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(sorry folks, it's my longest blog yet, as it's been a busy couple of weeks - once again, you have been warned - enjoy.)

"Borneo to be Wild (sorry)"

Simon Wadsworth
2006-09-04 17:28:08

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(sorry folks, it's my longest blog yet, as it's been a busy couple of weeks - once again, you have been warned - enjoy.)

I have often mentioned in passing to people that I will be visiting Borneo, and the reply is usually "Ah, cool, that's great, right yeh...........where?". Relative to other destinations, Borneo is less well known or is seen as this mysterious land, but sadly or not (an argument not worth getting into here), is slowly being 'discovered' by the backpacking community as a stunningly beautiful and diverse region. The northern part of the island, formerly known as Malaysian Borneo is run by the same Government as Peninsular Malaysia and includes Sarawak to the south-west and Sabah to the north-east. Ultimately, it shares the world's 3rd biggest island with Indonesia Kalimantan and the black-gold state of Brunei.

As for me, I'm just visiting Saban and am here for 2 weeks on my gradual journey north through South-East Asia for 3 months. I [eventually] flew into Kota Kinabalu, Sabah's capital, around midnight with no local currency (as I expected to arrive early enough for exchange places to be open, until the delay - lesson learnt) and no place to stay. Always a great way to get a feel for a new country. But somehow, my amazing bargaining skills (?) meant I got a taxi and place to stay without having to hand over any money, and after sleeping like a very sleepy log, I spent the next day exploring the city.

Being in a new city is one thing, but getting used to the temperature and humidity once again will take time, and in the meantime I'm back to Belize's guise of a western tourist stumbling around and sweating profusely. The Malaysian Government claims it wants to be an industrialised nation by 2020, and although Sabah is the poorest of all the states (partially due to the political administration having to change every 2 years), this is reflected in the city's buzzing atmosphere. ...