We've had a delay in our schedule, and have a couple days unexpected day in Kota Kinabalu. Amy's not feeling well, so we're kicking back here for a while and getting some rest before we go moutain climbing.

Kota Kinabalu has been a surprisingly interesting city to hang around in. It's the capital in the Sabah province in Malaysian Boreno. On the whole I've been really impressed with Malaysia. Malaysia reminds me a bit of Hong Kong, except a little less prosperous, and a little less crowded. Otherwise, I feel very comfortable here - much less alien and uncomfortable as, say, Thailand or especially Cambodia. Like HK, there's a veritable cornucopia of different stores, restauraunts, and everything else you need around. Additionally, there are endless stores selling gadgets, electronics, and pirated CD's, VCD's, and video games (They're already selling VCD's of Star Wars Episode II).

The people here are very friendly and very lively. People here are predominantly Malay (unlike KL which seems to have a more balanced mix), but there are still enough Chinese and Indians around to give the population diversity. The Chinese are especially represented in the shops around. It's cool to be a Chinese-American here, because I fit right in (especially that I look a little less clean-cut after two weeks of travel*). It's definitly a different experience to be in essentially an alien environment, but to be able to drift around invisibly. This is helped by the fact that there don't seem to be that many Western tourists in Malaysian Borneo. In the hotel register, we're the only people who aren't Malaysian - at shops and restauraunts, the locals are surpised that I don't speak Malay.

One interesting thing I've noticed, is that people here absolutely love to watch WWF wrestling. They have it playing everywhere. At night, the restauraunt below our hotel spills out into the street and turns into a theater where you can hear WWF booming out into the night. I'm not quite sure I understand it, but it's very interesting.

Tomorrow we're going to try to visit the Sunday market in town and catch a (legitimate) showing of either Star Wars Episode II or Spiderman.

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* "Fish and tourists start to smell after three days" - Benjamin Franklin