Blogs from Sabah, Malaysia, Asia - page 131

PRE-TRIP "Hey, any plans for the March holidays? Shall we do something interesting?" "Sure! What do you suggest?" "What about let's climb Mount Kinabalu? We've got 3 months to prepare for it!" "That's quite an idea! Why not?" That happened in December 2002. 4 of us, therapists at a special school, decided to plan and train for the trip to conquer Mount Kinabalu. However, between December to March, we only managed to do a little 3 hour hike as part of our training programme. I came down with a bad flu about 2 weeks before the trip. The rest of the time, we were all too caught up with things happening in school. 3 weeks before "Have you done any research?" "Nope, I just booked the ticket for us with Air Brunei" "Do we need ... read more

Again..didnt do much..pottered around, went out in the evening for dinner with Jef and Jaqui back to the lodge and a drunken party... We all have to be up at 4:30am ....so after trying to get some sleep until 1am I finally lost the plot with one of the Danish guys in my dorm...finally got about 1 and half hours of sleep...im going to be a grumpy bastard in the morning - well..ok it is morning. ... read more

Arrived 6am at KK totally stuffed back to Tropicana lodge and bed for three hours. Ran into the birdwatchers from DV had lunch said goodbyes - nice bunch.. Off to the state mosque at 5ish to catch the sunset - was well chuffed as I was allowed inside and got tentative permission to take photographs inside as well as out, finally getting an invite to return the next day to get some photographs from atop one of the minarets. Decided to dep Sabah on the 18th.... read more

Kuala Lumpur is a great place to start a trip around Malaysia. You get to top up your fast food and shopping levels, chill out in air conditioned cafes and use the cheapest post rates, we have found so far, to send home the next lot of accumulated junk. Besides our trip to the Petronas Towers (the building used in the film 'Entrapment') our time in the capitol was fairly relaxed and uneventful, exactly what we needed before flying to Sabah (northern Borneo) where relaxation didn't even come into the equation! Never on our original list of destinations, Sabah is one of those places which is a hot topic of conversation on the current travellers grape vine. A must for anyone thinking of going to Malaysia, it has everything from the oldest virgin rainforests in the ... read more

Up at 6:30am went for a walk to take some photographs - it's already hot and humid and mist is hanging over the whole area giving the scene a lost world kind of feel. Danum Valley(DV) is of course low lying - hence "valley" dickhead so it's not going to be cool like highland rainforest... "Negotiate" our room rates with the rude little nazi administrator. 66RM!! for a dorm bed.....plus an unepected bonus 30RM for the park entry fee in addition to the transfer costs and meals. Chalk that one up to experience. The thing that is hard to stomach is the two tiered pricing structure for Malays and non-Malays (we pay up to 10X more). Consider throwing the other guy to an angry ape. Went off on a couple of short walking trails but didnt ... read more