Kota Kinabalu and Kuala Lumpur

We reached Kota Kinabalu (KK) after seven hours. Our guide left us on the side of the highway and told us to wave the bus down. We waited an hour and when the bus came I walked into the middle of the road, waved at it and walked to pick up my bag. The driver waved at us and kept going....Great! I walked all the way back to the village while Chris waited with the bags. I was accompanied back to the bus stop and the boss helped us wave the next bus down an hour later. He apologized for not meeting us the day earlier as he had been needed down the river. It had been a five hour journey each way and he didn't think we would have liked it. He then followed  up by saying he had seen three wild orang utans, and a herd of Pygmy elephants. I almost cried! That would have been awesome! But what is done is done. We enjoyed our little river cruises so we decided to be happy we what we had done, not long for what we missed.

We caught the bus and drove the crazy winding road back to KK. First time I can ever remember feeling sick in a land vehicle before, whoopee. Back in KK we went to the local night market for dinner. Amazing food, fresh, served with a smile, each meal less than $1.50 CAN and so filling. We ate Mee Goreng which is fried noodles as we were a little riced out. Two different vendors, both were delicious. We also tried and 'ABC Special' which is actually Ais Kacang a local treat of crushed ice, condensed milk, syrup, jelly, corn and kidney beans. Oddly tasty. I tried to get Chris to eat one of the Prawnsters but he declined. They were prawn the size of lobsters, no kidding. Fresh and crazy big.

We spent the next day wandering town and regrouping, booking flights and visas, etc. dinner again at the night market. I tried to buy some local mango for 5 Ringit but you could only buy 10 mangos, no less for that price. Maybe I will get mangos another time. Chris discovered a store down the road which sold three cans of beer for 12 Ringit or $4 CAN. He managed to get a round in before the British teachers bought out the supply. He then had to up to 15 Ringit or $5 for three cans of Tiger. Fancy beer.

The next day we went to Sapi Island about a 15min speed boat ride from KK to spend the day snorkelling. We had a blast snorkelling but you have to be continually on guard for the territorial fish. There were beige ones with two black dots on their back and black ones with two white dots, mirrors of the others. If you swan over their reef they would charge which ever body part was offending them. After being rammed a few times with their little mouth we got the message and would swim the other direction if we saw one. However while Chris was performing evasive maneuvers on one in front of him, a second sneaky little fella bit him in the calf. When Chris turned to see what had happened the fish just stared at him. That was the first bite of the day, poor Chris. He was taught a lesson by a six inch long fish.

My new favourite fish 

Some of Chris's posy

The aggressive black fish with the white spots that bit Chris

Chris's favourite fish

Chris and his posey

The roped off snorkelling area had some nice little reefs and some wonderful fish, a better selection than Thailand and had been with less waves. We saw all sorts of fish, small bright blues ones, large brightly coloured parrot fish which we unfortunately had also seen for dinner at the night market, and even saw some clams. For some odd reason a group of black and white striped fish followed Chris around everywhere he swam. When he stopped they would nibble his swim trunks and swim in his shadow. They were so cute and I thought they were harmless until one bite him in the armpit. I guess his possy wasn't so harmless after all.

Rant about stupid tourists:

For any of my friends reading this, if you ever stand on a coral reef just think that a five second stand takes the reef 50 years to recover from. Also, picking up clams and moving them may be fun but this can kill them. I don't understand how people can be so darn stupid and distructive. There were signs, and the lifeguards kept yelling but some morons just don't care.

Back to post:

We ate lunch at an island cafe with a giant monitor lizard lurking near by. More after lunch snorkelling before heading back to KK to get ready for the next day. We again ate dinner at the night market, because for $4 CAN for an amazing filling fresh meal, why would you go elsewhere? Chris picked the squid he wanted to eat and they turned it into calamari right in front of us. I even had two pieces. It was the best freshest calamari I have ever had. And the whole thing cost $5 CAN, can I say steal?

The next morning we woke up at 3:15am to catch our flight to Kuala Lumpur.

We decided to explore the city this time as our minds were not in the best place during our last visit. Our first day there we took the KLIA Ekpress train into he city from the airport and spent the day eating Western food for the first time since we left home. We walked to the Petronas Twin Towers and went up them this time as we had bought our tickets online before hand.

We went to the 44th floor sky bridge which links the two and pretended to be Catherine Zeta-Jones and Sean Connery. Pass me the sponge! The what? The wrench! After that we visited the 86th floor viewing area in the second tower. There was only one floor above us. I was surprised by how narrow the floor was but I guess it is only logical as the building gets taller. We scoped out where our hotel was and enjoyed using the telescopes to checkout it the roof top pools of the fancy hotels.

From the towers we went the the basement where the KLCC Aquaria is. Thankfully Chris had his Western ID card on him so he got a 20 Ringit discount, score! There were so many animals in there it was crazy. We walked past a tank of piranha, a tank of eels, tanks of sea horses. The highlighting was the shark tank with the moving walkway through it so you can observe the sharks swimming over head. There were lots of sharks, the sand tiger sharks had crazy teeth on them but they are friendly sharks. There were some sea turtles and other fish sharing the tank which were nice to see. We kept walking backwards because we wanted to see more sharks for the money it cost.

We had a great time at the aquarium however in the basement we did not notice a giant storm descend  on the city. When we emerged the roads were flooding and the thunder was deafening. Since someone had forgotten his rain coat we tried to stick to cover walkways to get back to our hotel. After getting a little wet and a lot wet (guess who was who) we made it to a monorail station and hopped the train back to the Berjaya Times Square Mall across the street from our hotel. We ate dinner while the downpour continued and walked back once the rain was over. By then Chris' shirt was dryer and our bellies were full of delicious food.

Can you spot me?

The next day we caught the monorail and the KTM Kommuter train to the Batu Caves. A large limestone cave system about 25km north of the city centre. The caves have been filled with Hindu sculptures and temples although they are free to visit. We enjoyed walking through the caves and watching the cheeky monkeys causing a ruckus.

We spent the rest of the day scoping out Malaysian snacks around the area and getting things ready for our next destination. Our last day in KL was spent relaxing and eating from any hawker stand we could find. Although hawkers were everywhere in KK, here there are mostly street restaurants at twice the price for half the food and flavour. However the curry puffs are cheap and delicious!

We had a lovely time in Malaysia. The people here are so friendly and everyone speaks English very well. Our Malay I better than it was. We now know how to say welcome, thank you, your welcome, and we can count to ten.

If anyone ever gets the chance to visit I would recommend it, but make sure you get the Borneo and the MIsompuru Homestay.

Love,
Chel
xoxoxo