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 hours, at night.

Once we had recovered from our lack of sleep we spent Thursday lazing on the tropical islands of the Tunku Abdul Rahman National Park - a string of small islands off the coast of KK. The water was incredibly warm and clear and the snorkling was pretty good, even if we were sharing the sea with a coachload of Koreans snorkling with lifejackets on and swimming with umbrellas to protect themselves from the sun!!! At Mamutik island the fish were very inquisitive... one nibbled Rachel on the hand and another got me on the knee! Luckily the resident monitor lizard (Eddie) was less keen on attacking us! It was pretty daunting to see Mount Kinabalu from the islands towering over the other mountains in the Croker Range!

Friday was an early start as we headed out of town for the day to go white water rafting on the Padas river. Really fab day starting off with the alternative train ride to the start of the rafting - wooden trolleys propelled by someone "gondoleering" along the railway track! Going downhill was fast! Great rapids (class III-IV) and some where we were encouraged out of the boat to ride - I swallowed more brown water than I care to remember! Really funny group in our boat - along with Rachel and I there was a teacher from LA and a family from Hong Kong - whopping Winnie was my absolute favourite and I can't wait to watch the DVD to relive her screaming on some of the final rapids!!!

Rachel headed off to Singapore yesterday so I am on my own for a few days. Once I had seen her off to the airport yesterday I went to the wildlife park just outside of the city. By complete fluke I managed to time it so that I was there for the tiger, orangtan, probiscus monkey, sun bear, otter and gibbon feeding sessions. A bit of chatting to the keepers meant that I was able to help them with the feedings! There was also a bit of a show where they demonstrated the talents of some of the animals. As "assistant" I got to demonstrate the great sense of smell of the civet (by hiding a grape) - better that than the girl who had to hold a python!!!

Today I visited a local market and then had a relaxing afternoon getting a massage and having a hopi ear candle treatment (kind of gross, but good all the same!) before enjoying another incredible sunset on the waterfront and wandering back through the night market with it's incredible array of fresh fish, fruit, vegetables and numerous hawker stands and Filipino BBQs grilling huge crab, prawns and fish!

Off to Mount Kinabalu National Park tomorrow and start the climb on Tuesday - fingers crossed for good weather! To make it slightly more challanging for myself I stubbed my toe badly on the curb yesterday and now have a black little toe... going to make walking a little uncomfortable!