Day 3: Kota Kinabalu & River Tour

Greetings from Kota Kinabalu! Unfortunately we continue to have a weak internet signal and therefore are struggling to post photos. Rest assured we have lots of good ones to share from today - hopefully soon. This morning we had time to explore the waterfront of this small city, including some shopping at the local craft markets with views of the colorful fishing boats and nearby islands. This afternoon we took a bus two hours south for a river safari in the rainforest to search for the elusive proboscis monkey. Greeted by sudden heavy rain and wind (which turned out to be the far outskirts of a typhoon moving north near Taiwan,) we waited in a thatch-roofed hut until the storm passed. The hour and a half river tour, while wet, brought us through lush rainforest and included several monkey spottings. Students' spirits were not even deterred when our outboard motor failed and the boat could suddenly only drive backwards! We were quickly rescued, transferred boats, and made it back safely to the hut for a traditional Malaysian buffet dinner. The evening was capped off by spontaneous karaoke on the bus back to our hotel in Kota Kinabalu; a fitting ending to an adventurous afternoon. Tomorrow we leave our hotel around 8:00 to head out for a rafting trip, sure to be even more thrilling thanks to the recent rain!

On a more serious note....

As you may have read in the news today, there is a volcano erupting on the island of Java in Indonesia that has led to airport closures in the region, including all airports in Bali. We are following the story closely and are beginning to brainstorm a Plan B should the airport remain closed through Tuesday (when we are scheduled to depart for Denpasar). Of course we will update you all as soon as we decide what to do; according to the news here, climatologists will make a decision about the airport status within the next day or two. Safety is always our utmost priority so please do not worry or contact us with questions quite yet as we try to sort this out.

Since we just heard this news a couple of hours ago, we have not yet told students about the volcano or our possible change of plans. We have a large team of people in the travel industry from the region who are working on our behalf to make this an incredible trip, regardless of potential detours! It has not hampered our enthusiasm, nor will it! We'll continue to keep you posted and will proceed with our agenda as planned while in Borneo.

Balambaya (local patois for "love and safety").