Twice a week, the North Borneo Railway runs a steam train from Kota Kinabalu to Papar. There are a couple of stops, so that passengers can alight and see the local sights, and breakfast and lunch are served on board. Which all sounds great -- except that it costs MYR 358.50 per person...

In researching all this, however, I discovered that there's also a regular train, which takes you from Tanjung Aru station in KK all the way to Beaufort.

In fact, you can go even further, to Tenom (but you can't do KK-Tenom-KK as a day trip, so this destination has gone in the "next time" basket).

(The timetable for these services is here. A return ticket to Beaufort costs MYR 9.60.)


It's a nice little journey, offering lots of different cameos: views of the seashore, huge broad rivers, Chinese temples, wood-panelled shophouses, and swathes and swathes of green.





If you're day-tripping, you get just over an hour in Beaufort before you need to catch the train back.

That's long enough to have a look at the picturesque shophouses and the river (while dodging the constant stream of cars that seemed to be afflicting the little town today).






It's also long enough to grab a substantial second breakfast of "Beaufort mee".

We had ours at Foh Chuan, and the ingredients were all top-notch: noodles, pork, and choysum (a leafy vegetable), all bound together with a really delicious gravy. Highly recommended.


Once you're back at the station in KK, you can round off the day by walking to Tanjung Aru beach and Prince Philip Park.





Nice day out, and lots of inspiration for the future.