Winter Holiday: Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, and the Philippines

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The five week break from school flew by, leaving me with a whirlwind of memories from the places I visited across Southeast Asia. I'll give a very condensed version of events, and let some of the pictures do the talking.

We left Dalian on January 19th, and flew to Hangzhou, just outside of Shanghai. While we were really only there a few hours (discounting sleep), we managed to squeeze in a boatride across the picturesque (and famous) lake before heading out to the airport to catch our plane to Kuala Lumpur. I'd never travelled with a group of teachers before, and found the plane ride to be rather enjoyable as we ended up writing stories and games on paper which, while incredibly nerdy, helped to pass the time! After arriving in KL, our group disbanded, and my friend Dana and I split off--our plan was to spend only one day in KL and then head over to Malaysian Borneo, in the Sabah province and stay two weeks.

Flying into Sandakan on Borneo was a neat experience. I started to feel a little panicked looking at the lack of formal structures as we landed--here and there there were dilapitated houses, but nothing substantial that looked remotely like a city. There were palm plantations that swept across the entire landscape, infringing upon the jungle that is now just huddled in patches in Malaysian Borneo (the palm plantations produce palm oil, which provides farmers their livelihood, but destroys ecosystems. Nothing can live in these plantations). We stepped off the plane and the scent of tropical flowers in the air was heavy, and the silence except for birds was rather shocking at first. The airport reminded me a wee bit of the Terrace airport, merely in that it was small and there were only a handful of people getting off the plane (and we had to walk across the tarmac to get inside). It turned out, as we drove past shanty towns of tin huts on stilts, that Sandakan is actually a small city comprised of formal structures afterall, just set back from the area where we flew in. We found a simple hotel run by a gruff Chinese-Malaysian man who provided us with 5-star service (umbrellas for the rain, free movies and DVD player, daily towel service) for about $5/night each. None too shabby. There wasn't much to do in Sandakan, so we kept our visit to two days, going on a quick blast through the Orangutan rehibilitation centre, the Probiscus monkey sanctuary, to the caves where men collect the bat's nests for bird's nest soup (yech--the guano was inches thick, and cockroaches swarm the cave walls. It was gross, stinky, and creepy, despite how cool BBC's Planet Earth explains it to be!), and on a jungle cruise. Once we got that out of the way, we hit up Kota Kinabalu on the west coast in preparation of hiking Mount Kinabalu (height: 4,085 m, the 20th tallest peak in the world, and Asia's highest).

Kota Kinabalu (KK) was a much more busy city, and we bumped into scads of coworkers, which made for fun dinners. Dana and I stayed at the base of the mountain the second night, and started our climb around 7am. It wasn't raining when we left, and we luckily had the good fortune of no rain for the climb up, but still had cooler weather. The path was well-trodden (and porters carrying up to 50lbs attached to their forheads and backs climbed up in flip-flops), but extremely steep the entire way up. As we approached 3,000m we were winded much more easily, and took longer breaks (and walked for shorter distances). After nearly 6 hours we reached the lodge (where it is mandatory you stay the night) and our basic accomodations: an unheated hut with 4 bunkbeds, two blankets each. We had dinner in the lodge and played scrabble for quite a while, meeting a lot of people in the interim. The night was too short and too cold. We had to wake up at 2am to begin the climb to the summit, and it had rained all night. The stairs at the start of the climb were slippery, my headlamp kept voluntarily shutting itself off, and the altitude was making me dizzy. 1.5 hours in and only 200m from the summit, I, and 10 others, decided to return to the lodge. Sad but true. I'm a weakling who only made it to 3,801m. Dana kept going with our delightful guide, Elson, and made it to the summit while I crawled back into bed, stole Dana's blankets, and slept till 6 when I got up to watch the sunrise (well--you couldn't actually see anything because it was so cloudy, but it was neat standing up above the clouds looking at where the sun would have been). It rained the whole climb down, and took us 4 hours to get back to the base, then another 2 hours to return to KK, where the hostel we stayed at (The Step-In Lodge, best hostel ever) was hosting a free Chinese New Year dinner of delicious Chinese-Malaysian cuisine. We drank the free-flowing wine, bantered with guests and workers, and had a merry time.

The remainder of our time in KK saw us on the beach, boat rides, shopping, and eating (primarily eating). From KK we flew to Bali, in Indonesia, where we left tourist-filled Kuta as quickly as possible to head to the island of Neusa Lembongan, where we planned on beginning our open water scuba diving course. The island was really rural, with a working beach that harvests seaweed that is then sold to cosmetic companies. The women carry everything (giant boxes, baskets of dried seaweed, loaves of bread) on their heads, and the men harvest or sew nets. The houses are all thatched and rickety, and free-ranging roosters, chickens, and goats roam the roads. Our bungalow was really nice, about $10 night ($5 each), set just steps from the beach, and spotless. We had our fair share of geckos and roaches, but they weren't too bad. The diving was scary at first, and then great--we did drift diving along a long reef and while we didn't see the giant sunfish that the area is famous for, we did see all kinds of smaller, beautiful sealife of which there was such a plethora, I can't name them all! Bolstered by our accomplishments, I was in the mood to shop, so returned (after 6 days on NL) to Kuta, where I bought out the entire street of Poppies I. I also ran into my friend Ben from Canada, which was very odd, and we went out with him one night to explore the nightlife (it is in sharp contrast to the soothing sealife which we had just abandoned).

My suitcase significantly heavier than the start of the trip, we ventured forth to Singapore for a one-night/two day stopover. We watched the masochistic happenings of a Hindu festival and visited the Singapore zoo before Dana and I separated after 22 delightful days together. She moved on to Thailand and I went on my way to meet Meg who flew to the Philippines from Canada to meet me. We flew from Manila straight to Cebu, spent the night in Cebu City, and then took a ferry to Bohol island, where we then rode a tricycle to a boat stop on the Loboc river and took a boat to our first resting place, Nuts Huts. Owned by a Belgian couple, Nuts Huts is this isolated little collection of bungalows that you can only reach via boat or a ten minute walk (or 2 minute motorbike ride) from the highway. The reception area from the boat dock and sleeping quarters is about 200 steps up the side of the hill. Needless to say, we did our best to forget nothing in our spartan room when we wanted to go to the restaurant for food. It was fine except at night weird-o ants started literally filling the toilet bowl--it was black with them. Bizarre, and pretty gross if you, like me, wake up dozens of times a night needing to use the bathroom. In the area, we visited the Chocolate Hills (it was unfortunately rainy when we were there), and the tiny 5 inch Tarsier primates. We also did a cave hike (also raining) up into the hills and through 2km of giant caves filled with bats and cool rock formations. On the way down, I slipped on mud and cut my hand open on some coral. Zum Gluck there was a German doctor on my heels, and he bandaged me up good as new, gave me some pain killers and water, and helped me down the hill. I was also lucky Meg is an Occupational Therapist, as she was able to help me change with only one useful hand!

From Nuts Huts we ventured forth to Alona Beach on Panglau Island, where we dove the days away. We made 7 dives in 4 days, seeing a sea turtle, a white-tipped shark, puffer fish, jackfish, sea horses, baracuda, and all kinds of neat stuff. We drank mango shakes every day and just generally had a lovely time whiling away the hours. It was a good relaxing way to end the holiday. I left Meg in Cebu and flew to Seoul for a quick over-nighter, then flew into Dalian this past Friday. Luckily for me the sun was shining, the sky was blue, and the air refreshing cool (not too cold)--we had just missed the snow. Haha. My apartment door was decked out with Chinese decorations when I got home (I had to check to make sure I was in the right place)--I guess my neighbours thought I could use some luck for the new year. I'm back to work tomorrow, sadly, but in only 4 more months I'll be on holiday again: first in Cambodia with my dear Belgian friend, and then in Canada to say hello to some of you! Winter holiday is over...now I'm ready for spring.

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Comments

[Melissa]

What an adventure!
Thanks for some wonderful Sunday reading material! It was perfect timing as the snow falls lightly outside my window because for a few minutes I felt as though I was in SE Asia soaking up the sun with you. I love the monkeys, and I'm so jealous that you got to pet one!! He is sooo cute!! And the musicians serenading you with Brian Adams is too funny...did they sing "Everything I do...", oh I hope so! And you climbed a big mountain! Wow, sounds like someone is getting over their fear of heights!! Lovely blog darling!! Miss you muchly!! XOXOX Mel XOXOX