KK Day 2: Kiulu River White Water Rafting & Imago Mall

On my BFF's recommendation, I'd pre-booked the Kiulu River White Water Rafting at RM135 per adult and RM125 per child (inclusive of lunch). We chose this package because the minimum age was 5 years old and suitable for the Littlest (other packages had a higher minimum age requirement).

Riverbug, our tour operator, contacted me the day before via email and WhatsApp. They were very responsive and helpful! When I raised the issue of transport to the meeting point, they arranged 2-way transport from our hotel for RM250.

The driver was scheduled to pick us at 8am, so we had to be at Cafe TATU for breakfast by 7am! 🥱

View from our balcony at 6am!

Cafe TATU

There was a very small kids section but generally a good variety of food, cereal and even milk (it's one of the only ones with chocolate milk)! 😋

Chef specials

My choice of bread and pastries

There were some misses for the food but generally good overall. The variety was definitely better than most!

We finished our breakfast and headed to the hotel lobby. Our driver was early and we were on our way to Riverbug Base Camp at Tamparuli, more than an hour away.

In the 7-seater car

The last part of the journey was through mountainous roads,
which reminded me of the less steep roads of Cameron Highlands

Riverbug Base Camp

We were super early so they asked us to explore the suspension bridge above the base camp.

Walking on the suspension bridge

Above the river!

Beautiful view of the river

We returned to the base camp to prepare for our rafting.

Group photo for the memory of rafting on the longest white water rafting trip in Borneo!

Playing on the swing before gearing up in our life jackets and helmets

All ready to go rafting!

After our guide briefed us on safety and rafting 101, we boarded our inflatable boat and departed down the Kiulu river!

Excited for an adventure!

Enjoying the view as she didn't have to paddle! 😅

The river was super gentle and unexciting but the scenery was great. Our guide stopped our raft at one of the land masses halfway through our journey so we can take pictures and swim if we wanted to.

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Our guide helped us to take lots of photos

More photos!

We continued our journey and after paddling for an hour, we arrived at our destination, Riverbug's Adventure Centre!

A final group photo with our guide

We washed up at the toilets before heading to the dining hall for lunch (included in our package).

Simple buffet of yummy food prepared by Riverbug

The spread of food (part 1)

The spread of food (part 2)

After a satisfying lunch, we returned to our hotel and arrived around 1pm. We rested in the room before heading to the private beach and pool for a swim later in the afternoon. Unlike the snorkeling and kayaking at Shangri-La Cebu and the kayaking and paddle-boarding at Shangri-La Rasa Sentosa, there was a lack of beachfront activities at Shangri-La Tanjung Aru.

Shangri-La Tanjung Aru's very small private beach

Littlest playing with the sand

Getting ice cream from the ice cream bar, super yummy!

We washed up and hailed a Grab car to Imago Mall in Kota Kinabalu city, about 10 minutes away.

Imago Mall

Typical modern shopping mall

We spent most of our time shopping at Guardian due to their sale! After shopping, we had dinner at Ah Yen Sandakan.

Ah Yen Sandakan Traditional Fried Pork Kuey Teow

Very interesting interior decor!

The pork rice was good, my Littlest loved the egg and sauce

Dumplings and pork kuey teow noodles were delicious but the laksa wasn't great

Once our stomachs were full, we bought groceries at the supermarket before heading back to our hotel at 8pm.

Everrise supermarket

After preparing my Littlest for bed, the sister and I headed to Siam Wellness Centre & Beauty Spa at 9pm for our massage sessions that we had booked via WhatsApp.