Tunku Abdul Rahman National Park

Not many cities in the world have beautiful tropical islands just a few minutes boat ride away. Luckily Kota Kinabalu does, it has five! So we headed out for the smallest island in the National Park, Pulau Sapi (Cow Island), yesterday for a bit of beach and snorkeling action. The islands were beautiful, we didn't see any cows but we did see some huge monitor lizards, up to 5ft long, and a Bornean Bearded pig, who was quite striking looking.

There were some quite good tropical fish to been seen snorkelling, but a few fish took a dislike to Si and nibbled him! They were really quite aggressive, but perhaps they could sense weakness as Si has been very lame since his return from the mountain, he can barely get up and down stairs!




After a trip out to the islands we were both pretty hungry so we headed off down to the Waterfront Esplanade for a bit of tea. We were really surprised though as everything looked shut and in darkness, a bit strange for a Saturday night in downtown KK. Then we remembered it was Earth Hour and everyone was turning their lights off from 8.30-9.30 pm. So crisis averted we went to a really good Indian. Everywhere was open but it was all a bit dark due to just candles being used.

More Jungle Excitement!

Well as Si is off up climbing Mt Kinabalu I have been left in charge of blogging! We had a fantastic day out yesterday at the Lok Kawi Wildlife Park and Botanical Gardens. We weren't expecting too much from the write up in the guidebooks but it turned out to be a great park, only 25km out of Kota Kinabalu town, but completely developed in a rainforest setting to show off the plant and animal species found in Borneo. We managed to get there just as they were feeding many of the animals a bit of an afternoon snack so it was a great opportunity for close up shots of all of the animals we had seen in the wild in the jungle at Uncle Tan's.



We had a bit of a surprise in the Botanical Gardens, as it is actually an area of the rainforest that has been laid with trails, so not only do you get to see fantastic plant species like the Pitcher plants, but we also had a surprise encounter with a snake on the loose. We didn't know whether to be a bit scared or really excited about seeing a snake in the wild! It turned out to be a harmless leaf snake but it was great to see, he was quite a pretty little fella.


And here are just a few of our other animal shots from the day.

Kota Kinabalu

On Monday we made the 6hr bus ride from Sepilok to Kota Kinabalu. I'm really glad that I wasn't sitting next to us on the bus as we must have absolutely stunk after 3 days of heat, humidity and trekking in the jungle with only washes in the river water to clean us. When we handed our laundry in for cleaning in KK we actually pre-warned them about the state of the contents. The 6 hour bus journey had ripened them somewhat and it smelt like we had brought half the swamp back with us!

Kota Kinabalu is the state capital of Sabah and the largest city in the province. It's not a particularly pretty city but in a strange way we kind of like it. There's a certain feeling of 1960's town planning gone wrong which reminds me of Birmingham before the recent redevelopment. All the shopping malls are just like the old Bull Ring, massive dark depressing soul-less concrete megaliths, lit with fluorescent strip lighting. I think this is the reason why we like it. Either that or the jungle has sent us a bit funny.

We're using it as a base for a week so that we can explore some of the sights in the surrounding area. The biggie for me is the two day climb up the 4km high Mount Kinabalu. Before you ask, no, Liz isn't joining me on this one. She's being sensible and staying back in Kota Kinabalu.


I'm currently in the process of feverishly trying to break in some new climbing boots that I bought yesterday. Things are being hampered somewhat by a wellington boot induced blister that was sustained during a calf deep mud/swamp trek at Uncle Tan's.