Borneo

18/02/2011 and 22/2/2011

Hong Kong and Kota Kinabalu, Borneo( Malaysia)

On these 2 days I went shore side by myself, as Fred did not feel up to going.  As we had been on a formal tour of Hong Kong the day before, I decided to explore some of the areas where the tours had not taken us.  I walked through some of the backstreets where the ordinary person lives, and looked at little restarants, shops etc.  in no way did I feel threatened by walking alone, and the people could not have been kinder.  I was particularly fascinated by some of the butcher shops, where there were rows if rays with cuts of meat I have never seen before. ( I do not want to hazard a guess at what they were).

In Malaysia I went on a tour of KK, which is a modern town, where a lot of development has taken place since it became independent from Britain.  When I was a child, we had some picture books of the Indonesian Islands that had belonged to the Netherlands, and I had always been fascinated by the mysterious culture of these far away places.  Unfortunately it was not the most interesting trip I had been on, , but it was good to get an insight into modern Borneo.    Some funny comments were made by some of the fellow passengers, who were most disappointed, that we did not see people living in mud huts, and could not get their head round the fact that change has not only taken place in the west.  In the afternoon I went out by myself again to have a wander \round the many markets in the town.  I did not realise so  many different species of edible fish existed.

The boat left late for the trip to Cairns, as it was bunkering fuel.. the next 6 days will be spent at sea, and we will be crossing the Equator on Saturday.