Another cute and dumpy aircraft deposited us back in Kota Kinabalu where I looked forward to sampling all of the delights of that bustling urban masterpiece on the north coast of Borneo. Amanda and Dan had waxed lyrical about the food, the foot massages, the markets and so on. First we repaired to our respective hotels for essential showers and the peeling off and beating to death of the clothes we were currently wearing. After that I intended to join my pair of Virgils for a quick tour of Kota Kinabalu.
It rained. It didn't rain in the sense that I'm familiar with. This was the sort of rain that Noah would be familiar with. I set out to meet Amanda and Dan at their hotel. Within five minutes I was drenched to the skin and was wading through streets under several inches of water. It was only a ten to fifteen minute walk to their hotel but by the time I arrived I could have been mistaken for a Titanic survivor. I dribbled across to the concierge to inform Amanda and Dan of my arrival and then settled down to catch pneumonia while I waited.
Piling into a convenient amphibious vehicle we headed off to the night market. It was raining there too and after a certain amount of huddling under tarpaulins and staring at fish who looked as though they might revive and swim away any moment we decided to eschew the entire browsing for food in the picturesque market and find a restaurant instead.
Depending on your point of view the restaurant visit was either a great success or an unmitigated disaster. We couldn't speak Malay and they were disinclined to speak English, fair enough it's their country. With a certain amount of effort we (and by we I mean Amanda) ordered what turned out to be two plates of pyramid shaped roti drizzled with condensed milk and some chicken in pastry with dipping sauces sort of thing. We also managed to order something else by pointing at a neighbour's plate as a waiter walked past. This was so good we decided we wanted more. Since Amanda had done the initial ordering and Dan had done the waiter grabbing I decided to try my luck, I also wanted a cup of tea. At first I was directed to the bathroom but I eventually managed to make clear(ish) my desire for more food. It wasn't quite a success, what we got was another pyramid of roti and condensed milk and another of the chicken pastry things we had ordered originally. Also since there was only one fork and spoon between the three of us to cut up and distribute the above.
On the other hand the food was delicious and when the time came to reckon up the bill with the assistance of sign language all of the above plus soft drinks came to a grand total of 26 ringgit which is less than ten dollars. At some point while we were doing our part for misunderstandings between nations the rain had stopped and it had turned into a very pleasant night. So we went for foot massages which made up for a lot.
On the way back to my hotel I saw a rat and a cat within a few feet of each other. I tried to catch the attention of the cat and pointed to the rat in anticipation. Isn't this why we have cats in coastal cities? Apparently not, the cat did deign to glance in the direction of the rat when I pointed at it but obviously decided that moving wasn't worth the effort. It has to be said that the rat didn't seem at all bothered by the presence of its feline enemy and I strongly suspect the pair of them new each other.
The next day I flew out to Brunei to catch my plane home. Actually I caught a plane from Brunei to Malaysia from where I would catch a plane home. Brunei airport continued it's personal vendetta against me. Not only did I slip on the floor and hurt my knee but my flight was delayed (again) fortunately I had a few hours before my connection in Kuala Lumpur. Simply getting to the plane was a chore, we passed through the gate, circumnavigated about 60% of the airport and were then loaded onto a bus.
The bus took us around the rest of the airport, past all of the other terminals, past the maintenance area, past the leper colony until finally, standing in an isolation I would hardly describe as splendid, was our aircraft. Having boarded in bus loads we staggered into the air where our pilot cheerfully informed us that the cause of the delay was because there had been a "technical difficulty" (remember them) and that while it was absolutely no cause for alarm on balance they had decided that the plane flew better with both wings attached to the fuselage.
My flight from Kuala Lumpur turned up in Sydney half an hour early which seemed to please the first officer when he announced it. It would have pleased me too if he hadn't added that as a consequence we were going to have to sit on the tarmac for half an hour before we could get to a terminal. Home sweet home.
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