I mean don't get me wrong,it's quaint, there's palm trees everywhere, walking along the promenade( much like morecambe) you can see the local fisherman doing their thing and from the middle of town you are only a 30 minute drive into beautiful mountains and jungly looking stuff...but there's something off about the place. Maybe it's the Burger king and Pizza Hut, maybe it's the Rashid Mall style mall at the end of the road, but hey it's Asia and it seems ever
country round here has a knack of making things a bit odd.
Just like More - e - cambe right?Beer's expensive, room's cheap, internet is fast, Indian breakfast is great ( masala Dhosa every morning with a steaming cup of chai), oh and it rains here.
Yesterday we rented a Honda Wave. Bog standard, semi automatic bike seen all over asia that we thought would be a great way of driving up through the mountains to Mt. Kinabalu and back. Now the idea of flying through the twisty turny roads with Nat on the back and the wind in our hair was appealing to us both as you've probably all gathered we like being on bikes, but the image I had for this fun day out was of us under a blue sky, a few whispy white clouds and looking in awe at the peak of Mt. Kinabalu from the hot springs which on the map we had were just down the road...
WRONG AGAIN NICK!!!!
Don't we look so happy!We took off from KK and the weather was lovely, weaving in and out of the traffic, having to wave to the locals as they were big and smiley at seeing us ' doing as the locals do'. Lots of lane splitting and chatting to other bikers at lights basically. We followed the directions we'd been given and after filling up at 'the last petrol station before the mountains' we started to head up
an incline into the hills. It was delightful, within 30 mins we couldn't see anything that resembled a village let alone a city and the jungle just went on and on. We then saw the cloud line in the distance, but it looked broken, as if we would pass through them into a land of unimaginably beauty...but alas this was not to be. From the moment we entered the cloud cover, that was it. the last time we would see blue sky until the following morning!
It rained.
Not too much at the start, but enough to get us wet when we just had shorts and a linen
shirt on. But by the time 2 hours later, when we had arrived at the Mt. Kinabalu National Park, it was pelting it down. Visibility was down to 20m ( metres not miles) and when we got to the park map, we couldn't see the tree behind it, never mind the illusive mountain itself!
Ah, you say, it's ok because your plan was to stop at the hot springs anyway right? Warm up, dry the clothes? WRONG! the hot springs were another hour into the rain, NOT GONNA HAPPEN! so we turned around, and drove back to KK. Another 2 hours, this time on really slippery roads. Freezing cold and hard work!
Look what I got for a quick refreshing drink on the way up the mountain...this was just before it got really bad! For anyone who hasn't ridden a motorbike in the rain it actually asks some very difficult questions of the driver. You basically have two choices. (A) drive faster, get out of the rain faster but get really cold, wet, and the rain actually hurts when it hits you at 80kph! or (B) drive slower, be a bit a bit warmer but get just as wet and spend more time in the rain wishing you were at home. I found 60kph was my happy medium!
So we survived, it was a long day but fun either way, didn't see the mountain, but got a fun story out of it anyway, and believing we'd deserved it went and had a slap up dinner and a few beers. You'll be pleased to know, and not surprised in the slightest, that I still managed to get sunburn on my hands and forearms...typical.
A little bit wet, but we gave the locals something to chuckle about!What else, seen a few rats. Having a beer with a couple who were on the Queen Elizabeth round the world jobber and a kitten fell out of the roof, somehow dodging the fan on the way down and landed on the fella's lap...in true Northerner style his first comment was " It's not often that pussy falls right in my lap" - Not bad and very quick for an 81 year old! haha.
Brian- the pussy magnet!We agreed before we left that we had to surprise each other with something during the trip and Nat's arrived on our second day here. I'd booked us into a rather exclusive and very good massage here, most relaxing couple of hours we'd had for a long time!
Nat's feet at the start of the spa afternoon.Ate some lovely food as you would expect from some rather questionable establishments but have stayed healthy so far!!
How'd you like them prawns! Tomorrow we fly into the jungle for a few days before heading to the 'Tip of Borneo' for week on the beach. Hope you are all well, and we'll try and post an update when we can.
Take care,
MOT!
Nick and Natty, doing the world once more!
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