Jul 2005

Day 11. Another delightful bus journey! This time it was from Sepilok to Mt. Kinabalu - and yet more road cafe yuk food was had! This, and the bus journey, made Emma feel vey queasy! And sitting next to her on the bus, my poking and prodding did nothing to alleviate her problems!
During the journey we had good views of the bastad hill that we'd soon have to climb! We also watched some pirated films (inc. Mr and Mrs Smith), sitting near pirate people!
In what seemed like an eTeRnItY, we were dropped off at the side of the road (basically the foot of Mt. Kinabalu!). Up a hill into the "World Heritage Site", we waited around the entrance a bit, then proceeded to walk to our accomodation. Mountain mist was ominously everywhere as we trundled down some side-sloping steps. Rooms were somehow chosen and we all began to settle in.
Most of the day was spent walking around the main complex's site. Split off into groups, we were trying to find a suitable restaurant to eat in tonight. Instead, we all just got lost and after about an hour of going round in circles, we refound each other in a cafe near the main entrance. The food we'd found on our explorations was either too expensive or too far away - so not much luck there!
Back in our accomodation, the wonderfully bare and sterile place it was, we all listened to a man trying the (from what we could gather) VERY cold shower! He made some very silly noises! "Ah!!! Ooh!!! Eee!!!" Feeling in a lively mood ourselves, it was time for "Kyle-in-a-bag" and dropping (and leaving) Soos in the boys' toilets!
That night we decided to go to the cheapo, off-site restaurant, where we ordered BIG platefuls of rice and all things nice to share. It was so much cheaper and maybe nicer than anything we could've afforded or had at the onsite restaurant(s).
It was pitch black by the time we'd left the restaurant (by some spooky back door!) Walking out, we crossed the road, saw the "Max Lube" stickered van, walked up the hill to the entrance and back to our rooms, dreading tomorrow...

Oh what a day. Sigh...

Day 10. My leadership... is over today. About time! The day started well with our room lockout (NOT my fault I tell ya!), before going on to see the monkeys at the Sepilok sanctuary. They were good to see, but there were too many tourists around, making everything seem a bit fake. Meh, I suppose their money (and ours) helps protect them! We saw about 7 or 8 or 9 wild orang-utans, including a baby, and several macaques - some just dangling overhead, ready to shit on us! It felt like the hottest day the earth had EVER had whilst we were there! The sweat came like a flood merely standing and looking, let alone doing any sort of moving! Seeing a gazillion ants in a huge conga line heading somewhere along a railing, we went back to the main sanctuary centre, watched some video on rainforest protection in a pleasantly cool building, and walked around an orang-utan information centre. Who knew they had such big hands?!
We left monkeyville, waited at a bus-stop for ages then took the groovy (got musik!) bus to Sandakan, a city in the very North of Borneo. At the vibrant city of Sandakan, we walked around a few markets including the live fish and all-sorts-of-other-odd-sea-creatures market! From there, we headed towards a huge modern mosque overshadowing a sprawling water village. The buildings in this village were on stilts and went off into the sea, over mud-flats which the local children ran over in low tide. It was an odd experience just wandering over their walkways, through the place where the inhabitants live largely in poverty. Despite the far-from-ideal conditions, everyone seemed very welcoming - especially the children! The coastal stilt village seemed very fragile and precarious, with many parts of the buildings and walkways rotting away. I couldn't help thinking about if a similar tsunami to the Boxing Day 2004 one hit here, it would all be instantly wiped out.
So we wandered back out of water village, past the lurvely dead dog in the bin. We had a failed fish BBQ idea (thanx anyway Kyle!), and headed back to the centre of Sandakan. After some shopping for provisions, we re-boarded the groovy bus, with butter sweetcorn this time, and headed back to Sepilok.
After the extensive journey, which included some seemingly pointless diversions and a thunderstorm, we were back at Sepilok. We were in time for some grub too! We had more restaurant food and Mirinda... Zoe's fave! It's this very flavoursome soft drink in two flavours... either orange and some kind or berry i believe. It rivals Milo (local hot chocolate) as the drink of choice!
After the meal i was de-briefed (no pants!) from my wonderful leadership. That basically meant having a talk from Adam and Su the "true" leaders about how i thought I'd done whilst i was in charge of everyone. We concluded that i was too laid back, but had put some effort in.... something like that anyway!
Back in our cabins, we somehow ended up playing chirades, imitating each other (more like piss-taking!), whilst eating stupid amounts of tasteless coconut flesh...
I also decided that, instead of venturing out and about into the dark and spider-infested toilet, I would take a shower more closely to our cabins. So, using the nice cold rain that happened to be falling and leaky guttering, I had a lovely drain shower! It did the job...

Sleepy-pooz, no home-sick-ness yet...

(The big spider was squished tonight... R.I.P.)

Day 9. Still my leadership! Today we were off to Sepilok Orang-Utan Sanctuary! We travelled for several hours by coach, only stopping once for a toilet break and some dodgy food at a roadside cafe. The food was slop, full of bits of animal tubes and nostrils! Not only was it unappealing to look at, my lack of hunger coupled with an ill-feeling stomach meant that the disgusting food didn't go down very well at all!
Approaching Sepilok territory, we were unkindly dropped 2.5km away from the sanctuary, and almost had to WALK! ...shock! horror! Where we were dropped off, there were some suspicious looking locals standing by their cars. They kept talking quietly at each other, occasionally looking up at us. We slowly edged away and began walking! Ten minutes into the walk (already knackered!), we were picked up by Sepilok workers that were driving past. One of the pick-ups that collected us had a big hole in the vehicle floor, giving good air conditioning! I somehow think MOTs mean nothing here! However, the pick-up i was in was very nice and far more stable!
The Sepilok hostels were very nice in all fairness, well built and clean. Outside the chalets were large benches and carved things (mushrooms?!) Although I suspect that these were rather plastic or concrete instead of wood! The only problem with the whole complex was that the toilets were far from ensuite, and they had a big spider in! mUsT rEmEmBeR tO cHeCk UnDeR tHe ToIleT sEat! mUsT rEmEmBeR tO cHeCk UnDeR tHe ToIleT sEat! mUsT rEmEmBeR tO cHeCk UnDeR tHe ToIleT sEat! mUsT rEmEmBeR tO cHeCk UnDeR tHe ToIleT sEat!
The restaurant at the site, basically next to our rooms, was nice, but expensive by Borneo standards. The food wasn't even anything special.
We're off to see the orang-utans tomorrow, woop! woop! And they'd better be worth it, as they were a clinching factor in me choosing Borneo over Central America or other places that I could have gone with World Challenge...
Despite the flood the other night, there has been far less rain than I expected there to be. I don't think it's wet season, which might explain a bit, but still!
Trying to go to the toilet in the evening was hell, especially after you'd just had that big spider run under your feet and out of view. Pisses were now reserved for the bushes, and I'm sure I can hold a number two in...
Tonight, I'm staying in a room with Calvey, Kyle and Lucy. It was time for us to go to bed, and everyone was tired after today's long bus journey. However, we wouldn't be sleeping for a while yet, as shadowing into the night came the pointless laughter! Us four were all laying in bed... not together, and began to say goodnight to each other:

Calvey: "Goodnight!"
Me: "Goodnight!"
Lucy: "Goodnight!"
Kyle: " "

Kyle's non-response tickled something in Calvey and me, and we were off! Mu ha ha ha! HA! It wouldn't stop! Literally for more than 30 minutes, pure laughter! And when it did briefly stop and we'd try to hold it in, we'd just burst and trigger each other off again! Dear lordy! It HURT! It was painful to keep laughing - but it was unstoppable! That was until we got tired, so so sleepy... and fell asleep!

Day 8. My "leadership" pointlessly continues! The river waters had subsided slightly by morning, leaving river debris perilously close to where we slept last night. Adam told us this morning that the waters had come EVEN higher during the night whilst we were asleep. That is higher than when we were awake and on the brink of abandoning our outpost!
After checking that all our kit hadn't been washed away, we left the relatively luxurious centre, climbed a never-ending hill and clambered aboard yet more mini-busses! We were on a return ride to Kota Kinabalu and the ride was very much humbling. We saw and heard of the destruction last night's 11-hour long heavy rain had caused - 3 dead, cars submerged, houses obliterated (literally), petrol pumps strewn about. Indeed, I'm sure it happens fairly often in Borneo, in the tropics, but it was something none of us had seen before. If such an event occured in the UK, there'd be chaos! The whole country'd stop! Think of how much everyone focused on Boscastle when it was flooded - and no-one even died!
Once back in KK, it was time do to some more organising! This was to ensure that we had transport and accomodation for the upcoming week, but our actions only resulted in chaos! With me in charge, things didn't go smoothly! I can NEVER decide anything! We also did some eating (yet more rice!) and drinking (lumpy cinsau!)
In the evening, we went to a restaurant in close proximity to our Planet Kinabalu hostel. When I say A restaurant, I mean several, as it was one large sprawling complex of them! It was then time for another night out - to the "Cock & Bull" pub again! It was great fun, as usual, of course! At the pub, we met Sampson, THE Borneo man, and promptly gave him a fair few cans of Boddingtons that we'd smuggled with us from the UK. I couldn't give him my can, as it got destroyed on the plane - damn baggage handlers! It equally covered by kit in a moist, yeasty smell!
Boddingtons was Sampson's favourite tipple, and he had great difficult buying the Manchester beer in Borneo! Sampson was a large, friendly, girthy man whom my older brother Robert had previously met when he came to Borneo on a simliar trip. However, my brother's trip was with his school and over 10 years before me! That didn't stop me using the same rucksack as he did though...!

This place is wonderful. And no squits yet! Added bonus.

Day 7. Oh what a night... It was pitch black, completely black, nil light in the night 'cept for the tiny orange-glowing 'shrooms that were few and far between. The sounds in the night were amazing though... things falling from trees, deafening cicadas, frogs and what sounded like an old man saying "quack".... "quack".
Gathered my heeby-jeeby, semi-wet, out-of-order, already messed-up stuff together and we all went hi-ho walking again! More sweat... lots more. At a random river we couldn't cross (not sure if the guides planned this or not!), we did a D.I.Y. bridge - it was really cool, we destroyed some bamboo and trees, bould them together, madea a hand rail and all! Even better is that fact that it supported us all, and we made it across the river, without getting wet! We just got attacked by mozzes and odd bugs as we were around the water for too long!
After crossing many more slightly better-made bridges and walking for an eternity, it was very much relieving to find some sort of a fellow-hikers-and-expeditioners centre at the end of the supposedly "brief" hike. It even had showers! What a relief, now I can be slightly less smelly for a few minutes.
Our "beds" for the night would be the floor of an open-sided small wooden band-stand-esque structure on some kind of flat grassy area. This platform gave us a good chance to sort our bags out, dry some kit in the sun etc. Now was the time for a good old general sort out and clean up! After doing all that, we played some games (hand-table ball tennis), ate some odd fruit and stayed under our shelter as it began to rain mid-afternoon...
And dear god, it rained! For ELEVEN hours, hard, non-stop, it continued that evening... We almost had to evacuate our hut as the nearby river edged closer. We were all arguing about whether it was really necessary, but it could've been really serious. I think I had started my "leadership" of the group at this point, so my say had some relevance. I didn't want to leave and run. When we arrived the river was about 30-40 metres away... by about 10pm it was getting on for 10 metres away from us. It had swelled so very incredibly. Something I'll never forget. We eventually didn't leave, and slept in the "hut", still fearing the river... as well as wild dogs possibly seeing us as easy pickings and fancying to eat us!

My planes tickets are wet...