Today, we’d be heading out to our homestay, where we’ll be cooking with locals and whatnot, but as we weren’t setting off till mid-day, Jackie wanted to check out the rest of Kota Kinabalu.
We took a quick stroll to the seafront, but to be honest, there wasn’t much there. There were a few bars and cafes which showed some evidence of partying the night before, but nothing was open.
A quick walk in the other direction took us to the local outdoor market where there were lots of local produce on sale. A brief wander and we returned to the Centre Point for a look around, where the air-con was a momentary relief from the stifling humidity, before we returned and packed for the first stage of our trip.
A drive across the countryside took us out of town and to Taginambur, not so much a village as maybe a small hostel in the countryside. We had our own dorm rooms - we wouldn’t be staying in any local house as we thought was the case.
We met our host, who Donny introduced as Bob (Marley). I forget if we were told his real name, but his bloodshot eyes explained his nickname. He spoke a bit about his family and what goes on and told us that we’d doing some rice pounding, traditional cooking, and rubber tapping. We’d also be partaking in a cultural dance!
Thunder rumbled in the distance, but despite Donny airing some worries about the river flooding, we all went down for a swim anyway. Another brief respite from the heat - I really can’t overemphasise the stuffy and hot air in Borneo. Even (Officer) Andrew said that while these temperatures (30°C+) were common in Australia, the humidity was something else.
Following dinner, we were treated to a bit of a ritual dance by the local kids. I say, ‘kids’, but while they all looked about 14, some of them were 18! This was to be a recurring theme - these Malayasians keep well …
We were then forced to participate in the dancing and gong bashing. Playing the gongs was a hell of a lot more fun than learning the dance, but that’s probably just me - Jackie probably thought the opposite, being a bit more a dancer herself.
A bit of chit-chat with the kids and it was off to bed for an early start with Bob’s rubber trees.
Bob explained to us the importance of the rubber industry within Borneo and the process from tapping to export. After giving us a brief demonstration, he let us each have a go at tapping a ‘training tree’ (as we dubbed it - it was not with the rest of the plantation - this one was set aside for tourists to play on), which was mostly a case of shaving a channel round the bark to a metal spout embedded into the tree, and watching the latex run down and out into a bucket.
Following breakfast was our traditional cooking lesson - we split up into groups (chicken, fish and vegetables) and were instructed by Bob’s mum in the kitchen. The food wasn’t really that traditional nor were the ingredients that exotic, but it was fun, nontheless. We ate what we made for dinner, plus the rice we pounded the previous day.
With farewells to Bob and Mum for hosting us, we left the homestay at 13:00 to head for Kinabalu Park.
A brief pitstop at 14:00, and we arrived at Sutera Lodge. We were meant to be staying in dorm accomodation with bunkbeds, but by some error we ended up in quite plush, private rooms.
A brief wander around revealed many kilometres of marked trails - you could probably spend a whole holiday here just checking those out! Me and Jackie secretly agreed it’d would’ve been better to give the homestay a miss to walk around these trails. Dinner and briefing at 18:00 before packing for the ascent and heading to bed.