Being Saturday, a colleague, Peter Barling, offered to show us around a bit. So we went first to the impressive Buddhist temple of the city.
Then to the fine Museum, where we learned a lot about local ethnies and history, as well as finding a hang-glider that a German enthusiast had used to jump off the nearby Mount Kinabalu (over 4000m high) some years ago.
We also saw our first local villages in the kampung style, built on piles over inlets of the sea.
As we were almost ready to decide which fish to buy, an enormous black cloud appeared on the horizon, and the first drops of rain spattered down.
Then to the fine Museum, where we learned a lot about local ethnies and history, as well as finding a hang-glider that a German enthusiast had used to jump off the nearby Mount Kinabalu (over 4000m high) some years ago.
We also saw our first local villages in the kampung style, built on piles over inlets of the sea.
We still had time to explore the area around our hotel. We were very close to the port where the fishing boats came and went throughout the day and we spent the last few hours of daylight wandering around this very animated quarter.
This is also the point of embarcation for the numerous high-speed ferries that take people from and to the Island of Pulau Gaya, opposite the harbour, from dawn to dusk. Each boat loaded around 20 passengers and sped them on their way home to their kampungs on stilts.
Just a short walk further along the harbour's edge is the fish market, with its evening feast of grilled fish produced at dozens of hawker stalls for the hundreds of customers flocking to enjoy the smells and tastes!
As we were almost ready to decide which fish to buy, an enormous black cloud appeared on the horizon, and the first drops of rain spattered down.
Obviously time to head for the hotel. The rain here is warm, but very wet. In a few seconds you are completely soaked. In fact we just got to the shelter of the nearby buildings before the downpour really started, and got "home" only moderately wet.
Back at the hotel for a quiet night, we discovered the same din as the night before, so I went down to the pub to enquire. The whole building was trembling, and as I went inside (where there was almost no one!) my ears began to hurt. I had to discuss the matter with the people who ran the place on the pavement outside, in order to be heard. I had the impression that they do not (cannot) actually talk while on the job. They reassured me that it would not go on longer than 2am as before. When I pointed out that the noise was apparently being made for a minimum of customers, the response was that people did not really come before midnight anyway. So why the noise? Who knows? When I asked if it was like this all week, they reassured me that no, during the week it stopped at 1am. Thoughtful of them. So a word with the front desk seemed in order, and the duty manager was very understanding. He called the Food and Beverage manager, who was the top dog that night, and he immediately suggested we change rooms. In the meantime he telephoned the pub and miraculously the decibels were reduced at a stroke! He took me to see the room he suggested: a superb suite on the 14th floor with even better sea views than our present room. So we decided they would move us next day.
