By the time Cindy and I left the Pehrentian Islands, the group of 25 we had been hanging out with had dwindled down to 4 Danish guys (Stephan, Kasper, Daniel and Silas, who taught us a Danish song I can't get out of my head), and 2 Australians (Jules and Nick). One of the dive shops held a giant birthday party on our last night, and we ended up dancing in a torrential downpour before lightning came and moved the party indoors. The next afternoon, we were sad to leave our friends behind on the island.
We took an overnight bus from Kuala Besut to Kuala Lumpur the night of the 30th, and met some more Canadians (Liz and Sean), who we talked with pretty extensively. They've both been teaching in Korea for a few years, and had had some interesting experiences in India, so we picked up some great advice and the Lonely Planet, India, book from them. The book is giant, and since we'll only be in the north and we won't be there for almost 2 months we're going to tear out the pages we don't need to minimize space and weight in our backpacks. The good news is that I traded 2 books for it, so I'm not adding too much weight to my pack by carrying it around. I'm still trying to minimize though . . .
We flew from Kuala Lumpur to Sandakan, a town in the East Malaysia (Borneo) province of Sabah, the afternoon of the 31st. We weren't in KL long enough to even see the towers - which we've heard are over-rated - but we're hoping to take them in when we go back on the 15th. After another full 24 hours of traveling we arrived at the Sandakan Harbour Square B&B, where we secured a room with air conditioning - the first on this trip since we left Scott & Cynthia's in Bangkok.
The owner of the B&B, Polly, helped us set up multiple trips around the area. Tomorrow we'll visit the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center, which is just outside Sandakan. We'll be there for the afternoon feeding after a short stop in the Sandakan Memorial Park, which is where the Japanese started the Malaysian people on a death march during WWII.
On the 3rd we'll leave Sandakan for a river safari out of Sukau. We'll travel by boat through the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary, which is in the floodplain of the Kinabatangan River. We should be able to see wild orangutans, proboscis monkeys, pygmy elephants, and birds. If we're lucky we might get to see rhinos and leopards, as well. It's a 3 day excursion, so we're hoping to see a lot of wildlife - probably mostly birds - in 2 full days and one early morning. Hopefully we won't be eaten alive by mosquitoes.
At 9am on June 5th we're meeting a bus in Sukau that will take us to Sempurna, where we'll stay for a few days before starting our dive course at Sipidan, one of the world's best dive spots. Our table course is set for June 7th, and we'll dive the 8th, 9th, and 10th. Both of us are looking so forward to it that it's hard to believe we're stuck in a city for a few days before our explorations begin, but we have a lot of things to accomplish before we leave for the river cruise (like uploading pictures and buying more bug spray . . .) so we'll stay busy until then.
We got a late start today since we didn't wake up too hot - I think we slept for a full 12 hours, the longest night's sleep yet. We woke up with 5 minutes left before they finished serving breakfast and ate peanut butter toast and drank 3 cups of coffee. They sell these Nescafe packets here that are amazing - coffee, cream, and sugar all in one. It's not as good as traditional Malaysian coffee, which is super strong and served with condensed milk, but it's probably much healthier. :)
I hope everyone back home is doing well. Happy birthday to Colin on June 3rd!
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