The most boring part of any overseas trip from Australia is the long haul flight to get there!! After a long day in Melbourne and a very long wait to drop our bags (who ever has to line up for over an hour just to do bag drop?!?) we boarded our Malaysia Airlines flight heading to Kuala Lumpur (or KL as it is popularly called). Very ordinary (read almost nonexistent) service on the airline and possibly the most uncomfortable seats I have hit for many years. It was impossible to get a drink during the night even after I went searching for staff so I felt dehydrated by breakfast time. On arrival in KL we had a quick run through customs (thanks to our late arrival) to get onto our next flight enroute to Kota Kinabalu or "KK" as it is known to the locals.......are we seeing a theme here with place names????

We met some of our group at the airport (there will be 24 of us) plus our guide Ain and our bus driver, Ray. It looks like we will have a good mix of people so should be in for a fun filled 12 days as we explore the sights of Sabah. Boarded our bus and it looks like a disco on wheels - brightly patterned carpet up the walls and across the ceiling!!!! We have all been given a bead necklace to help identify our group members.

First stop in KK was to a shopping centre for 2 hours as we had to fill in time until another plane bought the rest of our group. The only good thing about that was we could stock up on local beer to have in our hotel rooms. Wine is terribly expensive so it will be beer for most of us!!!

Our hotel is quite a distance from the city centre so it was a meal in-house (not what I would call a welcome dinner) tonight and we can catch up on the sleep we didn't get on the aircraft.

KK is the biggest city in Sabah and was once known as Jesselton in its British colonial era days. It has a population of approximately 600,000 and is overlooking the South China Sea with the imposing Mount Kinabalu as the backdrop.

After breakfast we left our hotel and headed down to Jesselton Point Waterfront . This is now one of the main city attractions in Kota Kinabalu ever since its privatization in February 2006. Here we boarded a speedboat for a short ride over to Sepanggar Island. This island is a protected forest reserve and covered by thick tropical rainforest except for the small beach area where we spent the morning. This is well set up for tourists with covered cafe/restaurant area, paddleboards, kayaks, snorkelling and diving. Fortunately it was not overcrowded so we enjoyed the warm waters of the South China Sea. Tried kayaking - Di and I managed to go around in perfect circles but could not achieve anything else!!!! Also tried paddle boarding - had a bit more success as we both managed to remain upright and move forward in a relatively straight line!!! It was good for loads of laughs as we started to get to know our fellow travellers. Lunch was provided on the island and then it was time to head back into KK.

We have only seen glimpses of KK as we are driven through so I really cannot comment on the facilities that may/may not be available here. The standout structure is the City Mosque with its blue dome which can be seen from afar. This floating mosque has a prayer hall which houses three madrasahs and accommodates from 9, 000 to 12, 000 people at a time.