May 13, 2007

Kota Kinabalu (BORNEO)

Boat Ride to Kota Kinabalu and Exploring the City

You guessed it: today began with yet another early morning. By 5:30am I had finished showering and was walking toward the Brunei bus station with only a granola bar for breakfast. We caught the first bus to the international ferry terminal, and from there we departed for a tax-free island in the state of Sabah, Malaysia. After clearing immigration, we only had a few minutes to linger before catching yet another boat that took us the final leg of the journey to the capital of Sabah, Kota Kinabalu (KK, for short). We didn't arrive until 3pm, but it was a pleasant day of relaxing on the deck of the boat with great views of the South China Sea and perfect weather.

Several travelers we met recommended a hostel to us, so we quickly dropped off our bags and set off in search of food. I quickly devoured two plates of chicken and rice, and then I did my normal routine of walking the city to acclimatize.

I found a great fish market tucked away near the harbor, and the locals were more than happy to chat. After I examined the sharks for sale at one of the tables, I explained how I am terrified of sharks. The locals found this quite funny, and even thought to chase me with one of the sharks. It was a fun time as word quickly spread through the market, and I repeatedly had an eel or barracuda perched on my shoulder.

Unfortunately, I haven't gotten much sleep over the past week and I needed to lie down. I headed back to the hostel and passed out on a couch in the communal area until my friends awoke me for dinner. We found an Italian restaurant in the middle of town that actually had a 15 minute wait (unprecedented in a place like KK, and Asia in general), so we decided to indulge in real cheese, red wine, and garlic bread. It always feels bad spending money on food, but this was a well earned $11 meal.

I tried several bars around town, but no one was carrying Arsenal's final game of the season, so I simply shared a few beers on the hostel balcony. I met a woman who just finished climbing Mount Kinabalu, which is my primary purpose for coming to KK. After talking about what to expect on the 4100m climb, we moved on to other topics. She did her graduate work at Cambridge University and is currently working as a consultant for environmental issues, so we covered a lot of ground. One of the more interesting topics were the engineering possibilities that exist in this field - something that will become more and more important as I whittle down my field of focus.

As for climbing the mountain, I am still without a reservation and the waiting list stretches over a month. This is a bit of a nuisance since I fly to the Philippines on Friday, but I will spend all of tomorrow figuring out a way up the mountain.

If I have learned anything from my travels, it is that anything is possible as long as you are willing to make it happen.

In other words, I will get up that mountain one way or another.