Spent the morning in KK looking for a budget pair of "Adidas kampong" shoes which are the favoured footwear of plantation workers here. They are monolithic rubber lace ups with cleats and are rumoured to be superior to any fancy hiking shoes out there for the simple reason that you can rinse them off and towel them dry after a rainforest walk. Found a pair for 10.50 MYR or about $3.20 CAD - think I'll save my fancy hiking shoes for a drier trip. Now I have to find a pair of leech socks...
At 400,000 (including sprawl) Sandakan turns out to be a bit bigger than I expected. Like KK it's a jumping off point for bigger and better things - diving and wildlife viewing to be exact. I'm visiting some sanctuaries over the next couple of days then on to a series of three rainforest lodges. The town itself doesn't hold much interest at first glance but it was the home of writer Agnes Keith, author of The Land Below the Wind and author as well of a memoir of her interment in a Japanese p.o.w. camp in wwII. Will try and get the the Keith's house, now a museum, before I leave.
Turns out that this hotel is the anchor for a large inward looking shopping mall and car park, yet it is right on the ocean. The mall is reminiscent of Gerard Square and is only partially occupied. There were children's amusements and an archery range on the 5th level. People were out in droves all dressed up - men and boys wore colourful two piece outfits. Turns out it is Hari Raya Haj today, last day of the annual Haj, as in pilgrimage to Mecca. People in the mall seemed to be celebrating by riding the escalator up to the 5th floor and then back down again. Seriously, I watched them for about 20 minutes.
At the Japanese restaurant on the ground floor of the mall I made the waitress laugh by ordering with an Indonesian-Japanese mix of "boleh saya minta gyoza ramen to California roll seto o kudasai." Hee!
Back at the hotel I noticed that the hotel infinity pool had an unfortunate exit stair enclosure grafted on to it....
...and an interesting dress code:
The "appropriate swimming attire" seems to cover all range of swimming attire so I wonder what it is that they don't want in the pool? I guess naked people? Maybe snorkelling equipment?...Heather.
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