"I am, you are, we are Australian"

From Brunei we returned to Malaysian Borneo, the province of Sabah this time, and the town of Kota Kinabalu (KK). We re-joined Jo, and headed to the waterfront area for a drink and some dinner. After walking through the Aussie pub (imaginatively named, “Aussie Pub”), the smell of the sausages and steak on the BBQ was too much for us and we had to stay for dinner. Jo and I were quickly regretting our choice as some Australians (we later found out they were fresh off the rigs and had drunk the pub out of Bundy Rum the night before), put on a show which demonstrated ably all the stereotypes of the Aussie blokes and sheilas. While most of our meals were great (mmmm, steak sandwich!), Pete’s steak was definitely not the rare that he ordered, and when the chef (Bob, from Australia) came out to see it, he suggested that if Pete wasn’t happy, then he should cook it himself. Ummm, not quite the right answer. The combination of the feral Aussies and the unbelievably rude Aussie chef made a couple of the group wonder why they had just spent 6 months of their life trying to get to Australia, but hopefully Jo and I managed to convince them that it would be worth it!

Elaine, looking enthusiastic about going out to Sapi Island:

That's better!:

With Michael S and Jo on the way to Sapi Island (yes, they are slightly dark clouds in the background):

The next day, a couple of people had sore heads after a visit to the nightclub, Bed (a name which enables hilarious lines such as, “will you come to Bed with me” etc etc), but after a bit of coercion, Rich, Jo, Elaine, Michael S and myself headed off to the island of Sapi off the coast of KK. We spent the afternoon lazing in the sun (while it lasted before the storm came through!), snorkelling (where Rich rediscovered his fear of fish) and generally lazing about. We returned to the mainland by speedboat, just in time to catch a gorgeous sunset.

Sapi Island:

Sapi Island (artistic photo, thanks Rich!):

Yep, a perfect day for the beach:

Sunset - Borneo has really given us some amazing sunsets so far:

Sunset:

From KK we abandoned our overlanding ways, and flew to Sandakan, on the east coast. Our first port of call was Sepilok Jungle Resort, only a short walk from the Sepilok Orang-utan Sanctuary. We turned up for the 10am feeding and some of the group got very up close and personal with the Orang-utans, and others saw them in close proximity in the trees above the boardwalk. Feeding time was slightly manic with about a hundred people (and a hundred cameras) watching as about 7 or 8 Orang-utans came in for a feast of bananas and what looked like milk. They are incredibly graceful creatures as they swing along the ropes and manoeuvre round the trees and platforms. We were all really glad to have had the opportunity to see them again.

Close encounter, of the Orang-utan kind:

Borneo is all about wildlife and jungle really. On the way to dinner at the Jungle Resort, Rich, Jo and a couple of the others saw a small snake, and managed to get heaps of photos of it. It was certainly not the first snake sighting of the trip, and caused me to utter the immortal words “I haven’t seen a snake yet this trip, everyone else has”… Well, within an hour of saying that, Alexa and I saw a cobra on the road – it was fortunately more scared of us than we were of it, so it slithered off, flared its neck slightly, but then decided that it was a better option to get the hell out of there, so it did. We had to agree!