Going home

Day 11 Monday

As this is our last morning, we had a lie in and wandered down for breakfast just before they stopped serving. A treat after getting up at the crack of dawn everyday.  Lynn did the German trick with the towels to be on the safe side so we could spend a last couple of hours in the sun.  

The hotel pool and beach

Cynthia had arranged for us to keep the room for an extra couple of hours before check out so there was no rush.  Suddenly one of our party found us with the news that they had checked the flight times online by logging into their booking form, only to find that we none of us were on the flight list.  It appears that if you do not fly outbound on a flight, which we didn't because it was cancelled, then they treat that as no show and delete you from the inbound flight.  A quick call to Cynthia to see if she could sort it out.  Lynn and I said we were not leaving the hotel unless and until we had absolute confirmation that we had flights straight through to Heathrow.  We had a couple of anxious hours but in the end the flights were rebooked via Dubai.  A piece of good news - we got 120 Brunei dollars (£65) each at Brunei airport in compensation for Brunei Airlines delaying our luggage when we arrived.  We are going to change it back to sterling as the airport transit lounge is tiny and nothing much to spend it on. More later. 

The flight to Dubai was over 8 hours and I didn't sleep at all as I had restless legs.  Royal Brunei airlines is dry so I couldn't even have a G&T  to get me off to sleep. 

 20 mins stopover in Dubai to change crew and on again a further  7and a half hours to Heathrow.  So glad to touch down I even if it was 6 degrees.  One last blow, the taxi didn't turn up for 55 mins.  Could seriously have done without that.

What have I enjoyed about this holiday?  Got to be the wildlife, my absolutely favourite moment -

 the culture, the authentic experience.  Apart from the 5 star hotel for the past 2 days, I think we have seen the life lived by the people of Sabah.  I'm not sure what I was expecting, possibly tribesmen with black Mary Quant haircuts, loincloths and blowpipes living in mud huts.  In fact it's a fairly modern country.  I didn't see any beggars and everyone was dressed in western clothes.  In the country, the houses were pretty large bungalows on stilts and in the capital, Kota Kinabalu, there were some run down flats but it looked as if they were being demolished.  They are very environmentally aware of their rainforest heritage and though Kota Kinabalu is clearly growing and tourism is expanding, they are building on land reclaimed from the sea rather than encroaching on the rainforest itself.  Christians, Buddhists and Muslims coexist without tension and though there are several languages and sub dialects spoken, there is a general understanding and appreciation of spoken English.  I suppose that's the heritage left by the British colonialisation.  Sabah didn't get it's independence from Britain officially until 1963 so there are lots of remnants from that era.  In the main language, Bahasa, you can see the English words mangled by local spelling eg teksi = taxi  sekolah = school. The people of Sabah are very welcoming and friendly.  In the capital white faces are no longer a novelty but in the villages in the rainforest, we were the first white people some locals had seen.

Anything I didn't like?  They still have hole in the floor toilets alongside Western toilets. Because Muslim women spray themselves with water instead of using toilet paper, the toilets are always swimming In water and very smelly.  Also the concept of hot food and cold drinks hasn't caught on yet and everything is lukewarm.  (Probably I ought to add that because of the humidity Lynn and I both had an eighties perm for the whole two weeks)  But that's all I can think of.  Everything else was great.

Better get planning the next one.

Markets and headhunters

Day 10 Sunday

Today is at leisure but a half day of culture and shopping is on offer. I am fancying it but Lynn is going to have a lie in followed by a morning round the pool.  Our first stop is the Sunday market.  It has everything but a lot of it is aimed at tourists of course. I find three blind men singing and playing instruments to sell their CDs, and they are not bad at all

Health boards??

 And vats of unusual fruit juice. 

Then my camera starts playing up so sadly no more photos. A shame as there are a lot of stalls I would have liked to photograph. In particular, there were dog and cat stalls. The dogs here are the same as in Nepal,  ie they all look the same except for the colour and choice of straight or curly tail. It was sad to see puppies squashed into little cages, priced 180 rinngits (about £35). I'm surprised that they cost so much as you could adopt a starving street one for nothing.  Might get one as a souvenir for Frank.  Lots of fake Rolexes, Chanel handbags, RayBans etc.  couldn't resist buying a couple of pairs. Lynn thought they were joke specs when she saw them.  Huh! No taste.  I also got two lovely local outfits for Lynn and me to wear when we get back to the UK to remind us of balmier climes.

A couple of photo opportunities of the floating City Mosque in pale blue and silver which holds up to 12000 worshippers.  Then Signal Hill where there is a viewing tower over the city and an opportunity to get another KitKat Cornetto.  We pass an impressive new circular glass building, something to do with the education department. But what was better was there were 2 orang-utans made of concrete with holes in the head where you could stick your face through and be photographed and you didn't look silly at all. 

Our final stop was at The Museum of Sabah.  It was fascinating with areas depicting the ancient and modern culture including musical instruments, wedding costumes from the different tribes, although the mannequins looked like they had been taken from John Lewis' window 40 years ago.  There were stuffed indigenous animals in naturalistic settings, leopard, Pygmy elephant, turtles, flying bats, deer, as well as the beautiful orang-utans and monkeys and many more.  The history of North Borneo from archeological digs to the present time.  Interesting facts - there are 5 states in Malaysia, Each has a Sultan and they take it in turns every 4 years to be top ruling Sultan.  It seems that they are purely constitutional and that there is a lot of dissatisfaction amongst the people as the government is considered corrupt.  Watch this space for the Malaysian spring. There are many tribes, languages, dialects, ethnicities and therefore a lot of misunderstanding between the people.  In the past, the tribes were suspicious of anyone they could not communicate with and so fought them off.  Heads literally rolled and it was a huge celebration if you managed cut cut off someone's head and bring it home.  You hung the head outside your house to ward off bad luck. Cynthia says there is still a tribe deep in the rainforest who do not understand the common languages of Sabah and are very hostile. 

The last stop was a heritage village with authentic longhouses.  They are built on stilts with slatted floors and walls.  There is a long central area with rooms off one side for sleeping, cooking etc and in one there was another more solid floor set into the main floor but on ropes.  When they had a celebration eg came back with a head, the tribesmen got tanked up on the local brew, got on the suspended floor and bounced up and down while they chanted.  I had a go and it was very much like a trampoline. There were towers for climbing with your blow pipe, special houses for hanging up your collection of skulls and places I didn't really understand what they were for.  For the first time in my life, a local family asked if they could have their photo taken with me.  It's weird to think that I am an oddity with my yellow hair and white skin.

Am back at the gorgeous pool now having a tequila sunrise and relaxing before I have a dip in the South China Sea.  Apparently it is very salty so I shouldn't sink.

Waving our flag to call over the waiter.

We are all meeting up for a drink tonight and a final meal together.  We have all got on well together and may well keep in touch. 

 The hotel musician in national costume

Buddhas and buddleias

Day 9 Friday

Today we are to travel further inland to Sabah Agricultural Park.  We are not particularly fancying this, sounds too technical.  When we go down for breakfast, everything is laid out on the table for us instead of being kept hot on a buffet.  I have never had stone cold fried eggs before.  We ask for toast and it comes hot if a bit pale but we are happy.  It seems we are the first Westerners to stay here and they are really trying to keep us happy even if they don't know how.  

We make a short stop at the Buddhist Temple of the Goddess of Mercy.

Lynn and I attempt to get into the lotus position

In a previous life this goddess had been a male farmer.  His cattle were starving so he cut open his arteries to feed them his blood.  The cows survived but he died.  However in his next reincarnation 

he was born a woman who became the Goddess of Mercy.  

The Temple is fairly small with an alter inside and large murals on the outside walls depicting her life.

The goddess being born and growing up.

Fast forward to becoming a Goddess and Buddha

  There is a big gold statue in the gardens outside. 

 I took a photo of some dogs and for the first time ever a dog growled at me and bared her teeth.  But she was extremely thin and perhaps disappointed I had no food.  She could have had my cold egg had I known.

At the Agricultural Park I had a pleasant surprise In that it was really interesting.  We saw some bees being used in research programme.  It seems we have only one or two species of bees in the UK but they have eight in Borneo.  Some sting, some don't, some make honey, some don't.  When they puffed smoke on the bees it was not to make them sleepy as I thought.  It's to disguise the pheromones we give off which the soldier bees might pick up and attack us. 

We saw plants that are used against cancer in Borneo, a tree with lots of dangling ball shaped fruits called the cannon ball tree

  We smashed open one of the fruits and it had dark brown flesh inside which smelt really bad.  But we also found a tree whose flower smelt wonderful and was called the Chanel tree. The flower gardens were absolutely gorgeous, every colour of bougainvilleas, hibiscus (the natinal flower of Malaysia), orchids of every size, shape and colour and plants the size of small trees which are house plants in England. 

A few examples 

There was so much to see we had to trundle round in a little train

 We had a very nice meal featuring beef in coconut sauce at the patio restaurant.  Being a bit bored of melon surprise we bought a choccy lolly at the shop though I would have preferred my usual KitKat Cornetto

On the way back we stopped at the town market.  It was all food, either fresh or cooked on the spot chicken of beef satay, fish, fruit and veg, donuts and waffles, fruit drinks. 

 Everyone was very friendly and we were clearly a novelty with our white skin and yellow hair.  By the way the town, Keningau, is a corruption of the Malay word for cinnamon tree.

It has been very hot today and that combined with the fresh air all day means we are dead tired so are going to give the Peppermint lounge karaoke  a miss. I am sure they will miss us.......not.

Bring silly in the restaurant

Crafts and railways

Day 9 Saturday

Oh wow!  We have just arrived at our 5 star all inclusive hotel in Kota Kinabalu.  I cannot believe the luxury.

But before I describe the hotel, I must record what we have done today.  We left Keningau in a downpour.  I had not been able to publish yesterday's blog because the iPad kept dropping the signal. So two posts today hopefully.  We went first to the Sabah Craft Centre.  We weren't sure what to expect but it turned out to be really interesting and great fun as the people who worked there were so pleased to see us, their first Western visitors.  In fact they normally worked Monday to Friday but had come in specially to meet us and demonstrate what they did.  The centre is part of a government initiative to teach young people traditional crafts like batik painting, embroidery, weaving, making baskets and furniture from rattan and fern leaves, glass beads, traditional headwear and clothes. The people, young and old were really excited by our visit and wanted us to try our hand.  I made a new email pal, Nelly.

I try painting Batik

Weaving an intricate cloth 

Lynn basket weaving

My new email friend, Nelly

Lynn in a traditional headdress

Me in a head hunter's headdress

Modelling the latest Malay outfit

Group photo with all the lovely staff.

We bought some souvenirs and said goodbye to all the lovely staff.

Off again and stopping for lunch at a typical Malay restaurant.  Nothing fancy but good food - fish, aubergines in coconut sauce, vegetables, fried fern leaves, beef in chilli and things I didn't recognise.

On to the train in Tenom for a ride through spectacular scenery.  The train hugged the river bank and on the other side the rainforest rose steeply into the hills.  

The engine was like Percy out of Thomas the Tank Engine

I can't upload the photos of the carriages which is a shame.  We travelled first class which consisted of  plastic covered benches with sliding windows but no aircon.  Second class was like a cattle truck and people sat on the wooden floor, no windows but with sliding doors.  It was very, very hot.  The engine set off with much loud hooting and tooting and reached cruising speed of about 30mph.  It was fairly full and stopped regularly.  Half way through the journey we all had to get out and we wondered whether we were going to have another authentic experience of building the next bit of track like our ancestors.  But no, for some reason we got on another train and the first train went back. The buffet service got on the train in the form of a man with a box and a bucket filled with snacks and drinks.  It was all too much for the passenger next to Lynn who took advantage of her shoulder to nap on.

We passed a wedding in a field and some of the guests got on to go home I expect.  After a few minutes a man said loudly, " I am not speaking to your shoes". He repeated it so we turned round and nodded aimiably and he seemed happy with the acknowledgement.

A view from the train

Although we had enjoyed the journey, it was good to get off the train at Beaufort and back into the aircon of the coach which brought us into the capital of Sabah, Kota Kinabalu and our luxury hotel.  Lynn couldn't resist taking photos of our room.

The louvred window looks Into the bathroom where you could hold a barn dance.

The view for the sunset rom our balcony.

Huge choice of wonderful food in the 5 Sails Restaurant overlooking the pool and so to bed.  Ahh.

Cold water all day

Day 8 Thursday.

We packed up again and after breakfast went out to photograph Mount Kinabalu.  It is a beautiful sight across the rainforest with the peak visible above a band of mist. On then to a national park and a waterfall, Air Turjun.  The government is trying to  promote this area to tourists but it is very isolated and so still pretty quiet.  In fact, when we arrived, we had the place to ourselves.    

It was completely natural and unspoilt.

 Lynn was insistent that we get in the rock pool under the waterfall so I got changed and went into the water as far as my knees.  

Compared to the warm air, it felt really cold but Lynn was determined to enjoy the experience.  There was a group of butterflies of different colours resting on a boulder in the rock pool.  

Cynthia had bought some pots of local handmade sweets, almonds surrounded by crunchy biscuit in chocolate, a sort of soft shortbread dusted with icing sugar and a sort of spring roll covered in sweet sticky something from a stall on the way so we could have a snack.

We wandered back through the rainforest to the car park where the coach and Cynthia's boyfriend were waiting.  I need to explain that any driver, porter, barman, receptionist of any kind is referred to as her boyfriend by Cynthia.  You will have seen from her photo that Cynthia is a larger than life character so we are assuming that the boyfriend thing is a joke.  But she is absolutely great fun and a brilliant courier.

Lunch in the national park and the usual Chinese menu including melon.  Then we settle down for a one and a half hour ride to Keningau.  We stop on the way to drive down a long dirt track between some rice paddy fields to visit the memorial of a tribal leader who led his people against the British and died while under arrest in 1900.  Oops.  The people from the village were very excited by our visit as we were the first tourists to visit them. Possibly the first Westerners they had ever seen as we are deep inland in Sabah now.  That said the children, although shy at first, told us their names and ages in an attempt to have a bit of conversation.

Continuing on to Keningau.   Now this is where we start to get a bit unhappy.  We had booked to go to Sellingen Island to see the turtles on the beach.  It seems that last year a couple were abducted and murdered and the British Gov advised against all but essential travel there. Fair enough.  Keningau it seems is the substitute destination but it doesn't seem to be a place of much interest but Cynthia assures us that we will find tomorrow interesting.  Anyway the hotel is ok but nothing special.  We unpack, have a rest and put on the TV for the first time this holiday.  There are 7 channels, only one we can understand - BBC World News but we catch up on the Malaysia flight story.  At 6.30pm I decide to have a shower and although the bathroom has been refurbished and is very nice, there is no hot water.  We finally make the receptionist understand that yes there is water but no it is not hot, remember that this is not a tourist area and the hotel staff do not speak much English although they do try.  By the way, Lynn and I have learned how to say Thank you - terima case, Danger -awas Do not smoke -dalerang  merokok, Ticket office -pondok tiket, Man-orang, Proboscis monkey - malapi, milk -susu.  All spellings approximate.  Their script is the same as ours and there are a lot of English words in the language, albeit spelt more phonetically.  When it is time for prayers, the TV goes blank and we hear the Imman's call to prayer.  Incidentally, we noticed that in every bedroom there is an arrow on the ceiling and it took several days of scratching our heads till we realised it is pointing to Mecca. 

  Anyway back to the cold water. No, it was not possible to mend the water madam so we had to move to another room.  We replacked, at which we are now experts, and moved down 2 floors to a smaller room, Un refurbished bathroom but at least there is hot water. The view of the sunset from our room is spectacular.

 However there is no time to shower or change as we have to be in the restaurant by 7.30pm.  We are all served at the same time with the same meal as usual.  After dinner we repair to the Peppermint Lounge (where are they getting these names from?) for a game of darts and then pool.  Am rubbish at both.