Kota Kinabalu

A quick snack - flat bread cooked with onion served with curry gravy
Long houses at the museum

Kota Kinabalu front

Just in case you forget that you are in a muslim country

I have arrived in Borneo, and although I have spent a few days resting and trying to shift my germs I have got out a little bit to see the city - more like a town. It is all about eating here - just my cup of tea :-) There are more eating places than anything else and if you are not buying a meal then you can go to the market and buy more food there. There are numerous influences in the food here and it all seems very fresh and very tasty - it is funny to see Filipino restaurants here as to my taste buds the Filipino food is far blander then anything else on offer. My favourite has to be the indian influenced restaurants - very good curries and lots of flat breads - all very cheap. There are even local canned drinks here, which is nice to see that not everywhere has been overtaken by coca cola and pepsi, though they are still present. I haven't tried the soya milk based drinks yet but I did have a can of Chrysanthemum juice - not sure how to describe the flavour but it was very refreshing. I got out to the museum and saw a bit of the history of Borneo, or actually just Sabah (see below) and all about the long houses in the area.

Borneo is one island but three countries - Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia, and the Malysian bit is split into two provinces - Sabah and Sarawak. Get your atlases out and have a look!

Now I just have to get over my fear/disgust of leeches and get out into the jungle to see the

natural highlights of Borneo.