So I arrived in Kota Kinabalu - Borneo woohoo!! Departing the plane to find Bronwen at the other end awaiting my arrival was fab and we quickly found a cab and headed to our hostel for the next couple of days. After dropping our bags off we headed off to find the 'backpacker' scene in other words bars, we strolled along the waterfront and past some exciting night markets serving loads of seafood until we found an Irish bar and several others along the front. Suffice to say no other backpackers were found and the drinks were really expensive so there and then we decided Borneo would be a detox with no alcohol.

The next day we catched a bus to the Monsopiad cultural village where the seventh descendants of a head hunter now lived and educated people about the culture. We started by watching some traditional dancing before heading for our free treadional lunch of chicken porridge (not as gross as it sounds the porridge is actually rice) and rice wine which we didnt realise was 50% proof tasted like pure vodka (it was free so doesnt count as breaking detox!!) Next we headed to the house of skulls where all the skulls of the head hunters enemies hung along the walls a bit creepy but interesting before heading off to play some traditional games including using a sling shot and blowing darts out of a tube. Once the tour was finished we waited on the bus to come back in the middle of nowhere we thought we would never find our back but luckily after about 30 mins we were rescuesd yay!! We got back to the hostel that evening and were discussing our plans after my upcoming tour was finished when I decided to go to...............................Cambodia for 10 days!! See I can be spontaneous lol so that evening I booked my flights whilst liasing with Bronwen when she was gonna be there the whole time I was stressing with dates etc and Bronwen was laughing the whole time - thanks dahling!! The detox quickly ended that evening when two of the guys in the hostel who had just come back from their climb up Mt Kota Kinabalu bought a bottle of cranberry vodka and shared it amongst the group. We ended up staying up late and sharing travelling stories amongst us and some Brit guys who lived in Oz who showed up that evening - one of which checked out the next morning at 4am and Steve the scouser who just got drunk and had good banter with.

The plan for the next day was for Bronwen and I to go island hopping however it was really overcast so we decided that Bron would start looking into what she would be doing after I left on my tour that next day - its a good fit with my OCD and Bronwens ability not to plan or panic lol. So off we set me, Bron, Steve and another Steve (I will call him Oz Steve for ease) who checked in that day who happens to be on the same tour as me (small world) and walked to the bus stop to sit out onward travel and stopped along the way for a gorgeous curry and then a VERY long walk around the town to kill some time. It was to turn out to be a very lazy but enjoyable day as afterwards we headed back to the hostel and watched Chronicles of Narnia followed by a massive fresh fish dinner by the waterfront, as I mentioned earlier alcohol is majorly expensive in Borneo so we went to the local shop and bought an assortment of random flavoured spirits to take back to the hostel for mine and Bronwens last night together where we once again all swapped stories and listened to music before I went to bed around 2am. I later learned that Bronwen and scouser Steve stayed up until 5:30am and went straight to the bus station heading to Sandakan, just currently hoping they dont fall asleep on the bus and miss their stops, good luck guys :)

Today I am heading off to meet the rest of the tour group at a nearby hotel with Oz Steve in tow where we will start the next stage of the Borneo tour hopefully loads of adventure to tell you about next time :)