Malaysian Borneo. Sabah. Kota Kinabalu - Sabah's capital city was our first stop, and our first insight into this jungle clad part of Malaysia. I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting, KK is a capital city after all, well developed - our hotel was in amidst a brand new shopping centre for God's sake! Our first day was spent settling in, acquainting ourselves with the shopping centre, (it would be rude not to), and arranging our next few nights accommodation. We had planned to stay in the city for two nights, however our hotel was fully booked the following night - no problem, we would get a night bus to our next destination.
Before booking our bus tickets, we made a stop off in town to visit the handicraft market, which apparently boasts gorgeous textiles and jewellery. Great we thought, plenty to see, and perhaps some haggling to be done. We were sorely disappointed. Hundreds of stalls all crammed under one roof, all selling identical goods, it makes me wonder how any of them make a living. It seems absurd. Another thing struck me too, not one of them attempted a sale or tried to capture our interest, which was a world away from the hassle and brazen sellers in Vietnam.
Walking away empty handed, our experience as we got out of the taxi at the bus terminal couldn't have been more different. As we drew to a halt, around twenty men descended on the car, knocking on windows and opening the doors. It was quite an experience. As we emerged, we could barely hear ourselves think, as their yells and shouts grew louder and louder, each man hoping we would follow them in the hope they would get some commission from our sale. We firmly but politely declined their help, and as far as we were aware we weren't ripped off.

The following day we visited a beautiful offshore island named Mamukan, which is part of a group of four other islands, and together they form Tunku Abdul Rahman National Park.

A hop, skip and a speed boat, and we had arrived. The first thing I noticed as we walked along the jetty was the hundreds of fish below us in the water. They were amazing, and the water incredibly clear. Snorkelling wasn't necessary when they were so easy to marvel from above. From tiny electric blue fish, black and white striped fish, brightly coloured rainbow fish to larger thin long fish, and dozens of species in-between.
We thoroughly enjoyed our relaxing by the beach, and swimming amongst the fish, and finally the sun shone beautifully for us for most of the day. No we just had our six hour long bus journey to look forward to.

Back at the bus station, we were again hounded by touts, although they soon backed off when they realised we already had tickets. However, a few still seemed intent on helping us with our luggage, which did worry us slightly, as they simply hoisted our bags onto a bus, and we had no idea whether it was the right one. Climbing aboard, we saw regular seats, and a pretty shabby interior all round. Once again, we were sorely disappointed, and it seems we have been spoilt by using the VIP buses in Thailand. The seats were small and cramped, and there was barely any room for our knees, let alone the rest of our legs. The chairs did recline slightly, however this barely impacted on the already limited leg room. I just about managed to finish the book I was reading before the lights were switched off. Just as my ipod battery was about to die, 'Night at the Museum' came on the TV - great, I had wanted to see this film. It wasn't a promising start, when for the first twenty minutes, they hadn't noticed that the sound was off. When they did bother to turn it up, it was so quiet that I had to strain to hear anything. Immediately I gave up and tried to sleep. It was impossible, it was just so uncomfortable, and it wasn't helped by the girl sat opposite, who insisted on talking, loudly throughout the entire journey. And when she wasn't talking she was singing to herself. Loudly. I perhaps managed half an hour of broken sleep, which was very rudely awakened by deafening music. The driver had obviously thought it was one am in a nightclub, not on a night bus with the lights off, whilst the passengers attempted sleep. He obviously had favourite songs, as he kept repeating or skipping as he saw fit.

To pass the rest of the journey I watched the relentless lightening which illuminated the sky every few seconds for the remainder of the journey. It was quite spectacular, I've never seen such ferocious lightening and as such a frequency. The time passed slowly, but we arrived around two am, and took a taxi to our hotel, where we finally managed a good nights sleep.