Blogs from Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia, Asia - page 10

Back at good blogging pace again. Unfortunately it's been a depressing few days for Hannes instead of Erik, but the travelling goes on! This Tuesday Erik went diving on Sipadan and Hannes was supposed to go to Sandakan. He went up early, packed all his things and when the time came to say goodbye to Erik and Semporna he noticed his glasses were gone! After looking everywhere, asking a lot of people and pestering the reception he had to realize they were gone. But who would steal a pair of glasses? Accepting his fate, he spent the day sulking and reading. Erik had a spectacular day. He got to see a wonderous world below the surface and he could really understand why it was said to be one of the world's ten best diving sites. Only ... read more

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 ... read more

Didn't really expect to be doing another blog entry quite so quickly but we find ourselves staying in a fantastic little hotel in Sandakan which as well as having China's answer to Basil Fawlty for an owner also has the best internet connection we've ever found. Just to re-cap, we'd been staying for a week in Shangri-La Rasa Ria resort, Kota Kinabalu. Probably one of the most slickest run hotels we've ever stayed at, we were met at the entrance by a small army of perma-smile stunningly attractive staff. At the crash of a gong we were played into the hotel by some traditional musicians before being sat in the lounge and an ice-cold drink being instantly placed infront of us. Although it was a lovely resort, it was by local standards staggeringly expensive with food ... read more

We stayed in Sandakan before and after our Kinabatangan visit, in both cases because it was where our bus journeys departed from. The express bus station was a study in controlled mayhem. Unlike in countries such as, say, Thailand where competing bus companies tend to have different departure times and you will be directed to the bus with the next closest departure time, in Malaysia (or at least in Kota Kinabalu and Sandakan) your arrival at the bus station causes a frenzy of tout activity, with them all trying to sell you a ticket to your required destination even if their next departure is in 5 hours' time. Amidst the shouting and jostling you have to determine just who really is departing next, and whether their vehicle is a comfortable aircon offering with onboard toilet or ... read more

Aamulla herättiin herätyskellon pirinään (tai siis Tomi heräsi Katjan vedellessä sikeitä) ja pakattiin kamat lähteäksemme Borneoon. Koska halpisyhtiö AirAsia on vetänyt tiukan 15kg matkatavaroiden painorajan, piti meidän jättää vielä yksi kassillinen tavaraa hotellille, jonne palattaisiin kolmen viikon Borneo-reissun jälkeen. Yhden metropysäkin päässä oli päärautatieasema, jossa hypättiin bussin kyytiin, joka heitti meidät lentokentälle. Reilun tunnin matkan kuluttua viskattiin kamat punnitukseen, jossa kummankin rinkat painoivat vain 13,5 kiloa! Lentokentällä ehdittiin hörppiä aamukahvit ennen koneeseen nousua. Lento kesti parisen tuntia ja meni erittäin mukavasti huolimatta siitä, että tarjoilu ei ollut ilmaista. Kota Kinabalu sijaitsee Sabahin maakunnassa, jolla on semi-autonominen asema. Tämä tarkoittaa sitä, että KK:ssa (paikasta käytetty lyhennys) pitää kävellä immigrationin lä... read more