Travel Updates from Borneo
Where do I start?? I love borneo! or at least the Malaysian side .. Indonesia will hopefully be soon! The areas I visited are known as Sarawak and Sabah ... never thought I would be jungle trekking and enjoying it!
I left Singapore for Johor Bahru and a very early flight .. Unfortunately no cheap accomodation near the airport so booked into the posh hotel instead .. still less than a travel lodge and a little bit plusher!!! ... refer to photo and warning card!
Anyway landed in Kutching in South West Sarawak and spent a few days there in a really miserable hostel wandering about the town visiting museums and planning my trip .. Didn't meet anyone until the last day when I was visiting Semenggoh Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre to see the Orangutans where I met Izzy and a slimy Muslim who (after 1 hour of talking to him) wanted us to be his fifth and sixth wives! (Muslims are allowed 4!) After I rescued her from him I agreed to meet Izzy in Miri later in the week and go off to Mulu.
Arrived in Miri to one of the best hostels in Borneo .."The Highlands" .. owned by a Kiwi called "Captain David" who flys Twin Otters for Malaysian Airlines. Pretty much used this as a base for all my travel around Sabah and Sarawak.
Kicked around Miri for a couple of days doing a bit of diving and taking a day trip up the Baram River to Marudi to visit the town and a long house ... pretty eventful day with my first and only! taste of Terrapin (my guide Willie told me it was Tarpin ... a fresh water fish!!!!!!) This was followed by a little rice wine at the long house we visited .. they wanted us to stay the night, but as some of the women had obviously been at the rice wine for a while (it was only 4pm) we made our excuses and caught the last boat back with the longhouse chiefs catch of the day - huge fresh water prawns ... great in a Tom Yam .. but I have since found out that Prawns grow this big when there is a lot of pollution in the river from up stream (work it out!) .. Oh well still alive and kicking!
It wasn't the only pollution in the river either .. logging has had a devastating effect on the environment in terms of river pollution, scaring the rainforest, reducing the wildlife population and consequently the food sources for the local tribes people. Whether you take a river trip or fly across the Baram River you can see the effects .. and with Brunei within eyesight with its virgin untouched rainforest it is even more stark.
Speaking of flying .. the 16 seater twin otter is the local bus around Northern Sarawak .. no flight attendant or toilets on this plane .. but much more fun than any other flying i've done. Took my first flight with "Captain David" and 8 others from the hostel to Mulu after he came in one night to the bar and said that he would fly us around and over the pinnacles if we wanted to fly up with him in the morning .. (Emptying his hostel at the same time??? but at least he got to fly!)
Flying past the pinnacles was the big draw for me as the vertigo thing meant that this trip was a definite NO for me .. so instead I visited the 4 big caves, took a river trip and very slowly with the aid of a very patient park guide managed the sky canopy walk .. just finished this July it is now the longest in the world! .. and what did I see ?????? ...... a wasp!! although I am reliably told that 2 stings of this wasp could kill a Water Buffalo!
After Mulu it was more flying! I have avoided flying for most of my trips, but with a an infrastructure still in its infancy it is really the best way to get around and relatively cheap .. I even managed one business class flight for the huge sum of 20 pounds!
Anyway a couple of flights a bus trip and boat trip helped me to arrive in Kapali. This is the beautiful Stilt Water Bungalow Village that I stayed on for the sole purpose of diving Sipadan! What can I say amazing!!! Had the best diving in terms of fish. The coral has been largely damaged unfortunately, although the malaysian government have closed the resorts on sipadan in January 2005, this is too little too late ... Still the pictures are great and I met great people and had loads of fun on Kapali. Even though I begged to stay the resort was fully booked and so after 5 days I was on my way again .. this time to Uncle Tans Jungle Camp.
In a remote part of Sabah this camp was really good fun and has a really high concentration of wildlife .. managed to see loads including proboscis monkeys, macaque, fresh water crocs, Hornbills, numerous types of frogs (including the smallest in the world) and a tarantula!!!
A final visit to the Orangutans at Sepilok and I flew back to Kota Kinabalo to prepare for to ascend Mount Kinabalo!! Yep unlikely as it may seem off I went to climb a mountain .. actually the highest peak in South East Asia at just over 4000 metres. I climbed the mountain with Micol from Italy (really cool and great fun!) and Jessica of chinese origin but from Penang in Malaysia (completely mad and totally irriating!) ... and our guides .. and porters (of course!) I so need to spend more time at the gym!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! but after a long 7.5 hour day of climbing I did make it to Laban Rata where we stayed the night before attempting the final 700 metres to the summit. I would love to say that I made it to the top .. but when the trail changed from trail to bear rock with ropes to cling on to I managed to do about 200 metres until vertigo set in and I sat down and refused to move until the sun came up! This however did not make things better because then I could really see how high we were .. when the clouds were well below us!
Obviously I did make it down with the help of very patient guides .. and my bottom! Really pleased I did it but will be looking at mountains from the comfort of aeroplanes in future!
Arriving back in Kota Kinabalo my legs decided to cease up (not enough stretching I fear!) and it took a good 3 days before stairs and even kerbs did not cause me considerable pain!
So onwards to Labuan (duty free island off brunei) for a couple of days before I headed back to Miri again. From here I went back off up to Marudi for a 3 day Regatta! Not quite Henley .. but started by an Englishman who was looking for a way to get the tribes to stop fighting each other! This time I travelled up with Chris Bell (head of CBFT in brunei) and James (traveller) in Chris's Landrover up the "new" road ... very glad to be in a 4x4 when the road is a logging road .. basically mud! Ok in the dry but a potential nightmare in the wet! We were really lucky but the trip was obviously quite bumpy and also involved two car ferries too! (as I said before flying is easier!) Had a great time up in Marudi .. Chris had been a teacher there for 3 years in the 1970's so we couldn't walk more than a few steps without some ex pupil coming up to say hi ... so tended to wander off with James and Willie to see the sights .. lots of great food, alcohol and met really lovely people not only from Marudi but from the surrounding areas .. some had travelled for days to come to compete in the races or just to watch.
After Marudi took a day or two to recover in Miri and then for my final trip in Borneo I flew up to Bario with Willie, Sam and Adrian for more trekking, longhouse visits and boat trips .. Bario is near the border with Indonesia and you really feel that you are getting off the beaten track .. I was advised that I was not fit enough to so the Bario Loop so will be visiting the gym when i get home ready for a future visit .. but had a great time on the trip we did anyway.
So back to Singapore I flew to arrange my visit to Oz .. more of that later!
posted by Sarah Witcomb @ 3:24 pm
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