Kota Kinabalu

Up bright and early to catch a flight over to Kota Kinabalu, Borneo. I shared a taxi with 2 others from my guesthouse, who I believed were heading to the same airport as me. When we were picked up, the taxi driver asked us which airlines we were flying with and then told me that I would be flying out of a different airport to the others (despite the fact that each of our tickets said ''Kuala Lumpur International Airport''). He told me that Air Asia have their own airport and that he would need to take me there. After a discussion, I wasn't convinced, pretty confused and a bit worried but had to take his word for it, considering he probably does this every day. The other 2 were baffled by it all too and the fact that it was 5am didn't help either.

We dropped the others off first at KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport - all our tickets say ''KUL'') so I nipped in to see if my flight was scheduled to go from there. No sign of it on the boards so I reckoned that my driver must be right and I would need to head to this other airport several miles away. Luckily, their flight was earlier than mine so we had plenty of time to kill. The taxi driver was really nice too and explained that this was a common source of confusion with travellers, We headed off to LCC, hoping that my flight was from there.

Thankfully, it was and the driver was right all along. I apologised for doubting him but he didn't seem that surprised that I did because this seems to confuse lots of people. Turns out ''LCC" is a terminal part of KLIA (or KUL or whatever), despite the fact that it's nowhere near it. Only Air Asia flights go from there but why they couldn't put that on the ticket, I do not know. He also told me there is soon going to be a KLIA2 in Kuala Lumpur as well, which is going to make life even more of a nightmare for him and other travellers. Stupid system and not exactly the start to the day I was looking for. Did a good job of waking me up though.

Anyway, we arrived at LCC in plenty of time before my flight. Have heard nothing but bad things about Air Asia from fellow travellers but thankfully all went smoothly and the flight over to Borneo was a nice short one. I arrived in Kota Kinabalu early afternoon and headed straight for Australia Place - the backpackers district.

After booking into a hostel, I went for a walk around town to get my bearings and start comparing some deals on things I wanted to book for my 2-week stay. Nothing much to do in Kota Kinabalu itself - it's more of a base to start your trip and organise excursions and tours you want to do throughout Borneo. I started checking out some places but wasn't helped by the fact that it was Sunday and pretty much everywhere was closed for the day! Great. Throughout South-East Asia, you get used to places being open all the time for you to book things and this was the first occasion that the day of the week has been an issue. I did find a couple of places open but their deals seemed massively overpriced so I decided I would wait until morning to do some proper research.

Not much in the way of sight-seeing in KK but I did venture down to check out a nice Mosque, which was a few miles outside of town. Not allowed to go inside but an impressive building nonetheless so thankfully, the day wasn't a complete waste.

That evening, I chilled at my hostel, met some french guys and a german lad called Marf and spent a few hours playing poker with them. No money involved though - we are all poor travellers after all!

Day 2: After finding everywhere closed the day before, I got up early so I could try and book a climb of Mount Kinabalu - the highest mountain in South East Asia. Borneo can be a bit tricky with it's tourist attractions as some require permits, which can take a few days to obtain. Other travellers had warned me this might be the case with Mt Kinabalu so I got up early to try and book it asap. Thankfully, it was all fine and I was able to book my climb to start the following day. Seems to be low season in Borneo this time of year so I think that helped my cause.

The rest of the day was spent doing further research and buying some gear I needed for the climb. I didn't bring many warm clothes away with me and the ones I do have, are not really appropriate for a 4000m peak at sunrise. Got myself a good coat, gloves and hat so I was fully prepared. I'm expecting it to be cold in New Zealand and parts of South America too so these will hopefully see me through to the end of my trip.

The afternoon was spent trying to book some diving at Sipidan, an island off the west coast of Borneo. Sipidan is one of the top dive sites in the world, is VERY popular and only has a limited number of permits available every day so I was a bit scared that I might miss out. Everywhere else, it's been fine to just turn up and book something for the following day but I didn't want to risk that with Sipidan so I emailed all the places based in Semporna, where the trips start from. Wasn't looking good for a while as lots came back with limited or no availability, until I got lucky with one called Billabong Scuba, who had some days available. Without hesitation, I booked it, giving myself just over a week to get over to the west side of Borneo. Should be enough time for everything I want to do in between. Relieved to find somewhere as Sipidan was one of the main reasons for coming over here. Lots of Sharks, Turtles and possibly Manta Rays so I'm told. Exciting.

Fairly quiet evening after getting everything sorted. Up early to begin my climb. Had a feeling this was going to be tough.