Bouncing into Borneo...

We're all set. After some serious hunting for winter gear in Kuala Lumpur (and children's sizes makes this even more complicated), we tracked down new walking boots for the kids (although the ONLY ones we found, they are Kickers but good waterproof lightweight boot). Lee had to search numerous enormous shopping malls looking for clothing (the kids and I had collapsed of exhaustion after taking on 3 or 4 malls). Can you imagine walking around the Trafford Centre for hours, and just like TC, all the shops sell the same things that you don't want? Well in KL, this means fashion gear, sandals and electronics. Lee eventually tracked down jackets, gloves and hats for the 4 of us for under 100 quid!

We flew from KL to Kota Kinabalu, and are staying in the rather nice Berjaya Palace Hotel. Lovely comfy beds, cable TV and a big pool. We're regrouping and resting before our big challenge. Foolishly, I booked our stay through an online company called UK Hotels (who added a mysterious 30% after booking). It's actually much cheaper to stay here at their walk-in rates. Ho hum! We have booked ourselves a room for our return, and can leave a load of gear here so we're travelling light.

Went into town and booked our places for a summit trek. You have to go to Sutera Sanctuary Lodges (formerly known as Kinabalu Nature Resorts). They handle all the park bookings and accommodation in Laban Rata, the pre-summit rest house. Vital if you don't want to freeze to death and eat some hot food. So we leave for the park in the morning and plan to take a small walk tomorrow afternoon. Then we set off up Mount Kinabalu (the highest in SE Asia at 4095m) the following morning. As we're starting from sea level, I'm a bit nervous about altitude sickness but we're going to give it our best shot. We have a guide and a porter too.

We have booked our places at Laban Rata, and then we are going to the Poring Hot Springs to soak our weary limbs for a day or two (they have a rather fine canopy walk there). It cost us around 220 quid for 4 nights accomodation, guide, porter, climbing permits, insurance, entrance fees and some of our transfers. I think it's a bargain, and quite on par with what we paid in Ladakh.

After that we are booked to stay in Sepilok Jungle Resort (16 quid for a 4 bed family room - cracking bargain) to visit the orang-utan rehabilitation centre. 2 nights there, then we head to Sandakan to visit one of the Turtle Islands. So we're all fantastically excited about our planned adventures here in Borneo.

We were very sad to hear about the terrible floods in Northern Thailand. We travelled right through these areas and the ferocious dry heat and extensive logging was evident - not a good combination. Many locals expressed concern about what was happening and particularly in Pai, where people had already lost business' in the previous years less serious floods. They said people are just clearing areas for development even when they don't have permits. It's so sad. It's been flooding here in Borneo also, but today the sun is shining in a very bright blue sky.

To end on a more amusing note.... Lost in Translation.... yesterday, we all sauntered into the hotel cafe, mouths watering, as we heard you could get a "cheese pie" and lovely cup of Borneo tea. Well we all sat there wondering if it really might be real cheese when our tea time treat arrived.... 4 slices of lemon cheesecake!

Oh yeah - and we went into our first McDonalds. As a family, we have never been in one. I know my mum and my sister occasionally take the kids for a few fries when they have them over, and I've been known to buy the odd shake at a motorway stop, but never have we really been in one. Mostly on principle, and because I want my children to have a mostly negative view of fast food.

Kuala Lumpur Airport, and we had tea, coffee, ribenas, egg muffins and hash browns... what a novelty. And clearly I have been deprived of my western diet too long, in that I thought it was okay. Then I felt compelled to pinch loads of sugar and creamer sachets. Well they're still a big stinking multi national monster taking over the world, brainwashing our kids and were also found guilty of telling big fat lies even though their rich lawyers managed to help them escape any penalties. So my fight back - I stole their sachets ;-o