I'm beginning to have trouble keeping tracks on what has been going on. Partly because I had been typing for about 30 minutes and the internet connection died and I lost everything I had written and have just had to start again. Not only that but the days seem to be blending into one and it is difficult to work out what we did on which day. It is hard to believe that we have only had five days since booking into Red Palm for our first night in Malaysia.

It is 11:51 and the common room at Summer Lodge is full of people of all ages and nationalities. The four computers are occupied, as they usually, are by young people who can type a hell of a lot faster than I, most of them "Facebooking". So the first noise you can hear in here is the rapid clicking of keys forming a background hum for the Arsenall MU match on the telly, and the strains of the standard version of 'Alice, Alice, who the .... is Alice' drifting in on the hot evening breeze from the square outside ( the rude version doesn't seem to have reached Borneo yet). Four or five of the people in here are watching the soccer and about another 10 or 12 are sitting around chatting quietly but bursting into a frenzy each time United score. Its an interesting chatter because I cant understand a word of it as I am the only English person in the room, The two other Caucasians are actually Irish so I don't know whether they count!

Mandy and I were woken early this morning by the sound of coming and going and tribal music under our window, and we remembered that Sunday was the day for the Jalan Gaya street market. (Jalan Gaya being the street outside our window!)

....Yes, not content with the Central Market covering about 2 acres, the fish market, the four or five multi story shopping malls within the city centre and the countless shopping arcades they feel the need to chuck in yet another market, and boy what a market it is. Befor leaving the hostel, Mandy and I helped ourselves to the inclusive tea and toast, and made our way down to sample yet another market. It was huge, filling the Jalan Gaya for about half a mile and it was diferent. There was everything from soya curd drink (Which I'm afraid I can't recomend) to puppies and Siamese Fighting Fish. We were totally absorbed for a couple of hours and even bought a gift or two.

Fully shopped out we then decided to go and find a village on the coast a few miles south of Kota Kinabalu, recommended by our friend John, a Waitrose driver who visited Borneo a few weeks ago. A quick text last night had confirmed that the village in question was called Kinarut. It didn't take us long to find a mini bus going to Kinarut and the journey was fascinating. We drove out of town passing the magnificent Sabbah State Mosque and then by contrast we passed several more stilt villages, some of them built on the banks of rivers. Many of the inhabitants of these villages were getting on and off the bus and Mandy and I both observed that no matter how ramshackle the huts were the people who came from them were all clean, well dressed and neatly turned out and strangely all of them had one if not two mobile phones. This is actually remarkable because we have been looking at the prices of electrical goods, computers cameras and mobiles and they are no cheaper here than they are in England. In fact the owner of one camera shop we went into asked me for the web address of the company from which I purchased my Panasonic camera because I had paid less than his wholesale price for the same camera.

The bus filled and emptied about three times during the next hour and we were totally absorbed by the huge variety of scenery and people. People watching was never this good in Andover. The bus driver shouted "Do you want the beach" and purely from the fact that everyone on the bus turned round and looked at us we knew that he was talking to us. "Yes please" we replied, not really knowing where we wanted and he turned off the road and down a dead-end track where he stopped and collected our 3 ringgit fares as we clambered off the minibus, somewhat embarassed, in the fixed gaze of all 8 passengers. Dont get me wrong! it wasn't a hostile gaze, everyone was beaming widely. The bus then backed out of the track as we waved goodby to our cheery fellow passengers. We walked on down the track which led to the beach which was a clasic dessert island type beach with coconut trees leaning over white sand. John had told us of a beach side hotel and restaurant somewhat incongruously called the Seaside Travellers Inn and we stopped there for a drink in their bar and then another drink and then we decided it was lunchtime. We continued to relax there into the afternoon. Eventually we decided that it was time to return to Kota Kinabalu so we walked up to the main road and waited for a minibus. We didnt wait long before a minibus with Kota Kinabalu on the side pulled up at the side of the road and when we ran up to climb on board but he said "Not go to KK, sorry" Another bus marked Kota Kinabalu pulled up 50 yards down the road and let passengers of and just as we got to the doors they shut and he drove off leaving us in a cloud of dust feeling somewhat dejected. The original bus was still parked at the side of the road, and no doubt touched by our sorry plight hooted his horn and beckoned us to get on his bus which we gratefully did and he tore of like a dingbat. After about ten minutes of frantic driving we aproached a bus stop with several mini-busses collecting and putting down passengers. One of them was just pulling out from the layby and our driver skreeched to a halt in front of it, frantically blowing his horn and causing the other bus to brake sharply. Having successfully blocked his escape he told us to get on that bus and he would take us to KK which of course we did, thanking him profusely. You really get full value for your three ringgits in Borneo!

The rest of the day was fairly uneventfull and we spent an hour or so at the hostel talking to a girl from Japan who worked as a diving instructor in the Maldives and had a week off. Not enough time to go home to Japan she had decided to come to Borneo to find some diving. How the other half live, hey? I say uneventfull but we had decided to eat in the square outside the Summer Lodge where there is a choice of three restaurants supplying a central dining area with a big screen television and local band. The evening's Liverpool, Blackburn Rovers match drew quite a crowd and the the band performing on the stage under the big screen really played to the crowd. It seemed that they even thought that the cheers for the goals were actually for them.

Anyway This is my last entry before we get to Sandakan where I am not sure if I will be able to find internet access so Ta Ta Till then!