In need of a little culture, we visited Monsopiad cultural village, just outside Kota Kinabalu in Borneo to understand more about the headhunters that the area is so famous for. We did indeed see a collection of skulls collected by the chief in the area (although thankfully that practice no longer exists apparently) but the highlight for me was Bob on stage during one of the dancing demonstrations, having been challenged through the medium of dance to use a blowpipe to burst a balloon (I know, not your average day). Much to everyone's surprise he succeeded - I was so proud... At least it made up for his disturbing attempts at dancing.
Back in KK we buckled under the backpacking pressure and before we knew it we had checked into the Hyatt Regency for a couple of nights - I have never been so thrilled to have my own bathroom before! By western standards it was incredibly cheap and we really had no choice as we'd returned from Sepilok to find that our hostel was full.
We caught a boat across to Mahmutik the following day, andisland off KK and did a bit of snorkelling. Saw some great fish but were spooked by the 'jellyfish season' signs and the stinging strands of what we assumed were jellyfish eggs. As a result we were in and out of the water pretty quickly
We returned to Singapore just before Christmas and enjoyed an excellent night out on Christmas Eve at a bar in Holland Village with a couple of Gavin's work colleages. My brother treated us to Christmas lunch at an Irish pub in Singapore on Christmas day - if we hadn't have been sweating so much it would've been just like home - crackers, turkey,Xmas pud, the lot.
We finally left Asia behind on 27 December to head to Australia and the monsoonal rains of Darwin...
