Oct. 25, 2019 Kota Kinabalu, Borneo, Malaysia

I was up way too early again playing my game. I won and i lost and then won again so it was a good time to stop playing. I showered and got ready for my excursion to Kota Kinabalu and still had time to go for breakfast where i saw my friend Vivian in the Lido. I was relieved to see her because calls to her room had gone unanswered but she said her husband found the phone to be in a bad location so he had put it in a drawer. I know exactly what he means because there's only one electrical outlet in the room and it's right behind the dam phone. As well not for him but for me when i use the curling iron it gets twisted up with the curly phone cord as well.  It also gets caught in the top drawer alot because thats the drawer you use the most, right? Well, i knew exactly what he meant by it being a huge PITA.
Anyway Vivian has been sick in bed for several days now and this was the first time she had ventured out when i saw her in the Lido. I was so glad to see her because i had thought they might have left the cruise in Guam for some reason.  We didn't have much time to talk as i had a set time to debark and it was time. We said goodbye for now and then i walked off in the wrong direction so took a lot of extra steps again today.
So i got off the ship and the heat outside at 9 in the morning was stifling and it was quite a trek to get into the terminal building and then out the other side to where a zillion buses were waiting but i made it thanks to my little three legged canvas chair that i took with me.
I found my bus and was one of the first to climb aboard and the ac felt awesome. Once we were full we took off for the hills on the wrong side of the road until we arrived at our destination which was the cultural site.
After a short walk we came to a bridge and let me tell you that was one scary bridge! Only 5 people could be on it at one time and it not only had strange uneven slats on the floor but higher ones as well and they were randomly placed. It was a swinging bridge with hand rails....not real rails but more like a rubber hose and you had to hold on to both sides as you watched your every step and with the bridge swinging as it did well, i was sure hoping we wouldn't have to come back the same way because the river or creek below was vicious and fast running with a lot of rocks and twists and turns and waterfalls. I made the mistake of looking down at it and it was so scary it made me dizzy so i concentrated on my footing. Some people chose not to go over it and they turned back and went and sat in a little covered platform sort of an outside room that had benches all around, toilets and a water dispenser.
I made it across the bridge and carried on down a very rustic path and little did i know but you were supposed to stay with your group but who knows everyones face from a full bus? Especially since i sat in the front. There were at least 10 bus loads of us and we all arrived at this destination about the same time. So, i was having to watch my steps and not looking for familiar faces. I just fit myself into whatever we came to next.  It was also a case of some people lingering longer at an exhibit than others so i just moved along with the crowd to the next exhibit at my own pace. I thought that was what we were supposed to be doing anyhow. I had no idea if i was near anyone from my bus; i just moved along through the whole complex and when i saw my tour guide i asked him if we'd be going back the same way we had come or would we be carrying on to another exhibit. He said we will be going back the same way.

I don't know why or how i interpreted that to meaning that our tour was coming to an end. I decided to get a little head start because then i wouldn't have to rush and i could take my time and sit on my little chair when needed rather than sprinting up that hill to keep up with all the spry ones. It was so hot and i just wanted to get back to the bus. I was also having a hard time breathing or i should say trying to breathe and it wasn't happening naturally. I even said to myself OMG i can't breathe i must have asthma or something and i was on the verge of a panic attack but somehow managed to make myself relax and breathe. I think i've always had something wrong with my lungs but it never became an issue because i'm never in a position like this where i knew i wanted to keep up with my group and that meant i'd be huffing and puffing all the way back and then someone would make a big deal out of it. I didn't want any of that sort of drama so i just kept on going back up that hill by myself, in little increments, sitting every 30 feet or so. When i finally got to the swinging bridge i was the only one there and suddenly there's two employees at my side offering to help me across and one offered to carry my chair. I was so grateful for them being there as i would have probably waited in the beating sun until my group and guide caught up to me.
I forgot to mention that part way on my way back there was a couple from my bus and the husband had taken a bad fall. His wife told me that he had hit a slippery spot and fell with one shoe flying off and he tumbled into the bushes and came close to falling in to that raging river. His knee and knuckles were scraped and bleeding and his shoulder was out of whack. She said the emergency squad had reponded real fast and they were actually cleaning his wounds and applying banages and eventually they had been able to bring a medical van down fairly close to the location. Then they put him in a wheelchair to get to the van and drove him up to the top to wait for the bus.

So, there we were, the rebels and the wounded and me, the one who didn't know that our tour wasn't over yet and the rest of my group were still way down there enjoying a show of the local dancing. Well, we all had to wait and it took forever for our bus to finally appear. By then i was well rested and cooled off and had been enjoying some time spent with Judy and Florine who had chickened out at the bridge and so hadn't been anywhere. I think we waited for close to 2 hours there right where there was shade, toilets and drinking water, a friendly dog and two cats.
Still though i know i missed out on a lot of awesome entertainment that had gone on down there and apparently a gift shop too.
The drive back to the ship was uneventful but took a while because of rush hour traffic. By the time i got back on the ship and into my nice cool cabin i was totally exhausted.

I rested a while and then jumped into the shower and got myself together just in time when Judy knocked on my door. So off we went to Florines room and then we all carried on to the Black Pearl for dinner. We sat at a big table with an Aussie couple and the Aussie twin guys that i had met way back on day 1 or 2. I had a huge dinner of soup, salad, turkey, potato's and when i saw succotash on the menu i had to have that too because i'd never eaten it before and then an awesome almond cake with a honey sauce.
Afterwards we carried on to the casino where we all lost some money but didn't stay long enough for it to become a big waste. I didn't like this casino from day 1 and i still don't like it now; way too tight for the minor penny players, too loose for the people who can play $8. or $10. per hit, old fashioned machines and then to top it off those stupid backless stools. And along with it being a smoking casino well, nah, i'm not fond of this one at all. But then again most if not all cruiseships do allow smoking in the casino and sometimes it doesn't bother me that much so maybe it's because they have better air filtration.

Later we went to see the mind readers show in the showroom and he was ok, a little egotistical but it was all fun for him and he did read peoples minds amazingly too. Judy and i walked together to deck one and she went one way to the odd side and i went to the even side and we were both exhausted from this day. Funny how you always look forward to a port but then it's often a hard or tiresome day and you have to recover from it. I guess we get kind of soft on a cruise, especially one such as this one with very few ports and lots of sea days where you get a little spoiled. Port days are often like this, maybe always like this. But it beats staying onboard because the boredom and the usual over eating scenerio that can get you down worse than the exhaustion. I think typically the only people who stay onboard on a port day are the sun worshippers or those who are ill. Or the ones who miss their excursions for whatever reason.
All in all it was a very good day and we have departed and are on now on our way to Vietnam.

 Making fire, holy shades of Survivor!