After our Sarawak adventures, we decided it was time to move on and check out what the rest of Borneo had to offer. We jumped aboard yet another plane (our carbon footprint is getting pretty big now!) and headed for Kota Kinabalu in Sabah.
After a slightly turbulent flight (Tom was not happy) we headed into the city centre. Kota Kinabalu itself is nothing really to shout about, another sprawling city which stretches for miles along the coastline. After dropping off our bags, the heavens opened and the streets became a sea of water. Not really ideal weather for exploring! Feeling tired and a bit homesick, we decided to skip yet another meal of noodles and rice and treat ourselves to a tasty Italian dinner. Oh pasta how I have missed you! A glass of wine would've made the meal perfect but our measly budget would not stretch that far :(
During breakfast the following morning, we got chatting to a Dutch couple about their travels. Turns out they were pretty much doing the same trip as us, but in reverse. They had been travelling through China and the phillipines but also in New Zealand, for eight weeks, exactly the same time we have planned.
After chatting away over our 'luxurious' breakfast of mini bananas and toast, from that moment on we would be pretty much inseperable for the next few days. For four days we explored some of the outlying islands, relative paradises (not really on a par with the Thai islands but stunning nonetheless).
After spending the day on this tropical island we yet again met some real 'characters' This time a really loud Polish guy who was bragging how he took what he wanted from wherever he went, things that he said that HAVE to be taken if found, and if light enough.
This Polish couple were actually from Cambridge of all places and stood with me, necking back his pile of Tiger beers, whilst bragging about how little he can do in the UK and be paid a relative fortune for it. His missus then came and piped up about all of the places they have been to in the world on the back of being paid British wages. Fair play to them. He then went and spoiled my bitter understanding by diving into the water and breaking off a huge piece of coral, a highly endangered part of an otherwise precious ecosystem. I wanted to throw sand and gravel in his face but this guy just didn't grasp the meaning of protected species. Which is kind of the same for most of Asia unfortunately (not just unintelligent Poles) especially when you walk past the shark fin specialist restaurants. Oh and the turtle meat stew stalls. We've said it many tomes on this blog and it doesn't mean to be said really but animal and environmental welfare is a completely secondary notion...
Anyway from the islands the four of us went in search of traditional Malay food and found a fantastic place that created really fresh halal chicken dishes, especially the sweet and sour chicken, really thick and tasty sauce with very tender pieces of chicken. It went down really well with tea tarik, my new favourite tipple, essentially just sweet, frothy, milky tea. So good.
The next day we all arose early and headed towards Kinabulu National Park, home to mount kinabulu and almost 3000 metres above sea level. From being completely covered in sweat to shivering like a wet dog in an hour was a strange sensation. Our driver up there, a small Chinese man called Jo Kong, was definitely a character. Turns out he was a retired police sergeant and definitely had the hair to go with it. In fact I told him the whole way that I wanted hair like him, he loved it! Anyway, after a few minutes chit chat this guy was fine, after nearly two full hours of the same conversation over and over again it was painful.
Eventually old sergeant kong pulled up at a place high in the mountains called D'Vila lodge. It had the look and feel of a disused tin mine but after talking to the owners and looking at the room we all decided that despite it being as basic as basic gets, it was cheap and had everything we needed, basically a bed....
So three night we stayed up in the mountains with our new Dutch friends Arlette and Sioux. We had some amazing games of scrabble, eat some great food with the vegetables picked right from the mountainside before us and walked around the national park. Disappointingly the weather was just horrific. It rained hard for the whole time we were there, shrouding mount kinabulu, SE Asia's highest, in a thick blanket of dense fog. For us it was a pain in the arse, for the climbers who had come from across the globe and paid literally thousands to climb the mountain for a clear view, it would be devastating.
After saying our goodbyes to our new Dutch friends we waited outside for our bus back to Kota kibabalu. The hotel staff informed us that we would just have to DIY outside the hotel and wait until a big yellow bus appeared. We waited for almost an hour in the freezing fog for a bus that when arrived was as full as was humanly possible and had the full-on whiff of a mixture of shit, piss and durian. Probably the worst combination of smells you ever could imagine. Well, maybe rotting rat would come close. We were on that bus for two hours, shell sat next to Borneo's answer to a pebble and I next to a man who insisted on grabbing onto the headrest in front of me instead of the one directly in front of him, why???
After one horrible bus journey we were then dropped unceremoniously into a bus station some miles out of town where we then had to cross two main roads with rucksacks to a waiting bus that was being driven by what looked like two ten year old boys. The bus was jam packed and had no particular route other than driving around in a random direction shouting at various passers by if they wanted to be squeezed on, which they invariably did. We were then dropped for the second time closer to the centre of town but what seemed like a rundown asda carpark. We were pointed in a particular direction which we duly followed around the maze of roads that is downtown Kota kibabalu until we reached lavender lodge, our hone for the next three nights. Another epic and ultimately challenging journey!
The next two days were then spent making sure we had everything ready for the next leg of our trip. Our voyage south to the antipodes and three and a half months spent counting every single penny, living off baked beans and self-made sandwiches. But you know what, we cannot wait.
After nearly six months spent travelling through a literal sweatbox, eating rice for every meal, drinking 10p beers, being cheered/mocked/heckled/loved/smiled (delete where appropriate) at or all of the above in the space of a day. Having to learn the (unlearnable) art of an Asian road crossing, getting used to squatting to go to the toilet, then learning to love it. Making friends for life from the four corners of Europe half way across the world. Learning to laugh when you arrive ill-prepared and without the slightest grasp of the local language at 6am on the morning in the pouring rain. And last and definitely not least, coming to the dawning realisation that here, here amongst the carnage and the anarchy, the noise and the grime, here is where the future lies. And what a future that could be. I for one, want in....
Much love, Tommo & Shell xxx
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