Borneo

As a forewarning, this will be two weeks into one blog.  I'm lazy and it's easier this way.  Also, the Nan has already gone through the whole album so you can ask her.

Kota Kinabalu is the capitol of the Sabah state of Malaysia (Eastern Malaysia) and is where I started this journey.  I got into town, which is... alright and walked directly to the movies to use aircon and relax, as I was meeting a couch-surfer in the early evening to get a ride to his house.  

I spent a couple days in KK, which is a nice enough city, but all cities in Borneo lack any source of entertainment, especially at night, and thus get a little boring unless you have plans.  I took a shared taxi (read, some guys car) to Mount Kinabalu National Park, where I trudged through the rain around the grounds for a couple hours hoping to glimpse the famous peak, which sits over 14,000 feet tall and is half the heigh of Mount Everest.  The next morning offered me a good view, but also was time to take the bus across to Semporna for some Scuba diving.  I couldn't find the direct bus (there were issues as I sat on the highway trying to read the bus signs as they sped around a corner and past me) so I took a bus to Sandakan, hoping for a connection.

There wasn't one and I was stuck in t Sandakan, with no nightlife, and went to bed at 8pm.  I woke up early the next morning and got a bus to Semporna, on the southeastern part of the state.  I booked a trip for scuba for the next two days and put my name on every waiting list for Sipadan (google it).  I spent 3 days diving some of the best spots in the world, and it was amazingly fun.

After that I went back to the Sandakan area, to Sipilok to see the orangutans being rehabilitated back into the wild.  We got some good shots, but its sort of lame, just watching the come from the jungle to a feeding platform, eat and leave.  Better to find them in the wild, which is what I did next.  But not after some relaxing hours by the pool and being a complete bum.

After Sipilok, I booked a jungle river cruise for 3 days and 2 nights, where you sleep on a nature reserve and do river boat trips looking for wildlife at 6am and 4 pm, night walks at 8 pm and free time to do some kayaking through the tributaries.  It was really fun, and we saw pygmy elephants, proboscis monkeys, a sleeping shadow of an orangutan, loads of birds, a croc, etc.  These are all wild too, so it makes it much better, because you never know what you're going to see.

Then I went to Brunei, a small oil-rich country on Borneo.  It's known for having one of the richest men in the world, the Sultan, and his brother for stealing and spending billions of dollars.  It's really small, very Muslim, and doesn't allow voting or drinking. Ever.

A couple days in the capitol was enough, and I went back to Luala Lumpur, spent another couple days gathering my things and getting visas, and now I'm at the airport to Indonesia, where I start work on Monday.

Whirlwind tour of Borneo = whirlwind blog update.