Borneo is a small jungle island stradling the equator and divided between three countries: Brunei, Malaysia (Provinces of Sabah and Sarawak) and Indonesia (Province of Kalimantan). We chose Borneo for its jungle, orangutang sanctuary, proboscis monkeys (only found in Borneo) and snorkeling/diving options. We arrived at Kota Kinabalu airport in Sabah at 7pm and were immediately hit with a wall of hot humid air. The forecast was 30C and about 90% relative humidity and it stayed like that ALL night. In the words of Axel Rose, "Welcome to the jungle!"
We spent our first day exploring Kota Kinabalu. The city is a thin 3km long strip along the north-west coast of the South China Sea and is much more developed than we expected. There are several highly air conditioned malls filled with stores like Coach, Esprit, H&M and Nike, well established infrastructure, traffic laws appear to all be obeyed and nicely paved roads. After being in China for two months, everything seems so quiet and orderly. We caught ourselves cutting lines and shuffling through crowds which you have to do in China to survive but here we just got odd stares.
Tom has always wanted to scuba dive and was determined to get certified here so that he can take advantage of all the great dive locations in South East Asia. I, on the other hand, have always refused to scuba dive but when Tom was signing up I decided that I should at least try it out. So I signed up for the Discover Suba class, which allowed me to take the first morning of the Open Water course with him and if I really enjoyed it I could just switch to the full Open Water course. Well I'm glad I tried because I can now say with certainty that I am NOT a diver. I spent the rest of my day snorkeling instead.
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| Underwater selfie. |
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| So many schools of fish. |
Tom, on the other hand, who is super excited about diving woke up on his first day of his course with a sinus cold! He was unable to complete the course because of his cold so he spent the afternoon wandering the jungle and found a few friends.
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| The jungle... |
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| Lizard! |
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| What are you looking at? |
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| He was not happy... |
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| Just noticed the little guy on the flower! |
After a few days of recovering though Tom is now a PADI certified diver!
During our last few weeks in China, I repeatedly declared that I wanted to be on a quiet tropical beach where I can swing in a hammock and enjoy solitude. Well, I got want I wanted! Tom found this place in Lonely Planet that was described as a small rustic resort only accessible by boat called Mañana. We booked 3 nights in a beach villa which turned out to be steps from the ocean (literally 2m away from the high-tide line) with two hammocks on the front porch; perfect!
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| Our abode. |
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| Not a bad view from our bed! |
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| Why hello there! The beach with filled with these little busy crabs. |
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| Aw palm trees.... |
The only downside was the weather. The waves were really big (from what I understand it's usually waveless...) and we had several storms hit us during our stay. The storms would hit us first with a strong blast of wind followed a minute later with torrential downpour. It was all very exciting but still relaxing. Although laying on the beach working on my tan wouldn't have been too bad either ;)
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| Storm approaching... |
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| Storm landed! |
The most exciting part of our stay was our boat ride to the resort. We expected to take a boat from the village pier and then arrive at a boat launch. Turns out because of the waves we had to walk out to the boat, which was not too bad because the water was knee deep. But when we arrived at the resort it was much more of an adventure. Our driver anchored the front of the boat and then reversed so that the boat was as close to shore as possible. He then threw a rope out to the biggest guy in the ground crew who wrapped the rope around himself and stood in chest deep water getting beaten by the waves to steady the boat! Tom was the first to jump out the back and went in over his head, then as he was getting to the beach was hit hard with another wave! I was next and went right in over my head as well. Then it was our big bags filled with all our stuff including two tablets, a new DSLR camera and an iphone that all do not like the water. I looked away as my bag was handed to this small Malay man in chest deep water holding it above his head. Happy to say that both bags made it!!! I see a dry bag purchase in our future...
We've also been enjoying all the new food options! Fish, seafood, coconuts and curries abound.
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| Love coconut water! |
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| Curried fish. |
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| Three flavour fish (sweet, sour & spicy). |
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| Deep fried shrimp in a salty batter. |
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| Nasi Lemak (rice, fried chicken, hard boiled egg, peanuts, dried sardines, sambal sauce, cucumber & papadum). |
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| Roti canai stuffed with chicken and curry dipping sauce. Iced kopi susu on the side. |
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| Bah Kut Teh (Pork in an incredibly flavourful broth). |
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