KK's traffic makes city walking a little tense, but there are a number of green areas that are great to explore.

Kota Kinabalu Wetlands is one such.

The soundscape is wonderful here. The noise of the city still penetrates, but it is muted. In the foreground is the zing of cicadas, the trill of birds, and the mysterious snapping, crackling, and glugging of a mangrove swamp filling up with the incoming tide.

Wetlands are always photogenic -- so many colours and textures and creatures:








We didn't actually see that many birds, but what we saw were most picturesque:




Once you've finished here, you can follow the road round to the Signal Hill Observatory (which we visited a couple of days ago). From there you can take the steps to the bottom of the hill, pop in for lunch at the Woo!, and then walk home along the seafront, surveying the still-being-set-up environmental art exhibition on the way.






There's a footpath/bikepath from the Oceanus Mall all the way to the golf course and beyond. (Of course, you're by the side of the road, but at least you're a little removed from the traffic, which makes a pleasant change, and you have the sea on the other side.)


Bukit Kopungit is another nice little walk. You climb up quite steeply, taking in the brightly coloured rock and the views:






Then there's an old Japanese bunker tunnel to explore. A friendly local showed us where it was. He used to play in it as a kid, when this hill was pretty much unknown to anyone not living close by. About five years ago, social media started to bring lots of people up here (including us, we thought guiltily).






You can walk out by following the track leading north, from which you get good views of the city. (Follow the road round to the right at the end. If you try to go straight on, you end up in some sort of compound, where you'll encounter a very polite young guard with a very large gun...)




The subsequent stretch along the road is tedious, but you do get close-up views of the State Mosque and the stilt-house area.


Eventually you hit the Imago mall, and the road with the seaside footpath, and then you're as good as home.

Today our objective was Tun Fuad Stephens Park and Bukit Padang, an impressive wooded area a little to the east of the city centre. You can hack up the hill (whose geological profile seems very similar to that of Bukit Kopungit), and then cool off with a walk round the lake.









Thanks, KK -- time well spent.