Day 99
We are all up and ready at 6am for our taxi at 6:30, only problem is the main gate is locked and the reception is very much dead. Not a problem I think, we'll go down the fire escape. Yeah, that main locked gate is the only exit. Who needs health and safety eh?
After a bit of banging we manage to wake the receptionist and we grab our taxi and make it to the airport at 7.15. A whole two hours later, we've landed and left the airport in Kota Kinabalu which I think has got to be the fasted airport to airport I've ever done. We grab a taxi and dump our bags as soon as we get in as we've spotted sand from the plane and we are missing the beaches.
Taxis here aren't cheap and after a fruitless search for a bus we grab one to the water for an eye watering £6 single (the bus would have been £1). It wouldn't have been so bad if the beach has been amazing but it smells funny and covered in rubbish and we only get 40 minutes before a huge threatening rain cloud comes in and we get another expensive taxi back, not a good day so far.
We hide in our room from the rain where I get an email from my Dad with the innocent remark about how close we are to the Philippines which sparks a whole new adventure idea and we spend the night working out if we can afford to go and how to go about it. My dad has some lovely friends with a resort on a small island called Camiguin so we centre our plans around that, deciding after much deliberation that an awkward timed flight is our best option. We then sit on the computer for an hour battling bad wifi for the website to crash half way through and to reboot with the prices doubled. We also are still waiting to hear back from a climbing guy about whether Ben can do is mountain dream and we are meant to be leaving tomorrow but are still waiting on a confirmed yes. We go to bed pretty grumpy tonight.
Day 100
Woohoo, 100 days of travelling! Can't work out if it feels like it's been only 20 or actually 1,000,000.
We wake up determined to get this trip back on track and manage to book the flights to the island and in a stroke of luck, £60 cheaper than the original price last night! Woohoo. We've also got confirmation from Jungle Jacks, the climbing man and we are setting off today, double woohoo! We've got to be there by two so we pack up quick, grab some snacks for the road and energy for the climb and grab a bus off to the mountains.
The drive up to the top is unbelievably beautiful, as we climb we seen huge valleys below us, crammed with trees and still more and more rock above us. Ben's getting so excited about the climb and I'm a little in awe of it all. We arrive at a jungle Jacks 2 hours later to find 3 or 4 brightly painted shipping containers, a bunch of dogs and a lovely man called Emmit, who's not Jack he says but he's taking us out to lunch. There is also a Czech couple who have arrived just before us and don't speak much English and by the time we get in the mini bus to food, we also have 2 Norweigens, Olaf and Jorgen and a Dutch girl called Tineke who's just come down from the mountain and we all look a little in awe of her as she's actually completed it. It becomes apparent as the conversation goes on that Ben's decision to do the climb in 1 day is a bit of an odd one as it pretty hard for most people and that's going up in 2.
None of the conversations I hear and putting it with the look of Tineke, who's much fitter than me and really didn't seem to enjoy it, I'm so glad I'm not going up the mountain. I know it's going to be beautiful but I'm really not fit enough and I don't want to ruin this for Ben after all he's done for me in the past few weeks. The lunch is amazing, and I fill my face full of fresh veg, fried tofu, rice and anything else I can get my hands on. This isn't the best idea as we haven't been eating much in the last few days and I can't remember the last time I had veg as fresh as this.
Once we are back a German guy called Chris and a Canadian called Andrew have turned up and we spend the afternoon swapping stories and everyone getting excited about their climb tomorrow. This is the first time we've spent any real time with other travellers and it's really nice swapping tips and regaling stories, everyone is really friendly and I'm so glad we've come here. Jack appears and he's as every bit crazy and lovely as we've heard. Darkness comes and he takes us out for some dinner which smells incredible but in the first scent my body reminds me I over ate at lunch and I manage a few sips of tea before I loose it all. Teach me to stuff, eh.
This place has tapped into my anxiousness as it's very basic and with rat traps and rustles in box I know we've got company. I'm determined to fight this though and use every tactic I have to calm myself down once we are back in our dorm (empty again) and it's not long before I'm asleep. Boom.
No comments:
Post a Comment