Erratum etc.

I realized the other day that I had incorrectly advised the size of Apo Island as being 72 km.  This is entirely false; I was mixing up my facts.  The island of Siquijor is 72 km to circumnavigate. Apo Island is only 1.5 km north to south and 1 km east to west.  At it’s highest point, it rises to about 400 ft above sea level.  My apologies for the misinformation!
I also would like to take the time to say thank-you to everyone who is reading the blog and for all the kind words of encouragement!  This is my first foray into the “blogosphere”.  I certainly feel a responsibility to deliver interesting, honest & accurate content on what we’re doing, where we’re going and what we’re seeing.  We both love to read the comments section - keep them coming!  We wish we could acknowledge them all.  By the way, Picasa is now completely up to date so have a look at the rest of our photos of Apo Island and the Malatapay Market, plus some new pictures of Kota Kinabalu.

We’re now in the city of Kota Kinabalu.  It's located in Sabah, a province of Malaysian Borneo.  The immigration officials granted us a 90 day “upon arrival” visa.  When the plane landed in Kota Kinabalu, cool-ish rain was coming down in sheets and it was already dark.  We had no umbrella, as it had been confiscated in the airport (I’d forgotten that umbrellas weren’t permitted in carry-on luggage).  Luckily we weren’t in the downpour for too long; a quick taxi ride and we were at our hostel, “Borneo Backpackers”.  This is the first true hostel we’ve stayed at; shared bathroom, communal sitting area with a tv and small library, a kitchen with complimentary breakfast (coffee or tea and a maximum of 2 pieces of toast with peanut butter or jam).  We do have our own room, and it‘s nice to have the privacy.

Kota Kinabalu Wetland Centre

We've never seen a mangrove forest until today.  We visited the Kota Kinabalu Wetland Centre and strolled down their 1.5 km boardwalk.  Mangrove jungles are sort of a transition between land and ocean, and one of the functions they serve is to prevent salt from building up in local fresh water supplies.  The wetland is also a nesting & feeding ground for resident and migratory birds.  Muddy and swampy, the tangled web of mangrove roots are teeming with life, in particular, crabs.

little egret

We caught glimpses of some beautiful birds flying high in the tree canopy, such as the magpie-robin and the cinnamon bittern.  Our little point and click camera doesn’t have quite enough zoom for most of the sightings.  At times like this, it makes us wish we'd brought along our powerful Canon Rebel XT, but it just wasn't practical. We did manage to capture a photo of the little egret, stepping gingerly along the shore.  Amidst the birdsong, there were some other-worldly sounds - dripping noises almost like a leaky tap.  There was occasional popping or snapping, as if someone was chewing bubble gum, and a steady hum of cicadas.  Gauzy winged butterflies flitted by; so impressive in this part of the world compared to our plain moth-like creatures.  Aside from crabs & avian life, we saw monitor lizards, water snakes, mudskippers.... and a rat, just sitting on the roof of one of the sun shelters along the boardwalk.

This was the second rat I’ve seen.  The first rat I saw was poking it’s head out of a storm sewer, and Aron merely said “there’s your first rat”.  It was sort of anti-climactic just as it was when I encountered the cockroaches.  A couple long antennae were wiggling out of a garbage can in an outdoor mall in Hong Kong.  When the insects finally emerged, I asked Aron what they were; I expected cockroaches to be much larger, black and tank-like in body shape.  No doubt about it, they were still revolting, but I was (oddly) a little relieved to get that experience out of the way and the same thing goes for the rats.