I love saying Kota Kinabalu. Just rolls off your tongue. Kota Kinabalu. Kota Kinabalu.

We are here for the EARCOS Leadership Conference. Over 1200 school leaders from all over Eastern and South Eastern Asia have converged on Kota Kinabalu on the island of Borneo. Borneo is the world’s third largest island and is home to three different countries…little Brunei and Malaysia to the north, and Indonesia to the south. Kota Kinabalu is the second largest city in Malaysia, Borneo, home to almost 500,000 people. We stayed at this beautiful 5-star resort, Magellan Sutera Resort. Almost 500 suites, all with balconies, soaking tubs, and king-size beds. Our room overlooked the pool and the South China Sea. Each night we made our way down to the bar, grabbed a table overlooking the water, and just watched the sun set. If there were Olympics for sunsets, Borneo would receive a gold medal. Each night the brilliant amber orb sunk lower and lower toward the horizon. As it lowered, the sky was painted magnificent hues of fiery red and crimson, maroom, tangerine, pink, indigo and purple. All this surrounded by swathes of bright blue and navy. Thunder clouds way out at sea were set on fire. And when the last bit of sun dipped below the horizon, all the colors deepened. Spectacular!!!

Our school flew almost 25 people to the Leadership Conference including several of our board members. As an admin team, we targeted several sessions that we all attended…allowing for rich conversations afterwards. The rest of the sessions we self-selected. The key note speaker for the first day was Larry Rosenstock, founder of High Tech High in San Diego. The sessions we attended were some of the very best ever….great educators sharing best practice. Our heads were happily bursting with new knowledge!!!

One evening we went downtown Kota Kinabalu to eat at a Chinese seafood place. You have to picture this…the entire back of the restaurant is filled with aquariums; large tanks with live fish and shellfish. You wander from tank to tank and let the waiter know what you want….scallops, tiger prawns, lobster, grouper, snapper, crab, etc. You also select the greens you want stir fried…baby bok choy, mushrooms, bamboo sprouts. You order drinks at your table and in a bit the formerly live food is brought to your table all cooked and seasoned. You certainly know it was fresh!!!

On the last day of the conference we skipped out of the very last session and instead drove to one of the orangutan rehabilitation centers. Orangutans only live on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. About 22,000 are left on Borneo and 6000 on Sumatra. Their habitat continues to shrink as mankind creeps further and further into the dense jungles. The center we visited had three rescued juvenile orangutans. They look almost human and have hilarious personalities. Twice a day the rangers have a feeding. If you are lucky the orangutans show up….we were lucky. They put on quite a show swinging from branches, playful fighting with each other, teasing the rangers… until they disappeared high in the upper canopy, swinging from tree to tree. They say their habitat will be gone in 20 years…then what?

We hope to return to Kota Kinabalu and Borneo. There is Mt. Kinabalu (13,000+ ft) to climb, orangutans to visit, some of the very best diving in the world to explore, a new Hard Rock Cafe to get a pin…so many things to see and do. It was nice to get away from the haze of KL and have some clear blue skies and fresh air.

Parting shot

Had to share the eagle ray I saw last time. A fellow diver snapped this picture.