Day 1 in Kota Kinabalu: Rest Day and a visit to the Sabah Society for the Deaf.

Leo and I woke early this morning to meet our deaf guide on Tom at 7.30am to a place in Kota Kinabalu where we could book excursions to certain sights available. We chose to visit the two islands, Manukan & Sapi.

The island of Manukan was bombed by the Japanese during the Second World War.  Over the years, it has since returned to its own natural beauty. I would recommend that you visit this untouched piece of nature.

Manukan and Sapi are famous for three things:

• Storms--we saw the storm hitting Kota Kinabalu from the island of Sapi and we were not collected until two hours after our designated collection time.
• Bumpy boat rides: you will get wet.
• Beautiful beaches with white sand and palm trees.

In Manukan, we were openly welcomed by the locals. Today was rest day, so we snorkelled in the clear blue sea. We saw fish and several crabs climbing up the pier.

Later in the day, we went to give a presentation about our wide range of deafPLUS services to the Sabah Society for the Deaf.

The audience at the Sabah Society for the Deaf was made up mostly of young people who were keen to learn about our work at deafPLUS.

We shared our knowledge of employment advisory services and steps to finding employment, finishing with a Question and Answer session, which was very productive.

Tomorrow, we will be visiting three deaf schools across Borneo. We are eager to see how they are run and what sort of issues they face in today's economic climate.