Today was spent up in Kinabalu national park!

Yesterday I met a guy at the hostel who was heading there this morning too so I tagged along with him and we managed to find some private transport for only RM16 each. He is originally from Germany but has been living in the UK for the last few years and he's a very cool guy. He looks ever so slightly like Dave Gorman, and he has braided the hair on his chin - it reaches his waist!! - but despite the slightly kooky appearance he was an interesting guy to chat to on the journey to the park. On the way there the view to the summit was clear but soon after arriving it clouded over. This didn't stop me heading off to explore some of the walking tracks around the base of the mountain. I'm not equipped to climb the mountain, nor can I really spare the time this time round, but I'd like to think I'll get back in the future to get to the top. The tracks around the base were pretty cool though and a good way to spend a couple of hours. I encountered 3 crazy Aussies at a random viewpoint and we all headed up to the botanical gardens together. They also invited me to join them for lunch which was cool. After lunch it was starting to drizzle a bit and visibility was fading but before leaving the park we arranged a car to take us up to the official start of the climb to have a look. There wasn't much to see except cloud but I do have a photo of me getting rained on at the start of the climb. I'll try and stick some photos up soon when the computer at the hostel is free for a long time but I don't want to be the annoying person who spends FOREVER leeching the free internet right now. Soon after this it started to tip it down so we collected a couple of Koreans to fill our car then headed back to KK.

It was so much cheaper doing it this way than doing one of the proper tours and I'm glad that did it this way as most of the tours hit the park in the afternoon when it was absolutely hammering it down. Although the views were often shrouded in clouds it was still an awesome day, and given that I was up in the mountains exploring the rain forest in the rainy season I'm just thankful it was dry for most of the day.

When I got back I headed to the post office to try and send my police forms but the place had already closed for the day so I'll have to try and do it tomorrow. I headed towards the water front to check out some of the markets here and found an amazing fruit and veg market. They have everything you could ever want and they're so much more organised than the random markets in Hanoi. I also didn't get harassed at all whereas back in Hanoi I have had people shoving things into my hands to try and get me to buy them. I picked up some rambutan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rambutan) and mangosteens (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangosteen) and got a kilo of both combined for a ridiculous price like a pound or something. Sadly pineapples here are sold whole - I will have to wait until I'm back in Hanoi to get the prepared pineapple as I really can't be bothered to attempt to cut up a pineapple.

Right now it is raining in a lovely tropical style and it doesn't seem to be letting up so I'm going to have to brave the streets to go get some food. I hope the rain has cleared by tomorrow as I want to head over to the islands near by and find a nice beach to chill on, and maybe go snorkelling to see some tropical fish. That won't be much fun if its raining!!

today i walked past a branch of the British Council and now I'm thinking that in a year or two I might investigate jobs there. I could easily live here for a year!

One last thing - my Vietnamese number doesn't work here so if you send me a text and don't get a reply its not because I'm ignoring you! I've got my British SIM card in my phone right no but I have hardly any credit on so if you have a truly exciting piece of news you can't wait to tell me text me on that number. No guarantees I'll reply though!