Camping and the likes...

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Our flight from Manila to Kota Kinabalu (KK) turned out to be a little more exciting than expected when Ais and Donna didnt make it to the airport in time! We reluctantly left without them and landed into sunny and extremely humid Sabah two hours later.

We wandered the streets in search of a hostel and ended up finding one that far surpassed our expectations and it was there we settled for the next couple of days.

Kota Kinabalu is a small and modern city built on the sea and was considerably more developed than i had imagined. Just off shore lie a small cluster of islands and a protected marine area (the Abdul Rahman Marine Park) and as our plane landed we realised that the city has an enviable location, sandwiched between lush jungle and turquoise ocean.

We explored the city for a couple of days and organised to climb Mt. Kinabalu (S. E. Asia's highest peak!) in a fortnight (note: blog entry to come!) and visited the city's history museum to learn a little bit about the region's indiginous tribes. We were very pleased to find that KK had a great number of good restaurants and very cheap food and drink, which was much appreciated after our short time in the Philippinnes.

After a couple of days in the city we headed out to rent a tent, pick up some Pot Noodles and took a boat over to the marine sanctuary. We chose the smallest island on which you are allowed to camp and pitched our tiny "four man" tent right beside the sea. During the day the island was quite busy with boat loads of island hoppers and day trippers and, to cater for their needs, the island had a small dive shop, a little restaurant and a volley ball court. At four pm however, all of the boats return to the mainland for the night (and the shop closes) and we were left with the island completely to ourselves for the rest of the evening. We built a fire on the beach and made toast (we had very little food with us!) and Dec serenaded us on the guitar while we watched the sun set and the city slowly light up from across the water.

We spent two nights on the island like this but were forced to retreat because it was just to hot in the tent come sunrise and just too cramped with the four of us in there! Before leaving i decided to try my hand at jet skiing and soon discovered that i am a natural... A small boat took us out to a little jetty in the middle of the ocean where they had a few jet skiies tied and, for a minimal sum, you can take one out for 30 minutes with no restrictions on where you can go or how fast! Very good fun.

Back on the mainland we decided that we had seen all that KK had to offer and departed for Semporna for a spot of diving and- extremely excited- we headed for the night bus terminal and for our next Bornean destination.

Next Stop: Sipidan Island!!!...

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