Kota Kinabalu, capital of Sabah, Borneo

Arriving into Kuala Lumpur was a different world - the traffic was normal, for the first time since I left Russia 4 months ago. I was only in town for a day before flying into Borneo, but am planning to return for a few days after my Borneo adventure.

I was excited at arriving into Kota Kinabalu, the capital of the Sabah state of Borneo. I would be travelling in a group again having spent 2 months travelling independently. I went shopping for the big climb, which included a foot pump for the tube, so I could pump it up at the summit of Mount Kinabalu.

I met my group leader, Han, and the other people travelling on the trip:
Australia: Mitch and Jo
New Zealand: Matt and Kristine
Denmark: Kennets and Carina
Switzerland (with a bit of German): Benedicte and Nicole
Scotland: Kathleen and Jackie
Canada: Dennis (my roommate)



The leader was a local guy, shorter than me and maybe equally as thin - seemed like a fun guy - he was also teaching me some key local phrases: 'a rum a tea' (cheers), 'thri ma kasih' (thank you) and 'a bis' (bottoms up), a phrase that would be used very frequently in the coming days. We headed out for an Indian together and then to BB bar. It was our first night on the trip and a messy one at that. Australia, Scotland, Han and me went onto Cocoon club, a local club with live music, anything from local music to hip hop. Scotland, Han and me stayed out until the place closed, around 4am I think, before we headed back, when en route, I attempted to climb a tree.

The next morning, we left for Kiau, a Dusun village.