Well its been a while since I have written but when your chilling on the beach in the land of Thai's sitting in an e-net cafe for an hour isnt that enticing.
We flew into Kota Kinabalu which is the main city of Sabah Borneo mid afternoon and were rather happy to be here considering we were getting sick of talked up Malaysian cities. You would hardly know you were in Asia though(due to the place being flattened during WWII).On the subject of WWII this area was where Aussie and English POW's were put on death marches from one side of the island to the other-not surprisingly none of them survived. The city sits right on the water with many tropical islands witihn close proximity.
Before I go any further there are a few things we noticed about Malaysian culture during our time here.The first being an obcession with Kareoke. Most bars or clubs double as Kareoke bars and we thought we had gotten away from this in KK(Kota Kinabalu) but as we sat down in a nice garden bar on our first night a "live band"(two girls and a guy on a keyboard that had pre recorded jingles) proceeded to play typical kareoke tracks including Abba's dancing queen which soon made the few beers we were drinking wear off and us needing to find solice in another establishment.
In Malaysia they go out for dinner to Western Restuarants in much the same way we go out for Asian cuisine. Speaking of food you become pre programmed to find where the locals eat or a market selling stall food. This can be hard sometimes with an hour needed to find something but when you find somewhere it becomes your go to most times. Kirsten found it hard because due to the strong Chinese influence being able to read the menu makes selection hard. I go Nasi Gorang or Mae Gorang most times so no issues for my easily satisfied stomach.
Borneo is very safe and there seems to be zero civil disobedience or unrest. We never felt uncomfortable for the entire two weeks.
The extent of deforrestation is quite striking with Palm Oil plantations now stretching as far as the eye can see. There is still large patches of jungle but these are constantly threatended by your usual greedy resourse baron whom making even more money seems to be their only perogotive. In saying that though modern man doesnthave a choice as a nice jungle doesnt sustain millions of people also it would be hypocritical of me casting to a negative view considering New Zealand used to be covered in natural bush.
And finally you dont get hasseled here at all for goods and services(taxi being the only one). It seems if you want it you buy it. No worries of being scammed here either with the consistent price of a taxi being evidence.
Back to the story then aye. Well the next day we woke up and decided we need to go to the beach as we hadn't swam let alone been on the beach since the "incident". We got on a ferry which after 10minutes took us to Mamutik.A tiny wee tropical island with white sand and blue waters coupled with a stunning view of KK with Mt Kinabalu in the background. As you can imagine we did nothing but chill that day reminding ourselves constantly how good it was to be here. Swimming didnt suite my still healing elbow that well but oh well not going to pass up a swim.
The next day we headed off early to Mt Kinabalu which is a rock mountain roughly 4000m high. We decided a week earlier that climbing it was out of the question. The guy that took us up there appeared to be learning to drive but at least we got to take in the hill top views. Once there we walked around for a bit and did a minor trek. There were people in the group keen for large walks but we know in this climate nothing too strenuous was what suited us today. Leaving the mountain village for the Poring Canopey Walk the guide books tell us this is a relatively easy thing to do-try a logistical nightmare. I wasnt going to pay 85RM($40NZ) for a taxi so Kirsten "lets hitch hike". 10minutes later we are picked up by a van of Born Again Christians on their way to Minister training camp. "Are you Christian mate"-ahh no, "Muslim"-ahhhhh no, an awkward silence spread across the van as I wasnt going into my complicated spiritual beliefs with this guy who would'nt be able to understand how someone couldn't belong to some form of organised religous group-my parents are catholic...I pronounced.That stopped the line of questioning and I was reminded that I must pray everyday-"Yea ok I will if you say so". By the end of the trip the van was full with 9 people, 2 foam mattresses and groceries.By the end of the trip heavy christian rock music was blearing through the soundsystem. Samoa had given us a taste of this music but this was next level and Kirsten was not allowed to cast a cheeky smerk at me as full throtle laughter could break out at anytime which could have left us on the side of the road. Not really hitch hiking as we payed a small fee but hey what a ride.
We did the canopey walk which is a series of five suspension bridges situated at the top of a hill that run through the tops of the trees(I was sweating up a storm by the time we reached the top). Walking across the bridge was quite scaring as you are looking down into deep dark jungle. What made it scarrier is with a 6 person limit the impatient malay wanted to be done with the walk in 5mins so would sometimes have 15 or so on the bridge at one time. Always in a bloody rush.
One the way back down we got our first free Bornean shower-drenched in 2mins. Back at the office we were soaked and needing to get back to KK. We got offered a ride half way by some random guy whom on the way back changed cars to his actual taxi. We got a bus back to KK station from Ranau luckily and then caught a local bus to our hostel. What a mission but we were loving the fact we managed to get our way back with having no clue as to how prior. After talking to others we managed to get back for half the prices as most paid upwards of 150RM(70 bucks) to taxi straight back to KK-haha suckers.
The next we did absolutely nothing-(maybe hit the mall a few times).This suited us fine as next was Uncle Tan Jungle Adventure
