Nothing to do but lie on the beach
A week into Borneo and I was annoyed at myself for feeling too ill and spending days asleep in hostel bedrooms wasn’t my idea of a good trip. Part of my plan had been to travel by bus or train up along the coast and go through Brunei, but having wasted time feeling sorry for myself I decided to thank god for Airasia and their budget flights.
When I got to Kota Kinabalu in Sabah I was feeling much better and psyched myself into wellness by booking a trip to Uncle Tan’s Wildlife camp in the Kinabatangan Valley.
Before that though, I spent a good couple of days just relaxing in KK and heading out to an island in the Abdul Rahman national park, a small group of islands about 30 – 40 minutes offshore by speed boat. Never having been a beach bunny in the past, it still feels a bit weird to me to just go and lie on the beach doing nothing, but hey, it was better than lying in bed.
The beach was quite small and the boundaries for safe swimming and snorkelling were clearly defined but the water was amazing. Crystal clear and as hot as bathwater, it was beautiful to swim in. I hired a mask for snorkelling (with my recently acquired underwater skills ;p) splashed around a lot looking for fish and tried really hard not to stand on things that I guessed were sea cucumbers. They looked quite squashy and if I’d stepped on one I would have set myself back some steps on my ‘face the fear of being underwater’ program. Some kids further along the beach from me found an octopus and while I would have liked to have seen it, perhaps just dealing with the fish was the best way for me to go.
In the middle of the island were a couple of outdoor restaurants serving up barbecue ribs and fish. There was nothing nicer than the smell of grilled food wafting across enticing you for lunch. It was a lazy kind of day and one I think I could get very used to.
Tags: Malaysian Borneo, Travel
jenniferp
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