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The last attraction to visit in Kota Kinabalu was the Dirty Beach. since flying into Borneo the litter, waste, smells and murkiness have being present when looking at the sea, rivers and streets. It's such a shame that this wonderland of nature is being so mistreated as it is trying to catch up to the first world. Mass deforestation is taking place and the by-products of this are polluting the rivers and sea to the point where for backpackers it is a day out to visit Tanjung Aru Beach to witness the effects first hand. But getting there was proving to be difficult as we could not work out the government bus system. At the bus stop where we needed to be were tens of minivans and coaches all with numbers and the government bus symbol all open but with no drivers to be seen anywhere. Also there are no time tables and nobody knew who was going where. After a good half hour of trying to make sense of it all we got pointed in the right direction four times and it seemed like nobody wanted to drive us anywhere. Eventually we found a driver that would take us but he would deviate from his normal route to take us to the beach for a little extra fee. Eventually we made it to the beach in a 7 seater government bus. Tanjung Aru beach is said to be the cleanest beach closest to the city but still we were advised not to swim in the brown polluted water and the amount of litter even made it hard to have a stroll down the shore. It was a mess and soon enough, after some lunch, we made an about turn and tried to get a bus again but there was a problem. Because the previous bus had dropped us off away from any bus route we had no idea where to catch our return from. We decided to play the waiting game in the hope that some other travelers would make the same journey to the beach and we could simply just hop back on the bus. Almost an hour went by as we stood, but this was ok as we didn't really have any where to be till February! We had considered walking the 20 minute car ride or taking an expensive taxi when a random bus drove past and let us on. He also was not bound for our destination but would drop us off. With a flight to Sandakan early tomorrow morning it suddenly dawned on us that because we are locking out bags in the airport and just taking hand luggage for two days we needed 50ml bottles to take some toothpaste and sun cream so the search began. We ended the the day with flight day treat and splashed out on a Nandos. It's so good to sit in a real restaurant. On return to our hotel to pack it dawned on us that the limit for liquids is actually 100ml not 50ml. We didn't even need the bottles. Hahaha.
M & C xxxx
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