Last day in Kota Kinabalu and Seoul, Korea

The next day we had breakfast as our last official activity included with the tour.  And said goodbye to some of the people in our group.  Then we had to decide what to do with our last day.  We didn't leave until 2 am that night (technically, the next day). 

We had a very long breakfast what with the rotating people who were joining the table, on their way away that day. So, it was kind of a late start.  Our check out time was noon so we milked that for as much as we could before we brought out bags down to reception to store until it was time to leave for the airport.  

I wanted to do some shopping.  There is a touristy area, Gaya Street, that I wanted to check out. Gaya street is hardly up to the level of some more tourist adept cities.  But Joe followed me into every tourist shop there was (about four).  I don't think I actually bought anything (although I did try every sample of mango chocolate on offer) until we happened on a little convenience store where I bought some spices. 

We did find a very cool tea shop where I bought some tiny bits of tea for my friend Dave, who appreciates a good quality tea.   Who knows if it is really good quality but the store was so awesome and the owner so nice, I wanted to buy something. 

Joe found another restaurant for lunch, more tourist friendly this time.  It was Indonesian, Joe wanted to find some dishes he had when he had been in the area in the past.  We ordered six appetizers!  It was a lot of food.  No tiny tapa plates in this place. And no dayglow pink beverages.  

We added rice to sop up all of that yummy sauce

We had a very long lunch. Joe had mentioned that he had never had such a long breakfast and then an even longer lunch.  Plus shopping.  I let him know he was turning into an awesome travel girlfriend :) 

An to top that status off, he even agreed to go to a movie - Bridget Jones' Diary part 4.  I never thought he would agree to that one but I think I had broken him by then.  We went back to the hotel lobby to use their wifi to figure out where/when the movie was playing.  In the mall by the water.  Not far.  So, we headed down there in time for the start.  But the online info was incorrect, the only movie playing was Malay with no subtitles.  I am willing to watch almost anything to kill two hours but I remembered that I had seen another theatre not too far away, in another mall on the water. 

Our stroll along the waterfront, between malls

Once we had entered three malls along the waterfront, we found the other movie theatre.  The only English movie playing at the right time was a Marvel movie which completely escapes my memory. [Character Name] A New Era?  Whatever, it was total fluff despite the extreme violence.  

The movie theatre

It was pouring rain when we tried to leave the mall.  I will never again travel without buying a local SIM card. I keep telling myself it is only a few days and I will be under the guidance of the group. But even one day without internet is almost impossible when travelling now.  Not like the old days (she says creakily from her rocking chair).  

Anyway, the mall info desk ordered us a cab and we made it back to the hotel, mostly dry.  And then off to the airport (reception desk ordered the cab).  

I had a bit of Ringgetts left so I ended up buying some of that mango chocolate and a magnet or two.  We could only find one seat so when I got back, Joe headed off to explore a bit. Just as he got out of sight, there was an announcement that our flight was 'pre-boarding'.  It's not a big airport but it is big enough to swallow Joe.  I told the guy to watch out for the only tall white guy in the airport!  He's hard to miss, being a head taller than pretty much everyone else.  He came back eventually and we 'pre-boarded' which just meant we moved to another waiting area.  More seats this time but no more shopping or coffee options. 

I don't really remember that flight.  I know that Asiana Air was way better that Jeju Air.  They fed us breakfast.  Noodles!  I am going to miss noodle breakfasts.  

You'll remember that I had done some research on the free tours in Seoul for our eight hour layover.  It was a bit confusing to find but we found someone who took us to the place we needed to go and then pointed to the next place we needed to go.  But we got waylaid by someone who kept asking questions. Come along or step aside!  We found the line.  When we got to the front, there was only one seat left!  I blame the question person.  But the single lady behind us was happy.  

So, instead of the free tour, we made our way to the train into the city.  I didn't take any pictures. Or maybe I did and they didn't stick.  My second SD cared or maybe my first camera, was acting up again.  This time, I had looked at a map in the train station to see where we might want to go.  Unlike the last time I had a layover in Seoul and just left the train station with zero plan, and promptly got super lost. 

Apparently, I took one photo on my phone.
It's not exactly the best enticement to take the train

This time we headed to a big street market.  Namdaemun Market.  The market was one subway stop away so we decided to do that. Me becauese I didn't want to walk that far, Joe because he wanted to see the subway. But of course nothing is easy.  We had to find a money changer because the ticket machine doesn't accept foreign credit cards.  No worry, we now had enough money to eat.  

Something that I thought was interesting?  
Writing, counting, music?  Unknown
Not little sausages, that much I remember.

bakery for a treat and coffee 

The market was several blocks square.  I didn't buy anything except some food at a few stalls. It was an excellent way to have lunch while still on the move.  I did break down and buy some mitts. It was soooo COLD!!  

Joe with normal Korean for scale

Mitten store

my new mitts

And that was Seoul.  We went back to the train station with 15 minutes to spare to catch our train back to the airport. But that train was sold out!  And I could see the next one only had four seats left.  I grabbed them just in time!  We were still fine to get back for our flight but if we had missed that one, we might have had a very expensive taxi ride to make it in time.  

Air Canada flight for 10.5 hours. No upgrade to Premium Economy for this one.  All told, it was 30 or so hours to get home.  Lovely Carolyn was waiting for us at the Victoria Airport and took me home and that was that.  And now I end this blog, a week after I got home.  

Libaran (Turtle) Island

The next morning, we had a short drive and then an hour boat ride to Libaran Island.  Home of nesting green sea turtles.  Our route took us very close to the Philippines. 

That little island to the right is the Philippines

We left our nicest accommodation to arrive at our worst. Tents!  Actual tents.  The Walai Penyu Resort.  Resort is a kindness.  It was tents.  They were dry and pretty comfortable so it wasn't too bad but after the cabins with mosquito nets and hot water, it was a bit of a mental hard-left.  

home sweet home

our neighbourhood

This was our location though so all was forgiven. 

At low tide, there is a sandbar  that leads all of the way to that island

This is directly behind our tents

We had another buffet lunch. These were pretty consistent.  Curry chicken, fish of some sort, eggplant, white rice, some sort of veg, this time pumpkin, and watermelon with orange water to drink.  It was always tasty but I was ready for a change by this point.  

Then we got back in the boat to go to a different, even smaller island to snorkel.  

The current was really strong so I headed up the beach to let the current take me to the other end.  The coral was mostly dead but there were some cool fish and blue star fish in the water.  I made it back to shore just as someone was calling us over to under a big tree.  The rangers on the island had found a wild turtle nest that was hatching so they collected the babies and brought them over to us to release them.  That was super cool!  

That's an about to be released baby green turtle I'm holding

Our beach

A lifeguard did show up at some point

After swimming, Joe started chatting up the turtle guy.  I looked at this bird. Which they called a Jungle Chicken. I did figure out what it was but I can't remember now. 

Rangers wander the beaches on the nights during egg laying season. When the turtle leaves, they dig up the eggs and bring them to a turtle hatchery to protect them.  When they hatch, they release them.  Fun fact, the sex of the turtle is determined by how much heat they get as they incubate. So, they bury half in shade and half in the sun.  The turtle buries them deep, middling, and shallow all in one hole.  The top ones are hot (female) and then the males are from the cooler deeper part.  

The turtle keeper told Joe about a volcano just behind the lifeguard clubhouse.  So, we all trudged up.  Well, not up, just over.  It turns out it is not a traditional volcano that one must climb.  It is a mud volcano. Which is a hole full of mud.  

Hole. Mud.

Richard (British) took the first step which dropped him
to almost his waist.  Nope, not for me, thanks. 

After that, those that went in had to go back into the ocean to clean off.  The mud particles are so fine that they weren't allowed to use any of the taps and drains, it would clog them.  I went to find some cats Joe had spotted. 

Once we had visited the cats, there was really no reason to stay so we headed back onto the boat and back to our tent village.  That might just be my interpretation of why we left then.  

Dinner and then a village walk.  

They were pulling out all of those little fish from the nets

Ingenious way to water plants. 
Those bottles are full of water

I don't know what this fish was for. 
It was out in the sun and covered in ants

This lady collects plastic bottles and makes them into
flowers to sell to tourists. 

Dark comes fast in the tropics.  We were heading back and I stopped to take a picture of something (ok, it was cats) when we got separated from our group.  Joe stayed with me or I would be living with those cats to this day.  We walked along the trail in the fading light.  The group was nowhere to be seen but we could still kind of see the trail at first.  Then we couldn't.  This is not a road, or a well worn path, this was more like a deer trail.  With roots.  And the occasional motorcycle trying to pass.  

Some people were behind us with flashlights.  They stayed behind us so I could get enough of their light to navigate.  We came upon a fork in the path.  Hmm?  No idea. Joe?  Nope.  The people behind us caught up.  They were soldiers!  Protecting the turtles from poachers?  Protecting Malaysia from Philippinos?  Protecting idiot tourists lost in the dark?  Probably that last one.  

At that point, our guide Albert noticed he had lost us and came back to bring us home.  

We caught back up with the group just in time to pass a field full of fireflies. I don't think I have ever seen fireflies before, or not that many anyway.  It was amazing to see.  Little dots of light, filling the bushes as the fireflies landed on the branches.  We could also see the stars so bright above.  It was kind of magical.  

Back at camp, we got a little lesson on turtle hatchery.  It turns out our camp has a smaller version of the one Joe and I saw at the snorkeling beach.  And they had some recently hatched babies too! 

Go to the water, little babies! 

I went to bed after that.  It started to rain in the night.  Hard! The bathrooms were so far away.  No nighttime pee that night.  At one point, I thought my alarm was going off, there was a very loud 'beeping' in my tent.  I sat up.  It was a frog, I could see it silhouetted between my tent screen and the flap.  Just the perfect place to really project his voice directly into the tent. He was little but his voice was big! Fortunately, he didn't stay long.  He woke up Juli in the next tent too.  She assumed it was the gecko that had fallen into her bed from the ceiling earlier. 

It was still raining a bit in the morning but not so bad.  And they had umbrellas in the dining hall we could use.  I was up early so I took a walk along that sandbar.  It didn't quite reach the island but it was so beautiful and quiet.  I picked up some seashells. Most of them had hermit crabs in them but I found a few that were unoccupied. 

ooo, pretty!

Nope, all full at the inn

Then it was time to go.  It was a pretty wet boat ride back to town though.  We could only bring an overnight bag so I didn't have my raincoat.  But they had side panels down on the boat so it was ok-ish. 

Straight to the airport to head back to Kota Kinabalu.  

Back to the Hotel Shangri-La. We were going to meet at a different hotel bar for our last night.  But it was really raining so there was a change of plans that I missed so I didn't end up going.  Joe figured out where everyone was though so he did the goodbye dinner.  

I actually feel asleep at 7 so it's just as well. Everyone was very nice but I didn't gel with this group. It was a big group.  Too big for one van so for the first few days, we were split between two vehicles.  This is not conducive to bonding with your tour mates!  I literally only learned one person's name on the last day.  

I'll finish up the last day and flight (including Seoul, Korea) stop over in another post.  I have to go to bed, work tomorrow!