Kyoto! and Borneo!

Hello from Kota Kinabalu, Borneo! According to wiki languages, hello in Malay is "Hello". 1) how boring and 2) how useful! and 3) how awful that I had to look that up, even though I've been in the country for 4 days.

I should let you know from the get go that this blog update will be photo free, because I forgot to bring my photo uploader jobby. But I will be painting pictures with my words, so I hope that is sufficient.

I've now been a solo traveller for 16 days. The mathematicians amongst you will know that's more than 2 weeks. 2 WEEKS! My initial separation from the Hyndman youngers was rubbish. I'd had the most amazing time with them, and as I trundled (can you trundle on a 300mph bullet train?!) from Tokyo to Kyoto, I was feeling quite lost and lonesome. The appearance of Mount Fuji, sitting on the horizon like an iced bun, pushed me to the very verge of tears - it didn't seem quite right to see such a sight by myself. I had to quickly watch Battlestar Galactica to stop myself from blubbing on the Japanese businessman next to me.

Luckily, everything about Kyoto was hella awesome so, while there was still a Hyndman shaped hole in my ongoing travels, I could at least preoccupy myself with exploring this beautiful city and its history, drinking sake and doing origami with some wonderful people, and watching sea otters frolicking in aquariums (that last bit was technically Osaka, if you're going to be picky). Some of the highlights of the rest of my time in Japan were going to Gion, a district in Kyoto where you can still find real life Geishas, and seeing a Geisha show. Man, those women (if you can even class them in the same bracket as us mere mortals) are stunning - perfectly poised and graceful beyond belief. Further proof that Japan is not the country to go to for an ego boost. I also managed to miss my train to Hiroshima, but had a fantastic day as a result, hiking through the hills behind Kyoto and finding postcard-perfect scenes of waterfalls, sun-dappled forest floors and views over the city. Beautiful.

After 5 days in Kyoto, I headed back to Tokyo and flew to Bangkok. Getting off the plane and heading in to the city was quite a shock after Japan. Stuck in a super hot bus, with families whizzing past on mopeds, car horns ringing in my ears and the smell of open sewers singeing my nostrils, I philosophically pondered on the differences between two cultures which, at their core, have many similarities. But then I arrived at my hostel, saw that there was a food market at the end of my road selling mango and sticky rice, and pondered no more. It was really nice to be back in Bangkok, albeit briefly as I then flew out the next day to Malaysian Borneo.

After a couple of flights and lot of waiting around, I found myself in a pick up truck, being whizzed from Tawau (a port town on the border with Indonesian and Malaysian Borneo) through palm oil plantations to Semporna, a seaside town which is...on the sea. There is not much to be said of Semporna - it is a bit of a dive, from which you can dive. I should write their brochure! I stayed for one night there and, craving a bit of white sandy beach and crystal clear water, as tourists are want to do, I headed over to stay on an island called Mabul. It was verging on the resort-y, but that is the only negative I can say about it. The snorkelling was incredible - I followed a turtle around for ages as it grazed on sea grass, transfixed by its slightly clumsy swimming and barnacle covered face. It probably thought I was an absolute moron, as he was just eating his lunch. My turtle stalking did result in me having the worst sunburn in all my 24 years - I'd like to say it was worth it but it still hurts three days on. I also had the chance to do some diving with an amazing instructor. He asked what I'd like to see and, as it was just me and him, he gave me a guided tour of the ocean floor. We saw more turtles, squid, lionfish, sea horses, moray eels and a whole selection of sealife that I have no grouping for, but enthusiastically gave the "tip top" hand signal when he pointed it out to me. It was one of the greatest moments of my trip yet, nay, my LIFE! Let's not get over-excited. It was great though! Money and time allowing, I would've spent a lot longer there. But unfortunately, running a bit low on both of those, I found myself on an 8 hour night bus to Kota Kinabalu. Horrific. The driver, taking advantage of no one on the roads, drove like someone had put a firework up his posterior. Which is no mean feat, seeing as we were on winding mountain roads. He only stopped twice - once for snacks and once when someone threw a rock at the bus and cracked the windscreen. He got out of the bus, chased after the person, then came back and carried on regardless. I get the impression, based on his reaction and the state of some of the buses at the depot, that it was quite a regular occurrence.

So that pretty much takes me up to present day! I'm going on a 3 day jungle trek tomorrow, to try and find some orangutans and tiny elephants, and get chewed on by leeches, and then heading on to some enormous caves in the middle of nowhere that have bat displays! All very exciting and very nature-y.

I hope you are all well - send me your news and send me some money.

Lots of love xxxxx

p.s. I'll post some pictures soon!