Gaya Street Sunday Market: Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia

So I'd read mixed reviews of Kota Kinabalu, mainly saying that it doesn't appear great on the surface, but if you give it a chance, you'll actually have a good time there. One thing that they all agreed on though, was that the Gaya Street Sunday market was AMAZING! Well, amazing, if you want to go and see weird things, mixed in with the general tourist tat, fruit and veg, dvd's, plants - this was all sorts of market mixed into one. 

Now, as a regular market trader here in the UK, I love a good wander through a market abroad, and this one did not disappoint, from 6am every Sunday, the locals here are busy setting up some weird and wonderful stalls....here are some of my favourite photos....

Starting off normal looking, just like Colombia Road, just a little more exotic...

I'm not sure Pets at Home would agree with these cage sizes....

I love you love fruit. The label says it all. Definitely an essential at 6am on a Sunday morning!

Just in case you don't have an HD TV. Plus they are wrap around so if you have to squeeze onto the sofa sideways, you still get HD vision.

Goldfish anyone?

And finally, the weirdest thing possibly ever: a purse, made out of a genuine dead frog skin. Fit.

What A Strange Country - Oh Wait, It's Malaysia!

Malaysia! Such a beautiful, underrated holiday destination, but also a rather strange place! We crammed a lot into our 3 weeks, and hopped all over the country, visiting the capital, an island, the jungle, another island, with Sharon's house on the mainland, some tea plantations in the mountains, another island, a historical city, then a short stop in Singapore, before the overnight train back to KL.

On Pulau Tioman we saw loads of fish, quite a lots of monkeys, and I got sprayed by a cat whilst at dinner one night!

We had the most amazing Satay one night, as well as some scrumptious Singapore noodles and far too many cocktails.

After a short stay in the jungle where we encountered far too many leeches than is necessary (only about 5 but that's 5 more than I' comfortable with) we headed to Penang for a stay with Sharon! She was an amazing tour guide and took us to all the best places and made us eat all the local delicacies. Including Cendol. Do not eat cendol - it's weird! Who puts noodles and beans into their pudding??

Onto another island, and we headed to Pulau Pangkor which was very calm and quiet compared to Tioman, but we did manage to persuade one of the local barmen to bring us mojitos on the beach at sunset every day. And there was an inflatable obstacle course in the sea. And a temple with a Mickey Mouse and a mushroom. What more could you want?

From Pangkor we headed to Melaka (my Greek housemate says this means 'arsehole' in Greek so finds it pretty funny every time I mention this!) which was a beautiful old city. It was baking hot but we still managed to fit in lots of wandering and a visit to one of the local night clubs.

Then we headed South to Singapore (followed by a Frenchman who we were very rude to) and spent a classy day and a bit in a posh hotel with a rooftop pool, a cocktail at the Raffles Hotel and then a good explore.

We overnight trained it back to Kuala Lumpur and did a final bit of sightseeing and finished off our bargainous shopping, before partying in style at the Reggae Mansion - the best hostel in the world!

I loved Malaysia (so much more than Thailand!) and would definitely recommend it as a holiday destination!!

Adventure O'clock!

So...it's been over a year since I returned from my Big Travelling Adventure and so high time that I went somewhere else. Not that I haven't been on holiday since I returned, I've been to Wales, Gibraltar, Cornwall, amongst other places...but now I'm itching to go somewhere further away....to do some proper backpacking.

Sadly, (well not sadly becuase I love it, just sadly becuase it means not much time off) as I now have what my Dad would call a 'proper job' (some of my friends would argue this point as it still involves buttons and hat wearing) I only have a limited amount of holiday time.

My conversation with my boss went along the lines of:

'How much holiday can I book off in one go?' (me)

'Well most people just book a week, or 10 days, but 2 weeks I suppose' (boss)

'What happens if I accidentally book flights 3 weeks apart?' (me)

'Well....we'll see what happens' (boss)

Well then  as it turned out, on the dates we picked to start looking for flights, they were £200 cheaper than flights on any other days. I've no idea why. Hopefully we are actually travelling on an aeroplane, and not on a severely long distance bus! And yes, they happen to be 3 weeks apart.

So I'm off to Malaysia for some sunshine and adventuring! The decision went along the lines of me having a conversation with my friend Sharon, who is Malaysian, being offended that I'd been to Thailand and Singapore, but not Malaysia. Like I'd deliberately skipped going there (I didn't - Singapore = 2005, Thailand = 2006).

So when my friend Claire said she wanted to go somewhere hot where she could dive, it was an easy choice!

Now, with a week to go, I'm dealing with daily random questions from the lovely little Claire. Things like:

'Do we need malaria tablets?'

'Do we need leech socks?'

'Should I take travellers cheques?'

'What should I pack?'

'Do I need a visa?'

The answers to which are: I don't know, but I'm sure we can buy them there; hopefully not; nope, you can never find anywhere to change them at a good rate; not too much; no.

Hopefully that means we're now sorted and ready to go!!

In the meantime I'm going to admire my beautiful new fabric map from Etsy, and dream of where I'll be in a weeks time :o)