After an uneventful evening perusing the malls of Kuala Lumpur, we took an early flight to Borneo, technically still a part of Malaysia but located off the peninsula on its own separate island. Borneo is, in fact, the third largest island in the world; three quarters of it belong to Indonesia and a tiny sliver belongs to Brunei.
The Malaysian part of Borneo is divided into the provinces of Sarawak and Sabah. Moving between these areas as well as between peninsular Malaysia and Borneo demand passport controls and checks. But considering so much of Borneo is dominated by rain forests and areas of outstanding beauty, we happily complied.
Kota Kinabalu is the capital of Sabah and is generally seen as the jumping off point for treks up to Mount Kinabalu. Obtaining permits to climb the mountain can prove tricky sometimes, particularly in high season, and as such we decided to skip the trek and used KK as more of a base.
Fortunately, KK was very charming and a bit more upbeat than the rest of our trip thus far. Just off the coast, a lively fish market (by day) and night market (by night, obvs) popped up in a series of makeshift tents and stoves. The tables, the menus, the plates were all plastic. But my goodness, the food. The fish had been plucked straight from the sea; hordes of Bornean grannies and mothers manned the stoves; men waited the tables and got the customers in. The whole market was a well oiled machine.
The next day, we booked ourselves onto a 'trek' of sorts, this one involving one of Borneo's self-boasted 'most stunning beaches' (the names of which, eludes me). From the pictures, the water looking inviting and calm:
What you can't see is the ocean of plastic--bags, bottles, cutlery; the sea became a virtual dumping ground. It was a stark reminder of the price of tourism, the price of modern convenience. Trite, yes. But I wasn't sure what to say or do that could remedy the amount of plastic we saw. I picked some up--but when the boat was handing out mini-plastic cups, any efforts began to feel futile. We got back to the city proper later that evening and decided to put off trip planning no further.
Our original onward plans involved diving in Sipadan, off the East coast of Borneo, but after some extensive research we decided that the travel warnings (New Zealand, not the alarmist US state department ones) regarding recent kidnappings by Philippine pirates were a little too close to home.
Having never cancelled a flight before, Rosa quickly rebooked us from KK to our next destination, Gunung Mulu National Park. Which is how I ended up spending an extra night in the capital on my own; Rosa accidentally rebooked herself only and since the 40-passenger plane was fully booked, I spent one extra night drinking wine at the restaurant/grocery store next door and watching 90s classics on the tv. It turned out to be a great rest in the middle of my epic ten-week jaunt across Asia.
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