I have a very established love/hate relationship with museums. I know I should think "WOO YAY knowledge and learning and new stuff!" but I invariably think "oigh, blurry plaques and looking at 8 million identical ceramic plates, thrillsville...". In what seems to be becoming a regular event now, Sabah Museum turned my expectations upside down by being an interactive version of the Discovery Channel, and my memories of The Magic Schoolbus came rushing forwards!
Having held my map the correct way and followed to the spot the museum allegedly stood, I landed in the middle of a patch of deserted rainforest, having left all cars, road signs, and recognisable paths far behind. I climbed for 15 minutes, past an abandoned ticket booth with smashed windows and no signs of human life in sight, genuinely wondering if I had accidentally strolled into the set for the next Jurassic Park.
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| Not creepy at all... |
When I reached the top, I emerged from a dense bush of sticky fern leaves to see, very clearly, the entrance gate standing approximately 200m to my left and on the opposite side of the buildings. For all my excellent map handling skills, I had come from the back.
Brushing myself off and regaining sweaty, sweaty composure, I got my entrance ticket and wifi code (?!) to use with their interactive QR codes on different exhibits, and I skipped through the sweeping doors into the beautifully chilly museum. Instantly hit with "NO PHOTO" signs my heart sank a little because it already looked so cool, but actually I think it was a great thing as it made me really pay attention and learn about what I was seeing, in order to describe it properly. So brace for geeky excitement, because it was awesome.
As in all great educational love stories, it starts with a bloody massive whale skeleton. Bryde's whale, to be exact, and it was huge.
