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After around a 10 hour flight from Auckland we arrived in Brunei on the 31st May for the start of our 3 months in south east Asia. Immediately we felt the intense humidity and new we would have to get used to it pretty quick as it would be much the same everywhere. The first night in Brunei we stayed in the Brunei hotel as we failed to find the only backpackers in the whole city, it was still fairly cheap costing around 15 pounds each.
The next morning we set off early to have a look around Brunei as we planned to head up to Malaysia and Kota Kinabalu later that day. We visited sights such as the Yaya San Complex, Omar Ali Saifaddin park, had a look at the markets and went inside the Omar Ali Saifaddin Mosque which was just amazing!!! After walking around the city we got on a river taxi and had a look at the many water villages in the city, the buildings were all pretty cool and all obviously on stilts, the driver described Brunei as the Asian Venice. On the taxi we also got our first sight of the Proboscis Monkey and
had a look at the Sultans temple from the river. At around 2 o clock we got on a bus to take us to the ferry terminal to head up to Malaysia and the first stop being Labaun. The ferry to Labaun took around an hour and as it was quite late so we decided to stay the night there. After a feed in a cafe for less than a pound we decided to have a few beers. Unfortunately we ended up in an Irish bar which was full of the typical english lads on tour. We did meet one guy who was cool and he gave us some ideas on what to do and where to go in Kota Kinabalu. The next day (June 2nd) we caught the ferry up to KK (KOTA KINABALU). Once there we booked into a hostel called Borneo gaya lodge which was pretty nice and cost about 4 pounds a night. That evening we went on a spending spree on the internet and brought five air Asia flights around south east Asia for around 160 pounds again really cheap!! The following day we had a good look around kk and also booked a 3
day two night jungle Safari at the Kinabatangan river.
On the 4th June we set of early to Inamam bus station to catch a bus down to Kianabatangan and met the rest of the group at the Medan Sebra coffee shop. After a short ride in a mini bus and a boat on the river we arrived at the kinabatangan river lodge and were ready to start our tour. The first activity was a river cruise and we immediately saw Orang-utans which was just amazing, there pretty lazy animals apparently which gets my respect fully. Shortly after we saw heaps and heaps of macaque monkeys lots of birds including serpent eagles and Stalks. We also saw a couple of monitor lizards and and a load of Proboscis monkeys. That evening we went on a night jungle walk which was extremely cool if in not a little sketchy hearing all the crazy jungle sounds. During the walk are guide spotted a mildly venomous brown snake just chilling on a tree! Day 2 started with another river cruise at 6 am where we saw much the same as the previous day. After breakfast we went on another jungle trek this time
during the day and as you can imagine it was extremely sweaty. Our guide also got a little lost when we were trying to return to the lodge which was good fun and made a bit more of an adventure of it. We ended up having to get picked up on the river and taken back to the lodge. That afternoon we had some free time so me and barbs decided to do a bit of kayaking on the river, once again was a little hot and didn't really get to grips with it as we always seemed to be heading towards the river bank. At around 4 o clock we were out on the river again for another cruise this time trying to find the Borneo pygmy elephants, After around an hour of searching we finally found them and it was just out f this world seeing them in the wild just destroying all the plants /grass/fauna in there way and eating it all up. After a while just sitting and watching these amazing creatures we all noticed that it had got kinda dark and looked up at the sky just to see black clouds. Wisely the driver decided
to head back, however at about halfway back to the lodge we were hit by the most spectacular tropical thunder storm. It really did get the adrenaline going and was extremely scary with bolts of lightning coming down just a few meters away from us (not good being in the middle of a river, and the boat having metal on it. The thunder was deafening also and really sent a shiver down the spine. Its safe to say we were all pretty happy to get back to the lodge safely. Are final morning on the 6th June we went on our final cruise again seeing some awesome wildlife before heading back to kk for a Saturday night out.
After an 6 hour bus ride from Sadakan we arrived back at kk and booked into the same hostel. We immediately set about to getting a feed and starting drinking as soon as poss. We decided to get some alcohol in from the supermarket and decided to get the most alcoholic thing we could find. It ended up being something which was 50% and cost around 3 pounds. To our surprise when we got back to the hostel we were told
it was Chinese cooking wine. This didn't bother us to much and mixed with a bit of coke it was bearable. We headed out at around 10:30 with Imee a girl who worked at the hostel and she drove us to a couple of the best places in kk. The first place was called jugs and was kinda expensive costing 45 ringgits for two beers (around 9 pounds). The second place was a lot cheaper and was a pretty call club called Razmatazz. It had life music and a wicked atmosphere, at one point me and barbs had a little fan club with a group of guys copying are wonderful dancing techniques, ha!!! We left at around 4.
The next day was spent recovering from a hangover and not a lot was achieved. On our final day in kk we decided to head to one of the islands. The one we went to was called Manukan and was just beautiful, with white sand and blue sea, both me and barbs got a little burnt but for a change it was barbs who was worse off very funny!
Anyway catching a plane to the Philippines in a couple of
hours so best go. Take care people!!
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