KK to Mt Kinabalu to Sandakan

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Kota Kinabalu-Mt Kinabalu-Sandakan

We finally arrived in KK at 1 am after a somewhat delayed flight with Air Asia. Fortunately had a Terry Pratchett audio book on my MP3 player to pass the time. Woke up to a bright and sunny day in KK. We didn't spend more than a few hours in the town as we will be returning there after about a week. Took a mini-van out to Mt Kinabalu National Park. We had to sit and wait in the hot van for some time whilst waiting for it to fill up, the young Russian women in front were getting quite frustrated. More Terry Pratchett helped pass the time. The van driver very kin idly dropped us right at the front door of our lodge, the D'Villa Hotel. A little tired but a good place with big rooms and great views over the surrounding hills and only a few minutes walk to the NP entrance. Spent the next two and a half days doing some great walks in the park. Had clear views of the summit on both mornings. One day we walked about 16 km on trails not far from the park HQ, lovely lush rainforest and a good botanical garden. Another day we walked from the start of the summit trail the first 4 km (of the 8.5 to the summit) and 900m rise. We set off early and had the trail mostly to ourselves, lots of birdlife and an amazing diversity of plants in every square foot. We went as far as you're allowed to go without a climbing permit and guide. The descent wasn't so pleasant, partly due to the number of people that suddenly appeared and also due to how hard going down is on the knees, I'm still suffering two days later.
We're now in Sandakan. Arrived here on the yellow bus. We'd waited as instructed on the side of the road near the hotel for the 8:30 bus, it sped past us waving, how friendly! Took a taxi to the next town and finally another yellow bus stopped for us. Did meet some interesting fellow travellers on the way. On arrival we needed some food and to stretch our legs so walked up to the Agnes Keith museum which does a wonderful English afternoon tea which you eat in the garden overlooking the harbour and next to their croquet lawn, quite surreal but the cucumber sandwiches and cream scones were worth it!
Today we spent the day at the proboscis monkey sanctuary outside town. A good trip, two feeding times while we were there, they were fun and entertaining to watch, such bizarre looking animals.
Tomorrow off to Uncle Tan's river lodge 3 day 2 night experience......

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