Kota Kinabalu Part 2

Today we were going to go to the Kinabalu National Park to visit the Botanical Gardens and then to Poring Hot Springs to do another canopy walk and to relax in the hot pools at the end of the day. It was an early start as the National Park is 2.5 hours from KK. The group consisted of 13 adults and one tour guide. It was a beautiful drive to the park. There is only one road that takes you to the part of Sabah where the National Park is situated and it went through the rainforest. Mount Kinabalu was always in view and we actually saw the peak when the clouds drifted away. I had never seen a mountain that close and was in awe of its beauty. Apparently it isn't too hard a climb so we have decided we will most definitely be going back and attempt to climb it.

(That is Mount Kinabalu behind Zaheer and Yusuf- the tip is hidden in the clouds)

The botanical garden had every plant possible and helped us identify a lot of plants we had seen around Bukhit Shahbander on our many walks there. This was one of my favourites just beacuse the colour was so vivid against all the green. It was stunning.

This plant is called a pitcher plant. It always excites Zaheer everytime he spots this plant in the wild. I think it may be because he has seen a BBC documenatry with David Attenborough talking about it and feels like he is walking in his shoes. Its very cute.

Our tour guide. She was very good and knew absolutley everything on all the different plants. We were quite impressed.

You can just make out a spiral line going through the middle of the photo below. It is a branch from one the trees that grows all twisted from one tree to another. Its really beautiful to look at.

After the Botanical Gardens we had lunch then made our way to the Poring Hot Springs. The minute we arrived it started raining and it wasnt just drizzly rain like you get in the UK it poured. Literally as if somebody was standing above you with a humongous bucket and they just poured it all over your head. So I couldnt take any pictures whatsoever becuase my camera would have instantly died. It was an experince trying to walk across the canopy with that much rain all over you but it was beautiful. So worth the effort. The hot pools were full of people as it was a national holiday on that day but we did get one and it was quite pleasant.

We did meet an Australian couple who were on their honeymoon and decided to meet up with them the following day as they were leaving to go back the day after. Overall it was a really enjoyable day.

Kota Kinabalu Part 1

Just like our Temburong trip, I took a million pictures so this post will be done in lots of little posts cus there are too many pictures to upload all at once.

We stayed in KK for 9 days and as well as the usual walking around, shopping, eating etc. we also visited a few places that were just heaven on Earth. Because it was nowhere near as humid as Brunei, I could wear some nice clothes and accessories without melting or trying to kill myself! (It really does get that hot n humid in Brunei- I am sooooooooo jealous of all that snow in the UK).

Anyways, day 1 didn't really have that many pictures seeing as it consisted of us flying to KK in the evening and then going out to eat but I will put 2 up- one for Sarah (Yusufs aunty) who is forever pulling this face and taught Yusuf how to do it so that he now does it in every picture

and this one for my mum who is forever telling me to put more pictures up of me.

That concludes day 1. Not very exciting.

On day 2 we decided to explore the town a bit and see what there was to do.

Out hotel was situated in the centre of the town and everything was within walking distance. We walked along the waterfront first as we were trying to get a boat to the Abdul Rahman National Park (which consists of 5 islands about 20 minute boat ride from KK). One of them is supposed to be very good for snorkelling and we were really looking forward to trying that out.

We also wanted to go the Kinabalu National Park and went into one of the main tourist office to find out more info. We walked in and were met with a lot of people dressed up as santas- turend out it was the staff christmas party, in the middle of the day!

They even had a santa who was handing out sweets to everyone. It was pretty cute! They even handed out sweets to us.

We ended up booking a day trip to the Kinabalu National Park and Poring Hot Springs for the next day. It was reasonably priced and covered everything making it easier for us.

Later we went to the Night Market to eat. This is where you can try any kind of malay, chinese and thai food. There was plenty of fresh fish and lobsters too. The food is just delicious and so incredibly cheap you wonder how they make any profit.

We were told when we first arrived there was Christmas festival on and tonight was going to be the last night so we headed out there to have a look. It was so nice. There was a real Christmas atmosphere here- something that was non-existent in Brunei. They had carol singers, gifts, mince pies and cakes. There was also a Christmas concert on for the families but since it was all in Malay/Chinese we gave it a miss.

We then made our way back to the hotel as it was going to be a very early start tomorrow.

I'll leave you with one of many gorgeous sunsets in KK.

What we did on Christmas Day..........(apart from trying to bloody skype all day!)

Hope you all had a good Christmas!

It was very different for us as it was sunny!! We really did miss the cold and the snow but with the hot weather here- we can't really complain!

Anyways this is what we got up to.......

Woke up to a teary eyed Yusuf who said 'father christmas didn't come last night!" and me thinking 'oh god how do we explain this one?' But it was OK and i kinda rescued the situation cus he then said 'he didnt leave a present on the BED' and I had to explain to him that father christmas couldn't come to his room in case you woke up and saw him so he left the presents under the tree and all was good and well again........and we opened our presents happily knowing they came from santa (even though Yusuf had actually seen us pay for his presents at toys r us....)

(A very very excited boy)

(Cant seem to escape from the plastic guns- this one came with a plastic knife too!)

Played some dominoes with Yusuf.......

(Zaheer doing a typical dad thing at xmas)

Then we watched this film at the Empire Cinema.....

and then i started what should have been an incredibly easy xmas meal as there was only the 3 of us but problems started when (a) i realised i had bought far too much food and (b) there was no way it was all gonna fit in our tiny electric oven. So after 3 hours of panic and sweat (sweat due to the humidity as there are no air cons in the kitchen!!!) i managed to produce a decent xmas roast chicken, potatoes and veg. It was very good. And then I went to sleep as it was all too much. I am thinking next year we may just go to the Yacht club and have the xmas meal there.......

On boxing day some friends of ours had organised a footy kickabout/ice cream at the school field so we went along to that. It was a really nice way of spending christmas.....

Next posts will be about KK trip

xx

Merry Christmas!!!!!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!

XXXXXX

Shark for lunch

Another one of Zaheers crazy ideas- shark for lunch! I didn't go to the fish market with him so he came home with this!!

And this shrimp/lobster/crab thing

They were quite tasty. Overall a much better experience than the crab- less traumatic cus both of them were dead when we bought them. Apart from when the gills of the shark started twitching- a reflex action I think.

Christmas 2009

We were really missing the Christmas atmosphere that we are so used to every year in the UK that we just had to do something to make it feel like it was Christmas.

So.......... we bought a tree!

Du du duh!!!

It reminded us of cold, dark wintry nights in the UK (had to turn the air con to max so we could ignore the sunshine and 30 degrees hotness). We went to watch a Christmas Carol at the Empire and I even bought some mince pies!

(I actually have no idea where the hat came from)

(Thats a 4 foot tree- Yusuf just seems to grow everyday)

(The finished product and yes i did redecorate it after Yusuf went to bed and yes those are all Yusufs presents apart from one which is mine. Zaheer hasn't got any which won't be a good thing on Xmas day........need to get him summat me thinks)

(Yusufs Xmas card)

(Was so proud of him for two reasons. 1- His writing has improved soooooo much, that is the first time he has written the Y in his name correctly and 2- he put mummy first! He got a smartie for that)

P.S- We will be going to Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia on Wednesday for a week. Will post pictures when we get back. xxx

An update.......

It has been a while since I updated the blog so I thought I'll fill u in on whats been going on. I cant finish the previous post on Ulu Temburong Park as I have yet to get the rafting pictures off Salome. So since the last post:

We went to a fish market and bought a crab which I became best friends with and too emotionally attached. So much so that I was nearly in the car, driving to the nearest beach to release the poor thing when Zaheer bunged it into a pot of boiling water. I cried. It was unbearable. And it was bloody hard trying to get the meat out! Crab sticks for me from now on me thinks...........

(Before)

(After- notice the presentation skills for the photo)

Yusuf had his very first assembly! (Not counting the nativity play last year..........) His line was, 'We made rock cakes'. So I'm sitting there with my camera in video mode when the boy standing next to him snatches the microphone and says the line! And it takes Yusuf a second to realise whats happened, opens his mouth to speak and the microphone is passed along! I felt really bad for him and worst of all its all on video! Many happy years of embarrassment to come......including his wedding.........I won't post it because that is just too tight.

I put mehndi on. This was only so I could feel like it was gonna be Eid tomorrow and not another day of lazing about in the sun on the beach.......

We went to Miri, Malaysia. Its a 2 hour drive to the border and then half hour into the town centre. It was refreshing to be out of Brunei and enjoy a change in scenery. The night life was really quite bizarre but an experience nonetheless. They don't have clubs but bars (alcohol is allowed here) but no ones talking in the bars because they have a karaoke machine with the speakers on the loudest volume possible with some drunk guy singing in Malay! It was quite funny and the people are friendly enough but we kinda got a headache and just had to leave. Like I said, an experience but probably one which I wouldn't do again.

On the way home we decided to go to a crocodile farm. It was pretty amazing. There were so many crocodiles all over each other cus the pits were just too small. The condition the animals were kept in was pretty bad but I suppose its the way here. Overall it was a really good holiday and a really good Eid.

Ulu Temburong National Park Part 2

We had to wake up very early as there was a lot to be covered today. The breakfast consisted of noodles and scrambled eggs! Apparently this is what the locals have for breakfast every morning. It was delicious though and kept us going till lunch.

The first stop on our itinery was at a longhouse. The one we visited had about 25 rooms lined up with families living in each room. It looked tiny on the outside but each room had another room behind it so was quite spacious. All the families were related to each other. There was a nice community feel to it all.

After visiting the longhouse it was time to go to the National Park. I was soooo excited! It was a gorgeous day (like it is every day here!) and the thought of climbing up through the Borneo rainforest was too much excitement! The only way to get to the Park is by boats which have to be booked in advance through agents for the Park. You cannot visit the Park on your own- there has to be a tour guide. We all got onto a long boat and just enjoyed the ride through the river.

The Park was quite far away and the journey took about half an hour with the boat. This was the same river we were going to be rafting down later on!

On reaching the Park we had to climb a few steps to reach the actual canopy walk structure.

(Yusuf leading the way- he turned in Diego the Explorer on this trip!)

(The rainforest)

It was really nice and cool in the rainforest and there were all sorts of different insects. We came across these huge ants. They were everywhere! There were also lots of lizards but we didnt see anything else.

We were told orangutans used to come to this part of the rainforest regularly but have stopped doing so because of the tourism. It took a while to reach the strucutre and after a short break we started climbing it.

(This was not the full height of the structure. After climbing up this one there was a bridge which you had to cross and the same height again to climb! Then another bridge and another climb before you finally got to the top.)

(Zaheer leading the way!)

It wasn't too bad but Zaheer really s**t himself (fear of heights didnt help!) and didnt really enjoy the experience as much as he would've liked to. I loved every second of it! It really is a memory I will never ever forget. To see the Borneo rainforest from the very top of the tallest trees was spectacular. None of the photos do any justice that was the beauty up there. I did feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to go and see it. Just beautiful.

(It was jsut amazing- there was rainforest every where you looked and on a clear day you can also see Mount Kinabalu in Sabah.)

(Salome and me)