My first entry!

---

Right I'm in Sandakan on the east coast of borneo. I'm on day 10 of my Intrepid tour and absolutly loving it!
My trip started with 3 flights that took forever flying from Cardiff-->Amsterdam-->kuala Lumpur-->Kota Kinabalu. I left at 16:40 on Wednesday 23/1/2008 and arrived at my hotel in KK at around 9pm on Thursday 24th jan. Getting the taxi from Kk to my hotel was the easiest thing in the world although I was slightly nervous getting in a car on my own with a total stranger! The hotal was nice and clean and had air con! I was slightly homesick but mostly really tired. So I went straight to bed!

Friday 25th Jan
I woke up soo early like at 6am or something and went out for breakfast. I'd already changed some money in KL so i went for a walk around the block and went to a cafe for breakfast. I couldn't see a menu or anything so I just asked the guy on the counter 'Breakfast? What's good for breakfast?' He asks 'with egg?' I'm thinking egg! I know what that is 'Yes, with egg'. So I sat down and was waiting and they bring out a saucer with a red sauce thing in it, and a glass of ice water (sooo nice) and then some roti, which is soo good and filling and it cost about 2RM (Malaysian Ringgit) which is about 30p! Then I went back to the hotel and went to sleep! I said just till 11am then 1pm then I finally got up around 6pm just before my roommate arrived! She seemed nice enough she's 35 on a break from work and she's almost finished a rtw (round the world) trip. Her bag's still in KL and she's not having the best day! Went to bed quite early and suprisingly enough I couldn't sleep!!

Saturday 26th Jan
Woke up at least every 2 hours in the night and got up at around 5:30am I couldn't stand it any more! I had a shower and packed my bag coz I'd decided on a plan for that day I was going to go to one of the islands off the coast of KK that make up a national park in the moring then I was going to walk back to the hotel call in at a cash point to get out my local payment for my trip and have a look at the waterfront markets on the way back to the hotel. So I had a shower sunscreened up and tried to be quiet as I packed my bag, but I accidently woke up Michelle! Who explained that it was probably good room ettiquite to wait for the other person to wake up before I started to pack my bag and stuff. I could understand, but it was torture trying to stay in bed that long! I was out by about 7am and went to the same cafe as yesterday and got roti again. Then following my map I found a hostel for my last night in KK and booked a room! and then made my way to the jetty to get a boat to the islands. It was slightly confusing, mainly cos i didn't really know what I was doing but I managed to get a boat to Manukan. I tried to go to another island but nobody else was going there so the person behind the desk was v.good and asked if I'd like to go to Manukan with these other peoples. Then I hired a snorkel and flippers from the people on the jetty and got onto the boat. It took around 30mins to get to the island and it was postcard quality! white beaches, palm trees, crystal waters. I arrived at around 8:30am and I had untill 1pm when I was going to be picked up by my boat. I did some snorkling but i wouldn't go too far out cos there was no one else in the water at that time. I took some photos and went for a 1.5km walk up to sunset point through the trees. It was pretty and i saw some lizzards and butterflies and heard some birds then i went back down to the beach there were more people in the water now so i went a little further out but still not very far! Saw a really cool multicoloured fish and some other less pretty ones, then i had just enough time to shower and get back to the jetty for my boat back. Slightly worried coz i couldn't remember what the boat or the driver looked like, only managed to get the right one cos these 2 swiss guys were on the boat over there too....

I really have to go now as I'm meeting everyone to go to the War memorial then a temple for sunset before going to the English Tea Rooms for dinner!

---