Kota was crap! Sorry to be negative but the truth was I expected Borneo to be all endless rainforest and deep ravines. What I did find in Kota Kinabalu was another sprawling Asian city. The very sort I shall be avoiding in future.
On the upside I did met some amazing people there. Most notably Wil (USA) and Anna (Germany). I spent most of my 2 or 3 days there exploring the cities food markets and many shops as at night there wasn't too much to do but relax. I mean it's a predominantly Muslim country so the drink is proper expensive in comparison and the bars that are around are pretty abysmal if you ask me.
After eating and chilling until I was either close to nirvana or pretty near death I decided on the 3rd day, once hearing from lots of other travellers, to pack my bags and head south.
I got up at 7am and packed my bags for Sandakan. Knowing nothing but those few tales and armed only with my lonely planet I hit the bus terminal to find I had missed my bus. I had to wait for 3 hours but this was made better by the most beautiful Malaysian boys eyes as he stared and made rather inappropriate signals and signs to me while waiting with his boyfriend. It seemed my time here was looking up.
It wasn't quite though as I somehow thought the bus was a mere 3 hour journey which actually turned out to be a little less than 9. I mean the bus was nice with its plush seats, air con and the constant whiff of weed but that time spent beside a fidgety Chinese boy can never be too productive.
I arrived in the dark and after quickly finding a pretty cool hostel at the harbour I got to sleep with not a clue of what I was going to do the next day.
This morning I got up around 7am and as I was wondering once more on what to get up to I met the most adorable couple having breakfast. Soon after saying hello and after finding out that I was planning to do the same trip I was soon sharing a taxi on my way to nearby Sipilok.
I ended up staying with Martin and Becky all day and what a day it was!
Today was the first day I've seen blistering sunshine in a while and as we first visited the orang-utan sanctuary and then the rainforest discovery centre we seen a plethora of other species.
The 'wild man of Borneo' did not disappoint and as we trekked through the rainforest canopy, along its many paths, across the traditional rope brides and the "I'm a celeb" type walkways the Makak's and other monkeys, the many birds, the lizards and odd freaky insect didn't either.
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