BOAT = Break Out Another Thousand...

...thankfully, we didn't have to break out quite that much in Kota Kinabalu.  Two weeks in KK gave us just enough time to fix our dinghy motor, fix our refrigerator, and stock up on groceries.  It is true what they say about cruising…it’s traveling from one exotic port to another fixing crap.  I would add to that ‘and buying groceries.’

Jake, roughing it at the marina pool.

We did manage to have a little fun though.  We swam in the many pools at the resort, we toured the museum, and we spent a few nights at the ‘night market’ eating local food and getting ourselves acquainted with the culture.  A few things I’m not sure I’ve mentioned yet…Malaysia is predominately Muslim and/therefore there’s not a lot of pork or boozing going on.  This proved to be a bit of a challenge when eating out as everyone knows Andy thinks the pig is a magical animal and we both enjoy a good beer with our meal (as do our friends Lee and Richard who we were with for many meals).  But, persistence pays off and we found ourselves spending many days enjoying the food and drink of El Centro (expat bar/restaurant that was wonderful when you wanted something different than rice and curry).  Of course we enjoyed many other wonderful restaurants here…Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Seafood…in spite of trying to restart my jogging routine, I think I still gained a few pounds.

One of the four pools at the marina.

Dinner out at the night market with some of our friends.

Borneo Train Exhibit.  Very different from museums
in the US...Jake got to climb all over it.

Water Village exhibit at the Museum

Clock Tower in KK.  

One of the downsides of KK was the smell and trash.  Everything on this side of the world seems to be individually packaged.  Small bags of noodles, small bags of potato chips, small bags of shampoo, detergent, even toothpaste are sold everywhere from the largest of grocery stores to tiny mom and pops.  99% of these packages end up on the ground or in the water.  Alongside those wrappers you can bet you’ll find hundreds of plastic bottles.  Rest assured our sight wasn’t the only sense stimulated…all three of us have a keen sense of smell as well.  Our noses were challenged when hit with overwhelming bouquets of stench.  Trying to identify each smell came to be sort of a sick game we played.  Fish, poop, urine, curry, barbeque, diesel?  I’m not complaining, just wanting to make you all feel like you’re here with us…

Just one stretch of the beach covered with trash.

Yesterday, we set off for places further south.  As I type this we are sitting at anchor in front of Tiga Island, where the very first Survivor reality show was filmed.  Weather has dictated that we anchor on the north side of the island and our first trip ashore got mixed reviews.  The beach is littered with trash (I had flashbacks to the Marshall Islands), however as we ventured further into the jungle we found a trail where we saw lots of creepy crawlies, butterflies, a snake and even some monkeys.  There’s a resort on the other side of the island and we’re assuming these trails lead to and from there.  There is supposed to be a mud volcano around here somewhere as well.  That’s on tomorrow’s agenda.  If the wind switches up again, we’ll move the boat around to the resort side and see if we can find a decent beach.  In the meantime, we’re enjoying a beautiful breeze (keeping the cabin cool!) and some solitude.