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Flying into Borneo we couldnt see alot as it was night but the lights of Kota Kinabalu were beautiful. After we had got through customs we grabbed a taxi and made our way to our hostel called The Step-Inn Lodge. The area was not the best but the hostel was lovely along with the people that ownerd and worked there. They made us feel at home from the second we walked through the door.
We spent a few days in and around Kota Kinabalu. We went to some islands just off kota Kinabalu. We caught the ferry from jesselton Point over to two Islands in the few days whcih we stayed here. We went to Manakau and Manutik Islands both part of the Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park. A group of small islands which are good for Snorkelling, diving and our favorite passtime sunbathing.
Our trip to Manutik Island as a more memorable than the others for one reson and one reason only and that was the treturous waters in which we crossed on the return trip back from the island. We spent tha day on the island in wonderful clear blue skies snorkelling and sunbathing but at around 3:30pm a storm quickly drew in. The heavens opened and thunder and lightening started. We got on the boat at 4pm and made our bumpey, swayie, way back in a 10 man boat. We scrambled around for our life jackets and bloody quickley put them on, I tied mine so tight I could hardly breathe!! On reaching slightly deeper waters thats where the fun really started, we could only see out the fround of the boat as the sides had been let down to stop us all from, well, falling out I suppose. The boat as going over these waves almost vertical and we all hung on for dear life! As the small boat made it over the crest of a wave it would the pointstrainght down fall back down to the sea and smack the water with an almight thud (sounded like the bottom of the boat was going to cave in!), just in time for the next big wave to come to which we would make the verticval climb to the crest of the wave again and the process would repeat each time with the waves getting bigger and stronger as we got deeper out to sea! The fear in Rachel's and mine eyes must have been a picture and had there not been the fear of my camera getting wet then I would have taken one! Just for memory's sake to which the caption would read "heres me and Rachel about to die!". It was after a further 10 minutes of this oceanic hell that we really got worried, on lookig out the front we both realised that there was a wave higher that boat heading strainght towards us! We both looked at each other and just held on for dear life. I was next to the side of the boat so I held onto a pole that was strapping the canvas sides down and Rachel, sat next to me, held onto the rope that has tieing the canvas sides to the pole. I dont know how but that little old boat made it over. Thankfully 20 minutes later we had made it back Jesselton Point and moored up. We stepped off the boat absolulty drenched but glad we were alive and sqwelched our way back to the hostel.
On Weds 10th Sept we set off on a 6 hrs bus journey to sepilok in Northern Borneo in search of those ginger bundles of fun The Orangutan which in Malay translates to Man of the Jungle.
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