At the start of the last decade Kota Kinabalu was but a blip on the cinema entertainment map. Back then it featured the already old, but not so dilapidated 3 screens of the Golden Screen Cinema complex in the centre of town.

Today, as we enter the new decade, Kota Kinabalu has cinema screens galore. There’s the Cathay Cineplex in the town centre, Growball in Centrepoint and the newest of them all, the GSC in 1Borneo. Another GSC is taking shape in the freshly completed Suria KK Shopping Centre near Jessleton Point and will be coming online in a month or so.

With all this competition the old city GSC just couldn’t attract enough of a crowd with it’s run-down facilities to sustain it, and were closed down.

The fact that a cinema was closed down at all should really make operators of other cinema’s sit up and take notice. If there were no competition, that old GSC would have been able to do business in perpetuity.

Where’s the Movie Magic?

Growball’s no.8 theatre is arguably the best in Kota Kinabalu. Huge auditorium, big screen, every seat a winner and state-of-the-art sound.

However, the other Growball theatres are old and creaky with equipment that is starting to fail. Their only attraction seems to be the sheer volume of titles to chose from on any given night.

But more and more regularly a reminder to the projectionist (who switches on the film and goes outside) is required to either fine tune the focus, the aspect ratio or the sound.

Last night, during a showing of Tooth Fairy in Growballs theatre 3 it was obvious that a particular sound channel had something wrong with it. The actors’ voices were distant, shallow and tinny. A complaint to the projectionist uncovered an apology, but at the same time was added that it couldn’t be fix as a hardware part was being awaited from Singapore.

After a visit to the supervisor’s office a refund was offered, but some members of the author’s contingent didn’t mind the imperfect sound and so we all suffered the poor quality movie experience together.

It’s strange that, in light of the growing competition, Growball doesn’t mind running poor quality shows. The part responsible for the sound failure was on order and obviously it wasn’t just this one show that suffered as the problem was known and yet they ignored it.

To add insult to injury, the hammering outside on tiles being replaced could be felt though the whole show and heard during the quieter parts. Thumbs down for Growball on this occasion.

5 Senses

The reason people visit cinemas, as opposed to watching DVDs (pirated or otherwise) at home, is to experience a movie rather than just watch it. You smell the popcorn, you feel the vibrations of the sound in your feat, you see the larger-than-life actors on the big screen, and you taste the anticipation of a good thriller on your tongue.

If any of these senses are compromised, punters will first consider alternative cinemas and then wonder why they should pay RM7 per person to watch a movie instead of buying that pirate DVD with 4 movies for RM10.

Can you really afford for your theatres to smell like urine, Cathay, for your visuals and audio to be less than perfect Growball, or to freeze your customers in their seats, GSC?

Isn’t its time that customers get what they pay for and speak with their feet if businesses don’t deliver?

Join the discussion and share a bit about your highs and lows in the cinemas of Kota Kinabalu…

Craving for a bit of Western food, SabahBah set of to the grill part of Firefly Bar & Grill, hoping to sink our teeth into that Bourbon Glazed Back Ribs everybody’s talking about.

Happy Hour is Beer Hour

Three hungry and thirsty people sat down at about 7pm, in the thick of Happy Hour, and decided to take advantage of Firefly’s generous beer specials. A tower of Becks, which equates to 4.3 litres of beer (3 jugs), costs RM73 during Happy Hour; it’s very hard to say no to such a great deal.

For Starters at Firefly Bar & Grill

For something to nibble on that would complement the beer while we waited for our mains, and keeping in tune with our Pork Mission, we chose the Crispy Pork Belly from the Starter section of the menu. Marinated pork belly, lightly floured and then deep fried to perfection, served with spicy lemon grass vinaigrette is the very accurate description.

Between the 3 of us we agreed it was flavourful, very tasty and overall quite delicious, although 1 thought it was perhaps just a little too crispy and 1 thought it wasn’t fatty enough (although admittedly she likes it very fatty). But otherwise we were well impressed.

In the meantime, our tower of beer was looming large over the table and the beer was flowing steadily. There’s something magical about being able to pour your own beer right at your table.

Firefly Bar & Grill – The Mains Menu

Shortly after, our mains arrived. We had the Honey Brined Pork Chop (pan seared pork chop topped with apple ginger chutney), the Grilled Chicken Club Sandwich (chicken fillet with Swiss cheese) and the Firefly Burger (homemade patty with mushrooms, sauted onions and Swiss and Cheddar cheese).

Having had a couple of hit and misses with burgers around Kota Kinabalu recently, the Firefly Burger was a pleasant surprise.

The homemade patty was aromatic, tasty herbs and spices complimenting the flavour of the thick and juicy meat. The bread bun, although large, didn’t overpower the patty. In this way the meat was the star of the burger, with the buns awesome as backup, making for a great burger show.

The chicken club sandwich was equally delicious, with two large chicken fillets smothered in cheese, overflowing on the burger bun. The buns are not quite as large as they look in the accompanying picture, but they were large enough for our taster to not be able to finish his.

Our critical Foodie gave the Honey Brined Pork Chop a big thumbs up, even though she was quite disappointed no to get the ribs she craved for.

We finished off the substantial amount of beer left in the tower, we called for the bill, which came down to only RM50 per person.

By then the bar part of Firefly Bar & Grill was heaving, the band hard at work getting the packed house moving. As we couldn’t find a table inside, we decided to try the bar part of Firefly on another occasion, perhaps when they have those Burboun Glazed Back Ribs in stock again…

That’s right, purveyors of independent bands and rock music, will get the opportunity to satisfied their Indie band cravings on 23 January 2010 when Rock Out! Chapter II takes place at D’Junction Fun Pub & Bistro.

The line-up includes 5 Borneo bands from right here in Sabah and another Indie band imported from Kuala Lumpur, just to mix things up a bit. The result, some home grown Borneo Indie rock with just a hint of West Malaysia to bring you another awesome night out in Kota Kinabalu.

The bands billed for the event includes the headlining band Seven Collar T-shirt who will be entertaining with their modern rock, alternative and rock numbers. Donatello brings us ska, 4AG is on with hard rock, we can look forward to Wake Up Call’s alternative tunes and modern rock, Pan-O-Rama will also rock the house and Goyang72 to will mix it up a bit with some retro rock.

In between the bands doing their thing, DJ Nukie D will be keep the house thumping and rhythms pumping as he works the decks from the DJ box reminding you what nightlife in Borneo is all about.

Tickets are reasonably priced at RM35 per person which also gets you 1 bottle of Heineken. If you’re heading over with your friends, why not consider one of the group packages, which includes the tipple of your choice (beer, vodka of whisky) and will get your entrance for 4 to 7 people, depending on which one you choose.

A group package also books you a table, which guarantees you a seat, which means you’ll be able to sit down when you’re not moshing to the band on stage.

All in all Rock Out! Chapter II brings another interesting event to Kota Kinabalu and give us that much more to choose from our entertainment in Borneo.

We’re Generation Now and if it happens later, it’s just not good enough. This is probably the reason why the SabahBah.com Facebook Fan Page is doing so well – people want to interact right this minute.

We launched our Facebook Fan Page on 16 November, and today we’re merrily skipping past the 700 fans mark as more people join to talk and learn about Kota Kinabalu, Sabah and Borneo.

So what’s special about SabahBah.com’s Facebook Fan Page?

The main reason is that you’re instantly surrounded by other people who are passionate about Kota Kinabalu, Sabah and Borneo.

You can instantly share your experiences with people who will appreciate it, learn from it, and perhaps even try to experience it for themselves. SabahBah.com is travel information about Kota Kinabalu, Sabah and Borneo and the Fan Page is place where this ideology is perpetuated.

Communication on the fan page is another great thing. If you want to ask a question, get feedback or solicit suggestions then the growing community of active Sabah-lovers are always willing to help. Sabahans love their food, so food questions should get a flood of responses.

Post a fan picture or post one to the wall – Sabah-lovers love to see how other people experienced this unique part of the world, and perhaps we can get ideas of how to experience it ourselves.

Exclusive Content

The transition from 2009 to 2010 was fun. Kota Kinabalu had loads of parties going on, some the biggest in Borneo. This always leaves many people wondering “what should I do?”. The Fan Page was great with a little guidance in that way.

We teamed up with Ice Bar at 1Borneo who was staging possibly the biggest party KK has even seen and we gave away free tickets every day for a week.

And that’s what we’re aiming for on the Fan Page: letting you know about what’s hot and happening and giving you the opportunity to join the fun.

So, if you’re not on the SabahBah.com Facebook Fan Page yet, get over there and get involved in some Sabah chat.

Ice Bar’s Clash of The Titans New Year’s Party series was arguably one of the biggest new year’s eve parties Borneo has ever seen.

If you haven’t read the marketing blurb yet, you can refer back to the event’s main page, but it was pretty much everything they promised: the 6000 megawatts, the dancers, the DJs, you name it.

1,500 party people attended the New Year’s Eve edition of Clash of The Titans at Ice Bar 1Borneo, whilst a more modest number of party goers attended the 1st of January edition, but on both nights you couldn’t help but marvel at the quality of the entertainment line-up, DJ performances the like of which you rarely see in Sabah.

Having attended a party elsewhere on New Year’s Eve, I was fortunate enough to attend the 1 January party. Along with 3 friends we entered at just before 10pm at about the same time as the dancing acts were about to start.

Royal Phantom took over the centre stage with break dancing and beat-boxing and got the crowd going. After that the one DJ after the other was on fire and we thoroughly enjoyed the music.

Even though New Year’s Eve had been a monster night, time flew and we left Ice Bar when things were quieting down at around 3.30am. Good on Ice Bar for being brave enough to put on 2 huge parties 2 nights in a row and making a success of them.

I’ve heard many people say already that if this is what they’re doing next year, they want to buy the tickets soon. 2010 is bound to be bigger than ever.