Kota Kinabalo

After much deliberation I decided to head over to Borneo and the Malaysian city of Kota Kinanbalu.
The choice was quite easy to make really since it looked like there was so much going on that I liked (trekking, wildlife and so on) so I got myself some cheap tickets with Air Asia and got myself on the flight at nine in the evening. Two hours later I stepped into the airport at Kota Kinanbalo and headed for one of the hostels. Walking up the stairs I was greeted by this crazy lady who had the loudest and worst voice I’ve ever heard. She was very nice though so me ears forgave her pretty quickly. Talked to her for a while and then booked myself if for quite a trips and treks and then headed straight to bed.
Woke up the following morning and checked out the town. Kota Kinanbalo is one of the largest cities in Malaysian Borneo and pretty much works like a hub to the other cities in the Sabah region.
After walking around for a while I found the local harbor and decided to do a day trip to two of the island outside. Ticket system was a bit funny, basically you bought a ticket and then you had to wait until there were enough people on the boat before it departed. Luckily enough I had purchased a trip where lots of Chinese people were going on as well so I was on my way fifteen minutes later. The fist island was Sipi and was pretty small, there were about two hundred Koreans on the beach trying desperately to snorkel so there was no point trying to have a bath so I pretty much walked around the island (took about thirty minutes), took some pictures and had some fresh pineapple juice in the shade. The next island on the list was Manukan and that was a lot bigger. There was a good path all around the island which took me two hours to walk around and it was filled with birds and huge monitor lizards. Must admit that I got pretty scared a couple of times when I heard this rustle and then seeing a meter long reptile legging it into the woods.
Headed back to Kota Kinanbalo and decided that I should attempt to find a hairdresser to chop of some of the golden locks I had acquired during the last three months.
Eventually found one which appeared to speak reasonable English but I was soon to find out I was mistaken. I started of by saying that I needed a trim on top and a bit taken off the sides. Forty minutes later it looked nothing like I had told them and I was at this point trying to show gestures and chopping fingers what I needed done. The lady then bursts out “Ahhhh….like Sting”. At this point I was pretty worked up and went” No not like Sting, not like Danny Osmond or Liberace, same as before but less.” An hour later I got a reasonable result that I probably would have done in shorter time with nail clippers but I guess that’s part of the game. It was quite interesting to say the least though.
Went back out to a local bar to watch some world cup and then headed for bed. Woke up the following day by a strange drumming outside the window. Took me while to figure out that the local sunday market was on the same street as the hostel I was stayin gin and some guy was sitting right beneath my window trying to sell some funny looking drums.
Went out on the market and it was quite a sight to behold, there were everything puppies and kittens in cages to "Jesus loves you" stickers. I stayed away from most of it but bought some fruit and a couple of bits and pieces.