Amazing Race Begins

After leaving Edmonton at 4pm January 16th via Calgary to LA @ 930pm. Made it to LA and left there around 1135pm that night. It was a long flight to Taipei. After the stopover in Taipei, it was on to our final destination--Kota Kinabalu, Sabah (Malaysian Borneo) We spent approx 28 hours in transit and even missed near a whole day--Jan 17th due to crossing the International dateline. After all that travel we are sure ready for some R n' R.

We took a cab from the airport and we checking in at Kinabalu Daya Hotel. Quicky showered and explored the city sights and check out our tour options. We tried to stay up as long as possible to get our bodies switched around in time. Needless to say, we quickly retired about 9pm that night

Survivor Borneo

January 19th-

Today we slept in till about 930am. Had to get up then so we could catch our free breakfast with the hotel. After brekky, we crossed the street to check out some tours. We ended up booking a few tours and Jen booked some scuba dives. After that, we went to the jetty (boat dock in our terms) and wanted to catch a boat out to the islands just off the west coast. We went to get a ticket and they told us that we would have to wait for 4 more people for the boat as there needs to be a min of 8 people for them to take us on the 15 min boat ride. So there we were waiting in the boat house. Sharon had to check out the shops and then in strolled 3 more people. Between the 7 of us we decided to split the other fare and then with our luck 5 English people walked in. So the group headed out to Manukan Island. We had lots of fun snorkelling and laying on the beach in 32 degree weather! It was a beautiful beach with clear water with lots of fish and coral. Very relaxing.

January 20th-

Today we were up earlier and caught the boat out to Sapi Island where Jennifer did her dives and we laid in the sun doing a bit of snorkelling here and there. On Jennifer's last dive they spotted a very rare fish called the Mandarin fish. Very colourful and I guess the Divemaster and others there have never seen the fish before. It is one of the most sought after fish for underwater photography. After the dives, we left the island in the +32 weather and slightly sunburnt. Man does that sun make you tired. We were all sleeping by 830pm.

January 21st-

Early to bed, early to rise! Our day began really early...our tour guide came to pick us up at the hotel at 655am to take us to Mt. Kinabalu- the highest moutain in South East Asia. As our time was limited and our training was behind schedule, we could not attempt the 2 day climb up the mountain. Maybe next time. Instead we toured the National Park amongst a dense rainforest and onto Pouring Hot Springs, further inland in the rainforest. We went for a swin but these Hot springs are not at all like ours....brrrr. We trekked up the rainforest to a Canopy walk- a series of walkways (or suspended 2x8 in the air) approx 30m + above the ground ontop of the dense vegetation. Awesome for the ones who made it!

Before leaving here, we were told of a rare Raffelsia flower blooming nearby. It was on private property so we had to pay 10RM  to see it (3$ CAD). It is a really rare flower that only blooms for a week and takes about 9-18 months to grow. It was really amazing and we have pictures to show it. Anyways we are off to see some monkeys tomorrow and then its off to Thailand.....can't wait for some more beach...ahhh

Anyhow tune in to more updates of the amazing race.

The Walthams