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Kota Kinabalu National Park

11 October

Caught the public bus heading to Kota Kinabalu. About 2 hours out and in the middle of nowhere, there was a Police roadblock. They got on the bus and checked everybody's ID. They removed four people and took them away and we drove off!There was another one about 2 hours later but we got waved through that. The road was being seriously upgraded and we drove for long stretches on unmade rubble. They showed a Tom Cruise film with Eng subtitles, which suited me. At one tiny stilted village along the way loads of locals, women and children, got on the bus to sell bits of food. It was quite an experience altogether. At lunchtime we stopped at the closest Borneo comes to a service area-a café on the roadside complete with mangy dogs, broken down trucks and toilets that defy description. Paul made a visit but I had decided before we even left the hotel that morning that I wouldn't drink anything at all to avoid my worst nightmare! We got off three hours before KK at the entrance to the National Park and neither of us could believe it when I managed to smack my head on the screen hanging down from the roof of the bus as I got off. I had been sat looking at it for most of the last 5 hours thinking how incredible it was that nobody ever walked into it on the way to the loo! Checked in for our last stop. Much cooler and that was so welcome.

12 October

Joined an orientation walk in the morning. Realised that the whole park is set up for the people who want to climb Mount Kinabalu and that very little organisation goes into the rest! We set off in the afternoon to walk one of the medium length tracks. It was relentlessly steep and thick, deep mud nearly all the way to the top where little sense of achievement left us slightly grumpy so we decided to walk back along the park road rather than down a similar track. Treated ourselves to a cheap ice cream having learned that the only way we were ever going to get back to KK airport to fly out was by chartering a private taxi for the 2 and a half hour journey!! No public bus would get us there in time for our 3pm flight to S'pore. I thought I'd allowed plenty of time when I booked it. Heh ho, everything else had worked out for us and we just had to accept one glitch.

13 October

Much better trail this morning with great view from the top. Lazy middle of the day before heading to the Botanical Gardens. Well thought out garden with great collection of orchids and pitcher plants. Spent a jolly hour scrubbing our footwear ready for the New Zealand Ministry of Clean Boots who make the Thought Police seem like Tom and Jerry! Packed and went for last Malaysian meal. We'll miss so much but we need clean clothes. Our packs stink and our walking gear stands up on its own. No use washing anything here as the humidity means it absolutely NEVER, EVER dries.

Final thoughts

As we come to the end of our time in Borneo, what memories and thoughts will we take away? We have found a people generous of spirit, genuinely keen to please and with a great sense of fun. This is a tolerant society with no obvious sign of racial or religious tension, refreshingly uplifting. We have found them willing to discuss the personal details of their daily lives and they take pride in their achievements. Health care and education is freely available and appreciated. This is a young country, which is both dependent on Kuala Lumpur and also fiercely independent of it. The two states retain considerable autonomy and Brunei sits between them, having refused all along to join in. The largest part of Borneo is Indonesian and poor. This causes problems for the control of immigration as work on the myriad palm oil plantations is a big draw for itinerant workers with no other means of income. These huge corporations promise much but deliver little. Many officials in power are in their pockets.

Mention must be made of the mountains of paperwork generated by the simplest transaction. Duplicates and triplicates of everything, all written in copperplate writing and stamped many times over on tiny pieces of paper have been a frustrating part of life. They have computers but rarely use them for anything other than email. Just getting the paperwork together to prove you are allowed to have breakfast has made us giggle many times! We were given a refund once as a small guided walk was cancelled. We produced the little receipt we had been given which was then placed carefully over the original copy kept in the book at the park office and a ruler was picked up, lovingly placed over the one line on the receipt relating to that walk (amongst many) and a beautifully straight line was put through the entry. Then a whole screed of why it had been cancelled and the fact that we had been given our money back was squashed in to a space so small it would have tried the skills of an artist specialising in miniatures. Finally we were handed 10 Ringitts-£2. In some ways I wish we had said not to bother but in other ways it was just amazing to watch and it seemed important to them that we were reimbursed.

The land has a staggeringly rich and varied biodiversity but this is clearly under severe threat as the destruction of the rainforest continues relentlessly. The plight of the orang utans seems to sum up the work to be done. Act quickly or the very nature of what makes Borneo so unique will be lost forever. Finding the balance between improving standards of living and maintaining all that is so precious is delicate and requires significant wisdom from governments as well as the support of the population as a whole. Standing here at this point in time we would say that battle may already be lost despite huge efforts from ecologists and other passionate groups. Visit now!