Blogs from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia, Asia - page 43

Up at 6:30am after around 3 and a half hours sleep - this was not a good idea as I find out later. No breakfast - also a bad idea. About halfway to the overnight stop at Laban Rata I'm utterly f#$^*d through lack of sleep and get two really bad bouts of the runs - the first time I have plenty of warning and get to a toilet...however the second time there's no warning and I have to charge off into the bush noting some amazing specimens of the giant pitcher plants that grow up here as I go. Just before I relieve myself I'm praying that there's not some exotic insect, snake or whatever around to take a bite of my arse - there wasn't. By the time I reached my room I felt ... read more

Gate 1 Don Muang Bangkok (no I know it says Im in Sabah) 4:30pm. Someone decided to hurl animals from the sky as there are cats, dogs, elephants and assorted creatures bouncing off the tarmac to the sound of sharp crashing thunder accompanied with brilliant flashes of lightning.The runway approx 200m away is barely visible in the tropical downpour that's squatting over the airport.I'm watching aircraft taking off and landing trailing huge plumes of water and thinking that perhaps we're going to be delayed (I'm hoping so!) and we are, by about one hour. At the same time Im thinking about my girlfriend who's in Europe for a month and also the silly things that I miss about her - things like the floppy hats she wears and the way she walks with her pinkies out. ... read more

Well, let me set the scene. On the 14th of February, we began what would eventually be the hardest thing we all have ever done. Sean and Fiona, Ryan and April and I started this 2 day trek up the highest Mountain in SE Asia. 4105 meters up with 99% being uphill, little to no flat areas at all. Some spots would make you sigh as you passed a hard stretch , went around the corner to anothe ruthless set of steep rocks. As for trudged up the first 6 km's up, we stop periodically, or I mean frequently, we finally got to Laban rata, that is the bsae stop where you stay over night. When I sat over night I mean you stay there for a few hours, we got there at 4:00pm and had ... read more

.... ok where was I? Oh right the camping, well after the camping trip we came back to the main land in Kota Kinabula, just to sleep for we were off to the other side of Borneo in the morning. We ended up at that same bar we went to before, but this time we took the Irish.....ya let's just say the night ended with Sean and Fiona on one microphone and Me on the other, no no not in the bar, in the Burger King on the way home, yeah the speakers they use to order burgers got a rendition of : you never close you eyes anymore...." this being a Muslim populated place you would think they might not like the boldness of the westerns, but they seemed to enjoy it... however our pictures ... read more

Culture shock...Borneo is a bit different than Australia and New Zealand. People staring at you, because I'm white and blond...Get jammed in a Minivan with 15 malaysians....who ofcourse can't speak a word English. But smiling always works I found out. I arrived at Kota Kinabalu, where I played a nice soccergame with some locals. Then I took a bus to Mount Kinabalu nat. Park, where I met Andrew a very fit Canadian guy. Together we hired a guide and started our two day climb. The top of the jungle was cold but rewarding. Then I went to Uncla Tan's, A jungle camp where I stayed for a couple days. We spotted a lot of wildlife there and in between we just had a great time living a primitive life. (you don't need that much to be ... read more