Christmas in Borneo

So Christmas came and went just like any other day. We really didn’t do anything special for the occasion, well beside vacation in Borneo.

We spent the day on another island, Manmukan. The beaches were a lot less sandy than the day before, and the water was very shallow, which meant dead coral and shallow reefs over 100 meters out. The marine life was fairly diverse, but the coral wasn’t nearly as beautiful as the day before.  There were also some small jelly fish, which only stung like a fire ant bite for about twenty seconds. (Luckily I only got two.)  There was this sort of fish with a long snout that looked sharp, it was maybe about 1.5 feet long and scared me for whatever reason, so I didn’t like that…I did, however, enjoy seeing several angelfish, parrot fish, clown fish, and various other damsels, and such.

Today we went on an organized tour to the Kinabalu National Park and Poring Hot Springs. We basically spent more time in the tour van than anywhere else, but I suppose it takes a long time to get from the beach to the mountain tops.

We went to a small village for a short break and a picture opportunity before getting into Poring to view the hot springs (not nice at all compared to Japan’s) and the rain forest canopy walk.  The canopy walk was somewhat worthwhile, at forty meters high-making your heard palpitate.  Instead of joining the local in the dirty hot sulfur water, my parents and I opted for  the cool waterfalls instead.  The waterfalls were only about a 400 meter walk from the main hot spring area, and so refreshingly cool.

The afternoon was spent eating a decent lunch at a small café nearby, then going to the actual National Park and seeing a small exhibit and botanical garden.

The weather was a bit disappointing, as we were unable to see the peak of the mountain.  Much of the countryside reminded me of the Philippines, what with the wood, brick, or tin houses and shacks, wild dogs running amok, chickens clucking around the sides of all buildings, open markets of local fruits and veggies, etc.  Although people appeared to be at some level of poverty in large here, compared to Egypt and the Philippines, the standard of living  here still seems a bit higher, or perhaps its more that the gay between rich and poor isn’t quite as great.
There are plans to spend our last day here in Kota Kinabalu on one of the islands, doing four of my favorite things, again.