Kota Kinabalu, Borneo

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On 1 February 2014 we flew direct from Bali to Kota Kinabalu in the Malaysian part of Borneo. Looking out of the plane's window I saw uninterrupted hills covered in trees for miles and miles, not a road or a building, just the occasional river. We flew on Air Asia which is a budget airline, but no complaints.

On arrival in Kota Kinabula we headed for our hotel with trepidation as many of the reviews on Trip Advisor painted a grim picture. (Daya Hotel, a Best Western, but 'not as you would know it' as the saying goes!) We were, however, pleasantly surprised by our room which, although it does not have a window, is plenty large enough and has been recently refurbished and does have the all important air conditioning, a good shower and plenty of hot water. Strolling around town in the evening we found the temperature much cooler than we have become accustomed to and we think that must be due to less humidity as the pilot did say it was 29 degrees here.

One very noticeable difference here is the almost total lack of motorcycle scooters on the road, but lots more cars old and new.

We are traveling around Borneo for three weeks on a trip organised by Exodus Travel based in London. The trip is entitled Borneo Wildlife Discoverer if you would like to see what it entails you could check out their website. There are 16 of us on the trip and we met the other members of the group on the evening of 2 February at the introductory meeting. Most have flown in from the UK arriving today so will no doubt be suffering from jet lag, we are at least in the right time zone. We also have two Canadians who are jet lagged in the other direction, an Australian and a South African. All are retired except three of us. After the meeting we went for a meal together.

On 2 February 2014 we went to the Sunday market. It was very busy as there are many Chinese in town having a break for Chinese New Year. After looking around the market we set of in search of mosquito repellent as our supplies are getting low. We eventually tracked down some Off!, but this only has 14% DEET instead of the 50% DEET that the Boots one has - hope it works as we have been bitten enough already.

We spent a leisurely few hours on the waterfront with a drink and snack watching the fishing boats and the world go by before heading back through the food market, buying the most delicious mangos which we really enjoyed eating and tasted so much better than those ones bought at home.

Tomorrow we set off!

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Photos

Chinese New Year
We saw many dancing dragons and Chinese lions in the streets

Sunday Market
With Chinese lantern decorations

police bike
Cannot think when I last saw one of these Hondas - must be nearly 20 years

very very long beans
A challenge to all the gardeners I know!!