Hi All,

After crossing the equator we are making our way north to the city of Kota Kinabula, the capital city of the Malaysian state of Sabah on the northern side of Borneo.

The ship is making excellent progress with speeds of 30+ knots – the fastest passenger ship around. However that does not stop any of the activities on board the ship, they continue as if we are standing still. The ship is just so smooth in the water that you hardly know you are moving.

Glasses of water in the dining room show no signs of movement and our musicians and harpist are still able to play for our high teas in the ballroom.

Tuesday sees the ship arriving in the port of Kota Kinabula. The QM2 is a most impressive ship in the harbour.

The day is hot and humid and the temperature rises to a high of 40 degrees with 80% humidity. The morning sees the smoke haze all over the port and town area. The smoke is coming from southern Borneo where fires are burning jungle to clear land for the increasing palm oil plantations.

We head out to town from a mooring in the harbor as the ship is too big to dock at the harbour terminal.

The trip across to the port and city is only a short 10 mins.
As we come near to the dock we are greeted by the new concrete construction that is taking place all across the city.

As we land and head off to barter for a taxi tour we take a moment for the photo opportunity to say we have been to Kota Kinabula. After feeling really good at having made a bargain with the taxi driver for a 2 hr city tour for 200 ringgit instead of $US80 as first quoted, a saving of $US15 we head off to look at the sights. Included is an english speaking driver and operating air conditioning in the taxi. We pass by new government buildings that are being extended as are most buildings in the city. Great activity all round. The water Mosque, for which we could not enter as we had forgotten to bring long sleeves to cover our arms and head with. But we are able to see around the building with its interesting architecture and water moat.

We arrive at the old Chinese temple with its long steps to the top of the temple and statues surrounding the outside. Bit of an exercise with the temperature of 40 degrees.
We notice across the road the contrasts of the city. Across from the Chinese temple is an Anglican cemetery but this has been partly washed away with recent heavy rains, down on to the local village, that is still in the traditional hut construction.

We take the taxi to a traditional Sabah village. Here we see native dart blowing for hunting both animals and human enemies in days gone by. We see traditional music played on drums and walk up the traditional steps to a local home. After a few more sites around the town with the temperature rising to the top of 40 degrees, we find a great bargain in icy cold water for $0.30 a bottle so we take this as we make our way back to the tender for return to the air conditioning on the ship.

As we approach the ship for disembarking the tender we notice that there is much rubbish floating along the side of the ship and realize that not all countries can or wish to take care of the environment as much as we do. We make a note not to swim in these waters.

At the end of the afternoon, when all are back on board, the tenders are raised and we set sail again for the next 4 days to reach Shanghai.

Till next time.

Regards

Wendy