Since arriving in Borneo we’ve seen fantastic wildlife, once we’d adapted our vision stick insects bigger than logs appear, bugs bigger than mugs, loads of lizards-this forked tongue monitor lizard sneaking around the rubbish bins has obviously found a taste for cooked food!

Stick Insect

A N Other Bug

Monitor Lizard

Sabah seems to have more vicious animals than Sarawak. The mosquitoes here are feasting on me, they adore my natural citronella and positively devour my ‘tropical strength’ Deet, so nothing works and now red bumps dot eclectic patterns from my feet to my face.

And today I encountered two more particularly annoying forms of wildlife a) the human variety and b) jellyfish.  Both during a trip out to the Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park, a collection of five islands off the coast here, a Mecca for divers and an oasis escape from the city heat.

The human variety (a rare mutant, humans on the whole being friendly, honest and genuine, in my experience) was the ticket agent. The ferry terminal here is chaotic, a heaving mass of humanity, with few fluent English speakers. We brought what we understood to be a genuine ticket, only to find ourselves left behind on the jetty, minus transport, when everyone else left enmasse!

At which point I had a full scale tantrum. Which did the trick. Magically seats were found for us on a just departing local ferry and within minutes we were sailing over the choppy waters of the South China Sea to the translucent blue seas and coral reefs of Mamutik Island.

We still have no idea what happened but decided not to worry about getting back and enjoy the gorgeous day, settling down on a shady table under the coconut palms. Off into the beckoning warm waves I dived, floating happily in the warm shallows…until nasty nips from nasty wildlife number two, jelly fish, introduced another type of ‘sting’!!  Luckily not too bad, but enough to ensure I ran back up the beach as fast as I’d run down.

We paddled, explored the inland jungle walks, stalked the foraging monitor lizards, admired the glistening coral reefs and the vast shoals of fish, and generally relaxed away from the dust of the city.

Luckily a crew member from a ferry company sought us out on the sands to explain the boat number and procedure for our return (we must stand out even more than we realise as the island was busy with weekend day trippers). This to our surprise was just as we were told, so our castaway fears were ungrounded.

The boat trip back went via other islands and past the Filipino stilt villages which line Gaya Island. Locals here warn against visiting this island and blame the high incidence of street crime/begging on their presence, but our boat crew were Filipino and lovely so who knows?

There certainly is an ‘edge’ to K K which I did not sense in Kuching, the dark alleys lined with street dwellers look dangerous especially at night, the beggars, especially children, are everywhere, there are considerably less English spoken/understood, but there is also a fascinating depth of sights/sounds here due to the multi ethnic, multi layered, community.

Tomorrow we leave for Sandakan-again by plane, this is the world’s third largest island and distances are phenomenal. Watch this space.