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Published: April 4th 2008
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Over the past 7 months, I have been trying to make the most of three very cool things....school holidays, budget airlines, and being located in Hong Kong. This easter, I took the opportunity to travel to Borneo. Flying from Macau to Kota Kinabalu, I spent 9 days in Sabah, the Malaysian part of Borneo.
Myself and 2 friends enjoyed the sunshine and had a nice break from Hong Kong. One of the major parts of the trip was climbing mount Kinabalu, but that was
so major it deserves a blog of its own, so check out the next blog!
Kota Kinabalu (KK) is close to some lovely islands. Only 20 minutes away on a ferry, and we were on some picturesque beaches with azure waters and some good snorkeling. Thankfully I was not in the water when i saw a black tip reef shark from the ferry pier on one of the islands. Don't panic...it wasn't in the swimming zone!
We did have an interesting first experience of the islands however. Wandering in the direction of the sea, we were approached with the offer of a boat trip to a couple of islands for a reasonable price, we
accepted and went off to a desert island...where we were left for 2 hours! There was literally nothing on this island!! So....we were quite resourceful and made ourselves a raft out of bamboo and some rope, envisaging being stranded! Luckily the boat did come back, as the raft was not too successful! We had fun none the less. The island was renamed survivor island! The corrupt boatman took us to another island and told us we would be picked up at 5pm......so when 5.40 came, being stranded was no longer a joke! Another boat had to be called to collect us, and we soon learned about the legitimate ferry pier that we should have gone to! We had a fun day regardless, and we definitely didn't regret having to call out another boat when we witnessed an amazing sunset on the way back to KK.
The Filipino market in KK was a real hustle and bustle place, where we ate plates full of noodles or rice for 50p, and had BBQ fish which was delicious. The local 'teh tarik' was a nice accompaniment, if a little sweet.
The Sunday market in KK had a nice atmosphere....but it was
boiling hot! The weather meant that the best place to be was either in air con or by the sea! The Klias river about 2 hours from KK was the location of our river cruise which was a lovely afternoon. Out on the river, we were on the look out for probiscus monkeys in the trees. It was fun to watch them leap around or just sit in a tree and eat some leaves. We were out on the water for a while and saw lots of them before a local Malaysian dinner, and another trip on the boat to see the fireflies lighting up the trees like fairy lights. I'd never seen them before and they were really pretty. We caught one temporarily and could see it flashing brightly in our hands.
I tried reflexology with a view of the sunset on the esplanade which was lovely. One of my favourite things about KK was the sunsets. KK itself is more of a hub to go out and see the rest of Sabah from, or journey to the islands, but we had some nice evenings and meals there enjoying the seaside dining. There were some spectacular storms, one
Manmutik Island
Beautiful beach and good snorkelling of which was timed with our ferry ride back to KK from one of the islands! There seemed to be a pattern of bright sunshine in the morning and stormy afternoons with some impressive lightning in the sky.
Much of our time in KK was pretty relaxed due to the after effects of mount Kinabalu! (see the next blog!) We had some lovely days on the islands and it was a lovely break from Hong Kong.
J x x x
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