Borneo Part 2 - The other bits

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So aside from our exciting mountain climb, we did some other cool stuff during our 9 days in Kota Kinabalu (KK). We stayed in a good hostel called the Beach Lodge; the first 2 nights we shared the dorm with 5 really nice people from the Phillipines and at the time we had no idea that we'd bump into them again on the mountain (2 or 3 times)!

KK is a pretty nice, fairly small city with lots of shops, markets, bars and restaurants and promenade on the harbour front. We visted 2 small islands off the coast on 2 days which form part of a national marine park. While trying to find the ferry port the first time (lousy Rough Guide map had it in the wrong place!) we got talked into renting a small boat with a few other people to take us and bring us back at an agreed time. It ended up costing the same as the ferry but we spent our time on the island with a nagging feeling that we might have been hussled! Probably our fault for paying up front- really stupid in hindsight! Turned out all okay though, and our 10 year old driver on the way over there wasn't bad! (Just to be clear, it was his dad we dealt with and thought we'd been hussled by!! We weren't that stupid!)

Anyway, the first island was Manukan island where we snorkelled and sunbathed, which we thought was pretty good until we went to Sapi island and it was even better. The coral reef was a few metres of the shore and we were surrounded by lots of colourful fish, most of them not shy! It didn't take long before we found Nemo (groan!) and we made good use of Laura's underwater camera. Lazy, island-type activities proved to be a good cure for our still achey mountain legs!

Borneo is known for it's Proboscis monkeys (a bit like Australia is known for it's Koalas), so we went searching for them on the west coast swamplands. We had a great time with about 8 other people and a pretty informative guide, spotting a variety of different monkeys. Just as we were dispairing about still not seeing any Proboscis monkeys, we turned a corner to find 2 tall trees covered with them! The cruise was finished with a traditional Malaysian buffet- the perfect end to our Asian adventure.

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Photos

Sapi Island
Great beach, great snorkelling!

Sapi Island
With Gaya island in the background. The macaque monkeys swim across sometimes if they're hungry!

Monkey spotting
There are none in this picture before anyone tries to be funny!

Monkey spotting
Ahh, here they are!

Proboscis Monkey
In case no-one knows what we're talking about! (This one was in the Singapore Zoo!)

Sabah Sunset
Ahh, beautiful!