Ba’kelalan and Lawas to Kota Kinabalu
The small 18 seater plane took only 30min to get to Ba’kelalan, an area of nine small villages. I then made enquiries about getting a lift out to Lawas.
While talking to people I got to meet Kim Hoskin who had been there for three years writing a book called ‘Plain View’ about the Vietnamese war, a really interesting guy but we managed to get around to the three topics you should avoid…religion, money and politics!
I did eventually get a lift with some military guys in a truck, it was a hilarious trip, the banter with them ripping in to each other, along with us hanging on to each other as the potholes attempted to throw us off the back and getting wet through going through the enormous puddles.
There were cars abandoned along the road side that had not made the perilous journey. It took five hours for the road to level out as we reached Lawas.
I spent the following day chilling around the hotel making the most a proper room and bed after so many nights in a tent.
Lawas is ok for a stopover but not much there of interest.
Kota Kinabalu
From there I took a bus to Kota Kinabalu where I was picked up by Catherine, the Mum of my friend, Shaley.
Meeting Catherine and John was really great; they were so nice, helpful and friendly, we chatted about allsorts from traveling to politics and it was good to stay with them and gain a local perspective.
I did some sightseeing on the Heritage Trail from the coast through the markets etc. I took the bus to Mt Kinabalu, the tallest mountain in Borneo, to enjoy the views from the foot of the mountain and research the climb.
Unfortunately it started to rain although after a slight improvement I did get to view an amazing sunset over the mountains.
There are frequent warnings about how dangerous the mountain is in rain and mist so disappointingly I had to give the climb a miss.
Continue reading (Incl. Pics) at: Travels679: Ba’kelalan and Lawas to Kota Kinabalu
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