I finally had to leave Thailand for good as my visa expired :-(. So I headed down to Kuala Lumpur on a 24 hr bus journey!! Kuala Lumpur was a bit of a shock at first after spending so long on the Thai Islands, but once I hit the shopping centers I soon loved the place!! We did a trip up the KL Towers as well to see the view of the city and surrounding areas.

After 2 nights I caught a flight to Kota Kinabalu in Sabah, Borneo. Unfortunately it was the end of ramadan here so everything was pretty much closed, so I caught an early morning bus the next day to Sepilok. I stayed at an amazing guesthouse called Jungle Resort which was set in the most beautiful surroundings. A short walk down the road from the guesthouse was the orangutan center where I saw loads of gorgeous orangutans. I also did a jungle walk here and got a leech attached to my foot...some poor guy had to help me get it off!!!

After sepilok I went on Uncle Tans jungle safari in the lower Kinabatagan Valley. It was a 3 day, 2 night adventure where we stayed in sort of raised cage/hut things in the middle of the jungle...we were caged and the animals were free!! The camp was really basic with no showers and squat toilets, but the food and company was great. You also got attacked by Macaques (annoying little monkeys) if we wondered round the camp with food and you had to make sure you locked your door properly or they end up trashing the place!!

Over the 3 days we did loads of day and night river safaris and day and night jungle treks. We saw loads of wildlife including crocodiles, proboscis monkeys, hornbills, kingfishers, frogs, snakes, scorpions, wild boars, spiders, owls, civet cats and loads more!! Check out the picture of me holding a giant scorpion we found on one of the night treks!!

After 3 days I was very much in need of a shower, so we headed down to Semporna. We only stayed here one night before catching the boat over to Mabul Island. We stayed in 'long house' style accommodation, which are houses on stilts over the sea. I did 9 dives on the island of Sipidan which is rated in the top 10 dive sights in the world...it was absolutely amazing!! The diving on thailand was nothing compared to here!! I dived with massive turtles, white tip reef sharks, grey reef sharks (some of which were huge!) and the coral was breath taking. I also did a couple of dives on Mabul, but it didn't compare to Sipidan.

On the last day on Mabul, we met a guy who was staying there for a few days, but had already paid for a 5* hotel in Kota Kinabalu which he obviously wasn't going to be using, so he gave me and Kate (who I was travelling with) the details. So after a night bus back to KK, we found ourselves staying in a luxury 5* hotel...for FREE!! We had a few days here before catching a flight to Kuching in Sarawak, so we did a day trip up to the Northern Tip of Borneo. On the way we visited a bee farm, a gong making factory and a traditional style long house before hitting the northern coast.

After landing in Kuching, we got the bus straight to the Bako National Park. We stayed here for 1 night and did some more jungle trekking, although it was so hot it was really hard work!! Bako had some stunning scenery, amazing beaches and loads of wildlife.

After a night of roughing it, we headed back to Kuching which is a really nice city with a great nightlife - it seemed to be ladies night everynight where we had free drinks!! We also visited another orangutan sanctuary here and saw even more orangutans.