Having left a really modern airport in Singapore we arrived at 1am in Kita Kinabalu (KK) in Borneo to what can best be descibed as a shed in comparison.

For some reason David and I both had real concerns that our hostel in KK had not received our booking with hostelworld so we decided to be resourceful and ask the women at the information desk at the airport to ring the hostel and confirm our reservation for us. At first she denied knowledge of our accommodation claiming she didn't have a number, unluckily for her we did have the number though, so then she had to resort to telling us that her phone wasn't working - yeh right. At that point I just walked away!

It turned out that our concerns were justified as when we did arrive at the hostel they didn't have our booking and all their double rooms were occupied. At this point we were prepared to sleep anywhere so when he said he had 2 dorm beds we jumped at the chance of them. It turned out that the ones he had selected for us were actually occupied so after a moment of panic and confusion on all parts he managed to find a room with some empty beds.

Day 1 in KK was spent working out what we were going to do over the next 3 weeks in Borneo. What a headache (literally!!) - fortunately the staff at Step in Lodge were really good and helped us to come up with a basic itinerary. In Borneo the government are very conservation concious so to control daily visitor numbers many things require a permit before you can go - examples are Mount Kinabulu, Sipadan, Turtle Island etc. and it all costs so much more than we expected. In fact a visit to the primary jungle area was so expensive it was completely out of our budget and had to be removed from our plans! What we have decided to do I'll save for later blog entries.

KK is not a huge place but it is quite run down in the area we're staying in. It looks like they are planning to give the waterfront a facelift with a new all singing and dancing complex due to open in 2010. Our first day was spent wandering around the town in particular visiting the tourist office to try and get a cancellation to climb Mount Kinabalu. To climb the mountain you need a guide and accommodation for an overnight stopover at 3000m both of which are scarce resources fortunately we were successful and managed to get a cancellation for the 6th April. David is excited and I'm petrified so watch this space! Following the succesful booking of the climb David went out and bought a hat, gloves and head torch the very next day!

Back at the hostel Betty (who called herself David's Malaysian Mum as she shares the same name as his real Mum) went through what she had booked for us over the next few days - she was so helpful! So we head to Mabul Island the day after tomorrow. As the evening wore on Betty came and sat with us and chatted whilst watching TV and suddenly announced that she had remembered who David reminded her of - Shaggy off Scooby Doo! What an absolute classic.

We visited Sabah Museum on our second day in KK - it is worth a mention just because it is so outdated. It is like stepping into a museum of a 1960's museum! It's a museum complex with the most bizarre mix of exhibits - so there is a history museum, heritage village and an art gallery where they are doing major construction work whilst all the artwork is still on the wall. As well as the art there is a room dedicated to film and radio, one dedicated to trains and one to Shell Oil - I know these are all important to the country but it is all put together so badly it is funny! The heritage village is quite a good idea as they have tried to recreate the houses that the tribes used to, and in some cases still do, live in. The only problem with this is the amount of houses they have built because once you have been in one of the long houses you have basically been in them all! That said we were there a good few hours and there were some really interesting historical photos and examples of the blow pipes and knives used to kill the British by the legendary headhunters of Borneo - nice! In fact the tribal people still retain the habit of beheading the people they come into conflict with so we'd better watch out!