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Hello from Semporna in Borneo. I am so pleasedto say that this is my last night in this little town. Don't get me wrong - as a base to go diving it is perfect and the people that I have met and spent time with (and hope to meet up with again later) have been wicked and many a good night has been had - however as a place to feel comfortable as a western girl it's hideous. I say this having just been groped by a small boy who is quite possibly no older than 12 years old. This is not the first time either. I will go into this more later....
Anyway back to KL a few weeks ago and the arrival of Charlie surrounded by about 8 men carrying surf boards clearly on their way to Bali to hit some waves! We hit the bar instead...where Charlie had her 'first beer' ever!!! I then hit bed quickly while Charlie stayed up all night listening to our neighbour violantly vommiting all evening - nice! The next morning I finally got my much craved after beans on toast - yay!! It still amazes me how these cravings come from nowhere - my current one is pizza and chips.
Got to the airport to fly to Borneo and after having thrown away half my bags contents (including my hair dryer I will have everyone know) I was still overweight. Removed the cosmetics bag and it reduced drastically....hmmm.... We found an amazing coffee shop in the airport, and after Charlie had managed to drop the first tray of drinks down herself (after picking up napkins thinking 'I' would be the one to make a mess, I enjoyed my first proper milk, proper coffee latte since leaving Londno :-)
So aboard the plane, the sense that Malaysia was going to be hard work as a girl began. As soon as we sat down Charlie had this horrible little man sitting with his wife and child next to him yet openly staring across me to her legs and grinning insanely. She covered herself up with her pashmina and all was well. Or so we thought. We arrived at Kota Kinabalu where within our first 30 minutes we realised we needed to cut down our time here drastically - we were ogled by men and glared at by women, even followed by some. Needless to say we found solace in a hotel bar where we hid from the world and bought a bottle of wine which went down really nicely. I'm not an alcoholic but when all else fails, drink works. Charlie's classic comment at end of night two was "Right we need to pay more attention, things are not as they seem!!".
Anyway afer surviving 24 hours in KK we got our minbus (after much hassle and negotiating, and screaming at the rats at the grotty bus station) to Mount Kinabalu National Park which was like heaven - people were friendly, they smiled not ogled or laughed out loud at us. Our room was lovely and we started to get excited about the climb to top of Mount Kinabalu...it was short lived for me I have to say. As soon as night fell it was freezing at base, we went to bed in thermal underwear and our normal night clothes on top and socks and sleeping bags inside our beds. Amusing photos to add to site here soon. Watch this space.
We woke at 6am and met our guide at 7am after a hearty breakfast of 2 slices of toast (all our budget would allow after my stocking up on mars bars the night before for the climb itself). Within 1k I was feeling the affects of altitiude sickness, badly while Charlie walked, almost ran up like a true pro! After 3k I was able to talk again for a couple k until we hit the summit when I nearly lost the ability to remember my own name I was so cold and tired. We arrived at the Laban Rata stop at 3272m in 3 hours (1am) and found there was no heating until 8pm so we sat there wearing every single layer in our packs. The weather outside was hideous and for the previous 6 days no one had made it to the top - after bein told we were highly likely to be woken at 2.30am the next day and told we couldn't make it we found our guide and asked him to walk us 6k back down the mountain straight away. SUCH a good call as the only room available in the park that night was a luxury suite which they gave to us at the price of a bunk bed at the top of the mountain! It had a fire place too - so we had a real far. Was seriously cool, we got takeaway and fizzy drinks and watched friends on sky and chilled out 100%.
The next morning we made our way to Sandakan to see the orangutans. After a 5 hour 'express' bus journey across Borneo we arrived in the small town that is Sandakan. We eventually found our way to Sepilok and had a chilled out evening after upgrading our room to the executive one - we did try to get basic but wasn't happening when we saw it. The orangutans the followin day were amazingly cool...we spent half an hour watching the feeding session (and melting in the jungle heat) during which anytime the other monkeys tried to steal their food the orangutans would jump up and down on the rope knocking them to the floor or else simply pushing them off the platform, or even holding the food so high above them they couldn't reach it. Was hilarious! Again, funny photos to follow. I was going to tell you abuot how many rats I have been in this country but I have seen so many it would bore you - they are disgusting seriously horrid.
Another long bus journey followed on the 'karaoke/fun bus' from Sandakan to Semporna. Hilarious, we rock up at 7.58am with literally 2 mins before the bus leave without us, settle into our seats and notice the extremely loud music blaring from the tv screen. Hmmm we think maybe welcome music, and I tell Charlie not to worry when she says I hope they turn that down - I am sure they will. I was wrong. It got louder. And louder. Yep and louder still until about an hour from our destination the 2 guys at front of bus got their microphones out and sang along to the words. Very funny!!! Saying that I am getting the Semporna to Sandakan bus tomorrow and seriously hoping it is not the karaoke version.
So we arrive thinking this is it, we have got to the diving place now it has to be nicer surely. Hmmm... Let's put it this way only one shop in whole town sold sun cream and they were sold out and not sure when next delivery was. To be fair Scuba Junkies did tell us that if they didn't supply things no one would survive here. We got boat to Mabul the next morning and hung out on the beach after seeing how basic our room was without any windows etc etc. Charlie kindly upgraded us to a 'luxury' suite at the local resort where we spent the next 24 hours snorkelling, sunbathing, kayaking and eating as much as we could at the all inclusive buffet. We braved the local market that evening once we got back on the mainland and got bombarded by 'hey beautiful', 'pretty lady' etc etc but did manage to secure the most delicious dinner so far in Borneo :-)
The diving is amazing here, if the place itself was better I would seriously consider doing my divemaster course here but couldn't now. Too many small niggly things about the way men seem to behave around western women bothered me. Have had such an amazing time here though and met some of the coolest people of my trip so far. Was lucky to get lots of diving in with Gene who loves diving and showed me some really, really cool stuff....had lots of fun exploring Mabul & Sibuan with him. Sadly he left after 4 days but I am going to go visit him on his tropical island in Thailand in a few weeks and catch up again. Yay! Had such fun with the girls here, everyone has this small community thing going on in the scuba junkie triangle - literally the only safe place for western girls - between the dive school, the hotel and the dive school bar!!! Had many a crazy night with Liz and Leandra...and Sharon from SJ, along with Pato, Gene, Emo and many many more. We had band night which went on til crazy hours in the morning, then they did it all over again to mark the end of Ramadan...I drank way too much and suffered for it. I didn't learn though, we went out and did karaoke (I sang!!!)the next night too until 4am and were on the dive boat at 8am - OUCH. So many fun days and nights out here, it has been very sad to say my goodbyes this evening....
We did our last dive today at Sipadan and I won't even go into what we saw - what didn't we would be better. My highlight were the huge bumphead parrot fish, turtles and sharks!!!! I have photos but suspect these may bore some of you!
Despite all my negative thoughts on the men here, I will def be back for more diving next year ;-) It has been lots of fun. Tomorrow we head to Sandakan so Nicola can see the orangutans too, then we hit the sunny shores of Thailand for a week and I may well stay on here to do my dive master course too.
It's another long one, sorry I will get better at keeping in touch soon. Email me soon everyone, miss you all loads. Take care xxxx
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