Day 1: Morning bus from Kuta to Ubud and we met a young German guy called Sebastian on the way. He was also travelling alone so tagged along with us as we found a guesthouse.
After checking in, myself and Sebastian went for a walk around Ubud to get our bearings. Unlike Kuta, my first impressions of Ubud were good - lots of nice architecture and some small temples. The streets are also lined with animal sculptures, religious offerings and a very strong smell of incense, which is both pleasant and quite overwhelming at the same time.
After checking out the main streets, I met up with Jay for some food before heading down to check out the Monkey Forest Sanctuary. I've obviously seen a lot of Monkeys on my trip so far but still haven't tired of them and was keen to see what the Jungle Mafia would get up to this time.
When I arrived at the sanctuary, the amount of Macaques hanging about was huge - well over a hundred of them. There's locals selling Bananas at the entrance but I decided against feeding them after seeing how aggressive they had been on previous encounters. After walking around the sanctuary for an hour, I was proved right as several of them starting attacking this Japanese guy by scratching at his face and neck. I thought it was unprovoked initially but then watched again to find he had an entire bag full of Bananas and was refusing to release them from his hand, even when 2 Monkeys were trying to prize it open. Needless to say, he had it coming.
The sanctuary itself is pretty cool and has a really nice Temple inside. I had to walk around constantly on my guard though as they are liable to go for anything loose or hanging from your clothing. One guy had one sitting on his lap for 10 minutes, who became very agitated if he tried to move. His mate had to get one of the employees to help him. There were also a number of Macaques who loved swimming in the dirty streams and then didn't mind launching themselves at you once they were muddy and soaking wet. Pretty funny but also quite disconcerting at the same time.
Afterwards, the 3 of us booked a Volcano climb of Mount Batur for the following morning. In order to see the sunrise, it would mean getting up at 2am. Once again, it better be worth it!
That evening, I went to check out some traditional Balinese Dancing. Udud is famous for being the main place in Bali to see it so I was quite keen to see what all the fuss was about. I wasn't sure it would be my thing but was pleasantly surprised and really enjoyed the Legong performance. It lasts for about an hour and a half and the dance tells some sort of story (although I'm convinced that nobody in the crowd had a clue what was going on). The performance was very dramatic and also pretty creepy as the dancers make their eyes bulge and exaggerate their movements in time with the music. It's pretty weird but definately entertaining and everyone enjoyed the show. Thankfully, the rain just about held off as well.
Then it was bed for me - extremely early start.
Day 2: We all managed to get up at 2am for the transfer to the foot of the Mt Batur. Once there, we met a nice French guy called Olivier and all enjoyed our 3am pancake breakfast.
We then set off on the climb with our guide Eddie. It was fairly tricky but much easier than Mount Kinabalu and we were able to go up pretty gradually. Still managed to build up quite a sweat though! We reached the summit at about 5.30am to get some great views of the Volcano and also Mount Agung, the largest mountain in Bali. We were also able to see a huge patch of dried Lava from the last eruption 40 years ago. We asked Eddie if they had any idea when the next one would be but he wasn't sure - hopefully not today!
At the summit, we each had a Coffee and some boiled eggs that were cooked using the hot steam of the volcano - pretty cool (pardon the pun). We then watched another rather disappointing sunrise, which seems to keep happening to me. Again, this one was covered by clouds and therefore sort of defeats the object of setting off so early. Never mind - was quite fun climbing up in the dark.
If the climb up was easy, the climb down most definately wasn't. It's basically loads of volcanic ash, which is less than stable underfoot and required a skiing type technique to get down at any sort of speed. It took us a few hours to get back down and we saw even more Macaques on our way, hanging around for food no doubt. A few stumbles later, we reached the bottom before getting our transfer back to Ubud. An enjoyable climb and some fantastic views but an 8am start would have probably been just as good - I need to see a pretty amazing sunrise to re-establish my faith in them I think.
That afternoon, all trying to delay the impending tiredness, myself, Sebastian and Olivier decided to embark on one of the recommended nature walks around Ubud (why we thought that was a good idea after a 2am Volcano climb, I do not know). Anyway, we set off and could instantly see why it had been so recommended as we walked between dozens of rice paddies and coconut trees. Fantastic scenery and it started as a pretty enjoyable walk.
However, we soon managed to get ourselves lost (Sebastian was in charge of the map) and having to ask the local villagers for directions to get back to Ubud. All feeling pretty tired at this point, we eventually made our way back and then headed for a restaurant tipped as serving the best food in Bali. We each tried the local dish - Nasi Campur, which was pretty nice but nothing to write home about and not really worth the tiring adventure to find it. To make matters worse, we then got lost again on our way back towards the town centre (Olivier on the map this time - that's all I'm saying) and we missed the dance performance we had aimed to catch in Ubud that evening. A case of tired people making tired decisions I think so it was probably just as well we didn't make it. The three of us had a laugh about it when we finally got back into town anyway - all part of the fun.
Day 3: Myself, Olivier and Sebastian got picked up early for a White-Water Rafting trip we had booked the previous day. This took us about an hour outside Ubud and we arrived at the river mid-morning. After a short briefing, we were underway with our local guide. I did some Rafting in Chiang Mai, which was good but a little bit tame for my liking so I was hoping for something more extreme this time. A slow start, getting caught on numerous rocks and boulders but once we got going, it was great. We got up to some decent speeds and were constantly having to duck and lie down to avoid obstacles either side and over the river. We also headed through a couple of waterfalls, resulting in us getting completely soaked, which was a good laugh. Lots of boulders to avoid along the route as well.
The trip was made even more enjoyable by the fantastic scenery around us. Even more rice fields and waterfalls, one of which we stopped for a photo by on the way down. Prior to this, we had to leave the boat because of a 10 metre drop in the river, which they told us it was unsafe to ride. Looking at it, I thought we could have given it a go, until I saw the boat capsize when it went down that is. Maybe not!
The highlight of the trip was a 4 metre drop at the end, which they did let us stay on the boat for. This was cool and a good end to an enjoyable and pretty tiring couple of hours. Definately a more extreme ride than the one in Chiang Mai but I'm still looking for something more. We got treated to some good food afterwards and then headed back to Ubud.
That evening, Olivier, Jay and myself headed out to check out another traditional Balinese dance called Kecak Fire. This involved men from the local village forming a circle around the dancers and making numerous weird noises, which acted as the music. Legong was good but this dance was absolutely fantastic and involved a story that was easier to follow (still no real idea what was going on though). Various dancers coming out at different stages, some in pretty daft and funny outfits. This culminated in a huge 10-person Dragon, which was dangerously close to catching fire towards the end. Another really enjoyable dance, completely different in style to the one we had previously seen. Well worth a look if you ever come to Ubud and I'm glad I sampled a couple.
Olivier and Sebastian headed off that night to do a climb of Mount Agung, which started at midnight so they could catch the sunrise. Needless to say, I wasn't as keen on this one so we left them to it and parted ways. Will hopefully catch up with them over the next week or so. Jay and I planned to stay in Ubud for a few more days.
Day 4 - Day 5: Jay and I hired a couple of Scooters and spent the next couple of days cruising around the North and East of Bali, using Ubud as a base. We also visited a couple of the local temples - Goa Gajah and Gunung Kawi, both of which required us to wear some rather dashing sarongues so that we could enter. I'm not gonna lie, I liked the way it felt against my skin actually, although it does get pretty hot after a while.
After visting Goa Gajah, we decided to head right up to the north coast of Bali and got to fully appreciate what a beautiful island it is. Similar to Koh Phangan, Thailand, I think many people just visit Kuta and form their opinion on Bali from that (not a good opinion to have). Once you get out of there, you can really see how nice it is and some of the countryside is so picturesque that we were pulling over on the side of the road just to get some snaps. Really beautiful.
Upon reaching the north coast, the rain came and boy did it come! Being a nice, sunny day when we departed, we weren't exactly prepared and ended up getting completely drenched on our long trek back to Ubud. Having the Scooter is a fantastic way to see Bali in the sunshine but it's far from ideal when you encounter this sort of rain. We were both frozen, had ended up around 3 hours from where we were staying and therefore couldn't get back quick enough. A pretty miserable ride home if I'm honest but we had a good laugh about it once we had got showered and dry. That's rain season for you!
The second day we headed out to Gunung Kawi, which is an even better Temple with numerous carvings forming part of a cliff face. We spent an hour or so wandering around there before heading further towards the eastern coast when, guess what......the rain came again! Thankfully, not as heavy this time and we were better prepared clothing-wise. We didn't want to mess around though so headed back to Ubud. It's difficult to plan anything during rain season as there's no way of knowing when and where it will strike.
Day 6: Jay had some things to buy in town so I decided to take the Scooter out on my own this time, in search of Pura Besakih - supposedly the most impressive Temple throughout Bali. After Angkor Wat, I had lost my enthusiasm for Temples for a while but having not seen any for a couple of months, was now keen to check some more out.
This journey was really nice as it was a glorious day meaning stunning views through the mountains and over the rice paddies. The scenery on the way to the Temple was some of the best I've ever seen and I must have pulled over 4 or 5 times just to get a picture. Safe to say that Bali has now taken over from Koh Phangan as the most scenic place I've been.
It was quite a trek up to the Temple, meaning several winding roads up a mountain. After getting slightly lost a few times, the locals set me straight and the trip was well worth it. Besakih is a collection of differing sized Temples, all with these cool black-thatched roofs. I spent over an hour walking around and getting some great photos. Well worth the adventure to get there.
On my way back from the temple, I decided to head towards Amed, a small town on the far east coast of Bali. This is home to a WWII Wreck called the Liberty, which is supposedly a great dive site. Besakih was half way there so I decided to make a day of it and head over there to check out some deals and maybe book to dive the following day.
It took me another couple of hours to reach Amed and the scenery got better and better. Unfortunately, the weather did not and took a turn for the worse once I got there. I checked out a couple of deals before bumping into Olivier, who had dived the site the previous day. He confirmed my fear that the visibility was pretty awful around the site and it wasn't really worth diving. Pretty disappointing but it would be pointless to spend the money if there isn't much to see. Probably just as well anyway because all the electricity was out in Amed, which would have meant a cold night's sleep and also no way of letting Jay know I was over there. I decided to give it a miss and headed on the long trip back to Ubud. In total, I probably spent about 8 hours on the bike all day and my backside knew it once I got back. Was worth the trip though and I managed to see a lot of the East and South-Eastern coasts along the way.
Day 7: One final day on the Scooters before heading back to Kuta. Jay and I went off in search of a Bamboo Chocolate factory he had heard about. We never found it though, despite asking dozens of locals who lived right by where he thought it was. Cruised around a bit more but I was pretty spent from the day before. Headed back to the guesthouse that afternoon and just chilled out for the rest of the day.
Bus back to Kuta in the morning. Cant Wait.
Wednesday, 28 March 2012
Monday, 19 March 2012
Kuta
Day 1: Another smooth Air Asia flight over to Bali (albeit with an hour delay) and I arrived in the evening to yet more rainfall :( I sorted a taxi and headed straight for the guesthouse in Kuta that Jay was staying at. The taxi driver spoke unbelievably fast throughout the journey and I didn't have a clue what he was saying so I just kept muttering ''yeah'' from the back seat every few seconds to try and be polite!
No let up in the rain when I arrived near the beach so I checked straight in to the guesthouse before dashing out for some dinner. Early impressions very reminiscent of Koh Samui in terms of how touristy the place is. A few other travellers had warned me off coming to Kuta for this reason but I'm all for making my own impression of places. This wasn't really the time for exploring though as the rain got heavier so I headed back to the guesthouse for the night.
Day 2: I met Jay at breakfast and, after catching up, we hired a couple of boards and headed for Kuta beach for some Surfing. I've only tried Surfing once in my life and it didn't go so well. So badly in fact, that I vowed never to attempt it again! I found it really difficult and couldn't even get close to standing up despite 2 solid days of trying. Very frustrating. I was willing to give it another shot though and hoping to pick up some tips from Jay, who has been doing nothing else for the previous few days.
I wasn't actually as bad as I thought I would be. I managed to remember what I'd been taught in my first lesson and, with some additional advice from Jay, got closer to standing up than I have done previously. It's really hard though and I could only get both my feet on the board for about half a second before face-smashing the water. Repeat this process over several hours and it gets quite demoralising! Jay seemed to have his technique sorted though and was managing to stand on a pretty regular basis, despite the waves not being ideal for staying up too long.
Being the supreme novice Surfer I am, I decided to try doing all this topless, without wearing a T-Shirt or the skin-tight tops that Jay and many others were wearing. The local Balinese guys were Surfing topless so I thought nothing of it. Turned out to be a big mistake! Whereas the locals are using a smooth, hard board; being a complete beginner, I was trying with a soft board, that apparently has the same effect on your skin as sandpaper would (maybe not quite that bad). After a few hours face-smashing, I discovered a pretty painful rash on my stomach and one on the inside of my knee. Furthermore, practically all my fingertips had been scraped off by holding on to the board. All pretty painful and Jay was having the same problem with his fingers. We called it a day late afternoon, me now wondering if it was all worth it. Turns out you need your fingertips quite a lot - who would have thought it!!!
That evening, the 2 of us headed out for a few beers in Kuta and I cannot put into words how annoying this place is. Flowing away from the beach are loads of skinny alley-ways (known as gangs) and each of them is lined with stalls selling all sorts of fake stuff and other gear you don't want. Furthermore, the local ''shopkeepers'' have picked up the term ''boss'' from somewhere, meaning that walking through the alleys, you are bombarded with stuff like this:
''Hey boss, where you going boss? Want some information boss....looking brother? Hey, my friend, marijuana boss? Hello boss, Boss??"
You will all think I'm exaggerating but they really say it that much and it is so annoying. I've been in Asia for a long time now and so I'm pretty used to having to ignore some of the street sellers or walk through them saying ''no thank you'' or, more recently, just ''no'' (patience has run out I think). But this place is something else and I hated it instantly if I'm honest. As for the term ''boss'', I've not a clue where they have picked it up from, despite asking a few that I could tolerate. I don't think they even knew!
Anyway, Jay was pretty acclimatised to it by now and we made our way through the gangs to get some dinner and then have a few beers in one of the bars. We had a cool evening as they thankfully leave you alone when you go into a restaurant or bar but my early impressions of Kuta weren't good. I was looking forward to getting back on the beach the next day and trying to Surfing again. That should tell you how bad it was.
Day 3: Back to the beach again to give the Surfing another try. Only this time, I made sure I had a T-Shirt on and also taped up the fingers that were VERY sore from the previous day.
Unfortunately, it didn't really work out because after a few attempts, I decided it wasn't worth the pain. The plasters on my fingers lasted all of 5 minutes before coming off in the water and the rash on my stomach was really painful when I laid on the board. I decided to give it a miss for the rest of the day and instead just amused myself with watching Jay getting annoyed at the water when the waves weren't to his liking. My argument that it was pointless getting annoyed at nature didn't seem to wash with him!
We spent a couple more hours there before heading off for some food at a place he knew and then hung around in Kuta that afternoon, trying very hard not to get even more annoyed with the street sellers. Afterwards, we headed back down to the beach for a couple of beers whilst watching the local Surfers show us how it's meant to be done. Some seriously talented guys out here and it looks quite fun when you can stay on the board for more than two seconds! Loads of people down on the beach so it was quite cool hanging out for a few hours.
Laying on the beach doesn't free you from the hassle though - countless locals selling all sorts of stuff that you don't want. My personal favourite was a guy who we saw several times over the 3 days selling nothing but a huge Crossbow and Arrow, who seemed genuinely surprised when we said no. Just the thing you're looking to buy when you're watching the sunset!
I'm pleased to say that it wasn't all bad in Kuta though. Whilst chilling on the beach, lots of teenagers also came up asking if they could have their picture taken with us. They seem to really like taking photos of westerners so we were happy to oblige and it made their day. Similar to the experience I had being interviewed by those schoolgirls whilst sight-seeing in Saigon.
That's it for Kuta for now. Lessons learned for me - always wear a top when surfing with a soft-top board and make sure the surface isn't like Sandpaper before you rent it! Sport hurts kids.
We will be heading back to Kuta towards the end of my time in Bali as it's nice and close to the airport and I'd like to give the Surfing another go once my wounds have healed. Before then......Ubud.
No let up in the rain when I arrived near the beach so I checked straight in to the guesthouse before dashing out for some dinner. Early impressions very reminiscent of Koh Samui in terms of how touristy the place is. A few other travellers had warned me off coming to Kuta for this reason but I'm all for making my own impression of places. This wasn't really the time for exploring though as the rain got heavier so I headed back to the guesthouse for the night.
Day 2: I met Jay at breakfast and, after catching up, we hired a couple of boards and headed for Kuta beach for some Surfing. I've only tried Surfing once in my life and it didn't go so well. So badly in fact, that I vowed never to attempt it again! I found it really difficult and couldn't even get close to standing up despite 2 solid days of trying. Very frustrating. I was willing to give it another shot though and hoping to pick up some tips from Jay, who has been doing nothing else for the previous few days.
I wasn't actually as bad as I thought I would be. I managed to remember what I'd been taught in my first lesson and, with some additional advice from Jay, got closer to standing up than I have done previously. It's really hard though and I could only get both my feet on the board for about half a second before face-smashing the water. Repeat this process over several hours and it gets quite demoralising! Jay seemed to have his technique sorted though and was managing to stand on a pretty regular basis, despite the waves not being ideal for staying up too long.
Being the supreme novice Surfer I am, I decided to try doing all this topless, without wearing a T-Shirt or the skin-tight tops that Jay and many others were wearing. The local Balinese guys were Surfing topless so I thought nothing of it. Turned out to be a big mistake! Whereas the locals are using a smooth, hard board; being a complete beginner, I was trying with a soft board, that apparently has the same effect on your skin as sandpaper would (maybe not quite that bad). After a few hours face-smashing, I discovered a pretty painful rash on my stomach and one on the inside of my knee. Furthermore, practically all my fingertips had been scraped off by holding on to the board. All pretty painful and Jay was having the same problem with his fingers. We called it a day late afternoon, me now wondering if it was all worth it. Turns out you need your fingertips quite a lot - who would have thought it!!!
That evening, the 2 of us headed out for a few beers in Kuta and I cannot put into words how annoying this place is. Flowing away from the beach are loads of skinny alley-ways (known as gangs) and each of them is lined with stalls selling all sorts of fake stuff and other gear you don't want. Furthermore, the local ''shopkeepers'' have picked up the term ''boss'' from somewhere, meaning that walking through the alleys, you are bombarded with stuff like this:
''Hey boss, where you going boss? Want some information boss....looking brother? Hey, my friend, marijuana boss? Hello boss, Boss??"
You will all think I'm exaggerating but they really say it that much and it is so annoying. I've been in Asia for a long time now and so I'm pretty used to having to ignore some of the street sellers or walk through them saying ''no thank you'' or, more recently, just ''no'' (patience has run out I think). But this place is something else and I hated it instantly if I'm honest. As for the term ''boss'', I've not a clue where they have picked it up from, despite asking a few that I could tolerate. I don't think they even knew!
Anyway, Jay was pretty acclimatised to it by now and we made our way through the gangs to get some dinner and then have a few beers in one of the bars. We had a cool evening as they thankfully leave you alone when you go into a restaurant or bar but my early impressions of Kuta weren't good. I was looking forward to getting back on the beach the next day and trying to Surfing again. That should tell you how bad it was.
Day 3: Back to the beach again to give the Surfing another try. Only this time, I made sure I had a T-Shirt on and also taped up the fingers that were VERY sore from the previous day.
Unfortunately, it didn't really work out because after a few attempts, I decided it wasn't worth the pain. The plasters on my fingers lasted all of 5 minutes before coming off in the water and the rash on my stomach was really painful when I laid on the board. I decided to give it a miss for the rest of the day and instead just amused myself with watching Jay getting annoyed at the water when the waves weren't to his liking. My argument that it was pointless getting annoyed at nature didn't seem to wash with him!
We spent a couple more hours there before heading off for some food at a place he knew and then hung around in Kuta that afternoon, trying very hard not to get even more annoyed with the street sellers. Afterwards, we headed back down to the beach for a couple of beers whilst watching the local Surfers show us how it's meant to be done. Some seriously talented guys out here and it looks quite fun when you can stay on the board for more than two seconds! Loads of people down on the beach so it was quite cool hanging out for a few hours.
Laying on the beach doesn't free you from the hassle though - countless locals selling all sorts of stuff that you don't want. My personal favourite was a guy who we saw several times over the 3 days selling nothing but a huge Crossbow and Arrow, who seemed genuinely surprised when we said no. Just the thing you're looking to buy when you're watching the sunset!
I'm pleased to say that it wasn't all bad in Kuta though. Whilst chilling on the beach, lots of teenagers also came up asking if they could have their picture taken with us. They seem to really like taking photos of westerners so we were happy to oblige and it made their day. Similar to the experience I had being interviewed by those schoolgirls whilst sight-seeing in Saigon.
That's it for Kuta for now. Lessons learned for me - always wear a top when surfing with a soft-top board and make sure the surface isn't like Sandpaper before you rent it! Sport hurts kids.
We will be heading back to Kuta towards the end of my time in Bali as it's nice and close to the airport and I'd like to give the Surfing another go once my wounds have healed. Before then......Ubud.
Friday, 16 March 2012
Singapore
Day 1: Early afternoon flight from Kota Kinabalu to Singapore. My second flight with Air Asia and I've got no complaints so far - I've found them really efficient and offering a good service. The flight was nice and short and I arrived in Singapore late afternoon.
Upon arrival and getting a taxi into the city centre, I wondered if I'd been taken to back to England by mistake. All the road signs are in English only, there was English music on the taxi driver's radio and, when I arrived in the city, all the locals were talking to each other in English! Very strange but not unwelcome. Makes life easy for me.
After checking into a hostel, I had a couple of hours sunlight to go explore the city. I only had 2 and a half days in Singapore so was keen to make the most of it before I head to Bali. My hostel was in the colonial district, meaning it was just a short walk to the Marina Bay Sands hotel and the surrounding area. Walking around, I loved Singapore instantly and it felt so nice to be somewhere clean and that actually has bins for people to use. Throughout South-East Asia, there aren't a lot.
I took a walk down to the bay and it's very impressive and pleasing on the eye. The hotel is very unique in design - the shape of a boat resting on top of 3 skyscrapers. It's really nice. This overlooks the bay and is directly opposite lots of other skyscrapers, which tower up on the other side of it. It also has a football pitch with a side stand (a cool place to play I would think, apart from when the ball goes in the water) and lots of other structures, which make it a very scenic spot. I spent a couple of hours walking around before getting some excellent food from one of the street stalls. I'd only been there a few hours but the early impressions of Singapore were very good.
Day 2: I awoke to heavy rainfall in the city, which wasn't exactly what I was hoping for with only a couple of days to look around. After breakfast at the hostel, I spent most of the morning wandering around the nearby shopping malls, basically waiting for the rain to stop. I even went to the Cinema I was that bored - ''Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close'', which I would highly recommend. Great film.
Thankfully, in the afternoon it did stop raining and I took full advantage by spending the rest of the day walking for miles around the city. I started off by heading down to Marina Bay Sands again and heading up to the very high observation deck for simply amazing views over Singapore. It's a very impressive city just walking around but it's pretty breathtaking from up there. Fantastic views over the bay and the other nice buildings surrounding it. On the other side, a huge Big Wheel and some other cool structures, which I took a walk around when I got back down to city level.
The rest of the afternoon was spent walking around, soaking up the city with no particular destination in mind. Ended up pretty far away from my guest house but managed to find my way towards Chinatown so I took a walk through there and found it just as busy as was expected - the Chinatown districts across Asia usually are. Afterwards, I headed back into the Colonial District for some more street food at an excellent, cheap place I found. The food in Singapore was amazing - some of the nicest meals I've had on the trip so far.
Day 3: A day of fun as I headed over to Sentosa Island. This is a very popular resort and was the main place I was advised to visit in Singapore by the guys running my hostel. I walked over there via the boardwalk and instantly headed for Universal Studios, where I spent most of the day. Lots of cool rides here, including a couple of awesome Roller-coasters I went on about 5 times each. There was also a brand new Transformers 3-D ride, which was also quality. Less fun the second time around when I forgot to pick up some 3-D glasses though!
Also on offer was an indoor, pitch-black Roller-coaster that was pretty good. I then checked out some of the other attractions, including a Shrek 4-D Adventure, a Waterworld Live show and a cool Special Effects Simulator of a hurricane hitting New York. Mainly kids stuff throughout the park as you can imagine but I was happy enough being a kid for the day and had good fun.
After the park, I took a quick walk around Sentosa Island before walking back into the city for the evening.
That's about it for Singapore. Short and sweet but I really enjoyed my 2 days there and I'm a big fan of the city. Thankfully, I've got one day back there after Bali and before heading to Australia so I'm going to check out Singapore Zoo - described by the guide books as ''world class''. We shall see.
Before that, it's off to Bali, Indonesia for a couple of weeks. Going to try my hand at surfing again. I suspect this won't be pretty.
Upon arrival and getting a taxi into the city centre, I wondered if I'd been taken to back to England by mistake. All the road signs are in English only, there was English music on the taxi driver's radio and, when I arrived in the city, all the locals were talking to each other in English! Very strange but not unwelcome. Makes life easy for me.
After checking into a hostel, I had a couple of hours sunlight to go explore the city. I only had 2 and a half days in Singapore so was keen to make the most of it before I head to Bali. My hostel was in the colonial district, meaning it was just a short walk to the Marina Bay Sands hotel and the surrounding area. Walking around, I loved Singapore instantly and it felt so nice to be somewhere clean and that actually has bins for people to use. Throughout South-East Asia, there aren't a lot.
I took a walk down to the bay and it's very impressive and pleasing on the eye. The hotel is very unique in design - the shape of a boat resting on top of 3 skyscrapers. It's really nice. This overlooks the bay and is directly opposite lots of other skyscrapers, which tower up on the other side of it. It also has a football pitch with a side stand (a cool place to play I would think, apart from when the ball goes in the water) and lots of other structures, which make it a very scenic spot. I spent a couple of hours walking around before getting some excellent food from one of the street stalls. I'd only been there a few hours but the early impressions of Singapore were very good.
Day 2: I awoke to heavy rainfall in the city, which wasn't exactly what I was hoping for with only a couple of days to look around. After breakfast at the hostel, I spent most of the morning wandering around the nearby shopping malls, basically waiting for the rain to stop. I even went to the Cinema I was that bored - ''Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close'', which I would highly recommend. Great film.
Thankfully, in the afternoon it did stop raining and I took full advantage by spending the rest of the day walking for miles around the city. I started off by heading down to Marina Bay Sands again and heading up to the very high observation deck for simply amazing views over Singapore. It's a very impressive city just walking around but it's pretty breathtaking from up there. Fantastic views over the bay and the other nice buildings surrounding it. On the other side, a huge Big Wheel and some other cool structures, which I took a walk around when I got back down to city level.
The rest of the afternoon was spent walking around, soaking up the city with no particular destination in mind. Ended up pretty far away from my guest house but managed to find my way towards Chinatown so I took a walk through there and found it just as busy as was expected - the Chinatown districts across Asia usually are. Afterwards, I headed back into the Colonial District for some more street food at an excellent, cheap place I found. The food in Singapore was amazing - some of the nicest meals I've had on the trip so far.
Day 3: A day of fun as I headed over to Sentosa Island. This is a very popular resort and was the main place I was advised to visit in Singapore by the guys running my hostel. I walked over there via the boardwalk and instantly headed for Universal Studios, where I spent most of the day. Lots of cool rides here, including a couple of awesome Roller-coasters I went on about 5 times each. There was also a brand new Transformers 3-D ride, which was also quality. Less fun the second time around when I forgot to pick up some 3-D glasses though!
Also on offer was an indoor, pitch-black Roller-coaster that was pretty good. I then checked out some of the other attractions, including a Shrek 4-D Adventure, a Waterworld Live show and a cool Special Effects Simulator of a hurricane hitting New York. Mainly kids stuff throughout the park as you can imagine but I was happy enough being a kid for the day and had good fun.
After the park, I took a quick walk around Sentosa Island before walking back into the city for the evening.
That's about it for Singapore. Short and sweet but I really enjoyed my 2 days there and I'm a big fan of the city. Thankfully, I've got one day back there after Bali and before heading to Australia so I'm going to check out Singapore Zoo - described by the guide books as ''world class''. We shall see.
Before that, it's off to Bali, Indonesia for a couple of weeks. Going to try my hand at surfing again. I suspect this won't be pretty.
Friday, 9 March 2012
Semporna
Day 1: Morning bus from Sepilok to Semporna and I arrived mid-afternoon. Early impressions of the small town weren't great - lots of deserted buildings and boarded-up windows. The main reason for tourists going there is for diving at Sipidan Island, one of the top dive sites on the planet. My reason was no different and I could quickly see why the travel books describe Semporna as ''a necessary evil''. Perhaps a tad harsh but it's definately not the most scenic of places.
However, walking around trying to find a guesthouse, I found the locals to be probably the friendliest I've come across throughout South-East Asia. I must have had about 30 people saying hello and welcoming me to the town and it was really nice to walk around without everyone just seeing you as an ATM and trying to sell you things. They had no agenda in Semporna and just seemed pleased to have another tourist in their town. One lad even took me on a 10 minute walk to show me where all the hostels and guesthouses were, which I was very grateful for.
After checking into the Backpackers Lodge, I went back out to find Billabong Scuba, the dive company I had booked my Sipidan package with for the following day. Whilst in Kota Kinabalu, I'd also been in touch with Jay, my indecisive american mate, who I half thought I'd said my final ''goodbye'' to back in Bangkok. He had expressed an interest in diving at Sipidan as well and I managed to get us both booked onto the same package - 1 day diving at Mabul Island followed by 2 days diving Sipidan. After checking into Billabong, my intention was to try and find him in Semporna but once I'd found their office, they informed me he was already on Mabul Island and had already done 2 days diving with them! Alright for some! Good to know he had arrived though. I paid up with Billabong and arranged my boat transfer over to their accomodation at Mabul for the following morning, where I would meet up with him.
After sorting all that out, I headed into the town for some nice local seafood and walked around for a bit to see if there was anything worth seeing. There wasn't but the locals were just as nice.
That evening, I met a couple of other travellers at the hostel - Manon (Reunion Island) and Thijmen (Holland), who I had actually met very briefly on the Mt Kinabalu climb. It was Manon's last night travelling so the three of us headed out for dinner and a few drinks. Thijmen is heading to everywhere I've been so far in South-East Asia as well so I was happy to pass on some tips to him.
Day 2: I got to Billabong early doors for the boat transfer over to Mabul Island. Met some nice people on the boat - Rose (Holland), Austin and his uncle Jimmy (Canada), Frank (French) and Damien (Korea). We arrived late morning and I was greeted by Jay telling me I'm ''gonna be stoked'' about the diving (that's a good thing apparently!). However, he was less than complimentary about the company, their professionalism and organisation. After being there for 5 minutes, I could see what he meant. Whereas in Thailand, everything was laid out clearly and there were detailed briefings before each dive, here, it was a case of a 10-minute turnaround, quickly check into your room, get your equipment and get on the boat. We didn't receive any information about which site we were going to and I was relieved to find I hadn't forgotten anything important once we got to the site. If someone had forgotten a regulator or weight belt for example, they had no spares on the boat. I'm all for taking care of your own equipment but the rush to get us out there was crazy and not exactly the relaxed start you want when you haven't dived for a few weeks. Jay told me this was fairly typical unfortunately.
Anyway, our divemaster for the day was a local guy called Dendy, who gave us the most disinterested, unprofessional and vague ''briefing'' I've ever had. We were diving at a site not far away from Mabul (he didn't tell us which one) and went down to discover an artificial reef, which was pretty cool. I was buddied-up with Jay and Damien was also diving with us. The dive was ok but spoiled by the fact that I was drinking water throughout, due to a problem with my regulator. It was nothing major but not exactly pleasant and fairly indicative of Billabong so far. After the dive, we returned to the island and I changed it for another one.
We had 2 more dives that day at other sites near to Mabul. Both dives were pretty good and we saw some interesting wildlife. Once the dives had finished and we got back to the surface, we found ourselves nowhere near the boat and Dendy had no whistle or way of signalling for them to come and pick us up. In Thailand, the dive routes were all planned out and we never emerged too far from where the boat was. Here, we ended up just floating at the surface for about 15 minutes waiting for it to notice us - not easy when you're in the middle of the ocean! Dendy waiving his fins and shouting at the boat highlighted the unprofessionalism of the whole thing. And I discovered that my BCD was letting out air and my mask was letting in water, so they would both need to be changed as well. Going well so far! At least the diving itself was good.
I didn't really like Dendy and was hoping we would have somebody different for our next 2 days. He seemed fairly disinterested the whole day and acted like he didn't really care about making any of it enjoyable for us. Completely different to the other divemasters I've had so far on the trip. Throughout the day, we also kept finding that some of the tanks had less air in them than they should have (your supposed to have at least 200 Bar and many of these had between 170-180 Bar). We weren't happy with this, considering the amount we had paid for the dive package. Less air would obviously mean shorter dives but we just got the expected ''don't care'' response from Dendy. We made him switch the tanks eventually until we had got the amount we had paid for but everything was proving to be a real battle - not what you want when you have just come to enjoy the dives.
Once the day's diving had finished, we returned to Mabul and enjoyed the sunshine for a few hours in the afternoon. Jay and I then went to explore the small island and were greeted by hundreds of kids as we walked around. That evening, we had dinner (at least the food was good) and chilled at the homestay. Fingers crossed things would be better the next day, when we would be diving at Sipidan.
Day 3: Thankfully they were much better. After changing my BCD, Mask and now using a regulator that wasn't giving me an unwelcome drink of seawater every time I breathed, we headed for Sipidan. Thankfully, we didn't have Dendy this time and instead had an English guy called Mark, who I had met the previous evening and instantly got on with. Also diving with us were Damien and a Russian guy called Alex. We arrived at Sipidan, signed in (needs to be done because this site requires permits to dive it) and then Mark gave us a proper dive briefing, which made me feel a lot more optimistic about the day ahead. For me, it's vital to have a divemaster that's professional and you can put a bit of trust in. It makes the dives a lot more enjoyable.
We had 3 dives that day, which Jay and I hired an underwater camera for. The dives were fantastic, although the visibility wasn't great unfortunately - probably a result of the crazy storm we had the night before (I thought the roof of the homestay was going to come off). It was still good enough for us to see lots of Reef Sharks (some big ones too) and also my first sightings of Turtles, which I was chuffed with. One of the dives was at Barracuda Point, renound as one of the best sites in the world and it didn't disappoint. Thousands of big Barracuda swimming around us, which was awesome. Thankfully, we got some great pics with the camera and also both had a good laugh doing some stupid poses underwater. Some really strong currents at Sipidan though, making the dives a lot more physically demanding. After one, I joked to Mark asking him what the hand signal was for ''I'm completely shattered'' (there isn't one).
A really fun, if tiring day of diving and I was grateful to Mark for his part in it after the shambles of the day before. No equipment breakages or malfunctions this time thankfully although we did again end up miles away from the boat with no whistle to get their attention. It was lashing down as we waited for another 10 minutes for them to come but we didn't really mind this time.
We returned to Mabul and I relaxed that afternoon feeling pretty wiped. Dinner at the homestay that evening (not much else to do on the island) before watching an ancient version of The Planet of the Apes, which the locals put on for us and actually turned out to be pretty good. Our final day diving in the morning - Sipidan again.
Day 4: We headed out to Sipidan again and had a lady called Suzanna (Finland) as our divemaster this time. Thankfully, she was just as professional as Mark and gave us a proper briefing before the diving got underway. Incidentally, before leaving Mabul, I saw Dendy looking extremely hungover before taking some other people out for dives - just the image you want to portray as a divemaster!
Damien had headed home the previous evening so it was just me and Jay diving with Suzanna and we hired the camera for the second day running. Again, visibility wasn't fantastic - the storms really do make a difference, but it was still about 10-15 metres so we could see lots. More Sharks and even more Barracuda when we headed back to Barracuda Point (wonder why they give it that name?). The currents were even stronger though and it meant swimming constantly just to stay still and have a look at them. I think my experience on the Thailand live-aboard stood me in good stead though and I was far better at dealing with the currents this time.
During the dive, Jay got my attention after feeling something at the top of his tank. I had a look and got Suzanna's attention towards a slight leak where it met the regulator. Thankfully, it was only small and she didn't seem too concerned but I think it spooked Jay a little bit, as it would anyone. Just another example of Billabong's shoddy equipment and lack of maintenance.
When we got back onto Sipidan Island after the dive, I asked Jay if he had left enough time between the day's diving and his flights to Kuala Lumpur and Bali the following day. According to the manual, after repetitive dives, you are meant to leave at least 18 hours before you fly, due to the pressure changes that are put on the body. We worked out that after the final dive, he would have an 18 hour window before his flight but then Suzanna showed him her dive computer, which said he should wait for 26 hours.
Jay decided not to take the risk and ceased diving for the day, not wanting to give himself problems on the plane. Needless to say, he wasn't happy, both with the service and equipment we had had to put up with from Billabong and now this.A real shame he couldn't dive as we had been having good fun but also perfectly understandable. He decided to hang out on Sipidan until our day's diving was over.
I was joined by Alex for the final 2 dives (he had just been snorkelling for the first one) and they were both brilliant. We did 2 new sites around the island, where the currents were weaker meaning we could stay down there for longer and had to fight against them less. Loads of different varieties of Fish and some amazing Corals, that were reminiscent of those at Richelieu Rock in Thailand. The highlight was looking up to see a huge Turtle swimming right over my head, which was amazing.
On the final dive, Alex decided to let ME know when he was low on air rather than Suzanna! After gesturing for him to let her know instead (she is the divemaster), he didn't do anything and just kept looking at me. This meant I had to grab her foot to get her attention and direct her gaze at him. I'm not sure what he expected me to do about it. Was pretty weird - I hope he didn't think I was the divemaster! Bit worrying.
All in all, a fantastic day's diving, despite the limited visibility and Jay having to sit the last 2 out. Saw a huge amount of wildlife and lots of the Sharks and Turtles I was hoping for. No Whale Sharks, Hammerheads (seen there 2 weeks previously) or Manta Rays for me yet but I don't think this will be my last dive on the trip so fingers crossed I see some before it's over. They may well have been there after all but we just couldn't see them. Even with the limited visibility, I can definitely see why Sipidan is such a popular site. So much to see.
After we had finished, we headed back over to Mabul to gather our things for the boat transfer back to Semporna. Whilst the diving has been excellent, Billabong Scuba on the whole were frankly shocking and I would strongly advise people from going with them if they dive here. Almost everyone on the island had one problem or another with their equipment and it was clear that they take no care of any of it or repair/disregard those pieces which are broken. Scuba Diving isn't really the sort of activity where you should be cutting these kind of corners in my opinion and I suspect they are just taking advantage of being one of the few companies that can offer diving at Sipidan. Thankfully, Mark and Suzanna were at least professional as divemasters and it said it all when Mark told us he was switching companies because of the problems. Turns out they are a lot more deep-rooted and I'm not at all surprised.
Jay and I said goodbye to everyone on the island, including a nice dutch couple (Ruben and Sanna) we had met the previous day. We then headed back to Semporna, where he managed to get a refund for the diving he had missed out on, which was something at least. That evening, we headed out for some food and for a walk around Semporna. I booked a bus to take me back to Kota Kinabalu the following day.
Day 5: Said goodbye to Jay early morning as I headed for my bus. He is heading to Bali too though so we will be meeting up again there after I have been to Singapore.
I then spent 10 hours on the bus to get me back to Kota Kinabalu. Nothing much else to report from the day, other than visiting an internet cafe with extremely clean glass doors. So clean in fact, that I smashed my nose into one of them when trying to leave without opening it! Don't worry, no harm done other than to my pride and I'm sure you all found that funny. Afterwards I found a pub to watch Liverpool get beat, despite battering Arsenal. So a good day all round!
That's me done with Borneo and I would have to say it's been one of my favourite places so far. Loads to do within a relatively small area and I've seen an amazing amount of wildlife both on land and underwater. Feel very lucky to have seen so much. Cheers for the tip Rich. I would highly recommend a visit to Borneo for anyone coming out here. Just don't go with Billabong Scuba!
Flight to Singapore the following day.
However, walking around trying to find a guesthouse, I found the locals to be probably the friendliest I've come across throughout South-East Asia. I must have had about 30 people saying hello and welcoming me to the town and it was really nice to walk around without everyone just seeing you as an ATM and trying to sell you things. They had no agenda in Semporna and just seemed pleased to have another tourist in their town. One lad even took me on a 10 minute walk to show me where all the hostels and guesthouses were, which I was very grateful for.
After checking into the Backpackers Lodge, I went back out to find Billabong Scuba, the dive company I had booked my Sipidan package with for the following day. Whilst in Kota Kinabalu, I'd also been in touch with Jay, my indecisive american mate, who I half thought I'd said my final ''goodbye'' to back in Bangkok. He had expressed an interest in diving at Sipidan as well and I managed to get us both booked onto the same package - 1 day diving at Mabul Island followed by 2 days diving Sipidan. After checking into Billabong, my intention was to try and find him in Semporna but once I'd found their office, they informed me he was already on Mabul Island and had already done 2 days diving with them! Alright for some! Good to know he had arrived though. I paid up with Billabong and arranged my boat transfer over to their accomodation at Mabul for the following morning, where I would meet up with him.
After sorting all that out, I headed into the town for some nice local seafood and walked around for a bit to see if there was anything worth seeing. There wasn't but the locals were just as nice.
That evening, I met a couple of other travellers at the hostel - Manon (Reunion Island) and Thijmen (Holland), who I had actually met very briefly on the Mt Kinabalu climb. It was Manon's last night travelling so the three of us headed out for dinner and a few drinks. Thijmen is heading to everywhere I've been so far in South-East Asia as well so I was happy to pass on some tips to him.
Day 2: I got to Billabong early doors for the boat transfer over to Mabul Island. Met some nice people on the boat - Rose (Holland), Austin and his uncle Jimmy (Canada), Frank (French) and Damien (Korea). We arrived late morning and I was greeted by Jay telling me I'm ''gonna be stoked'' about the diving (that's a good thing apparently!). However, he was less than complimentary about the company, their professionalism and organisation. After being there for 5 minutes, I could see what he meant. Whereas in Thailand, everything was laid out clearly and there were detailed briefings before each dive, here, it was a case of a 10-minute turnaround, quickly check into your room, get your equipment and get on the boat. We didn't receive any information about which site we were going to and I was relieved to find I hadn't forgotten anything important once we got to the site. If someone had forgotten a regulator or weight belt for example, they had no spares on the boat. I'm all for taking care of your own equipment but the rush to get us out there was crazy and not exactly the relaxed start you want when you haven't dived for a few weeks. Jay told me this was fairly typical unfortunately.
Anyway, our divemaster for the day was a local guy called Dendy, who gave us the most disinterested, unprofessional and vague ''briefing'' I've ever had. We were diving at a site not far away from Mabul (he didn't tell us which one) and went down to discover an artificial reef, which was pretty cool. I was buddied-up with Jay and Damien was also diving with us. The dive was ok but spoiled by the fact that I was drinking water throughout, due to a problem with my regulator. It was nothing major but not exactly pleasant and fairly indicative of Billabong so far. After the dive, we returned to the island and I changed it for another one.
We had 2 more dives that day at other sites near to Mabul. Both dives were pretty good and we saw some interesting wildlife. Once the dives had finished and we got back to the surface, we found ourselves nowhere near the boat and Dendy had no whistle or way of signalling for them to come and pick us up. In Thailand, the dive routes were all planned out and we never emerged too far from where the boat was. Here, we ended up just floating at the surface for about 15 minutes waiting for it to notice us - not easy when you're in the middle of the ocean! Dendy waiving his fins and shouting at the boat highlighted the unprofessionalism of the whole thing. And I discovered that my BCD was letting out air and my mask was letting in water, so they would both need to be changed as well. Going well so far! At least the diving itself was good.
I didn't really like Dendy and was hoping we would have somebody different for our next 2 days. He seemed fairly disinterested the whole day and acted like he didn't really care about making any of it enjoyable for us. Completely different to the other divemasters I've had so far on the trip. Throughout the day, we also kept finding that some of the tanks had less air in them than they should have (your supposed to have at least 200 Bar and many of these had between 170-180 Bar). We weren't happy with this, considering the amount we had paid for the dive package. Less air would obviously mean shorter dives but we just got the expected ''don't care'' response from Dendy. We made him switch the tanks eventually until we had got the amount we had paid for but everything was proving to be a real battle - not what you want when you have just come to enjoy the dives.
Once the day's diving had finished, we returned to Mabul and enjoyed the sunshine for a few hours in the afternoon. Jay and I then went to explore the small island and were greeted by hundreds of kids as we walked around. That evening, we had dinner (at least the food was good) and chilled at the homestay. Fingers crossed things would be better the next day, when we would be diving at Sipidan.
Day 3: Thankfully they were much better. After changing my BCD, Mask and now using a regulator that wasn't giving me an unwelcome drink of seawater every time I breathed, we headed for Sipidan. Thankfully, we didn't have Dendy this time and instead had an English guy called Mark, who I had met the previous evening and instantly got on with. Also diving with us were Damien and a Russian guy called Alex. We arrived at Sipidan, signed in (needs to be done because this site requires permits to dive it) and then Mark gave us a proper dive briefing, which made me feel a lot more optimistic about the day ahead. For me, it's vital to have a divemaster that's professional and you can put a bit of trust in. It makes the dives a lot more enjoyable.
We had 3 dives that day, which Jay and I hired an underwater camera for. The dives were fantastic, although the visibility wasn't great unfortunately - probably a result of the crazy storm we had the night before (I thought the roof of the homestay was going to come off). It was still good enough for us to see lots of Reef Sharks (some big ones too) and also my first sightings of Turtles, which I was chuffed with. One of the dives was at Barracuda Point, renound as one of the best sites in the world and it didn't disappoint. Thousands of big Barracuda swimming around us, which was awesome. Thankfully, we got some great pics with the camera and also both had a good laugh doing some stupid poses underwater. Some really strong currents at Sipidan though, making the dives a lot more physically demanding. After one, I joked to Mark asking him what the hand signal was for ''I'm completely shattered'' (there isn't one).
A really fun, if tiring day of diving and I was grateful to Mark for his part in it after the shambles of the day before. No equipment breakages or malfunctions this time thankfully although we did again end up miles away from the boat with no whistle to get their attention. It was lashing down as we waited for another 10 minutes for them to come but we didn't really mind this time.
We returned to Mabul and I relaxed that afternoon feeling pretty wiped. Dinner at the homestay that evening (not much else to do on the island) before watching an ancient version of The Planet of the Apes, which the locals put on for us and actually turned out to be pretty good. Our final day diving in the morning - Sipidan again.
Day 4: We headed out to Sipidan again and had a lady called Suzanna (Finland) as our divemaster this time. Thankfully, she was just as professional as Mark and gave us a proper briefing before the diving got underway. Incidentally, before leaving Mabul, I saw Dendy looking extremely hungover before taking some other people out for dives - just the image you want to portray as a divemaster!
Damien had headed home the previous evening so it was just me and Jay diving with Suzanna and we hired the camera for the second day running. Again, visibility wasn't fantastic - the storms really do make a difference, but it was still about 10-15 metres so we could see lots. More Sharks and even more Barracuda when we headed back to Barracuda Point (wonder why they give it that name?). The currents were even stronger though and it meant swimming constantly just to stay still and have a look at them. I think my experience on the Thailand live-aboard stood me in good stead though and I was far better at dealing with the currents this time.
During the dive, Jay got my attention after feeling something at the top of his tank. I had a look and got Suzanna's attention towards a slight leak where it met the regulator. Thankfully, it was only small and she didn't seem too concerned but I think it spooked Jay a little bit, as it would anyone. Just another example of Billabong's shoddy equipment and lack of maintenance.
When we got back onto Sipidan Island after the dive, I asked Jay if he had left enough time between the day's diving and his flights to Kuala Lumpur and Bali the following day. According to the manual, after repetitive dives, you are meant to leave at least 18 hours before you fly, due to the pressure changes that are put on the body. We worked out that after the final dive, he would have an 18 hour window before his flight but then Suzanna showed him her dive computer, which said he should wait for 26 hours.
Jay decided not to take the risk and ceased diving for the day, not wanting to give himself problems on the plane. Needless to say, he wasn't happy, both with the service and equipment we had had to put up with from Billabong and now this.A real shame he couldn't dive as we had been having good fun but also perfectly understandable. He decided to hang out on Sipidan until our day's diving was over.
I was joined by Alex for the final 2 dives (he had just been snorkelling for the first one) and they were both brilliant. We did 2 new sites around the island, where the currents were weaker meaning we could stay down there for longer and had to fight against them less. Loads of different varieties of Fish and some amazing Corals, that were reminiscent of those at Richelieu Rock in Thailand. The highlight was looking up to see a huge Turtle swimming right over my head, which was amazing.
On the final dive, Alex decided to let ME know when he was low on air rather than Suzanna! After gesturing for him to let her know instead (she is the divemaster), he didn't do anything and just kept looking at me. This meant I had to grab her foot to get her attention and direct her gaze at him. I'm not sure what he expected me to do about it. Was pretty weird - I hope he didn't think I was the divemaster! Bit worrying.
All in all, a fantastic day's diving, despite the limited visibility and Jay having to sit the last 2 out. Saw a huge amount of wildlife and lots of the Sharks and Turtles I was hoping for. No Whale Sharks, Hammerheads (seen there 2 weeks previously) or Manta Rays for me yet but I don't think this will be my last dive on the trip so fingers crossed I see some before it's over. They may well have been there after all but we just couldn't see them. Even with the limited visibility, I can definitely see why Sipidan is such a popular site. So much to see.
After we had finished, we headed back over to Mabul to gather our things for the boat transfer back to Semporna. Whilst the diving has been excellent, Billabong Scuba on the whole were frankly shocking and I would strongly advise people from going with them if they dive here. Almost everyone on the island had one problem or another with their equipment and it was clear that they take no care of any of it or repair/disregard those pieces which are broken. Scuba Diving isn't really the sort of activity where you should be cutting these kind of corners in my opinion and I suspect they are just taking advantage of being one of the few companies that can offer diving at Sipidan. Thankfully, Mark and Suzanna were at least professional as divemasters and it said it all when Mark told us he was switching companies because of the problems. Turns out they are a lot more deep-rooted and I'm not at all surprised.
Jay and I said goodbye to everyone on the island, including a nice dutch couple (Ruben and Sanna) we had met the previous day. We then headed back to Semporna, where he managed to get a refund for the diving he had missed out on, which was something at least. That evening, we headed out for some food and for a walk around Semporna. I booked a bus to take me back to Kota Kinabalu the following day.
Day 5: Said goodbye to Jay early morning as I headed for my bus. He is heading to Bali too though so we will be meeting up again there after I have been to Singapore.
I then spent 10 hours on the bus to get me back to Kota Kinabalu. Nothing much else to report from the day, other than visiting an internet cafe with extremely clean glass doors. So clean in fact, that I smashed my nose into one of them when trying to leave without opening it! Don't worry, no harm done other than to my pride and I'm sure you all found that funny. Afterwards I found a pub to watch Liverpool get beat, despite battering Arsenal. So a good day all round!
That's me done with Borneo and I would have to say it's been one of my favourite places so far. Loads to do within a relatively small area and I've seen an amazing amount of wildlife both on land and underwater. Feel very lucky to have seen so much. Cheers for the tip Rich. I would highly recommend a visit to Borneo for anyone coming out here. Just don't go with Billabong Scuba!
Flight to Singapore the following day.
Monday, 5 March 2012
Sepilok
Day 1: Morning bus journey from Kota Kinabalu to Sepilok, home to many of Borneo's Orangutans. I checked into a guesthouse called ''Uncle Tans'', which is close to the Orangutan Rehab Centre. They are also quite renound for trips along the Kinabatangan River, a place I also wanted to visit in the hope of seeing some in the wild.
After checking in early afternoon and getting myself a very good deal on accommodation (8 quid a night for a bed and all meals included - a budget traveller's dream!), there wasn't a great deal to do. There isn't much in Sepilok other than the Rehab Centre, the main reason travellers visit here. I booked a 3 days / 2 nights wildlife safari along the Kinabatangan to start the following afternoon, inclusive of my visit to the Rehab Centre first thing in the morning. That left me all afternoon to thrash one of the guesthouse employees at pool as they have their own table. All meals included and free Pool, Darts and Table Tennis - I could get to like this place.
That evening, I met a couple of other travellers over dinner. Adam, an Aussie who now lives in Japan and Olivier, a quite smug french guy who ticked most of the stereotypes and was alright in small doses. He had travelled a fair bit and was therefore convinced he knew everything about everywhere, even places he hadn't been. A bit frustrating to listen to over dinner but myself and Adam just humoured him. Spent the evening hanging out with them at the hostel before putting Olivier in his place over a game of pool later on. Not quite so smug then - Haha.
Day 2: Morning shuttle bus to the Orangutan Rehab Centre. Met a cool English guy called Pete (Oxford), who was going there as well and was also booked on the Kinabatangan Safari trip starting later in the day.
The Rehab Centre is one of only 4 Orangutan sanctuaries in the world and it occupies part of the Sepilok rainforest reserve. Injured and orphaned Orangutans are taken there to be cared for before they are ready to be returned to the wild. We arrived about 9.30am ahead of the morning feeding at 10am. Some of them were already visible and then lots more arrived near the viewing platform when the food was brought out. Amazing creatures who were more than happy swinging along the ropes in front of the crowds and seemingly posing for pictures. We got a good look at them for about half an hour before they gradually descended back into the forest, leaving the scraps available for the Long-Tail Macaques (nicknamed ''The Jungle Mafia'' by the locals) to indulge in. These are also really cool but less than behaved apparently, hence the nickname.
After the feeding, we were free to walk around the centre and read some more about the great work they do. It sounds like it's a real success story as numerous Orangutans have been returned to the wild after being cared for. There was also a 20 minute video outlining the work of the place, which was really interesting. It showed one Orangutan, who was in their care from infancy until he was old and now strong enough to break a human in half if he wanted to. Nice! The video showed them cautiously returning him to the wild and thankfully, he didn't attack and instead went straight up a tree. I would find myself remembering this part of the video quite vividly in a few days time.
After we had been ushered out to the front of the centre, myself and Pete waited for our shuttle back to Uncle Tans. We met a couple of American guys (Brandon and Will), who were also heading there and were booked on the Kinabatangan trip. As we were waiting, the jungle mafia emerged from over the roof of the centre and promptly filled the reception area and parts of the car park. I reckon there was at least 20 of them, who were more than happy walking amongst us and seeing what mischief they could cause. They look pretty harmless but it's probably still not a good idea to get too close to them, as Will found out when one tried to steal his water bottle. Thankfully for him, it was almost full and therefore just too heavy for the Macaque so he couldn't complete the steal. Was really funny watching him try though and even more funny watching Will's feable attempts to stop him. They hung around for another 10-15 minutes, rummaging through all the bins and sussing us all out before returning to one of the trees. Beware the jungle mafia! We then got our shuttle back to Uncle Tans.
We all packed some stuff for the 3-day trip and had a short briefing before getting our minibus ride to the river. Just the four of us on the trip but there were more people already at the camp. When we arrived at the river, the heavens opened - some of the strongest rain I've ever seen and less than appealing when you have an hour boat ride, uncovered, to get to the camp. We covered our things in plastic bags as best we could and then set off - all less than enthusiastic it has to be said.
The journey was actually a pretty good laugh with us all getting so soaked and we arrived at the camp late afternoon. It was situated right in the jungle and our hut was on stilts keeping us only a few feet above the water - pretty cool. We met some of the locals - Lan, Leo and Wan, who showed us around the camp before dinner that evening. Lan is a keen Liverpool fan, who knew almost as much as me (almost) so we got on pretty well. They also had a football pitch made up in the camp and challenged us to a game the following day. Needless to say, myself and Pete were more keen than our American friends but we all agreed to the challenge. Will asked if he could have some padding..............................................only joking.
We had dinner and a briefing from Wan, a young guy who would be our guide for the 3 days. He outlined the itinerary and the vast amount of wildlife we were hopefully going to see. That night, we had a safari boat trip along the Kinabatangan and were treated to views of 2 baby Crocodiles, 2 Buffy Fish Owls (a first for me), a couple of Kingfishers - blind at night so we were able to get really close to them, and a couple of Monitor Lizards. Also present were more of the Jungle Mafia, hanging around in a tree by the side of the river. Loads to see and a real treat for our first safari. Wan had an amazing eye for them as well considering we were searching with just a torch. A really cool experience and great fun also. Then it was bed for us - up at 6am to get in the boat again and see what wildlife morning brings.
Day 3: Less to see in the morning unfortunately. More of the Macaques (glad to see them in the trees rather than in our bags back at the hut) and another couple of Lizards. The highlights in the morning were an Eagle (not sure what kind) and 2 Hornbills, another bird I've never seen before. Not as much to see as the previous night but still a rewarding trip.
After breakfast, we were joined by a dutch guy (Wauter) in taking on the locals at football. It's safe to say we underestimated them and were beaten pretty convincingly. A combination of their skill, lack of american experience and my now shocking fitness levels I think. Not helped by the fact we had to play in walking shoes while they have their own boots I might add. Still, no excuses. A rematch tomorrow, if I could convince Brandon.
That afternoon, Wan took us to a different part of the jungle for a trek to see what wildlife was on offer. Mostly insects this time - a MASSIVE centipede (just for you Angela) and a couple of Spiders. Wan also shared his local knowledge about the trees and what they can use them for. Also some poisonous plants for us to avoid.
Afterwards, myself, Wan, Brandon and Will set off for a few hours fishing by the side of the river (Pete stayed to chill out at the camp). I've only been fishing once in my life and didn't catch a thing so I was keen to learn more and try and put that right. Brandon got the ball rolling with a catfish before I caught one myself and was well chuffed. It was then a close competition between me, Wan and Brandon as to who could be top dog - close for a while before Wan put us well and truly in our place. Only catfish on offer but I managed to catch five of them in total! Will, on the other hand, didn't catch a thing all afternoon, despite switching positions several times. Highly amusing for the rest of us.
While we were sat in the boat enjoying the sunshine, Wan heard a noise in the forest behind us and promptly showed us what he had seen - a huge, old Oranguatan that wasn't far away at all.. We were all thrilled with this as most vistors to the camp are lucky to see one in the wild. Here it was, and a big one at that!
Without hesitation, Wan got us all off the boat so we could get into the jungle to try and get a closer look. Jogging barefoot, Brandon got bitten by something in the grass and, while waiting behind him, I did too. Nothing major but enough time taken to get us seperated from Will and Wan, who continued their pursuit. We then had to try and find them, without making sufficient noise to potentially scare the Orangutan away. We couldn't find or hear them and it then suddenly dawned on us both that we were alone in the jungle, with a huge, hungry Orangutan somewhere close-by (this was when my mind flicked back to the Rehab Centre video - this one was about that size). We searched around for a few more minutes but couldn't find the others and only had a few noises to go on - not sure if this was them or the animal finding a new position to attack from. It was pretty funny to be fair, if mildly scary at the same time. Eventually, we gave up and returned to the boat to hopefully meet Wan and Will there.
When they returned, they had quite a story. They had ended up right under his tree and had him staring down at them, not moving for several minutes. He clearly wasn't happy with their presence beneath him, as was illustrated by him breaking up branches (some big ones apparently) and throwing them down in their direction. This explained why they were being so quiet and also made me kind of glad that we did get seperated. As cool as it would have been to get closer, I'm not sure how he would have reacted if there were 4 of us staring up at him. Will told us that at one point he asked Wan what they should do if the Orangutan came down, to which he replied ''I don't know''. Haha - so much for their local knowledge. Clearly a situation that even he hadn't been put in. We all felt very fortunate to have been there - myself and Brandon to have seen it, the other 2 to have escaped alive. Had a good laugh about this back on the boat as we made our way back to camp, keen to tell Pete what he had missed.
A short break back at the camp before heading out in the boat again for another wildlife safari. This trip was in search of Probiscis Monkeys, who are famous for their frankly HUGE noses. Not an animal I've seen before and I made an agreement with Wan that he had to give me his T-Shirt if we didn't find any. He seemed pretty confident to be fair.
And we could see why - loads of them. We found several trees holding them and they are great to watch because they are capable of massive leaps between trees and branches, without consideration for how strong the target branch is. This was really funny as a couple of them nearly fell off after an ambitious jump. We managed to get right under their trees and they didn't mind as they were so far up. A few of them gave us a disapproving stare from the top, a look we were now quite familiar with. We also saw another baby Crocodile, which was cool.
After dinner back at the camp, we were back out again for our second jungle trek (talk about an action-packed itinerary). Only this time, it was 9pm and a torch was needed. Didn't see a great deal unfortunately, a huntsman spider and a wolf spider being the highlights. Were all quite keen to find a Scorpian as well but unfortunately not. A couple more nice birds that we could get close to though. Back to camp to share some homemade Rice Wine with Lan and a few of the other locals. Can't think of too many occasions when we didn't see Lan without a drink of some sort in his hands. In this instance, it was a bucket of Rice Wine, and it was pretty disgusting as usual. We were happy to help him out a little though.
Day 4: Up early again for our final safari trip before returning to Sepilok. Had been very lucky so far with all the wildlfe we had seen and were wondering what else could be in store for us.
And we got lucky again - Gibbons. For those that don't know, these are another type of Monkey, probably the most representative of humans in the way they look and move around. I'd seen some previously at Saigon Zoo and they are definately my favourite type of Monkey. Like the Probiscis Monkey's, they are capable of huge jumps and also have this really funny up-right running style, which reminds me of the killer in the Scream films. We got really lucky seeing these in a tree mixing with lots of the jungle mafia and we spent a while hanging around underneath watching them. Another real treat for us all.
And it got better, on our return to camp we saw three more wild Orangutans! Much further away than the one we had seen on the fishing trip but we were able to get a good look at them through the trees still. We all felt very fortunate to have seen so much over the 3-days. All luck when you are searching for wildlife and we got really lucky. Many visitors to the Kinabatangan don't get to see one Orangutan, let alone four.
Once we returned to the camp, we took on the locals at footie again. A closer contest but they still beat us. Was a great laugh anyway though and good to get a couple of days of exercise. Lan told us that his team often competes in the Kinabatangan Open and other tournaments near Sandakan, and usually wins. We could see why.
We said our goodbyes to everyone and the camp and thanked them for a fantastic few days. Wan had been an unbelivable guide, with a great eye for spotting animals along the river. Everyone else at the camp had made a real fuss of us and the food was quality too. Lan has been taking cooking lessons and was happy to give us a couple of demonstrations. A great trip and we definately landed on our feet by going with Uncle Tans - I would highly recommend them to anyone planning on visiting Borneo, which you should.
Boat trip back (no rain this time) and then it was a minibus back to Sepilok. Brandon and Will had to head to Sandakan straight away to get over to KK and I went with them as I was in need of an ATM (none in Sepilok). Said goodbye to them and will hopefully be hooking up with them for a beer in Semporna, my next destination. Great lads and we had a good laugh on the trip - Will's poor attempts at a british accent being one of the highlights.
That evening, myself and Pete chilled out at the hostel playing some pool and taking in our dose of English footie that they had on in reception. The 2 of us stayed up until the early hours watching the mess of a game that was the Carling Cup Final. Glad we got the cup but what an emotional rollercoaster to get it. That's Liverpool for you.
Day 5: My final day in Sepilok before heading to Semporna for some diving. Pete and I hung around the hostel in the morning before taking a walk to check out the nearby Rainforest Discovery Centre. Wasn't sure what we would see that we hadn't seen on the wildlife safari but Adam had said it was good there so thought it might be worth checking out. It wasn't! I think we went a bit late in the day because we walked around for a good couple of hours and only saw one small Lizard. No birds, no Monkeys, nothing. Oh well, made us even more grateful for everything we had seen along the Kinabatangan. We then got caught in some seriously heavy rain heading back to Uncle Tans. It rains A LOT in Borneo.
A pretty relaxed afternoon and evening, consisting of more Pool, Table Tennis and Darts. Nothing much else to do in Sepilok (no bars or anything) and we had seen everywhere we wanted to. I really enjoyed my time in Sepilok and Uncle Tans has been one of my favourite guesthouses so far. Likewise, the wildlife tour was awesome. Said goodbye to Pete, who was heading to Kuala Lumpur the following day. Bus to Semporna for me in the morning.
After checking in early afternoon and getting myself a very good deal on accommodation (8 quid a night for a bed and all meals included - a budget traveller's dream!), there wasn't a great deal to do. There isn't much in Sepilok other than the Rehab Centre, the main reason travellers visit here. I booked a 3 days / 2 nights wildlife safari along the Kinabatangan to start the following afternoon, inclusive of my visit to the Rehab Centre first thing in the morning. That left me all afternoon to thrash one of the guesthouse employees at pool as they have their own table. All meals included and free Pool, Darts and Table Tennis - I could get to like this place.
That evening, I met a couple of other travellers over dinner. Adam, an Aussie who now lives in Japan and Olivier, a quite smug french guy who ticked most of the stereotypes and was alright in small doses. He had travelled a fair bit and was therefore convinced he knew everything about everywhere, even places he hadn't been. A bit frustrating to listen to over dinner but myself and Adam just humoured him. Spent the evening hanging out with them at the hostel before putting Olivier in his place over a game of pool later on. Not quite so smug then - Haha.
Day 2: Morning shuttle bus to the Orangutan Rehab Centre. Met a cool English guy called Pete (Oxford), who was going there as well and was also booked on the Kinabatangan Safari trip starting later in the day.
The Rehab Centre is one of only 4 Orangutan sanctuaries in the world and it occupies part of the Sepilok rainforest reserve. Injured and orphaned Orangutans are taken there to be cared for before they are ready to be returned to the wild. We arrived about 9.30am ahead of the morning feeding at 10am. Some of them were already visible and then lots more arrived near the viewing platform when the food was brought out. Amazing creatures who were more than happy swinging along the ropes in front of the crowds and seemingly posing for pictures. We got a good look at them for about half an hour before they gradually descended back into the forest, leaving the scraps available for the Long-Tail Macaques (nicknamed ''The Jungle Mafia'' by the locals) to indulge in. These are also really cool but less than behaved apparently, hence the nickname.
After the feeding, we were free to walk around the centre and read some more about the great work they do. It sounds like it's a real success story as numerous Orangutans have been returned to the wild after being cared for. There was also a 20 minute video outlining the work of the place, which was really interesting. It showed one Orangutan, who was in their care from infancy until he was old and now strong enough to break a human in half if he wanted to. Nice! The video showed them cautiously returning him to the wild and thankfully, he didn't attack and instead went straight up a tree. I would find myself remembering this part of the video quite vividly in a few days time.
After we had been ushered out to the front of the centre, myself and Pete waited for our shuttle back to Uncle Tans. We met a couple of American guys (Brandon and Will), who were also heading there and were booked on the Kinabatangan trip. As we were waiting, the jungle mafia emerged from over the roof of the centre and promptly filled the reception area and parts of the car park. I reckon there was at least 20 of them, who were more than happy walking amongst us and seeing what mischief they could cause. They look pretty harmless but it's probably still not a good idea to get too close to them, as Will found out when one tried to steal his water bottle. Thankfully for him, it was almost full and therefore just too heavy for the Macaque so he couldn't complete the steal. Was really funny watching him try though and even more funny watching Will's feable attempts to stop him. They hung around for another 10-15 minutes, rummaging through all the bins and sussing us all out before returning to one of the trees. Beware the jungle mafia! We then got our shuttle back to Uncle Tans.
We all packed some stuff for the 3-day trip and had a short briefing before getting our minibus ride to the river. Just the four of us on the trip but there were more people already at the camp. When we arrived at the river, the heavens opened - some of the strongest rain I've ever seen and less than appealing when you have an hour boat ride, uncovered, to get to the camp. We covered our things in plastic bags as best we could and then set off - all less than enthusiastic it has to be said.
The journey was actually a pretty good laugh with us all getting so soaked and we arrived at the camp late afternoon. It was situated right in the jungle and our hut was on stilts keeping us only a few feet above the water - pretty cool. We met some of the locals - Lan, Leo and Wan, who showed us around the camp before dinner that evening. Lan is a keen Liverpool fan, who knew almost as much as me (almost) so we got on pretty well. They also had a football pitch made up in the camp and challenged us to a game the following day. Needless to say, myself and Pete were more keen than our American friends but we all agreed to the challenge. Will asked if he could have some padding..............................................only joking.
We had dinner and a briefing from Wan, a young guy who would be our guide for the 3 days. He outlined the itinerary and the vast amount of wildlife we were hopefully going to see. That night, we had a safari boat trip along the Kinabatangan and were treated to views of 2 baby Crocodiles, 2 Buffy Fish Owls (a first for me), a couple of Kingfishers - blind at night so we were able to get really close to them, and a couple of Monitor Lizards. Also present were more of the Jungle Mafia, hanging around in a tree by the side of the river. Loads to see and a real treat for our first safari. Wan had an amazing eye for them as well considering we were searching with just a torch. A really cool experience and great fun also. Then it was bed for us - up at 6am to get in the boat again and see what wildlife morning brings.
Day 3: Less to see in the morning unfortunately. More of the Macaques (glad to see them in the trees rather than in our bags back at the hut) and another couple of Lizards. The highlights in the morning were an Eagle (not sure what kind) and 2 Hornbills, another bird I've never seen before. Not as much to see as the previous night but still a rewarding trip.
After breakfast, we were joined by a dutch guy (Wauter) in taking on the locals at football. It's safe to say we underestimated them and were beaten pretty convincingly. A combination of their skill, lack of american experience and my now shocking fitness levels I think. Not helped by the fact we had to play in walking shoes while they have their own boots I might add. Still, no excuses. A rematch tomorrow, if I could convince Brandon.
That afternoon, Wan took us to a different part of the jungle for a trek to see what wildlife was on offer. Mostly insects this time - a MASSIVE centipede (just for you Angela) and a couple of Spiders. Wan also shared his local knowledge about the trees and what they can use them for. Also some poisonous plants for us to avoid.
Afterwards, myself, Wan, Brandon and Will set off for a few hours fishing by the side of the river (Pete stayed to chill out at the camp). I've only been fishing once in my life and didn't catch a thing so I was keen to learn more and try and put that right. Brandon got the ball rolling with a catfish before I caught one myself and was well chuffed. It was then a close competition between me, Wan and Brandon as to who could be top dog - close for a while before Wan put us well and truly in our place. Only catfish on offer but I managed to catch five of them in total! Will, on the other hand, didn't catch a thing all afternoon, despite switching positions several times. Highly amusing for the rest of us.
While we were sat in the boat enjoying the sunshine, Wan heard a noise in the forest behind us and promptly showed us what he had seen - a huge, old Oranguatan that wasn't far away at all.. We were all thrilled with this as most vistors to the camp are lucky to see one in the wild. Here it was, and a big one at that!
Without hesitation, Wan got us all off the boat so we could get into the jungle to try and get a closer look. Jogging barefoot, Brandon got bitten by something in the grass and, while waiting behind him, I did too. Nothing major but enough time taken to get us seperated from Will and Wan, who continued their pursuit. We then had to try and find them, without making sufficient noise to potentially scare the Orangutan away. We couldn't find or hear them and it then suddenly dawned on us both that we were alone in the jungle, with a huge, hungry Orangutan somewhere close-by (this was when my mind flicked back to the Rehab Centre video - this one was about that size). We searched around for a few more minutes but couldn't find the others and only had a few noises to go on - not sure if this was them or the animal finding a new position to attack from. It was pretty funny to be fair, if mildly scary at the same time. Eventually, we gave up and returned to the boat to hopefully meet Wan and Will there.
When they returned, they had quite a story. They had ended up right under his tree and had him staring down at them, not moving for several minutes. He clearly wasn't happy with their presence beneath him, as was illustrated by him breaking up branches (some big ones apparently) and throwing them down in their direction. This explained why they were being so quiet and also made me kind of glad that we did get seperated. As cool as it would have been to get closer, I'm not sure how he would have reacted if there were 4 of us staring up at him. Will told us that at one point he asked Wan what they should do if the Orangutan came down, to which he replied ''I don't know''. Haha - so much for their local knowledge. Clearly a situation that even he hadn't been put in. We all felt very fortunate to have been there - myself and Brandon to have seen it, the other 2 to have escaped alive. Had a good laugh about this back on the boat as we made our way back to camp, keen to tell Pete what he had missed.
A short break back at the camp before heading out in the boat again for another wildlife safari. This trip was in search of Probiscis Monkeys, who are famous for their frankly HUGE noses. Not an animal I've seen before and I made an agreement with Wan that he had to give me his T-Shirt if we didn't find any. He seemed pretty confident to be fair.
And we could see why - loads of them. We found several trees holding them and they are great to watch because they are capable of massive leaps between trees and branches, without consideration for how strong the target branch is. This was really funny as a couple of them nearly fell off after an ambitious jump. We managed to get right under their trees and they didn't mind as they were so far up. A few of them gave us a disapproving stare from the top, a look we were now quite familiar with. We also saw another baby Crocodile, which was cool.
After dinner back at the camp, we were back out again for our second jungle trek (talk about an action-packed itinerary). Only this time, it was 9pm and a torch was needed. Didn't see a great deal unfortunately, a huntsman spider and a wolf spider being the highlights. Were all quite keen to find a Scorpian as well but unfortunately not. A couple more nice birds that we could get close to though. Back to camp to share some homemade Rice Wine with Lan and a few of the other locals. Can't think of too many occasions when we didn't see Lan without a drink of some sort in his hands. In this instance, it was a bucket of Rice Wine, and it was pretty disgusting as usual. We were happy to help him out a little though.
Day 4: Up early again for our final safari trip before returning to Sepilok. Had been very lucky so far with all the wildlfe we had seen and were wondering what else could be in store for us.
And we got lucky again - Gibbons. For those that don't know, these are another type of Monkey, probably the most representative of humans in the way they look and move around. I'd seen some previously at Saigon Zoo and they are definately my favourite type of Monkey. Like the Probiscis Monkey's, they are capable of huge jumps and also have this really funny up-right running style, which reminds me of the killer in the Scream films. We got really lucky seeing these in a tree mixing with lots of the jungle mafia and we spent a while hanging around underneath watching them. Another real treat for us all.
And it got better, on our return to camp we saw three more wild Orangutans! Much further away than the one we had seen on the fishing trip but we were able to get a good look at them through the trees still. We all felt very fortunate to have seen so much over the 3-days. All luck when you are searching for wildlife and we got really lucky. Many visitors to the Kinabatangan don't get to see one Orangutan, let alone four.
Once we returned to the camp, we took on the locals at footie again. A closer contest but they still beat us. Was a great laugh anyway though and good to get a couple of days of exercise. Lan told us that his team often competes in the Kinabatangan Open and other tournaments near Sandakan, and usually wins. We could see why.
We said our goodbyes to everyone and the camp and thanked them for a fantastic few days. Wan had been an unbelivable guide, with a great eye for spotting animals along the river. Everyone else at the camp had made a real fuss of us and the food was quality too. Lan has been taking cooking lessons and was happy to give us a couple of demonstrations. A great trip and we definately landed on our feet by going with Uncle Tans - I would highly recommend them to anyone planning on visiting Borneo, which you should.
Boat trip back (no rain this time) and then it was a minibus back to Sepilok. Brandon and Will had to head to Sandakan straight away to get over to KK and I went with them as I was in need of an ATM (none in Sepilok). Said goodbye to them and will hopefully be hooking up with them for a beer in Semporna, my next destination. Great lads and we had a good laugh on the trip - Will's poor attempts at a british accent being one of the highlights.
That evening, myself and Pete chilled out at the hostel playing some pool and taking in our dose of English footie that they had on in reception. The 2 of us stayed up until the early hours watching the mess of a game that was the Carling Cup Final. Glad we got the cup but what an emotional rollercoaster to get it. That's Liverpool for you.
Day 5: My final day in Sepilok before heading to Semporna for some diving. Pete and I hung around the hostel in the morning before taking a walk to check out the nearby Rainforest Discovery Centre. Wasn't sure what we would see that we hadn't seen on the wildlife safari but Adam had said it was good there so thought it might be worth checking out. It wasn't! I think we went a bit late in the day because we walked around for a good couple of hours and only saw one small Lizard. No birds, no Monkeys, nothing. Oh well, made us even more grateful for everything we had seen along the Kinabatangan. We then got caught in some seriously heavy rain heading back to Uncle Tans. It rains A LOT in Borneo.
A pretty relaxed afternoon and evening, consisting of more Pool, Table Tennis and Darts. Nothing much else to do in Sepilok (no bars or anything) and we had seen everywhere we wanted to. I really enjoyed my time in Sepilok and Uncle Tans has been one of my favourite guesthouses so far. Likewise, the wildlife tour was awesome. Said goodbye to Pete, who was heading to Kuala Lumpur the following day. Bus to Semporna for me in the morning.
Mount Kinabalu
Day 1: After catching the bus from KK and embarking on the 2-hour trip, I arrived at the foot of Mount Kinabalu at about 11am. Despite catching the earliest bus available, this was quite late for beginning the climb as most people start between 9-10am so you can arrive at the mountain-side accommodation mid-afternoon. Probably didn't help that the bus was on the verge of falling apart and being overtaken by every other vehicle going that way.
Arriving late didn't help my cause either as I'd hoped to get there when it was busy so I could find some people to split the cost of a guide with. For the climb, a guide is mandatory and it's the same price whether it's one person or three people paying it. Thankfully, a nice Polish couple (Filip and Beata) arrived on the same bus as me and were happy to split the cost. Was really grateful to them as it saved me a fair bit of cash. Also nice to have some others to climb with.
After sorting out all the paper work, we met our mountain guide (Freddie), who confirmed our suspicions that we were the last people beginning the climb that day. He didn't seem unduly worried though, predicting we would be overtaking several Chinese people along the way. Funny because my Lonely Planet had said the exact same thing - not the quickest of climbers apparently.
And so it began, a 4-hour climb to reach the guesthouse we were staying at - Laban Rata. The climb was really tough and totally relentless. The guide book had warned that every step was uphill but I didn't take it literally - I should have! Normally you would expect some flat parts or perhaps going downhill for a few seconds but literally EVERY step was uphill and that made it really difficult. The first half of the climb was mostly manufactured steps and the second half was more rocks and boulders, which I preferred. The three of us pretty much stayed together throughout and I was really impressed with Beata, who managed to keep going, despite clearly feeling the strain. We had a few breaks along the way but all agreed to limit them as much as possible so we could maintain a steady rhythm, which is key to getting up there in a reasonable time. As predicted, we passed lots of ambling Chinese, who, at their pace, wouldn't be joining us at the guesthouse for several hours! We also passed lots of people returning from the summit, most giving us a jovial and slightly sarcastic ''good luck'' as we passed them. I made a mental note to use that myself the next day, if we made it to the summit that is.
We made it to Laban Rata at about 3pm and it was definately a sight for sore eyes. I was shattered and we were all grateful for a rest and a coffee once we got inside. It was a difficult trek but very enjoyable also. We had covered 6km so far and now had some time to recuperate and have some food before finishing the climb to the summit. The food was great but the guesthouse was absolutely freezing, due to limited electricity up there. Guess that's what to expect from mountain-side accomodation! I did toy with the idea of a shower but, after gingerly dipping my hand in and feeling how cold it was, I whimped out. Have had my fair share of cold showers on this trip but these were something else. No chance.
Off to bed at 7pm. Not just because of tiredness (although that was a factor) but mainly because we had to be up again at 2am to finish the trek. Best to get as much sleep as possible in preparation.
Day 2: I slept more than I thought I would and we were up at 2am for some supper and to begin stage 2 of the climb. The idea behind leaving at this time is so you are at the top to see the sunrise. I like a nice sunrise but have never been as enthusiastic about them as others so you can imagine how I was feeling at that time of the morning. This one better be good!
This part of the climb was twice as hard as what we had already done. Ignoring the fact that it was pitch black and we all had torches to light the way, the majority of the rest of the climb was done by pulling ourselves up by a rope. I only had a hand torch but soon kept this in my pocket once I realised that both hands were needed for the rope. No more nice steps either - this was mainly smooth, steep rock, which got quite slippy in places and wasn't helped by the cold, harsh wind that was blowing in our faces. It was really tough but also a fantastic experience and made us all the more determined to reach the summit. I've never done a mountain climb like this before, let alone one in the middle of the night, so it was definately a new experience for me and one I won't forget in a hurry.
The smooth rock was eventually replaced by more tricky terrain and it meant basically climbing on all-fours as we got close to the top (or at least when I thought we were getting near the top - seemed as though we were never going to get there at some stages). Freddie also told us that some people had died or gone missing while doing this section of the climb, which was nice to hear! Apparently, if it rains heavily and the weather gets really bad, they now abandon the climb for safety reasons - I can see why. I was ahead of Filip and Beata for this stage as I wanted to try and keep and constant pace.
Finally, at about 5.20am, I reached the summit and it was a great feeling. The poles weren't far behind and we were full of congratulations for each other when they joined me. Freezing at the summit, making me even more grateful that I'd bought some proper clothing back in KK - one guy was finishing the climb wearing shorts and a pair of converse, and he had just stepped in a puddle. I think it's fair to say he was regretting this decision.
We stuck around at the summit for around half an hour and caught the sunrise. It was a bit disappointing as there were clouds covering most of it but I didn't mind too much - was more pleased at having made it all the way. Met a couple of nice english girls (Rosie and Katie) at the top before we began our descent. 30 minutes at 4095m = pretty damn cold. Now for the ''easy'' part - climbing down.
Once we reached about 6.30am and the sun was fully up, the mountain seemed so different from the total darkness we had gone up in. Some amazing scenery and spectacular rock formations, that looked like they were straight out of a Lord of the Rings scene. All got some great pictures as we made our way cautiously back to Laban Rata for breakfast. The rope was just as necessary on the way down I can assure you.
The three of us had breakfast around 8am and then began our final descent at about 9am. This climb wasn't cheap but I certainly couldn't fault the service at the guesthouse, who really looked after us with the food.
Whilst it was obviously easier doing the mountain downhill, not as much as you would think as it was really tough on the knees. I was going much quicker than Filip and Beata this time around as I found it better to jog parts of the descent to ease the impact. I stopped and waited every couple of kilometres and the guys weren't far behind. I also took great pleasure in wishing new climbers ''good luck'' as I passed them. They guessed right that they would be needing it.
We reached the bottom early afternoon and were all completely shattered. All except Freddie that is, who does 2 or 3 climbs a week and yet still looked fresh as a daisy in preparation for another climb tomorrow. Rather you than me mate.
The three of us had some lunch and then headed back to Kota Kinabalu for the evening. The poles were a really nice couple and we had a good laugh together over the 2 days. Filip gave me some good tips for my time in Singapore as well before we went our seperate ways.
Needless to say, a very subdued evening for me. Time to give my legs a rest before an early bus trip to Sepilok. Trekking complete, now time to find some Monkeys, Orangutans and the other vast species of wildlife Borneo has to offer.
Arriving late didn't help my cause either as I'd hoped to get there when it was busy so I could find some people to split the cost of a guide with. For the climb, a guide is mandatory and it's the same price whether it's one person or three people paying it. Thankfully, a nice Polish couple (Filip and Beata) arrived on the same bus as me and were happy to split the cost. Was really grateful to them as it saved me a fair bit of cash. Also nice to have some others to climb with.
After sorting out all the paper work, we met our mountain guide (Freddie), who confirmed our suspicions that we were the last people beginning the climb that day. He didn't seem unduly worried though, predicting we would be overtaking several Chinese people along the way. Funny because my Lonely Planet had said the exact same thing - not the quickest of climbers apparently.
And so it began, a 4-hour climb to reach the guesthouse we were staying at - Laban Rata. The climb was really tough and totally relentless. The guide book had warned that every step was uphill but I didn't take it literally - I should have! Normally you would expect some flat parts or perhaps going downhill for a few seconds but literally EVERY step was uphill and that made it really difficult. The first half of the climb was mostly manufactured steps and the second half was more rocks and boulders, which I preferred. The three of us pretty much stayed together throughout and I was really impressed with Beata, who managed to keep going, despite clearly feeling the strain. We had a few breaks along the way but all agreed to limit them as much as possible so we could maintain a steady rhythm, which is key to getting up there in a reasonable time. As predicted, we passed lots of ambling Chinese, who, at their pace, wouldn't be joining us at the guesthouse for several hours! We also passed lots of people returning from the summit, most giving us a jovial and slightly sarcastic ''good luck'' as we passed them. I made a mental note to use that myself the next day, if we made it to the summit that is.
We made it to Laban Rata at about 3pm and it was definately a sight for sore eyes. I was shattered and we were all grateful for a rest and a coffee once we got inside. It was a difficult trek but very enjoyable also. We had covered 6km so far and now had some time to recuperate and have some food before finishing the climb to the summit. The food was great but the guesthouse was absolutely freezing, due to limited electricity up there. Guess that's what to expect from mountain-side accomodation! I did toy with the idea of a shower but, after gingerly dipping my hand in and feeling how cold it was, I whimped out. Have had my fair share of cold showers on this trip but these were something else. No chance.
Off to bed at 7pm. Not just because of tiredness (although that was a factor) but mainly because we had to be up again at 2am to finish the trek. Best to get as much sleep as possible in preparation.
Day 2: I slept more than I thought I would and we were up at 2am for some supper and to begin stage 2 of the climb. The idea behind leaving at this time is so you are at the top to see the sunrise. I like a nice sunrise but have never been as enthusiastic about them as others so you can imagine how I was feeling at that time of the morning. This one better be good!
This part of the climb was twice as hard as what we had already done. Ignoring the fact that it was pitch black and we all had torches to light the way, the majority of the rest of the climb was done by pulling ourselves up by a rope. I only had a hand torch but soon kept this in my pocket once I realised that both hands were needed for the rope. No more nice steps either - this was mainly smooth, steep rock, which got quite slippy in places and wasn't helped by the cold, harsh wind that was blowing in our faces. It was really tough but also a fantastic experience and made us all the more determined to reach the summit. I've never done a mountain climb like this before, let alone one in the middle of the night, so it was definately a new experience for me and one I won't forget in a hurry.
The smooth rock was eventually replaced by more tricky terrain and it meant basically climbing on all-fours as we got close to the top (or at least when I thought we were getting near the top - seemed as though we were never going to get there at some stages). Freddie also told us that some people had died or gone missing while doing this section of the climb, which was nice to hear! Apparently, if it rains heavily and the weather gets really bad, they now abandon the climb for safety reasons - I can see why. I was ahead of Filip and Beata for this stage as I wanted to try and keep and constant pace.
Finally, at about 5.20am, I reached the summit and it was a great feeling. The poles weren't far behind and we were full of congratulations for each other when they joined me. Freezing at the summit, making me even more grateful that I'd bought some proper clothing back in KK - one guy was finishing the climb wearing shorts and a pair of converse, and he had just stepped in a puddle. I think it's fair to say he was regretting this decision.
We stuck around at the summit for around half an hour and caught the sunrise. It was a bit disappointing as there were clouds covering most of it but I didn't mind too much - was more pleased at having made it all the way. Met a couple of nice english girls (Rosie and Katie) at the top before we began our descent. 30 minutes at 4095m = pretty damn cold. Now for the ''easy'' part - climbing down.
Once we reached about 6.30am and the sun was fully up, the mountain seemed so different from the total darkness we had gone up in. Some amazing scenery and spectacular rock formations, that looked like they were straight out of a Lord of the Rings scene. All got some great pictures as we made our way cautiously back to Laban Rata for breakfast. The rope was just as necessary on the way down I can assure you.
The three of us had breakfast around 8am and then began our final descent at about 9am. This climb wasn't cheap but I certainly couldn't fault the service at the guesthouse, who really looked after us with the food.
Whilst it was obviously easier doing the mountain downhill, not as much as you would think as it was really tough on the knees. I was going much quicker than Filip and Beata this time around as I found it better to jog parts of the descent to ease the impact. I stopped and waited every couple of kilometres and the guys weren't far behind. I also took great pleasure in wishing new climbers ''good luck'' as I passed them. They guessed right that they would be needing it.
We reached the bottom early afternoon and were all completely shattered. All except Freddie that is, who does 2 or 3 climbs a week and yet still looked fresh as a daisy in preparation for another climb tomorrow. Rather you than me mate.
The three of us had some lunch and then headed back to Kota Kinabalu for the evening. The poles were a really nice couple and we had a good laugh together over the 2 days. Filip gave me some good tips for my time in Singapore as well before we went our seperate ways.
Needless to say, a very subdued evening for me. Time to give my legs a rest before an early bus trip to Sepilok. Trekking complete, now time to find some Monkeys, Orangutans and the other vast species of wildlife Borneo has to offer.
Saturday, 3 March 2012
Kota Kinabalu
Up bright and early to catch a flight over to Kota Kinabalu, Borneo. I shared a taxi with 2 others from my guesthouse, who I believed were heading to the same airport as me. When we were picked up, the taxi driver asked us which airlines we were flying with and then told me that I would be flying out of a different airport to the others (despite the fact that each of our tickets said ''Kuala Lumpur International Airport''). He told me that Air Asia have their own airport and that he would need to take me there. After a discussion, I wasn't convinced, pretty confused and a bit worried but had to take his word for it, considering he probably does this every day. The other 2 were baffled by it all too and the fact that it was 5am didn't help either.
We dropped the others off first at KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport - all our tickets say ''KUL'') so I nipped in to see if my flight was scheduled to go from there. No sign of it on the boards so I reckoned that my driver must be right and I would need to head to this other airport several miles away. Luckily, their flight was earlier than mine so we had plenty of time to kill. The taxi driver was really nice too and explained that this was a common source of confusion with travellers, We headed off to LCC, hoping that my flight was from there.
Thankfully, it was and the driver was right all along. I apologised for doubting him but he didn't seem that surprised that I did because this seems to confuse lots of people. Turns out ''LCC" is a terminal part of KLIA (or KUL or whatever), despite the fact that it's nowhere near it. Only Air Asia flights go from there but why they couldn't put that on the ticket, I do not know. He also told me there is soon going to be a KLIA2 in Kuala Lumpur as well, which is going to make life even more of a nightmare for him and other travellers. Stupid system and not exactly the start to the day I was looking for. Did a good job of waking me up though.
Anyway, we arrived at LCC in plenty of time before my flight. Have heard nothing but bad things about Air Asia from fellow travellers but thankfully all went smoothly and the flight over to Borneo was a nice short one. I arrived in Kota Kinabalu early afternoon and headed straight for Australia Place - the backpackers district.
After booking into a hostel, I went for a walk around town to get my bearings and start comparing some deals on things I wanted to book for my 2-week stay. Nothing much to do in Kota Kinabalu itself - it's more of a base to start your trip and organise excursions and tours you want to do throughout Borneo. I started checking out some places but wasn't helped by the fact that it was Sunday and pretty much everywhere was closed for the day! Great. Throughout South-East Asia, you get used to places being open all the time for you to book things and this was the first occasion that the day of the week has been an issue. I did find a couple of places open but their deals seemed massively overpriced so I decided I would wait until morning to do some proper research.
Not much in the way of sight-seeing in KK but I did venture down to check out a nice Mosque, which was a few miles outside of town. Not allowed to go inside but an impressive building nonetheless so thankfully, the day wasn't a complete waste.
That evening, I chilled at my hostel, met some french guys and a german lad called Marf and spent a few hours playing poker with them. No money involved though - we are all poor travellers after all!
Day 2: After finding everywhere closed the day before, I got up early so I could try and book a climb of Mount Kinabalu - the highest mountain in South East Asia. Borneo can be a bit tricky with it's tourist attractions as some require permits, which can take a few days to obtain. Other travellers had warned me this might be the case with Mt Kinabalu so I got up early to try and book it asap. Thankfully, it was all fine and I was able to book my climb to start the following day. Seems to be low season in Borneo this time of year so I think that helped my cause.
The rest of the day was spent doing further research and buying some gear I needed for the climb. I didn't bring many warm clothes away with me and the ones I do have, are not really appropriate for a 4000m peak at sunrise. Got myself a good coat, gloves and hat so I was fully prepared. I'm expecting it to be cold in New Zealand and parts of South America too so these will hopefully see me through to the end of my trip.
The afternoon was spent trying to book some diving at Sipidan, an island off the west coast of Borneo. Sipidan is one of the top dive sites in the world, is VERY popular and only has a limited number of permits available every day so I was a bit scared that I might miss out. Everywhere else, it's been fine to just turn up and book something for the following day but I didn't want to risk that with Sipidan so I emailed all the places based in Semporna, where the trips start from. Wasn't looking good for a while as lots came back with limited or no availability, until I got lucky with one called Billabong Scuba, who had some days available. Without hesitation, I booked it, giving myself just over a week to get over to the west side of Borneo. Should be enough time for everything I want to do in between. Relieved to find somewhere as Sipidan was one of the main reasons for coming over here. Lots of Sharks, Turtles and possibly Manta Rays so I'm told. Exciting.
Fairly quiet evening after getting everything sorted. Up early to begin my climb. Had a feeling this was going to be tough.
We dropped the others off first at KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport - all our tickets say ''KUL'') so I nipped in to see if my flight was scheduled to go from there. No sign of it on the boards so I reckoned that my driver must be right and I would need to head to this other airport several miles away. Luckily, their flight was earlier than mine so we had plenty of time to kill. The taxi driver was really nice too and explained that this was a common source of confusion with travellers, We headed off to LCC, hoping that my flight was from there.
Thankfully, it was and the driver was right all along. I apologised for doubting him but he didn't seem that surprised that I did because this seems to confuse lots of people. Turns out ''LCC" is a terminal part of KLIA (or KUL or whatever), despite the fact that it's nowhere near it. Only Air Asia flights go from there but why they couldn't put that on the ticket, I do not know. He also told me there is soon going to be a KLIA2 in Kuala Lumpur as well, which is going to make life even more of a nightmare for him and other travellers. Stupid system and not exactly the start to the day I was looking for. Did a good job of waking me up though.
Anyway, we arrived at LCC in plenty of time before my flight. Have heard nothing but bad things about Air Asia from fellow travellers but thankfully all went smoothly and the flight over to Borneo was a nice short one. I arrived in Kota Kinabalu early afternoon and headed straight for Australia Place - the backpackers district.
After booking into a hostel, I went for a walk around town to get my bearings and start comparing some deals on things I wanted to book for my 2-week stay. Nothing much to do in Kota Kinabalu itself - it's more of a base to start your trip and organise excursions and tours you want to do throughout Borneo. I started checking out some places but wasn't helped by the fact that it was Sunday and pretty much everywhere was closed for the day! Great. Throughout South-East Asia, you get used to places being open all the time for you to book things and this was the first occasion that the day of the week has been an issue. I did find a couple of places open but their deals seemed massively overpriced so I decided I would wait until morning to do some proper research.
Not much in the way of sight-seeing in KK but I did venture down to check out a nice Mosque, which was a few miles outside of town. Not allowed to go inside but an impressive building nonetheless so thankfully, the day wasn't a complete waste.
That evening, I chilled at my hostel, met some french guys and a german lad called Marf and spent a few hours playing poker with them. No money involved though - we are all poor travellers after all!
Day 2: After finding everywhere closed the day before, I got up early so I could try and book a climb of Mount Kinabalu - the highest mountain in South East Asia. Borneo can be a bit tricky with it's tourist attractions as some require permits, which can take a few days to obtain. Other travellers had warned me this might be the case with Mt Kinabalu so I got up early to try and book it asap. Thankfully, it was all fine and I was able to book my climb to start the following day. Seems to be low season in Borneo this time of year so I think that helped my cause.
The rest of the day was spent doing further research and buying some gear I needed for the climb. I didn't bring many warm clothes away with me and the ones I do have, are not really appropriate for a 4000m peak at sunrise. Got myself a good coat, gloves and hat so I was fully prepared. I'm expecting it to be cold in New Zealand and parts of South America too so these will hopefully see me through to the end of my trip.
The afternoon was spent trying to book some diving at Sipidan, an island off the west coast of Borneo. Sipidan is one of the top dive sites in the world, is VERY popular and only has a limited number of permits available every day so I was a bit scared that I might miss out. Everywhere else, it's been fine to just turn up and book something for the following day but I didn't want to risk that with Sipidan so I emailed all the places based in Semporna, where the trips start from. Wasn't looking good for a while as lots came back with limited or no availability, until I got lucky with one called Billabong Scuba, who had some days available. Without hesitation, I booked it, giving myself just over a week to get over to the west side of Borneo. Should be enough time for everything I want to do in between. Relieved to find somewhere as Sipidan was one of the main reasons for coming over here. Lots of Sharks, Turtles and possibly Manta Rays so I'm told. Exciting.
Fairly quiet evening after getting everything sorted. Up early to begin my climb. Had a feeling this was going to be tough.
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