Sabah
Photo
Gallery
In 2000-2001 I did two trips to Sabah, the
first between January 24th and February 5th, 2000 and
the second between January 8th and 12th, 2001.
In January 2000 I initially flew
to Kota Kinabalu. After visiting the town I drove by bus to the Mount
Kinabalu
National park, home of the highest mountain between the Himalaya and
Papua
New Guinea. After climbing the peak
I stayed for one night at Poring
Hot
Springs then continued the next day by bus to the Sepilok
Orang Utan rehabilitation centre near Sandakan.
After visiting the centre I left
for Sandakan and booked a two day stay at Uncle Tan's jungle camp along
the Kinabatangan river. These two days became one, as it rained heavily
overnight and the camp was flooded the next morning.
I then travelled by bus to
Lahad Datu and from there to Semporna. Visiting the nearby islands
would
have been quite expensive, so I changed my plans and drove to Tawau
(close
to the Indonesian border and really on the edge to nowhere). From there
I flew back to Kota Kinabalu.
In January 2001 I flew again to
Kota
Kinabalu, then went to Sarawak for a few days, visiting the Niah and
Mulu
National parks. After that I did again the Mount Kinabalu and
Sepilok
trip (basically to shoot again the Sabah pictures).
What follows are excerpts of
the
emails I sent to my fiancee in KL while I was in Sabah (she couldn't
join
me as she had to work in KL):
(this continues from the Sarawak
travelogue)
08.01.01,
Mount Kinabalu National Park
I couldn't sleep last night, but had to wake up at 6:50am to catch the
8:30am flight
from Mulu to Miri. Was supposed to arrive in Miri at 9:05am to catch
the connecting flight at 9:50am to KK, but the plane arrived in Miri
late
so I missed the 9:50am flight to KK and only arrived at the Kinabalu
national
park at 6:30pm.
It's raining and raining all
the
time and tomorrow I'm planning to climb Mount Kinabalu. The main
resthouse
at 3300m, Laban Rata, tomorrow is fully booked. Looks like despite the
bad weather there are lots of people willing to do the climb.
10.01.01,
Sandakan
Very tired this evening.... as I
climbed Mount Kinabalu after a sleepless night in the Laban Rata
resthouse
and then made it from the Park to Sandakan.
The trip from the park to
Sandakan
took longer than expected. I first made it to Ranau by bus, then was
supposed
to take the bus there to Sandakan. However I arrived in Ranau around
4pm,
too late to catch the last bus. A taxi driver offered to bring me
there,
but he insisted on prepayment and I didn't have enough cash with me. It
didn't help that my Maestro bank card didn't work in the banks in
Ranau.
So I had to make it to Sandakan
with a combination of buses and luckily a friendly local picked me up
at
8pm at a junction about 20 km from Sandakan and drove me into town.
11.01.01,
Sandakan
Today I went to the Sepilok
Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre. Many great pictures of Orang
Utans.
I met a German guy who was travelling around the world (he has three
more
weeks in Malaysia).
12.01.01,
Sandakan -> KL
Everything as planned:
- 12:45 - 13:25: flight Sandakan
- Kota Kinabalu
- 16:10 - 18:35: flight KK - KL
Copyright (c) 2002
Alfred
Molon
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