March 24 2012

We had a very lazy day today after the exertions and unwanted late night yesterday, starting about 10am with room service breakfast...

...followed by catching up with the blog for the day before...

 ...and then off for a walk down to the waterfront. According to our tourist map of the town, there's a ferry service across to the biggest of the five local islands which make up what is known as the Tunku Abdul Rahman Park, but when we arrived at the jetty we discovered that the islands are mostly divided up between privately owned resort hotels and the only boat services were either for guests staying at the hotels (free shuttles) or tourist boats visiting all five islands over a whole day for about £60 a head, so we didn't bother. The waterfront views were nice, though.

After mooching around for the rest of the afternoon, we had supper in a Chinese restaurant within our hotel (didn't fancy any of the local restaurants, frankly) and then sat at the outside terrace of the hotel's nightclub/bar for a nightcap. I spotted that a bar across the road was showing the early Saturday kick-off between Chelsea and Tottenham, so I asked our barman if they would be likely to show the Arsenal/Aston Villa match at 11pm local (3pm UK). He immediately announced that he was an Arsenal fan and I could watch the match on the TV in the nightclub. Jen went to bed, and I returned to the nightclub. It was very noisy, alternating between a live band and disco music, but the TV was in the entrance lobby, a little bit away from the dance floor. The barman was unbelievable, bringing me a table and chair which he positioned right opposite the TV and returning every ten minutes or so to see if I needed anything. Drank a few Tiger beers and watched the boys win 3-0!

Jenny's bit: Am liking Kota Kinabalu more, it's still smelly down by the waterfront and in the town markets but the people are lovely. Jx