Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, Asia

Today was a bit of a wasted day due to travelling. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on a flight back to KK from Sandakan, so I decided to take a bus. I got up and checked out of my hostel earlier than I was planning, but I was just happy to get out of there. Neither Sandakan nor my hostel impressed me, so I wasn’t going to stick around longer than I needed to.

I got to the bus station at 9am to buy my ticket for the 10am bus. Luckily, the 9am bus was just about to pull away so they got me on that one instead and I got to save an hour of waiting in an old dirt parking lot. The bus was just another big coach bus, air conditioned and fairly comfortable seats. They weren’t as comfortable as the ones in Singapore, but still not bad for 40RM ($13). It was a six hour bus journey and the whole time they showed some really corny asian martial arts films. They were bad. It’s times like these I’m really happy I have my laptop and can watch whatever TV shows and movies I want. I watched three movies before we got to the last stop at KK.

I thought we were at KK anyway. It turns out the bus to KK doesn’t actually make it all the way to KK. It stops at the town just before it so you are forced to take a 30RM ($10) taxi into KK from there. I wasn’t happy, but at this point I didn’t have any choice. I hopped in a cab and went back to Borneo BeacHouse Backpackers. As soon as I got back to the hostel I saw Rob and Jen in the lobby area, and it was nice to see some friendly faces.

Julie met up with us later at the hostel and we all went out for a pretty good Chinese meal. It turns out that Rob and Jen had to switch rooms and I’m now rooming with them, and another couple has just moved into the room as well. So now the room for six people has five in it. I think the payback is starting for having private rooms for so long.

We’ve stayed up quite late tonight just chatting and watching TV, and I’m about to hit the hay now. It’s after 1am, but none of us have to wake up particularly early for anything. The only thing I have tomorrow is my flight to Clark in the Philippines, and that’s not till 1:40pm. Finally a chance to sleep in!