Hello everyone! And a happy new year to all of you!

I have now arrived in Thailand (Bangkok) where I will be spending a couple of weeks before heading of to Cambodia on my second Intrepid tour. The tour will take me through Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos into northern Thailand and will last 39 days. But that's the future. What has been going on so far?

Well, I think my last blog entry was Semporna and in there, I haven't really told you what I did before I got there (which I still need to do) but I shall start with what happened since. After having dived for three days, with the last day diving in Sipadan (top three dive site in the world apparently), Harriet and I left the sharks, turtles and other fish behind to travel to Tawau. Tawau was much more welcoming than Semporna ever felt, more open and inviting and people wouldn't keep staring at you even though you had a different skin colour. But at as it was really at the end of the world (a one way road leads to Tawau), night life is certainly not what we had experienced so far. We had difficulties finding somewhere to eat on the night time (at around 8pm) and it took us an hour to find a restaurant that was still open!

The next morning we were getting up early to take our trip by 4WD to Kenningau. The 4WD operate on a 'once it's full, it leaves' basis. So we thought we better turn up early to make sure that we get on the first one that leaves. We got there by 8am and were fourth and fifth person, so we just needed to get three more (as the driver wanted to take 8 people across). We waited, and waited, and waited and two more people turned up but it was approaching 10:30 by which time my patience ran out. I approached the driver and asked him if we paid him half the fair for the outstanding passenger would he be prepared to leave now. He didn't really understand what I was on about but when I got my money out, showed him and said leave now? He was happy to leave. Finally, result!

The journey to Kenningau was rough at best, at some point we thought we were going to slide off the "road" (which wasn't really one) because the muck was God knows how deep and there was not 'road surface' whatsoever! But after a gruelling 10hours journey we finally made it to Kenningau and found somewhere to sleep although it was slightly above our budget but I just didn't care anymore at that point. Harriet and I were so tired that we decided to go to bed immediately not just try to find somewhere to eat after the long search the night before.

The next day we had to get to Tenom where Sabah's only railway line stops. We arrived there in good time (after some difficulties in finding the bus station as there were at least five different stations, nobody spoke English and everybody just kept pointing in one direction, at least the same, when I asked them in my basic Malay for where the bus to Tenom would leave). We thought at some point that I may have got my phrases wrong and they were telling us how to walk to Tenom!!!! But thankfully, I didn't get it wrong and we found the mini-bus station in the end. Two hours later and we arrived in Tenom, a very small town, which you can walk around in about 30mins. But everybody was very friendly and although these people probably hardly ever see any tourists, they didn't stare at us, which was nice for a change. In the afternoon we went to the botanical garden, which was meant to be outstanding, and it was (photos to follow shortly). But the most memorable bit were the mosquito bites we got (over twenty on each leg!!!!) as we forgot to put any repellent on. Ah well, you live and learn. We had dinner in the "Jolly food" restaurant. Quite funny really as there was no menu, you just got what was on tonight's specials! It was really nice and we enjoyed it.

The next morning we were taking the 8am train to Beaufort, a scheduled 2hour journey. We got to the station (or what we thought was the station) in plenty of time and just waited. It was a bit strange that there were no other people waiting for the train with us until a local pointed out to us that this was the new station and it wasn't yet opened. He pointed us towards the real station. We would have never guessed that this shack was a railway station! I don't know where they got their trains from but it must have been the Wild West about 50 years ago! Nothing like anything I have ever seen and I have seen a few trains! The train journey itself took us through beautiful countryside and 4hours later (!) we arrived at Beaufort after passing several "Dead slow" signs. Not sure what that was meant to mean and if I should started to get worried. Hmmmm......

From Beaufort we headed straight off to KK and then further to Kota Belud where giant 'tamu' (market) takes place every Sunday. The hotel in Kota Belud (the only one) was a complete disaster but we managed to get a clean room to ourselves in the end. Staff was so unhelpful that it would have been more useful to ask the Christmas tree in the corner! Anyway, the next morning we got to the market, which was effectively a bigger version of the one in KK and strolled around for a couple of hours before heading back to KK.

From KK we headed further south to Kinarut, where we had booked three nights at a beach resort over New Year, just to relax and unwind before Harriet was flying back. The "Seaside Travellers Inn" was really nice and we managed to top up our tan successfully. Unfortunately, my luck run out and I caught traveller's diarrhoea on New Year's Eve and had to go and see a doctor once back in KK on 2nd of January. Everything is back to normal now and I am feeling in top shape. Went sightseeing yesterday, saw the lying Buddha, the Emerald Buddha, the standing Buddha and lots of other ones and went to the night market near LumbiniPark, which is huge! When our feet (I teamed up with a girl called Katie who happened to arrive in Bangkok the same day as me) couldn't take anymore, we decided to have a pampering foot massage for 1 hour! And it cost us, uhhhh, less than 4 pounds! Ah, this was really good. Today is a new day and we are heading off to the shops, trying to find some clothes and a new (better) camera. So, ta ta for now, I'll post the outstanding photos as soon as I get the chance. Hopefully hear from you soon. And don't forget, keep smiling!

Yvonne
x