tour, shmour

most of the popular attractions here are accessable only if you sign up
for a tour which is ridiculously expensive (a cheap tour averages about 80 bucks daily). certainly beyond our budget. most one night tours cost our weekly budget. Mt. Kinabalu is the highest peak in SE Asia and one of the most popular attractions in Sabah. we weren't excited about paying lots of dough to climb a peak to see the inside of a cloud, but we still wanted to see some other parts of the park, like the hot springs.

it turned out to be a lovely day. we arrived late in the afternoon and made our way to the butterfly sanctuary, which we got locked into (again). an employee tried to unlock the door but couldn't so he led us through some back trails that got us back to the main area of the park. then we went and did a canopy walk as dusk neared, which i must say was the most unnerving (and tallest!) canopy walk i've ever done. i'm glad i took out travel insurance.

sunset was closing in and we were both starving, but we had read about this bat cave about a mile away that we wanted to get to. it wasn't one of the ones where millions of bats all swarm out at once. and it wasn't so much of a cave as it was a crack in the ground covered by some boulders, but it was still magical to be surrounded by all these bats as they came trickling out into the night. we were the only people there and the bats came so close to us that we could feel the breeze and hear the noises from their wingbeats. at one point, two flew between daniel's head and mine, split just a foot apart. neither of us wanted to leave but we didn't want to negotiate the trail out in the dark.

after a fancy dinner we soaked in the hot sulphur baths until late in the night, outlasting all the young drunk city kids until the only thing left was the sparkling night sky and our own hushed conversation. upon trying to leave the park and get to our hotel, we found the gate locked (again) and had to wait for a car to trigger the mechanized gate to open so we could squeeze out with it.

one of these days we're gonna get stuck somewhere!