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Published: April 1st 2007
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We got the ferry at 1pm from Muara to Pulau Labuan, on the way to the ferry terminal we thought we had spotted an information board so went over to have a look; it turned out to be a wanted Board for about twenty Indonesian men with mug shots, it did make me laugh. Another thing I forgot to mention about Brunei was that it is illegal to kiss in public & not customary to shake hands with the opposite sex, just a little interesting fact!
We arrived at Pulau Labuan & headed to the hostel listed in only Lonely Planet book, it was a complete hole but was the only place that was a reasonable price with an available room so we decided to stay for one night & head to Kota Kinabalu on the 8am boat.
We had a beer on Tuesday afternoon, had some dinner, went on the internet & went to bed in the hole. We arrived in KK (Kota Kinabalu) on Wednesday just before midday, we had lunch on the pier & decided where we wanted to stay, heading there after lunch. The hostel we were looking for was no longer there but
we found one on the same street which we decided to stay in, it was clean, cheap & included breakfast.
We had a little sleep & then headed out late afternoon to try & arrange accommodation for KK National Park, where Mount Kinabalu is, unfortunately the office had also moved & was no longer at the address we had for it, (that's what happens when you use Lonely Planet's that are 6 years old!)
We then headed to the Sabah Museum which had loads of Arabic, Malaysian & Islamic artefacts in. We walked to the State Mosque, which despite repair works was still very nice. We walked back towards the hostel & stopped off in a Shopping Mall called Central Point, to have dinner in their food court. We had a look around the shops & found some bargains which we purchased & decided we were going to post home. We went back to the hostel & had to move rooms as they had put us in the wrong room. We met our room mate Maria from Mexico & went to bed.
The following day, Thursday, we had planned to go to one of the islands off
the coast of KK to spend on the beach but we were so tired, it had been really hot in the night & we didn't get much sleep so we had a lie in. After breakfast, Roti Canai, (a Malaysian flat bread with a spicy, curry dip), we headed to a couple more shopping malls & a great Sabah souvenir shop where I purchased some more lovely decorations for the home I yet to have, to add to the growing collection of stuff at home.
We booked a trip for Friday to one of the islands & a trip to KK park & Poring Hot Springs, (as we were told, all the accommodation in the park was fully booked), in some ways I was quite thankfully as I don't think I am fit enough to climb Mount Kinabalu. We posted our stuff home had a lazy afternoon. We were going to have a girly night out, (as it had been a while since it as just Claire & I), we were going to get dressed up, have a nice meal & a few drinks but decided against it as we get harassed enough going out in shorts & t-shirt,
(I think it is worse than China). Every couple of steps we get, "Hello", "I miss you", "I love you", "Your beautiful", "Where you from?" It gets so annoying as it is every two minutes.
We went for a nice meal at a place called Rumba which had a live band singing in Spanish while we ate our meal & had a nice bottle of white wine. We then headed to a bar called Cocoon which also had a live band doing cover versions of all the songs we knew. We had one beer & as it was so expensive we headed home to our hostel for a game of cards & a beer. we met a guy called Chris from London & our other room mate called Lois from Hong Kong.
On Friday we got up early, had breakfast & got collected by minibus & taken to the jetty to get the boat to Mamutik Island, off the coast of KK. We hired snorkels, masks, fins & beach mats & got a speed boat there armed with a picnic & lots of Water.
When we got off the boat there was a sign saying it as
jellyfish season & the first thing I did was spot a jellyfish as I got in the water, although managed to avoid them. We spent the day snorkeling, sunbathing & snoozing in the shade. I saw a massive puffer fish, lots of anemone fish, lots of coral & even one fish carrying a bit of coral around in his mouth. On the way home one lady had been stung in the face, right by her eye by a jelly fish.
We got the boat back to KK, had a shower & an afternoon nap, we had dinner & played cards with Maria & Chris while drinking beer, then went to bed.
On Saturday Claire & I got up early, had breakfast & got collected for our day trip by a minibus; we were shocked that we had the bus to ourselves. We had a very bumpy but scenic journey for three hours to Poring Hot Springs, we stopped of on the way to take some photos of Mount Kinabalu & look around a craft village although we were restrained & didn't buy anything. Looking at Mount Kinabalu there is no way I would have been able to climb
it, there is being ambitious & there is being ridiculous! Although I then went on to say to Claire that when I get home I want to climb, Scafell Pike, Snowdon & Ben Nevis.
We got to Poring & our rubbish so-called 'guide' who was actually just a driver left us to walk through the trail in the forest up a hill to a canopy walkway. It was 41 metres at the highest point & 157.6 metres long), not as good as the one in Taman Negara. We went a nice Australian family from Perth & were chatting to them on the way back along the trail.
Our guide pointed us in the direction of Kipungit Waterfalls where we had a paddle & took some photos, we could have had a swim but it wasn't very big & there were leeches in it, plus it wasn't a patch on the waterfalls in Luang Prabang in Laos. We had some lunch in a nice jungle restaurant & then attempted to find a free tub to have our hot springs bath in. The first one we found would not keep the water in, the second took forever to empty & by the time we had got some water in the third tub it was time to go, which was a bit disappointing, plus we got starred a again, even though we were covered up.
Our driver took us to KK National Park Head Quarters where we got to go around te Visitors Centre & gift shop, we were supposed to be able to go into the Botanical Gardens but they were closed. At this point in the afternoon it was too cloudy to get any photos of the mountain so we went back to the hostel, (a two & a bit hour journey). Considering this trip was the most expensive trip we had been on in five months, it was very disappointing.
We arrived in KK at 6pm, we packed our stuff ready for the journey to Sepilok in the morning & planned to eat dinner at the Filipino Market although the food didn't look edible so we ended up in the foodcourt at Central point again & then had a coffee from Starbucks.
We went to the cinema to try & watch a film but non of the ones we wanted to see were being shown in English so we went on te internet & then back to the hostel.
We got up early on Sunday morning & had breakfast, Roti Canai, before checking out of the hostel which we had enjoyed staying in & starting our journey to Sepilok.
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