My first day in Kota Kinabalu (KK) was not going to be too adventurous, but I was hungry, so I ventured out of my hotel to find food, map in hand. The heat and humidity immediately enveloped me, and I almost fell over with the shock. After what seemed like a lifetime trying to cross the street, I decided on an air-conditioned KFC for breakfast (hey, I was on holidays and it was New Years Day) and met a girl on the same trip as me, who convinced me we should try and be a little adventurous after all.
There was a lookout up a hill that we thought was within walking distance, and we ambled along the main highway, up a smaller road and even smaller stairs surrounded by rainforest, before arriving at a road that led directly into someone’s house. Right, then. Back down the stairs and one taxi ride later (wow, aren’t we glad we didn’t walk) we were at Observatory Hill, looking out over what seemed like a haphazard, half-modern, half-fishing village town plonked in the middle of the jungle. It was beautiful and deceptively small from our perspective.
After buying some essentials and enjoying an afternoon nap (as well as dosing myself up on headache tablets to combat the building caffeine withdrawals) I went down to the lobby to meet the rest of my group. There was a strange Irish couple, an even stranger English bloke who didn’t believe in personal space, and another couple that seemed to silently appear out of the walls and didn’t speak. Kind of creepy. I managed introductions and was in the midst of memorizing names and trying to keep the faltering conversation going, when a tour leader emerged and explained there were actually two groups departing on the same day. I admit I breathed a sigh of relief when the strange people left with their tour guide, and I was left with a lovely couple. More and more people joined our group (all lovely and not strange at all) until we reached our quota of 12 and we were good to go. Thank God.
We enjoyed dinner at an amazing Indian restaurant nearby, and walked through the night markets on the way back. Exotic fresh fruits and vegetables put any kind of market back home to shame, and the endless seafood stalls were filled to the brim with enormous fish, prawns the size of my forearm, and giant squid and lobster, all caught fresh and cooked on long charcoal grills in front of the customer. The 1.5kg lobster was $AUD30, and we regretted our restaurant meal as we tried to inhale as much of the heavenly scent as possible before returning to our hotel for an early night. I loved Borneo already.
-Sarah
Sarah