Back in two weeks...

Off to the rainforest for a couple of weeks with no internet or phone reception...this is going to be something new!

See you soon folks!

A trip to remember

In KK we’ve been staying in a great backpackers called POD. We love it because it’s well located for buses, food courts, bars, shops, ATMs, etc etc. but mainly because the people that run it are amazing!

They made us feel welcome the first time we stayed there, but when we came back again, they made us feel like we were coming home! It’s a funny thing when you’re travelling, but little things like becoming familiar with somewhere, knowing your way around somewhere, or just seeing a familiar friendly face is a huge comfort, so we did feel a little like we were home. The £7 per night for a double room is also a massive bonus.

So we’ve adopted POD as our base whenever we’re in KK, and as we’ve had 6 days to kill between Claire leaving and Atmika and Robert arriving, we’ve started to get to know the place. When planning what to do for the week, the wonderful manager Maria, surprised us both by saying that she and her boyfriend Ryan (who’s an incredible jungle specialist tour guide) could take us to a nearby village community and give us a taste for rural life. For free. Where in the world would you find people as welcoming and willing to give up their time?

So we happily agreed, and set off around lunch time on Thursday and we didn’t arrive back until about 3pm the following day. It was amazing.

We went to a local market where Maria and Ryan showed us local delicacies (and bought it for us to try).

We arrived at the village which is set in an incredibly beautiful location on a stretch of river, and reached via a swing bridge that looked like something from a film.

We had a fish massage…I’m talking huge fish, about a foot long swimming around your legs, under your feet and between your toes…a tickly, slippery, splashy little adventure throughout which Brodie squealed like a baby!

We swam in the river (3 times)

We drank rice wine

We went on a 4 hour night walk, in which we saw giant spiders, giant snakes, incredible frogs, a flying lemur (!!!), ignuanas, and more.

We cooked traditional Malay food in the traditional Malay way-in bamboo on an open fire!

We slept in a traditional longhouse.

We went on a daylight forest walk, in which we stalked rare birds.

We joined in traditional Malay dancing (much to our embarrassment…) and were serenaded with traditional drumming.

We tried rubber tapping (Brodie is apparently a pro at this)

We were fed like Kings…

It was a wonderful wonderful couple of days and we were blown over by the warmth, friendliness and welcoming nature of the wonderful community we visited, and couldn't believe Maria and Ryan were generous enough to give up so much of their time, energy and expertise to give us such a wonderful experience. Absolutely WOW.

Tea Glorious Tea

The woman we booked with said “Call this number when you get dropped off at the main road and we’ll come and pick you up as it’s a long way to reception.” We called but no-one came. So we walked for half an hour all the way up the hill with our bags in the Sun (did I mention we JUST WALKED UP A MOUNTAIN?!!).

Dripping with sweat we arrived at reception to be told there was no booking. Fab. Thankfully they had a room spare.

We asked them when we could do our night walk as promised by the woman we booked with. We were told they weren’t doing night walks ‘because of the weather’ (which was the same weather they have every day in Borneo).  

So after a rather dubious start, we found ourselves tucked away in a basic but cosy room in a traditional Longhouse at Sabah Tea Plantation.

We paid for a tour of the tea museum which turned out to be a 15 minute promotional video (which boasted of an amazing night walk we could all enjoy) followed by a 20 minute tour of the tea factory, in which I couldn’t hear a word the man said, so spent the whole thing nodding at what I guessed were appropriate moments. It looked interesting though, and it smelt amazing, and I read about how you make tea in a leaflet afterwards, so all good.

The only thing was, the tour was late morning, and there was nothing else to do all day. So we’d woken up at 5am, got a bus, a coach, walked up a huge hill, walked around a factory, read some appropriate literature, then found ourselves stuck in a tea plantation in the middle of nowhere in the rain, with nothing to do. Thankfully it had a restaurant with an incredible view of Mount Kinabalu and the surrounding mountains, and there was lots of tea to drink, so we sat and watched the view, drank tea, and took occasional photos of weird insects that waddled into our vicinity which actually turned into a rather satisfying day. When the rain stopped we also had a lovely walk through the tea fields and even guilted the guy in reception to take us on a sunrise walk the next morning so we actually had rather a jolly time!

The Night Market

Kota Kinabalu is an absolute, sensory overload. The smells alone…hot tarmac, damp grass, car exhaust, urine, sewage, fried chicken, coffee, motorbike fumes, obligatory Maccy D’s (of course!)….

Then there are the sounds…the omnipresent hum of traffic, which can be heard even tucked away in your hostel bed, rising in a crescendo as the morning rush-hour builds…The tooting of horns…The early morning and late night drilling (no-one wants to work in the mid-day heat here)...The drone of a plane taking off nearby, the buzz of a speed boat ferrying tourists to and from the islands….The pervasive call of the taxi driver, ”You want a taxi?!”…The deceptively friendly, yet progressively aggressive plea from the massage ladies, “Miss!! You want a head massage? Only 45 ringitt!! I give you for 40!!! MISS!!”…The café waitresses that wave menus in your face, ”You want a coffee? ABC?!!”….The hiss of a bus as it passes…The mew of a cat as it curls around your chair leg looking wistfully at your plate…The incoherent call of the market-stall owner, advertising his wares…The often pleasant, often irritating chatter of fellow backpackers trickling in from the kitchen, who either have a genuine interest in listening to others, or a genuine desire to brag (the kind that don’t so much as listen, as wait for you to finish so that they can start speaking)…The crackle of the aircon, the whirring of a fan….The genuinely-cheerful hellos from passers-by (which they deliver with a wave and a smile)…

The night market is like a crazy crossroads of all of these smells, sounds, colours, tastes where everything collides, and then explodes in an absurd but exciting splurge of busyness!

Everything intensifies here. The closer you get to the fish, the louder the sounds (that crazy upward spiral where each man must shout louder than the next to make his voice heard!...times infinitum), the more slippery the floor, the more putrid the smell…fish, guts, blood, bones…death. This is no place for flipflops.

And then there are the colours….all the colours of the rainbow, and every shade in between.

The unfamiliar trials on your senses, the crunch of bone and gristle as you chew on your chicken tail that occasionally makes you want to retch, the squeak of rats under the table as you try to eat, the slimy splash of water dripping off the fish and bouncing back up your shins, and the ooze of God Knows What squelching between your toes. The smoke from the BBQs stinging your eyes and making them water. The feel of a lobster’s back under your finger, and the intense and surprisingly elaborate colours and patterns of its shell.  The familiar sweet smell of sugar, wrapped up in a new, unfamiliar delicacy. At 1 ringitt each, it’s got to be worth a try, right?!

If you want to be more adventurous, there’s fish heads and chicken legs and fowl-smelling dried fish (waste not…), and desiccated seahorses (!!!), and if you so fancy, there’s even squid on a stick.

And then there are the people. The oldies, the babies, the cheeky little boys and the shy little girls, the sincere looking parents, the lazy teenagers lounging in the background with earphones and mobile phone, the little ones sent out with a carrier bag to scrounge scraps, the hassled looking customers…. So many of them want to catch your eye, then when you do and you smile, they smile back (a shy smile and then look away quickly, embarrassed, but it’s always a smile that reaches their eyes).

This place is a kaleidoscope and I love it.