Wandergaels: Kota Kinabalu and Sandakan (Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia)

Myself, Aisling, and Tara made the short flight from Johor Bahru (on the Malaysian mainland) to Kota Kinabalu, which is the capital of Sabah, which itself is one of the two Malaysian provinces (the other being Sarawak) on the northern part of the island of Borneo. After arriving, we visited the local night market, where hawkers tried to flog all sorts of clothes, food, and other bits and pieces. Unsurprisingly, since the market is situated along a pier lined with fishing boats, there was a huge amount of stalls selling fresh fish (and gutting them on demand) and other seafood (a lot of which was still alive in the stall). Having only two days in Kota Kinabalu, we wanted to make the most of our short stay so, on our second day, we did a one-day tour around Kinabalu Park, home of the impressive Mount Kinabalu. Unfortunately, the normal two-day trek to the mountain's summit was closed when we were there (it reopened on the 1st of September, I think), but we did get the chance to do a short walk through the jungle around the mountain, which included a canopy walk along a series of rope bridges that were connected to some of the taller trees. This gave us a great view of the jungle underneath us. We also visited Kipungit waterfall (also in the park) for a quick dip and, on our way back from the waterfall, we stopped at the Poring hot springs for a naturally-heated bath (which smelled like rotten eggs because of the sulphur in the water). After a traditional Malaysian meal in a local restaurant, our tour guide Lolo invited us back to his family home to give us a view of traditional life in the country in Sabah. What was intended as a short stay for a few minutes ended up as one of the best nights of our trip so far. After chatting with our guide's family for a couple of hours (and trying their home-made rice and coconut wines and a few puffs of shisha), they invited the three of us to a large family-reunion party that was happening in the village. At the party, our generous hosts offered us beer and more rice and coconut wine, and also fed us some of the local food on offer. We attracted a fair amount of interest at the party, and ended up posing for pictures with some of the local villagers, who showed us on how to perform some of the local dances (this involved slowly flapping our arms like wings). After a few more hours (and a Westlife song on karaoke by Aisling and Tara featuring a couple of the locals), we said goodbye to our hosts and headed back to Kota Kinabalu city with some great memories of our night. The next day we said goodbye to Tara and spent some of the day exploring the town (which didn't take long since Kota Kinabalu isn't really a tourist hotspot). The following morning, myself and Aisling took a five-hour bus journey to Sandakan, a city on the east side of Sabah. The bus journey was well worth doing because it was a great way of seeing the landscape, especially as the diverse jungles give way to the palm tree plantations for palm oil production, which dominate the landscape outside Sandakan, spreading as far as the eye can see at times. The next morning, we took the public bus to Sepilok (a few miles outside Sandakan) to visit the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre, and made it just in time for the 10 am feeding. After the feeding we headed for the nursery to see some young Orangutans, and then went on a walk through the rainforest for a couple of hours in the Rainforest Discovery Centre just beside the Orangutan centre. Both places were cheap to enter and well worth the visit. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to visit the nearby Bornean Sun Bears Conservation Centre before our bus left to drop us back to Sandakan. The morning after, we headed on public bus to Sandakan Memorial Park, a memorial site based at the former World War II prisoner-of-war camp in Sandakan, where about 2,500 (mostly Australian) prisoners were imprisoned by the Japanese during the war. We flew to Bali the next day...