ഞങ്ങൾ ബോർണിയോയിൽ ഇറങ്ങി

Borneo is the largest island in Southeast Asia and the third largest island in the world. It is divided into 3 countries: Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia.

We landed on March 28, 2023 in Sabah, or in the capital Kota Kinabalu 🇲🇾 where we were greeted by a tropical warm climate. We took a Grab Taxi from the airport to our accommodation in KK, which was 5km away: The Ease Hotel. Spoiler: an arrival is imagined to be more pleasant. In our room, we were taken aback. As soon as we stepped into the hallway on the 3rd floor, an unpleasant smell hit our noses. It became even more pervasive in the room. "I can't stay here," I thought immediately 🤢 fortunately, Chris agreed. The room had no windows. It smelled damp and musty.. like mold. It's hard to describe, it was disgusting. We went back to reception and asked for an upgrade to another room. Fortunately, this seemed to be no problem. They promised to take care of it and asked us to come back at 4pm. We changed and went to have some food and then took a walk along the promenade, which was very close by. There was a lively market. The locals were setting up the first stalls. There you could find everything from fresh fruit, fish and meat, vegetables and colorful shakes in large buckets, as well as food stalls with various rice and seafood dishes. The smells that greeted us were incredible and definitely not for those with a sensitive stomach :) freshly caught fish was lying around everywhere.

The people welcomed us with a smile, just as we are used to in Malaysia. Of course, there were also curious and sometimes suspicious looks. There are countless fishing boats and a few jet skis on the sea. Boats take you to the surrounding islands for day trips. The first raindrops didn't take long to arrive. The weather in Borneo is incredibly changeable and it rains from time to time, but that's no wonder, because KK is surrounded by rainforest. The humidity can reach 100%.

By the way, we were back at our hotel at 4pm and got the key to the new room. We took the elevator to the 5th floor. It was so much better! It was bigger, had windows, and most importantly, it didn't have an unpleasant smell. We got our luggage and moved to the new room. We didn't have to pay anything extra. However, here you have to pay a kind of tourist tax per night, set by the government, so the information. This is added to the room price and is for example 10 RM per booked night. The hotel also took a deposit from us, which we got back at check-out.

We stayed for 5 nights. We walked through the bustling city and visited the famous City Mosque 🕌 Masjid Bandaraya, also known as the "Floating Mosque" because it reflects in the water around it. We paid the entrance fee (5 RM p.P.) and an additional fee and were appropriately dressed for a visit to the mosque (see pictures). Now I have even more respect for Muslim women who walk around in long robes and headscarves in these temperatures and humidity. I have rarely sweated so much in my life 😅💦 but the experience was worth it, especially since this is the third time we have been to Malaysia and have never really immersed ourselves in the culture. The mosque is truly beautiful and worth seeing from the outside, but the entrance fee is hardly worth it for the inside. There are lots of stalls in front of the entrance and as dark rain clouds started to gather again, we sat down and ordered drinks and a Nasi Goreng Pataya: fried rice with vegetables and chicken, wrapped in egg with red sauce. I got a large coconut with it 🥥 in the meantime, the rain got stronger and stronger. Unfortunately, our sightseeing was over due to the rain and we ordered a Grab for the return journey. The rain continued for the rest of the day.

We ate incredibly well in KK. There are street food markets and food stalls everywhere. The prices here are incredibly cheap, it only gets "more expensive" when you go to a restaurant. Our all-time favorite is Roti, you can have it at any time of the day. It is a thin flatbread with egg and curry served on the side (= Roti Telur). Since good food tends to leave its mark, we visited the gym around the corner twice. We also went to the cinema 🍿 for the first time in ages. We watched the new John Wick Part 4 in English. Of course, we had popcorn and as luck would have it 😂 I had many unpopped corn kernels in my food and suddenly noticed that a piece of my tooth 🦷 had chipped off 🙈 I could clearly feel a sharp edge. What a mess! And it happened to be on a weekend. However, as it turned out, dentists in Malaysia also work on Saturdays and there were several practices nearby. We chose the practice around the corner: "Smile Borneo" according to the sign.. sounded promising 🙃 I had to fill out a form and had my passport with me and about an hour later it was my turn. I got a composite filling and the nice dentist did a great job. Everyone was very friendly. I was super satisfied, but now I was curious about the bill 💸 and behold, we only paid 120 Ringgit in cash!! That's just 25€, unbelievable! ☺️ we had expected much more.

We left on Sunday, April 2nd. We took the bus to Kundasang, where the highest mountain in Borneo, Mount Kinabalu, is located. We stayed for 3 nights and came back to KK for 2 more nights. This time we stayed at the Signel Hostel, a few streets away. 🙂 On April 7th, we embarked on a 7.5-hour bus ride to Sandakan.