The flight from Singapore to Kota Kinabalu was uneventful. We could feel the heat as we disembarked -- the forecast for the next few days is 34C, which is normal.
We're staying at Hotel Sixty3 in KK. Our room wasn't ready (it was only 11am) so we dropped our bags and went for for a little walk. Had a coconut juice each at the market. These are very refreshing and pretty cheap - only 3 ringgit, about $1. We were in between the market times - the fish markets were already done for the day, and the evening markets weren't set up, so there wasn't much to see.
KK is a transit town for most tourists, on their way to the highlights of Borneo. We had planned to stay here for three days, in case we needed the time after the long flights from home. KK has a vibe, but is a little short on attractions. The big thing to do is a day trip to see the proboscis monkeys, which was one of the reasons we wanted to come to Borneo in the first place. So we signed up for an excursion for the next day.
We headed to the night market for dinner. I was a little unsure of what we'd find, as all we had seen on our earlier walk was a big empty lot where the market was marked on the map. However at night, it's transformed into one of the largest open air markets I've seen. Unfortunately it was also pouring rain so I didn't take any pictures. There's row upon row of food stalls, barbecue grills, fresh fish markets. There's tarps strung up over the tables and stalls, but it's impossible to walk around with an umbrella with all the rope holding down the tarps. So while we could eat without getting rained on, we were soaked before we got there. The food was okay, although I prefer the coffee shops (little family run restaurants).
The next morning we were happy to see that our clothes were almost all dry - including our shoes. We had chosen quick-drying clothes for this trip, being in the rainforest in rainy season we expected a bit of, umm, rain.
We had the morning free, so walked a bit more about town, although with the heat we didn't get far. One of the local specialities is roti, so we searched that out for lunch. Heather had the roti canai which has an egg beat into the batter, served with lentils and a curry sauce. I had roti with chicken. Both were mmm good.
The excursion started in the afternoon as the monkeys are more easily spotted at dusk when they feed. The tour bus picked us up at 1pm and then it was a two hour drive to the Garama river, near Beaufort. It poured rain for parts of the drive, which didn't bode well for sighting animals. Next we boarded little river boats - about 10 tourists per boat. There were covers on the boats, that were probably better at providing shade than rain protection. The river (really a mangrove) was very narrow, at points we could touch the overhanging branches on both sides of the boat.
We were lucky as the rain started to peter out as we started the boat tour. We spotted silvered leaf monkeys and macaques, about 15m high in the tree tops. About 30 minutes in, we saw the proboscis monkey! Although, it was the females (the males have the large noses). It's not the best photo taking - shooting a dimly lit subject (being dusk) into a hazy sky background with both the monkey in motion and from a boat, with a long zoom. I posted the best one; unfortunately the monkey is also looking away.
The excursion also includes seeing the fireflies. Dozens of fireflies light up trees here and there like LED Christmas lights. It was really cool to see.
We had a buffet dinner overlooking the mangrove. Sitting in the mangrove just after sunset isn't the best idea for mosquitos, but our clothing and repellant held up and we weren't bitten.
The two hour bus ride back was a bit uncomfortable after the two hours sitting in a small boat. Showered back at the hotel and then crashed at 11pm, the latest I've stayed up so far.
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