Back to KK, Sabah, BORNEO

27^th July - Return to Kota Kinabalu

So ,much to my great surprise the taxi came to pick us up fro m the hotel at 6.30 am to drive us down the hill and to the railway station – he didn`t seem very enthusiastic when we asked him yesterday. ( it`s such a short ride) and to be honest trudging along with two big backpacks would have been a pain .So we got to the railway station only to discover the one we wanted had broken down . We wanted to take this train in order to link up with the Beafort to Kota one and go through the rainforest on it.

SO we had to find a plan B ,which consisted of catching a bus to Kota ,ditching our stuff at a hotel ( hopefully with a free room ) and then catching a bus to Beafort and come back by train ! Are we mad ? YES ,BUT , it was dodgy weather so we couldn`t have gone to the island anyway ...or shop ! So Pat chose the transport option.

We met nice people on BUS 1 and on BUS2 watched a Malaysian film which was very tragic .We were already feeling sad when we got off the bus in Beaufort but when we saw the town we were in major depression ! Such a sorry looking place despite the friendly people . We had three hours to kill and believe me it was not easy ..we ended up lurking in grotty supermarkets . I did give an English lesson to three sweet children who followed us through the supermarket , they gave us a Malay lesson in return . Anyway , at last a very sweet ( and sparkling new) train pulled in and I was very happy to get on it.The journey ( until it got dark) was great , through the rain forest some of the time and other times beautiful countryside. The air-conditioning was working overtime in the train and everyone was hugging themselves to keep warm. There were some funny signs on the train which informed passengers that raw wet food was forbidden on the train as well as the stinky durian fruit – thank goodness because they really smell awful.

After 2.5 hours of travelling we returned here in the dark only to discover the train station was quite far outside the town.Luckily an Indonesian chap who we`d been chatting to pointed us in the right direction.I won`t bore you with details but getting back to KK involved crossing a motorway on foot ! We ended up in an amazing animal skin taxi with disco lights ( see photo) Anyway , we are now back in the hotel after eating a nice meal – my choice of restaurant so Patrick is a bit critical – tomorrow is his turn to choose so it`ll be my turn to be picky !