk di explore ... lagik banyak tempat aku pegi, lagi jatuh chenta aku dengan South Korea ... moga2 dimurahkan rezeki untuk repeat lagik South Korea, insyaallah.

The End.

Goodbye Seoul .. till we meet again