Selamat tengah bari
09/01/2010 We flew Air Asia (£27 each) from Krabi to Kuala Lumpur and landed in the middle of a tropical downpour, When we got Oonagh's bag off the carousel it was soaked right through,(mine was ok though). Our hotel the Prescott Inn was a pleasant surprise, an special offer got us the room for £15 PN, Plasma TV, the biggest most comfortable bed ever and a superb view of the Petronas towers with breakfast thrown in too. The following day Oonagh got her own back, she stayed in bed, while muggings set off at 7 am to get 2 of the 1,000 tickets for the walk way on the 41st floor between the towers, by 9am they have all been given away, The view of KL (as the locals call it) is much better from the nearby telecom tower, (4th highest in the world) To be honest the Petronas towers are just one of those iconic, been there places. KL is a smaller version of Singapore, But nowhere as clean it has a laid back feel and some really tasty Malaysian Muslim food halls, (Back to eating for a £1 each.)
11/01/2010 Sandakan in Borneo, another cheap room at £10 PN in the Hotel London, Tuesday we went to Sepilok Orang-utan rehabilitation centre and stayed all day. In the morning we saw 3 Orang-utans at the feeding station and 2 in the afternoon, We sat on our own in the rain, watching 1 from just 20ft, who was sitting in a tree watching us watching him for about 20mins. (awesome) A German lady asked what we had been watching? to which I replied "a red headed knuckle dragger' she said "what was it called again as she'd never heard of this kind of ape" ( Oonagh keeps on about people don't understand my sense of humour) Wednesday we visited the Bat caves at Gomantong where they collect the swift nests for birds nest soup, at sunset thousands of bats leave the caves in one big stream and fly off like dark clouds, Half a dozen Eagles hover above awaiting their prey. (an expensive overpriced trip). Thursday a pathetic visit to the crocodile farm, which was bordering on cruelty, On Friday back to the Orang-utan's and GOT THE MOMENT in the afternoon, as only half a dozen people were waiting, 2 fully grown Orang-utans swung arrogantly into view, followed by another 2 cohorts, Suddenly the leading 2 landed on our platform, One took a shine to my rain mac (a nice plastic blue number), the Orang-utans tried to pull it off my back, and kept following me around, The site ranger said it was the colour, It was an amazing few minutes interacting with them. ( We can bore you with the photos and video, and there are a few) and as quick as they came they left, A real highlight and tingly moment of our trip so far.( Oonagh is beside herself )
16/01/2010 Kota Kinabalu the capital of Sabah region, its still raining and 30 degree's of sticky and humidness, the man where we have been having breakfast said " according to the news, it is the heaviest and longest bout of rain here since 1981" (that dark cloud does seam to follow us). I asked the girl if she could do scrambled egg on toast, (as my Malaysian is fluent ) They were served mixed up in the middle of Thai fried noodles a fine fare for breakfast .( Nice). Monday 18/01/10 adrenalin day, After a 2hr Bus ride, then a 40min train ride into the mountains and rainforest on the North Borneo railway which is a rough and battered version of the train from Candlewick Green. We went white water rafting on the river Padas, the river is running really fast due to the amount of rain. Rapids scale 1-5 with 5 being the hardest, we did levels 3-4 for over 2hrs and with names like Washing machine, Big Mama and head hunter they chucked us everywhere, (well scary). After a couple of nervous giggerly warm up rapids we hit our first biggie, The yelp of "holy moley" from Oonagh (this became the catch phrase of the ride) who was seated directly behind before she was thrown onto her back in the middle of the boat by a huge bow wave. With 2 Danish friends and a navigator we managed to stay upright and not lose anyone overboard through out the brilliant course, even though we only had 5 in our boat and had to paddle like the Be Gebers, Due to the Russians, who would rather overload there boats than ride with the Europeans. 19/01/10 handsome's birthday, The sun came out and we went snorkelling on the deserted island of Sapi, a 30min ferry ride away, the water was still murky after all the rain, But it was nice just to sit in the sun again. (Perfect)
We will come back to Malaysia / Borneo, But they would have to do something about the weather, They are really friendly people, There is some beautiful and dramatic misty scenery especially around the RAINforests that cover most of Borneo, A great nature filled place.

Salamat jalan the Chaffer's