17th - 18th – Arrival

Singapore Airlines are fine and the flight from Copenhagen to Kota Kinabalu went without a hitch and as planned I met up with Elaine (EBC and Romania) during the layover in Singapore. Unfortunately, even an airline as good as Singapore, can’t make a 12+2½ hour flight feel short and comfortable and it didn’t help that the selection of movies in the entertainment system was sub-par.

Oh, well, we arrived in Kota Kinabalu on schedule and after a fairly long wait in the customs queue we came out on the other side and were picked up by the G Adventures driver. He gave us a short tour of KK before leaving us at the hotel which quickly made us realize that there wouldn’t be much to do while waiting for the meeting with the rest of the group in the evening. And rightly so; a walk around the area brought us to an overpriced restaurant at the waterfront and the realization that due to AC the malls were our best friends.

View from the restaurant.

The introduction meeting went well. We are an Aussie (originally from Barbados), American, Canadian, Dutch, German and 4(!) Danes. The split is 7 girls and 2 guys, and as the other guy is travelling with his girlfriend means that I will be having my own room on the trip. Nice!

Dinner was had at a restaurant at a fraction of the price we paid for lunch and at least as good. After dinner we more or less went to our own rooms to catch up on sleep from travelling. Despite a noise AC in the room I doubt I will have any problems sleeping tonight.

Due to a 6,0 earthquake in Sabah (the region we are in) the 5^th of June 18 people were killed on the mountain. The quake’s epicenter was 10km deep and app. 15km from the summit. This means that the mountain is closed until further notice and we will therefore be following an alternative itinerary the first couple of days where we should have been climbing the mountain.