Monday, February 13, 2006
Guinea Pigs On The Move
Monday started very early for Group 1 (that's Vicky, Nick and me) with a 5am rise and a transfer to Sandakan airport ready for the first flight of the day back to Kota Kinabalu.
The rains have returned once more so our walk across the tarmac to an aging Fokker 50 would have been better made by canoe. Thankfully we were provided with umbrellas to minimise the damage to just a light soaking.
As we approached KK the skies cleared and we knew we could look forward to a lot better weather for the next 9 days.
We were met at the airport by the Rasa Ria shuttle bus and were soon back at reception, initially being welcomed by unknowing staff as guests to the hotel once more. That was soon corrected by Naima our work contact there!! After a quick tour of the "behind the scenes" staff area of the hotel we were shuttled off again to see our "staff accomodation"...
...and what a shock that was:
One tiny room for us to all share, they had somehow squeezed in 2 sets of bunk beds, a kettle and a desk fan to complement a slow-turning ceiling fan (which was struggling to lower the temperature below that of a fan oven).
To cap it all there was a huge Man Utd poster on the wall, vintage 2002/3 season (the last time they were any good i believe....).
Talk about a hell hole - i'd rather have been in a turkish prison cell!!!
Back to Rasa Ria and things not much better. Gardening duty for me and i was asked to do watering for the rest of the afternoon. Hmmmmm. Not much in the way of orangutans involved in that!
Later we met Naima for dinner Naima at "Transit", a muslim cafe/restaurant near to our house with a menu entirely in the local lingo. Thankfully Naima was able to translate the basics for us, which as this is supposed to be our dinner venue for the next 7 nights too ws a real blessing!
Then it was back to our baking hot room and a struggle to put up our mozzie nets. Let me tell you now, mozzie nets and bunk beds were never designed to go together.......
Really restless night, i dont think i slept for more than 3 hours in total. I don't think i'll be able to survive this heat every night...
The rains have returned once more so our walk across the tarmac to an aging Fokker 50 would have been better made by canoe. Thankfully we were provided with umbrellas to minimise the damage to just a light soaking.
As we approached KK the skies cleared and we knew we could look forward to a lot better weather for the next 9 days.
We were met at the airport by the Rasa Ria shuttle bus and were soon back at reception, initially being welcomed by unknowing staff as guests to the hotel once more. That was soon corrected by Naima our work contact there!! After a quick tour of the "behind the scenes" staff area of the hotel we were shuttled off again to see our "staff accomodation"...
...and what a shock that was:
One tiny room for us to all share, they had somehow squeezed in 2 sets of bunk beds, a kettle and a desk fan to complement a slow-turning ceiling fan (which was struggling to lower the temperature below that of a fan oven).To cap it all there was a huge Man Utd poster on the wall, vintage 2002/3 season (the last time they were any good i believe....).
Talk about a hell hole - i'd rather have been in a turkish prison cell!!!
Back to Rasa Ria and things not much better. Gardening duty for me and i was asked to do watering for the rest of the afternoon. Hmmmmm. Not much in the way of orangutans involved in that!
Later we met Naima for dinner Naima at "Transit", a muslim cafe/restaurant near to our house with a menu entirely in the local lingo. Thankfully Naima was able to translate the basics for us, which as this is supposed to be our dinner venue for the next 7 nights too ws a real blessing!
Then it was back to our baking hot room and a struggle to put up our mozzie nets. Let me tell you now, mozzie nets and bunk beds were never designed to go together.......
Really restless night, i dont think i slept for more than 3 hours in total. I don't think i'll be able to survive this heat every night...
// posted by storri @ 10:12 pm 
