Apa khabar?

Well it's been a while since I've had the chance (or energy, more like..) to update my blog, so brace yourselves people, this is gonna be a long one!

I've been busy having the time of my life, but also having a tough time. I'll start with the bad stuff and move on to the good, just like I did in real life: It all started with me breaking my underwater camera and burning my entire backside while snorkeling in Tunku Abdul Rahman park, as I believe I wrote in my previous entry.I thought burning my back was horrible, but turns out that was actually fun compared to the mountain..

By the time I reached Kinabalu park headquarters to start my climb, my entire back was covered in blisters.Now blisters don't actually hurt but when you put on a backpack and do something idiotic like,say, climb a mountain, the feeling you get is less than nice that's all I'm saying..The way up the mountain starts with a very deceiving walk downhill, which gives you the impression of a leisurely stroll in cool mountain air. WRONG. I was starting to feel the strain after half a kilometer (it was 6km to the overnight point), and it didn't get any easier after that I'm afraid..But even after getting bitten by a squirrel (yep..) at one of the resting points and really struggling to keep going I was still (trying) to stay positive, and thought to myself it could be worse, I mean at least it wasn't raining,right? Cue the rain. And this wasn't some light drizzle, this was an angry monsoon pour!! I thought it would hack it's way through the roof of the shelter.. When the rain eased I continued my way up. I was looking like I was feeling which resulted in one of the guides cheerfully telling me No hurry,no worry (I resisted the urge to shout No power,no shower man and give him the finger). And even though I was in no hurry to die, I was a little worried I would..

After 6 hours and 15 minutes of pushing my limits i did make it to Laban Rata though, hurrah!!! Then they told me I would be staying in Gunting Ladagan which was further up still.b******s. The afternoon up there was rather nice though, we dried our soaked clothes in the sun and just relaxed.The food up there is really good too! At 02.30 I started the strenuous climb up to the summit of Mount Kinabalu. I was supposed to see the sunrise from the summit, but since my knees (and legs in general, and arms, and willpower) were giving up on me it took me a long time to reach the top, and I wasn't quite there yet when the sun came up.But I saw the sunrise AND the summit, that still counts! Anyway I was very proud of myself when I reached the top, and almost as relieved as my poor guide.

The way down to Laban Rata was the best part of the mountain experience, I actually passed people on the way!!!

My guide was immensely happy that I was finally moving at the pace of a normal person, and promised that we'd reach the headquarter in time for me to catch my bus. Unfortunately after the first few stairs it became clear to both of us that my shortlived days as a mountain gazelle were over.. I won't go into detail here as the pain is still too strong in my memory, but let's just say that it took me longer to go down than climb up, and I was holding back tears the whole way down (and a walking stick named Vincent in one hand and my by-now-desperate-to-go-home guide in the other..).Even the wonderful hot shower at the headquarter turned into terror when I realized just how badly my boots had teared open my heels.. Hot water and open sores don't mix apparently.

Obviously it took me so long to make my way down the mountain that I missed my bus and had to cough up a lot of money to get a taxi to Sepilok. My driver was very nice but didn't speak any english and drove like a lunatic.. He wasn't even that picky about which lane he was driving in, thank god there wasn't that much oncoming traffic! His wife (whom we of course picked up on the way..) spoke a little english and asked me where I was from.When I told her I'm from Finland her face lit up and she asked me whether I speak Malay then?Needless to say the conversation dried up after that.

The next morning I woke up at Uncle Tan's B&B in Sepilok, stiff as a stone pillar but happy to be still alive (I was scared that if the mountain didn't kill me the taxi ride would) and eager to see the orang utans. I went to the rehabilitation centre with Felicity, a nice kiwi girl I shared a room with, and we saw lots of orang utans and macaques having a blast with the provided bananas. After almost melting in the sun we made our way back to uncle Tan's for lunch and then headed to the jungle.

Now anyone thinking of going to the jungle in Borneo, I'm telling you to go with Uncle Tan (well he's passed away but his company is what I mean)! We saw so much, including wild orang utans, macaques, proboscis monkeys, at least 3 differnet types of kingfisher, flying foxes (hundreds of them at once), crocodiles, frogs, hornbills and storm's storks that are very rare and there are less than 500 of them in the world.Even our guides very excited to see them, and we spotted them twice! On our night trek we saw a 2-meter long Mangrove snake which was great, and one night we got to hold a poisonous scorpion which I thought was extremely cool. Go team Scorpion!

The jungle was a great experience and I'm really glad I went even though they had some really steep stairs there and kept making fun of me (stone pillar, remember?) because I walked like a 60-year old pregnant lady. I made some great friends though, and had a blast with Karin and Mia over the next few days! I tagged along with them to Sandakan and even managed to squeeze myself into their room in Turtle island, which was fully booked otherwise. We saw a huge green turtle lay her eggs in the sand, watched the ranger move the eggs to a safe spot in the hatchery, and then got to help some horribly cute baby turtles (awesome,dude) find their way to the ocean! All in all so worth the money..

After recovering for a day in Sandakan we headed to Semporna, where our paths would part and I would go to Mabul island to start my open water course at Uncle Chang's.Lot's of uncles in Borneo,eh? I started feeling very nervous on the boat to Mabul, after all I'm scared of deep water and I was by myself again. I hoped meeting my fellow students and instructor would set my mind at ease.. When I got to Mabul I saw some poor guy puking his guts out at the pier and I thought at least I was doing better than him.So I was happy until Tina & Fredrik ( I kept running into them) pointed out that the very unwell-looking guy was in fact my instructor.. He slept off his hang-over while I watched the first few of the very exciting (not) PADI videos, and then told me it was time for my first dive! I wasn't expecting it so soon and grew very nervous indeed..Until I saw Suzie (she started the course a day ahead of me) getting up on the edge of the boat and falling back-first into the sea.Then I was terrified!!! But I went ahead and did it, and it wasn't horrible.Just to let everyone know, the boat dive is introduced in chapter 4 in the PADI book, along with the back-flip thing. After the first day I was a bit worried because my ears were hurting, but the second day everything was fine and I really started to enjoy diving even though Rix made me do unpleasant stuff like taking off my mask and regulator etc. To be honest the mask thing was fine, I was used to it since it kept leaking all the time anyway (Rix kept making me laugh by singing and dancing underwater). I was still very nervous to take my test, but passed with flying colours and got the green light to dive in Sipadan the next day. It was awesome!!! We saw so much great stuff that I'm not even gonna list it here, and I truly enjoyed every one of the 3 dives there even with my mask giving me a headache, falling for the what's-that-on-your-regulator-trick, not being able to stop singing underwater and San throwing me towards a shark

I also learnt the Sipadan song, which will give me endless entertainment in the weeks to come (will be a pain for others though, I only know the chorus)!

As I was very pleased with myself for passing my course and diving in Sipadan (one of the best spots in the world,btw), and because it turned out to be St. Patrick's day, a group of us decided to "go out" and have a few drinks.We went to the next diving resort and sat at the bar by the beach. There was some Philippino rhum there, which made the night a bit foggy, but according to my pictures and our designated walker Giun we had a great time!

The next day wasn't as much fun, as the sun was merciless and we were quite tired. I really woke up while snorkeling that afternoon though, I think I managed to find 80% of the oceans microscopic jellyfish population..Outch.

When we got back to Uncle Chang's we heard that the Uncle himself had arrived,and there'd be a big party! Giun decided to stay for another night. What can I say Jen and Justin, you wish you were there!!

After making strong declarations to Anne about not drinking any more Philippino rhum ever again, Uncle Chang placed 2 bottles of the wretched stuff on our table and the night got foggy again..It was great fun though,I heard Uncle Chang shouting No power,no shower at one point and I still giggle when I think of him chasing a cockroach around my room with a sunlotion tube at 2 o'clock in the morning!!!

I was very sad to leave Mabul, I'll miss the guys even if they did make fun of me (and for the record, Akakabooto IS bloody scary!!!) and I sincerely hope Rix is gonna be there next year to guide me through my advanced open water!

Giun and I got a lift from uncle Chang which was great because we didn't have to wait for the 4 o'clock boat and could enjoy some KFC cheesy wedges before catching our bus. With full stomachs and the lyrics to the Sipadan song in hand we enjoyed a Bollywood song dvd (San if you're reading this, Shah Rukh Khan was in it,yay!!) and a nice breeze from the bus windows all the way to Tawau.

Tawau isn't a very exciting town, so we spent some serious quality time watching anime on Giun's laptop. Meru meru meeeeh!!!

I'm very sorry my time in Borneo is drawing to an end, but I'm dead excited to be heading to Oz next!!! Anyways I'll be back here next year, WHY NOT?!?!?

Should be fine.