diary23

28th Feb 2006
Went back to Raffles to take some day light shots, then wandered past the cricket ground, Parliament House etc. Walked along the Singapore river where Raffles first landed and had lunch at the Victorian English pub - The Penny Black. Then caught a bus to Orchard Road which was teeming with people and shops, after going in three camera shops it was all a bit too much for Terry (the shop-o-phobic), and I felt a little bewildered amongst Prada, Gucci, Louis Vuiton, Cartier - you name it it's here! I restrained from going in the Miss Sixty shop and we jumped on the MRT and went to Singapore Zoo. The fragile forrest was the best bit - walking amongst butterflies (which kept landing on me), birds, tiny deer, flying foxes, sloths, lemurs (friendly - tried to take my bottle of water, so kept touching my legs and then licked my toes!), worst bit was the heat, verging on the unbearable! Got the MRT back and were both shattered so we had dinner in the first place that we saw and went back to the room to shower and crash out! The hotel porter showed us some photos of when he was very young and in the marines - serving on HMS Ark Royal!

1st March 2006
Went to Sentosa Island - Singapore's Island Resort - a theme park island. We bought 4 rides on the luge, had one each and then Terry had the other two while I recovered - didn't want to go fast so was straining to hold the bar back, made my arms shake so much! Then got the cable car across to the mainland - Mount Faber - and back, where it went through the World Trade Centre buildings! Walked round the orchid amd fountain gardens, where we had to have our photo taken with some local students as part of a game they were playing on a school trip, and we held a hybrid maccaw. Then went back to the hotel to cool off before going out after dark (slightly cooler then!). Walked towards Chinatown part of the way, and then we got a Trishaw the rest of the way - so embarrassing - we had the smallest, oldest man with the oldest, most worn out bike - he struggled to get up the tiniest of inclines and even on the flat, he had to get off and push - poor bloke - never again!!! Ate at a Hawker food centre, with Chinese line dancers entertaining us!! Found the old streets of Chinatown - beautiful, ornate buildings.

2nd March 2006
Checked out of the hotel and our Ark Royal porter kindly wrote down the names of two islands off the Malaysian coast that he recommended - apparently they're the most beautiful. Had one last look at the cameras but would be cheaper to buy in England, so collected our bags and went to the bus station to get a bus across the border to Johor Bahru in Malaysia. Very easy border crossing, but we lost the bus and jumped in a taxi to the airport instead - haggled like mad with the taxi driver over the price only to discover that the airport was miles away!! Managed to book a flight for the same day to Sabah - a Malaysian part of Borneo. So we hung around the airport until our flight and landed in Kota Kinabalu (KK) at 8.30pm. Found a hotel and collapsed into bed - getting worn out being on the road again!

3rd March 2006
Stepped out of the hotel this morning and saw an Intertek Caleb Brett sign opposite - can't escape the past!! Booked our climb of Mount Kinabalu and then wandered round the streets . Went to the Filipino market - lots of handicrafts and fabrics - some really nice stuff!! Bought some fruit and a fried egg and vegetable thing from a stall - very nice!! Had a drink after dinner listening to local 'band' - two singers and someone pretending to play the keyboard - singing all the hits.... 'Wonderful Tonight', 'Angels', and some local stuff. Very popular especially with the Michael Jackson lookalike (female) who got up on the stage area, moon walking around them and had to be asked to leave!

4th March 2006
Went to the ferry terminal to get a boat to one of the islands of the Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park. Had to put our names on a list and wait for the boat to be full, before it would leave - luckily didn't have to wait too long. Went to Manukan and had just over 4 hours sitting on a tropical island with the beach practically to ourselves. Terry snorkelled - thousands of fish just off the beach, especially under the jetty. We saw two monitor lizards come ashore. Our speedboat picked us up to take us back, by which time the wind had changed so we got drenched on the way back - although refreshing it was uncomfortable walking back to the hotel, as if we'd taken a shower wearing clothes!!

5th March 2006
Left KK and got to the out of town bus station. Had to wait an hour for a bus, but it dropped us outside Mt Kinabalu National Park entrance, after winding its way through beautiful countryside. Checked in and paid all our fees for the climb and then went to our lodge, with a superb view of the mountain in front. To acclimatize and get our legs working we did one of the trail walks - very hot and sticky, even though it is much cooler up here! Had a briefing before dinner, and then sat in the lounge area after dinner talking to an older British couple who were fed up of each other after only 2 months of travelling together! She was a little eccentric, he very quiet! Back in our room we spent an hour squatting millions of mosquitos before we could go to sleep!

6th March 2006
Up early to have breakfast and meet our guide, ready for an 8am start on the mountain. Continuous climbing for 6km, up 2000 metres - phew - tough going, but we managed it in just under four and a half hours (average is 6 hours). There were some great views of the mountain and the surrounding area from so high up, but after the morning sun came the cloud - far below us. Up at our base camp hostel we sat on the veranda in the sun with the clouds swirling in around us - very peaceful and relaxing but extremely cold when the wind picked up. Spent the afternoon there and having a nap, before dinner and bed at 6.30pm!! Both had never climbed so high continuously - so a great achievement.

7th March 2006
Up at 2.30am (most people had already left for the summit, but our guide said we should wait till 3am because we were quite fast the day before). Was absolutely pouring with rain and had been all night, so we knew there would be no sun rise to see, so a little dispondant and very tired due to lack of sleep, we set off to the summit. our torches didn't cast much light so it was difficult to see the path and pretty soon we were walking through so much water streaming down. Found it tough to breath and were plodding slowly (more me), I was getting worried about having to come back down and how slippery it would be. We eventually got to a small group that he\ad stopped at hte foot of a torrenting waterfall, which we discovered was the path!! We were just below the halfway checkpoint, but our guide said it was too dangerous. He said everyone else was coming back down, so we headed back. We were disapointed at not reaching the summit, but I was also relieved as the amount of water was worrying me.