Apologies this morning little team…I am a little hungover this morning. The story will unfold as you read….
Arriving in KL, we took a bus with ZERO suspension into town. Was a late night, as Sunni got into the hotel around 3am, and I stayed up to meet her. Must have been a busy night in the hotel, took over an hour to get our room service. Nothing like hamburgers & a glass of wine at 1am!
Friday was SHOPPING DAY! And did I shop up a storm. Dresses (yes, plural!), skirts, shorts, shoes. KL is like Bangkok for shopping…amazing. You can get anything, and so cheap! We eventually struggled back to the hotel under the weight of our purchases, to meet Ange & Steph. There had been long lines at immigration (they have introduced fingerprint scanning since we were here 3 weeks ago) so took them awhile to get in. Took them for dinner at one of our local haunts…Lorraine & I are practically locals now! Finished the night off with a foot massage…Steph fell asleep in the chair, and I’m sure we lost Lorraine for awhile…
Saturday we were up early to go up the Petronas Towers. Arrived around 7.45am (!!) as we wanted to be there early before they start selling tickets at 8.30am, however the 1500 daily allocation of tickets had already been exhausted. Up early for nothing! After a few setbacks, we had some breakfast & continued on with our shopping. That really is the main sport over here. And once you see the malls, you can understand why. Sunni took us to an awesome dumpling restaurant for lunch, where she proceeded to argue (in Chinese) with the dodgy waitstaff…even more awesome! Food was great, then it was back to the hotel to await the arrival of Annabel. As I had missed her birthday, we decided to hold a delayed birthday party, complete with champagne & cake. Sunni & I decked out the room with creative decorations….streamers made from newspaper, balloons stuck to the walls with security tape from our bags & finally, we tore pictures of famous people from magazines & wrote birthday messages & stuck them all around the room. Mel Gibson made an appearance (‘Happy birthday Sugar Tits’), greetings from the Biggest Loser personal trainers (‘Happy birthday – don’t eat too much cake. Try some fruit instead’) & Prince William & Kate Middleton even put in a appearance (‘Royal birthday wishes’). Hilarious! A HUGE thanks to Sunni K for her creative talents!!
While in KL we took a few taxi’s to get around. Taxi’s here are…interesting. The stickers on the taxi say ‘no haggling’, yet many drivers won’t take you if you want them to use the metre! One even laughed at us, wound up his window & ignored us! Ha!
Sunday saw Sunni & Lorraine leave us and head home. It was sad to see them leave, and I’m sure it was hard for them to finish up their holiday, especially as the were watching us head off for a week by the beach. They eased the pain by indulging in some last minute shopping – Lorraine bought two handbags & Sunni bought a carry on suitcase to fit her purchases from the last few days.
Arrived in Sandakan (Borneo) late Sunday night, and had dinner by the waterfront. After some searching, we discovered that the Australian War Memorial here was having a dawn service for ANZAC Day. The memorial is on the site for a former POW camp, where more than 2000 Australian & British soldiers died during the Sandakan Death March in WW2. The Japanese invaded, and made the POW’s build an airstrip there. When the Allied Forces came close, the Japanese made the prisoners leave the camp, and walk 260kms through the jungle, in an effort to keep them from being rescued. It poured during the service, but they provided ponchos, and no one left. There were a heap of Australian’s there, and in true Australian style, Bundy Rum was being served with coffee at 6.30am, straight after the service! Very moving to be somewhere so special for an ANZAC service.
After the service, we decided to check out the world famous Borneo orangutans & monkeys. Our very cool cabbie took us out in the afternoon while Steph & I sat in the back and sang along to 80’s music played through her iPhone while we bumped along ridiculous potholed road with no suspension. So fun!! The Probiscis monkey park was the first stop. Arrived in time for the feeding & wow, did we see the tree tops shaking! They saw us arrive, and made their way down to the viewing area. Huge ones, baby ones. It was amazing. They came so close, and stayed for ages. Got to use my zoom lens to get some great shots. The probiscis appendage hanging from their head) was pretty interesting to see up close. Very bizarre, but definitely a must do trip over here.
After the monkeys we headed to the orangutan sanctuary. We missed the feeding time, and the grumpy receptionist made it quite clear their was no guarantee that we would see them. We took our chances, and it was so worth it. We saw mums with babies on their back, old man orangutan & lots of other monkeys. The orangutans were so agile, swinging from the trees, walking along the rails. Very very glad we took our chance. When everyone had gone (because it was about to pour again) we stayed and they came out again. I was taking photos of a mum & baby when they came down from the tree & right to the rail where I was standing. Got quite a fright! Nothing like a giant orangutan bearing down on you to make you feel alive!
Back in town we decided to head to ‘4 Mile’, the supposed happening area of town. Before we did that, we did the coolest thing ever…set off firecrackers in our hotel room. You can buy them at the supermarket for about 50c, then you throw them on the ground, or stand on them to make them go off. Let me tell you, it’s quite loud in a confined hotel room! But, noone blinked an eye. Noone knocked on our door or told us off. I love Asia!
Grabbed a cab to ‘4 Mile’ and I am here to inform you that there is actually nothing happening there on a Monday night. After walking around & getting lots of ‘hellos’ from the locals who I’m sure were wondering why 4 foreign girls were walking around on a Monday night, we high-tailed it to one of the hotels for bad cocktails & late dinner.
Tuesday was a lazy day. Ange & Steph headed out on a day trip, so Annabel & I random day. We started with massages, then headed to a seafood restaurant for lunch. Billed as the best seafood place in town, we had high expectations, and weren’t disappointed. It sat over the water, and was very ‘local’. Lobster, crab, clams & calamari, topped off with a bottle of Chilean white wine, all for some ridiculously cheap price. The main ‘highlight’ was the staff bringing 3 live lobsters out for us to choose from! I was a little distressed, so Annabel decided. They thought my reaction was hilarious! Food was great. So fresh. We did get a bit of attention though – 2 tall blondes walking around. Locals practised their ‘hellos’ again.
After lunch, we decided to go back to the orangutans & watch the
feeding we had missed the day before. Managed to convince our limited English cabbie where we wanted to go, and we were away. He worked out that we were a little short on time, so he raced over the potholes for us. Saw the feeding this time. They truely are amazing creatures. LOVING the new camera. About a million photos. I feel sorry for my friends who live close enough & have to look at them all…
So, we arrived in Kota Kinabula yesterday. Our supercool cabbie picked us up, and after listening to all our singing the other day, he picked us up in his pimped out cab, with club tunes blaring, and bling stuck all over the front dash. Very cool!
First day in Kota was spent exploring. I had expected it to be on the beach, but you actually have to go to the islands to see the beaches. We will do that today, but last night, decided to make a statement to Kota, and hit the town. We had found coloured wigs the day before, and decided to wear them out to dinner. Well, we were the talk of the town! So popular, and everyone wanted our photo. Lady Gaga was the common call! We ate at a great seafood restaurant on the waterfront, and all the staff had their photos taken with us. At random times during the night, we had to rotate wigs, to change colours and see if anyone noticed. Quite a few did! Below is a selection of photos from the night….oh dear….
