"... the flight to Kota Kinabalu is at present retarded..."
Where we fly to Kota Kinabalu and ready to climb Mt. Kinabalu surrounded by a drought of working ATMs
This is a travel journal of our adventures in South East Asia. Trust a bunch of Newfoundlanders to find trouble no matter where they go! You can read the entries as we climb Mt. Kinabalu and explore some parts of Thailand. A month after we left, this entire region was devastated by the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004. We were very lucky to have witnessed life and adventure before that and our hearts go out to everyone in this journal who might have been affected. A gallery of photos from this trip is available on my photos site.
November 22, 2004. Johor Bahru - Kota Kinabalu
What have we gotten ourselves into? Apparently, we have learned nothing from our experiences with ZanAir and PrecisionAir in Tanzania. Our tradition of choosing dodgy airlines continues—this time with AirAsia.
The story so far…
After a great night’s sleep, I woke up feeling fresh and ready to pack for the next week and a half. Our goal was to leave the house by 10 a.m. We almost failed.
Chris had lost his house keys. Lisa had already left for work.
Off to a fine start, we were.
Eventually, we left in a rather clandestine manner—through the basement, leaving it unlocked.
2:30pm November 22, 2004. Air Asia Flight to Kota Kinabalu
To be fair, the journey to Johor Bahru was uneventful—a testament to Singapore’s fantastic and cheap transit system. A quick cab ride (~11 SGD), followed by a comfortable bus ride (~2.50 SGD), and we were at the Malaysian border.
We cleared Malaysian customs and immigration in record time. The custom’s officials even pushed me away despite my insistence I be searched.
Next up: the cab ride to Senai Airport for our flight to Kota Kinabalu.
Cost? 90 RM—the same as the price of a single AirAsia ticket to KK. I think we were had. Where is our Black Rhino friend Colin from Kilimanjaro when we need him? That man could haggle down anything.
Senai Airport in Johor Bahru is small but comfortable—at least twenty times better than LAX. Really.
The plane is 40 minutes late—or as the announcer put it, "retarded." After a brief discussion, we decided that while this word carries different connotations in North America, its usage here was technically sound. In fact, we concluded that this meant the three of us were currently in Senai Airport, Malaysia—and retarded.
Off to Kota Kinabalu.
~2:45pm November 22, 2004. Air Asia Flight to Kota Kinabalu
Mike attempts to recline his airplane seat.
Apparently AirAsia comes in a “fixed” seat configuration, where recline buttons exist solely to tempt weary travelers. He pounds on his seat—it does not budge.
I can only hope the flight controls are not similarly "fixed."
Oh well.
~10pm November 22, 2004. Mt Kinabalu Park
Arriving at Kota Kinabalu, I am surprised—Terminal 2 in Kota Kinabalu can be classified pretty much a small house. We Immediately hire a taxi for 150 RM and head towards Mt. Kinabalu Park. However, Chris, Mike and I all need to get cash. In the back of my mind remembered our friend, Andrew Draskoy, who we would be meeting, had written in his blog that he had had great difficulty finding a working bank machine in Kota Kinabalu.
The two we tried didn’t work. As it was getting late, we decided to motor on.
This was a mistake.
We arrive at the park to find Andrew already settled in. It is good to see him. Apparently, he has narrowly escaped being married off to 14-year-olds, gained a newfound appreciation for arranged marriages, and—despite his backpacking adventures—looks none the worse for wear.
The place they’ve put us up in is amazing. This is luxury in the tropics. For crying-out loud we have two floors, a fireplace, and a kitchen. Did I saw amazing? To top it off we decide to have supper at the fanciest restaurant in the park. Honestly we could have been in Canada. Mind you, not everything is perfect—they were playing Simon & Garfunkel on strings.
Yay.
In a sign of things to come, the restaurant’s visa machine doesn’t work. We pool together a ton of RM to pay for dinner.
Tomorrow, we set off for the mountain—yet we’re still unsure if we have enough cash.
Hmmm.