Arrived in Bruenei and booked myself into the youth hostel. It's probably the nicest hostel I've stayed in, reminded me a little of Uni halls, but not en-suite. Saw a few sites in a taxi. The capital Bandar Seri Bagawan only has about 100,000 residents, but is made to look like a city, witha few large buildings and imposing govt. buildings, most of which resemble mosques. Many of my buidlings I have been told are hald empty.
Saw the royal palace, from a distance, which is the largest in the world and the impressive mosque in town and the waterfront with the water village. The residents in the water village are keeping tradition alive by still residing on the water, but many of them have cars parked across the river, which I found funny.
There were a couple fo cool guys, Momar and Julian staying at the guesthouse so had dinner with them and a girl who was staying at the hostel too. We ate in an outdoor food quarter and had the best seafood I haev ever eaten. It was probably aslo the cheapest at about 4 pounds per head. We had shark, clams, blue legged crab and massive prawns, with antennae about 7 inches long. All in all very satisfied with the meal.
The next day I left for Kota Kinabalu. Or so i thought. I slept in as was still very tired so caught a ferry to Pulau Lubaun and missed the last connecting ferry so had to stay one night on this island. pretty dull! There are a few WWII wrecks and ac ouple of other wrecks, but as I'm not qualifed to wreck dive there was no point being there, so booked a ferry to Kota Kinabalu as soon as I arrived there for the next day.
Arrived in Kota Kinabalu (KK)to a torrential downpour. I walked about 10 metres and literally every part of my clothing was drenched. It was horrid. KK is pretty dull too. Some lovely restaurants and the hostel I'm in is pretty nice and cheap at about 2.60 per night, with free internet and breakfast!! Need to research where I'm going next. Either Mount Kinabalu national park or Sepilok to meet some orang utans! Need to get out of KK that's for sure.
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Went on a day tour to Kinabalu national park. Met some cool people Carl, James and Thomas. First stop was the Poring hot springs, which I had heard before would be disappointing. It was very similar to the springs in Pai which I went to 5 weeks earlier, but more touristic. However, there was a cool canopy walkway 41m above the ground and very humid. Didn't see as much wildlife as hoped for, but was still pretty cool with massive trees and our guide Marius was very knowledgable and simply brilliant! Had a scrupmtious and very large lunch before heading to a garden to see the largest flower in the world, the Rafflesia flower (named after Sir. Thomas Stanford Raffles - of Raffles hotel fame). The subspecies we saw rafflesia Keithii is actually the second largest flower after another Rafflesia flower found only in Sumatra. Still it was easily the biggest flower I'd ever seen and probably will ever see and that's enough horticultural talk.
Then we went to the actual Kinabalu national park and went to the botanical garden there. The botanical garden is on higher ground to the canopy walkway and garden which we previously visited so it was refresshingly cool here and the trees are smaller and thinner. We saw some lovely orchids, the worlds largest moss, ginger plants, cinamon (however you spell it) trees and a few creepy crawlies, whose names I cannot remember. Then Marius said he's show us more insects. I thought he'd take us to an insect farm or to another part of the forst. instead he took us to a shrubery near the car park. To our amasement there were quite a few stick insects, grasshoppers and brightly coloured spiders. I'm starting to sound like Alan Titchmarsh ;-)
On the way back we stopped to take pics of the majestic Mt. Kinabalu, S.E. Asia'a highest peak. It's the tallest mountain I've seen and apart from the few masts shich have been put up on one of its slopes, is still a spectacle, with the couple of large waterfalls cascading down its sides and the way the coulds almost formed a halo around its summit.
Went back to boring KK and had a superb Indian meal and played pool with Carl and James for a while, whilst doing impressions of Harold Bishop from neighbours, because the girl behind the bar we were in was called Harold. Seriously!
The next day I woke up to discover I'd finally been hit by traveller's diarrhoea. I'd jinxed myself the night before by saying I hadn't been hit by it and I thought I'd be immune to it by now. Ohh well. I popped a couple of Immodium and left for Sandakan.
The journey to Sandakan passed Mt. Kinabalu and a fair bit of rain forest. We also passed through some massive palm plantations, which was quite a sad sight. Finally arrived in Sanadakan and needed thew loo again so I booked myself into a budget, but quality hotel room, with en-suite, as I didn't fancy jumping off a top bunk and runnning to the loo again. It was less than 7 pounds a night, but i'm trying to budget even more now so that I have sufficient money for Australia and New Zealand. Stayed in my room most of the night and the next day, but this was made easier by the fact the room had a TV, with 3 sports channels (so pretty much guaranteed to see football on the box whenever i turn it on. Cashback!)and DVD player. The owner and his wife are very pleasant and helpful with a massive DVD collection. It was almost like being at home.
When I had recovered I did a day trip to Sepilok orang utan rehabilitaion centre. I got there for the 3pm feeding time and it was pretty cool, apart from the 60 - 70 other people there watching the orang utans with me. This was the main reason I'd come to Borneo and it was very special. They are so human like, in a sweet way and the macaques on the other hand are soo human in a not soo sweet way. Didn't see any alpha males, but it was still special for me. I'm going on a 2 day trip up the Sungai Kinabantangan (Sabah's largest river tomorrow) so will hopefully see loads more wildlife. Fingers crossed!
