So we've made it to Borneo - and I'm pleased to report that - so far - we're free of leech wounds, although the sand flies have feasted on us over the last couple of days. (Apparently it's their urine that causes the itchy red marks, rather than their bites, which is a nice thought...)
At the moment we're in Kota Kinabalu (KK), which is the capital of Sabah, the most northerly of the two Malaysian states of Borneo. Disappointly, unlike Kuala Lumpur, noone seems to want to take our photos here, although people do seem very friendly, as they were in mainland Malaysia. We spent the first couple of nights here in KK before heading down the coast a couple of hours to a beach 'hotel' called the Tempurung Seaside Lodge. This was a fantastic little hotel in the middle of nowhere - in fact we started the journey to the place in a minibus with a couple of Chinese tourists but then we were handed over after about two hours to a battered old 4x4, minus the Chinese. I started to get a bit worried when we turned down an unmade road seemingly into the jungle (I'd convinced myself that we had been kidnapped and were never going to see civilisation again!). Anyway, we finally rounded a corner and saw this amazing deserted beach, and our hotel just above it. We spent the last 3 nights out there, and most of the time there was just me and Bob on the whole beach - it was absolutely fantastic - really beautiful.
Last night we went on a wetlands cruise, which was great - we saw proboscis monkeys, macaques and monitor lizards along the water's edge and then, once it had got dark, hundreds of fireflies in the trees, looking like tiny little twinkling fairy lights, all along the bank.
On a more banal note, crowds are still gathering to mock Bob's height - in fact I found him hiding behind a display in a supermarket earlier today because a group of shop assistants were pointing and giggling (we assume it was because of his height...)
We have mistimed our stay in KK somewhat though - on returning today we discovered that the World Powerboat Championships had just finished in the harbour. They began the morning we left and the trophies were presented at the end of the competition, which was immediately before we sat down at the harbour's edge to watch the action on returning from Tempurung - typical level of bad organisation on our part - although we did inadvertently join the after competition lunch at the bar we were at - it was only when we noticed that everyone else was wearing matching international team t-shirts that we realised something was amiss...
Tomorrow we fly across the island to the east side of Sabah - to Sandakan - to visit Sepilok, the orangutang sanctuary there. An American couple we met earlier in the week had just been and said one of the females has just had a baby, so I'm hoping we get to see that.
We're back in the Step in Lodge hostel in KK now - no ensuite I'm afraid but unlike the Tempurung Lodge the rooms are not made of bamboo so there are no gaps for the insects to crawl in! (I had to replace my toothbrush today as it was infested with ants).
We're once again having difficulty uploading photos. At least that's what Bob's telling me - it's probably just an excuse so he can spend his time on-line reading the cricket results and browsing for Led Zeppelin tracks (I've just looked over his shoulder at the pc he's on and that's what he's currently busy doing). Anyway, we'll try again at the hostel.
Hope everyone is well back home and we'll update again when we can.
