We formed a Conga Line and assualted some peaks around the town are staying in, some steep shit, sometimes the roots of the trees are like the rungs of a ladder. We had 2 british, 1 French, 1 Dutch, and 1 American who wants to be a millionaire and wheel of fortune contestant in our line.
We poked it with grass then left it alone.
Right-o. So you can take a bus from KL to this serene place up in the mountains, around 1500m. Its called the Cameron Highlands, we are staying in this pituresque backpackers called fathers, and meeting heaps of cool peeps. The first day we slept in -its so quiet here - and then hired a motorbike and visited the amazing places shown here on your left. These tea bushes are actually trees stunted to a convenient height to pluck from. We had a tea pot and a sandwich overlooking this valley - the Boh tea plantation - very famous in Malaysia. Its nice n cool, rains at night.
Apple pie.
So a short 2 hr bus to KL from Melaka, and we were plunged into the most instense spot onour trip so far. Chinatown. We found our backpackers and settled in. It was a strange one, filled with friendly types that stay there for months at a time, hardly venturing outside, infact behaving quite nocturnaly, playing chess and watching dvds. The place had a welcoming and homely feel to it however. We stayed for 3 nights, apparently any longer than that and you never leave.
streets themselves seem to be teeming with them. We are eating everything on the trip, meat, seafood, even ice in the drinks if the place looks ok, and our health is picture perfect. Its really good not to have to worry as much as we thought we would about what we put in us.
Well we left Tioman and caught a 5 hr airconditioned horror/porn movie viewing bus to Melaka, the site of earliest european contact in Malaysia - Portugeuse in the 15th C, and Dutch 100 years later, then the bloody british as well. As a result its place that shows off it fusion of cultures. Its vibrant and busy, with cool old ruins to explore and museums up the yin yang. We stayed with eccentric hippys in chinatown, where we had timed our stay beautifully for the night markets, shown here. Check out the grandest Kareoke stage ever in the centre.
Bloody choice shop.
, not exactly built for speed tho!
On the ferry to Tioman Island. We have just travelled all day, flying from KK in borneo back to Johor Bahru (skode hole) sadly said goodbye to Jam, then taxi (believe it or not) for 2 hours to Mersing on the east coast. This is the departure point for the famous Tioman Island, a sizable place about 2 hours from the coast covered in jungle but dotted with sandy beaches and hidden coral treasures.
We stayed in ABC, a tiny place with no roads, just a path that winds along the coast for about a kilometre, and the main trunk line for plenty of restaurants and backpacker places. We found a cool hut for the 4 of us to share. Powercuts were rife, and even water cuts, so it was candles and a sleepless night without the fan! Depicted here is a typical day. 4 nights here meant a rest from the constant hopping we'd been doing, a holiday from our holiday sort of.
Pub - reggae blasting.
We caught a bus at midday to an altitude of 1500m - the Mt Kinabalu national park. Mt K is the highest peak in SE Asia at 4100m. Higher than Mt Cook even. Spectacular and gnarly in appearance.
Josh, Claire and Jam ascended while Megan and I stayed back, as Megan wasn't confident of fitness and altitude sickess issues. We made the most of the park though, walking around the lower trails for 5 hours, covering 10kms. The rainforest was beautiful, and at that altitude, very similar to NZ bush. 2 nights we stayed in the park, while the other comlpeted the 2 stage climb. They did 3 or 4 hours on the first day, then rose at 2am the next day to reach the rocky and slippery summit before spectacular sunrise. Apparently the 50 people allowed to climb each day were falling like flies, vomitting on the side of the track due to altitude sickness. One person was stretchered down! But they made it those rugged bastards, but were out of action for 2 days afterwards!
Micheal had contacted a jungle camp on the Kinabatangan River, off the beaten track a bit. So they picked us up from the ferry terminal after we got back from turtle island. Josh was sick, spewing part way through the 2.5 hour un air conditioned van ride. Travel till you spew! we were dropped off at a wharf then took a boat to this hut way in the virgin rainforest. It has alarmed electric fences to prevent elephants waking you at night inside the camp. This place was incredible!
We had 3 boat rides, all about 2-3 hours long. One afternoon, one at night and one at dawn. Phew! We saw baby crocodiles, a huge elephant herd, 3 varieties of monkey, a snake, exotic birds all over the show, wowow wee wow.
we arrived in sandakan late at night after our flight from KK. It was only a 45 min flight, and was free apart from the taxes. The hotel we stayed at has a famous dvd categorising system, shown here. The standout being 'Gigantic animal movie'. However no time for watching those, after a severely overpriced beer we slept, showered and departed for Selingang (Turtle) island, a 45 min boat ride from Sandakan
The owner liked to show off his catches. The wharf was accessed through a water village, which seem very common in Borneo, and can even be quite affluent.
This is Selingang, part of a group of 3 islands, swimming distance from the phillipines, where giant turtles like to lay there eggs. The beaches are littered with tracks every morning from females landing each night. A professional preservation programme for the eggs, including a hatchery, etc operates here and also runs the tourist side of it. 50 people are allowed on the island per night. It is definitly turtles before tourists here though. We were up close to a female laying at night, but pretty difficult to discern what was actually going on. We release tiny little babys into the sea though, apparently 0-2% of them survive.
This is our hut where we talked crap, and got shat on by geckos. We spent a good amount of time on the idyllic beach snorkelling. I saw a sea snake, and we came across a young turtle which we followed around for a bit.
right downstairs, with nightly performances by a stunning trifactor of male keyboardist, and two dancing /singing girls, covering all the hits from the 80's. We stayed one night, but enjoyed it enough to book ahead for when we were back here again in 5 days.
we flew into Miri, about an hour outside Brunei on the island of Borneo, where we are to spend the next 2 weeks. We met up with Josh and Claire here, and had a nice dinner and beer in the modest 'seahorse' town. The next morning we bussed through tedious immigration (5 buses) into Brunei, and oggled the oil rigs plunging the earth all over the place.
Brunei's capitol was a surprisingly awesome experience. Everybody is islamic, and are the friendliest most helpful and genuine people we have met yet. We had the best mangos in the market.
We took a 2 hour ride with a local who invited us onto his boat. We saw wild proboscis monkeys, and went through the largest water village in the world (29000 pop.), inside a house even, very humbling and special experience.
Singapore Zoo was wowing, we spent almost 6 hours there, kind of a forshadowing of all the animals we would see in the wild in Borneo later. cage and enclosure boundaries were very hard to spot here, meaning a excellent simulation of natural habitats for the residents and the spectators.
Proboscis Monkeys or 'dutchmen' sport a permanent erection. This is it apparently.
