Mandarin Hotel Kota Kinabalu

... didn’t care how fascinated we were with them. The fact that I was breathing at 20+ meters underwater was mind-boggling at first and quite an amazing feeling, although it took some time to equalize correctly. Equalizing is basically adjusting to the change in pressure when you go underwater by holding your nose and popping your ears. I had some trouble getting down to 10 meters, but below that depth I felt fine. I can’t wait to get out there again, so I ...

... a gallery about the national parks in Sabah with lots of information.
After finding some $3 ponchos in the giftshop, we headed back out into the rain to head back to our hotel. On the way out, we checked the map again and found that the track we were on was a loop and we were nearly at the end!
The rest of the day was spent lazing about the hotel room while the rain kept coming down, and a dinner ...

... ride back - it was not looking good and I was getting a bit nervous about what the price would get to. All the local buses had gone back and we were not sure if they would be returning as this at least would get us to Ranau which is a closer town to where we were staying. Anyhow a taxi turned up and Steve organised for him to do one more trip out before the end of the day (he was based at Poring Springs) so we all piled in once again with the 4 of us girls ...

... was more than worth it. The Batu Caves is a limestone hill complete with a series of caverns. The main entrance is guarded by a gold 140 foot tall statue of Murugan, Hindu god of war. To reach the caves, we had to climb 272 steep steps. I know the exact number because they are numbered. The best part of the climb was looking down. Below were hundreds of Indians clothed in bright, beautiful saris. After the hike up, we entered Cathedral Cavern, a massive 100 ...

... enormousness! We felt obliged to eat the meal so we tried our very best, and with full bellies our intention was to roll on into bed...however on our way a man called us over to have a glass of wine with his family so off we went, and joined him and his family for a really lovely Christmas Eve. These people were unbelievably friendly to us - their whole family met up every year and they treated us just like one of their family. Each of the kids came over and spoke to ...

... busy and it made a masisve difference. The water was so clear, I've never seen something like that in my life! It looks emerald from looking out on the white sand beach, just fantastic. So here we spent a week just lounging around, peaking off the watch and sunglasses salesman. By the end of the week they were well and truly glad to be rid of us! When Andy finally bought a watch after about a week, the little fella went from a thing of dejection to ...