I woke up at 6 as per plan and the Japanese old man next to me was already up. I got on the internet and eventually managed to book a flight using their computer as my phone kept failing, but then I noticed that the email address was wrong as Google had auto populated someone else's email address. I emailed them to ask them to send me the email, then had breakfast and headed out soon after to get the bus to Kinabalu national park. I got to the bus station around 7.30 and got directed to another bus station and eventually found the minivan which needed about 14 people to go and had 7 so far including me. I chatted to 2 tourists one from Germany and the other Brazilian. The German guy was going to climb the mountain tomorrow and was excited. Slowly more people turned up and then a group of 7 Japanese tourists but there wasn't space so they went in another van. We did get enough around 8.10 and with 2 large bags and 12 people we headed off. 2 hours later we were there and I found out that the bus went back at 2pm so I had 4 hours, and the guy there said there were no Rafflesia here, they were at the hot springs 40 minutes away and they also said the Legwia trek I was looking at would take maybe 3 hours one way. It was raining so I got my umbrella out and decided if I was going to do a hard bit I should do it first and then maybe I can get a lift back if I need one. The trail was ok, well looked after path but with an umbrella it was harder and with the mud it was a bit harder still but I made good ground and the rain let up and at 10.50 I met a girl going the other way who thought it would be another 1 hour 20 to where I was going. I carried on and thr trail followed the river with occasional pipes getting in the way but I went quick and at 11.30 I was near to the gate I was going to. It's good not to count chickens as the next bit was a tough uphill climb buy I still arrived at the gate at 11.40, well ahead of schedule. There was a list of winners from a race from 2014 where people had run up the mountain or something and Kenya had done well. I carried on and was looking to walk to a viewpoint but it was 1.3km away which meant 2.6km return and would take about 45 minutes which I didn't really have if I wanted my bus so I headed back listening to music while the rain picked up and I came to a viewpoint which had very little visibility due to clouds and the weather. I headed back along a trail and then went to the botanical gardens which cost 5rm (ringgits). It didn't seem like much at first but they did gave description plaques of the plants and I was halfway round when the rain got heavy. With my umbrella I carried on and left the gardens to go back and went to the conservation building which had Unesco monuments in front. The museum was 3rm so I didn't bother and went to catch the bus. It was about 1.15 and I tried to flag down a few vehicles but they all ignored me until eventually a minivan came at 1.50 and I headed back for the same price of 20rm as I had come. All in all it was 70rm to do a couple of hours walk around and see the botanical gardens so not great. We got back around 3.30 and I got some food and went to the hostel taking a photo of the observation place I had seen yesterdays sunset at on the way. I uploaded some photos on their internet and then updated Facebook but the WiFi really slowed down so I left later than I wanted around 4.45 to get the bus to the airport. Luckily the bus was at 5 which is when I got there so it was good timing and after 5.30 I was at the airport which was good because I was worried about not having a boarding pass as the person hadn't forwarded me the email.
It all went ok except I got told that I would need an outbound flight before the Philippines would let me in, so I booked one and the cheapest place was Taiwan as Vietnam was pretty expensive and the cheapest flight there went via Singapore (*which I'd been to enough by now). I didn't have time to book the hostel but I also wasn't sure if someone from couchsurfing was going to meet me as he hadn't been clear in his emails. So I boarded the plane, ate some food and close to 9.30pm we descended into Manila airport. By the time I was out it was about 10.30pm and I found a hostel in town called Wanderers which looked ok and had some social life to it which was good because I had lots of vodka still. I changed my Malaysian money at the airport and got 2,700 Pesos and there was an airport bus so I went to get it for 200 pesos as it would stop at Robinsons supermarket close to the hostel. The roads when I got off were not great and there were people about but this is normal for Asia and by the time I got to the hostel it was 11.30pm. They checked me in ok and I had a top bunk and thankfully there was space to leave my suitcase under the bed and I also got a locker near the toilets. I went to the social area which looked alright, they had had a BBQ earlier from the notice up and a fair few people were sitting around drinking. Unfortunately I was too tired to stay up long so I went to bed after a bit.
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