Traveling through Sabah (Malaysia) Part I

After having visited Singapore we took a flight to Kota Kinabalu in Sabah-state, Malaysia. The majority in Malaysia is muslim, and since Sabah had been a colony of Great Britain in the passed people tend to speak English rather well. The flight took about 2,5 hours and was very cheap with AirAsia. Once we cleared immigration we booked a hotel for the night.

The next day we wanted to travel further south, hoping to spend some nights in the rainforest. There are not so many buses going for long distances and public transport usually consists of vans and jeeps. The mountains in Sabah are rather high and we felt the temperature drop while we ascended. The surrounding nature is pristine, feels wild yet warm. It took a while for us to explain to our drivers and fellow passengers that we wanted to get out in the middle of nowhere. They dropped us off at what seemed like the highest point of the journey. We had a great view with the jungle for ourselves, making it a perfect place to set up camp.

During the night temperatures plummed drastically and we ended up freezing a lot. In an attemp to get warm we got dressed in the middle of the night and ran around for a while. The moisture of the clouds drained the tent which made it even more chilly. We did not notice many animals except for some squirls. It was because of this temperature and lack of wildlife that we decided to move on the next day.

Since there were no busses passing by we decided to hitchhike. A car stopped within 10 seconds. The driver took great responsibility in ensuring that we would continue our journey safely and with the right bus. He literally asked EVERYone at ALL the busstations (there were three) about which bus would be best for us to choose.

We took a bus that would drive us all the way down to Tawau. It was there were we saw the massive palmoil plantages that pushed the rainforests far out of sight. Although we both find the destruction of rainforests heartbreaking we have to acknowledge that most of Europe was covered in dense forest once as well. People in Malaysia need to make a living too, and they actually have a long way to go before their country gets as cultivated as Europe is today.

Tawau is the main city in the south, close to Indonesia and lying on the coast. We wanted to travel further to Semporna to look for diving possibilities. It was Hans his plan to simply arrive in a tiny village there and hope for the hospitality of the people.

This plan seemed to work pretty nicely except for a few akward moments...
(to be continued)