Wednesday 12 May 2010
After a mad dash to make it to the finish line of packing and cleaning up the house, then finding some dinner at the local Chinese restaurant, Craig and Heather dropped us at Perth International Airport, allowing us to start another journey. We checked in without any fuss and went through procedures to depart Australia. As usual, we found ourselves sitting in the Qantas lounge with some nibbles and drinks, passing the time for our flight scheduled for 00:05.
Thursday 13 May 2010
The flight to Singapore was uneventful. We managed to catch a couple of snoozes but Scott must have had the most uncomfortable seat known to man. 12 hours after the flight, his bum is still square with the ridges and grooves of the Jetstar seat imprinted on his behind! In Singapore, we tried to get into the Qantas lounge to spend the five hours until our next flight, to Kota Kinabalu. We were told by the Receptionist that we weren’t on a Jetstar international flight and therfore could not use the lounge facilities. If you get on a plane in Singapore, then you are flying international! Needless to say, this had us confused and dismayed at the ever-declining standards offered by Qantas.
We sat and wandered, wandered and sat in the Changi International Airport (note for Qantas, the word “international”) and passed the time watchng other travellers passing the time watching other travellers. We had seen a lass in Perth and again in Singapore whose luggage bore an Allways Dive tag, and saw her again in the departure lounge. Scott approached and discovered she is Michelle (sp?) and is one of the Perth Scuba (Manta Club) divers in our group. She was making independent travel to Semporna. Finally our time came and we boarded our flight for Kota Kinabalu; another uneventful flight but this time we managed a slightly improved snooze.
Clearing Customs and Immigration at KK was simple in their new airport (almost completed, but very impressive), grabbed some cash and a pre-paid cab to the Kinabalu Backpackers Lodge. Our booking through HostelWorld.com worked and we were shown to our room. It’s a large space, clean, with a/c and double bed, communal facilities and is quite good for the price. It is not geographically “central” but KK is not that big and ten minutes after leaving the Lodge we were walking along the waterfront looking for something to eat. We chose a harbourside cafe-esque place, as soon as we sat down at our alfresco table, it started raining. Our table’s umbrella was mostly up to the job, but when the food and drinks arrived moments later we stopped caring about the rain. Eventually the rain stopped so we paid our bill and wandered back through the city to the Lodge for a nanna-nap.
Refreshed, we headed out through some of the night markets and the Harvest Festival activities to dine at an Indian restaurant we noticed earlier in the day. We ate far too much (the food was excellent) and meandered back through the night time to the Lodge. After completing some domestics, we turned in for the night; looking forward to continuing the journey towards Mabul tomorrow.