I am back In Kota Kinabalu. For a while.

After one one month of continuous travelling – no more than 3 nights in any one place – from the Thai border to Borneo and nine states of Malaysia (missed out Terengganu, Perlis, Kedah and Penang), I have made the following discoveries:

• Staring out a plane window and seeing what Mankind has wrought can be a sobering experience.
• Don’t buy teh tarik at Lahad Datu airport – they use tea bags. Sacrilege!
• FAX airlines alters the time of departure of flights with monotonous regularity.
• Bornean leeches are worse than Peninsular ones.
• Sand flies don’t need sand to survive.
• Horse flies don’t need horses, either.
• Sarawak should never have been called the Land of the Hornbills.
• Mulu has the loveliest dragonflies. And their butterflies aren’t bad either.
• Don’t ever accidently lean your forearm on top of a hairy caterpillar.
• My knees like climbing mountains a lot less than I do.
• Cold water showers at 1,500m (5,000′) are no joke.
• If a camera is going to give you problems, it will be when you are trying to photograph an experience you will never have again, especially one that very few people ever get to see.
• The harder you work to see something, the better it seems when you see it.
• Dawn is the best time of day.
• If you want to lose weight, don’t travel with two guys who like biscuits.
• Frustration is going to an internet cafe and trying to open up a file from your publisher of your new book cover – and discovering the computer won’t let you.
• Mount Kinabalu is a very large mountain.
• Sunset on a canopy walkway is a magical moment.
• One month of travelling is VERY tiring.
• Malaysia is truly one of the best places on earth when it comes to natural scenery and fascinating things to see.