Day 118 - Train to Tenom, Bus to Kota Kinabalu

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Checked out and went to the train station, unfortunately the train was broke and was in the process of being fixed. Eventually it was all systems go and the train chugged off with us on it. This is probably the worst train I've ever been on and was definitely an experience! It only cost RM2.7 for the whole 2 hour trip! The train slowly swayed through the jungle scenery and river which grew more ferocious as we went on. Amazingly it made it to Tenom where we quickly took a taxi to a large hotel on the hill overlooking town where we had heard the Rafflesia flower maybe in bloom. It was, 2 weeks ago! The taxi took us to a local cultural centre where there was a craft festival going on with stalls of local produce. We drank some local medicinal brew which tasted like cough mixture and some more tasteful ginger tea. Mark drank rice wine in a competition with the locals! Back to town to take the bus to Kota Kinabalu, a fantastic journey through the mountains where we saw a stunning orange sunset. In KK we hiked round quite a few hotels but all were full! Eventually, after employing the tactic of sending only Lynn in first, we got a room in the less than glorious Ang's Hotel, cheap with free cockroaches. Later we had dinner at a night market and some friendly locals let us sample the horrendously smelly but quite tasty Durian fruit. Watched Newcastle match outside a coffee bar.

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