Def gota be the best weekend I’ve had in Sabah so far. I had arranged my first dance class with the students on Friday afternoon. Few turned up cause the other’s either had exams or were revising. Was fun though- just did basic exercises and stretches, which was quite embarrassing since I couldn’t do them myself even though I was supposed to be teaching them. I then set off for KK alone, since Aman decided to stay at the school for the weekend. Once in KK I booked and paid for my flights to Sarawak, yey, and then set out to book the Hyatt, which I successfully did for a good rate (they gave me a special rate cause I’m teaching). I went to “The Snack” for my fave “Chocolate Cookies Ice Shake” –I’m becoming quite a regular there. The staff were asking how the teaching’s going and I sat and chatted to them all for a bit then they asked to get a pic to put up on their wall- I was like, o..k. So we had a few snap shots and they’re gona print them off for me. Then met up with Georgie and Catherine at the NBC and persuaded them to come to Little Italy, where of course we received a warm welcome from the staff. Was delicious as ever. Headed back to NBC to find it was absolutely PACKED OUT. Couldn’t believe it- the communal sitting area in front of the TV, where we normally chill out and watch tv- was squished up with looadsa people, plus people sitting on the ground and we had to opt for the couple of seats left at the large breakfast table. We were all watching Zoolander (which is banned in Malaysia cause the plots involves a plan to assassinate the Malaysian Prime Minister). We ended up all chatting to the travelers and was soo weird cause I was sitting next to a girl called Sarah, who I kinda thought I recognized. We got chatting and turns out we’re both doing medicine when we get back and she was at the same interview as me in St Andrews. She’s studying in Cardiff though. She’s been traveling on her own for a few months- along with most of the backpackers I’ve met so far. Although some have been traveling up to 2 years. I spent the night chatting to Sarah and Rupert (both Londoners) and they were both absolute Ledges. I really wanted to stay up and talk all night but I had to get to bed cause we had diving early on Saturday. However- at 3.30am, we were kindly woken up by a group of guys carrying an unconscious girl to a bed in our dorm along with a stumbling girl (obviously friends of the unconscious one) all absolutely reeking of sick and vodka. Was miingin. The unconscious girl’s thong was right up her back, which disturbed me enough when I was half asleep. But then they decided to start shouting- “get a bucket” and “get her some water”, like it was an emergency and their lives depended on it. I was like “for fek sake, take her to a toilet”. But of course I was too friggin polite or tired to say this so we had to endure the skankyness. Had the pleasure of listening to her hurl during the night- won’t go into too much detail but I am tempted. At least it forced me to get outa bed so I could phone home. Managed to catch the boys, since mammy had them round for tea. Diving on Saturday wasn’t as chilly as last week, which was good. We wore 2 wetsuits each so I even managed to miss out on the dodgy tan lines on my arms- my legs still suffered though :-S Got a sexy tan line cutting just above the knee. Just as well I usually have that part covered. Was gutted cause the boat drivers kept saying that they were spotting the whale sharks just where we had been diving and kept directing us towards them but the visibility was so poor due to the amount of krill (that the whale sharks were feeding on), we couldn’t see a bloomin thing. Bet they were swimming within meters of us but I could only see a couple of feet ahead of me! It was a long day of diving. Started at about 9am and finished our last dive as the sun was setting at 6.30pm. I was a bit dube about finishing as it got dark. Don’t know why but I’m afraid of the dark as it is and being in the water when its dark, with sharks nearby (even though they’re oober friendly and safe ones) made me feel a bit feart. Was soo glad to finally finish the course. Was the most knackering thing I’ve done in a long time. The air tanks are just sooo heavy and the nitrogen really gets to me. We decided to celebrate big time that night. We met up with Madlen and Jade after so the NBC was even more packed. We all decided to go out for a meal then hit the nightlife. Such a big group was a bit unsuccessful for dinner since our fave Chinese place is very popular with the locals as well, so there was a queue out on the street when we arrived and no chance of getting a table for about 12 people. We decided to all go for satay first, which was yummmmy. Rupert filled me in on the best places to go in Thailand, and places I shouldn’t bother with. Him and Gustaf (who’s from Sweden)- both complete ledges, have been traveling alone for the past I don’t know how many months- and they had oober inspiring stories. Like mountain biking down the Himalayas and going to mine sites in Cambodia- looadsa things- I was juts like “W.O.W” to it all. I’ve decided that I really really wana do Nepal, Tibet, Cambodia etc next time I travel. At first I wanted to do Europe next summer but there’s soo much to see in Asia, I def wana to that first. Hopefully I’ll be able to fit in Cambodia while I’m here but I’ll have to see. I’ve been told I can do the main bits in a few days- Like go to the tombs where Lara Croft was filmed- that would be immense. Anyway, after satay, we separated off for more food and 6 of us managed to squeeze into the Chinese restaurant- was good. Georgie, Catherine and I then headed to the Hyatt to meet Penelope cause she had a parcel for Georgie. We had to meet her in the Chinese restaurant inside and she asked us to pull up a chair. She’s always really nice and asks us how we’re getting on etc. Got a feeling I may have annoyed her about the whole getting time off for Sarawak thing, but I really hope she’s ok about it. Next thing we knew, the staff were singing “Happy Birthday” and bringing out a cake- turned out to be Penelope’s birthday. We were like “no way are we gate crashing your birthday”. But she said it was fine and that we should have some cake. Of course we obliged- only to find out that it was durian flavour (sick flavour)- was absolute hurl material. I had to use all of my will power to take one mouthful. Luckily, while no one was looking, I slyly swapped plates with Cathrine, who’s a durian fan and all was well. When Penelope discovered it was Durian flavour she commended us on our politeness to have eaten it. We then headed back to meet everyone at BB café and got the drinks in. Was banter just sitting talking about everyone’s travels and I got on really well with Sarah, Rupert and Gustaf. Later on we headed to “BED” (after nicking about 20 vouchers each from NBC to give us 15% of drinks- mwaha). We used pretty much all of them and had an amazing night. Jade hit the red bull (Asian style) and oh my, it showed. She was as hyper as a headless chicken on helium. Was so funny cause after the crazy band played on stage, we all got up on the speakers and started dancing. Georgie befriended the DJ and we got pretty much everything we requested. A Malay song then came on and all of the Malay guys got up on another part of the stage and started doing this special dance along to it. Rupert and Gustaf joined in on stage and was soo funny cause they took forever to pick it up. Was like watching the Full Monty without the strippage. The crowd were loving it. One group of Malay’s had a bottle of Scottish Whisky- I was like- ledges! To top it off, we found cake!! As soon as we arrived, these transsexual looking guys started chatting to us (fancied the pants off Rupert and Gustaf) and half way through the night we spotted more cake- we were like “ahhh!!” and it turned out to be the transsexuals so we all got a bit. Don’t think I actually ate any though. We planned on going somewhere else after the club closed but we were all so busy nattering away that we ended up just chatting as we headed back to NBC. Jade and Madlen hit the Sunday market to get some freshly made pancakes at about 4.30am but I didn’t quite make it there. We all got to sleep at a ridiculous time and at about 5am Rupert declared that he was climbing Mount Kinabalu in the morning, leaving at 7.30am. I was like- “You’re joking”. But he had it booked and everything and in the morning when we all got up, he was gone. Don’t hava Scooby how he’s gona manage that one! We got up far to early and lazed about for a bit. I couldn’t really decide what to do with myself. We ended up going to book the mountain for a weekend in May but they said the accommodation (cause u have to book accommodation on the mountain cause u stop half way up) was fully booked until August. Which is b******s cos Sarah and Rupert only arrived on Friday and they managed to book it. Anyway. After that we booked Little Italy for next weekend cause there’s gona be about 20 of us there to welcome the 2 new gappers- can’t wait!! I then bought Braveheart to show the kids in my “Scottish Week”- pretty crap I know but I’m sure they’ll love it. Then headed back to NBC, all watched the OC and steadily everyone started to leave- only 4 of us left. Gustaf and the American girl then had to rush off to catch a flight to Bankok. Was so weird saying bye to them. Only knew Gustaf for like a weekend but he was a smart dude. I said I’d def visit Sweden to go snowboarding some time. Shame we didn’t get to say bye to Rupert cos he was a ledge too. Anyways, Sarah and I then headed out for dinner to the Chinese place again and I hit the road soon after to go back to the school. Looks like Sarah’s gona meet me on the East coast and travel with us for the week. Once back at school, me and Aman caught up on each others gossip. She had visited the centre where the deaf camp’s going to be held and she said it’s much more modern than she expected and really nice, so that’s good. There’s also a fab view of the mountain, fresh air etc. The beast graced our presence again last night- zooming through our window- with its high pitched squeal. We’d had enough this time. Aman sprayed it big time with bug spray and the pain staking noise it made was unreal. It screeched sooo loud, like it was in absolute agony and convulsed repeatedly- was horrible. We managed to brush it outside and its screech continued for about ½ hr. Was nasty. I was still knackered from sat night so hit the hay pretty early last night. Didn’t have classes this morning so had a nice sleep in. Gona update the GAP notice board, and help Aman with the preparation for the Deaf camp, so better go.