2025-01-16 (Friday) West to East - our 12 hour tour! Waterfalls, Tea Plantation

We started at 5.50, and arrived in Forest Edge Resort at 6.30 - wowser!

We started with a 2 hour ride to our first stop and saw Kinabalu through the clouds - treks were cancelled today due to the weather. I rescued a beautiful moth from the bathroom, and another beetle that was being kicked around by a boy who shied away when I wanted him to touch it, when we stopped for coffee overlooking the valley - that was pretty cool.

The best stop was at the waterfall / hot springs. We couldn’t find the hot springs, so we hunted for a private place we could go into the waterfall, and found it - it was so nice! Once we got out though, it started to pour down, which was pretty cool!

We stopped off at a tea plantation where Rox had the best Kwey Teaw ever! I had chicken soup noodles, and mummy had clay pot rice. It was so nice. We swapped drivers, and finished off with a 4 hour stretch to Sandakan.

Forest Edge is so cool - so remote, our houses are in the middle of the forest, and the sounds are incredible! You can never get tired of being surrounded by nature!

Lamb shank, fish, meatballs, and sweetcorn ribs - yummy! BES to finish off the night!

2025-01-15 (Thursday) Floating Mosque, Markets, Pool, Italian!

 

We wanted pastries for lunch, but had to settle for Portuguese tarts and coffee!

Set off for the floating mosque - we had to all dress up as muslims, which was pretty funny until it got really hot! We sat in the mosque for around an hour just watching, then headed out, relieved to get the outfits off!

We then headed to the Filipino Market, which was a little bit of an anti-climax as all the shops were the same, apart from one that had some lovely wood statues, and the lady knew she could not sell them to us due to our laws. What a shame, but she was lovely. Cool seeing all the men outside sewing and working on clothes, plus the odd sunglasses man. University tour guide tried to sell us a tour - er, no thanks.

We headed home for a lovely dip in our pool and some competitions! Rox challenged me again to a running race, and lost badly! She was gutted, so she challenged me to a shorter one, and lost! Then to a backstroke race, and lost again! “The water was hurting my eyes!” She cried - sure sure…

We all wanted Italian, so we went to the waterfront, and found Toscini’s - we had Alio Olio, Rox had Penne, and we shared a Margherita - it was lovely! We stopped off at a dessert cafe near the Jesselton Pier - we had cheesecake, Tiramisu, coffee and matcha. Cool place and Mummy was a little scared when she was trying to find where me and Rox went.

Home for BES!