Beverly Hotel Kota Kinabalu

... relief from the heat and humidity of the coast. The only wildlife out there came in the form of some butterflies, a dead millipede and mosquitos that actually seem to like 100% DEET bug spray. What a difference from Bako National Park where I could have hiked for days.

Unfortunately I would have to rate this expedition in my bottom two ever and we decided to just cut our losses and head back to KK. After exiting the trails two Australian guys asked me where the good trails ...

... us to navigate the submerged path. After what felt like a very long kilometre indeed we finally arrived at Laban Rata hut, sodden through and feeling about as wet as we could be! Our jackets actually did a pretty good job of limiting top-half damage, but our shorts needing wringing out, our boots squelched with every step and we had to tip the water out when we took them off!

The hut had no heating, so the rest of the afternoon ...

... some cheap accommodation (for Singapore) in Little India (which turns out to be the worst hotel we have stayed in on the trip and possibly in all our years of staying in hotels!) so that we can find out what is going on and fix it.

Our flight is at a reasonable time the next day. We get to the airport and board without issue. The flight takes a little over an hour and then we are in Singapore; almost exactly on the equator (1 degree North) and get ...

... C, Sedco Complex, 88300 Kota Kinabalu. Sabah www. haminLodge.com tel:+6088272008) so wasn't in a great rush to move on. It was also very central and could walk everywhere including the overabundant shopping malls!!!! The Starbucks just a couple of blocks away with wifi also contributed to slowing down the pace!!! I also spent a day on Sapi Island snorkling off the beach which was great. Lonely Planet states that it is not a ...

... and another the following morning up the Kinabatangan river and saw lots of proboscis monkeys which are only found in Borneo, they were really comical with their long floppy noses which wobbled when they moved or made any noises! We also saw other monkeys - langars and macaques as well as 3 species of hornbills, storm storks, bee-eater birds, black squirrels and a mangrove snake! It was good but we weren't lucky enough to see orangutans or pygmy elephants.

It was then ...

... barely look up to see where we were going. Finally after a couple of hours we made it back to the bus and then back to KK.

Yesterday I left KK and took a 7 hour bus ride to Sandakan on the east coast of Borneo, alhtough after the bus journey, my **** felt more like it had made a 7 hour trip to Brighton. While I'm over here I hope to see alot more of the unique wildlife, hang out on some beaches before flying to Indonesia on the 11th. Will keep you posted....

Andy

... Night Market. More Cheaper Option If You Think To Buy Pearl Product As Bargaining Is More At Time And Place Like This. Girl Will Surely Loves This. We Departed For Brunei At 2PM. Heavy Rain Are Waiting Us. We Arrived Late Around 8PM And I Bring My Relatives To See The Royal Castle ' Istana Nurul Iman ' , Sultan Ali Saifudin Mosque ANnd This Sultanate Kingdom. Things Goes Very Nice. We Saw A Lot Of Things. We Sleep At My Auntie's House In Kuala Belait.

... based on the design of a traditional 'Long House'. We shared our dorm with one other girl which was good as we had so much space to ourselves! We spent the afternoon chilling and speaking to some of the other guests, an interesting combination of people from various walks of life...the staff were lovely and treated us more like a member of the family or friend as opposed to a guest, it was really nice just sitting looking out over the jungle, dodging the huge ants ...

... them speak 3 or 4 languages and are really clever. So the bar we went into i just couldnt take my eyes off them. They were all dancing on the bar (photos to be uploaded at a later stage) - and they thought that Daryl and i were really novel cause we were both Barang (white!) and a boy and girl to boot! Apparently you dont normally get that, shure what the feck - why not!..... Some of the bar girls (thats the term for hooker over here) arent ...

... back in sheltered comfort. The final push was a 1 ½ hour trek up the granite before a final steep ascent to the top, which I actually ended up doing on my hands and knees! It had been a challenge but we'd made it to the top, and timed it perfectly. A number of climbers had ascended too quickly, and got so cold waiting at the top for sunrise that they had to descend early. About five minutes after we summited, the horizon started to brighten. The ...