Borneo - Something for everyone!

Had a bit of a crazy start to Borneo after arriving in Kuala Lumpur from Singapore. I headed to the airport as there didn't seem much point in checking in to a hotel for the 8 hours before my flight but unfortunately I went to the wrong airport! By the time I realised the buses that shuttled passengers between the two airports had stopped and so I had to wait until 5am. That bus was late and I only just made it to the check in desk as it was closing and after arriving at an airport 8 hours before my flight I was the last to check in and had to run for the gate!

I arrived in Kota Kinabalu, the capital of the state of Sabah and headed to a hostel and spent that day checking out the pretty uninteresting city. The boss of the hostel Vincent had a reputation for being a great organiser of trips in Borneo so being tied for time and there being so much I let him know what I wanted to do and 10 minutes later he had an itinerary drawn up! It felt quite strange having 2 weeks planned for me as most of the time I have been doing and seeing things as and when I feel.

The next day there was a group from the hostel heading to some nearby islands so as I had a free day I decided to join the little outing and ended up having a great day out. The island didn't quite match some islands Ive been to but it felt great to be back on a beach with the sun beating down and some great snorkelling added in. After the island we all decided to go for a curry and Vincent said he knew a good one so 8 of us piled into his jeep and set off. One thing we all soon learned about Vincent is that he loves his Tiger beer and doesn't go anywhere without a can and that even includes when he's driving but I figured it couldn't be any less unsafe than some of the other journeys Ive been on so wasn't too concerned as he cranked up the Bob Marley on the stereo and cracked open yet another beer! He didn't let us down with a great little restaurant that served all the delicious food straight onto banana leaves. Being a Muslim restaurant there was no beer to be had and so at least we had a more sober drive back to the hostel.

The next day was a trip to the Kinabalu National Park which is home to Mount Kinabalu but that was to be left for tomorrow and today was just exploring the park with Vincent as our guide and of course he doesn't go anywhere without his bag full of cans! You just had to laugh when he opened the car door and another empty can would fall out although some hikers that were stranded on the road back weren't convinced when he offered them a lift with can in hand but they accepted and quite enjoyed the speedy journey back to KK ... I think! So at the park we first stopped at a war memorial for the Australian and British soldiers that had died when they were prisoners of war held in Borneo by the Japanese in WWII. A Malaysian guy had been so apalled my the condition of the memorial that he decided to do it up and ended up spending 800,000 ringot which is the equivalent of almost 120,000 pounds doing it up. He now looks after the gardens that he has created after giving up his job and was rightly made an MBE for his services. The gardens are beautiful and even contain one of the rarest orchids in the world, so rare that an Englishman paid 100,000 pounds for 10 when he saw some that had been flown over for an exhibition making it the most expensive orchid in the world! After lunch we headed to see the Rafflesia flower which can only be found in Borneo and is special because it is the biggest flower in the world. After being in bud (or whatever the terminology is) for 15 months it only blooms for 15 months and this seemed to excite some ecologists that were staying at the hostel no end. It was however just a flower and although nice and kind of impressive I can't say I was quite so blown away as others appeared to be! And finally after the worlds biggest flower we headed to the hot springs. I decided to miss them out as the water looked pretty grubby and I figured I would probably come out of the baths dirtier than when I went in. I instead headed for the canopy walkway which looks just like the one from I'm A Celebrity but far less safe! It's basically just ladders hung between the biggest trees with planks on top and rope walls so you can walk or wobble above the forest floor. The views are great but I was a bit preoccupied with trying to keep my balance and stay above the forest as opposed to falling through it.

So a drunken journey back to the hostel then followed before I did some late night shopping for some necessary clothes to climb Mount Kinabalu tomorrow!