Wednesday, 1 February 2012
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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Saturday, 7 January 2012
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?
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
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| Caroline in A&E after nasty Mr Jellyfish |
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| A dead Jellyfish we found which I abused with the worst shoes on the planet...crocs!!! |
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