Welcome to Malaysia, on the island of Borneo, on this part called Sabah, in the capital Kota Kinabalu. Arrived here just when the sun was setting so could catch some of the sunset from the plane. Taxi from the airport to the centre of town and after just walking around a bit, I found the Rainforrest lounge. Nice and relaxed place within a lively area with markets, bars and near the sea. Not difficult in Kota Kinabalu, since it is a very narrow town, situated inbetween the sea and the jungle. After checking in brought some of my laundry away and walked around the block a bit. Not much done, pretty tired so to bed! Next day, friday, went to town to look around, many markets and food stalls, very nice atmosphere. Went to the big mall "Suria Sabah". Most of the goods are fake though (and mostly bad copies) and the real stuff costs as much as at home. It's not just fake Angry Birds merchendasi here (which there is a lot of anyway, also here), but everything like Wii, Nike, headphones by Dré or Adidas, Gstar, Apple cases, everything, everything is fake! Also the mall suffers of a power failure so all goes balck for a while until the generators take over.
Big cinema here, so I buy a ticket of €3,00 to see Man in Black 3D.
I buy a buttoned shirt of the new Adidas Neo label. After the mall walking on the boulevard, smelling all the food stalls and night markets. Beef Redang is local specialty, so I eat that. Very yammie..
Nextday tour booked to the national park Mount Kinabalu, by mini van to the park, 2 hour drive. With 4 Chinese and two Philipino people. They turn out to be good travel company actually! We first stop in a village to take pics of the mountain, then to the botanical garden with many beautiful orchids, trees and flowers. Then on to the jungle, where we hike through the jungle and walk 41 meters above the rainforrest on a bridge of ropes that goes from tree to tree, a bit high but great views. Jungle sounds everywhere (monkeys, crickets, undefined animals) and very very warm. Wafte this, walked to a waterfall and finally cooled of in the natural springs at the end of the hike. 2 1/2 hours back to town, great day, saw a lot, met nice people. In the evening went to the boulevard, where are many teraces and walked through all the evening markets; fish, vegetables, electronics, fruits, you name it.
On sunday went for a hike up the hill, behind town for some great views of the town and the surroundings. Went for some ice coffee and juste had a relaxed afternoon. Went to see the Avengers movie in the eveing and after this had dinner in a place without a menu. Only thing they had was saté, beef and chicken, bread and saté sauce. Great, love that stuff! Bill: €2,50 including a Coke. No non-smoking law here, everybody smokes everywhere.
Today, monday, booked a three dive tour with a diveshop in town " Diverse Borneo". Met up ar 08:30 am, very nice boat out to the islands and the KK marine park. I am the only one going with the dive master for three fun dives, there are two more people on board doing theit Rescue course ( which i did in 2004) and one girl for snorkling only. Our base is a very nice tropical island from where we do our 3 dives and inbetween just chill on the beach, sunbath, snorkel. There are monkeys on the island and huge lizards.. Under water there are Orang Oetang crabs, squid, parrot fishes, eels and lots of other sealife. Also hard and soft corals of course. No big huge things like on Apo reef, but nice anyway! The boatride to and from the island is great too, beautiful islands and a clear blue sea. The visibilty under water is extremely good. Just got back now and in need of a fresh water shower..
Big difference berween the Philippines and here is religion, here many muslims, there christians. But everybody is very happy here and they laugh at everytehing you say so finally I can feel funny too ;-).
What is the same here, is that it is HOT! Man, its hot, like 34Celsius and at night it doesnt cool down a bit. Luckily my room has AC, its a dorm but so far only one out of four nights somebody was in the four bed room with me.