Sabah

We left Brunei with boat to a duty free island called Labuan. We spent an evening there, strolling the streets and eating cupcakes. The next morning we took a boat ride to Kota Kinabalu, the biggest city of Sabah. The ride was pleasent and we spent the hours watching Korean pop music and nanny McPhee. We checked into a guest house called Lucy's when we arrived. She locked us up in the evenings and slept with the key. A nice place, but quite hazardous if a fire would break out. James visited a friend that was on board a cruise ship that was in town. Sloppy, the girl and I went out to see if we could arrange a mount Kinabalu trip. Unfortunately it was a public holiday and the travel agencies were closed. Instead we wandered off to the bay and mall. We played some games at the arcade and had waffles.

Early in the morning the second day we headed up Kinabalu national park. We got up to a nice lodge in the mountain side with a nice view and fresh air. Being limited by time and funds, we arranged for a one-day trip to the summit of the mountain for the next day. The first day we only strolled around the foot of the mountain until the skies opened and the rain pored down on us. We spent the rest of this day in the little museum they had there, looking at some huge insects. Half an hour in the museum shop, mocking Rainman shopping gay hats was also fun. In the evening we were resting at the lodge, reading books and watching The Voice.

In the morning at seven o'clock we showed up at the park and got ourselves a couple of guides. We started walking up to the base camp. It was quite steep and we spent an average of thirty minutes per kilometer. When we got to the base camp it started raining a lot. Trying to get to the summit proved too difficult and dangerous. At 7.5 kilometer the guide advised to stop, and five minutes later, the park ranger called him and ordered him to stop. The last kilometers are quite steep and one has to hold a rope. The rain started to flood the mountain side and it got slippery. The rope wasn't the best under these conditions either. Walking there was probably one of the scariest things I've done so far on my trip. Gutted by not reaching the top, we walked down again four hours. We were cold, wet, tired and disappointed, but it had been a massive day. Looking back some days later, it was actually very nice, although we failed to reach the top. The view was stunning when we were able to see through the mist. And watching the clouds and mist flow over the tops was also cool.

A taxi driver picked us up the next day and took us to the hot springs. We had a canopy walk first and then splashed around in the pools. The water was boiling hot and I was only able to put my feet into that water. The time had come to move on. We jumped into a bus that took us to Sepilok. While James slept with his head comfortably on a poor Malayan's shoulder, Amir and I were laughing our asses off. We enjoyed watching pictures from messy nights in Bangkok, and when the girl behind us bursted out in laughter, we understood we weren't the only ones looking at these images. It was dark when we arrived in Sepilok and on the way to our hostel, we saw a snake road kill which was quite cool.

After sleeping one night, we went to see some orangutans at the local sanctuary. This was our last full day together and we spent it playing table tennis and pool. In pitch black darkness, Amir, a staff member and I went biking to get some last tiger beers. It was a nice ending and I beat James in every game we played. Good for my self esteem. We were also hanging out with a Canadian girl, and since Rainman had lifted his ban, she was allowed to sit with us. She gave me some insight to Korea and ticket prices and essentially made me add Korea and Japan to my itinerary. The next morning we had a last breakfast together and then I said good bye to the girl and the boys. Three great months travelling together, all the way from Chiang Mai, had come to an end. I was alone again, but it wouldn't be for long.

Tobben, a Swede that had showed up, and I played some games of table tennis before we hit the jungle with a crew of fifteen or so. Among them were a couple of great English as well, a mother and son. The mother beat me in table tennis, the son crushed me in badminton. After a van and river boat ride, we were at uncle Tan's camp in the middle of the jungle. It was a really cool place, with a muddy football pitch, badminton net and a network of huts. We played a bit of football and then the first of the safaris started. We had morning, evening and night safaris, both in boats and on land. It was really cool and we saw a huge python crawling down from a monkey tree, scorpion, spiders, long nose monkeys, macaques, lizards, birds, eagles, leopard car, civet, orangutans and other things. It's the most wildlife I've seen so far. After three days I headed back to the hostel. A German girl that I met at the camp and a couple of Danish kept me company. The guest house had everything I needed and I stayed there three days planning my trip to the Philippines. I was ready to start a new adventure!

Photos:

https://picasaweb.google.com/111895625193387647956/20120209Sepilok?authkey=Gv1sRgCPDU3rvOiubrsAE

https://picasaweb.google.com/111895625193387647956/20120214SepilokJungleCamp?authkey=Gv1sRgCOm1jJTZvoSB4QE