A River, monkeys and swimming. Kinabatangan river is the most popular and visited way to experience rainforest and see wildlife in Sabah. Everyone we spoke to along the way confirmed it was worthwhile, so we decided to go for one night and see for ourselves. Booking into a place called 'nature lodge', we hot-footed it to the pick-up point only to have to wait nearly four hours for the bus. So, not a good start, but on the positive side, a reminder that we have a...

An over-night at Laha Datu, noted in L.Planet for its fishermen who fear for their lives on a daily basis due to piracy was not much fun! We do now however have little regard now for LPlanet so with this in mind, we opted to take ourselves out for a stroll at dinner time. Hmmm.If you can believe that places can have good and bad vibes, this was the latter. Apart from the fact that it stank and was utterly filthy, it just felt very uncomfortable. Also, we could no...

'Maya' island Dumped by the jungle drop-off car at Laha Datu bus station, we decide not to wait a few hours for the big, nice air-con bus and jump into one of the local mini-buses. Big mistake - major mistake!! A revolting back-breaking journey took us from Laha Datu, through - you guessed it - mile upon mile of palm plantations to the port of Semporna. J and H disembarked, cranking their backs back into place, feeling nauseous with firm resolutions NEVER to tr...

The jungle…. Touching down to a humid Malaysian Borneo, we had two days in the capital, Kota Kinubulu to book as much of Borneo as we could. We discovered that this was one country where planning from abroad was impossible- no emails were ever answered and it seems that all the tour operators have bought up allocations. Still, nothing beats local info and with local info filling in the gaps and adding colour to the words in Lonely Planet, we booked two stints ...

Arrived in KL to stay in a HUGE hotel which we booked as its the closest to Batu Caves where the Hindu festival, Thaipusan takes place. The hotel concierge laughed at us for considering going to the festival but as most people were asking which mall was the best to shop in, we ignored his advice, jumped in a cab and headed off early to see what we could see. Thaipusan is a hugely celebrated festival at the Batu Caves where 900,000 people make their way up 272 ste...