With the tagline "The World's Longest Island to Island Zipline", i knew i could not resist giving the Coral Flyer a try when i was at Kota Kinabalu's Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park!
The tickets could only be purchased from Sapi Island Jetty, which wasn't that hard to find; there was only one official jetty and you could not have missed the publicity surrounding the zipline upon your arrival.
I did mention it was an island-to-island zipline and this means a short speedboat ride to the nearby Gaya Island; by short, i meant arriving there in mere minutes!
Within the marine park, Gaya was hailed as the largest island and although the island can be covered on foot, the area for the zipline was rather deserted; i counted less than ten humans in my brief journey.
Island map as appended above; our location was at number 2 - Padang Point.
Directions were clear on where you should proceed upon reaching the jetty at Padang Point. The zipline was also quite noticeable on the speedboat ride from Kota Kinabalu.
Our safety equipment!
It's comforting and assuring to see everything in such neat and tidy condition! Despite my adventurous streak, i am growing to take note of safety issues (thanks to my current work); of course nothing is guaranteed but at the very least, we should reduce the chance of mishaps!
Always let the experts "dress" you up. You might have a higher chance of making a fool out of yourself if you ever attempt to self-serviced.
After donning the safety harness and hat, you shall proceed to the jumping platform. Just follow the signs!
Which means a climb up to a suitable elevation! Frankly, Coral Flyer should consider building obstacles similar to those in Forest's Adventure to hype up the experience!
Found this furry stuff on the ground. Not sure what it was even though it did seem like an oversized lalang seed.
Two minutes of climb later! The heart was trembling with excitement as we saw from our guide's phone that just two weeks before, two whale sharks were photographed in the shallow straits between the two islands!
There wasn't any barricade surrounding the attraction and i wonder if notice would be taken heed by the trespassers.
Scenery in front of us! Alex was asked to go first as i wanted to video down the experience for publication in this blog! Do check out the video at the end of this post.
My turn!
In the matter of around fifteen seconds across 250 meters, there was limited time of where i should focus my camera and this was in addition to the exhilaration of zipping down the line! Anyway, the above showed the jetty at Sapi Island.
The view in front where a staff member was on standby to "receive" me.
For RM 64, i personally thought it was too high a price for just ten seconds of play and for about S$10 more, i would have a much more enjoyable time at Forest's Adventure; not to mention i can also spend a far longer time in the latter.
Safety wise, i was impressed with what i saw; inspections were said to be conducted daily and the imported stainless steel cables were anchored to an eighteen-ton blocks at either end.
Taking it once was enough. I guess having been on the world's longest island to island zipline would be something to blow about to friends even though at 250 meters long, it was a baby compared to the world's longest zipline; the 2,213 meters "Flight of the Angel" in Rocca Massima, Italy!
Video as above!
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Website
Price
RM 64 per person
For the summarised itinerary of my 7 days, 6 nights Kota Kinabalu (Borneo Island) trip, please click here.