Beautiful Borneo. Kuching, Matang Wildlife Sanctuary and Kubah National Park

Hhhmmm OK, so I haven't updated this for quite some time and even now I have been sat here procrastinating for well over an hour trying not to do this. After leaving it so long blogging just feels like homework and something I just do not want to do but I have started the process so I shall finish. It is now January 7th so a whole month since I have even updated this thing and I have travelled through Borneo, the Philippines, and some of Thailand..... I think I might have sore fingers by the time I get through this but let's just do baby steps and get Borneo out the way! Where to even start?!

We left Langkawi on (let me check my diary) 23rd November at 6.30am. Myself, Caroline, Becky and Ben got a taxi to the port where we had an hour boat to catch over to the mainland at Kuala Perlis. We then luckily managed to get a VIP coach within 15 minutes and that baby took us a whole working 9 hour day to get back to Kuala Lumpur. We obviously need food at this point so McDonald's it is. (We are always allowed McD's on travel day's.. it makes us feel better.. and then horrible 5 minutes after eating). We then take 3 short metro trains.. by the way.. lugging your entire life round the busy stations of KL in rush hour is not fun especially when the damn ticket machines decide not to work and you have to que for a stupid refund!
After the 3 short metro trains we have to take another bus which takes half an hour and then we finally reach the airport! By this time... it's probably around 9pm... we check our bags in and eagerly await our flight to Kuching. Our flight was slightly delayed by around 30 minutes but amazingly.. we still arrive on time. The flight arrived at 12.30 am and tired just doesn't cut it. I felt like someone had thrown me in a bush.. dragged me backwards and then made me run round an Olympic track. We haggled a taxi to our hostel - Nomad's, and safely arrived at 1.30am. We all crawled in bed at 1.40am and it was lights out. No messing around that night!

We spent our first day in Kuching just checking out the city and getting our bearings with nothing overly exciting to report on. We took a walk down the river and just generally took in the sights. 
As there was so much to do in Borneo we then had the challenge of picking what activities/National Parks we would attempt first (hard life travelling). We decided on doing the Matang Wildlife Centre where they have Orangutans and then doing Kubah National Park which wasn't far from the Wildlife Centre. Let's get some scenery on the go!

In the city we took a taxi as the public transport wasn't that overly accesible and I must say, he was the best taxi driver, ever! His name was Bong.. yes.. you read correctly, probably around 60.. looked nothing like his ID so he could have been anyone yet he had no teeth. (Oh I love a man with no teeth) He was that cute I could have hugged him. He barely spoke English but took us all the way to the Wildlife Centre for (I really can't remember how much and I didn't write it in my diary..argh) but anyway it was cheap. He kindly offered to wait for us until we had finished and then he would take us to the National Park.

Flip flop's were definately not advisable for this walk so I had to make the tough decision of getting my brand spanking new WHITE converse dirty... and it was muddy. After the first splash of mud though.. I embraced it. Slightly. 

As we walked around the sanctuary we came across all kinds of wildlife including Crocodiles, some birds, Bearcats, another fluffy thing that I can't recall the name of, some Borneon Gibbon Monkeys and finally... the 2 baby Orangutans!

We must have spent about half an hour just watching them play as they were so child like it was hilarious. One was slightly more dosile than the other and just kept falling everywhere and then the other would try to fight with it. There was also an extremely large Orangutan in a seprate cage which if I am honest, did not look happy in life at all. It sat it in the corner of it's cage and just didn't want to interact at all let alone look at anyone. Again, I just wanted to give it a cuddle and make it all better. :(

We carried on walking arond and came across the Sunbears which we couldn't actually see that well so there isn't actually really any point of me mentioning these as I have nothing to mention as I don't really know what they even look like, apart from that they are black.

Once we were satisfied we had seen what we wanted from the Orangutan's we came back outside and Bong was still there waiting for us, bless him... and he drive us all the way to Kubah National Park which probably took around half an hour. Thank god we left when we did though as the heavens completely opened and I was the only muppett without any waterproofs! He also made sure we had stuff to eat for the trek in the park so took us to the nearest shop where we stocked up on the trusty..... crisp sandwiches. We had all become rather accustomed to these over the past few days when travelling as A - they are easy to carry B - cheap and C - freakishly tasty when you get the right flavour crisps!

At the National Park we decided our route and went for the waterfall route as it was only 3 hours.. yes.. only! I asked the lady at the park if she had any spre waterproofs or any for sale and she said no... so she kindly offered me her own umbrella from her car.. again... bless... everyone is just so darn nice! This umbrella was actually perfect for me as it was one of those big ones so it was more like a walking stick aswell :) This came in handy for the decent up!!!

To even get to to the trail we had to make our way up a 1000m uphill 'stroll'. As Caroline and Ben seemed to power on, me and Becky were not finding the strenous journey too easy. My walking stick made a little difference so therefore Becky wanted a stick. She found a massive tree branch and decided to use that but after 3/4 minutes decided it was too heavy and gave up so 2 tree branches that she wanted to use for wings also lasted about a minute! However... luck was on our side and the park rangers drove past so we hopped in and cheated about 200m of the way just to make up time to catch up to Caroline and Ben! God send.

The walk to the waterfall itself was 'interesting'. Up steps, down steps, around steps.. but when I say steps... I mean rickety pieces of wood covered in slippy as hell moss about to fall apart! It was hard work! Poor Becky aswell just did not appreciate the fact that sweat was dripping from her chin... who thought sweat could even start to drip from your chin? Infact, we all had sweat just dripping from everywhere!

After an hour of what I would call 'hardcore' trekking.. we reach the waterfall and .... what a let down. You couldn't even go in it.. only paddle and it wasn't overly safe to go and climb near it for a decent photo. The one thing that did interest me though was my sad little quest to take a picture of a massive ant.. now I know ants aren't generally or at all interesting.. but this bad boy was huge so I wanted a photo.. only.... on my mission.. I slipped.. fell... arse first into a puddle. Ow. The only thing I was was worried about was my camera as everything had flung out of it. I didn't care about myself... just my camera..  and luckily both of us were OK. After everyone has realised I was OK.. it was appropriate for them to start laughing at the fact I had a wet arse and fell over trying to take a picture of an ant!!!

After talking the generic waterfall shots we sit down, have a second dose of crisp sandwiches and biscuits as a desert and make the journey back. The journey back was a bit more delightful and really didn't take much time at all even though sweat was still dripping from every single orafice and Becky didn't half want us to know it :) Becky loves sweat! At one point, we had to shout at Ben due to the fact that he was leaving us 3 behind and storming off. Now I know we all wanted to get back but rule number 1 on a group expedition... don't leave any men behind! And after 3 girls screaming the same thing, he should now know this for the future!

Back at the top we had a half an hour wait for Bong so the lady at the office called him and he came within 10 minutes! I have just found out from Caroline the price we actually paid him and I feel so bad. He drove us round all day, waited for hours and we paid him 120 RM. Thinking back now, this was only £24, so £6 each.. and that was even with a tip. He seemed so happy when we gave him the money so I guess he also had a nice day! Thank you Bong!

Nothing really exciting happened in the hostel in Kuching, we just had to make our own fun as it was so quiet so we did the standard.... shower.... internet.. night market for food, film and bed. ROCK ON!


I have literally just remembered the most important thing about Kuching... on the Thursday, our first full day, a massive group of Australians came into the hostel who were on a trip called 'World Challenge'. We got talking to one of the leader's as he was English and he was giving us tips about Borneo etc as he had been there many times before. We bump into him just after we had eaten and spent around an hour talking to him...... more than enough. He was the weirdest fellow you could ever wish to meet. To say he was Mr Macho is the biggest understatment of the Millennium. When we asked him what he did, he was so shady and secretive it made us ask more. If I remember correctly, I think he said he used to do mountaineering, be in some sort of rescue service, MI5 or whatever it is as MI6 doesn't actually exist? He was also in the Army, fought in a few wars, had gone to Africa and had his leg chopped with a machete but he didn't know it. He has a gated house somewhere in the UK, location not to be disclosed. He has 10 cars, most of which are Porche's, a few 4x4 run arounds just to get him by. He loves is £900 titanium knife sets, he doesn't watch tv, he has no friends, yet when you ask him where he is from, he will simply say EARTH. Do I need to say anymore on the subject of Mark?

Langkawi Photo's

Caroline in A&E after nasty Mr Jellyfish

A dead Jellyfish we found which I abused with the worst shoes on the planet...crocs!!!