We were met by Mariana (Jane's friend) at Kota Kinabalu airport and headed back to her home which has amazing views of the city, the sea and the mountain from the top of a hill. Mariana kindly let us stay with her whilst we visited Borneo. That evening she cooked us roast chicken, with real homemade roast potatoes- yummy!! The following day was a public holiday (one of many apparently!) We woke up early and Mariana drove us to the nature park office on Mount Kinabalu, the start of the mountain climb (which we didn't do!!) The mountain is only visible in the morning as the clouds roll in by about 9am each day. We were lucky to see it all along the mountain drive, which had amazing scenery, but unfortunately it was covered by the time we reached the centre.

We travelled the next day to Kota Kinabatangan for two nights we stayed in a nature lodge by the river in the forest. This included very early morning (6am) and afternoon cruises to spot animals along the river; and very muddy walks through the jungle both at night and in the day. We managed to just about avoid the rains which seemed to stop just before activities, and then tip it down again after! We were really lucky to get upgraded from the dorm rooms to our own chalet with a private bathroom, for only an extra 6 pound each. The food was nothing to write home about- but a recent visit to a supermarket that stopped imported choccie biccies kept us sustained. On our trip we saw lots of long tail macaques, loads of proboscis monkeys (which have really long noses and only live in Borneo), lots of tropical bird, a crocodile, and one orangutan on our very last cruise. Unfortunately the photos are not great- really needed a bigger lens for the camera.

From here we headed to Semporna, and Sipadan island- rated as the number two best dive site in the world, and it definitely lived up to it. We did 6 dives over two days and saw probably hundreds of turtles, sharks, huge schools of big eyed travalley and barracudas (that circled in what looked like a tornado). There were beautiful coral gardens with countless colourful fish swimming through them. The island itself was beautiful- beautiful white sand and bright blue water. From the beach you can walk out to about head height, and then there is a drop off- which is a wall underwater that goes down to about 800m deep. The water went from the brightest blue we'd ever seen to the darkest blue. It was amazing- never seen anything like it.

Yesterday we went to a resort which participates in the government run orangutan rehabilitation project. We saw three baby orangutans that lived in a jungle reserve, only coming to human contact at feeding times. They were all orphans, and will eventually be released back into the wild. They were so cute although slight show-offs! Obviously I now want to relocate permentantly to Borneo, become a vet and work at the centre!

Today we return to KL. We have a few days there, and a few days in Singapore. Before flying to Australia next Monday.