I am not the biggest fan of flying and my flight from Seoul to Kota Kinabalu did nothing to help this. It's not that I'm scared of flying, it's just that I am so incredibly inpatient. I just want to get their already. The twenty minute subway ride downtown is agonizing enough, but the thought of having to sit in one seat for six hours bored me to tears.
I was the only westerner on the plane, I sat in seat one D, which of course is the one right at front, so I was the first thing you saw when you board the plan. To make matters worse, I was surrounded by several mothers and their screaming babies. I tried my best to distract myself, I watched movies and attempted to sleep, but was constantly knocked by someone on route to the bathroom or a children who couldn't stay in their seat for more then two bloody minutes. The mother did apologized to me and gave me some candy, which was very nice, the candy however was not.
Stepping off the plan I was immediately hit by the dramatic change in temperature. When I left Korea the weather was freezing, meaning I was wrapped up for the next ice age. I attempted to remove as many layers as possible as I made my way through the terminal to pick up my baggage, but still felt like the jeans I wore suffocated me with every step I took.
Kota kinabalu, or KK as everyone refers to it as, was smaller then I had expected it would be and does not look like the pictures you will find online at all. For a relatively new city it felt old to me, a little grubby but thats not to say it didn't have it's charm. The city was easy to maneuver, the people were helpful and friendly and the food, oh my word, the food was amazing. With multiple markets to pick up everything from fresh fruits and vegetables to seafood, where you can select your fish and they cook it for you right then and there. I also believe I had the best soup I ever tasted in my life in this city, in fact I am certain of it. The tragedy is I have no idea what it was called, but the taste of ginger and lemon grass will linger in mind until I find it again.
After spending a day exploring the city we woke up at the crack of dawn to be picked up and taken white water rafting. I have never been before and Jason kept informing me of them impending dangers I was about to throw myself into. After a nearly two hour ride in a mini van we caught a train, the only train in Borneo, for a further two hours until we reach our destination. All the while I was thinking of the viscous rapids that awaited me.
I needn't have worried. We did have to sign a consent form but I don't see why, the rapids where fun, but tame from what I had been lead to believe. I wanted more of them and bigger, I wanted to have been thrown from the boat and swept down the river, but alas I was not. It was hard work physically, and the next day I felt the full effect.
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After a filling lunch we made our back to the station to get our train back to KK. It was two thirty and the train was supposed to leave at three so we waited, and waited, but it didn't come. The only train in Borneo had broken down. After nearly two hours of standing, sitting, even lying down at one point, in the drizzling rain a train finally arrived. The only problem was it was heading in the wrong direction. This meant we had to take the train to the end of the line and back again to return to are original location. This added yet another additional two hours to our already long journey.
When we finally made it back we had to check back in to the hostel we had left over 15 hours before, exhausted I crawled into bed and past out.
Love, hugs and oh god, why does my whole body hurt?
Samuel James.
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