Kota Kinabalu, Borneo

Wednesday 30th, i took an early flight with tiger airways out of singapore to Kota Kinabalu (KK) at 9am.
The flight was spent without any much of a problem and we even arrived earlier than scheduled, guess i just found the equivalent of swiss air for asia continent !
Took me just a few minutes to get ready and picked up my gear from the belt and here i was in the terminal looking for the best connection to go to town. this time around, i had no couch though i have sent quite a few requests beforehand so i was aiming at a cheap hostel down town. i called from the airport and secured a space !
went outside in the hot air, almost 31 °c and here came the sweat again...i end up at the end of the taxi line, talking to a local guy that seems pretty helpful as he soon gave me a ride outside the airport.
i thought, yeah i am getting super lucky but it was for a short while only as they dumped me at the bus station right outside the airport pretending a bus would come fast...25 minutes later i was still stranded, one car stopped to ask me if i was needing a ride and of course charging me 25rm for it that i quickly declined. thats pretty much at that time i decided it was time to stop being a virgin hitch hiker and here i was, thumbs up, smiling at the car passing through ! one stopped almost immediately but was not going in my direction but soon i found my luck !
This nice family took me in and dropped me right outside the tourism office on jalan gaya from which i walked to the akinabalu youth hostel for one night.
Arriving at the hostel and once secured on the bunk bed for a mere 20rm per night, went to check my mail and soon received a reply to my former couchrequest sent to pei.
she was pretty much telling me that she could not host me before she got the approval of another couchsurfer she has just started to host.
funnily she told me he was french and also quite found of skydiving...small world small world !
No need to say that soon i got contacted by romain, the crazy skydiver and we ve met downtown by the shore in front of the meridien hotel for a few hours that were pretty much well spent ! i ll let you judge by yourself.

Few beers later, i understood he had already more than a thousand skydives and 330 base jumps ! hell yeah...



romain is actually in the region as soon there is a base jumping gathering in kuala lumpur and in fact a few stops were being planned in borneo but had been cancelled last minute.
I will travel with him to kuching next tuesday morning !

I soon met his host who is actually reall cool and she allowed me to stay for a few nights over here so i wont even need the help of Kuni, a japonese i ve met in singapore earlier this week.
Couchsurfing situation : 3 weeks couchsurfing, one week hostel !


Thursday 1st october :

This morning i left the guest house, not without a little difficulty to get my money back from the desk office but after a little bit of argument, i came victorious and saved 20% of 20rm ! yeah all of this for 4 RM, not even a euro ! but here you can have a meal with that much !
I walked all the way to pei's mansion, a nice condo situated on the beach front and joined romain there. quickly after we were enjoying a relaxing time by the pool before heading downtown. the idea was to visit the island nearby but we came quite late at the jetty and didnt made it !

I have finally managed to include a few pics within the writing so lets see how it goes. send me your feedback !

antoine