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...
More Lovely Borneo...
For those of you who actually read this, you will notice that I am not quite the avid blogger who keeps their blog up to date. My last update was in Thailand, probably early January as I remember I was in Chiang Mai and I was writing about Borneo. I still have Borneo to bore you with, and not to mention the Philippines, Thailand and Laos as I am currently sat on a bus at the Cambodian border waiting for the grumpy little man to get back on with everyone's passports! Caroline ever so kindly charged her laptop for me so I could sit and finish this off, only 10 hours in the sweltering heat to go :) But it beats reading the book I've had for over a month and only got to chapter 6 (Caroline started reading it 2 days ago.... and has already finished it).
My last entry was about our day trip to Kubah National Park and as we worked oh so hard, we decided Saturday was a rest day and nothing to traumatic to the body as my legs and bum were killing me! As to not completely waste the day we decided to get up and go and see some cave (don't ask me what the name of it was) but it was something productive to do instead of moping round the hostel. *My diary has just informed me it was the Wind and Fairy cave we were wanting to go and see.* We walked into town and found the right bus which would take us to Bau where we could then get another bus from to take us to the cave. The journey was beyond bumpy and lasted for well over an hour. Arriving at Bau was interesting... we were dropped off in a tiny car park with no buses and as I tried to ask people for information they just looked at me as if I were an alien so I could sense the day not going well. Caroline went to ask in the taxi rank about buses and by this point, at around 2pm (yes.. we were slow starters) the last bus back from Bau to the city was at 3.30pm which overall made no sense for us to even attempt it. As all four of us just stood there in the horrible dry heat the decision didn't even have to be discussed.. we ran for the bus that dropped us off and just made it back on. Now another hour journey all the way back. What a great day!!!
For those of you who know me well, you know, I do NOT eat seafood unless I'm at home and I can eat tuna from a tin caked in vinegar on only a sandwich with just butter. As Caroline, Becky and myself went out for lunch we stopped off at a local market and we got noodle soup which what I thought only contained meat. I could see some pork and beef and what I thought was a weird chicken/turkey looking meat. Becky and Caroline both made the comment that it tasted a little fishy but I couldn't taste it so I disregarded the comment. Caroline then said it again and as I had no more meat left apart from the chicken/turkey thing.. I knew instantly as I swallowed..... FISH. They had BOTH known that it was crab and had let me eat it. Most of these things tend to be mind over matter as when I was eating it previously I couldn't taste anything but as soon as I ate it separately.. it nearly made me sick as the taste of it was just like the smell! But, at least I can say I ate fish!
I don't usually type this out as a day by day thing but that evening is definitely one to be written about or it might be one of those things that isn't actually funny to read and you just 'had to be there' but I will do it anyway.
It was a quiet Saturday night in the hostel and everyone took some alone time to do individual things as that is when I actually did my first post on here (it took me about 2 hours) and I had the joy of listening to some girl singing horrifically from the ground floor to serenade my typing. Freaks everywhere!
Anyway to wrap this day up, I went up to the 3rd floor of our hostel and started chatting to Becky over several cups of tea whilst I feebly wrote entries in my diary (Yep, behind on that aswell) and she sat sewing her country badges onto her bag.. what a rocking night in Kuching! As the night progressed the scissors came out and Becky cut up our Angry Bird t-shirts that we had bought in the day. For those of you who have been to Malaysia you will know they are utterly obsessed with Angry Birds and if you want any sort of merchandise with the design on, you can have it. Bags, t-shirts, stationary, shoes, suitcases, fabrics... you name it, they have it! Once the customising of the t-shirts had finished, this is where the night goes a bit weird and what we now call Ninja night! Becky decided to place one of the scraps of fabric round her head like a headband, so I followed suit and then Caroline pickling up whatever scraps we had. Next it was armbands and wristbands and we were all suddenly stood there in our t-shirts with scrap fabric round our heads, arms and hands posing in any way we could. We probably made it last a good hour and luckily no one saw us as that would have been totally embarrassing! Although it's not like we don't have photographic evidence! Maybe not that funny to read but the photo's might help lighten the story!
<Our last day in Kuching before we moved up north was spent in Bako National Park. Becky took the 'day off' and stayed in bed and Caroline, Ben and myself got up at 6 and were at the bus stop for 7 for the first bus. Does the first bus ever arrive on time? NO! We had to wait a good 30minutes and when the bus finally arrived it was perfect timing for a nap as the journey was to take an hour. We arrived at the reception and paid our entrance and boat fee's to take us over to the National Park and had to walk from ankle deep water over to the beach. At the reception point, you pick which trails you decide you want to do and tell the rangers as if you don't return, they know which trails to check first. We decided to do a 3 hour round trip to T Pandan Kecil Beach first and then an hour and a half round trip to T Paku.
I actually really enjoyed the walks at Bako as they were alot easier than at Kubah due to the fact we had the sea breeze and that it was more open air. On our second walk back we managed to see some Proboscis and Langurs monkeys in their natural habitat so we just stood quietly and watched them for a bit. At 3pm we were all absolutely drained and got the boat back ready for the bus back to Kuching. Whilst waiting I got proposed to by a man with no teeth but surprisingly I said maybe to (he had his own boat, not quite the yacht I'm after but we all have to start somewhere). Ironically shortly after we saw a newlywed couple walk down the jetty and as I went to take a photo, she had an amazing white lace dress, she was happy to pose for me and as they left on their boat, she was still happy to semi pose and waved at everyone from afar.. she looked so happy. And so did the husband.
Our last night in Kuching was spent trying to sort out our next move and grumpy old Ben 'banned' me and Becky from talking to each other in our happy hyper mode as we were disrupting organisational time... grinch! Us hardcore girls decided to do it the real way and Ben decided to fly (only as we couldn't afford to) and we would just meet back up in Kota Kinabalu aka KK the capital in a few days as that's how long it would take us to get there. God I just hate the actual travelling part of travelling...
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