Just when we thought Chinese New Year was over..... we found it all over again in Kota Kinabalu! 

KK is the capital of Sabah a Malaysian State in the Island of Borneo. We flew in, courtesy of Air Asia, and enjoyed two days at a bit slower pace. 

Eating and drinking is fairly inexpensive and in the evenings we went out looking and found live music. An amazing performance troupe presented a very acrobatic version of the New Year lion dance that involved high platforms for the "lion" to prance on.

During the day we ventured into a large multi level shopping mall and found quite a few different "lions" bringing good luck to the various shops. Seems a bit like Santa really - the way there can be more than one...... We very gamely ate Laksa for around $2A in the food hall with not a Westerner in sight.

After our two days in the city, we boarded an early morning mini van to take us up into the mountains, ready for our big mountain climbing adventure. Stay tuned.....