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.

Bako National Park - the real jungle!!

Beach landing, Mt Santubong in the background

All the wasted time in Kuching has been worth it, just for 26 hours in Bako National Park. WOW!! The management is very Sarawak (= poor) but let's focus on the nature for a while. I caught the first bus out to Bako at 6:30am because I'd checked the tide tables and I knew that if I didn't get the first one, I wouldn't get to the island until after lunch, and during the hottest part of the day. Also on my bus were an Aussie girl and a USA lady travelling together, so when we got to the jetty we shared a boat over. Since it was almost low tide, we did a beach landing and when I got to the jetty at Bako I could see why - it was about 200m from the low tide mark! There's a huge tidal change, and a nice mangrove forest to match. The welcoming committee was there for us, two macaques who patently ignored us and went on their way.

Welcoming Committee

I went to the desk to put my bag somewhere and the guy said "oh you're lucky, your room was free already!" (Now I was really annoyed because I'd waited all week to come here and it was free the whole time! Sarawak. My new swear word.) Anyway, there were silver langurs (aka silver leaf monkeys) playing in the tree next to reception which was great. I went to my "Semi-detached Lodge B" which was surprisingly large! I went straight back to registration, signed myself out, and set out on a walk towards Pandan Kecil Beach (which means "small beach") and the Tajor Waterfall. It started as a boardwalk and I thought, "well this is going to be nice!" Very quickly the boardwalk finished and it was into the jungle proper... and all up a very steep hill! At a couple of points there were even ladders to get higher, and there was some scrambling over rocks. It was pretty hard going and quite hot, so not long before I worked up a good sweat and thought I had gone a very long way...

South China Sea

...until I got to the 200m marker! It was straight up a hill though... The trail was amazing, it went first through the jungle, then onto a big rocky area that reminded me of walking up Kings Canyon. Then into a heath area with a narrow boardwalk, which was where I started finding pitcher plants. I came to the turnoff for the waterfall which by now was very tempting, but I had been told that Pandan Kecil was the place to be for pitcher plants so I kept going. The trail now went down a small river (rivulet? A channel of fresh water anyway) and I was glad that it hadn't rained the night before as there might be a lot more water! As it was, big fluffy clouds were in the sky and I could hear thunder, but there were only a couple of drops of rain. After about an hour of walking in total, I reached a cliff with a stunning view of the South China Sea. The water was many different colours and it was really quite beautiful. There was another couple there too who said you could walk down the steps to the beach, but I thought "what goes down must come up" and chose to stay where I was. It was very hot out on the rock though, so I didn't stay long and soon headed back up the trail. At one point I had to sit down on some steps of the boardwalk to rest, and as I did I saw the tiniest pitcher plants yet. Reaching the turnoff point for the waterfall, I looked at the 2.7km I had to walk to get there. It doesn't sound like much, but when it's up and down hills in the harsh Bornean sun and humidity, it's an entirely different prospect.

Made it to the pool!

Still, I persevered and almost ran to the waterfall. By the time I got there I was ready for that swim! I was surprised to find a very tiny waterfall, but looking at the signpost in one of my photos, I may have gone to the wrong one as it had a different name. Someone had thoughtfully installed change rooms... on the other side of the river. I spotted a big log upstream a bit and walked over on that (veeeery carefully!) I needn't have bothered because nobody came by the whole time I was there and I had the place to myself, but I knew at least one guy was somewhere behind me so I peeled off my clothes in exchange for a swimsuit. Got into the cold, cold water and was stunned to see my bright red legs - the water is full of tannins and is a rusty colour. When a fish nibbled my hand I knew it was time to move on, so I geared back up and started on the trek back. It was right in the heat of the day by now and with 1km to go I headed up one of the hills and almost cried it was so hard. I stopped at the turnoff point again for a drink and a rest and emailed mum as my phone had reception up there. In the finish it was a 5-hour walk and if you know me well you'll know that's a pretty marathon effort for me! Needless to say, I didn't do anything much for the next few hours!

Stop Press!

Our video of "What to do in Lahad Datu" has gone mad, with almost 3000 views!

If you didn't see it click here :)

Shrink-wrapped culture

The Melanau tall house

I'm not sure what I was expecting when I went to the Cultural Village. Given the hullabaloo about Damai Beach I certainly was expecting more than a fairly ordinary hotel with a muddy bay and yellow flags up saying you couldn't go swimming. Alas, my expectations were too high, leading to my final judgement on Kuching and Sarawak in general: if it is on your destination list, cross it off. Can't believe I wasted a whole week here! I caught the shuttle to the extraordinarily overpriced Cultural Village at 9am. There are seven houses in a large village, which depict the seven individual ethnicities of Sarawak. The first was a Chinese farmhouse, as apparently the Chinese make up a third of the population. The Iban (Sea Dayaks) are also a third, and the rest make up the other third. I suspect they are building the 8th display, a model of a seedy condo which will house the common "old white man with young asian wife" community.

The houses were actually pretty impressive, though I wouldn't have wanted to be born Melanau as they live in tall houses - tree trunks underneath and then 3 or 4 storeys on top. Not only that but the steps or ladders or whatever you want to call them are just tree trunks with notches in the side. Some of those tree trunks are very narrow. I could have lived in the Chinese farm house, that was nice and cool and airy. Unfortunately the centre was dominated by an enormous group of about 100 or more teenagers from Miri. I know they were from Miri, because before the dance show a video was shown about Sarawak and when Miri came on, they cheered and wouldn't shut up after that. The video was enough for me to decide to try and leave Sarawak completely on Monday giving Sibu and Miri a big miss. The show itself was good, with dances from many groups putting on their show. One instrument was played by a child who couldn't have been more than 12, and he did an amazing job.

Traditional guitar

Mostly though it was all a big money-grubbing attempt. Every house they tried to sell you local cakes and biscuits that, although still cheap by Australian standards, were a gigantic rip-off. Or asked you to pay to try top-spinning, or blowpipe... blowing. And if you didn't buy them, they didn't talk to you. I didn't buy them. It was a weird day. Then I got to the Orang Ulu (basically a cultural salad of different interior ethnicities) house where there were a couple of musical instruments. An old Orang Ulu guy working there accosted me and gave me the guitar, insisting on taking a photo of me. Then I asked him to play the wooden xylophone that kids had been plonking away at. He got all set up, adjusted the wooden pieces... and played "Mary had a little lamb". I thought he was being funny, but that was actually his sole offering. So much for tradition.

It's a strange place, Sarawak, and reminds me of Singapore. The teenagers are obnoxious as teenagers are, however they are the daggy kind of obnoxious that thinks Dungeons and Dragons is cool, and has to run out the front and kneel in a suitably awkward "photographer pose" to get a photo of every dancer in the show. I think they have nothing to do, and there is such pressure on the girls to find husbands early that they behave like simpering fools. Much like in Fiji, the first question I'm asked is always "where are you from?", and then "are you married". (I'd answer yes but I lack a ring!) The utter shock they display when I say no is almost funny... almost.

Anyway I tried to get something to eat at their restaurant but the staff, like most places of this particular genre, were unwilling to help and unable to communicate with me anyway. Most signs were in English around the park, but they chose not to have a menu. She said "it depends on what you choose." Yes but I don't want to end up with a 20 ringgit meal so can you give me any clues? No, apparently not. I left without eating and walked over to what I thought was going to be a village, but was actually just a hotel. Discovering that there was a shuttle back to town in 15 minutes I sat outside in the roasting sun and waited grimly.

Poor old Tom

On the way back I noticed we were going through Petra Jaya, which is where the cat museum is. I asked the shuttle to drop me off nearby - luckily he drove me right there, I hadn't realised it was on a hill with a looooong walk up. The museum is located at the Kuching North City Hall, in a location completely unsuited to tourism (Sarawak strikes again). It wasn't bad. I had to pay to take my camera in (the man was very particular and even made me put a little sticker on it; I didn't mention I had an iPhone as well or he would have made me pay for that too!) Oddly enough, the photos weren't ace anyway. I did learn that only 10% of local cats have long tails, and there's an old Iban folktale that explains why but it's a bit gruesome, click on the picture if you want to read it. Poor old Tom.

Walked back down the hill and found a small shopping centre with (of course) a KFC and a Pizza Hut - the two western staples in Malaysia. I chose Pizza Hut because by now I was starving! Then I walked over to the bus stop which had a shelter that didn't actually provide any shelter. When a clapped-out minivan flashed its lights and pulled up after 5 minutes, my choice was between getting in, or waiting in the full sun for a bus that may or may not be coming. Since Big Momma was driving and the passengers were all women and children, I got in. Man that woman drove like a maniac! But she got me there.

Semenggoh Wildlife Sanctuary

Hangin' out

This morning I changed hotels - this was for two reasons. One, they appear to have no single or queen rooms left and though it depends who you ask at that hotel, I'm tired of always asking. Two, because the guy from the laundry downstairs who was giving me a map to the cat museum turned up at my door at 7:45am yesterday asking if I wanted to go there with him. 7:45! The bloody hotel had told him my room number. I tried to explain to them that it's completely inappropriate to give out the room number of a single female but they just looked at me stupidly. Needless to say, I sent Edward packing at 7:46.

I gathered my bits and pieces and walked down the road to the Tune hotel which is a similar sort of place but even cheaper. It's owned by Air Asia (I think) and room rates, like airline prices, change with demand. The beds are fabulous, just like the Hilton. It's a no-frills concept where you get a bed and a bathroom in a tiny room and if you want extras, you pay for them, eg Wi-fi, air-conditioning and towels. It's 10 bucks a night and I bought 12 hours of aircon for $4.50 but it's actually quite pleasant just under the fan. This hotel has a window but since it opens on to a restaurant, I can't imagine wanting to open it! Tune hotels are in KL, London, and a bunch of places around Asia. It's a pretty good concept actually and would be good in Australia. Stay "tuned" I guess.

That's at least 15 bananas in her mouth.

After a hearty lunch of dried peas and iced Milo I caught a bus to Semenggoh. It's another orangutan sanctuary but entry is a tenth of the price of Sepilok. Still, it was a 1.2km walk in from the road and then another walk up to the feeding site, where there weren't any orangutans anyway. Not to worry, the less-rehabilitated ones had come to the entrance area for their milk and fruit and we got to see 4 or 5 of them which was nice. All along the path on the way in were beautiful pitcher plants (Nepenthes) growing wild - I think I was more interested in those than the monkeys!

Pitcher plant

Coming out of the sanctuary to catch the 4pm bus, the gate attendant said it wasn't coming anymore. As Semenggoh is a fair way out of town I thought it was another case of Mt Kinabalu tourist trapping, but after a short time waiting at the bus stop a (proper) mini van came along and took me to Kuching for RM5. The driver was very concerned for my safety and told me where to go and not to go in Kuching. He said there are a lot of drug users here, which I find interesting given that it's supposedly a death penalty for using drugs in Malaysia. The kids on motorbikes do a lot of bag snatching along the waterfront at night, so that was good to know. He also told me that Matang wildlife park (where the overflow animals from Semenggoh go) is a terrible place with enclosed animals that is impossible to get to by bus, so I've decided to head to the beach tomorrow instead. Local knowledge, yay!

Only a few more nights here, I have wasted a LOT of time in Kuching. I would have left already except that I am looking forward to Bako National Park on the weekend, and Saturday was the only night they had a room for me. I'll be out of here on Monday on the Express Boat to Sibu!

Hari Raya Haji

Some of the huge family.

I met Oldman down at the boat ramp at 11am this morning, and then Sky turned up with two other girls in tow. One was from England and is living here and teaching at an international school, and the other is Malaysian but has lived in New Zealand nearly all her life. We were going to take the boat but in the end we drove to the Kampung. On our way into the village a horde of people were blocking the path, dragging something on a wagon. Getting closer, it turned out to be the sacrificial cow (post-sacrifice). This was cut up later and given to the poorer people. I was going to try to explain it all but the AllMalaysia website sums it up so well and fills in a lot of my gaps of knowledge! I understand about half of what the local people say here and sometimes that's easier than others.

Me and the kids

We arrived at his house and were welcomed by the family. I had brought five little koalas (no Aussie should travel without them) and to my surprise, Oldman has exactly five kids. There were about twenty all-up though. We were given plates and told "Makan! Makan!" (Eat! Eat!) We did so, helping ourselves to lots of delicious curries, rice dishes and noodles. Nobody else was eating, I asked Oldman and he said he'd already eaten a lot earlier but I'm not sure whether it was to do with prayers. Anyway we ate until we were full, and talked to the family (as best we could given that they didn't speak much English). Then Oldman got up and said, "ok come, now we go next door!" The four of us just stared at each other - another feast awaited us!! Before this one however, the traditional prayers were done and this took quite a while. One man did the singing and was using a book to read from, but others were mouthing the words without the book. Given that it went for maybe 20 minutes, I was pretty impressed that anyone would know the words by heart. It was very interesting to watch, I wish I understood more. They repeated one phrase over and over at one point and were using their fingers to count, I think anyway. Well then of course we ate. I felt bad because we were full but they were waiting for us to take food before they would (and there were about 40 people) so I had a small plate. The food was all delicious, all  local dishes.

It was nice to see the people in their own houses, and quite amazing to receive such great hospitality given with absolutely no expectation of anything in return!

A relaxed day

Not THAT great though - that's $1 an hour.

Today's biggest achievement was a delivery of fresh laundry - how happy was I! There are free washing facilities here but they were being used so I just took them down the road to the laundry. "Hang the expense," I thought, and then discovered that it was RM3.50 per kilo and I had 3 kilos. Yep $3 to have them washed, dried and folded. Sweeeeeet! I did have to beg her though not to put my bathers in the dryer. She said "is ok!!" and I said "no... is not ok..." and she said "Ah is cheap just buy new ones!" I attempted to explain that the chances of finding a swimsuit in this country to fit me is nil but it was lost on her... anyway they came back wet so all good!

I really just relaxed most of the morning and then went for a walk down the street. Paul (the bartender) was sitting at a cafe and flagged me down so I sat with them for a while, finally getting the tourist information I needed! Armed with ideas I went to the parks office to book my accommodation at Bako national park for Saturday night. I also went to a little aquarium which had some very interesting fish from the rivers, as well as a couple of crocodiles. One had coins all over him which people had thrown at him. I thought that was a little strange. There was a group of school girls there next to me and one was aiming for his eyes...

Soho Bar - my tourist information centre.

Back at the bar in the evening it was Ladies Night - which meant RM10 ($3.50) for unlimited gin, whiskey or vodka. What the hell... I still drank beer. As I walked past a table a man flagged me down and said "Miss Swinburne, hello!" I assumed Paul had introduced us at some point and he said "would you like to join us?" Sure, I went and got my drink and sat down - only to find as I sat that my obnoxious Hungarian boat buddy was sitting opposite. Groaning on the inside I tried to ignore him but he kept talking to me. He did get a couple of surprises though, having written me off as boring and inexperienced. Yesterday I heard him lording it over someone that he was a dive instructor and I quietly told Sky in conversation that I was one. He immediately told Mr Obnoxious, who looked a little annoyed that I should share his status. Then, in a move that really was purely showing off, I texted a song request to the DJ only to see Mr Obnoxious drop his jaw that someone who had walked into town yesterday was already friends with everybody. HA! I win!

Kuching (Meow!)

Had a nice flight from KK this morning, stopping at Sibu for 15 minutes - just long enough for a stamp in my passport. It's strange here in Malaysia, when you travel interstate you have to go through immigration and customs every time. Seems like a lot of work! There is a 1Malaysia initiative happening where they are trying to unite all the races and religions better, but it seems to me as though there are a lot of barriers between states. I don't know why Borneo doesn't just declare independence, because they sure seem to hate KL.

My small but very comfy room

Arrived in town to find my shuttle waiting for me (in the wrong place, ah... Malaysia...) and we started off to Kuching. I very quickly realised I wasn't in Kansas anymore and that this is in fact a real city. I had no idea how big it was, I expected another Kota Kinabalu or Tawau. About halfway there I was stunned to see a Swinburne University campus! A big one too. We arrived at the hotel, I wasn't quite sure what to expect because of the price but it's a real hotel. However, it's quite unique and feels like walking around a cruise ship as there are corridors everywhere. The rooms have no windows, so they can pack more in. Mine is a deluxe single and has a huge bed, huge pillows, aircon, internet and a big bathroom for about 25 bucks a night.

One of Kuching's cat statues

Kuching is known as the city of cats, which is why I came here (yeah, yeah I know, crazy cat lady. Now where is my rocking chair?) but what I hadn't realised until Nazmi told me is that "kucing" is actually the Malay word for cat. There are several cat statues and even a cat museum (Edward from the Chinese laundry is giving me bus directions to go there!). However, there are nowhere near as many cats around as in Mabul and Tawau... false advertising I say. There were a few hanging round the eating areas but they were looking pretty unwell and I didn't want to touch them.

I went for a walk down to the waterfront and took a river cruise on a sampan. Also onboard was one of the most unpleasant people I've met so far, actually he reminded me of the manager of Scuba Junkie in many ways. He was a know-it-all and had done everything and bought the t-shirt, and when I asked what something was, he would answer and not let the Malaysian boat driver say anything. In fact he actually corrected him many times (incorrectly) so the tour wasn't much fun. However, at the end the driver said "I would like you to invite you to my house on Wednesday to eat with my family and friends, for Hari Raya Haji". It's a festival that occurs a month after Hari Raya, the post-Ramadan feast. Of course I said yes please! 

Edible jungle ferns

Later I took a ferry ride (in little sampans) over to the other side of the river, but I couldn't work out how to order the food. I tried, but they muttered at me something about sitting down first. I sat down but the only person to talk to me was someone trying to sell Hotlink sim cards. After ten minutes I just left. Back over the river and over to a place called Top Spot, which I never would have found if the porter at the Grand Margherita hadn't shown me where it was. It's in the middle of town, but you have to walk up about 8 flights of stairs and it's on the roof (Top Spot... the name says it all). It's basically the same as the Tawau and KK seafood markets and I know how to work those now, so I walked around and chose my restaurant. I chose to order the local delicacy of jungle fern fronds, cooked in garlic. Oh my goodness it was fantastic!!

Walking back towards the hotel I passed a couple of bars. I felt like a bit of company so I went inside Soho and ordered a beer. Paul, the bartender, took great care of me and 6 beers later he and his wife drove me home (100m!). It was good to have a proper conversation in English for a change!!

Kuching waterfront at night