Kota Kinabalu Borneo
19 April 2008
Saturday 19th April 2008
KOTA KINABALU
BORNEO
MALAYSIA
We are leaving this comfortable 5 star Marina resort after 2 weeks to hit the ocean again. My next job after this is looking up marinas, weather websites etc for our journey to Singapore. It is 800 miles and will take a while. We plan to do a few day trips down the coast anchoring off a couple of islands and mainland inlets before crossing the strait to Singapore. the Malacca Strait is full of ships (every minute) and local fishing boats so we will have to have our wits about us.
Last night we caught up with David from Celtic Caper whom we met in the Philippines. We sat on the riverfront having a few drinks listening to his stories until nearly midnight. He is amazing. This is his third trip around the world after leaving the UK 20 years ago. He had some amazing stories to tell which would scare some of you so I wont repeat them! Both times he has gone around Africa. Maybe we should go that way.....the Red Sea will be difficult... Lets just see how we progress. It was good to talk with David and I have nothing but admiration for him. He has been singlehanded (but meets various ladies in each port). He says at sea he only sleeps for 20 minutes at a time. He is still enjoying the life and looks fit for his age. He is in his 70s but when I first met him I thought he was late 50s. It is certainly inspiring to meet someone like that with so much experience for us to learn from.
Bill is getting fuel. We'll be doing a big shop this afternoon ready to head off in the morning. Our first stop is Tiga island only 25 miles away.
FOOD, CULTURE AND OTHER BITS AND PIECES
One becomes quite open minded when traveling observing the culinary habits of others but some things seem more unusual than usual! When we were trekking through the jungle with our guide Leo he showed us some small creatures including a special type of millipede. He related an experience he had with some Thai tourists. Leo is very good in giving detailed descriptions of the creatures he finds and shows us handling them gently and respectfully and occasionally passing them around. He was showing a group of Thai tourists a millipede one day when "one man kept close to me and he didn't speak English when I was showing the millipede to everyone. He put his hands out like this (cups his hands) and I thought he wanted to hold it but he put it in his mouth and ate it! I could hear the crunch. He said it was to make him strong. I couldn't believe it! I didn't know what to do..."
A Chinese delicacy only found high in particular caves in northern Borneo is a birds nest made from the saliva of a swallow. Gathering of these has been restricted but they are worth huge amounts of money. The gatherers have to climb long bamboo ladders to reach them. I saw a shop in KK that specialized in boxed birds nests. (the birds nests are broken down into smaller nest like shapes) They were displayed like chocolates in red, gold and clear cellophane boxes.
I saw a Chinese Malaysian woman in restaurant pour a glass of water over her food plate to wash her hands. This seemed peculiar as she was right next to the door that said 'Washroom'.
One gets used to seeing live animals for sale for food. Chickens have a leg tied to something with a piece of string. Fish, crayfish, eels etc are in water . I've seen a squealing pig with its legs tied to a pole hanging upside down carried by two men.
Borneo is much cleaner and tidier than the Philippines generally. We got used to seeing rubbish littering the streets and waterways whilst we were there. However once again our jungle guide Leo was aghast when he took a group of Hungarians drinking beer into the jungle. When they were finished they just threw the cans into the creek they were trekking through. It's a National Park. He and fellow staff had to pick them up after them.
Smoking is an acceptable habit everywhere. In restaurants people light up all the time. In fact sometimes the waiter will bring the customer cigarettes or cigars. People at work commonly smoke eg the man in charge of the lockers and keys at the Orangutang Centre had a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. It is unusual to see women smoke - it is mostly men who smoke.
There is a large percentage of Muslims here. They co-exist happily with the Chinese who have been here for many generations as well as the Malays. There is generally at least 3 written languages in public places - Malay (almost like bahasa Indonesia), Chinese, Arabic as well as English. There are several mosques which are large and ornate with golden 'onions' as Bill calls them. The Muslim ladies look very elegant with beautiful headscarves of different colours with embroidery and diamantes. Their long dresses with long sleeves are often made from silky material in many beautiful colours often in floral patterns. The teenage Muslim girls often wear jeans with either a short or long sleeved t shirt and pretty headscarf. The headscarves are nearly always tightly fastened under the chin often with a pretty brooch. Some of the teenagers walk around hand in hand with their boyfriends. A couple of girls working in Macdonalds had their scarves tucked into the back of their collars. I have seen many children dressed in a Muslim school uniform. The girls have to wear a long white head scarf fastened under their chin, a long blouse and another long skirt underneath. They look a bit like little nuns! I wonder how the children manage to do normal play activities that our children engage in eg. Climbing monkey bars, cartwheels, playing in the sandpit, gymnastics, swimming etc... They probably cant unless they are in a girl only area and can wear non restrictive clothing.
The locals obviously don't feel the heat like we do. Apart from the men wearing long trousers and long sleeve shirts and the Muslim women in their flowing gowns and headscarves we also observed a group of school kids walking in the midday heat (33 degrees) in long sleeved acrylic tracksuits and long pants. A couple of boys we wearing beanies!
BODY TREATMENTS -
We have both sampled traditional massages which have been really good.
In some of the salons we have seen on the 'Menu' the following treatments:
- skin whitening
- virginity restoration
- ear candleling ( ear wax dripped into the ear cavity to reduce migraines and get rid of wax etc)
- body slimming (massage with traditional potions)
I have seen several men working in the salons in fact I had a facial by a young man and he was quite good. Many male customers also have facials often having a male staff member do it.
Bill and I both had a massage yesterday in a small salon in a shopping centre for 40 Ringits each (approx $13) At one stage I had 2 girls working on me!