TRAVELS: MY AIRBNB EXPERIENCE IN BORNEO, MALAYSIA
You know that thing when you see a picture of something and it looks really good but it’s not as good in real life, well the opposite was true of JN Apartment which is the Airbnb I stayed in during my visit to the Malaysian state of Sabbah on the island of Borneo. In Sabah, we spent three nights in the costal city of Kota Kinabalu. JN Apartment was great in the pictures but even better in real life. I love, bright spaces with clean lines with an air of minimalism and JN Apartment was exactly that but with a warm cosy feel thanks to the soft furnishings like the warm rug in the living room, the cushions, the throw on the sofa and soft lighting.
I was also really happy to see a retro looking Marshall speaker which had bluetooth so we were able to listen to our favourite radio station through the speaker when we paired it to our mobile phone.
Special thanks to my husband, Will for this picture of me in the living room.
The bedroom we slept in was just perfect, fresh white sheet, pillows and duvet cover…lots of hangers to hang up your clothes, a full length mirror, floor to ceiling windows over-looking a river and an ensuite shower room with fresh towels and toiletries.
Wooden hangers, and lots of them – thank you very much 🙂
Bringing an adapter plug with you when you travel abroad is always a must but lucky for us Brits, Malaysia uses the same plug sockets as the UK.
View from the bedroom.
In terms of location, it was fantastic, we caught a bus from Kota Kinabalu airport, which was fairly straight forward. You have to get the bus ticket in advance from inside the airport by the front doors. I think it was around 4 Ringgits, just tell the bus driver you need to get off at Imago which is the shopping mall that the apartment is above. The journey took around 15 minutes.
Aside from the clothes shops, restaurants and bars that are in the shopping mall below the apartment, JN Apartment is also close to local restaurants along the water front and the pasar baser night market a bit further down.
At the local market, we picked up a few things for breakfast and made used of the brand new kitchen. I love that there were enough plates and crockery for use if you wanted to eat in. On a side note, how cool are these ceilings?! I have a thing for high ceilings. Sometimes with apartments, they can feel small because of the low ceilings, but JN Apartment had really, really high ceilings which gave it a really spacious feel.
Breakfast 🙂
Also the balcony was great, and a couple of times we ate our breakfast there.
On the roof of the apartment block is an amazing green space with lots of trees and plants which included a gym, two outdoor swimming pool (one has jacuzzi beds, the other is an infinity pool), a basketball court and I spotted climbing frames for the kids. The pool area is open until 10pm but is closed if it is raining. [Photo credit: William Brown]
Credit again to Will also for this picture of me by the infinity pool. Will can be found at @wanderingwill on Instagram and also through his website at wanderingwill.com.
All in all, my Airbnb experience in Kota Kinabalu at JN Apartment, was a great one. We were hosted by Jansson who also another property available on Airbnb. As a host, I really can not fault Jenson, he was really lovely and was very responsive to any questions I had. He was also very helpful in providing suggestions of places we should check out. For instance the boat trip we took to Manukan island was an excellent suggestion and a highlight of our trip. Also his suggestion to use Uber is something I have already started to use on my travels - as someone who is used to driving everywhere or using public transport, I've been a bit slow with making use of Uber. Anyways, Uber talk aside.. you can find JN Apartment on Instagram at @jnapartment and for bookings, on Airbnb at https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/19854150.
Photography by Tanya Weekes | Airline: Air Asia | Accommodation: JN Apartment available through Airbnb |Location: Koto Kinabalu in Sabah, Borneo (Malaysia)
I would love to know your experiences with Airbnb drop me a comment below.