I'm a man!

I've just come down for mount kinabalu. Whereas Bako park was wonderfully pleasant, this was maybe the most exhausting thing I have ever done. You climb up to 3.2km on the first night. This is madness- you're really supposed to only climb up 1km every day, then sleep the night to let your body adapt to the change in altitude. If you don't let yourself acclamatise, you risk altitude sickness which can be lethal.
Then I woke up at 3am, had a quick egg sandwich and started to climb to the top at 4.08km. While the first day had just been tiring, you were now fighting lack of oxygen and temperatures quickly descending towards freezing.
There were times I thought I just wouldn't be able to make it. My throat got all thick and I felt like I had a temperature. At times I had to stop after every 20 meters just to catch my breath. But boy did I feel great when I finally made it to the top, and my camera actually had enough battery for FIVE photos.



Unfortunately I've still not been able to find anywhere here in KK where they allow you to plug in your harddrive and upload some photos. However, in about three hours I'm getting on a flight to Bangkok and I know the hotel there has wireless internet, so maybe you'll finally get some photos as well.

Clubbing in Kota Kinabalu

I didn't find anything happening in Miri in the end, but made up with Saturday night in KK. Although I am not sure I would recomend KK as a clubbing destination it was definately an experience. The night started off lousy, looking like an ugly version of Miri but full of charter tourists. It picked up after a jug of Margarita opposite the Hyatt, and after that it was an excellent night of house and RnB. Even ended up getting a taxi over to somewhere very far away where things got exceptionally dodgy. Cool.

Now trying to get up on Kinabalu mountain. Not as easy as you'd think. The set-up is as follows: tomorrow a bus will pick me up at 7 and drive me to the mountain HQ. At 9.30 the accomodation office will check whether there is actually any rooms up at the top to stay the night. If they find out there's none I'm going to have to return with nothing to show... So- here's hoping it will work

Sleeping in Miri

Ah, finally got some sleep. Miri is definatily new money, while Kuching was old money. I think I preferred Kuching, it was more relaxing while Miri seems more like a commercial town. It's amazing how far Mandarin will get you. I've also learned a fair amount of bahasi malay. In fact, I'm planning to establish bahasi malay as the lingua franca of us dundee escapists. It uses different words and grammar to chinese, so I think I should be able to learn it even as I focus on my chinese. Different parts of the brain, I feel.

Planning to walk up mt Kinabaru on sunday. Theoretically you should be able to do it in two days and catch a life changing sunrise. Not sure how many changes in my life I'll be able to take though... :-)

Gotta go. Saya mahu minum bira!

Kuching (2)

We ended up staying a couple of days in Kuching, making excursions during the day and exploring the city by night. It was such a lovely place, peaceful yet confident. It's on my list of top 10 places I want to retire to.

We've just arrived, Kym trying to take in the situation while waiting for a Lakhsa. The Lakhsa here is the best in the region, don't let anyone tell you different!


Kuching is divided into two parts by a river. There's a city behind all those trees, and to get across you take these small boats that could take about 12 people per trip.


Kuching has a great in-doors market by the river. Full of every fish, meat, vegetable or spice you could imagine. Of course we didn't have a chance to cook anything while there, but it's good to know for when I move there.


Kuching is in Borneo, in the Sarawak province. There are Chinese, Malaysians and indigineous people here, and you see a nice mix of religous buildings and styles around here. People also speak excellent English, which they use as a middle language.
I think my strongest feeling about the place were the warmth of the people, and I think that comes from the tolerance they've developed from having to mix Islam, Buddhism, Christianity and the indiginious cultures. If the world was like Kuching, it would be a good place (an even better place, maybe I should say...)

Smiling in Kuching!

It feels like its years since I last smiled. A couple of days in Kuching has changed everything. Yesterday I trecked five hours through the jungles of Borneo. I got a sunburn and a macaque monkey stole my pringles. How can you not be happy when a monkey has stolen your crisps?

Borneo is one third chinese, so I've had plenty of opportunity to practice my mandarin here. I've also just picked up "learn bahasi in 7 days". I've learned that if you say "apa khabar?" to strangers on the street you become very popular.

The locals here are very friendly and the nightlife is inclusive. However, all this trecking makes you very tired so I've been sleeping in the evenings and only making it to the bars by ten in the evening. This place is definately a eight-to-one place, so that's a bit late. I've used this day to relax, do some laundry and updating my chronicles so I should be fit to start this evening a bit earlier.

I'm writing this out of a cyber cafe so can't upload any photos just yet.


ADDED JAN 22:
Adding photos now that I'm finally by a proper computer. Below is the naughty monkey who stole my crisps, me trying to find my way through Bako national park, the main street of Kuching and a Kuching cat. Kuching means cat in one of the languages spoken in Sarawak, but I'm not sure which one.

Johu Bahru (2)

Some more pics from JB.

JB at night


Big Indian population here, so curries everywhere.

Johu Bahru

Took a bus across the strait to Johu Bahru. Picked up a curry and slept in maybe the best hotel so far on this trip.
Tomorrow I'm taking an early flight to Borneo

ADDED 22 January:

Yay, look at Kym on the bus to Johu Bahru! And see the buzzing street of Johu Bahru! I had a picture of the half eaten curry as well, but my mother thinks pictures of half eaten food are not part of polite discourse.

Nothing much happened here, I kept making the mistake of taking late afternoon naps that turned into sleepyness marathons- thereby missing any nightlife action. Just as well, the flight to Kuching was at seven the morning after, so at least we arrive rested enough to go straight to the Sarawak cultural centre.


.