After scaling the heights of Mount Kinabalu I thought that a relaxing river safari would be a great idea. Tried to recover in KK with a massage and an early night, but unfortunately as always seems to be the way when travelling I still had to get up at 5.30am the next morning to get the bus to Kota Kinabatang. Travelling along on the bus it was overwhelming to see the extent of the palm oil plantations. Where there had once been primary rainforest it was now all...

At great expense I decided to spend the night before the start of the climb in the Kinabalu National Park. I got a lift up with a family from KL who were staying at the hotel and who were friends with Jamal the owner. After 2 hours stuck in the back with a 4 year old and a 10 year old I was really grateful for the peace and quiet of the park! Took to a few of the local walking trails and checked out the botanical gardens - unfortunately it was hammering it down w...

Arrived into KK very early on Wednesday morning after a 10 hour night bus from Semporna... in retrospect a flight would have been better! Highlights of the journey: the conductor lady having a T Shirt with "Bum Sports" emblazoned on it and the family sitting in front of us being kicked off the bus at a police checkpoint for not having ID. Downpoints were the family sleeping underneath my seat, the overzealous A/C and generally being on a bus for 10 hour...

After an aborted attempt to go to Gunung Mulu (plane from Kuching to Mulu was diverted to Miri due to poor viability at Mulu) we decided sitting in Miri airport watiing for a replacement flight (that wasn't happening that day) that we would instead get a flight (or rather 2 flights as we had to go via KK) to Tawau, Sabah and go diving. I called the dive place (Scuba Junkie) to enquire and booked us in for a night in the dorm and diving at Mabul the next day. I na...

24 hours in Kuching, cat city (not that I actually saw many cats...) The 10 hour night bus from Pontianak, Kalimantan to Kuching was fairly uneventful, even the border crossing at 5am! We were befriended by an elderly man from Kuching who had been visiting his wife's family in Indonesia and who helped with translation/immigration issues! Kuching is a very relaxed city, a beautiful waterfront, vibrant Chinatown and some attractive colonial buildings. It was good ...