As usual, I will start with a little setting for you to just get the picture of what a lame ass blogger I actually am.
It's 12th July, I'm sat at my desk at work with nothing to do. Literally. I'm listening to the radio, waiting for the rain and overlooking Manchester City stadium. Not too bad of a view but with nothing to do, I would rather be at home, but what a perfect opportunity to do some catching up.
Wishing I was back in Asia is quite the understatement right now. Faced with reality of getting up at stupid o'clock (well 7.40, and I leave at 7.55), catching the god awful bus, sitting at your desk from 9-5pm, catching the same god awful bus home, having tea, and watching mind numbing tv until it's time to go to bed and do it all over again, makes you realise, what amazing times you actually encounter when you're away and how much you probaby take it for granted. And then you think, why can't you do it forever?! With everyone booking and jetting off on their summer holidays at the moment, it makes me think how much I need a holiday..... you know only having been home for 3 months after 5 months of doing absolutely nothing. Travelling isn't always getting up, sunbathing, eating and drinking.. there is day long travelling involved too which makes it awfully tiring but send me to the airport right now, and I don't think I would complain if I had to sit on a sweaty bus everyday for 10 hours just to be in one of those amazing countries. Hhhmm bummed myself out much?
After the ever eventful Nuts Huts journey, we darted out of there faster than out feet could take us and we actually had to hail a large canoe at the side of the river to take us to the other end of the river so we could get a taxi out of the area. I love transport in Asia!
The journey was as always interesting and I really wish I had taken photo's. We arrived at the bus station after tour guide led us the right way and sat on a very small rickety sweaty bus. We all took our individual seats as we didn't think it would get busy.. then it was time to meet the locals. I shared a predominantley 2 seater seat with 3 other people. Caroline had her knees under her chin, and sat right inbetween Matej and Kevin was an incredible looking lady. She was very much on the dwarf meter, most likely around her 70's, long black/grey hair, with a massive wart on her nose. She seemed rather comfortable. The boys did not.
After about an hour we arrived at Alona beach and first stop was a bar to re charge with an ice cold San Miguel and it was now time to search for some accommodation. After a while we found something down the road and Caroline and I were to share what I can only describe as the smallest bed, EVER. Even though it was tiny, we still both slept as far apart from each other as physically possible as to not roll onto each other, something which I always loved to do. I always woke up with my nose against the wall and Caroline about to fall off the edge! But still.. I would happily return. Right now.
Our time on Bohol was rather quiet as it was nothing in comparison to Boracay and I think I speak for all when I say, it was a little disappointing. There seemed to be no night life and travellers seemed few and far between so luckily, there was a group of us to make our own entertainment.
Each night we played drinking games, and in the end made Arsehole into a drinking game which after 1 round, I think we all regretted. Evil. One night we found a boat on the beach and had a 'boat party'. It's actually amazing what you find entertaining on your travels. Another night the boys were seeing how many ladyboys they could find. One night, Kevin got so smashed, he fell asleep on the beach, Petri found a random potentially rabies infested dog and pretty much fell in love with him and then was his 'booboo baby' and then we magically found Kevin asleep on a chair on our way home. That's right, asleep upright, in a plastic chair. If only you could film your entire time away!
During our few days there we did some touristy things and hired motorbikes which then aired the questions of who drives with who. It was clear as day that no one wanted to drive with Kevin as he made it very clear, his eyesight wasn't the best and after a couple of days even admitted that when it was dark, he literally followed other car lights infront of him so he knew where he was going. Safe to say, he drove solo. Tyler drove Petri, Peter drove Caroline and Matej drove me.
Within an hour we made a stop off to apply sun cream and get water and Caroline got injury number 3. Backing her lef into the motorbike exhaust. HUGE FAT BLISTER! The area we stopped off at seemed like it was backwards in time. The shops didn't even have plasters. So we improvised and used hand gel, tissue and cellotape.
We made the decision to visit the famous 'Chocolate Hills' which no, are not made of chocolate and they aren't even brown. They are literally just hundreds and hundreds of hilly formations. Really glad we made the 2 hour journey. On a more positive note, driving through all the country roads solely on a motorbike, seeing rural Bohol for what it was was breathtaking. Everything was just no natural and everyone waved as you went by. There were woman hanging out washing, dusting the front steps to their tiny wooden hut's, men carving/building things, herding in their animals and children playing freely and without danger. This place was clearly a very untouched part of the earth.
Sadly, our time had ended with Tyler and Peter and they had to leave us. The group was deteriorating. The worst part of travelling. We would no doubt see them again though as like us, had plans to be in Koh Phangan for New Year.
The show must go on and we were 2 drivers down for the motorbikes. Matej tought Petri how to drive his bike and he went solo, as did Kevin (obviously), and Caroline also gave it a whirl and eventually, I gave her the privelage of shauferring me in the afternoon after she felt comfortable enough to manouvre the bike.
That day we took another journey in which we got soaked, and actually had no idea where we were going but we really wanted to see as Matej called them 'the tiny monkeys'. What we infact wanted to see was the Tarsiers. These creatures are actually primates and not monkeys and are incredibly rare and restricted to a small selection of S.E Asian Islands. Kept in severe captivity, Tarsiers do not live a very long life and luckily, we got to go to a natural sanctuary. The keepers go out each morning and manually search for them in their large enclosure ready to show the visitors. When you finally see one, it's quite astonishing at how small these creatures are and in all honesty, how very creepy they look. Their eye balls are bigger than their brains and they have tails probably 3x the length of their bodies. Basically, large rat/gremlin looking things, but at the same time, stupidly cute.
The remaining 2 days of our time was spent sunbathing as the sun had finally decided to come out and when the sun shone, Bohol was beautiful! Alona beach was no Boracay but still...The sea was crystal clear and spotting star fish beneath your feet was standard. On our last night, Kevin and Petri had decided to go back to the main town for some 'ladyboy hunting' so they packed their stuff and as Petri was taking an earlier flight back to Manila, we agreed to meet Kevin at the port ready for our flight back. But would he make it?
Our very last night was spent stuffing our faces and we came across 'Gay Jurassic'. A competition on the beach for gay Filipino's to showcase themselves in a beauty round, swimsuit round and comedy round in a completely unconventional fashion. Their make up and dress attire was somewhat 'different' and on some of them, horror movie adequate. But it made for some extremely good entertainment and there were clearly no boundaries with what could be said, or shown!
Ahhhhh Thailand day... The one we had been waiting for, but it was also a sad day. Matej would leave us today to go back to the north Philippines and we would meet up with the rest of the guys at the airport. We made our way to the marina to catch our boat and Kevin amazingly made it with about 5 minutes to spare so he could get his ticket and check in 'Savannah' the poor old battered suitcade with no handles or wheels. Which he had to carry over his shoulders.
We took the boat over back over to Cebu, then Caroline tried very hard to persuade Matej for him to catch the same flight as us back to Manila (so she could then persuade him to come to Thailand with the rest of us). We got him to Manila, caught up with Petri, and Ben.. and then Matej decided he would 'screw it' and book a flight to Bangkok on a whim with us and spend Xmas with us all! The group was in tact - for a little while longer.
The 6 of us took the flight and arrived at Bangkok and everyting seemed to run smoothly until Kevin pushing 6 peoples bags down an escalator, made some sort of mistake with the trolley and they all went flying to the very bottom!
This trip to Bangkok was quite weird for me and Caroline as this was actually where we should have started our trip. So all the what if's started to flow but at the time, we wouldn't have changed anything. We arrived on the infamous Khao San Road and it was full of pissed up barely standing travellers and I was actually quite shocked at the state of literally, everyone. There were people puking in the street and manier girls being carried back to their rooms to their just as drunk friends.
Randomly, Becky was staying in Bangkok for one night and we had booked into the same hostel which was right near the Khao San Road and tried to find her in there but failed. As soon as we checked in and dumped our bags, baring in mind this was about 2am, it was beer time! My first taste of Chang. We grabbed a 50p pad thai from one of the many street vendors and then found a little cocktail stand which sold £1 Mojito's and along stumbled Becky! As soon as she sat down she in true Becky style knocked my drink over and nearly fell from her stool. It was good to see her even if it was just for the night! Hello Thailand!
Thursday, 12 July 2012
Wednesday, 23 May 2012
NUTS HUTS
There's me typing away thinking I'm doing really well and I forget one of the most important parts of this particular journey.
I was all ready to finish Bohol off, when in my diary, I see the word Nuts Huts... if you are reading this guys.. does it not just make you cringe inside? But more so on the happy side.
Slovenia and Montana had found a hostel in the LP whilst on the boat which they thought would be really cool for us all to stay at.
After the 2 hour boat, we get a taxi and they drop us off in pretty much, the middle of bumfuck nowhere.
We get dropped off, and it's a 1000M, yes, you read correct, walk to the actual place. With 20KG on my back and god knows what else in my other 2 bags (I never learn) I felt like I was going to collapse. If I would have had to endured any more walking the strain in my face would have most probably left life long wrinkles.
If it wasn't enough that we had the most torturous walk of our whole entire trip, we then witnessed the stairs, lots and lots of steep downhill stairs. You had to be really careful with your pace on the way down as if you went one step too quick, that's you rolling down a thousand concrete steps with your backpack smacking you in the face on the way down. It was quite truly, horrendous. Even the boys were moaning, and we all know, how boys 'don't moan'.
We finally reached the hut, and again, tears could have rolled. It was a big sparce hut high up in the mountains surrounded by tree's. Typing this back, it really doesn't sound that bad. Get a grip. To ease ourselves from the journey, we take a few beers and some food just so our legs can relax and we asked where our room was. I'm surprised we didn't guess.. it was down yet more stairs, and just a hop skip and a jump across a muddy field and a yet another short climb up some bamboo steps to the room. Who found this place again?
The dorm only had us 7 in it so that wasn't too bad but I don't really recall seeing many more people around, hhmmm, wonder why. Considering we were right bang in the middle of the jungle with nothing else in sight but tree's, mosquito's and some scabby cats, we did our best to make the most of it.
Ireland seemed to struggle with this place the most, I don't think he said one single positive word about it. Even I didn't moan that much about it... and we all know how much I LOVE a good moan.
Granted, there were no mosquito nets, fans, sheets, it had dirty toilets and showers, tasteless expensive food, and no one else around.
Just to try and take the edge of the place, we had yet another beer and tried to think of something constructive and positive to do whilst we were here. I think everyone had gaged by this point, only 1 night was needed.
As we were literally in the jungle which looking back, you don't get that opportunity every day, we decided to explore and make the most of the experience.
Reading the 'what to do' book, we read about a waterfall which was on the other side of the river. Bikini's and shorts on, one by one, we swam across it.
The boys dived in first, boys will be boys and all that, yet Caroline and I were a tad more hesitant. Caroline's reasoning being very understandable, jellyfish gate, and mine for the mere fact, I am a rubbish swimmer and the water was murky green and all I could envisage was me merrily swimming across and something coming up behind me and biting an arm or leg off. Not much to be worried about really.
Caroline took the plunge first and made it across, so hell... I can do it too... but my god I was shitting myself. I had no idea what was in that river and I dread to think.
The next thing Ireland walks up to the side we had just left and is the only one not on our side, so he gets in and swims over. Ireland only decides to tell us he can't really swim when he is mid way across. We all just stand there laughing as he's laughing.. but then we realise, he isn't joking and he looks like he's starting to struggle!
Not knowing what to do as we actually think he might drown, Slovenia jumps in, and brings him over slowly. Ireland thinks it's funny, we don't!
Walking through the jungle, 7 tourists in swimwear and no shoes, we just happen to stumble across a small little village. I felt so embarrassed just for the fact of what we were wearing, and I wish I had my camera! There were people making things for their homes, singing in group choirs, cooking, full on normal day to day life yet still all smiling as us idiots walking past - now getting absolutely drenched in the torrential rain. We get to the waterfall, and I've seen better looking swamps, so off back through the village we go, waving at all the locals again as they stare at the tourist idiots.
To make our way back this time round was a bit more difficult. Because of the rain, the tide was alot stronger so now I was even more scared. Montana, Australia and Finland took Ireland across to avoid another fiasco, and Caroline and Slovenia took me.
Back on dry land and with enough exploring done for the day, we brave the showers (eurgh) and head all the way back down to the main reception for some food. Now we just sit there and wait for the mosquito's to attack!
The San Miguels roll out and to cure the bordam we play a trusty old game of Monopoly. It's lights out at 10pm if not earlier and we head back across the sludgy field in the dark to our mosquito infested room and settle in to watch some Family Guy on Montana's laptop topped off with some valium.
Now in all honestly, I can imagine this place would be incredible in the right season. Yes, it's basic, but the setting was nothing more than peaceful, beautiful and true Filipino. I think we had just been so scarred from all those steps we took it for granted.
We were up at 7 and couldn't leave any quicker. Good old Nuts Huts!
I was all ready to finish Bohol off, when in my diary, I see the word Nuts Huts... if you are reading this guys.. does it not just make you cringe inside? But more so on the happy side.
Slovenia and Montana had found a hostel in the LP whilst on the boat which they thought would be really cool for us all to stay at.
After the 2 hour boat, we get a taxi and they drop us off in pretty much, the middle of bumfuck nowhere.
We get dropped off, and it's a 1000M, yes, you read correct, walk to the actual place. With 20KG on my back and god knows what else in my other 2 bags (I never learn) I felt like I was going to collapse. If I would have had to endured any more walking the strain in my face would have most probably left life long wrinkles.
If it wasn't enough that we had the most torturous walk of our whole entire trip, we then witnessed the stairs, lots and lots of steep downhill stairs. You had to be really careful with your pace on the way down as if you went one step too quick, that's you rolling down a thousand concrete steps with your backpack smacking you in the face on the way down. It was quite truly, horrendous. Even the boys were moaning, and we all know, how boys 'don't moan'.
We finally reached the hut, and again, tears could have rolled. It was a big sparce hut high up in the mountains surrounded by tree's. Typing this back, it really doesn't sound that bad. Get a grip. To ease ourselves from the journey, we take a few beers and some food just so our legs can relax and we asked where our room was. I'm surprised we didn't guess.. it was down yet more stairs, and just a hop skip and a jump across a muddy field and a yet another short climb up some bamboo steps to the room. Who found this place again?
The dorm only had us 7 in it so that wasn't too bad but I don't really recall seeing many more people around, hhmmm, wonder why. Considering we were right bang in the middle of the jungle with nothing else in sight but tree's, mosquito's and some scabby cats, we did our best to make the most of it.
Ireland seemed to struggle with this place the most, I don't think he said one single positive word about it. Even I didn't moan that much about it... and we all know how much I LOVE a good moan.
Granted, there were no mosquito nets, fans, sheets, it had dirty toilets and showers, tasteless expensive food, and no one else around.
Just to try and take the edge of the place, we had yet another beer and tried to think of something constructive and positive to do whilst we were here. I think everyone had gaged by this point, only 1 night was needed.
As we were literally in the jungle which looking back, you don't get that opportunity every day, we decided to explore and make the most of the experience.
Reading the 'what to do' book, we read about a waterfall which was on the other side of the river. Bikini's and shorts on, one by one, we swam across it.
The boys dived in first, boys will be boys and all that, yet Caroline and I were a tad more hesitant. Caroline's reasoning being very understandable, jellyfish gate, and mine for the mere fact, I am a rubbish swimmer and the water was murky green and all I could envisage was me merrily swimming across and something coming up behind me and biting an arm or leg off. Not much to be worried about really.
Caroline took the plunge first and made it across, so hell... I can do it too... but my god I was shitting myself. I had no idea what was in that river and I dread to think.
The next thing Ireland walks up to the side we had just left and is the only one not on our side, so he gets in and swims over. Ireland only decides to tell us he can't really swim when he is mid way across. We all just stand there laughing as he's laughing.. but then we realise, he isn't joking and he looks like he's starting to struggle!
Not knowing what to do as we actually think he might drown, Slovenia jumps in, and brings him over slowly. Ireland thinks it's funny, we don't!
Walking through the jungle, 7 tourists in swimwear and no shoes, we just happen to stumble across a small little village. I felt so embarrassed just for the fact of what we were wearing, and I wish I had my camera! There were people making things for their homes, singing in group choirs, cooking, full on normal day to day life yet still all smiling as us idiots walking past - now getting absolutely drenched in the torrential rain. We get to the waterfall, and I've seen better looking swamps, so off back through the village we go, waving at all the locals again as they stare at the tourist idiots.
To make our way back this time round was a bit more difficult. Because of the rain, the tide was alot stronger so now I was even more scared. Montana, Australia and Finland took Ireland across to avoid another fiasco, and Caroline and Slovenia took me.
Back on dry land and with enough exploring done for the day, we brave the showers (eurgh) and head all the way back down to the main reception for some food. Now we just sit there and wait for the mosquito's to attack!
The San Miguels roll out and to cure the bordam we play a trusty old game of Monopoly. It's lights out at 10pm if not earlier and we head back across the sludgy field in the dark to our mosquito infested room and settle in to watch some Family Guy on Montana's laptop topped off with some valium.
Now in all honestly, I can imagine this place would be incredible in the right season. Yes, it's basic, but the setting was nothing more than peaceful, beautiful and true Filipino. I think we had just been so scarred from all those steps we took it for granted.
We were up at 7 and couldn't leave any quicker. Good old Nuts Huts!
Following The Leader!
It's a beautiful sunny day in Manchester. I'm sat in the garden, Radio 1 blaring, cider to hand and it's also the end of May. I got home on March 20th. Delayed much?
The whole point of starting this was to keep everyone informed of what I was getting up to whilst I was away as to not have to repeat everything in emails/phones calls etc. Turns out I ended up boring you all in person anyway when I got back.
This is probably something I should just give up with but I'm in the mind frame of 'I've started so I shall finish' - much to my dismay of the fact this is going to take me absolutely flippin ages.
The last time I sat down to write any posts was in Siem Reap, Cambodia back in early February. We had just been to the Killing Fields and S21 prison, and after an extremely emotional day, the last thing I wanted to do, was speak so I pulled my energy together and sat for around 2 hours typing up the first part of the Philippines. I was concentrating that much someone thought I was doing a university dissertation! True commitment.
Another introduction spent procrastinating about nothing so here goes...... Philippines, next stop - Bohol.
As we all decided to pretty much just follow Slovenia, we all hauled our lives, i.e backpacks into reception and waited for everyone to arrive. As we were all leaving the manager kindly offered us all a goodbye beer, so what if you get a beer at 10.30am? we are on holiday after all. All the people that said they wanted to leave from the previous day, were sitting waiting.... except for Ireland...was he or wasn't he coming? Ahhh but he was, just one little thing holding him, and us back, his bloody washing! Ireland's washing finally arrived, and we were off. It was just the matter of putting all our trust into one Slovenian guy and a Lonely Planet.
Now, this particular day was not the best travel day for me, and because I am now home, and my Mother knows the story, I can share.
The previous night was another standard messy night of drinking games on the balcony and hitting one of the local nightclubs as it was out last night on the Island. Caroline had decided to stay in that night so I was a lone ranger amongst all the boys. Everything was going well, there were no sand fights, no fireman lift/drops.. just good old dancing and drinking... until some little sh*t, presuming a local, thinks it would be fun to spike little ole me's drink.. and my oh my.. was it a rough night. Not quite your ordinary Monday night.
We had heard stories of people getting spiked in the area but you never think anything of it, well I sure did that night.
During the night we had all danced around some locals and got involved in the 'how low can you go dance', something which I always won by the way.. and it must have happened around then as I only had 2 drinks when we were out.
Slovenia and I were sat at the bar waiting to get served and I suddenly felt, a little bit funny to say the least. My jaw started to guern and my eyes started to roll around and this was definately not a 'drunk' feeling. I went outside to get some fresh air and that was that, I could no longer hold my own weight and breathing was becoming a chore. I dread to think what would have happened to me had Slovenia not been with me that night as I could have just wondered out on my own and who knows.
Because I can no longer be bothered to type Slovenia, I will use his correct name, Matej.
Matej managed to carry me all along the beach to the main road, get me in a tuk tuk and get me back to the resort as it would have been too difficult to carry me the 5 minute walk back as I was a complete dead weight and had lost all co ordination and general limb functionality. As soon as Matej opened the door to our room, Caroline jumped out of bed and wondered what the hell was going on. It was obvious I wasn't just drunk. All I can recall is her just saying 'what's she taken', well wouldn't I like to know!
Just to lose all my dignity in one night, first off, I was made to stick my fingers down my throat so I could try and get whatever it was in my system, out. Matej was trying to convince Caroline to do it instead, as I wasn't doing a very good job, you know, what with all the crying and not knowing what the hell was going on. Luckily Caroline drew the line at that! So, I was being forced to be sick, I had a never ending moving jaw, and my head may aswell of been attached with one piece of string it was moving that much. I must have looked amazing. I certainly felt it. And as if that wasn't enough, now it was time for a nice cold shower... Caroline ever so kindly stripped me down, and sat me in it until I shivered into a prune. But oh no, this wasn't enough according to Matej, and I had to go in again, for about 10 more minutes. IT WAS COLD, and I was still crying. They both put me to bed but I was rolling around too much to even try and sleep. My mind was everywhere. All I can remember is that my eyes were rolling like tornado's and not one of my limbs would stay still. After I don't know how long, I decided I was hungry, the crisps in the room just were not satisfying enough and my mind was made up, I wanted a burger. I presume I may have been coming around at this point? After moaning for around half an hour inbetween getting water poured down my throat, Matej kindly went for a burger for me. Obviously, by the time he got back, I was asleep.. but I still ate it in the morning anyway and it was still just as tasty.
I still have no idea what on earth it was that I had that night, but it wasn't nice at all and certainly no glorious high involved. The fact that I can still remember pretty much everything narrows down the substance but yuuuk, awful awful night. Again, I would like to say how grateful I am for Matej being there or who knows what would have happened to me.. and also to Caroline. This would know be marked as event number 1.
After waking up and sorting myself out, I didn't feel too bad, just a little exhausted and mentally drained. As we were all talking about it, Ben pipes up that he had been spiked that night also, all because he got that pissed, he fell asleep on a park bench, lost his shoes and got carted back by the Police. Whatever ligthweight.
Right, back to travel day. I don't half go on with myself.
The 8 of us left and we all got tuk tuk's to the port and made our way to the bus station. Just getting there was a sign of things to come. There were 3 and 4 for each tuk tuk plus bags... I think everyone more or less sat on someone's else's body parts and when it got to the big hill climb, we were told to get off our tuk tuk as he tried to accelerate up it. We wondered if we would see our bags on the other side of the hill.. or whether we would see him roll back down it.. but we had a gooden' and he did well. Then we had Ben, in his own tuk tuk.
We boarded the bus to Iloilo (E-lo E-lo) and 6 hours later we were there, although I am sure I got told it took 2!
We managed to find ourself some accommodation for the night and again, sorting a room for 8 people just didn't seem to be that simple.
I thought 4 and 4 would be a good way to go?
Caroline and I put our bags in one room and waited to see which of the others would join us, preying it wouldn't be Ben. (At this stage, I know longer care what I say about Ben, and that story will follow. However, we have now discovered, Ben has a very unhealthy obsession/crush with me and we try at all costs to steer very clear of him).
Ben decides to come into our room, asks where I'm sleeping, and as I'm not in his room, he actually physically picks up my bag and starts to move it into his. Hahahahaha I don't think so son. Caroline firmly told him to do one. Weirdo. Luckily, we got Slovenia and Australia as roomies. A standard McDonald's dinner was in order and time to watch some random tv, if I remember rightly, we watched Bambi. Classic.
An early start was needed as we had to find out if we could catch the overnight boat to Cebu, and then we could get to Bohol. An early start for us lot means 11am apparently.. although, this was not particularly our fault. The room had no natural light so we all woke up thinking it was the middle of the night. The only time we saw daylight in that room was when we stuck our heads out the window and looked directly up, and also face to face with bird shit.
After checking out, we find an empty jeepney and load all 8+ bags and ourselves into it and make our way to the port. Luckily, there was a boat that night, otherwise, we would have been in a dead end city for another night watching more Disney films. As the boat didn't leave until the evening, we took another jeepney back to the city, had some lunch, stocked up on booze and loaded up another jeepney back. Anyone else fed up of the word jeepney?
The 6 boys took one cabin and Caroline and I took a lovely little private room for a bit extra so we didn't have to share with any randomers.
The boat itself, was another world. There were just masses upon masses of beds. Plain, bare bunk beds in their hundreds all over the decks. No covers, no privacy, just a bed pretty much face to face with another stinky human being. Thank god our budgets were still in tne early stages.
It was a fairly tame evening, just simply a few drinks and talking. Early night, early start.
We woke up around 7 and as we were waiting to dock, I was amazed yet also saddened by what I saw. There were around 20-30 locals in their small wooden boats begging for money. If you threw it down, they would try and catch it either in their net, or they would simply dive into the water just to catch a few measly peso's that we were willing to just throw away. Obviously, these measly peso's had much more of a meaning to them. People were doing this for around half an hour and the locals just were not giving up, you could see the desperation in their faces as they looked above waiting to see what direction they had to dive in next. Makes you really think how lucky you are sometimes.
We docked and booked our 500P ticket over to Bohol. Finally, Ben departed us, and we would now not see him until we flew from Manila to Thailand in a weeks time.
We got the 2 hour boat over to Bohol and I cannot believe I forgot about this next part. It's lucky I got my diary out as this wouldn't have seen the light of day... How oh how could I forget about NUTS HUTS!!! It even deserves it's own entire post.
The whole point of starting this was to keep everyone informed of what I was getting up to whilst I was away as to not have to repeat everything in emails/phones calls etc. Turns out I ended up boring you all in person anyway when I got back.
This is probably something I should just give up with but I'm in the mind frame of 'I've started so I shall finish' - much to my dismay of the fact this is going to take me absolutely flippin ages.
The last time I sat down to write any posts was in Siem Reap, Cambodia back in early February. We had just been to the Killing Fields and S21 prison, and after an extremely emotional day, the last thing I wanted to do, was speak so I pulled my energy together and sat for around 2 hours typing up the first part of the Philippines. I was concentrating that much someone thought I was doing a university dissertation! True commitment.
Another introduction spent procrastinating about nothing so here goes...... Philippines, next stop - Bohol.
As we all decided to pretty much just follow Slovenia, we all hauled our lives, i.e backpacks into reception and waited for everyone to arrive. As we were all leaving the manager kindly offered us all a goodbye beer, so what if you get a beer at 10.30am? we are on holiday after all. All the people that said they wanted to leave from the previous day, were sitting waiting.... except for Ireland...was he or wasn't he coming? Ahhh but he was, just one little thing holding him, and us back, his bloody washing! Ireland's washing finally arrived, and we were off. It was just the matter of putting all our trust into one Slovenian guy and a Lonely Planet.
Now, this particular day was not the best travel day for me, and because I am now home, and my Mother knows the story, I can share.
The previous night was another standard messy night of drinking games on the balcony and hitting one of the local nightclubs as it was out last night on the Island. Caroline had decided to stay in that night so I was a lone ranger amongst all the boys. Everything was going well, there were no sand fights, no fireman lift/drops.. just good old dancing and drinking... until some little sh*t, presuming a local, thinks it would be fun to spike little ole me's drink.. and my oh my.. was it a rough night. Not quite your ordinary Monday night.
We had heard stories of people getting spiked in the area but you never think anything of it, well I sure did that night.
During the night we had all danced around some locals and got involved in the 'how low can you go dance', something which I always won by the way.. and it must have happened around then as I only had 2 drinks when we were out.
Slovenia and I were sat at the bar waiting to get served and I suddenly felt, a little bit funny to say the least. My jaw started to guern and my eyes started to roll around and this was definately not a 'drunk' feeling. I went outside to get some fresh air and that was that, I could no longer hold my own weight and breathing was becoming a chore. I dread to think what would have happened to me had Slovenia not been with me that night as I could have just wondered out on my own and who knows.
Because I can no longer be bothered to type Slovenia, I will use his correct name, Matej.
Matej managed to carry me all along the beach to the main road, get me in a tuk tuk and get me back to the resort as it would have been too difficult to carry me the 5 minute walk back as I was a complete dead weight and had lost all co ordination and general limb functionality. As soon as Matej opened the door to our room, Caroline jumped out of bed and wondered what the hell was going on. It was obvious I wasn't just drunk. All I can recall is her just saying 'what's she taken', well wouldn't I like to know!
Just to lose all my dignity in one night, first off, I was made to stick my fingers down my throat so I could try and get whatever it was in my system, out. Matej was trying to convince Caroline to do it instead, as I wasn't doing a very good job, you know, what with all the crying and not knowing what the hell was going on. Luckily Caroline drew the line at that! So, I was being forced to be sick, I had a never ending moving jaw, and my head may aswell of been attached with one piece of string it was moving that much. I must have looked amazing. I certainly felt it. And as if that wasn't enough, now it was time for a nice cold shower... Caroline ever so kindly stripped me down, and sat me in it until I shivered into a prune. But oh no, this wasn't enough according to Matej, and I had to go in again, for about 10 more minutes. IT WAS COLD, and I was still crying. They both put me to bed but I was rolling around too much to even try and sleep. My mind was everywhere. All I can remember is that my eyes were rolling like tornado's and not one of my limbs would stay still. After I don't know how long, I decided I was hungry, the crisps in the room just were not satisfying enough and my mind was made up, I wanted a burger. I presume I may have been coming around at this point? After moaning for around half an hour inbetween getting water poured down my throat, Matej kindly went for a burger for me. Obviously, by the time he got back, I was asleep.. but I still ate it in the morning anyway and it was still just as tasty.
I still have no idea what on earth it was that I had that night, but it wasn't nice at all and certainly no glorious high involved. The fact that I can still remember pretty much everything narrows down the substance but yuuuk, awful awful night. Again, I would like to say how grateful I am for Matej being there or who knows what would have happened to me.. and also to Caroline. This would know be marked as event number 1.
After waking up and sorting myself out, I didn't feel too bad, just a little exhausted and mentally drained. As we were all talking about it, Ben pipes up that he had been spiked that night also, all because he got that pissed, he fell asleep on a park bench, lost his shoes and got carted back by the Police. Whatever ligthweight.
Right, back to travel day. I don't half go on with myself.
The 8 of us left and we all got tuk tuk's to the port and made our way to the bus station. Just getting there was a sign of things to come. There were 3 and 4 for each tuk tuk plus bags... I think everyone more or less sat on someone's else's body parts and when it got to the big hill climb, we were told to get off our tuk tuk as he tried to accelerate up it. We wondered if we would see our bags on the other side of the hill.. or whether we would see him roll back down it.. but we had a gooden' and he did well. Then we had Ben, in his own tuk tuk.
We boarded the bus to Iloilo (E-lo E-lo) and 6 hours later we were there, although I am sure I got told it took 2!
We managed to find ourself some accommodation for the night and again, sorting a room for 8 people just didn't seem to be that simple.
I thought 4 and 4 would be a good way to go?
Caroline and I put our bags in one room and waited to see which of the others would join us, preying it wouldn't be Ben. (At this stage, I know longer care what I say about Ben, and that story will follow. However, we have now discovered, Ben has a very unhealthy obsession/crush with me and we try at all costs to steer very clear of him).
Ben decides to come into our room, asks where I'm sleeping, and as I'm not in his room, he actually physically picks up my bag and starts to move it into his. Hahahahaha I don't think so son. Caroline firmly told him to do one. Weirdo. Luckily, we got Slovenia and Australia as roomies. A standard McDonald's dinner was in order and time to watch some random tv, if I remember rightly, we watched Bambi. Classic.
An early start was needed as we had to find out if we could catch the overnight boat to Cebu, and then we could get to Bohol. An early start for us lot means 11am apparently.. although, this was not particularly our fault. The room had no natural light so we all woke up thinking it was the middle of the night. The only time we saw daylight in that room was when we stuck our heads out the window and looked directly up, and also face to face with bird shit.
After checking out, we find an empty jeepney and load all 8+ bags and ourselves into it and make our way to the port. Luckily, there was a boat that night, otherwise, we would have been in a dead end city for another night watching more Disney films. As the boat didn't leave until the evening, we took another jeepney back to the city, had some lunch, stocked up on booze and loaded up another jeepney back. Anyone else fed up of the word jeepney?
The 6 boys took one cabin and Caroline and I took a lovely little private room for a bit extra so we didn't have to share with any randomers.
The boat itself, was another world. There were just masses upon masses of beds. Plain, bare bunk beds in their hundreds all over the decks. No covers, no privacy, just a bed pretty much face to face with another stinky human being. Thank god our budgets were still in tne early stages.
It was a fairly tame evening, just simply a few drinks and talking. Early night, early start.
We woke up around 7 and as we were waiting to dock, I was amazed yet also saddened by what I saw. There were around 20-30 locals in their small wooden boats begging for money. If you threw it down, they would try and catch it either in their net, or they would simply dive into the water just to catch a few measly peso's that we were willing to just throw away. Obviously, these measly peso's had much more of a meaning to them. People were doing this for around half an hour and the locals just were not giving up, you could see the desperation in their faces as they looked above waiting to see what direction they had to dive in next. Makes you really think how lucky you are sometimes.
We docked and booked our 500P ticket over to Bohol. Finally, Ben departed us, and we would now not see him until we flew from Manila to Thailand in a weeks time.
We got the 2 hour boat over to Bohol and I cannot believe I forgot about this next part. It's lucky I got my diary out as this wouldn't have seen the light of day... How oh how could I forget about NUTS HUTS!!! It even deserves it's own entire post.
Wednesday, 1 February 2012
Loco Loco Filipinos!
The fact that we were off to the Philippines was just so exciting and all of us just couldn't wait to get there and have a little 'holiday time'. We arrive at the airport and as standard on travel days, stuff our faces with a KFC which Caroline had to buy me as I had no Ringitt left and then we eagerley await our flight.
Our flight was going directly from KK into Clarke, and not Manila which was a MASSIVE mistake as it took a gruelling 3 hours on a cramped mini van to get into the 'centre' of Manila. Now Manila doesn't actually have a centre, just lot's of mini centre's in all the towns they have. We got dropped off at the Mall of Asia and again as standard on a travel day, stuffed our faces with McDonald's and got our first taster of the Filipino people and the Peso. From my previous job back in the UK we regularly had to speak to people from the Philippines and they sounded like robot Americans.. and now, I was experincing this for real! The lady at the counter who served me my large quarter pounder with cheese which probably cost around 1GBP was extremely robotic as she called me Ma'am yet she was surprisingly pleasant.
The advice we had been given was to take a meter taxi as the price would be fixed and then there would be no arguments. HA.
We wondered over to the taxi rank, gave the address which I wrote down specifically, and gave it to our designated driver. The only problem was, he had no idea what I was talking about or what he was seeing on the page. After speaking Filipino to his little mates, he was like 'OK, OK' and off we went. Before we commited to this journey we asked for the estimated price and we were told around 200/250P which was only around 3GBP and would take about 40 minutes so we hopped in and hoped he actually knew where he was going! Again, HA.
He drove and drove and drove until he finally started to ask people for directions that eventually, he knew where he was going. The total on the meter was around 240P and we all agreed to give him around 280 to save the messing around with change as we all had 70P each to give him. This is where out first encounter of 'real' Filipino's began. We went to pay and he mouthed off that he wanted 500P which we were all so startled at as it was double the price and so confused as it was a meter. He then pipes up that it's to cover the cost of the toll bridge.Off course we kick up a fuss and refuse but he is having none of it. He starts to get a bit nasty and as we go to get out the taxi he locks the door and we realise that we need to stay in incase he drives off with our bags. We start arguing more and his arguement was that we basically just need to pay but ours which is much more fair was that we showed him the address, we asked a price, we were giving him more anyway and the most important one.... he didn't tell us anything about a toll bridge costing 200P. Becky and Ben decide to get out the car and get some help from the people at the hostel and me and Caroline guard the bags in the taxi. The Filipino owner comes out and starts arguing in the rain for us and this lasts around 15minutes. Eventually... she goes to call the police, Becky and Ben get the bags from the taxi, we pay him 300P and we escape the taxi driver which the Filipino called a 'very very bad man'. What a lovely start to the 'holiday'.
We decide to spend one day in Manila before planning to make our way down south in the Visaya Islands to Boracay. And that one day was more then enough, for an entire lifetime. We had heard that in Manila if you aren't stuck in traffic, your talking about being stuck in traffic which cannot be more true!
To get to the Mall of Asia, took us an hour and a half! We had to get a tricycle, bus, and then a jeepney (Filipino version of a taxi) which are frickin awesome and only cost 8P for one journey. Although if these were come to the UK, they would get vandalised and no one would probably ever pay.. yet such a good way of getting around. Annnyyywaaayyy... once at the Mall of Asia which is too big for my liking and we had finished looking round we attempt the way home and I could have cried. Some teenage scrubber boy touched my bum then grabbed my arm so I punched him in the arm and firmly said 'don't you dare touch me' which I then realise, could have potentially got me stabbed or something. Waiting for the bus, we couldn't find the right one and were then told there was no more going back to where we wanted. We waited for half an hour and asked every single bus and they all just said NO and then luckily... we got on the right one and made the 2nd hour and half journey.
Our flight was going directly from KK into Clarke, and not Manila which was a MASSIVE mistake as it took a gruelling 3 hours on a cramped mini van to get into the 'centre' of Manila. Now Manila doesn't actually have a centre, just lot's of mini centre's in all the towns they have. We got dropped off at the Mall of Asia and again as standard on a travel day, stuffed our faces with McDonald's and got our first taster of the Filipino people and the Peso. From my previous job back in the UK we regularly had to speak to people from the Philippines and they sounded like robot Americans.. and now, I was experincing this for real! The lady at the counter who served me my large quarter pounder with cheese which probably cost around 1GBP was extremely robotic as she called me Ma'am yet she was surprisingly pleasant.
The advice we had been given was to take a meter taxi as the price would be fixed and then there would be no arguments. HA.
We wondered over to the taxi rank, gave the address which I wrote down specifically, and gave it to our designated driver. The only problem was, he had no idea what I was talking about or what he was seeing on the page. After speaking Filipino to his little mates, he was like 'OK, OK' and off we went. Before we commited to this journey we asked for the estimated price and we were told around 200/250P which was only around 3GBP and would take about 40 minutes so we hopped in and hoped he actually knew where he was going! Again, HA.
He drove and drove and drove until he finally started to ask people for directions that eventually, he knew where he was going. The total on the meter was around 240P and we all agreed to give him around 280 to save the messing around with change as we all had 70P each to give him. This is where out first encounter of 'real' Filipino's began. We went to pay and he mouthed off that he wanted 500P which we were all so startled at as it was double the price and so confused as it was a meter. He then pipes up that it's to cover the cost of the toll bridge.Off course we kick up a fuss and refuse but he is having none of it. He starts to get a bit nasty and as we go to get out the taxi he locks the door and we realise that we need to stay in incase he drives off with our bags. We start arguing more and his arguement was that we basically just need to pay but ours which is much more fair was that we showed him the address, we asked a price, we were giving him more anyway and the most important one.... he didn't tell us anything about a toll bridge costing 200P. Becky and Ben decide to get out the car and get some help from the people at the hostel and me and Caroline guard the bags in the taxi. The Filipino owner comes out and starts arguing in the rain for us and this lasts around 15minutes. Eventually... she goes to call the police, Becky and Ben get the bags from the taxi, we pay him 300P and we escape the taxi driver which the Filipino called a 'very very bad man'. What a lovely start to the 'holiday'.
We decide to spend one day in Manila before planning to make our way down south in the Visaya Islands to Boracay. And that one day was more then enough, for an entire lifetime. We had heard that in Manila if you aren't stuck in traffic, your talking about being stuck in traffic which cannot be more true!
To get to the Mall of Asia, took us an hour and a half! We had to get a tricycle, bus, and then a jeepney (Filipino version of a taxi) which are frickin awesome and only cost 8P for one journey. Although if these were come to the UK, they would get vandalised and no one would probably ever pay.. yet such a good way of getting around. Annnyyywaaayyy... once at the Mall of Asia which is too big for my liking and we had finished looking round we attempt the way home and I could have cried. Some teenage scrubber boy touched my bum then grabbed my arm so I punched him in the arm and firmly said 'don't you dare touch me' which I then realise, could have potentially got me stabbed or something. Waiting for the bus, we couldn't find the right one and were then told there was no more going back to where we wanted. We waited for half an hour and asked every single bus and they all just said NO and then luckily... we got on the right one and made the 2nd hour and half journey.
Once back, we sorted our flights out for the following day and we were Boracay bound! This is what I had waited for! PARTY TIME!
We get up early and go to find a taxi to take us to the airport but a very helpful local then advised us, after 20 minutes of walking.. that no taxi's operate that early in our area. Awesome. We then flag down 2 tricycles and get them to take us to where we can find a taxi and are instantley hassled by a local offering to help, but then it turns out, he just wanted money off us for helping.. and not a good deed of the day. The cost of the taxi was 500P and the cheeky helper wanted 100P of the 500 which the driver seemed OK with. We get a taxi and arrive at the airport and the driver asks us for money which all of us then pipe up... we have already paid you. There was a bit of a debarcle and he started screaming at us that he was going to call the police and we were shouting back as he had 500P in his hand but he was claiming this was his own money. We then ask each other, who paid him, and it turns out, no one did and it was his money and he was right. OOOOOPPPPSSS!!!
We arrive in Kalibo and then get a 2 hour bus to Cataclan and then a glorified canoe to the island of Boracay, in the rain. Where is the sun? To get to our accommodation we have to take another tricycle and it was a rather hit and miss jounrey up hill and then another argument over payment which had already been agreed. We were right on this occasion and also won on this occasion. To greet us at Frendz was the owner and a nice cold San Miguel. Becky unfortunaterly came down with a bug that night so was left alone in the room (which had been upgraded for us to a family room) with the tv on and some dry toast.
Myself, Caroline and Ben went and sat in the communal area and within 10 minutes there was 15 of us playing the card game 'Arsehole' which has now become a firm favourite thanks to Kevin ka Ireland. As there was so many of us, no one had an actual name, just country... so when anyone needed to talk to anyone it was Ireland (Kevin) Finland (Petri) Slovenia (Matej) Australia (Tyler) Montana (Peter) Canada (Eric) Tariq (London) DC..forgot his name, Lightbulb, also forgot his name and a few others but without sounding mean, not of any significance to the trip. The owner couldn't have been more friendly and after an hour, just came up and said, who want's another beer, and they were brought right over. Heaven.
That night and for the next 5 we had what I like to call a 'porch party' on Ireland and Finland's balcony porch and basically just got smashed. For a quarter bottle of rum, it was 30P.. less then 50p yet the mixer was 60P.. but I still wasn't complaining. Again, all 15 or so of us would gather round the porch and sit on whatever seat you could find and play Arsehole, Fuck the Dealer and Fire and Ice! All of which were a sure fire way to get you going the way you wanted... WASTED! Each night after the little porch party would be the usual routine of going out around 12.30/1am to one of the nightclubs and continuing the chaos to be followed by the disgusting when sober but tasty when drunk burger joint burgers on offer at 2 for 50P (I think). I shudder just thinking about those. Literally.
One thing which you shouldn't probably say to someone when you know have only known for several hours is that A) you sound common and B) becuase you sound common, you sound poor. This was Lightbulbs interpretaion of me and Caroline as we were from Manchester. I obviously kicked up a stink and believe me, he got some names back. Dick head. Oh, to be original, mine and Caroline's nicknames were me - M1, Caroline - M2. M standing for Manchester. There was clearly nothing more outstanding to clarify us to the group. Not even Blonde or Brunette. Or more significantly, tall or short.
Our second day on the Island and after no sleep and still probably drunk, Ireland and Slovenia had told us that they had hired a sailing boat for the day and that we were more than welcome to join. Which we did. Caroline wasn't feeling too well from the night before so she stayed in bed and me, Becky and Ben went along at the cost of around 2GBP for the whole day split between us all. At first everyone just brought water and snacks but then a few people grabbed some beers and then it became a DIY booze cruise. I am so glad I did this trip as we left the beach around 1pm and came back at 6 but sailed round the entire Island and saw some beautifl settings whilst necking a rum and coke. Back on the beach for sunset was one of the most amazing I have ever seen. Pink, blue, purple red, and yellow filled the sky and I was beyond snap happy!
Sadly, Becky's time was coming to end with us and on her last night, she came out and still partied hard with us, and what a night it was. Ireland being Irish, liked a good old drink and got bit carried away with himself.. so much so he thought it would have funny to pick Becky up and throw her into the sand! This did not go down well! As you can imagine. As she sorts herself out, he barges over to me, thanks to Australia, and picks me up fireman lift style, drops me in the sand and then to kick me when I'm down, throws some in my face. I actually could have punched him, but I called him some naughty words and ran to the sea, stripped off for a de cleanse of sand and went back to face the music. At this point, everyones night had gone a bit sour and Becky and to call him what everyone else does, Straaalia, plotted a plan to get him back. Staaalia called Ireland over and Becky just threw a glass of water over his head and then threw sand in his face! He didn't look happy but oh well what a shame. Myself, Caroline, Slovenia and Canada were then all sitting out the way and as Ireland walks over, Slovenia just gets his drink, and chucks it in his face again. At this point, I was worried and we we all just suddenly ran out and went down to the other end of the beach to a different club hoping ireland wouldn't follow. The rest of the group all suddenly arrived, but no Ireland so we knew it was safe and still partied til 4!
I luckily woke up at 7 the next morning, to hear Becky just about to leave and for what should have been an emotional goodbye, really wasn't. I stood up out of bed, gave her a hug, said goodbye and I think before I even turned back round, I fell back into bed and was away with the fairies. But yet again, still no hangover!
Myself and Caroline were trying to figure out what to do with our time in the Philippines as we had heard the island called Palawan was meant to be amazing but we didn't have the money to fly and it would have taken around 2 days to get there via boat. We agreed that as long as we were having fun in Boracay we would just stay and party for the full 2 weeks. However, that afternoon on the stunning beach setting we were lucky enough to be in, we were all sat in the glorious crystal turqouise sea and Slovenia had mentioned that he was leaving, and so was Straaalia. After 10 minutes, it was sealed. 6 of us, and a maybe Ireland were all leaving the following day to follow Slovenia further south to the island of Bohol.
The Travelling Part of Travelling!
A nice bright and early start for a Monday and not looking forward to the next 2 days. When we were discussing how we get to KK (Ben didn't have this problem as he took the easy way out and flew) was that we need to get the ferry to Sibu, and then a bus to Miri, spend the night there and then get another long bus straight up to KK.
The reason why this journey was such a ballache was because it consisted of this:
6.45 - up and ready for the taxi at 7.30.
8.30 - 5 hour ferry, of which I found 4 comfy seats, lay across them with my pillow and makeshift quilt (sarong) and slept for 2 hours. Also caught up with my diary, I was very proud of myself!
1.30 - off the boat and in a rush to get to the coach station... we made it with 10 minutes to spare!
Now this is where the problems start. We go to load out bags onto the bus and as there was 5 of us (2 extra's we met on the ferry) we realise there is no room what so ever for our bags on the underneath compartment of the bus... nor any room on the actual bus.
As obviously we cannot get on the bus without our lives, we ask the lady at the ticket office what on earth we can do and all of a sudden she decided that she cannot speak English.. she seemed to speak perfect English when she wanted all of our money.
At this point, we were all getting a bit worried as the bus took 10 hours and it was now 2pm. I ran around all the ticketing offices and asked if there were any more buses to Miri. At first they all said they had sold out but LUCKILY one man gabbed me (not in a rude way) and said they had seats on their bus and that it wasn't full and also that it was a VIP. For a 10 hour journey, there is no other way to travel!
Once I had this oh so important information, I ran back to the guys, said the bus was running, and at the same price and that we would need to get a refund.
This was not that easy. She refused to give us a refund and started showing us the T&Cs in Malaysian and generally refusing also to speak English. It ended with Becky shouting and swearing her, I won't repeat and she gave us our money back! PHEW. Now all we had to do was wait another hour before the next bus.
12.00 - Arrived at our guesthouse and tried to find out online how to escape Miri as we didn't want to spend any time there and after an hour of online searching and trying to ask the lady at reception who also didn't seem to speak English we gave up and went to bed with the idea that we would just get up early and try our luck.
7.00 - up again and ready to escape Miri, we get a taxi and arrive at the bus station at 7.50 and low and behold, the VIP bus straight to KK was leaving at 8! We quickly paid and hopped on.
Now, when you travel up to KK you are then leaving the lower state of Sabah in Borneo and going up north to Sarawak. So this in itself is not a problem, but when you throw in the little old country of Brunei.... it then means you have to get off the coach at TEN different check points and get your passport stamped. This is because we were entering and exiting the states that many times whilst passing though Brunei that you have to get checked at the border patrol. At first we thought this would be exciting due to extra stamps in our passports but after 2.... it just got plain boring.
To pass some time we started talking to the guy on the bus who ran the operation and discovered that he didn't know what freckles were and that he didn't like white skin, only girls with chocolate skin. Well if the sun actually bloody shone, maybe I would have nice chocolate skin!!!
The bus was also really really bumpy and we potentially spent more time flying out of our seats that actually sat in them! It was more like a bad fairground ride than a VIP bus journey.
7.00pm - finally arrived in KK! However, the difficulties have not ended, not that it's major but major enough after the journey we had just encountered.
We got given a room, found it, opened the door and almost died! The smell was what I can only describe as vicious. As there was 3 of us, she had opened up a private room for 4 and let us stay in that... the guy in there already was to blame. I actually couldn't physically enter the room without holding my nose and Becky made some very absurd noises just to re iterate how much it stank. Even the lady that showed us the room was embarrassed and immediately went to get an air freshener as the room had no windows. Later on we learn that the smelly guy had actually just come back from 2 days climbing Mount KK and that's what the smell was. Obviously, we wouldn't have been so rude had he just explained but we generally just thought, he was a very stinky boy!
Then it was a pizza hut and bedtime!!!
Our time in KK wasn't overly exciting as we weren't doing any mountain climbing there wasn't actually that much to do. We spent one day just lazing around to recover from the past 2 days and then we were actually productive and did some sight seeing on Mamutik Island.
Mamutik Island was absolutely lovely and amazing that it was only 10 minutes by boat away from the city... it's just a shame that the storm had to start within 30 minutes of arriving. We got some nice photo's in though so that's all that matters.. as long as it looks nice!
Another lazy evening in the hostel and it was all preparations go for the morning, something which I was very much looking forward to!
Back at home my friend Jess had mentioned to me that her friend had stayed somewhere north in Borneo and absolutely loved it and that she would pass the details on to me for when I was there. That she did, and I cannot be more grateful. Jess put me in touch with Howard who runs a newly built eco retreat right at the tip of Borneo in place called Kudat. Over the previous few days I had been emailing Howard to see how it would work if all 4 of us were to go up there and potentially volunteer in exchange for some accommodation and Howard had agreed to have us for 4 nights.
Our journey up to Kudat itself was average, no working seatbelts, the driver was driving whilst eating sweetcorn and talking on his mobile phone not to mention non working wind screen wipers, of which you need in torrential rain! So we were extremely glad to get off and wait for Howard to come and collect us.
Howard arrived in his big green truck and the journey began. We all shoved our backpacks and ourselves onto the back and sat and enjoyed the scenery on the 30 minute journey to the retreat.
Without sounding like a massive geek or soppy weirdo, this is one of those times where I had a moment and thought 'wow'. We were driving along the road in the back of a rickety old truck, watching the gorgeous lush rainforest and I couldn't have been happier. One moment it chucked it down with rain and then it would stop and then continue but only in one spot, but it didn't matter about getting wet as I was actually taking in 'real Borneo'.
We arrived at Howard's place, Tampat Do Aman (www.tampatdoaman.com) and we were all instantly impressed. He gave us the grand tour of the grounds and what he was achieving was beautiful. Although the project was still in it's early stages, you could see the potential and the brilliance of Howard's people not just for tourists but for the local Rungus people.
The whole project was being built by locals with all local materials and Howard was even building within the grounds a Rungus Cultural Centre which had only just started when we arrived. The 12 room Longhouse, communal area, 2 long drop toilets and shower block had already been sensitively completed and I can only imagine what the place will look like once finished.
Our time up at TDA was a time in which we all experienced new things and a time which I really appreciate.
We didn't get up to anything crazy but it was just nice to chill out and feel like you were helping something worth while.
As soon as we arrived we got taken down to Tip Top restaurant apart of TDA and had some lovely lunch sat right on the bunch. We were then told to just go and enjoy ourselves so had a quick bathe in the lovely warm waters.
To gain our accommodation we were to help Howard with the smaller bits to help the project come along. Our first day at 'work' was spent making signs for the bike trail and hacking up cocounts with a machete to make decorations for the communal area back at the longhouse.
Ben started with cutting up the wood, Caroline and Becky taped all sides ready for paint, and I painted all the signs blue ready for the instructions. I think Howard only wanted about 15, but we made around 25!
Whilst waiting for the signs to dry is was machete time! At first it was rather scary being entrusted with such a piece of equipment but once you got the hang of how to use it, you just imagine it's someones head and the coconuts were getting smashed in record time. Once this was complete, by us 3 girls I might add... Ben then drilled holes in them ready to hang which turned out to be slightly dangerous as Ben wouldn't always look at what he was doing which when you hold an electric drill.. isn't the brightest idea and I have photo evidence to prove it!
It was then time to add on the directions for the signs and we were finished for the day.
Howard would always pick us up in the morning, take us to Tip Top for breakfast and then always bring us back to get changed and then back from food and then back again at night... one of the nicest people I think we have all met.
Our second day at 'work' was hardly work and as soon as we got to TT for breakfast, we were told to take a walk and go and see the tip of Borneo which was a 45 minute walk up the beach and then back.. not to mention photo time but it was worth it. Such beautiful views! After our tiresome walk Howard came back and we pulled together all the signs ready for Howard to hammer up around the bike trail. All we needed to do was pass them to him and tell him whether the position was right or wrong! He then took us to a local village and again, it was so nice to see something 'real'.
We waded through mud and cow poop and met a few locals whilst seeing all the children play football, with a flat ball and even though compared to our standards, didn't have much, they all looked so happy and full of life.
Ben and another guest at TDA, Henry, decided to cycle around that day and hahahaha what a big mistake that was.. they got lost and probably cycled about 2 hours more than they needed to. It actually took Howard to asking the locals if they had seen '2 white guys on bikes' to find them!
For those who are still actually reading (and thank you, by the way) I am going to try and wrap this last part up.. I know I say this alot but I am actually going to try.
Our last day in Kudat was meant to be spent enjoying a nice leisurely snorkel at one of the lovely beaches with Henry as our guide. Snorkel we kind of did, but have fun we did not. We all walked over to the beach and in all honesty it didn't look like great snorkelling conditions due to quite high rips in the waves but we thought we would try anyway. It wasn't the most comfortable walk as the coral was quite sharp but we still persisted. As we started to enter the water I was already feeling a bit uncomfortable and luckily Henry was there for all of us to give us a helping hand over the more slippy rocks!
I took a bit of a step back as I was completely out of my comfort zone but the others went on. I decided to stop going forward with this stupid escapade and started making way way back to shore. Once I stood up, I could then see the severity of the waves and the actual danger that Caroline, Becky and Henry were in. Caroline was furthest out and all I could do was watch. Next thing I could just see the fear on Becky's face and knew that she was in trouble. Thank god that Henry was there as I actually do no know what would have happened as she was getting smashed around so much that I don't think she had any energy or power left to get back. After about 10 minutes of seeing them all struggle they made it out of the danger zone and started making their way back, apart from the fact that I could see blood pouring down Becky's leg.
As they all came nearer I could see the extent of everyone's scratches and cuts and kind of felt bad that I just stood there and watched it all. We made our way back to the beach and I tried to make it back to TDA to get Howard and see if he could pick the 3 of them up as Becky's leg was quite bad and she was in alot of pain. I walked/ran the journey back which took me around 25minutes and Howard wasn't there. The only thing I could do was gather medical supplies from TT and wait for them to return and play nurse by bandaging them all up.
Henry was a typical boy and said he was fine, but the 2 girls needed lots of plasters and cover ups to stop any form of infection as coral ones can be quite nasty. To top it off, poor old Becky had scratches all over her bottom!!!
Such a nice day at the beach!
As our final job for Howard we eventually made all the coconuts we had hacked up into hanging ones. This meant drilling more holes in the bottom for the water to drain, inserting rope into the original holes so they could hang and filling the middle with leaves and compost for the flowers to grow into once hung. We didn't really do that much work for Howard in the time that we were there but I think we made a slight difference and hope he agrees.
Overall, our time with Howard can only be described as an amazing experience right in the heart of Borneo jungle and I would love to go back one day when TDA is complete and see the outcome of what Howard is working so hard for!
Morning after coral gate and it's yet another travel day. Howard kindly takes us back into Kudat and we make our way back to KK for our flight to the PHILIPPINES...
The reason why this journey was such a ballache was because it consisted of this:
6.45 - up and ready for the taxi at 7.30.
8.30 - 5 hour ferry, of which I found 4 comfy seats, lay across them with my pillow and makeshift quilt (sarong) and slept for 2 hours. Also caught up with my diary, I was very proud of myself!
1.30 - off the boat and in a rush to get to the coach station... we made it with 10 minutes to spare!
Now this is where the problems start. We go to load out bags onto the bus and as there was 5 of us (2 extra's we met on the ferry) we realise there is no room what so ever for our bags on the underneath compartment of the bus... nor any room on the actual bus.
As obviously we cannot get on the bus without our lives, we ask the lady at the ticket office what on earth we can do and all of a sudden she decided that she cannot speak English.. she seemed to speak perfect English when she wanted all of our money.
At this point, we were all getting a bit worried as the bus took 10 hours and it was now 2pm. I ran around all the ticketing offices and asked if there were any more buses to Miri. At first they all said they had sold out but LUCKILY one man gabbed me (not in a rude way) and said they had seats on their bus and that it wasn't full and also that it was a VIP. For a 10 hour journey, there is no other way to travel!
Once I had this oh so important information, I ran back to the guys, said the bus was running, and at the same price and that we would need to get a refund.
This was not that easy. She refused to give us a refund and started showing us the T&Cs in Malaysian and generally refusing also to speak English. It ended with Becky shouting and swearing her, I won't repeat and she gave us our money back! PHEW. Now all we had to do was wait another hour before the next bus.
12.00 - Arrived at our guesthouse and tried to find out online how to escape Miri as we didn't want to spend any time there and after an hour of online searching and trying to ask the lady at reception who also didn't seem to speak English we gave up and went to bed with the idea that we would just get up early and try our luck.
7.00 - up again and ready to escape Miri, we get a taxi and arrive at the bus station at 7.50 and low and behold, the VIP bus straight to KK was leaving at 8! We quickly paid and hopped on.
Now, when you travel up to KK you are then leaving the lower state of Sabah in Borneo and going up north to Sarawak. So this in itself is not a problem, but when you throw in the little old country of Brunei.... it then means you have to get off the coach at TEN different check points and get your passport stamped. This is because we were entering and exiting the states that many times whilst passing though Brunei that you have to get checked at the border patrol. At first we thought this would be exciting due to extra stamps in our passports but after 2.... it just got plain boring.
To pass some time we started talking to the guy on the bus who ran the operation and discovered that he didn't know what freckles were and that he didn't like white skin, only girls with chocolate skin. Well if the sun actually bloody shone, maybe I would have nice chocolate skin!!!
The bus was also really really bumpy and we potentially spent more time flying out of our seats that actually sat in them! It was more like a bad fairground ride than a VIP bus journey.
7.00pm - finally arrived in KK! However, the difficulties have not ended, not that it's major but major enough after the journey we had just encountered.
We got given a room, found it, opened the door and almost died! The smell was what I can only describe as vicious. As there was 3 of us, she had opened up a private room for 4 and let us stay in that... the guy in there already was to blame. I actually couldn't physically enter the room without holding my nose and Becky made some very absurd noises just to re iterate how much it stank. Even the lady that showed us the room was embarrassed and immediately went to get an air freshener as the room had no windows. Later on we learn that the smelly guy had actually just come back from 2 days climbing Mount KK and that's what the smell was. Obviously, we wouldn't have been so rude had he just explained but we generally just thought, he was a very stinky boy!
Then it was a pizza hut and bedtime!!!
Our time in KK wasn't overly exciting as we weren't doing any mountain climbing there wasn't actually that much to do. We spent one day just lazing around to recover from the past 2 days and then we were actually productive and did some sight seeing on Mamutik Island.
Mamutik Island was absolutely lovely and amazing that it was only 10 minutes by boat away from the city... it's just a shame that the storm had to start within 30 minutes of arriving. We got some nice photo's in though so that's all that matters.. as long as it looks nice!
Another lazy evening in the hostel and it was all preparations go for the morning, something which I was very much looking forward to!
Back at home my friend Jess had mentioned to me that her friend had stayed somewhere north in Borneo and absolutely loved it and that she would pass the details on to me for when I was there. That she did, and I cannot be more grateful. Jess put me in touch with Howard who runs a newly built eco retreat right at the tip of Borneo in place called Kudat. Over the previous few days I had been emailing Howard to see how it would work if all 4 of us were to go up there and potentially volunteer in exchange for some accommodation and Howard had agreed to have us for 4 nights.
Our journey up to Kudat itself was average, no working seatbelts, the driver was driving whilst eating sweetcorn and talking on his mobile phone not to mention non working wind screen wipers, of which you need in torrential rain! So we were extremely glad to get off and wait for Howard to come and collect us.
Howard arrived in his big green truck and the journey began. We all shoved our backpacks and ourselves onto the back and sat and enjoyed the scenery on the 30 minute journey to the retreat.
Without sounding like a massive geek or soppy weirdo, this is one of those times where I had a moment and thought 'wow'. We were driving along the road in the back of a rickety old truck, watching the gorgeous lush rainforest and I couldn't have been happier. One moment it chucked it down with rain and then it would stop and then continue but only in one spot, but it didn't matter about getting wet as I was actually taking in 'real Borneo'.
We arrived at Howard's place, Tampat Do Aman (www.tampatdoaman.com) and we were all instantly impressed. He gave us the grand tour of the grounds and what he was achieving was beautiful. Although the project was still in it's early stages, you could see the potential and the brilliance of Howard's people not just for tourists but for the local Rungus people.
The whole project was being built by locals with all local materials and Howard was even building within the grounds a Rungus Cultural Centre which had only just started when we arrived. The 12 room Longhouse, communal area, 2 long drop toilets and shower block had already been sensitively completed and I can only imagine what the place will look like once finished.
Our time up at TDA was a time in which we all experienced new things and a time which I really appreciate.
We didn't get up to anything crazy but it was just nice to chill out and feel like you were helping something worth while.
As soon as we arrived we got taken down to Tip Top restaurant apart of TDA and had some lovely lunch sat right on the bunch. We were then told to just go and enjoy ourselves so had a quick bathe in the lovely warm waters.
To gain our accommodation we were to help Howard with the smaller bits to help the project come along. Our first day at 'work' was spent making signs for the bike trail and hacking up cocounts with a machete to make decorations for the communal area back at the longhouse.
Ben started with cutting up the wood, Caroline and Becky taped all sides ready for paint, and I painted all the signs blue ready for the instructions. I think Howard only wanted about 15, but we made around 25!
Whilst waiting for the signs to dry is was machete time! At first it was rather scary being entrusted with such a piece of equipment but once you got the hang of how to use it, you just imagine it's someones head and the coconuts were getting smashed in record time. Once this was complete, by us 3 girls I might add... Ben then drilled holes in them ready to hang which turned out to be slightly dangerous as Ben wouldn't always look at what he was doing which when you hold an electric drill.. isn't the brightest idea and I have photo evidence to prove it!
It was then time to add on the directions for the signs and we were finished for the day.
Howard would always pick us up in the morning, take us to Tip Top for breakfast and then always bring us back to get changed and then back from food and then back again at night... one of the nicest people I think we have all met.
Our second day at 'work' was hardly work and as soon as we got to TT for breakfast, we were told to take a walk and go and see the tip of Borneo which was a 45 minute walk up the beach and then back.. not to mention photo time but it was worth it. Such beautiful views! After our tiresome walk Howard came back and we pulled together all the signs ready for Howard to hammer up around the bike trail. All we needed to do was pass them to him and tell him whether the position was right or wrong! He then took us to a local village and again, it was so nice to see something 'real'.
We waded through mud and cow poop and met a few locals whilst seeing all the children play football, with a flat ball and even though compared to our standards, didn't have much, they all looked so happy and full of life.
Ben and another guest at TDA, Henry, decided to cycle around that day and hahahaha what a big mistake that was.. they got lost and probably cycled about 2 hours more than they needed to. It actually took Howard to asking the locals if they had seen '2 white guys on bikes' to find them!
For those who are still actually reading (and thank you, by the way) I am going to try and wrap this last part up.. I know I say this alot but I am actually going to try.
Our last day in Kudat was meant to be spent enjoying a nice leisurely snorkel at one of the lovely beaches with Henry as our guide. Snorkel we kind of did, but have fun we did not. We all walked over to the beach and in all honesty it didn't look like great snorkelling conditions due to quite high rips in the waves but we thought we would try anyway. It wasn't the most comfortable walk as the coral was quite sharp but we still persisted. As we started to enter the water I was already feeling a bit uncomfortable and luckily Henry was there for all of us to give us a helping hand over the more slippy rocks!
I took a bit of a step back as I was completely out of my comfort zone but the others went on. I decided to stop going forward with this stupid escapade and started making way way back to shore. Once I stood up, I could then see the severity of the waves and the actual danger that Caroline, Becky and Henry were in. Caroline was furthest out and all I could do was watch. Next thing I could just see the fear on Becky's face and knew that she was in trouble. Thank god that Henry was there as I actually do no know what would have happened as she was getting smashed around so much that I don't think she had any energy or power left to get back. After about 10 minutes of seeing them all struggle they made it out of the danger zone and started making their way back, apart from the fact that I could see blood pouring down Becky's leg.
As they all came nearer I could see the extent of everyone's scratches and cuts and kind of felt bad that I just stood there and watched it all. We made our way back to the beach and I tried to make it back to TDA to get Howard and see if he could pick the 3 of them up as Becky's leg was quite bad and she was in alot of pain. I walked/ran the journey back which took me around 25minutes and Howard wasn't there. The only thing I could do was gather medical supplies from TT and wait for them to return and play nurse by bandaging them all up.
Henry was a typical boy and said he was fine, but the 2 girls needed lots of plasters and cover ups to stop any form of infection as coral ones can be quite nasty. To top it off, poor old Becky had scratches all over her bottom!!!
Such a nice day at the beach!
As our final job for Howard we eventually made all the coconuts we had hacked up into hanging ones. This meant drilling more holes in the bottom for the water to drain, inserting rope into the original holes so they could hang and filling the middle with leaves and compost for the flowers to grow into once hung. We didn't really do that much work for Howard in the time that we were there but I think we made a slight difference and hope he agrees.
Overall, our time with Howard can only be described as an amazing experience right in the heart of Borneo jungle and I would love to go back one day when TDA is complete and see the outcome of what Howard is working so hard for!
Morning after coral gate and it's yet another travel day. Howard kindly takes us back into Kudat and we make our way back to KK for our flight to the PHILIPPINES...
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