Day 12 free day.

Sean & Jess, Emma and Tracey, Chris & David and Lisa had decided they wanted to go and explore some or the islands.

I really didn't want another day of constant travel punctuated with steamed rice... But... When the prospect of a nice beach only 30 mins away was waved in front of me I caved fairly quickly.

On arriving at the jetty we all rented cheap snorkels, masks and flippers. First island M something according to Tracey. (I will find the name later)

I was excited as the boat skipped along the waves and this little green gem swung into view.

(I think it's only fair to point out that by now we had become a point of amusement for all the other tourists as we were all walking like John Wayne or little wanna be gangstas due to the Kinabalu decent! As they all stepped lithely on and off the boats we had to be helped on and off!)

As we walked along the jetty at the island the water teamed with fish... The island looked perfect... Jungle, ribbon of sand, sea... The image was soon ruined as we all raced into the water.

I had come to Borneo to experience wildlife. I didn't realise this might be the last time I get to see soiled nappies swimming in the wild!

We did not stay long here.

The second island (name pending) was much better! So many fish! All you have to do is hang in the water for a couple of seconds and they just crowd you. They are used to Malaysian and Chinese people feeding them.

I was also really surprised by how many coral formations there were considering volume of tourists. There was a large brain coral formation about ten meters out. It looked less than me length below the water so I thought I would risk touch down so I could pull my head out of the water and see where the others were (you never need to visually confirm where Jess is even under water!)

The top or the coral was flat and sandy and to be honest looked fairly dead. I felt something bump my leg... I looked down to see a parrot fish about a foot away from the back of my leg... Then the little sod bit me again! I moved. I guess he didn't appreciate me standing on the roof of his home.

There was an on beach BBQ that was fairly good so we all had a go on that.

Caving into peer pressure for the second time in 24 hours I made up the fifth member required for the banana boat.

It's okay I was thinking about getting my right arm dislocated professionally anyway! We did get towed a worrying distance into open water before the ride began though!

Happily I think I injured many of the others as I fell off too!

Tonight we had decided to have a BBQ on the beach at the resort. We had all put our best wishes and John Handcocks on a card for Henry and had the group picture of us at the mountain lodge printed out for him.

It was a good meal and we had a laugh. I was sat with Sean and Triv and we demolished a Tiger or two.

Meal over we all took it in turn to say something to Henry. Tony was a total legend yet again... "yeah it was great."
A man of few words... But he does make them count!

It was Chris's birthday and Henry had got him a cake. I don't know if all Exodus guides go to this amount of effort for there guests or we were really just lucky.

David, Tracey, Emma, Jess, Lisa and I headed into Kota Kinabalu to see if friday nights out were any good.

Cocoon was the club we were recommended. O dear... Fail!

There was a 10 piece house band on who to be fair were not terrible but did make up half the number of people in there until we arrived.

A round of tequila followed by sambuca stepped up the pace a little.

There was a group of girls dancing close to the band so I thought I would make myself useful and go introduce us.

There was a Turkish girl dancing with the group. She would be no good at hide and seek! (Or to be more accurate her stink made my eyes sting and I actually physically borked!)

Then predictably we could not get rid of her. Funnily though she decided to dance with Jess which made her go all quiet. I suspect because talking requires breathing and she had done the math!

Exit stage left and a stagger down the road to a club called bed.

This was more like it.

This place was lots more fuller-er!

David negotiated a good price on a Yeager train and we ploughed on. It was a a good place with a decent atmosphere but to be totally honest I was at the point where the amount of alcohol in the system meant I really didn't care!

The Malay people in there were great (Even the girls that were really dudes) and all said hello and asked where we were from the only thing that put a downer on it for five mins was a group of French guys that really wouldn't take 'No f*ck off, no really f*ck off!' as an answer to there requests from a couple of the girls.

Cab home and bed... After ten minutes spent trying to catch the frogs an the lawn outside the rooms!