Into Borneo

Thanks to the super cheap Asian equivalent of Sleazy Jet (wwww.airasia.com) I was able to hop over to Kota Kinabalu on the dark and mysterious island of Borneo! We came into land with a view of Mount Kinabalu in the distance, looking large, dark and mysterious. As we arrived at the terminal we found a welcoming committee awaiting us, "Headhunters" I exclaimed, as I carefully eyed the chief approach with his feathered headdress, ceremonial spear and necklace made of shrunken heads, would mine be next? "You come, big metal bird?", my goodness they speak a strange language. I couldn't answer him, I didn't know what to do next. It was at this point that the stewardess woke me up and asked me to prepare for landing.

01 Kota Kinabalu, a Seaside Town

In reality Kota Kinabalu is a modern town that could be anywhere in the world. The Colonial and The Clown have already been busy in the town setting up numerous eateries wherever a corner is to be found. I'm sure that the wealth of the local population is almost certainly to do with the continual logging of Borneo, a wealth that doesn't sit nicely as you see trees being converted into nice cars, houses and meals.

To save myself from the expense of a 14 Ringgit (2 UK Pounds) taxi ride into town on my own I singled out a western couple and made my move in order to share a taxi with them. They turned out to be a young pre-university couple that had just completed a short stint with Raleigh International, building schools, being good, and saving the planet. We ended up staying at the same hostel and I met a few more of their friends. I found out that the Raleigh volunteers are called 'Venturers' which led me to start thinking what their collective noun should be, I came up with was a 'Rally of Venturers', which I think is suitable. The next day it was pouring with rain so not much we really going on, myself and the Rally headed out to be really Venturous at lunch time and ended up in Pizza Hut. To be honest the cheese that they put on the pizza was scarier than any snake or tarantula.