After sailing four days from Exmouth and hitting Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia on the island of Borneo, we hit civilization.  KK had modern buildings, high rises, new automobiles and a water front view but we spent most of our time in the street markets shopping and hanging out in the local Sunday markets.  They were selling everything from hamsters to dogs, purses to jewelry, shoes to belts amongst the mean heat in the street with the occasional popped tent for shade.  In the Caribbean the stores keep their doors open with air conditioning running to entice you to step into their shops for a look.  In the street market you were enticed to step up to the vendors table just for some shade!  I thought I was going to lose Candice there for a while.  I knew it was hot but I was dealing with it.  She kept giving me warning signs that her fuse was about to blow.  Too many people crammed in a small space, too hot and no personal bubble around Candice makes for a tricky shopping experience.  Thank God there was a breeze blowing that day but you had to get on the outskirts of the market to feel it.  i believe it's the only thing that saved Candice.

After the street markets we walked over to the Atkinson Clock Tower which is one of only three buildings that was left standing in the area after WWII bombings.  It was built in 1902, is all wood and contains no nails.  Across the way was Signal Hill Observatory and that was about as close as we were going to get to it since the heat changed our minds about walking over to it.  

We headed down to the waterfront next and saw the classic old fishing boats by the dock and even though the water was an emerald green there was trash and debris floating around.  We were warned by Nan and Betty not to go swimming, so the ride out to the beach was a no-go after seeing that - no toe test needed here!

Along the waterfront was a fish market which seemed to be over by the time we got there and an open air market which still seemed to be humming.  Forget trying to identify any labels in the stores, they are non existent for the most part except the bottled goods.  I'm thinking we'd all whittle away to nothing under these conditions because the smells you get while shopping are not appetizing at all and it makes you look at everything as suspect.

After shopping at a high-end mall in downtown, we headed back to the ship for a late lunch.  Once back on the ship I couldn't find the strength to get back out in the heat so that was the end of this excursion ashore for me and I hit the pool.  Candice ran back into town to make a quick purchase since we ran out of ringgits (dollars).

I didn't get to a few things that were on my 'to do' list, like the headhunter village in the Sabah Museum (47 heads) and the hanging 72 sided tower, because they were on the outskirts of the city.  But after hearing of the harrowing taxi boat ride that Nora and Morgan took over to Marine National Park it didn't seem worth trying to venture outside the city center.  Nora and Morgan agreed to a 25 ringgits ($1 = 3 ringgits) ride over to the park.  When they got there (short ride over) he wanted 25 ringgits a piece.  They were dropped off in some shaddy place and the guy was going to leave them, so they said they wanted to go back and when they got back he wanted 100 ringgits.  Nora said they paid him 20 and walked away but they did still have their liver and kidneys, so things were fine.  Later they tried to get the 'real' ferry over to the 5-island park.

KK has a lot of Muslims, then Hindu and Buddhist with only 8% Catholic and as we started traveling into the city I saw their flag which looked like Pakistan's.  There for a brief moment THAT is where you thought you were after catching a glimpse of the people.  Later while back on the ship, we heard a call to prayer......which made me start praying!  Ha, ha.  That was a sign of things to come later on in our trip!

After realizing that we didn't cover KK they way we had hoped to, we doubled up on our next two ports, Hong Kong and Shanghai, and Candice hit the travel books in the library and we compared notes.  We're in Hong Kong for two days and we are excited about this next port.  We have a lot of ground to cover but I believe we can do it justice and get it all packed in.  We plan on being first off the ship and not back on board until the wee, wee hours.  Then we'll be back at it the next day before we sail on to Shanghai in the evening.  The only saving grace in Hong Kong will be their transportation system.  It is extensive and cheap!  It was designed to move large masses of people around in the most efficient manner, and Lord knows we'll have to be moving fast!

Sandy