Yo!

We landed last night in Kota Kinabalu,first impressions...man, it's hot!

People seem really nice and like in hong kong;very helpful! We got to the airport and after grabbing our backpacks looked for the nearest shop for some water.Laura got two armed guards to open up a shop.

We got to our hotel after a short taxi ride and to be honest we were a bit apprehensive about where he dropped us off.it was quite lively,quite a few kids hanging about (how old do I sound!!?) and the lift to the hotel floor was a bit...err.

Pleasantly surprised, our hotel is quite a cool,clean place with all the mod-cons...for me,premiership football,Chelsea vs wolves and one those showers with several heads in multiple directions and for Laura, vouchers for spa treatments (she's going to have one of those fish spa sessions) think we could both do with a bit of rest after a long flight out here & the madness of hong kong.

We decided that for today we'd explore the town and organise the next part of our trip.

Got up a bit late and wandered round kinabalu.luckily it was street market day so the first one we stumbled upon was the food Market ..I was in my element.all the Ginger,lemongrass,spices,vegatables - the smell was the best,right by the sea too! Next was the fish Market,which again,I loved (laura didn't really rate that and couldn't get her head around why they'd dry the fish in the sun!) we then wandered over to THE Sunday Market which again to Laura's delight/dismay (I haven't worked out yet) was full of puppies,kittens,hamsters and rabbits.

Thought we had enough of shopping malls?...nop, we walked over to the Kota kinabalu mall,which seemed to be a work in progress,with only half of the stores utilised. The shops didn't really have anything worth looking at but personally, I was quite relived not to see a shopping mall laden with brands and appreciated the Malaysian dominance.(trying not to sound like an anti-globalisation activist!!).

We were then treated to a performance by who appeared to be a Malaysian r&b superstar.seriously,the guy had several security guards and wore sunglasses indoors. We watched him along with the hundreds of fans,arms stretched high,videoing with their mobiles and miming amoursly. We agreed all his songs sounded the same but he did have a very good voice.

Over to the seafront
We strolled along scoping potential places to have dinner and we stopped for some juice (must note,we were asked by the waitress if we were spanish or mexican??)and planned our next trip.Currently looking at spending a beach day tomorrow then over to orangutan sanctuaries but we'll let you know....

Back to the hotel we went,with laura picking up leaflets for various places around kinabalu that offer massage and beauty treatments to research the next leg of our trip (which we discovered is actually quite difficult!)

Laura,then went over to her treatment (back,shoulders & neck massage - did go for a facial scrub too but there was a power cut!!) and I went for a long stroll about town and again by the seafront.

Dinnertime!
After laura got back from her massage (she was asked whether she was in the navy!!)and a had a snooze whilst I was treated to ESPN's version of match of the day.

Kota kinabalu has a amazing amount of seafood to offer with many places allowing you to pick whatever you fancy (one place with several stories high of fish tanks!) but laura her heart set on a Thai prawn curry and I just wanted anything that could potentially scorch my mouth we made our way over to a restaurant on the sea front called Thai orchid.

The food was amazing and I happily went ended the night, nose running from my hot curry.