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Published: September 22nd 2013
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Tuesday 17th
We spend the morning having a final walk through the village and at 12.30 the woman who sold us the coach ticket collects us from our chalet and takes us to the bus stop. She wants to make sure we wait at the correct spot and it saves up lugging our bags there in the heat.
Also at the stop is an Israelie who tells us he can only get into Malaysia on an Austrian passport. Most Muslim countries won't allow Israelies in. It opens our eyes to their travel restrictions.
The coach comes 45 mins late at 2 pm and at 7.30 pulls into Johor Bahru bus station close to the boarder to Singapore. In our rush to change buses we leave both our thermal drinking bottles on board. A real blow as they had been really useful.
We cram onto a local bus and get out at the Malaysian boarder and have to carry all our bags through customs, then que for another bus to take us to the Singapore boarder control. Off with all our bags and through customs again and then que for another bus into Singapore. It's a real rush.
The bus isn't going to where we've booked our
hotel, although it should have done. So we get out at an MTR station on the outskirts of Singapore and catch a train. The ticket machine won't take our notes and two strangers come over to help and pay our fare. 45 mins later we get out and after a little bit of searching we find our hotel. It's 10.30 !
We grab a late night snack and collapse into bed.
Wednesday 18th
This morning we seek out the Panasonic Customer Care Centre. We need to return our new under water camera as it stopped working after only 3 pictures on the Perhentian Islands. We catch the MTR and an hour later find the building. It's got a notice on it saying they have relocated, 20 mins in the opposite direction from where we started !
We finally get there and leave the camera, hoping it'll be sorted out whilst we are in Sabah and ready for collection.
In the afternoon we go to the airport for our flight to Sabah and all goes smoothly. We bump into an older Australian couple who are travelling and hit it off although they are the archetypal rude Aussies. They have invited us to drop in on them
when we drive pass in January.
The flight lands on time and after picking up a taxi we soon arrive in Koto Kinabalu at 9.30. We get dropped off in front of our hostel in a very dark and dingy road. As we wait for the door to be opened as cockroach runs across us and we fear the worst ! We go up into the hostel and are very pleasantly surprised to find it very clean and spacious. Our room is really large and spotless. All it lacks is a window, but what can you expect for £16 per night !
We take a quick look around the nearby streets and come across a huge seafood court with enormous fish and lobsters being sold from tanks. Pick what you want and they kill and cook it for you.
We again get a late night snack before falling into bed exhausted. Two days of hard travelling behind us.
Thursday 19th
We spend the morning going around the tourist information offices picking up leaflets on places to go and see. We then nip back to the hostel for boring things like doing the laundry and emails.
Later we take a long walk to a view point
over the town and to see a clock tower, before calling in at the tourist office to book a stay in a longhouse and finding out that the villagers don't do it any more ! Obviously they've made enough money out of the tourists this year ! A major disappointment.
We make plans for the rest of our stay and start tomorrow.
Friday 20th
Up early and catch a taxi to the train station for a journey south to Beauford, a small village. Nothing amazing about the trip although we do go through some jungle and mangroves and glimpse the sea in places.
The train arrives and we only have an hour before we must go back as there only 3 trains a day. A pleasent way to spend the morning.
We get talking to a couple of similar aged Australian backpackers and agree to meet for dinner later.
We have a very pleasant evening with Bernadette and Peter from Melbourne and hope to meet up when we get to their part of the country later in the year.
We see the normal two rats playing in the grass opposite the hostel as we get back.They could be after the cockroaches we saw yesterday !
Saturday 21st
We are
up early this morning as we are off to Kinabalu Park. It boasts the highest mountain in Asia. We are traveling light and have left are big bags at our hostel for 8 days.
We decide to take a shared mini van to the Park which is about two and a half hours away. We sit in the van without any air con and start to feel like cooked sardines. The van won't leave until it's full. After 30 mins the van is full and off we go for a bumpy and slow trip.
We all fall out of the van 2 hours later gasping for air and bump straight into our rude Aussie friends !
The mountain sticks up above all the clouds and is very impressive. Some come to climb it but we plum for a walk around the park.
e have found accommodation just down the road. Timber chalets, well past there best and at an exorbitant rate. The only saving grace is a wonderful view off the rear balcony. It's actually cold here and our fleeces come into there own, except we've left them back at the hostel. It's going to be a cold night !
Sunday 22nd
After a none too
hearty breakfast, 10 warm baked beans, a fried egg, two pieces of bread and hardly any butter and a sausage that looked too dangerous to eat, we make our way back to the Park.
We arrange to be taken by road to the base of the mountain from where the serious climbers start to go up the mountain. We are going to walk the 6 K back to the Park entrance along the jungle trails. It's a pleasant walk and we hear lots of birds and see a few small ones and butterflies. There's some very steep ups and downs and scrambling across streams and small waterfalls. It's quite strenuous at times and we're glad to be going generally down as we're passed by a French guy coming up and looking exhausted after only an hour. Later we're passed by an elderly Japanese couple going really slowly, they'll probably never be seen again !
We arrive at the entrance and reward ourselves with two ice creams.
We make our way back to our little chalet and take a rest for the remains of the afternoon.
Evening is spent sorting out accommodation for the next few days.
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Roger Smith
non-member comment
Shades of Thailand
Hi Chris and Steve. That shellfish reminds me of the giant blue shelled ones we ate in Thailand at the local restaurant in the middle of nowhere. Tasted delicious. When we ordered wine we saw one of the waiters disappear on his bike and return 10 minutes later with a bottle. We only had one course as our translator had gone and we couldn't understand any of the menu!!