Today is a big day. Our original plan was to overland all the way across Borneo from Kuching to Sandakan. The bit between Kuching and Miri was a sixteen hour job on a bus with nothing much to see, so Air Asia helped on that bit, and we needed to save a bit of time. But from Miri, we were determined to go overland. By good luck we made the Miri - Brunei bit yesterday, but today from Brunei to Kota Kinabalu was always going to be the most challenging as we were to collect eight stamps (or in Chinese parlance, chops) on the way as we criss crossed various borders.
7.30am sees us board the bus in BSB with a handful of locals and a wodge of immigration forms to be completed. For the first four hours we spent more time off the bus clutching passports, queueing and crossing no man's lands than actually making any big distance. This is how each queue and stamp panned out:
Out of Brunei
Into Sarawak
Out of Sarawak
Into Brunei
Out of Brunei
Into Sarawak
Out of Sarawak
Into Sabah
Lots of ink, stamps and passport pages used.
But we then settled into the last five bouncing hours, a short lunch stop at Lawas, awoken every so often by the loud in bus video and even louder guy a couple of rows behind on his phone, and stops every so often to pick up or drop off other passengers, arriving in Kota Kinabalu at 5 pm. But not a bad cost per hour at around £20 for the trip.
We check into the Cititel Express in downtown Kota Kinabalu, which is fine, with the smallest rooms ever. Similar in size to the Tune Hotel in KL, no cat swinging here..... KK is an unprepossessing sort of a place at first sight, but as you walk around there is a certain good urban vibe about it.
Not the most attractive of Asian cities, lots of concrete and tall buildings, but is faster moving than other places we have been. It's not a destination in itself, there are a few beach resorts out of town, but not great beaches. It's more of a starting point for diving the islands offshore or visiting the great Kinabalu National Park, and for those very brave souls (Ant) who plan to climb Mt Kinabalu, the highest peak in SE Asia.
The night market, the best around these parts was fascinating, sandwiched between the flash Meridien hotel and the modern waterfront, it sold all kinds of food (but no drink of the alcoholic variety, foiled again!). We eat at a local place on the waterfront overlooking the distant islands and fishing boats. Then an early night, yet another 7am start tomorrow. Bur at least in a place like this with no bar culture at all, our early starts haven't been marred with hangovers!
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