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Published: November 2nd 2006
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A little old lady's home
In the country on the way to Sandakan Kat writes: So we decided to hop on a plane in KL and just over 3 hours later we were here to check out Borneo Malaysia. The place of mystery, full of dense jungle bursting with wildlife including the endangered Bornean Orangutan and the Sumatran Rhinoceros (and if you've ever seen the movie 'Anaconda' - man eating snakes!) Well, it’s not quite 'full' of jungle any more - commerce, logging and palm oil plantations are seeing to that but it is still a beautiful and mysterious country.
Sabah's capital
We landed in
Kota Kinabalu, a Malay lad about our age was sitting next to me on the plane, so we shared a cab with him into town and he gave us the quick low down on the area. Sweet.
Kota Kinabalu is the capital of one of the two states here,
Sabah. We only have a short time here so this is the only state we are going to visit and it’s going to be pretty quick too. Having said that we ended up staying 3 nights here. The town is hot, busy and only a short boat ride away from a collection of islands which are a national
Scott outside our favourite cafe
His hair is even longer than mine but pretty rad! Kota Kinabalu. marine park. Unfortunately for us we didn't actually get to sample this delight. The plan was to go over for a day trip but they need 8 people to send a boat out there. Well 45 minutes later and we were still the only 2 - so we called it a day.
We found a lush little Malay/Chinese cafe to eat at. For about 4 Ringet (less than 1 UK pound) we were chowing down on 3 dishes each with steamed rice and chinese tea. Now that is how much food should cost! We pottered around the markets, had our laundry done and generally liked the place - even though we had to change rooms every night! Our first hotel room was nice but in the evening
cockroaches came out of the shadows and they were the size of small cats. 😱 Im not kidding. We've lived with a lot of creepy crawlies on our travels but just weren't in the mood for these beasties. So, we pretty much trashed the room. Put furniture outside, had the bed up on its side, then eventually I went to reception and got some mega bug killer spray. That seemed to do
the trick. We chucked so many bodies out the window! Hasten to add, the next day we moved hotels. The next one was nice too and we wanted to stay but the following night they had already sold our room to someone else! Thanks a lot guys!
Numb butt!
We took a bus to
Sandakan. It’s on the coast still but the bus had to travel through jungle national parks and over mountains. It took 5.5hrs and the driver had definite favourites when it came to his tunes, when a good one came on he would crack up the volume full blast. I couldn't determine exactly what genre it was but I know I don't have any in my cd collection for a reason! That coupled with the man behind us retching and being sick into a plastic bag, the world's oldest man in front of us just starring and repeating the words
white man!
at us and sitting right next to the toilets that really hum dinged - it was a emotional journey!
Talking of loos
Talking of loos.....we stopped once for a bathroom stop. Typical toilets - bowl in the floor job with a bucket of water
to throw down it as the flush. Anyway these ones were particularly ropey but Scott defo drew the shortest straw. His had just a tiny hole in the wall by the floor - not even a toilet bowl. I had been taking the mickey out of him, saying that he went in their store cupboard!! He is sure he didn't do that however, as there were little piles of poop in there. Nice one! 😞 Finally, dropped at the bus station, we hopped on a local bus for 60cen (9 pence) and hoped it was bound for the city centre. It was - too easy!
Sandakan
The town itself is fine but not that inspiring. The locals are pretty interested in us and there are very few tourists. Which is surprising really as it is a jumping off point to visit 'Turtle Island' a protected island where turtles lay eggs all year round and Sepilok's Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre - the latter being our main reason for coming here. We are going to visit it tomorrow and I can't wait!
Until then, we have found great cheap accommodation in the centre of town and despite being grotty backpackers, we
have a room with a lap top and dvd player. Result! We are certainly gonna have square eyes tonight. Laters!
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Gem
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U lucky buggers!!!
Well it sounds like Borneo is amazing, wish i was there!!! Did u see any orangatans (how the hell do u spell that?!) I am using an apple notebook in the apple store in trump towers at the moment (you know the big toy store off the film Big!!!!) Just 2days left for me.... Gotta savour every minute! Hope you guys enjoy your last month, make sure you have loads of fun for me! Gems x