The final countdown

In preparation for an imminent trip to South East Asia, specifically Malaysian Borneo for my first week 'out East', I am currently trying to pack as many light clothes into a large navy backpack which has definitely seen better days. I have also just spent an obscene amount of money for a mountain trek on Mount Kinabalu, a majestic 4095 meter peak located two hours outside Kota Kinabalu in Borneo's northern state of Sabah. World Heritage Site or not, I balked slightly at the cost required to summit the beast--will they provide us with a flying carpet if we can't reach it to the summit?

My flight departs this Friday and with every passing day (and drop in temperature) the reality and excitement of my adventure hits me. My intention with this blog is that every week of my trip I will post a tasty morsel of anecdotes from my wanderings. My granny recently asked me "would you not just keep a diary or write home love?" but of course, times have changed ("like, did you even go travelling if you didn't post about it online?"). I'm a generous person and I want my stories to reach a wider platform...or something like that. I will not be travelling with a laptop so my words will go from an old fashioned diary page in illegible scrawls, eventually to reach cold type face in the form of a blog post (once a PC is found to be commandeered).

My planning skills certainly leave a lot to be desired but, so far, a rough outline of my trip looks something like this:
Day 1: Fly from Dublin to Istanbul, cross my fingers that a short layover time of 2 hours will be enough and board my 2nd flight to Kuala Lampur. Arrive in Kuala Lampur, reunite with Australian pal and fellow adventurer and set sail (ahem, board yet another flight) and arrive finally in Kota Kinabalu. Check into Hostel, throw shoes at snorers and dream sweet dreams of delicious street food waiting to be eaten.

Day 2: Explore Kota Kinabalu and work out where to stay that night.

Day 3: Same as above

Day 4: Depart on two day one night trek up expensive but beautiful and challenging mountain.

Day 5,6,7 (maybe eternity): Relax on a beach and do very little aside from snorkel, tan and rest our weary leg muscles from climb.

As the week in Borneo draws to a close I shall wish my Australian pal ciao ciao and eventually  make my way to the hustle and bustle of Singapore. Once in the metropolis I will reunite with a fabulous fellow Irish woman and spend some much needed quality time drinking Tea (amongst other things) and of course, take in the cultural delights of the city. After some time in Singapore, things are looking a little more hazy but making my way to Vietnam in order to teach some English in return for food and board sounds like a fair and tempting deal. At some point along the way, I also plan on paying a visit to an ancestor who played a part in the history of rubber plantations in Malaysia and who at this stage will be six feet under in a remote graveyard in Penang.

Please dear readers, stay tuned to my twenty something year old mishaps abroad and do let me know what you think of my rambles. Until next time.

Comments

  1. hedgerowartNovember 15, 2018 at 11:16 AM

    Excellent!! Great to hear in detail how u hVe been desporting yourself...sounds BRILLIANT!!

    ReplyDelete

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