Long journey home

Sadly, my last view of Borneo was rain. But I guess that's what happens when you travel in the monsoon season! I was pretty lucky that it held off for over 4 weeks. I left for the airport at 10am to meet my 11:35 flight. At 12:15 and again at 12:45 they told us that due to technical difficulties there would be a delay and futher information would be available later. At about 1pm they asked us all to go to the restaurant where they gave us lunch. I started wondering whether there would be any more flights out and whether I'd make my flight to Australia at 9:30pm from KL, so I asked at the desk. They knew exactly who I was and were about to re-route me through KK, but then decided to take the whole plane instead and cancel the KK flight! I felt sorry for the passengers on that flight. At about 3:30 we finally took off, only 4 hours late. In KL I wandered round the airport for 2 hours and got on my plane for a safe and uneventful journey home.

It's been an awesome 5 weeks, and even though I've seen so much, there are many gaps that I would like to go back and fill. Three that come to mind are Danum Valley, Kudat (the tip of Borneo) and Long Pasia. Not to mention Bario in northern Sarawak, if I can brave going back there. Borneo 2011?

Sandakan

The monsoon hit this morning! Although the hotel's weather sign said "no rain all day", it rained on and off all day. Seriously - I would have taken the notice down in embarrassment by lunchtime...

Pavilion at the Teahouse

I started with breakfast on the waterfront, and then asked at the desk for a map and directions to Agnes Keith House. They looked at me in horror and said "oh no, you should get a cab. It's not safe." I looked on the map and it was only a short distance, albeit uphill. Ignoring their advice (remembering that Malaysian girls have thus far proven to be unadventurous, especially the girl next to me on the bus yesterday who was too scared to go get a seat on her own even though there were loads available), I set off down the street. Expecting to be mugged at every corner, I instead found that I was on the Sandakan Heritage Trail. Not safe indeed... perhaps a little slippery on the historical 100 steps but otherwise safe as houses (as Nan would say).

Very colonial!

It wasn't that hot but the humidity was about 800% so I arrived at the house bathed in sweat and silently thanked whoever had thought to install air conditioning. Agnes Keith was a writer who wrote "Land Below The Wind" (about Sabah) among other books, and she was quite the Borneo pioneer I think. I bought the book in KK but won't read it until I get home. Next door to the house is an English Teahouse, where I sat in my own pavilion and had scones and tea and enjoyed the great view of the harbour. Looking around I found a big cage and to my surprise it held a huge peacock. After seeing the freedom enjoyed by the peacocks at the Melbourne Zoo, I felt a little sorry for it!

Walking back into town I quickly discovered that Old Sandakan is the poor part of town. Most of the shops sell rubbish, some have gold and textiles but most sell the kind of stuff that the Reject Shop would reject. I wanted to go to the Australian War Memorial so, feeling very proud of myself, I found a minibus and paid my 2 ringgit fare. Pretty quickly I realised that the memorial park was in the middle of nowhere, and I became very thankful for Google Maps on my iPhone.

The memorial is extremely sad and I can't believe how awful the POW camp in Sandakan was. I've (purposely) avoided knowledge of the POW camps so I don't know whether it's better or worse than others, but the soldiers were all forced to march over 250km to Ranau on three trips later named the "Death Marches". Of the 2500 who went, six survived. Their anecdotes are heartbreaking.

I caught a bus to a shopping area, then back to the hotel. The second bus driver was extremely excited to have me on his bus (?) and got me to sit up front with him, much to the amusement of the other passengers. I got into it and went the whole ocker Aussie on him, thumbs up & G'day's all round. In the end I had to pull out ol' faithful, my alcoholic husband who is always waiting for me in the hotel. Sometimes he's looking after the kids but mostly he's sleeping because he had too many beers last night. Next time - I'm wearing a ring on the trip!

Rafi, Jeffrey and Nazmi and our meal

Nazmi, Rafi and their mate Jeffrey picked me up for dinner again and took me to Ikan Bakar Mama Resepi (Mama's recipe grilled fish) where we had another veritable feast. I ordered "sunburn fish", which I have Googled and found no reference to so I have no idea what it was. Apart from delicious. The boys made me eat Malay-style... with my hands. It was fairly amusing I think - if you don't believe me, try eating rice and fish and sauce with your fingers. See how you go.

We then went to the Old City restaurant (believe it or not, New City restaurant is right next door) and had cold drinks. It's nice going out with Muslim boys as there is no alcohol involved!! I'd much prefer an iced lychee drink.

The wheels on the bus go round and round and round...

Yvonne and I!

Yvonne has been complaining about not being in my blog anymore so here is a picture of the two of us!

Having forgotten to book my flight from KK to Sandakan, I suffered from a false sense of economy and failed to remember that RM 180 is still only about $60 and well worth it to avoid a seven-hour bus ride. So I got in the taxi to the bus station at 9:30, where I was berated by the driver for not getting up earlier. I told him to shove it (in a very polite manner of course) as it was too late for advice now! I also knew that buses leave for Sandakan so often that they may as well be Bourke Street trams. Getting out of the taxi I had one of the most horrible experiences of the trip. I had the door wrenched out of my hands as ten hawkers tried to sell me tickets, shouting at the top of their lungs 20cm from my face. It was quite a shock since this hasn't happened anywhere else in my whole trip, even the KK ferries the people were at least standing behind counters. Luckily my taxi driver came to help and told them all to buzz off, telling me to go with one particular guy. I didn't care if he got commission as it was only 30 ringgit which is cheaper than I thought it was and the others went away. The bus was air conditioned and very comfortable. We stopped at Ranau (about 3 hours into the journey) for a rest stop at a revolting place. There was not only no paper in the toilet (no worries, I come prepared nowadays) but no water anywhere at all to wash your hands or flush the toilet. You can imagine the mess. I reassessed my need to eat at this point and got a carton of Milo and some pre-packaged fruit cake instead, even then I waited until I was on the bus to eat it.

My fabulous steamboat hosts

Four hours later I arrived, another taxi to the hotel and finally it was over. Nazmi, who we met in Lahad Datu, is in town for a meeting and had left a message at the hotel (my phone won't work) so we organised to meet for dinner. He and his friend arrived at 7:30 and took me to a fabulous steamboat restaurant up on the hill with a view over Sandakan. I was unfamiliar with the steamboat concept; you choose a soup base (the boys chose Tom Yum) and then you go to the buffet and collect all manner of uncooked delicacies like meat and fish balls, vegies, and even whole fish and prawns. You toss it into the soup and cook it, then scoop some out and eat. Repeat until full! I was quietly congratulating my choice to not eat lunch, especially when I discovered Nazmi shares my love of ice-cream and it was also part of the buffet :)

Then I got a great tour of Sandakan. They drove me to Agnes Keith House (which was closed as it was night, but there is a great view), around the waterfront, and to a market where we picked up something for (second) dessert. This stuff was fabulous, and a heart attack waiting to happen. It was a long deep-fried sugar donut cut in half, spread with butter, spread thickly with kaya (coconut egg jam) and then closed up and covered in kaya. Delicacies such as this, and the fact that every drink is drowned in sugar, make you understand why diabetes incidence in Malaysia is skyrocketing. We took it back to my hotel and sat outside with some juice and enjoyed the evening.

An expensive surprise!

Stone fish - not my first choice for dinner.

Today was my girly day. I went for a walk to collect my laundry and went shopping, then went back to the backpackers. The English boys from last night were there and so we went to get some lunch. Basically they were the worst example of backpackers I have found so far - shagging their way around the world and not really seeing any local culture. They didn't want to see anything, they just wanted to crash a hotel pool somewhere. This was the case everywhere they went. They're coming to Melbourne soon so hotel pools, look out. Unfortunately I must have forgotten to give them my phone number... Anyway lunch was interesting as was their description of what they were going to be doing after lunch (couldn't possible write it here though). I went off afterwards by myself, feeling like I needed to find some soap! I got a haircut and though I was very nervous about how it would turn out, he actually did a good job. After that it was time for the manicure and pedicure, which looked great. Of course it was dark in the spa and when I got out I found the colour made me look like a cheap... well, cheap. This was easily remedied of course and they look great. It's amazing how good your nails get when you don't have to wash the dishes!

Field repairs

When I got back, Klara and I decided to go and treat ourselves to a seafood meal. I thought I was getting the hang of this game and we ordered grilled fish and prawns, and Sabah vegies, and fresh juice. It really was delicious. Then we got the bill and a big shock - it came to 300 ringgit!! ($100) This isn't much for a meal like that in Australia but we quickly realised they saw us coming. We hadn't watched them actually weigh the fish (which must have been 4kg by my calculations...) but of course you can't prove anything after you've eaten it! Giggling and feeling thankful that $50 each was not going to break us, we went in search of a beer. My jeans button came off though and so I was faced with the choice of returning to the backpackers or getting it fixed. We walked down to the Philippine Market where I knew there were a lot of guys with sewing machines (it's so cool, they all use those old-school black Singer machines). I found one who looked nice and managed to convey the message that I needed the button fixed. "No problem," he said, so I played my next card - "So.... do you think you can fix them... while I'm still wearing them?" He looked at me like he hadn't quite heard right, and his friend fell about laughing. It was very funny, he agreed to try and half the market was watching while this white girl knelt down as he hammered the button in. Klara was laughing and taking photos and I'm sure the friend wet himself a little bit. In the end he charged me 2 ringgit (60c) and I said don't be ridiculous and gave him 5. He said "I've been here 20 years and I have never had anyone ask me to repair their jeans while they're still wearing them!" I asked if perhaps he could iron them as well.

Diving KK

On Clem's Reef

Anyone who says the diving in Kota Kinabalu is bad, has way too high expectations. It was great! Sure, it's monsoon season and the visibility isn't as high as it could be but the coral is so healthy and plentiful. Mark (from Diverse Borneo) picked me up at 8:15 and took me down to the jetty where I met my Aussie dive guide. The only two other people were doing their Open Water course with another instructor so I had Dan all to myself. The first dive was on Gaya Island at Police Bay. The water was 30ºC and though the top layer was murky (probably fresh water runoff), down past the first few metres it was fine.

Pipefish

The second dive was a site at Sapi Island, and then we went to the island to have lunch at the cafe, the same one I ate at yesterday. It wasn't quite as nice weather as yesterday, it was a bit overcast and threatened to rain (although it never actually did). I was glad I did the snorkelling on the sunny day.

The lizards and I enjoyed a plate of mee goreng and an iced Milo, and then it was back to the boat for dive 3. The other two had bailed so it was just Dan and I now. We went to Clem's reef which was on the outside, but the swell wasn't too bad. I still couldn't believe how healthy the corals were, this one was full of huge table corals.

Lizard and his noodles

Mark picked me up again and took me back to the backpackers, where I was met by Klara who'd organised for a bunch of us to go for drinks in half an hour. I promptly fell asleep. She woke me up and we went to BB bar where it was 12 ringgit ($4) for 3 cans of Skol beer, which is cheap anywhere but especially in Malaysia where alcohol is expensive. 5 beers later I was starting to feel pretty shady so I left them and came back home to bed.

Mamutik and Sapi Islands

My boat crew

In a world first I actually did what I planned to do today! I walked down to the Jesselton Port where 20 people hissed and kissed and called out to me trying to sell me their boat tickets. The whole process was ridiculous, having to go different places to pay extra jetty fees, park entrance fees, etc etc. But in the end it was a grand total of around $13 to visit two islands in the Tunku Abdul Rahman marine park off Kota Kinabalu. The ride out took about 20 minutes and after insisting twice that I be taken to the islands I'd paid for and not just the closest ones, I finally got to Mamutik Island. Stepping off the boat was like walking onto a little piece of paradise, with a clearly laid-out snorkelling area, a beautiful beach, and a little store & cafe. I promptly dumped my bag with the lifeguard saying "Saya satu orang!!" (I'm by myself) and he was only too happy to help. I repaid him by removing rubbish as I snorkelled. On this island were the biggest clown fish I have ever seen! Seriously they were enormous, bigger than my outstretched hand.

Sapi Island

I spent 2 hours in the water and then got back on the boat for island number 2. Again he tried to convince me to go to a closer island but I just kept saying "Sapi? Sapi?" with an innocent look on my face. His son laughed so I expect the badgering normally works on tourists. Anyway we arrived at Sapi and he said there was a beautiful coral area just around the side so the driver took me there and said "tirty minute - then jetty!" I finally worked out that he was dropping me off in the water so I could snorkel and was then going to take me to the jetty. That was pretty nice of him! I jumped in and swam around and while I was looking at a crown of thorns, another face popped up beside me. He'd decided he was going to have a swim too. He was very enthusiastic, showing me mushroom corals and sea cucumbers etc but unfortunately his enthusiasm was scaring away all the wildlife! He did love having his photo taken underwater so he posed for a bit and then he dropped me off on the island.

Taking the snake out for a swim

I walked around to the first snorkelling area and was amazed to see a man in the shallows swimming with a snake. What was even more amazing was that on closer inspection it turned out to be a land snake. I took photos and thought he was saying it was "frightened", but it turns out it was a "python". He said "Is ok! Can pick up!" He asked if I wanted to hold it, I said yes of course (see picture...) Still thinking it was wild, I asked whether I should put it in a tree. He looked a bit shocked and I realised it was his pet snake, and he was just taking it for a swim! I have seen many things in my life but never have I seen anyone out taking their pet snake for a swim. The snorkelling in that area was far less exciting than the snake so I headed up to the cafe for some fried rice, waited the obligatory 45 seconds after eating, and got straight back in the water.

The cuttlefish

One of the lifeguards told me where to swim so I would "see everything" and to my delight I found a huge cuttlefish (Eliza - thought of you!) which I followed around for a bit. I called over a pair of extremely unenthused Japanese snorkelers who were just a tiny bit impressed after the 3 minutes it took for them to actually see it. It was camouflaged quite well but come on it was the size of two footballs! I swam around a bit further, got bitten by some fish that were obviously used to being fed (though it's not allowed) and went back to the jetty to meet my boat. After my 3rd degree sunburn from Kuching I was smart enough to wear a rash vest, but unfortunately I still wasn't smart enough to put sunscreen on my legs, so now I resemble a pair of candy canes without the white stripes.

On the way back from Jesselton port I stopped in at a dive shop, and it didn't take long to convince me to sign up for tomorrow's dives. It's $75. For return transfers from the backpackers, three boat dives, lunch and gear hire. Wow....

Shortest flight ever...

When I went to meet my airport transfer this morning I found out the hotel hadn't bothered to actually book it, so the maintenance man drove me to the airport. Made it in good time and proceeded through check-in with no worries. Luggage 18.5kg... normally I wouldn't care but since I was losing my Air Asia-ity today I was a bit nervous about tipping over the 20kgs I'd paid for. Got on the plane to find that they sure do the seating strangely on Air Asia. I was seated in the middle, next to a man in the window seat, but with nobody in the aisle, and with spare rows all over the place. Of course I moved. Guess I didn't look at the flight schedule, because I was expecting a much longer flight. It takes 8 hours to go from Bandar Seri Begawan to Kota Kinabalu, and you have to do six border crossings (apparently? Perhaps it's 3 but with a stamp from both countries each time?) However the flight takes around 25 minutes, and no sooner had I reclined my seat to read the fresh December magazine than the hostess told me to put it back up and prepare for landing. What the...?

Evidently there is a low cost terminal in KK, because it certainly wasn't the terminal I flew into the first time. For about two minutes I was genuinely wondering whether I had flown into the right city, but sure enough there were KK maps everywhere. It looked more like a bus station than an airport, with bazaar stands everywhere selling food and magazines, not like the plush surroundings of the Malaysia Airlines terminal. Also nowhere to change my money. I found another couple and shared a taxi into town with them, with the intention of going to Tenom. One thing led to another and eventually that became too hard so I decided to stay in KK for the night. I went off in search of food (cari makan) and wandered around town for a while. Headed back to the backpackers then and read my book! I think I might go snorkelling tomorrow.

Back to civilisation

By the river at Sumbiling

I spent the morning reading my book by the river, and then Rudy and I left Sumbiling at around 10am. Back into the car, back into the speedboat (I missed the crocodile, apparently) through Malaysia and to Bandar Seri Begawan. I checked into the hotel, went for a walk down to a dead shopping centre, got some ice-cream and then came back to spend the rest of the afternoon in the hotel pool, which I had all to myself.  A local man sat down and started talking to me, bought me a juice and offered to drive me around Brunei. Something just didn't seem right, particularly since he wasn't staying at the hotel, so I politely declined. After he asked for my room number I felt good about my decision! Mind you, another one did the same thing 2 hours later so maybe in Brunei they don't see why asking for the room number of a single female traveller is inappropriate. I walked across the road to a small hawker market for dinner, it was pretty forgettable. I fed my "meat" to a cat who just looked at me, going "as IF" and stalked away. If the cats won't even eat it...

I am very much enjoying my hot shower, aircon and comfy (dry) bed!!

Ulu Temburong National Park

Looking up at the canopy walkway... long way up!

Breakfast was eggs and fried rice, and then Rudy and I departed Sumbiling with Ricky at the helm of the world's fastest longboat. We tore up the river, overtaking the park rangers who were going to register us, and arrived in record time. I've tried looking up a lot of websites to find out what the story is with accommodation in the park and I'd heard that there were lodges, but couldn't find any way to book them. Turns out they were taken over by Ulu Ulu resort a number of years ago and it has since taken over the park management as well. They collect all the entry fees and in return they provide... nothing. I needed to use the bathroom and we headed off in the direction indicated by the ranger, only to be yelled at by one of the rudest men I have ever met. "WHERE YOU GOING?? THIS PRIVATE PROPERTY!!!" he yelled over and over. It turns out he is the manager of the whole shebang. So you pay entry but they don't want you to use the toilets, their trails have rotted away and their signs bear no resemblance to the actual facilities. Hmmm.....

Way up above the tallest trees

Despite that, there is an area that is managed by Forestry and we went there (amid many jokes to each other about not stepping on the "private" stair or looking at the "private" tree...) It's a 350m staircase with a 200 metre rise. If you think about it... that's pretty steep. Once we got to the top of the ridge, there was a canopy walkway. It was extremely high and supported by aluminium scaffolding, but well-maintained. Up we climbed until we were actually above the rainforest canopy. Some of those trees are seriously tall, and it was quite eerie to be up so high above them. It's apparently one of the longest canopy walkways in the world, and by the end of it I was well ready to get down. There's only so much one person can take!!

We trotted back down the staircase, passing by other groups as we went. Because we had left so early we beat all the other groups and had it to ourselves. I was very glad about this once I was up there, because even Rudy's movement freaked me out. We went back to the boat via a suspension bridge. This was one of the most sturdy, reinforced, concretey bridges I have ever seen, yet they made everyone who walked across wear a lifejacket. Apparently version one of the bridge, which was more of the rope swing variety, broke with people on it. Twelve years ago. Yeah.... anyway... We got back in the boat and went a short way down the river to a small rocky beach with a stream coming out. We walked up the stream to the end, where a gorgeous waterfall awaited. By now I was saturated with sweat anyway so I didn't even bother changing into the swimsuit I'd brought, and just went in fully-clothed. Again we had the place to ourselves, so we just sat down in the water and enjoyed ourselves for a while. There are spa fish in this water so I took my shoes off and let them do their thing. These ones are bigger than the ones at the fish spa though and some of them bit with enthusiasm! Rudy found stones that you could grind into paint so we decorated ourselves and declared a new tribe.

Rudy and I in our new tribal paint

We were lucky because the water was clear when we got there but of course walking through quickly changed that. As we left, the other group of people was walking in. There were about 15 of them and I felt very glad that I was on my own! Got the fish spa and the facial all to myself.

After we got back I enjoyed a shower in the sun, then it was lunch time. I was sitting on the floor of the main area so Rudy got me a mat and of course I promptly went to sleep. When I woke up it started raining like it was never going to stop. There was a brilliant storm and it was so nice to watch from under the shelter, feel perfectly warm and have endless tea and a book to read. And Gossip Girl on the laptop...

Bruneian night walk

Is he smiling for the camera??

I am becoming a huge fan of night walks in the jungle, and tonight was no disappointment. After a delicious dinner of local food, I set off with no less than THREE guides (Rudy, Ricky and one whose name I have forgotten). Like a good night dive, we didn't venture too far but instead concentrated on looking in a small area for critters. They showed me lizards, insects, and frogs. Lucky for me and the frogs it rained all afternoon, which means that unlike everywhere else in the world, the frogs go to ground. My guide found one but that's all - this is lucky because otherwise they were going to cook them for me!! I would have tried it but I wasn't too disappointed and happy that Kermit got to live after all. Halfway along the walk we visited the Iban longhouse. It's an interesting concept, kind of like single-storey terrace houses on stilts but with a common verandah (this one was closed in) and it's an actual community. The longhouse looks fairly basic but inside the houses are normal with modern conveniences. We visited Ricky's house, and his sister has just finished school and hoping to be accepted into a nursing course next year.

Kingfisher

Part 2 of the walk was just as good, with a beautiful kingfisher posing as though he was plastic, and some more frogs in a little pool in the top of a broken piece of bamboo.

There were lots of noisy crickets and grasshoppers and the guides actually spotted several of them. They were all shapes and sizes, some were green, some brown, some yellow and black. We also saw a lizard that bears a striking resemblance to Burong's "25K" - perhaps it's the same one and I could have made a fortune! The tour came full circle and we emerged out by my room (scaring a poor bird half to death on the way). After a few more cups of tea it was time for a well-deserved sleep.

Sumbiling Eco Village - Rainforest Discovery

Water crossing

The words "eco village" for me are usually synonymous with "unkempt" and an excuse to not maintain facilities, and after the Mulu accommodation I wasn't actually expecting much. I couldn't have been more wrong. From the moment I arrived at Sumbiling I fell in love with the place. It's not that different to the Mulu concept, but it's done properly. It's right on the river, which due to a lot of rain was flowing far too fast to consider swimming (well, I did come in monsoon season!) There were hammocks by the river and I was glad that I picked up a dodgy Jackie Collins beach novel to read from the guesthouse in Miri.

Centipede

We sat down to refreshments on arrival - pulut and banana fritters! - and after a briefing and putting my things in the room, we headed off to the rainforest. I was the only guest, and yet I had two guides - Rudy, plus a local Iban guide as well. This was by far the best jungle walk I have done, simply because they explained everything as we went. There were a lot of Dillenia plants (Brunei's national flower and the name of the Miri guesthouse) which it seems are used for everything. Many of the trails are muddy and they have come up with an ingenious way to install handrails. They stake a living piece of Dillenia wood into the ground at an angle with another vertically to support it, and somehow it lives and grows and sprouts leaves - and of course since it's living, it doesn't rot. Very important in a RAINforest. My Keen H20 sandals have finally been put to good use as we had many water crossings, and I was delighted to find that unlike Teva sandals, when wet your feet don't slip in Keens. In fact they were just as comfy to walk in wet as dry.

Jungle ferns

Part of the walk was tasting the jungle fare and I tried banana stems (part of the leaf, not the fruit) which are cooked as a vegetable, jungle ferns (much nicer when cooked!) and this berry which tasted a little like a kiwi or a more sour strawberry. After a while we crossed from secondary into primary rainforest, which has never been cleared. There was no grass and it was cool and shady. The walk was a big loop and we emerged back in the secondary rainforest into a big clearing. This was the helicopter pad used by the British troops - it was easy to imagine waves of soldiers heading into the jungle.

After a few hours of trekking we headed back across the river for lunch, where I was delighted to find that jungle ferns were on offer! There was also fish and rice. The trek was really tiring (up and down small hills) and I spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in the living area under the fans and reading my book. There was endless tea available and Rudy was there the entire time. We got along very well together - lucky since there was nobody else around!!

Brunei - Bandar Seri Begawan

Beautiful Mosque - coated in 21ct gold

This morning I caught a taxi to Brunei! I think that's wildly cool, I've never caught a taxi to another country before. The border procedures took a fair while to go through but I had help from an Australian lady who moved to Perth from Kuching 22 years ago. It hadn't occurred to me that I would need to pay for my visa on entry so she came to the rescue again with the requisite $20 BND (about $15 AUD) and I paid her back in Ringgit. Armed with a shiny new full page stamp in my passport, I got back into the huge, leather-finished, air-conditioned taxi for the rest of the trip. It took 3 hours in total and wasn't that exciting, except for the roadside ditches that looked like lily ponds for the first half hour of Brunei. We arrived at Bandar Seri Begawan (the capital city) and I was dropped off at a shopping mall as requested by the tour company. I called Rudy and read my book for a while until he picked me up, getting a few strange looks from the girls on their lunch breaks (me and my bags...) Once he arrived he asked if it was ok if I went to the rainforest tomorrow instead (I'd already said I was flexible since my flight out is on Wednesday) so we had to find me a hotel for the night. I chose the Terrace which is fairly dated but clean, with good service, and a swimming pool for when I return from the jungle! Accommodation is far, far more expensive here than Malaysia, but still cheap by Australian standards.

High Tea

Rudy was fantastic. He checked me in and waited while I dumped my bags, then took me out for lunch at a local chicken rice restaurant, the oldest one in Brunei actually. It's such a simple dish but delicious, and it's funny, here the chicken breast meat is considered undesirable, unlike Australia. After lunch he dropped me at the Royal Regalia building, having booked me a boat driver for a mangroves trip at 4pm. The Royal Regalia is quite amazing, you have to take your shoes off outside and I can say it's the first time I've ever walked around a museum barefoot. It felt a little strange, given the utter opulence of the place. One exhibit of the coronation room even had two security guards watching over all the gold, and here's me running around like a monkey. Still, so was everybody else. You couldn't even take a bag or camera inside so they had lockers at the front for everything.

Kampong Ayer

I walked down the street, making one shop proprietor's day when I stopped for a drink, and ruining it by paying with a $100 bill. I went down to the waterfront and waited for Ali, my boat driver. Rudy had already warned me to ignore the other boat drivers, some of whom were extremely persistent, but eventually one man came over to me and we established that the boat he was on was my driver, and he was running a tour with two Kiwis, a mother and daughter. Basically I got to do their tour as well as my own, which was great since they were visiting the Kampong Ayer (water village) which I had forgotten about. It's a massive water village with almost 40,000 residents, and has been in existence for over 1300 years. It has its own schools, mosques, hospital, police and fire station. Wikipedia actually explains it quite well. Anyone can build there, and a house costs only around $10,000 but you have to apply to the government to supply you with the stilts to build on.

The pot of gold lies in Brunei of course

Ali manoeuvred expertly among the stilts and we got to see some of the village. Some houses had a cage with a cat - apparently they are pets; when the family is home the cat has the run of the house but when they're out, they lock it in the cage to keep it safe. The cats didn't seem to mind. To my surprise, our guide announced that we were going to Ali's mother in law's house for high tea! We entered the house and children were everywhere - in Brunei it is usual to have 10 - 15 children! Don't these people own TVs! (They do. And satellite dishes.) Tea was served from a nice teapot, as well as kueh sapit ("love letters") which are like a waffle cone folded into quarters. It was all very civilised.

Heading further down the river we went into the mangroves in search of proboscis monkeys. I've been pretty lucky with these and wasn't disappointed this time either, with two families spotted. They were very curious about us, unlike the ones in Bako. Ali, with eyes like a hawk, also managed to spot 3 enormous monitor lizards and a snake. Back towards the city there was an amazing rainbow, which I found amusing given that half the city is coated in gold. Guess that old tale finally came true, now to find the Bruneian leprechauns...

Proboscis monkeys

The tour guide dropped me at the market & mall, assuring me that buses ran until 9pm. I walked around but wasn't very hungry tonight. I bought some pulut daging, and the seller tried to tell me it was two pieces for $1. Unfortunately for him I can now read signs in Malay and I pointed out where it clearly said you get 4 pieces for $1. Just then a Chinese guy came up and asked what it was, so to punish the seller I said "I can't eat 4 pieces, here have two of mine!" His name was Ricky and he was from the USA. We walked around for a little while then I went to the mall ("The Mall") and saw the new Nissan March being launched. It's all happening in Brunei. What happens when you can't drink? Everyone heads to the mall on Saturday night. And when petrol is 30c a litre AUD, everyone drives. The traffic was horrendous! From what I could see there were 10 car parks and 500 cars waiting in the vain hope that someone would leave. After waiting for the bus for 30 minutes it dawned on me that I'd been given the wrong information, and I called a taxi from a nearby hotel. Unlike Malaysia, taxis are not common here and finding one can be hard.

Miri Weekend Market

Pulut stall

I got up at 5:50 this morning. First, because breakfast was 6:15 as we had a 7am canopy walk booked. Second, to outsmart the geniuses who chose 6am as the power shut-off time when it isn't even light then. Packed everything up and headed in. At 6:30 Burong arrived, looking like an apologetic wreck. He'd been up all night (again) on standby duty at the forest and there was a big storm that caused trees to fall everywhere, one on the canopy walkway. Although it would be fixed this morning, it wouldn't be open in time for us to do it and catch our flight. But Burong (who wasn't being paid to be there) entertained us for 2 hours until we went to the airport. Got back to Miri feeling exhausted so I had an afternoon nap. Of course I woke up feeling like death! Not enough water.

Apam balek stall

I shuffled around the guesthouse for a while and then Mrs Lee said she was going out and would be happy to drop me at the weekend market that begins on Friday nights. I said yes please, and off we went. I got there and it was like food heaven. There were all manner of food stalls and I wanted to try everything. When I saw the prices I decided this was an entirely realistic option so I began to do just that. I started with a minuman pisang (banana soft drink) and some satay ayam (chicken satay). Moved on to some sort of donut, and then some keropok lakor (deep fried fishy beancurd things with sweet & sour sauce). After that it was pulut daging (beef and rice cooked in a banana leaf) and then apam balek (like a big pancake with nuts & butter in the middle). I was interested in the ikan bakar (whole fish cooked on a banana leaf on the BBQ) but I had absolutely no idea how I was going to eat that since they don't provide plates or cutlery. In fact I didn't see anyone else eating at all, so I felt a bit silly. They were all buying food, but I think they were taking it home. And they were choosing one or two things each, not everything like me! I decided to complete the tourist image (yep, I was wearing shorts too) and took photos of everything.

Caves and Bats

Taxi rank

Awoke early to the dulcet tones of 45 roosters and a generator outside my window - unfortunately not ours, since the power was now off. We set off via longboat to a small village not far from the park, where we were invited to buy local handicrafts. They were actually nice, but again my space is limited to bring things home. We continued upriver to Wind Cave, which is the most recent of the four show caves to be opened to the public. It (and also the others, I think) was a burial site for the native people and before it could be opened, the shamans had to appease the spirits.

Lady Cave icon

The most impressive part of Wind Cave was the King's Chamber. It did look pretty regal in there with all the stalacmites. There were all sorts of formations that looked like they had been created by artists: the arm of Hercules, an eagle, a llama and about 3 others. Photos didn't do them justice unfortunately! We walked out and along a boardwalk around the hill, along to Clearwater Cave. This is the largest of the caves and I think the 8th longest cave system in the world (used to be 10th but they found some more last year). The first part was very "Ghostbusters II," with an underground river. It flows out of the cave via a sump with a tiny opening at the bottom. How do we know it's tiny? Because Burong has dived to the bottom of it (in scuba) for work. He got stuck with the sucking pressure and had to be pulled out by ropes. The interesting thing is that 10 metres below the river mouth down the sump hole, they found another outlet so there's actually a second river underneath the main one. That is quite cool. Again, photos did no justice to this place, but we went up to Lady Cave (see photo for why it's called that) which had a bit more light.

Bat stream twisting through the sky

After the walk we had a picnic lunch at the Clearwater Caves rest area, which has the cleanest toilets I have ever seen in a national park. There was a swimming area too, so Colby and I swam for a while. Colby and Mitch are Aussies who live in Newcastle, they met at Dive Skate & Ski so we know many of the same people which is cool. They were really nice and we saw them most places we went.

Another thrilling afternoon at Benarat awaited us and I fell asleep drooling on my book. 3:30 finally rolled around and we headed off to Deer Cave again, this time reaching the Garden of Eden out the back. We also saw the area where naked bats live along with their co-species the EARWIGS... of all the insects I hate, the earwig has to be up the top of the list. I got out of there pretty quickly!

All sorts of shapes

We were out at the bats again by 5:30, and just before 6pm they began to make small sorties out of the cave, twisting across the sky in a big bat stream. After about 10 minutes they became a steady river of bats that never seemed to end. It sounded like a swarm of bees from where we were, with all the little beating wings. The bats are about a quarter the size of those we have in Melbourne, probably even smaller, and they stay in the big group for a while to avoid the bat hawks and other predators who wait for them at the cave mouth.

It was all over by 6:15 and we walked back, much quicker this time. Dinner was good again, and then Burong took us over to the Royal Mulu Resort to watch the cultural show. It wasn't bad, certainly more interesting than the crickets at Benarat.

Gunung Mulu National Park

Nearly as tall as the plane

The flight to Mulu was in fact on a normal (for Maswings) ATR plane, not a twin otter, but pleasant nonetheless. I found myself in first class, which basically meant that there were newspapers available. Since the flight was 25 minutes I really had no need to worry! The Canadian girls, Jess and Andrea, were in the seats across the aisle. We were picked up and taken to the accommodation which was in longhouse-style rooms. Similar to Bako, they looked nice but on further inspection the beds were hard and towels non-absorbent, and to my horror (after the "Bako incident") the power was only on from 6pm to midnight. Since having a fan all night was a condition of my booking I was pretty annoyed, as were the other girls. We were dumped at the place and left to our own devices for 4 hours. There was NOTHING to do, no power to at least have a nap under the fan in the hot weather, and since we weren't in the park itself there wasn't even anywhere to walk. There wasn't even a deck of cards. Luckily I had taken a book from the Miri hostel and there was a cat with her two kittens.

Elephant Stack

By the time our guide turned up we were pretty unimpressed, but he turned out to be the saviour of the trip. He was an absolutely sensational guide and did everything he possibly could to make our stay excellent. (He even made a phone call to sales and got us power until 6am). Burong took us first to Lang Cave, which was impressive but apparently the smallest we would see. There were all sorts of strange formations, and he could explain all of them. My favourite was a stack that looked like elephants, and the "halactites" that defied gravity by forming crazy shapes. All four "show caves" have boardwalks through them and are very easy to see.

Halactite

The next cave was just nearby, called Deer Cave. It was ENORMOUS! The name came from back when hunters knew they could always find deer in the cave. This sounded a bit mad to me but once I saw it I understood, it is quite bright in a lot of places and there is a stream that runs quite salty because of all the guano. Further into the cave it got darker, and smellier. In fact it was so smelly that it was almost burning my nostrils. Shining my torch onto the floor I could see it was crawling with something.

Deer Cave Entrance

"Cockroaches," said Burong, and watched with glee as us three girls screwed up our noses. Apparently the golden roaches break down the poo. We walked a little further, but Burong said there was some movement at the front of the cave. We wanted to see the bat exodus so rather than risk missing it, we turned back to go to the observation point. Burong was very disappointed I think, and really wanted to show us the back of the cave, but we didn't want to miss the "show". Turns out we needn't have worried - though we sat from 5pm - 6:30pm, the bats didn't come out before dark. They don't come out when it's raining and sometimes they just don't come out, "because". We were disappointed but not too much since we knew we could come back tomorrow and since it's not guaranteed that they'll come out.

"Implexus", according to Burong

One benefit of our late exit was the free 3.5km night walk. As it's a boardwalk it was an easy walk, but I had my torch out and kept spotting stuff so it took us about an hour to get back. I saw mating red millipedes, crazy insects, and a "25k" - a barking gecko that apparently is worth $25,000 on the market because it can be used to cure some disease. As it is a national park however, this little barking gecko was safe.

We got back to Benarat Lodge and had some dinner - lunch had been fairly plain but dinner was enormous, there was no way we could have eaten all the food they gave us. It tasted good too, all local food.

Miri, top of Sarawak

But how do they cook them? Riddip.

This morning I got up late, had breakfast here and generally mooched around the living room making plans for the next week. Last night I decided to go to Mulu and booked some flights, it's only half an hour flight in a twin otter which I believe is a very small plane. I was going to just do it on my own like Bako but got an email back from one booking agent saying she had two people going at the same time and it was with proper guided walks and all meals etc so I went down and paid for that today. Apparently it's two Canadian girls about my age so that will be nice.

Mr Mark is very staunch.

Then I went jalan jalan, cari makan (walking around looking for food) and although the "choose your own frog" option was tempting (?), I ended up at Singapore Chicken Rice which is a fast food restaurant but with "real" food. Very nice, I had steamed chicken, rice and kailan (kale in English I believe? An asian green anyway) and lychee drink. Maccas should totally get on board with that!!

Failing to secure an appointment with Mr Mark (see right) I went back to Dillenia. I was just wondering how a Professional Tool makes money, since there are so many people who are willing to do it for free.

A little bit of luxury

I've been craving a decent breakfast that doesn't involve noodles for 3 weeks now so this morning I treated myself to breakfast at the Hilton across the road. At RM46 it sounded expensive but this was really just $15 and I've never seen anything as amazing before. It was a buffet with full selections of Indian, Malay, Chinese, Japanese, American and European breakfasts, an egg station, fresh fruit and fresh-squeezed juices... you get the picture. I was in heaven. Afterwards I went and swam in their pool for a few hours, getting totally sunburnt but gaining an invitation from the Bidayuh bar attendant, a respectable grandfather of six, who offered to show me his old village on my next visit. Might be a while...

By now I was really feeling the effects of two nights without sleep (last night, between the thumping music ending at 3:30am and the call to prayer at 5:30, I really didn't sleep either) and I limped on board the plane and fell asleep. Arriving in Miri without having booked accommodation I used up all my remaining resources to get in a taxi and show him on a map a guesthouse I had read good things about on the internet, Dillenia. Despite having been given a map and clear directions, the driver had to pull over, make several phone calls and finally take the map again before he knew where to go. At one point I thought about offering to drive, as the street is next to the city's biggest park and really not hard to find. I guess Melbourne's taxi drivers aren't the worst after all!

Mok and I - it's Christmas everywhere....

Arrived at the guesthouse at around 5pm and went upstairs to find it unmanned. There was a sign with a phone number but I had no energy left at all so I left my bag there and went to the cafe next door for an iced Milo. I was a terrible burden to the 5 staff who were too absorbed by their Malaysian soapie on the TV to notice that I was there... even though I was their only customer! Eventually I went back upstairs, having seen a couple of people go inside and Mrs Lee opened the door. She had seen me at the cafe and decided that the bag belonged to me. Dillenia is an oasis and she was just lovely. I chose a dorm room since there was only one other person in there, Mok, he's a teacher who works over near Mulu but is in town overseeing exams. The living room is very homely and with a constant supply of tea, I'm obviously a fairly happy camper. Mok asked if I wanted to get something to eat so we patronised that venerable icon, McDonalds, in the local shopping mall.

Monkey Mania

Proboscis monkey in the mangroves

I got up at 6am to try and catch the proboscis monkeys at the mangroves, and to my delight I was rewarded with about seven of them. They were funny to watch, they were aware of me but not too worried since I was sitting up under one of the boardwalk shelters. (This is because it had bucketed down during the night and everything else was saturated). They moved out further and another group of three came along. They look so funny clambering along the mudflats, to be honest I was surprised that they were there. I asked a guide yesterday why they come there and he said they were looking for worms and crabs, but a quick Google search has otherwise indicated that they eat leaves and fruit so perhaps the mangrove trees are just plain delicious (if a little salty!) Although I did see the proboscis monkeys at Kinabatangan, this was pretty awesome as there was nobody else around at all and I had them all to myself.

Healthy breakfast

When they had moved away I walked back towards the canteen, but at the jetty I heard a noise behind the bin. I crept up to find a macaque with his head inside a chip packet, licking the flavour off the wrapper! He couldn't have cared less that I was there 3 feet from him taking photos. He got inside the bin itself then, finding more wrappers. There's quite a bit of rubbish around the place which I now realise is caused by the monkeys. I feel that in a national park though, perhaps better monkey-proof bins would be a good idea.

Canteen, complete with bearded pig

On returning to the canteen for breakfast I was greatly entertained by a couple of macaques who were stealing food from a girl who was screaming like... well, a girl. It was hilarious, they were so cunning and funny to watch. I spent the rest of the morning there just enjoying the wildlife, there were lots of macaques of course, huge bearded pigs (or wild boars depending on who you ask) snuffling about, an enormous lizard with a paddle tail that I wouldn't have wanted to get in a fight with, and then the proboscis monkeys came back too. You didn't need to leave the canteen to see wildlife, that's for sure.

Randolph and I then shared a boat back. We went out over water that was so shallow, I'm not sure how we made it. At low tide the park is inaccessible so we can't have been far off. About halfway back we hit something and the motor died, so we waited while the driver fixed it. There was a big sandbar next to us and we were tempted to get out and walk! There were heaps of locals out on the flat looking for clams. Once underway again, we chugged back at a snail's pace and arrived just in time to catch the bus back to Kuching. I noted that we hadn't been asked to wear lifejackets (billed everywhere as "essential!") but as Randolph pointed out, if we'd fallen overboard there's a good chance the water wouldn't have reached our knees anyway.

Stunning Weather

We went in search of a Sarawak Laksa for lunch as it's the local specialty, but apparently it's a breakfast food! We did find one though and it was good. After that I checked into my hotel, and decided to go to the movies for some air-conditioning. I saw the new Harry Potter, it looked like something you might record with an iPhone (and quite possibly was, I suppose!) and had subtitles in both Malay and Chinese. The sound quality was so bad that I actually got a lot of clues about what was going on from the Malay! I got some popcorn and I think the man next to me thought I was a bit strange because when I put it in my mouth I made a surprised noise, it's not buttered, but sweet instead. Still, it was a fun experience and I emerged from the frozen cinema once again ready to face the heat.

Trekking the jungle in my pyjamas

Sunset at the mangrove forest

Strange, but true. When I got back my clothes were all so wet that I couldn't wear them. I put my PJ's on and lay down for a little nap and hung them out to dry under the fan, but after about an hour the power went out, and so did I. When I woke up it was humid and stinking hot and my clothes were just as wet, and I hadn't brought any more pants. PJ shorts it is! I met a guy in the cafeteria, Randolph, who had seen proboscis monkeys the night before at sunset so we headed out to where they had been. We waited about an hour but there was no sign of them and the tide was still quite high so I guess they were elsewhere. We had some dinner which I pretty much inhaled since all I'd eaten that day was a can of Milo (yes - a can! It comes in little Red Bull sized cans.), a small muffin and some chocolate on the trail.

Pit viper - and not a happy one!

The power still hadn't come back on and the ranger said it would be out all night. Fabulous! I was going to walk around on my own at night with my fabulous torch but unfortunately it must have switched on in my luggage and was completely dead. So Randolph and I went on the guided night walk and lucky for us, we were the only two so it was nice and quiet. It was surprisingly good! We saw glowing mushrooms, fireflies (one tree looked like a Christmas tree with flashing lights), scorpions, pit vipers, fish, bats and the loudest little frog I've ever seen. Despite the guide's assurances that we would be on a boardwalk the whole time, we ended up on a trail in the humid jungle, with one torch between three of us. After what turned out to be more of a trek than a walk, I limped back to my room to find the power back on. Alas, it only lasted about 2 hours and from then on I just felt like I was underwater. It was one of the most uncomfortable nights of my life!! But still worth it.